Ad of the Week - Oscar Pistorius in the new A*Men ad

Okay, I am very biased when it comes to Oscar Pistorius, as he is my second cousin, but that does not deduct from this fantasy, brand exercise, blade flexing ad for A*Men.   Hope you enjoy.  This is my ad of the week purely for the artistic and entertainment value of it.

Spur Free Burger TV Ad - Eish...

Eina.  At least it is not in the same vein as Steers' Wacky Wednesday (Where the two old folk talk about the "free Burger" as if the other is insane), but ... Eish.  What a doozy.

Spur has always been successful in their TV ads: They played within the boundaries of their restaurant's theme  and their main brand positioning: as a family steak house chain.  Their various variations of the "Spur People" song and the many soundtracks that worked for them; made their ads good and some even memorable.  This new take-a-page-out-of-Nando's-Book-lets-try-the-comedy-route strategy scores a lowly 4/10 in my books.
  

Ad of the week: Nando's New CEO (Cell C Rip-off Ad)

This is one of the better rip-off spoofs I have seen from the advertising arsenal of the comedy-loving marketers at Nando's.  They get my vote for grabbing my attention, even though I thought I have seen it all from them.  After all these years, they still create campaigns that goes viral and create Word-of-mouth.

I would have liked a web, social media and Mobile campaign that went with the ad and in store displays...

Ad of the week: Audi A4 TDI

Absolutely brilliant.  Full marks for concept, execution, entertainment value and brand awareness. I would love to hear if this ad influenced sales.

Choosing how you consume media

The data is there: People have a need to be entertained and have a need to be heard: Twitter knows this. This is the reason why they have to spend millions upon millions to buy their own servers as they have become too successful for their current infrastructure. For the same two reasons; people read and create blogs.
We need information to be taylored to our needs: we want relevant, entertaining news "alerts" to read in the short time that we can invest in it. We consume media in short bursts at convenient time.


This brings the cell phone back into my fold: you have this instrument on your person the whole day and use it to consume those small bursts. You read your emails, read what your frinds are up to on Facebook and follow your heros on Twitter. If you are a Blackberry or iPhone user, chances are that you have installed an App or two.  Some of the most downloaded apps are those of News House Giants like Associated Press, Reuters, Time Magazine and some more "entertainment" based media like Oprah's "O"-magazine, Sports Illustrated and other niche publications.  The point of the matter is that people have "gaps" in their schedule that they fill by utilising their mobile phones. That is why Twitter's 160 characters are so well received:  We have limited time and only reading 160 characters is enough for us to determine if we want to click through to read more.


However, all of the above is Pull-marketing:  The user have to consciously go into the media service to consume.  None of the media gets "sent" to them.  We get emails all the time that are "pushed" to us; so why not give people the opportunity to "receive" the content they require?  


Vodacom's News4U

This is what Vodacom's News4U does.  A few million, news filled MMS'es have been sent to their consumer base since September 2009.  This MMS gives you news stories (for a lack of a better term) "Twitter-style".  The first so-many characters of the story displays on the screen and if the recipient would like to read more, they can simply click on the link after the 30-second MMS and go to www.news4u.mobi, pictured left.
The idea is so simple: give the guy an option on how he can consume his media: Go into the app on his phone/ computer or push some highlights to him via email / MMS.

You have to remember that people are inherently lazy and preoccupied.  Push their "infotainment" to them... remind them of your content...

Under Utilised Advertising Media

The biggest shift in the advertising industry has to be that you show people ads that they want to see (or could want to see) instead of marketing department's previous "spay and pray" method of advertising.  The DMA SA (Direct Marketing association has been preaching this for years; but it is only with the advent of social media and improvements Mobile Marketing that the marketers could better classify the user to their preferences and interests and target them in a non obtrusive way.

   

The joke is that through social media platforms; we see "ads" like the one above as "welcome news updates". The technical term for this is "infotainment".  

There are millions of these ads out there; but you only choose to "opt-in" to those that you feel will enrich your life.

Now; given this new tidbit of Theory; how can you apply it to your marketing effort?  I will explore this further in a next article.

Some old 80's SA Ads. Can you still remember these?

Wow.  What a Blast from the Past!  That brought back some ole memories.  How our ads have evolved!