Worst Ad in America – 2011
According to the readers of Consumerist magazine, the worst ad of 2011 is Luvs Diapers’ “Poop, There It Is.” Can’t say I’m too surprised. There’s something about competitive pooping that’s a bit disturbing to me.
So, one might say that Luvs really sh*t the bed on this TV spot. Or did they? It might not be the most liked ad out there, but it’s drawing plenty of attention. The brand is getting a lot of publicity. Hey, it made its way on this blog, and I assure you, it’s been posted on plenty of other sites too. That raises the old question, is bad/annoying advertising effective? Will Luvs’ stinky commercial move diapers off the shelf? I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
The Future of Online Video
I’ll be heading to the Internet Summit today and have been researching some of the panels I’ll be attending. One in particular I find very exciting is Online Video. Most of our clients are asking for video and we’ve been working to find outlets to share their message. Forrester Research shows that by 2012, $7.1 Billion in advertising will be spent in the online video environment. This makes perfect sense if marketers are watching the increase in online video consumption.
Weekly Wrap Up #10
It has been another action-packed week here in Raleigh, and another Friday means another weekly wrap up. This week had a lot of great stuff floating around, so here are 5 links for you to check out!
1. Heinz builds on QR code success with new cause-marketing effort
The new 20oz Heinz Ketchup bottles now have a QR code to support the Wounded Warrior Project. With over 1 Million scans from their previous QR code campaign, the expectation for the current project is to have consumers scan the code and be able to send a “Thank You” to soldiers from as part of the Wounded Warrior project, as well as to “Like” the Heinz Facebook Page. For every “Like” or “Thank You” sent, Heinz will donate $0.57 up to a total of $200,000. If you want to read the full article you can find it at Mobile Marketer.
Branding Is The Name of The Game
In the era of booming social playgrounds and countless communication touch-points, it’s a wonder how we, as consumers, can keep up with which companies are selling the latest and greatest products or services. We live in a time when the average person who operates a blog, updates their Facebook or tweets a tweet can be a brand’s biggest spokesman or worst nightmare. With the weight of the external environment growing minute-by-minute around us, the role of branding has become a necessity for increased awareness and overall business performance for a company.
It’s time-old, but there are five necessities all brands should strive to gain our mobile population’s attention and gain their loyalty. More »
RPRS Honors HM&P with Five Awards
We recently came home with five awards from the Raleigh Public Relations Society’s (RPRS) annual Sir Walter Raleigh Awards banquet. The agency was recognized for its successful implementation of strategic public relations, social media and event planning on behalf of Butterball, LLC, BASF Plant Science’s NutriDense® Silage brand, and Precise® Pet Products.
What we won:
- Silver Award in the public relations writing category for the organization and distribution of Butterball’s 2010 Holiday Donations announcement. The donations announcement helped to increase the client’s visibility throughout the holiday season.
- Honorable Mention in the organizational identity and promotion category for the agency’s leadership and support of the Precise Holistic Complete product launch.
- Honorable Mention in the special events category for the coordination of Butterball’s Millionth Bird Events, celebrating the production of the millionth whole bird produced at two facilities and using that milestone to honor a local veteran.
- Honorable Mention in social media for the promotion and outreach efforts of the NutriDense Silage Web Moo.0 Contest.
- Honorable Mention in the audio/visual presentation category for the Precise Pets Products Brand “American Ingenuity” video.
Congratulations to all the folks who participated in these efforts and for continuing to provide clients with great work! Check out the release on the Sir Walter Raleigh Awards.
HM&P Speaks at NCTA Meeting
Our own Scott Piggott, Shavette Purvis and Mariana Pinner recently spoke at a North Carolina Technology Association luncheon. The audience was comprised of marketing professionals who work in the technology sector.
Scott opened up by talking about the marketing funnel – influence, engagement and transition – and how social media is apparent at every part of that funnel. Mariana provided a primer on social media, providing tips as well as real-life examples of companies using different social media techniques successfully. Shavette gave an overview of digital analytics, as well as how and when put tools in place to be able to properly measure online the activity and impact of online efforts. It is important not to forget to track the effectiveness of social media and other digital tactics.
It was a great session where everyone seemed to walk away learning something new about the ever-changing on-line world, which relies so heavily on social media and digital analytics.
Real World Search Engine by Dodge
Recently, some people at the agency came across an innovative, fun, and engaging campaign. I was immediately captivated not even knowing much or having experience with the brand. Cutting through the clutter to reach consumers is always a tough job for ad agencies. I thought I would take time to highlight one campaign that successfully did this.
Dodge developed a bold campaign to promote the new Journey by hiding three of them across the US and making fans of the Dodge brand search for them. You find one, you keep one! The company put out a serious of TV spots for each of the three locations. In these commercials, the promotion of the new Journey was the focus. However, there were hidden clues in every frame as to the location of the vehicles. The campaign started on September 12th and ran through September 27th.
As soon as I heard about this campaign, I wanted to get involved. Who doesn’t love a good treasure hunt when a free car is up for grabs? My boss and I were immediately engaged and waiting for the release of the first video. We tried searching for the hidden clues in the commercials that were posted on Dodge’s YouTube channel. Too bad we didn’t get to the car first. I would have greatly enjoyed having a brand new car!
Take a look at the campaign for yourself. Its unique approach really got people to interact with their brand. I think it is safe to say their campaign was successful in increasing brand awareness. After all, it worked on me and I have never owned a Dodge car.
Weekly Wrap #5
1. 22 Eye-Catching Ways to Create QR Codes
You’ve seen them. The small little squares with geometric shapes at the bottom of advertisements, direct mail, or even receipts – QR Codes. By simply downloading an app on your smartphone, users have the ability to snap a photo of the code which will then take you a website, video or even coupon for a particular product. But not all QR Codes are just pasted on print ads. Businesses and agencies have begun to incorporate other mediums to develop these codes, using food, spray paint or even grass to help catch a person’s eye. SimplyZest.com posted the top 22 most eye-catching ways to develop a QR code. Take a look and see which one is your favorite!
2. Who Needs Brushes?
When working at an advertising agency, you are constantly surrounded by creative ideas, concepts and artwork. Several of our own team members at HM&P even have been gracious enough to share and display their pieces in our café gallery. When a fellow co-worker shared a video about a Toronto-based artist named Amy Shackelton, I was shocked to see her secret aesthetic, she doesn’t use paint brushes! Check out this video of Amy working on one of her newest urban landscape pieces, “Terraced City”.
3. Facebook’s New Auto-sharing Features Could Expose Your Online Activity
Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook update announcement last week has generated a lot of buzz among users and the media. From the redesigned profile page to the new timeline feed, the majority of users will end up adapting to the new updates and continue to check their profile. However, users should be aware of the new auto-sharing feature that automatically shares what you’re doing on Facebook-connected apps. Instead of having to “Like” something to share it, users can click “Add to Timeline” on any website or app. The app will then have permission to share your activity with your Facebook friends including news articles you read online, viewed videos or even the music you listen to. Learn more here about this new feature and how you can adjust your privacy setting to help protect you from sharing your online activity with your fellow Facebook friends.
4. Study: PR is the second-most-caffeinated profession
In honor of yesterday’s National Coffee Day, I thought that this article from PRDaily.com was perfect for this week’s Weekly Wrap Up. As my fellow PR companions can attest to, there is never a dull moment in the life of public relations executive. That’s why I wasn’t surprised that a recent study from Dunkin’ Donuts and Career Builder ranked PR/Marketing professionals as the second-most-caffeinated profession “who need coffee to get through the daily grind”. I guess that’s why there was a 20+ email chain going around the office about the new Starbucks opening around the corner from our office?
5. UC Berkeley Scientists Reconstruct Brains’ Visions Into Digital Video
Last week, UC Berkeley reported a breakthrough that paves the way for reproducing the movies inside our heads. There was a lot of discussion around of office about this new report. Here’s what our COO and SVP of Media Assets, Donna Mercer, thought about this new technological advancement:
“Yes, a lot of us are movie/video producers. We do it all day long; take in information and rewrite it into our own personal stories that potentially look nothing like the input. While we want to believe we are totally rational in the way we see and interpret our world, we are in fact emotional creatures that take in bits and pieces of input and reconstruct it for our reality. While the research addresses applications for stroke and coma victims, just to mention a few, I wondered if the technology could be made cheap and accessible enough to work for the field of marketing and communications and what might it tell us? Possibly it could give us the opportunity to see if our communications actually get into people’s heads, then we might see how the input resides in their mind movie. How distorted or clear is the reprocessed imagery and how does the imagery translate with different demographic audiences.“
To learn more about this new system, click here.
Cross Platform Targeting – The Next Phase of Digital Media
I was sitting in a mobile advertising meeting a few weeks ago and we chatted for awhile about mobile targeting techniques. As you know, advertisers can target by geography, demographic, content, etc. You can even “geo-fence” which means drawing a radius around a particular location or event to serve your ads. Most Mobile vendors own or are part of some type of network to reach a mass audience through mobile website and application banners. We do a lot of retargeting here at Howard Merrell to prequalify our clients’ audience based on their visit to the landing page other industry trade sites. This subject brought up a great question which I couldn’t wait to explore. Is it possible to serve an ad to someone on their computer and then serve an ad to that same person on their phone or iPad? After a little research the answer is Yes. New technology companies have been popping up across the country within the last few months that do just this. Exciting!
So now that we know it’s possible, how does it work? The linking is done through your home modem. Right now companies are able to link your personal devices through your home internet connection. For example, if you access the internet via your iPhone, then use your laptop, these companies determine that both devices are owned by the same person and then serve you ads based on your user profile.
This in turn opens up a whole new world of brand frequency across the internet. Searching for shoes online? Visit Zappos.com, browse around a bit, get bored and move onto local news. There’s a Zappos ad! A few hours later, you’re on your iPad looking at reviews for restaurants in the area, and you see another Zappos ad. This is no longer a coincidence. This of course does spur some questions. What if a user connects to multiple modems throughout the day? What happens if you connect to a public Wi-Fi service at the coffee shop? The technology is still being flushed out and as of now this process has some holes. But all-in-all it’s the future of digital. Some say its “Big Brother”, I say its smart advertising!
The Rise of The Tablet
A few nights ago, Mayor Bloomberg held a tablet device as he briefed the country of the 9/11 terror threat. This is nothing new, as last year he stated that his tablet saves him loads of paper. Homeland security secretary, Janet Napolitano, carried the traditional paper briefing notes. Tablet devices continues to grow and morph the way we communicate and do business. A recent article from Adweek points to the year over year growth of tablets and the anticipated growth in the next 12 months.
The rising trend is easy to see and it comes to no surprise that the more we use our tablets, the more they become part of our daily lives. From news reports, to watching TV, even football coaches are using tablets as playbooks.
What do you use your tablet for?
Image Credit – Data Points: Tablets Take Off - Usage is booming for search, social networking, and reading. Not so for TV and video viewing
