Pepsi: Two Celebs

Using celebrities to endorse products is very common in advertising. Often times a product only has one celebrity endorsing it, or if multiple celebs are in on an ad campaign they only show one at a time. This new Pepsi commercial I found very interesting because not only does it include two different celebrities but the stars in question are so different from each other. One is a boy band from Europe while the other is a football star here in America. I thought the diversity this commercial had made it great and effective because it reaches such a wide audience.

This is one of two commercials they made, the other one places Drew Brees out of his element and has him singing with One Direction. I think this commercial and ad campaign is funny and effective because of brilliant work combining two very different celebrities.

Whole Foods Ads

I have been reviewing Whole Foods ad campaigns in an attempt to better understand their business. This ad is a perfect example of what they try and show off to the public.

As is the case with most Whole Foods ads this highlights the healthiness and wholeness of their products. It has the traditional color scheme that makes you associate the ad with the brand. The colors also make a connection to healthy and ripe with the green background. One aspect that I feel makes this ad so successful is that it makes the connection that other grocery stores and food is not healthy and that there is no alternative to Whole Foods. By creating and highlighting their niche they have separated themselves from other brands. I feel that Whole Foods through their advertising has created a positive feeling around the brand that has allowed them to be successful.

Seasonal Ads

Holidays offer a great time to advertise your product. While running seasonal ads can be tricky because you spend the same amount of money but can only run it in a small window of time they are still quite useful. This high risk high reward time is when some of the most famous ad campaigns are launched. Coca-Cola in the past has done a tremendous job of this. These seasonal ads around holidays can occasionally produce some of the best ads.

This is a recent Halloween ad released by Snickers. The ad sticks with the usual grab a snickers theme but ads a holiday twist. I think this is one of the good seasonal ad campaigns because it doesn’t drift to far from the usual theme but still encompasses the holiday spirit. I really enjoyed this ad and think it does a great job of capturing my attention.   

LandShark

This fall break my friends and I went on a road trip to Ann Arbor. On the way we saw many billboards. Billboards are a great way to advertise because of the large amount of people who see them. When you are driving the natural instinct is to look and see what is on the sign. This is even more the case when you are in rural areas with nothing entertaining to look at, as was the case with our road trip. The vast majority of the billboards I saw during the drive were not very entertaining and only stayed in my mind for a second. One of the billboards I did like was for a beer called LandShark.

I thought this billboard was extremely effective because of the way they kept the beer’s name as a theme throughout the entire sign. Adding a fin to the bottle was a great idea and tilting the bottle to the side was genius. I thought the slogan “Let The Fin Begin” was clever as it kept with the shark theme. The color pattern added to the feel of the billboard and made it seem very desirable. Overall I thought this was a very good use of a billboard and was one of the most effective forms of advertising I saw on my trip.  

 

Sunday Night Football Intro

Primetime sporting events always have tons of people viewing them so advertising during them is very popular. You can guarantee that people are tuning in so TV ads during the game are at a premium. Just before the game though is a great time to advertise. Something I hadn’t notice or thought much about are the advertising opportunities during the intro. This video is of the opening for Sunday Night Football on NBC.

 

This intro does a great job of getting a catchy unique song that sticks in your head. This is important because unlike most ads this one is only shown once during the week and doesn’t get remembered brain though constant play. They also do a terrific job of attaching faces of NFL players and other celebrities to help make a deeper connection between the audience and the programming. There is also a lot of advertising done for other products during this intro. NBC uses this as an opportunity to pitch one of its other shows. They also have advertising from completely other products such as Verizon and NFL Red Zone.

I think this Sunday Night Football intro is great and uses a lot of different strategies to advertise for a lot of different products. This is a very successful use of TV time before a large audience.   

Chubbies Shorts

I came across a company last year that I found to be very interesting. It is a shorts company based in San Francisco called Chubbies. The brand was started by Stanford grads who wanted to bring back the look of short shorts for men. The shorts themselves are pretty nice, lots of cool designs and great colors. The thing that really got me was the way they advertise and represent the brand. Chubbies really tries to dominate the college to young professional field with an emphasis on men in fraternities. Everything the company releases plays right into that demographic.

It starts with the name of the shorts. Every short they release has a different name and story behind it. For example these pretty normal green shorts take on a whole new life when given this name and bio.

 

THE PREGAMES-Yup - the weekend has finally arrived and these shorts are ready to kick that mother off in a monstrous way. Get outta those terrible work pants. Throw them into your furnace. What? Don't have a furnace? Find one. Destroy those damned things.

Now that we've taken care of that, time to get into these party-startin, lady-attractin, beer-slangin mamma jammas and get the night started right.

Weekend activated and you're already winning.

 

 

At first I wasn’t positive if this in your face style of advertising and promoting would be successful but these shorts were sold out within a matter of hours.

The company is currently doing very well and is expanding very fast and I think their style of advertising has a lot to do with it. They really stand out and make you take notice of them, something that has caused me to remember them and actually buy the shorts. I think they did a great job of finding their demographic. I beleive more than half the battle is finding exactly who would buy your product and Chubbies did a great job of that.

Below is a link to Chubbies’ website so you can explore and see more of their unique brand.

 

http://www.chubbiesshorts.com/

 

 

 

EPL Jersey

This Saturday, as I often do, I woke up early to watch the English Premier League. For those that do not follow soccer the EPL is the English soccer league, considered by most to be the best league in the world. During the game between by beloved Tottenham and Manchester United something caught my eye in a way that it has never before. In soccer unlike traditional US sports such as baseball and football, the front of the jersey is reserved for sponsors. While this is something I have known about for virtually my entire life I never have thought deeply about the sponsorship on the uniforms. I made the immediate connection between this form of advertising and celebrity endorsements. A company that decides to promote themselves on a uniform not only takes on the risk of the players misbehaving but also the team as a whole. Celebrity endorsements/partnerships can be very risky for companies because once the two form a bond a celebrity’s bad judgment can seriously hurt a business. To me having your company on a jersey is a huge risk. Not only are you as a company now bond to a whole team of players but you are also a part of that organization. I wonder if fans of rival teams would be against products that sponsor their most hated opponents.

I also did some research into just how much teams earn from jersey sponsorships and found some very interesting information. Manchester United and Liverpool both earn the most with an annual 20million pound payday. London’s Fulham club makes the least bringing in 120,000 pounds yearly. The range in which companies advertise on teams is almost as wide the discrepancy between the costs to sponsor. With companies ranging from beer to air travel.

The NBA is one US league that as discussed moving toward this style of advertising and revenue and I think it will be interesting to see how it is received here in the states.

Below are some jerseys to show examples of this form of advertising.  

 

Giants Baseball

With my hometown San Francisco Giants clinching another playoff berth I found it fitting to examine one of their TV ads. When I am home it is very rare for me to miss a game so I have seen almost every ad the team has released since I was very young. I find professional sports advertisements extremely interesting as it is a field I wish to get into. While some products force celebrity endorsements, sports teams are already coupled with the star players on their roster. While the team has to deal with the publicity those players attract they also control which ones they choose to highlight through advertising. In this particular advertisement the Giants do not place a heavy emphasis on any particular player and have multiple players shown. I think that was a very good move as it kept the focus off of just one player, placing the concentration on the team as a whole.

 

One thing I thought this commercial did a brilliant job of was conjuring up old beloved memories. The “Let’s Get Back Together” phrase was excellent. It brings back the memories of the World Series title in 2010 that are still alive and in every Giants fan’s mind. The commercial also shows fans instead of only focusing on players. I think that was very smart as it lets the fans know that they are a huge part of the team’s success and that they are needed in the stands. The final three seconds where the “Let’s Go Giants” chant is heard also ties directly into the memories and the fans importance. Everyone who has attended a meaningful Giants home game can hear that chant ringing though their head. The word “Together” is a key word to me in this ad, as it really does act as a call to action to fans. It calls for them to go to games cheer the team on and that the ball club cannot make it all the way alone.

This advertisement is very good one as it contains many different elements and really connects the product (Giants) with the consumer (fans). With that being said, “Let’s Go Giants!”

Cell Phones: More Than Just Talking

Cell phones and cell phone commercials are very fascinating to me. The technology and the uses associated with cell phones grow and change so fast. Even in my young life I have seen a ridiculous transformation in the cell phone. Technology has taken it from being a communication device to somewhat of a social symbol. Cell phones are always out and are often incorporated into conversation, be it showing off a photo to pulling up a website.

I actually found this commercial during my search to find another video that I had intended to write on, but this ad really stuck out to me. The entire focus of this commercial is the phone in a social setting. For example sharing a photo or giving someone a video. Those are both things that I had mentioned earlier as areas where cell phone technology is taking us. This commercial almost makes a connection in a consumer’s head that when they are at a social event and they take a picture this phone is the one they need to quickly and easily share the image. Cell phone advertisements are really moving toward, if they aren’t already there, selling the idea of the phone as a social device more than strictly a communication device. The feeling of the ads changes the phone from “like” to a “must have.” The phone as it is portrayed in these commercials is a need in social settings and something that you “must have.” I believe this ad, and others that use this focus do a great job at tapping into the consumers desire to be “cool” and have the social device that will keep up with their life. Any ad in my mind that can change something from a “like” to a “must have” is an overwhelming success and this one has defiantly done that to some of its audience.

Fantasy Football and Star Wars?

This week marked the beginning of another NFL season. Meanwhile to the millions of fans who enjoy fantasy football the season has already been long in full swing. With many fans completing their fantasy draft weeks ago the trash talking and taunts have already been raging on while no games have been played. One aspect I feel that gets overlooked in all the post draft commotion is the commercials. I find fantasy football commercials to be some of the funnier ads on TV. Advertisers have the ability to take the ads in so many different directions, from the person who always seems to lose, to the friend that is overly enthusiastic about his team’s success.  This particular ad is a bit older but is one that I particularly enjoy.

 

I love when two completely unrelated things pair up to create something that seems to fit in perfect harmony. I would never think to incorporate Star Wars with fantasy football. This video got me thinking about all the possible partnerships you can have in the world of marketing and communications. I have started to look at brands and objects and find “partners” for them, which in most cases would make hilarious advertisements. For an advertisement to be successful it must have an element of surprise to it. If an advertisement catches you off guard it has a much better chance of getting you to laugh and thus remember the product or service. For that reason I found this advertisement to be a huge success.