All posts tagged Television Commercials

killer heat

 

I am several years late to the party in breaking this commercial down, but oh well.

It was easy for me to dismiss this commercial the first million times I saw it, but once realized it was real, I paid closer attention.

This ad, and the series of Tundra ads it belongs to, are an effort not to confuse consumers or distort the truth. Big, loud, boisterous, and “manly” almost to a fault, the one thing “Killer Heat” is not is deceptive. And that makes it refreshing.

Advertisers try every moment of every day to demonstrate why the product they are pushing is special. With all of that effort, an extraordinarily small number of ads and campaigns actually accomplish the feat of honestly, accurately demonstrating the product.

Back in 2009, an author on the Tundra-fanatic website Tundraheadquarters.com wrote: “If there’s anything wrong with the “Killer Heat” commercial, it’s that it takes a real truck person to understand just how amazing this stunt was.”

While the above notion is accurate, the whole point of the commercial was likely to stand out to truck people.

As the quote suggests, “real truck people” will understand the commercial on a level most others will not. And for those folks, the Toyota Tundra will hold a special place in their minds (and, if  Toyota is lucky, their hearts) as they continue to think, learn, and talk about trucks. This is the sign of a truly great advertisement and advertisement campaign.

A round of applause for Toyota, their Tundra, and Saatchi & Saatchi (the ad agency behind the campaign and ad). They brought some heat back in 2009 – heat that still airs on television sets across the country frequently today.

Killer.

 

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by Jeff Osborn on June 22, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Marketing, Television Commercials
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Posted by Jeff Osborn on June 22, 2012

http://dontadvertisetome.com/2012/06/22/killer-heat/

movie trailer tuesday – midnight in paris

Midnight in Paris is the best movie I have seen in a long time, so this post might be a little biased. I will do my best to treat the trailer as though I do not have a huge crush on the film itself.

Did this trailer make me want to see the movie?

Not really.

Was the trailer effective as a commercial?

No.

Like so many films I discuss on Movie Trailer Tuesday, the main reason I saw Midnight in Paris was word of mouth from people I know who’s opinions I trust.

A film as original and exceptional as this one is hard to make into a trailer.

Woody Allen is used to handling films like this, but Hollywood is not. Hollywood is accustomed to making trailers for formulaic movies with predictable plots, mainly sequels and novel-based pieces without an original idea within the entire project.

This trailer is better than many of those made for 2012 Best Film nominees, but it really does not convey the wondrous experience the film delivers.

Quick side note:

The best decision Woody Allen ever made just might be putting Owen Wilson in this film (especially if Allen himself was the other option). Had Midnight been made 20 years ago, it might have been an inferior film because of Wilson’s absence. Wilson is entertaining, energetic, and funny throughout. The “Holy-shit” face he pulls several times during his midnight adventures is one of the best film faces I have ever seen. That one expression conveys more than most actors can put forth with over-animated monologue deliveries and melodramatic emotional breakdowns. As my wife often says, “The best actors convey emotion with their faces and movements, not their words.”

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by Jeff Osborn on May 29, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Marketing, Movie Trailer Tuesday
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Posted by Jeff Osborn on May 29, 2012

http://dontadvertisetome.com/2012/05/29/movie-trailer-tuesday-midnight-in-paris/

geico

Is there anything worse in the marketing world than the ongoing Geico gecko campaign?

Why are you still here?

 

Geico has been ripped for these ads because they are all about making “six-pack Joe” laugh and not at all about sharing real, concrete reasons why their insurance is better.

But that is not my problem with these ads. My second biggest problem (I’ll talk about my first biggest problem in a minute) with the gecko ads is this: They are not funny.

Humorous commercials used to bring attention to your product or service serve an important purpose.

Humor is an important marketing tool. Laughter, after all, is one of the main ways human beings connect with one another.

Think about your best friends. Chances are the memories that keep you closest to those people are either somber emotional ones or goofy, fun, riotous moments of uninhibited, uncensored laughter.

The same is true with brands and products. Great marketing campaigns make you feel emotions that bring you closer to the product, brand or service being touted.

Geico’s gecko campaign is a slowly dying horse that no one has balls enough to put down.

All of that said, my biggest problem with Geico’s gecko campaign is that they have never done a Gordon Gekko spoof with Michael Douglas. With all of the lazy, crappy ads with bad jokes (a few of them are below) I just cannot believe Geico never did a Gordon Gecko spot or two. Tsk, tsk.

 

 

 

 

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by Jeff Osborn on May 25, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Marketing, Television Commercials
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Posted by Jeff Osborn on May 25, 2012

http://dontadvertisetome.com/2012/05/25/geico/

more stupid

Embassy Suites hired Roman Coppola to help them with their integrated campaign “More of More” at the beginning of last year.

I decided to lead with this fact because I feel like they could have spent less money on a nobody director and received similar results. Maybe even better since newbies often have more to prove.

I like the concept behind these ads (more of more is never a bad thing), but after watching more of these “more” commercials, the only more I feel like Mr. More has has brought to my life is more stupid.

These spots are dull, stale, and lack imagination. I do not say they make me feel more stupid because it is the best insult I could come up with. I say that these commercials make me feel more stupid because as I watched one after another they got dumber and dumber and I really did begin to feel more stupid (for wasting my own time and because of the tired, lazy jokes).

And the only thing more stupid than more of Mr. More is spending more on a director who’s name and work means means less, not more.

 

I have  more problems with Embassy Suites $15 million ad campaign:

1. These spots are another lame knock off of the original Old Spice ads. Embassy Suites apparently thought a fast talking, kooky spokesman would do for them what “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” did for Old Spice. Happily, that is not how things work any more. Hard work and original ideas are starting to count for more again, thank goodness. Old Spice did it better and they did it first. I cannot figure out why companies keep trying to copy their ads instead of copying the thing that made those ads successful: Digging deep and creating something new, clever and risky.

2. More money (once again) failed to achieve better results. It is post 2008. I thought we were supposed to be doing more with less? Although, I have to admit that Embassy Suites spending more and getting less does fit their campaign in an odd, ironic way.

Credits: The More More campaign was created for Embassy Suites by ad agency BBDO-Atlanta.

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by Jeff Osborn on May 23, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Internet Marketing, Marketing, Television Commercials
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Posted by Jeff Osborn on May 23, 2012

http://dontadvertisetome.com/2012/05/23/more-stupid/

movie trailer tuesday – the descendants

 

Did this trailer make me want to see the movie?

No. Not really.

I ended up liking this movie quite a bit, but I saw it because of what friends told me about it not because of the marketing campaign.

The Descendants ended up being pretty popular and garnered an Oscar nomination for Best Picture (which is why I’m talkng about it here in the first place), so obviously the marketing for the film worked to some extent. But I would not have seen this film based on this trailer alone.

The story is interesting but too much of the trailer is just George running around or pulling faces. The rest of the trailer reveals most of the plot in an obtuse way that usually turns me off.

It is difficult to craft an interesting trailer for a movie like this since there is not much action to go off of. Yet I refuse to believe there is not a better way to frame a heartfelt, thoughtful film like this one for the masses. Perhaps trailers like this are proof that marketers still think audiences are dumber than they are.

Was the trailer effective as a commercial?

Nope. The effective commercial was the gaggle of people I knew who saw The Descendants and loved it.

I did not like this film as much as some people I know (and I must admit that something must have made them want to see it) but the fact that the commercial, which is supposed to be the hook, failed to capture me says a lot. Mainly, that marketers of films still cannot, generally speaking, make ads that do the film justice.

Good trailers are rare enough that I am frequently scratching my head. Where does all of that money go?

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by Jeff Osborn on May 1, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Marketing, Movie Trailer Tuesday
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Posted by Jeff Osborn on May 1, 2012

http://dontadvertisetome.com/2012/05/01/movie-trailer-tuesday-the-descendants/

everything is marketing

I can remember finally breaking down and buying my first iPod when I was in college.

Everyone I knew already had one. I had been fine with that fact for a while, but then, slowly at first, I was not fine.

A television ad can tell you about a product, it can even make you want it. But an advertisement cannot make you NEED it.

I would see the white ear buds every day around my college campus. It seemed like everyone had them. I had a CD player, which was becoming more and more embarrassing to pull out on the buss or in the library. I needed an iPod. The feeling that owning one was a necessity rather than a desire built inside me until I just could not bare it any longer.

Sure, there were plenty of Apple and iPod commercials on T.V., but seeing the devices every day was what finally put me over the edge. I was slow to catch on that these things were cool but when I did, I felt like the last person on earth without one. And that felt crappy and lonely and lame.

I can remember ordering my new iPod online and getting it in the mail. It felt amazing to finally have one, my own words etched on the back and my music filling its memory. The first day I went to classes with my new iPod I saw the world differently. I stopped noticing the students WITH the white cords trailing into jackets and backpacks. All of the sudden I only noticed the people WITHOUT them. And I was not one of them. I had the white head phones. I was in.

A television ad can tell you about a product, it can even make you want it. But an advertisement cannot make you NEED it. The feeling you get from not having it while everyone around you (that you care about) does have it is what pushes you over the line from want to need.

Apple got it a long time ago. Now, more marketers are figuring out the fact that dumping money into advertising should be a piece of the stagey, not the entire strategy, but it took a long time. Design, timing, allure, service, and so many other factors all make up great marketing and the success of your product.

The surge of the digital revolution has marketers scrambling to figure out how to advertise to more people more efficiently, but the basics have not changed: Create something remarkable that fills a need (real or perceived) and make it available to the right people. Marketing is not just selling the thing once it is made. Marketing is everything from conceiving of the thing to fulfilling orders and handling upset customers. When it comes to your product, marketing is everything. And everything is marketing.

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by Jeff Osborn on April 16, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by Jeff Osborn on April 16, 2012

http://dontadvertisetome.com/2012/04/16/everything-is-marketing/

does any airline have “it?”

 

I wanted to talk a bit about this commercial from October 2010 before discussing a new spot featuring Richard Branson. It is important to note that this ad, titled “Your Airline’s Either Got it or it Hasn’t,” was Virgin Atlantic‘s first global ad campaign.

New to me, but not new, this ad from Virgin Atlantic goes for broke and succeeds. With some.

I got a 007 vibe, for sure. The concept appears to be taking the viewer through a fantasized flight with Virgin.

The ad successfully strengthens the brands identity as THE cool airline. But does it make people who are not already attracted to the brand want to fly Virgin? I am not sure it does (or did).

The ad is hip, pretty to look at, slick, representative of the brand and dreamy in a very good way. But it is missing a hook, a next step for the uninitiated to the Virgin brand.  The one-liner at the end feels forced and unnecessary, dashing the possibility of a strong close.

Overall, I feel like this commercial is an example of an Airline industry that cannot quite get connected to its customers. And if Virgin cannot do it, who can?

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by Jeff Osborn on March 21, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Marketing, Television Commercials
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Posted by Jeff Osborn on March 21, 2012

http://dontadvertisetome.com/2012/03/21/does-any-airline-have-it/

movie trailer tuesday – the help

 

Did this trailer make me want to see the movie?

No.

I did end up seeing The Help, but not because of the trailer. I can imagine that this trailer was effective on some people, but I remember seeing it and declaring no interest in seeing the film. I finally saw The Help (on DVD) because so many people that I knew liked it so much.

The trailer for The Help is my least favorite type of trailer, and is usually not very effective on me. By “Type of trailer,” I mean the kind that tells the entire story in two short minutes. Those trailers turn me off right away. The film could be about ninjas on the moon battling aliens from the future with martial art AND their intellects, and a trailer like this one would cause me to suddenly lose interest.

I did like that the trailer was sprinkled with humor, which turns out to be one of the best parts of the film itself.

The trailer also gives the viewer glimpses of a potent performance by Viola Davis. If you watch only her clips carefully the trailer starts to become a lot more effective.

Was the trailer effective as a commercial?

I would say, yes.

Like I said, this type of trailer is my least favorite. But there are plenty of people who can see past a boring trailer to the heart of the story.

I believe the scandal, humor, and subject matter probably attract people at a higher rate than the trailer as a whole repels them.

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by Jeff Osborn on March 20, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Marketing, Movie Trailer Tuesday
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Posted by Jeff Osborn on March 20, 2012

http://dontadvertisetome.com/2012/03/20/movie-trailer-tuesday-the-help/

too cool

I cannot be the only person noticing a flood of commercials featuring people doing things you never see them do in real life. One of the most obnoxious to me, is this Hyundai commercial from Christmas two years ago:

Hyundai might want to appeal to people like the ones in this ad, but they probably do not. Likely because people like the ones shown in this commercial are usually too busy walking or biking places or planting urban gardens or buying non-prescription fashion glasses to drive any car. Let alone a Hyundai.

 

I liked the premise of the commercial, but I was annoyed by the disconnect by the story it was trying to tell and the product it was trying to sell.

Keeping in mind my discussion about consistency from last week, what business does Taco Bell have depicting a guy like this as a customer? There are probably a few, but that is not Taco Bell’s core customer base. But not a lot.

 

First of all, I have never seen a Wendy’s that busy. Ever. Second, people inside Wendy’s restaurants are usually a lot older, and sadder looking.

 

There are several more offenders, including many McDonald’s offenders from when they launched their McCafes. I cannot seem to find my favorite examples right now, but I will add them to this post as I collect them.

 

 

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by Jeff Osborn on March 14, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Marketing, Television Commercials
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Posted by Jeff Osborn on March 14, 2012

http://dontadvertisetome.com/2012/03/14/too-cool/

movie trailer tuesday: extremely loud and incredibly close

 

I have not seen the film, but this trailer sure made me want to.

Yes, this film came out long, long ago. But I saw this trailer for only the second time tonight before Contagion, and was captivated by the shots, narration and glimpses allowed the audience. I have not read the book and I do not know much about the story. I am not a fan of Sandy B, or even Tom Hanks for that matter. But something about this trailer was really compelling to me.

I think it is just a really neat, concise piece of storytelling. This trailer tells its own story. One that is fascinating, funny, emotional and personal. But the story the trailer tells is incomplete. It is a mystery.

And to solve the mystery, all you have to do is watch the film.

And (yes, there is another “And”) the film promises (according to the trailer, anyway) to provide more of the things you loved about the trailer in addition to answering all of your questions and completing the trailers story.

Brilliant.

Note: I happened to be out of the country when promotion for Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close was in full swing, as well as when the film came out. Actually, I missed the marketing for most of 2011′s Oscar nominated films. So, starting today, I will address trailers from all ten nominees for best picture. I am a little late (ideally, I would have started this ten weeks before the Oscars), but I am still going to plow ahead.

Up next: The Help

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by Jeff Osborn on March 13, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Marketing, Movie Trailer Tuesday, Television Commercials
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Posted by Jeff Osborn on March 13, 2012

http://dontadvertisetome.com/2012/03/13/movie-trailer-tuesday-extremely-loud-and-incredibly-close/

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