Less is More. Bars of Soap?

Hello again,

It was today in my class that we discussed how far body wash has come in the last 5 years and how it has replaced soap in many households across America. So does this mean that soap will one day disappear from the hygiene isle?

Of course not...in fact soap sales have actually increased from 1.1 billion in 2010 to 1.2 billion dollars in 2011. But why is this? What has Soap done?

In fact soap has done something brilliant, by reminding everyone why soap is so great in the first place. Rather than stressing the benefits like a body wash company might portray soap companies have decided to remind consumers about their experiences with bar soap and now offering fragrances similar to those in your body wash. Soap was trying to stress the new fragrances before body wash ever came out, but its almost like the consumer forgot. In a way consumer's have hit the "turning point" and decided to make bar soap trendy again.

Many might believe that the increase in sales my be due to the economy and bar soap being much cheaper than body wash. That is not true either, because the greatest increase in sales is hand-made or specialty bar soaps. Leaving us to believe that for whatever reason America is turning back to the bar of soap, and putting down their "poufs".



When dealing with a commodity, anytime you can create an experience or connection with the consumer is essential. I believe soap has done this, whether on purpose or not consumers are remembering how much they enjoy soap and looking to get back that experience they have lost with the body wash. I believe it is safe to say that although soap did not do some crazy advertising campaign it is on a comeback and will continue to be in our hygiene isle for years to come.

Thanks for reading,

Andrew Haug

Sources:

http://adage.com/article/news/soap-cleans-raising-bar/237596/

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyR5RrtvsmX5jzQkCvYodOBXRpTpfTHgs3Vp7SpJ5JUt_LisFLqDtFq03_h00GiYd2Fi4WQP0_20JgskVt2KK3SSu4srGL6GnICH1rqMF8hJZTy7fx562k3_vPu0tY7vsE1Lve8ZbhqWI/s1600/dove+soap.jpg

http://img.ehowcdn.com/article-new/ehow/images/a05/te/ao/make-homemade-soap-bar-800x800.jpg

Dr. Pepper 10 The Man's Drink

Hello Everyone,

Today I thought I would look into a controversial advertising campaign that continues to go strong almost a year after its creation. The product is Dr. Pepper Ten, a diet soda marketing to exclusively to men. In fact it is marketed so much to men that its tagline for the product is "Dr. Pepper Ten  - Not for Women".  Although this has been done in the past by Coke Zero and Pepsi One, they never changed the perception of the consumer on diet soda and eventually failed to attract the amount of consumers desired.



At first you may say this is a bad ad because it immediately eliminates women, 50% of the World's population. However as we talk about in my advertising class, to successfully position a product in a consumers mind you must also deposition from the normal consumers thought process. In this case, Dr. Pepper is attacking the norm that diet sodas are strictly for women. Then by using the can design and emphasizing that it does have calories and taste, the brand tries to reach out to appeal to men seeking a low-calorie soda.

Below I have listed some of the brilliance of the campaign:

1) Recognized a need for a diet soda that appeals to men - Similar to five gum which realized teenagers were no longer purchasing gum. So they created a brand that made gum chewing an experience.

2) Used Perceptions of Diet Drinks for Women to Create Shock Factor - Right away you realize this is not for women, offended or not it forces you to read the rest of the print to learn more.

3) New can design - Simple, strong, masculine colors. Looks similar to the colors used for the Axe body wash campaign. Red, Gray, and Black



By using these three insights Dr. Pepper already had an advantage on the competition. Now nearly a year later Dr. Pepper Ten sales continue to grow, and just goes to show you that sometimes these advertisers know what they are doing.

Until next time,

Andrew Haug

Sources: http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/story/2011-10-10/dr-pepper-for-men/50717788/1

Dove For Men. Creative Brief

 Hello again,

Today I would like to look at the success of Dove, and more specifically Dove for Men. How did a company that was so focused on women's hygiene products change their image to serve men's needs too?

That's where the advertising and marketing teams come in.        
                                                                                                           
By using an advertising agency, Dove created an amazing advertising campaign that changed how the average consumer viewed the Dove Brand. The advertising agency did this by starting off with a great creative brief.

A creative brief is created by the account planner, it is a simple statement that inspires the creative team and portrays the purpose of advertising campaign. A successful brief brings together inspiration and focus. Some things to consider defining a creative brief:

1) "The bridge between strategy and execution" - Henrik Habberstad

2) "Creative without strategy is called art. Creative with strategy is called advertising" - Jef Richards, Courtesy of Anis Khan

So although I did not find the exact Dove for Men's creative brief, I thought it would be fun to imagine what creative briefs they pitched to the creative team. To start we must think of the problem or mission at hand:

                         

Mission: How do we make Dove appeal to Men?

To show how they created the creative brief, I will show some bad examples and finally a good example.

Bad Creative Brief: Create an ad with a handsome man using our products in the shower

-This is a bad creative brief, because it does not inspire the team and it also limits their creativity by making them work within the parameters.

Better Creative Brief: Create an ad showing the benefits of our new products
-This is better because it does not limit the creative team, but again it does not inspire the team and there is no focus for the creative team to go off.

Best: Create a television ad demonstrating the numerous benefits of this ground-breaking new product line that equips your everyday average man with the confidence he needs to take on the World.

-This is the best creative brief because it has inspiration to help your everyday average man take on the World. It also has some focus with the television act and emphasizing benefits, but not too much like the first one limiting the ad to the bathroom.

Overall, a great creative brief is all about communication from the account planner to the creative team. Each side must have respect for the other, and work together to create a great advertising campaign. All of these briefs were simply things I imagined, but I do believe they pitched something similar to these when they started the campaign.

Dove for Men has been a great success, and in a lot of ways I would credit it to the advertising team. That's all I have for now, but I look forward to writing more later.

-Andrew

Sources:

http://www.unilever.ca/brands/personalcarebrands/Dove_mencare.aspx

Professor Jane Machin - Powerpoints

 

Kraft Mac N Cheese...Not to be Wasted

Hello again World,

Tonight I would like to bring up an important issue happening in homes all across America; WASTED MACARONI USED ON ART! While kids all over the World are going hungry, we are using perfectly good macaroni for art work rather than food.    

While this sounds like an huge exaggeration, the marketing geniuses at Kraft have taken this idea and made it real. Kraft is currently celebrating its 75th birthday this year, and along with its clever commercials involving children getting back at there parents, as the Officer Dan commercial seen below, they are also starting up a Social Marketing Campaign with Feeding America.

Officer Dan:




Using clever commercials, social media, and the website www.dinnernotart.com/#home Kraft has created awareness about a new app available for I-Pads and desktop computers. This App allows you to create macaroni art on your computer so you do not have to waste good boxes of Mac n Cheese. Also for every picture submitted, 10 real noodles will be donated to Feeding America. As of today over 12,609,690 noodles have been donated by Kraft. Here is an example of a picture from the app:



Using this App, Kraft is creating a Social Marketing Campaign in which consumers feel good about donating without having to actually donate money. All consumers need to do is draw a picture and Kraft does the rest. From Kraft's point of view, consumer will share good word of mouth about what Kraft is doing, and how great their app is. Overall, this is a brilliant marketing campaign and I am hoping it will really take off for Kraft in the next couple of months. Finally before I saw goodbye, here is one more funny Kraft commercial to go along with the "Dinner Not Art Campaign".



Goodbye World, I will be in touch soon

-Andrew

Sources:

http://www.dinnernotart.com/#home

http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/kraft-kids-stop-wasting-those-noodles-macaroni-art-141806

Old Spice Shows Us How to Go Viral

Hello World,

Today I thought I would give a shout out to one of the most successful Viral campaigns of all time. The Old Spice Guy. His real name is Isaiah Mustafa and his first commercial for Old Spice has now been seen by over 42 million viewers on YouTube, not to mention how many saw the Ads on television.

Although all the videos received rave reviews and were shared by millions, the true genius of the campaign came when Old Spice began to send personalized messages to users. The campaign made over 180 videos, thanking users for sharing the original videos. The users ranged from big name celebrities such as Ellen Degeneres, Alyssa Milano, and Perez Hilton to average consumers on their twitters. Here is an example of a video to Ellen Degeneres:



These "Old Spice Responses" have tallied over 5.9 million views and even more impressive over 22,500 comments. Below is the fastest growing Viral campaigns of all time, and as you will notice Old Spice Responses is #1.




The agency responsible for all the success is Wieden and Kennedy. They came up with the idea of making the Old Spice Guy not just a funny video, but a real character that can communicate with his consumers. This is the brilliance of a great viral campaign as you must create something that the users can share that holds a personal connection. Then once the personal connection is created it will hopefully, transfer to the Brand name and identity. I believe Old Spice has done this with the Old Spice Guy and the campaign of Old Spice Responses. Although now retired, we can still look back at this campaign and learn what to do right when it comes to creating a ground-breaking viral campaign.

Hope you enjoyed the post and I look forward to writing again soon,

-Andrew

Sources:

http://mashable.com/2010/07/15/old-spice-stats/

http://www.oregonlive.com/idahosportugal/index.ssf/2010/07/wieden_kennedys_old_spice_guy.html

This is SportsCenter!

If you watch any sports, or even have basic cable I am sure that you aware of the sports news program called "SportsCenter" which is a staple on the network of ESPN. Now if you take a minute, aside from Internet websites, can you name 3 other sports highlight shows???

                                                   

1) Fox Sports Show       
2) No Idea
3) No Clue 

-Don't worry the average person can not, I am sure that I can not even think of one other sports highlight show on basic cable.

Now how did SportsCenter come to such a monopoly on sports highlights. I often find myself complaining that SportsCenter does not show enough highlights and it has become too much expert opinions, yet every morning I still find myself watching. I know that every guy reading this can agree with me; that they have laid in bed one morning and watched nothing but SportsCenter despite having seen the same highlights 3 times already.

So why do we love SportsCenter so much???

In my opinion SportsCenter by using its commercials, original Sports anchors with unique personalities, and offering a constant product of sports highlights finishing each episode with everyone's favorite Top 10 plays section they have built a valuable brand.

This is where the genius of "This is SportsCenter" comes in. Using SportsCenter anchors mixing with Sports icons, the commercial show a comedic view into life at the ESPN headquarters. By using these commercials, ESPN headquarters is portrayed as a fantasy land, where celebrities, sports stars, and ESPN staff all hangout  in an environment similar to high school. In a way, the commercials remind me of ESPN headquarters as a magical place similar to what Willie Wonka's factory is to chocolate.

So in honor of the "This is SportsCenter" commercial campaign that I believe helped SportsCenter eliminate all other sports highlight shows I have listed my Top 10 below:



10) Tiger Woods & Stuart Scott - Classic; one of the first commercials back in 1994.



9) Lance Armstrong & Dan Patrick - Power goes out, but Lance doesn't stop...



8) Mark McGwire & Assorted Sports Anchors - Y2K is coming.


7) David Ortiz, Jorge Posada, & Stan Verrett - Wally is not what you think!


6) Lebron James & Scott Van Pelt - King's Chair.


5) Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett, & Stuart Scott - Boston 3 Party.


4) Ladainian Tomlinson & Steve Levy - None of this mail is mine.


3) Dwight Howard & Hannah Storm - You were lucky Superman was so close.


2) Dwayne Wade & Neil Everett - Add some more defenders.


1) John Clatyon & Stan Verrett - Bringing the commercials to a new level


Hope you enjoyed these commercials and now understand why SportsCenter is the industry leader in sports highlights.

-Andrew

Sources:

www.youtube.com

http://www.coastalfans.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/top-10.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/db/SportsCenter_logo.png

http://www.goodlogo.com/images/logos/espn_logo_3299.gif

Does Your Doctor Really Recommend 5 Hour Energy???

So I was watching TV the other day when I saw a commercial for 5 hour energy shots. I'm sure most of you have seen this commercial or if not I have attached the link below:

http://needenergy.com/commercial.php

In the commercial they make the claim that over 73% of 3,000 doctors surveyed recommend 5 hour energy drink. However upon further review and simply reading a line or two into the fine print, you begin to realize that they have done a great job of rewording the claims to their benefit. Below are the true stats from the survey:

• 73% of Doctors said they would recommend a low calorie energy supplement to their healthy patients who use energy supplements.
• Of that 73%, only 56% said they would specifically recommend 5 hour energy to healthy patients.
• 47% of all Doctor's surveyed would specifically recommend 5 hour energy to healthy patients.

When looking at this numbers they are not bad, but 47% recommending 5 hour energy compared to 73% is a huge drop. As we learned today in class, this advertisement is not illegal however I would consider it to be deceptive advertising. To a reasonable consumer the commercial tries to express the claim that over 73% of Doctors recommend this product, when only 47% specifically recommended it. In addition upon further research I could not find any sources of who these doctors were or how they were selected. Both major flaws in traditional marketing protocol. Finally, just to add to more uncertainty about the product it still has not been FDA approved; despite being on the market for more than 5 years.

Overall Facts:  

1. 5 Hour Energy paid for this survey and did not realize the doctors information
2. 47% not 73% recommended 5 Hour Energy specifically 
3. The FDA has still not officially approved the health benefits of this product

So overall I consider this ad to be acting in deceptive advertising. Despite all I have just said I do like 5 Hour Energy shots, I use them time to time and probably will continue to use them in the future. However, I have never linked my decision of purchasing a 5 Hour Energy shot with what my doctor would recommend for me. If anything I become slightly angry that 5 Hour Energy would try to fool consumers into purchasing their product by using unidentified doctor testimonies. In my book, it puts their brand at no higher of a reputation than an infomercial for a weight loss supplement.

I thank you for reading my post and look forward to addressing anymore deceptive advertising in the future.

Thanks,

Andrew

Sources:

http://www.doctorsreview5hour.com/index.php?utm_source=NeedEnergySite&utm_medium=weblink&utm_content=CommercialPage&utm_campaign=DoctorsReview