I saw this a couple weeks ago and got too carried away and forgot to post.
This is simply one of the greatest customer relationship management stories I’ve witnessed to date.
Shane, a multiple user of Samsung products one day decided to send this note to Samsung Canada on their Facebook page in hopes to score a free Galaxy S3. Much to his surprise, they actually responded:
Now what Samsung Canada did was very risky as it may not have portrayed their brand image but you have to admit, it was very witty considering Shane’s original message to them and as I’ve mentioned before, humour tends to always win.
So Shane took the a screenshot of their reply and posted it on the famous “Reddit”. If you’re not familiar with Reddit, it is a social news website where registered users submit content, in the form of either a link or a text “self” post. Other users then vote the submission “up” or “down”, which is used to rank the post and determine its position on the site’s pages and front page (thanks Wikipedia).
Shane’s screenshot hit top spot on Reddit and 600,000 views. A remarkable statistic for user generated content for Samsung Canada.
The greatest part of this story comes next.
As a gratitude for creating so much positive PR for Samsung Canada by posting the screenshot of their humour on Reddit, Samsung Canada sent Shane a customized Galaxy S3 with Shane’s dragon drawing on it with the enclosed letter with it:
So what did Shane do? He naturally put it up on Reddit again and it hit top spot again with another 400,000 views. It currently sits with over 5.5 million views 3 weeks later.
Simply amazing marketing. Companies strive for user generated content as it brings far more value than any media spend.
Kudos Samsung Canada, you are a pure example of what CRM is meant to be.
For more pictures of Shane’s phone visit: http://imgur.com/a/VZDti
Let your customers do the talking, but be prepared to reply wisely as well.
With summer around the corner, bright coloured clothing is a huge hit already. Pimkie, a European version of the popular Japanese retail clothing company Uniqlo is helping Europeans pick what colour they should wear.
Happiness Brussels (Pimkie’s agency) has installed high-speed digital cameras in key locations throughout Europe’s three most fashionable cities. The footage is collected and filtered in real-time through a color tracking software that generates infographics detailing which colors are trending where.
Wake up, check the website, and know what colour to wear…or not to wear…your choice but you’ll know what the majority are wearing!
Dollar Shave Club is a start-up company that offers shaving blades sent right to your home for only $1 a month.
They made this video to support their launch and I absolutley love it. It delivers all the necessary information in a very funny way and states the point loud and clear: stop spending tons of money on brand name blades when you don’t need to.
This video has been up for less than a day and is already going viral, which is great for their business! I also love their tagline: “Shave time, Shave Money”. Simple and clever.
But they managed to make a huge mistake… they cheaped out on the hosting of their website, and in fact, their website has been down for several hours already, not allowing people to visit it and purchase their product!
While SuperBowl ads are still the topic of discussion in the ad industry, I thought I’d share another one of my favourite that didn’t actually make it to the SuperBowl.
Doritos runs a yearly competition for their fans called “Crash the SuperBowl” that has fans themselves creating ads for the Doritos brand, and then the top two ads voted on by fans actually get to air during the SuperBowl. The contest voting took place from USA Today and on Facebook. Winner of each got a 1 million dollar prize, and a chance to work with the Lonely Island, while second place took home $600 000 and third place took $400 000.
The ad above was not one of the top two that won, but I believe it deserved to be. The theme “Bird of Prey” had me rolling in laughter and the production quality is amazing. Doritos commercials are known to be out of ordinary and extreme and this fit that picture perfectly. What I loved most is how Doritos put the work in their consumer’s hands. As mentioned in previous posts, the consumer knows your product and brand best. This also saves the brand tons of money hiring an agency to do all the work which sadly at times is more painful then it sounds.
WIthout a game, men prey on each other, so it was nice that no agencies were involved in this one.
So the big day was yesterday and although here in Canada we don’t get to see the ads that everyone speaks of LIVE, they’re thankfully very easily accessible the next day.
For those who still haven’t seen any (or like me all), I’ve created my first annual “SuperBowl Report Card” with some categories I think are important, with some brief comments on why I think they were successful. Feedback and discussion are always appreciated :)
1. Best AD selling the product
The tagline says it all; “Daylight, now in a headlight”. Selling a single feature of a car is way harder then selling the whole car itself, but Audi and their agency Venables, Bell & Partner really nailed this ad by incorporating the “Vampire Craze” and adding humour to sell this feature. No matter if you like vampires or not, you walked away from watching that ad knowing that the new Audi has bright headlights.
2. Best music collaboration in an AD
I really liked this ad because the music was very perfect for it. The collaboration done with the band OK GO is a very neat choice, but I believe the agency Goodby , Silverstein and Partners chose it because it relates to a younger audience. It takes you through several “firsts” for the new Chevy Sonic that are quite unusual for a car such as; first skydive, first kick flip, first music video and first bungee jump. The ad’s target is very clear, its for those consumers who are ready for their first car, or their first brand new car. The main point is that we are young, there are plenty of “firsts” left in our life, and like the tagline describes “from the first time, to the time of your life” Chevy will be there with you.
3. Best use of humour in an AD
This ad was simply hilarious. The agency (Consumer-Generated) almost made it uncomfortable to watch as you quickly realize things are only getting worst for this young grad as he doesn’t realize the car is not his. I think the ad did well because the actor did his part perfectly; he acted like a clueless young male who had no idea what was going on and took the situation the complete wrong way, adding in typical lines like “status update!”. The ending is priceless and you realize his concern and disappointment all through his voice.
4. Best use of a Celebrity in an AD
To match last year’s ad with Eminem, Chrysler and Wieden & Kennedy come back with another emotional and inspirational ad for Detroit, this time using Clint Eastwood. I really like the big idea behind this ad and the message of “Its Halftime America”. With all the recent recessions and Occupy movements, I can only imagine the average American’s scare of the economic status of the United States. Chrysler tries once again to motivate Americans and show them that the future is bright. That the city of Detroit, the motor city is once again rising… and what better way to say it than from Clint Eastwood’s raspy, old, badass voice. He gives Morgan Freeman a run for his money.
5. Best emotional AD
Finally something other than a car brand! Budweiser Canada and Anomaly re-invent the popular flash mob for a pair of men’s league hockey teams. They show how a simple act and gesture can create a memorable experience for a lifetime. Whether you like hockey or not, you walk away from this ad imagining yourself in their position and what it must of felt like.
Coca-Cola and Wieden & Kennedy ran a “Polar Bowl” during the game which saw two polar bears, one cheering for the Patriots and one for the Giants while they watched the game, the commercials and the half-time show all in real time over the internet. The bears walked away during a Pepsi ad, danced along with Madonna, and celebrated when their teams scored. This campaign was an obvious success, but with an interactive campaign, the results speak for themselves: 32,000 people RSVP’d which was 15x the goal, 300,000 users logged on to see the bears already by the pre-game show which forced Coca-Cola to add 9 more servers to support the demand, the @CocaCola Twitter handle which the bears used to tweet with fans during the game saw a 12.5% increase of followers in the US before the game even started, and by the end of the game more than 600,000 people had logged on to check the Polar Bowl out. What an easy way to use the iconic polar bears of Coca Cola and engage their fans and consumers!
That’s it for this SuperBowl! There are other ads which were featured in the Super Bowl that I will individually evaluate this week and perhaps even a short “Worst Ads” list.
To follow up on my last post on the use of Star Wars, here is the leak of VW’s sequel to last year’s Darth Vader kid that will be appearing during Super Bowl!
I personally love it! The dog is great in it and I believe the ad sells the new Beatle very well. Its tagline “Back and better than ever” is a play on the Star Wars “The Empire Strikes Back” making this commercial “The Dog Strikes Back”.
The added Star Wars humour at the end is a nice touch as well.
Superbowl Sunday is the Oscars for TV Advertising.
Although subjective since no awards are handed out, and the requirement of making air time on Superbowl is paying a lot of money, I still believe that this is where brands shine to consumers since they have a reputation of remembering them.
This week was exciting as Advertising Week was held in Toronto where plenty of discussion, workshops and awards were given involving Canada’s best. Tuesday night I helped organize a speaker night at the University of Guelph involving Ryan Timms, VP Group Account Director at MacLaren McCann. A question was raised regarding what he believes are current trends in the industry.
He provided great answers with several key examples, but his last thought stuck the most. He said “Star Wars will always be the shit”.
This made everyone laugh but oddly enough its very true. Last year’s Super Bowl hit was Volkswagen’s “The Force” showing a kid dressed as Darth Vader (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R55e-uHQna0) who struggles to use his force until his dad helps him out by turning his car on with a auto-starter. The ad won several awards and was recognized as one of the best ads of 2011 in numerous ceremonies.
This year, VW and their agency Lowe try to do it again by bringing “The Bark Side”, a teaser to next weekend’s Super Bowl. I think this ad is great for several reasons but I’ll narrow it down to why I did like it and why I didn’t.
1. Successful in grabbing your attention
Right from the start I was a bit confused as to why there was a bunch of dogs barking, but soon enough they started to sound in sync and in a matter of seconds I recognized it was the famous Star Wars theme song. I soon realized that the dogs actually resembled the characters from the movie, and from there on I could only laugh and enjoy it.
2. Not successful in selling the product
This ad does not sell me a VW, in fact, until the end of the spot, I had no idea it was for VW. But before I’m too quick to judge, it does tell us that something is coming back on Feb 5th, the date of Super Bowl, so I’m looking forward to seeing what this is. Will they use another Star Wars reference? Will they bring back little Darth from last year? One thing is for sure, I’ll be watching to find out.
Its amazing how a single movie after all these years still creates so much buzz. Its great because it can be manipulated and used in several different situations, and people still understand its a Star Wars reference. Brisk for example is also trying the Star Wars trick (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwabxgoSGZY), but quite frankly, I think they failed, so can’t say it always works. Another one is XBOX Kinect (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cb8-520zEhc) in this Darth vs Obi (Chris Pratt from Parks and Rec) and they in my opinion succeded as well. Take precaution when deciding Star Wars, but clearly its proven it works.
For those who aren’t sure:
Left to right, top row: C3P0, Obi-Wan, Jabba
Middle row: R2D2, Han Solo, Chewbacca, and Vader.
Bottom row: Leia, Luke, Yoda, Ewok.
“The fear of loss, is a path to the Dark Side”- Yoda
One of the easiest ways to stand out to someone you’re looking to impress is with a unique business card.
I may be bias because I am in the marketing and advertising industry, and its worked for me, but regardless I stand by my point.
A plain card with your name and information will give you plain results. Upon giving it to somebody, it will either be lost in their pockets and turn up when they’re doing laundry, thrown out in the garbage, or if you’re lucky end up in the rolodex with all the other cards.
As an experience hungry student I wanted to find a way to make a huge impression, even if I completely blew my meeting with them. I created a simple idea and printed my own business cards that to this day employers love when they see ( found here: http://www.behance.net/gallery/My-Personally-Designed-Business-Card/1240739). I was quickly remembered just because I chose to be different.
This week’s review comes from November of 2011 that agency Art&C did from Brazil for the company Ginga Films.
They created a traditional flipbook that showed a hand writing down the personal information and used the last card of the book as the physical business card if the person receiving it wanted just the card.
I think this idea was great because of one thing.
A business card should reflect both your personality as well as what your work entails and this example proved to do both. Is there any other better way to show someone that you work for a film company than to give them a little animated flipbook as a business card? I personally don’t think so.
It’s not hard being the patch of yellow in the field of black… you just have to show you are.
