intel’s digital video face-off

My old art director partner from my days in New York was kind of a technology dork.

In many ways, I think that art directors have to be technology dorks…at least if they want to be good (which is similar to how copywriters, if they want to be good, need to read everything they can get their hands on). He is pretty good. Which is why, when I asked him to check out this site that Intel did for their new processor, with the crying-out-for-a-copywriter name Intel Core i7 Processor Extreme Edition, I guess that I wasn’t surprised that he thought it was pretty cool.

I didn’t really get it.

And thought that it was slow to get to the point.

But I am also not the target and too much technology talk bores me. He countered by saying that it was cool, in a Iron Chef sort of way, to see the hook, which was a 70 minute digital animation battle between two creative types on computers using the new processor and some mega-high-powered Adobe software that could eventually, if it falls into terrorist hands, turn the whole world into a scene from TRON.

Created by a company called Ignite Social Media, this is just the sort of targeted content that seems to grab the interest of those in the narrow consumer base.

And that is cool because, well, there are only so many people who will ever need, let alone buy, the products that are being shilled.

Also, because it sort of always comes back to me, I like any site that has a section specifically set up for bloggers.

It makes me think that these guys get it.

it doesn’t have to be a tv spot to win an emmy

The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences has officially entered the modern world…they have recognized that advertising doesn’t just exist on TV. Bottoms up to that. Or, seriously, bottoms up to whatever happens to be happening at the moment because it’s Advertising Week here in New York and everyone’s already drunk so why not celebrate DDB/Chicago’s Emmy win?

Exactly, let’s celebrate away, and not just because it’s a good ad:

Let’s celebrate because it’s nice to know that a spot doesn’t have to air on something as passe as television to bring home an award for sweet, advertising-y goodness.

That’s right, the “Swear Jar” spot has never once aired on television, not even after more than 12 million film views.

Is it Emmy worthy?

In many ways that is debatable…I mean, creating ads to sell something like beer, which is all about fun and image and occasionally taste, is considerably easier than selling your classic parity product. Sometimes you wish that there was a degree of difficulty score multiplier at these award shoes to recognize the truly great work, the work on tough products, difficult brands and with challenging clients.

But there isn’t. So at least it’s good to know that they’re not restricting awards to simple TV spots anymore.

video games, hot chicks & draft/fcb

I’m not much of a gamer…I don’t even own a gaming system, though at times I have considered buying an old Nintendo off of eBay. I never had a Nintendo as a kid and figure that if I am going to start as may as well start where everyone else did and slowly move myself up through the Sega Genesis to N64, Playstation and then to Xbox 360 or Wii or something.

Or I could get a girlfriend.

Boom.

At any rate, when I came across DraftFCB’s new spot for EA’s Red Alert 3 I had to keep my lack of gaming knowledge in mind. Because I hadn’t the slightest idea of what the fuck was going on in the spot:

And then, unlike the Bob Garfield’s of the world who would have used his lack of understanding of this ad as an excuse to decry sexism or racism or stupidism or whateverism with the usual pompous prose and over-long column, I did some research into the game itself.

It did not make me change my mind about not being a gamer.

It did make me change my mind about the ad.

The whole music video-based trailer remix idea isn’t totally original, but it’s hard to ding DraftFCB for that…I mean, most ads follow a similar convention with the difference coming in a better idea of how to express the brand within said convention.

And I am inclined to like how they take advantage of this convention because, based on what I have learned about this game, the celebrities featured represent characters in the game saying phrases that someone who has already played the game would be familiar with. The music is apparently from the original game as well. And they threw in some scenes of the game being played for good measure.

Though, based on my ill-informed stereotypes, I imagine that the gamer-azzi who have played the first two versions of the game will march like lemmings to the store to purchase this third version and don’t need advertising to help them on their way, I imagine that this ad does a good job of getting them excited for its release…especially with the cues it takes from the original version. Sort of an insider wink at those who have been there from the beginning.

And people love insider winks. It makes them feel like they’re part of a group, which is even more intoxicating a feeling than heroin.

Or so I hear.

Also, I like the celebrity babe cameos (looking at you Jenny McCarthy and Kelly Hu!) because for those of us non-gamers out there who would otherwise be confused by this ad, we are instead distracted by all the smokin’ hot babes and the driving techno beat.

In the end it’s a pretty fun, interesting in an unchallenging kind of way, gets the current base of consumers excited for the game launch kind of spot that does what it’s supposed to do.

While also featuring hot babes.

Which makes it a winner in my book.

the baddest ass price spot i’ve ever seen

It’s a strange time…most economic indicators are solid, including GDP growth and a low unemployment rate, yet we’re in the middle of a mark-to-market regulation-caused investment bank meltdown, the media has been running the storyline of recession for almost a year and consumer confidence is low.

Everyone is expecting the worst.

So how do you sell stuff, especially luxury items and stuff that people don’t need, in an environment like this, an environment where people are retrenching and watching what they spend?

Harley-Davidson, whose motorcycles are primarily indulgence purchases by middle aged white dudes if my anecdotal evidence can be trusted, has a new spot out that shows how to sell value in a tough economy…and how to do it creatively, thanks to agency Carmichael Lynch:

It certainly fits the renegade feel of the brand and is the sort of spot that, should you be the type of person into thrash metal, powerlifting and other testosterone-overdrive activities, you might pass on (or at least tell your friends about)…yet the whole concept is based around a value proposition and the end line, the strangely powerful “less than $18 per pound” talks pure price.

When was the last time a price spot made an emotional connection with the target?

obama’s secret (marketing) weapon

I ripped on the Obama campaign’s laughably backfiring attempt at an attack ad on John McCain a few days back, but in the spirit of advertising-focused non-partisanship that characterizes this blog, I did want to bring up a potential marketing masterstroke that could save the faltering Obama from defeat.

The masterstroke?

That much-maligned 3am text message to announce Joe Biden as his vice presidential pick.

Though the McCain bounce may prove to be a convention-fired and Palin-powered temporary boost, should the race stay as tight as it currently is up to election day that text message could come in handy…because Obama has one heck of a database of likely voters that it can reach out to via text message of phone call.

Oh, and the database is already sorted by area code. So the Obama campaign can send out get out the vote messages targeted by district that could boost turnout on election day.

And in a tight race, that could be critical.

notre dame & the point of advertising colleges

I was watching Michigan literally hand Notre Dame victory on Saturday afternoon (and a quick note: a pet peeve of mine is the misuse of the term “literally.” It actually means what it seems like it means so when you say something like “she is literally crazy” she better be in a mental institute otherwise you have grievously misused the term and made me upset…so when I say that Michigan literally handed Notre Dame victory I actually mean it, referencing the six turnovers the Wolverines made during the game. Language rant over)…to be fair, I watched a a lot of college football games last Saturday, but while watching the Notre Dame game I came across a college commercial that I liked.

And I usually don’t like them.

My main reason for not liking the average college commercial is the utter lack of strategy behind the execution. These spots generally have clue what they are trying to do, mainly, I would guess, because they misunderstand who their audience is.

The average college spot has soft-focus shots of the beautifully-maintained campus, pans of an exceptionally diverse student body attentive in class and laughing as they enjoy college life, and maybe a voiceover that talks about how the school is more than just the football team. It’s a video version of the college brochure…a good example is this spot for Stanford:

So not only is it bad, unoriginal creative, but they are running it before a college football audience that is overwhelmingly not in the market for college, selling the school to people who simply will not attend. What a waste.

There are two strategies that seem to make sense:

1. Pump up your alumni and friends of the school. I was watching Notre Dame in a room full of Domers. We were heading out later to watch USC with friends from Los Angeles. The bars were full of alumni of Oklahoma, Rutgers, Boston College and the like who were there watching the schools they went to.

Talk to them.

Get them all fired up.

Have, as an objective, an increase in donations from alumni, especially younger alumni who traditionally don’t give as much.

2. Especially if you are a higher-profile school, sell yourself to a larger audience…don’t target students with a brochure-like ad, but rather take the opportunity to build an emotional connection with people beyond the football team.

Tell a story that makes people know the school for more than its BCS standing.

Like Notre Dame did:

This spot, and the whole campaign, tells a story. It shows how the university is making a difference in the world. It makes the school about more than a football program and well-kept old buildings. It gives people something to believe in beyond the next game.

It makes Notre Dame serious. It makes Notre Dame about far more than football.

And I love the “what are you fighting for?” line that ties in to the Fighting Irish nickname as something that represents everyone at the school, and something that represents what the school stands for.

lego builds some good print ads

I like copy. I like copy a whole heck of a lot, and not just because of its professional implications in my life…but most of all, and I don’t care how hacky and “look at me answering questions on my first interview at an ad agency” it sounds, but I like good ideas more than anything specifically copy or art driven. And ideally, I like good ideas simply executed.

Like this oldie-but-a-goodie campaign from Lego:

It fits the brand perfectly. It brings to life the product memorably. And it does so without any tricks or complicated devices or reliance on production.

It just works.

gsd&m’s rough week and new popeye’s work

Last week was a tough one for GSD&M what with that whole internal espionage thing and the rumors that they were on the outs with client BMW.

I still think that things with BMW aren’t likely to end well for the folks in Texas.

The first issue is the work, which can only be described as uninspired. Sure, not everything that Fallon did for the brand was as good as the BMW Films or as ads like this:

But the work was good. GSD&M’s hasn’t been.

Beyond the work and the creative espionage situation, there has been turmoil on the account with Lee Newman, the VP/Group Account Director who had been brought in from McKinney to land the business, heading out for Weiden + Kennedy Amsterdam earlier this year. Oh, and that good work that I referenced that came out of Fallon? Yeah…Lee was the driving force behind it from the account side.

And now he’s gone.

But it’s not all bad down at GSD&M…they’ve debuted their first work for Popeyes, an account that they recently landed. So that’s good.

GSD&M has brought the brand back to the Southern roots with a “Louisiana Kitchen” slogan and are talking a lot about their quality (ho-hum) and process (relatively interesting, as far as these things go). Advertising for fast food brands is notoriously uncreative, but considering the limitations of the category and the difficulty working with franchisees who aren’t professionals and who want to use advertising to drive short-term sales, I think that GSD&M has done a good job:

investment advice from carmichael lynch

I was watching the X Games back when they were actually on (for no other reason than that they were on television which happens sometimes, okay) and saw an ad for Subaru that had as good a line as I have seen in a while:

Sure the ad looks like it was cobbled together from some running footage, but it’s hard to ding them for it because I understand how budgets can be tight and you have to make do with what you have. And boy did Carmichael Lynch with a spot that not only looks like it had a concept from the beginning (even though, again, it is clearly only track footage) but hits hard with the payoff line.

Buy stock in rubber.

Boom.

I know that I can be hard on car advertising (and that car advertising can be hard on me…let’s be honest, a great deal of it is total crap), but when good work is done, good work is done. Enough said.

storytelling billboard style

I was poking through award books yesterday, thinking to myself that there is a formula for ads that win awards…that there is a specific style and tone that always seems to do well when award season comes around. Not that there is anything wrong with that, of course, but only if, and I channel Alan Wolk here, your target isan upscale urban 30something white male hipster.

If that is your target then your award-winning ad is sure to be as effective as it is creative.

If that is not your target then perhaps the advertising is as self-serving as it is unoriginally templated to the One Show format.

I say all of this not because I don’t like the ads in the award books. I do (though, of course, I am an urban 20something white male hipster). It’s just that if an ad doesn’t hit the highlight points that please the One Show judges, it’s it isn’t the very specific type of creative that catches their eye, it’s just not going to win. Even if it is dripping with creativity beyond cool visuals and a wearily post-modern headline.

Like this outdoor campaign I came across at Drew MeLellan’s blog:

Agency Crowley Webb bought a single billboard location and ran this series of ads, a new one put up every week on the Monday, for the Irish pub Garcia’s.

The first cardinal sin of this campaign (besides being of 1989 vintage), is that it is local advertising…in Buffalo. That’s not even Manhattan. Strike one.

The second cardinal sin is one of composition – there is nothing short, punchy, pithy or oh-so-clever about the headlines, there is no compelling visual or product shot and the brand name (!) is in the headline copy. Not sexy. Strike two.

Finally, the campaign was done by a small agency…agencies like that, the ones that don’t have the budget to wine and dine the trades, that ones that the award show judges don’t care about because “they would never work there,” the ones that don’t enter every award show with thousands of entries because they can’t afford the fees and don’t have the scale anyway, agencies like that don’t often sweep the coveted creative awards shows. Strike three.

Sure, it won an Obie award.

(crickets)

Enough railing against the awards shows, the point of the post is to call out a great campaign…the creative thinking behind this, of how to use OOH, how to tell a story in a static environment and how to wrap consumers up Garcia’s is all top drawer.

Who cares if it didn’t win with the hipster judging set?