The Extinction of Badvertising – Part III : The Transporters

 

cab ads

 

I’ve been meaning to write this article for a long, long time. When it comes to transportation in Shanghai, what options do we really have?

 

x Walk. I love walking, but it’s not always the fastest way to go from A to B, especially if you are unfortunate enough to go to Pudong.

x Bike. Have you seen my logo? Do I look like a bicycle person ? Not really, and frankly the way people drive around here does not make me want to become one.

x Scooter/Motorbike. As much as I enjoy the fact that nobody will arrest you if you’re not wearing a hammer, it’s not safe for anyone. I do love Vespas though, so I might think about it.

x Bus. It might come as a shocker, but I took the bus several times in Shanghai. At night when it’s empty it’s not so bad if you don’t miss your station.

x Subway. I don’t even know where is the nearest station from where I live.

x Cab. Probably the most used transport way, as most of us lazy foreigners don’t own a car here.

 

There come the Taxi Ads. I believe one day, a Madman took a cab and thought :

 

“Wow, look at how many people use cabs everyday..If we could find a way to exploit it…Eureka! Let’s put video screens in cabs. People will have no choice but watch it. Let’s make the turn off button very, very small and inconvenient. Hm, no actually, let’s take it off. Brilliant!”

 

Intrusive? I admit I have touched the screen a couple times when stuck in traffic ;  my ipod was out of battery and none of my friends would answer their phones – bored, yes. But I was even more bored after I discovered most games or videos are not very entertaining – it’s all about product review and flat description. Cool…

 

But it must work obviously, because I also have very clear images in my mind of Josh Hartnett for the latest Armani perfume and I’m glad to know Barbie gives cooking class. So I would say this is effective for a brand/product awareness.

 

Wait. What kind of awareness ? This kind of branding might be sticky for sure, but does it give a good, positive feeling? If I’d be spending between 120 000 rmb-250 000 rmb/month for running my little video in 1000 cabs, I’d appreciate some sympathy.

 

My point : when advertising is ready switch to an inclusive – not seclusive, marketing, and move from “me me me” to “you” and “us”, then maybe we’ll have some real experience and won’t feel like white mouses under some experiment.

Until then, when I take a cab, first thing I do is switch off the screen – or turn off the sound.

 

Related articles

City to silence taxi video ads

Annoying Taxi Ads on the Move?

October 10, 2009 | BuzzandtheCity | Tags: , , , , , | 2 Comments »

The Extinction of Badvertising – Part II : The Sadistics

Catwoman-batman-villains-1421046-1024-753

 

Two days after I attended the painful conference, I was invited to a dinner hosted in a well-known club of Shanghai. For some reasons, a friend invited me to join and taste some scotch. More accurately, the scotch brand was pampering a bunch of people for some allegedly engaging experience with whisky. I’m a wine-champagne person, but the epicurean side of me always goes for new tastes.Curiosity kills the cat, they say..

 
After a nice chat in the lounge warmed up by some straight up scotch served in martini glasses, we were cordially invited to another lounge where a couple tables were waiting for us. On the tables was something highly disturbing, and I’m not talking about the whisky – although it can surely disturbs some of your senses : I am talking about wireless headphones…
 
I would have liked to escape, really. Sometimes freedom is more valuable than politeness. But as a loyal friend, I sat down and put the headphones on my ears.
 

Picture this : you are sitting at a table watching a screen where a logo revolves while a Chinese advertising voice is bribing again and again in your ears about the excellent whisky you are supposedly tasting. Next to the screen, the “brand ambassador” is giving the good example wearing headphones himself and lifting his glass with a very much inspired look on his face.

 
Very, very natural.
 
After that deep “immersion with the brand” cession, we were allowed to seat for dinner. Do I have to add that we couldn’t order anything else besides that whisky? oh, and water.
 
At that point my friend suggested “You should write about that : submissive advertising“. Right on.
 
I do not know if this kind of branding event really works. Maybe I am not the right target. Maybe you should do that only with people already familiar with your brand/product. I’m talking about the dinner, not the headphones. Never, I say never, do the headphones thing.
 
That made me think, if advertising is so sadistic sometimes – does that mean we are masochists?
 
The dinner ended and frankly, we couldn’t wait to go to the bar and order some non-whisky drink.
 
To be continued …
September 30, 2009 | BuzzandtheCity | Tags: , , , | 2 Comments »

The extinction of Badvertising – Part I : The Dinosaurs

The article is actually longer than I thought so I organised my reflexion into several parts – here is Part I : The Dinosaurs
bd
 
 

Once upon a time, dinosaurs were fooling around and eating alive all kinds of preys. They were big, fierce, almost invulnerable. Until they extinct.  Among the few extinction theories – asteroid collision, climate change, geomagnetic reversal, my favorite one is the least in which dinosaurs became too heavy to move and, unable to adapt, died from starvation.

 

This little dino story occured to me when I was attending a conference about online advertising. See any direct relation ? No? Well I wish I haven’t either but I did.

 

Now I know I write in a playful tone but it’s not funny. I had gone all the way through Shanghai to Pudong (in which I was lost on my way back to downtown), let my team struggle with an incalculate number of issues, made phone calls on the back of the cab for what? Hear a guy proudly introduce intrusive banners on a ppt.

“This kind of ad is very effective”

he declared, pushing a button to play a video in which a Chinese robot-like male voice proclaimed a slogan. The whole room listened religiously and some nodded. I don’t know how many of you actually listen to these kinds of video ads. Personally I hate any unsolicited noise coming from my screen – and I like to think I’m not the only one.

 

At first I thought he was joking. This is Shanghai 2009, come on! I was waiting for him to introduce other advertising models. To say, maybe, “Brands, here are also some other ways to engage with your audience“…He did not. And I’m talking about the head of a big advertising agency in China.

 

Does the dinosaurs allegory make sense now?

 

Some big advertising agencies are dinosaurs. The T-Rex and his pals were having a good time when they were eating out big budgets from big companies. But then, a magnetic pole reversal occured as new e-marketing practices came in the picture. Some dinos are too slow to move. Now there is a crisis big time out there (asteroid collision, climate change anyone?) and companies are more cautious, more demanding about their investment.

 

If advertising companies don’t reverse their own poles, they won’t adapt. And it will be, I predict! the extinction of Badvertising. Finally..

Meanwhile, small, light creatures companies able to keep on innovating are under the big brands radar and thus, surviving.

 

To be continued…

 

 

 

September 29, 2009 | BuzzandtheCity | Tags: , , | 5 Comments »

Advertising on Virtual Worlds

 

Happy October Holiday

Happy October Holiday

 
 
I just read an interesting article about advertising in virtual worlds on the Digital Marketing Inner Circle.
 
The article called “Innovative movie promotion on virtual worlds” introduces a general overview and a small case study for movies launch on 3-D singaporean environment Twinity – James Bond, Batman, The Spirit and Angels and Demons.
 
Virtual worlds are truly impressive both from a user and a marketer angle: the easthetics, the promise of an alternative reality, the integration of all kinds of media and interactive games…
 
But these platforms are really difficult to master. Just to customize an avatar, design and monitor a campaign requires a lot of time and people.You have to outsource to specialised companies and experts anyway.
 
 “Virtual worlds are a relatively new medium” article says, true, but I think it’s rather a relatively newly used medium.
 
3 years ago in my previous company in Europe we launched actions on Second Life for one of our magazine. SL was quite hot at that time  - politics were having their campaigns there and there even was cyberterrorism. We did our little experiment as we were trying a new toy and that was it.
 
Who should use virtual worlds for advertising ? In my opinion 2 kinds of people : firstly entertainment industry like media, music, movies and video games. And secondly the ones who want to create buzz and bring attention to their action – politics to show they’re cool and activists to generate PR.
 
I will only focus on how to use effectively this medium for the entertainment industry.
 
To begin, I don’t think regular release on virtual worlds is very relevant, even with features like buy items and engage fans in discussion. Interactive games is the very least you can do.
 
To quote the article introduction “The challenge of advertising in virtual worlds involves taking advantage of their unique features” This is rule # 1 : don’t just replicate what is done on other mediums aka make a magazine online or a traditionnal online advertising campaign on a virtual world with a little 3-D twist.
 
Take it to the next step.
 
To use effectively virtual worlds and its advantages here is what can be done in my opinion for those whose target is active on the medium.
 
x Create a teasing. Don’t just arrive on the world and paste your poster. This is what I call badvertising. Instead, start to give some hints. Create a relevant mystery, like angels and demons, but without naming yourself.
x Use influencers already active in the world or make sure you create yours sufficiently in advance. Two reasons : the complexity of these worlds make them difficult to master as I mentioned above and users on virtual worlds don’t easily trust newcomers (just like in forums)
x Spread your teasing, your buzz and engage more and more users without mentioning your brand/product at first. It’s better risk controlled if it doesn’t quite work out. Once the audience is fully engaged, then you subtly reveal the brand/product behind it.
x Reward immediately the people who engaged with you during the campaign. Give them something really valuable, not just an exclusive itw of Daniel Craig (he’s hot but who cares?). Give something in the real life (movie tickets, pass, free subscription, invitation to offline event..) to really bound with your audience
x Use viral and PR to leverage your action.
x Clean after you. Don’t just abandon all elements of the campaign behind if you must leave.
 
I’m really looking forward to see how this can be used in China where young people level of engagement with virtual is extremely high.
 
To be followed…
 
Sources
 
 
| BuzzandtheCity | Tags: , , , , , , , | No Comments »

The Social Media Love Theory

 

 

Social Media Love Theory by BuzzandtheCity

Social Media Love Theory by BuzzandtheCity

 

 

Last night in a beautiful sunday dusk, I shared a few martinis with a good friend of mine who was telling me how much in love he was with this girl.

The thing with people in love : they feel the need to justify and explain in details how much love they feel and why.This is just magic – even just to watch it happen.

And then as if he was a life-long researcher in medicine who just discovered a revolutionary cure, he started drawing on a napkin his newfound theory about love.

 

“This is two circles, he said while drawing. The one on the left is her, and this is me. These 2 circles represent our worlds. Then at the center, love is where our worlds meet.

This shared part is my world with her, and this one is her world with me. But most important is the part of our new world that has nothing to do with our current worlds and which is what we create and build together.”

 

Honestly I find this definition of love brilliant – romantic and analytic. The fact that my friend managed to define love between two people by using 3 circles wowed me.

 

Then here I am thinking about this love theory applied to brands interaction with consumers - yes, I’m a bit obsessed with work lately.

And I found this is exactly the mirror of what social media can do entertwined with a brand :

 

The ideal relationship between a brand and its consumers is a loving one. We must get rid of old school marketing archaism, where the engagement with the customer is a post-engagement, and move to an “inclusive marketing” in which there is a conversation rather than a monologue (full article from Customer Collective here )

 

I believe social media is the best way to re-create these love circles. To paraphrase my friend :

On one side, there is the users world. On the other side, the brand world. Then through social media (love) two worlds meet to share a part together in each other’s world. But moreover, social media will provide a whole new space belonging exclusively to both of them and thus creating the new “inclusive” experience.

 

My best wishes to my friend and his sweetheart xx

 

For more on Social Media, visit ZeroDegrees and SocialMediaToday

September 14, 2009 | BuzzandtheCity | Tags: , , , | 10 Comments »

Use Sex to sell? Overrated but it works…

moko

 

I found this article from French blogger Charles Carrard on SiMaosavait (If Mao only knew) on Asus campaign with Moko half naked models-wannabes. I find it a little odd (euphemism). Buying a computer is not exactly an impulsive purchase that can use the ”sex-sells” method even if that might work with other products.

 

Actually the campaign is encouraging young women to send their pictures to be one of the 12 star signs icon for Asus. The top 3 most photogenic models win a computer, the other 9 an Ipod shuffle.

 

Here is an excerpt of Charles article :

 

“Asus, the famous Eee PC fabricant associated with Moko – a website where photographs and models post their pictures to promote themselves, and Calvin Klein. The only problem of this campaign is that we wonder if it’s supposed to make us buy computers or CK underwears.”

 

I love his following comments on what is the message of the campaign :

- I’m hot (thank you Photoshop) because I own a Eee PC?

- For any Eee PC bought, a model is offered?

- Eee PC are so hot I need teeny tiny t-shirts and (not sexy) underwears?

 

I’m curious to know who came up with this idea…

 

Full article here in French with pictures speaking from themselves – I picked the most decent one.

September 9, 2009 | BuzzandtheCity | Tags: , , , | 11 Comments »
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