I went to an art show last night where I encountered a less-than-professional young professional. From an event attendee and fellow young professional, here are my tips for yp's that are attending their own events:
1. Don't drink, especially if there's an open bar. A glass of wine usually leads to a second, and a third, and before you know it you're no longer running your event, you're at your own party.
2. Let your fellow event hosts know ahead of time that they will be asked to give a short speech. Don't throw them in front of a crowd unprepared. It creates an awkward experience for everyone.
3. Don't interrupt a speech to interject your own ideas. Especially if you're going to make statements that are offensive to the attendees. This connects to the first tip: don't drink.
Remember that you're not only representing your organization, you're also representing yourself. Any small blunder may seem harmless at the time, but is likely to leave a sour taste in your event attendee's mouths that may come in to play at a later point.
Saturday, April 09, 2011
Friday, April 01, 2011
Chobani v. FAGE: The Greek Yogurt Advertising Battle
It seems like there is now a yogurt out there for everything. Yogurt that cuts calories for those that want to be fit, yogurt for those with digestive issues, yogurt for those that crave sweets, and now the original Greek yogurt seems to be going main stream. Recently, commercials for both FAGE and Chobani Greek yogurt have been airing in the battle for brand awareness and consumer sales.
The FAGE commercial without sound is beautiful. The white oceans and flowers blending with color are gorgeous. I’ll ignore the fact that it makes the yogurt look extremely watery and milk-like because the visual concept of this commercial is fantastic. What drives me nuts about this commercial is the copy. There’s a comment on the YouTube video that says it best: “This sounds like Dr. Seuess was craving yogurt.” I can plainly say that rhyming is just plain lame, especially when the rhymes don’t sound the same. (See what I did there?) Nothing about the copy in this commercial makes me think, “Hm, I want to try that!” In all honesty, when I went to write this post I couldn’t even remember the brand name to look up the commercial. Oops.
The Chobani commercial is fairly plain (no FAGE pun intended). Quick spots that have a Chobani fan telling a story about their favorite yogurt. One tells the tale of an Angela look-a-like that hides her yogurt in the drawer at work to deter hungry coworkers. The other shows an early morning adventure of a man on a mission to see the plant where his favorite yogurt is made. There’s nothing overly creative or stimulating about these spots. The ability to relate to the people in these spots (I, too, work in an office where coworkers are not afraid to snatch an unmarked snack from the fridge) and the repetition of the brand name is what makes these spots work.
So how am I judging the overall winner of this battle? Not really by my advertising-side opinion, but rather my personal consumer experience. I had actually never heard of Chobani before I saw the commercial. After hearing these silly stories over and over I became curious. I now eat Chobani every day and I look forward to it! This is not to say Chobani is the better yogurt. FAGE may very well taste better or may even be better for me, but nothing about their spot makes me want to find out.
The FAGE commercial without sound is beautiful. The white oceans and flowers blending with color are gorgeous. I’ll ignore the fact that it makes the yogurt look extremely watery and milk-like because the visual concept of this commercial is fantastic. What drives me nuts about this commercial is the copy. There’s a comment on the YouTube video that says it best: “This sounds like Dr. Seuess was craving yogurt.” I can plainly say that rhyming is just plain lame, especially when the rhymes don’t sound the same. (See what I did there?) Nothing about the copy in this commercial makes me think, “Hm, I want to try that!” In all honesty, when I went to write this post I couldn’t even remember the brand name to look up the commercial. Oops.
The Chobani commercial is fairly plain (no FAGE pun intended). Quick spots that have a Chobani fan telling a story about their favorite yogurt. One tells the tale of an Angela look-a-like that hides her yogurt in the drawer at work to deter hungry coworkers. The other shows an early morning adventure of a man on a mission to see the plant where his favorite yogurt is made. There’s nothing overly creative or stimulating about these spots. The ability to relate to the people in these spots (I, too, work in an office where coworkers are not afraid to snatch an unmarked snack from the fridge) and the repetition of the brand name is what makes these spots work.
So how am I judging the overall winner of this battle? Not really by my advertising-side opinion, but rather my personal consumer experience. I had actually never heard of Chobani before I saw the commercial. After hearing these silly stories over and over I became curious. I now eat Chobani every day and I look forward to it! This is not to say Chobani is the better yogurt. FAGE may very well taste better or may even be better for me, but nothing about their spot makes me want to find out.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
I know, I know...
I've fallen way behind on the blog posts! But who can blame me? The weather has been beautiful (minus today) and since the start of daylight savings time I'm able to run outside after work instead of going on the treadmill. I can't resist! Plus, I have a lot of big announcements to share, but they will have to wait a while. New advertising posts coming soon. I promise.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
MyTouch Doesn't.
I was going to do a post about some print ads today (The Good, The Bad, and The One That Makes Me Giggle), but with the announcement that the iPhone 4G is finally coming to Verizon on February 10th, I thought it was fitting to gripe about another less-than-wonderful television commercial. In this case it's not just the commercial, it's the whole campaign.
Back in April 2009 I blogged about the Microsoft ads that were the answer to the Mac v. PC campaign. For me, the Microsoft campaign just did not match up to its competition. Now T-Mobile is stepping up against AT&T and the iPhone to advertise their MyTouch 4G.
I will start by saying this: PLEASE get your own idea. This whole "Hi, I'm this. "Hi, I'm this." is turning into, "Hi, I'm *insert brand* and my marketers aren't creative enough to come up with their own original idea for a commercial!" Beyond the lack-of-creativity in this campaign comes a lack of good strategy. The big push seems to be based on the fact that an iPhone needs WIFI to make video-chatting possible and a MyTouch does not. Neat. Except the last time I checked most people weren't lining up to buy an iPhone because it has video chat. The iPhone boom started long before the video chat option came along and clearly isn't the biggest selling point of the iPhone.
Nothing really compares to the iPhone. What T-Mobile needs to do is create a campaign that shows the features of the MyTouch without trying to make it "better" than xyz. When the Droid was first released an entire "Droid Does" campaign was launched. Rather than talking about how the same features available on both phones were better on the Droid, it pointed out the features that "Droid Does" that iPhone doesn't. Sure it still dissed the iPhone, but it left viewers with a taste of the capabilities available with the Droid instead of a picture of a less-cool-wannabe-iPhone.
More than one T-Mobile spot points out the video chat feature and the carrier network. Apparently T-Mobile feels strongly that AT&T is bogging down its customers with its super-slow network. There has been a lot of complaints about AT&T service, but Apple fans have a level of brand loyalty like no other. Have you met a non-AT&T customer that gave up their iPhone for a different phone to switch to better service? There's not many out there. Wait, what's that? Enter stage left: Verizon. Another network option for the same phone. Time for a new marketing strategy, T-Mobile.
Back in April 2009 I blogged about the Microsoft ads that were the answer to the Mac v. PC campaign. For me, the Microsoft campaign just did not match up to its competition. Now T-Mobile is stepping up against AT&T and the iPhone to advertise their MyTouch 4G.
I will start by saying this: PLEASE get your own idea. This whole "Hi, I'm this. "Hi, I'm this." is turning into, "Hi, I'm *insert brand* and my marketers aren't creative enough to come up with their own original idea for a commercial!" Beyond the lack-of-creativity in this campaign comes a lack of good strategy. The big push seems to be based on the fact that an iPhone needs WIFI to make video-chatting possible and a MyTouch does not. Neat. Except the last time I checked most people weren't lining up to buy an iPhone because it has video chat. The iPhone boom started long before the video chat option came along and clearly isn't the biggest selling point of the iPhone.
Nothing really compares to the iPhone. What T-Mobile needs to do is create a campaign that shows the features of the MyTouch without trying to make it "better" than xyz. When the Droid was first released an entire "Droid Does" campaign was launched. Rather than talking about how the same features available on both phones were better on the Droid, it pointed out the features that "Droid Does" that iPhone doesn't. Sure it still dissed the iPhone, but it left viewers with a taste of the capabilities available with the Droid instead of a picture of a less-cool-wannabe-iPhone.
More than one T-Mobile spot points out the video chat feature and the carrier network. Apparently T-Mobile feels strongly that AT&T is bogging down its customers with its super-slow network. There has been a lot of complaints about AT&T service, but Apple fans have a level of brand loyalty like no other. Have you met a non-AT&T customer that gave up their iPhone for a different phone to switch to better service? There's not many out there. Wait, what's that? Enter stage left: Verizon. Another network option for the same phone. Time for a new marketing strategy, T-Mobile.
Tuesday, January 04, 2011
New Year. New Writing. New Advertising Thoughts.
Happy 2011! Almost a year later I've returned to my AdGab blog to write about my favorite and least favorite advertisements. I've been busy the past year working for a local television affiliate and learning a lot about the behind-the-scenes aspects of television advertising. A great perk of my job is getting to watch TV all day - yes, I got to see the 2010 Winter Olympics live, Regis and Kelly every day, and I won't even have to take off of work to watch Prince Williams wed. On top of all that greatness, my coworker (shout out to Justine!) and I get to pick apart the commercials that we can't stand. The number one winner for 2010 was Tide Acti-Lift.
Observe.
1) The shot of the mother and her friends walking into the club is reminiscent of a shot in the opener of season one of The Hills. Yes, let me screen-split it to show the full ridiculousness. (Also note the outfits her friends are wearing.)
2) Why is the mother and her friends at a club? Do mothers of teens relate to this? I'm curious, please let me know if you are a mother of a teenager and still go to clubs with your friends.
3) Is that Nate's Taco Truck at the club? Okay that's irrelevant and only understood by VCU students/alum.
4) The fine print at :20 says "Dramatization: Dry roasted pepper olive oil stain on 100% cotton." So no, it's not even taco grease and buyers will be disappointed.
5) Out of all the clothes her daughter has, she chose to borrow that ugly green shirt.
In all seriousness. WHO were they trying to target? Single mothers in mid-life crisis? Okay, I get it. Instead of the mom doing laundry to clean her kid's and husband's stains out of their clothes it's her cleaning a stain out of the shirt she stole from her daughter for a fun girls night out. Yes, mothers have lives other than laundry and housework, but I really hope "The Secret Life of the American Mother" isn't her stealing her daughter's clothes to go out on the town clubbing.
Okay mothers of kids and teenagers, what activity and spill do YOU think would have made more sense for this commercial? Hopefully this is out of rotation for 2011.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
The Martin Agency wins US Agency of 2009
Congratulations to Richmond, Virginia's The Martin Agency for winning US Agency of 2009! Check out the article from AdWeek here.
Monday, December 07, 2009
Merry Christmas Ads
Here are just some of the holiday ad's I've really been enjoying this holiday season.
WalMart Thanks Our Troops
I have to admit that when I first saw this ad it made me a little emotional. My heart always breaks a little for all the kids that are living with a parent stationed overseas and that goes double for the holidays. However, over the past few years I have seen some ads that seem to exploit this fact by creating ads based around this idea that are fairly insensitive. I think The Martin Agency did a great job with this ad. It's tastefully done and pulls on my heart strings every time I see it.
Target: Made by Elves
In all honesty, this commercial just makes me laugh. That's all there is to it. A big improvement from their horrible Black Friday commercials.
Verizon: Misfit Toys
I have been really enjoying Verizon's new commercials that go up against AT&T (more on that another time). My friend Jessica passed along this one to me after I Twittered about another Verizon ad. It's an amusing commercial that takes a great spin on those creepy animated children's holiday "classic" specials.
Which holiday ads do you like this year?
WalMart Thanks Our Troops
I have to admit that when I first saw this ad it made me a little emotional. My heart always breaks a little for all the kids that are living with a parent stationed overseas and that goes double for the holidays. However, over the past few years I have seen some ads that seem to exploit this fact by creating ads based around this idea that are fairly insensitive. I think The Martin Agency did a great job with this ad. It's tastefully done and pulls on my heart strings every time I see it.
Target: Made by Elves
In all honesty, this commercial just makes me laugh. That's all there is to it. A big improvement from their horrible Black Friday commercials.
Verizon: Misfit Toys
I have been really enjoying Verizon's new commercials that go up against AT&T (more on that another time). My friend Jessica passed along this one to me after I Twittered about another Verizon ad. It's an amusing commercial that takes a great spin on those creepy animated children's holiday "classic" specials.
Which holiday ads do you like this year?
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