Month: November 2010

If you’re like me, you absolutely loveee Broadway shows. The amazing music, the acting, the show lights, the combination of all three – your heart seems to burst in to song. Well, at the ripe young age of 5, I witnessed my first broadway musical: Andrew Lloyd Weber’s production of CATS. Ohhhh boy, as I type this post, “Memories” is playing over and over in my head.

Anyways, as I was cruising the web, I came across some advertisements for this musical which brought a smile to my face. The Swedish Opera company “Goteborgs Operan” printed these posters to promote the broadway musical some years ago:

Now wait a minute, THOSE AREN’T CATS!

Exactly. This advertisement is truly ingenious in a number of ways. It utilizes the age-old dilemma of “Cats or Dogs”. Are you a “Cat” or a “Dog” Person? If prompted, I would respond “dog”- despite the fact that my name starts with “Cat” (ha ha ha..). But as the proud owner of a miniature schnauzer (oh fancy that, she looks a lot like the first photo posted here!), and a Black Lab – I have been fully converted.

BUT even I, a self-proclaimed dog lover, have got to say, that these ads do one up the dog team in several ways. By printing large images of dogs on these ads with the big, bold, lettered word “CATS” on the bottom, my mind feels as if it is playing tricks on me. The juxtaposition of the prominent image and text in this ad are enough to catch the eye of any person. As well, a humorous element is added, when these would-be cute, little dogs which are featured on the ads are characterized as vicious, snarling, mangy, mutts! The CATS logo following the negatively-characterized image of a dog is a prominent and outstanding reminder of why CATS “are better” and why you should therefore, go watch this musical.

However, in defense for dogs all over the world, I can say through personal experience, that not all dogs are as scary as those printed on the above ads.

My Schnauzer doesn’t look like that all the time, and here’s the proof:

I apologize if this scarred anyone.

Why bother handing out businesses cards or brochures when you can have THIS:

Sooooo Clever! and it definitely catches your attention. These small door-stick-ons have it all – they’re an innovative and creative way to get the company’s message across to its core consumer market, and the little stick-ons provide just the right amount of information so that it would be easy for any homeowner to contact their local Papa Johns pizzeria.

I was browsing some marketing blogs today and came across a hilarious advertisement posted on Carmen Chan’s Marketing Blog. I found this hilarious because it was so, completely, RANDOM.

I will repost the video here for easy access:

First of all, I love Orangina. It is an awesome and refreshing mixture of orange juice and soda – two things that I love. But seriously, what where they thinking?

This advertisement had nothing to do with the benefits of the product, except perhaps, that the ingredients used in the drink are so natural that you can apply it as aftershave for your skin – if you’re a mountain lion. Yeah, no……even as I typed the latter half of the preceding statement, I felt as if I were talking about an entirely different product. As you can see, I can’t find many ways to justify the presence of certain elements of this most random advertisement.

BUT, this advertisement did make me laugh, despite my initial reaction of utter bewilderment. It drew a reaction out of me that was prominent enough for me to proceed to blog about it. And I am sure, many would enjoy watching the hilarity of this absurd commercial for a orange juice soda – considering there are over half a million views on the youtube video. Therefore, the advertising team behind this commercial was able to successfully accomplish one thing, at least – to create buzz about the brand. Although that buzz may not put the brand in a positive light, at least the brand will be widely known.

Prior to seeing this commercial however, I was well aware of the Orangina brand and thought only positive thoughts about it. This commercial has definitely negatively impacted my image of the Orangina brand. The drink which I had once perceived as a fresh, tasty, high-end, and exotic, foreign soda – has now been diminished to a mountain lion’s after shave tool.

With the recent hype surrounding the announcement of the 2012 continuation of Nolan’s batman movies, I was reminded of the amazing marketing campaign that promoted one of the highest-grossing movies ever – the Dark Knight.

This was a viral campaign conducted by 42 Entertainment which heavily promoted the movie the year leading up to the release.

The marketing for this movie was…. Insane!! I was never a big comic/superhero fan, but even I heard word of mouth about this when it was happening. The marketing budget for this movie was a whopping $75 million dollars. This gave 42 Entertainment plenty of $$ to spend – eventually leading up to one of the most interactive movie marketing campaigns ever. There were literally hoards of people marching in several cities – supporting a fictional politician “Harvey Dent”, while thousands of others painted their faces and joined in to the Joker’s Army. 42 Entertainment along with Warner Brothers was able to bring a taste of Batman’s fictional world, the city of Gotham, to the real world.

This video pretty much sums the entire process:

Yeah, people were given CAKES! from local Bakeries!!! WITH CELL PHONES! from the Joker himself!!

The cake report: http://www.whysoserious.com/reports/cake.

That’s pretty crazy stuff, but it obviously paid off! The Dark Knight dominated the box-office for weeks on end, with the highest pre-sales ever recorded.

If you’re still interested in the campaign, this website gives a detailed and thorough account of the events leading up to the movie.

http://www.moviemarketingmadness.com/blog/2008/07/movie-marketing-madness-the-dark-knight/

I wonder if Warner Brothers/42 Entertainment will attempt a Part II of their infamous viral marketing campaign for the next movie, the Dark Knight rises (2012). If so, comic-book/superhero fans all over the world will undoubtedly be keeping a close eye to the action surrounding the release of the newest batman movie.

Until then,