In Timmy Cheung’s blog post, he analyzes how McDonald’s tailors the menus of its global stores to the tastes of the local culture. Indeed, McDonald’s global expansion is incredibly impressive and well-executed. In addition to the differentiated menus they offer, there are also very effective at employing geographical and demographic segmentation in its advertisements.

Here are some examples:

Through these videos you can see that there are many marked similarities and differences throughout their international advertisements. Firstly, all the advertisements retain the universally recognizable McDonald’s characteristics, such as the golden arches and red backgrounds, the packaging and appearance of the food, and (currently), the “I’m loving it!” slogan.

However, there are definitely many notable differences that can be found between all of McDonald’s advertisements, depending on where in the world the advertisement is targetting. The obvious differences in language aside, in the above videos, there are certain aspects that heavily pertain to specific cultures worldwide. For example, the first video is a Japanese McDonald’s commercial that contains actors dressed in traditional Japanese garments. The second is an even clearer example of this segmented marketing. Since most people who are unfamiliar with the targeted culture will have no idea what the advertising is about, the advertisement is solely aimed towards this single demographic. (In case you are wondering what you just watched, “rats running in your stomach” is a way to say you’re hungry in Hindi.) By tailoring their advertisements as well as their menus to relevant cultures around the world, McDonald’s succeeds in bringing their brand and close to the hearts and mouths of billions of people all around the world.

Millions of people have been bombarded throughout their facebook and twitter feeds about a video produced by the controversial media company “Invisible Children” about Joseph Kony, (now) one of the world’s most infamous criminals.

The main purpose of the video is supposedly to make Joseph Kony so infamous that his capture would be inevitable. It appears to be working, with over 50 million views, 1 million likes, and 400,000 comments on their Youtube video within only 5 days.

All of the controversy surrounding the company Invisible Children aside, the Kony 2012 campaign is undoubtedly a massive viral success. Washington Post echoes this sentiment, calling viral the “future of marketing.” As Rochelle van der Linde points out in her blog post on marketing shifts, there has been a transition from traditional marketing to contemporary social marketing. This campaign is a clear example of the latter, the methods of its implementation, and the massive influence and potential it holds.

Viral marketing differs substantially from traditional marketing in the way it is carried out. Companies need only to create a clever ad and seed it online, while social media spreads their message for them to a potentially massive audience. In Dominik Bundschuh’s blog post on viral techniques, he links to a very interesting article that outlines viral marketing and its techniques in a clear and useful manner. Kony 2012 employs viral marketing very effectively – the video is carefully planned and makes use of strong, disturbing, and sometimes even irrelevant or unrelated imagery in order to effect an immediate visceral response in its viewers. In doing so, it establishes a powerful emotional connection which in turn creates the urge to share this message with others. Though some may brush it off as nothing more than emotional propoganda, this is the very essence of viral marketing – creating a connection with viewers, who are then compelled to spread the word.

The highly anticipated Superbowl XLVI has finally come to an end, and I am proud to say that I was one of its over 8 million Canadian viewers – but only for the commercials.

Clint Eastwood does not approve.

Watching these interesting marketing campaigns and advertisements made me recall the fond memories of my favourite Superbowl commercials of all time – those of the Old Spice campaign.

The “Man Your Man Could Smell Like” campaign was a huge success, creating an enormous buzz while also being able to materialize the publicity into solid business results. The campaign was successful because of a multitude of reasons, a notable one being its aggressive and ground breaking usage of social media platforms.

Another very important aspect was the timing of the campaign. Although superbowl advertisements are notoriously expensive, the superbowl is also the most viewed program in all of the United States. If Old Spice hadn’t shelled out millions of dollars for superbowl airtime, not nearly as many people would have seen it and the campaign would not have acheived the same level of success…right?

Wait….those were Superbowl commercials, weren’t they?

Smells like them, man.

Although many seem to think so, the commercial never actually aired during the superbowl, but instead aired the day after. However, through the use of clever tactics and marketing “around” instead of during the superbowl, Old Spice was able to create that illusion while avoiding the horrendous price tag that comes along with the coveted superbowl air time.

This can be seen as a type of ambush marketing, which can actually discourage companies from bidding for the more expensive advertising slots when guerrilla tactics can work at comparable effectiveness and highly reduced cost. This could lead to, heaven forbid, a steady decline in the quality of actual superbowl ads. This year already I was slightly disappointed – many companies opted for the easy ways out.

Awwww....nevermind, I take it back. He's just too adorable.

The young wireless provider Mobilicity has rolled out its new campaign that is directly targeting Canada’s “Big 3” telecom companies – Rogers, Bell, and Telus.

As Nikita Arora pointed out in her blog post, the campaign is laden with quantitative information that is meant to expose the Big 3 telecom companies for their explotation of consumers in order to fund their own business deals, such as Rogers and Bell’s recent joint acquisition of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment (owner of the Toronto Raptors, Toronto Maple Leafs, NBA TV Canada, the Air Canada Centre, among others) for a rumoured $1.32 billion.

In particular, the campaign seems to target the overage fees that are draining the wallets of many Canadians. By doing so, they are able to stir up public resentment towards the Big 3 and at the same time gain public support for themselves. This is an effective tactic for several reasons.

Firstly, Mobilicity has always emphasized unlimited, no-contract plans. By openly attacking the problem of data coverage fees in the Big 3, they are in the perfect position to market themselves as a much more desirable alternative to those that they are demonizing in their campaign.

Secondly, the campaign is impeccably timed. With the upcoming controversial 700 mhz auction, animosity towards the Big 3 is already at an all-time high. Large activist groups such as OpenMedia have already begun a campaign called Stop the Squeeze opposing the “Big 3 Tri-opoly” and their possible domination of the 700 mhz spectrum auction.

OpenMedia previously gained tremendous support by Canadians in their past campaign, Stop the Meter, which opposed usage-based billing on internet services (again, promoted by the Big 3). By aligning their “anti-Big 3” marketing campaign with the campaign of a non-profit, well-supported activist group, Mobilicity is able to bring about a much larger effect in their advertising as well as gain the support of a much wider audience.