Month: November 2011

After reading this article I can tell you that I truly appreciate good advertisement campaigns. We all can. We’re all tired of the ads that are boring, long, and drawn out. I can’t even recall the amount of times I’ve heard the Proactive infomercial start and quickly change the channel. A good commercial makes you smile at it’s originality.

That is exactly what the Mini and Porsche campaign made me do. Smile. It captured all my attention and from the start and I was enamored by the possibility that Cooper might win; I mean, can you blame me? It was the classic David and Goliath story, you know I was hoping for a fairy tale ending.

I now know indefinitely that Porsche ($100,000) is faster than a Mini ($30,000?)… figured so. As I keep thinking about it though, that’s the whole idea. Cooper never really planned to win, but that was their campaign; it’s the possibility that the underdog might topple over the giant that boosts their sales not the actual result.

I get it. After sitting through two months of marketing class I finally understand the idea behind brands. Campaigns give brands personality it’s what they want consumers to feel like from using their products just like how Axe wants you to feel sexy and Doritos wants you to feel Bold.

Mini wants people to challenge the status quo by purchasing it. Being little yet courageous is how it has branded itself. The never giving up attitude and not afraid to push the boundaries of possibilities is what this brand is all about. People eat that stuff up. Mini is an underdog in the global car industry but it’s totally cool with that. Doesn’t mean it can’t try fit in and roll with the best.

 “Like any underdog we’ll be back, biting off more than we can chew, and lovin’ every minute of it”

In reference to Robyn Gummer’s blog, https://blogs.ubc.ca/robyngummer/2011/09/18/8/. Personally, I love the guerilla marketing style. I don’t like conventional ads cause they aren’t fun and after awhile they all start feeling similar. Guerilla marketing is so unconventional that it’s become conventional. People are beginning to welcome new approaches that entice them.

This style of marketing is edgy and definitely risky. Companies could easily get a negative viral response as well as cause legal issues for themselves but the payoffs are huge. Pepsi did a ‘Pepsi Challenge’ quite a few years ago where you had to guess which one was Pepsi and which one was Coke. I remember quite vividly that the viral response was insanely positive and after that I just kept having this preconceived notion that all Pepsi products tasted better and were for some reason colder.

Doritos is also exhibit guerilla marketing. They often give customers a chance to create their very own advertisements for the company, whether it be to finish a story or to create an advertisement for a new product. Either way this stuff goes viral. Fast.

I remember when I was supposed to study for my midterm and instead decided to just sift through ALL the Dorito Super Bowl Ads that were submitted. They were all entertaining and after each one I was amazed that someone could come up with something like that. The commercials were fun and I felt engaged because if I wanted to I could even vote on which one I liked. Needless to say I didn’t do so well on that midterm.

Why does Guerilla marketing work? It allows for interaction at a personal level. Guerilla marketing is just fun, it’s like the company decided to put on board shorts and just chill and stop taking its ad campaigns so seriously.