Month: October 2010

Every time I go to a conference, I usually come back with a bunch of business cards.  And sifting through all of them, they start to look the exact same.  They’re all the same shape, the same texture, even most of the colours are the same: White background. Nifty designs. Maybe a logo.  With everyone else trying to stuff their brand down my throat, it’s pretty hard for businesses to come up with a business card design that will stand out and make people remember you.  But that’s EXACTLY what this veterinary clinic from Israel did.

They took actual xray images that they have used on previous “patients” and printed them on transparent business cards so that the end product looked like a mini xray scan.  Not only that, but they were speciality-specific so that each vet could have a personalized card with their area of animal expertise on it.

I really liked this idea because I just thought it was so innovative!  Not only would these business cards stand out in an overwhelming business card-shaped pile, but now, the card gives value to the client.  I don’t know about anyone else, but if I were to get my hands on this bad boy, I wouldn’t want to throw it away.  Some business cards (as harsh as this may sound) have a throw-awayable quality to them.  Sometimes, they just seem so disposable.  But I wouldn’t feel the same way about this one.  To me, it seems more like a commodity, something that I wouldn’t be able to get easily.  It’s almost a work of art, really (I wouldn’t be surprised if an xray scan was propped up on an art gallery wall somewhere.  Modern art these days doesn’t really have a criteria. Except maybe confusion and political vulgarity).  But most importantly, this card represents the business that it is promoting clearly.  Receivers have no doubt what this card is for. It’s an animal xray. Go figure.

Halloween’s coming up.  So inevitably, there’s tons of trailers playing on tv for horror movies.  There’s Paranormal Activity, of course, and some exorcism movies, and some creature features.  And then there’s the seemingly never-ending SAW franchise that is really beginning to exhaust the story line and overextending the clever schemes they first introduced in the first couple installments.  But seriously, SAW is really just too much right now.  They’re basically creating movies to gross people out now. The plot isn’t even vaguely interesting anymore.

But the reason why I brought this up is because I remembered these trailers that they played a few years ago to promote the new SAW movie (3 or 4 maybe?…I’ve lost track).  Anyway, they had this REALLY smart marketing scheme where they would show a really quick 5 second shot of the creepy doll from the movie (the one with the red targets painted on his cheeks and has red eyes and the cuhrazy black mop on his head) and then 1 or 2 normal commercials would play before they showed the actual trailer.  And the thing is, they would only do this really late at night.  So the creepy factor shoots up like 6 points…at least.

The freakiness of this SAW promotion is unbelievable.  Because it’s so late at night, you’re already a little on edge because of the eerie, creaking sounds your house is probably making. Cue some rain. We got ourselves a scary situation. And when this little SAW thing happens, BOOM we got ourselves a psychological breakdown.  The thing is, they play that first little 5 second clip so fast that at first, you’re not even sure if it happened. And then you’re freaking out because you’re not sure if you should turn the tv off, or change the channel, or just sit there and hope it doesn’t happen again. AND THEN the trailer plays and you kick yourself for not leaving the moment you started doubting your sanity.  Not only did this little SAW ploy creep the beejeezies out of the majority of the human population, but it got people talking.  Which is what was really important.  At school, my friends and I would bring it up, asking each other, “Yo have you seen that messed up SAW trailer?” and it would be brought up again during class.  The point is, this marketing scheme for the new movie was HIGHLY effective, and not just in a “we’re-gonna-get-you-so-scared-with-these-tv-spots-that-you’ll-be-scared-not-to-go-watch-the-new-sequel” way.  But in a a “spread-the-word-like-wild-fire” way.

And this isn’t the only insanely smart movie promotion strategy.  Production companies are becoming more and more innovative with their posters.  Remember those few weeks last year where there were those weird “HUMAN ZONE ONLY” posters at all the bus stops?  And there was no description on the poster besides a silhouette of an alien and messages all in caps? Well that got people talking too. Because it was confusing. And kind of ominous. As if there was a threat of a possible future alien attack. Well turns out it was just a series of promotions for the new movie “District 9.” And when people found out, they wanted to know what the movie was about after seeing all those weird bus stop posters.  So yeah, there’s not one, but TWO amazing movie marketing strategies for ya.  Two things I took from this: people respond well to confusion and fear.

So I was watching the new episode of House last night, and Chase hires a new girl (since Thirteen’s been MIA for the past few episodes, basically skipping off to who knows where to do who knows what. Don’t worry, it’s a perplexing subject that severely confuses me too).  Anywaaaay, this new doctor really isn’t competent at all so House starts picking on her.  And throughout the episode, she remains unable to prove herself.

This all seems really irrelevant but here’s the point: Once the new doctor realizes that she’s not up to par, she asks Chase whether he has BUYER’S REMORSE!  Of course, she’s not actually referring to what we discuss in marketing class when we use this term, as in buying something and then regretting it (because ONE, Chase didn’t buy her and TWO, well…Chase didn’t buy her).

But when I heard her say this, I got really excited and I could almost hear the non-existent, imaginary, non-crazy alarm spastically going off in my head.  Here was one of my favourite shows, using a marketing term that I just learned in class, to describe an emotion in this situation that parallels information that I understand!  I love it when I get reassurance that school actually has meaning in real life (just kidding….sort of).  This was almost as awesome as that Grade 12 Biology Test that had a question that no one else could answer, but I got it right because I remembered House solved a case with it in an episode that involved a magician (turns out hemorrhaging  can be caused by having the wrong blood type infused into your blood stream.  True fact.)

So yeah.  Just wanted to share this cool story.  This just proves: marketing is everywhere.  And not even in a creepy way.

I sincerely think that some of the greatest artists in the world create ads.  Ads these days aren’t just images with catchy slogans that tell you why you should or should not buy something.  It’s gone way beyond that.  The creative minds behind advertisements are beginning to explore their methods of marketing through art.  And not just the type of art that is nice to look at.  I’m talking about art that is thought-provoking and innovative and breath-taking and basically what may typically be considered museum-worthy.  Advertisers have taken their advertisements to an extremely personal level by injecting their work into the streets.  It’s hard to ignore a statue on a fence, or on a flight of stairs.  It’s hard to walk by something that is life-size (or maybe even bigger) and to ignore it.  And advertisers know that.  They know that bigger is better.  Advertisements are now street art.  Take a look at this example:Not only is UPS making a statement and promoting their brand that promises speedy delivery and efficiency, but they’re creating street art in the process.  They’ve made an optical illusion that makes people look twice.  The reason why this is so mind-blowing to me is that I can look at this in so many different ways.  I could see this in a museum.  How is this different from any other strange and attention-drawing piece that could be found in an art gallery?  I love this aspect of the advertising industry: how the lines have been blurred between what is art and what is brand promotion.  They both share common goals anyway.  Art and ads both want to be stared and remembered by people.  Most preferably forever.