Ad of a some sort of energetic (?) drink – ‘Energy all day’. The moving kid is placed in a wrong place, they should use i.e. less kids, maybe place the moving one in the middle, change background on brighter, use contrast – let the ‘static’ kids be dressed in bright colors, and the moving one in dark (now he’s standing next to another dude dressed like he – what’s that MIB convention?), etc.
One wise man from Coca-Cola once said – let’s not forget what we are selling, it’s just sugared water. Manufacturer of this ‘brush’ (sorry ladies, I’m ignorant in these matters…) remembered this. Solution implemented here is simple, but applied correctly to the advertised product. It definitely focuses reader attention, as well, his magazine if falling apart. My only concern is, how ‘durable’ it is. A lot depends on used paper, will these small slices bend and become irritating?
I’m not a big fan of non-direct promotional strategies. In my recognition, when you’re deciding to promote your product, you do it openly, avoiding cheap tricks – in this case usage of non-conventional marketing vehicle, i.e. placing your ads where receivers are not expecting to see them. It is a matter of treating your potential customers in a honest way. Such strategy has a great potential of backfiring, and turning back against its creators – in this case both involved parties. I have nothing against sponsored articles, but only when they’re placed in the proper section of a credible newspaper, and are also promptly marked. Los Angeles Times has lost somewhere the first condition.
NBC’s Southland TV series had been recently promoted in such way. It is an another Police oriented drama, with approximately 100% of political correctness factor, as:
Southland takes a “raw and authentic look” at Los Angeles and the lives of the LAPD officers who police it. The show’s seven episode first season[2] centers around the experiences and interactions of LAPD patrol officers and detectives, and is less a police procedural than a character-drive drama.[3][4] Among the characters are Off. Ben Sherman, a rookie cop and his openly-gay training officer, John Cooper, Off. Chickie Brown, who aspires to be the first woman on the elite SWAT Team , dedicated Detective Lydia Adams, and Detective Sammy Bryant, whose home life interferes with his working life.[5]
Classic. Los Angeles Times is recently having major financial difficulties as most of the old-media, traditional printed press, as advertising market is getting smaller and smaller. So, they’ve agreed to promote Southland by placing its ad on the front page, stylizing it as a normal article, telling the story of a heroic rookie Police officer. Maybe the knife on their throat motivated them for such move, or NBC just played it well. I do not know, and frankly I do not care. I just see a symptom, that will bring problems in the future, when media will decide to move the credibility border further. Here they’re playing secure, as MediaPost reports:
NBC says it is taking care not to deceive readers; the story is in different style than the paper’s normal content. It appears in a smaller typeface, and is also marked as an advertisement.
So, everything looks ok, right? Ordinary content can be divided from the ad, but I’d really want to see a research detailing how large fraction of readers did so. I’m not pointing in the so-called ignorance among US citizens, a point of view so popular in Europe. Stupidity, or shallowness are universal, and completely border free. There is a significant portion of people who have problems with dividing reality from i.e. television stories. So many times actors who’re playing popular characters are complying that they are not being recognized as themselves, but rather as who they’re playing. People are also i.e. copying the patterns of behavior from their favorite series. Borders between reality and affectation is melting, and while this can be a great marketing opportunity for promoting (like product placement once had been), it is tricky and dangerous for the content providers. Trust is the most precious value achieved especially by a media company. As precious it is, as easy it is to loose.
Los Angeles Times Southland case should be a firm warning, and the ultimate border.
For NBC – it didn’t backfired at all, as if people didn’t combined heroic rookie with their series, maybe they will at least remember the main character name, which will benefit for the station. If they did combined, they had just felt a bit confused, and were rather angry for a newspaper, not for NBC. But it could’ve been worse.
Pros
Cons
Evaluation: 1/6 for L.A. Times, 4/6 for NBC
More on the subject in Variety.
An another revelation of the ‘Oldies’ category. AFAIR media used in this campaign was print, rather not outdoor. 51job.com is a leading Chinese headhunting website – well, at least according to a quickly found description. I’ve been planning to give positive review to this campaign, but the phrase ‘headhunting’ puzzled me a bit. If it would be an ordinary job seeking website, used concept would be great, but if it is headhunted-oriented, I am not so sure… This sing 招聘 should mean recruitment, so now I am rather sure of its headhunting orientation.
WRONG!
Concept is not right, or would be right if someone would have planned to seek brokers and office workers among unqualified people. It would have been a beautiful world if it would be true, but sadly it is not. Campaign is giving us mixed signals, more in the Cons.
Pros
Cons
Possible improvement
You may say:
‘Right Jan, so should we show in our print transformation of a commodity broker into a stock broker (with a distinction of a different tie color?). Where is the fun in that?’
Nope, if we’re still planning to be faithful to the original concept and our website is headhunted oriented, we should explore the path of the Office worker – Diver print, which is quite good indeed. Convince viewers that thanks to our website they may make their career dreams come true, find the fun in their daily work, but keep as much realism as it is only possible. Use common dream-jobs, like airplane pilot, writer, or anything else. Make ‘stop the daily boredom of your work’ your primary theme.
Implementation in Poland
In my recognition my fellow countrymen are cynical, and hard to buy with cheap tricks. Also, they may find hard to believe in the make-dream-job-come-true theme. Still, I think that the core concept, of breaking the daily routine in your job, nicely visualized here can be developed in any country.
Evaluation: 3,5/6