Red Bull Gives You Wings

I #LOVE Red Bull’s marketing campaigns. Everything they communicate, everything they put out there can be tied to one central idea. be it dumping empty Red Bull cans outside prominent parties as a guerrilla marketing tactic or being associated with every adrenaline spiking, heart thumping, ‘Energy‘ based activity. (More on their marketing strategy here.)

I saw this commercial online and fell in love with it. It is minimalistic – no body is shouting at me to buy this product. It is encompassing – I almost felt a spike in adrenaline watching this ad and imagining being there.

Whoever worked on this commercial. You have my respect!!!!!!!!

Superbowl 2012 Commercials – Budweiser has the Lead

One of the best commercials are those that elicit an emotion from the viewer. This campaign by Budweiser does just that.

Brings emotions, creates communities and advocates. Whoever worked on this, I salute thee.

10 Great Magazine Ads That Don’t Just Sit There Looking Pretty

<This is a re-post of a great post on adweek. No commercial intentions behind it.>

1

Hit the front end of the Peugot on the opening page, and an actual airbag inflates on the spread inside. Ad agency Loducca made 50,000 of these things for a Brazilian magazine.

The Talking Ad2

QR codes got dictators talking in a recent print ads from the free-press advocacy group Reporters Without Borders. You scan the QR code with your iPhone, then place the phone over the leader’s mouth. The mouth starts talking—but it’s the voice of a journalist discussing media censorship in that country.

The Solar-Powered Ad3

This print ad promoted green energy by being solar-powered itself. In the magazine, it’s just a black-and-white sketch. But held up to sunlight, it blossoms into full color.

The Bottle-Opener Ad4

Follow the instructions on this ad, and you can use the flimsy piece of paper to open a bottle of Carlsberg. Useful!

The Edible Ad5

Volkswagen cooked up a lovely little ad you can eat, and placed it inAuto Trader magazine. The ingredients are listed on the side as “glutinous rice flour, water, salt, propylene glycol, FD&C colour, glycerine.” OK, kind of gross.

The Bra-Tightening Ad6

This Wonderbra ad lets you do a little imprompu boob cinching—a nice little pick-me-up when you’re in the middle of a boring article.

The Bubble-Gum Ad7

Simple and fun.

The Test-Drive Ad8

This Norwegian ad for Volkswagen showed a long stretch of road (in summer and winter versions) and told readers to download an app that lets you “drive” a car on the road by hovering your iPhone over it. You could test three different features of the vehicle—lane assist, adaptive lights and cruise control.

The Sunbather’s Ad9

Just what you need—a suntan-lotion ad that comes with a handy way to completely cook your face off.

The Sticky Ad10

A fertility clinic in Australia placed an ad in FHM that caused the magazine’s pages to stick together. When unstuck, the pages revealed a woman posing in lingerie, along with the line, “Don’t waste your sperm.” The message being—donate it at the Repromed fertility clinic instead.

Positioning in Social Media

Social Media has changed the rules of engagement. This presentation takes a step back and looks at Positioning in the new world.

Ubuntu 11.10 – Brands of Fame

What do you think are the best brands out there? Those that spend millions of dollars on the design of the logo or those that end up acquiring every competitor in the market?

It is the brand that makes you smile when you use it. It might not be perfect, It might not even be the best out there, but it has to connect.

Today Marks the launch of Ubuntu 11.10

For those of you who have been brainwashed not to recognize anything other than Windows or Mac, Ubuntu is a Linux based, open source operating system. It is the Luke Skywalker to the WinMac Empire.

It is completely free (Yes, Legally free.) and has some of the most advanced customization’s you can think of.

However, like all good things – It is not perfect – you cannot start using it as soon as you install it. you need to spend hours / days looking for software and drivers that will replace your trusted ‘butler-type’ operating system. You cannot install MsOffice, Photoshop or ANY games out there.

BUT it is one of the best brands out there because they bring a smile to the people using it. They provide a sense of community to everyone who take part. They let everyone know that they will keep innovating at all times to be able to launch twice a year. Versions come out in April and October every year.

They provide a tribe for its consumers to be a part of and be proud of.

I have been looking at the features in the new version. I admit that it will probably drop my productivity by 50% in the beginning, making me work to get audio coming out of my semi-functional Dell (more on that later) and depriving me of some games and software that i am used to.

BUT in doing so, in making me look at the community for answers to fix it / install it – they show how engaged the tribe is. how proud everyone is to be using Ubuntu and sticking it to the Man.

Every time I run Ubuntu, I start smiling. That I believe is a sign of a great Brand.

Branding in Hollywood

Beer, Movies and Branding.

As a marketing student, I think the success of a movie depends largely on the brand identity it is given by the director. More than a good script, the director of the movie is responsible for the outcome of the movie.

A great script can be ruined by a director if he does not understand his target audience and tailor it to it. An unwanted violent scene in a movie could ruin its box office by its MPAA rating.

For example, ‘Watchmen“ could have been a bigger hit if they had cut back on the graphics, the nudity and maybe depended on the beautiful story. But because of its direction, it was rated ‘R’ by the MPAA, losing out on a whole market of young adolescents who read comics and would have aided to the success.

“Captain America” on the other hand tried to include as many segments as possible by limiting the graphics and the violence and the nudity and obtaining the rating of ‘PG-13′.

If the studios do not understand the implications on their revenue by adding a few seconds of footage and effectively forbidding every adolescent from watching the movie in a theatre, they have failed even before the movie is released.

I wonder if commercial studios have marketing teams that work with the director to let them know the best way to appeal to all the segments conceivable, to build the brand of the movie to such an extent that the revenues keep coming in years after the movie is off theater’s.

Do you think StarWars would have been what it is now if it were ‘R’ rated and half of the current following never got to watch the movie in the first place?hat revenue is generated long after the movie goes off theaters. released. They still produce great art movies, but commercial cinema is a whole different ball game.

Starbucks Brand : does name matter?

There are more than 28 million definitions of “Brand” that google spews out. There are millions more that various professors and text books try to impress upon you. I’ve always believed in one simple definition – the Brand is the soul..

More importantly it is a soul that is visible for everyone to look into. It is as obscure as a soul and as insightful.

It is no wonder then that when a company tries to change its brand, it always encounters resistance from its consumers who have done their diligence in soul-searching and have decided to associate with this brand.

Perhaps the most heated discussion in the world of marketing this year has been the decision by Starbucks to change its logo.

Starbucks 2011 Logo

The new Starbucks logo does away with the ‘obvious’ words “Starbucks Coffee“. I say obvious for two reasons, one – people recognize the logo without ‘aid’. Two, if a billion dollar company thought for one second that its consumers will stop enjoying their coffee unless the cup says ‘coffee’, they would not have risked it.

We can all argue that It is the coffee that sells, the cafe’s that fill up, the staff is liked by the consumers. But I believe it is the brand that emphasized coffee, conversation and good service.

The history of Logo.

History of Starbucks through Logo

Starbucks started out in 1971, offering Coffee, Tea and Spices. Like any startup organization looking for maximum sales to breakeven, they had three key offerings and this was duly communicated in their logo. This was the period that Starbucks wanted to gather as much customer base as possible.

The next step was when Starbucks decide to re-live the boston tea party and threw out the tea and spices off the logo. Strategically it fit in the plan as Starbucks; on acquiring its customers wanted to create a brand that people associate with. This was so successful that not only did people associate good coffee to Starbucks, but they started associating Starbucks to good coffee!!

Now the words are gone. No longer are you reminded by the cup that there is coffee inside. This is a strategic move from Starbucks. They believe that the association will continue. But the industry has its own doubts.

• Would people buy a burger from “Starbucks coffee” or McDonald’s?
• Would people still value the Starbucks service if the staff tried pushing burgers, pasta to its customers instead of taking care of them and giving them the coffee they deserve? imagine the nice lady at the counter take 1 minute to read out the specials and ask you for your confirmation when all you’ve ordered is a hot coffee.
• Would Starbucks attract more crowd in its cafe’s for food than there is for coffee? If that happens, if you find yourself not finding a decent place to sit and have your coffee, would you still go there?

Starbucks taking out the words has triggered the most curious consumer base, looking forward to the corporate strategy in the months to come.

Bottom Line

The Good: The change in Logo can be the best thing Starbucks has done strategically if they do not change the business model. they have accentuated the brand and would be bringing in more confidence to their consumers who identify with the brand name without the prompting ‘Starbucks Coffee’

The Bad: The Change in logo can be the biggest mistake Starbucks has made in a long time if they plan to expand in areas other than coffee and condiments. Nobody goes to McDonald’s for coffee and the chances are equally slim that the informed & intelligent consumers of Starbucks would go there for burgers and pasta. If Starbucks doesnt associate itself with coffee anymore that’s more reasons for the consumer to beware of the changes.

Starbucks has created a lot of value. It is time to see if it retains the value that has been created.