Books vs. E-Books (Infographic)
via TechCrunch.
Vintage Prostate Cancer
You don’t see too many long-form copy ads anymore. Here’s a good one out of Australia to raise awareness for prostate cancer.
Caribou Coffee Puts You On the Cup
I’ve never been to a Caribou Coffee, but I love them—or at least what they’re doing.
The chain’s newest promotional effort is called Make the Cup. Visitors to makethecup.com can leave a note saying why they stay awake (presumably by chugging lots of Caribou Coffee) along with a head shot and be featured on the website. Additionally, a selection of the entries will be chosen to be featured on the company’s 2011 coffee cups.
The campaign is similar to Starbuck’s quotes from famous people on their cups. But its genius is that it creates awareness for the brand, increases customer loyalty, and creates ownership of the brand by the consumer. This goes in line with the great essay by Luke Sullivan at heywhipple.com “Writing to the 2010 Customer” in which he wrote about needing to move away from “Dad-brands” that tell the customer how to think to branding that is authentic and creates experience. To which I wrote, “Successful advertising doesn’t tell us what to consume. It must be consumable.” Seems like Caribou is listening.
PSA for Prevalent Problem of Women Falling Down Stairs…or Not
Came across this striking PSA from German agency Young & Rubicam on AdFreak.com. At first I thought it was a joke. A PSA for women falling down stairs? But I got to the end to see the true intentions of the spot. It’s beautifully shot, but I find the message convoluted. I’m not sure removing the actual cause of why women fall down stairs and replacing it with a high heel really brings home the message.
Celcom Broadband: Plug In
I love these simple ads from Celcom Broadband found at adsoftheworld.com. The art is superb and the copy subtle yet effective. Well executed. However, I can’t help but feel my web experience would never measure up to the fanciful world they’re projecting. Life is full of so many disappointments.
“They Just Work”, Another Reason to Hate Microsoft
In the interest of full disclosure, I’m a Mac user and have been for well over a decade. During that decade, there was a short period of time where I moved back to PC and Windows for business compatibility reasons. I hated it. Within less than a month, I was back to Mac.
Why do I like Mac? Because Apple is an innovator. And they produce a great user experience from the branding to the packaging to the product. Things Microsoft hasn’t done well for a long time—if at all. And now, as FastCompany points out, Microsoft is simply stealing from Apple with their new slogan, “They just work,” in reference to PCs. Check out the link to see the screen cap from Microsoft’s website. It’s just another reason to hate Microsoft.
FastCompany asks, where have we heard “They just work,” before? Oh, yeah. Apple.
This is on the heels of the blatant rip off that is the Microsoft store.
But I guess we can’t complain without sounding a little hypocritical, as this great FAIL proves.
Starburst + Zombies = Juicy Fun
What happens when you bring together Starburst, Zombies, Koreans, Scotland, and a bus? This.
Chef Boyardee asks, “Who wants to snuggle?”
I don’t hate this new ad from Chef Boyardee. In fact, I rather like it. As someone who had both a blanky and an unhealthy love of canned ravioli as a kid, it actually tickles the cynical yet nostalgic funny bone in me. But I’m still not feeding my kid that crap.
White Paper: The 8 Success Criteria for Facebook Marketing
Are you thinking about marketing on Facebook? This great white paper, “The 8 Success Criteria for Faceebook Page Marketing”, by Jeremiah Owyang gives some compelling reasons to get your company on the largest social media platform in the world. Here’s some reasons why Owyang says Facebook is a platform marketers can’t ignore:
Consumers are adopting Facebook at staggering levels.
Facebook touts a staggering 500 million users worldwide. Engagement is ripe, with 50% of active users logging on in any given day, connecting to an average of 130 friends. Average internet users are spending more time on Facebook per day than on Google, Yahoo, YouTube, Microsoft, Wikipedia and Amazon combined. The attention of consumers has shifted – marketers must take action.
Consumers lean on each other to make decisions – bypassing brands.
Consumers trust their friends and family more than other sources of information about products and services, according to a Nielsen study. Another study reports that 60% of Facebook users are more likely to recommend a brand after becoming a fan (Chadwick Martin Bailey). As consumers make decisions directly with each other on Facebook, brands are left out of the mix.
Confused, brands need a roadmap – or risk experimenting on their own customers.
Seventy percent of brands indicate that they planned to increase spending on offsite social media investment, including Facebook in 2010, according to an eConsultancy study. Yet despite the urgency, brands lack a pragmatic approach. Rather than spin their wheels and waste resources experimenting on customers, brands need guidelines for Facebook page marketing success.
Read the rest of the paper here. It’s well worth it.
View more documents from Jeremiah Owyang.
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