Stumbling around Wal-Mart’s site to check out the new logo treatment, I was surprised to see Wal-Mart was selling ad space on their front page. “Featured deals” and seasonal offers I’m used to on a retailer’s site, but selling ad space seemed like new territory. But if you jump into the rabbit hole and click the link, it doesn’t end there.
The medium rectangle banner ad, clearly created in Tracfone’s CI instead fo Wal-Mart, actually brought me deeper into Wal-Mart’s site, to a special offer page featuring Tracfone.
Kind of a neat Media Sales Opportunity for Wal-Mart. You can sell ad space to your vendors, then use those impressions and clicks to increase visit time and page views within your own site. Tracfone wins because people buy more Tracfones, and Wal-Mart wins because people buys more Tracfones from Walmart and they get paid to promote it.
It’s nothing new for retail in-store, but this is a really cool way to roll that out in the interactive world. [Can't believe I'm saying this, but] Way to go, Wal-Mart!
Every brand is attached to some negative baggage. Fast food is linked to obesity and diabetes. Clothes and toys to foreign sweatshops. And auto manufacturers and insurance companies will always carry that shadow of a doubt of, “What happens when I get in an accident”.
Allstate, perhaps inspired by CP+B’s VW Crash ads, has really taken that shadow and turned it into a powerful brand message. And because of it, came up with a :30 that really cuts through the “low rates” and “it’s easy” clutter that’s bogging down the industry’s branding.
The last thing any parent wants to think about is, “What if my kid gets into a car accident and dies”. And it’s the last thing any client would ever want to sign off on. But this message on the thousands of teenagers who die in car accidents puts the insurance message in the back seat and connects to parents as people. It’s a spot that doesn’t have to resort to shock or surprise, or even stunty gags. A clean visual metaphor carries the message home in a emotionally touching way.
It’s always nice to see brands take the “boring” briefs and the mandatories, and turn them into refreshing, thought-provoking spots. Nice work by Leo Burnett.
It would have to be right after I posted about the glory of Anthem spots that an absolutely boring, soulless Anthem comes out–and one for a great cause, too
The Alliance for Climate Protection, the global warming watchdog group famously led by Al Gore, released this first spot today. Credits go to the Martin Agency, though as far as credits go, this one doesn’t deserve much.
Strategically, there’s not much to be proud of here. This spot tries to tap into Americans’ national pride. A sort of “we’ve had the answer before…We’ll have it this time, too.” All in all, it’s about the least realistic message they could have hoped for. It’s reassuring, not alarming. It doesn’t seem to insituate that you’ll have to do anything. You can turn your AC up in your gas-guzzling SUV; We’ll fight global warming. Which is exactly where this spot begins to unravel.
The target audience for this campaign is a joke. The spot seems to speak to Baby Boomers and older. What 20-something you know of is emotionally roused by D-Day anymore? To what forward-thinking American is the Space Race anything other than a curiousity from the past? Advertising 101 insists that if you’re trying to convince people to change the world, people over the age of 50 aren’t going to do it for you. This campaign reaches to an apathetic middle in such a bland way that it’s not going to move anyone to do anything.
Creatively, it’s a mess.
Three examples of how we “didn’t wait,” designed to inspire pride and confidence.
1. America’s policy in WWII
2. America and race relations
3. America and the Space Race
Anybody who knows the first thing about American history knows that these are about the three worst examples you could find to prove America’s quickness to solve problems. America let Hitler ravage Europe for five years while clinging to a poorly-guided philosophy of neutrality. Half the developed world still thinks of Americans as being ass-backwards in terms of racial equality. And we didn’t get anything into space until the Soviets had already gotten two satellites and a dog there.
There’s a small part of you that prays that this is all the joke. That this spot’s not about pride, it’s about shame. With a blandly positive “we can solve this” attitude, it could have just as easily been tagged with a GE “Ecomagination” ending or Chevy’s “This is Our Country”.
Bottom line is this, Al: If you want to save the world from global warming, you’re never gonna do it this way.
Accounts come and go. As do small creative shops. But tonight the Agency World stands to lose a place whose creative impact far exceeded its size.
This morning, the Wall Street Journal broke the story, and an Ad Age Article that Element 79 lost the accounts that made them who they are: PepsiCo’s Gatorade and Tropicana.
“But wait,” you surely say. “They still have other accounts. They’ll find somebody else who will buy what they’re selling: surprising and interesting creative that shows a passion for the product.” But whether or not they stay afloat, Element 79 has lost an important part of itself today.
Element 79 was born in 2001, the baby of a Chicago agency monolith: DDB. Despite sharing a home with a parent used to the budgets of Capital One and Bud Light (and the lack of creativity that often dogs such deep pockets), 79 somehow stood out as a creative fortress in the thirty-somethingth floor of a high rise.
Practically founded to handle PepsiCo business, 79 made its reputation on famed Gatorade spots. But there were more arrows in their quiver. They found a way to make ladies’ pro golf cool. They finally made ads for Life cereal that made us forget about Mikey (and whether or not he died from a PopRocks-related castrophe).
And today the last bit of its heritage has been carved off and sold away to another Omnicom stepsibling. As the aforementioned cereal commercial boasted, “LIFE is full of surprises.” 79 and Gatorade were an advertising institution. And suddenly it’s vanished in a world where sports drinks are as hotly contested a category as beer. So excuse me if my reports of 79’s loss is a little premature. It’s not whether 79 will continue to live that’s concerning; it’s not the loss of life I’m mourning today: 79 can surely bounce back. But as to its quality of life, only time will tell.
Anthem spots are a great thing for advertising. Every account needs to do them every once in a while. It’s a chance to reinvent your brand from scratch, if you need it. It’s a :30 evangelization A walking Brand Essence video. But to an AE, it’s a chance to write your brand story, and it’s an acid test for the brief. If you’re strategy’s even a hair off, no one will sing your tune.
There’s dozens of great ad blogs. Peanuts, American Copywriter, AD Goodness. It’s killer–creative minds commenting on what makes for good Work. But the ad world is as full of good account work as it is good creative work. It may be a little harder to find–there’s no Cannes or Effies for AEs, and their names will never appear in a One Show Annual. But wherever great Work is, it’s likely there’s a great AE just a few steps behind, away from the spotlight.
