(Edit: I want to point out that this is my first blog entry where I haven't ranted about something. That's cause to celebrate.)
Until today, I've avoided bringing up this topic of Chuck in my blog, not because I don't want to talk about it, but because once I start taking about it, I won't stop. Who the heck is Chuck? Simply put, Chuck is my favourite TV show, which by itself makes it worthy of our company blog. The fact that Chuck is the single greatest example of marketing brilliance to ever hit prime time television makes it worthy of its own blog category.
Before I get into the show itself, I'll talk about a few trend that have the advertising industry all abuzz.
First of all, there has been an ongoing struggle regarding TiVo (or PVRs or DVRs depending on your cable/satellite provider) and the ability for viewers to skip commercials and advertising messages. I won't get into the...
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As you may have read in previous posts from Shane and myself, we've been following the Apple vs PC battle pretty closely since the Microsoft account went to über hot-shot CP+B. Expecting some magic, we watched in awe as the Sienfeld spots rolled out (apparently done just to create a buzz and get people talking), then the launch of the actual campaign – without being overly redundant, a rather weak attempt at trying to steal some of Mac's coolness. Then hours before Apple's new laptop announcement, Microsoft crossed the line and went negative.
And now, Apple is hitting back. Taking their fantastic spots from poking a little fun at Microsoft to just flat-out slapping them in the face. And, I must say, they deserve it. Oh Bill, what were you thinking?
Is it just me or has iStockphoto gone to the dogs?
Like thousands of other small-to-mid sized ad/design firms out there, we have come to rely on iStock as part of our tool belt to create great design for clients that are on somewhat of a limited budget. The quality of their photos used to blow us away; they provided outstanding Royalty Free photography at a fraction of the cost to other sites like Veer & Corbis. In many cases, I couldn't believe that some of the pictures that the design team would show me actually came from iStock. But lately, something has changed, and as a result, iStock now appears to be just one click ahead of the weaker annual subscription sites like ablestock.com or photos.com. Lately, it seems that every search results in nothing but bad pictures with forced subject matter shot against a white back-drop with bad composition. What in the hell happened?
I've been watching a fair amount of pre-season hockey this past week, and I've had the opportunity see this commercial for EA Sports NHL 09 a few gazillion times.
I was passingly intrigued the first time I saw it, but after seeing it time and time again, I've become more confused, a tad frustrated, and more than a little angry.
When a commercial first grabs my attention, good or bad, I tend to sit back and analyze it. I ask myself the usual questions about the audience, and how they are trying to position the product. On the surface, it appears that they're focusing on selling this hockey game to women, which I think is great.
Here's how they went about doing it:
The commercial opens with Lauren, an NHL.com blogger, claiming that "the best parts about hockey are the stories." Good call, Lauren. The stories certainly are the best parts about hockey. At least right after the part...
Two quick things: Firstly, this started out as a comment that I was going to tack on to Shawn's post, but I just got back from Toronto (secondly) and I am too tired to wring any semblance of coherency or finesse out of this mess. I didn't want to pollute his post with my listless rambling so I decided to make it a follow-up to the follow-up.
A nice follow-up boss. I hadn't managed to catch the new spot (until now).
It's funny. After watching that spot, I have to wonder if anyone at either MS or CP+B has really stopped to look at the big picture. Maybe I'll expand in a future blog (too late), but I look at this as a matter of "choosing the wrong enemy". It's quite obvious that MS is looking at Apple as the enemy, but I really believe that is the wrong way to look at it. Apple isn't an enemy. Their recent success is a symptom.
I'm not suggesting that Apple should be ignored. I'm just...
Welcome to our shiny new blog. At they integrated we are constantly inspired by everything around us, whether it be in real life, or in the media in general. We will frequently be writing blog posts on topics that interest us such as: Advertising, Marketing, Design, Web, Pop Culture, etc.