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Posts Tagged ‘ad agency’

Top Integrated Branding Campaigns in Recent Memory

Posted in advertising, branding, tagged , , , , , on October 2, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Here’s a list of what I think are the most effective branding campaigns in the last 10 or so years.   Effective = brand awareness + sales generation + longevity of creative (reduced cost overtime!).  Please note that Effective Branding Campaigns does not necessarily mean Best Commercial or Best Creative.   Branding is a much bigger concept.  There are certainly better commercials out there… but many great commercials fail the brands they represent… but I digress…

Here they are:

1.   Easy Button from Staples – McCann Erikson NYC

2. Geico Cash from Geico – The Martin Agency

3.  Stay Smart: I stayed at a Holiday Inn Last Night from Holiday Inn – Fallon

4. Most Interesting Man in the World by Dos Equis – Euro RSCG

5. Got Milk – Goodby Silverstein & Partners

None of these campaigns were fully baked the day they launched – they emerged overtime, shaped by consumer response.  What makes them special is that they have runway… these concepts can be pushed across mediums and can stand without complicated commercials, backstory or even motion.  They also all leave room for a great deal of consumer ownership and application of the concept to other concepts.

I don’t think it’s EASY to come up with these winning campaigns.  I do think in the above we can suss out the NECESSARY structure and elements of killer branding campaigns.

Then again… sometimes hunting for structure and formulas in some logical way takes longer than just throwing stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks.

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Ad Spending Dropped 2.8% in 2008

Posted in advertising, research, social networks, software, sports, vertical media, tagged , , , , , , on March 14, 2009| 1 Comment »

Across all mediums, advertising $$$ is off 2.8%.

Of course, this is in line with the overall economy so it’s not totally surprising.  Advertising typically lags because the budgets go in so early into the spending season.

A recession in ad spending that goes well into 2009 is going to crush many an Internet company, more than a few agencies, and a lot of traditional media companies.  Oh, by crush, I mean put them out of business for good.

Unless you work on the ground in the advertising world it’s hard to understand just how devestating the recession is especially when consumption of media will always be going up.  That means there will always be more supply of advertising impressions and the cost of media businesses are NOT coming down.  With the ad spend so far down, the prices on this oversupply of inventory is highly depressed further adding pressure to a broken model.

Many people ask me what I think then is going to work with media companies… well, I’ve said it before… media companies have to SELL SOMETHING REAL, not just ads.  Not just an impression.  Sell DVDs, sell shoes, sell licenses, sell special events… anything.  The ad rates simply will not cover the costs of running these media companies.

Oh, and if we thought 08 numbers were bad, just wait for q1 2009 when we will see the real effect of ad budget cuts.

Yes, I’m being a bit DoomsDayish.  Because there’s not a lot of runway left for folks and if they aren’t finding a strategy to cope by now, game over.

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