Audi's 'Bright Idea'

I came across another article online at the MarketingMag website that discusses Audi's new idea for promoting the A4.

Audi is releasing a new campaign aimed at accentuating the LED fuel-saving running lights in the new A4. The Ad's come in the form of large wall boards in the parking garages of upper-scale office buildings in major Canadian cities.



The boards contain material that causes the lights to reflect when car's headlights hit the sign. The primary goal of the ad's are to get people excited about the A4 - a car that has a lot of competition in its class.

The campaign is complemented with print, TV, and online advertisements, but the parking garage boards are the bread and butter.

The innovative boards show how a particular audience can be targeted. In this case, Audi is targeting business personnel that work in upper-scale office towers. They also show how products such as cars, which typically have fairly standard ads that are not very different from product to product, can be advertised in an innovative way.

These ads will affect the agency, as it will require advertisers to become more creative and innovative to keep up with the competition in the industry. They will also affect the consumers, because if the campaign is a success, it will potentially affect their buying habits.

The NHL... 'Is It This Year?'

I came across an article outlining the new advertising campaign that the National Hockey League has put into place to promote the '08/09 season. the article was found at MarketingMag.ca and was titled "NHL Brings Big Shots to Life."

The article outlines the new campaign, which contain four of the leagues bright young stars, talking to the audience about their past experiences in the league, and pondering the question "is it this year?". The Ad's start with static images, with the player in question turning towards the camera while the rest of the image remains static. The players describe the setting that they are standing in, and talk about the emotional impact it has on them.

this is the first commercial of the series


This article will potentially impact the way agencies market sports and sporting events. It is a new way of attacking sport advertising on TV and depending on the success of the campaign, it will provide sports advertisers with a new insight into advertising. There is also a potential affect on consumers, as they may be able to relate to the advertisements much more than typical sports pieces because there is an emotional aspect that give the athletes a much larger sense of person.

The article has a potential impact on myself as it gives me more of a perspective on advertising potential. It shows how with a little creativity and research, a typical bland teaser advertisement can be transformed into something that really strikes a chord with its target audience.

Spinning Negative into Positive

EA Games responds to glitch with Tiger Woods Jesus walk video

I came across an interesting video yesterday and decided to look into it a little more. The video begins with a screen capture of a Youtube video where you can hear a kid narrating in the background, explaining (sarcastically) how great the new feature (glitch) in Tiger Woods 09 by EA Sports is that allows you to walk and take shots on water.

The video flashed text directed at the user who posted the original video saying “you seem to think it was a glitch in the game.” The video switches to a shot of Tiger Woods dropping a shot on top of the water and taking his shoes off and walking across the water (in real life) to take the shot. After he sinks the shot, the text reappears stating “he’s just that good.

I found this to be very interesting, and it was a creative way to spin the negativity that stems from a glitch in games. For arguments sake, I will ignore the possibility that the glitch and response were planned by EA as a publicity stunt, and comment on how the media company (EA) was able to work with their agency to create a funny, interesting way to spin the glitch.

This undoubtedly has had a direct impact on EA, as the publicity that has stemmed from this error has turned from negative to positive. It also has an impact on the consumer because their video response has gone viral and has been viewed well over 2 million times on Youtube.

The unique PR gives me creative insight on potential disaster recovery and spin marketing. It shows how a company can turn negative press that has a potential impact on sales and revenue into positive press that provides positive brand exposure

The article can be found here

Back to the Blog

A new school year and a new program means more blogging!

I will take this opportunity to reintroduce myself. I am an Advertising Media Management student at Centennial College in Toronto. I have recently committed an honours B.A. in Mass Communication Studies and Multimedia, and I have always been interested in new media and its place in communication (particularly advertising and promotional communication).

When I'm not at school I am typically watching, reading about, or playing sports. I currently play hockey through both the winter and summer, and I am an active snowboarder during the snowy months. I follow Hockey, Football, Baseball and Basketball all fairly closely (especially the first two).

This blog will be used as my opportunity to comment on interactive media in the news. Typically, I will find an article or news segment that i find rather interesting, summarize it, and provide some input on my opinions related to the information that it provides.

I find many types of new media interesting, but I will likely concentrate on topics related to communication. This will likely include (but not be limited to...) social networking, interactive marketing and media in politics.

I hope that my blog can be used as an opportunity for not only me to share my thoughts, but also as a forum for discussion with my peers. I am interested in any commentary that anybody would like to share... please comment on my posts or email me at gsgerber@gmail.com.

That's it for now... I'll leave you with a funny video outlining the potential disasters of using Wikipedia as a credible source.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

BarbaraMillarDesign.com now live!

It has been a long time coming, but we (my partner and I) have finally finished our senior thesis project.

We essentially made a website for interior design/construction company Barbara Millar Design. The site can be accessed
here.

One Laptop Per Child update

I came across an interesting article with regards to the status of the One Laptop Per Child initiative. The computers are now being manufactured in mass. It is interesting to note all of the big name tech companies backing the project. T-Mobile is outfitting nearly 8500 wireless hotspots in the US that will provide free service to customers who take part in the "give one get one" campaign. EA Games is offering to outfit the laptops with a copy of their popular game Sim City. Other corporations involved either technically or financially include Google, Intel, eBay, Advance Micro Devices, and News Corporation - a pretty extensive list.
The computers are scheduled to be distributed to eight third world countries by the end of the year. It will be interesting to see how this project pans out after it is put into place.

Googles Advertising blogs

I'm not sure if anybody has been interested (or bored) enough to go so far as to click the "Next Blog" button at the top left corner of the blog screen, but i just finished writing a blog so I figured what the hell, why not.
I don't know if I should say i was surprised or not, but all I found were adverrtisements almost every time i hit the button. In fact, 4 out of the 6 times i hit the link I was forwarded to a different version of the same "Blog"


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sounds like a real interesting blog to me... if you skip down past the advertisements to the actual "blog" section you find this:

Thursday, November 8, 2007
Your 4 p.m. News Headlines

==============================
Top Story
==============================
LIVE VIDEO: O.J. Simpson Back In Court \(NOW\)
MORE DETAILS:

Fairfax Co. Sheriff's Deputy Faces Child Porn Charges
A Fairfax County sheriff's deputy is facing child pornography charges.

MORE DETAILS:

O.J. In Court In Las Vegas
O.J. Simpson is back in court, accused of armed robbery and
kidnapping for a September incident in a Las Vegas hotel room.

Now I'm not sure if this is google milking their own technology for advertising revenue, or a third party using google advertisements on fake blogs, but either way it's a pain in the ass!