Fat Bastard, the wine not the Austin Powers character, has been running a "whoppingly great" radio campaign in Madison, Wisconsin. The wine maker plans to roll the campaign out to other markets in 2004.
Other campaigns featured in this week's Out to Launch column by MediaPost's Amy Corr include a new campaign for Jeep Trail Rated vehicles, a multicultural campaign from Honda promoting the personalization of the Civic, a print and cinema campaign for Toyota's Scion, a Discovery Channel street marketing campaign that used crushed cars to promote the cable channels' Dinosaur Planet special, a usual holiday ditty from the Gap and a campaign from Allied Domecq Spirits promoting flavored Stolichnaya vodka.
Apparently, fewer people give a shit about the capture of Saddam then they do about Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritche getting two guys to suck face with each other. Yup, this week's episode of "The Simple Life" beat Diane Sawyer's interview with President Bush by a million viewers. All demographic groups except for those over 50 preferred Paris to the President. Paris for President?
There's more Knowles booty on the way. We're saturated with Beyonce's booty so UPN is providing an alternative with different Knowles booty in the form of Beyonce's sister Solange. Solange has signed a deal with UPN to appear in a new television series slated to begin next Fall. The project has no name yet but will likely be a sitcom. Currently, Solange is featured on the Disney Channel doing voiceover for "The Proud Family" and on the Nickelodeon series "Taina."
A recently launched ad campaign on England urges people to keep an eye on their drinks when they are out partying during the holiday season. The campaign is in reaction to a finding that one in 12 drinks have been found to contain the drug Rohypnol which cause drowsiness and loss of memory allowing sexual predators to take advantage of helpless drugged up victims.
The campaign, continuing through Christmas and New Year, will consist of scooter advertising (mobile billboards) and additional outdoor advertising.
It always amazing to watch brands to be cool and to "resonate" with the teen demo. Most efforts are embarrassing disasters that end up wasting marketers money and diluting the company's brand. McDonald's and Coke are changing their brand so often that it is becoming impossible to really understand what they are all about.
Teens are much savior than in years past and can smell a marketing ploy a mile away. Done right, product integration (product placement), video game advertising, SMS marketing, IM advertising and musical tour sponsorships are the new avenues through which to communicate with Gen Y. Of course, it helps to have a great product in the first place rather then trying to cool up a bad product with an ad campaign that, ultimately, ends up being a lie. Do that once, and Gen Y will write you off for good.
Hip-hop duo OutKast has signed a marketing deal with Polaroid. Under the deal, Polaroid hopes to leverage OutKast's "Shake it like a Polaroid picture" reference in their hit song "Hey Ya" by having the duo carry Polaroid cameras on stage with them as they perform. Havas' Euro RSCG MVBMS Partners brokered the deal.
