Possibly because he proved such a smashing success in San Diego, the Association of Zoos and Aquariums has brought a man dressed like GEICO's Gecko to the Houston Zoo along with a live gecko exhibit.
Houston Zoo director Rick Barongi called GEICO "a great partner for zoos and aquariums." What?! GEICO on best behaviour amongst wee kiddies and disgruntled animals? We believe it. If we were the most visible insurance option at a zoo, we would be too.
Having fielded studies, interviewed researchers and read "over 50 books" (!!!!) about marketing to women, Hoffman York has launched Kaleidoscope Group, a girl goddess think tank.
The website greeted us with an actual kaleidoscope of women and some Lilith Fair music that stimulated the growth of our leg hair follicles.
The group coined what it calls the "Time Zero Effect," which posits that even one negative element in an ad to women will blow your brand out of her periphery. (0x0=0. Get it?)
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Adrants reader Atif sent us Delta's new airline safety video. It's all slick production and jammed with in-flight classics:
o A hot pilot
o A distractingly hot spokes-stewardess (Dubbed "Deltalina" by the Flyertalk forum geeks, for her similarity to Angelina Jolie)
o The requisite forced enthusiasm for the 5 minutes of life-saving schlock we've heard 30382943908453908 times
o The "No Smoking" finger wave
o An Orbit tooth glisten, complete with sound effects (wait for it!)
The spot felt gimmicky because it was gimmicky. But maybe there's genius in thinking a formulaic safety video can win back some groove with a commercial tribute feel.
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Sometimes even lowly coffee brands needs the occasional boost and that's what Indianapolis-based Young & Laramore did for Memphis-based Ugly Mug coffee as part of a complete re-branding. Focusing on coffee's true purpose, to dramatically kick your head into gear each morning, Y&L went bold. Very bold.
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"If you wear it, they will watch." That's the premise behind the concept of wearable video (patent pending).
The business plan is simple enough: just slide a video vest onto "brand ambassadors," a winning euphemism for "leggy girls in bikinis and/or short skirts walking around with audio/visual torsos." Big upgrade on ye olde standby.
Online testimonials included "Hey, cool" and "I was drawn to her."
...Yeah.
When it comes to targeting the elusive Hispanic consumer, Cilantro Animation has this to say: "Be prepared to offer more than just Hola!"
(Though we'd like to point out that strategy worked wonders for Dora the Explorer.)
But Cilantro -- which creates Hispanic cartoons like the one at left -- makes an interesting point. When we hit ad:tech Miami we were overwhelmed with a sense that the Hispanic market remains unimpressed with the way big media has (or hasn't) tried to reach out.
And indeed, a salsa-colored Hola! just doesn't cut it when you consider the range of ethnicities blanketed under what we breezily dub Hispanic: Mexican, Cuban, Peruvian, Venezuelan, Colombian, Ecuadorian, and others -- all with their own cultural customs, jokes and sensitivities.
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Check out the Electric Tiger Land shoe campaign by StrawberryFrog, Amsterdam (print variations 1 and 2).
Here's the accompanying spot.
The pressie tells us the shots are of a giant "city in a sneaker" sculpture for Asics' Ontisuka Tiger.
The sculpture was inspired by Tokyo and has Japanese market signs in the toe, Onitsuka Tiger vending machines in the heel and the Narita airport runway on the the tongue. Versions were also made for Germany, France, the UK, Korea, and Australia.
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We hate the (Red) campaign.
But it doesn't matter what we think, because it marches on for reasons beyond the realms of human understanding. You really can get people to buy crap products if you promise X percent of $X will "support four months" of antiretroviral medication to an unspecified number of AIDS patients somewhere in Africa.
Who? Where? What is antiretroviral medication?
Is Bono really this powerful?
We were casually perusing the FAO Schwarz website when we came across the Barbie section. This should be fun, we thought. Then we found Barbie and Miss Honey in Hollywood and went into WTF! mode.
What kind of woman -- even a woman made of plastic -- names her dog Miss Honey?
Come to think of it, probably the same kind of woman that would name her dog Tinkerbell.
Remember the repugnance that was All You Need is Luvs? Get a load of "All you need is hub," courtesy of Konica Minolta for its bizhub printer/copier/scanner-majig.
Because nothing says "revolution" like a print job that doesn't fuck up your tie-dye.
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