How do you go viral without social media?

Lost was created by Jeffrey Lieber, J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof, was produced by Bad Robot Productions, and was filmed almost entirely on location in Hawaii. The show was produced by ABC Studios and aired on the ABC network in the US. The show was also distributed across the globe with the UK showing it on Channel 4, which is where I got my hands on it. On top of it's brilliantly intricate (and often convoluted) storytelling, Lost was also known for its innovative nontraditional marketing. This came as a world-spanning alternate reality game (ARG) in 2006 called The Lost Experience. [si_guide_block id="5676" title="Download FREE Resource – Digital marketing plan template" description="Our popular marketing planning template built on the Smart Insights RACE planning system."/] The game first began on May 2, 2006, in the United Kingdom, May 3, 2006, in…

How sparking debate can reward the risk-takers in advertising

Despite the immediate public backlash around the British Army’s latest recruitment campaign, data suggests that it led to a drastic turnaround in the organization’s well-known struggles to bring in new recruits in recent years. While certain behaviours of the younger generation are seen as faults (from binge gamers’ obsessive drive to snowflakes’ overly emotional state of being), the campaign aimed to explain that these flaws can, in fact, be valued character traits among army personnel. In this blog, I’ll take a look at this emerging demographic before delving into the immediate public reaction post-launch, the campaign’s results and the risks involved with a campaign of this nature.

Who are "Generation Z"?

Often to the dismay of those defined as "Generation Z" - much like the Millennials who came before them - the…

Coca-Cola prove that sounds - or a lack thereof - can produce powerful results in advertising

“Try not to hear this” is the tempting message behind this campaign, and you’d be hard pressed to find many consumers capable of doing so. Coca-Cola’s latest campaign reminds us all of the position this brand occupies not just in the market, but in our own subconscious. All that’s required to hear the satisfying sound that precedes the experience of drinking Coca-Cola is catching sight of one of the three print ads that make up this series: The popping of a bottle cap from a glass bottle of Coca-Cola The fizzle of a freshly poured glass of the drink …

Campaign of the Week: Spotify use their data analytics in a risky but elegant marketing campaign

When it comes to data analytics and marketing campaigns, you don't often find common ground within the B2C arena. I myself have what could be described as an unhealthy fascination with data analytics. We won't go into that now though, instead let's talk about how Spotify made it cool with not just millennials, but everyone. Their "2018 Goals" campaign was the perfect way to sign off an impressive 2017. [si_guide_block id="84595" title="Download Free resource –Integrated marketing megatrends" description="Learn about the 10 megatrends that have already helped leading companies future-proof their strategies by ensuring all aspects of marketing are integrated."/]

The play

Spotify experienced an impressive 2017 with the brand starting to hit a sharper growth curve than any years prior. This meant that they saw 40% growth in revenues and clawed back…

Always managed to approach an important social issue perfectly within a global marketing campaign

We continue our series of looking back and brand marketing campaigns that will resonate for decades to come. Next up we have Proctor & Gamble's Always brand and their 2014 #LIKEAGIRL campaign. It will forever be remembered not for the content of the advert, but for the conversation it sparked in society. [si_guide_block id="29978" title="Download FREE Resource – Essential marketing models" description="15 classic planning tools to inform strategy development."/]

The Brief

Always’ commitment to empowering girls through puberty education dates back decades. Yet in 2013, P&G realized the brand’s purpose wasn’t apparent to the new generation of consumers. Always’ brand communications had remained focused on product performance, while its main rivals had moved on. The challenge was to build a fresh and more meaningful understanding of confidence which would resonate with the…

Consumer brand marketing made creative by Honda

We look back to 2003 and Honda were struggling to make a sustainable impact in the European markets so turned to brand marketing . They had seen a decline in sales since 1998 and their 2nd position to Toyota had been lost to Nissan. Japanese car placement in the European market was essential, and Honda needed to make a bigger splash with a smaller pebble. [si_guide_block id="5676" title="Download FREE Resource – Digital marketing plan template" description="Our popular marketing planning template built on the Smart Insights RACE planning system."/]

The Play

In 2001 that Wieden+Kennedy proposed to Honda a new advertising strategy based on the company's Japanese motto, "Yume No Chikara" ("Power of Dreams"). The stated goal of the campaign was to increase Honda's share of the UK market to five percent within three years and to change…

How Melbourne Metro made a public service video marketing ad creative instead of doom and gloom

In 2012 Melbourne Metro needed to promote rail safety in a campaign that had to resonate with their rail users in a video marketing campaign. It was something that would usually take the form of an informative safety display ad which would not envoke much of an active response from viewers. Not this time. [si_guide_block id="70611" title="Download FREE Resource – Essential digital marketing tools 2017" description="A free download giving our recommendations on tools for audience insight and managing digital marketing."/]

The Play

McCann, Metro's agency, decided to go down the route of entertainment, writing some hilarious lyrics to a song about all the dumb ways to die—such as poking a grizzly bear, selling both your kidneys on the internet or using your privates as piranha bait—to underline the message…

The brand marketing campaign that defined Nike

Nike has done it again. They've turned heads, they've shown their brand mentality and they have got people talking about them. This week they celebrated the 30 year anniversary of their "Just Do it." slogan. They had bags of content that they could've used for it, not to mention sports stars. Nike for the first time have stepped into the social arena of current events and made Colin Kaepernick, the outed NFL Quaterback who knelt during the national anthem, the face of the campaign. This is an amazingly bold move from Nike as even President Trump stood against it along with Kaepernick's team and the NFL themselves. It came to light that Nike had not dropped him from their books and in fact went into talks to make him the face of the anniversary. They even aired the advert at half time in the first game…

Absolut vodka and their marketing campaign have stood the test of time

Sometimes a simple marketing campaign can far outshine a complicated and expensive one. This is the same for more than just marketing campaigns and usually is true across a lot of things in life in general. Simple and effective is more often than not the way to go. Let us see how Absolut vodka did that. [si_guide_block id="29978" title="Download FREE Resource – Essential marketing models" description="15 classic planning tools to inform strategy development."/]

The history

Absolut as a company was founded in 1879 by Lars Olsson Smith and is produced in Åhus, Sweden. He challenged, and beat, the city of Stockholm's liquor marketing monopoly with his vodka. He sold it just outside the city border at a lower price than the monopoly's product. Smith even offered free boat rides to the distillery and "Rent Brännvin"…

Examples showing why the 'Thank you Mom' campaigns are so effective

Procter & Gamble Co.’s “Thank You, Mom" campaign is the first of our new series of pieces celebrating the most influential campaigns, both past and present. In this case, we are looking back to 2010 when the start of heartstring plucking ads came out ahead of the Winter Olympics. [si_guide_block id="74955" title="Download FREE Resource – Agency digital marketing services – the top 10 mistakes to avoid" description="The 10 most common mistakes made by marketing agency owners when offering new digital services."/]

The history

Toward the end of Chairman-CEO A.G. Lafley’s first term in 2009, P&G learned that it had the chance to sign a sweeping sponsorship deal with the U.S. Olympic Committee for the 2010 Winter Games. Rival Johnson & Johnson had locked up much of the sponsorship opportunities in prior years. But P&G had to act fast,…