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A reflection: kid's targeted marketing

Mainly in the United States, but also in Europe, several issues were raised regarding the indiscriminate use of commercials towards kids.
If we put a 7 years old kid in front of the television, the difference between a commercial and a TV program will be hardly seen; everything will look, to him, as a fact. Children under 8 years old tend to accept every claim as truthful. Is it ethical? Kids of today will become consumers of tomorrow, and create fidelity with the brand as early as possible is becoming more and more important, mainly for fast food, snacks and soft drinks. But even those companies that you would never expect, like Camel Tobacco. In the ’80, Joe, Camel’s mascot, was heavily used by the company in printed ads and TV commercials: the campaign was officially targeted to 25-39 years old consumers. However, the peculiar style of the ad made Joe Camel become the most popular character between 5-6 years old American kids, more recognizable than Mickey Mouse. Ten years after, the majority of first time smoker between 16 and 18 years old started with Camel. Was it just casual?

Officially no one is targeting kids. McDonalds is targeting the mothers, and eventually reinforcing the brand with kids. Anyway, they created a clownesque character, Ronald McDonald, who’s definitely appealing to kids, and “hunting” them in DVDs, videogame, toys and so on. Psychologically, McDonald’s works on the comforting feelings, that are connected to those warm and playful sensations kids have when they entered a McDonald: colors, playgrounds, toys, tasty food. Once that kid who used to play in the sand pit will be grown up, he will unconsciously remind of those feeling every time he will step into a McDonald. The main goal is not to get kids to come to McDonald’s, but to make them bring their kids when they will grow up.

The raise of Advergames is also peculiar: It’s a rather cheap way of communicating in a kid’s friendly way. Associating a brand with the fun of gaming is known to lift brand metrics such as brand awareness, message association and purchase intent. After playing a game, consumers are more likely to remember not just the brand or product itself, but to associate specific brand attributes with it. Every piece of technology of the digital World most of kids live in is also a media to reach the kids themselves.
I think targeting kids is related to two main issues: Why you do it and How you do it.
The Why is the supreme question: without well defined rules, targeting kids is nowadays possible and very lucrative. Marketers are sparing no expenses to reach those little consumers, spending around 15billion $ a year just in US on kids-focused marketing. It’s a decision that comes before the campaign itself: but, if you don’t do it, someone else will (eventually worse).
The How is more tricky: is it possible to market 8 years old kids in an ethical way, to make them aware of the difference between reality and advertisement? Is there any chance to do it respecting the kids? Or are they just a mass of potential customers, potential smokers, potential adults with money?

Neon Bible by the Arcade Fire

This website is a great example of interactive video, promoting the new Arcade Fire album, Neon Bible. It's a music video, It's an interactive experience, It's an amazing song. It's perfect then... enjoy!

Hitler got banned

Not great, but pretty funny video on youtube. I never really liked re-dubbed videos, they are always trying to be funny at any cost, even forcing things a little. This one keeps some plot of the original story but referred to Xbox Live. The movie is The Downfall, a German movie of a few years ago (not too bad, I have to say).

Metro dreamgirl

maybe I'm just a cynical bastard, but i feel like there's something wrong with this.
A New York guy find the girl he ever dreamed about on the metro, he's to shy to talk, she lives the train, he's in love, he creates a webpage with a drawing about her. Time three days, the great internet community finds her. Sound too good to be true, never underestimate the power of viral marketing. Maybe there's some brand hiding somewhere in this story...

HEMA. How to destroy a web page

Nice viral by HEMA, a general cheap store from Netherlands. Hema is selling from glasses to blankets, from wine to shampoo. This web page is a good example of how to make some good, simple viral marketing without being pretentious, just simple and clear.
HEMA viral

zune, ten thousand different versions of yourself

Ok, I don't really like microsoft, and I have to admit I don't like their iPod alike mp3 player, Zune. It just makes no sense, doesn't fit with iPod users (that can spend money to have THE mp3 player) and the cheap Creative mp3 player. And it does not have the reminiscence of something beautiful and vintage like Sony Walkman. It's just a copy of iPod, just a decade later and less stylish. Anyway, i think the commercial is nice, good music by The Shins, and a simple idea (10000 versions of yourself) that we heard already 10000 times but that always works.

Gali the alligator

Nice commercial for a cable channel. It's a bit old but I discovered it recently and it made me laugh like crazy. Great the idea of mixing kid's world and splatter scenes surrounded by a happy choir

Bodygroom by Philips: how to say P***s without saying P***s

Great commercial and campaign from Philips (who won the Effie award for best new product campaign) working on buzz marketing and using online communities.
Here's the commercial:


The campaign was also made with talking urinals (!), online banners and wild ads in the streets, elevators, bars, where carrots were related to the tag of "now you can shave wherever you want".

A great campaign, made in low budget but plenty of ideas, enogh to create a cult.

Bargnani or Belinelli? Nike got viral

For the first time Italian basketball is proudly having two young players in NBA's rosters. Nike decided create a "rivalry" between the two: one. Bargnani is a freshman in Toronto Raptors, a huge talent (the next Nowitzki they say, I honestly doubt it). The other one is Belinelli, 18th pick at this year's draft from Golden State. In the ad Bargnani is explaining how to change attitude once in NBA (check out dirty jerseys, pay respect to the older players...),while the rookie is shooting threes. Rumors say that the commecial was shot just once. Good aiming skills then!

There was also an online competition on nike website about supporting Bargnani
or supporting Belinelli

Here's the commercial

Steve McQueen is on the stairs

Nationwide insurance renowed a stairway in LA (I suppose) creating this beautiful perspective. The tag is "Life come at you fast". Nice job I think, great outdoor and very creative. Very American too; rarely in Europe we can see something that.

Facebook, how Target wins, how Wal Mart loses

One of the smartest move a marketer can make nowadays, is to use the new online communities to create true communication with a target audience, to improve their awareness, to test new products.

Websites like Facebook and Myspace, enjoying the huge media coverage about them as the “next big thing” on internet, are a very dangerous field of action for brands, a gamble. Facebook is a community with more than 40 million users, mostly college students, a critical and idealist, in other words dangerous, type of audience.

Two examples: one, very successful, is Target Stores, a cheap furnitures American chain, who has a very well defined style and is very appreciated by students. Target created a Facebook group, joined by thousands of users, about “Dorm survival guides”, with tips and interactive examples on how to furnish a small room for less. Users could upload pictures of their own narrow rooms, discuss in the message board and post comments on the guestbook. Target used an existing environment, gave students the chance of interacting (with the brand and between each others), and created awareness. This happened in relation of how Target was seen by the target audience, as a reliable, user friendly, socially responsible brand with a well defined style. They made the marketing very subtle and were rewarded by posts from people saying how much they loved Target, how much they felt close to the brand style.

A similar, this time almost suicidal, strategy was used by Wal Mart. The company decided to create an interactive discussion group about student’s rooms. The problem is that Wal Mart is considered one of the most unethical and child-labour-exploiting company in the World. Facebook users, then, talked about Wal Mart, but about other sensible issues, instead of Wal Mart room’s furnitures. Wal Mart didn’t research the conversation and the community before jumping in, and that badly reflected on its image.

Is very important not to impose the brand message, but give to the user a content that works as a social currency.

Whatever the story is, it has to be mostly told by the users, not by the brand.

Ps. On november 6 Facebook CEO will define a new way of social advertisement. Time to make some money before the bubble busts?

Amazing...

This has been taken at Missouri school of journalism...Apple laptopts must work very well then...

Thanks to Brandinfection

Halo 3 gets real

As if the hype around its release was not enough, Halo 3 started a viral marketing campaign without any records in history of videogames. First, some beautiful commercials under the "believe" idea. Then, the release of three short films, mainly for the online audience, showing a battle between covenant and soldiers, acted by actors and filled with special effects. The blogger communities and Youtubbers really appreciated, and the word was spread. Some rumors are that those videos are some sort of "trailer" for the upcoming Halo movie (Peter Jackson project). That's not true: first, Halo movie project was frozen by the production (too expensive, they said). Second, the videos are evidently not professional as an Hollywood movie would be, even if they are very nicely made. Viral marketing, nothing more than that, but, as usual, more effective than ever.

Those are the "believe" commercials, when Halo is history, and it's real:

Graveyard:

Enemy weapon:

Hunted:


This is a short version of the "real" battle:

Bye bye billboards

Last month the major of Sao Paulo decided to take down all the billboards, flashing neon signs, bus ads, even reduce front shops. A city of 20 million people found herself naked. The decision was taken to fight the illegal billboards that are filling the streets and covering the buildings of the metropolis; Sao Paulo was billboard’s anarchic paradise.

The citizens reacted positively, tired of the daily chaos caused by thousand of outdoor ads, marketers didn’t: being on the right side, paying for the space in conformity with law, the big brands became victims, paying for other’s crimes. The chief of the commercial association of Sao Paulo declared: "We live in a consumer society and the essence of capitalism is the availability of information about products”. It was not convincing, and as a result Sao Paulo got undressed, maybe the first metropolis in the western World to do so.

What’s going to happen then? The situation looks very dangerous for marketers, considering how fast an initiative like this can be spread all over and be font of inspiration for other city councils. Billboards, anyway, are also an important way of characterizing a city (New York’s Times Square, Tokyo’s Shibuya) and became part of the urban environment.

Faster, Viral marketing, Kill! Kill! When viral marketing is unexpected

On the 9^th of August an “Haiti UFO” video appeared on Youtube. About 5 million people saw it in the last month. Apart from the debate about the ”authenticity”, online users started wondering whether was or wasn’t a viral marketing campaign. The UFOs look very similar to the spaceships in the upcoming Halo 3 videogame; it can’t be a coincidence, most people said.

The video maker (after a while it turned out that the video is fake, a French guy admitted he made it with V3 3D program) said there’s no viral “factor” in it, just a software experiment, in which he was probably inspired by the game. Intended or not, the campaign worked for the videogame, increasing the hype around its release.

On the other side, in late 2006 an amateur video appeared on Youtube, with a guy making a rap song about the hysterical need of a Playstation Portable for Christmas. A blog connected to it was also opened. Online communities took a few days to discover the fake: the website was related to a marketing company called Zipatoni. The gamers community felt underestimated and betrayed by Sony, and a huge word of mouth about the video and the blog started spreading, damaging the image of the company.

Sony apologized on the blog itself.

Busted. Nailed. Snagged. As many of you have figured out (maybe our speech was a little too funky fresh???), Peter isn't a real hip-hop maven and this site was actually developed by Sony. Guess we were trying to be just a little too clever. From this point forward, we will just stick to making cool products, and use this site to give you nothing but the facts on the PSP.

Sony Computer Entertainment America

The attitude of online communities regarding viral marketing is changing: they are very suspicious, investigating everything. Working on viral marketing platforms (mostly using web 2.0 like Youtube or Tudou) can be really profitable (and cheap) but also very dangerous, if the campaign is made hiding the real objective of it. At least, if you really have to hide, do it right.

here's Sony campaign: