Nowadays, you can measure what people are watching on YouTube. And it will not be a surprise to learn that videos of cats doing stupid things are watched and watched again millions of times.
That is something that the advertising agency John St noticed. John St uses creative, design, digital, strategy, social media and research to make their clients' brand "unignorable". And they have launched a new concept to do so: the catvertising. This means using cats for their ads, in order to be on the top of internet new trends. Because, as they say, cats will soon do more views on the internet than porn.That's why they opened the world's first cat video division:
Benetton is famous for its provocative advertisements. Now, it was presented shocking live event - Lana Sutra, broadcast simultaneously from 3 concept stores in Milan, Munich and Istanbul: the new 2011 Fall/Winter collection. It was presented together with an exhibition of Lana Sutra installations by Cuban artist, Erik Ravelo – a celebration of the purity of human love through the interweaving of wool and colour.
The goal of Shock Marketing is to go against moral principles of someone. To make him have a trauma, an emotional shock.
Nowadays, many ads are trying to shock. People are confronted to so many ads that so marketers think that creating an emotional shock is a very efficient way to deliver their message. But do these shocks have an impact on consumers behavior?
If it doesn't, at least, they catch attention. Moreover, with the new social communities, they create the buzz. But in the good way ? Even if they believe that they are delivering their message, don't they take the risk to cross the line and to send back the trauma on the brand image ? Should there be a limit, or are all the ways good to catch the attention ?
For this, we have many examples. From Lady Gaga to "Reporters sans frontières", they all try to shock to make people react or force them to get a message.
During the last ten years, sexual contents in ads have become more and more common. Now, they use it even for promoting products which have no relation with it. That's the case of "vivastreet" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwLli9uMHoE&feature=player_embedded) or "perrier" ("La main la plus sexy du monde")
So now, if sexuality is less and less shocking in people mind, they try to enter on new fields, that's the case of "Loué" with its ad for its "Free chicken":
But also RSF which made some ads attacking directly symbols of the french republic:
And some other brands, understanding that some targets want gore and trash (mainly young people), don't hesitate to shock in order to reach them:
Other commercials will go even farther. That's the case of many "prevention" ads, that try to "shock" in order to make people realize. But many people complained, saying that these ads are confusing strong symbols that have no link together (Aids and Hitler, in a spot against aids).
Other are going very far and try to create a real trauma. That's the case of the spot for the road safety, with blood, cries, dead bodies, they really made it distressing so that people can realize and react. Shock to save.
If brands could maybe not permit themselves to create such trauma, mainly because it wouldn't bring a good image of them, this kind of marketing is used by some people to become famous, and stay famous. That's the case of people living of their image and fame. These stars, mostly singers, will try to catch the attention by any mean, which can be very controversial sometimes.
That's the case of course of Lady Gaga, who created buzz any time she did something (wearing a dress made of meat, shocking video clips) but also of many others. And even if many people complained, it did work. The buzz was done. That's also the case of M.I.A., who asked to Romain Gavras (well known for his very controversial video clips that always create the buzz, such as "Stress" for Justince) to make a clip for her song "Born free".
They said they wanted it to be shocking so that people would realize the need of equality between people. But, if the video does shock, we can wonder if the message is spread.
More than controversial, this brings the question of what can be tolerated in order to catch attention.
The amount of advertisements is growing more and more, and with internet, it is spreading faster and faster. If ten years ago we could only see french ads in France, now any commercial can have a worldwide success. Having that in mind, we can wonder if some ads won't try to become more and more shocking in order to be different from others.
To my mind, this way of attracting attention is the laziest way. Shocking instead of trying to be different with its originality and creativity just like the wonderful job of Tippex:
But good or bad, useful or useless, people might complain or not, these producers and marketers of "shocking ads" achieved their goal: people talk about it and that creates the buzz.
How could we speak about shocking people and create a buzz without talking about T-mobile, the German communication company, present almost everywhere in the world ?
They love creating buzz, by many means: gigantic dance in a train station, surprising musical comedy at airports, unplanned sing-along in Trafalgar Square with Pink, and lately the parody of the Royal Wedding. And it works. From 5 millions views to more than 30 millions viewers, they are catching the eyes, and the attention.
But it is not just that it's surprising to see so many people dancing, singing or else in amazing places, moreover the video is very well done, giving the viewer a real sense of happiness. I chanllange you to watch those videos without smiling !
Then, after being focused on them, being happy for those people on the video, how can we refuse their moto "life's for sharing" ?
Last year, Batelco, from Batelco Group, the leading integrated communications’ provider in the Bahrain, created the buzz with a wonderful video.
Wanted to be seen as the reference among the Middle East North Africa region’s key telecommunications players for innovation and customer experience, the message of the video "What are you thinking right now ? Keep thinking. - Batelco. Bringing ideas to life" is definitely well chosen.
And they made their point. Almost two millions viewers of the videos (250 000 after one week) and 250 000 fans on their facebook page. The german TV-directors,Alex & Steffen, were not at their first try. They already had worked for Nissan, Snickers or Vestel. A video that must be seen.
While big cable companies struggle to retain subscribers, some YouTube "stars" are drawing large audiences--and ad dollars to match.
According to AdWeek, this new wave of Internet celebrities attract subscribers with entertaining videos that receive thousands, sometimes millions, of views. YouTubers who engage directly with their audiences are ideal vehicles for brands like Mattel, Lancome, McDonalds, Kraft, GE and more. AdWeekreports that these YouTube stars earn "six-figure ad revenue deals from Google, [and] up to $20,000 a pop for branded videos."
Take a look through our slideshow of YouTube celebrities that brands love, based on data by analytics and advertising firm TubeMogul. How do you feel about YouTube video stars who accept brand sponsorship? Are they smart or are they sellouts? Share your thoughts in the comments below, then check out our slideshow of top-earning YouTubers.
iJUSTINE
1 of 6
Subscribers: 917 thousand
All-time views: 196 million
Average views per day: 301 thousand According to AdWeek, iJUSTINE (aka Justine Ezarik) sometimes features her brand sponsors as her co-stars. "TubeMogul estimates her brand integration views this year alone have generated more than 9 million views," AdWeekwrites.
It’s been a while that clothes retailers have
understood that having visibility on the Internet is necessary. Most brands
have their own website and more and more are developing « shop
online » section to surf on the Web wave that is becoming a very powerful
distribution channel.
But the truth is that many new players, that
are penetrating the market, have decided to go straight to the goal: to sell
only through the Internet.
The famous and trendy mixed website that illustrate
well this trend is ASOS
But, even if the Web is a powerful channel,
those online stores have well understood that they must have strong competitive
advantages, to make weight at the hands of all stores that have a physical
sales point.
This website have been set up by 2 men, Bertrand
Thoral and Stéphane Grand-Clément. They both have strong knowledge about
fashion, and they consider it as the main strength of Dressing the man: it will
allow them to suggest their customer a relevant selection adapted to 25 to 45
years old men.
Their targets are men that care about their
image, sensitive toward fashion and trends with high wages.
The soul of the website is the selection offered:
They will suggest around 50 well known brands (Bellerose, Marc by Marc Jacobs,
Villebrequin…), but also more confidential ones, with a real product interest
like cuisse de grenouille, Bérangère Claire… All will be choosen according to
the values they support: Elegance, Modernism and unpretentiousness.
On top of that, 20% of the website offer will
be non-fashion product, like high tech or design items.
The presentation of the items will be in still
life, very qualitative. The models they will use are people from the street
with the aim of creating human on the web.
They want the website to be everything but
frozen. To do so, they will for instance point up a brand and a cloth, and 3
styles suggestion (casual, chic and trendy)
The advice part is also the strength of the
website: Fashion advisers will be available through email, chat or phone,
during weekdays. The aim of that is to provide design and technical advices to
men, like they should have if they were in stores.
Dressing the man will also have its magazine
to serve brands partners: it will allow them to publish information about them
(like stores openings).
Nowadays, advertising is
everywhere, in your TV, in your radio, on the internet, on the street and even
on your cellphones ! Moreover, there are more and more competitions, so
more and more brands. It's being complex for companies not only to
be heard and to deliver a message, but also not to be forgotten. Firms have to be careful not to disable a customer that is sometimes fed up with this
world of brands and ads.
That
is why more and more companies try things like that :
It's a Romanian Press Relation event for the new season of
the series True Blood.
The red water reminds the blood which is omnipresent in this
series.
This type of marketing has many advantages. Firstly, it
costs almost nothing regarding the impact : People there and the press do
the job for the firm by relating the event on classic and social media.
Moreover, the surprising charcharteristic of this fountain, make that people who
will see it, are not going to forget it easily.
Here is another example realised by Greenpeace to make people realise that the global warning dissolve the ice of the North Pole.
Those types of ads are dramatically efficient but can also shock people that are not in the targeted population. This "event" has been made by MTV in Bulgaria to promote one of its show for young. They organised a challenge to promote it. The idea of the winner was to be attach on a column during an afternoon. Very efficient marketing for the targeted population, but what a shocking way to promote a TV programme...
By the way, if you do not want to be forgotten, be
surprinsing.
Facebook and Twitter are an
integral tick box on just about every marketing plan. Page on Facebook won’t
make your brand social!The key point is not where brand communicate, but how.
Look the Nike Livestrong/Chalkbot
campaign. People submitted 36,000
messages through social media. Each message was printed on the section of the
course, photographed, tagged with GPS coordinates and emailed to the person who
submitted it.
"Masstige" is a portemanteau word that join together « Mass
market » and « prestige ».
Masstige product are items that are
premium but atteignable : it answers to the new trends which is the
growing interest of mass consumers toward luxury brands.
The key success factors of the Masstige
can be identified as:
The collaboration between a luxury brand and a mass consumption brand
The use of mass consumptioncommunication codes
Short lived commercial transactions mainly based on the announcement
effect
Marketing target younger than the target of luxury brands
H&M has understood this and managed
surfing on that trend through a few collaborations with luxury brands.
in fact, the suedish brand has already
collaborate withdesigners of
luxury brands such as Karl Lagerfeld, Stella McCartney, Sonia Rykiel, Victor
and Rolf, Jimmy choo and Lanvin.
Stella McCartney add:
Some of those collaborations have been
reallly successful (Karl lagarfeld, stell mc cartney, sonia rykiel) and some
others less (Jimmy choo and LANVIN)
In November it will be the turn of Versace to reveal its
capsule collection designed for H&M brand. It’s the artistic director
herself, Donatella versace, that has designed the entire collection for
H&M.
The collection will give consumer a look on all the brand
legacy : she will use esthetics codes and symbolic items that made Versace brand historical : leather, gold studs, exagerate use of colors…
This collaboration is announced as not only glamour but also successful.
Donatella versace has declared that she
likes surprising people, so we can’t wait to be amazed by that new collection,
that is scheduled to be in selected stores on November 2011 the 19th.
H&M is not an isolated case of collaborations between luxury
designers and retailers.
For instance the japanese department store Uniqlo (which sells very cheap product in japan) has
collaboratedwith German fashion designer
Jill Sander. The clothing range Entitled +J, offers a selection of clothes in
monochromatic style but with a value added price tag.
Scenario DNA – an american consumer insight agency, which is
working with wide range of companies, such as LVMH, Mercedez-Benz, Nike, etc,
has defined «luxury's 4 codes of meaning».
What does this code mean?
According to scenarioDNA, today rank must set
authentic standards: «Todays superrich no longer imitate a
psuedo-aristocratic lifestyle with hourse prints on the wall.» (Tobias Meyer,
Sautheby's principle auctioneer).
Guilt involves
power, given to influential people and corporations. With power comes responsability. We now seek power that enables change and
which can be expressed through:
Restraint trumps decadance
Rethinking the mundane
Building the reconnection to
the source
Ethical mainstreaming
Sustainability
Perfection
– could be defined in two ways. From the customers' side, today every product detail is scrunitized, even if product is not
percieved. From the companies' side, the response must come up with the critical process control and refining the ordinary.
Freedom
is:
·Creativity
·Conspiration
·Indulging playful stories
·Transcending the expected
·Being confident to mix high
and low (collaborations, e.g. Missoni and Target)
·Knowledge engagement –
it
engages the human and activates behaviour (involvement, authenticity,
sustainability)
·Innovation
Scenario DNA evoke the need to build
cultural taxonomies. Nowadays most recently we are exhasting the
language – the words we use are out of sync with the real cultures that bring
them meaning and power. But language
is the powerful tool which permits to build a connection
between the culture to the brand. Our target is not packing the
latest buzzword and hoping for the best, but engaging
language. Beyond the logo, the licensing and huribs, there must be
something more deep and profound.
