Black Friday advertising

People go absolutely nuts shopping on Black Friday. I know this not because I go out to get those great deals but because I work at two retail stores and am always stuck working all day. This past Black Friday I worked at Kohl's. There was over an hour wait just to purchase your stuff and this was at 1PM. They were open at 4AM. The deals were ridiculously good and this is why advertising for those Black Friday sales is so important. It's all about competition between the stores. Who has the best prices? The most well stocked shelves? This is the biggest shopping day of the year and the most important to retail stores. The other retail store that I work at besides Kohl's is Target. I just recently seen their goofy 2 day Black Friday ads and they are hilarious. Here is a sum up of what the whole campaign is about:



Now here is one of their many TV ads:



The reason why this is so successful? Well besides being funny and memorable, it really shows Target's demographic. Like I said before, I work at Target so I see these energetic young mom-like women come in for great sales. This is a great example of the type of people that shop there. Not only that but this is Target's "image". This is what Target wants their employees to be like. They want us to be energetic, fast and friendly. Here is another one of their TV ads:



I think this new Target character is a great addition to their Black Friday campaign. It makes people remember not only her but the sale as well. I think she is a better icon for this particular sale event than the Target dog because she has personality and brings a little something extra for big events. I think Target should bring her back every year for the Black Friday advertising. It would give people something to look forward to every season. I think if Target had her year round as their character, it would get old but just once a year is more like a treat for the audience. Overall, I think Target is very successful with all of their advertising. Their TV ads are all short and to the point but they also reach the demographic well with a little bit of humor. What can I say? I'm a fan.

All videos found on youtube

Some cool things

I was looking through adsoftheworld and came across some really cool things. This weeks blog is about what I found that might interest and inspire you guys. This one is a campaign done for stationary. Usually stationary isn't very exciting but I think this will blow your mind.




The colorful design was made of all push pins and the black and white one was all staples. Amazing. What surprises me is that all this was done just for stationary, something not so cool. This next one is a cool optical illusion. From far away it looks like there is a stain on the shirt and close up it's gone.



I thought this was a good idea because it would make people do a double take, looking at the ad a couple times, making them remember the brand. This next one is a campaign for colorectal cancer.



This is like a dare for people to send in pictures of their butts. They can send the pics to their friends via facebook and it tells them facts about colorectal cancer. First of all this is eye catching and funny. It also delivers important and serious information in a fun way. This next outdoor ad is just ridiculous. I have no idea how they constructed it.



These are only a few of the awesome campaigns I found. I'm very interested in non traditional ads and seeing what you can do in the environment. A lot of the things you see on there make you think "why haven't I thought of that".

Meet the real Wendy

Dave Thomas was the founder of the fast food restaurant, Wendy's. He named the franchise after his daughter, Wendy. The family is now returning to Wendy's advertising by having the real Wendy in the new campaign for Dave's Hot 'N Juicy Cheeseburger, named after Dave Mr. Thomas himself. His face has been part of the brand since it was founded in 1969. This is the first time that Wendy actually appeared in any of the ads. The idea here was "who better to introduce the line than Wendy herself?". I think having the real Wendy is a good addition to the current campaign "You know when it's real" since she is the real version of the cartoon icon. Right now, they are only test marketing the new cheeseburger in Vegas. The reason why most products are tested in Vegas is because everything starts in Vegas and what happens in Vegas stays there so it's not a total flop if something goes wrong.

Anyway, I think the new real Wendy could be a good character for the brand. The cartoon Wendy icon was actually created to look like Wendy when she was a kid. I think it's clever to have her come back in advertising now and it makes the brand feel more family friendly. I know she's specifically coming into the advertising for the new campaign for the new burger but I wonder if that's gonna be it for her. I think it would be good for the brand to have her stick around for years like her father Dave did. That way the consumer can relate to the brand more and have a solid character in the campaign. If Wendy goes away after this one campaign, I don't think anyone will realize or remember who she is and it wouldn't make any difference if she made this one appearance or not.

They could of picked anyone to be the new spokesperson of Wendy's but it's so much more powerful that it's the real Wendy which is why I think it's so critical that she stays in the brand. I know when I first read this article I thought "wow that's the real Wendy!" We all know the icon but we've never seen the actual person and now she's all grown up. Anyway, I think this is a powerful boost for Wendy's marketing.

Here is a TV ad for he new campaign:



Find out more at adage and LasVegasSun

Weddings at McDonald's?

Hong Kong will be the first city in the world to have wedding services at the well known fast food restaurant, McDonald's starting January 1st. The package includes:

A baked apple pie wedding cake



Dress made out of party balloons



McDonald's catering



Couples will toast their marriage with soft drinks (since no alcohol is allowed in McDonald's)



Alright, you get the point. This just sounds and looks ridiculous. The idea came about when a couple held their wedding party at McDonald's. They met and dated at the fast food restaurant so this, in a way, made sense. I personally think it's a mixture of trashy and hilarious. I'm not sure if the whole McDonald's wedding will take off (especially without alcohol) nor do I think it would improve their sales. I don't know about other people but I don't think it's very cool. Running off to Vegas to get married=fun. Running off to McDonald's to get married=lame!

I really don't think this will help McDonald's whatsoever. Ideas?


Read the article

Photography in advertising

I was recently researching Annie Leibovitz, a contemporary photographer, for another class but found her work interesting. She always uses celebrities in her photos, starting off doing stuff for Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone. Later she started doing photography for ads, her main point of focus still being celebrities. She would never concentrate on the product in the photographs so these ads are photographed to look more like portraits rather than ads. Of course in class we also try to do this. We want our ads to be so interesting and eye catching that you forget it's an ad.

Here are some ads she photographed for Disney that I thought were absolutely beautiful:









Check out the rest from this campaign

Another campaign she photographed for was American Express. Using celebrites, she showed them in personal environments. There's a certain "story" behind each one, like much of her other work. Here are some examples:






I found all of her work to be amazing and the ads are all beautifully designed. It definitely inspires me to create better visuals for my ads and it opens my eyes to all the different possibilities in advertising. A professional photographer can be helpful in some cases depending on the ad. I encourage the class to take a look at her work for some inspiration!

How the IPad can change advertising

You can now get magazine subscriptions on your IPad. Since not everyone owns an IPad yet, sales for magazines on the IPad weren't expected to be as high as they were. However, different genres have much different starts. For example, science and tech magazines do much better in the beginning. Popular Science was one of the first on the IPad and Family Circle and Better Homes and Gardens won't even release until 2011. Popular Science averaged sales of 14,034 in the April, May, June and July issues. IPad sales were equivalent to 12% of it's newsstand sales. Wired, a techie magazine, beat everyones predictions. Wired sold 105,000 copies, way above newsstand sales. This was equivalent to 19% of newsstand sales. Beyond sci-tech titles, Men's Health made less than 1% of newsstand sales. Same thing goes with People and Glamour, both being major newsstand sellers. Overall, IPad magazine sales are doing well. The years 2010 and 2011 are exploratory years. This is the time that we learn as we go so since sales are doing well for IPad magazines, things will only improve.

This digital platform offers a wide scope of opportunities to interact with users. So what does this mean for digital advertising on the IPad? I think there are many creative things we can do in magazines on the IPad to get users involved like games or videos. It's pretty much endless on what we can do. Right now we still have tangible magazines and we will have them for awhile but I'm afraid of when all magazines become digital. This could change advertising history for the better and for the worst. I would still like to have traditional print ads as well. Any ideas on this?

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Walmart & new beauty product

Fat Foam is a hair color that is actually a foam so the color doesn't drip and stain any furniture and clothes, which is the main problem of hair color today. This is an innovating idea but it might come to a surprise as to how is marketing this new product in the US. Not a high-end beauty company but Walmart.



It's not unusual for ideas like this to come from Japan to the US, for example, Proctor and Gamble's first Swiffer mop. However, it is unusual for a retailer to do this, beating national brands to the punch. Fat Foam will be launched exclusively at Walmart stores for the first six months but after that, it will be released in other retail stores. But still, it's pretty ballsy of Walmart to lead product innovation with a new brand in hair color, a category that never had private label in the past. Because of the high risk of failure in hair color, there is a high consumer resistance to trying private label or new brands so Walmart launching this new hair product does not seem like a good idea.

I feel that Walmart is just trying to take over. I think John Frieda should have launched the new hair foam but Walmart kind of took over the idea. John Frieda is much more of a respected brand and no matter how cool of a product it is, consumers will always look at the brand first to make their purchasing decision. Me personally, I wouldn't trust a new Walmart hair product especially hair color. I don't think Walmart should come out with new beauty products at all.

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