Not new but clever advertising

Although this execution is not new, but the idea of using it with a product and in this case a fixed deposit account, one can see movement and it is used in relations to the interest earn over time.

What better way to describe something visually that is fix, but the longer you stare, it moves slowly and gradually as depicted in the 3 print ads below.

Simple as it may seems, you have to put 1 and 1 together. And trust me, this is NOT easy. Some clients can appreciate simple and creative idea, but more often that ever, clients find it hard to accept after the concept idea have been presented due to it’s straight forwardness.

And in most cases, the client would debate on what seems to be a superb idea only to end up by rejecting the painstaking work at the end of the presentation. And to add insult to injury for the creative souls out there, some nasty clients will even say things like “even my 3 years old child can come out with this idea”.

Then again from the famous words of Ian Batey “when a good creative work cannot be sold, it boils down to just poor salesmanship on our part”.

clipped from www.ibelieveinadv.com “It’s fixed but it moves. Double Effect Diposit. A fixed rate of interest that goes up if interest rates do.” Advertising Agency: TBWA\Barcelona, Spain Creative Directors: Ramon Sala, Fer Garcia Art Director: Fer García Copywriter: Ramon Sala Illustrator: David Teixidor Published: June 2010

iPad - When are you coming to Jakarta?

Just watch the latest commercial on iPad, could not help myself but to share this video. It's cools and it's sexy. I wanna get one too.

A center-spread ad costing US180K to US230K

Why in the world would the wife of Malaysian Prime Minister wanted to place an ad in the center-spread of a US newspaper? Who is paying for the hefty bill? Reading the headline, we all know where the money is coming from.

Rosmah ad placed on govt’s behalf

11 May 10 : 8.00AM

By Koh Lay Chin
kohlaychin@thenutgraph.com
PETALING JAYA, 11 May 2010: A recent two-page spread in the New York Times, costing thousands of US dollars and featuring the prime minister's wife, was placed on behalf of the Malaysian government.
In an e-mail response to questions from The Nut Graph, the New York Times said: "The advertisement was placed by an ad agency on behalf of the Malaysian government."
The response from New York Times executive director of community affairs and media relations, Diane McNulty, reveals that the ad was not placed by private individuals, as suggested by the last line in the ad's congratulatory message.



There is so much more the money can do for the poor and needy in Malaysia, why blew it in just an ad. Anyway, who in the USA would want to have a second look at the ad? It boggles my mind!

Global Social Media Trends - Asia Impact

Check out this SlideShare Presentation: As we moved forward to an even more CONNECTED world, this slide shows the rising trend and usage of social media in our everyday lives. Marketers and brand owners whether they like it or not, the early adopters of this trend will definitely have a better competitive advantage, an upper hand over the 'somewhat skeptics'

Unfortunately in Indonesia and in my work, I come across more of the 'somewhat skeptics' as opposed to the early adopters. I am still hopeful things will change when they hear more on how we can leverage in a more synergistic approach between the traditional and new media.

Thanks to Tom Smith of Trendstream for the insights.

Global Social Media Trends - Asia Impact

View more presentations from Tom Smith.

Social Media Trend

The rapid growth pace of technology, the rapid growth rate of mobile apps and easy interface of APIs is set to change the way people interact, connect and share. There is no turning back in terms of technology advancement and at the rate it is going, it will be a matter of days newer platform will surface and be adopted. The question then lies in what we do, how we adopt and adapt and how this explosion will affect the practitioners and advocates. The future is mobile: anywhere, anyplace, anytime

Mind boggling for those who are starting to get a grip on what's happening, what more to those who are not connected at all.

Here's a take from one of my favorite sites, http://takemetoyourleader.com/ talking about social media which I find most useful for a late starter like me.

Social Media 2012 : 11 trends you should watch
"It’s easy to get caught up in today’s trends or even focus on the next six months. Some of 2009’s biggest trends included an increased emphasis on real-time search and information distribution, while distribution of marketing content in widgets and other pieces of portable content that worked across devices and social spaces also saw its stake rise. Plus, there were great improvements in social-media monitoring and analytics. And most notably, marketers finally acknowledged that social media was more than just a fad, with almost complete adoption by all major marketers"

Positioning

In the book POSITIONING : The Battle for your Mind by Al Ries and Jack Trout there is a statement which I like most "Positioning is not what you do to a product. Positioning is what you do to the MIND of the prospect"


How true the statement is. In the course of working with clients, many of us who are in the ad industry are often faced with some clients who are myopic in this thinking concept.

More often than ever, clients will generally go all out to to further develop their products, conduct all kinds of market research, develop new packaging designs and to some extend change the product itself with some cosmetic changes. Of course such measures may be good if the product or brand life cycle is on the decline that needed a big boost to hold on to market share but then again, marketers need to take into considerations the other aspects of the marketing spectrum.

Positioning is not just about creating nice words and tagline for the brand alone, it has to deliver the brand core and essence that is succinct, relevant and compelling to the targets. Any clever manufacturing of nice and bombastic words to define the brand will definitely turn to disaster for the brand.

More importantly, the positioning has to carry the brand truth where the manufacturer have to deliver what the brand promises in their communications campaign.

What is the message?

Came across this billboard yesterday. Honestly, I am lost and have no idea behind the concept and the copy that reads "INVENTING THE FUTURE TECHNICALLY". On top of the visual which I missed out from my BB camera "SCHOOL OF COMPUTING". Yes, I am a bad photographer but.... hey what do you expect when trying to shoot from a moving car?

Sogo Big Sale - NOW ON until 9 Nov, 2008

Center spread print ad in Kompas on Oct 17, 2008. "MAKE SURE YOU GET WHAT YOU WANT"

New sale icon for Sogo, layout of the shopping bags to depict a cityscape = Large, Big

The new icon translated to in-store display. Erected at the right location, not over-doing, neither over kill. It has style.

Envy of the competition!

Seibu Lebaran '08 Ad

This is the ad in Kompas for Seibu Lebaran and the main image was used for below-the-line materials maintaining consistency.

Sogo "Spreading the love for the country"

A full day at the studio to have all the shots taken using 9 talents with different pose and wardrobe. Then it took another 5 days just to have the shots touch-up and recompose for this layout. Nevertheless, this ad which appear in Kompas came out pretty good and the response for the Merdeka Sales was better than expectation

Seibu Merdeka '08 Ad

It was an exciting day when we shot this photograph for the ad. Despite the many shots taken by the photographer, the final shot selected was chosen on the very last few takes. Nevertheless, we were very happy with the outcome after a very tiring day.

Advertising in sponsorship program book

Since I am an EXCO member of the Malaysia Club Jakarta and being in the ad industry, I was tasked to coordinate and compile the sponsor’s ads for MCJ 14th Annual Dinner and Dance program book, of which I don’t mind at all and being able to contribute my services to fellow Malaysian.

Having an earlier experienced with such a mess, I thought I was ready this time round to whiz it by. But no, that was not the case. Anyway, I am not going to talk about the tedious coordinating work that is going to be on my plate for the next few days in order to get the program book ready for distribution by March 01.

There are some 30 odd sponsors for the event, a very good job done by my fellow EXCO and ADD Organizing Committee members. Among the sponsors, there are many well known companies or brands as they know the real value of advertising, hence, there wasn’t a problem in getting their ad materials since they engaged the services of an ad agency.

However, there are many sponsors who doesn’t seems to have a clue of what finished artwork, color separation film and proofs are. And by simply sending via email a PDF or JPEG file, cut and paste the digital photos, insert their company logo and type whatever their company is doing and there you have it, it’s their ad! Huh! Let alone idea or concept. Nevertheless, the final result of what have been provided by these sponsors is not going to be pretty.

The point here is that irrespective whether it is sponsorship or a brand ad, as long as the piece of medium that carries the logo/name/brand of the company, that is a communications channel, and IT IS AN AD. No two ways about that.

The real issue here is not about having the budget to spend to have a good ad or not. Neither is the intention to buy the table and to support the course of the sponsorship or, even to think that the ad is a bonus if it manages to can catch some potential client. This is just unacceptable reasoning and is exactly the opposite of doing real injustice to the owners themselves.

Just can't understand the copywriting

Just can't help it but to blog about this ad in Kompas on page 28 at the Metropolitan section today (Jan 25, 2008)

This is a half page full color ad that cost about Rp.150++million from a property project called "GRAND MATOA". Firstly the brand tagline 'The Genuine of South Jakarta Residence'. I was really scratching my head trying to figure out what the line is trying to say? Man! The tagline is supposed to do justice for the brand but in this case, it's the opposite.

Extracting word for word the headline and bodycopy of the ad :

Headline : "Discover the sophisticated things around...."

Bodycopy : "Grand Matoa, the private residence in South Jakarta that has been arranged seriously by taking friendly-environment into consideration. Besides the exclusive minimalist architecture, experience as well leisure time in your own home with a green haven surrounding you."

After trying very hard to make sense of what the ad is trying to say, I end up scratching my already bald head even further. What on earth is that all about? Perhaps, the only reason that I can think of is that the copy was done in Bahasa Indonesia and translated to English word for word. Well, my Bahasa Indonesia is not good at all but trying to read the copy in it gives me a rough idea but still, half baked. I supposed the main point here is to understand the idea behind the writing and then do the translation within the context.

Then again, this might not be a copywriter or an ad agency who created this ad but, the marketer of the property themsleves who are the wannabes of a creative person. Who knows, there are lots of them out there.

What a waste of good money.

SIMPLICITY in Advertising

Reference is made with this book >>The 22 Irrefutable Laws of Advertising<< All advertising practitional should have this book to at least, be used as a guide in maintaining some decency in their work. Better still, the clients and marketers in MarCom should also be reading it as well so as to have a better understanding in the thought processes of their Agency. Although the book has been in print and copyright @2004, the case studies put forth are as relevant today as it was then when these ideas were first used.

The word 'simplicity' is so simple yet it is so hard to digest and be accepted when ads are created based on its philosophy. Perhaps it is the fault of the creative and the brand team in the agency who fail to sell the idea to the client. Then again, it might be the client who thought the idea was too 'simple' and hence unacceptable. Obviously there are many more arguments to it than just meet the eyes but, it is essential to have a strong and compelling reason in order to be simple. It's just not that 'simple' afterall.

Riding on the winds of change.

Some say that traditional advertising is going to get real tough in the next 3 to 5 years where there are no boundaries in this digital era. Agencies who do not re-invent themsleves will find it hard to even cover their operational cost let alone be profitable.

Is this a reality check for the people working in a small ad agency as opposed to the well established multi-national agencies that has the resources and manpower to change? How would a small ad agency weather the storm and overcome such turbulences?

I wonder.