New Booster Juice ads - seen at Union station, Toronto. The idea is great, many people can relate to the various scenarios described on these ads, but somehow I feel that the copy could be better, reading these can feel a bit awkward and sometimes doesn’t produce an immediate response; takes a bit of time to get.
Grapes! Why am I blogging about this handful of grapes? I purchased these grapes recently at a popular organic grocery store chain for $5. In Ontario, the people earning minimum wage have to work nearly 30 min for this handful of grapes, which to me sounds like a long time! So how did this grocery store get me to pay so much for so little? Simple: by listing the price per 100 grams rather than price per pound as most stores do. To an eye trained in comparing prices per pound, price per 100 grams appears much smaller and deceivingly cheaper. At organic stores where everything is significantly higher priced, listing prices this way just makes more sense (from a marketing perspective).
This ad is interesting because it leverages the friending feature of Facebook to promote animal adoption. Except, unlike Facebook friends some of which we sometimes can’t even recognize, this friend is a “best friend”.
A subway ad designed to reduce messes. Visually, it resembles the commonly used method of communication-mobile text messaging, and also reflects the common online behavior of attributing human characteristics to inanimate objects for entertainment value. It’s cute and memorable, and delivers the message effectively.
Starbucks is smart to notice a shift in consumer preference for a healthier lifestyle, specifically the growing interest in eating vegan and raw. Its been observed (by me :) that this audience tend to engage more in spiritual practices such as meditation and yoga; have an inkling towards the new age philosophies and Eastern religions like Buddhism, but also interpret Western religious teachings in a new light. They admire spiritual gurus of all shapes and colors, and enjoy sharing their teaching, especially on social media. If my observation is accurate, I am very excited to see what business and marketing strategies Starbucks will come up with to appeal to this type of audience, since the Optimism Cafe and the movement to have the nation see the “glass 1/2 full” has been claimed by Kraft’s Maxwell House ;)
My husband and I dated for decade before marrying on Sep 25, 2011. Nowadays the divorce stats are well known, and here’s the option of entering a common law union, so everyone has been asking me what it feels like to be married and if it changed anything. So here’s a video from a mobile phone company, Orange that should answer the questions. Now, I’m only married for six months, so this doesn’t apply to me yet. On the other hand, it appears that Axe may be the solution to marital problems, so I’m going to have to go out and try their new spray for women! I mean, have you seen what it does to men? Watch here!
On March 6, Colin Mochrie and Jully Black hosted the unveiling of a giant (16 foot) Oreo cookie at Toronto’s Eatons Centre. I wasn’t there, but you can watch the show here. This is only one of the many videos made of this birthday celebration. It seems that Kraft really understands what it takes to have high levels of sharability on social networks. CityNews reported that ”A significant amount of the promotion for [birthday] events occurred online through social media: Oreo already has 25.2 million likes on Facebook, with fans in 183 countries”, “Share in the moment” is the campaign slogan and to go with it is a movement: “Is it our imagination or is the world moving too fast? For 100 years, we’ve worked to make life a little less hectic, a little more carefree. this year, Oreo invites you to celebrate with us and set your inner kid loose. Let’s all take a break and share 1 million moments right here together. Let’s make every moment count!”. Nabisco World (Kraft Canada) Oreo Birthday webpage features a moments gallery and current count of shared moments. This campaign reminds me of Kraft”s “Brew Some Good”campaign for its Maxwell House Coffee brand. Here the goal was to raise Canada’s optimism and the public was encouraged to share their “feel good” video, photo, story online.
The location selected for the unveiling of the Oreo cookie was superb! Right in the center of the Eaton’s Mall in the downtown Toronto, one level above the infamous fountain, where at Christmas time stands the Swarovski Christmas tree. I saw the cookie hours post event, but I couldn’t help but notice how many people were stopping by for a picture! I once sat in a restaurant in Niagara Falls across a place with an oversized chair and saw a similar occurrence. Everyone stopped to take a photo of themselves in that chair! It seems that people are actively looking for the extraordinary and the oversized; news worthy for the Social Media. In this day and age, we are all mini journalists looking for a story to tell.
A digital and interactive (and sharable!) catalog! Potentially inspired by IKEA who also does some seriously sexy stuff online ;)
