Friday, July 02, 2010

WILL MURDOCH'S GAMBLE  TAKE A FINANCIAL KNOCK?







July 2, 2010 - a day that will go down in history, or if not,  will straightforwardly go down the pan for The Times' owner.

While newspapers circulation has fallen  25%  between 2007-2009, Murdoch's blood circulation has rushed up to his head and decided it was time he took another tack.

As shoving his head into a bucket of ice was not the most sensible idea, putting up a paywall, to all intents and purposes, is.

Before the paper starts hemorrhaging too much cash and all the eyes are on the new strategy, an e-stream of diligent brand loyalists-turned-switchers beeline quietly towards the Guardian.




Pay walls work for certain brands.  The FT.com  have a different target market - wealthy businessmen.
The target market is more focused and easier to analyse. Lifting revenues is controllable through the paywall strategy.
On the other hand The Times readers have recourse to its publication because it's A: the quality of the editorial (Better than the Granuad, in my humble opinion) B:  they are conservative and C: It's free.

Unless you don't live and breathe the brand,  people will desert it. The loyalists will be a minority. The die-hard Times readers will strive to put in their £1 a day to get a giggle out of Jeremy Clarkson's pablum  and Ozzy Osbourne's pap.

Obviously, I am no Cassandra. Murdoch has a few tricks up his dirty sleeve. He's aiming for  £30m a year from a new ad deal.

Will the new pricing regime offset the loss of online readers?

Thursday, July 01, 2010

LEVI'S IS RESUSCITATING ITS BRAND. It has grabbed deep down in to the entrails of history and dusted down its image.

Years ago, the brand was robust, pioneering; it could flick its competitors off with such ease and get back on its horse for more adventure.








Yes, it had a certain pride, touching on border of vanity. Denim was synonymous to Levi's. Not two ways about it. So of course, the brand slapped a premium price on its jeans.

The jeans market is saturated today and the savvy shopper knows his jeans from his denims hence the start of a departure from the Levi's evangelists.

While any good marketers will launch their line of jeans - and at a cheaper price -  Levi's become entangled  in a miasma of competitors that could offer the same value at reduced price.

The era of the cowboy and the gold rush is, well, over. Smoking is not glamorous and wearing Levi's does not cut it either.

W+K Portland has launched the new TV ad 'Ready to Work' with the 'Go Forth'tagline. The strategy is good because it repositions the brand as THE first in the market. The execution works terrifically so as to emotionally reconnect the target market with the brand.

The ad is engaging. Will it have an impact on the flagging sales?

Monday, June 28, 2010

May the best commercial win for its smell





The old dormant brand which has been lying doggo for BO reasons, well, has cleaned up its act,  and is alive and kicking thanks to W&K Portland's.

'The man your man could smell like' TV ad for Old Spice  has scooped this year's Cannes Film Lions Grand Prix.

Old Spice remarkably has spiced up the jury president Mark Tutsell's decision for taking top prize.

Tutsell described the ad as 'the perfect film'. I will definitely wash to it.

Saturday, June 26, 2010






The quintessence of British fashion - the iconic luxury brand, Burberry has launched an interactive ad campaign for the autumn/winter season.

The innovative campaign directed by ECD Christopher Bailey, captures aptly the energy and voice of the brand.
Not only does it communicate the timeless heritage of Burberry, it also projects how it has evolved into a an edgy British iconic fashion entity.

Through the use of technology, music and a roll-call of young British talents, the campaign draws in emotional facets and the individuality of the brand.

Burberry seizes the zeitgeist of the savvy advertiser by engaging its audience by the scruff of the neck.





Thursday, June 24, 2010

      A FUTURE STACKED IN YOUR FAVOUR










 Enjoy a rock-solid health with the treatment of epilepsy.     




Convulex  









Sunday, June 20, 2010



HEAR WHISPERS OF A SWEET LULLABY
THE INSTANT YOU POUR IT INTO THE MUG




              INDULGE IN FLUFFY DREAMS







Thursday, June 17, 2010

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

AMNESTY INTERNATION TV AD BY TBWA PARIS








 Superb execution. Music and concept go hand in hand for memorable ad campaign. I'll give it a 5 star.


View the ad at :http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/theWork/news/1009952/gallery/7823/page/9/#7823

Monday, June 14, 2010

MR CHAD


Kilroy was here  - if you are American.  Foo was here - if you are Australian. Mr Chad is the famous graffito used during WW2 to humorously draw attention to the shortage people had to suffer.





   


            Wot, no brief?

VIRGIN ATLANTIC 'WORST OOPS..WORLD CUP SPONSORSHIP'












If you mention the Lynx campaign, design-wise, it goes the extra mile - slightly nudge-nudge, wink-wink. It makes you raise an eyebrow and therefore lodges itself in your head.

At the other end of the spectrum, with the Virgin Atlantic print campaign, we see shades of plain-vanilla, off the mark strategy. Are they communicating the pain of a Guantanamo Bay terrorist being tortured with facial blindness? I don't think we want to know and sure enough, it does not make me raise an eyebrow - just my voice : Earth to you Virgin!

Bit of of a let down from Virgin Atlantic.

Sunday, June 13, 2010

beam me up MASCOTtie?





A fizz of controversy frothes  in the public eye when Wenlock and Mandevill rise to the Olympic Macot Scene.

Following the 2012 logo fiasco that the public has become familiar with, those two creatures are the archetype of  the mould breaker, no less.

Iris, the ad shop behind the idea is constructing a forward-thinking brand that is standing head and shoulder above previous mascots.

The initial reaction was an acerbic one.  Because the animated version brings them alive, I think it's all about a digital content, a social media platform that projects them into who they were designed to be. 

On a personal level, I have had difficulty accepting their concept, never mind the logo.  But, on second thought, these mascots have some kind of edge. They blend into the digital world of animation and pulse with idiosyncracies pertinent to what tomorrow is made of. 

The London mascots have shed their conservative designs and I have resigned myself to the acceptance of post-modernism.

Saturday, May 15, 2010

COPYWRITER LANDS DREAM JOB WITH $6 CAMPAIGN

Working as a creative requires a fertile imagination.  Ideas must get on their skis and go off-piste. It's all about exploring new ways. They run down the slopes lickety-split, and eventually trigger avalanches of emotions in your target audience.

This is exactly what the idea-maker, aka the copywriter, intends to generate.  Like an avalanche, it will capture your audience instantly. Isolate it and tap into its deepest emotions.

So when Alex Browstein -  a New York copywriter -  was in search of a job in an advertising agency, he simply spent $6 on an online Google campaign that would target all NYC creative directors when they are looking up their names on Google.

The slogan: " Googling yourself is a lot of fun. Hiring me is fun too" has worked its magic.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010













The sportswear is showing its green teeth and that will, if anything, differentiate its brand from the other competitors in the market.


With the intent of reducing the amount of  water and paper in producing their paper bags and boxes, the sportlifestyle company expects to reduce its energy level by 60% per year.


PUMA is launching the "Puma Sustainability Index"  which will detail the product's environmental index.



Thursday, March 25, 2010

The Independent







Now that The Independent has been bought by a Russian mogul, eyes are focused on what kind of strategy Alexander Lebedev is going to take.




Are they going to reposition the paper at a cheaper price so that It will get a competitive advantage amongst the leading nationals?


In my humble opinion, considering the paper is making a loss, it could be indeed a very much positive approach to gaining market share and increasing the sales curve.



Sunday, March 07, 2010

campaign for MOON BOOT

(magazine poster or outdoor poster)
 
In 1971, It was the birth of a fashion statement.
In 1972, It was a fashion statement with a vengeance.
In the 70's, It was a fashion statement in spades.
In the 80's, It was a fashion statement, no question.
In the 90's, it was a fashion statement all over.
In the noughties, It was a fashion statement throughout.


Today, It is much more than that.






                                   SIZE DOES NOT MATTER.
                          










-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


 (Radio advertisement)


Hello Madam, How can I help you? (man with accent)
I need to send urgently a telegram to my husband. ( The woman sounds emotional and slightly out of breath)


Please go ahead.


Hum, okay.....


Dear loved husband, (telegram)


Thanks for boots. Great colour.  Great comfort. Great style. 
But I think, up here in the Himalayan, something big and hairy stole them.





Tagline: It's much more than that.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Banner for social media -  the audience could see a "Yeti" in a blurry way walking away - scamp)







IT'S MUCH MORE THAN THAT














CLICK HERE 
















TO FIND OUT


Monday, March 01, 2010

POT NOODLE CAMPAIGN - TV STORYBOARD










DIRTY AMIGO

        Giddy up to the dirty taste


Zorro on his horse gallops towards a saloon in a deserted landscape – Mexican music played in background.

He enters the saloon and dirty men are drinking. Women are pole-dancing.

The music stops. Everybody is fixed on him.

An attractive Mexican lady walks up to him and starts stroking him on the face.


Lady: What brings you here darling? Is that the flavour of its appeal or the desire of a quick fix?

Zorro:  You know my dear, what brings me here.


A bunch of bad guys enters the saloon (Spanish is spoken for effect)
One the men who carries a suitcase guffaws at Zorro.

Bad guy:  Ha, give me your pesos, hombre, if you want it now.

Lady:  Please, do what he tells you.

Music comes on for dramatic effect.

Zorro: I am not who you think - He whips out his rapier and undresses the bad boys. They are wearing only their underwear.  A suitcase falls open on the floor.

Zorro grabs the suitcase where the Pot Noodle are laid out in it and removes his mask.

The audience realises that Zorro is a very attractive lady

Scene 3: The lady is galloping off on her horse with a Pot Noodle.

Ends.



                                   POSTER











GIDDY UP TO THE DIRTY TASTE



 
                                                                                       Dirty Amigo   


( * the words of POT NOODLE  would be written in green and  written as many times as to fill up the shape of a cactus. )













Monday, February 01, 2010

BREAKING NEWS!!!! The first chapter of the book I'm writing is being released!







   CHAPTER ONE

The door was flung open. The air was still. A sense of calm floated about in the room. Nothing ever could have felt the same again in the crux of the moment. Because what had happened to him pointed in the direction of absolute revolution of his conceptions. His desire had spewed out, like a tempestuous whim of the mind, an offshoot of what he was worried about, sending the world into a different dimension.

The creatures of his fears murmured sardonically that once he attempted to get through to the other side, there was no return. He could hear his heart jumping in his chest, his right palm held tightly his wrist, gauging what was real.
Aaron stood spread-eagled on his bed, half-conscious, half-paralysed. Suddenly time came to a halt, and the worldly time of his existence felt oppressing – almost unnerving.

The destruction of the world had happened through the metastatic decease of human beings – the greed and mercenariness of it all.  The sun outside was shining and the temperature warm for an autumnal day. A sense of dread was hanging over in the air. London had become a mere hamlet and its vacant streets, mostly covered in water conveyed emptiness and desolation. The population had been reduced to the size of a large family and the exodus of people who had fled away died within hours. Earthquakes and tsunamis had wreaked havoc everywhere. There was no way out. A small community had formed. They had become like the denizen of an unknown island where their primal needs become survival. Social classes were broken down. Hierarchy was no more and the natural instinct of looking for food and water was the status quo of every single inhabitant.

A mass of Titian curls dressed his freckled-countenance; piercing blue eyes and a tall physique gave him the look of a young scientist and to some extent it was a give away. Aaron was a nuclear engineer, but a researcher at heart. He had worked for the last seven years at the Institute of Atomic and Molecular Sciences, but during his spare time his personal research has lead him to experiment with electrical spurts injected to the brain that enabled out-of-body travels.  Aaron believed he could extend the limits of human intelligence through brain activities.
Out there, an urban jungle of ransacked stores, looted supermarkets had become the appropriation of anyone. People were beetling off to shops in order to hoard as much food as they could and they were turning to water bottles for sustenance as tap water had been contaminated.
Much had been talked about in the last twenty years but although governments tried to tackle the issue, little had been done. Global warming had become real and the demise of the Earth was truly on its way. The community had gathered that day for an emergency meeting. Priorities had to be set and food rationed. Too preoccupied with his project, Aaron was experimenting at home with the stimulation of acoustic sounds into his subconscious. Deeply focused on penetrating this invisible wall that he was convinced enclosed the planet, progressively he was adjusting the binaural sound in his headsets when suddenly, he felt the atmosphere very dense. A palpable sense of loss struck him and he collapsed into his bed, losing control of his body. He was barely able to move.


Footsteps were heard, and the front door slammed shut. A svelte middle-aged woman shouted out: “Aaron, Listen… I have come back from the meeting. We believe the water is about to drown the rest of the city and we should try to leave town before…” Interrupted by the sight of her boyfriend, stock-still on the bed, Lucy rushed over to him. A feeling of panic invaded the room. 
Tangled up with wires and headsets in his ears, alarming ideas flitting through Lucy’s mind. She knelt over him and tried to shake him up but there was no immediate reaction from Aaron. He was unable to get off the trance state he was in. Slowly his right arm shifted jerkily. Lucy switched the machine off and unplugged all cables. His muscles were tense and his jaw ajar. The room was fairly small and out the window, the landscape looked desolate. Birds were gone and the sound of the wind could be heard rustling through the jamb of the old window. A photograph of Aaron hung above the bed depicting his graduation ceremony seven years ago at Oxford. “Come on, what’s happened to you” shouted Lucy.  She gave him a couple of slaps across the face and gave him some water. Slowly, Aaron came to himself and an instant shiver washed over him. He looked disorientated and in awe of what had just happened to him….




Saturday, January 09, 2010

Friday, January 08, 2010

TV STORYBOARD for HSBC



Scene 1: The viewer sees ET pointing to a planet up in the sky. Then the viewer sees  a world where non-human people do business in an office in an accelerated motion. Thereafter,  we come to realise that it was an 18th century knight who was having a dream. (10 sec)

Scene 2: The camera shows his castle that is suddenly awash with snow falling over it.
But we suddenly understand that the castle with the snow is a snow globe  that is taken hold of by a young boy from today's generation. (10 sec)

Scene 3: The young boy's face turns into an arabic man on his camel.
He gets off his camel and hands over a present to a man at a bazaar. (10 sec) ENDS

VOICEOVER: WE CREATE LIMITLESS POSSIBILITIES. A SMALLER WORLD WHERE DREAMS AND FUTURE BECOME REACHABLE.


HSBC BRINGS THE WORLD TOGETHER