advertisingatitsbest

A farmer’s market in Portland, Oregon used some very creative marketing to promote the upcoming market by turning urban trees into giant carrots.

The agency out of Oregon City who came up with this great idea lined the tree bases with bright orange plastic liners that looked like carrots.

“In addition to the linings which make the trees look like carrots, the agency also placed placards over the antennae of automobiles throughout the city making them look like scrumptious barbecued vegetable skewers,” AdRants adds.

What a way to “market” the market! And a great way to promote veggies and the local market!

What do you think of this local advertising? Does it get the message across? Have you ever seen other advertising that uses veggies?

Source: Trendhunter 

In a move to get children to drink milk, over juice, energy drinks and soda, Anando milk used one very creative outdoor advertising campaign to get kids’, and their parents’, attention.

The whole “push” of the campaign was to get the message that milk makes your bones strong out to the public.  The company posted this oversized ad on the side of a building and then added an “attachment” to make it look as though the building was being pushed out of the way by a very strong child, who of course has been drinking milk.

With the message, they were hoping the youth would be attracted to the superhero-like power of the child pushing the building and that parents would get the message on how important it is to give milk to your children.

What do you think?  Creative idea?  Does it work for the product it is being used for; milk?

Will it get both kids’ and adults’ attention?

For Mother’s Day this past year, Napa’s Cleavage Creek Cellars released their 2006 Reserve Chardonnay and the Secret White wines, two of their world class wines. Why the special release?
The bottles were sold for $15 instead of the usual $30 to $40 and ten percent of the gross sales of the Cleavage Creek were donated to fund breast cancer research.

The women featured on the labels are breast cancer survivors and their stories are told at the Cleavage Creek website.

What do you think of this idea for raising money for breast cancer awareness through selling wine?

What other wine bottle awareness and promotions have you seen?

Source: Trendhunter

Your brand is your personality, claims a recent Business Week Article, and while many people think successful branding is only about awareness, it’s not, says Rob Frankel.

I found this article in Business Week very interesting and helpful to those who get confused on all of buzz words, which is very easy to do! Thanks to Business Week for this very helpful article.  After reviewing some of the highlights below, please take the time to read the whole article by Karen Klein here!

Frankel is a branding expert and calls branding the most misunderstood concept in all of marketing. Branding, he says, “is not advertising and it’s not marketing or PR. Branding happens before all of those: First you create the brand, then you raise awareness of it.” Frankel adds. “Branding is about getting your prospects to perceive you as the only solution to their problem. Once you’re perceived as ‘the only,’ there’s no place else to shop. Which means your customers gladly pay a premium for your brand.”

Your product or service is not your company’s brand and neither is your logo, your brochure, your magazine advertisements or your business card.

“It’s what your customers think of you and say about you when they’ve left your company,” says Rodger Roeser, president of Eisen Management Group, a public-relations and brand-development firm.

Your brand is what your company stands for and believes is and what it is known for. “Look at yourself in the mirror and ask yourself what you stand for. Go around the room with your leadership and ask them what the company stands for. Settle on one or two brand pillars and build your brand around them. If you can’t define your brand, your customers won’t be able to, either. And the risk is that someone else will define it for you—probably your competitors,” Roeser says.

Do you agree with this description of branding?  What other sources have you sued to help define branding?

In a recent article from AdAge, the magazine reads, “The most reputable company in America: Google, which toppled Microsoft from the top perch in the 2007 Harris Interactive Reputation Quotient study released today — and sent it tumbling all the way down to No. 10. “

The most interesting part about this, to me is that having Google up this high on the list just goes to show and even a company that spends very little on advertising can still be the most positively perceived by consumers.

The Harris study, who published the above results, measured the reputations of the most visible companies in the U.S., in a two phase study. The first consisted of phone and online interviews of more than 7,000 people to identify the 60 most visible companies.

The second phase, the AdAge article continues to explain, was conducted six months later, and included 20,000 online interviews with U.S. consumers asking them to rate those companies’ reputations on 20 attributes in six categories: emotional appeal, products and services, social responsibility, vision and leadership, workplace environment, and financial performance.

Being from Michigan, another interesting statistic that caught my eye in the study was the US automakers place on the list. Toyota was No. 15 on the list, while Detroit’s Big Three -Chrysler (No. 51), GM (No. 52) and Ford (No. 54) were near the bottom.

Read the full article by Michael Bush here .

What are your thoughts? Do you agree with the study? How do you feel about Google as opposed to GM?

What’s the new fad diet this month?There are a countless number of weight loss programs and “lose twenty pounds immediately” messages out there and new ones that are constantly popping up.

What would make you try one of these weight loss programs? Is it the advertising?

Check out the following three of my favorite and very creative weight loss ads!

1. All the Weight Loss!

Anna Nas is a long lasting weight loss company in Italy.

These cans were placed all throughout the city representing 1 kilogram (lost) each.  Get the message?  1 kilogram lost with Anna Nas; and they keep adding up.

Source: Ads of the World

2. Walk into a new you!

This ad  is from the Slimming Sanctuary who are claiming themselves as an organization that is reinventing the slimming industry.  They use this ad, with the two doors, to show how they can help you “Walk into a new you.”

Source: Ads of the World 

3. How much weight?

These stickers were placed in elevators in businesses to target businessmen and women to raise attendance at this local gym’s morning and evening classes. The digital screen that tells you what floor you were on was used to represent a scale and therefore show the benefits of working out.

Source: Ads of the World 

What do you think of these weight loss ads?  Would they make you try one of these weight loss systems?

Tampons are just one of those products that are hard to talk about, let alone advertise for.  Check out how the following three companies are creatively advertising for feminine hygiene products.

1.) Elegance

At first glance, this chandelier looks ordinary and beautiful!

Now take a closer look!

The monster-sized chandelier is actually composed of hundreds of white O.B. tampons.  What do you think of this incredibly creative PR stunt put out by O.B.?

Source: Ads of the World 

2.) Super Strong

This Tampax logo was painted on to a large dam and  highlights Tampax’s ability to absorb and stop liquid flow.

Source: Ads of the World

3.)  Ultra

Last yearModess used this feminine hygiene promotion in the sinks in women’s washrooms to emphasize the amazing absorbing capabilities of their product.

Source: Visual Fun House

What do you think of these feminine hygiene ads?  Are they creative? Or too over the top?

They all definitely grabbed my attention!  What about yours?

The fast food chain never ceases to amaze us with new fast food items, an ever increasing dollar menu, and now with creative advertising.

Check out the following three ads that go beyond Ronald McDonald, beyond Happy Meal Toy Promotion and take us straight to very creative advertising techniques and messages.

First off, to promote their salad line that is available seasonably in most parts of the world, this billboard was used to show the freshness and healthiness of the fast food salads.  The billboard used green lettuce planted to form the words “fresh salads.” The creative team worked closely with a horticulturist/landscape architect to have the lettuce start with 1½-inch spouts and grow into lush leaves over time. The billboard actually grew over time!

Next, in Stockholm, this interactive outdoor mini billboard invites consumers to “sort your head out” with McDonald’s 1 Euro large coffee. The outside advertising is actually a puzzle that allows you to shuffle the pieces around to sort out the model’s head. The empty square displays McDonald’s logo.

Finally, as Trendhunter puts it best, this is a great demonstration of how a good creative direction can utilize the advertising medium and transform a simple ad into something much more interesting. This McDonald’s ad from Denmark promotes hanging out at the fast food chain by having a big poster in an adshell with a woman under an umbrella. The caption says, “Shelter served at McDonald’s.”

What’s even more creative is that the umbrella is not part of the poster. They used a standard adshell the top shaped like an umbrella. What a way to use your surroundings to create attention grabbing ads!

Source: Trendhunter 

What do you think of McDonald’s recent advertising campaigns?  Creative?

Which of the above three is your favorite?

What other cool ads have you seen from McDonald’s in the past year or so?

 What is being done to make drivers aware of their surroundings?  How about helping them to slow down while cruising through the suburbs?

Well in Ohio, a neighborhood is doing all they can to make the roads safer for their children, realistic, life-size cardboard cut-outs of children are being used to slow down speeding cars.

According to TrendHunter, “Mike Wood of West Salem, Ohio says that he originally started printing life-size posters of grandchildren for their grandparents. The darn things look so real, though, that they effectively slow traffic to a safe speed.”

The creator is actually now selling the children cutouts for $60 a piece and have begun to be a popular purchase item.  Along with this, calls are now coming in from  police stations and neighborhood associations interested in the cut outs.

Do you think this is effective?  Will people begin to pay attention and slow down?

What do you think about the charge for the cut outs?  Is this something someone should be making money off of? Or should someone do this out of the good of their heart?

What other safe driving ads do you know of?

Source: TrendHunter 

Who doesn’t love billboards? They keep you occupied on your commute to and from work and they seem to be getting more and more creative!  Check out the following two outrageously clever and creative outdoor health and beauty ads!

These billboards really get you thinking about your next skin care purchase.

1.) Perfectly Clean!

The gigantic billboard  for Pond’s Anti-Bacterial Facial Scrub features a cut out in the shape of skin pore, with a custodian giving it the clean sweep. 

 2.) Cellulite, be gone!

This interactive billboard from Nivea uses bubble wrap to create a nontraditional message of: “Reduce the Bumps.”

Source: Ads of the World 
What do you think of these billboards? Do they help sell the products they are promoting?  Do they grab your attention?

Which is the most creative?