advertisingatitsbest

Eva Longoria Parker, Teri Hatcher, Felicity Huffman, Marcia Cross, Dana Delaney, and Nicolette Sheridan, the stars of everyone’s favorite Sunday night drama, Desperate Housewives, posed pinup-style, for the latest cover of TV Guide in very sexy and revealing retro fashion from the 1950’s, said a recent Trendhunter article.

What do you think of the 50’s retro?  Good promotion for the season premiere?

The show will go into its fifth season with the first episode airing on September 28th; TOMORROW. The new season will present a very confusing turn of events when the cast is hurled five years into the future. What do all you dedicated Housewives watchers think of this turn of events?

“The creator of Desperate Housewives,” says TV Guide, “will send his show hurtling half a decade into the future when it returns for its fifth season on September 28. It’s a rare and radical shake-up for a hit TV series—and also pretty weird since none of the ladies will visibly age,” TV Guide said.

So what are your thoughts?

What do you think of the TV Guide retro pinup idea?

What do you think is in store for the Desperate Housewives this season?

Check out some of the other shots from TV Guide:

Source: Trendhunter

Bell, one of they key Canadian network providers, has dropped their old brand image inlcuding their iconic beaver mascots, “Frank and Gordon” and have recently released a series of mystery ads.

This campaign includes, around major cities, billboards with a corner of a giant letter peering down from the top, and nothing else on the white banners except the letters, “er.”

People have been confused about the ads for weeks; and now Bell finally offered pieces of the puzzle that revealed it was their doing, said a recent Trendhunter article.

So what exactly does the “er” mean?

They’re just letting us know that Bell is about to get better.

The article reads, “To tie the advertising even more closely to the concept of ‘better’ and underline the range of product and benefits Bell offers, the English campaign also makes liberal use of words ending in ‘er’ - faster, easier, music lover, gamer, worker, talker, texter, multitasker - which was also the basis of the company’s recent advertising teaser campaign.”

Other examples of the campaign include the use of cross-branding. For example, one shot shows a Starbucks cup and the copy, “Lattes and laptops just got together.” And another competes with the Apple iPhone, which is offered by competitor. The ad is for the Samsung Instinct and reads, “Apple Eater.”

To go with this new branding campaign, Bell has also come up with a new slogan, “Today just got better” and in Quebec, “La vie est Bell,” a play on words meaning, “Life is Bell.”

What do you think of this rebranding?  Do like the mystery effects of the campaign?  What do you think of the use of cross branding?

Source: Trendhunter

Remember the Aqua Teen Hunger Force promotion that hit the streets of Boston and scared half of the population into hiding in fear of terrorist acts?

Well, it appears another promotion, this time for the new Batman movie, The Dark Knight, had similar effects.

The multi phase promotion for the movie, in its final phase, featured a cake wired to look like an explosive device; according to AdWeek, the promotion created such a stir that a San Antonio news station called in the bomb squad last week.

The cake was the finale of a three week campaign from the a chain of movie theaters aimed at the local media.

The Santikos Theater chain delivered the promo to the local television station who then proceeded to call the San Antonio police after the cake wired with a cell phone was delivered to its office.

The full campaign began on June 26, when a classified ad (presumably penned by Batman’s arch-enemy, the Joker) was placed in local papers recruiting clowns. The ad directed people to email with interest to whysoserious@santikos.com. When inquiring minds emailed, they were sent information about the new movie premiere.  All local media were alerted of the campaign via press release.

“Next up was a faux news report, created in conjunction with a local Fox affiliate, about graffiti artists tagging the local theater with the Batman symbol. It was aired on local networks and a clip was sent to San Antonio newsrooms with a release that posed the question, “What will the clowns do next?” The NBA San Antonio Spurs’ coyote mascot was then kidnapped while trying to remove the graffiti, according to another bogus new spot,” quoted the AdWeek article.

The final piece of the promotion was the cake with a ransom note that read: “If you want to see coyote again be at the Palladium [theater] at 8 p.m.” A phone number was included and when called information on receiving press badges to the premiere of the movie was announced.

Source: AdWeek

What do you think of this promotion?  Would you have been concerned had it been delivered to your place of employment?   Were these good ideas to assist in the promotion of the movie premiere?

The Golden Magazine will be hitting newsstands soon!

No, this is not the title of the magazine and no, this is not the newest “must read” magazine.

Kohl magazine will celebrate it’s launch with a cover that actually includes 91 grams of gold and 622 diamonds on the cover. And Katrina Kaif is the lucky and beautiful model who will be gracing the cover of this launch issue.

According to Trendhunter, it is estimated that this one magazine will cost $10,000 to produce!!

Kohl magazine is the UAE’s first and only women’s lifestyle and fashion monthly catering to intelligent and educated Asian women between the ages of 25 - 40, said a recent article at ArabianBusiness.com .

The look and design of the Kohl magazine cover was created by Damas, an exclusive jewelry designer and manufacturer. Not only is the cost of the magazine astronomical but the cover actually took over 86 hours to make!

The magazine will not literally be hitting newsstands but it will be on display at various locations before going up for auction to benefit a charity.

What do you think?

Sounds to me like a pretty good, and pretty expensive, PR move! Talk about great publicity!

Source: Trendhunter

To launch Big Brother TEN in Australia, Bluetooth technology was used to reach their target of tech savvy young individuals via their cell phones.

Bluetooth transmitters were installed in bus stops in high traffic areas. The transmitters installed in the space sent two anonymous text messages to anyone who was in a specified range.

The first message sent to the user was tailored to their location.

The second one came 30-40 seconds later with the reveal that the anonymous text message was from Big Brother and gave the new show time.

What do you think? Do you like receiving advertising messaging on your cell phone or is too invasive?

Source: Frederik Samuel

The goal of the following Eyeball Direct Mail campaign was to actually reach out to media buyers to inform them that ESPN’s up-close camera coverage and commentary attracts the highest number of TV sports viewers in Asia.

The ad agency designed actual sports balls, a football, basketball and baseball to look like human eyeballs. Each ball had a message on the back which read: “ESPN. You can’t get closer.”

The balls were sent with a letter to the targeted media buyers detailing the up-close camera coverage and ratings, inside a box titled with the name of the ball, according to Ads of the World.

Do you think this was a successful campaign? Having a background in media planning, I have my own opinion, but what do you think?

Well ESPN was happy! This direct mail piece resulted in very positive reactions from the target and the awareness for the key statistics showed a very positive increase. Ads of the World concludes that it facilitated in creating a very favorable environment for the subsequent sales process.

What are your thoughts?

Source: Ads of the World