The Advertising Archives

A delve into the global advertising world, highlighting innovation and creativity.

The word ‘culture’ is receiving increasing attention within the marketing world, particularly in relation to advertising. Of course the most obvious cultural inconsistency which springs to mind relates to language. You can take your pick from the number of translation catastrophes brands have suffered from over the years. For example Pepsi’s “Pepsi bring your ancestors back from the dead” and KFC’s “we’ll eat your fingers off”. However, the issue of advertising culture was recently illuminated to me in a new light over the summer whilst touring Las Vegas and San Francisco. Clearly the language barrier had little bearing (well as little as could be expected for Scottish guys on a lads holiday in Vegas). The biggest cultural shock was the sheer volume of advertising that you are succumb to on a daily basis. In fact, there is probably more chance of escaping sunlight in the Las Vegas desert than finding a place to shade from advertising clutter.

For example, you may be mistaken that immersing yourself into a game of blackjack or roulette could bring a great escape from reality. Only to discover that your handful of chips are merely a promotion for the casino’s resident performance group. It simply appears that the US are just more advanced at squeezing advertisements in to every available slot and gap.

It soon became apparent that the UK is worlds away from the US in terms of this type of creativity and innovation. This got me thinking about potential marketing space and innovation which is neglected as mass marketers place all of their attention on digitisation. So in relation, I thought i’d do a quick run through some unique campaigns and marketing stints which have caught my eye recently.

#1 – Domino’s Pothole Repair Campaign

This ingenious idea is brought to you by the ever innovative pizza company and part-time pothole repair contractor ‘Domino’s’. It appears that the company has found a resourceful way of spraying their logo throughout neighbourhoods, without receiving the backlash of other essential ‘graffiti artists’. So how have they managed to increase their brand awareness and image with such a brave technique? It stems from the idea that pothole damage is not limited to cars themselves but also to the precious cargo they hold. We’ve all been there, in the passenger seat of a car, holding your takeaway with presumably the same feeling as carrying your first born child home from the hospital. Well Domino’s have taken this concept and put it into life. So essentially, if your pizza suffers from the ill effects of an inconveniently placed hole in the road, Domino’s have got your back. Customers can simply give the company a call and subsequently Domino’s will fix (or fill) the problem. But to the Domino’s marketing genius who decided it was possible to paint logos all across neighbourhoods and only manage to increase the company’s CSR image, you are the real winner here. It appears Domino’s are certainly paving the way for advertising creativity as shown below.

#2 – Diesel to Deisel – Selling the Fakes

The rise of counterfeit and knock-off products have become an increased threat to luxury brands, plagiarising their image and cutting their profits simultaneously. This has led premium brand Diesel to adopt an ‘if you can’t beat them, join them’ attitude towards fakes. The brand decided to embrace the current knock-off culture by setting up their own ‘hole in the wall’ store, common within most cities. It has to be acknowledged that there is a downside for consumers, which unsurprisingly comes part and parcel with buying counterfeit goods. For example, your £10 ‘Dolce’ sunglasses may appear an excellent purchase right up until realising they weren’t manufactured to be UV protective. Admittedly, if you look good you feel good, even if this means having scrunched eyes for the rest of your holiday. However, it is this type of imperfection which Diesel are trying to embrace, building on their “Go with the flaw” campaign. Thus, ultimately encouraging consumers to dress how they like and live a carefree lifestyle.

The ‘Diesel‘ or ‘Deisel‘ campaign rightly received great media attention and publicity in the run up to the New York fashion week. It was also reported that stock from the New York pop-up shop sold out less than 24 hours after the brand admitted to being its founders. The shop had been rigged with dozens of cameras, showing unsuspecting customers trying to secure very ‘unknown’ bargains.

#3 – Spotify Poster Revolution

Poster and print advertising is hardly a state-of-the-art innovation. In fact it is one of the oldest marketing techniques known to man. However, with increasing focus being placed on more cost effective digital approaches, it could be said that this method of advertising is suffering from neglection. Therefore, it is somewhat contradictory that Spotify – who provide a purely digital service – appear to be launching a billboard revolution.

The injection of humour onto the high street has been greatly required throughout recent years of financial trouble. With humour being a key component of emotional advertising, widely used by marketers across the world. What makes Spotify’s efforts so unique is the relationship between their ads and customers. The advantage of providing a purely digital service is that the company knows exactly how its customers behave and interact with their product. They have just found a genius way to display this user data to global audiences, in a manner which captures attention. For example, if you were “1 of the 1,235 guys who liked the Girls Night Playlist”, you are now involved in a bizarre practical joke with a whole street. To be fair, only you and Spotify will ever know but it gives the rest of us a laugh at an unknown user. Plus that ‘Girls Night’ playlist had some absolute tunes…

The tagline for these ads appropriately reads “Thanks 2016, its been weird”. Don’t be afraid to comment if there is a subtle pointer towards you in any of the ads shown below.

#4 – Casino Divenzia Airport

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In an industry where great emphasis is being placed on digital innovation, Casino Divenzia are showing that that creativity can still come in many outside forms. Similarly to the Vegas casino chip situation, this is likely a ploy to subject you to more advertising art on display within the casino itself. Credit where it is due, using a baggage reclaim conveyor belt as an advertising tool adds a new depth to the meaning of innovation. A great idea airport travellers will no doubt love but will ultimately bring extra disappointment to a missing suitcase situation.

However, gambling with suitcases is a method which Ryanair have been playing with for years. Sorry Divenzia.

#5 – The Swedish Number Campaign

📷Now to a unique campaign designed by the Swedish tourism board. They could have focused on their medieval and rustic towns, architecture and food. But after all you can go to IKEA for all that. Instead they’ve decided it would be a better option to hook you up a phone number to a random Swede, potentially anywhere across the country. While this is undoubtedly quite a risk it was all with good reason. The campaign was designed to tie in with Sweden’s 250thanniversary of free speech, with the abolishment of censorship in 1766.

It was clear the people of Sweden really got behind the initiative, with even Prime Minister Stefan Löfven acting as an ambassador. One spokesperson gave reason to this stating:

“You know, people can talk badly about places, things and others on social media and they can hide behind screens. But we facilitated a personal, real interaction between people and that makes it difficult to be rude. You call because you’re curious. And you pick up the phone because you’re interested too.”

Needless to say, the campaign went viral, even being mentioned by Barack Obama in a presidential speech. The campaign’s supporters perfectly sum up the point of this blog, proclaiming that mass advertising is not always an option:

“You don’t have the funding to go out and buy media space like others can do either.”

Ultimately, the figures speak for themselves:

Swedish Phone Ambassadors: 26,069

Total calls 197,678

Number of countries calling: 190

Average call 2’41

Accumulated calling time 253 days

Total media impressions: 9.107 billion

Media Value: $146 million

#6 – KFC’s Public Apology

KFC are also flying the flag for innovative fast food brands. However, the nature of their public apology could well have generated a more positive reaction than any of their standard advertising campaigns. A logistical disaster involving delivery company DHL left the majority of UK outlets ‘chickenless’ earlier this year, causing over half of their 900 stores to close. The company of course responded in classic KFC fashion ‘taking-out’ out a full page advert in the Metro and Sun newspapers. The image displays an empty KFC bucket with the rearranged spelling “FCK”. The publicity of store closures even caused Whitefield police jumped on the bandwagon after receiving various calls by outraged customers. Naturally, KFC still had the last laugh.

Talk about making the most of a bad situation! KFC are of course a company well known for their humorous creativity. For example, it is now common knowledge that the brand only followers 11 other accounts on Twitter. 5 spice girls and 6 guys named Herb. The most subtle of references to their infamous ’11 herbs and spices’ recipe used across the globe. It appears that popular fast food brands feel they can sail as close to the line because of the place they hold in the population’s heart. Unsurprisingly, KFC are not the last fast food chain to appear on this list.

#7 – Wendy’s love to hate

Whilst on the lines of social media it would be impossible not to mention American fast food outlet Wendy’s. A company who is very well known for their social media presence even by those out with the US. Wendy’s have consistently shown how social media can be used simply but so effectively. Their ‘beef’ with rival food chains in particular shows that a corporate social media strategy is rarely the correct way to go. It has got to the extent that small companies are asking to be ‘roasted’ by Wendy’s in order to gain some much needed publicity.

The Wendy’s USP is that, unlike competitors, they provide fresh ingredients instead of frozen. It appears the brand view this as enough ammunition to fire at rivals from all angles, with Twitter being their preferred battlefield. Regularly, rival chains such as Burger King (left) are called out by Wendy’s who claim their products are frozen and largely inedible. The interaction and engagement the brand receive for these encounters makes it highly likely that we will see more brands calling-out their competition in the future.

Here are a few of the most liked interactions from Wendy’s. I highly recommend you follow their Twitter account as there are likely to be many more encounters as the war rages on.

#8 – Snickers 'Hungerithm'

You’ve probably all heard about Snickers’ ‘You’re not you when you’re hungry campaign’ rolled out across many countries. However, you may be saddened to hear that the company’s ‘hungerithm’ was not as widely used. The hungerithm was solely deployed in Australia where using software, the company were able to establish a level of anger or happiness within the country, based upon their social media. The utilisation of specially designed software allowed for levels of anger to be tracked across the country’s social media users. This involved a coding system which flagged up certain words which could be deemed to indicate happiness, sadness, excitement etc. Depending levels of anger caused the price of snickers bars in the country to either fluctuate or plummet. Consumers could check in to find out the current rate of anger on a stock-market like scale and pay a price in relation to this. Thus, providing an interactive element and integration of the widely recognised campaign.

Lastly, i thought i’d finish off by showing creativity isn’t always the correct way to go. Introducing MasterCard…

#9 – MasterCard meals for goals

I couldn’t finish this blog without showing how the search for much desired innovation can lead brands to go disastrously over the top. MasterCard’s ‘meals for goals’ campaign is exactly that, the epitome of wrong. Simply, the credit card company pledged to donate meals to the underprivileged, based on the number of goals scored by Messi and Neymar at the 2018 World cup. Admittedly, the brand chose two of the tournaments highest profile attackers and prolific goalscorers. They could easily have gone for anyone from the Panama or Saudi Arabia sides in order to protect their finances. Although, this would likely have still drawn the same level of criticism, after all, the principal is the same. It was probably not the kind of added pressure either player would thrive playing under, as they were already carrying the wight of their respective nations. Unsurprising really that either player failed to sparkle at the summer tournament, with both teams dropping out at premature stages