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Is there anything more annoying than getting onto a website, and then suddenly, out of nowhere:

“This is not a joke”? I don’t think it’s a joke, I think it’s a scam. This barely qualifies as an ad, but it is. These things always advertise some prize or another. Just because the product is fake, does not mean that the methods are invalid.

What they are trying to do here is appeal to our need to achieve. Everyone wants to win something, and these give us the perfect opportunity to just type a little and click a little and suddenly we can win a… laptop, or ten thousand dollars, or a new phone, or whatever it is they say you won.

They are actually trying to bribe their audience saying that because you are some special number of visitor, you are special yourself, and you deserve some fabulous prize. They make It very obvious to notice, and then they make it so that you really want to click the button.

Most people know well enough that this is a trap and they should not be clicked. But maybe it isn’t a trap. Maybe you really did win. What can it hurt? I deserve a nice reward, right? What can it hurt to just click the button?

And that is how they get people. And these pop-ups must work sometimes, or people would stop putting those places.

What’s the worst is when you then can’t press close. Or if you do, you have to press cancel, or you just agreed to stay there.

But mostly this is a failure as an ad method. People are wary of it, and it just annoys most people. It certainly annoys me. And if there is one thing you should try to avoid when trying to appeal to an audience, it is annoying them.

Gandalf Sells Tickets

With a movie like “The Hobbit”, advertisements don’t even really need to go into detail about what it’s about. One look at Gandalf and it’s done.

Because the Hobbit is from such a popular franchise, The Lord of the Rings, everybody probably already knows what’s going on. For their ads, they just have to remind people that it exists, and convince people that it isn’t going to be a disgrace. They have some of the easiest marketing.

With this ad, all they’re really doing is saying “Hey, check it out, it’s the Hobbit, you can read about it or look it up or whatever! Watch it! Pay me!”.

And I will watch it. Completely definitely. Even though their method of splitting it up into three movies seems like a bit too much of a money making scheme to me, I have faith in the director that he will do well. But this blog isn’t about the movie itself, it’s about how they advertise it.

Some images are so recognizable that the title isn’t even necessary to advertise to audiences. And Gandalf the Grey is one of those images. Since everyone who plans on seeing the Hobbit already knows it exists, as I mentioned earlier, all they have to do is keep people thinking about it by putting up commercials and print ads all over the place. Word of mouth can do the rest.

Very few things can do this, and The Hobbit certainly is one of them.

MisTargeted

Earlier, I was listening to the song Diablo Rojo, by Rodrigo y Gabriela. But the interesting thing was, when I clicked on the tab for the YouTube video, this is what popped up:

I am not Hispanic. I don’t speak Spanish, and when I hear it over my headphones, it takes me till the end of the video to even realize that the ad is about Target. But the reason why they played this commercial for me makes sense.

After all, Diablo Rojo is a Mexican band, and so it makes sense that the audience watching the video would also be Mexican. It’s this concept that I would like to focus on: not the Mexican aspect, but the idea of customer profiling, to appeal to the people most likely watching that at the time.

This style of marketing is present at all times. You don't want to waste advertising money on an audience who wouldn’t want to buy the product, or, worse, who wouldn’t understand the language of the product. This example above is only the one that made me think of it at the time.

This is just one of many tactics used to “cut through the clutter” of marketing, by making each ad personalized for the likely consumer. And unlike many kinds of very annoying tactics, I don't really mind this one. After all, if the advertiser knows what I want, that also means I will be advertised what I want to buy.

And although the amount of information the world has on me is sometimes kind of scary, little mistargeted ads like this help give me relief.

Toyota Camry

I actually saw this a little while ago, but it was good enough that when I was trying to think of different ads, this came to mind.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8XmdQjJ7BM

What they’re trying to show here is that the Camry is very good, even though it actually has very little to do with a car. Normally, when a commercial does this, I dislike it. It seems to me that often when they try advertising a concept more than a product, they’re just trying to dodge why exactly it’s good. I mean, those commercials may be the least annoying, but it doesn’t make me want to buy a product.

This is much the same. I mean, I’m not really the target audience, seeing as I can’t drive or afford a car. But the ad obviously made me remember the car, so in that way it did its job well. And it did manage to convey the idea of change in their product, which was obviously the driving premise behind this ad. Their repetition in saying “the reinvented” made that abundantly clear.

It was cleverly done, and made me chuckle, and since it stuck in my mind, it has achieved its purpose. All in all, I’d say this was a well-done ad.

Sidebar Ads

Everyone is probably familiar with this concept in advertising. Where I found this image was on a little sidebar on an online website to play games, telling me to play their game now.

Now, whenever I see these things, they seem to fall into two main categories: either a) blatant sex appeal, getting some random scantily-clad woman who probably has nothing to do with what’s being advertised right in the front, or b) trying to make you interested by showing some cool thing about the product. Here we have the benefit of both tactics, in relation to games.

On the left, they have completely failed to peak my interest. I see some weird badly-animated gorilla fighting a tree, and I just ignore it, basically. I have no reason to click this, and so I will not look at the ad again for the rest of my time spent on the website. They have failed their purpose by spending money for screen space, and then having their ad not catch the attention of their audience.

On the right is even worse. Although I notice it, I immediately dislike it. My initial feeling is that this is either a scam, trying to get guys to click on it so that they can download a virus or make me fill out information, or it’s a really lame game which they can only advertise by trying to draw people in with animated women. Now, thinking about it, it’s probably not a scam. However, within seconds of seeing the ad, the maker can rest assured that I will not play their game, because now I have a negative connotation to the whole thing. Their attempt to distract us has backfired.

I don't know, maybe this method works on some people. It must, or it would no longer be done. But personally I find this a bad way to advertise, because mostly, it just annoys me.

Music Video

I have to say now that this is a method of advertising I actually like.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBYU-6wHufQ

The music video/ad is not necessarily a new idea, but this one in particular by Rhett & Link was extremely well done, and it makes me think that things like this are where advertising are going in the future. Because the main problem with mass media advertising is that the audience becomes desensitized to it. I mean, how often do you look at the sidebar ads on Google? I know I don't at all. But if you can manage to make it so that the people you are targeting want to see your ad, then you basically just won.

And that is what Sleep Better and Rhett & Link did here. They made an ad which clearly displayed the sponsor company while remaining unobtrusive, and managed to stick in my head while also being entertaining enough that I seek it out. The seeking it out is especially important. This video has been viewed by almost 1 million people, and did so with almost everyone enjoying it.

Sleep Better has managed to make me remember their company in a positive way, linked with both good memories and what it is they are selling. And I showed this to friends and family after watching it, so it is being spread by the very audience it also appeals to.

As I have said before, this is not new. Companies have spread their products or services via viral videos many times before, and companies have sponsored famous personalities to advertise them even more times.  But this works, and if more companies could manage to do this, then I wouldn’t mind the constant bombardment with advertising that I currently experience.

Tis The Season for Christmas Everything

What says Christmas more than gambling?

 

It’s nothing new to try and make every product possible Christmas related during the holiday season, but seriously? Casinos?

I mean, first of all, I find it kind of amusing that they are trying to put together a season centered around giving to an activity basically based around a very slim chance of free money. But even without that, let’s just look at what they’re trying to say here.

I mean, what’s the message? Are they trying to say that you should go and spend all your present cash on them? Or are they saying that they’re being charitable? The only information they give is that the top three scores get a WHOLE $500 MORE. Of course, there will probably be thousands of games, and even if you do win it, $500 isn’t a lot of money compared to your odds of winning it.

Basically, this ad says nothing at all about what’s actually happening. Large numbers and letters mixed with a ‘witty pun’ of “’Tis the Season of Slot Tournaments” try to appeal to people wondering what they will do over Christmas time. But in no way does this have to do with Christmas.

All in all, though, my main problem isn’t with this ad in particular. It’s with the idea of getting completely unrelated things, and making it about Christmas. As if it isn’t materialistic enough as it is.

Ax Anarchy

So I was thinking of some advertisements to talk about, when I saw this again. And really, how could I write a media blog without bringing up Ax Anarchy?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsXfMQzH0k4

The blatant sex appeal here is kind of hilarious and kind of sad. I mean, this advertisement has absolutely nothing to do with the deodorant. It doesn’t show and deodorant, doesn’t say anything about eliminating smells, or about smelling nice, or even give the name of the product till the end.

Basically, all this ad does is saying that if you use our product, suddenly everyone will either die or start making out.  Really it doesn’t even say that, though, it’s just a bunch of pictures of chaos and attractive people running at each other, then the words “ax anarchy”.

I suppose their logic was that we already know the brand, and it’s pretty famous, so they got something which would catch our attention and hold it long enough that we could see the product and chuckle about it. But what are they really trying to say about it?

Obviously, they’re saying it has something to do with attraction, but… how? As far as I can tell from seeing that, the chaos going on has nothing to do with scents. And so, what? If you use our deodorant you’ll become a hot model, and stride purposefully towards someone while narrowly avoiding your untimely death, only to kiss in the middle of an exploding street corner?

In that case, I want some.

Unfortunately, it seems for some reason to be solely for women.