Google is looking to start a venture capital arm according to the Wall Street Journal. Google is known for business innovation, but this new venture concept will formally make Google the largest tech venture firm. Google has gone way beyond the search. They are currently investing in energy. They created ANDROID, the open source co-op for mobile phones. Google is always up to something.
If you were Hertz in the 60’s, you pushed your tag line of “Putting you in the driver’s seat” into the copy and came up with something a little more comparative — “Where winners rent.” In this OJ Simpson commercial, they were basically telling car renters that if you went with Number 2, you were a loser.
Taking a page from Hertz, the Obama camp has created a new spot to keep the sparkle on their brand. Being more savvy than the McCain folks, they’ve posted their spot on YouTube to allow other to share.
This is going to be a interesting…
ZDNET is reporting that the Securities and Exchange Commission provided unanimous approval today for corporations to use Corporate Blogs as a means to release information that meets public disclosure requirements.
I don’t know that you’ll see many corporation taking advantage of this medium but there are some who have successful corporate blogs that could use this to provide information to the public. In those instances, there is the opportunity for unique conversation to develop around content usually reserved for faxed releases and obscure postings. This can position a corporate blog in a whole new way for some brands.
It’s additional proof that Social Media…
When it came to Avis, they made a wise choice by admitting that they weren’t the best. But they turned this negative into a positive. They want to be number one so they responded by saying “We try harder.”
Today, it seems the Republican presidential nominee is taking a page from the Avis case study. The Democratic nominee’s activities have garnered a ton of attention from the media for quite some time as if his visits overseas were going to establish any new policies or relationships. To counter this, McCain’s latest commercial, called Celeb Ad, compares Obama’s popularity to shallow celebrities…
PBS has a new spot called “School Bus.” Part of their award-winning “Be More” brand campaign, “School Bus” is a very short story about a young boy’s extraordinary journey.
In only 70 seconds, the boy’s journey takes him first to the southernmost part of the earth, then to an moment in history, then to the Broadway stage, and finally into the solar system.
The purpose of the spot? It’s an invitation to experience PBS content.
“Be more” is supposed to illustrate how PBS helps you to explore new ideas and new worlds, and broaden personal horizons….all this fueled by compelling content offered exclusively…
I’m a big fan of the CommonCraft videos. CommonCraft has established itself as a unique communications organization that brands come to for help to explain the features and benefits of their products. The video below is for LinkedIn. They asked CommonCraft to take the assumption that LinkedIn is about building connections and turn it on it’s side to explain how it can make you more productive. Using a simple two minute video, CommonCraft has helped LinkedIn to explain how it can expand the role it plays in our everyday lives.
Can your brand communicate in such a simple way to help people…
A Chinese condom manufacturer, Elasun, is celebrating the Olympics in a refined, elegant and classy way: with clever Olympic themed condom advertisements.
The ads show athletic stick men with condoms in place of various sports apparatuses such as basketball nets, bicycle wheels, archery targets and gymnastic rings, explains the Trendhunter article. The most creative of the series of ads? The ribbed condom used to symbolize the water surface in swimming.
Elasun’s slogan, translated into English, is “Sports make you health.”
In the closing of the Trendhunter article, the author says, “The Telegraph (UK) reported that “Olympic villages are reputed to be hotbeds of…
I was watching a TED Presentation with Jonathan Harris, an artist and computer scientist, about his passion for collecting stories. One of the projects that Jonathan shares during the presentation is We Feel Fine which he developed with Sep Kamvar.
We Feel Fine scans the worlds blogs to collect snippets of peoples feelings. The information is then rolled together and presented using visual cues that allow you to review and even search for feelings. It’s a mesmerizing, amazing and frightening look into the emotions and experiences that people are sharing online.
Have a look when you get a chance and explore the snippets…
The buzz surrounding the all-Black July 2008 issue of Vogue Italia is still going strong as Condé Nast, for the first time ever, is reprinting the issue to meet high demand.
According to fashion and entertainment blog Make Fetch Happen, “Even telephone book-sized upcoming September issues are feeling the pinch with American Vogue’s 50 page drop from last year and an overall page decline of 4%,” implying that Vogue Italia’s themed edition, featuring models of African decent, has revitalized sales.
This July 2008 issue is said to have come about by the lack of diversity on NYC Fashion Week runways and…
While I was reviewing my RSS feeds this week, Adfreak pointed me to this YouTube Choose Your Own Adventure idea being put together by a guy name Cory Williams. Cory is asking you to help him find his cat, Sparta. The concept is very interesting in that you can use the YouTube set up to choose from one of four available choices that leads you to the next video.
Now, the storyline is a bit weak but the concept is sound. I never did find Cory’s cat, lost interest. I’ll be curious to see if a brand picks up on this idea. Get a good story…
Chrysler is looking to make some major changes. The Wall Street Journal reports that Chrysler is currently scrambling to cut costs by forming alliances with companies across the globe. In India, they are in talks with Tata to build Jeeps. The struggling car maker is also in talks with Fiat about a possible factory lease deal. All this is in addition to down-sizing their workforce. In the U.S. Chrysler sales have fallen by 22% so far this year.
There is some good news for the company. Chrysler, GM and Nissan were ranked as some of the most visible auto makers online. Internet…
The success of a movie is not judged by box office success any more. The DVD market for movies gives studios a second chance to rake in the dough on new release. Horton Hears a Who grossed nearly $300 million while in theaters. Now Twentieth Century Fox is backing the release of the DVD with a monstrous campaign intended to generate 200 million consumer impressions. The campaign includes a float in the Macy’s Day parade as well as odd partnerships with L’Oreal and the Energy Star organization.
My question is this, what does 200 million impressions mean? The hope is that…
Former Google employees created a new search engine that they claim is the largest search engine in the world. It searches three times more pages than Google and doesn’t use the Google Page rank algorithm. Cuil, pronounce “cool” is an old Irish word for knowledge. Cuil does not track user information like Google does and the user interface is really clean. I tried it and I like it. Give it a go and see what you think.
Usually you hear about new or recently developed social applications being all the rage and surrounded by lots of buzz, and then the brand trickles down to the average Joe and Jane as indispensible at some point.
However, Twitter is not enjoying this kind of success.
The site frequently has been riddled with technical problems, which has third-party developers abandoning ship. The developer community is predicting that once developers go, users won’t be far behind.
This may not shake and break the brand of a social app that is indispensible, but Twitter seems superfluous–you can do the same things it does for you…
The Royal Bank of Canada used a creative way to collect money for the Blue Water Project. The goal of the project was to keep the water cleaner.
Every donation that was made into the box pushed the inner box down causing the water to rise. Therefore, appearing each donation helped create the simulation more money, cleaner water.
What do you think? I have seen change jars by numerous cash registers and I think this one is a very good attention grabber. What other cool change collection promotions have you seen?
Source: Ads of the World
Amy is a blogger at Talent Zoo’s website: www.beneaththebrand.com.…
I was listening to one of the podcasts I subscribe to on my way to a client meeting yesterday. The interview involved a financial planner/advisor who honed her business focus to be women in the fashion and media industry. After analyzing her career, she realized that a good niche for her to conquer would be women. Women have many changes in their life that affect their financial situation—first job out of college, marriage, divorce, birth of a child, death of a spouse, etc. Narrowing down her clientele has allowed her to perfect her professional experience. She knows who her prospective…
The Muppets seem to be staging a comeback. In an effort to promote an upcoming Disney Channel special, several of our Muppet friends have set up their own YouTube channels. Beeker gets it going with a nice rendition of Ode to Joy. This is an interesting approach to revive the Muppet brand and bring back the variety show approach that brought the show success in the past.
Disney is once again putting their marketing force behind something and finding new ways to integrate the old and the new. The YouTube campaign is an interesting way to use a new medium to revive a brand that…
This spot has made the rounds and may have appeared here on Beneath the Brand once before, but I can’t help but share it again. It’s a spoof on the agency process and the difficulty that is experienced with clients. The sad thing about this parody…it’s so true.
Many of my fellow BTB bloggers also post their thoughts on various other sites, some have their own (www.stevenstark.net) and some are part of other communities (www.deepsouthmoms.com). What I think is so interesting is that there is a blog for everyone and everything out there. And if there’s not, you can very simply create your own.
My father just recently got into the act with a blog for a convention he’ll be speaking at. If you’re in the association world, then you’ve probably heard of ASAE (American Society of Association Executives). Every year they have a big conference for the association crew,…
