You can market ANYTHING.......

Recently, I saw a piece of advertising that made me think you really can put a value to ANYTHING with the correct marketing in place.

This is 'Smart water'- an "electrolyte enhanced water" which is being plugged by none other than Hollywood's finest- Jennifer Aniston.

The marketing's great and she looks great- there's nothing to fault with the advertising.... do people really believe that by drinking smartwater they will be as angelic and youthful looking as J.A?

I absolutely believe Glaceau water made the right endorsement choice with Jennifer, there is constant media speculation as to the reason behind her youthfulness.

However, I really don't believe that marketing a basic human need, a product which provides no value other than survival- can really be Jennifer Aniston's "secret".

"tasty" water.....

I don't know about you, but I think I might stick to my Bristol's finest tap water!

You really can market anything

I will be interested to see how well the smart water campaign does.

Mysterious Ape

You may, or may not have seen Southern Electric's new advertising campaign. If not here's a few of their outdoor advertisements:

Consumers are hitting social media to express their confusion and humour at the ads. Some people even thought the adverts were a mistake! You can read some of the tweets here: http://www.buzzfeed.com/patricksmith/everyone-is-confused-by-the-sad-looking-ape-in-these-energy

As SSE responded to questions of the relevance of the ad to their organisation/ consumers taking the piss out of an ape at a music concert/ country side/ over wind turbines, they said the outdoor ads were to continue the story of their TV ad about "looking at energy through fresh eyes"

Here's the ad:

To be fair, I actually like the ad and come to think of it I think I have seen it on TV before, however I think SSE/ adam&eveDDB need to learn from the following mistakes made in this campaign:
1) Consumers don't always have a high recall rate Even if people have seen the ad, it may not be in the forefront of their mind and the character doesn't automatically spring to mind and therefore the link between the TV and outdoor advertising cannot always be made. 2) You cannot 'create' a character's novelty or likeability It is only through consumer word-of-mouth and other earned media sources that characters are known, loved and remembered.... take compare the meerkat, it was the brand who created the character, but the consumers who developed his legacy 3) Don't just PRESUME that the consumer will have seen the TV ad Not only is it slightly arrogant to think that your marketing methods are going to have that kind of reach, but if your whole campaign is resting up on it then you're bound to fall at the first hurdle. 4) Don't create an ad that appears completely out of context on it's own I'm all for integrated marketing communications and with better planning and a more intelligent outdoor advertising message, the whole campaign could have been a success. Yet, the current outdoor ads are as described on twitter "a bit crap", it's almost as though their entire budget went on the TV ad, so they got the work experience boy to create the outdoor ads
All in all, at least SSE got huge PR out of this! And their ads have gone viral..... maybe not for the reasons they had hoped......

Steph

Cough drops advertised in Finland- a little different!

Check out this epic ad from a Finnish cough drops brand by ACTIVEARK JWT agency.

A great example- I doubt anyone could have guess what was being advertised before the cough drops appeared! 

I love this ad as it brings a story to life, thinks outside the box and creates something shareable, memorable and funny! It breaks all boundaries of standard 'pharmaceutical' advertising- we should take a leaf out of Finland's books when it comes to advertising!