Zazou Marketing

Santa Monica, California just launched an example of an advertising campaign that does it right: It has good copy and good design. The campaign plays off the children’s game of “One of these things is not like the others” to remind/teach people about the city’s no-smoking laws.

According to the New York Times, the advertising campaign is extensive, including ad wraps on the beaches’ garbage cans and posters at bus stops and A.T.M.s.

The advertisements all have three or four images with the words “One of these doesn’t belong …” or “One of these doesn’t belong here.” The best part — the images change according to where the ad is placed.

So, advertisements for restaurants show wheat, asparagus, breadsticks and cigarettes — each tied together in a similar manner. The ad copy? “No smoking in Santa Monica’s outdoor dining areas.”

Ads at the beach show a palm tree, a surf board and a cigarette. The copy says, “No smoking on Santa Monica’s beaches.”

Ads at bus stops show a wheel, a sign for a bus line, a bus token and an ashtray with a cigarette. “Please keep Santa Monica’s bus stops smoke-free,” the copy says. “It’s for our environment. It’s for each other. It’s the law.”

Ads at A.T.M.s show an A.T.M. screen, an A.T.M. keypad, a bank card and a stack of cigarettes. “Please keep Santa Monica’s A.T.M. lines smoke-free,” the copy requests.

The creative copy and design in this campaign together make a point quickly and easily, while being memorable — all things we strive to do in a good ad campaign.

Yesterday I wrote about how Dunkin’ Donuts’ new ad campaign successfully differentiates the company from their competition. Today I am writing about a company’s ad campaign that fails to do just that. In fact, this ad campaign simply makes me wonder what they were thinking.

In this ad campaign, Microsoft accuses Google of causing global economic ruin as a narrator says: “While everyone was searching, there was bailing. . . . While everyone was lost in the links, there was collapsing.” The product? Microsoft’s new  search engine, Bing. All I can say to this is, “What?!”

I am not alone in this confusion. The LA Times ran a story about it today, titled “Microsoft’s Bing TV ad: Huh?”

This is my favorite part of the article:

I find many mysteries in this commercial. The first is how an ad firm with an estimated $100 million entrusted to it fails to notice the clumsy grammar (”there was bailing . . . there was collapsing” sounds as if the lines were translated from Zulu). While I’ve got my copy-editing hat on, I’d note that a long stretch of the ad’s narration — “Starting today we need the right information to make the right decisions, decisions that help us feel right, decisions that help us get to the right place at the right time, even if it’s right around the corner. . . . ” — is so vacuous it practically sucked my eyeballs out of their sockets.

Sucking eyeballs out of sockets is probably the last association that Microsoft wanted when they launched this marketing campaign. But I still do wonder what it is that they did want. Maybe the purspose of the campaign is just to turn heads? I suppose simply by getting attention some people will try the search engine. But I can’t help but think that if they gave people a good reason to switch from Google to Bing, many, many more people would give it a try — this is, after all, what any good marketing material should do.

Dunkin’ Donuts is rolling out an entertaining and fun new ad campaign. But that’s not what made it noteworthy enough for me to write about here. The reason that I’m mentioning it is because — as all marketing campaigns should — this campaign effectively differentiates the company from their competition.

Dunkin’ Donuts’ “Breakfast NOT Brokefest” advertising campaign introduces the company’s new 99-cent breakfast wrap, which is also in line with their current coffee pricing.

Dunkin' Donuts is rolling out a new "Breakfast NOT Brokefest" ad campaign.

The marketing campaign includes displays of legs that stick out of public fountains, which make it look like someone jumped into the fountain to gather coins. A sign next to the legs read: “Please do not remove change for 99-cent items at Dunkin’ Donuts.”

In a separate TV ad, a man tightens his belt, which prompts a colleague to point out that that won’t save him money.

The price-oriented advertising campaign sets the brand apart from the pricier McDonald’s and Starbucks (who are both trying to tackle the coffee and breakfast market right now).  Considering that people are feeling the need to scale back and let go of luxuries like a $4 latte, the Dunkin’ Donuts campaign may entice more than a few new customers.

By the way, if you want to read more about what Starbucks has been up to recently, read my past posts:

Starbucks vs. Stella: Two beverage companies warn against paying less

Copy Chatter: Starbucks Bucks the Short Copy Trend

If you’re launching an ad campaign, you certainly want a return on your investment. So it’s nice to know that research shows how to make your ad campaign increase sales or profit.

Here are the results of a study done by The Journal of Advertising Research, as published in Ad Age today, which found that the following strategies are most likely to increase sales or profit:

* Focus on hard objectives, such as specific market-share gains, rather than soft ones, such as brand awareness
* Focus on price, not volume
* Focus on penetration (winning new consumers) rather than loyalty
* Influence consumers emotionally rather than rationally
* Create ads with “talk value”
* Have a high share of voice relative to brand market share
* Include TV in the mix
* Include a small number of media channels with a concerted message

Source: Les Binet & Peter Field, June issue, Journal of Advertising Research.

While some of these elements are part of an overall marketing strategy, many of them are very much intertwined with your copy. So remember, for instance, to consider keeping your focus on specific objectives that win new consumers.

Of course, each advertising campaign is different and some “rules” are meant to be broken, but the above list is certainly a good guideline when mapping out your ad campaign — or, for that matter, any marketing materials or marketing campaign.

Advertising campaigns inevitably responds to the times. And, as we are all very aware: The times are now tough. Which is why some brands have eschewed upbeat ads that dominated the boom times, opting instead for sober messages that harken back to the Great Depression.

Here are a few examples, as covered in a New York Times article that ran yesterday:

• A Farmers insurance ad campaign talks about how the company was started “a year before the crash.”

Farmers insurance ad campaign refers to the Great Depression

• Retailer Brooks Brothers is reprinting advertisements from the 1930s.
• Print ads for Soyjoy bars describe how “the Great Depression turned the land of opportunity into a land of despair.”

The effectiveness of these ads will inevitably run the gamut. But I do wonder about the wisdom (not to mention the relevance) of talking about the Great Depression in relation to a food bar. Though, to be fair, I should reserve my verdict until I actually see it.

It’s one thing to waste free space. It’s another to pay top dollar and waste it.

In an earlier post, I talked about a banner at Lincoln Center that simply tells you to “Celebrate Lincoln Center’s 50th Anniversary.” I brought this up as a reminder that advertising copy and marketing materials need to include the information that people want, as well as what will make them care–both of which this banner sorely lacks.

So that covers the wasted free space. What about paying to waste it? Well in the May 2009 O Magazine, there is a similarly uninteresting and uninformative Lincoln Center advertisement. It splashes the same “50″ across the page and has the following copy: “Saluting Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts on its 50th anniversary.” Then there is the “Lincoln Center 50 Years, just the beginning” logo and the website, LincolnCenter.org.

Lincoln Center 50 years ad campaign

Is it just me, or is this another missed opportunity to make me care?! Seriously, use your advertising copy to tell me something, anything that will entice me! What have you done that’s so special? What are you planning that is so special? What exactly are you doing to celebrate? If I am interested, what can I do to celebrate? And why should I take any time out of my day to go to your website when you haven’t told me a thing about why I should go there?

I have absolutely no emotional reaction when I think of Chipotle. Instead, my thinking process probably goes something like this: “black bean burrito,” “fast food counter,” “husband got sick once.” So it was a complete shock to me to learn that the brand has such a strong following that when they changed their ad campaign recently, a group of Denver-based creatives started a “war” on Chipotle’s new ad campaign, called “Cheapotle.”

New ad campaign from Chipotle

An ad that is part of the "war" on Chipotle's new ad campaign.

Since I didn’t know about the new ad campaign until I found about this war, I did some reasearch about it. Apparently, Chipotle is focusing the campaign, called “My Chipotle,” on its variety of menu items and ingredients. Included in the campaign is a microsite, Mychipotle.com, where consumers can leave audio and video recordings talking about their burrito creations.

Now, listen to who this campaign is targeting, from an article in Brandweek:

“With this campaign, it is our intention to harness the power of our most loyal fans,” said Mark Crumpacker, Chipotle CMO, in a statement. “We want them to be a part of the process because we know they’re consistently expressing themselves through their menu choices. By encouraging them to tell us why they eat what they do, we think they’ll spread the word and encourage others to come in and give Chipotle a try as well.”

Hmmmm. Maybe some of their loyal fans will love this campaign and play along. But apparently they went very wrong with at least a few of those Denver-based loyal fans.

And I certainly can’t help but notice that the ad campaign was meant to spur community action–maybe just not the kind of community action that it actually has spurred.

A few choice words can make a powerful image. If you have any doubt, just check out the new ad campaign Mars just launched. In fact, in this case, the image and the words are just too much, in my opinion.

The ad campaign is for the first new candy bar Mars has launched in 20 years. Called the “Fling,” it is being marketed to women. The ad campaign is using plenty of double entrendres, including calling it a “chocolate finger.” I don’t know about you, but instead of making me say, “Yum, give me some chocolate,” that image in relation to a chocolate bar makes me say, “Yuck.” I doubt that that was what Mars wanted when they launched this ad campaign.

Take a look for yourself at one piece of the marketing materials for this ad campaign:

a promotional mailer for Mars' new candy bar, the "Fling"

I’m not the only one who thinks this campaign goes too far. NPR’s “All Things Considered” ran a story yesterday about the ad campaign. Here’s an excerpt from that story:

“The overall campaign feels weird,” Lisa Johnson says. “It feels creepy.” Johnson is the co-author of Don’t Think Pink: What Really Makes Women Buy — and How to Increase Your Share of This Crucial Market. She describes the marketing as a “full-frontal attack.”

“The language of it has so much sexual innuendo, you could pack it into a trashy novel.” Johnson says marketers are taking the connection women often make between chocolate and sensuality too literally. “There are other things you can do that can hit this note without banging on it.”

It remains to be seen how effective the ad campaign will be, of course. But I would definitely like to see toned-down copy for this ad campaign. And my guess is that such a toned-down version would be much more effective.

More and more ad campaigns focus exclusively on getting your attention through visuals. While I am definitely an advocate of eye-catching design, I also absolutely believe that to get a good return on your investment, design and good copy go hand-in-hand.

Which is why I was so interested in hearing that Starbucks is running a new campaign: a series of full-page newspaper ads that are loaded with copy. A full-page ad? With loads of copy? This is definitely a different tactic. And it’s one that I am interested in seeing.

Both their website and the senior vice president of marketing’s blog offer a sneak-peak of the ads (I can’t display them here without a password). But from Advertising Age I learned that the ads will tell their story of what separates them from their competition, with topics including their use of fair-trade beans and giving health care to many part time employees. The ads will also address the issue of price—warning that “paying less for your coffee comes with a price.”

Come Sunday, I’ll definitely check out the first ad in the New York Times to see just how much copy there is and to see if it is compelling enough to keep me reading. Then, of course, the true test for this trend-bucking tactic will be to see if the ads have any effect on the company’s bottom line.