Duane Reade

You don't typically see advertising for store brands. Actually, I don't recall ever seeing it in my lifetime. Until the latest campaign from Duane Reade. If you don't live or work in New York City, you may be unfamiliar with the company. It's a chain of drugstores, similar to Walgreens (it was acquired by them last year).

I happen to be a fan of the Duane Reade store brand items, which they call Delish. In particular their cereals. This ad caught my eye on the subway, and I decided to snap a pic.

I think the whole campaign is simple and highlights the product very well. I especially thought that this ad for their ice cream was clever.

The Kraken Spiced Rum

I just came across this excellent piece of branding for a great rum that I had last week. The brand promise in the end is spot-on true, "named for the sea beast of myth and legend, The Kraken Rum is strong, rich, black, and smooth." Though the animation is somewhat edgy (the squid-like creature eats Jesus) I think it is clearly tongue-in-cheek and very entertaining. The entire campaign, which uses both social and traditional media, is a fine example of how imagination and storytelling can work very well in a brand's favor. I plan on personally getting more engaged with this brand in the future, and I think others will do the same.

FAGE USA TV SPOTS - Are Beautiful

I didn't see the new TV Spots for FAGE USA on TV. Rather, the 48 second spot entitled "Total Plain Extraordinary™" appeared in my You Tube suggestions as a promoted video. If you go to the FAGE USA Website there is a link that says "Watch The TV Spots". Besides their smart use of digital media, the yogurt company has chosen to work with Mullen, an ad agency with very talented creatives. I don't have much else to say about the spots other then they are tremendously well art-directed, and the copywriting is spectacular. I'll let you see for yourself. You also might notice that the poem is voiced by actor Willem Dafoe, who recently acted in and narrated a great Jim Beam spot for Strawberry Frog.



As for FAGE, I am a huge fan of the product. The yogurt is the thick, Greek kind. It's great-tasting, healthy, and extremely versatile. I also support the company because in 2008 they opened a U.S production facility in Johnstown, NY, which is near my hometown. It is definitely an area that has seen its better days when it comes to manufacturing, but the baby food company Beech-Nut also recently moved its manufacturing and corporate operations to the small town of Florida, NY, the town I grew up in. Perhaps the Mohawk Valley can become a hot bed for food and CPG companies, but that is probably wishful thinking.

Unheard In NY Project

This is a really interesting project that came across my Twitter feed. A group of interns from the ad agency BBH are helping homeless NYers gain a voice through Twitter. They started out by giving four men pre-paid cell phones and instructed them how to "Tweet" with them.

I think this is a very admirable thing to do for the homeless. Sometimes we take for granted how lucky we are to be empowered with digital tools. Technology like Facebook and Twitter allows us to get our points across, express ourselves, and socialize with others. We can turn to our social networks for advice on life's decisions, whether they be small or large, for garnering support when we need it most, and for receiving congratulations when things are going well. People don't have the time to stop and interact with homeless people on the street or in Penn Station, but for those who do have an interest in doing so Twitter allows homeless people to have a less intrusive voice and lets people socialize with them when it is most convnient.

Check out their first You Tube video, and follow the four men @jessie550 @putodanny @awitness2011 and @albert814 or the main Twitter account @underheardinNY.

Live Commercials on Jimmy Kimmel

There’s a reason why advertisers shell out so much money for Super Bowl spots. This year’s game was the most watched TV show of all time, and if you are selling a product that appeals to almost everyone (ie: a car, a food or beverage) it makes sense to invest the money. A specialized product like Salesforce Chatter however...not so much. But besides the massive viewership, it’s the one time of the year where Americans not only watch the commercials, but get excited about them. Any other time people get together to watch sports they are usually changing the channel during the commercials or talking over them, which leads to wasted advertising dollars.
This is why I am happy to see the age old tactic of live commercials making a comeback during late night television's Jimmy Kimmel Live. In the early days of broadcasting, it was quite common for the host of a show to appear during the hour or half-hour to do a live commercial endorsing the sponsor of the program. Jimmy Kimmel has brought this technique back by performing a live commercial before each show.
I remember a couple of years ago Jimmy Fallon did an okay job of incorporating Bing into his program to create more awareness for the new search engine, but it wasn't incredibly funny. Last night I was very impressed with what Jimmy Kimmel Live did to promote the sponsor Kellogg’s Crunchy Nut Cereal. They were able to use the product to create a funny skit involving the show’s Hispanic character Guillermo. In case you missed it here is the transcript:


00:01:25
>> Jimmy: Hi, I'm jimmy kimmel with kellogg's crunchy nut cereal -- the most delicious development in breakfast since bacon.
00:01:33
It's the perfect blend of sweet and nutty in every crunchy bite.
00:01:36
Our parking lot security guard guillermo loves it so much he -- where is guillermo?
00:01:44
>> Oh, delicious crunchy nut , cereal.
00:01:49
Two kinds topped with real peanuts and honey.
00:01:53
It is time to eat you right now because it's always morning somewhere.
00:01:59
>> Jimmy: ,What?
00:02:03
>> Aye-yay-yay, what a beautiful morning!
00:02:06
And, look, the biggest bowl of kellogg crunchy nut cereal in the world!
00:02:13
Wow!
00:02:13
And a giant spoon.
00:02:14
, [ mooing ] >> wow.
00:02:21
Muchas gracias!
00:02:22
>> Guillermo!
00:02:22
Guillermo!
00:02:25
>> Oh, my god.
00:02:26
Look.
00:02:27
He talks!
00:02:28
A talking cow.
00:02:29
Wow.
00:02:29
>> Guillermo!
00:02:30
, >> Jimmy: Guillermo, wake up.
00:02:35
Wake up.
00:02:35
>> Jimmy, I was having the most wonderful dream about crunchy nut cereal.
00:02:40
>> Jimmy: Well, I'm sorry to wake you.
00:02:44
>> Not as sorry as you are going to be!
00:02:46
Come on, cow.
00:02:47
Let's go.
00:02:48
>> Jimmy: ,What?
00:02:50
>> Yeah, you're right.
00:02:51
>> Two varieties of crunchy nut available in stores now.
00:02:54
Learn more at kelloggscrunchynut.com or facebook.com/kelloggscrunchynut.
00:03:01
>> Jimmy:, another home run.
00:03:06
"Jimmy kimmel live" is back in two minutes with amy sedaris, music from nelly and dr. phil mcgraw.
00:03:10
'T want to wait till morning to eat it.
00:03:12
♪ ♪
00:03:16
[ beep ] ♪ ♪
00:03:21
, ♪ ♪
00:03:26
the perfect blend of sweet andnutty in every crunchy bite.
00:03:32
♪ ♪
00:03:33
..
00:03:35
It's Morning Somewhere.

No Right Brain Left Behind

This is a project I am working on in collaboration with several other planners. I am currently creating a questionnaire to interview people that work in education. We are exploring the topic of how U.S. schools are or are not nurturing creativity. Then after we brief them during Social Media Week 2011, teams from creative industries will have 5 days to speed innovate ideas that will help schools to do a better job.

No Right Brain Left Behind

View more presentations from Viktor Venson.

You know my methods, Watson.

As a fan of Jeopardy, I was happy to learn that on February 14th, a supercomputer named Watson that was designed by IBM, will be competing against Jeopardy Champions – Brad Rutter and Ken Jennings. What is being considered IBM’s most ambitious foray into deep analytics and natural language processing, began back in 2007.

In this video, Dr. John E. Kelly III, Senior Vice President and Director of IBM Research says, “We decided that we needed to build a system that could extract knowledge at a must faster rate from enormous amounts of data than human beings or any other computer system could do.”

Could we as Account Planners be competing with computers in the future?

Why I think Planet Fitness has introduced the most effective advertising campaign of 2011.

1.) It’s funny. “I lift things up and put them down.” I can’t tell you how many times I have said that since seeing the commercial.

2.) They are taking a clear position. They are a gym for the casual exerciser, not the die-hard body builder. While this may be a risk, they believe in something. It is impossible to love something that has no identity and does not stand for anything. By giving people something they can latch on to, Planet Fitness is sure to create more enthusiastic evangelists for their brand.

3.) There is a strong call to action. $20 down, $10 a month if you enroll by January 12th. Ok, so I know what you want me to do and I know I need to do it immediately. Too often I see great advertising, but I don’t take action. As in sales, it is impossible to close a deal if you don’t ask for the sale, and give people a sense of urgency.

4.) The campaign has legs. All of the characters featured so far have been hilarious. They are an exaggeration of the muscle heads we have all seen at the gym before. But there is no limit to where they can go with these characters. I firmly believe that this is only the beginning.

Good job Mullen!

Harley-Davidson Turns to Crowdsourcing

Harley-Davidson is a culturally iconic, famous lifestyle brand, but it wasn’t always that way. In the 1970’s, Harley Inc. faced bankruptcy, as they could no longer compete with cheaper priced Japanese made bikes. In 1983 Harley decided to create a group called H.O.G, or Harley Owners Group, for owners to participate in rallies and remain closely in touch with the corporation. One member at a time, the company built a community using newsletters and a magazines. Harley Davidson’s President began making regular appearances at events to constantly gain input into what customers love. Here it is almost 30 years later and the company is still employing the same principles of tapping into the power of their customers to drive their marketing.

In November, Harley announced it would be parting ways with its advertising agency-of-record, Carmichael Lynch of Minneapolis, to start working with the ad agency Victor & Spoils of Boulder, which bills itself as the world’s first creative (ad) agency built on crowdsourcing principles. In October, John Winsor, the CEO of Victors & Spoils presented at the Jay Chiat strategy festival in Miami. Here is the video: