I admit it, I freaking love the Knorr Sidekicks commercials as of late. Created by DDB, Toronto, it all started with this gem:
Adorable. People liked it; they felt sorry for poor ol’ Salty. It conveyed the message well (thanks to Knorr, you won’t need Salty around anymore) but kept it lighthearted. And Salty was so cute!
But it seems the ad idea is now bigger than the product it is trying to sell. Let’s take a look at an ad I found today:
The product isn’t even mentioned. Heck, you don’t even see it until a minute in, in the final lockup. And the copy doesn’t even speak to the brand benefits. Is this an issue? Well, no, I don’t think so. Because what it does speak to is the ability to get your own FREE salt & pepper shakers by visiting their website (sidekicks.ca) I can’t lie, I’m now checking this out to see how I can get them. I’m sorry, they’re just so cute!
So… clearly the high value task here has shifted between the first ad (buy our product) to this ad (visit our website). Upon looking at the site though, the user has two options: buy the s&p shaker now for $14.99 plus shipping (an additional $7.29) or buy 3 packages of Knorr Sidekicks plus shipping.
Hm. Pay more monies ORRRR get tasty foods and pay less monies. Gee, wonder which one most people will go with. Just another indirect way to sell Knorr Sidekicks. But with the added bonus of a unique hit to their website. It’s win-win. Also win for consumers who will get a cute Salty’s in their daily lives. I’m seriously considering buying these. I wish I was joking.
Some other cute Salty’s ads can be found here and here.
In any case, you can check out Salty’s Twitter, Facebook fan page or his YouTube channel. Few items I need to off shoot and rant here about regarding these properties:
1. Most of the Twitter stuff pushes to product pages, which is fine – IF labeled as such. Instead, they’re just teaser copy and links, without disclosure of what the link is. Kind of annoying, clicking on a link thinking you might see something funny or of value to you only to find yourself on a Knorr Sidekicks product page.
2. The Facebook fan page wall is linked to the Twitter account, so all status updates on the wall are the same content as on the Twitter account. This basically says to me, “Why bother following Salty on Twitter? You can get the same content and more (ooohh, a photo album with 8 photos, if you could call that more, so impressive) on Facebook.” Don’t duplicate content. Doesn’t work in SEO, doesn’t work in SMO. Give users a reason to follow each individual account if you’re going to be on these properties – an incentive, if you will: exclusive content, funny tidbits, etc – that you can’t get already on another property. It’s fine to link out to the other social media properties, totally fine, but offer more than what is basically a RSS feed. And if that’s the case: Don’t bother signing up to that property.
2. No sharing of YouTube videos? Are you kidding me? What’s the point of putting it on YouTube then? You might as well just embedded a Quicktime video onto your site and called it a day. Lot of good non-embeddable content on YouTube does me, or anyone other fan out there. I don’t want to link in my blog posts, I want to SHOW.
Ok, rant over. I’m done now.
So what do you think? Think this ad idea has enough legs to stand on its own and support a product it barely talks about anymore? Let me know in the comments.
As annoyed as I get when a website is down, a good 404 page will always make me feel a little better.
HootSuite managed to at least make me smile, even if it’s not working.
On February 15 (for those of you in the States), Adidas is set to launch something never before tried with footwear: Augmented Reality Shoes.
Say what?
You heard me.
Adidas Originals AR Game Pack – as they have been named – is a set of 5 shoes, each with a printed AR code on the tongue. A user can hold up the code on their webcams, where they will instantly get access to a virtual “Adidas Originals Neighbourhood.” Each shoe will have a different neighbourhood, like this one below:
But wait! There’s more!
Not only will users be able to see these neighbourhoods poppin’ out of their fancy shoes, but for February, March & April, Adidas will launch new interactive games within each neighbourhood where the shoe itself will be the game controller.
With two weeks left until launch of the shoes, Adidas has released a teaser video. While it doesn’t show the augmented reality in action, it does show the kind of variety you can expect to see, dependent on the type of shoe purchased.
This campaign has yet to launch and already the blogosphere is a-buzz with this new and innovative approach to selling shoes. But will this kind of digital work translate into big bucks for Adidas? I’m definitely curious and will be following the launch of the Adidas Originals AR Game Pack closely.
I am going to do my best and not get all CAPS HAPPY when writing about the following article. Must. Control. Rage.
<Deep breath.> Ok.
Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook.com, recently told a live audience that the age of privacy is now over and if he were to create Facebook again today, user information would be publicly available rather than private, as it has been for years.
And what is his reasoning, you might ask? Why would users be perfectly fine with anyone accessing their private information? Why, because WE ALL BLOG, OF COURSE!
Yes. Society is one big giant blogger and it’s Facebook’s duty to follow suit. Don’t believe me? Words from the wonder kid himself:
And then in the last 5 or 6 years, blogging has taken off in a huge way and all these different services that have people sharing all this information. People have really gotten comfortable not only sharing more information and different kinds, but more openly and with more people. That social norm is just something that has evolved over time.
We view it as our role in the system to constantly be innovating and be updating what our system is to reflect what the current social norms are.
OK, Facebook, listen up! You’re missing three very key important points here:
ONE. Yes, blogging is big. Pretty big, in fact. But Facebook-worthy big? Hells to the no. As Marshall Kirkpatrick writes, “Not very many people write blogs, almost everyone is on Facebook.”
And he’s right. I can think of numerous friends (Facebook friends, fancy that!) that do not blog, nor have any interest in blogging. Ironically, I can even think of privacy-zealot friends, who rightfully freaked out about the Facebook privacy changes this past December, who blog.
TWO. Which brings me to my second point: The difference between blogging and Facebook’s outlook on privacy is that with blogging we 100% control the information. I’ll say it again for emphasis: I ONE HUNDRED PERCENT CONTROL the information I put on any blog I own. Whereas, where it looks like Facebook is headed, they could completely take away that control. They could give my personal information to whomever they like, whenever they like, however they like and not tell me. And some things, like my profile picture, I can’t do anything to stop them from sharing that with the world. Does that make me feel comfortable? All warm and fuzzy on the inside? Absolutely not.
THREE. My last point: I expected better from the world’s largest social networking site. Facebook, really? Do you hear the tone of disappointment in my voice? Because it’s there. It’s really, really there.
You are not a follower. You shouldn’t be a follower. You didn’t get to where you were by following trends but by breaking through with something different and new. So don’t go trying to conform to “social norms” (which I would still argue, as who the h-e-double hockey sticks would find giving away their privacy, no problem, “normal”?)
What you could have done (what you should have done) was become a LEADER in privacy. Show the rest of those silly social networks how IT IS DONE. Boom goes the dynamite, done. Give your users somewhere they can feel safe, where they can interact with their friends and not have to worry about who is seeing what. And who is selling what.
TO WRAP UP. I think there’s any opportunity here, for some young whippersnapper, to seize. If a respectable Facebook competitor would emerge, built on a platform of trust and privacy, I could really see many people, including my lovable privacy-zealot friends, switching over immediately and completely purging their Facebook accounts.
The problem right now is there is no real competitor to Facebook, and this results in users having very little choice and say in what happens with their accounts, as we’ve seen over and over with the Facebook redesigns and policy changes in the last couple of years (seriously, how do they manage to NOT LISTEN AT ALL?!).
So, young whippersnappers: hop to! Give Facebook a run for its money! And leave our information to us. We know what to do with it. Trust us.
Saw this little meme on another blog today and thought it would be interesting. Let’s see what we get.
Put your music player on shuffle, and write down the first line of the first twenty-one songs. Post the poem that results. The first line of the twenty-second is the title.
He’s 5 Foot 2 & He’s 6 Feet 4
Crawl through the darkness, fear all that don’t, fate is a gift
You were the mother of three girls so sweet
What? well fuck you…bitch
No, no, no, no, don’t phunk with my heart.
Ooh, now let’s get down tonight
It won’t do
Pardon me while I burst
On my way up north.
Everyday all of these crimes are committed
I feel you creeping, I can see it from my shadow
Come to decide that the things that I tried
I’ve been so many places in my life and time.
The good times are killing me. Here we go!
It ain’t no joke I’d like to buy the world a toke
Well he lit you up
Pride can stand a thousand trials.
Will someone please call a surgeon
There’s another world inside of me
I pray for rain because I’m trying
This here’s a tale for all the fellas.
Kind of funny! Especially the 4th paragraph to me. Hah. What do you think? Can you name any or all of these songs?
I try hard not to get too personal on my blog here but I think it is fitting for me to look back at this year and review. 2009 was a very trying year for many people I know. It was a huge year of transition for me. Starting this blog was part of that transition to establish myself in Toronto once again after I returned from traveling.
So I’ve decided to do the Year in Review meme that’s going around. This is one of my most personal blog posts I’ve ever written here. Please be gentle.
That said, the YouTube ad has over 700 comments, so clearly its doing its job of getting talked about. Not sure I agree with harukalioncourt who said:
This is one of the most creative commericals [sic] I have seen in the whole of my life!
One of the most creative commercials they’ve ever seen? Oh geez, my inner ad geek is CRYING BUCKETS right now. I think her poor little ad heart is broke too.
You want a good ad? Try this one on for size:
Editing, music, imagery, strong moments in history all pull together to help you reflect how long it has been. Follow that up with a strong statistic about the longevity of the brand and you have an ad that can create an emotive and logical response.
Or perhaps the “He Shoots, He Scores!” Coca Cola ad from the 2002 Olympics which Coca Cola is broadcasting again in anticipation of the 2010 Olympics. I did my best to find a video but all I could find was this mention on Advertolog. As a Canadian, that ad gets to me.
C’mon JG Wentworth. Pull yourself together and raise the bar, ok? I know I will thank you if you do. Repeatedly.
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