Target Women

"Target Women is a recurring segment on Current TV's weekly television show, infoMania. In each episode of Target Women, Sarah Haskins takes a look at the often-ridiculous way the media reaches out to women." In a nutshell Sarah Haskins delivers common sense critiques to ads targeting women; S.N.L. style.


Check it out here

via adfreak

Brands In The Digital Realm

Brands play a role in our lives by helping us to express our values to the people we interact and encounter, for example driving a Prius, immediately communicates that your an environmentalist and democrat. But how brands fullfill this same need online is what makes it difficult for brands to crossover into the digital realm.

Forrester sheds light on this topic with a new report called, "Online Community Best Practices". Forrester categorizes the different reasons brands form online communities into: Listening (an online standing focus group), Talking (get across a brand message), Energizing (nurturing brand enthusiasts), Support (allow brand users to support each other) and Embracing (involve brand faithful in developing the brand).

Via Third Way Blog

The biggest collection of boobs

Wonderbra launched a new collection of bras called the D+G collection. Aimed at women with larger cup sizes, it showcases a line of everyday" bras and a line of glamour bras. The user generated campaign calls for,"as many girls as we could to create the biggest collection of boobs ever seen," to appear in a billboard in Central London. The Chuck Close technique works well with the interactive counterpart of this campaign letting users get a closer look at all those who participated.

See it here

Noodles that are spot on

An Asian restaurant chain Wagamama in the UK has launched its first online campaign using a brand utilitarian approach. Via geo targeted technology, when a user searches a specific area that is located near a Wagamama, a message on the screen calling for people to "Click here for noodles in this area". When the user clicks on the call to action, all Wagamama restaurants in the area are revealed on the map.

A hole in one for E.A.

When the game Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 first came out, a feature of the game called the "Jesus shot" was posted on Youtube. Electronics Art the maker of the game responded back with this spot. Its a simple, done with a wink gesture that let their consumers know they were paying attention. Nice job E.A.

Anticipation

Ikea Germany's website features a 24/7 live stream of a a guy in an empty apartment waiting to receive his Ikea catalog. The idea of someone being video taped is definitely been done before but I like the extra level of engagement where
not only does he take calls from those who watch him on the web, he also Twitters
and responds to snail mail.
Strategically the absence or the waiting for the furniture to transform his place as well as his lifestyle is a really smart way to create anticipation and curiosity for the product.

Visit the site here

A brand that delivers

“Social media can prove to be a real landmine for marketers who cling to old ways of thinking. They’ve failed to grasp the crucial fact that while traditional advertising is all about delivering product news in an engaging manner, social media is all about delivering customer utility in an unobtrusive manner."

Alan Wolk

This article ," Why Nike Embraces Brand Utility is a great example of Alan Wolk's thoughts about social media. Though Nike runs its fair share of banner ads
Nike global director of digital media Stefan Olander thinks the best way to evolve the Nike brand is by providing services that are relevant to the consumer. He sees the interwebs as," less of a marketing channel than a place for services"

One of the Nike projects that convey this philosophy is a Facebook application called ,"Ballers Network". It lets players connect with other players in their area and around the world to organize pickup games and leagues.