Everyone is going to be Smitten in the Mitten

In 2006 the Michigan legislature started funding for a new ad campaign for our states travel industry. These advertisements narrated by local celebrities like Tim Allen were made with three marketing objectives: deliver an emotional message to a national audience to increase awareness of Michigan as a destination, increase traffic to the web portal michigan.org, and increase travel to the state.

As Michiganders we all know how beautiful our state is. We know that our states beauty is unique with our giant lakes, winding rivers, cascading waterfalls and beautiful rocky shorelines. But not everyone knows that, especially people from other states. These advertisements dont just let people know what they can do when they travel to our state, they try and show people what it feels like to visit Michigan. These efforts have really paid off, this campaign has generated 7.2 million new visits.

To wrap things up, these ads are great. Seeing them on TV or even hearing the ads on the radio sparks a good feeling emotion in all of us. We can all relate to these feelings because we have all been to a lot, if not all the places they talk about in these short ads. It is also nice to see Michigan showcased as something more than our declining economy and shaky auto companies. And now the rest of the nation can enjoy what we all enjoy everyday.

Annoying or genius

everyone knows the geico commercials that have the gecko in them he has an accent and you use name recognition to remember what the commercial was about. that's what stood out to me in these commercials is name recognition.

Just recently they came out with a newer product role model and it is the geico pig named Maxwell he is a cute funny pig that says "weeeeeeee weeee weee weeee" and he's known for that I personally love the commercial and would like to own a pig like Maxwell. our perception of the pig is that he's annoying but it also makes you remember the commercial and using the gecko and Maxwell they seem friendly and you would want to do business with friendly people.

In closing the commercial has some really good ways of making you remember it and some good ideas to keep people entertained. the geico commercials are very similar to the Allstate commercials with the mayhem guy alot of company's are taking a not so funny thing like insurance and making it alot more lightened up and putting a little humor into these commercials is going a long way for these company's.

Google Chrome helps users "Make It Happen"

By Erin Reimann

Google has made a series of commercials using real users and real videos to advertise the browser Google Chrome. These commercials model features of the browser while showing the audience a piece of every demographic. It is essentially a commercial for everyone. And I mean EVERYONE. In it we see images and videos that all viewers can relate to. The commercial is titled “Make It Happen” and it is both inspiring and interesting. We are shown images of children, young adults, “to do” lists, Facebook, fathers, TED Talks, basketball, young women, old women, babies, business owners, couples, cooks and youtube. The commercial is excellent at showing viewers images they know and use every day and can evoke emotional responses from these images. Google has taken its target market and literally put them in their ads.
At first I thought the problem with this commercial was after you watch it in its entirety, you still don’t know what exactly Google Chrome is or does. I, myself didn’t know what Google Chrome offered and had to Google it to find out. This is the strategy they have used. Viewers become curious and then are directed to the website to find out what Chrome can do for them. Once prospective customers have invested this much in the "research" of the product, Google has succeeded. Google is now a household name and has become a verb: to Google. Having this kind of brand familiarity has made Google the number 1 search engine used in 2012 and Google Chrome is the most downloaded internet browser. Google has also posted an annotated version of this commercial to give you even more information about the capabilities of Chrome.

Wilkinson Sword Helps Men Take Revenge on Babies

This commercial by English razor company, Wilkinson Sword (known as Schick in the US), titled, "Fight for Kisses" from 2008, depicts, in a Sims-esque animation style, the deep-rooted animosity between men and their newborn off spring as they battle for the affection of the maternal figure. The advert is for a new razor with "Quattro" technology and with the product being a men's razor, the primary target market is obviously, adult men who need to shave but, it's the commercial's bizarre sense of humor that opens it up to almost any market excluding, maybe, Baby's Rights groups that would find the depiction of an infant actually engaging in a physical conflict with an adult male to be offensive or inappropriate.

When most other razor commercials try to confuse you into buying by stringing together a multitude of suggestive and/or arbitrary technical terms this commercial wins over buyers with hilarity and interactivity via online gaming. With the inclusion of some interesting, French rapping and the online man v.s. baby fighting game available, Wilkinson Sword has done a good job of enticing the next wave of their soon-to-be-shaving target market of adolescent boys.

by: Allan Khorsheed

Hey Ladies, It's NOT for You!

Dr. Pepper is introducing a new diet version of their drink, and their coming out guns blazing. Their newest commercial uses the slogan "it's not for women," but this risk is confusing when you take a look at the product. It's not a product that can only be used by one gender, or is made for one gender. Their target market has been identified as a wide variety of consumers. In this examination, they describe their audience as 13-30 year old busy people, often students and newly employed workers. The marketing mix that this implies is vast and could be very profitable for any company. A quick pick-me-up on the way to class with a bit of caffeine is what most people use every day. Making your brand the choice of students could put your company on top.

Dr. Pepper's newest ad, however completely alienates a large portion of their possible market. Men only make up 44.3% of the diet soda market, and only 9.7% of those men are within Dr. Pepper's target market (according to this article). So with such a small amount of the market being men within their preferred age range, was this move risky, or just stupid? Articles vary in their opinions of this commercial and, of course, women have been in an uproar about this commercial since it first started to air .A page on Facebook for the product features games and other content that only men can access. Since October, stock in Dr. Pepper has increased. Some also believe that it may simply be a stunt to get people talking about the brand again. I mean really, when's the last time (before this commercial) that someone even mentioned Dr. Pepper to you? It even aired on the Ellen DeGeneres show as Ellen posed the question, "What exactly is a 'lady drink?'" (See second video below, and start at 50 seconds in.) So what do you think, offensive, or clever? You be the judge.

A Show-Stopping Commercial

Lets face it, we all love those commercials that stray away from being a typical advertisement & actually captures our attention. The 1984 pepsi commercial is an excellent example. The commercial feautres that late pop star Michael Jackson. Who mention 'a new generation' repeatedly throughout the commercial as we'll later discuss.

Since this ad has a celebrity endorsing it, wouldn't it be successful? YES! This commercial was a huge hit the result was that 'pepsi had its best sales performance in six years' according to this article. But an article titled "Do celebrity endorsements really work?" has a different opinion about endorsing. This article felt that most celeb ads are not very effective. But the article above just proved this statement to be wrong. It not only spoke of the success of Michael Jackson's Pepsi commercial, which again led to increased sales, but also other commercials that features celebrities like Madonna, etc. So endorsements do work and they can make a difference.
Throughout this commercial the phrase ' a new generation' is mentioned. This implies that Pepsi's target market is young people.

This commercial was a hit. We need to see more commercial like this that grabs our attention. Way to go pepsi for making it so successful!



BY: SUMMER BURRELL

Touching stories leave a lasting impression

Different companies use different tactics to advertise their business. Some may add hilariousness to their ads to gain attention from audience; others use unusual events or shocking statements to hold viewers’ interest. However, I found one company that did a good job of getting attention and making its commercial memorable, Thai Life Insurance.

Thai Life Insurance is widely known for using sympathy angle to advertise its products. It highlights the brand identity of "the value in caring for life.” I think it is wise to apply such tactic to commercial because emotional appeal is one of the main motivating factors for people. There are many series of Thai Life Insurance's ads. All of them are touching commercial, which create good conscious mind to society and show the strength of the brand identity of Caring for Life. These ads include Everlasting Love (Grandpa), Marry Me, Peace of Mind, My Son, My Girl, Silence of Love, and Que Sera Sera.

I’ve already watched all Thai Life Insurance ads and my favorite one is Everlasting Love (Grandpa). It is the story about Grandpa Chew who is 86 years old. He wakes up early in the morning preparing the soup pot and carry Chinese Violin on his back. He walks from his home to play the violin on the hill in front of his wife’s tomb. He does this every day for 30 years since he had promised with his wife he’ll do like this for her forever. I think this advertisement leaves a lasting impression. Its target audience can be all Thai people regardless of age, gender, status or occupation. After audience watches this ad, they will start to ask themselves if they take enough care of their beloved ones. Some may consider buying insurance from the company for their families.

I think Thai Life Insurance hopes that the good feeling about the advertisements will stick to their audience's mind. It is successful in presenting the brand identity and generating interest rather than making hard sales. Here is a quote from Youtube comment section: "God dam advertising im not even in thailand and i want thai life insurance!" Check out this website and choose English version at the right corner to know more about the company.