Integrated advertising
Domino’s Turnaround builds up then destroys their pizza and brand
By now you have probably seen the new Domino’s Pizza campaign from Crispin Porter called The Pizza Turnaround where Domino’s monitored consumer comments about the brand on social media channels and according to this feedback they created new pizza recipes. Crispin did a great job with the TV spots and a slightly longer form documentary because it makes you want to give Dominos another chance. My wife who is a serious foodie even turned to me on the couch the other night after one of the spots aired and said ‘I always hated Dominos but after that I would give them another chance.’ The advertising did everything you could have asked of it because it changed people’s opinions and created an intent for them to act on it. Pop the champaign, make room on the trophy wall and tell the client to increase the advertising budget because we have a winner… or do we?
I went to the campaign site today to dig around a little more before I wrote this post about how successful the campaign has been when that feeling and my intent to actually try the new Domino’s came crashing down around me. On PizzaTurnaround.com you find the previously mentioned documentary, one news story and a Twitter feed that displays tweets with the tag #newpizza running down the right hand column. As you start to read down the column you quickly see that people’s love seemingly only extends to the campaign as I did not see one positive comment from anyone who actually tried the pizza. The first four found Tweets I read were “Tried the new Dominos pizza….. In my mind, collossal fail.”, “Meh it was ok…”, “im not feeling the new crust. i miss the old dominos.” and “not so great. Since when did “add more garlic/butter” = make things better?! Blech.”. That noise you hear is my intent to try the new product exiting stage left.
Using social media to give brand transparency to consumers can be a powerful tool but it has be used carefully and thought out to work correctly. In this case you are asking consumers to give your brand another chance and your advertising delivers that intent but it is a tenuous opportunity. From the time when you create that intent until the time when it gets paid off you can’t have any bumps in the road because the bond to the brand isn’t that strong yet. These Tweets are big bumps that are going to break that bond and kill the opportunity. I don’t know why this site didn’t take it’s cues from the video it was supposed to support and MAKE IT A TWO WAY DIALOG! Your video said you were listening to consumers and you were responding so why did that stop once the campaign launched? It makes the video feel like just an advertising stunt and that the brand really isn’t listening. You have a chance here to be transparent and let people post their thoughts BUT Domino’s has to be part of the conversation. They have to address these comments and not let them destroy what they are trying to build. It is the only way this is going to go from a quick fix to a real long term solution that will restore their business.
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Toyota Prius iPhone App lets you draw on Times Square
Back in August Toyota released the Prius Experience iPhone app that let you take a 360 degree tour the Prius interior, take a photo of a Prius ad to get a augmented reality version of the ad or draw shapes that will be added to the Prius environment. You are prompted to “draw a tree” but you can draw anything you want but i has to be done with a single continuous movement. That drawing them populates the landscape behind the Prius as it drives along. This week the app gives you a chance to move those interactive elements from your iPhone screen to the Reuters board in Times Square. The creations are updated on the live displays in realtime throughout the day and you can check it out via the livecams on the Times Square web site. When I tried it I got a warning that because of high volume, all artwork might not be displayed and that drawings will go up in the order in which they were received. I think this is a well worded cover for the their behind the scenes approval process which obvious is in place as I haven’t seen anything obscene go rolling across the screen.
I can see how they are trying to pull everything together with the campaign theme of “Harmony Between Man, Nature and Machine” and the play between the app and the Times Square board is an interesting twist but it is done on an old execution (the Nationwide Insurance ‘Life Comes At You Fast’ Times Square site I worked on launched 4 1/2 years ago). In the end the app as a whole falls short because it feels like a collection of the latest techniques that never really come together to make anything really conceptually or executionaly breakthrough. The Times Square functionality is still live so you can download the app now and decide for yourself if ti makes you want to buy a Prius.
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Burger King wants the truth from Tony Stewart
Crispin Porter created a nice online extension of their Tony Stewart School of Endorsements TV spot (see below) with BK Finds Out The Truth About Tony microste. The site is a video stream of a polygraph test that was given to Nascar driver Tony Stewart as he answers consumer submitted questions about he is he really loves his primary endorsement – Burger King and the Whopper. I have always believed that advertising needs to work out from a core concept and that the interactive extension of a campaign should take advantage of the medium and not just be a straight port of the offline creative. When you watch the TV spot and experience the site you clearly see that was the case here and the benefits of this approach are obvious. The total video is about an hour long and you will have to watch it to see the final results for yourself.
It is also a small thing but orange home bar that runs down the left edge of the site that opens to the content of the BK.com home page is a really elegant way to keep micro sites like this one from developing into individual islands that are disconnected from the main brand site.
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Verizon iDon’t play nice with Apple
Looks like Verizon is finally fed up with Apple’s continued iPhone exclusivity with AT&T and has decided to do something about it with a new phone called Droid and a new campaign called “iDon’t” that takes the biggest swing yet at the iPhone. The visual design of the campaign clearly mimics Apple’s typography and music style while the content uses copy like “iDon’t have have a real keyboard, iDon’t run simultaneous apps, iDon’t take 5-megapixel pictures, iDon’t customize, iDon’t run widgets, iDon’t allow open development…” to get their point across. If you are going to poke he bear you better have the goods and early tests with the phone has generated some really good press but can good performance generate the same kind of breakthrough appeal and sales that happened with the launch of the iPhone?
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HBO Imagines a new Voyeur
What do a drowning mime, a Japanese businessman and a pile of teddy bears have in common? They are all part of the new Imagine campaign created by BBDO as the follow-up to the award-winning 2007 Voyeur campaign. The campaign launched last Thursday with a video cube installation in New York’s Meatpacking District. The videos on the cube are two two-minute short films shot from four different angles. The cube was in NYC for three days and is now moving on to Philadelphia on Oct. 1 and then Washington, DC on Oct. 8. If you can’t make it to one of those locations then you can go to HBOImagine.com which has 41 video clips, audio clips, photos and newspaper clippings displayed in a 3D web. Each time you watch a clip then new footage is unlocked and linked together to complete the story through non-linear storytelling. The addition of this non-linear story telling is a key change from the Voyeur campaign where the story was very linear. I have just started to explore all of the content and will have more thoughts once I have been able to make my way through it all but if you get there first post your thoughts in the comments.
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Obama’s Design Director of New Media talks about how design and interactive helped win the White House
Over the past year I wrote more than once about how much I liked what the Obama campaign did with digital design and media during their run to the White House. A few weeks ago I had the chance to meet and hear from the guy behind that work named Scott Thomas who spoke at the 99% conference. This video culls the highlights from his presentation at the conference and catches up with him afterward to find out more about his theories on simplicity and his plans for working in politics in the future.
I also have to give props to Scott Belsky who I am lucky enough to know, is the founder of Behance.com and one of the masterminds behind the 99% conference. I had sworn off conferences all together because of my previously documented conference coma but this one conference I will return next year. Also if you have a chance to hear Scott speak take advantage of it because he has a lot of great insights from talking with a lot of great creative minds and groups about how to make ideas happen.
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ESPN.com gets broken up with Apple Ad
Back in January I wrote about the re-design of ESPN.com and how a large driving force in the re-design was allow for more unique advertising opportunities as they had just made a major move to end their relationships with all their ad networks and declined any new offers. The latest brand to use these new opportunities that are now available from this move is Apple who have launched a new iPod Touch ad to take advantage of the start of the NCAA tournament. It is similar to the iPod Touch TV commercials where multiple sets of hands play multiple games on the iPod Touch and they are superimposed over each other in rapid succession. The interesting twist here is that as the hands move in and out of the ad they break, rearrange, move and remove the main navigation of the site. It is a cool effect but it was done in an intelligent way so that if you aren’t interested in the ad and just want to get into the site when you roll over the navigation area the actual navigation will jump in front of the ad so you can us it like you normally would. I’m not sure how long it is going to be up there so check it out while you can.
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Bon Apetite energizes print ads with digital extension
I love to cook and I always seem to have subscriptions to various cooking magazines but I rarely get anything out of them that makes it worth the time or money to get them. A few months back Bon Appetit underwent what I think is the most impressive publication re-design I have ever seen. The re-designed and modernized everything about the magazine bringing in interesting content, great recipes and some of the best food photography I have ever seen.
This months issue brought something else interesting with their new Snap It promotion they are doing with AT&T. In an effort to get people to notice the advertising in their magazine they are trying something new by bringing mobile into the equation. To enter their sweepstakes you have to take a photo of one of 34 ads and email or text it in to them to be entered. This actually gets people to seek out the advertising in the magazine and spend more time with it than they normally would. It is also easier with fewer steps than if you saw a promotion in the magazine,got out your computer, went to their web site and filled out the form to enter. I like seeing different mediums converging like this to create something new and strengthen each other. i am just surprised it took this long to start to happen.
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Another great video ad from Apple
If you head over to the tech section of the newly re-design CNN.com you can see the latest video ad units from Apple.com. Their last one that ran on CNET.com last year was one of the best uses of video and a surround session I had seen and this one is just as good. The new ads take advantage of context of running on a news site and has PC posting his own article to get people to stop switching and then runs through different tabloid like expressions for the photo. Check it out while you still can.
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EA uses Tiger Woods, Jesus and a gamer to launch new video game.
About 11 months ago a gamer who goes by Levinator25 posted the following video to YouTube show a glitch in the EA game Tiger Woods 08 called the “Jesus shot” since you can hit the ball standing in the middle of a lake.
The video made the rounds with gamers all over the world having a good laugh at this interesting gaming opportunity. 11 months later the launch of Tiger Woods 09 comes around and EA posts this video in response to the Levinator25 video.
By all accounts Levinator25 is really a gamer and wasn’t paid by EA for the original video. I believe this since it took them 11 months to respond to it and I have to believe that if they were linked then the response would have been much faster. This as an interesting event as it is the first time I have seen any part of an advertising campaign respond to a medium like YouTube and the passionate people who post these videos for or against certain brands and products. Given the original video by Levinator25 was fun and harmless so it made good fodder for the response but it is the acknowledgment that it existed that I think most interesting. It will also be interesting to watch to see what other brands follow suite and if they are able to respond in a more timely manner than a year later.
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