Pepsi made a choice. For the first time in 23 years, they chose to forgo buying commercial time during the Super Bowl. Instead, they redirected the $20 million to launch the Pepsi Refresh Project, a viral marketing campaign that awards grants to non-profits in a variety of communities across the catagories of health, arts & culture, food & shelter, the planet, neighborhoods, and education. Anyone can submit a grant idea online and everyone is welcome to vote.
Naturally, what I like most about the campaign is that is does GOOD. $20 million goes a long way in these organizations and certainly has a longer lasting impression than a 30 second spot.
But that aside, I give the campaign props because it requires Pepsi to engage with their consumer in a way that few of the big companies choose to do. This engagement between brand and consumer is real and the experience can’t be replicated. Gene Liebel, partner for user experience at Huge, which was involved in the development and design for the site, said “the emphasis the campaign places on social media demonstrates how a big brand is letting what used to be called the audience take part in what can become a movement.” I like that. Let’s be a part of this movement and encourage other brands to rethink not only the way they spend their advertising dollars, but how they can impact the world.
Ok. This is kind of brilliant. While there have been a number of brands that have launched heritage collections, I’ve found a lot of them uninspiring and pretty forced. However, Cole Rood & Haan, a footwear collection inspired by Cole Haan’s 1920′s Chicago roots and taken directly from the historic archives, proves different. They have managed to update some vintage designs with modern touches and great leathers. Not only do the shoes look great but I love the way they have chosen to market and brand the collection.
The marketing campaign highlights an entrepreneurial lifestyle. They made the very wise decision to hire Todd Selby aka The Selby to shoot the campaign, which features entrepreneurs in NYC who run businesses that take old things and make them new again in a fresh and innovative way. The shoot takes place at four places: The Smile- a Cafe and Mixed-Use Concept Store, Jack’s Coffee-the inventor of the “stir brew technique,” Maryam Nassir Zadeh, an amazing boutique carrying things that are both new and old and Black Sheep and Prodigal Sons, an edgy, beautifully crafted jewelry line. By using real people in real life situations the whole line just feels more authentic. These are shoes you want to wear on your way to the studio for a day of brainstorming and bags you want to cram full with a notebook, pens, magazines and bits of inspiration you find on the street. You can see the full shoot here.
This weekend Google premiered their TV Ad campaign for Chrome, their new web browser . I personally love the spot and find it playful and clever. However, I wonder, would someone who doesn’t know that they have a choice of browsers actually know what Chrome is? Does this make the ad any more or less effective? I think the ad certainly continues to spread Goggle’s brand awareness, but may miss the mark for its intended audience.
Here is what Google posted yesterday on their blog about the launch:
Google Chrome ads on TV
A couple of months ago, the Google Japan team produced a fun video to demonstrate how clean and simple our Google Chrome user interface is. After releasing this video on the web, we got lots of positive feedback and thoughtful comments. In order to keep that conversation going, we invited some of our creative friends to make a collection of short films celebrating our browser. We released Chrome Shorts last week on our YouTube channel.
At the same time, we talked to our Google TV Ads team to see how we could show the video that our Japan team developed to a wider audience in a measurable way. Using some of the results from our placement-targeted ads on the Google Content Network, we designed a Google TV Ads campaign which we hope will raise awareness of our browser, and also help us better understand how television can supplement our other online media campaigns.
So today, we’re pleased to announce that we’re using Google TV Ads to run our Chrome ad on various television networks starting this weekend. We’re excited to see how this test goes and what impact television might have on creating more awareness of Google Chrome.
About
Tara is an experienced branding and marketing strategist with a passion for building and positioning brands through storytelling, creative thinking and innovation.
