Passion for Ideas

Too much Photoshop may harm your brand !

2011-07-28T12:54:00.000-07:00

Recently two L'Oreal print ads were banned in the UK because they were found to be over "touched" by Photoshop and were criticised as Misleading ads for UK consumers featuring Julia Roberts and Cristy Turlington as endorsers.

May I remind you Demi Moore's over "touched" photoshoot !!

Nice thighs Demi !!

The Royal Wedding parody from T-Mobile !!

2011-04-21T05:00:00.000-07:00

A very funny viral video seems very popular and successful!
The Royal wedding parody with look-alikes and sponsored by T-Mobile

Hoax or Viral ? I guess both ; )

Social media and the .... misleading frenzy !!

2011-04-09T07:03:00.000-07:00

In the year 2000 twitter, facebook , youtube didn't existed so what happens today when online information spreads so fast and uncontrollable !

Wes Craven the director of the new upcoming film SCREAM 4 coming out this April 15th did a great Public information strategy in order to avoid SPOILERS about the killers identity in his movie !

He (and his team) spread fake online comments and reviews about who the killer is with several different versions! creating an online frenzy !!

Rumors have it as well that he even previewed a fake 'screening' (?) to a chosen audience with a fake ending (?) in order to make them spread misleading word of mouth and online misdirection from the original ending !

SCREAM 4 Premieres on April 15th !!

Product placement on Clothes and fashion shows ? Oh yes !!

2011-03-01T04:33:00.000-08:00

Even wondered why Dolce Gabbana logo the Coca Cola brand on their clothes ?

Well it's Product placement !!

why not Sony ? or Smarties ?

watch the video below :

EXCLUSIVE: iphone 5 preview !!!

2011-02-14T07:29:00.000-08:00

stay tuned here for an exclusive look of the new features of iphone 5 !

coming soon !!

UPDATE:

The new iphone 5 even has a 3D Player and many more features !

more on the link below

http://www.intomobile.com/2010/09/06/iphone-5-features/

enjoy!

Reputation vs. Rumors ...

2010-12-29T01:44:00.000-08:00

Are rumors spread online credible ?

not only about products but also about Celebrities !

Is Kid actor Josh Saviano ... Merilyn Manson ?

Did Marisa Tomei won an Oscar by mistake ?

Is Walt Disney frozen beneath the Pirates of the Carribean ride in California's Disneyland ?

read the rumors here

Consumer behavior ... in practice !!

2010-12-05T11:46:00.000-08:00

What Paparazzi photos can tell us about what Celebrities consume?
A Lot !!

Observe carefully photos of Celebrities taken by paparazzis in their everyday life and pay attention to what do you see !! If you look closer it seems that Hayden Christensen

wears Puma shoes, likes Lacoste hats, drives a Ferrari ...

(Actually he's paid to wear the Lacoste brand as an Integrated marketing effort after he shoot the Lacoste commercial ),

In this photo below paparazzis caught him at an airport wearing New Balance shoes Isn't he supposed to weat Lacoste shoes ?

Watch below the Lacoste commercial Hayden Christensen did as an Integrated endorsement and notice on the pictures how he has to wear the LACOSTE brand in his everyday life in those paparazzi photos !!

Not any film critique is ethical !!

2010-12-05T08:51:00.000-08:00

DID YOU KNOW ?

Columbia pictures was fined for unethical promotions for having its movies Hollow man, Vertical limit, A Knight's Tale, The Animal and the Petriot promoted with favorable positive quotes by Film critic David Manning !!

Reviewer David Manning filled quotes in print and TV ads with praise about those movies while other critics trashed them !!

The problem was that David Manning didn't exist ... Columbia pictures made him up !!
more here

Is product placement more competitive than ever before ?

2010-12-02T02:22:00.000-08:00

As today is more expensive to promote a movie it seems that product placement wars on who will bet the best price to have his product embedded in a movie is more competitive than ever !

watch this very interesting documentary on placements that helped movies to reduce their production cost.

Where ever there is smoke there is .... Behavior placement !!

2010-09-03T10:00:00.000-07:00

Product placement in movies doesn't just sell products or creates a lifestyle... It also tries to sell a behavior among audiences !! The effort of tobacco companies to lure young people into smoking seems ruthless as the percentage of leading actors who light up in movies rises up to 60% and on most PG13 movies !!!

scenesmoking.org has the facts !!

On the photos you can see the ideals of yesterday's Hollywood with James Dean smoking and the new 'James Dean ' replacement.... James Franco !!

Don't SCREAM it's just .... product placement !!!

2010-07-16T04:04:00.000-07:00

While Wes Craven at the time of writing this post on my blog is directing in Michigan SCRE4M (the 4th part) to be released in April 2011 you can see Gale Weathers (played by actress Courteney Cox ) having an iphone this time !! No nokia , no motorola as the previous parts !!! I guess Apple paid much more for this bet.... for sales !!!

This product placement involves the product use within the movie in the category product as hero !!

more behind the scenes pics here

Is Webomercial the new Commercial ?

2010-04-05T05:54:00.000-07:00

As 73% of Americans use the Internet to read news online and young consumers spend more time online than watching TV does this mean we are close to the death of TV Commercial ?

A study by emarketer claims that 75% of teens aged 12-17 years old surf the internet on an average time of 3 hours daily !!

Many TV advertising advocates claim this Viral trend is only temp and they heard the story before in the dot-com era...

I guess only time will tell....

Do you always believe what you hear ?

2010-03-25T03:29:00.000-07:00

According to Marketer David Meerman Scott "on the Internet you are what you publish !" but do you believe everything you hear through negative word of mouth also known as Cybersmears .

This is what just happened in the past when fake rumors were spread abouth designer Tommy Hilfiger making racist comments about black people on the Oprah show and Oprah herself asked him to leave the studio live ! The rumor came to my ears but never really happened on the Oprah show !! You've been deceived !!

Because this kind of publicity can damage someone's Integrity and brand image Oprah herself invited Tommy Hilfiger in her show to set the record straight ...

Next BIG thing ? Neural advertising !!

2010-03-20T04:53:00.001-07:00

Most ads try to appeal in your subconscious as 83% of most ads engage with one of our senses: Sight !! but what about the advertisements that try to .... lure ... your hearing ?

That's known as Neural advertising

What sounds are more appealing to you ?

a steak sizzling ?

a baby laughing ?

an advertising jingle ?

Sex sells even in Anti-smoking ads !!

2010-03-08T01:00:00.000-08:00

A recent Anti-smoking campaign launched in France has caused a lot of Controversy on whether the ads imply... oral sex ! The slogan that accompanies the Visual says:

"Smoking means being a slave to tobacco"

Some critics even say they even verge to child pornography !

On the other side the anti-smoking group responsible for the ads claims that the target group is the

12-25 year olds and the campaign seeks to reverse the impression and make people aware that smoking isn't a defiance of authority !!

Marketing Person of the Year 2009 is... DAVID MEERMAN SCOTT

2009-12-31T09:32:00.000-08:00

As the Year 2009 is about to leave us behind in a few hours may I award my own MARKETING PERSON OF THE YEAR who influenced the market and Introduced us to the new Rules of marketing a great book to catch up with the latest changes in the field of Marketing.

What's the venue ?

2009-09-01T00:19:00.000-07:00

DID YOU KNOW?

Product placement doesn't only embed branded products into movies but it also promotes venues and destinations ! Frank Sinatra and Elvis songs were promoting the Las Vegas hotels !!

The Eagles were accused for promoting Hotel California a satanistic ritual place but the truth is the hotel on the cover of the record is The Beverly Hills Hotel as Hotel California never existed !!

The youngest consumers !!

2009-05-10T08:06:00.000-07:00

It was a few years ago when La Sapienza University in Rome did a research were kids as young as 3 years old were able to Identify brands !!

Now The University of Amsterdam investigated the brand awareness of kids in a similar experiment. What they did is that they showed to 196 kids aged between 2-8 year olds 12 brands and found out that 2-3 year-old kids recognized 8 out of 12 brands !! The results showed that exposure to television was significantly related to the brand awareness of even the youngest children... or should I say consumers !!

Are you a ... Cyberlebrity ?

2009-05-06T04:30:00.000-07:00

The next Buzzword for 2009 is... Cyberlebrity !!

It's when you become a Celebrity in the Online World! How to become a Cyberlebrity without appearing in magazines and photoshoots in fanzy glossies? by creating a World Wide Rave! Having your personal webpage was the first step, Blogging was the second, creating profiles in Social media as facebook, twitter and linkedIn was next and now ... giving online interviews at whohub !!

The good side of this trend is ... there are no Paparazzis all around you!! ;-P

This must be the PLACE: Beyond... Product Placement!!

2009-04-10T12:36:00.000-07:00

Hollywood Goes Hyper-commercial !!

As most of you already know that branded products that appear inside a movie are paid placements but what you may not know yet is how actors are "commited" in their Hollywood contracts to wear specific brands (not only in movies but in their everyday personal life!) or to consume specific brands (remember Britney Spears when she did the Pepsi Commercial and was seen by Paparazzi's drinking Coke !!).

Even relationships and couples rumor has it... to be fixed / made up by major Hollywood studios execs in order to make Celebrities more appealing ! I believe if Angelina reads by blog she would want to kick my *ss!! ;-P

The most famous... Sunglasses !!

2009-04-10T05:04:00.001-07:00

If you think that Ray Ban is the most popular Sunglasses that everyone wore as an Influential choice by Tom Cruise on Risky Business then it may seem a Risky business of it's own for Ray Ban as nowadays the most popular frames are those of Silhouette worn by CSI:Miami's David Caruso !! It seems that Product Placement even when there is no direct Celebrity endorsement it's still popular especially when consumers search for disclosure on the web!

Are your consumers listening or AVOID-ERTISING ?

2009-03-22T11:55:00.000-07:00

It's AVOID-ERTISING not ADVERTISING :

Are your consumers actually listening or skipping your advertising in this...

Avoid-ertising Era?

This marketing phenomenon first appeared in the book Permission Marketing by Seth Godin also known as Interuption Marketing.

Also it is discussed in more depth in the brand new book

WORLD WIDE RAVE by famous marketer David Meerman Scott.

available at amazon by clicking here

I believe Modern advertising is about Contribution of the Consumer to Interact with the message. One Creative example was the Pepsi can that consumers had to submit their photos online and had their faces printed on Pepsi cans!

So the new Rules of modern advertising:

Theres no Interruption !

The consumer is Involved !

It creates this BUZZ, talk of the Town or Word of mouse !!

The consumer goes to the message and NOT the message to the consumer!

It's no longer a "selling message" but a form of Entertainment!