Tattly, the latest effort from talented designer and founder of Swiss Miss graphics blog Tina Eisenberg, offers witty, low cost personal entertainment and a tempting opportunity for powersports brand and marketing managers.
The collection of expertly designed messages and icons includes “knucks,” the answered prayer for every personal injury attorney who enjoys masquerading on weekends as a Sons of Anarchy patchholder. Add fighting rings and you’re done.
When the Tampa Bay chapter of PRSA (Public Relations Society of America) parsed the results of a 2010 member poll, one tool that stood out as a bulwark against membership drops that could also be used to attract new sign-ups: the bi-monthly newsletter. (Download your copy here.)
Overshadowed by the online glamour of social media, just the word “newsletter” seems like something out of an era of television before cable. In all too many organizations the newsletter is treated as a neglected stepchild before being thrust upon a skeptical public, doomed to languish in the backwaters of committee paralysis rather than being deployed as a dynamic marketing tool on the communications frontline. For more newsletter production tips read my Top Five Digital Newsletter Basics.
In yet another example of how outclassed domestic powersports marketing is, now comes this head-turner from BMW Germany in the form of what could be tagged an alternative form of neuromarketing. The spot stars factory Superbike rider Ruben Xaus onboard an S1000RR in a black and white film noire quick cut that by itself is less than remarkable. Pretty, pouty, and predictable.
The other hand is a fascinating little tidbit of technology more amusing than motivational. Using what appears to be relatively simple rear screen technology to flash project a logo, the spot, by German uber agency serviceplan, creates an afterimage on the retinas of the audience. Yeah, it’s going to get attention.
A BMW spokeswoman said, “We literally got inside people’s heads, involving them instead of boring them and generating a more intensive connection to our target group. Our brand should be innovative, emotional and dynamic.”
Hmmm. Given how twitchy German bureaucracy is about any kind of Orwellian influencers, let alone a method requiring YOU MUST OBEY! to interpret the eyeball afterglow, this may not be a long lasting campaign. But it will be memorable, make no mistake. And as for the subliminal alarmists: uh, if you have to direct behavior to experience behavior, it’s not.
When I see efforts like this, efforts that accept the challenge of creatively differentiating the brand from the same old same old, I say hell yes, go for it! Like Leo Burnett famously said, “When you reach for the stars you may not quite get one, but you won’t come up with a handful of mud either.”
Dunlop’s 68-page Download Magazine is their most recently distributed PDF contribution to online publishing. This issue includes features on the Isle of Man, Robbie Maddison, the Barber Motorsports Museum, X-Games, and a conversation with Elena Myers—the first woman in history to win an AMA road racing national.
Visuals are gorgeously done – showing that print and digital can play well together.
Want more? There’s some interactivity; links include archival access for a look back, videos, product comparisons and the team moto web site upgrade.
News out this morning from Ad Age has Harley’s media planning/buying to Publicis Groupe’s Starcom (first globally in media buying – new adds include Darden Group, Best Buy) while doing a 180 and casting their creative future with newcomer Victors & Spoils following Carmichael Lynch’s ship jumping last August after 30 years of mostly hidebound (“screw it – lets ride”, jeans over boots) treatment. At the same time, Publicis shop Digitas is greenlighted for digital, a too long neglected portal. Continue reading
building your personal brandJosh Hallett’s a social media pioneer who currently directs new media for content creation powerhouse Voce Communications. Their clients include Sony, Playstation, Yahoo, Disney and eBay. He spoke recently as part of PRSA Tampa Bay’s 2010 Professional Development Day on what’s needed in order for a personal brand to achieve online awareness across various media. (Read our series of articles on the same topic here.)
While his work mainly centers on large multi-nationals, Hallett’s comments were directed at the growing number of professionals who need to develop a coordinated online identity that for many is currently just an ad hoc combination of social networking mixed with the occasional hosted blog and a neglected twitter account. Continue reading
HD’s still looking for new directions out of the forest of consumer walk-on-by it’s lost in. Media Post’s industry pub Marketing Daily delivers details of TMC’s latest Maxim-ized efforts aimed at winning back share, on the back (figuratively speaking) of spokesperson/model/rider Marissa Miller.
Sigh… I get it. Dangle eye candy in front of viewers, Pavlovian response goes off, reader imagines she’s showering with him, wife’s ok with that, then he’s lickity split off to the dealer where he rite’s dat check before the steam evaporates.
But – but – it’s the chik riding the bike! By herself! And fem biker-ettes need men like fish need bicycles. Meanwhile, the campaign theme “Start Something” indicates an exhaustive naming session that apparantly sailed right past “Hey, What’s Up?” as an inspired call to action.
The image problem remains the bike line, not the actors. The communications problem remains. Period.
(updated September, 2013: linked to original on Vimeo.)
Bonus: set in ’70’s circa L.A. (?): try to pick out failed, merged, updated and still current brands as they fly by.
NSFW beyond 01:12 mark
Logorama, an infectious Oscar winning (2010 – best animated short) animation from France operates on two levels. First, it proves the point once and for all why solid design is a critical marketing element in our global culture. (link version deleted from YouTube) The YouTube family friendly trailer (above) comes from the Logorama site.
But you’ll need to watch the full length adult (I’m not bad – they just draw me this way!) version over on Vimeo (if it hasn’t been yanked) for a darkly disturbing vision of plate tectonics gone awry. The inference points to that same commercial culture for having created too much demand for the environment to support.
There’s talk over in LinkedIn’s public relations groups about Toyota’s handling – or mishandling – of their disasterous recall performance. I posted the following comment earlier in the week on the subject, surprised that nearly two weeks after first announcing a recall there’d been so little actual hard reporting on the massive problem.
As of today, I don’t think it’s too soon to begin speculating on their eventual rebranding. That’s if they survive the other shoes waiting to drop. But first, time to rethink the rush to dismiss the importance of brand in the oceanic swell of social media first. If you’re a marketeer, it will always be about brand.
After the surprising – from a Western perspective – initial non-response, followed by the tepid release announcing Sunday’s ad that was itself the sound of one hand clapping, I’m wondering if… Continue reading
Publisher Larry Little yesterday (October 7, 2009) announced a number of sweeping changes to the category leader in consumer motorcycle enthusiast publications. Details here. Former Executive Editor Mark Hoyer, who I last saw in a half-frozen state at the 33rd Annual 2007 Cycle World Trek, replaces 25-year industry vet David Edwards as VP/Editor-In-Chief.
Other changes include significant upgrades in production content and a major design overhaul as the iconic title embarks on a repositioning mission that focuses on brand extension and definition.