The Wolfman's Idea Journal

This is a blog which the Wolfman was assigned to put together to track his work as he studies advertising creativity.

[wolfmanthoughts]

SEE WHAT’S GOING FAST, AT A DODGE DEALERSHIP NEAR YOU.

I am not particularly certain why the Dodge Charger and Challenger are being advertised but I’m glad that they are; I enjoy these spots (probably because I’m in the target market).

The intended target is, as above, people like me. It is males age 18-35, with a competitive drive and a lust for victory, recognition, and carnal reward. So, nearly all males.

The message connects to the target’s need as it shows how Dodge is an excellent tool towards following that competitive instinct and to fulfilling the lust for victory and recognition.

The SMITH (Single Most Important Thing) in this message is that

“Dodge can show the other guy, ‘Suck it! I’m better.’”          

  The visuals support and communicate the product’s SMITH especially well—visuals and background music are the primary ways it is communicated. The actors in each vehicle lock eye contact, conveying the challenge, and the loser seems truly broken when eye contact is reestablished after, as the winner has the girl seated beside him.

I don’t feel the copy supports the message well—the commercial’s entire copy is the bolded text above. It is the visuals which primarily communicate the message, the copy conveys urgency to the viewer—these awesome cars are selling out fast!

As with my uncertainty on the reasoning for this ad, I am uncertain how the media and context affected communication of the SMITH, but I am extremely certain I enjoyed it.

[wolfmanthoughts]

Slightly mismatched mentor

My fraternity recently began a re-start attempt for its mentorship project. The chapter I'm in has tried starting this once before since I've been an active member, around 2011 or 2012, but that sort of fizzled out as it received no upkeep. We had our annual alumni event at the end of February this year, and many alumni signed the mentor list! The list provided information on active brothers, including expected graduation date and field of study,so alumni could pick the brothers they could most help.I got one, and he lives in Austin and is involved in the ad industry! Trouble is his firm primarily handles media, and employs no creatives, so he can't give me a lot of advice on what the creative work process is like. We have made plans, however, to stay in contact, and he's offered to put me in touch with several key creatives his agency works with.

[wolfmanthoughts]

Chuck E. Cheese wants you to know YOU’RE GONNA BE A ROCKSTAR! A BIRTHDAY ROCKSTAR!

Chuck E. Cheese’s Rockstar Birthday package is being advertised because it is a recent modification, as of August 2013, to their decades-old birthday package. Available in three tiers, this package is designed to make children truly feel more like the hero of their own party.

The intended target is the child, who will persuade their parents that their next birthday party needs to be held at Chuck E. Cheese.

The message connects to the target’s need as it provides evidence of the payoff to a child’s attention cravings which they well receive if they schedule their birthday party at a Chuck E. Cheese.

The SMITH (Single Most Important Thing) in this message is:

Have your birthday party here! You’ll be a Birthday Rockstar!

The visuals support and communicate the product’s SMITH by conveying the party atmosphere, which children associate with birthdays, and displaying the “rockstar” gear the birthday child receives.

I feel the copy supports this message very well by both making the child personalize the birthday message, with the initial greeting, and by explaining that they will actually receive the items shown. The chorus line of the song is simple and repetitive enough it has the distinct possibility of becoming an earworm that children constantly sing when their minds are otherwise unoccupied.

The media is effective in communicating the SMITH, but I am at a loss for the communicative benefits of the context. The media is effective as television allows both the sight of the “Rockstar” additions to the birthday package along with the audible explanation of these additions. Going deeper into the media, it should be obvious from several of my previous posts that a great deal of my own TV time, despite my age, is spent watching Cartoon Network. This placement also aids in communicating the message to the target, as the programming I watch includes much that is favored by young children.

[wolfmanthoughts]

"Two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, on a sesame seed bun".

The power of creative advertising: more people can recite these as the components of a McDonalds Big Mac than can recite the Ten Commandments.

I learned this statistic Thursday (March 28th), when I met and spoke with Keith Reinhard at theTexas Advertising & Public Relations Conference. Reinhard is the chairman emeritus of DDB Worldwide. He is the creator of the Hamburglar, and led the team which created all the other popular McDonalds characters, from Grimmace to Mayor McCheese.

As he made this observation about Big Mac knowledge versus Ten Commandments knowledge, Reinhard made a simple, but powerful, observation:

"Well. Moses should've used jingles."

[wolfmanthoughts]

Tosh wants to know, Are You Moist Yet?

http://tosh.comedycentral.com/video-clips/geiq45/are-you-moist-yet-

This video will not load onto this page.

Meta-ad comedy. Ad for a comedian, making a joke about an ad. (Long, full-version video).

  Tosh.0 is being advertised because, at the time I saw this ad (late February) the show’s new season had just launched (February 18th).

  The intended target is viewers who would enjoy Tosh’s show. If a viewer finds these ads amusing, they will watch the show and enjoy Tosh’s humor. But if they would not enjoy the show, and would be poor viewers of Tosh’s programming, they will not be amused by this ad and will not follow it

 The message connects to the target’s need as it uses Tosh’s humor to inform Tosh’s viewers that the new Tosh humor programming they craved is arrived.

 The SMITH (Single Most Important Thing) in this message is:

Daniel Tosh is hilarious, like these ads were. WATCH HARDER.

            The visuals support and communicate the product’s SMITH by showcasing the exercise ads Tosh  mocked, and thus communicating the joke.

 The copy supports this message well by delivering a payoff to the video iewers: a punchline. In the phrasing, this copy conveys Tosh humor by its sexual suggestivity.

The context was often extremely effective  in communicating the SMITH as this ad commonly ran during Tosh.0 reruns. The media helps carrying the message by resembling the format of the mocked ads.

[wolfmanthoughts]

In my entry a week ago, my March 20th post about the T25 infomercial, I talk negatively about my view on infomercials. I'm providing this CLR infomercial to contrast my dislike with their effectiveness.

I'm also posting this spot because it's the first  advertisement I remember working on me. My sister and I were sitting together watching TV when this came on. We both had the idea that,, from the effectiveness we saw and the properties we were told about, this was something which would be of great help to our mother. As soon as our program ended, we turned off the TV and went together to tell our mom of this WONDERFUL cleaning product that "Will help you so much!"

The product was purchased. I don't recall it ever being used, but I do remember seeing it on our garage shelves.

It amuses me very greatly that two individuals so far removed from the target market, two under-10-year-old schoolchildren, were persuaded by this advertisement and influenced their parent to purchase the product.

[wolfmanthoughts]

Lumosity is being advertised to capitalize and improve upon record numbers of both employees and subscribers in mid-2013.

  The intended target is selected much more by paychographics than demographics; as long as a consumer is an adult, no other demographic details are relevant. As far as psychographics, their target is health-oriented and prone to independently performing tasks.

 The message connects to the target’s need as there are very few products or practices shown to improve neurological health, unlike muscular or gastric health. Lumosity’s neuroscience basis gives support to the thought that this service may be a new step forward in cognitive health.

 The SMITH (Single Most Important Thing) in this message is:

“Lumosity is your brain’s personal trainer. Keep that muscle well-conditioned.”

The visuals support and communicate the product’s SMITH fairly well. It is difficult to visually display the mind-muscle flexing, however.

 I feel the copy supports this message quite well through referencing neuroscience and explanation of the many benefits of the product.

 The SMITH seems to be communicated most effectively in watching this Youtube channel, seeing each video play in turn.

[wolfmanthoughts]

State Farm takes the mystery out of repairing the Mystery Machine.

Don't really have a lot to say about this one, just felt it was amusing enough to deserve recognition. Especially since I saw this while I actually WAS watching SCOOBY-DOO!

Also,an observation primarily as a nerd rather than an ad student (although my ability to make this observation may show the spot connects well with its target market)--I really appreciated hoe they seamlessly worked in so many classic lines from the show. "Zoinks!" :"Jinkies!" "You meddling kids!"

[wolfmanthoughts]

Lunchables is being advertised because it contains a new drink product along with the other packaged-lunch items.

 The intended targets are two: both schoolchildren and their parents.

 The message connects to the target’s need as: it satisfies children’s attention need in feeling that, by purchasing the product, they will receive more attention, perhaps even more than that kid with the interesting story; and it satisfies parents’ need in giving them the satisfaction that through their efforts and clever purchasing in buying this product, their child’s esteem needs are satisfied.

The SMITH (Single Most Important Thing) in this message is:

“Cool story doesn’t matter. Everyone wants to hear the smoothie,”

            The visuals support and communicate the product’s SMITH by showing that the storyteller child actually has casts to support the truth of his story. The other children still don’t care, listening instead to the smoothie.

 I feel the copy supports this message well by juxtaposing the storyteller’s hurt and crestfallen “I broke my arms!” against the voiceover snnouncer’s “It’s all about the Lunchables!”

 The televisual media allows a theatric stage to be set for the drama of the storyteller’s tale. The context of this wonderful tale, rich with emotional ties, adventure, and heroic survival, and the children giving attention instead to the smoothie, clearly communicate that the children in this spot are much more interested in the product than the story.

[wolfmanthoughts]

Dr. Pepper 10 Bold Country

"Taste the Bold Country." This advertisement is clearly a part of a positioning effort by Dr. Pepper 10. It is an effort to position the beverage as a nectar for the masculine, a sign of virility.

Although this piece is new as of March 10th, this positioning effort is hardly new to the Dr. Pepper 10 campaign. Examples:

March 2013: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDCY56azew8

November 2011: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zza3GqEL5B0

  I recognize this as a positioning effort, and I resist it. I candidly find all three of these spots to be enjoyable, and find the recent Bold Country spot to portray a life I wish I had the ability to possess. An element of this mindset, however, includes the rejection of luxury products, such as soft drinks. A rugged 19th-century outdoorsman would be unlikely even to carry coffee for its caffeine benefit, it is highly improbable to see an analogously rugged contemporary man to embrace soft drinks. It is thus that I am wholly unswayed by this piece, despite my attraction to it,to accept this as the beverage of the rugged outdoorsy survivor.

[wolfmanthoughts]

Party in the Tub Light

After my first three posts up to the bat have been advertising hits, this post is about an advertising miss.

The Party in the Tub light is being advertised because, as with my previous analytical post (link), this product is a new release. It is less new than the Reebok ZQuick, however, having come out January 8th, 2014.

The intended target is mothers of young children. I say “mothers” rather than “parents” as the female voiceover seems to be overtly trying to elicit a sense of unity with the target women.

The message connects to the target’s need as it proposes an effective way to convince, even attract children to get into a bath, a method requiring low amounts of post-bath tub cleanup.

The SMITH (Single Most Important Thing) about Party in the Tub conveyed in this message is:

“Bring the exciting fun of parties into tubs; kids follow!”

            The visuals support and communicate the product’s SMITH by showing children’s excitement through happy faces. It also shows the children enthusiastically and creatively playing with the toy, thus conveying its attraction. The miss to which I referred includes the brief appearance of competing bath toys, with almost no discussion of features differentiating the Party in the Tub light or making it superior, aside from the mention that a single toy is easier to pick up and store than many.

I feel the copy does not support this message very well at all. I felt the presumptuously familiar tone of the voiceover expressing the copy combined with other unsavory elements to make the voiceover a large element of this ad’s miss. Additionally, as I mentioned above, the dearth of effective copy to differentiate this light from the many, many competing bath toy products is a weakness to this campaign. Another element I perceived as a presumption is that this ad seems to suggest Party in the Tub is the only thing to attract children to bathe, disregarding the myriad of other products, several of which I even have very fond personal memories of from my own early childhood. This presumption is even contradicted in their dismissive mention of other toys. To me, this says, “Party in the Tub is the only way to get kids in the bathwater, but if you even try using anything else, that bathroom will take forever for you to clean after.”

The media was effective in communicating the SMITH, but I do not feel the context was, given my discussion above of the competing bath toy products. The media was effective as this was shown on TV, and it was placed in a morning Cartoon Network show I happened to be watching. This is prime children’s-TV-time, and mothers at home very frequently watch these programs as they are supervising their children. They would then be exposed to this message, and it may be effective on some of them, despite my negative evaluation.

[wolfmanthoughts]

Shaun T presents FOCUS T25

My initial post for this blog, the Crayola markers, was meant to be an example of excellent professional creative work. This piece had enough creative success, supplementary to the Crayola post, that I, despite my intense distaste for infomercials, was successfully persuaded by this piece to make the financial and temporal commitment to this product!

One of the strong elements in successfully persuading me (and a very intelligent creative inclusion) was the section with the brand's video editor explaining how he himself was motivated to complete this exercise program by the before and after pictures he edited and the other program details he was made aware of. His word at being effectively convinced was particularly persuasive as he contrasted his attraction to this program against all the other programs for this brands he's edited before/after pics and other video for.

Another extremely persuasive element was the structure of this program with its compressed format of 25 minutes. I have a history of spending many hours every single day athletically involved (frequently in both competitive team practices and personal conditioning work); recent life events have however, unfortunately, reduced the amount of time which I have to devote to any activity outside of my primary focus on academic work. 25 minutes was within the limits of my freetime, though.

I called my mother on the phone to inform her both of the coming exercise program and of my expenditure towards it. She reacted with pleasure at my interest in fitness, but with hostility towards the expenditure. She felt this ad had "sucked me in", despite my efforts to convince her of the elements within it which an advertising creativity student could recognize the authenticity of.

Her hostility has mellowed considerably, however, since she was present to experience the program video when I first tried out the program. She no longer feels either that it was a foolish and impulsive purchase or that the program may be insensitive to my physical injury recovery condition. She does remain pleased at my interest in fitness, and proud at her former-jock son's return to athletic activity after his injuries.

I have actively participate in this program since I received it March 13th (one week ago today).

[wolfmanthoughts]

LIVE WITH FIRE.

The ZQuick shoe is being advertised because it is a new product, released as of February 1, 2014.

The intended target is urban, unmarried young professionals. These customers live independently, under their own financing in small apartments. Age 25-34, but there is also appeal to older customers in their nostalgia for the passions they held at that age.

The message connects to the target’s need as the target is living inside a small box, they have a need to break out of their consigned societal role by adding something new and distinctive to their persona. Reebok promises that, through their product, customers can “live with fire”, and flames are certainly an unforgettable attribute.

The SMITH (Single Most Important Thing) in this message is its clarion call to:

Live with fire–fire of a superhero, fast as commuter locomotives.

The visuals support and communicate the product’s SMITH by showing groups of young friends utilizing the ZQuick shoe to run “Unnaturally Quick”, keeping pace with a commuter train on a more direct route and performing superhuman feats such as stopping a speeding automobile and hurdling giant walls in a single bound.

I feel the copy supports this message extremely well—there was no voiceover or dialogue copy written, the only writing is found in the conclusion of the ad as “Unnaturally Quick” dissolves into “Reebok ZQuick” and then a hashtag cuts in underneath: “#LIVEWITHFIRE”. These help make the message relevant, but it is the borrowed audio which I feel is most effective in communicating with the target. The audio is the theme-song to the show “Underdog”, about the canine superhero. The song was not written for this spot, yet I profoundly feel that it serves as a supremely effective anthem for the target’s needs and desires.

The media and context are both effective in communicating the SMITH, but for very different reasons. The television media is effective since the audio is taken from a decades-past television program; customers familiar with this program might applaud this media usage. The context is effective in a more universally-accessible way. Through the theme-music and the running, stunt-performing actors (unless you want to call them “freerunners” or “parkour performers”), the sight and sound seem to be shouting “Forget everyone and everything that’s trying to box me in, I’m going to bust out and be superhuman for no better reason than BECAUSE I CAN.” As I said above, the music communicates very well with the customers’ needs, and it is through this context and this message that it does so.

[wolfmanthoughts]

Excellent commercial! Saw it watching Tom & Jerry on Cartoon Network this morning.

Inauspiciously, for my first post on this blog, my major thoughts on this commercial are more along the media line than the creative line. After seeing this on TV and before posting it here, I immediately texted the youtube link to both my mother and my sister, a preschool teacher. I thought that their shared experience with children would make this product exciting for them.

So, my media thought was that, in addition to being shown during children's programming, this commercial should also be shown during programming aimed at middle-aged (30-45 year old) viewers on the Oxygen and WE networks, as this would likely capture and excite the mother demographic.

Another good media spot for this commercial would be to show it during family programming (e.g. family movies) on major networks, as this should catch the attention of, and appeal to, mother, father, and children.

One creative thought to redeem this post, which I had as I was typing it, is that, to increase the appeal to mothers for its run on Oxygen and WE, as well as in family programming, is that the content of this commercial should be compressed into the back-end 15-20 seconds, and that the front-end 10-15 seconds could feature the excitement of a child being given the markers as a gift by one or both of his/her parents. This allows the parents to feel more involved and more rewarded by a product their children will enjoy, and which is less damaging to the parents' walls.