New Media to Print

The advantage of utilizing new media in advertising is the potential to engage an audience in new and exciting ways. As the audience for advertising has grown increasing wary of advertising, new media has created the opportunity to capture the audiences attention in ways that traditional print advertising can never match. However, integration of a print ad with a new media campaign has the potential to ease a re-engagement of audience with print advertising. Of course, this re-engagement does not have the flexibility of simply adapting one traditional media format to the other (print to TV, TV to print), but rather requires a reimagining of the possibilites of print advertising in a world increasingly dominated by digital communication.

In 2001 Cadbury chocolate successfully realigned itself with a youth audience with its "SMS TXT 'N' WIN" campaign. The advertiser was able to tap into a current new media craze of text messaging, thereby associating itself with a technology largely seen as the domain of a younger generation. As this campaign was a contest, the engagement potential was increased and the means by which this audience was being reached, the mobile phone, was literally on their person at all times. 

Entirely adapting this campaign approach to print advertising would be counterproductive, as the nature of the ad relies upon the medium to create the association of the brand with the youth market. However, one could see a company like Cadbury extending a similar campaign to include print by integrating a contest into its print advertising campaign. For instance, the company could require more information be taken from a print ad in addition to texting the serial number from Cadbury's chocolate bar wrappers.  This would have the further advantage of requiring the contestants to examine a print ad in addition to contacting Cadbury on their mobile phones. However, one must take care to truly expand the parameters of the game so as to not disengage the audience. The print ad should truly add something to the contest without overcomplicating it. For example, the inclusion of the print advertisement might include a prize multiplier where any winnings from the serial numbers game would be multiplied if one included a code word from the print ad. Of course, problems arise when one considers that the success of the original campaign might have been attributed to its simplicity- text and win. However, if advertisers were to create a truly engaging game experience across two mediums, print and mobile phones, the level of engagement required by the audience might be advantage enough to offset the smaller audience that would participate in such a campaign.

Census data trends

Recent census data confirms that not only are there less marriages making it to the 25th anniversary, but also fewer couples are making it to their 15th anniversary. Overall, there has been a decline in the traditional nuclear family. This could be a result of divorce, but also may result from a trend towards single parenthood by choice.

Super Bowl Ads

I'm not a sports fan, so I spent Sunday evening doing laundry and catching up on my schoolwork. Upon my return home, I sat down in front of the TV and fast-forwarded through the Super Bowl to get to the commercials. As a proud Tivo subscriber, I was keenly aware of the irony of using the Tivo to watch commercials instead of avoid them.

I was also surprised at the extent to which my viewing of the ads was colored by a need to write something on this blog for class. I think that this awareness made me even more judgemental of the advertisements. I wrote down several names of advertised products whose commercials impressed me momentarily (Blackberry, Vantage Point, and something that looks like "Cheese" - I'm having a hard time reading my handwriting) but just one day later I don't remember much about the ads themselves.

As this was one of the first times that I watched Super Bowl commercials, I expected laugh-out-loud comedy, eye-popping visuals, and a genuine commitment to the continued evolution of advertising. For the most part, I was unimpressed. The Bud Light ads were sometimes momentarily amusing, but overall they seemed to be trying too hard. Fed Ex's giant pigeons were impressively rendered, but also conspicuously over the top. Of all the ads, only one made me press rewind on my remote; the preview for the upcoming "Iron Man" movie. This is a no-brainer for me, as I'm a huge comic book geek and this was the first time that I've seen a full-length trailer for the film. I watched the ad alone on my couch, my fanboy heart beating hard, s0 I can't say for certain if others enjoyed it as much as me. The woman next to me in my in my Monday night Political Communication class only looked at me blankly when I told her how excited I was about Iron Man.

I consider myself a rather jaded commercial viewer, so advertisers have to work hard to capture my attention. Judging from the ads that impressed me Sunday night, the best way for an advertiser to jar me from a commercial watching stupor is to introduce the element of suprise. The first ad campaign to surprise me on Sunday was the series of ads for the Terminator TV series. While the trailer for the program was entertaining enough, what really impressed me were the two times that the Terminator seemed to interrupt football commentary to attack Fox's robotic football mascot. The Terminator's sudden appearance recalled the notorious energizer bunny interrupting commercials for other products to keep going, and going, and going.

The other advertiser that surprised me was Bridgestone Tires. First, the Bridgestone folks served up some cuddly anthropomorphic forest animals, certain of their doom, screaming their heads off in the middle of the road as a car barrelled towards them. Fortunately, they were saved at the last minute by a quick swerve courtesy of Bridgestone tires. When the next Bridgestone ad came on, I smiled knowingly. "Here come those cute screaming animals", I thought. Bridgestone comepletely sideswiped this jaded commercial viewer's expectations by replacing the forest critters with shock 'n roll icon Alice Cooper, and the ever-annoying eighties fitness guru, Richard Simmons. Kudos Bridgestone, I can't say for certain if I'll ever buy Bridgestone tires, but the ad certainly made me aware of the company if only to write about it in my advertising blog.

As for the year's most buzz worthy commercial, early returns suggest that the giant parade balloon versions of Underdog and Stewie from Family Guy battling over an inflatable Coca-cola bottle garnered the most favorable reviews.

John Hegarty

John Hegarty originally pursued an education in the fine arts, eventually switching to graphic design at the suggestion of one of his instructors. Hegarty came of age in the cultural revolution of the 60's, and, influenced by the pioneering work of Bill Bernbach, he sought to bring creativity, wit, entertainment and accessibility to British advertising. He worked with fellow advertising legend Charles Saatchi at the firm Benton & Bowles and was a founding member of Saatchi & Saatchi. He was also a co-founder of 

TBWA, and served as creative director until he left to found Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH) in 1983. 

Although Hegarty had considerable success before founding BBH, he cemented his place in advertising history with his 1980's ads for the jean manufacturer, Levi-Straus. BBH's 1985 Levi's 501 Launderette commercial not only proved successful in selling it's intended product, jeans, but also in influencing British pop culture. The soul songs that provided the campaign's soundtrack, including a version of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" reentered the British pop charts. The stylized 1950's look of the ads sparked a British 50's fashion revival, and the underwear worn by the model in the launderette ad is credited with getting a generation of British men to retire their y-front briefs for boxer shorts. Other products represented by Hegarty and BBH include Audi, British Airways, and Johnnie Walker, and AXE bodysprays (known as Lynx in the U.K.).

Sir John Hegarty, knighted in 2007, is revered as an advertising legend in Britain.  BBH, with Hegarty as chairman, remains a force in British advertising today. The company remains true to its roots by retaining ownership of the firm (a 49 percent stake is held by Publicis), and has only 6 offices worldwide. BBH recently opened the first virtual advertising agency on Second Life, the popular internet-based virtual world. 

A Green Chevy

The current issue of Wired includes an ad from General Motors touting the company's new line of environmentally friendly Chevy Cars. The ad features a photo of a white spiderweb against a blurry backdrop of various shades of green. The letters "XOXO" are spelled out by the filaments of the spider's web as if the spider itself has woven a message. The ad's headline reads, "Everyone can appreciate technologies that go from gas-friendly to gas-free." The copy discusses Chevy's current line of  7 models with "an EPA estimated 30 MPG or better", as well as other models that run on ethanol, the first full-size hybrid SUV, and Concept Chevy Volt, a product still in development. Below the ad's copy are a 5 cartoon-like auto tech icons with corresponding text indicating the meaning of the icon (a gas meter for "Fuel Efficiency", a triangle with a lightning bolt for "electric", etc.) The tagline, in larger font, reads "An American Revolution" in all white type except for the "e" in "revolution" which appears in red as three parallell horizontal lines. The familiar Chevrolet bowtie logo appears after the tagline. 

Significantly, no image of a car appears in the ad.  The green color of the ad speaks for itself, while the spider's "XOXO" seems to be nature's way of showing its love for Chevy's new environmental outlook. Rather than trying to sell a single model car, Chevy is selling the concept of itself as a company with an environmental conscience, a responsible option for the concerned consumer. 

Chevrolet has a small ad located in the left hand column of the New York Times website. The ad is simply a small Chevy bowtie logo followed by the text "Join the fuel technology dialogue" in small font. A click on the link brings the user to a website identified on the top left with the Chevy logo and the text "Fuel technology debate", and on the left with the New York Times logo and text that identifies the site as a "Sponsored archive/Microsite". The site is dominated by a series of shifting images of humans interacting with nature (two hands hold a small patch of soil sprouting a seedling, a child blows seeds from a dandelion) alternating with the aforementioned cartoon symbols of environmental auto technology, this time without the identifying text. Larger sentences are revealed in a large white against a photo background of a blue sky with fluffy white clouds: "This is a dialogue between people who share a planet" "We value your input" "We promise to listen". Next to the images is the headline "We need to talk" followed by a message from Beth Lowery, Vice President of General Motors. The message once again outlines Chevy's commitment to environmentally-friendly auto alternatives, requests questions from the readers doubting the company's commitment ("We expect skepticism"), and promises to answer some of these questions in the Times Op/Ed section. 

Chevy's new media ad employs a similar approach to the print ad in its emphasis on environmental issues while seemingly mentioning its cars only in passing. Again, the ad is more concerned with selling the concept of Chevy as a "green" company rather than any specific model of car. Indeed, the Concept Chevy Volt, one car mentioned in both ads, is currently little more than a concept itself: a promise for the future. However, the new media ad has clear advantage over the print ad in it's promise of involving the consumer in a dialogue about environmentalism. The increased involvement of the consumer in the advertising experience would seem invaluable in a culture jaded by years of traditional advertising.

While a full-page ad in a magazine might be routinely ignored by many readers, a promise of open dialogue "betwen people who share a planet" might capture a user's interest. Furthermore, the co-branding of the message with the New York Times logo adds intellectual cachet, as well as an image of integrity not often associated with the automotive industry. There is even a link from the page to articles about environmental fuel concerns that recently appeared in the Times.

While both ads move towards the reimaging of Chevy as a "green" company, the web ad's ability to hold a reader's interest for more than  a few seconds represents an excellent attempt by Chevy to exploit new media's potential ability to interact with consumers in new and exciting ways.