wow, how time flies, adverteasements is now 3!

i remember starting this blog in the wee hours of 23rd dec 2006, this idea to start a blog to document all my fave ads sprung into my head and i just had to hop to the laptop to get this going. i’m glad i did this and it’s comforting to know there are people out there who sometimes pop by to say hi and their comments really made my day.

i know i haven’t been updating this space as much as i’ll love to, but i assure you this blog is still alive! we’ll celebrate many more birthdays here, but for now let’s clear our throats and sing a birthday song for adverteasements.

courtesy of my copywriter friend, Iconoclastic. enjoy!
1. What the client said: “This idea is clever. But I’m afraid the target audience won’t get it.” What the client means: “I don’t get it.”

2. What the client said: “Why doesn’t the agency offer us great ideas?” What the client means: “It’s your fault we don’t have balls.”

3. What the client said: “Bull’s eye. I love these ideas. But how about giving it another go?” What the client means: “Who’s your Daddy?”

4. What the client said: “You know me, I want to see big ideas.” What the client means: “You know me, I’ll only buy the safe ones.”

5. What the client said: “We don’t have to be controversial for this.” What the client means: “We don’t want to piss off the government, ever.”

6. What the client said: “The regulatory authorities need to be happy.” What the client means: “I’m so nervous. I’m wearing an adult diaper.”

7. What the client said: “Can you combine the first idea with the fourth idea?” What the client means: “I like buffets.”

i love her “What the client said/means” tweets!

saw this on twitter. this is gold!

“bitteradguy Just received client comments. Must be for a different ad.”

p.s: terribly sorry for the lack of posts. whoever said being a client is easy should be shot.

don’t think this is a recent piece of work – came across this on StumbleUpon this afternoon at work. retyped the campaign objectives and mechanics here so you could see how great the idea is.

Consumers were skeptical about Unilever’s claim of “Confidence to remove stains in 1 wash”, so mailers and sampling activities were needed to prove to consumers that Breeze Excel actually delivered on its promise.

A T-shirt wrapped box that contained a product sample were sent to selected women social groups across Thailand (including rural areas where traditional mediums like TV and press are limited). Instead of finding a free gift on the inside, the actual box was wrapped within the gift. As predicted, the postal service almost ruined the t-shirts – making them really dirty and grimy. If the recipients wanted their t-shirt to look as good as new, all they had to do was to wash it once with the product sample.

Unlike in-store sampling, Unilever could control where and to whom they were talking to. As a result, this mailer allowed consumers across Thailand to prove the efficacy of this product (and their claim) to themselves by interacting with the product directly. Because of this personal interactive demonstration, word-of-mouth generated increased sales and greater brand awareness. Research is being done to use this mailer as part of a Unilever case study for successful integrated brand communications.

isn’t it great to see the finished model before you buy it?

this is damn cool! when you look away from the poster, it shows the man hitting the woman. and when the camera detects you looking at the poster, it then shows a couple pretending to be happy.

Updated:

(13 Oct 09) Spikes Asia Digital Gold!

(22 Jul 09) another news clipping of the grand prix win! this is in TODAY newspaper, dated 21 Jul 09.

(17 Jul 09) effies! a grand prix and a gold! this is the first time the Grand Prix award is presented since the Singapore edition of the awards began 6 years ago. I’m glad that we are the first and that this win will be jotted in Singapore advertising history books. the article on Straits Times! (click on image to view it in a bigger size). another coverage here.

p.s: we missed out on Cannes, no metal for the awards cupboard, but at least we were finalists for 3 categories!

Direct Marketing  - Public Services
Direct Marketing  -  Digital
Cyber  -  Viral

(24 Apr 09) webby’s! i’m crossing fingers for cannes.

(25 Mar 09) another win! this time round we’ve picked up a silver at AdFest 2009 for Viral Marketing Campaign. No gold or bronze for this category, but a silver was also awarded to another campaign in Tokyo for the same category.

(14 Nov 08)

we won a Gold last night at Singapore Creative Circle Awards! For Integrated Promotional Campaign. Only 3 Golds (for non-craft) were awarded the whole night which makes our win a sweeter one.

(15 Oct 08)

we swept 4 awards last week at the Asia Interactive Awards!

SILVER      Best Online Campaign
SILVER      Best Viral Marketing Campaign
SILVER      Best Use of Video/Moving Image
BRONZE    Best Breakthrough Ad

While we didn’t pick up a Gold, the Silvers were the highest award given in the categories in which they won, thus making them the best piece of work in those categories. This win is especially sweet as Interactive work isn’t considered the forte of a “traditional” advertising agency. Yet we came up with a rich haul against the top Interactive agencies in the region.

awards roll -

Spikes Asia – Digital Gold Spike

Singapore Media Awards – Best Digital Campaign and Best Strategic Campaign

Asia Interactive Awards – Best Online Campaign (Silver), Best Viral Marketing Campaign (Silver), Best Use of Video/Moving Image (Silver) and Best Breakthrough Ad (Bronze)

Singapore Creative Circle Awards – Integrated Promotional Campaign (Gold)

AdFest 2009 – Viral Marketing Campaign (Silver)

The Webby Awards 2009 – Interactive Advertising; Online Guerilla Marketing (Merit)

The Effies Singapore Awards 2009 – Grand Prix and Gold Award

——-

this is my baby and yet i’ve been terribly terribly late in sharing this. :\ my bad, my bad. well, better late than never right? hope you’ll like this summary and feel free to drop a line if you have any questions or if you’ll like to find out more. will try my best to help.

before we start, a brief client’s background: Founded in 1991, The Global Manpower Professionals (GMP) Group, is one of the largest staffing and HR consultancy in Singapore.

the challenge: GMP faces competition from bigger, more established manpower agencies such as Kelly Services, TMP, Hudson etc. GMP needed to increase market presence and position themselves as the ideal choice for jobseekers.

Two objectives were set; primary objective is to drive brand awareness amongst target audience – working adult, 20 to 35 year old and the second is to generate candidate leads through CV uploads on their website.

the idea: GMP believes in work-life balance and that no one should have to work late if the job is right. The right career will present the right challenges, prospects and benefits hence leading to greater job satisfaction. A happy employee is more productive, and therefore the need to work overtime diminishes. And GMP believes its stringent placement process will help candidates find the right career.

Given the understanding that Singaporeans like to share paranormal sightings and stories, McCann came up with the big idea – “No one should work late” and the ghost-themed viral video was conceptualized.

With a S$100,000 budget, GMP had to find a creative and effective solution. Viral marketing was an excellent platform as the ghost theme, being a sensational topic locally, will cause a self-replicating effect that encourages advocates to spread the message.

our viral video:

The viral video shows a CCTV footage of 2 men being followed out of an office lift by the ghost of an old woman.

It then directed viewers to a blog, hosted by 3 amateur ‘ghost-busters’ wanting to solve the mystery. They sought public’s help in their ‘investigation’.

lots of user generated content was generated during the viral phase.

2 weeks later, the client bravely stood out and staked ownership of the campaign on Labor’s Day, 1 May, with the message “No One Should Work Late.”

a microsite was also launched on the same day:

The reveal made primetime news locally (e.g. CNA) and overseas (e.g. CNN). It was also featured by local dailies (e.g. Straits Times), trade publications (e.g. Media magazine) and discussed on over 300 websites. Everyone from paranormal societies to video-makers gave expert comments.

PR value from local media coverage alone is approximately S$200,000.

Discussion in the cyberspace was overwhelming. A Google search on “Raffles Place Ghost” shows 36 pages of relevant results. Of which, 82 bloggers (23%) embedded the video and discussed the campaign. There were 64 forums discussion (18%) and 81 sites where the video was uploaded (22.5%).

Besides attaining massive awareness, the number of CVs uploads increased by 48% on a YTY comparison.

It is a definitely a defining piece of Singapore advertising and a fantastic example of how a big idea can magnify a small advertising budget.

i think the asian versions are way funnier! really like the karaoke one alot.

p.s: if you are interested, you can find other non-asian versions on youtube.

what if you were restricted to 140 characters in real life?
moving twitter to the real world!

this is amazing! lots of effort put in. any advertisers interested to use this platform?