"The problem with wine is that its not beer."

After my recent stay in Australia, I began to realize all of the beer that is available to us in the US as opposed to Australia. I did come across DB Export beer, however I never bought it, mostly due to my cash shortage the entire time I was abroad.

Maybe if I saw these ads before I would have. While directed at men, I find the ads very humorous and spot on at reaching the target market. I actually just had a discussion with one of my male friends who recently entered the business world and has now because drinking wine with every dinner just so he can talk to his bosses intelligently when asked about his favorite wines.

Here are the print ads:

After further investigation, I found their commercials. I’m not really a fan of the ‘80s throwback commercial, but it is the main spot for this campaign.

Here are the other spots based on 'The Swirl', 'The Sniff' and 'The Stall':

I have to admit, I'm not much of a wine drinker and I definitely prefer beer over wine. This commercials completely narrate thoughts in my head when I drink wine- well everything except being a man.

What's the News For Proctor & Gamble?

What's the News For Proctor  & Gamble?

AdAge’s take: According to an article in "Advertising Age," P&G might be losing their edge.

They have been experiencing market share loss from raised prices due to higher commodity costs.

They have also been experiencing decreased ad effectiveness despite having the popular Old Spice ads last year and despite spending most media dollars in TV and print.

            They have had decreased retailer ratings over the past four years in the WPP’s Kantar surveys.

            They are having “go-to-market” issues consisting of problems with full delivery of product launches. The release of Tide Pods was delayed six months and supply issues plagued both Fusion ProGlide razors and Old Spice body wash.

            P&G’s beauty and grooming products aren’t quite matching up in the last two quarters against rivals L’Oreal and Unilever despite acquiring Clairol and Wella for $80 billion in the last decade.

So what are they doing?

Going digital of course!

However there are a few problems with that-

1.     It is unproven and therefore experimental.

2.    Most of these items are low-involvement, low-risk, routine purchases. Digital lends for interaction. How many people are really going to go online and research their mouthwash, deodorant, shampoo, dish soap, laundry detergent, etc?

3.    This still doesn’t give an edge if competitors such as Unilever, L’Oreal, Estee Lauder and others are also building their digital presence specifically with Google and Facebook

What do you think? Is P&G going downhill? Are they safe? What changes do they have to make if any to stay competitive?

Video: Little Girl Talks About Brands

A little girl show us just how good a job certain brands do at reaching 5 year-olds (or how bad they do).

Rock in Rio: Connecting Advertisers with Music Lovers

 The Festival:

-       The festival lasts seven days

-       It is run by Rodolfo and Roberta Medina, whose father started the festival

-       The first Rock in Rio festivals were held in 1985, 1991, and 2001

-       The event moved to Spain and Portugal between 2004 and 2010, with Rock in Rio Madrid and Rock in Rio Lisbon

-       Rock in Rio 2011 featured artists such as Katy Perry, Elton John, Rihanna, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Snow Patrol, Metallica, Slipknot, Motorhead, Coheed and Cambria, Joss Stone, Ke$ha, Stevie Wonder, Lenny Kravitz, Shakira, Maroon 5, Coldplay, Mana, Evanescence, System of a Down, Guns N’ Roses, and many, many others. Each day of the festival offers a different line-up with different genres of music.

-       Rock in Rio is scheduled for Brazil in 2013

The Advertising:

-       25 major sponsors, including Coca-Cola and Volkswagon.

-       Heinekin was a sponsor and underwrote a zip-line for the festival, with Banco Itau underwriting a giant Ferris wheel.

-       There were at least 350 products licensed and advertised.

-       Rock in Rio-branded versions of Trident gum and the Volkswagen Gol, as well as a clothing line from a local retailer Leader.

Branding:

-       With Rock in Rio a strong brand already, they plan to introduce a namesake stage musical in Brazilian theaters.

-       Plans are also underway for a TV channel as well as a radio station.

-       Ms. Medina explains that she hopes for the brand to become a “permanent lifestyle line” with different products in different segments.

-       The international expansion is planned to continue with Rock in Rio coming to at least two new countries in the next five years, hopefully to the US within the next decade.

Sources:

http://adage.com/article/special-report-hottest-global-brands/global-hottest-brands-rock-rio/231290/

http://www.rockinrio.com.br/pt/live/

Heineken's Bottle Design Contest

Check out this article from AdAge:

What's New Facebook?

With the new upgrade of Timeline unrolling on Facebook, that is not the only change the new year holds.

From the beginning of Facebook, the goal was for the site to be free for all users. With a upkeep cost of $1 billion per year, the only way to keep the site running is to take advantage of advertising.

With the IPO (initial public offering) of Facebook in a couple of months, it is no surprise that they are looking for a new way to add revenue. How are they doing this? Sponsored stories.

What are sponsored stories? To understand sponsored stories, one must first understand Facebook ads. With regular ads on Facebook, a business creates an ad. If you have liked the business’s page, then the story about you liking the page may be paired with ad for your friends to see. With sponsored stories, a business pays Facebook to feature existing posts and activity that mention the business. Like Facebook ads, they’re only visible to friends you’ve already shared this information with.  These stories will also look like other unsponsored stories appearing in your news feed, however they will be identified with a “sponsored” link.

What does the rollout entail?  According to Ms. Ta, a Facebook spokesperson, only a select number of advertisers will be participating in the rollout and users will only see, at most, one sponsored story in their daily news feed during the launch. Goals of this launch are to increase presence of marketers of Facebook and to increase visibility of ads to Facebook users. These goals go hand-in-hand, with an increase of visibility to users comes an increase of marketers wanting their ads seen.

How does this affect mobile? While sponsored stories won’t appear on Facebook mobile until late March, they will no doubt be featured.

Sponsored stories in users’ news feeds have been anticipated and is an obvious step for the company in terms of generating revenue and competing with other mediums as a legitimate placement for advertising.

Will users question the “cool” factor of Facebook now that they are adding even more ads? Will users opt-out of using the site and force Facebook into the “has been” category with MySpace? Will users even care? We will see what happens as the rollout occurs and as Facebook goes from a private to public company.

Some may ask, is this even legal? What about our privacy? Well, you can read Eric Goldman’s discussion of the California privacy lawsuit against Facebook here: http://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2011/12/facebook_sponso.htm

Sources: 

http://adage.com/article/digital/facebook-start-placing-ads-user-news-feeds-january/231691/

http://www.allfacebook.com/facebook-sponsored-stories-ads-2011-12

http://www.facebook.com

Beats by Dr. Dre: What's the Hype?

Lately, I have been seeing these headphones EVERYWHERE. They are the new “it” item with twenty-somethings and those who want to be twenty-something flocking to get them and show them off.

From what I have read, Dr. Dre worked with Monster Cable and Robert Brunner, an industrial designer in order to perfect the headphones, a process that took over two years.

Part of the appeal of Beats headphones is no doubt the name attached to them- the marketing and with Dre and Monster Cable behind it. However, most reviews praise the sound quality of the headphones, commenting on how the listener can hear new aspects of the same songs they have been listening to, often as the artist intended for the song to be heard. The headphones, while also noise-cancelling, pick up on otherwise unheard parts of music, for example crowd noise in live versions of songs.

Features:

• Large speaker drivers and high-power digital amplifier for deeper bass, smooth highs, and clear vocals
• Isolation technology that cuts external noise
• Larger ear-cups for comfort
• Monster iSoniTalk headphone cable that has an answer button, allowing the listener to answer calls while listening to music
• Monster Cable headphone cable with Quadripole 4 twisted pair construction reduces signal loss for balanced sound and clarity
• Scratch-resistant gloss finish
• * The foldable Beats headphones offer a compact minijack connector to reduce bulk and an integrated mute button

Now, the headphones come in limited edition colors such as silver, pink, and orange. They offer over-ear and in-ear headphones, as well as speakers and an artist series features headphones connected to Diddy, Lady Gaga, and Lebron James.

Beats Audio has partnered with HP to produce laptops and desktops that have high quality speakers:

With so many places to get the headphones (Best Buy, f.y.e., Apple, Target, Amazon, Dell, and even Walmart) its easy to pick them up.

OK, so how much are these things going to cost me? Well, there are a few models of the headphones, they are pretty much right around $300- $350, which I admit is a little pricey, but apparently well worth it.

They must be doing something right if they have a warning right on their website about counterfeit beats headphones.

Lastly, let’s take a look at the who’s who wearing Beats:

Sources:

Beatsbydre.com

Geek.com/articles/gadgets/review-beats-by-dre-headphones-20080730/

apple.com