Archive for September, 2011|Monthly archive page
Demonstrating Speed
Filed under: Demos, Strategy | Tags: bmw, bugatti, chrome, demo, demos, Google, hotels.com, ronaldo
Comments (1) Some people abhor demos. And there are a lot which suck. But then again, there are a lot of great ones. Seen quite a lot of demos that attracted my attention lately, so finally I thought of narrowing down the post to a couple that communicate speed. I’ll include some older ones from my “demo archive” as well.
Just seen today:
Google’s Cannes award winning Chrome commercials:
One of my all time favorites:
Some more BMW:
Some more cars:
A couple of patterns occur, that may help inspire a structured approach:
- comparisons (BMW M5 – with a nice creative twist in this case)
- comparisons with cool references (Nike vs. Bugatti)
- challenges (hotels.com)
- over-complication – in case the benefit is quite simple (Google Chrome’s speed or the BMW’s acceleration)
Another thing that seems to be common to almost all engaging demo based ads is the fact that the demo is the story. All the while, the dull demos are merely interrupting a story.
Contagion OOH
Spotted in Toronto, a rather unusual OOH for the new movie Contagion:
As they say, it’s rather a piece of art than a piece of communication, as almost nobody pays attention to this. But that might not be the point. I put this into the category of communication initiatives that are not made to be seen by consumers, but by the media.
Best in Class Campaign in Banking – BMO’s SmartSteps for Parents
Banking and financial services can be a hard category for a communication specialist. There is little differentiation between products, a lot of communication goes through direct channels and usually visible campaigns are dull (won’t develop more of the potential reasons).
So this makes good communication initiatives in banking even more special. On of the best I’ve seen so far is a not so new (I think launched this year) campaign by BMO that caters to parents.
Great insight into the need parents have to educate their children on financial matters, clear unmet need on the market (there might be books, but I doubt there are serious free online resources), great execution – a lot of content (video, games, teaching methods, blog etc.), well structured (by age groups), well sustained with some ATL (I remember seeing around the city), a couple of celebrity specialists/authors brought on board (financial journalist, psychotherapist etc.).
Hope this will still be around when I’ll have kids.
Website here.
Note: it seems the SmartSteps is a larger brand/umbrella, with pillars like SmartSteps for Students and SmartSteps for Business.
XBox Opens Dedicated Showrooms in Canada
Filed under: Product strategy, Retail, Shopper, Strategy | Tags: 3ds, microsoft, nintendo, nintendo 3ds, playstation, xbox
Leave a Comment 
Seen yesterday in Toronto and, according to the employees, also opening in some other big Canadian cities, but not in US. Nice and cozy inside, one can play games and even buy, but they claim it’s not the main scope.
The store is going to be a trial, up to December 2011. If successful it might extend into March next year.
So is Microsoft to mimic the success of Apple Stores? Or it’s a purely temporary exercise, to get more people to try the new Kinect technology? First reaction was to judge this as an Apple inspired initiative, but at a closer look there are a lot of differences. First, sales does not seem to be an objective. Then, the store won’t get the traffic that Apple has – there aren’t simply enough devices to interact with. And any of those that exist inside needs somebody to assist you. The store is also not in the most trafficked place (Queen West) – although it’s a super-premium location and a hip area – so one might argue they are going after some kind of influencers.
Anyway, it’s an area that might develop. A couple of weeks ago I’ve encountered a Nintendo boot allowing people to test their brand new 3DS. With breakthrough technologies appearing, it makes sense to get closer to consumers.
