Filed under: Advertising & Branding | Tags: Branding, Media Arts, Presentations/Principles/How-to's
For his new project, bADimal, the astute Anthony Kondeati presents a new series of advertising trend, case study, and campaign analysis videos that cut through the noise to cull the larger insights we can draw from media arts successes and failures. These thoughtful videos, which go up each Wednesday, provide depth on branding topics and give systematic, holistic consideration to brands themselves, as in last week’s analysis of the Coke vs Pepsi authenticity brand-off.
This week’s video is on the branding implications of automated services. Have you ever felt like companies bury the information on how to talk to a real person? Guess what? They do. In calculated decisions made on the daily, companies often opt for automation of key customer care touchpoints at the expense of relationship-building. In these instances, automation or self-service is often a cost-cutting brushoff presented to customers in the guise of convenience, but we all know they can sometimes be anything but. Businesses must realize that not all branding goals can be measured in terms of traditional ROI metrics–if your aim is relationship-building, measure customer interaction, satisfaction, repeat business, and brand evangelism.
Anthony offers his thoughts, as well as some solutions that should work for customer, brand, and business alike:
Head over to the bADimal channel on Vimeo for the first two videos in the series, and tune in each Wednesday for more!
Filed under: Advertising & Branding | Tags: Branding, Consumer Packaged Goods, Media Arts, Out of Home/Ambient, Presentations/Principles/How-to's
Israeli agency Shalmor Avnon Amichay with Y&R Interactive rolled out 140 hole-less bowling balls at Israel’s largest bowling chain in a campaign for Elmex anti-cavity toothpaste. The trick balls are mixed in with regular ones at locations across the nation, and unsuspecting bowlers pick up them up to find, where the holes should be, only round stickers with the words “Helps prevent,” “Cavities,” and “Elmex.” It’s an excellent metaphorical demonstration of Elmex’s brand promise (just one of many from the media arts-smart brand), and it’s a stellar example of media arts in action.
For me, the measure of media arts is to consider the aptness of the medium, the cleverness, and (in ideal circumstances) the exclusively 1-to-1 made-for-each-other perfection of the match of content to medium. You have to ask yourself these questions: Does it take unique advantage of the medium or format? Could this message possibly be delivered any other way, this behavior demonstrated, in any other medium–or is this particular medium essential to the effect? To me, that’s media arts.
Filed under: Advertising & Branding | Tags: Branding, Media Arts, Presentations/Principles/How-to's
Contagious is an excellent trendspotting magazine on branding, technology, design, and everything exciting–I’ve culled it many a time for inspiration and instruction, and always come away with useful insights and scads of truly out-of-this-world innovations and branding examples. Contagious Magazine’s Deputy Editor Jessica Greenwood presented “The Future in 4D: Brands, Communities, Content & Technology” at Advertising Week 2009 a couple months ago, stressing the notion that branding should be “useful, relevant and/or entertaining.” The presentation highlighted exceptional and inspiring campaigns that demonstrated how brands have been able to make “useful, relevant and/or entertaining” happen.
It’s important for brands to offer something of value to audiences, to get audiences to invite them into their lives–but how to go about it? The folks over at idsgn have selected some key lessons from Greenwood’s presentation that will help brands to do just that. Take a look at the principles of “useful, relevant and/or entertaining” brands they’ve put together, as well as some of the excellent campaigns that put them into practice–read Lessons from innovative advertising campaigns at idsgn for the full scoop.