Posted: March 15th, 2010 | Author: Saleh Esmaeili | Filed under: advertising | Tags: challenger, dodge, impact, man on wheels, online advertising | No Comments »
In October ‘09 I posted how Dodge’s agency made Challenger a bonecar n’ forgot about its muscle business. After lots o’ jokes and many Challengers seen on roads there comes Man On Wheels campaign to finally do the car some fair Justice.
What I love about the Man On Wheels microsite is not the execution. I love the copy. It’s exactly how a Muscle car owner thinks about the car n’ I love that attitude being shown.
It’s all talks though!
But then, it’s all about this cowboy who’s admiring the car n’ jus’ talkin’ about it. Again, nothing’s being shown. The car is shown in its whole form, no details are shown. It doesn’t show the Tail, the cowboy jus’ talks about it, the 6.1 Hemi, no burnout is shown, no Engine sound to get you going and most importantly no V8 growl. Nonetheless I loved the campaign, jus’ because it’s the first time ever some works have gone on an online campaign apart from an online test-drive form in Duabi. What is obvious is that the “copy” has won over the rest of the elements of the campaign and the dominant one way duke-style dialogue kills the multimedia purpose of the website. If there was only a little bit of Outdoor n’ off-studio shooting to compliment the campaign, only if there was…
Tweet This Post
Posted: November 5th, 2009 | Author: Saleh Esmaeili | Filed under: advertising | Tags: Branding, campaigns, events, online advertising, social media, UAE | Comments Off
Facebook group, check. Twitter account, check. Youtube channel, check.
Slapping badges from the above sites on the Website, check. Ads on Facebook, check. Ads on Youtube, check. Ads on other sites, check. Now what?
Engage!
Using all the social networks, bloging n’ microbloging is not meant to be for showing the face, but to have a sort of dialogue and conversation with people(you can’t take them as customers).
Observing some of the campaigns lately I was excited to see all sort of badges on one of the campaigns for an event. So out of my excitement I started following event’s Twitter account, became a Fan on their Facebook page, subscribed to their YouTube channel and waited for the fun to start. Ten days before the event I started seeing Ad Banners on various websites and mainly on Google Network. Okay, no fun. No updates. So I moved my expectations to the day of the event. I’m at the event, checking Tweets, none, oh they post a link to a press release. Facebook fan page full of fans’ questions and answered by other fans. Youtube channel showing videos of last year’s event.
The event was such a success. But was the campaign? Worth noting that the so-called “Social Media Campaign” was ran by what they call “an emerging top-notch Social Media House”. So it’s all about badges? And tossing some names n’ buzzwords?
Everyone knows it, but do we really engage? Or what is engagement really? (check @jassim’s some two years old article on it)
Yes, it’s all about experimenting with the new toys n’ mediums. Yes, outcomes do not come fast but fact is a brief sarcastic tweet of mine from yesterday: I noticed something of rather high value, whoever can spell “social media” is a field expert from day 1 of its existence. hah?
Tweet This Post
Posted: October 12th, 2009 | Author: Saleh Esmaeili | Filed under: advertising | Tags: abu dhabi, online advertising, press, the national | Comments Off
You read Newspapers so you’re a telephony. You don’t want to click and read and then fill up a form or take down an e-mail address to subscribe.
The National's Ad Banner
Brilliant. The National has medium square banners served on YouTube(and perhaps elsewhere) with the title “Subscribe to The National”, picture of an issue folded and an 800 number. Because if you’re an analogue being you’ll probably be calling to subscribe.
Continued, if you happen to be an impatient user who clicked on the banner all you get is a page with more details in the same style. Call to subscribe. Amazingly integrated. I’d like to think this is a campaign that was internally planned with a maximum of a consultant help and that’s it. Not an ad-agency work, I’d like to think so.
The National's Campaign Landing Page
Doesn’t it feel original with a taste of Mont Blanc too? Great match.
Tweet This Post
Posted: October 7th, 2009 | Author: Saleh Esmaeili | Filed under: advertising, cars | Tags: banner, campaign, cars, fail, online advertising | Comments Off
-
Some Agency got this campaign really bad. An epic FAIL for Dodge Challenger not by car’s Design or Engine, by an Ad Agency. A car with such a long history treated that way. Fail!
I’m not a fan of Muscle cars, nor dodges but I love their V8 growl and the scary body design. I’ve driven many of them. I know many challenger owners and I’ve raced a good number of’em on the track. It’s a car with history.
I was browsing 7days.ae earlier this morning to see a banner on top of the page for Dodge Challenger. The Banner is not clickable. Too much for a test-drive campaign?
Below are snapshots taken from 7days.ae.
I don’t know where to start with this one. It’s wrong, it’s all over the place.
- It’s a SPORTS COUPE, V8. It’s a muscle car. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea. No! When it comes to such audiences, what “we’ve built” ain’t important if you say it. Show something? On spot! Don’t say it!
- Sunset? Beach. It’s a Beasty Coupe, not a luxury family car. It’s an aggressive car, the beautiful angles and corners of this ride could easily be noticed! Close up!
- It’s a Muscle car, show me some V8 action, some Engine bay, Exhaust. Let me hear that Exhaust note.
- Show me the wheels. Show me those strips that slice the car.
- Make the banner clickable, at least!
So how could such a campaign go that much wrong?
What I wonder is, how could a campaign for such a car that has been resurrected go out that bad with no care. It’s a resurrected lineup. The above banner has nothin’ to do with the Car whatsoever. It’s just one of those let’s-jus’-get-this-done kindda’ work. No research. No physical contact with the car, and for sure no respect for the target market and audience.
FAIL.
Tweet This Post
Posted: October 5th, 2009 | Author: Saleh Esmaeili | Filed under: Micro-Sites, Mobile, Mobile-Web | Tags: adobe flash, android, blackberry, browser, flash, flash mobile, htc hero, iphone, Mobile, mobile ads, Mobile-Web, online advertising | Comments Off
Adobe Flash is gonna’ hit Smartphones before you know it, they announced their support for Blackberry, Android, WebOS, Windows Mobile, and Symbian systems among the others.
I’ve been using an Android phone for nearly a month now and I do have the beta version of the Adobe Flash 10 player on it. Yes, it’s Flashy and it’s seamles.
Online Ads & Microsites go Mobile
With such a multimedia capable player going mobile there’s no more divide between Computer n’ Handheld devices in terms of reach and accessibility by advertisers. Having that said, many iPhone/Android applications that were made around limitation of having no Flash support to gather data from Flash based websites will deminish for good.
So what happens next? Now the whole tranformation of Desktop browser Ads to Mobile browser Ads starts. It won’t be anymore about showing the right content to Mobile users but showing Mobile Ads to Mobile users. And this transition will take place
FAST! This change in Ad format or utility will be fast for two important reasons:
- The same authorware, serving, and reporting systems that are used for normal web banners and matrixes could utilize n’ serve Mobile Ads
- Unlike the Mobile Web(sites), Mobi, or em-dot Mobile Flash Ads won’t be a luxury add-on to your website to make it Accessible on Mobiles but in addition accelerating sites Ad-Space-Burnup; Selling more Ads. Thus, it will be a priority
So whoever said Mobile Ads will be slow, and that year would come sometime but we never know “when”. It’s Now!.
Tweet This Post
Posted: August 23rd, 2009 | Author: Saleh Esmaeili | Filed under: UAE | Tags: awareness, dubai, education, online advertising, summits, UAE | 1 Comment »
Yes, it’s one percent of the whole ad spend in the Middle East. That’s the online media spend. How can we fix that? The repeated answers “By educating marketers. Google Adwords is the best solution. E-commerce ain’t working for this region because we like to shop.” I mean c’mon people! How many more places are you going to repeat the same things?
What has been done to improve?
Nothing. I’ll tell you why nothing. Keep reading.
Conferences & Summits
Is there anything but Sales info? Charts that are the same as the ones handed to your next sales man? Jargons n’ lots of showcases of your own work. Campaigns that hasn’t actually worked. Other than making the Marketers look dumb by saying hey use “this” it’s good for your kids health?
Impressions not Actions
You want to promote actions and acquisitions while all that is offered in the market is Impressions.
Microsites
Just a form? Or wait now they have Tweets n’Facebook connect. For real!
Articles
I mean come on. I often read articles from people with no background what so ever in the Online Ads or Web for that matter n’ you’ll find “Some Name, Some Company Name, thinks it is better to do something”. I mean that reporter wants to get some news off some e-mail? a tweet perhaps? What are the reporters for if they wanna’ find those people who are not in need to be found? Just because they’re in your face and they’re louder doesn’t mean they’ve got the right words or the right idea.
Social Media
Yea right! Just because Twitter is on paper everyday it doesn’t mean signing every company an account on Twitter n’ getting them a Facebook group means the social media use. That’s the step one out of another 99 steps to be taken. Engagement?
Communities
Yes, give that office space for some people to hangout n’ network n’ slap our logo on the door. That’s it. Community. For real?
The Biggest.
Best, biggest, taller, fatter, uglier, slimmer, miss world, and Kobe Bryant’s underwear portal/agency/company in the middle east, what? how many are out there anyways? Now stop that already. Focus.
Conclusion
The better you PR means the more you KNOW, apparently. So the louder your NOISE the more you can reach. People! We ain’t got to be loud to get the message out, and for ethical reasons, and just business morals, for once, try to educate the clients n’ not sell them stuff at one conference, you ain’t paying anything anyways! They are paying for the tickets!
Tweet This Post
Posted: October 3rd, 2008 | Author: dotblack | Filed under: Tech, UAE | Tags: advertising, dubai, e-mail, marketing, nakheel, online advertising, real estate, spam, UAE | Comments Off
A couple of days ago I posted about Nakheel’s Spam showing the three times that I was spammed. Two more shots added to that.
Oct 3rd Shot:
Oct 4th Shot:
Now the difference, the above shots were not signed by Dubai Moon, and the tracking has been shifted to Double Click.
Five shots to the same e-mail address, the same message, and unsolicited. Stops over here, Evast is reported as spam, the fun is over for me, I wanted to see how far it goes, it seems that it won’t stop until cityscape reaches. Such a Media Plan right there!
And the campaign is now directed to Nakheel’s City Scape Page
Tweet This Post
Posted: September 20th, 2007 | Author: dotblack | Filed under: Micro-Sites, Web-Design | Tags: microsite, online advertising, Web-Design | Comments Off
Microsite debates have always been going on and never stopped. Be it between Designers and Developers or Media Planners and Clients or even the poor web-masters in the background.
John W Eliss, a seasoned online ads consultant, denies the need for microsites, he adds:
The Microsite, at least the original definition, is dead. Creating multiple, smaller websites for segments of the same brand only confused the customer and extended the purchasing process.
John continues the debate and adds a little +ve points too:
An advantage of microsite was search engine dominance. By creating multiple sites, a brand was able to dominate natural search rankings. No matter where the customer clicked, it was still the same company
There have been two types of microsites as of my observations, those that melt within a big site contents, and those that stand alone.
Excluding John, online marketers and for this case even the folks at online agencies would prefer to go with standalone microsites, because they’d want to have a clear shot, they often don’t want to mingle with existing websites and their Information Architecture & interactivity.
Clients on the other side don’t like to have their base website or corporate brand website touched by every campaign or product launch given that every campaign/project would have a different winner(agencies), think about conflict in style & message.
On the contrary, bigger picture believers, and those who give power to online agencies or perhaps have a big online department do go with microsites within their websites, name changes there, it becomes a section or a product page instead!
Good examples of inner microsites are the beloved Sony Ericsson and Nokia websites.
That’s right, I’m with John, Microsites are dead, but when it comes to cars? Bigger projects/products that are not daily consumer accessory, information that should not be confused with other information?
Every movie gets its own microsite, so? Should we put every Sony Pictures movie in one huge website that includes all the Sony movies?
I take my word back, it ain’t dead. It’s a relative thought, depends on three ends:
- Advertisers’ website & decisions
- Online Agencies or In House Department involvement
- Type of Product and Advertisers’ business & consumer habits injected over years of feeding.
Tweet This Post
