Samantha Hoffman's - Creative Blog

The Idea Writers- Chapter 8: It’s Just Getting Good

First and foremost—great ending with a chapter like this. 

So many negative stereotypes revolve around advertising. The Pepsi Refresh Project is… well, refreshing. They really did a great job reaching out to the community and lending a helping hand. Getting people involved and voting on which project should be sought through was an interesting way to open doors for a world of communication between consumers.

I guess it’s an added perk that it gave people a “concrete reason to choose Pepsi over Coke.” Hmm… I don’t want to bring negativity to the campaign, because it’s a great one—so I’ll look over Rob Schwartz words.

After reading this chapter, I decided to look up more information on the campaign. According to Strong Brands, it might’ve not have done that well. “Pepsi is getting clobbered, with declining sales and a falling market share. Pepsi now trails both Coke and Diet Coke. Not surprisingly, the company is changing course, boosting advertising spending and developing new creative promoting Pepsi.” This is from another blog, however, so who knows how accurate it is.

I found this statement interesting: 

“First, people like companies that do good things in the community but this doesn’t necessarily drive purchases. People don’t pick up a Pepsi because the company built a playground in Omaha. They pick up a Pepsi because they are thirsty and want refreshment.”

While one can agree logically with this, it’s not beneficial to think this way. Otherwise, we wouldn’t see a lot of companies participating in outreach projects.

The Idea Writers- Chapter 7: Bringing Ideas to Life

I’m on a horse.

 This chapter really dived into multiple advertising campaigns and discussed them individually. It was a great way to really get insight on specific projects and brought a lot of things that I didn’t know about the creative process to life; hence the title of the chapter.

I want to solely focus talking about the social media phenomenon. Yes, the infamous Old Spice “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like.”

 Despite 2009 being a terrible year for television spots, Old Spice came out on top with a memorable spot in 2010. The man in the towel, played by former NFL wide receiver Isaiah Mustafa, looked straight at the women watching the spot “Look at your man, now back to me. Now back at your man; now back at me.”  How was a men’s product supposed to sell if they’re talking to women? Well, it did, and it worked. It targeted those women who buy the household products to buy their man Old Spice, and it got men to well—just buy it. “If it’s dumb, it’s probably good.”

 Many parodies and imitators sprang up which really shows just how much of a success it was. In July of 2010, the Old Spice man began responding directly to comments on various social media sites—celebrities and nobodies alike. Each response was well written and in-character. 

It was so successful due to the “great writing, great performances, a great behind-the-scenes team, smart social media seeding and reactions.” And they had fun with it too.

The Idea Writers- Chapter 3: The Storytellers

“If you can’t tell a story you aint shit.”

It’s so interesting that even in advertising, storytelling is extremely important. Sometimes we forget this and focus more on just trying to sell a product. BMW really took a leap and changed the world of branded entertainment with their campaign, “The Hire” back in April of 2001. They may have not been the first, but they were the first to really succeed. Their films were viewed 10 million times on BMWFilms.com and they sold 213,127 cars that year, which was a 12 percent increase from 2000. 

I check out some of these mini films on YouTube, and I have to say that I was quite impressed. The team focused more on telling compelling stories rather than shoving the brand in the audience’s face. It really gives an identity to BMW, and made me want to make a BMW purchase without even being told to. (If I could even afford one!) I really appreciated the cinematography and it was clearly evident that they had some real talent working on this campaign. It wasn’t at all what I was expecting.

BMW walked the line of art and advertising, and did a great job of it. They offered an entertainment experience that earned an audience and that was an effective brand story. I’m sure they didn’t know what a great impact that this campaign would have in the industry. “Give me one of those” surely became a phrase that clients told their agencies. Imitations were sure to come. I’m also amazed that the 2002 Cannes ad festival, a whole new category was created as a nod to BMW.

Thanks to BMW, I’ll definitely look at branded content differently.