Dogs or Bacon?

Following on Lex's post on the use of dogs in advertising, I thought of something weird today.

My contract for my phone is running out soon. In other words, it's time to upgrade (yeey, new iPhone!). Here comes the issue though - what contract do I go for? How many free minutes do I need, how many free texts (loads) and how much free data?
Most providers seem to have rather similar deals and for some reason I just thought I'd go for EE. Simply because I do home broadband with them which means I get a little bit of a discount when signing up for a new phone. Then I changed my mind and thought that maybe I should stay with o2.

The reasoning here is very irrational, but honestly, I really do like dogs (and cats) more than Kevin Bacon.

It's the most wonderful ad of the year.

I don't understand how John Lewis does it. I thought the Christmas ad from 2011 blew the bank; a year later, I thought surely it was the 2012 one that did it.

Now, it's 2013, I'm 10secs into the newest ad and I'm already in tears.

John Lewis, I salute you. Coke Santa has got absolutely nothing on you; now I know it's Christmas time.

The joy of not being sold anything

I stole this from The Cool Hunter.

A brief note on TV advertising

According to Campaign’s Danny Rogers (1), TV advertising is rising in terms of adspend. It’s estimated that advertisers will spend 3% more on TV compared to last year. Considering the emergence of digital media and all its possibilities, that we are said to live in “The digital age” and the fact that it’s 2013 and the first TV ad ran in 1941, this direction does not instantly make sense.

Giving it a second thought and taking some advertising research (there’s references at the end of this post if you’re interested in knowing more) into consideration made me change my mind.

First of all, Byron Sharp (2) explains that good business depends on acquiring new customers rather than convincing current customers to buy more. Research has shown that a successful brand does not necessarily have frequently returning customers; they simply have a higher number of customers (more on this later).

And here’s the thing: it is harder to effectively reach new customers than existing ones. Frank Harrison (3) explains how customers who are using a brand have a higher recall of the brand’s advertising than consumers who use other brands within the same product category. This goes for all types of media; paid, owned or earned. However, recall amongst non-buyers is higher for paid media and TV advertising in particular.

In other words, TV advertising should be the most effective type of advertising for reaching new customers, so spending a bit more money on TV doesn’t sound like such a bad idea.

1) http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/opinion/1214638/tv-booming-again-everything-changed/

2) http://marketinglawsofgrowth.com/index.html

3) Frank Harrison (2013) Digging Deeper Down into the Empirical Generalization of Brand Recall: Adding Owned and Earned Media to Paid-Media Touchpoints, Journal of Advertising Research, June 2013, No.2, Vol. 53

Now you Seetickets, now you don't.

Where's the balance between too little information and too much information? Where's the balance between being happy for your business success and remembering that you're in the service industry?

Social media, y u so challenging!

Admittedly, I'm no IT consultant (hence I'm not giving IT advice to Seetickets), but perhaps reconsider
1) giving more information on what type of technical difficulties you are facing (nothing quite like getting kicked out after thinking you'd paid for tickets!)
2) give out less information - well done on the record time, but not really something the desperate online audience needs to know right now
3) you've already admitted there was a mistake - giving out attitude will not make it disappear

Wish I had done it.

I love advertising, I really do, but sometimes I wonder if even seeing tube advertising is worth another survival of the fittest -thing in a London morning rush hour tube.

But then again, sometimes it is. Wish I had done this. To me, the copy is so compelling that it actually made me forget it was a Monday morning in a London rush hour.

Keeping or faking up appearances?

"I'll bet my right testicle that my late granddad didn't fight in the war for this country 70 years ago so that idiots of later times could whore---"

This starting sentence of a blog post, titled "About the people who ruin this country", caught my attention on a late night Facebook link clicking spree. Or maybe it wasn't the sentence alone, but the picture of the blogger. I recommend you click on the link now, if you didn't already.

Now excuse me for my stereotypical thinking, but someone who looks like that using language like above makes me intrigued. The post in itself was about the environmental mishaps of the Finnish political scene, and to be fair, from a point of view I wouldn't first connect to a middle-aged man in a suit. In fact, it rang quite a few bells.

After a bit of more clicking, it turns out that it's not really him, but a younger chap who would "look the part" behind the contents of the blog post. Reasoning for using a fake image? Being taken seriously. Would the post have created a serious, well-argumented discussion in the comments from people all over the society on a political portal if the picture would have been of a 20-something guy on a beach in Goa with a guitar?

Is it in what is said or who says it?

I have dreadlocks. And tattoos. I can't walk in heels. I'm also an all A's student and I've bagged a few European PR awards. Yet, when I first turn up to a "serious" event, I get looks. I don't look the part, especially in London, but hopefully I'll be the part if given a chance. It's just about who is willing to even look behind the looks - isn't it about 3 seconds that we have to make a first impression? And we all know how easy it is to change those.

Perhaps that's the beauty of the world wide wonderful. Anyone can be an expert. Identity theft aside, is internet by making people faceless actually making us pay more attention to what is said than who is saying it? Or is it [still] a fake it till you make it -sort of a truth that's out there?

Björn Borg does bra.

As a Finn, I cringe when Swedish people do something amazing [except you, Denise, of course]. Someone say "jealousy"? I say pfft.

However, as a human being, what Björn Borg did in Russia not only makes me think of "Swedes are amazing". It also reaffirms that when I claim to people, who only see the advertising industry as a cut-throat piece of business hell where money rules and ethics screw, that it can be used for good things, too, I'm not even lying.

Nicked from AdWeek

I do wonder how much money it took though to be not labelled as gay propaganda. This is bad ass. Unlike probably most people using Björn Borg's.

Ad of the Week: Mercedes Benz

So, as a rule of thumb, unless you are Honda or Audi I couldn't give a shit about your ads. This, however, is magic - message is clear, uninterrupted and visualised through awesome, possible magical, gyroscopic properties of chickens. Made me laugh on the bus. That's a win right there. 

Mercedes-Benz TV: MAGIC BODY CONTROL TV commercial "Chicken" by Jung von Matt agency, Germany (obviously).

Posted by Lex on behalf of Hannah 

Funny branding

I love that the cafe across the street from a prison is called "Breakout"!

It's a sign!

It's a shame though that the brand name wasn't written on the sign as I was not the only one urged to take a picture of this and post it on both Facebook and Instagram...

A day made of glass

This vision for the future by Corning made me want everything to be made of glass (almost).

The ABBA DMU

First of all: Yes, we are all big geeks. Every sentence we've said the last two weeks have included some sort of marketing term.

However. Revising for my integrated marketing communications exam I got a bit bored. Sometimes that just ends up in laziness, sometimes it leads to creativity. The latter was the case with this (ps. all creativity is good creativity).

For decision making units, you know the acronym PAGES? Well it's in the marcoms book by smith and Taylor and probably in a lot of other places too, but I've got a better one. Inspired by Taylor's Arnie-approach I decided to do one more appealing to me. I went back to my Swedish roots and would like to introduce the ABBA-DMU:

Starter - "gimme, gimme, gimme"

Adviser - "knowing me, knowing you"

Gatekeeper - "man in the middle"

Purchaser - "money, money, money"

End user - "the winner takes it all"

Much better, too bad there were no questions about the DMU in the exam..

About U.S.

Welcome!

You've just stumbled upon The Usual Suspects blog. We're glad you're here, and hope you enjoy.

As with all things advertising and marketing, the first things to consider are the who's and the why's and the how's.

Who?

The Usual Suspects is a group of friends, brought together by the same university and the same Advertising and Marketing Communications degree. What made us stick together was a shared interest, curiosity, intelligence about all things AMC. What makes us stick together happily is the similar humour and brains, and that's what this blog is about - a combination of smart stuff and having fun. The name derives from our status as "The Usual Suspects" amongst the teachers and our cohort. Need someone to do something amazing? Ask (and trust) The Usual Suspects to do it!


Sanna, hailing from Finland (which is not a Scandinavian country but a Nordic one), can't even remember when she first got a spark for advertising. When ad breaks were the best part of watching telly? When the Cannes Lions broadcast was the best telly show of the year? When she was a kid, Sanna thought it was unfair that she couldn't draw or sing, but after some life experience, she's realized that the best creative talent you can have is writing. Her posts will probably consists of stuff featuring beer and ads she wishes she had made. A bit of a drunken moaner, really.



Denise, from an actual Scandinavian country (Sweden) used to zap the channels as a kid to only watch the ads. Maybe she was born with a huge interest for it, maybe 30 seconds was just perfect for a 3 year olds' attention span. Creatives of some sort have always been a part of life for Denise. She discovered photoshop and illustrator early, used to do a bit of photography and spent a couple of years working as a makeup artist. However, realising that the fun part of the makeup jobs were planning and brainstorming for the photo shoots (more the creative director's or photographer's job), makeup got put aside and it was time to move on. Advertising was actually not a given choice from the start, but one she is very happy to have made. She has grown into the subject and absolutely loves both the creative and strategic side of it.




Lex, a loyalty-less laggard with a temper - especially when it comes to bad advertising.  Expect her posts to be researched opinion pieces on advertising and branding with the occasional angry rant. 
Lex is from Bristol - the most musical city in the UK - but no, she doesn't like cider and please don't ask her if she knows Banksy.

Twitter: @AlexHelenMac 

• uk.linkedin.com/in/alexandrahmacleod/

Hannah, quite the atypical 21 year old trying desperately to find out what floats her boat.  Having already considered a plethora of different career choices in her 21 years (personal favourites including vet, marine biologist, and renaissance oil painter) it's clear that art, design and the creation of visual and verbal loveliness is all she wants - as long as it's helping the right people.  The entire AMC industry scares the living daylights out of her but when it's done with good and honest intentions for reasons that help those who need it, she's all for it. In fact, she may try to help you.




Why?

We've just finished our second year of uni, and being slightly insane, figured that without constant uni stress and deadlines, we might turn into useless zombies with a sunstroke. We needed a summer project - enter The Usual Suspects blog. We wanted something that will interest us and perhaps even interest someone else. We want to keep our brains stimulated by things we see, hear and feel. Things that are current, or maybe a mention-worthy blast from the past.

Plus this will look good on our CV's. Internship and job offers welcome! [And blog post suggestions, too. We aim to have the stand where everyone wants to know what we think about this and that.]

How?

Surprisingly, by this blog. We don't really have rules, regulations, schedules or limits - we go with the flow.

...

Right then! This post should've covered the basics about us, TUS, but if you have any questions or comments - now or in the future - just pick you favourite form of contact from the side bar or hit the comment button.