• Mug
• Milk
• Chocolate powder
• Real whipped cream
• Cookie of your choice
• Dark chocolate shavings
• Top it with a marshmallow (lightly toasted with a propane torch)

Then enjoy!

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Here’s an example. Mike pulls up to rental car lot after hours and the car is absolutely filthy. Girl is waiting patiently for him to return the car:

Girl (staring at her fingers): “What’s that?”

Mike: “That’s poo.”

Girl: “Like from a butt?”

Mike: “Does it come from any other place?”

Girl: “I got poo in my hand.”

Mike: “And now you got keys. Happy Birthday.”

That run in with the car rental agent and other assorted characters all get chronicled in Mike’s correspondence with fans via the tablet PC.

Not much gets me engaged lately, but this was truly fun. They got me to sit and watch all the videos (5 videos, roughly 4 min each) and ponder how I might use a table PC. Well done, HP!

Viewers can embed the video source into their own blogs, etc. But there doesn’t seem to be anything else. Seems odd that there’s no method for viewers to engage further (other than chat with an HP online sales rep). Clicking on the non-Flash link, the alternate HTML page says videos will be posted April 19 and a sweepstakes is coming soon. Looks like someone dropped the ball — that’s disappointing and a point of failure for the campaign efforts. Realistically, will the majority of visitors ever come back again?

You can watch all the Mike Rowe videos here.

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Last December, the “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC” campaign ran a “Don’t give up on Vista” advertising on Cnet.com’s Windows Vista news and reviews page. They cleverly sync the sidebar ad to the ad unit at the top of the page. It was a clever use of the page and a serious jab at Microsoft on a page about their flagship operating system.

Yesterday, Apple reproduced the magic, this time on PCMag.com with even more jabs at the negative press Microsoft has received.

Congrats to the sharp folks who saw an opportunity and took advantage of it.

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It’s awesome that they convinced the building owners to allow that to be applied to the escalator steps. (The mechanics were probably less thrilled.)

But it’s disappointing that the brand’s URL (JuiceHair.com) doesn’t match their name (Juice Salon), which might make it difficult for ad recall if a consumer wants to look for other locations.

Apparently escalator advertising has been around for awhile in Europe and is only recently making inroads in the United States. AdRants has documented some examples.

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Over the past two decades I’ve read the traditional direct marketing standards — Direct Marketing by Ed Nash, Being Direct by Lester Wunderman, much by Seth Godin, as well as Peppers and Rogers. But nowadays, when I browse the aisles at B&N, I shun the business marketing aisle. Probably because there are too many subject matter experts repeating the same messages again and again. Then there’s Joseph Jaffe.

I’m not exactly sure how I stumbled across his Across the Sound (now Jaffe Juice) podcast last year, but I got instantly hooked. I thought I was listening to a madman. Of course in madness there is often brilliance.

I heard a man shouting to whoever will listen what we all know is true but fail to utter aloud — the traditional marketing models are failing. Whoever doesn’t embrace change will become a dinosour — brands, CEOs, media tycoons, small business owners, agency Creative Directors are all at risk for extinction.

No, it’s not a new message. But it’s becoming more important than ever to experiment liberally and shake budgets free of the outmoded planning process.

I’ve been fortunate to work on many test and learns in the past five years. The justification process is brutal, and usually we get very little to work with and little support from the brand. Some T&Ls utterly failed. Some did mediocre. Some succeeded beyond expectations. But even when we did well, the results are often eyed with suspicion due to old world mentality.

So I am thrilled that someone like Jaffe is out in the field shaking things up.

I’m enjoying the book. I can feel Jaffe’s energy coming through in his words. When I’m done I’ll post a review.

Related Links:
Join the conversation

Join the conversation (Buy via Amazon and Jaffe will donate all proceeds of the affiliate link to charity.)
Life after the 30-second spot (Jaffe’s first book):

Full Disclosure: I volunteered to review this book. I am not being paid for this. My comments and opinions are my own as a courtesy for receiving a copy of the book.

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I was intrigued and clicked through to find photo with 3 or 4 comments layered on it. So I added my own and refreshed the page several times over the next hour to see what others did.

If you mouse over the photo, you’ll reveal the (humorous and snarky) comments. Logged-in Flickr users could add any number of comments anywhere on the photo. This photo was viewed over 200 times and a few dozen comments added to the photo — mostly within the hour after posting the initial message on Twitter. As of now, it’s up to 388 views.

Those numbers might seem low, but think about it. Chris essentially mobilized a “flash mob” to appear at a destination, take action and go back to their own business.

For a brand, we might create a series of photos with very subtle brand references. You can’t control the conversation. But if it doesn’t seem overtly branded, it could be interesting to see the originality of the participants. Could even make a mini-contest to solicit opinions.

Just something to think about.
-Roland

Related Links:

• Flickr example
• Wikipedia – Flash Mob
• ImprovEverywhere — Flash Mobs at Best Buy, Grand Central and more

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Look carefully, these linked ad units appeared on a Microsoft Vista page on cnet.com/windows-vista.html. It has since been taken down and Microsoft advertising currently appears. (I imagine there were a few grumpy phone calls made to come to a compromise or long term commitment.)

Regardless, it’s a great reminder. Often times, I’ve seen account and creative folks design ads for the lowest common denominator so they can fit the broadest number of properties and media units. In this example, it’s obvious the agency took time to think about where the creative would appear, capabilities of linking ad units to come of with an awesome (yet short-lived) execution that got impressions and buzz.

It’s a good reminder to:

• Involve media and creative early in the media planning and creative process.
• Review each media property to assess whether your ad unit will be complementary in their respective layouts.
• Always design with the target audience in mind.
• Explore non-traditional units.
• Dare to be edgy or potentially generate some buzz.
• Secure non-competitive placements on sensitive brand pages. It will cost more to lock it down and requires a long term commitment, but let the client decide if it’s worth embarrassment. (And make sure you have that in writing.)
• Float the concept around to a few folks to make sure it’s as cool an idea as you think it is.

I’ve worked on many campaigns where we release over a hundred individual units in order to take advantage of the nuances of individual media properties. I admit that it becomes challenging to manage (requires good organizational skills and QC testing); and yes we do create some common units that don’t require customization. Ultimately we may also make tradeoffs based on ROI forecast or budget constraints.

Regardless, do your due diligence and always try to think different.

-Roland

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I remembered the long-form AmEx commercials, but I had no idea that the Today Show had followed-up with a Matt Lauer interview segment. What a great idea to get more traction from the spots. Check this out iMediaConnection case study.
Related Links:

• Today Show Interview
• Seinfeld Superman – Webisode 1
• Seinfeld Superman – Webisode 2
• Seinfeld Superman – Behind the Scenes

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Here’s a bit of the lyrics from one of the songs:

Hardware based technology,
has finally set me free.
Remote manageability,
puts the power just where it should be,
with managers of I.T.,
like meeeeeeee.

What I like about this is the refreshing approach to taking a boring product, embracing the user as a hero, and conveying how to improve the lives of all. Plus they did it well. With a hint of the cleverness seen in “This is Spinal Tap” and “A Mighty Wind.”

Definitely check out the Hard Meets Soft campaign.

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Here are the videos that inspired the commercial:

• The “Some U.S.-Americans don’t have maps” gal, Miss Teen South Carolina
• The “Leave Britney Alone” guy, Chris Crocker
• The “Don’t Tas me Bro” college student, Andrew Meyer

As entertaining as it might be to see all these people get an additional 15-minutes of fame, it might be hard to measure the recall value to AOL. AOL News isn’t even mentioned until the end – sixty seconds in. I would argue that most people won’t even recall this video was for AOL News.

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