Philippine Ad Congress' Araw Awards winning scam ads - "araw ng parangal" or "araw ng lokohan"?

everybody in the philippine ad industry knows this. it's the worst kept secret in the ad industry - the scam ads that win the Araw Awards ("araw" means day or sun, depending on the usage. in this award, it's meant to mean the sun) in the ad competition during the Philippine Ad Congress. these scam ads do win the awards. on the day the scam ads win, is it an "araw ng parangal" (day of tribute) or is it an "araw ng lokohan" (day of scams)?

scam ads are one-shot ads where ad agencies develop creatives for the sole purpose of making the most creative ads to win awards. ad agencies usually look for very small clients, even those who normally can't afford advertising and have not had an ad ever, and convince them to use their business in the ad. they air/publish the ad only once just to comply with the award criteria.

scam ads are not meant to build the business of the client as what advertising ought to do. in the first place, scam ads can never do that - it's aired/printed only once and they're too creative that only creative directors can understand and appreciate the ads. creative directors are usually the judges of ad competitions. scam ads are not tools for building business, they're tools to boost the egos of creative directors who want to win awards.

everybody knows about scam ads. most complain about them, even despise them. and yet over many years of ad competition awards - they continue to be there. it's really easy to stop the scam ads, just ad another criteria to entries for the awards that has the effect of banning them. but the reality is the philippine advertising industry has not done anything to get rid of it even though many have said they don't like it.

ad competitions are set up not only to give tribute to the best work, but more importantly it's to inspire and push creativity to higher levels to improve the over-all quality of the whole industry. the idea is to be able to help uplift the creativity of the ads we see on a daily basis in media.

scam ads prevent that from happening because the creatives know the work they do on a daily basis for their regular clients will never win awards, why bother to improve them? they would rather do their best work for scam ads which has a higher chance of winning awards for them. and scam ads are just too few to make an impact on the industry.

when will this stop? that's probably a question will never be able to answer.

your suggestions on how to stop scam ads? are they necessary? what are the benefits?

KFC philippines' shrimp ad makes us all shrimpy!

oh, this ad should win an award for best comedy if there is an award like that in an ad competition. see this ad a million times, smile or laugh a million times.

it's a simple story - kfc has just launched a shrimp meal in their menu. we all know kfc is all chicken, but a shrimp among the chickens is a big surprise. and that's what this ad wants you to remember -- that now, there is a shrimp meal in kfc.

and it works! you not only do you remember they now have a shrimp meal, you now think the kfc brand is a really cool brand for having this much humor.





man 1 : tingin ko isa sa tin dito may tinatago (the way i see it, one among us here is hiding something.)
man 2 : may suspetsa din ako (i also have my suspicion.)
man 3 : sino kaya? (who do you think is it?)
man 1 : alam ko na. (i know what to do!)
man 4 : ayyyy! (something like a yelp, very feminine)
pregnant pause
man 4 : may, may shrimp na pala sa kfc, pare. (kfc has now shrimp, pare?) ("pare" meaning buddy is what men usually call each other)
announcer : you too will be surprised with the kfc surfers, made from real shrimp, battered and breaded the kfc way. freshly cooked to a golden crisp.
man 3 : dude, we accept you!
men : o, group hug! group hug! group hug!
man 4 : nabigla lang ako! sarap kasi ng shrimp! (i was just surprised. it's because the shrimp is really delicious!)

brand ateneo-la salle game - time stops at 4:00 pm for the blue and green

game 1 of the uaap seniors basketball game starts today at 4:00 pm. and on the same hour, time stops as most of the country will probably watch the game on tv. forget watching it live, the tickets have disappeared a long time ago.

brand ateneo-la salle game is one of the most enduring brands not only in collegiate basketball, but the whole of the country. it has been there for as long as anyone can remember. it is a rivalry that has not waned, not at the beginning, not in previous years and certainly not now. it is quite a fitting ending to this season's tournament when the blues fight it out with the greens. it's a season ending destined and always appreciated by everyone, even those who do not know anything about basketball.

here's a tiny sample of how intense this rivalry is and how much anticipated it is --- to get a ticket to this game, people start lining up for tickets at 12 midnight, or at the latest at 3:00 am in the morning. in one of these games, i know for a fact someone started to line up at 3:00 am and got two tickets worth P150.00 at 7:00 pm!

day after the game, it is the talk of the town. and that's not just among those who study in those two schools and their alumni, it's also conversation for the rest of the population.

there is no other brand like it in the country.

that always show in every ateneo-la salle game. past records of the competing teams don't count. one team may be doing poorly in the elimination round, but when these two teams meet, everything begins on a zero slate. both teams will ALWAYS raise their games to championship calibre. and in every ateneo-la salle game, no one can predict who will win. it will always be a close fight. to many, it's the only game that matters in the uaap.

today will be no different. ateneo has beaten la-salle 2-0 during in regular season. ateneo also has the best record this season. but at 4:00 pm today, that won't mean a thing as la salle will be a different animal, well archer, all together.

ateneo campus, beside the blue eagle gym

from PDI, coach norman black of the ateneo blue eagles : “The atmosphere is electric. If you attend an Ateneo-La Salle game, you tend to look up. Coaches aren’t supposed to do this, but every now and then we steal a moment, and just look around and say to ourselves that this is unbelievable. Half of the arena is green, the other half is blue and everybody is standing up.”

one more thing, they no longer call themselves "la sallites", they now call themselves "la sallians". i don't know why they changed it. i thought "la sallites" sound so much better. i guess they changed to "la sallian" to be just like "noranian" and "vilmanian". noranian and vilmanian are what you call the fans of the 70s superstars nora aunor and vilma santos.

read PDI article in full here : http://sports.inquirer.net/inquirersports/inquirersports/view/20080920-161745/Ateneo-La-Salle-duel-a-throwback-to-Crispa-Toyota

3rd microsoft tv ad, "i'm a pc" - tells us what we already know, restoring pride in windows

what we do know is that jerry seinfeld is in the first 2 microsoft tv ads. the first two suffered from ADS Sindrome, so we were looking forward to the third one. we told ourselves forget the past, move on and wait for the third one. after failing twice, we were expecting microsoft will come out with a great ad with seinfeld, finally!

what we didn't know, something that we just found out now, is that seinfeld will no longer be in the microsoft ad. well, at least in this third one. with a $300M ad budget, there cane be a gazillion more tv ads coming our way.

with seinfeld not in the ad, we know this ad is not about humor. what it did was tell us something we already know - that a gazillion people already use microsoft windows. and as the ad showed, we knew these gazillion people are of different shapes and sizes, including shoe sizes. oh, wait a minute that is the 1st ad. when i meant was eye glasses.

the other part we know, actually what this 3rd ad confirms is that microsoft's new ad campaign IS A direct answer to the apple ads. this 3rd ad opens with a look-alike of the pc character in the apple tv spot.

ads that tell us something we already know are not really bad or weak ads. it's not the ideal, they are not just as potent and hardly an agent of attitude change. we were assuming that microsoft embarked on a $300M ad campaign primarily to change attitudes of consumers towards windows. windows has suffered massive declines in brand image with the endless problems with vista plus the relentless picking on done by apple's tv ads that poured salt into microsoft vista's open wounds.

having to say what we already know about windows may not be the most ideal weapon to change consumer attitudes towards a declining brand image, but what this ad does is it tries to restore pride in the windows name. seeing all those people, someone just like us and seeing many others better or worse than us does that.

i think the main point of this ad is that - to restore pride in the windows brand name. and that can be a good thing.

given the things microsoft's marketing heads have been saying about their ad campaign, they seem to do things in a very slow manner, involving multi-level, multi-stage, chapter by chapter approach to brand image reshaping.

that's how they explained the first ad. they said the ad was meant to be like an intro or a teaser where all they wanted to do was to get people to start talking about microsoft again. they were saying - yah, we know the first two ads are boring, but hey, we got you thinking and talking about it. wait for the third one! at least that is what they want us to believe.

this 3rd ad could be employing the same multi-stage strategy. it's saying what we already know, it's just restoring pride and that sets the stage for the real thing for the 4th ad --- an agent of change that will improve the sagging brand image of windows.

can't wait for the 4th ad! (there you go, i'm once again waiting for the next great microsoft ad!)



read more posts on this microsoft and apple ads here : http://the-wawam-file.blogspot.com/search/label/i%20am%20mac%20i%20am%20pc


source of picture : http://i.usatoday.net/money/_photos/2008/09/19/microx.jpg

is there pride when an ad agency wins an award on an ad that was plagiarized or copied from another agency?

i hope WAWAM!, the blog owner does not mind this post of mine. i just think it's a great topic to discuss.



dm9 jayme/syfu (philippines) won an award for the ad on the left, above for gabriela, a bronze cannes media lion 2008 award. garbriela is non government organization for the protection of rights ow women in the philippines.

the ad on the right, one done by saatchi & saatchi poland, released in 2005 for amnesty international looks almost exactly the same as the gabriela/dm9 ad. the talents are different, clients different but the concept and executional details of the ad are exactly the same. the dm9 ad is a copy of the saatchi ad, that's pretty obvious.

question, well actually there are two questions:

• does dm9 deserve to win award for work that was just copied?
• is there pride and honor in winning an award for work that was just a copy of another ad agency's work?

let us hear your views, please.

read other posts on this topic here : http://the-wawam-file.blogspot.com/search/label/DM9Jayme%2FSyfu

cadbury - "kurot sa puso" ("pinch on the heart") tv spot

this must be one of the best "kurot sa puso" tv spot i have ever seen. ("kurot sa puso" literally means "pinch on the heart", which actually means it's something very emotional or it's tugging at your heart strings.)

when i saw the ad, i reached for the kleenex and some chocolates.




this ad i think is one of the best examples for the expression, "thinking out of the box". the other question in my mind though is this --- when will they show the singer? if that's the drummer, i want to watch the singer perform!

it's amazing how this combines "kurot sa puso" and humor in one ad. this was one ad where i was laughing from start to finish! cadbury made a lasting impression in my mind!

Brand Philippines : Charice Pempengco On The Oprah Show

countries are like brands, they are also known for something. the difference is that for brands, marketing people can choose and shape what it wants their brand to be known for. no such thing for countries. what a country becomes known for sort of happen almost in a random and uncharted way.

that is not for lack of trying, country leaders do determine and execute what shape a country wants to become. but country leaders are not the only determinant of a country's brand image, every single person in a country's population can help shape that brand image, for better or for worst.

charice pempengco is one who will shape of Brand Philippines that is for the better. she recently (september 9, 2008) appeared again in the oprah show and is again getting rave reviews in the internet.

the internet is a very important medium for charice. and here's why - charice has been joining singing contests in the philippines for many years since she was young. she hit it big when she joined a signing contest put up by abs-cbn, one of the top two largest tv station in the country. charice did not actually win that tv singing contest, she placed second in it but it didn't matter as she nevertheless sprung to international fame and the internet led her there.

charice has already appeared in the oprah show before and in the intro to her, it said charice became internationally famous when one of her singing performances was loaded on to You Tube by a stranger. in three month's time, charice's you tube hits has totaled to 13 M, making her a you tube singing star.

view that intro to charice and first singing performance in the oprah show here :




after viewing charice's first performance in the oprah show, above, it's easy to understand how charice can be very good at defining Brand Philippines. she has done extremely well so far, google her name or search in you tube and there will be a long list of accomplishments. she has not only appeared in the oprah show but she guested at the ellen degeneres show last christmas. she has also appeared in a few concerts in the US and has become a sensation in a korean tv show. her star is getting brighter after every gig.

this one, below, the september 9, 2008 oprah show tells us her star got brighter. we are hoping for greater success for her. charice' success is the success of Brand Philippines, too.

globe iphone 3G - over-pricing caused a "not-for-me" brand image

the globe marketing people must be grumbling , the long lines and excitement did not materialize on the launch of the iphone. smart telecom marketing people on the other hand must be happy. the smart telecom people are happy because by pricing the iphone at the current levels, it meant globe decided not to use the iphone as the tool to take market leadership away from smart.

why did globe iphone 3G's sales disappoint? i don't think it's lack advertising or lack of promotion. the iphone 3G has been widely expected in this market. people were already waiting for it.

i think it's the pricing.

globe already gave us a hint that the pricing was the killer for their launch. many weeks ago, globe already announced their prices on the iphone. then weeks after that initial launch and around 3 days before the actual launch, they announced a "price roll-back". it's not actually a roll-back since they have not launched it yet, but that back pedalling on the prices told the iphone's pricing strategy was the biggest weakness in their launch plans. in fact we can say with the roll-back, globe admitted they made a mistake on the pricing of the iphone.

"value" or the perception of "good value" or "sulit" is always an issue among filipino consumers on almost everything. fail at communicating good value or fair value and the brand is dead in the market. it does not matter if this brand is the true superior product in the market place. if a brand is seen as inferior in good value, superior product performance will not matter.

and i think this is what happened to globe's iphone launch in the philippines. globe failed on their pricing strategy. i think globe committed this blunder on pricing for several reasons :

• they forgot that their target market, most likely AB, upper C already own a cellphone. they need to be given very strong reasons for them to buy a 2nd handset. they will already be "wasting" the money they invested on their current cellphone, they need a really smart reason to buy the iphone. pricing the iphone at the current levels made them feel it's not worth the investment.
• globe also forgot that their target market most likely own a computer and has access to the internet and read newspapers and magazines. that means they most likely know the iphone has been launched in other markets ahead of the philippines. and they most likely know the iphone is being sold at $199 in the US. looking at globe's announced iphone handset pricing, all notions and hopes of "good value" disappeared.

the instinct of the globe brand manager who "rolled-back" the iphone's price was right. it was just that the price action was too little.

i'm also wondering - did globe forgot to read the newspapers in the last few months? this country has been punished by inflation, the highest in 17 years, gas prices in certain times were being increased on a weekly basis, there is a rice and food crisis and growth has slowed. given that scenario, good value, if not prices have become increasingly very important to consumers. and in that most important criteria, globe's iphone launch failed.

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read WAWAM! posts on globe's iphone launch : http://the-wawam-file.blogspot.com/search/label/globe

read WAWAM! posts on the iphone here :http://the-wawam-file.blogspot.com/search/label/iphone

coppertone - unsolved puzzle print ad

they are pretty pictures, well actually ads, but we're not quite sure what they mean. we're not even quite sure what brand or product.

it takes quite a lot of effort to understand the message of these ads. the important elements of product and tagline are too small that it will require quite an effort to know what they are. i almost used a magnifying glass to find out it's an ad for coppertone.

and the message? that will take more than a magnifying glass to figure out what it is. the message on these ads are all on the left side of the ad, in the most discrete way one can put a visual on.

what is it? there's a ghost playing golf, soccer and basketball who are off screen. if you look closely, very closely, please closer, you can see the balls and the club in action.

it feels like this ad is an unsolved puzzle with ever so subtle clues as to what they mean. why bother coming up with pretty ads that most likely nobody will understand?

this brand x print ad - it's a WAWAM!

coca cola "ang sarap dito" (coke angel) tv spot

the new coke tv ad, "ang sarap dito", angel and devil is now posted in youtube. this was first discussed in WAWAM! april 6, 2008. view the post here:
http://the-wawam-file.blogspot.com/2008/04/coca-cola-buhay-coke-tikman-mo.html

check out the ad:




things posted in You Tube - the girl is a brazilian model, the ad was shot in bangkok, thailand. anyone can confirm those?

nike kobe byant tv spot

kobe will not risk his life and career, no matter what. nor would nike put kobe's life and career on the line for a tv spot. it must be CG or something. it is very well done. and the copy sounds very realistic too and makes it very believable. nice ad!

marketing dilemma : scrambelicious vs trio

with the impending launch of the lower priced "scrambelicious", what ad will nestle go with for this brand? with its much lower pricing versus trio, scrambelicious will obviously be targeted against a broader socio-eco market, wider to include broad C and perhaps middle and upper D. this will need an ad that will appeal to the broader/lower socio-eco class.

but, they already have sharon cuneta for trio?! now, that can be a pain! sharon could have been perfect for scrambelicious. and certainly a kurot-sa-puso approach using the mega-star and mega-baby could have been a perfect fit for scrambelicious!

ok, ok, the brand name scrambelicious is certainly not appropriate for any kind of emotional or kurot-sa-puso ad, but there's gotta be a way to do it without turning the audience into neurotics. if not emotional, what about humor or the two megas singing to dial up cuteness and kilig factor? oh well, if it's the two of them, i still say it ought to be kurot-sa-puso.

the nestle ice cream marketing department is actually facing a brand portfolio issue with these two brands that have the same product characteristic of 3 flavors in one tub. the biggest issue will be the risk of canibalization. consumers will naturally compare scrambelicious and trio with each other because they have the same product concept. trio users will be most susceptible to that comparison.

unfortunately, with the significant pricing disparity between the two, scrambelicious being lower priced has the clear advantage. and when scrambelicious, a much lower priced and therefore generating lower margins and profits for nestle cannibalizes the market share of trio, a higher priced and with higher margins and profits, nestle will surely feel sorry they ever launched scrambelicious.

i am sure nestle has thought about cannibalization and what impact scrambelicious will have on the ice cream category profits. or did they?

i think the price difference between the two is too big to ignore for consumers. scrambelicious' retail price is 46% lower than trio's (based on the price printed on the lids of the tubs). if i am right in saying that the appeal of a 3-flavored ice cream is mainly value-for-money, then scrambelicious with its much lower pricing will be seen as giving the best value for money between the two. it's not only superior value for money that will be scrambelicious' strength, it will also be superior cash outlay. if i am right on those, scrambelicious will definitely kill trio in less than 2 years.

in the philippine market, value-for-money and in this case also superior cash outlay trumps celebrity endorsers, even if its the mega-star and the mega-baby.

not only will nestle face problems with consumers, they in fact might face problems even sooner - with their distributors and retailers. their distributors and retailers like supermarkets and groceries will be very reluctant to carry a lot of trio once scrambelicious is launched into the market. supermarket and grocery owners know that low price and good value for money sell better with consumers. they will feel that trio will decline in market share and will be taken over by scrambelicious. if they think that, they will certainly reduce their inventory and sales orders of trio in favor of scrambelicious.

sure, the product managers will argue that the flavors in each product are all different from the other and therefore can justify the difference in pricing. but that's like asking consumers to read the fine print, they will gloss that over. and the same way that low pricing and value for money trumps celebrity endorsers, the same two things will trump flavor differences.

does it sound like this wasn't properly thought through by nestle? oh, yah, i did say that already.

given this interesting portfolio issue, brand positioning will be most key. getting that very clear for each will be the driver for differentiating the brands and therefore giving consumers a reason to buy both, not just one over the other. good strategic thinking and applied across all marketing components will be most key. they need to do this for each of the brand and the whole category.

there are solutions to these issues, of course, but that's for another long discussion.

SCRAMBELICIOUS is the nestle give-me-a-name winner

yup, that's what the nestle website says. SCRAMBELICIOUS is a name submitted by a Ms. Analyn Bojos. congratulations to miss bojos!

nestle chose the simple, no frills route in announcing the winner. just posted the winning name and the name of the author. no apologies. not defensive. and finally they learned, no drum-beating true or the false kind ("hundreds of thousands of entries", remember that? hahaha). this is a good move on the part nestle! finally, they learned?

scrambelicious as the winning name confirms that contrary to the impression the website gave, number of votes did not determine the winner. urflower's "taste of summer" didn't win and so it could mean a college girl from an exclusive girls school might decide to sell her body for money. the author of the name "tropical burst" now has to dispose the 100+ email addresses he got for the contest. or maybe look for another contest to join?

is scrambelicious a good name for an ice cream?

it's a play between two words "scramble" and "delicious". scramble most likely refers to the three flavors, a scramble or a mix of three flavors. it's filipinized english. also, there's an ice desert that's sold by street vendors called "scramble". so maybe its playing up on that idea. but the question is - will consumers "scramble" the ice cream when they eat it, as in scoop the three flavors and put it in their mouths all at the same time?

it's too playful and unserious a name for an ice cream. but that's not surprising considering that nestle already has an ice cream brand called "trio". it's a name that you know will not be a classic brand.

we will have to see the advertising support nestle will give this brand.

today, nestle will announce the winning entry

nestle apparently had a change of heart and announced in their website a few days ago that they will "exclusively" announce the winning name in their website today. previous statements in the website did not promise an announcement in the website, instead it just asked visitors to watch out for the product's launch in the coming weeks. this annoucement today is good, we will have closure! hahaha.

these were supposed to be the criteria and mechanics nestle used in choosing the winning name :

c. All 30 weekly entries shall be evaluated on the basis of the following criteria: i. Originality. ii. Suitability for use as a brand name. iii. Absence of prior registration at the Philippine Intellectual Property Office. iv. Non-use by any company or person. v. Conformity with branding regulations of the BFAD or any other responsible agency.

they actually did not follow the stated mechanics of choosing 30 entries weekly. they did not do that because they probably did not get 30 new entries every week, probably got much less than 30 entries. although of course, in the latest statement in the website, they claim they received "hundreds of thousands" of entries. hahaha. yeah, right!

they also said the following will be used as the crtieria for choosing the final winner. they had asked website visitors to look at the entries using these as criteria, either to vote or give comments on.

• creativity : 40%
• suitability of the name to the Product Concept : 30%
• appetite appeal : 30%

so, today, we will know the following :

• when they announce the winner, we will know how they define the criteria that they have set
• we will know if what has been posted here is corect - votes of website visitors don't count. contrary to the impression the website gave, the entry that got the most number of votes is not necessarily the winner. this will be confirmed today.
• that means urflower's "taste of summer", the entry that got the most number of votes within the "promo" period will not be declared the winner. if "taste of summer" is not declared the winner, will urflower, a declared college student from an exclusive girl's school, go into prostitution and sell sex for money?
• that also means "tropical burst" will not be declared the winner. this entry got 1.400+ votes after the promo period until the website was closed on the single gallant effort by it's author who got for himself 100+ email addresses to get this entry to get that number of votes. posters in the website pointed out that gatorade and kool aid have brands that already use "tropical burst" which means nestle should have disqualified this name based on the criteria they have set for choosing the 30 weekly entries (above, 2nd paragraph). will nestle declare this as winner when this has gotten so many negative comments in the website and is already being used by 2 companies?
• will they declare 'scrambelicious' as the winner, based on the email send by nestle to deathnote? as far as anyone can remember, 'scrambelicious' did not get any vote in the website. some even doubt if it was in the list. we do know 'scramble' was mentioned in their tv ad.
• will nestle give a spiel on why they chose 'scrambelicious' as the winner?
• or, my worst fear and that of 'anonymous' - will nestle declare a different winning entry today aside from 'scrambelicious'? and as anonymous have posted here in WAWAM!, that will be an all time low for nestle! hahaha
• in their announcement, will nestle 'make nice' (as the song goes) and placate the dozens, hundreds even (but please, NOT 'hundreds of thousands') of website visitors and authors of entries submitted? the announcement on the april 15 date they had in their website i thought was very defensive and apologetic. nestle seem to know they had disappointed their target audience and the visitors to the website with their effort. they probably realize it was very much ill-conceived, not thought through and plainly incompetent. will their announcement today somehow try to 'make nice' to regain some goodwill? or will they just ignore that and have a celebratory tone? or will it still be apologetic and defensive?
• or...... will nestle not announce the winner today, as declared?

hold on to your seats, and we will post it here as soon as nestle has it on their website, or click this to find out yourself : http://givemeaname.ph/win/index.php

"cog" honda tv spot - amazing tv ad

comments in you tube said this ad took 607 takes before they got everything just right! excellent ad. i think it's just a bit too long, (2 minute ad!), BUT it's still a very entertaining ad. it's a great ad particularly for males, which we can all assume is the target market for the honda.

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AdAge:

HONDA'S TWO-MINUTE 'COG' SPOT IS AN INSTANT CLASSIC

Two-minute masterpiece The commercial, by Wieden & Kennedy, London, for Honda, is a two-minute masterpiece that simply follows the progress of what may be the most elaborate and wonderful Rube Goldberg machine ever assembled. Composed entirely of parts from a disassembled Honda Accord wagon, the machine begins its task with one cog rolling down a plank and touching another, sending it into motion.

What follows is a breathtaking display of not special effects but slow kinetics, as a tailpipe, tires, ball bearings, springs, windows, cams and many other Accord parts are sequentially triggered into action. One-hundred-twenty seconds later, the wagon hatch is pulled shut, changing the vehicle's center of gravity and sending it rolling down a ramp, tripping a wire that unfurls a banner with the Accord logo.

Then, in the spot's single line of copy, Garrison Keillor's voice declares: "Isn't it nice when things just ... work?"

http://adage.com/garfield/post?article_id=37383

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more on this amazing ad : http://www.snopes.com/photos/advertisements/hondacog.asp

veterans bank's radio ad

i'm impressed with the media weights of this radio ad - they have such high weights or this ad is stalking me as i hear the ad quite often.

it's good that even a small bank like veteran's bank has ad adveritising campaign. that's the way to fight the big banks. although the media weights of this ad while looks pretty good on its own, it is of course nothing compared to the big banks spending. but it's a good beginning.

what's not good about this ad is the commercial itself. all it talks about is that the bank serves the country's military veterans and then goes on to talk about how it wants to serve every filipino as it believes "every filipino is a hero". that's the tag line.

i completely do not get this ad. what is the objective of the ad? given the copy, most of it is geared towards building brand awareness on the bank. ok, i'm on that. building brand awareness is a legitimate advertising and marketing objective.

then it goes into a pitch to get new clients and this is the part where i think it fails miserably. it wanted to do that to use an emotional appeal on nationalism or pride as a filipino by saying every filipino is a hero. really? that pitch sounds good on paper, but i don't think it's at all meaningful to the general banking public. honestly, would you open a bank account with a bank on the basis of it making you feel good about being a hero?

it sounds poetic and all but i don't think that's in the top 100 attributes people look for in a bank. not even top 500 attributes. thoughts and ideas that sound good don't necessarily mean it will sell and certainly does not give it any license to be included in ads.

i did say building brand awareness is a legitimate advertising objective, but if that's it all does, then that ad is a WAWAM!. brand awareness is good but the true reason for being for ads is to get consumers to take action, the action of buying your product or service. we don't want consumers to just know your brand, we want consumers to buy your brand or service.

i think what this advertising forgot is this --- it's supposed to sell a product and the product they are selling is so weak, it does not have anything worth asking consumers to buy into. niche marketing is another valid marketing positioning, but i don't think "bank for heroes" counts for niche marketing.

and that is what veterans bank should be doing - retool their bank, reposition it and take on a niche marketing strategy. and this niche marketing strategy should not just be based on an advertising or emotional niche (bank for heroes) but offering bank products that offer niche benefits.

all is not lost. the ad would have generated pride and loyalty among its current user base. but that's all it has done. while the ad may have prevented current clients to close their accounts, i doubt if this ad was able to get new clients.

the only party happy about this ad is the ad agency of veterans bank because they are earning revenues. but that doesn't change things, it's a WAWAM!


(ps: i get the feeling this is another sideline ad. but i could be wrong. anyone know who the ad agency is?)

email announcement : nestle winning name

posted verbatim from forwarded email. with thanks to deathnote.



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From: "Consumer,Services,MAKATI,COMMUNICATION & MARKETING SERVICES" <consumer.services@ph.nestle.com>

To: "xxx" xxx@yahoo.com>Date: Thu, 10 Apr 2008 17:38:04 +0800

Subject: RE: may i know...

Dear Mr. xxx,

Thank you for your email. The winning name for NESTLE Give Me A Name promo is SCRAMBELICIOUS. We hope you will be as pleased as we are about the winning name we have chosen and we look forward to your continued patronage.

Regards,

Nestlé Consumer Services
Nestlé Philippines, Inc.Communication & Marketing Services Dept.
Nestlé Center,
31 Plaza DriveRockwell Center, Makati City 1200
Tel No. (02) 8980061




---------

From: xxx [mailto:xxx@yahoo.com]

Sent: Tuesday, April 01, 2008 10:44 AM

To: Consumer,Services,MAKATI,COMMUNICATION & MARKETING SERVICES

Subject: may i know...

good day!

who won the name of the ice cream: "give-me-a-name"? when would be the results of the winners be coming out to the public. im hoping it would be pretty soon. thank you very much and have a great day.

wining name for nestle's give-me-a-name

winner for the nestle give-me-a-name effort is......

we have to wait for april 15!

read the nestle announcement in their website. i found the announcement very amusing. it sounded so defensive and trying too hard to impress that you sense they feel they have done a bad job on the whole thing. the good thing is they seem to know the whole effort has been disappointing to people. but they gave way too many details, "too much information" kind of thing that wasn't really necessary to let its readers know about. there are even lame attempts to give the semblance of success with self promotion lines like "hundreds of thousands of entries". that was down and out unbelievable! hahaha. the advertising efforts they did behind this project could have reached hundreds of thousands, so if they got entries equivalent to hundreds of thousands, are we to believe 100% or 99% of everyone the ads reached sent entries?!!! hahaha.

nestle should have not written this update that way. they really didn't have to sound defensive and apologetic. they should have just announced the date and did some hoopla on drumming up excitement and anticipation. sound nothing but upbeat and positive. they should have just a teaser to the april 15 announcement.

goes to show how amateurish the ad agency and marketing team who developed this effort. is this a publicis account?


announcement on the nestle website:

http://givemeaname.ph/win/announce2.htm

Thank you everyone for your continued patience, we are finalizing the new label of our new frozen dessert. We will reveal it exclusively on this site first on April 15, 2008. This is a humble gesture of thanks to the very active online community who have contributed to make our promo such a success! We have triple-checked the hundreds of thousands of names sent to us through drop-boxes and SMS. This was to make sure that we didn't miss any possible duplicate entries that matched the winning name! We also wanted to meet with the winner first-hand and carefully followed the law before announcing the new name (complying with BFAD approval, IPR clearance, and more). Moreover, we have listened to your valuable feedback and comments about the product itself and have made efforts to improve on it further. Rest assured that we will make the announcement of the winner on our website as promised. We are genuinely excited to unveil our one-of-a-kind frozen dessert back into the market -- now with an equally delightful name to go with it! Thank you once more for your kind understanding and continued support. It's our first time to try something as innovative as this and we were overwhelmed with your response! We are truly grateful and wish our fellow Filipinos online good food and good life. We would still love to hear from you! Please feel free to write us at webmaster@ph.nestle.com

amazing tv ad!

brilliant and amazing production values. excellent ad concept. you will be awed by the visuals and the message is brilliantly delivered -- people talking and communicating. this is one of those rare ads where you feel happy watching it over and over again!

"have a happy menstruation" - you nuts?

i don't remember the brand and have not seen the ad again, but there's this tv ad for a sanitray napkin that had a tag line that said something like "have a happy period".

what the hell is that? "happy" is a word or a feeling that a woman would ever associate with having menstruation. it's not only an over-promise, it's probably something very insulting and idiotic to women.

what brand is this?