Mike’s Hard Lemonade – The New Campaign

So I just finished working on the 2008 Mike’s Hard Lemonade campaign with Amalgamated ( in the capacity of Comm’s Planning consultant). I am pretty pleased with how everything turned out (and I even like the ads!) The campaign sets out to reinforce Mike’s appeal to everyday Americans, and take a stand against the cosmopolitan, artisanal elite …

The effort integrates right through to point of purchase (which is nice) and centres around the new Mike’s blog-style website (powered by WordPress software, please note). There’s also a viral video element (actually pretty funny).

Advertising includes a main-brand TV campaign and some Cocktail-specific Radio, Ambient and Out of Home. I am particularly pleased that Social Media looms large in this year’s campaign, masterminded by Raisanen Creative.

Here are a couple of TV ads – this one is an introduction to the fictitious world of Mike’s … (the lisping well-intentioned new guy is letter perfect…)

This one features the debut of Mike’s Hard Light Lemonade (“Something for fat guys”: brilliant!)

The campaign even made New York Magazine’s Approval matrix!

Air Travel Dystopia, PC v TV, Fast Cities

• Frustrated Air Travelers Avoid 41 Million Trips – Economy Takes $26.5 Billion Hit
  Deep frustration among air travelers caused them to avoid an estimated 41 million trips over the past 12 months at a cost of more than $26 billion to the US economy, according to a Travel Industry Association (TIA) survey.
  (tags: airlines stats economics)



• PC Encroaching on TV’s Dominance in Screen Time among Digital Video Users
  While TV remains the preeminent channel for watching video content, the PC is slowly encroaching on TV’s territory by capturing an increasing amount of screen time among those who download or stream video online, according to research from Ipsos MediaCT
  (tags: tv internet digital future)



• Fast Cities 2008
  The great urban theorist Jane Jacobs wrote about cities of “exuberant diversity.” Amid economic uncertainty, these 12 – headed by London and Chicago – are vibrant, creative, and growing.

Trendroll, Monkey Robots, Last.fm v YouTube, dawdlr

• Trendroll
  Taly Weiss alerted me to TrendRoll – “a user-generated directory that hooks you up with the best trendblogs to spot trends and inspirations in all genres- fashion, design, lifestyle, eco, tech, business / web and more.”
  (tags: business trends blogs socialmedia marketing)



• End Times: Monkey-Piloted Robots Will Kill Us All
  “monkeys finally control robots with their thoughts and mankind is basically defunct, now”
  (tags: monkeys robots future)



• Last.fm meets YouTube: Music TV Goodness
  Nicola Davies alerted me to a rather cool mash-up. “Enter your band, and moments later you’re watching your own music channel. Sweet! Stop by here and give it a go” she opines. My own username yielded the Undertones singing Teenage Kicks. Result!
  (tags: mashup socialmedia music youtube last.fm popculture digital)
• dawdlr
  I love this. Twitter for the 19thCentury. dawdlr is “a global community of friends and strangers answering one simple question: what are you doing, you know, more generally?” A Russell Davies joint.
  (tags: art clever community cool creative socialmedia)

Starbucks Nipples, Hydrox Redux, Coors Light Night Out, Quamut

• But – Crucially – Did Anybody Notice Starbucks Covered Up its Nipples?
  Starbucks draped hair over the nipples of its original mermaid logo, which currently appears on coffee cups to promote the new Pike Place Roast. Evidently one of Starbucks’ current PR problems is the “widespread misperception” that the logo swap is permanent …
  (tags: starbucks nipples marketing design packaging

• Hydrox Redux: Cookie Duels Oreo, Again
  Kellogg retired the Hydrox in 2003, conceding to Kraft’s larger ad budget and Oreo’s superior name recognition. But fans of the Hydrox wouldn’t let it go quietly. Their efforts to bring it back made for a Page 1 Wall Street Journal story in January.
  (tags: hydrox kellogg socialmedia marketing npd)



• For Coors Light, a Night Out That Begins on MySpace
  Looking to get your friends together for a beer after work next week? Or more specifically, a Coors Light? Starting Monday you can log on to Facebook and send them a Code Blue alert, and even a map to the gathering place.
  (tags: socialmedia coors beer marketing)
• Quamut: the Go To How To
  Quamut provides users with free, online access to professionally written “how-to” guides covering a range of topics, from “how to make a martini” to “how to make a podcast.” The site, powered by Barnes & Noble, features over 1,000 guides, in 5 categories
  (tags: quamut howto internet digital)

Japanese Schoolgirls, The Marketing Funnel, Cardboard Pop-Up

• Japanese Schoolgirl Watch: Downloading Sticker Booth Shots Is Now a Snap
  Say cheezu! Piling into a photo booth for a snapshot session is a staple of schoolgirl life. The purikura (print club) kiosks are equipped with fancy lighting and snazzy image-editing technology.
  (tags: trends popculture photography japan)



• Who Killed The Marketing Funnel?
  “The traditional marketing funnel is dead. Who killed it? You and I did. Well, OK—we really didn’t kill it, we just traded the linear funnel metaphor for something more cyclical. “The Marketing Spiral”.
  (tags: marketing socialmedia visualization web2.0)
• Cardboard Retail Shops – The Bombed Mache By Ksubi
  Located in the middle of a suburban neighborhood in Melbourne, Ksubi’s ‘The Bombed Mache’ offers a superb shopping experience .
  (tags: eco green retail australia recycled)

Cardboard Sculpture, Endemol, Singapore Social Media

• Recycled Cardboard Sculpture by Chris Gilmour
  The work of artist Chris Gilmour is an amusing next step in terms of upcycling and eco-friendly art. Gilmour re-creates objects and machines from our everyday lives using only cardboard and glue.
  (tags: eco art environment)



• Endemol’s New State
  Endemol UK has established a new branded entertainment arm called New State, which will work alongside the company’s production units to link brands with TV and digital media content.
  (tags: brandedentertainment tv uk marketing)
• The Future of Marketing in the Age of Social Media
  Walter Lim gives us the download on Verge in Singapore, specifically Digital Marketing Innovation, including some case studies and ideas from Contagious.
  (tags: marketing socialmedia brandedentertainment commsplanning)

Redefining Reach

Many of us in the industry are trying to navigate the new digitally disrupted marketing topography – and help our cilents do the same. I came across this great article by Matt at Technomarketer, which delves in to one facet of the puzzle – Social Media.

Received wisdom: Message 1,000,000 to possibly reach 100
Certainly this was the way I was brought up. Massive TV budgets aimed at the center of a mass audience, and huge wastage accepted as unavoidable. Since launching the Connections initiative at Chiat/Day I (and others) have been trying to help clients break free from this paradigm.

The new opportunity: Personally reach 100 who influence 1,000 who influence 10,000 who influence 1,000,000
A strategic use of Social Media now offers the chance to avoid wasting millions of untraceable impressions on TV, radio and print. That said, it involves a major shift in thinking.

I think I would finish by saying that in my view this doesn’t have to be an “either or” situation, so much as an “and”. Including Social Media in the mix does not necessarily mean ditching traditional media completely … and in this transmedia world of ours, we shouldn’t expect Social Media and TV to be doing the same job anyway…

IKEA and the Sims, Zappo’s “Offer”

• IKEA invades the Sims…
  Now IKEA has joined the metaverse …The IKEA “Home Stuff” pack in the Sims game includes bookcases, sofas, chairs, beds, wall art, lighting, and a bunch of other goodies that will allow players to endow their Sims house with the trendy, although slightly familiar looking, Ikea style
  (tags: ikea marketing metaverse socialmedia digital



• Why Zappos Pays New Employees to Quit—And You Should Too
  This is what underpromising / overdelivering Zappos calls “The Offer.” After four weeks it says to employees: “If you quit today, we will pay you in full, and we will offer you a $1,000 bonus.” If they accept they clearly weren’t of the right mettle…
  (tags: business employee innovation management zappos marketing)

Integrated Marketing, Internet v Purchase Influence, Agency 3.0

• Marketers Embrace Integrated Marketing, but Key Challenges Remain
  Integrated Marketing Communications (which means different things to different people I should point out) has been embraced by marketers of late. That said, “significant challenges to achieving optimal IMC performance remain” (says this survey), including the “existence of function silos (59%) and the lack of strategic consistency across communications disciplines (42%)”.
  (tags: imc integration commsplanning marketing)



• Internet’s Role in Consumer Purchases Important, Not Vital
  The internet plays an important role in how people conduct research for purchases, but it is just one among various sources people use and usually not the key factor in final purchasing decisions, according to a study by the Pew Internet.
  (tags: internet digital marketing ecommerce)



• William Morris Creates ‘Agency 3.0’
  William Morris is partnering with digital media, wireless and ad executives to create Agency 3.0, a digital-marketing-services company marrying digital technology to strategically developed content.
  (tags: agencies brandedentertainment agency3.0 hollywood)

Mother’s Feature, Russian Priapism, Third Act

• Mother Births First Feature Film
  Mother has been breaking down the borders between advertising and content for some time: first with a mini-film for PG Tips, then with a magazine bound into Time Out London … now it has produced a full-length feature film.
  (tags: brandedentertainment film mother)



• In Russia, the Flying Penises of Second Life Are Real
  Anshe Chung, the richest lady in Second Life, was attacked during a virtual press conference by giant virtual penises last year, A group of pro-government rabble-rousers sent a peniscopter (right) into the air recently during an anti-Putin speech from for
  (tags: secondlife penis russia)
• Digitas Launches Branded-Content Shop “Third Act”
  Third Act will develop and produce branded-content ideas and manage distribution strategies for the content. It sits under the umbrella of Digitas, part of Publicis Groupe, and will serve its own roster.
  (tags: content marketing brandedentertainment thirdact)