Best Superbowl ad?

What is your favourite SuperBowl ad?

I think my personal favourite is Coca Cola, engaging, catchy, and just beautiful.

The anti Coca Cola ad

What is one of biggest causes of obesity in children? Sugary drinks namely fizzy drinks and colas.

And what is the biggest name in Cola and the no. 1 brand in the world? Coca - Cola. 

And who is their lovable mascot? The Polar Bear.

So if the Center for Science in the Public Interest wanted to show the effects of consuming too much sugar then how else to show it but on the iconic Polar Bear.

This ad depicts all the side-effects of too much sugar and diabetes on the Polar Bear, the well known mascot of Coca Cola, leaving no doubt that it is an anti ad.

With colorful animations and enticing music this ad aimed at kids discourages them from consuming too much  fizzy drinks, and is a definite dig at the largest brand in the world. View the ad below 

Social Metrics - Quality vs Quantity in the Cola Wars

The effectiveness of social conversation usually revolves one key topic Quality vs. Quantity of followers and which is more important to measure social success.
There are many arguments for and against both, but this can be illustrated using a classic example of the Coke wars.
Coca Cola and Pepsi have been battling it out since time immemorial , and now with the advent of digital this has just moved to a different sphere, the social world.
Crisp Social put together a nifty infograph on the 'Epic Battle of the Bubbles', where it compared the performance of both brands in key areas (winners in bold):

• Total Fans - Coca Cola 51 million vs Pepsi 8 million
• Engagement Days - Coca Cola 51 days vs Pepsi 73 days
• Engaged more than once - Coca Cola 25% vs Pepsi 48%
• Engaged with Page - Coca Cola 0.8% vs Pepsi 5.3%
• Mobile Engagement - Coca Cola 35% vs Pepsi 52%

So from an overall perspective Pepsi is the clear winner, with having a more active and socially engaged fan base even with a much smaller fan count, so therefore it is quality which matters.

However while it's all fun to look at percentages, it is the actual numbers which make a difference so here is my take on it:

• Total Fans - Coca Cola 51 million vs Pepsi 8 million
• Engagement Days - Coca Cola 51 days vs Pepsi 73 days
• Engaged more than once - Coca Cola 12.75m (25%) vs Pepsi 3.84m (48%)
• Engaged with Page - Coca Cola 4m (0.8% ) vs Pepsi (4.24m) 5.3%
• Mobile Engagement - Coca Cola 17.85m (35%)  vs Pepsi (4.16m) 52m

By looking at the actual numbers, it levels the playing field where Coca-Cola scored better than Pepsi on fans who engaged more than once and who are more digitally savvy. So therefore it is quantity which also matters.

It is next to impossible to say which metric is better, as they both work together. A large of quantity of followers is essential but as long as they are of high quality. This will certain affect the overall quality of engagement with the brand.

Coca Cola: Reasons to believe in India

Coca Cola arguably the world's best brand has one of the best branding strategies. Why focus on the product when you can focus on the value it brings?

That is in essence the 'Open Happiness' campaign. Coca-Cola is currently trying to make some headway into the Indian market, which is one tough market to crack, with strong competition from Pepsi.
So the 'Open Happiness' campaign has been taken one step further backed up by a significant increase in investment, with Coca Cola's corporate citizenship program.

It's not just what a product can do for a person, but what a company can do for a country, see the video below:

Pepsi vs. Coca Cola ... the battle rages on

What better way to get consumers to try your product than the classic taste test?

Of course I never expected that this would be take place between age old rivals Pepsi & Coca Cola. In the day of multi-million dollar advertising, and superbowl commercials, it is still humbling to see that the most effective way of converting people is through the modest yet effective product sampling.

In fact this method has been so productive in 1976 that it will be resurrected this year to reach out to more than  1.5 million Canadian consumers with the Pepsi Ultimate Taste Challenge (ref: The Pepsi Taste Challenge)

I wonder what will Coca Cola will have to say to that?

Name your own can

I just came across this promotion being run by Coca Cola in Australia. For the first time Coca Cola has changed its packaging and instead of the brand name has a selection of 150 names representing the diverse cross-section of Australia's population, and by the off-chance your name is not mentioned you can have it printed on the can (what an amazing memento to have!). This promotion was supported by an online campaign of sending a virtual customized can to your friends via a Facebook app. The beauty of this promotion is that it merges Coca-Cola's spreading happiness campaign with its core branding principles while simultaneously engaging and rewarding its fan-base. It is very difficult to find a promotion that supports branding principles while engaging with fans/customers on such a core level. The fact that they have never changed their design except to have your name on it, would really resonate with the people. It's no wonder that Coca-Cola are the #1 brand. 

Brands - Battle of the Green's

Lately environmental commitment seems to be the latest trend for companies. Either in their mission statements, or advertising there is a line which states how committed to the environment that company is, but is this enough?

Brands today have found a more direct and creative way to depict their commitment to sustainability initiatives. 

Richoh for instance put up a solar powered billboard in Times Square. This billboard is surrounded by solar panels and wind turbines to give it the energy it needs to do its job, and if it is in-sufficient then that risk is what they readily accept. This is a fantastic idea, as by using renewable sources and opting not to use electricity at any time Richoh commitment is demonstrated, but you got to wonder if this is practiced throughout the company as well.



Coca - Cola on the other hand have demonstrated their own commitment to the environment by the first actual "living" billboard in the Philippines. The billboard itself in covered in thousands of Fukien tea plants which are housed in recycled Coca- Cola bottles and use organic fertilizer. The billboard helps alleviate air pollutants in a country which have an active battle with air pollution. This form of advertising is not only sustainable but actually gives back to the community.

If i had to pick I would say that between both brands Coca - Cola is definite winner. It's innovative, promotes the brand as well as doing its job, taking sustainable advertising to a whole new level. Coca-Cola overall is very proud of its commitment to sustainability and this is just another one of it ways of showing us.

As brands find new ways of demonstrating how committed to the environment they are it would be interesting to see the creative developments, which ideally will not only help promote the brand but actually give back to the community. This would be one type of advertising people can't complain about and you got to wonder at how     much energy consumption will be reduced!

Packaging Positioning: What does it represent?

Last time I spoke about appearances and it seems I will be re-visiting the topic now.

Retro Tide

P&G are taking a 'gamble' (no pun intended) to re-vitalize their brand by going back in time and bringing out the good ol' packaging. A few of their flagship brands, like Tide, will be available in their packaging from the '70s and to make it complete it will be complimented by retro advertising, to make a holistic campaign. Now generally I'm a big fan of vintage and going retro, I love the look, and the style and it definitely stands out from the modernistic style of most. But you have the question its purpose... P&G argues that its not a short term sale boost but what they hope will be an emotional connection to the purchaser by causing them to relive memories from their childhood. Fair enough..but what about Generation Y who are currently an increasing demographic in terms of purchasing power..well P&G goes on to justify that it will help remind consumers of the simpler times, when everything was basic, functional, and did its job...so what if people don't really remember the 70's? I feel is more of a tactic by them to help them remember the time when they were the market leaders, and they hope that maybe people will remember this too and go back to buying their products over their competitors. well here's hoping...

Meanwhile the Cola wars are on a new turf... the "green wars"... which company can be the most green. Both companies are battling it out to see who can be first to mass produce 100% recycled packaging. Pepsi are taking it one step further by producing recyclable cups as well in order to meet demands by increasingly educated and environmentally conscious consumers. What I am curious about is this being done to look good with the people, to increase sales, to beat Coca Cola or are they genuinely concerned about the environment?
It's not easy to produce recycled products as it also uses heaps of water and electricity so in reality its a trade-off between plastic or water etc...also will this affect the price of Pepsi? Many other companies use a strategy where they sell products either standard or environmentally friendly (at a higher premium) in order to segment the market. In other words people will pay according to values and income, but this is quite questionable, how environmentally friendly are these companies then in reality?? So therefore will Pepsi charge a premium for its products? there is a market to sustain it, but what effect will it have in the wars, and can they be then really called an environmentally friendly company? Check out the infomercial below to learn more about Pepsi's green cups.

Copycat Branding

Pepsi has been in the news for its latest part in the cola wars, the Pay-it-Forward vending machine. The concept and technology behind it is quite novel and could possibly be the first in a long line of socially networked and interactive vending machines. The way it works is simple, you can choose a beverage, put in the contact details of a friend and they are notified of a drink redeemable at a vending machine of their convenience. It's about spreading the love and getting real people to act voluntarily as brand ambassadors..plus who would want to pass up on a free drink?? This campaign would involve a large expense on behalf of Pepsi, but overall is reminiscent of Coca-Cola's happiness campaign and their Happiness machines whose main aim is to encourage social interaction and bonding over the drink. This has been a long running aspect of their campaign and the happiness machine is a logical extension of it, but it would be interesting to watch how Pepsi develops their campaign further and the success rate of the machines, and how will Coca-Cola retaliate?

Pushing the boundaries of imitation is the new commercial of Edge shaving gel, and its eerie likeness to the Old Spice Isiah Mustafa campaign. It's hard to find a good video of it and this is the best i could do.

But it's one thing to seek inspiration and another to blatantly copy...what does a brand achieve out of that? The goals, ideology and style are completely different, even if the product may be similar the budget would have been better spent on developing the brand further and in creating a unique identity..enough said.

Lately it seems to me, most car brands have been adopting the word 'innovation' into their advertising, with Citroen - "celebrating innovation" following closely behind, Nissan's - "Innovation for all". If all brands are innovative..isn't that just the norm then?