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?

Of Kittens & Firemen

What do women like?

Kittens & Firemen seems to be the obvious answer, or at least that's what Sauza Tequila are going for with their Axe effect ad.

Using a combination of adorable sexiness, this ad hopes to appeal to women, and while sure it's cute to see, but does it really sell tequila?

It does not reflect very well, that Sauza believe that their target audience will react by just displaying what they believe all women like, maybe after a few shots first....altho I may be biased to admit I might just toss my fictional cat up a tree :-)

Lynx / Axe for Men and Women? Unleash the Chaos!

So what happens Lynx (or Axe as some people know it) decide to launch a fragrance designed for both men and women? Chaos it seems, as seen in their latest campaign 'Unleash the Chaos'.

Why this sudden foray into unisex fragrances? Was the male market not sustainable? Or is it plain market expansion?

Either way they realized that attractions work two ways and should be capitalized on. But what does this mean for a brand who built its platform solely around men with their USP being attractiveness to women? Needless to say Lynx (or Axe) will have to aggressively push their brand to balance this gender in-equality.

Does this herald a move in brand position? How successful this strategy is needs to be seen as they enter an already highly competitive and segregated women's fragrance market where the concept of a product attracting the opposite gender is not a new one. 

Buy a Cannes Lions Grand Prix

This one is a bit different than my usual posts.
I came across this video in which a Russian copywriter, Euginy Danilov, desperate for a job in an ad agency put together an extremely clever way of obtaining one.
An amazing piece of personal branding, resulting in a variety of job offers at almost no cost.

While an amazing effort I only hope he can keep his promise!

what were Jell-O thinking?

So Jell-O have come up with a unique way of launching their new product range solely targeted at adults, by creating a vending machine that only dishes out the goods to adults. Unique and definitely effective, but when reading this article by Dale Buss Jell-O tempts adults (no kids allowed) he makes a very valid point by targeting   exclusively to them they are ignoring their main target market which is kids. If you think about Jell-O is more of a kids treat than adults and that would explain their extreme positioning but how does this affect their brand in the long run?
It's important to remember your strengths before completely re-inventing yourself.
To add to this, check out the video talking about the campaign, those kids do not look like happy little campers. 

The return of the Old Spice Man

Ok so I like Will Arnett...most of the time and I can understand times are a bit tough with some of his recent ventures not doing all that great, but when I see an ad where you have a smart, wise-cracking guy telling you what to do I only think of one thing and that's the Old Spice Man. To be fair this may not be intended, either that or Old Spice did just so well that it is has been ingrained in my sub-conscious, in fact they did so well they can't live up to it themselves!
But coming back on track...When i saw this ad for AT&T all I could do was compare it to Old Spice (sorry AT&T).

But on the bright side Isaiah Mustafa is back!! Even if it's only for a Christmas campaign :-D
Are Old Spice in need of so much help that they had to bring him back? I'm not complaining, being an obvious fan, but it might help do the brand some good after their last couple of failures, would it be too much to hope that they actually keep him this time?

Nando's trying to hard?

There are some companies which thrive on scandal and there are others which ... well, don't.

For example Nando's latest ad is designed around the shock factor, does it need such extensive help to sell its chicken?

The concept of the ad is pretty normal, and true it has been done before making it so much harder to come up with something original, and while this certainly fits the bill it is a tad necessary.

There are other brands out there of which we expect them to be controversial, but Nando's is a family restaurant and while it may sell some chicken (?) you got to wonder what it does to its image.