by Jonathan Marshall

In honor of the seemingly-circular debate I had earlier this morning with Jess, today the JTCG Blog features the latest viral video from Coca-Cola…. or as I like to call it — the poor-man’s Pepsi. In a San Diego Web Design agency full of advertising, branding and marketing professionals, the Pepsi vs. Coca-Cola debate seems to be split right down the middle.

Both brands have been around for decades, they have been extremely successful international companies, and they have revolutionized and contributed to much of the work we see in creative advertising today.

Regardless of what brand you prefer, ultimately it comes down to taste… and if you long for the taste of syrup with a little water in it – clearly you will choose Coca-Cola. To me, nothing sounds better than Pepsi and pizza.

Nevertheless, Coca-Cola did a great job of getting people VERY interested in their vending machine… furthermore, the enormous sandwich is awesome!! I think I’m ready for lunch now…

by Jonathan Marshall

Clever, suggestive and knowing… This viral video reminded me of one I saw a few months back where a small cell phone company paid actors to look like tourists and ask passers-by if they could take a picture of them using the company’s brand new phone. Aubade used a similar tactic with this video, and paid people to take pictures and create chatter on the street and at the doorstep while a mysterious woman undresses in front of her window.

“A French symbol of elegance and refinement, Aubade has always looked for new technical innovations, discoveries and metamorphosis. An expertise and corset-making tradition that have largely contributed to the change in women’s outlook on their femininity today. Aubade is a top-of-the-range lingerie brand, an ode to femininity and its power of seduction. Inspired by courteous love, the choice of the name Aubade in itself brings to mind the game of seduction.” – www.Aubade.com

This identity and successful branding has been ingrained in the company since the late 1950s, so it’s no surprise that the company’s seductive personality makes it’s way into the concept of their new viral video. Hats-off to the creative agency that made the video in an attempt to create a buzz for launching their new Aubade website — www.frenchartofloving.com. And with over 36,000 views in 3 weeks, I’d say it’s on-pace to be a relatively-successful effort in the viral video world.

Two things: If it’s not broken, don’t fix it. “The Power of Seduction” concept has worked well for Aubade throughout the company’s existence, and the longer it continues to work the stronger the idea and consumer recognition of the brand becomes. They clearly have always had brand experts involved in every aspect of their business. And this video just goes to show that if you truly believe in your brand and your marketing efforts are strong enough, you can create a concrete identity for a company that can last for decades – regardless of the evolution in advertising mediums.

Esquire Magazine just came out with an AR-featured (Augmented Reality) issue. David Granger, Editor-in-chief at Esquire, appears in the video above to explain how the technology works. This is an innovative and exciting option for print magazines, because (like I mentioned in the last post) today more than ever, people are getting their information online. So a print magazine can immediately become interactive when you point the QR code to your webcam on your computer. It takes a second or two to recognize the code, and then a world of additional multimedia content is unveiled.

There has been a lot of talk about the interactive advertising initiative. It’s a great idea, and not just because it got a lot of people talking about it and buying the magazine to discover it. It’s mainly cool because that form of traditional media is dieing right now, and they are scrambling to figure out ways to adapt to today’s digital environment. That being said, I see it more as an advertising campaign that includes several viral videos similar to this first one rather than an “enhanced editorial plan.”

The aspect that amazes me the most is the amazing job they’ve done building content with celebrities — who doesn’t love Robert Downey Jr?? Seriously the guy is an incredible actor and has a great personality to build a campaign around. This is the real added value of the initiative and possibly the hardest thing to replicate for other publications and creative agencies.

by Jonathan Marshall

The Sun Newspaper decided to go with a very unique twist on Apple’s commercials in their latest advertising campaign. In one of their viral videos, they basically used Apple’s personality and recognizable brand traits for the foundation of their video, and then inserted their appropriate content. They used a similar background music, the same basic format, a similar concept (explaining how to use the device), and then began bashing Apple by describing the advantages of using the magazine over the IPHONE.

Thumbs up to their creative agency that came up with this concept. It’s funny because I, like many people nowadays, get all of my information online. I realize this is somewhat generational, but it seems like I hardly ever see people read through all thte way through a newspaper anymore, our attention spans suck. And the idea of doing so seems more and more foreign these days.

As ridiculous and equally frightening as the premise of this commercial may seem — people really do have to re-educate themselves on how to consume their information through more traditional forms of media like the newspaper or print magazines. Just goes to show how Apple has contributed to that shift of social interaction with their innovative products, clever campaigns and solid brand strategies.