We help companies develop compelling selling conversations that connect with their best customers, both internal and external, offline and online. When that happens, our clients sell more stuff. Think of us as a creative juice bar for fresh ideas - branding, advertising, graphic design, copywriting, TV & Radio concept and production, social media strategy & more.
The theory being, that you wait six months and the stock would have appreciated and provided a profit of close to 30% of the price of an entry level iPad. Well, we missed that mark six months later by about 8%. BUT...if you had hung onto those two shares until today (roughly one month short of two years), the shares would have appreciated a whopping 144%. Which means your original investment of $484 (2x$242) would now be worth $1184 (at current stock price of $592). Which means you could sell one of your shares, buy an entry level iPad 3 (or add $7 from your pocket and get a 32GB iPad3), and still have one share of Apple left to appreciate further! Or wait three more months and pocket another quick $5.30 from the just-announced new quarterly dividend of $2.65 a share!
Either way, it supports a wise piece of advice I heard about investing a few years ago. When faced with a great item, you can choose to buy the product or buy (a piece of) the company. If you have a little bit of time, it's often better to buy the company!
Many smaller agencies stretch the truth when they tell you they have the depth and expertise to understand every marketing challenge. But at Atomic Ideas, each of of our idea makers has at least 20 years of advertising and marketing experience. So it comes as no surprise that together or individually our staff has pretty much done it all. In fact, just tooling around YouTube brought up yet another spot (uploaded by a consumer who evidentially liked it), which was created a few years ago by one of our very own Atomic Ideas creative folk.
From Retail to Consumer Products, from Restaurants to Hotels to Hospitals, from Broadcast to Direct to Social Media and more, Atomic Ideas has done it all. So you don't have to spend big money to hire a huge agency just to get the experience you need (we've worked at some of the biggest). And you don't need to sacrifice quality in order to save money with a smaller agency (we've worked at a few of those, too). You just need to hire an Idea Factory that has the experience to solve your advertising and marketing challenges.
Ronco practically invented the direct response and "info-mercial" genres. And although you probably wouldn't call these spots exceptionally creative or well produced, they did supply a level of campy-ness that people liked to mock and imitate -- and as they say, imitation is the sincerest form of advertising. The more that people made fun of the spots or did impersonations of the stilted lines, the bigger a place Ronco occupied in consumer's minds. Sometimes bad can be good -- at least for sales.
However, we at Atomic Ideas caution marketer's to use this technique carefully, because while the cheap spots DID result in sales it also communicated the "cheapness" of the materials and construction of Ronco products. So if you want to generate a lot of sales but project a "cheap" image, you can emulate Ronco. But, if you need to communicate a different brand attribute like quality, you should consult with experts in brand building and retail advertising. Agencies like Atomic Ideas can turn even modest budgets into quality advertising. Just because you don't have a lot of money to spend on production, doesn't mean you have to come across as cheap.
I saw this KFC spot the other night. Yeah, it has all those typical young people with incredulous looks talking about KFC food. It’s all about KFC using a new kind of bun for their Doublicious Chicken Sandwich: they use a Hawaiian Sweet Roll. It’s not a plain hamburger bun (which, apparently, should only be paired with a real hamburger). The Hawaiian Sweet Roll bun’s different shape is what makes KFC’s Doublicious Sandwich a taste sensation in the spot. That’s KFC’s handle- “Never seen a sandwich like this before!” the woman in the spot claims. It seems a unique look is just what was needed, needed to “...make those eleven herbs and spices really come to life.” Yes, looks are everything.
Now, just when I thought this bun was everything, I discovered this KFC spot on YouTube:
Well, how ‘bout that? It’s the KFC Double Down Chicken Sandwich. It features no bun at all. It’s made up of two boneless white meat chicken filets (Original Recipe or Grilled), two pieces of bacon, two melted slices of Monterey Jack and pepper jack cheese and the Colonel's Sauce (whatever that is). KFC says, “The Double Down is so meaty, there’s no room for a bun!”
These KFC marketers are incredible. They’ve covered it all. The Doublicious is all about how the bun looks. The Double Down, is all about not being able to look at the bun. By the way, they do provide a little grease-proof half paper bag to hold the sandwich’s ingredients together.
After watching these two spots I’m still left with the impression that they offer little, if any, real consumer benefit. I still think KFC sandwiches are high in calories, high in fat and very high in sodium - all the things most of us need to avoid. And what's with those sandwich names? "Double Down" Is that some kind of bet on whether you'll need bypass surgery or not? What do you think?
On my Steeb-O-Meter, (a rating system for evaluating projects on film, video, music, television and print on a scale of 1 - 63) I'm giving each spot a 27.
At Atomic Ideas, our mantra is "find your marketable truth and tell it in a compelling way." That's exactly what Old Spice did. In fact, they did it well enough, that people are starting to imitate it. Talk about stretching your marketing dollars! I'm sure the original TV spots cost a lot to produce, but look how well they worked. They resonate from Main Street to Sesame Street.
Check out this commercial from 1973 featuring Morgan Freeman.
Along with a glimpse of the '70's, it is also a retro-reminder of how well a bit of truth (or as we at Atomic Ideas call it, a "marketable truth") can make any product or service more successful. In this case it's Listerine's famous line "The taste people hate, twice a day." The truth being that they admit their product doesn't taste good (very true) , but it works(true). In fact, the logic being that if it tasted good, then it probably couldn't work as well as it does. It was a risky strategy back then to admit a seeming fault, but as history shows, it can work exceptionally well.
I saw this Lexus spot the
other day during the British Open. It also ran during Wimbeldon coverage. I
understand, country club sports attract high-income viewers, a natural market
for the 2010 Lexus LFA. But, “the pursuit of perfection” through the sound of
an amplified exhaust? Perfection of what?
I know, I'm taking this analogy a little seriously, but they're making it the heart of their point and it bugs me. Lexus has spent a lot money making a
beautiful set/test lab to illustrate this perfection point. The spot is
beautifully shot and edited as usual, but so what. It only takes 90dB of the
right note to break glass. I know it's not easy to do this, but it's pretty much a science project. It’s just a loud, sustained exhaust sound from a 552 horsepower Lexus. I’m sorry, but that’s not music and it does not equate to high quality or perfection.
I think the same could be achieved with a less expensive vehicle, maybe with a Ford
Fiesta or a Chevy Malibu.
At Atomic Ideas we like
to define a company’s marketable truths
to connect to its best customer. That’s how we help a client sell more stuff. In
the case of the Lexus LFA, their marketable
truth is “the Lexus LFA exhaust can break champagne glasses.” I know the Lexus
is an expensive, well made, fine tuned and beautifully designed vehicle, but
not from their cute tongue-in cheek ads. I know this from other sources like news
articles, car magazines and real-life Lexus viewings.
Creative license aside,
what’s their quest for perfection? I think their ads are more about clever
trickery with a snobbish attitude than about trying to show a true consumer benefit (I didn't see one there). Ironically, with the
sound turned down, the various beauty shots of the Lexus in this commercial do
more to help sell it than anything else. What do you think?
On my Steeb-O-Meter (a rating system for evaluating projects
on film, video, music, television and print on a scale of 1 - 63), I’m giving this spot a 31.
What’s the secret to
selling more stuff? Well, I think I’ve found it. It’s been right in front of me
for all these years. You can see it in this Taco Bell commercial. It came out
over a year ago and they’re running it again. It seems so true. The secret is bacon. Actually it’s the secret to selling more food, that is. If you’re
going to sell food, put bacon on it. Practically everyone loves bacon, men and
women. I admit I love it. (And for the few who don’t, they invented turkey
bacon – some bad, some good).
This bacon strategy seems
quite prevalent in most American cuisine restaurants. They’ll offer five
different kinds of burgers and four will include bacon. Look at the salads and
you’ll find a wedge of lettuce with Bleu cheese and bacon or a salad with
grilled chicken topped with bacon. The other day I had a cup of clam chowder
that included smoked bacon.
My 19-year old son now only
eats pizza that’s loaded up with bacon.
I saw a kids' tv show and the characters dreamed of a bacon flavored chewing gum.
I went to a dinner party
recently and we were served wild boar and baked beans (I know it’s not bacon
but boar is part of the pork family)
The desire for bacon is
there. And fast-food places like Wendy’s know it. Nine out of the 18 burgers on
their menu include bacon, with the Baconator Triple leading the way with nine
strips. Nine strips. Burger King’s Quad Stacker has six. The Hardees
2/3lb. Monster Thickburger has four strips. McDonald’s only significant bacon
entrée is the Angus Bacon and Cheese with just three strips of bacon.
Not of alarming caution: not to burst any bubbles, but one of the biggest contributors of saturated fats
to the American diet is bacon. (Have you been to your local swim club lately?) Though
it tastes good, it’s not good for you, plain and simple. It reeks of fat and has
an abundance of calories and is high in sodium. And bacon is often teamed up
with other saturated fat donors. Example: Wendy’s Baconator Triple, (according
to their own on-site nutrition guide) 1360 calories, 91g fat, 49g carb, 84g
protein, 2490mg sodium – these are all high numbers for any meal. Of course, you
must consider everything in moderation.
Yes, bacon is everywhere
and no-doubt, so is the demand. So I’m thinking, as an advertising/marketer, maybe
it’s time for a non-food, consumer product to team up with a food seller for a
promotion. Like, “Cadillac’s Bacon Burger Bonanza” -where you’d get a free Baconator
when you test-drive a Cadillac. Or perhaps, Target could have a “Bikini &
Bacon Bash” – buy a bikini and we’ll throw in a pound of Oscar Meyer Super
Thickcut Applewood Bacon. Ummm…
You do have to be careful
when choosing a marketing partner - you’d think something like a “Prius &
Prociutto Jackpot of Pleasure” would be a natural. Nope, most drivers of those
fuel-saving hybrids are vegetarians. Now, “Bowling for Bacon”? –well, that does
seem like a good match. Remember, make
sure you know your market.
Like my friend Greg says, "Everything's better with bacon." Just don't go hog-wild. What do you think?
My friend, Brad Smith sent me this You Tube video the other
day.
It’s a video about the making of an Old Spice commercial that aired some
time during the recent Super Bowl.
It’s a great example of how things magically get done on
television. And it also shows us a little about the creative team that was responsible for this
spot, something we don’t often see.
The complete commercial is also included on the video in its entirety.
OraBrush does a great job marketing their tongue scraper with entertaining YouTube Videos. They satisfy the three major requirements of successful social media campaigns. 1. They solve a problem (or fill a need) for their target audience. 2. They talk to their best potential customers in a way they can relate to - humor. 3. They are entertaining (or compelling) enough to be forwarded to others.
Below is just one of the OraBrush videos that can be found on YouTube, on the OraBrush Web site and on OraBrush's FaceBook page. Wow, who would have thought that people would become FaceBook fans of a toothbrush company?
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