Well, our new season has kicked off, and our second episode airs today.
And we now have a new blog on the CBC site - which should help a lot of listeners find us, as so many emails and comments end up going to the CBC and are unanswered.
Here’s the new address:
http://www.cbc.ca/ageofpersuasion/
Mike and I love hearing from listeners. Keep the comments coming.
The 2010 Vancouver Olympic and Paralympic Games unveiled their three new mascots yesterday.
Go here to see them: http://www.sportsnet.ca/more/2007/11/27/vancouver_mascots/
Sumi (an animal/spirit hyrid), Quatchi (a friendly Sasquatch) and Miga (a sea bear) will be represent the games, and will appear in ads, publications, videos and will walk around greeting Olympic visitors.
A couple of things to keep in mind: First, the Olympic games can only continue to exist if the youth of the world takes up sports. So the Olympics, smartly, aims a lot of activities and marketing to kids and teens. These three mascots are part of that strategy.
Second, Olympic Games are also vastly expensive undertakings. And mascots generate revenue - the Games Committee is hoping they’ll bring in $600 million in sales and licensing opportunities. Hudson’s Bay started selling the cuddly three that very morning.
Many past mascots have not done well. Often parodied mercilessly by the press and cartoonists. The very first Olympic mascot was “Waldi” the dachshund, for the 1972 Olympics in Munich.
The very first Canadian mascot was Montreal’s “Amik” the beaver at the 1976 Montreal games. (The Bell “Beavers” Frank and Gordon were also created in Montreal. Clearly, the beaver captial)
So we’ll see how the trio does as the games approach.
What do you think of them?
We’re very happy to announce that another season of the Age of Persuasion will be returning to the airwaves on January 12th.
CBC has now confirmed our airtime: Once a week, Saturdays at 11:30am.
Mike and I are looking forward to another season of delving into the world of advertising and marketing, and our episode list for this season is very interesting and thought provoking.
Hope you’ll tune in!
There is a strange law in Canada when it comes to pharmaceutical advertising. If the drug is an over-the-counter drug, you can advertise it in the usual way. But if it’s a “prescribed” drug, you can only advertise it one of two ways: You can say the name of the product but not say what it actually does, or you can say what it does but not say the name of the product.
Yes, it’s odd. The reasons for this law are a bit murky, but it seems somewhere in the past it was determined that it was best not to let prescribed drugs boast about benefits, since the results could vary person to person, and because prescribed drugs are potent, marketing needed to be strictly monitored and restricted.
So the law continues to this day. That’s why you see so many TV ads for drugs where they say the brand name of the drug often, but never tell you what it does. All of these ads all seem to have the same line - “Ask your doctor about ______”
Now, Viagra did some of the best advertising on TV, even while being held back from saying what Viagra actually does. But they had fun with that. The first TV spot was the one with the business guy leaving his house and skipping all the way to work, as the song “Good Morning, Good Morning!” played in the background. And when he smiled that big smile just as the elevator closes at the end, and the “Viagra” logo comes up, you completely “got” the commercial.
Next, they had hilarious situations where people are boasting about their newly discovered sexual prowess, but as they get graphic, a blue Viagra pill blocks their mouth, and a long beep obliterates their language. Again, hilarious work that gets the benefit across completely, and memorably.
I have a mantra when it comes to this type of marketing: I call it “Embracing the Obstacle.” I have come to believe that sometimes, the best ideas are found inside the very obstacle that appears to be preventing a easy solution. Viagra didn’t let the fact they couldn’t actually talk about the benefit stop them, they based the entire campaign around the fact they couldn’t say it.
In almost every marketing strategy, there is an obstacle stopping the product from gaining more market share, more revenues, or some sort of quantum leap. I believe that instead of pretending it’s not there, or pussy-footing around the obstacle, smart marketers embrace the obstacle. And scour it for a creative opportunity.
I once had a big, concrete weight-bearing pillar in the middle of my office. No matter how I arranged the office, the pillar ruined the layout and sightlines. I was constantly looking around the pillar to talk to people or see them. Meetings were comical. So one day, I just decided to build a desk around the pillar.
And from that day on, the office worked. I “embraced the obstacle.” The pillar became a focal point, instead of an eye-sore.
Of course, on my drive in to work this morning, I saw a new billboard on the Gardiner Expressway that says, “Vibrel, for women.” With a picture of a squeeze tube.
Sometimes, a name says it all.
Recognize the wonderful writing?
I just got back from a trip to London, England, and visited the largest recording studio complex there. A great facility, and lovely folks. They showed me a new VW television spot they had just worked on.
Here’s a link to the spot on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIIr0R8oTSg
See if you can guess both the voice and where the script comes from (without peeking at the viewer comments).