Say no to wine, yes to great advertising

The Export Dry campaign "Say No To Wine" is definitely one of my favourites so far in 2012. And now the hilarious TV ads have been supplemented with these cheeky print ads. With statements like "the problem with wine, is that it's not wine" these ads have some of the best copywriting I've read (kudos to copywriter Simon Vicars). While campaign is entertaining more importantly it's selling. Russell Browne, marketing manager for DB Export told Stop Press NZ that the newly designed Export boxes sold to shortly after the campaign launched. 

“The best campaigns aren’t only the ones that happen to be funny. This campaign resonates with our consumer target perfectly due to the humour being based on their actual experiences.” ~ Russell Browne, DB

I'm not the only one loving this campaign - it's received high praise from Ad Week who said it is "a beer ad worthy of Super Bowl airtime" and was awarded the NAB (Newspaper Advertising Bureau) Ad of the Month.

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NZTA Personalised Advertising Wins International DM Award

This creative NZTA piece won agency Clemenger BBDO a gold award at the John Caples International Awards for direct marketing. Targeting ferry passengers with cars it makes clever use of the fact the drivers leave their cars during the sailing. A photo was taken as cars boarded the ferry and as the unsuspecting passengers enjoyed the journey, their cars were inserted into personalised flyers. These were then placed onto the windscreen of each car. When the driver returned, likely to be about to embark on a long drive to their final destination, they were reminded about the dangers of driver fatigue.   

I had earlier blogged about this concept in it's billboard format so was particularly interested in seeing this applied in this personally targeted approach. It's the type of advertising I love - incredibly targeted, guaranteed to get the audience's attention and crafted to effectively and memorably deliver the message. 

Envied on http://www.caples.org/sneak-ads

Sephora & Pantone's Colour Collaboration

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to visit the Big Apple for a work trip. The iconic Times Square with its myriad of neon billboards was an advertising geek's dream and advertising inspiration seemed to be everywhere in NYC. This pop up concept store particularly caught my eye... 

Sephora & Pantone Universe: NYC Pop Up Store 

I happened to be in town the one week that this collaboration between Sephora and Pantone was alive in the meatpacking district of NYC. The pop-up celebrates the colour of the year for 2012 which is apparently "Tangerine Tango". This left me with all sorts of questions on how one chooses a colour of the year - cue mental images of pantone colour chips with sashes performing a Miss America pagent parade! But the idea is quite clever, Pantone is positioning themselves as the authority on all things colour. Most importantly this means they have the (self appointed) power to inform fashion trends and partnering with brands like Sephora is key to this influence. 

Enviable Elements

• Friendly experts: Sephora makeup artists were on hand to give free makeovers and offer advice - given that the new season colour is orange/tangerine it's a clever move to make consumers feel comfortable with the products and show the less confident how to work an orange lippy into their makeup collection 
• Cohesive partnership: a pet peeve of mine is illogical brand partnerships and celebrity endorsements, when two brands combine forces but fail to create more value as a whole than separately. The Sephora and Pantone collaboration makes sense and is not only superficial - everything from the pop-up store design (modeled as a giant Pantone colour book) to the product packaging reflects the partnership. 
• Integration of technology: There was plenty to see and do while waiting for a makeover at the pop store, on the ends of the store were giant touch screens that you could browse products on and behind each make up station was an iPad so you could share your new look or get friends to come along. 

Pop up stores seem to be in vogue at the moment - do you like the allure of a temporary store or prefer a more permanent shopping experience? 


Let me know your thoughts in the comments section below this post!

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