In a new spot created by Crispin Porter & Bogusky and directed by Roman Coppola, Microsoft takes an innovative and super-sly approach to negative advertising by attacking the negative advertising of, or at least the ongoing feud between, Apple’s iPhone and the Samsung Galaxy. By dramatizing Apple and Samsung loyalists as bickering guests at a wedding, Microsoft accomplishes multiple things at once. First, they sidestep the unfavorable perceptions of running a negative campaign by dramatizing Microsoft Lumia 920 users as peaceful bystanders to the fight. So, while Microsoft is really the… read the rest of the article »

Red Bull’s Stratos space jump, in which Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner successfully jumped from a helium balloon 24 miles over the earth last October, was a justifiable media sensation, however it is Red Bull’s Music Academy that seems their most adventurous campaign to date. Started in 1998, the Red Bull Music Academy is “a world-travelling series of music workshops and festivals: a platform for those who make a difference in today’s musical landscape.” Recently, they aggressively advertised a two-week New York event, featuring 31 DJs, producers, vocalists, and “all-around music mavericks”, including… read the rest of the article »

This past year has been a rather exciting one for Coca Cola. On top of being an official sponsor of the London 2012 Olympics, it’s diet-friendly off-shoot named Marc Jacobs their new creative director/brand ambassador. Peddling back two years, Diet Coke and Karl Lagerfeld partnered up to make a very fashionable line of bottles. Why Karl Lagerfeld? “The Hardest Working Man in Fashion” only drinks Diet Coke. He apparently drinks 10 cans of the diet beverage a day and avoids water. Whatever the strange logic is behind Lagerfeld’s decision, the… read the rest of the article »

Generally speaking when you create your marketing plan and conduct your SWOT analysis, you look at your direct and indirect competitors and forge ways to outshine them.  This is how it’s always been done, right?   Well, according to sales consulting firm, The Sales Benchmark Index, there is one other “competitor” brands usually forget to consider, and that is apathy….or the situation in which consumers make no decision at all.  Gasp!   According to Forrester Research, consumers find themselves reining in purchase behavior when there is a lack of information or… read the rest of the article »

…by Genna AlTai So what’s the big difference between Beijing 2008 and London 2012? Well, since 2008, YouTube now has 147.4 million unique viewers, a huge chunk of the world’s population has a Facebook profile, and Olympians have decided taking to Twitter to convey the behemoth emotional weight the games puts on them is an appropriate outlet.  When it comes down to who’s involved with the Olympics, there’s no doubt that there’s an added fixture that comes in the form of social media platforms, but how heavily has it impacted… read the rest of the article »