Name: Johanna
Posts by jlegarda:
Holiday Ads
December 13th, 2010I don’t get to watch too much television but the “tube” is on from time to time and this Target ad caught my attention.
I’m not sure if it’s because it was my children love to dance and they play with or ask for all of these electronic toys but once again, like the Kia Soul commercial, it’s inspiring that people my age have great impact at the ad agencies that work for these companies (go mid 30 yr olds!). Target totally hit the nail on the head with the items on tweener holiday wish lists, except for maybe the iPad.
There is also a Vons holiday spot, not available on the web, that caught my eye for different reasons. It’s your typical “yum, check out the succulent dishes you can make with food from our store” and it ends in a great view of a holiday spread featuring a sliced ham. Now I’m sure there are a variety of ways to display a ham. I saw quite a few while looking for a sample to post. The ham image in the Vons spot resembled this one and I wondered if the fine young folks who dressed the set had a good chuckle when placing one of these. They shouldn’t call it “spread eagle”, they should call it “sliced ham”.
Now, here is the most ridiculous one this season. It’s a stunning view of Small World at Disneyland lit up all aglow that plays often and is featured on several billboards for my daughter to ask “Mickey Mouse house, mommy?” Why is this ridiculous? Because you get to Disneyland and after dusk, they do this fantastic light show… every 15 minutes… and they don’t let you go inside. You’re kidding me, right?
Seen any fun holiday ads lately?
4.5 Million Fans! So What?
September 21st, 2010
You’ve got 4.5 million fans. What are you going to do next? Take the summer off.
As marketers we evaluate a partner’s social media profiles and compare the tangible numbers - views, fans, followers, you name it. What are these numbers worth if these partners aren’t using these media to move their crowd?
Trust me, I’m a fan of Nutella in a bad way. Ask anyone who’s eaten at my house. But I’m not a fan of their social media strategy. In January of 2009, Nutella’s Facebook page was ranked No. 4 in a contest for the most fans with 2.1 million “likes.” Apparently, they slipped to #25 in the same contest the following year, still with little to no updates since they joined Facebook. Oh, but they’re not shaking in their boots about slipping. Two weeks ago they “combined” their fan pages into one international profile that has a whopping 4.2 million fans and then they went on summer vacation and closed their wall. Ummm, ok.
Perhaps there’s nothing to announce. No cause to get behind. No change up in the recipe (thank goodness). It just seems like a missed opportunity to have an audience of 4.2 million fans and no content, no voice to express. Could they have cross promoted their giveaway or branded gear? Could they have told us the history of how the company came to be? Maybe fans would have shared Nutella recipes after they saw some great ideas posted? Maybe there’s a strategy to it and now, since they’re back from summer vacation, we’ll experience the brilliance.
If you need help optimizing your social media profile, call a Rebel.
Sony’s Telling Us “Step Your Game Up”?
June 22nd, 2010
In what appeared to be a 60/40 split between actual industry professionals and droves of goober, *oops*, I mean uber-gamers, the 3-day videogame tradeshow E3 has left LA just as swiftly as it had descended upon us… But not without plenty of online content for those who could not attend, provided by those privileged and/or crafty enough to enter the pearly gates of gamer heaven.
Who won the console war? While I desperately wanted to cheer for my former coworkers at Sony, I’m still trying to figure out which feature to consider “the big news” out of their 2-hour press conference. I hope it wasn’t the 3-D software titles that required the funky glasses because Nintendo’s 3DS does not. Was it all about accessories and the very phallic PlayStation Move that functions an awful lot like the Wii released 4 years ago? SMH. Was this supposed to extend the life of the PS3? Did they really not know about Xbox’s controller-less Kinect available in time for holiday 2010? (Eek, tail between Sony’s legs.) One good thing that came out of that press conference for me was discovering Jesper Kyd, composer for Assassins’ Creed (Ubisoft). This is the kind of music that builds excitement, not 1994′s “I like to ‘move’ it, ‘move’ it” that accompanied the sizzle reel for PlayStation Move. (You pick, SMH or tail between the legs)
As for the convention center floor, I couldn’t see myself standing in hour-plus lines for anything. I appreciated the booth babes (maybe not exactly in the same way as the boys did) and I gave them what they wanted – a friendly smile after a vertical scan of their goods. Thank you Spike TV for capturing the E3 booth babes and getting down to the important issues (how to successfully approach a booth babe).
I would have stood in line for Activision’s concert featuring Eminem, Travis Barker and Rihanna (is this stuff really just for the trade?). I’m upset I missed Russ, Red and Meth for their Def Jam/Konami mash up announcement and performance. I was happy to have my first experiences with the iPad though Josh and I were both perplexed by the ported iPhone apps that were clearly not optimized for iPad’s larger screen. Moreover, how not fun are digital comics that don’t optimize the technology – even the open pinch zoom so that the comics would actually be legible? : X
Until next year, we move on to celebrate another Laker victory (oh yeah) and offer our photo recap of E3.
