Top Klog of the Week- 3/27

A few months ago, we wrote about Original Juan, a specialty foods store here in Kansas City.

This week's idea reminds us a little bit of that brand, and this execution was ingenious. Le Cactus, a wings restaurant in Quebec, was looking for a way to promote it's Hot Wing Mondays. They were working on a tight budget (who isn't these days!) and charged their agency Lg2 to come up with a creative way to market to young adults around Quebec.

The idea was a large sticker, of a man's face, mouth open, that was placed on the back of taxi minivans. When the brake lights come on, the man's mouth lights up in a "blaze." A sticker on the upper right corner of the window reads: "Monday hot wings. Le Cactus."

Simple, creative, and gets the message across.

Sign of the Good Times?

My youngest brother Jason is in retail, and he is always analyzing things. Yesterday he called to ask me if the declining advertising rates were a sign of the economy getting worse.

We talked a while about the auto industry and how in communities across the country, local dealers spend a lot of money in print and broadcast. And how even if this was the only industry hurting, their budget cuts alone would impact media locally and nationally.

Today, I started going through some e-newsletters, and I saw some glimmers of hope:
* Television and cable companies are starting to see auto dealers increase their spending again.
* E-commerce grew 2% in January and February.
* The media upfronts (where national advertisers/networks meet to discuss budget commitments) are looking good- and prices may be higher than anticipated, indicating more ad dollars coming down the pipeline.

What does this mean to you?

If you have been on the fence about making some advertising decisions, this may be the time to do it.

Prices are good, even great, right now. And, we know those who market in down times tend to come out stronger than those who didn't. Take a look at your marketing plan, and start executing your strategies while the getting is good!

This Week's Top Klog- 3/20

Soccer fans are fanatic. And, for reasons I don't know, they like to wear scarves. Which leads into my favorite idea this week.

If you happened to be in Seattle, Washington this week, you probably noticed many brightly colored scarves hanging around. Hanging on trees, towers, and even bridges.

These scarves were ushering in a new soccer team, the Seattle Sounders FC. Blazoned with the web address ScarfSeattle.com, folks around Seattle were encouraged to take pictures of themselves while wearing the scarves, and upload them to the site.

The “Scarf Seattle” effort ended with a huge version of the scarf on the famous space needle.

Along side the online and guerrilla efforts was a supplemental traditional media execution, giving the campaign the type of layered execution we love to see. Kudos to the agency- Wexley School For Girls.

Business Cards That Are Toys? AWESOME!

I get a lot of "average" business cards, and that is probably why I am always excited when we re-do our cards. I love having something that sticks out from the crowd, but even we wouldn't have thought of this idea from Lego.

Not easy to fit in the Rolodex, but we have a feeling these cards get some prime real estate on people's shelves.

My favorite feature is that they are supposedly design to psychically resemble the employee as well- genius!

New Feature- My Favorite Idea of the Week!

I LOVE ideas that are out of the box ideas- either just completely guerrilla, or that take traditional avenues and turn them on their heads.

So, I am going to try and pick out a new inspirational idea every week- something that doesn't necessarily take a huge budget to execute.

The first one comes from across the pond, and is a campaign to raise awareness of the homeless issue in the UK.

Advertising Agency: Rapp, London, UK
Creative Director: Chad Warner
Art Director: Jon Owens
Copywriter: Rob Prangle

Rainbow of Flavors Explosion

Everyone the last few days has been in an uproar over the new social media strategy by Skittles. Social Media experts everywhere are wagging their fingers at the brand- telling them they are "doing it all wrong." Instead of encouraging teens to talk about Skittles, they are encouraging "false conversations" about the brand instead. In other words- people are just throwing the word "Skittles" in their tweets just to be noticed, or worse, using the brand name and profanity together.

OK- let's take a breath here. How many teens are just going to talk about Skittles calmly and in a way that is organized and organic? A few, but the overall risk of social media is that you have to be prepared to take the good with the bad. If someone wants to tweet that "Skittles Sucks"- well, maybe they really believe that, and that is the risk of having a Facebook Page, etc.

But, let's face it- people all over are noticing the Skittles campaign. They are blogging about, writing articles about, and analyzing Skittles. When was the last time I wrote about the brand- right- never. I am a measly little media planner and buyer, but still.

They have taken a risk, and it has gotten people talking. And, that, is much more than many brands can say these days.