At tba (the becher agency) of Roanoke, Va., we like to think of our team as a well-tuned engine, capable of taking our PR and
advertising clients wherever they want to go, regardless of whether the track's already been laid. Forget “outside the box,”
we're taking you Off the Rail.
Monday, April 5, 2010
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Recently, I had the experience of viewing an ad that took me back to my childhood. Not for being evocative of my particular experience but because the ad itself first aired in 1993, and I can recall it playing during Saturday morning cartoons. With some small updates, this spot has been given new life this Easter, and though its original broadcast was some 17 years ago, it's still fun, clever and relevant.
Link:
OK, so the production quality reeks of the day, but it still gives me a chuckle. And it raises a lot of questions. Did Cadbury intend on this ad running into the 21st century? And in today's ever-growing, consumer-focused, social-media-2.0-viral-digital-everything market, is there value in designing a "classic" ad, or should the imperative be about trends?
Personally, I love poring over issues of Communication Arts from the early to mid-90s because, while they might not be as flashy as today's ads (and of course, there's no social media component), the copy is BRILLIANT. The concepts are simple and powerful, and they're delivered with efficiency. It's what makes them remarkable, and therefore memorable.
So what of today's advertising will be remembered in 17 years (or 17 months, even) and what will be forgotten? Could this Cadbury spot still sell chocolate to my kids? Or will the next generation need more stimuli and a more personalized advertising experience to be compelled to buy?
Only time will tell, of course, but it's my belief that wit will forever trump flare, and frankly, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups always beats Cadbury Creme Eggs.
After a pre-game party at our Account Supervisor, Carolyn Kiser’s house, the tba team headed over to Center in the Square in downtown Roanoke for the ADDY Awards. The set-up and presentation planned by this year’s Addy Committee was superb, and the food, which was catered by , was a treat, as always. This year, tba ended the night by taking home five ADDY awards for work done on behalf of , , and .
WORK SAMPLES Awarded: 2 Gold ADDYS® Awards + 1 Silver ADDY® Award Oak Hall’s Greenweaver Cap-and-Gown Campaign Categories: Direct Marketing | Gold for Direct Mail (2) + Silver for Campaign, Mixed Media| Gold – Campaign
Direct Mail Direct Mail(2)
Awarded: Silver ADDY® Title: Lanford Brother’s Planting Ideas Open House Invitation Category: Special Event Material Card
Awarded: Silver ADDY® Title: Astonish Antique History Buffed Print Ad Category: Consumer or Trade Publication
In addition to the agencies awards, our newest addition the team, Aimee Drysdale, Advertising Accounts Coordinator, won three student ADDY awards while the tba creative team contributed to pro bono work that won 10 awards as part of the CreateAthon event.
Congratulations to all of the students and professionals who submitted work. This was a great awards ceremony full of inspiring and innovative advertising work. Don’t forget to stop by our office to pick up a bottle of tba's own microbrew with our compliments!
The recent case involving Southwest Airlines and an overweight passenger shows the power of mobile technology and social media.
The policy involving “customers of size” made headlines when film director Kevin Smith was kicked off a flight from Oakland to Burbank when the crew determined he was too big. Southwest’s policy: http://www.southwest.com/travel_center/cos_qa.html dictates that “customers of size” purchase two seats if they can’t fit into theirs. Shrinking airline capacity has served to fuel the debate with passengers of all sizes facing packed flights and cramped seats.
With smart phones and Twitter, passengers are now able to instantly gripe about delays and boarding problems to thousands of people before the plane is even in the air. It’s new territory for airlines, and even for those carriers who get social media – like Southwest – sometimes even the best PR isn’t good enough.
As a result of this incident, Smith turned to his Twitter account to vent: “I broke no violation, offered no ‘safety risk’ (what, was I gonna roll on a fellow passenger?). I was wrongly ejected from the flight.” Smith paid for two seats on a later flight but tried to fly stand-by. Southwest stated in a blog post soon after the incident that “a timely exit from the aircraft in the event of an emergency might be compromised if we allow a cramped, restricted seating arrangement.” After the issue was blasted in the blogosphere and made the celebrity news channels, Southwest refunded his airfare, admitted it was “a mistake in trying to board him as a standby passenger and then remove him,” and said it would be reviewing “how and when this delicate policy is implemented.” Social media pushed Southwest toward refunding Kevin Smith. My take, as a former manager of media relations for a global airline?
A policy is a policy, but it’s how that policy is implemented by employees on the front line that really matters. In this case it didn’t go so well -- even from an airline that has led the way in harnessing social media to communicate with customers.
The lesson here? Your best public relations is only as good as your employees.
In the creative industry, inspiration can come from anywhere and at anytime. With creative juices constantly flowing, we decided we needed a place to capture ideas, interesting news, articles, ads, and notes. tba needed an “inspiration board!” What started so simple an idea, ended up being quite a team effort. Read on for some inspiration.
MATERIAL CHOICE | STRATEGY After doing a lot of research on large bulletin boards, magnetic boards, cork boards, blogs, etc. I came across by Shiso Mama and by Martha Stewart. We decided that by using a recycled material and painting the board we would be able to help the environment and get exactly what we wanted at the same time. So Homosote it was!I called Lowes, Home Depot, and every other local hardware spot in between and the majority of the people I spoke with responded with confusion and comments like, “Homo-what!” Finally, 84 Lumber in Pearisburg, VA, who has great customer service, by the way, said they would be able to get a 4’ x 8’ board shipped to the Salem, VA store in two days! I was there by noon that day to pick it up.
On my way back from 84 Lumber in Salem, VA with the Homasote board in tow Thomas and Chris helping to carry in the board from Carolyn’s Explorer Chris and Thomas unloading and carrying in the board Christina admiring the board before it got painted
DESIGN | STRATEGY We really wanted the board to be simple and not take away from the pieces we hung on it, so we decided to paint it white and use yellow and red stripes to match our space. Luckily we had a few old cans of wall paint that Lowe’s kindly shook up for us.I applied two coats of primer and two coats of white. Then Christina and I adhered painter’s tape, to make sure the lines were perfect! For the stripes I put down two coats of tba red, and two coats of tba yellow. Ariel and Carolyn then had a lot of fun removing the tape. And we were finished…or so we thought. Ariel and Carolyn removing the painters tape! After several days of painting and clean up, I began the detail work
HANGING | CREATIVITY After painting, we ran into the issue of hanging the board on a wall that had no studs or support! Lowe’s in Christiansburg, VA had a solution. They suggested we use ¼ inch Steelworks Systems Toggle Bolts (and we ended up using all eight!) Thomas, Chris, Ariel, Dave, Christina, Sonja & I made sure the board was hung properly and aligned on the wall. We all contributed to make sure the inspiration board was a success (and not a liability). This was a true team effort!
Thomas helping screw the board into the wall Carolyn and Ariel making sure everything is straight The inspiration board up and painted!
PURE INSPIRATION | RESULTS Since the board was hung, there have been several posts from our employees, both internal success stories and work from outside inspiration.
From this day forward we will be able to share and contribute our ideas and success stories. We hope that you will do the same and tell us about it!
Monday morning quarterbacks: tba's Super Bowl sound bites
Naturally, when you work at an advertising and PR firm, you spend the Monday following the Super Bowl rehashing the ads. We all become office-chair QBs, with our Monday morning staff meeting dominated by discussion of the ads, what we liked, what was weird, and what completely bombed. Some sound bites from that discussion follow for your review. Let us know your thoughts as well. And please vote in our for your favorite 2010 Super Bowl spot.
After a year of bad economic news, unemployment and political discourse, it’s refreshing to see humor make a comeback. Yet, despite all the cleverness, it’s nice to know a simple ad concept from can be so memorable. –Thomas Becher
Someone Please Sack Betty White Again. A note to all advertisers: The more Betty White gets , the more product you sell. Simple. –Mike Quonce
There were movie trailers galore and free Grand Slams at Denny's. Men with no pants and women like Betty White getting tackled. But it seems to me Doritos has gone off of the deep end and E*Trade can't top shankapotomus from last year. I think it's time for some new ideas and a new trend of humor. My favorite was the spot, it was hilarious to me. –Christina Knapp
It’s the one night of the year when people actually look forward to the ads as much as the content and aside from a few standouts, it was a disappointing year for advertisers. The cheapest ad to produce had the most impact on me. Google’s simple and captivating “Paris” spot was my #1. It left me wanting to see other story lines and executions – perhaps one with more humor and less sap. The Doritos spots were all over the place; I did enjoy the little tyke slapping the mom’s date, but the coffin spot left me with a WTF feeling? From a strategic perspective, Snickers seemed to do well combining humor with a message (when usually only humor comes through in Super Bowl spots). As far as the worst: GoDaddy. Their spots are a tasteless embarrassment to Super Bowl advertising and make me want to buy domain names elsewhere. –Carolyn Kiser
The Audi Green Police spot creates a fun twist on a much discussed topic, the environment. I thought it was successful at captivating the audience’s attention by using a classic tune and then waiting till the very end to give the product’s name away. –Aimee Drysdale
I really enjoyed the ads from Google, Hyundai and CareerBuilder.com, but I think the beaver spot from was my favorite of the night. I was disappointed by Focus on the Family and the U.S. Census Bureau. Both generated a lot of controversy just by advertising, but their ads were dull and poorly written. –Ariel Clark
Last year an estimated 95 million people tuned in to watch the Super Bowl and with all the hype surrounding the commercials, its no wonder companies spend millions upon millions to have their messages and brands splashed across the television screen. But another interesting approach to the big advertising showcase is to create an ad that won't air, which in turn drives a media storm, along with viral sensations and an exploding blogosphere of the things we didn't see. But you have to give credit (or at least marvel in the strategy) of taking advantage of the Super Bowl advertising hype. And ManCrunch and Focus on Family are the clear winners. These spots have not only lit up the newswires, blogosphere, social networking sites, etc. but have strong potential to be talked about in year's to come. Don't believe me? Do a quick Google News search and see what comes up. Or just Google "" and sit back and enjoy. Well played. As the old adage goes, "any press is good press" and especially when Super Bowl season comes around. –Mike Quonce
The spot is so different from anything I have seen and gives a fun and comic edge to drinking Bud Light. It’s definitely gave me a laugh out loud moment! –Aimee Drysdale
As I was watching the American Idol auditions these past few weeks, I couldn't help but think about all the hopefuls as brands. And that is what they all are and that is how they are being evaluated - whether they have the package to become a national (or international) pop icon and brand.
There are four basic categories of people who audition for the show: (1) truly talented people, (2) people with a decent voice, (3) people that just want 15 minutes of fame and (4) the people who are tone-deaf but actually believe they can sing. Brands exist in each of these groups, of course. But in this stage of the competition, the real branding is with the people in groups 2 and 3 as described above. Let's start with the second group.
There are thousands of people in the second group - the people with a fairly decent voice. And because they may not get in front of Simon and the judges based on their voice alone, they have to somehow make themselves stand out. That is where the branding comes into play. Among the above-average hopefuls - it is the ones that differentiate themselves who actually get a chance to make it in front of the panel of judges for a shot at the golden ticket. Think of some of the more recent notorious Idol-wannabes: and Norman Gentle from Season 8 and from this season - Guitar Girl, the former Barney child-actor with the , and of course, Ski Bo Skii. In these cases, it was definitely not their voices alone that got them to Hollywood, but their ability to break through.
And the fame-seekers in group 3 have a similar strategy. They have all seen the show and know they need to do something truly outrageous to get in front of the judges. Bikini boy, weird voices, terrible dances, crazy outfits, you name it. But the best of the fame-seekers was this year's singer/songwriter "General" Larry Platt and his "" act. The general has turned his brand into the craze of American Idol Season 9, with Pants-on-the-ground t-shirts even being sold on AmericanIdol.com.
So what do the Idol auditions teach us about brands? It reminds us that in a sea of sameness, it is critical to differentiate yourself in order to stand out from your competition and ultimately impress your target audience. How is your brand different?
tba is a strategy-centered idea factory, offering creative solutions in PR and advertising to help clients in multiple industries solve business problems and generate results by more effectively connecting with their audiences.
