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July 10, 2007

Low tech. High impact?

Seems to me that outdoor is a medium that can quickly separate the great creatives from the good ones. So the question is: Great billboard? Or, as one commenter on YouTube notes, great film?

Posted by John on July 10, 2007 at 09:29 AM | Permalink
Categories: Advertising , Brave New Marketing , Design

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» Low-Budge, High Impact from InsureMe Agent Blog
You've probably noticed that I'm going easy on the blogging this week, as I strenuously prepare for our upcoming appearance at HIGH TECC. But I had to direct your attention to this purple cow of a billboard ad: I know... [Read More]

Tracked on July 11, 2007 at 10:11 PM

» Setting Sun, Rising Water, Raising the Bar from It Grows On Trees
I'm suddenly finding too many cool examples of genius in green communications not to share. Here's my second of the day from American Copywriter (thanks kids). They spotlight it for its brilliance with one of advertising's toughest proving grounds: the [Read More]

Tracked on July 20, 2007 at 02:23 PM

Comments

This is the proverbial, "Shit! I wish I would have done that!"

Posted by:scott | July 10, 2007 at 04:23 PM

as said: the basic idea is pretty cool, but the billboard itself obviously turned out not to be the right medium > so that they had to film the changing situations afterwards. people are not likely to pass this billboard couple of times during one day, and paying attention to the changing sea level. fazit: i'm not that impressed. i'm sure they could have thougth about a better execution, not just filming the billboard.

Posted by:ss | July 10, 2007 at 05:03 PM

ss, I'm not sure where you live. Maybe you are luck enough to live in city where you can ride your bike and use mass transit liberally. While you may not spend your days wearing grooves in the freeway there are many who not only commute, but motor back and forth all over the city. And not only are there people motoring back and forth but there are masses of motorists everyday that are stuck in gridlock in virtually the same spot on the freeway for hours. The placement is in a most appropriate context with multi-lane mass consumption of fossil fuels. I can see how there might some downsides if this were a standalone piece. But with the right campaign to support the outdoor I believe that people would start to get it and start telling others about it. And they'll tell two friends and so on, and so on, and so on... (bet you can't name that classic commercial)

Anyway, I still think it's brilliant and again, I wish I would have thought of it.

Posted by:scott | July 11, 2007 at 03:48 AM

Scott, I agree with you. I happen to work in creative marketing in a fairly conservative industry where a lot of professionals can't seem to grasp the purple cow concept.

Maybe our 'newfangled' marketing ideas aren't for everyone. But I say if you're going to stick to traditional advertising mediums, at least revolutionize them. Which is exactly what WWF did here.

And, I'll add, that I'm sure the only reason they created a video is because they were smart enough to realize it'd get passed around the web through video hosting sites and blogs. I thought that was fairly obvious...

Posted by:Megan | July 11, 2007 at 10:15 PM

I like. And the fact that they made a video and posted online just goes to bolster the billboard's impact. Isn't that an example of what they used to call 'integrated marketing communication'? A really creative execution in one medium, and to complement it as well as to compensate for its weaknesses, they use a totally different medium. In my third-world opinion, I say COOL! What if they added a blue-tooth thingie to upload a simple animation of the idea to the cell-phones of all those stuck in the traffic around the billboard? It's the first-world after all!

Posted by:mudskippah | July 12, 2007 at 02:18 AM

What they had was an idea. It is the "legs" they've given it by posting the video that makes it a better than average idea. Not sure if it is great, but it is solid.

I'd like to see other executions before I'd say it was great.

Posted by:Dan | July 12, 2007 at 09:53 PM

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