Lidl Sneakers: analysis of a marketing phenomenon
Lidl sneakers, Lidl socks, beach shoes in the bright colours of the German brand have made the buzz at the end of this year 2020 in France. On Sunday 27th December 2020, a wind of madness blew through the Lidl shops all over France on Twitter. The genuine storm Bella gave way to a marketing storm that we analyse in this article. Lidl Sneakers: out of stock in a few minutes On Sunday 27th December 2020, Lidl shops in France put on sale...
Rakuten advertisement: Francis, the non-existing retailer
One principle that should guide all advertisers in this world is that what you show your customers must appear to be true. Rakuten’s advertising agency did not quite understand this principle. In its latest advertising campaign, it highlights the retailers on its platform. This is legitimate. Without traders, there is no market place. But on closer inspection, there appears to be a problem. Francis, the man with a thousand lives...
Up until My Last Breath: Intermarché’s advertisement that annoys me
Last week, a friend of mine (the excellent Hugues Rey, CEO of Havas) posted on his blog an ad for Intermarché entitled “Intermarché, Up until My Last Breath”. This ad annoyed me and made me question the authenticity of the Intermarché brand and how they communicate. I will explain why and, of course, you have the right to disagree with me. In this case, remember to put a comment at the bottom of the article. Intermarché,...
Increase the effectiveness of your advertisements with this simple tip
As you know, I am very interested in the media and advertising sector, and I have spent a lot of time in the last few days reading research on consumer behaviour concerning advertising. Today, I would like to share with you something straightforward here: research carried out by scientists using the “eye-tracking” technique. The time of exposure to advertisements is very brief Scientific research shows that exposure...
How will advertising look like in the future ?
A film producer came to my office the other day and wanted to interview me on the evolution of advertising. At first sight it seemed pretty odd to interview a marketer to get insight about advertising, but drew eventually some interesting parallels with marketing. 70 years ago : terra incognita Have you ever heard of the term “terra incognita” ? Wikipedia proposes the following definition : Terra incognita or terra ignota is a term...
Aggressive advertisement by SFR.
After Free entered the French mobile phone market in January 2012, the competitive landscape was completely changed. A Michael Porter’s 5-force analysis would lead to the conclusion that the power of suppliers was drastically weakened that that the rivalry among competitors dramatically increased. An interesting testimony of the intensity of this rivalry is the advertisement below which was published on Oct 26th in French newspapers....
Reading the little lines at the bottom may be funny
ING launched yet another campaign for its savings account; it features an orange pig which symbolizes savings and obviously has the color of the brand. I was searching for information about the real rate of this product and was therefore reading the little lines at the bottom of the ad. Instead of that I found out that the pig had not been harmed and was colored orange in post-production. I will sleep well tonight. Thanks for...
For its anniversary Carrefour sells at prices of 50 years ago
Carrefour launched last week a advertising campaign on Rome, Italy, that got a broad press coverage. To celebrate its 50th anniversary, Carrefour decided to advertise and sell a series of products at the prices of 50 years ago. A series of vintage ad was produced to sell, for instance, a liter of wine at 0,07€. I first saw this campaign on the Facebook page of a French marketing magazine for practitioners. This campaign generated very...
Another great billboard created for the Delen bank
Billboards on buildings are trendy. You may remember the post we dedicated to ING’s billboard created by Jean-Luc Moerman and unveiled in early March. Here’s another example I saw in Brussels which is not only original on its form but which also is linked to the message displayed (it takes time to grow a patrimony). The billboard was conceived for a private bank (Delen Bank) and includes real trees symbolizing the growth...
What should you do if you have too much money: follow Cartier’s example
A member of the Richemont group (Van Cleef, Piaget, Montblanc, Lange und Söhne, …), Cartier is already the world’s most famous jewelry brand and Chinese consumers’ overall favorite brand. As you may be aware luxury brands are overperforming all others industries in terms of profitability and have cash in excess. What should you do in such a situation ? Why not producing a three-and-half-minute movie glorifying your brand and playing...
Advertising banners: never has a wish been granted so quickly
In my recent post on ING collaboration with Jean-Luc Moerman on a project of giant advertising banner, I stressed that such banners were still in their infancy and I was asking for even more creativity to make this new medium more “interactive” with its audience. At the time I took the pictures which illustrated the post, the banner was apparently not complete yet. A piece of it was missing at the very bottom of the building. I went...
Jean-Luc Moerman associated to ING Bank in giant Art project
ING Headquarters in Brussels are being renovated and ING decided to use a huge advertising banner (see our post earlier this month) to cover the view to the worksite. Basically the bank had two choices: a giant ad of its company or … something else. It opted for something else, namely a work of Art by Jean-Luc Moerman, a Belgian artist who already worked for Citroën last year on the DS4 project. My take: Where will advertising...
An ice way to promote its products and store
First of all my thanks to David Katz for sending me the pictures he took at last week’s ice Sculpture fair in Yorkville, downtown Toronto, Canada (more details here). Such fairs exist in many countries (at least countries with temperatures allowing such events) and it turns usually into an Art contest. It is therefore pretty unusual (at least for me) to see a store promoting its products by presenting a dedicated ice sculpture...
New trends in advertising techniques
The advertising industry is undergoing deep changes; on the first hand technological changes which lead to the raise of digital advertising; on the other hand legal changes in France which will change the landscape and the habits of advertisers. The existence of the famous 4×3 format is for instance at stake. A bill to be voted as a part of the “Grenelle 2” project proposes to ban the 16sq.m format and to allow 12sq....
Happy New Year
It’s time to resume posting. But first of all, allow me, on behalf of IntoTheMinds, to wish you a happy new year. I hope 2012 will be for you an inspired and inspirational year. We’ll start the year with a brief post about merchandising and brand alliances. While in Rome in December and January I was surprised to see that the top-tier streets around Piazza di Spagna, home of luxury brands, were decorated and kind of...
Pop-ups ads can weaken your message
I was reading the Harvard Business Review online when an ad popped-up at the botton of the screen, trying to catch my attention for yet another article to read online. No big deal. Unless this ad contradicts the article you are just reading. I was reading a pamphlet about “meaningless expressions”, the first one being “thinking outside the box”. And suddenly an ad appears to promote an article containing this...
A nice advertisement campaign by Makro
I just found this stunning example of advertisement campaign in Brussels. It promotes bicycles sold in the Makro stores (sorry for the poor quality of the pics; I was not equipped to take any better pics on that...
The Lavazza clichés
In a previous post I already mentioned an advertisement by Lavazza where they made abundant use of Italian clichés. I was at the airport the other day and saw yet another variant of it and once again it’s fun and full of clichés. I just love it.
Competition is jealous of Ryanair’s success
Ryanair’s competitors become aggressive in their communication and mimic the Irish company’s own style. Ryanair’s competitive advantages (prices and on-time flights, although the statistics of the latter can be considered manipulated as Ryanair’s flight durations are systematically overestimated) are hard to attack even for competitors of the low-cost segment. Easyjet therefore decided to attack Ryanair’s Achilles’ heel, that’s to say...
Ryanair pees on competition
After newspapers reported Gerard Depardieu urinated in a bottle while in a plane ready to take off, Ryanair released an advertisement on its French website where they declare the companys pees on competition. My take: Is this the first airline in Europe? It remembers me this picture I took a few years ago when I had no other choice than taking a Ryanair...
Italy pays for 10 years of zero growth
Sad times for Italy. Newspapers are making their headlines on markets’ next target and how the spread keeps increasing day after day. Spain and Italy are now almost on the same leve of dangerousness and it remembered me how Ryanair used Berlusconi in one of its online advertisements a few weeks ago. This ad is more relevant than ever.
BNP Paribas ad on mobiles: not very believable
Banks have for a long time tried to make us believe that they are at our service. I doubt it’s true. The latest ad by BNP Paribas gives me the opportunity to illustrate my belief. The ad says “Entrepreneurs, your projects are our priority”. First of all I doubt that a bank will lend money to a farmer for a big investment, knowing the thin margins farmers must work with and their repaying capacities. If you’re a...
The clichés of Lavazza’s advertisement
Look at this advertisement for Lavazza; it’s full of clichés about Italy: the macho man with his tee-short, the dominated woman. What I prefer however are the clothes on the clothes line in the background. It’s well worth a coffee, isn’t it?
When large corporations suck … the example of Avis
Large corporations are by definition assumed to scrupulously rely on procedures and to minimize risks. They are assumed to take only calculated steps and to know thoroughly about the rules and norms which apply to their market. Well, sometimes it seems that they screw up the job completely and ignore the most basic rules. Look for instance what I got reported by Peter Chong from Singapore. Peter is a passionate watch collector and...
SN Brussels Airlines wants Ryanair’s customers
Times are hard. Ryanair went from a low-cost low-reputation airline to to indisputed number 1 airline in Europe. Logically there are a few people out there who are really jealous. Retaliation actions are slowly beginning to take place and I saw one of them at Ciampino (Rome) airport last week. Have a look...
An interesting showcase in Los Angeles
Sometimes I’m really wondering: “what is it that you guys want to communicate to your customers”? Take a step back and think about it for one moment. What is marketing really about? Selling products? Understanding customers’ needs? Nurturing the relationship with the customers? It’s all true but a paradigm shift took place in marketing and nowadays it’s more about “value creation...
A provocative slogan
To follow up on one of my latest posts, here’s another slogan that I photographed in New-York. It’s that of Diesel on the 5th Avenue. Miso Soup’s slogan which I dealt with in my previous post was rather original and refreshing. I can’t say the same of Diesel. I can’t explain why they chose to be provocative but their slogan is as unappealing as their store was. Frankly I spent no more than 5 minutes as...
An original slogan is all what you need …
A business’ success is sometimes (not always) associated with an impacting slogan … here’s one I saw last winter in New-York: “ridiculously healthy”
