ThinkNoLimit Marketing Coaching

Don't know whether you will actually "celebrate" the National Day. I don't but it means holiday ... Have a good long weekend ! Daily post resumes on Oct 2. Stay tuned.

This is a brilliant TVC from Hong Kong Broadband. A mockery of PCCW with a surreal presentation. Long time no see an ad that is fun to watch, easy to understand and with a clear message. More importantly, it shouldn't cost an arm and a leg to produce. The boss of Hong Kong Broadband, 王維基, is pretty fond of producing competitive advertising that is over-the-top and thanks to him, we have some interesting TVCs to watch. BTW, I just had NOW TV installed lately. I asked the technician about using the phone lines for TV signal transmission. I also wondered whether the bandwidth is enough. The guy said it might not be enough for high definition signal later on .....

This Kill Bill TVC of PPS is one of my most appreciated TVC. It's such a clever use of parody with the movie of the same name. It's fun and humourous. At anytime you want to kill a bill, it's got to be PPS. This TVC has been around for more than a year and it's on again lately with a bit of re-edit. Even afer having seen it for so many times, I still find it funny. So if you have a good ad, don't be shy repeating it again, again and again. Repetition would make impression stronger and deeper. So if your agency tell you it's time to produce another campaign because the last campaign is worn out after 1 or 2 bursts, it's just that the last campaign they did wasn't good enough ...

This is the second TVC of StarWorld featuring Tony Leung. Compared with the last one, it's definitely an improvement and a high quality production. Luxury and glamour. You may feel that it looks very much similar to any of the residential estate ads. I feel so too but I don't blame it. Luxury and glamour belong to hotels and casinos. It's on the right track. It's just that such images of luxury and glamour are over-used by property developers to sell residential estates.

I have to say that Face Detection is quite an amazing technology. I played with it before and it really worked. You aim at the faces and it frames the faces with squares on the LCD screen. Which brand owns this amazing technology in the mind of the consumers ? Canon. But in fact other DC manufacturers also have the same technology. Which came up with this technology first ? Is it Canon ? That doesn't matter. You win by occupying the mind of the consumers' mind first. Canon is the first one which advertised big about it and gained the market-first image. Other brands have become copycats even if they acquired this technology first. Act fast and spend big if you really want to be perceived as the pioneer.

Never know why a client would approve something like this. With six idiots looking at you in a restaurants, it says you miss the magic moment if your contact lens are too dry. I just don't get the joke. Yes, it is trying to use "magic moment" as the entry point to sell this disinfecting solution. But what magic moment is it talking about ? In fact if you give it some more thoughts, "Moment" is a point within a length of time. So "magic moment" is not quite an executable idea in a 2D print ad environment and this is more like an AV idea for TVC. The idea could be of potential but it's not good for print ad.

Positioning is about building a single-minded value proposition in the mind of the consumers. In the shampoo category, Head & Shoulder (the brand name speaks for itself) = anti-dandruff, Vidal Sassoon = professional, Ascience (Asian + Science) = tailored for Asians. And Clairol = smell great in this case. Positioning gives consistency to the other 4Ps. How would you support a brand of shampoo that is said to smell great ? Very simple. Continuously renewing its range with attractive fragrances. This is exactly how Clairol is trying to build its positioning.

Just saw this TVC. Coke has its own movie. Why not ? It has got the money to produce a movie with the brand as the theme. With the advance of technologies in animation, producing an animated cartoon movie isn't "too expensive" and you don't need to pay for any movie stars too. The movie can be shown all over the world and it's quite a value for money in a sense. Don't know whether you have to pay to see this movie. Need to pay or not, will people go see this self-promoting movie ? It doesn't matter. This movie should be able to generate publicity and talkabouts for the brand. Further, I can already imagine the use of the movie footage for TVC later on, VCD and DVD and cartoon character merchandise produced for consumer promotions, the cartoon characters printed onto the cans to create excitement and promote collections, so on and so forth. Let's see how Coke will leverage on it.

Can you imagine using your precious A&P to advertise for your competitor ? Here is the TVC from Disneyland promoting its Halloween haunted adventure. Ocean Park owns Halloween with years of investment. Success doesn't come easy and it has the market-first advantage. There is a low chance that Disneyland will be able to steal share from Ocean Park by competing head-on with something similar. When I saw this TVC, I thought it must be Ocean Park. It just looks like a TVC it launched before. I guess Ocean Park should say thanks to Disneyland as this TVC actually reminds people to go to Ocean Park which is closer to town. Why do we go to Disneyland in Tung Chung that is far far away ? For the Mickey Mouse and the magical experience, of course. Disneyland doesn't have haunted adventure of Halloween in the mind of the consumers.

Sometimes I wonder whether idolization of tutors is something unique in HK. Don't know if there is the same phenomenon elsewhere. It's a product of our poor education system and opportunist culture. I bet the bosses of these tutorial schools are from the entertainment industry where they package and promote the tutors like movie stars. Beacon School is selling warmth and friendliness for its tutors, June and Richard. On the other hand, Modern Education is selling authority and charisma. Doesn't its ad look like a movie poster ?

HK was said to be a shoppers' paradise. Is it anymore ? At least we HK people would disagree. To us, Tokyo and Bangkok are more like the shoppers' paradises. While HK is losing its identity in the mind of tourists, Macau is clearly positioned as the Las Vegas of the east. I think it's a smart thing to do. Thanks to its government policy and the foregin investments, this positioning is coming true. But can they just use the winning formula of Vegas in Macau ? It may take some adaptations. In addition to the casinos, shows and performances are big and hot in Vegas, adding glamour and excitement to the place. Will it work the same for Macau ? Tourists of Vegas are more international but most of the tourists of Macau are from Mainland China. Culture and taste are different. I'm sure this Burn The Floor show must be good but I doubt whether people from the Mainland would pay 600 dollars to see the show. Probably they would rather use the money to place bets on the "Big/...

The key message of this ad is "Forefront is the only effective way to combat against the viruses". With the page divided into halves, it uses a "versus" or comparative approach to spell out this key message, different ways to fight against a skeleton beast vs one way to take care of the viruses. I wouldn't say it's not creative and in fact I bet the copy writer has spent a lot of time to on writing the funny lines on the left. But would consumers read them all to appreciate the humour ? The chance is low. I guess there is a creative attempt but this idea could have been applied better on TVC rather than print.

A picture is worth a thousand words. The key visual of this ad is quite attention grabbing but it is an impossible ad to understand. “咁都得” is the headline. Yes, we are smart enough to understand that clamping two soft toys together is a very difficult act and it’s almost a miracle if you can do it. But what key message is this ad trying to send ? I scratch my head. The strangest thing is that the body copies do not explain anything. 唉, 真係咁都得 ...

Enough is enough about mooncakes. Let's change our topic. Like Fairwood, Maxim's fastfood has undergone a rebranding exercise. New shop decor, new brand colour and a new name, MX (although I don't have a clue of what it actually means. "Maxim's Express" ?). All theses are just superficial and cosmetic. Consumers look for benefits when they pay for the products and services of a brand. And every brand has prototype products or services to represent itself. Cafe de Coral has 焗豬扒飯 and Fairwood is working on its pastas. What's Maxim's famous for ? None in our mind. Just spotted this ad of Maxim's about its healthy meals. I wonder if this is tactical or they are really serious about positioning itself as the healthy fastfood restaurant. I hope it is the latter. It could be the positioning they can own over time to regain its position against Fairwood and Cafe de Coral.

If I'm not wrong, 大班 is the first brand that came up with 冰皮月餅 many years ago. Now that many other brands have their own versions. I bet 冰皮月餅 as a sub category is growing big and replacing the "traditional" mooncake. And it's a battleground for "product innovation". Like Maxim's, it has tiramisu, green tea + chestnut, 楊枝甘露, super lemon and so on. Mooncake is not mooncake per se but a dessert. Back to these two TVCs of Maxim's, the Joey Yung's one is from last year and the Kelly Chan's one is aired this year. I reckon they are quite consistent although there are different celebrities. The key message is "美心冰皮月餅 offers you a variety of enjoyments". Executions are different but the creative idea is the same where the celebrities in both TVC play different roles to express the different enjoyments. It can be quite a good strategy to build consistency over time.

Most mooncake ads are selling family values one way or another. Yes it's a cliche of this product category. But what if another emotional appeal is used. Here is an attempt. This TVC of Taipan snowy mooncake is selling romance. It just doesn't looks like an ad selling mooncake and it's not going to work. Jewelries, chocolates or even shampoo can be tied with romance. Mooncake for romance is awfully distant in the mind of the consumers. Giving a tin of mooncake to your girlfriend or boyfriend ? That's not very romantic at all.

Let's carry on our discussion about the use of celebrities in mooncake ads. Aaron Kwok is the endorser of St. Honore, including its mooncake. Yes, Aaron is 型,英,帥,靚,正 but what has he got to do with mooncake ? Does he make cake or eat a lot of mooncake ? The link is weak and it doesn't add to the credibility of the brand. As for the the Maxim's mooncake ad (below) featuring Kelly Chan, it's a typical celebrity + jingle kind of an ad but at least it is related to mooncake : family reunion, showing your love and care, the Chinese tradition and so on. All these are related to the mid-autumn festival and the purchase of mooncakes. In the ad we can identify Kelly as a caring daughter (I guess she is in real life).

Taught a brand communications class last weekend and one of the students asked me whether 曾志偉 is the right celebrity for 奇華. She thinks he's not the right one. I said I'm natural in a sense. I feel that celebrity is over-used in HK but compared with other ads featuring celebrities, the 奇華月餅 ads are not too bad. The argument is that an ad needs a creative idea and whether we should use celebrity depends on whether the celebrity would add value to the ad like image transfer, credibility and attention grabbing. In the case of 奇華月餅 TVC, the lead actor is the the dog actually and the appearance of 曾志偉 reminds us of the brand where 曾志偉 has been established with an image of "father" (and he's in real life) in the past 奇華月餅 TVCs, the receiver of the gift. On the other hand, however, the appearance of 曾志偉 in the 香港奇禮 is not that convincing. While he may be a good father, we can't relate him as a good son. The ad is fun to watch but 曾志偉 doesn't add to the credibilit...

Mid Autumn festival is around the corner. Mooncake is a big gifting market and all brands are competing with heavy A&P and new gimmicky products like low fat/calories, high fiber, 冰皮, 冰燒, strawberry, mango, durian, hazelnuts, almond, red bean paste, green bean paste, you name it. Consumers are dazzled with choices. 花多眼亂, 各師各法. It's interesting to see how people compete with gimmicks in such a small market of HK. Back to this ad, is it gimmick or is it creative ? "It's time to buy your mum a tin of mooncakes" is the key message. There are a lot of improvements to be made : the words are too small, the fonts are hard to read, the product shot is too small, so on and so forth. However, I do appreciate its creative effort in making a difference among the big sea of mooncake ads that look pretty the same.

Weight control drugs like Reductil are prescription drugs. Drugs are for illness and originally weight control drugs are for obese people who may suffer from health problems like diabetes, hypertension, heart disease and so on, due to over-weight. Is it ethical to promote this kind of drugs for slimming and beauty ? Exercising combined with dietary control is the most healthy way to lose weight but the consumer demand for "effortless" weight control is so big. This kind of weight control drugs represents juicy profits for doctors and pharmacies. Doctors make profits prescribing them and pharmacies makes profits selling them to consumers, with or even without prescriptions. Misuse of any drug is hazardous to health. Drug manufacturers are putting marketing efforts directly or indirectly fueling this. It's not only gaming marketing that touches on the issue of ethics. Drug marketing also.

Just by looking at this ad, you wouldn't be able to tell what Mocha is. Don't confused by its name, it has nothing to do with coffee. It is in fact a chain store of slot machine in Macau. I wonder how it came up with such an ad idea. The visual looks quite good but it's just that it's like advertising for cosmetics, fashion, department store or jewelry rather than slot machines. Once again, it shows the gaming industry in Macau does lack good marketers. Looking for a new job ? Think about it.

Not quite interested in the wet toilet tissue paper I mentioned yesterday ? How about tissues with stylish box deigns ? There are Disney cartoon designs by Kleenex and now that its extends the concept to make tissue box like a home decoration item. "The tissues that decorate your home" is not a bad proposition at all. However, I wonder whether these new designs are more expensive than the normal. If yes, are consumer willing to pay the extra bugs for the design of the tissue boxes ? If the price is the same, it may cannibalize the normal. Will both add together to expand market share ? Time will tell.

Like many FMCG products, there must be zero or minimal market growth for tissue papers. Coupled with the entries of the relatively new players like Virjoy and 潔柔 competing on price, I bet the bigger brands like Andrex and Kleenex have been suffering from market share loss. It's not easy to fight back. New product ? Maybe. This is a new flushable wet tissue paper from Andrex. Flushable and pH 5.5 are the two key selling points. But is it attractive enough to change how we use toilet paper, i.e. use wet instead of dry toilet paper ? I think it won't be too popular and will remain niche with the highly hygiene-conscious people.

JCB is not as popular as VISA and Mastercard in Hong Kong. It's more a credit card accepted in Japan. JCB stands for Japan Credit Bureau and it's a Japanese brand of credit card. It's not easy for it to win over VISA and Mastercard where both of them are much more international. Here BEA is trying to position it as the credit card for Japanese dinning and spending at Japanese shops, locally in HK. The positioning is clear and specific and the thinking is appreciated. There may be many Japanese food and merchandise lovers out there but it is still a long way to build this positioning in the mind of the consumers with more effort in merchant line-up and A&P. The fact is that consumers look for wide acceptance and varieties of offers in credit cards.

When there is no new products or new news about your brand, cross-over or special edition is the way to go to generate sales and publicity. This is a good example from LG with quite a massive campaign. On one hand, fans of Andy Lau may buy it as a collectible. On the other, even if you are not a fan of Andy Lau, you will still perceive that he is the endorser of the brand. Andy Lau can have some exposures of himself and his new album too. Not a bad win-win idea at all.

I'm a user of this kind of disposable razor. Old school but I do feel it gives me a better shave than electric shaver. As a user, I'm used to paying attention to what's new about it. And like many consumers, I will consider upgrading my razor every time there is a new launch. Mach 3, M3Power, Sensor with double-blades, triple-blades, vibration and so on. When I saw the TVC for this Gillette Fusion, I laughed. 5+1 blades, 6 blades in total, what's next ??? Gillette is a business unit of P&G which stresses on new products replacing the old. Will this strategy work forever for disposable razors ? Ideas are getting exhausted and consumer benefits are getting marginalized and trivialized with new products. Can it keep on saying it is the best shaving device you can get every time a new razor is launched ? Below is a history of its razor. I really wonder what will be next. Double-blade razor (Trac II, 1971) Disposable double-blade razor (Good News!, 1971) Razor with a pi...

Money makes the world go round. HK is one of the biggest warrant trading market in the world. What's warrant ? It's basically a leveraged investment tool where you buy for the future price of a stock with an amplified rate of return. Many investment houses are promoting their warrants and many individual investors are putting in their money hoping to 刀仔鋸大樹. All these investment houses are investing big money in advertising and marketing. So they must be profiteering from it. In fact, issuing warrants is like running a casino and you are betting your money with the investment houses as the bankers. You win, they lose. Same as casinos, they are playing with the game of probabilities and the payback is not really tied with the probability you bet on. This is how they make money. Macau has casinos, HK has warrants.

Run into credit card debt troubles and even balance transfers can't help ? There is no need to go for bankruptcy ... yet ! There has also been an offspring of IVA and DRP consultants who can help resolve the issues. When the property market was suffering from the economic downturn, many law firms have extended to serve people with debt troubles. It's yet another big business. In the world of consumerism, marketing promotes consumption goods and credit cards fuel more spending while others are deriving businesses from debt problems, all are profiting from it. This is how money makes our world go around. Isn't that amazing ?

I guess all the banks and financial institutions are quite cash rich nowadays. You just receive telemarketing calls and DMs about their loan products under different names every other day. Seems that the balance transfer for credit cards is one big battlefield. There are Credit Gain , Prime Credit , UA Finance , Dah Sing with a "break up with your debts" campaign and this Wing Hang one featuring 鄭中基. THINK POSITIVE is the slogan saying it can solve all your credit card debt problems in one go. While the THINK POSITIVE platform may be of great potential for advertising loan products, the ad lacks real creativity. There is simply too much focus on the wacky act of 鄭中基. It's funny in a way and you remember 鄭中基 and the slogan but you just don't remember it's Wing Hang that is advertising. This is just because 鄭中基 is not really associative with loan products as well as the brand of the bank. I think it's another case of inappropriate use of celebrity.