ThinkNoLimit Marketing Coaching

Let's finish the year with a funny TVC. You might have seen this before but it doesn't matter. It's really fun and worth watching again. Best wishes to all of you in 2008. Will be back on Jan 2.

This is the second VISA TVC for the Olympics featuring Jackie Chan and Yao Ming. In comparison, the first version is more interesting to watch as being fresh. However, when the similar formula is used, it has become very boring in the second version. Don't know what has happened but the production of this second version is not really up to it. All the stunts look faked, the quality of the special effects are as sloppy as "歡樂今宵" and Jackie Chan is like an idiot side by side with Yao Ming. I just wonder whether this second version comes from the same agency of the first one. It's a big disappointment considering the big bugs spent on getting Jackie Chan and Yao Ming into the act.

This TVC has been on air for a couple of weeks but it can be easily missed as the media weight doesn't seem to be very heavy. It's a brilliant ad and I laugh every time I watch it : the pastry shell of the Hargow is so soft and delicate that it reminds you of the lips of your first love. This is what we call creative, an association that is surprising and humourous while articulating the central product benefit at the same time. Best of all, it doesn't cost an arm and a leg to produce. Creative idea is more important than production value. We see too many mega productions featuring big celebrities yet lacking creativity. This is an example of what a great ad should be like.

One of the readers sent this link to me asking me whether these ads of HKICPA would downgrade the professional image of CPA. They potentially do but what the hell ... they are funny and it's X'mas ... Enjoy. My daily post will resume on Dec 27. Have a joyous holiday.

O2 Xda Atom Life for free. Thought that it was a promotion ad from one of the telecos again. Surprise surprise, it's not. It's from an IT education centre called Feva Works. The offer is that if you take this Microsoft Mobile 6 course at HK$5,380, you will get an O2 Xda Atom Life for free (worth HK$5,280). Sounds like a good bargain, doesn't it ? What's the catch ? You can figure it out if you think about it the other way round. You are actually paying for phone and taking a a complimentary course about how to use the Mobile 6 platform in business applications. My fair guess is that the course costs Feva Works nothing to run as it must be taught by Microsoft personnel. Look, it's a good opportunities for Microsoft to educate and hence soft-sell its mobile system platform to IT people who may consider using it for their companies. That's a pretty smart line-up for win-win-win. Feva Works can make a profit, Microsoft can do communications to IT people and the IT p...

I'm putting this TVC for you to "investigate". Is it 林憶蓮 in the TVC ? I keep watch it many times. I guess it is 林憶蓮 but I can't be 100% sure. I 'm puzzled as I don't see her adding any value in the TVC selling pizza. Maybe it's not her at all. I'll leave it for your investigation.

Don't know why Wrigley's relaunches Double Mint. It was the leading brand in an once declining market of chewing gums years ago. The chewing gum market has then been revitalized by Extra with Xylitol, the first sugar free chewing gum for dental protection. Extra is owned by Wrigley's which has made it so successful with such a pioneering positioning. With its other brands like Airwave and Eclipse added up, it should be able to forget about Double Mint in terms of sales and business. The truth is when a brand is so dated, revitalization is not going to be easy. While consumers already have many choices of sugar free gums and candies for fresh breath, I just doubt if Green Tea + Mint for fresh breath as the proposition works for Double Mint. I would rather put the resources elsewhere and leave Double Mint as the giveaway brand in Thai and Korean BBQ restaurants.

This is a new line of sport watches from PUMA called Agitiation. You may fall from the chair like I did when you read the copies. I can understand the thinking behind the ad : when you sell a plastic watch at HK$550, you would just need to think about some catchy selling points for it. The biggest selling point of this watch is the strap. There are holes in the strap (so called cheese cut-out) to make the watch as light as 45 grams so that you can run faster ! What's more, there are so many colours to choose from. It doesn't matter whether you have a fair or tanned skin complexion ... there's one for you ... I bet this watch is produced and marketed under licence granted by the brand owner of PUMA. Too bad that the licence is given to the wrong hands. It's Ok if this watch doesn't sell as it is the business of the licensee after all. However, a BS ad like this may have negative image impact on the PUMA brand in a way.

Corporate communication is about building reputation, positive image and favourable attitude of the public towards the company. This is exactly what this P&G corporate TVC tries to do. P&G is a multi-brand company and it is the company that owns loads of FMCG brands we use in our daily lives. I guess many consumers do not know that. Its 20th anniversary is the right excuse to remind consumers. Targeting at female consumers, the TVC takes an emotional approach to communicating the fact that its products are in all stages of life. If you pay attention to corporate ads, you would find that stage of life is a very common theme in many corporate ads.

Black is cool and up-market but I just hate this kind of "black on black" execution. Black product on black background. Just can't see clearly what the product is like ... A pair of sports shoes with the "East meets west" design concept. It costs HK$2,700 (!) How can it demand such a high price ? I'll leave you to read the copies (just click onto the image) and have a good laugh. It is said that there are only 1,200 pair in the whole world and HK is allocated with 90 pairs only. Well I think 90 pairs should be enough for HK. Can consider keeping a spare pair in the museum too !

Air and food pollutions are getting worse in HK and they are the concerns of many of us. Pollutions are health threats but none of us, except the government, can do anything about it. Interesting that AIG has taken pollution as the topic to sell its medical insurance. The ad has kind of answered the what-if question : if we fall ill because of pollutions, will the insurance cover us ? The answer is yes. Sounds like something special uniquely offered by AIG. But I'm sure many other medical insurances by other companies also cover these. Well, it doesn't matter. In advertising, the first one who make the claim first owns that claim in the mind of consumers.

Just finished a positioning seminar for Macau Telecom yesterday. We said that positioning is all about the inter-linkages among the target segment, their need and the benefit we offer in simple terms. Positioning is an important driver before the other 4Ps, especially before we invest in marketing communications. If we take look at this TVC in the context of positioning, we can easily find that it is very much an empty talk. Wharf T&T is said to help businesses in their communication needs. But what communication needs ? How does it help ? With what ? Marketing communications should be used to communicate a positioning. Otherwise, it can just serves to uplift the awareness of the brand. It reminds us Wharf has telecommunication services for businesses. So what ?

Wai Yuen Tong has been trying to position itself as the No. 1 expert in traditional Chinese medicines. Interesting that it uses an iconic Kung Fu master to represent the brand. It's a personification approach to say that Wai Yuen Tong is strong and skillful in helping you fight against illnesses. I bet this campaign can build quite a strong image for the brand. It's also great to see that it manages to use the same Kung Fu concept on its product ads like this one. It's visually interesting using Tai Chi/Yin-Yang to spell out the benefit of its hair supplement. My only complaint is the colour combination : the key visual is not standing out enough.

Everyone is talking about health. We have low calories, low fat, light, low sodium, high calcium, no saturated fat, no preservatives, all natural ... seems that anything in the name of health can sell. Tabasco is 100% natural. Is it something consumer care about ? I wonder. Even if it is not natural, it won't kill you with a couple of drops added to your food anyway. Putting it the other way, will people use it more if it is all natural ? Don't quite understand the thinking behind ...

Speaking of high technology, here is another example of new product idea. Konica Minolta has this multi-functional copier that will monitor its own health continuously. As the copies say, it will diagnose problems and automatically call in maintenance before they happen and even re-order supplies for you. How does it do all these ? My wild guess is that it must take some connection to the computerized maintenance centre somewhere. But too bad that there is no mentioning in the copies. The ad is targeted at business users I suppose and they are more rational in purchases. This kind of details are needed to convince.

This is an interesting watch technology. This watch has an antenna that picks up radio signal to adjust itself to ensure the highest accuracy. Have a look at the copies. Doesn't it sound great ? You may ask who would need a watch that varies from the standard time by one second in 100,000 years. Here is the catch. Consumers don't just think about functionality. When a new technology sounds so advanced, people may buy it just for its novelty. I remember Tissot called T-Touch. By touching the face of the watch, the hands move to show you temperature, altitude, air-pressure and so on. Probably no one need all these functions but I see many people wear it. Novelty sells.

Somehow it seems to me that Motorola has only one model of phone - Razr. It has been around for ages although there are new versions of it with different upgrades and functions. In mobile phone, consumers are keen on newness and a brand can't just live on one model by extending the product life cycle for forever with new versions and new campaigns. The TVC we see is a good one. Enjoyable actions blended with catchy music. No complaint but it doesn't tell you any new news : the same old Razr sold on the same old slimness proposition. The HSPDA/3.5G function is supposed to be "new". Well, it's just new on Razr but it's not new to consumers. How can it win some good sales ? BTW, have a look at the print ad below. It is supposed to be in the same campaign with the TVC selling Razr 2 V9. The look and feel is associative with the TVC but the girl dresses like a Ninja ... the TVC has nothing to do with Ninja ... very strange ...

While PCCW and HK Broadband are still fighting, Smartone has quietly launched a competitive print, also against PCCW. The ad is about its wireless broadband service. In the print ad, the (broken) modem on the left parodies with the Netvigator Everywhere modem that selects the best network among 3G, HSPDA and WiFi (look closer by clicking on the image). PCCW and HK Broadband are fighting in the fixed line broadband arena, talking about optical fibre coverages. In fact my fair guess is that wireless broadband should be the battlefield in the future. If any of the telcos is able to offer good wireless broadband coverage, at home and out-of-home, at a reasonable price, say HK$200-300, people may cut their fixed line broadband at home and go wireless. It will be like mobile phones replacing fixed line phones. As far as I know, many people are no long using fixed line phone service nowadays, they just use mobile phone at home. At HK$100 per month, you get more than 1,000 minutes ...

Just finished watching all 5 programs of the Art of Commercials show at the Arts Centre last weekend. The TVCs from the UK and Japan are always brilliant and Thailand and India are catching up. Those Thai and Indian TVCs are not really mega productions but you would just appreciate their creativity and good sense of humour. The show also included some award-winning TVCs from Hong Kong. If you really compare HK TVCs with those foreign productions, you would fund ours are much more conservative. Well, I'm not trying to undermine the creativity of our HK agencies. Sometimes, it is the clients who are not daring enough to take new creative ideas ... UK ads do have an unique sense of humour. I have found an UK Tango TVC (below) that was shown in the show. It's a parody with the award-winning Sony Bravia TVC (above) which you might have seen before. Would you take something like this if you were the client ? BTW, the Art of Commercials show is still on until Dec 8. Your l...