ThinkNoLimit Marketing Coaching

For those who attended my class yesterday, you heard "Analogy/Metaphor" is a common creative direction in HK. Here is another example. Chocolates are about having a time out and enjoyment, what we call category motivator. In this ad, spa is used as the analogy. Is it a creative analogy ? I would just say it's a valid one. When it comes to the execution, the trouble is that people may take it as yet another spa ad and miss it. So how do we adjust the execution ? Maybe we could explore different perspectives of the shot to make it less similar to what we are used to see in a typical spa ad.

This is an emotionally appealling ad for sure. But I think it's overdone. The executional style is quite retro. And when you take a close look at the facial expressions of the talents, they are more like in a sad moment. Ok Ok you may say marriage is about leaving your mum. But come on, we are in space shuttle era. Nowadays, we are conveniently connected to our mums by MTR, KCR, Boeing 747, IDD and Internet. No need to be too sad...

This ad features a nice picture. But I'm pretty confused by this ad. First, branding is weak. Second, I'm not sure about how the key message is delivered. The key message seems to be "the world is ever-changing but our high service standards never change". The question is whether this key message is delivered hand-in-hand by the headline and the key visual. Not really. Then I looked at the support supposedly in the body copies at the bottom. It says "Paris, London, San Francis...covers more than 55 major cities". ???? BTW, interested to know what it say at the upper right hand corner ? It says "First to fly A380 in 2006"..... A good creative delievry is something more than picking a nice picture and paste whatever you want to paste !

It's not easy to execute a promotional ad well. When I first saw this ad, I thought it was about some pet shop ad selling dog accessories and stuff, until I saw the small logo on the upper right hand corner and the mini product shot at the bottom. The problem with this ad is about the "all-you-can paste" mindset : "since there is space, why not..." , "we have a lot of gifts to offer, why don't we feature all our attractive gifts". The results is, as you can see, a cluttered ad that fails to draw people's attention with a visual focus. There are some better ways to it. Put the list of gifts online or print some leaflets to place at points of purchase. Let's avoid overloading our ads and give our readers some room. Yes, it's always tempting to put more...

If you have attended the effective marcom management course before, you must have learned "Surreal" as a creative direction. The recent Caltex Techron TV ad is another example. The petrol cleanses your engine as if a bunch of Caltex workers sweeping the dirts inside different parts of the engine. This particular ad is well-executed. However, we have to be careful when we are to take "surreal" creative direction. If overdone, we may run into credibility issue.

You may say I'm "老土". You may not consider this a very creative ad that is worth talking. I bring this up because this is one of the good ones among many promotional ads that I have seen. Why ? Promotional ads are more difficult than thematic ads. First of all, it's not easy to come up with a promotion mechanics that matches with the proposition of our product. Secondly, when it comes to the execution of the promotional ad, we often struggle on how to use the offers of the promotion to call target audience to action effectively. In this case, "親子" is the category motivator of bread. Through giving good qaulity bread to their children, it satisfies parents' desires for healthy growth and development of their children. And this promotion exactly matches the proposition by offering prizes and gifts that help children's growth and development. Featuring a happy mother and a cherrful daughter together to depict the benefits of consumption is simple and ef

"Our dietitians stand by you !" But is the dietitian standing a little bit too close to the client ? 專業, 貼心 , I agree. His chest is really sticking tight to her chest ! This is what they mean by "貼心". It's an ad that generates a lot of imagination for those who want to lose weight ...

Friday night. Halfly drunk as usual. And I saw this new TV ad about Cathay Pacific sponsored Rugby Seven. It struck me. Long time since an ad really impressed me the first time. The idea is simple : all ball games featured are played with rugby balls. That is the abruption that grabs my attention. Two thumbs up for CX and their agency. Congratulations.

The key visual, a lady sitting on a flower comfortably, can really generate imagination about this electric toilet seat. I must say it is a really good attempt. However, if you cover up the lower part of the ad, what kind of ad you can think of ? Sanitary Napkin ad. Well sanitary napkin and this electric toilet seat are both about hygiene and it may be difficult to avoid coming up with something similar. This is the creative challenge. BTW, the brand name "eLu" is interesting.

The other day one of my friends in marketing asked me whether I have seen a "永明金融" TV ad, saying that it was quite good. I said "No, I don't remember". Then she described the ad : "a financial consultant talks fast and non-sense and the other takes the effort to explain to client's understanding ...." Then I said "Yes I have definitely seen it..." Afterwards, I paid special attention to this ad and from hindsight, branding in this ad is quite weak. I heard the VO mention about "永明金融" and then I saw a brief Super of branding at the end. A matter of 1-2 seconds. That's it. A good ad is wasted if we can't turn executional cut-through into branded cut-through.

Have been working on a course about bradning. Seen a few quotes and would like to share with you : "Every brand builder will face a million temptations to obscure, dilute, or confuse his or her brand message. These temptations fall under two general headings: boredom and the desire for growth." - David F. D'Alessandro, Brand Warfare "What's your brand? If you can't answer that question about your own brand in two or three words, your brand's in trouble." - Al Ries "Brand is the 'f' word of marketing. People swear by it, no one quite understands its significance and everybody would like to think they do it more often than they do" - Mark di Soma, Audacity Group "Well-managed brands live on - only bad brand managers die." - George Bull "Marketing is not selling. Marketing is building a brand in the mind of the prospect." - Al Ries & Laura Ries Enjoy !

Have you ever heard parents complaining about their kids being too energetic ? They say they don't have the energy and strong enough backbone to play with their kids. Here is the solution - Caltrate. In this ad, the functional and emotional benefits of the product are well-conveyed. More importanly, it is relevant to the target audience : women in their 30's who are normally in the life-stage of having an engetic and demanding 5-6 year old kid.

The intended key message of this ad is clear to us : Sandisk has a wide variety of products to suit your different needs. And the creative idea makes use of an analogy with a Pantone Guide. That's the trouble. If our target audience have never seen a Pantone Guide before, how can they be connected with such analogy ? Then this has become an issue of relevance.

YO2 is the brand name of the air-ticket + hotel + flexible guided tour packages by Hong Thai Travel. The name is quite clever. On one hand, it's an acronym of "Your Own Tour". On the other, YO2 as a "word" is quite catchy to appeal to younger travellers. A thumb up.

Have you seen the the TV ad of Salonpas ? I think it has a remarkable creative idea - a mouth on the painful muscle shouting "Salonpas, Salonpas...". The idea is very relevant as if you have muscle pains before, the pains really shout at you.

This series of ad is certainly qualified as a campaign that is able to achieve their strategic intent of usage extension. Happy faces of children are relevant to mothers, key visuals are attention grabbing, products shots are prominent and the key message is clearly delivered.

There is nothing wrong to feature our product as the hero but we still need to think about how our key message is delivered. In this ad the key message = headline. A creative idea is missing to generate imagination and deliver the key message.

Let's just focus on the key visual. This icon is a very good one that represents what the product is all about : wildlife cordyceps granulated into capsules - the real thing. Adding the branding to this icon, it becomes handy to apply to different communications vehicles.

You may ask why I put up this ad as you would not be able to see what it's trying to tell you except it's about LCD/Palmas TV. This is exactly the point. This ad has a very unique execution where there is a small caption underneath every single visual. It's very information rich and if you can't see the small captions, you are just too old to be their tagert audience...

This is an eample that a good ad doesn't necessarily cost us an arm and leg to produce. The key message is clear "Calriflu is a complete flu remedy". "Omission" as the creative idea is used in this case.

Allow me to change the topic and let's leave ads for a while. Has anyone tried this new bottle of Lee Kam Kee Oyster Sauce ? I tell you it's an outstanding design. You just squeeze the sauce upside down and there is no drip. No drip at all ! Try it ! In marketing, adopting such an innovative packaging is never an easy decision. In the case of Lee Kam Kee, I think the struggle is whether to keep the old glass bottle packaging which may represent high quality to those older loyal consumers. Easy ! Keep both until the retail chains complain ! Well, probably proactive SKU/channel strategy has a role to play.

This ad is funny. There must be a creative intent but I don't get it. Is it "I want one-to-one and there is no need for man" ? Will someone tell me please ? At the same time, are you aware of the logo at the top left hand corner ? Logo design and its placement are as important as having a good creative idea.

The message of this ad is very clear : "Aeon is your key to your dreams". But because of the selection of background, the visual of the keys is buried and focus of attention is lost or not prominent enough. A darker background would do a better job, agree ?

We see many ads use usage occasion as creative idea. In this case, the ad encourages consumers to consume Mr. Brown for breakfast with a key message "a breakfast is not complete without Mr. Brown". However, is there any room for improvement in terms of execution ? In fact, using usage occasions to promote our product is a marketing strategy. In this case, the implication is that we will need to back it up with distribution of Mr. Brown into "breakfast related" point of purchase like bakery shops, food stalls and so on.

Yes, I pay special attention to hair loss remedy ad. I always wonder whether these things work and one day I'll need to give it a try.... This ad used a male lion to associate with the benefits of a hair loss remedy. It's brilliant, inexpensive to produce and attention grabbing. And as a male audience suffering from hair loss, I'm aspired - to become a male lion again...