ThinkNoLimit Marketing Coaching

Don't know the proper name of this comic-type advertising. Just seen a couple fo them lately. Using comic execution to advertise is not new but not too popular. I guess one reason is that the use of story-telling to soft-sell a product or a service can be quite costly. Like in this case, two pages are used and we still can't figure out what message it is trying to deliver. An alternative idea is to sponsor an actual comic book with product placement and storyline blended in, like what OSIM, P&G and the Jockey Club are doing with the dramas on TVB. However, too bad that the glory of local comic books has passed with shrinking readership. Otherwise it could be good alternative to traditional advertising.

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.

I have saved this Chinese New Year ad for quite a while as I have been trying to figure out the thinking behind it. Maybe I'd better off show it to you and let you help me. It tries to play with "雙喜", that we all know. But what is the 喜-look-alike word on the right ? I have looked at it at different angles and tried to figure what it means. To me, it reads "HAFY" (?). Other than that, anyone has any clue ? Is the ad too clever or am I just too dumb ?

Keep eyes open is headline. Definitely your eyes turn wide open when you see this ad of Mirama Shopping Centre. An eye-ball in the mouth. I always try to keep an open mind but this is just too scary. You may say it's a visual art and yes it's a visual art for selling a horror movie. Imagine what if we turn this visual into a poster and hang it over the shopping centre. We can turn the shopping centre into a house of horror. Halloween is still another ten months away !

It's a funny visual that catches our eyes. The message is "don't live in the stone age of old electrical appliances". The idea is there. How do we make good use of it ? First, we need to manage the execution carefully. Look, there is no body copies per se. All the details and headlines, whatever you'd like to call them, are not really placed in a reader-friendly manner. Do we expect our reader to eye-ball search all the words ? What's more, it is not selling any solid benefits that attract consumer to check out the exhibition. It just says "the biggest and hottest exhibition". As a consumer, I just feel indifferent.

Another 無厘頭 ad. First where is the branding ? WTC stands for World Trade Centre, 世貿中心. We know. But can we guarantee everyone knows ? "Listen more" is the headline. I thought it was selling some speakers or MP3s. I read the line below. The writing is very poetic. What is it trying to sell ? I wonder. Then there is a line "more is coming, more is leasing". Ok now I know what it is talking about. But so what ???

I simply don't understand the objective of this free-parking promotion. It's a "collection" of different promotion entitlements. First, if you have a "9" in your ID card number, you will get 3-hour free parking (you will definitely get it by simple probability calculation plus the fact that there are passengers in your car). Second, if your birth month is September, you will get a birthday cake. And finally, if you spend HK$200 or more, you also get 3-hour free-parking. Compared with 3-hour free parking open to all, what is the difference ? But they so choose to complicate the promotion with all the different entitlements. BTW, why September is so special to Hollywood Plaza ?

Where is Grand Century Place ? It's the 新世紀廣場 in Mongkok. This is another example how a potentially good creative idea is wasted because of poor execution. The creative idea combines the visuals of a soccer field and the outlook of 新世紀廣場 to announce the XBOX soccer competition. The trouble is that people cannot tell it is 新世紀廣場 from the outlook of it. It's not an architectural landmark that everyone recognizes. And the headline spells Grand Century Place in English. How would people know that the promotion takes place at 新世紀廣場 ????? The creative idea is there but it can't sell just because of negligence.

This is a great ad in artistic sense. A shot of the back of a car that looks like a beautiful human body. For those who attended my class before, do you remember what this type of creative idea is called ? "Different perspective" - an unusual perspective of the product to generate imaginations. When you look at this ad, what kinds of imaginations are generated ? Sexy, powerful and mysterious. But note this is a free parking ad. So although it's a great ad in artistic sense, it is probably off-brief. That is, an inappropriate creative idea is used to convey the key message.

World Cup fever is in Langham Place ! They makes use of World Cup as a theme to run a simple lucky draw promotion to win a trip to Germany to see the World Cup. Such promotion mechanics is rather me-too but their ad is pretty good. A bizarre representation of the fever is taken to draw people attention. The only setback is the branding where people may not be able to find out it's a Langham Place's or LG's promotion at a quick glance.

The message and objective of this ad are very clear. Creative wise, it catches people's attention and really to-the-point. The problem is about the objective of this promotion. Ok it sounds like a good gimmick to offer free parking for all cars with plate number starting with "4" in April. But I wonder what can be achieved out of such promotion except slashing income. If I'm the "lucky" one who happens to have a car with plate number starting with 4, will I be tempted to go to one of the specific shopping malls ? Just because of the free parking ? And if I'm not the lucky one (9 out of 10), the ad is irrelevant to me. So come to think of it, if the ad is talking to such a limited number of people, is it worthwhile to do an ad in the first place ?