ThinkNoLimit Marketing Coaching

Everybody can afford 100M broadband service as it's only HK$99 a month. Isn't this Hong Kong Broadband TVC a bit disappointing in terms of creativity ? The production value looks quite high though. There are different scenes and if the Lamborghini is not computer-retouched onto the scene, you will need to either move the car around to different places or build different sets. It's costly either way. The only merit of this ad is that the Lamborghini becomes the mnemonic device of the speedy broadband and it can be easily applied in different 2D media. Yet compared with the previous Ads of HK Broadband, I still prefer the creative idea driven ones of the past.

Yahoo! has been airing an infomerical on TVB. It tells us the most searched buzzwords of today. It's something nice to know but why does Yahoo! do that ? Tell us that it's the number one search engine in Hong Kong ? Perhaps. So as to promote the search traffic to the site in a soft-selling, indirect way ? Maybe. Or it tries to promote the Most Searched Buzzword site, buzz.yahoo.com.hk ? Have a look at this site. What's the thinking behind it ? I wonder if this is a new serach advertising option for advertisers or it's simply intended for projecting the search engine leadership image.

Here is an ad from ebay. Basically it's selling the similar thing as the Yahoo! Auction ad that I posted yesterday. Let's do a little comparison. Could I say this ebay ad is stronger playing on Mark Six as the creative idea ? Both ads try to use one stone to kill two birds while selling the benefits of setting up own e-business and announcing sales promotions at the same time. The promotion of ebay is even more distant as it's a sales contest. The promotion mechanic is more for the existing users of ebay. The chance of getting new users with this promotion mechanic is slim. Look, when we do promotion, we need to think about the objectives we try to achieve.

When job security is low and unemployment rate is getting higher, Yahoo! has picked the right time to promote its online store/auction service. The ad is loaded with a lot of messages : the goodness of having an online store, call for action to check out the success stories online and the promotion offers. The promotion offers are most prominent in the ad. It goes with the thinking that promotion offer motivates consumers to purchase. Is it always true ? In this case, consumers would need to take some time to consider whether online store is something of value to them and figure out what to sell. Promotion is more like the last deal-making step. So would it be better to put the communication of the promotion offers online after consumers have checked out the success stories ?

Some of the services of PCCW make you wonder whether they will sell at all. Like the EYE fixed line multi-media service , it is innovative for sure but who would use it ? Yet, one service that makes sense to me is Moov, the online jukebox service. Since the rise of MP3 and the Internet, the sales of CDs has been on the way down. Some record companies attempted to sell per song download before but have come without much success. The fact is record companies are no longer making money from selling songs but from concerts and shows. The more people have listen to their songs, the higher the chance they have for filling up the stadium and getting some humble profits. And what about online jukebox ? Would record companies make a fortune out of the tie-up with Moov ? Probably not. The monthly fee is as low as HK$48 and at the end there isn't too much money on the table to share. It's just a way to increase listenership for their songs and gaining exposures for their singers like the ...

Yahoo! is running this search competition. The more you search on Yahoo!, the higher the chance you can win some prizes. It's a promotion that you don't need to buy anything or spend a penny to win a prize. So what's the catch ? I think it's a good promotion idea that could kill two birds with one stone. On one hand, it could potentially build itself as the search engine of choice against Google amongst the users. On the other, it could promote its search traffic to support the sales of search advertising to advertisers. So literally it is the advertisers of Yahoo! paying for the fabulous prizes.

Yahoo! has launched a new e-store platform for auctioning. Stemming from the "normal" auctioning, it's an added platform for those people who are willing to pay a bit more for added services to do their trades better. Logically the strategy is to position it against leasing of traditional physical stores. The ad says it all with a simple creative. A good example that if we are able to position our products and services clearly in a focussed manner, our ads can be more easily done nicely to convey a single-minded message.

Long time no see ads using spoof/parody as creative approach. Zuji has just done one. The idea is to twist around commonly known matters or visuals to catch attention and send a message. This ad mimics The Economist and parodies with breakoutof financial news to communicate their price promotion. It's always great to see advertisers making more different creative attempts.

This is a rather strange marriage : a co-brand credit card between MSN and Liu Chong Hing Bank. It appears to me it's just yet another co-brand card and the welcome gifts are pretty common too. It takes two to dance but why ? MSN is a brand virtual community brand that earns its revenue from online advertising. Its business model is not about selling physical products or services whereas credit cards are for making real purchases. Then what's the catch ? While we are scratching our heads, let's open our eyes to see whether there are next steps of development that would convinces us it's a "right" marriage.

Are you aware that e-Bay and Yahoo advertise recently on traditional media channels like TV and prints ? It's an interesting phenomenon if we come to think about how they started their business. Yes it's the Internet. The Internet was considered to be a medium that would eat up the share of traditional media. Has this happened ? Yes but only to a certain extent. We are still overloaded by traditional media. There are more magazines. There are more ads at the MTR stations. There are more product placements in the TV dramas. And there are more short 10" TV infomercials where we are confused of what they are trying to sell. Coming back to the Internet brands. They are business models on the Net, trying to sell us something, like brick-and-mortar shops. Utilizing traditional media to advertise in order to draw traffic is not a bad idea. But the key has become how they will ride on their brand image built on the Net to build their brands in traditional media. Such "brand t...