ThinkNoLimit Marketing Coaching

When a celebrity gets well-known and popular, his or her appearance is everywhere, TV programs, events and advertising. It's Ah So this time round. The fact is that a celebrity is also a brand, a personal brand to be exact. Nevertheless, the trouble is there are ups and downs in the career of a celebrity. His or her popularity comes and goes fast like a shooting star. We had 張達明, 黃子華, 詹瑞文, 梁文韜 who appeared on TV all the time. Where are they now ? The entertainment industry is about exploitation. That's the downside of using celeberity -you attach your brand to a celebrity, you run the risk of sustainability.

I had a positioning workshop talking about digital camera positioning a couple of weeks ago. Many DCs are competing with hi-tech features and using them as the main selling message in their ads. That's why we have been seeing so many demonstration type of ads of DCs, face detection, focus tracking, digital leveling and so on. Sony Cybershot T-series is an exception as it doesn't trumpet much about the features in their ads like 10 megapixel and the HD video recording function. It's more positioned as a gadget for the young with cool styling and wider colour selection. That's quite a differential positioning in the big sea of DCs selling features and functions.

A follow-up from the previous post . Here is the TVC that supports the bundled price offer by one2free. The idea comes from equating the offer as a piece of unbelievable news, just like Friday has become a legalized public holiday. Such news come in on newspaper in the TVC. I just wonder whether it would be better if the idea is executed on the actual newspaper medium. If it has to be on TV, why not feature a faked TV reporting scene ? That could be more catchy.

It's very common for restaurant chains to launch new menu and food from time to time to create excitment and newness. 味千拉麵 also comes without an exception. 愛情豚肉拉麵, what a gimmicky name ! But what is it about ? Too bad the ad doesn't tell. In fact the ad is an adoptation of the image ad launched during the IPO of the company. I suppose if this 愛情豚肉拉麵 has something unique to talk about, maybe it's worth producing a dedicated TVC for the launch. After all, a new product launch by a good single-minded ad can generate trials and revenue. Why not ?

Advertising is a product of consumerism and it sometimes sells you something that you don't need. Dietary supplement is not something you need if you have balanced diets. Who doesn't want their kids to be smart and healthy ? This is exactly what this ad is trying to leverage on. The fact is that the recommended daily intake of Vitamin C for adult is just 75-90 mg and the tolerable upper intake level (adult) is 2,000 mg per day. What do need kids need 1,000 mg of Vitamin C for ? Having said all these, this ad is quite catchy.

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 ...

Meko is running a Halloween TV campaign with two ads in sandwich buy. Is it a promotional campaign or an image building campaign riding on Halloween ? Probably it's yet another one-stone-kills-two-birds initiative. The whole thing is a complete flop. First the voice-over can't be heard clearly (guess that's why there are subtitles). Second sandwich buy is a waste of money. We just don't expect viewers to sit tight, watch both ads, connect the two together and figure out what it is trying to sell. Third the production can't be adopted for later use for image building as it rides on Halloween which only lasts for a month. It's very tactical in nature and why not just focus on the Halloween promotion with a stronger call-to-action message ?