Blogs \ Product Launch

Blogs can be used very effectively for product launches. Instead of creating a mini-site everytime an ad client wants to have special space for a product launch or maintaining a completely seperate site for product launches which likely will not be configured to suit all products why not use blogs?

It is often the case that when these opportunities arise your technology team or provider cannot move fast enough to help publishers take advantage of the opportunity and the price usually outweighs any profit which might have been made

By using blogs we can simply ask for:

1) The photos
2) Text
3) Videos
4) Links
5) Email lists

that an ad clients want to include and in no time you have a great mini-site that is interactive and can be linked internally or externally depending on client requirements

Below find a sample automotive release blog for the Mazda Ryuga

Mazda Ryuga Concept - Gull Wing Magic in Detroit

MAZDA RYUGA CONCEPT: AN EVOLVED ZOOM-ZOOM

DETROIT – How will Mazda’s Zoom-Zoom spirit achieve form and substance in the future? Laurens van den Acker, Design Division General Manager for Hiroshima, Japan’s Mazda Motor C orporation , disturbed the status-quo and challenged every designer in his three global studios with that very question upon his arrival at Mazda early last year.

After months of soul searching, hundreds of sketches and thousands of discussions, meetings, arguments and revisions, the first part of the answer was unveiled at the recent Los Angeles Auto Show. Mazda’s provocative Nagare (pronounced “nah-gah-reh”) – Japanese for “flow” – concept introduced a new surface language that evokes the emotion of motion in a stationary automobile.

Nagare is one of a hundred or more Japanese words that describe the embodiment of motion – such as how wind shapes desert sand, the way currents stir the ocean’s floor or the way waves lap at the shores of a lake. van den Acker explains, “Nagare is purposely emotional and expressive. Anyone who sees it is drawn for a closer look; they’re moved to caress surfaces inspired by nature, to understand how they could work on an automobile.

“But we wanted to take the idea further,” van den Acker continued. “The Ryuga concept we’re presenting in Detroit is our next step in the evolution of Nagare. It’s an exploratory design study that’s more realistic than Nagare and therefore more useful in gauging reactions from those who see it.

“To put this in fashion terms, if Nagare is haute couture (a custom designed and tailored garment), Ryuga is prêt-a-porter (ready-to-wear, not one of a kind).”

RYUGA: “ree-yoo-ga,” Japanese for gracious flow...

For more see - www.autocult.com.au/

by MrWeb2 03 Feb 2007 1

Comments

MrWeb2 says:

By the way the entire blog including upload of photos took less than 10 minutes

03 Feb 2007 - 12:50 Melbourne

MrWeb2 says:

Look I found this great video too of the Ryuga to enhance the interactivity and create some additional buzz around Mazda and Ryuga specifically

03 Feb 2007 - 12:51 Melbourne

MrWeb2 says:

Mazda or its agency might partipate in this discussion or monitor it - in the US blog monitoring is already a huge business and comments on blogs are guiding the US Presidential campaign in a big way

03 Feb 2007 - 12:54 Melbourne

MrWeb2 says:

You can put up a picture and a description and hyperlink in less than 30 seconds

You can facilitate advertising within editorial within the context and purpose that it makes the most sense, give advertisers better ROI and also give smaller advertisers a finite context in which it is actually worth placing an ad!

Your speed to market capability will allow you take advantage of trends and the hot products as they become available - drawing attention to either publisher products and services or advertisers products and services

04 Feb 2007 - 10:29 Melbourne

MrWeb2 says:

Unilever's brand Dove ran a campaign in which they engaged with the public about what was "real beauty" - as you will see in this screen shot from their web site - they invite people to participate with pictures and tell their story - basically a blog with images - Then they may have taken these stories and used them in other forms of advertising

Publishers can easily leverage this type of campaign using the CHV

I am sure Unilever's ad agency made $m's from this idea

This campaign was so successful that they interviewed the subjects of the campaign on Oprah

08 Feb 2007 - 12:12 Melbourne

MrWeb2 says:

Jeep Harnesses UGC For Patriot Launch
by Gavin O'Malley, Friday, Feb 9, 2007 6:00 AM ET
WORKING WITH MARVEL COMICS, JEEP is asking comic buffs to go online and help construct the plot of a story spotlighting its Patriot compact SUV.

Marvel artist Bing Cansino has laid the story's foundation with five pages, which people can now find on Jeep's microsite, PatriotAdventure.com. To complete the 28-page comic, Cansino will draw from ideas submitted by fans who are being encouraged to weave the car's features into the story line.

The project, which reflects a popular trend in consumer-assisted ads, is the forerunner to a multi-channel national ad blitz for the Patriot, which is slated to break next month. Omnicom Group's Organic developed the microsite with the help of sister agency BBDO, which will handle broadcast and print initiatives come March.

"This is just a pre-launch campaign to garner initial interest," said Organic's Adam Wilson, creative director on the Jeep account. Since the rise of YouTube and the blogosphere, consumer-created ads have become quite trendy on Madison Avenue. During this year's Super Bowl, General Motors' Chevrolet and PepsiCo's Doritos brand, among others, ran spots that were either created by or inspired by consumers.

Analysts seem generally encouraging about this new trend in consumer-made ads, although they say it's not for every brand.

[Source: Excerpt from MediaPost.com

10 Feb 2007 - 10:06 Melbourne

MrWeb2 says:

Scion Pre-Launches 2008 Model On Web
by Karl Greenberg, Tuesday, Mar 6, 2007 6:00 AM ET
TOYOTA'S SCION DIVISION IS RUNNING a pre-launch campaign for its forthcoming 2008 xB, but it doesn't include TV or print. In some ways, it is as much about a multi-layer Web site as it is about the vehicle itself.

That's not unusual for Scion--which tends to rely more on viral and guerrilla, as well as grassroots, efforts more than traditional media. The new Web site is a waggish virtual world offering up an assortment of "places"--six in all, two more coming--that consumers can choose to visit, through which the xB roams and in which they can view ironic videos featuring people and animals with cubic heads.

The Torrance, Calif. company this week reported sales of 17,960 vehicles through February this year, and a 23% drop in sales, including a 29% drop in xB sales year-to-date through February.

Attik, San Francisco, which is Scion's agency, created the campaign--but did not shoot the 17 videos on the Web site. Rather, Attik says, the agency sent out a creative brief to more than 100 videographers, then culled the 17 from the 140 entries it received. The account has been with that shop from the get-go.

The site also hosts a raft of multiplayer games, half designed by the agency and some by game maker Bunchball.

[Source: Excerp

07 Mar 2007 - 10:19 Melbourne

MrWeb2 says:

Patriot Adventure web site for release of the New Jeep Patriot

15 Mar 2007 - 09:51 Melbourne

MrWeb2 says:

Pepsi Puts Tools In Place For Consumers To Create Can
by Nina M. Lentini, Thursday, Apr 5, 2007 6:00 AM ET
FEEDING INTO YOUNG CONSUMERS' DESIRE to discover and personalize, Pepsi is offering anyone a chance to design a can and win 10 grand. The tools to do it are online at designourpepsican.com

It's all part of the beverage giant's 2007 initiative to make its product new and exciting by changing the design 35 times throughout the year, letting consumers design a billboard for the company, which is up in New York's Times Square, and now offering its can as blank canvas.

The winning design will appear on 500 million Pepsi cans in national distribution, the company says.

Would-be artists can use tools that are available online or their own design programs. The top designs, determined by an in-house panel, will be posted at the site, where consumers will vote for the winner.

"We did an extensive global youth trends study, and the key findings were that young people embrace change, they're constantly exploring and they're into personalization," says a Pepsi spokesperson. "We believe the best way to connect with them is to offer a world of online discovery through our ever-changing packaging. The Pepsi package designs feature unique Web addresses that take consumers to exclusive online content, games, contests and sweepstakes."

In upcoming months, consumers can expect to see three special cans designed by musicians The All-American Rejects, Big & Rich and Pharrell Williams. These cans will feature Web site addresses that will take fans to exclusive footage of the artists and offer information on their new projects.

[Source: MediaPost.com]

It probably would have been an even better idea to tie this promotion to a larger promotion which was placed on portal so that entire campaign could be used to draw traffic to the design-a-can URL