Blog o' RAMA

Cannes Advertising Festival: Day 5, Last Day

Today was our final day at the advertising festival, and it definitely went out with a bang!

The first part of the day we spent in a seminar with IdeaManagement, Mike will talk to you about that one.

After that, we decided we'd check out the screenings of the winning commercials in the theatre. We were planning on attending another seminar in the early afternoon, but were drawn into the commercials so much we couldn't leave!

The winning commercials that we saw were in the segments of Food, Alcoholic and Non-alcoholic drinks, and automobiles. What was very interesting was the rise that the Ballpark commercials got from the crowd. These commercials were very "American" with their "in your face" style. The campaign was "hunger gets what hunger wants," and each advertisement showed an arm coming out of your stomach and basically beating you up until you eat. The crowd laughed so hard and applauded these ads every time.  Here is a YouTube link to one of the commercials. 

I also found the alcoholic ads to be very interesting. Much like the automobile advertisements I discussed in an earlier blog, there is a major difference between the campaigns in this segment, based on the type of product. In this case, it was the difference between liquor advertisements and beer advertisements. In general, the beer companies focused on humor and crass jokes in their advertisements, while more liquor companies would use very rich production, to convey the quality of their product.

A very good example of this was in one of the Johnnie Walker whiskey commercials. The commercial was an android discussing the differences between humans and robots, and how the robot wished he had feelings and emotions. Then, the end conveyed the quality of Johnnie Walker whiskey. It was a very well produced advertisement, and a very high-end feel to it. 

Here is the YouTube link to the Johnnie Walker ad.  This was a  major departure from what you would normally think of coming from in the alcoholic drinks segment. 

After these advertisements, we checked out the Al Gore seminar, which was extremely interesting and very inspiring, and I'll let Jess discuss that seminar. 

Overall, the festival was absolutely amazing, we've met some fantastic people from all over the globe that have been great friends and also inspirations to where this industry is going.

I'd really like to thank Dawn and Yvonne for all of their help throughout this process, and the support of the Rochester AMA, it has been a blessing working with your group, and we really appreciate everything. [Speaking for Dawn and myself, you're very welcome. We can't wait to see your presentation. Yvonne]

After this, Mike, Jess and I will be traveling through Monaco, Germany, Scotland and England, and soon after we return, we'll be presenting about the Cannes Festival, so I hope everyone is excited for this!  Thanks again, and we'll see you soon!

Au-Revoir!

-Todd

Last day at the Cannes Advertising Festival!

Hey everyone!

Well I guess it was inevitable; the Cannes Lions Festival is officially over. I went to the Idea Management seminar entitled How great ideas work even harder. Idea Management is a training company that focuses on advertising agencies. Essentially what happens is -- a client comes to Idea Management with their concept and the people at Idea help translate that concept into an advertisement.

Idea Management was responsible for the Volkswagen GTI "For boys who were already men" campaign which was a HUGE success in Europe.

VW Gti Commercial - Youtube

It was nice to see how ideas are conveyed successfully and that there are agencies out there who can help you get your ideas protected and produced efficiently and successfully.  Agencies such as Idea Management are a great asset to the advertising world.

We finished our festival by attending a seminar from former Vice President Al Gore.  He discussed the importance of advertisers in the realm of global warming and how they have an moral obligation to  influence positive change in the world.  It was a riveting speech and we were all amazed at the passion Mr. Gore has.

I would really like to thank everyone from RAMA who helped make this trip possible for myself, Todd, and Jessica. We appreciate SO MUCH all that you have done for us and the rest of the Alfred University AMA chapter throughout the past year. I would especially like to thank Dawn McWilliams for all her help and hard work in making sure we were comfortable and on the right track to success. 

Yvonne, thank you so much for going through our posts and helping us with the blogging process.  [You're most welcome - we are honored to have all of you writing such exciting content! Yvonne] You are a huge asset to the RAMA community.

I look forward to presenting to you all in detail all that we did on this wonderful trip and I'm sure you are all anticipating it (Just a hint, it might be one of the best presentations you have ever seen!).  Take care, and enjoy the rest of your summer.

Mike Heaney
Executive Vice President
Alfred University AMA

Conclusion of the Festival!

Yesterday (Friday) was the last day we attended the festival, and a full day it was! They were playing screenings of the award winning ads all day long, and we spent 2-3 hours watching those. Luckily, we got there early, b/c the room was completely filled, there wasn't a square inch of the floor open to sit on, let alone an empty seat.

We really enjoyed seeing all of the winners, and it seemed that Nike ran away with a good percentage of awards! This was interesting after attending two seminars involving the Nike rep.

Last night we were also able to attend a seminar hosted by Al Gore. This was extremely exciting! He  was mainly there to inform marketers what they can do to help with the climate crisis. He is part of a concert series taking place within a few days that is involving many celebrities, speakers, and performers, all with the intent to educate viewers on the crisis. The concert is taking place on the same day in 10 major cities, world wide. They expect over 2 billion people will see the concert, between viewing parties, attendants, television, etc.  Keep your ears open to hear anything more about it!

Today, we are getting some shopping and beach time in before we head out tomorrow morning. I cant believe our 10 days here are almost up! This was by far one of the most exciting and best experiences of my life, and a big thank you to the Rochester AMA for all of your support.

until next time,
Jessica

The more things you see The more ideas you have

Bill Ward, Collegiate Relations Chair for RAMA and Assistant Professor of Marketing at Alfred University reporting from the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival. 

The theme for the Festival is "The More Things You See, The More Ideas You Have."  With over 26,000 creative entries and daily seminars, workshops from industry leader CMO and Brand Managers from Nike, Apple, American Express, Nokia, Frito-Lay, Unilever, Microsoft, etc. and the top executives from the marketing, advertising, public relations, media, and production agencies that support these brand and thousands of other around the globe. 

In addition to global representatives from 49 countries there were also presentations sponsored by Dentsu on Asian Diversity - "Know the Unknown" by Akira Kagami and Jimmy Lam.  Their  presentation included examples of cultural diversity from multiple Asian countries -- from India, China, Japan, South Korea, Mylasia, Singapore and Thailand, just to name a few, with many different languages and cultures.  To know one Asian country does not mean that you know Asia. 

Text Appeals' Global Marketing Disasters presentation included a wonderful panel presentation on how to spot global disasters and how to avoid them.  It is true, the more things you see the more you learn and the Festival is only one place you can experience such a range of global culture.

The students will be better prepared for the global marketplace and professional industry for attending thanks to RAMA scholarships and support.   

Nike Plus gives A+ performance at the Cannes Lions Festival

''Change running forever.'' -Nike

Stefan Olander of Nike gave a fantastic presentation on the Nike Plus running shoes and transmitter.

For those of you who aren't familiar with this technology, it is a two-piece transmitter where one end goes into the sole of your specially made Nike Free shoe and the other end goes into the bottom of your iPod, where the charger/usb cable would normally go.

Once you are plugged in, you can listen to your own playlists while a pleasant voice lets you know how far you've run, how much further you have to go, and how fast you are running.  The technology is seamless, affordable (about $100 for the shoes and transmitters), and as Stefan put it, ''addictive.''

Nike has created an entire consumer culture with the Plus technology.  Runners can log onto the Nike site to blog about their runs, give tips, talk about their favorite running spots, and look at the leaderboards to see who has the fastest time's in their respective area(s).

So why was Nike so successful with this product?  There are a couple reasons:

First, Nike hit the three C's (Content, Commerce, Community) perfectly.  They created an entire culture around this product.  Runner's are a very rare breed of consumer.  They are passionate, critical, and knowledgable about their sport.  Simply put, there is no fooling them.  Nike knows the runner just as well as anybody else.  Their company was founded on running decades ago when Steve Prefontaine was in the scene.  Due to this knowledge, Nike was able to cater to the running community without fail; blogs were set up, maps were posted, and unique songs were created and available for download on the iTunes webstore.  Runners were instantly sold on this.  They could tell that Nike was just as serious about their sport as they were and they would not quit until they satisfied them.

Within weeks, runners were online uploading their running times, challenging friends to races via the special email forwarding system, and downloading songs of iTunes (The Rocky theme ''Eye of The Tiger" being the most popular).

To date, over 30,000,000 (yes, you read right) km's have been ran by Nike Plus users and that number is growing by the second.

Have you been wanting to get back into running but can't quite find that special 'push' needed to get you back on track?  Then check out Nike Plus and watch as your life is changed forever.

Click here to see the latest Nike Plus commercial!

Mike

Cannes Lion International Advertising Festival: Day 4

We just finished up the 4th day of the festival, and I would have to say it was one of the best. I'm beginning to think that they saved a lot of the best things for last!

This morning we went to a workshop with Leap Music and Vodafone, called "music sounds better with you." It was interesting, and filled with a lot of the industry's record producers and such. It was kind of hard to understand if you aren't in the industry though!

We then went to 2 seminars, one put on by USA today and the other about the new Nike+ brand.  Both  of these seminars were very interesting, and really well put together with a ton of visuals. USA today spoke about the consumer generated market. This includes big name companies that have put their marketing into the hands of their consumers. 

I'm sure most people would have seen the frito-lay commercial, with the man driving in his car by a woman on the street. You know, the one where she falls and hits her head and all of the chips go flying? We watched a bunch of clips like that, where a contest was created to make the best commercial for a product. It was interesting b/c we were told that people ages 13-24 years old spend 71% of their time looking at user created information and sites online.

For example, the huge YouTube boom. The seminar gave the general idea that this sort of marketing is not new, just easier b/c of the digital technology being released everyday. Websites like YouTube even make it possible to create more brand awareness, as a current Dove bodywash commercial has currently over 100 spoofs online. Conversation about your brand is good, no matter what people are saying.

We also had a chance to view a couple of hours of the automobile ads this morning. Thats more of Todds area, but it was esspecially interesting seeing all of the cars from around the world. The SmartCar is one of my favorites!

Tomorrow is the last full day of the festival, and then we leave France on Sunday. Its been an amazing trip so far!

Au Revoir

Jessica

Cannes Festival Day Two

Yesterday was our second day at the International Advertising Festival in Cannes, France. We spent the day getting a chance to walk around and look at more print adds (which are all amazing) and we were able to see a portion of the television commercials they had playing. The audience was laughing hysterically during most of these!

We also were able to attend 2 workshops which were 2 hours each.  They were run by Apple and Metro.  The apple workshop was interesting because, well, Apple is an amazing brand! Although I might be biased b/c I spent a greater portion of my 4 years at Alfred University locked away in the design labs which were macs.

Metro is a global newspaper that targets our age group.  They had some very interesting methods, b/c newspapers in general are quickly becoming obsolete with technology improving each and every day. Metro has found many exciting and inovative ways to keep readers interested. Although they are global, they only release papers in large cities, and the copies are completely free.  They are fully funded by advertisements, and have found some pretty exciting ways to show these.

For example, one issue included a sound chip that actually played while you turned the pages. XBox actually partnered w/ Metro and bought out every add space in one issue, promoting their new system over 40 times. The best part was, this issue came out the day that the new playstation console was released, their biggest competitor. Very clever.

Today we are planning to attend 3 seminars, and hopefully getting a chance to see more of the commercial adds in the theaters.

Au Revoir!

Cannes Lion Festival - Day 2

Tuesday, the second day of the Cannes Lion Festival, was crazy!

Why not break the rules?

- Metro International Newspaper

I started off the day by going to a workshop given by Metro International Newspaper, Nokia, and Xbox 360.  The workshop dealt with their collaborative efforts to create successful marketing/advertising campaigns for their respective companies.

The central challenge for all 3 companies was to ''continue to differentiate products and services in an even stronger, more creative, and constructive way.'' 

Metro was having a problem keeping the readers' eyes on ads because the readers of today have no time to sit down and read long, drawn out articles during their seldom, precious free time.  So what did Metro decide to do?  They created a newspaper that is toally free of charge, distributed to 23 countries in 20 languages, where 10 million copies are distributed each day!  This was a revolutionary solution to an old problem.  Metro relies solely on revenue generated from selling advertising space.

In terms of advertising space sold, Metro is top-notch.  They worked with Swatch watches to created 3 special editions of Metro papers that feature a certain Swatch watch.  They created a paper that plays a song when opened, as well as a rose scented issue for mothers day.  During the Year of The Pig in China, Metro had their couriers dress up in pig snouts and hand out fortune cookies with each issue.  Really cool, huh?

Puma and Metro collaborated to produce a new ad campaign that featured mock stories featuring top soccer players in Europe.  Each episode featured a mystery 'scandal' that created turmoil within the soccer scene.  The viewers were promised that at the end of the series they would see what was creating all the fuss.  Finally, at the end of the series, the new Puma shoe was unveiled as being the big mystery and as a result there was a 40% increase in turnover.

Metro closed up with a quick list of what newspapers in the future should look like if they wish to be competitive in an increasingly paperless world:

• More paid-for niche papers that cater to specific audiences
• Papers that drive the audience to go online
• Papers that allow the audience to choose the content
• Papers that drive their audience to check out paid-for content

Next, Nokia spoke briefly about their experiences with their past Metro collaboration.  Nokia was on the brink of launching a new ad campaign for their Nokia 6630 cell phone.  They wanted to position it as being the handset for providing 3G technology. 

Metro decided it would be best to completely integrate the phone into the theme of their newspaper and create advertisements that include life-size pictures within the areas of the newspaper that Nokia's target market reads most.  Nokia then showed us one of their print ads that I thought was really cool.  It was a full page spread that featured all the topics of the days paper on the screens of the 6630!  I have tried Googling the image, but have found nothing.  If I can find it, I will post it for sure because you guys need to see this.

The ad campaign ran for 15 days and the following results were tallied:

• 9.9 million "urbanites" were given the paper
• 35% weekly penetration was reached
• 88% of consumers saw the ad and could recall it
• 64% of the aforementioned consumers stated they liked the advertisement
• 48% said the ad increased their desire to buy

Finally, Xbox 360 came on and gave their responses to Metro's partnership.

They started with a sentence that I thought was very appropriate to today's business environment:   

"Our interest is in the future because we are going to spend the rest of our lives there."

In Christmas 2006, Xbox had to produce an ad campaign that drew the attention away from the much anticipated Playstation 3.  The consumers were said to be a cynical, media literate audience that is not easily swayed.

So what did Xbox do?  Simple.  They bought EVERY SINGLE AD SPACE in the metro newspaper and for each space bought they put an advertisement for one of their games.  Xbox wanted to remind the audience that out of all the video game consoles out right now, theirs still offered the most games in high definition.  What was especially cool was that Xbox would put an ad for say, a Baseball game, in the sports section, thus effortlessly reaching their target market.

Awareness of the 360 during Holiday season skyrocketed up 76% and 15% of the consumers said they would be more likely to buy the 360.  The reaction to the gratuitous ad purchasing spilled onto myspace where users posted videos of them flipping through each page of the Metro, showing the ads.

This workshop was a great example of how corporations can collaborate together to create BIG ad campaigns in a short amount of time.  It's incredible how quickly consumers can be reached in such a short amount of time.  The digital age of technology is most definitely going full-steam and we can only imagine where the business world will be within the next year.

The times they are a changin'

Mike Heaney

First day at the festival

We are just finishing up the end of our first day here at the Cannes Lion Festival.  Luckily we found a break in the long line that have been at the computer lab all day! Today we were able to get into one workshop from the company Chellomedia.  Their presentation mainly consisted of interactive advertising, which they described as the delivery of additional content to the main TV commercial.  Basically, they provide the viewer with access to more information they might want after seeing an add for a product.  This sometimes even includes a direct method to purchasing a product, right on your tv.

Next we attended a seminar hostel by Nigel Morris, president of the company Isobar.  This company is a digital agency who was able to show us many interesting adds.

By far, the seminar I found most interesting was Starcom Mediavest and Microsoft.  They spoke about the problems surrounding ad avoidance.  They informed us that 1/3 of people ages 17-35 are ad avoiders, which is a problem that the Alfred Chapter of AMA has had to deal with alot!  We thought this seminar would be very important b/c we have tried to think of new ways to market projects we were doing in many clubs I have been in, and especially in the art school it often proved to be very difficult to reach people's attention. 

We learned a few main ways to reach the people that don't want to be reached, such as finding an appropriate outlet for your message, not expecting something for nothing (what can the target audiance get from you?), be a welcomed surprise, whatever you say, say it well, and to let go of some of the control.  The two speakers gave many examples, and were quite enjoyable and funny to listen to!

Other than seminars and workshops, the building is completely filled with print ads. Many of them are extremely interesting, giving public service announcements, scary statistics on war, and amazing imagery.  Dr. Ward was not kidding when he told us how much interesting things there would be to look at!

Luckily the computer labs here have american key boards which will make blogging easier than the cyber cafe near our hotel. Thank you so much to the rochester AMA for providing us with this opportunity. I look forward to the rest of the week, and professor Ward told us that the festival only gets bigger and better by the day!

au revoir

Jessica

First Days in Cannes!

We made it into Cannes, France around roughly 9:30 am on Friday morning. This, of course was only 3:30am back in the states, but the lack of sleep didnt slow us down because we were all so excited. Speaking for myself as well as Mike and Todd, this is our first time visiting anywhere in Europe. The cultural differences are not as difficult as I feared they may be, and I personally feel quite comfortable in this city. The hardest thing to deal with may very well be this French keyboard!

Friday we were given a great tour of this beautiful city. We learned that Cannes is known for a few major things, including flowers and of course the festivals.  I can tell that the town is ready for the major opening of the Lions Festival tomorrow, judging by the amount of festival bags and shirts that we saw around town tonight!

Yesterday we visited a major perfumary, Fragonard, which was beautiful but also quite potent!

Today we visited 3 museums throughout Nice, which were the Matisse Museum, Chagall Museum, and modern art.

More tomorrow about the first day of the festival!