Rivalry with Taste (of Pepsi)

There’s nothing I love more than a SMART advertising campaign, and Pepsi has done it. I am LOVING the smart use of a rivals campaign to enhance the brand. Pepsi has taken Coke’s campaign and turned it on its head…hehe. Love it.

For anyone living in this country more than a minute, you know that the United States Christmas season is sponsored by Coca-Cola. Santa is the official spokesman and whether you drink the drink or not, you’re going to be exposed to his winter-kissed cheek, smile and wave everywhere you turn. He IS Christmas…and in turn, so is Coke.

Pepsi has cleverly taken the Christmas spokesman and revealed his “personal” preference. See, Santa is paid to drink Coke, it’s his job around the holidays. On his off season, he prefers Pepsi…didn’t you know?

(I only found the TV spot, but the radio one is even better. Could there be a print version coming?)

To give credit where its due:

Agency:
 TBWA/Chiat/Day
Chief Creative Officer: Rob Schwartz
Group Creative Director: Brett Craig
Creative Director: Xanthe Hohalek
Art Director: Chris MacNeil
Copywriter: Michelle Lewis
Executive Producer: Anh-Thu Le
Senior Producer: Mila Davis
Agency Producer: Lacy Plunk
Managing Director: Bill Brooks
Group Account Director: Mike Litwin
Account Director: Tara Mellett
Management Supervisor: Ellie Brigden
Account Executive: Kendra Schaaf
Assistant Account Executive: April Shapiro
Director of Business Affairs: Linda Daubson
Business Affairs Manager: Laura Drabkin
Talent Payment Coordinator: Nora Said
Director of Broadcast Traffic and Clearance: Saeyoung Kim
Broadcast Traffic Coordinator:Eugene Gandia


OUTSIDE VENDORS:
Production Company: Pytka
Director: Joe Pytka
Executive Producer: Tara Fitzpatrick
Producer: Michele Atkins
DP:Joe Pytka
Editorial Company: Union Editorial
Executive Producer: Michael Raimondi
Producer: Joe Ross
Editor:Einar Thorsteinsson
Visual FX: Quiet Man
Executive Producer: Carey Gattyan
Sound Mix: Union Editorial
Executive Producer: Michael Raimondi
Mixer: Milos Zivkovic

MUSIC:

Licensed Track: Montell Jordan “This Is How We Do It”

Great job by the entire creative team. Awesome strategy!

The Mass Email

I recently utilized the power of Craigslist to find a local go-to Mac Specialist whom I may contact should my limited mac needs arise. I received several “local” responses and this morning, one “unique” response from a company.

Clearly, it bothered me to not just reply, but to create a blog post about it. Firms MUST get their marketing efforts in check. The “shooting blindly” approach is NOT WORKING. I don’t know why IT firms think that mass email marketing is still an effective tool for their industry. I’ve perturbed enough to have created a list of why it doesn’t work:

1. Emails a flooded with so much junk, their obviously “mass” approach is deleted even if it makes it through the spam filter.
2. In my case, it was COMPLETELY irrelevant to my needs.
3. When one needs an IT specialist, it means they’re going to let someone fiddle with a machine that has very important thing in it. Thereby, one would want someone they can trust. Would you trust a random mass email?
4. Because most IT support firms offer Search Engine Marketing as a service, would you think they would target their ads better? It is the ability to target ads and marketing campaigns to very specific audiences that has eliminated a need for mass email marketing.
5. WTF?!?!

Below is the transcript of my ad and the email that followed.

CRAIGSLIST AD:

Seeking Go-To Mac Specialist (Morton Grove)

Hi there!

I’m looking for a go-to Mac specialist to help me with any Mac issues when/if they arise, as I don’t have Apple Care.

I’m pretty computer savvy (meaning, I understand basic IT stuff), but not when it comes to certain Apple issues.

FYI I own a Macbook Pro

Please respond with contact information and rates.

RESPONSE EMAIL:

Hello There,

This is [name omitted] from [company name omitted] Inc – a 5 year old, 500+ member strong Software Services and BPO Services firm Headquartered at Virginia, US and ODC based out of Chennai, India with vast experience in Offshore Software development services.

This is in response to your postings in the Craigslist.

For our software services, we charge a competitive price of just $15 to $20 an hour depending on tech stack

The core service offerings are

• Application, Product Development & Maintenance.(CMS like Jhoomla, magento, word press,etc)
• Enterprise Business Solutions (SAP, CRM, Oracle, PeopleSoft etc).
• Business Intelligence & Analytics (Datawarehousing, Datamart, Data Integration etc).
• Mobile Applications (Iphone, Android, Blackberry etc.)
• Web 2.0 Implementation & Consulting.
• Web designing & Maintenance.
• Open Source Consulting & Implementation.
• SOA and Web Services.
• Technical & Product support.
• SEO, Link exchange, Link building etc.
• Data entry, Form filling etc.
• Gaming, Digital media services etc.
• QA & Testing Services.

Portfolio:

Magento:[links omitted]

Wordpres:[links omitted]

Joomla Mosets Tree:[links omitted]

Joomla: [links omitted]

Ecommerce:[links omitted]

Social Networking / Community Sites:[links omitted]

Drupal:[links omitted]

Zencart: [links omitted]

Flash: [links omitted]

ASP.NET: [links omitted]

ASP.NET front store:[links omitted]

Looking forward to hearing from you soon

Openwiresolutions Inc

Voice : 703-531-8753

Facsimile : 703-763-2209

Email:

[email omitted]

Thanks,

[name omitted].

MY RESPONSE:
I have to say that I’m a little confused as to why you (or your company) would send me this email. You clearly did not read my post since there was not one mention of anything I requested in the ad.

I’m not sure how this sort of mass marketing would benefit your firm since it is a clear indication that you’re not concerned with details. It thereby eliminates any chance of me even recommending your company to anyone I know.

Additionally, it’s also a waste of both mine and your time. The time it took for you to send this and the time it took for me to read this are of total waste. Consider this when you allocate your funds for marketing initiatives, this particular technique (that of mass email marketing) is not effective in your field.

Best Wishes,

Rena

Ah, Search Engine Optimization

I was recently consulting a client on SEO and composed this draft. Sometimes I surprise myself with…myself!

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is something that all businesses benefits from. It’s a set of techniques to help make your company website show up higher in search engine results. For example, I see that in your mission statement, a phrase that’s mentioned is “commercial real estate services” if your company wanted to show up in search results for that phrase, meaning that if someone typed that phrase into Google, SEO techniques can be used to make sure your site shows up closer to the top (currently it does not show up at all).

SEO is an extremely powerful business tool. What it allows you to do is hone in on the mindset of your target and put yourself in front of them online. By determining the terminology that your potential (and current) customer is using when searching for services like yours, you can instantaneously become visible to them; and because most research is now done online, the benefits for your business are innumerable.

Marketing has changed dramatically in the past 10 or so years. Before, marketers were always the ones telling their clients what and how they needed to research and find information. With the development of the internet, and more specifically the utilization of Search Engine Optimization techniques, the conversation has changed. Now, the marketers are the ones doing the listening. Moreover, a users search patterns are much more revealing than in any other form of research study since the way a user searches online is representative of the way he/she thinks and processes information. All other studies have a margin of error. If, during a poll, the subject is stressed or knows he’s being “tested,” there is always likelihood that the response will be skewed. Online, no one is watching, therefore a user is able to search exactly how they feel comfortable and how they process the information in their head.