Commentary

Out to Launch

Bud Light gets on the low-carb bandwagon. Guerilla marketing campaigns! Welcome to highlights of ad campaigns launched recently.

I think green dye is low in carbs, too... Bud Light's latest TV ads share the theme, "All light beers are low in carbs ... choose on taste." The commercials, which began airing on Saturday, state that while all light beers are low in carbohydrates, it is Bud Light's great taste that sets it apart from the rest of the pack. In "Failure to Compromise," a voiceover states, "Like all light beers, it's low in carbs. Unlike any other light beer, it has the great taste of Bud Light." The ad "Choose On Taste" highlights that Bud Light is the choice for beer drinkers who want great taste. Cannonball created these two spots. In addition, two other ads, "Institute Treadmill" and "Institute Toe Flex," are parodies of the low-carb phenomenon and show adult beer drinkers finding clever ways to work out with the help of a miniature treadmill for the hand and a mini exercise machine for the toe. Downtown Partners DDB in Toronto produced the two "Institute" spots. The four ads all feature Bud Light's new tagline, "Fresh. Smooth. Real. It's all here."

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How much do I love Guerilla marketing? Let me count the ways... The week of March 7-13 was Storm Stories: Tornado Week for the Weather Channel. The program showcases real-life twisters and the people who survived them. To support the show, the network launched a TV, print and outdoor promotional campaign, along with some guerilla marketing stunts, which took place in New York City on March 8. TV spots will run on Discovery Channel, A&E, History Channel, CNN, ESPN and other cable networks; print ads will appear in People and The New York Times Magazine. The network handed out custom-made newspaper wraps in New York, featuring the headline: "It's Coming - Tornado Week." In addition, street samplers dressed as disheveled, windswept meteorologists who battled a tornado will distribute items like tornados-in-a-bottle and flashlights, and report an imminent fictitious tornado via a backdrop of LCD video billboards that will show footage of actual twisters. The guerilla campaign was created by Interference, Inc.

Staying with Guerilla marketing, the Ad Council launched a nationwide tour set to raise awareness for its high-school dropout prevention program, "Operation Graduation," sponsored by the U.S. Army. "Operation Graduation" launched November 2000 as a series of parent and student-targeted PSAs; Last month, guerilla marketing firm the michael alan group launched "Move to the Head of the Class" - a teen-targeted mobile tour visiting 13 cities throughout the country. "Move to the Head of the Class" sets up interactive kiosks in major malls where kids answer a series of multiple-choice questions. If the participant passes each grade/question, they are honored with a speed graduation ceremony and are automatically entered to win one of five shopping sprees (worth $100) to take place in their designated mall. The tour will visit Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, Phoenix, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver, Chicago and Cleveland.

VisitScotland, Edinburgh has launched a campaign that features real photographs and journal entries of three real couples sent on three different tours of Scotland's major cities and countryside. The ads, created by GREEN TEAM, New York, will run as two-sided inserts in May issues of Bon Appétit, Condé Nast Traveler, Modern Bride, Smithsonian Magazine, Travel & Leisure, and Traveler Overseas. Each couple was supplied with cameras, tape recorders, a journal and blank maps on which to record their itineraries. Each insert's front features the travel experiences of one of the three couples; the backs are further customized to highlight general tourism, cuisine or culture, depending on the particular focus of the publication in which it appears. The campaign's tagline is "Welcome to Our Life."

A print campaign highlighting the global strength of Chicago Mercantile Exchange's (CME) electronic futures products traded on GLOBEX, CME's electronic trading platform, debuted this week in selected media across the United States, Europe, and Asia. The CME campaign is themed "Ideas that Change the World," and was created by Draft, Chicago. Ads are breaking in top dailies, including The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Chicago Tribune; in financial papers such as Barron's and Investors' Business Daily; and selected financial trade publications. The series of four new ads in the campaign depict images of a globe in unexpected places. The first ad features a globe wrapped around a light bulb and carries the headline: "Some ideas light the world," spotlighting CME's groundbreaking ideas which have changed--and will continue to change--the futures traders' world.

Autodesk has launched a campaign for its DWF (Design Web Format) product. The 90-second online animated marketing clip was designed so Autodesk customers could pass it along to encourage downloads of the free DWF viewer, Autodesk Express Viewer, an application that simplifies electronic transport of AutoCAD digital design drawings. The Monty Python-inspired clip includes a music track called "DWF-it," in which Devo spoofs its own 1980 hit "Whip It." Doremus, San Francisco, created the campaign. As the chorus sings "Crack that DWF!," a ringmaster flings his whip over the heads of animated meer cats. The chorus continues, "Give PDFs a slip!" as a trapeze artist falls from the rungs, smashing a box labeled PDF. Gotta love the 80s.

Metropolitan Home, a Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. title, launched a campaign on Mar. 15 focusing on the magazine's increased frequency from six to eight times a year beginning with the October 2004 issue. The campaign was created by thewatsons, a start-up creativity company (see website launches) that specializes in brand building. Ads will run in the Mar. 15 issue of Advertising Age, the March 29 issue of HFN, and the April 20-May 16 issue of Kips Bay Journal and Designer Show House.

In website launches this week:

thewatsons, a creativity company specializing in helping companies build brands by creatively engaging their target audiences, launched its new website. The agency was created to serve the needs of companies seeking an alternative to the turnover, fees and cookie-cutter "best practice" templates of larger marketing agencies. thewatsons offer service at contract, project or hourly rates.

Clear Ink has designed a website for Edify Corporation, a global supplier of voice and speech solutions. The site has a "speaker" icon that demonstrates many qualifying factors sought in the speech recognition category, including clarity, responsiveness, speed and ease of deployment. The speaker icons are spread throughout the site, playing examples of how great speech solutions both sound and work.

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