Corona: Find Your Beach...Wherever That May Be

I'm a huge fan of Corona first of all, so I may be a little biased towards this brand but I absolutely love what Corona has done with their advertisements especially with their new punch line: find your beach. The problem that Corona has encountered before these commercials is that they have to constantly compete with all the other beer brands like: Bud Light, Coors Light, Heineken, and Dos Equis to name a few. All of those commercials bring something unique but mainly they're all humorous commercials. Corona has gone a different route which I like because it is really setting them away from the norm of beer commercials. They had to compete somehow with all these other brands and they're doing just fine with these beachy commercials. Everyone loves to think about drinking a nice cold beer in front of the ocean. It's just a pleasant thought to think about and it kind of puts people in a "happy place" thinking about that. I know I love drinking a beer on the beach. Corona's objective, I feel, is to make themselves more competitive with Bud and Coors etc...and I feel like they have by using these "beach" commercials. They are way different than the Bud and Coors commercials so it strikes a different nerve within the consumer's mind. Their brand positioning is much different which needs to happen because Bud Light has dominated the humor aspect of a beer commercial. Their target audience is obviously beer drinkers but not the party animal, sport watching type. They're going after the more sophisticated, business side of people where they may be traveling on business and they just need a Corona to bring them to "their beach" to relax and not to a huge sporting event where it's loud and surrounded by obnoxious drunks. I feel their SMP (single-minded proposition) is "find your beach". But what exactly does that mean? I think it doesn't necessarily mean drink a Corona and you'll feel like you're on a beach. It really means, what is equivalent in your mind as a beach is in the mind of those in the commercial. Maybe your beach is watching a movie with your significant other or reading a book with a Corona in hand. The bottom line is that Corona is saying that a Corona can take you to your happy place wherever that may be. To me, a beer on a beach is perfect and I love what they did with this advertisement.

Presidential Election

This blog is going to be short because I absolutely hate politics. I would watch a few commercials here and there but I would try to avoid it at all costs. But if I were to say who advertised better, I would say Romney but that doesn't have much to do with anything. I only think that because Obama was able to have his four years in office and there were obviously people unhappy with his performance...even some Democrats. So I felt like Romney had the upper leg coming into the election because he would be able to use that against Obama. I really don't feel like advertisements have much pull in the presidential elections anyways though. I think they mostly depend on how you grew up and then the presidential debates. Unfortunately, Obama is the king of speaking and pretty awesome at debates and Romney takes a backseat to that. I'm a Romney fan but I can only hope for the best... Go Team Romney!

Brandon Thornton: Wieden & Kennedy

Brandon Thornton from Wieden & Kennedy came and spoke to several of us about his job at Wieden & Kennedy and the steps he took in order to get there. Brandon graduated from Virginia Tech in 2006 as a marketing major and didn’t really enjoy his time here. He got a job for UPS and absolutely hated it. He eventually quit once he got accepted into the VCU Brandcenter. After making it through the two-year program, he attained an internship with Wieden & Kennedy and has been working there ever since mainly on the Nike account. His background story was very encouraging to me because I almost feel as if I was in the same boat as he was in. He finally found something he was good at and passionate about and now he’s doing that as a career. Throughout his presentation last night, he constantly hit home the point of “creating your own voice”. I liked this because we have to attempt to do this in our blogs that we have to do for class. Brandon was able to use the gifts and strengths that he has and he is now doing something he absolutely loves. I may not want to work at Wieden &Kennedy but I want my lifestyle to be similar of Brandon’s in that I will be doing something in my career which really emphasizes my strengths and at the same time, is something I love doing. His entire presentation was extremely interesting and hopeful for me as I am about to enter the real world in a few months. I’m excited to hear what else he has to say in class today.__________________________ When Brandon came to speak to our class he showed us how a creative brief was done by his company. It was really incredible the amount of time and effort it looked like was put into the brief. It was great being able to see something tangible for us to relate to in order for us to put together our creative brief on Uniqlo. I was very motivated after his presentation in class because it made something that seemed so far-fetched more of a reality for us to do and I was encouraged -- that through not only Brandon, but our other speakers-- I am able to understand a whole new language through taking this class. These speakers have dropped a lot of terminology on us and if I wasn't taking this class, I would have no clue what an SMP was or a key insight was so that is also very helpful in our project that we have due in a couple of weeks. Brandon was definitely my favorite speaker so far because he was the most relatable to me. Yes, because he was closest to our age but also because of the environment in which he works and what he does (mainly within the sports industry). I learned so much from Brandon during both his night and day presentations.

Powerhouse Gym

As I was searching online for some print ads that caught my eye, I was immediately drawn to this one. I like this one a lot because it's very clever in the fact that it uses its surroundings to help draw attention to the ad. A building is under construction and the ad agency was able to capitalize on that and make it look like a guy was working out. Size was a big factor for me. Not only was this a clever and fun idea, it's also HUGE. Everyone driving/walking by this is going to see this and it's memorable enough where they might consider a membership at this gym. This ad is obviously very extreme with a huge, muscular man doing a work out with two cranes but that's what will make it stick in the target market's mind. This is a very very visual print ad that shows what could happen to you if you joined this gym. I've been a member here for 3 months and I'm seeing results just like this guy!

Tidal Wave

This may be a bit of a stretch but Tide came out with this print ad and I thought the soup looked like a TIDE-al wave. I don't know if Tide had that connection but I think it would be pretty clever if they came up with that idea. That's just a side note. I think this print ad is pretty powerful because it really does state the facts: stains love your clothes. I can personally relate to this ad, and they drew me in with their vibrant orange color and it shows havoc and chaos. Maybe it's just me, but I am drawn to ads like this because they show humor and you want to know where the ad is going with it. That soup looks pretty thick and creamy and you know that would be a pain to get out of a nice dress shirt and since they're advertising TIDE...this stuff must be strong! I think Tide did a great job in showing how powerful it can be with the soup shown in the ad. I think being able to provide a powerful message in a print ad is very difficult and I think Tide did a great job with it.

Rodgers!! Discount Double Check!

Aaron Rodgers, NFL MVP of 2011, had this "touchdown dance" made famous through all of his rushing touchdowns throughout the year. His originally meaning to this celebration was showing off a championship belt, but he hooked up with State Farm and created the first of at least 4 State Farm commercials where he and other members of the Green Bay Packers help market State Farm. This commercial was awesome for State Farm because they attacked a target market of sport's fan. Obviously, this market is huge and using someone as influential as Aaron Rodgers and, when this commercial came out, the reigning Superbowl champions, this will get a lot of talk going around from consumers. I know who State Farm, All State, and Progressive are and some are more memorable than others but I, and I'm sure a lot of other people, get really interested in commercials when they combine the company's product with a celebrity--more importantly, a sport's icon. After this commercial debuted, it was no longer the championship belt celebration that was famous, it was State Farm and the "Discount Double Check" move. State Farm made this commercial a huge hit with its humor that they have made several more commercials sort of piggy backing off this original one. Personally, this commercial is my favorite of all of them, but yet, I still find myself sitting through all of these commercials and not changing the channel because I know that it has the potential to be as funny and catchy as the original. After this commercial, I found myself doing this ridiculous "discount double check" move just as a joke along with my roommates and if a commercial can get a consumer to do crazy things like the "discount double check" motion, then something has gone right in their advertising strategy.

7-Up Targets Wrong Target Market

So I was trying to find a print advertisement that was ethically questionable. I stumbled upon this 7-Up ad. You may wonder what this has to do with sports, but Kobe Bryant, arguably the NBA's best player is sponsored by them. So back to this ad...when I first glanced at it, I obviously thought it was a baby drinking beer. And I know that's what 7-Up wanted the consumer to think as well. It is very eye grabbing. But after that, I got to thinking...a lot of mothers and probably some fathers would get offended at this picture as it could hint at alcoholism and other such things. I think this was wrong, because one...babies shouldn't be drinking 7-Up and I can't imagine they have the "youngest customers in the business" and secondly, I think this print ad is extremely wordy. Maybe I'm just biased because I really hate reading ads with a lot of wording but I was not loving this ad one bit after my initial smile of seeing a baby drinking what I thought was a beer. Once I dug a little deeper, I realized this was a pretty dumb ad and I wasn't a fan.

Steve Grant: Modea

I have been looking forward to this speaker ever since I saw this on the syllabus. I have heard a lot about Modea and it has all been very positive. Upon my research, they have a really well put together website that gets across the point of what they do and I could really tell that they pride themselves on their creativity. One marketing tactic that I picked up on while researching is that they developed a blog in February. Before this class, I really would not have that much respect or take much notice to a company creating a blog but once I had to start blogging, I have a completely new perspective. Tomorrow, Steve Grant is coming to talk to our class about his insights and I’m really excited about what he has to say seeing that his position at Modea is head of strategy. This really applies to me because in my Marketing Communications class I’m currently taking, I was elected to be in charge of the strategy aspect of the entire, semester long project. I will have my ears open ready to hear what he does and how he executes on different ideas. I read that Steve was brought onboard to help define the strategic vision of Modea, as well as trying to grow the company. A fun fact that I read up on was that Steve Grant is also a hometown native of Blacksburg, VA. I’m ready to hear about Steve’s experiences over that last 9 months he’s been a part of Modea....................... After Steve's visit, I liked everything he had to say to the class but the big takeaway I got from his time here was how opinionated and funny he was. He knew exactly where he stood on so many beliefs, specifically owners of BMW's, and would insult them with no problem. Seeing this side of someone can really show us how very passionate they are about any such topic. I enjoyed that aspect of his presentation of how he kept the whole class engaged with funny jokes and also, his extremely strong opinions on different subjects. Hopefully, more of our guest speakers we have throughout the semester will be as engaging as Steve!

The Famous Arnold Palmer

What better way to market the famous "Arnold Palmer" drink than by using the man who invented it. Arguably, one of the best golfers the world has ever seen came up with this combination of iced tea and lemonade. Some people may be familiar with the golfer Arnold Palmer and may hear people say, "Man, I could really go for an Arnold Palmer" and the other person may have no idea what that is. By combining the person and the product, ESPN is reaching a whole new market. First, the Arnold Palmer drink attracts those who have heard of it through word of mouth but the sports watchers, like myself, found out through this commercial. I thought this was very clever for ESPN to incorporate Arnold Palmer with his very own Arnold Palmer creation. I'm sure the profit increased for the Arnold Palmer drink after the making of this commercial and after the first time I watched this commercial I thought, "That was awesome."