Since its founding in 2005, YouTube has been home to a myriad of beauty bloggers who post tutorials and other how-to makeup videos. But in a powerful new campaign for Make Love Not Scars by Ogilvy & Mather, the woman giving the red lip tutorial looks a little different than the typical 20-something beauty blogger.
Reshma, whose face has been scarred and disfigured, is a spokesperson for the #EndAcidSale campaign, whose goal is to curb the number of acid attack victims in India by limiting the accessibility to acid (you can buy a liter of it in any drugstore in India for about $1.50).
According to a petition that Reshma asks viewers to sign (which has over 65,000 signatures), India has over 1,000 reported acid attack cases per year, of which 90% of the victims are female.
What Sparks Our Fire: Creative and powerful campaigns that capture attention and call for change.
]]>With streaming services like Netflix and Hulu Plus on the rise (such as Netflix announcing that its second-quarter revenue exceeded estimates at $1.64 billion), tech giants are competing to enhance the streaming experience, revolutionizing the way we watch TV.
It’s clear that this is a step in the right direction, according to a report from Google regarding engagement via Chromecast that revealed users transmitting media to their TVs watch 50% more video than the average mobile app user. Chromecast, along with competitors such as Apple TV, Roku, and Amazon Fire TV, represents another huge push toward digital streaming over regularly scheduled programming, which could mean the end of TV as we know it now.
Earlier this year, The Artifice reported that more than 40% of American homes used a streaming service as of the fall of 2014, which shows that the demand for “on-demand” services has increased dramatically and is becoming rapidly integrated with the average consumer lifestyle.
What Sparks Our Fire: Data that shows how a consumer preference shift and new technology is changing the traditional pastime of watching television
]]>This week, as an early Festivus present, thousands of people will cross one more thing off of their Dream-things-to-do-in-New-York bucket list, by stopping by their old pal Jerry Seinfeld’s place. His fictional apartment, that is. A re-creation of the famous Upper West Side apartment will pop-up thanks to Hulu on 14th street near Chelsea Market on Wednesday, and will be open through Sunday. This fan-driven activation will celebrate the introduction of ‘Seinfeld’ to the Hulu catalog.
Similar activations have been created to celebrate ‘Arrested Development’ and ‘Friends’. The ‘Central Perk’ pop-up cafe was co-sponsored by Eight O’Clock Coffee and Warner Brothers, and gave both brands a valuable way to connect fans with one of the most popular shows in television history. Both of these activations were incredibly popular and generated long lines just to get close to the action.
Activations like these allow fans to engage with their favorite shows in an exciting way– they can actually place themselves into the show they normally see through a television or laptop screen. The promise of a great selfie on Jerry’s couch might just be enough to make the long line worth it.
If you’d like to see if Jerry has a copy of Kramer’s coffee table book about coffee tables on his coffee table, the apartment will be open June 24th through June 28th from 10 AM to 7 PM at 451 West 14th Street.
What Sparks Our Fire: Seinfeld… enough said.
]]>Who would’ve thought that the best depiction of the startup world would come in the form of an HBO comedy? But according to many insiders, ‘Silicon Valley’ is just that. ‘Silicon Valley’ follows the trials and tribulations of fictional Pied Piper, a small startup with a killer algorithm for data compression, as it competes head-to-head with a mega-company looking to do the same thing. Relying on a real life group of friends and comedians as it’s stars, ‘Silicon Valley’ is not only interesting and accurate, but really, really funny.
I love the show because it takes concepts I understand from work and school, and depicts them in the most hilarious settings. For instance, Sunday night’s episode began with the CFO teaching the team about SWOT analyses for business decision making. The team later uses the concept for a personal situation so insane I’ll just have to recommend watching it for yourself.
We’re really looking forward to this weekend’s Mayweather vs. Pacquiao fight (which is already breaking Pay-Per-View records). We also love the great creative and entertaining marketing buzz that’s surrounded the event for the past few weeks. Our favorite? Paquiao for Foot Locker. Recalling their successful ad from last year, this spot features Manny Pacquiao getting some pretty confusing news.
Enjoy the commercial and get ready for the big event this weekend!
What Sparks Our Fire: Foot Locker’s clever way to build on a prior campaign’s success
]]>What Sparks Our Fire: Knowing that we’ll be spending a good chunk of the month of June binge watching Seinfeld
]]>The way we watch TV has been changing over the years, and as experts continue to unpack the trends and analyze the current landscape, advertising is changing as well. This week in AdWeek, Peter Naylor, senior vice president of Sales at Hulu, wrote an article about the cumulative impact of the changing TV-watching trends, calling our current period the Era of Purposeful Viewing.
In the Era of Purposeful Viewing, the viewer makes an active decision about what television to watch and when he or she will watch it. This means that the best TV programs really have the ability to thrive, because it’s not constrained by time or viewing method. For example, you can watch Mad Men the night it premieres, or the next day via DVR or Video-On-Demand, or even binge on past episodes using services like Netflix. Conversely, “bad television”–what might be considered “filler” or background noise–is beginning to fall by the wayside. Viewers are making intentional decisions about what programs to put on and when, so there’s a diminishing need to watch just whatever’s on television at the time.
What does the Era of Purposeful Viewing mean for brands interested in advertising to these audiences? Mostly, we think it means that these brands must be even more creative than they have been in the past with their advertising.
In March, Geico released an ad addressing the trend of fast-forwarding through commercials on DVR or Hulu. By creating an undeniably creative advertisement that addresses the trend, Geico provides value to the viewer in the form of humor, and entices them to chose to stick with the ad instead of actually fast forwarding through it.
Another way that brands can ensure their message reaches the viewer is through creative product placement. Integrating further into a television program is perhaps the only way to ensure that all viewers, regardless of the time they watch the program or the method they watch the program, see the brand’s message. Despite airing in 2006, Snapple‘s 30 Rock product placement can still be seen when a viewer binge watches episodes on Netflix in 2015.
What Sparks Our Fire: Exploring where brands fit into the Era of Purposeful Viewing
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