Nordic Denim House Blog » advertising

Friday morning POWER

Taavi Kuisma — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 02:05:08 +0000

Friday morning. Time of inspiration, hope and in some cases drama. What every Friday morning needs is a bit of POWER! That POWER today comes in form of Old Spice and Toyota. Well done both, today shall be a good day.

WTF effect in effect…

Audi Game Day

Taavi Kuisma — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 12:23:13 +0000

Volkswagen raised the bar with their Darth Vader kid. But that was last year. And the plan seems to be to continue with the same theme, at least based on what we can decipher from their teaser. But Volkswagen is not the only brand betting on the game day ad space. Audi’s 2012 Game Day Commercial features a vampire party and an ending that I’m pretty sure beats Twilight’s ending any given day? Or as Tuomas put it, another better ending for Twilight. Good look Audi.

#KOBESYSTEM – Level 4 – Explosion

Taavi Kuisma — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 06:17:22 +0000

“Apologize to Kanye West for wasting 2 million dollars of his time.” BOOM!

Volkswagen Game Day

Taavi Kuisma — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 03:49:48 +0000

Another epic battle is brewing between two opposing forces. A battle like no other. Only weapons, brute strength and the oval pigskin. Superbowl is one of the biggest avenues not just in terms of sports but also advertising. Volkswagen made an impact with their ad last year and they seem to carry the Epic Battle theme to this year as well. I mean just have a look at their teaser. Canine chorus anyone?

Let’s see what they have in store for the Game Day.

Van Damme

Taavi Kuisma — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 10:29:43 +0000

In my on-going research of the WTF effect I come across number of ads that truly embody this WTF phenomenon. One of these ads is Coors Light ad simply titled Van Damme. The ad featuring the legendary action star tells a story of a man, his pants and refreshing memory of Coors Light. This could very well be a denim ad. “My pants froze. They froze hard.” Story of my life!
–update–
More Van Damme!

iPhone 4S Santa

Taavi Kuisma — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 21:33:16 +0000

I’m sure each and every (mostly) happy owner of an iPhone 4S has found a new friend with Siri. My Christmas arrived early as I got my 4S few days ago already. I’m pretty impressed with Siri and she seems to understand what I’m asking as well so it’s all good. I’m not here to go into too much detail on how much I appreciate my new phone, but it is a rather useful tool. Useful enough to be used by a man who has 3.7 billion new appointments and only one night to make sure no child is left without a present. I’m talking about Santa of course. We might not have much snow in Finland right now, but Christmas is more than just snow right? Like presents… Ho ho ho…

MANta Claus and the WTF Effect

Taavi Kuisma — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 16:39:57 +0000

More and more ads out there are making use of an unwritten force, a fact that people cannot deny, but what somehow still remains underestimated in terms of its effect. I’m talking about WTF effect of course. WTF effect is something, anyone spending more than an hour on social media has most likely come across in some form of share, linking etc. WTF effect is that little something that turns an ordinary ad into something powerful, awesome and superior to the safe, nutless ads the companies are usually spending their marketing budgets on. But why is this effect called the WTF effect? Well simple enough, when you see an ad like this:

you can’t help but to say (usually out loud) “what the fuck?” Pardon my French, but there is only one way to say WTF. Some of the industry insiders and old-heads are calling this experimental advertising, but I truly believe that there is more than just experimental ads behind the success of campaigns such as those for Old Spice.

Imagine watching something so ridiculous that it’s already awe-inspiring, makes you click that share button and will most likely have you showing the video to your colleagues in the office, talking about the clip during your lunch break or better yet, has you blogging about it further spreading the word. You can’t underestimate the power of the WTF effect. As not much research has been done in this modern form of advertising I am thinking of taking the first steps to correct this. Whether the book will be called WTFact or WTF effect or Experimenting with WTF effect, it should be an insightful book. But while I’m planning the first chapter(s), enjoy more of WTF effect in form of Old Spice’s MANta Claus. Good to see the Old Spice Guy back from his holiday.

The sinking feeling

Taavi Kuisma — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 10:32:01 +0000

The sinking feeling. The moment when you realize you just screwed up and now need to put your game face on in a matter of seconds to amend the situation. Familiar circumstances to anyone with sports background but most likely familiar to pretty much anyone as we all tend to screw up something every now and then. Nike visualized this feeling pretty well in their latest Air Jordan ad. Although the video is obviously about the flight, I paid more attention to the sinking feeling. Cool ad nonetheless.

Beats By Dr. Dre Studio Color

Taavi Kuisma — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 14:12:12 +0000

I guess if you went into details in semantics of the ad you could say something like, “the paint in the ad represents the color(s) the new Beats By Dr. Dre headphones bring to one’s life.” Life is so plain so why not add in some color. My take on this however was that the good Doctor likes to throw paint filled water balloons at people just minding their own business. I really like the Beats headphones, can’t afford a pair (or could but don’t dare to buy to retain domestic peace). Not sure if the colorful headphones would be my thing, being the plain kind of guy but it never hurts to have variety for your products. After all, it would be boring if we all were as plain as me…

Grandpa

Taavi Kuisma — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 02:44:07 +0000

In case the magical power of Old Spice ads is not enough to convince you to try out the products, their on-products messaging is pretty much as awesome as their ads. It was yesterday when I incidentally ended up in a local Cold Storage store and while finding what I was supposed to buy, I ended up on the Old Spice shelf, not having observed the Old Spice deodorant, after shave or any other products aside from the soap/body wash I have at home, I was curious to find out more about the products and especially the communication on the products. All it took was one stick of deodorant and I nearly bought it. In capital letters it says:

“If your grandfather hadn’t worn it, you wouldn’t exist.”

My word. Messaging can’t pack much more punch than that. What I really love about it is that they’ve taken the age old perception that Old Spice smells like grandpa, and made it into a key message. The messaging on the products continues the slapstick approach of the ads and all syncs together pretty damn well. Made me reminisce my grandpa too, although he did not wear Old Spice. At least I’m pretty sure he didn’t…