Tim Ho » Advertising

What I learned from the University Students

Tim Ho — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 08:53:41 +0000

University is always a fun place to be, I went to Hong Kong Polytechnic University to give a presentation on how Social Media is changing the advertising industry last Friday.

As I told the students, I was THE bad boy when I was in University. Never liked to be in class, drank at the bar during “5-minute breaks”, and of course, never paid attention to guest speakers. These students are very different, I was very surprised how fun, active and curious they were about social media and I really enjoyed the discussion with them. Below is what I learned through our discussions.

Is Advertising Dying?

Since they are advertising students, concerns came up during my presentation around the topic on whether the knowledge they are getting now will still be relevant when they graduate. I think traditional advertising agency model is dead, but advertising is not dying, it’s just changing and companies/ agencies are now forced to integrate everything to come up as a strategy to adapt to the new media landscape. Advertising students have to understand how the media is changing and how this “one big idea beats all” theory doesn’t exist anymore.

Learning VS thinking

I think education is only like a tool to get people start thinking, not necessarily about what it will teach. Although education systems from some countries were poorly designed that kill students’ creativity, education wasn’t meant to make people think in a certain way. The key is really to learn how to develop an interest over certain things, then learning will come easy.

What do the Pros think:

When preparing for this presentation, I asked a few experts on digital media and advertising about “How new media is changing the advertising industry” and these are their responses.

Thomas Crampton (APAC Director of Digital Influencer at Ogilvy PR):

“Formerly, companies bought media. Now they are media.”

Matthew Leem (Regional Account Director at Ogilvy & Mather):

“It’s killing advertising (agencies)”

Paul Lam (Account Executive at Ogilvy & Mather):

“Social media is changing advertising because it is directly reinforcing the emotional connection between the consumer and the product.

In the past, traditional advertising would simply sell a product to a consumer. But now the consumer has a direct input in what they experience with the “idea” of the product, which can be shared to anyone openly. It has become more than just some tangible product… Social media has created a direct relationship, where the consumer can express what they feel. This movement has made brands more honest and grounded.

No more glitz and glamour, but simple truths”

Nic Tinworth (Digital Director at Fluid Design + Marketing):

“A common challenge for both advertisers and marketers alike has always been identifying and connecting with the right target audience. Recent trends in Social Media use have caused an unparalleled business paradigm shift, and recent studies have pointed to as much as 80% of ‘decision makers’ finding their own vendors, rather than the other way round. Social Media use is now so mainstream, that if as an agency you aren’t using and engaging with it yourself, you’re not just missing opportunities for your clients, you are also wasting opportunities for new business. To put it into layman’s terms, agencies now have to ‘walk the walk’ and not just ‘talk the talk’.”

Poly U Students:

Thanks for the fun times, I really enjoyed it and it made me miss uni so much! Please free feel to contact me if you need help on your projects, or maybe a beer or six between and after classes.

You can download the pictures with this link.

Goodluck to you all!

Great Ad Parody: Specsavers ‘The Specs Effect’

Tim Ho — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 15:51:41 +0000

Parody in advertising can gain more attention than the original piece if it’s done well. This piece definitely went viral. Specsavers, an online glasses shop created this great viral piece that mocks an older advertisement by AXE. AXE has always been selling sex appeal in their ads, Specsavers’ ad is clever enough to take advantage of all the buzz AXE has.

The original Ad by AXE

And here’s the Specsavers’ ad

Toyota recalls? Garage door company laughs

Tim Ho — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 16:49:52 +0000

Dansk Port Teknik (DPT), garage door company recently worked with agency JWT Copenhagen this creative advertisement that really takes the most out of Toyota’s recall. This ad promotes 20% off on all garage doors, for Toyota owners only along with the broken garage door.

Marketing/ advertising industry is often cruel. It’s been only a week, Toyota loses more than $20 billion in market share and recalls couple million cars, companies have already published ads making laughs of their mistakes to generate sales.

Pepsi said No to Super Bowl Ads, Google might be doing just the Opposite

Tim Ho — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 05:35:45 +0000

We’ve all learned that Pepsi has decided to skip the Super Bowl ads in 2010 and will be injecting 20 million dollars into Refresh Project to improve community and customer relationships mainly through social media.

Seven hours ago, Google CEO Eric Schmidt posted this on Twitter:

Can’t wait to watch the Superbowl tomorrow. Be sure to watch the ads in the 3rd quarter (someone said “Hell has indeed frozen over.”)

It is quite interesting if you think about Google as a company built on advertising, is now placing ads on the mass media (previously for Google Chrome), while consumer goods like Pepsi is doing just the opposite.

From Eric Schmidt’s tweet, it is quite obvious to me that they have something planned for Super Bowl, will it be a Nexus One ad? I’m looking forward to seeing it tomorrow.

Will advertisers pay you to keep you annoyed?

Tim Ho — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 13:55:10 +0000

I love advertising. I not a fan of American football but I watch Super Bowl only for the ads. I enjoy watching TV ads purely because of it’s form of art and creativity. So I would believe that I’m not a person who get easily influenced by an ad.

A recent research conducted by Synovate shows that 67% think there are too many ads on TV, and only 39% think the same to the Internet. However, they also revealed that 42% would accept even more ads on TV in exchange for discounts on their TV subscription, and 41% would do the same on Internet.

Although numbers are pretty good, and ad channels would likely go for this plan, I still don’t think it would be effective advertising if advertisers can’t figure out a way to deliver extremely relevant and targeted ads.
Would you get more ads for discounts, and actually pay attention to the ad?

Technorati Tags: advertising

Great Concept! Glue Print Ad “Strong as a Chain”

Tim Ho — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 16:44:08 +0000

This is the latest print ad for glue company Loctite. Really love the powerful concept of this photo!
Agency: DDB Milan, Italy

Why Online Ads still work (at least for now)

Tim Ho — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 16:34:59 +0000

I used to spend so much on online ads for different campaigns with Google Adwords, Facebook, and other smaller pay-per-click programmes. Online-ads are “still” popular because people don’t need much knowledge to launch it, also a very measurable tactic which shows people the return on investment in the most direct way.

Why do people click on ads?

Advertisers are still investing heavily on online ads because obviously they value the return, and most of all, because people still click on ads. Most of the people who still click on ads are the ones who don’t know the difference between paid results and organic results on search, or attracted by appealing banners and click on them without noticing they are advertisements.

Here’s how I roll!

What will happen?

In the future, people will know more and more about how internet really works and how commercial it is. When people notice that they are ads posted directly from the company or affiliate, they will only go for generic results or information that are valuable to them.

And here’s the latest research!

Graph by Forrester

Funny Advertising campaign by Evian

Tim Ho — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:43:40 +0000

I am not a Bottled Water fan, I just don’t see the value in paying for a branded bottle of water to cover their marketing costs while I can easily get water for free. However, I’m always interested in seeing how these brands try to position themselves among the others.

Here’s a very funny one by Evian, targeting baby-boomers (and parents).
Technorati Tags: Evian, Advertising, water, marketing, branding

The original social networking “Site”

Tim Ho — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 10:27:19 +0000

“Site” doesn’t have to be an online “website”, it can also be a camp site. The advertisement above is by Coleman outdoor company that has over 100 years history of bringing people together with their outdoor products. This video has high potential for going viral, very clever for positioning themselves as a “social networking site”.

Found via Michael Seaton on TheClientSide

Cool Ad: Melting Perrier by Ogilvy Paris

Tim Ho — Wed, 13 May 2009 14:20:59 +0000

Being part of Ogilvy, I’m proud to share the success of their new campaign by Ogilvy Paris. With the weather getting warmer, it’s the best time for Perrier to launch this creative TV and print campaign, “melting perrier”.

The video was uploaded to Youtube on April 23rd, and there have been 2300 views (plus other video sharing sites), may not be as high-traffic as many viral videos but I really love the concept and the traffic.

Also, congratulations to Ogilvy winning Large Agency of the Year at the Sabre awards in NY!

Via: fubiz