Front Row Seat

"Car drives down the road" is the stereotypical car commercial. But, the road to great advertising is to take a stereotype and break it.

Here's a front row seat on how that is done.



This commercial places you in the front seat not only by view, but also by the overheard conversation. You cannot help but be involved.

And, what you see takes your involvement to a visceral level. You really see the new Mini and you think about the car. Consideration begins.

This work was done by 19:13, an agency in Munich, Germany.

Copyright © 2009 by John Eighmey. All Rights Reserved.

Motivation to Share

The "Elaboration Likelihood Model" has become a popular psychological perspective on the processes of persuasion. The model focuses on "motivation to process" the information in persuasive messages. "Strong verbal arguments" are said to be the source of the strongest persuasive effects.

This recent viral commercial for Samsung suggests "motivation to share" may be a more promising concept these days. Persuasion is not so much about making "strong arguments" as it is about making a human connection.



This work was done by the:viral:factory, the agency based in London and Santa Monica.

That was a nice touch dotting the "i" in "fin" at the very end.

Copyright © 2009 by John Eighmey. All Rights Reserved.

"Burning-In" the Brand

It used to be that media accumulated audiences and brands hitched a ride (meaning they purchased space or time in the media). Now, some brands accumulate their own audiences.

Geico's Gecko has his own channel on YouTube.


People continually seek the new. The psychologist Wilhelm Wundt demonstrated this well over a century ago. No one wants to be what they used to be. So we seek the new and share it with our friends.

Today, brands hitch a ride on the "Wundt Curve" by paying attention to how their icons and ideas connect to the current cultural conversation.

For example, here the Gecko and his wingman "Kash" hitch a ride with Gary Broisma's now famous video homage to Mysto and Pizzi's version of the 1984 hit single by Kennedy Gordy (aka Rockwell).



This video is already finding a large audience. It demonstrates the meaning of the concept "brands as channels" and how brands can become media in themselves.

It also reveals the evolving meaning of the concept of persuasion. I've always thought the notion "low involvement learning" was a misnomer. What some researchers call "weak arguments" are really highly involving ways to burn-in those brand associations.

This work is by the Martin Agency, the Richmond advertising agency.

For more on the Psychology of Advertising, please see Advertising and the Arc of History.

Copyright © 2009 by John Eighmey. All Rights Reserved.

Future Hopping

Comcast's new advertising campaign presents an idea-driven jingle. It tells the ways community members can benefit from the brand.

Many product features are shown. The idea of the jingle is to invite you to be "always dreaming, never stopping" and to leap into the future.


Leaping into the future is visualized in a highly creative manner by "future-hopping." Space-suited people happily hop to their futures bouncing down the information road using exercise balls with handles.



In the literature about memes and the cultural conversation, this visualization is called a "self-replicating" concept. It will be interesting to see what comes of future-hopping.

The campaign was done by Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, the San Francisco advertising agency.

Copyright © 2009 by John Eighmey. All Rights Reserved.

Advertising @ Art

A new video from Nokia rises to the level of performance art.

In its art, the performance depicts a communication model and invites us to reflect about the meaning of everyday human communication.

It is becoming something more rich and creative.



The video ends with "Beautiful Connections" and a URL. The website shows how to add artistic capabilities to cell phone conversations.

This work was done by Wieden + Kennedy in London.

Copyright © 2009 by John Eighmey. All Rights Reserved.

How to Succeed on the Web by Really Trying

T-Mobile's current advertising campaign has drawn much favorable comment. "Life is for sharing" speaks strategically to telephone use. It also connects powerfully to the "seek and share" imperative of social currency by cell phone users and on the Web.

The T-Mobile flash mob dance video made on January 15 has drawn well over 5 million views on YouTube. This is a scene from the event at London's Liverpool Street train station.



T-Mobile has released a series of additional dance videos onto YouTube. They all extend the hoopla of the the January 15 event, continue to build favorable brand associations, and guide viewers to the T-Mobile website where they discover how to make their own dance videos to share with their friends.

Here's the T-Mobile "instructional commercial" on how to do Part II of the dance. This is the part everyone wants to do.



Web-based promotions come and go. Many are questioned. T-Mobile shows how to use the Web in an idea-driven way that is both strategically and creatively smart.

This work guides the audience to the T-Mobile website demonstrating web centricity for brand communication. Saatchi & Saatchi, London is the advertising agency.

Copyright © 2009 by John Eighmey. All Rights Reserved.

Spring Break

Spring break is just two weeks away. You are probably thinking this is none too soon, and your travel plans were set long ago.

Here is an instructive classic when it comes to tourism advertising.

Each sentence invites you to experience the culture of the place. Each sentence asks for the order. It was written by Mary Wells Lawrence.

Bill Taubin was the art director. His name is in the Art Directors Hall of Fame (1981).



Mary Wells Lawrence has written a book that is recommended reading for all students of advertising. A Big Life in Advertising was published in 2002.

Copyright © 2009 by John Eighmey. All Rights Reserved.