Brand Width

Ad of the Week for May 14, 2012

George Pytlik — Tue, 15 May 2012 05:20:43 +0000

Brilliant and hilarious approach to advertising pet insurance from Falabella in Colombia. Promotes the idea that you get your money in 24 hours, fast enough that you can replace the pet before anyone notices. Too funny. Simple and clever, but perfectly focused.

About the Ad of the Week

Millions of new ads are crafted around the world every day. A handful are worthy of attention. Of those, a small selection are the source of inspiration and insight for others. George looks for ads with special qualities. These might stand out because of a great concept, art direction, photography, or some other element setting them apart from the others. A new one is posted every week.

Ad of the Week for May 7, 2012

George Pytlik — Tue, 08 May 2012 05:10:33 +0000

Nice approach from Magimage Retouching Studio in Montreal. Many retouchers try to show their craft in their advertising, but this has a fresh, creative take on a tired idea. Well done.

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Ad of the Week for May 2, 2012

George Pytlik — Wed, 02 May 2012 16:31:07 +0000

Gritty and real, there is a lot to appreciate about this hard-hitting series talking to young pedestrians about staying alert. Hails from Australia. I can’t imagine anyone not being emotionally affected by this message.

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May 2012 desktop wallpaper calendar

George Pytlik — Tue, 01 May 2012 05:57:00 +0000

Spring. We all have our mental pictures of this time of year. Sometimes it’s more fun to take a different tack. Hope you like this creative approach to one of our favorite seasons. Large 1920x1280 size suitable for most screens, extra-large 2560x1920 version for huge monitors, with a 1024x768 option for the iPad.

2560 x 1920 Size
1920 x 1280 Size
iPad version

Ad of the Week for April 23, 2012

George Pytlik — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 22:59:42 +0000

From Turkey comes this refreshingly different approach to promoting “genuine” automotive parts, in this case for Harley Davidson motorcycles. The headline reads “Nothing can replace the real one. Use original Harley-Davidson parts.” Great use of subtle humor in advertising, and especially effective because this brand usually doesn’t have funny ads. Click image to view larger version.

About the Ad of the Week

Ikea's creative human coupons

George Pytlik — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 16:07:19 +0000

Ikea has always been one of my favorite marketers. While not a huge fan of their products, I do buy Ikea from time to time and the brand certainly fills a useful niche in the consumer space — especially for young people wanting style at a low price. They understand their market and their demographic. Their ads are always clever, yet relevant to the company’s mission, adding value to the brand while selling products.

Their campaign to promote the launch of the new store in Richmond, BC is no exception.

Full-page newspaper ads with creative headlines (“What has two eyes, ten fingers and wears pants? You guessed it… a coupon.”) point you to their Facebook page where they promote their “human coupons.” To create a buzz around the new store launch, they have distributed hundreds of human coupons (people wearing distinctive yellow T-shirts with coupon graphics on them) all around the Vancouver area. If you find one, you get a coupon worth up to $1,000 to use at the new store. And the more people tweet about this promotion, the more coupons they release.

I visited the Facebook page to see how they did their social media and found a textbook example of great social media marketing.

Not only do they make excellent use of Facebook’s timeline, they use it to highlight key products, show off the progress on the new store construction, and include customers in the mix.

A tab for “videos” is a bit out of date, but the “Richmond” tab ties directly into the ad campaign, announcing that everyone is a coupon — which certainly gets your attention. An earlier campaign to let people sign up for a limited number of “pre-opening” shopper passes quickly sold out, and they make sure to point this out.

All in all, this is a really outstanding example of how retailers should be using social media. Every marketer should learn from this.

Visit the Ikea Canada Facebook page

Ad of the Week for April 16, 2012

George Pytlik — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 22:16:09 +0000

Surfrider Foundation hosted Beach Cleanup Days March 22–25. This ad, from France, is an outstanding example of clear communication for this event. Everything that needs to be said is accomplished, most of it through the visual. Click to see larger version.

About the Ad of the Week

Ad of the Week for April 9, 2012

George Pytlik — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 07:23:19 +0000

This outstanding print piece was created to help young people understand the danger of spending too much time baking their skin in the sun. The approach highlights the power of print, because this type of interactivity would be impossible with digital media. Engaging, yet simple and clear, this is an excellent example of creativity at work. The headline reads “Want to see how old her skin will look 10 years from now?”

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Website for WDC Dance Archives project

George Pytlik — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 22:27:43 +0000

Ballroom dancing has succeeded as a respected and consistent art form because of the hard work, commitment and wisdom of professionals around the world who have dedicated their lives to preserving the legacy of the dance form. They have written guide books to ensure that the steps are understood and consistent in every part of the world. They have freely shared knowledge with one another. They have demonstrated the details they are so passionate about with style and clarity, ensuring that we know what great dancing looks like.

Brigitt Mayer, author of Ballroom Icons, and Ruud Vermeij, one of the dance world’s most highly respected figures, came to the Adwiz with a vision for a website that would encapsulate the vast storehouse of ballroom dance knowledge and provide a foundation to continue spreading that valuable information around the world through the power of digital technology. The project involved several months of work building a site that would meet these objectives and yet be easy for contributing authors to use.

Several factors were considered in the design. The use of a magazine-style format allow the content to be constantly changing, with editorial options to highlight key articles. Being aware that the contributors are not graphic designers themselves, we wanted to maintain the visual integrity of the site as non-designers added content. So, the site presents visually stylish posts even if the images are small, less than ideal, or non-existent. Authors have their own mini bios to give them the recognition they deserve. A special Tag index enables site visitors to find content easily even as the volume of information grows increasingly complex. And with video becoming a major component of online communication, the site has built-in video tools that make it easy to present and index video postings.

All of this was applied using WordPress, with a structure that allows the individual authors to log in and post their own content. They do not need to be web-savvy or graphical designers to product posts that look good. This is one of the biggest challenges with multi-author websites.

Visit the Dance Archives website

Ad of the Week for April 2, 2012

George Pytlik — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 21:49:02 +0000

From Germany comes this very simple and clear treatment for Apomea sunscreen. While it doesn’t say anything unique about this product as compared to others, it is memorable and presents a great deal of clarity in just one image. And who isn’t immediately mesmerized by that gorgeous beach and water?