Gaming is good advertising

When logging in to my hyves profile this morning, the amount of advertising which I was confronted with surprised me. Normally it does not bug me, but looking for another subject for my blog it hit me in one time! Different banners, invitations from brands, invitations to play games from brands.. especially the last one sounds interesting to me.

To conduct some good investigation ;) I tried to play the "Maffe Marathonspel" from the Bijenkorf.

A popup came up with the game (beautifully designed though). I clicked on "Start het spel" to begin, and an explanation of the game appeared. In this game, a lot of products which are offered during the real Maffe Marathon appeared. At the end, you needed to fill in a form with your personal information and the option to receive a newsletter from the Bijenkorf was already clicked on. After filling in this form the possibility to open the productbrochure of the Maffe Marathon came available.

In my eyes, the whole game is a advertising opportunity. Showing your products, getting customers familiar with the name and the event, signing them up for newsletters; everything is advertising, but just wrapped up as a nice game. This is just one example of all the "advertising games". I think it is a good way to get some attention for a product or event, even when customers don't sign up or don't buy the product; at least they know it exists and they can tell it to their (hyves) friends!

Get a girl with Axe

I had a very hard time coming up with a new subject for my blog. I brainstormed until my whole brain was devastated and I could not come up with one interesting fact. So I tried to make a list of nice advertising campaigns I could remember and thus made an impression on me.

The first one which came up were the campaigns of Axe. Overall, especially their advertising on television, the campaigns are very successful, funny and rememberable. Axe is worldwide known as a successful brand of deodorant, douchegel and aftershave. From the start it has been positioned as a product for (young) men, and use of Axe will lead them to success with the girls.




Here an example of one of the most known television advertisements of Axe:


Spray more, get more. The Axe effect.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-_eLCtRqW4


This is just one of a big number of successful commercials. Even more special is the marketing strategy of the brand in the United Kingdom, where it is called Lynx. The advertise here with the same slogan, the Lynx effect. Lynx designed, together with an advertising company, a website totally dedicated to young men and helping them with flirting and getting girls: http://www.lynxeffect.com/#/home.aspx


This interactive website provides online tips and videoclips about seducing and getting a girl. Further, they developed special apps which also provides these funny tools. I think Axe is very innovating and original!

Spanish Succes Story

I think everybody knows the fashion store Zara, especially girls. Personally, it is one of my favorite shops although not in the weekend. Than it looks like there has been a war between all the customers with clothes as weapons. Okay, back to the subject: Zara is well-known. Last week I was wondering if I had ever seen an advertising campaign in magazines or television from Zara.. and I could not remember anything. I asked a bit around and most of my fellow Zara-fans could not remember a campaign either.

So I started 'googling' and found out that Zara does not advertise. Fashion retailers spend on average 3.5% of revenue on advertising their products, while Zara's parent company Inditex spends just 0.3%. This company believes advertising is pointless distraction. They believe that you can build a brand just by meeting the marked need.

The company's success lies in having total control over every part of the business. Zara designs, produces and distributes everything herself. Another strategy of Zara is they have every product in a limited amount and when you get the chance to buy it, you are lucky. If not, you can wait another week and a whole new collection has arrived. Zara's designers create approximately 40.000 new designs annually, from which 10.000 are selected for production. The clothes are inspired on the high-fashion labels, which are very expensive and exclusive. Zara makes it possible for everyone to own high-fashion designs, although with a less good quality, but for a really appropriate price.

This is the prove that when you really feel the market need, you do not need advertising to build a massive brand!