Pay Per Click advertising- The Morphsuit

Despite the fact that this blog claims to be about tv, print, and internet advertising, almost every post I've written has been about videos- mostly tv ads. Whilst some of these have been viral adverts, there aren't a great deal of them about. One of the more prevalent forms of advertising online is Pay Per Click, as it suggests, you pay everytime someone clicks on your advert. You see these adverts every time you type something into google (on the right side), or every time you're on facebook. Google uses your search term (amongst other, more clandestine factors) to figure out what adverts are shown on the right side of your screen. Facebook, on the other hand, uses the information you give it.
Usually it just takes demographic factors into account- age, gender etc.. But sometimes it takes your interests into account: for example, when I first set up a facebook account, in music and interests I'd written "Pink Floyd", so for a while, every time I refreshed my homepage or visited someone else's page, I was greeted with an advert for David Gilmour t-shirts.
All of which leads me to question why this advert has started appearing in my feed:

This is possibly a bit of rational thinking taken to quite an extreme. Currently my relationship status is set to "single", so facebook has taken this to mean that I am desperate enough to buy a full body suit with the intention of getting off with some floozy on a night out, and has written the advert accordingly. Complete with a testimonial.
Then again, it's very difficult to guess precisely what sort of segment a product such as The Morphsuit (I couldn't resist having a look at the website) is aimed at. So far the only practical suggestion I can see for its use is to buy a gold one for a fancy dress film night and go as an Oscar.

What's in a name? Microsoft Kinect

Currently I am going through the rather terrible process of attempting to rename the brand that I designed a logo for a couple of weeks ago. It's something of a sticky wicket, and despite various attempts at brainstorming, making lists of potential names, prefixes, suffixes and various other cheaper fixes (I consumed a large amount of alcohol this weekend- although not in a bid to pluck a name out of thin air), I still have not hit upon that perfect name yet.

Anyway, whilst on the subject of new names, Microsoft announced a name change of their project Natal. I was particularly attached to the Natal moniker, so I am a little disappointed with the fact they've changed it. I was quite looking forward to having a shiny box on my television with "Natal" emblazoned on its noble flank.Or something.
Still, looking at it from someone currently beset by a creative block regarding names, the new name is actually a fantastic one. Bearing in mind that the whole thing is based around movement (or kinetic activity), it is a fairly descriptive word. In addition to this, "Kinect" sounds a little like "Connect", albeit said in an Australian accent. It's the same slightly nauseaous thought process that Nintendo had behind the wii, but it has the notable advantage of not being homophonous with an unwanted bodily fluid.

I guess it is the product of a multi-million pound company paying ridiculous amounts of money to people to come up with a new name. Some wonderfully clever wordplay. If anyone has any suggestings for my stuff, feel free to comment in the, well, comments.

Zazoo

Another quick and dirty post this week (after all, who really wants to hear me bang on about something that is designed to be quite funny which actually manages to pull it off?). Anyway, in keeping with the quick and dirty theme, here is an advert that was allegedly banned, but nonetheless is on Youtube. With over 20 million views. Somewhat better than your average itv slot.



Sure, it may be directly going against the pope's wishes of everyone having daft numbers of kids (and Aids), but who are you going to follow? A guy with awesome John Bon Jovi hair or a guy who professes to have a hotline to an allegedly omniscient god who is still somehow unaware that Aids is a bad thing to have in a large percentage of a country's population?

Next week: Less anti-religious rhetoric.

VolksWagen

Just a quick and dirty post here, as I have been quite busy the last couple of weeks, most recently due to designing leaf logos for NewGenn, the people who have been kind enough to employ me for the next few weeks. Expect to see the fruits of my labours (or at least the leaves) when I've finalised the design. Because I'm nice like that. Or hideously self-promoting. Depends on your view point.

Anyway, with the intention of this being a quick and dirty post, it's apt that I post an advert that is not safe for television (but you might be able to get away with it at work):



It's kind of sweet in its own way, and also demonstrates how the internet has- to a certain degree- freed marketers from organisations such as the ASA, in order to make adverts that feature small kids saying "Bollocks".


Or something like that.