Friday Breakthrough: Olympic Edition – Part Three

The Friday Breakthrough is Ottawa's weekly roundup of some of the Internet's best marketing and social media articles for a less-than-intense day at the office. For the duration of the Winter Olympic Games, the Friday Breakthrough will be dedicated to reviewing The Good, The Bad and The "What Were They Thinking?!" of the marketing of the Vancouver Olympics.

Part Three: What Were They Thinking?

And now, the hot mess of Olympic marketing blunders. First up, I must discuss the train wreck of Olympic uniforms that we had to endure during the Olympic ceremonies. Don’t get me wrong, I loved a lot of countries’ Olympic threads, but some were so hideous. (And yes, for any naysayers, Olympic gear has EVERYTHING to do with marketing). Germany takes the cake on the worst uniforms. Pink for girls and blue for boys – I wish I were kidding. Sure, my fashion expertise is limited to episodes of “Project Runway” and my LouLou subscription, but I mean come on! Heidi Klum must be throwing up right now. I couldn’t seem to find a pick of the German uniform disaster, but look for them during closing ceremonies. Trust me, you won’t miss team Deutschland. It’s a bad fashion wreck, you won’t be able to take your eyes off. Also, there’s a good chance you’ll feel better about your grade 8 sewing assignment in Home Ec class. Don’t worry, I wouldn’t have you walk away without viewing a most excellent Olympic fashion faux-pas, I have included a pic of the Norwegian curling team.

Next up: bandwagon jumping of provincial tourism served up with the subtlety of Kanye West. Sure, the spirit of the Olympic Games has always diluted by the onslaught of advertising, sponsorship and press, but am I the only one who finds the constant running of the B.C. and Ontario tourism ads blatant attempts to cash in? I just have one question for British Columbia Tourism: How many of them ACTUALLY call B.C. home?

So who has reached the summit of ultimate Olympic blunders? The hot mess goes to Cold FX. There are several spots featuring Canadian Olympic athletes, all touting the benefits of this cold remedy. Uber cheesy and filmed with the quality that makes you think that local community programming has a bigger budget to work with. Also, the copywriting on the Clara Hughes spot reminds me of feminine hygiene ad from 1962 or something: “I guess it’s not a secret any more.” No Clara, it’s no secret that Cold FX seriously needs to reconsider their advertising. In the words of Charlie Brown: “Good grief!”

My apologies for not attaching the soon-to-be classic Clara Hughes spot, blame it on YouTube. If you’re any Olympic fan at all, you’ve already seen it 74 times at least and if you haven’t - go watch the Olympics!

I hope you enjoyed this three part series, I sure did. Be sure to catch our post-Olympic Friday Breakthrough next week.

Internet Fad of the Week: Chatroulette

Haven't you heard of Chatroulette? All the plugged-in web-savvy peeps out there have. It's no surprise that Mr. I-Have-Over-Four-Million-Followers-On-Twitter, Ashton Kutcher himself (@aplusk), has been caught in the act. Chatroulette is a website that connects users with one other random user at a time, for communication via webcam and text. Apparently, its appeal crosses borders and even species (see: Catroulette).

According to good old Wikipedia, the site was launched in November 2009 by a 17 year-old high school student in Moscow. It will certainly be interesting to see how this service evolves or if it's just the flavour of the week.

I can't bring myself to try it, even in the name of The Daily Breakthrough, because I just don't want strangers popping into my home via my computer screen. Thanks, but no thanks. All this talk of webcams and invasion of privacy reminds me of a terrifying news article I read recently. Check out this unbelievable story about a Philadelphia school that spied on its students using webcams on school-issued laptops, in an attempt to find a few missing computers. Welcome to 1984, ladies and gents.

Friday Breakthrough: Olympic Edition – Part Two

The Friday Breakthrough is Ottawa’s weekly roundup of some of the Internet’s best marketing and social media articles for a less-than-intense day at the office. For the duration of the Winter Olympic Games, the Friday Breakthrough will be dedicated to reviewing The Good, The Bad and The “What Were They Thinking?!” of the marketing of the Vancouver Olympics.

Part Two: The Bad WonderBread



“Let’s throw some winter sports gear on the usual cute kids we use and they’ll be so adorable no one will notice our lack of an idea.” Wrong.

So much of this latest round of Olympic advertising isn’t so much “bad” as it is purely mediocre. Safe, nothing unexpected, it gets the message across while drowning in mediocrity. Kinda makes me long for some more of the self-indulgent, big-budget shenanigans of Coca-Cola and the other commercial stars of the last Super Bowl offering. My commentary on Bell, Petro Canada and Panasonic’s Olympic performance: “Meh.”

Don’t miss next week’s Friday Breakthrough when we serve up one hot mess of Olympic Marketing. We advise you to be sitting down for it. The trainwreck that is “What Were They Thinking?!” makes its Olympic debut only on MB’s Friday Breakthrough.

Friday Breakthrough: Olympic Edition Part One

The Friday Breakthough is Ottawa’s weekly roundup of some of the Internet’s best marketing and social media articles for a less-than-intense day at the office. For the duration of the Winter Olympic Games, the Friday Breakthrough will be dedicated to reviewing The Good, The Bad and The “What Were They Thinking?!” of the marketing of the Vancouver Olympics.

Part One: The Good

1. Nike’s Force Fate

Nike nails it with “Force Fate”. No commercial in recent memory better captures the attitude of our determined athletes. And what about those golden expectations? Their defiant retort: “Destiny doesn’t decide if we win. We do.” Wicked line. Pow! They hit you in the gut with that. The music is killer, too. It’s a crank-up-your-ipod-I’m-gonna-run-10miles-flat-out kind of song. Honestly, if this spot doesn’t get you psyched up for Team Canada Hockey at Olympics, I don’t know what will.

If there’s one downfall for the commercial, it’s how pretty it looks. It’s shot beautifully, which makes me wish that it wasn’t. The attitude of this spot is so gritty that it leaves me wanting imagery that matches. Give me raw footage of practice; with sweat everywhere, whistles blowing, coaches yelling, and the heavy breathing of athletes pushing themselves past their breaking point. Now that is some serious “destiny” butt kicking. That would be the ultimate “Force Fate”.

2. CTV’s Believe, narrated by Donald Sutherland and set to the music of Oscar-winning composer Howard Shore.

Now I am a self-confessed Olympic junkie who loves those touchy-feely athlete profile stories that tug at your heart strings, but I have to say CTV has done a nice job with their promo spots. Donald Sutherland has the perfect pitch to carry the tone of the Canadian Olympic dream and adding in the music from the guy who won an Oscar for his work on the Lord of The Rings trilogy isn’t too shabby either.

Although I love the spots that profile our athletes, I am not such a fan of the other “Believe” spots that feature young Canadians. The thought is right and the message is right, but somehow it doesn’t feel authentic. It doesn’t pull at my heartstrings and it seems forced, like I know those kids were fed those lines. Canadian kids do have Olympic dreams and they’ll tell you about them, but I just don’t buy that they would tell you in the way that CTV is presenting. So overall, they got it right with Donald Sutherland, but they dropped the ball on the spots featuring the kids.

3. IOC (International Olympic Committee) – The Best of Us

This IOC spot with the cartooned athletes from the different continents in their respective Olympic gear. In the spot, these enormous cartooned athletes are standing on top of their home continents and each have a rope. They pull hard until they bring all the continents together. The different continents coming together is like a visual interpretation of the Olympic rings – emphasized by the continental colours. It’s imaginative, memorable and fun to watch. Kudos to the IOC!

Stay tuned for next week’s Friday Breakthrough. It’s gonna be ugly. I mean bad. Actually, Olympic marketing bad. Ok. You get the idea.

Google's New Onomatopoeia

Did you know that Google's mantra, as a company, is "don't be evil"? Does it scare you that they're so powerful that they need to remind themselves to be virtuous? Well, they're taking one more step towards world domination with the introduction of Google Buzz. It has similarities to social networking giants Facebook and Twitter, but there are some distinct differences.

According to the Official Google Blog,

"Google Buzz is a new way to start conversations about the things you find interesting. It's built right into Gmail, so you don't have to peck out an entirely new set of friends from scratch — it just works. If you think about it, there's always been a big social network underlying Gmail. Buzz brings this network to the surface by automatically setting you up to follow the people you email and chat with the most. We focused on building an easy-to-use sharing experience that richly integrates photos, videos and links, and makes it easy to share publicly or privately (so you don't have to use different tools to share with different audiences). Plus, Buzz integrates tightly with your existing Gmail inbox, so you're sure to see the stuff that matters most as it happens in real time."

It will be interesting to see how the power play between Facebook, Twitter, and Google Buzz turns out. My hunch is that they will continue to try to one-up each other, taking on commonalities that work, discarding elements that users don't like, and continually evolving.

Friday Breakthrough: Tigers and Ketchup and Comebacks, Oh My!

The Friday Breakthrough is Ottawa's weekly roundup of some of the Internet's best marketing and social media articles for a less-than-intense day at the office.

1) I have a new favourite commercial (and not surprisingly, it's a Super Bowl ad). How cute is that baby tiger? Simon Houpt of The Globe and Mail explains that Cars.com is one of many Super Bowl advertisers that are connecting their ads to social media (in this case, YouTube) to build anticipate and start a dialogue. For more on Super Bowl ads, check out this previous Daily Breakthrough post by our own Casey O'Brien: "My Most Memorable Super Bowl Commercials".

2) The Globe and Mail reports today that the ketchup geniuses over at Heinz have revolutionized the ketchup packet. 40 years after they were first invented, the packets have been redesigned so that it "has a base that's more like a cup for dipping and also a tear-off end for squeezing, plus it holds three times as much ketchup than a traditional packet", reports Sarah Skidmore. On behalf of all ketchup lovers out there, I say "hallelujah!"

3) I received an email from Club Monaco in my inbox this morning and experienced major flashbacks to grade 8. The email announced the return of their iconic crest - "back by popular demand!", available in select Canadian stores only.

They say that if you wait long enough, everything will come back in style. Back in the late 90's, every girl I knew had a Club Monaco sweatshirt with the big crest. If memory serves, mine was a dark navy blue hand-me-down from my older sister. I would hope that my fashion style has progressed since back then, but I've gotta say... the more I look at those comfy looking sweatshirts, the more nostalgic I feel. I may have to get one, just for kicks, but I promise I won't pair it with a scrunchie.

Who Does Wrangler Think They Are....Dolce and Gabbana?

Wrangler Jeans recently revealed its new look for the 2010 Spring/Summer season. And it's red hot!

The campaign is titled "Red" and it builds on the "We Are Animals" concept that Wrangler Jeans introduced back in 2008.

The new ads feature scantily clad men and women covered in red dirt, who look like they’ve been shipwrecked on a deserted island.

It’s sexy, it's animalistic and it has me wondering...what is Wrangler thinking?

Knowing your target market and identifying their needs is the key to every business' success. Trying not to alienate your loyal customers is another. Companies who try to be too many thing to too many people, tend to give off the impression that they don't really know what business they're in.

The way I see it, this is exactly what Wrangler Jeans has done with "We Are Animals". They've completely gone against everything that the Wrangler Jeans name was built on. Wrangler is about comfort and value not image and sex appeal. Their jeans are meant for cowboys and All-American football players. Not models and indie singers!

Although this campaign is only running in the more fashion-forward Europe, I still believe that Wrangler Jeans should stick to their roots by focusing on durability, comfort, and value.

What's your opinion?