In my Advertising Research class we have to do a secondary research report of some brand we choose. One person chose Google, but found it too broad and wasn’t sure how to narrow it down. I suggested the Google phone coming out for T-Mobile. I was surprised that no one else in the class knew about this phone! It’s a hot topic on the technology blogs I frequent, but well, I guess I forget that not everyone inhabits the internet like I do. ;]

For my topic I chose to research the Blackberry franchise by RIM (Research in Motion). I just last month bought a Blackberry of my own, so I thought this would be a useful topic. This Blackberry is replacing my low-end Palm Z22 as a PDA; I got hooked on Google Calendar and when I found out that the calendar app on Blackberry could be synched with GCal, I was sold. I still have my regular cell phone however; the Blackberry is pure PDA for me with no phone plan.

Anyway, I digress! So, I will be researching Blackberry for my assignment, and in perfect timing, RIM has started broadcasting commercials for their Blackberries. It’s like they knew I was researching them, heh. I’d never before seen any ads for the Blackberry devices, at least not on tv. In fact, a lot of tv spots have been popping up recently for companies that had never really advertised on tv before. (That I am aware) I don’t know if theres some beig advertising frenzy going on and everybody suddenly wants to make commercials. Maybe it’s Microsoft’s new ads that have started this. Either way, expect to see more interesting ads!

Oh, today in class we watched a brief video about Marriott and their brand extension. It was interesting how many different demographics they were able to tap into. In fact, it looked like they nailed every kind of hotel user. Hotels designed for traveling businessmen, hotels designed for travelers on a budget, hotels designed for more luxurious getaways, hotels designed for extended stay.. and here I thought Marriott was just one kind of hotel! Ignorant me.

Oversaturation: I have seen a lot of replays of the Max Payne movie ad. It was definetely too much when the ad was placed twice during a single commercial break. I think it was literally Max Payne, some other commercial, and then Max Payne again. This is a big turn off. Don’t oversaturate your audience. I’m not talking about having frequent tv spots with different commercial variations of your brand.  But when you show the same commercial too often, that’s overkill. And annoying. And the last thing you want is to annoy your audience into avoiding your movie!

Caught My Eye: There was an ad I saw recently for a new Audi car. Unfortunately I couldn’t find any copy ofthis commercial online. But I really liked this ad, it drew my full attention. It was actually pretty simple, but that’s what made it good. It focused on the familiar round lines that they give all their vehicles, highlighting that roundness as part of the Audi brand’s personality. The ad declared that for their first ever line of crossover vehicles, “boxy was not an option.”

I really wish I could find the video. It’s kinda pointless to talk about a commercial when I can’t show it. :\