Cramer-Krasselt: An Agent that ISN'T a Secret

Have you ever seen the Carona beer commercial where there are various scenes where a couple enjoys the taste of the beer together or have you ever seen the Porsche Panamera commercial where all the different Porsche cars are driving in the desert, then the Panamera comes through and all of the other cars branch out and they form a family tree? If you have, then you know of some work from Cramer-Krasselt, an advertising agency has been around since 1898. Cramer-Krasselt is the second largest independent agency in the U.S. and was created in Milwaukee.

This company has worked with many of the biggest companies around such as CareerBuilder, Edward Jones, the Blue Man Group, and they have also worked with big Milwaukee based company Airtran Airways. This agency does a great job of finding simple, intelligent ways to grasp the attention of the audience or demographic they want for any product. For an example, Airtran Airways was really unpopular in Milwaukee for many reasons and people didn't want to choose their airlines for traveling, but CK came up with marketing techniques that were undeniably great that people started trusting and liking the company. Some of the techniques were designing the outside of planes in the Milwaukee Brewers colors and logos, giving many job opportunities to Milwaukee people, and got them to serve warm cookies on the airplanes. Great techniques to change the outlook of a airline people hate can do wonders. To see all of the great things they have done, go to their website http://www.c-k.com/# for more info.

Corona: Simple, but Great

This ad was one of the great examples I've seen recently when it comes to simple, but great advertising for a product. The Corona beer ads all take place on a beach and it's always two beers with a lime slice. The beach represents beautiful paradise and the colors are perfect and relaxing. The purpose of this particular ad is that one beer is almost full while the other beer is almost empty. Next to the full beer, it says "High tide" and next to the empty beer, it says, "Low Tide". The sayings are references to how the ocean goes when waves are formed. It also connects to how it looks when one beer is opened and how it looks when a beer is closed. I think this is a humorous ad. The other thing the ad does simply, but great is the fact that the camera angle is focused strictly on the bottles. Everything in the ad is in the back. It draws your eyes to the bottles first instead of looking at the beach. Even when you look at the setting, you can't help but to look at the bottles as well.

Frito Lay turning South Park's Cheesy Poofs into Reality

In the spirit of the 15th year of the animated cable show South Park, Frito-Lay is gearing up to turn certain bags of Cheetos into the actual show's version Cheesy Poofs. This will take place in the fall, but only for a limited time. The Cheesy Poofs comes from an episode in the earlier days of the show, where Cartman (as seen above) is obsess with the chessy snack. Above is a video of Cartman singing the jingle for Cheesy Poofs.

I think that it is a brilliant idea for South Park to allow Frito-Lay to advertise their idea because this is how both companies can make more money. Many people will go out and purchase the bag because it's a South Park reference...a classy reference overall in the show's 15th year history. It is also smart for Frito-Lay to do this because they are bringing various groups of people to buy more of their snacks and they are also charging more money than usual for the bag because of the novelty aspect of it. This deal seems to work out for everyone and the marketing skill is simple, but will make a lot of money.

CDF Freedom Schools National Social Action Day: I'm Stepping Up For Children

This week is a very important one as every 3rd Wednesday of July, the Children Defense Fund Freedom Schools program conducts the National Social Action Day. For those who never heard of Freedom Schools, you are really missing out! Freedom Schools is a reading enrichment program created by the Children Defense Fund (see my blog called What Brand Am I to get the full effect of the program) to motivate children to fall in love with reading and being able to learn critical thinking skills.

Now, since there is a little recap or introduction into the program, we can talk about the National Social Action Day. The importance of Social Action to the Freedom Schools model is to teach children to take a positive role in the issues that affect their communities. Some would probably ask, "What can children do to make a huge difference in their communities?" The answer to that is  A LOT!!! Children from a young age to college students have made a positive impact in history on social issues such as Little Rock 9, the Freedom Riders, and various Civil Rights groups.

In Freedom School, the children, which are referred to as Scholars, are taught to strive above the "norm" for students. These Scholars definitely achieve this goal when they continue the legacy of fighting for equality on social issues such as healthcare coverage, education, poverty, and incarceration issues.

On July 13th, there will be thousands of children nationwide from big cities such as Chicago, Los Angeles, New Orleans, and New York to small cities such as Bennettsville, SC, and Tulsa, Ok, that will participating in the this amazing event. There will be marches, chants, and a huge amount of taking a stand for a common cause in their communities.

Here is a promo video of this year's National Social Action Day theme

After watching the video, I hope you have an urge to want to make a positive impact and that you ask yourself, "How can I be apart of this huge event?" If this question comes to your mind and you are in Milwaukee then you can answer that question! Urban Roots CDF Freedom School is one of the 130 sites around the nation and the ONLY site in the state of Wisconsin. This site's existence has been 3 years and has made a great change in the Harambee Community of Milwaukee. This Wednesday at 12pm-2:30pm, Urban Roots will be having a National Social Action Day event at 2600 N. 2nd St. to take action on the educational problems happening not just in the country, but specifically in Wisconsin. There are many budget cuts that have happened (thanks to a certain beloved Governor) which has and will affect the future of education in this state. With the budget cuts, teachers have lost jobs, college students have lost grants and added more debt on top of their loans, and not to mention some public schools have closed.

We all need to take a stand and say we CAN'T and WON'T allow this to happen because all children need education.

Here's a flyer for the Urban Roots CDF Freedom School National Social Action Day event

Apple's Origin of Ads: The Seeds that Planted Success

In the spirit of showing respect to this great brand Apple, I wanted to go back and focus on how they started in marketing their computers. The advertising looks so B.C. now, but looking back during the early 80s at brands and their advertising, Apple has done one thing consistently over the past 30 years...cutting edge marketing and advertising.

The ad above is a huge step in the cutting edge area. The ad clearly plays on the biblical story of Adam and Eve and how the importance of the apple in that story connects to how important Apple should be. With a slogan saying, "We're looking for the most original use of an Apple since Adam", it puts their product in the forbidden realm which is so great that it makes you sin. Ads from the past weren't as risky. This makes it one of the risky ads of its time.

The ad below is an ad that shows the dominance of what Apple stands for even today...being the Ultimate Personal Computer. In ads for Apple in the past, they were very direct on bragging about how good their products were than the competition. As of today, they still make ads bragging, but they are more subtle today probably due to the emergence of Microsoft during the mid 80s. Either way, cheers to Apple and their 3 decades of great ads and marketing.

 In the spirit of our Apple week, I decided to blog about one of the best ads of the last decade. Apple has always been a trendsetter when it comes to style and technology, but with these ads, Apple had started something epic...the silhouette of a person dancing to a song that they're listening to on their Ipod. By viewing this ad, a person can imagine themselves owning an Ipod and jamming wherever or whenever. On the left, there is a woman smiling while dancing to her Ipod.

To the right, there is a silhouette of a guy looking like he's playing an air guitar to a song on his Ipod. Many guys, if not all, can relate to hearing our favorite song on our mp3 and pretending to be the drummer or the guitar player. We would play it with feeling. These ads made you remember these moments and wanted to make new ones.

These ads help take mp3 players to another level where Microsoft created some competition with a product called Zune. There were other companies creating ads very similar to Apple’s. This was a great marketing strategy and the profits showed for Apple. Today, Ipods still are the biggest music player in the world. Various types have hit the stores over the years. Apple continues to be the cutting edge company in technology, and this was the ad to help take Ipods to a new level.