New Diesel Fragrance Campaign Site

Martina from Adverblog writes about a new site for a new Diesel Fragrance. It’s based on a series of videos and on the omnipresent shout out „I am alive“.

Throughout the whole site you find lots of this „I am alive“, it can get anoying at some point so be ready to turn the speakers of.

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Of course there is some user generated content possible, you can upload a video of yourself shouting „I’m alive“ or upload a picture of yourself. There is also a „Chatroom“ looking like a cinema. But it was first empty and soon entering guest1237 and guest 1218 wouldn’t answer…

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There is a lot more to explore, so try it out!

Why it could make sense for Amazon to send users away with ads

Read/writeweb has an interesting observation. Apparently Amazon has started to place ads on their site that lead to products in shops on completely different sites. Some ads are contextual, others are not. And Alex asks, why on earth Amazon would do something like that, i.e. sending people out of their shop to go somewhere else?

Here are a few thoughts why it might make sense:

  1. People might remember that they found what they were looking for when visiting the amazon site. Sort of like Google whose tools are all more or less designed to send people away. AFTER they found what they were looking for.
  2. Amazon should know the parts of the site where they are loosing the most users anyway, simply because of natural drop out rates that always occur on sites. This way, they can at least earn some money with people who would never have purchased anything in the first place, too. Question is: would they also integrate the banners on pages with well-selling products?
  3. Learning about the click behaviour for products that amazon doesn’t list, is really clever (and paid for) market research into the gaps of their product offering.
  4. Who says, that margins of products sold are always better than advertising revenue. Most of the web 2.0 sites base their business model on advertising revenue rather than actual products. Amazon can probably offer a good, if not the best, targeting based on their recommendation engine. Does anyone know what they charge per click or per CPM? I bet it’s dearer than most sites you can put your ads on. (And it should well be worth the money!)

These are just four thoughts that immediately came into my mind, why it could possibly make sense for amazon to start placing ads on their site. Any other ideas, anyone?

The tasty effects of good branding

Are kids easy to fool? Can a little branding make things much tastier for them? Of course it can! Well, at least this article says it can. Wrap anything in something branded by McDonalds and the kids seem to be liking it!

„You see a McDonald’s label and kids start salivating,“ said Diane Levin, a childhood development specialist who campaigns against advertising to kids. She had no role in the research.

So be careful about the bad effects advertising and branding might have on your kids.

But hey – only your kids? Shouldn’t you also watch out for yourself? Don’t you think it is rather easy to be fooled as an adult, too? Well, think again. Because this article mentions a study, that tested adults for perception of well branded vs not well branded wine.

Of course it’s not about an overarching (golden) brand symbol. But it’s about perception nevertheless. What is your opinion on wine from North Dakota? Don’t have any (opinion, that is)? How about wine from California? That bell makes you salivate?

In that study conducted by Cornell professors, a group of diners was served the same wine, either labeled as wine from california, or labeled as wine from North Dakota – both carrying the name of a non-existent winery. Guess which one the group preferred? Correct!

Branding can be sooo misleading! *g*

Follow the music and the lines. It is about a car!

I agree with Martina. This site does display not much about the new Audi A5. The main site is about lines. Lines and piano music. It is beautiful, almost meditative. Take a look yourself, it is very easy:

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But the connection to the car is very far fetched. You get some idea of how they came about the idea for this site when watching the clip in „about the Audi A5“. It is, as you probably imagined, all about the new design of the car:

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Nicely done for a product launch campaign. But they will need some follow up later on to lead people to the product site and/or car configurator…