Community Focusing on the people behind the headlines

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M&M’s Blog goes behind the headlines to offer a running commentary on the business dynamics within the international media and marketing industry. The M&M editorial team joins forces with industry experts and local market heroes to balance a bird’s eye view of global trends with the importance of local insight.

• The best ad ever ?!?

  21 May 2010

  Earlier this month Nike’s vice president of brand and category management made the bold statement that its TV spot for the World Cup was “among the best we've ever done.”

  The spot, created by Wieden & Kennedy Amsterdam, features the traditional host of football stars including, Cesc Fabregas, Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo, Landon Donovan, Franck Ribery and Ronaldinho. It even features cameos from Homer Simpson, Kobe Bryant and Roger Federer.

  With the strapline ‘Write the Future’ the ad chronicles how World Cup moments spread around the world and the knock on effects they can have on the footballers lives.

  Now, obviously, as a journalist I was dying to watch this and tear it apart. So this morning my colleague Josh and I huddled around my computer to watch it and ... it is really good!

  Is it the best ever? It just might certainly be, especially when you consider the fact that the World Cup is not even mentioned once during the three minute spot. One thing is for sure, it certainly is a good kick-start to the soon to be infectious World Cup fever.

  Now you be the judge...

  Comments (0) | Permalink

  Posted by: Martina Lacey

  Tags: TV, Sponsorship

• Bowing out with grace

  19 May 2010

  So often when someone departs a high profile position we are use to the usual reasons for them leaving : they are looking to ‘spend more time with the family’, ‘more time with the kids’ or think it is time to ‘try something new’.

  I have to hand it to CNN’s Campbell Brown who announced that she is walking away from the news network and her self-titled primetime show this week. Brown hosts a news program that is up against tough-out spoken competition in the Fox News Channel’s Bill O’Reilly and Keith Olbermann of MSNBC. In a statement detailing why she is departing the network she simply stuck to the truth and said that enough people were not watching her program.

  “To be clear: this is my decision, and one that I have been thinking about for some time. As for why, I could have said, that I am stepping down to spend more time with my children (which I truly want to do). Or that I am leaving to pursue other opportunities (which I also truly want to do). But I have never had much tolerance for others’ spin, so I can’t imagine trying to stomach my own. The simple fact is that not enough people want to watch my program, and I owe it to myself and to CNN to get out of the way so that CNN can try something else.”

  The departure of Brown is another blow for CNN which recently lost one of its key personalities, Christiane Amanpour, to the American network ABC.

  Comments (0) | Permalink

  Posted by: Martina Lacey

  Tags: TV

• Wallpaper hands over the reigns

  04 May 2010

  Wallpaper, the magazine for design and fashion buffs the world over is turning to its readers to create their own magazine cover for the August issue of the mag.

  Both subscribers and non-subscribers will be able to log-on to wallpaper.com and select and manipulate a wide selection of images, graphics and patterns to design their personalised cover. Once happy with the design, readers can buy their bespoke copy.

  Rolex, the media partner for the issue, is also allowing readers to customise its ad on the back cover.
  

  Bespoke publishing has started to become more common place over the past year. While it can be costly it can be a great way to interact with consumers. The Wallpaper brand is perfect for this type of initiative due to the type of reader it attracts. It may even encourage those that don’t regularly read the magazine to pick it up.

  It would be interesting to see what the circulation numbers for the August issue are compared to other months. However, Wallpaper is not known for being the most forthcoming when it comes to revealing those kinds of figures.

  Comments (0) | Permalink

  Posted by: Martina Lacey

  Tags: Creativity, Print

• Do celebrity endorsements need to make sense?

  04 May 2010

  After the whole Tiger Woods debacle (I assume there is no need to explain) celebrity endorsements have been under a microscope.

  Attaching a brand to a celebrity can be a tricky task, not only when it comes to making sure you get the right fit between the two but also making sure that consumers get the connection and embrace it.

  Country heavy weight Taylor Swift has just been named as the new face of Cover Girl in the US, something which makes perfect sense to me: she is a girl, in her early 20’s who wears makeup and she has legions of fans who are also girls, who wear makeup and who are in the same age bracket. A match made in celebrity endorsement heaven!

  

  Now, in that same vein can someone please explain to me the Magnum ice cream/Benicio Del Toro connection? Is it that he likes to eat ice cream? His last major role was playing the revolutionary Ché Guevara, did Ché like ice cream? 

  I would hope that a celebrity endorsement would go beyond he is famous and we want to sell ice cream and aim to enhance brand perception and recognition, or am I expecting too much?

  Or,

  Could it be that the point of some celebrity/brand tie-ups is to make them so ludicrous that everyone has to talk about them?

  

  Comments (0) | Permalink

  Posted by: Martina Lacey

  Tags: Sponsorship