You are currently browsing the archives for the Advertising category

Creative Office Interiors

October 15, 2010 Advertising / Art / Design
No comments

Does creativity inspire creative interiors or do creative interiors inspire creativity?

Have you ever noticed that often the most creative companies have the most interesting corporate interiors? I have often wondered if the inspiring interior space is reflective of the innovative, artistic people who work there or if that type of interior design fosters creativity.

Perhaps it is a little bit of both! Think about offices like Pixar, Google and facebook, there has got to be a reason why these companies spend so much on the look and feel of their offices, besides the fact that they are billion dollar companies. When I need creative inspiration I often spend some time looking through a books of corporate interiors. It seems to help spark my creativity. I think by creating an environment that employees feel relaxed and comfortable it does foster creativity. The more you go outside of the box to create a pleasant work environment the more employees will develop outside of the box ideas for your company.

It has been suggested that the more appealing an office is, the more likely employees are to live at the office, and volunteer overtime. Some companies strategically plan their offices in this way, offering services to staff so that they do not need to do as much running around and can maintain focus on projects, and creative brainstorming. Happy, relaxed people love their jobs!

What are your thoughts? What does your workspace look like? Does it inspire you?

– Sandra

Summer Holidays

August 16, 2010 Advertising / Design / Marketing
No comments

It’s summertime and you know what that means – summer holidays! I had the best vacation last week. I went to Minden (near Haliburton) and spent my days relaxing by the water on South Lake while spending time with close friends. I noticed that on long drives I like to read the signs that are dotted along the side of the highway – they are good reading material! While driving back through Bancroft, I decided to try find the Tim Horton’s, which was harder than it sounds. While I was sitting in the drive-through I saw the Be Realistic Not A Statistic sign we designed for the Hastings and Prince Edward Counties Health Unit. What a nice surprise! That’s not it, though. I also saw another sign we designed while driving South on 62 towards Belleville – Speeding Costs You Deerly (another Health Unit initiative). Very cool. It’s nice to see the work we do actually put to use out in the public. It made me feel good. Needless to say I took pictures of both for you to view. I hope enjoy the rest of your summer!

—Kathy

Now that is interactive

July 27, 2010 Advertising / Design / Marketing / Uncategorized
No comments

A clothing/fashion store opened last June in Times Square. What caught my eye was the way they created a billboard that not only drew a crowd, it (at least on some level) interacted with them. From NYClovesNYC:

“The enormous store provides Times Square with a high-tech 61-foot digital billboard featuring virtual models who interact with the mesmerized crowd in front of the store, sometimes taking a Polaroid photo of the crowd and showing it to them, or picking up an individual from a crowd and turning him into a frog by a kiss or dropping him into a shopping bag.”

Times Square Billboard

It kind of reminds me of the Jaws movie billboard in Back to the Future II

Did Hollywood have it right? Is this the future of environmental advertising – or is it just a gimmick?

- Shaun

New Internet Spice

July 22, 2010 Advertising / Marketing / Social Media / Web
1 comment

Last week, the internet saw one of the most popular viral campaigns of all time! Old Spice teamed up with Wieden + Kennedy to bring “The Man Your Man Can Smell Like” guy, portrayed by actor Isaiah Mustafa, to fans by creating a series of personalized Youtube responses.

How great was this campaign for exposure?

In a 24 hour period, they were able to get:
•    180+ videos created
•    5.9 million views
•    22,500 comments

We can compare this to other notable viral videos and see that it beats out influential people like Obama and Bush.

(Via Mashable)

I will have to agree with Iain Tait, Wieden + Kennedy’s Global Interactive Creative Director , when he says, “In a way there’s nothing magical that we’ve done here, we just brought a character to life using the social channels we all use every day. But we’ve also taken a loved character and created new episodic content in real time.”

They used many of the principals for social media success that have been discussed thoroughly around the internet. This campaign engaged consumers, added value to their lives, was created in a human voice and was done in a timely fashion. Let me explain:

  • Engage Even if the personalized was response wasn’t written directly to you, it still felt like he was in your bathroom answering questions.
  • Add Value This is something that consumers had never seen before, a global national brand reaching out to its consumers through a ‘brand mascot’.  You simply HAD to tell all your friends that would care!
  • Human Voice Even though it was a global-national brand, it felt more like a simple sketch comedy bit. It felt real, it felt human.
  • Timely The fact that these responses were sent out in real-time is unbelievable and makes this campaign a huge success – it was about conversation.

I am hard-pressed to call this campaign a success, yet. I would still want to see how this campaign had an impact on sales before we start creating case studies that will be looked at until the end of time. I have no doubt that there is a positive influence on the bottom line, but at the very least I think this campaign has reinforced the “new and youthful” revival to the Old Spice brand.  I also believe that this has opened up a chasm of potential in how brands can now communicate with their consumers.

What are your thoughts?

Nice concept but…

July 20, 2010 Advertising / Design
2 comments

I saw this a few days ago:

I thought it was pretty clever at first–salt as dandruff–cool concept. Then I thought “Wait a minute, who is going to put that on their food?!” I mean, they put these in restaurants. What restaurant wants something so unappetizing on their tables? I can’t imagine how this would be good for business (at least for the restaurant).

To me, this is an example of a concept that although clever, just misses the mark. I would be interested to hear what others think.

Creative or Crazy?

July 8, 2010 Advertising / Art / Marketing
5 comments

Sir Pennywise - Community Bank

I used to live in a small town in Southern New York. In June of 2007 someone decided that it would be a great idea to raise money for charity while advertising for local businesses. This was accomplished using four-foot tall fiberglass squirrels. You know, kind of like the moose you see sometimes around Toronto, but not really. In Olean, NY, a person, or business could purchase one of these squirrels and customize it however they pleased. These sculptures were then places all over town, in front of businesses, along the streets, in parks, you name it, there are squirrels everywhere. To date there are twenty-five squirrels and counting.

Many businesses decided to decorate these squirrels as part of their local advertising. It was a visible sign of their contribution to the community. Interesting idea, in my opinion, perhaps a good idea gone wrong. Part of what made it so funny was you

Ronald McSquirrel - McDonalds

could walk down the street and see five squirrels before you would meet another person. I used to live just down the street from Ronald McSquirrel, I have to admit it never really made me want to go to McDonnalds. Had it not been located right across from the police station I would have put a paper bag over its head. Honestly, check it out! It is a little creepy.

Okay, seriously though, despite my little rant about the squirrels, I love it when people come up with innovative ideas. I also love to see businesses getting involved in the local community.  I might not be a big fan of this particular project, but I can’t argue with the fact that everyone talks about it. We take pictures of them, and I personally can’t deny a few late night Olean squirrel-hunting adventures. I have to acknowledge that in many ways Olean’s “Woodland in the City” campaign seems to be a success, and they have raised a lot of money to build a museum for children downtown. So tell me what you think, creative or crazy?

Cutter - Cutco Knife Factory

Florence Squirrelingale, RN - Olean General Hospital

Lady Justice - Dwyer, Black & Lyle PPC

Nutty O’ St. Nick - Olean Chamber of Commerce

A Funny Billboard

June 28, 2010 Advertising / Design / Marketing
1 comment

I was driving home from work the other day and I laughed out loud when I saw a billboard for Gay Lea Spreadables. I had to pull over and take a picture of it! Take a look – who hasn’t had this happen to them? Too funny. I was curious and checked out their website gaylea.com. They have a sponsorship program on now which supports the Daily Bread Food Bank – a non-profit, charitable organization that is fighting to end hunger in our communities. You know, it’s not the first time I’ve been impressed by a billboard on my way home from work.

Print media isn’t just limited to the office. Out-of-Home products such as posters (or billboards), superboards, transit shelters, wall murals, bus, subway and streetcar advertising are all powerful ways of reaching today’s consumer. CBS Outdoor is who we send all of our outdoor billboard designs. For information on any of the products they have please visit cbsoutdoor.ca

I remember one billboard in particular that proves the effectiveness of strategic planning when it comes to choosing a location. A few months ago, McDonald’s was advertising FREE COFFEE when Tim Horton’s had their “Roll Up The Rim” contest on. The billboard for the free coffee was located right across the street from a Tim Horton’s. I thought that was genius! Needless to say, I went to McDonald’s for my coffee those two weeks (and maybe a couple of lunches). I even went onto their website and was reading about their nutrition information and community involvement, and I now have a better opinion of the restaurant chain. Tim Horton’s has similar information on their website, and the Gay Lea website has an environmental sustainability report available to view. It’s nice to see large business caring about their community.

Billboards speak to each consumer differently. What I find funny, or smart, might seem silly to someone else. That doesn’t matter, however. The fact remains that the billboard DID speak to me, and I’m still thinking about it! Have you seen any unique billboards lately? I’d like to hear about it.

If you’d like to see the billboards Engine has designed, you are welcome to view our portfolio online.

—Kathy

The Bike that would be King

June 8, 2010 Advertising
1 comment

OK it’s a hokey title – what can you do…

You may or may not know this, but I am a bit of a motorcycle fanatic (or a lot?). That is why I love the idea of a new business opening in Belleville. It is called BikeKing and it provides a place for gear-heads to work on their machines if they don’t have their own garage space. Cool!

Take a drive out Highway 2 just West of Belleville to check out the signage/branding we created for them.

While I’m on the topic of bikes, I might as well take the opportunity to share some my favourite motorcycle hangouts around the web. For the latest in motorcycle news I head over to The Kneeslider, and then Bike EXIF, and often Pipeburn.

I was dismayed to discover that I missed the Vintage Road Racing Series at Shannonville this year. I thoroughly enjoy the races. My favourite part however is strolling through the paddocks with camera in hand to scope out all the incredible vintage machinery. Here are a few examples from last year:

Cafe Racer

My Favourite

Another Beauty

Number 982

Ducati

Some Italian Flavour

The Race

Drag the knee

Ahhhhh… maybe next year.

What J-Lo and Engine Have in Common

September 8, 2009 Advertising / Marketing
No comments

jlocoverI’ve been thinking a lot about branding this weekend, which wasn’t my intent at all. It started out in a seemingly harmless manner. I wanted to relax so I bought an InStyle magazine, with the hope of sitting in the sun and enjoying a mindless hour of fashion and celebrity news.

But anyone who knows me, knows my brain rarely shuts off long enough for an hour of complete respite. After flipping through a couple pages, I realized I was surrounded by the one thing I was trying not to think about at all: branding.

My friend, Nate Riggs, Director of Communication Strategy at huber + co. interactive in Columbus, Ohio, talks a lot about the concept of ‘building brand you.’ I love this idea. I’ve been thinking about the Engine brand a lot lately, and how my personal brand relates to that. As I sat reading InStyle, ‘brand you’ kept staring me in the face. 

With every article of clothing, every accessory, every celebrity interview, my likes and dislikes were becoming more and more apparent. The clothes I buy, books I read, music I listen to–all of those things make me, me–and tell you a story about who I am.

Seth Godin makes a pivotal argument in his book, All Marketers Are Liars that it’s not enough to simply sell a brand anymore. You have to know what story are you trying to convey about that brand to the customer.

Today’s shopper is smart. They want to know what you sell, but also if it lines up with their values. There’s too much competition in the marketplace for most small businesses to ignore this fact.

Jennifer Lopez, this month’s InStyle cover girl is a perfect example of personal branding done right. J-Lo sells magazines, not because she’s the most talented actress or singer, but because she sells a story. She is Jenny from the block. The girl from the Bronx who danced her way from ‘fly girl’ to business tycoon. She’s sexy, exotique, spends her time in St. Tropez, and gives to charity. What woman wouldn’t like to taste that life?

J-Lo has built an empire around the concept of ‘brand you.’

My colleague Nate, has built his personal brand too, and he just might make tycoon status one day as well. Though he and J-Lo have different stories, the idea is the same: they both have a story to tell and a product to sell. Those two things are almost inextricably combined.

I think this quote is brilliant (and I borrowed it from Nate). It sums up ‘brand you’ perfectly:

The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. ~ U.S. novelist and short-story writer, James A. Michener

A huge part of what we do at Engine is to assist businesses in building their brand, and communicating their story to the right audience. You can check out our portfolio for some examples of this. If your brand could use some energizing, contact us for a consultation.

Lego in Design

September 3, 2009 Advertising / Design / Uncategorized
No comments

At the risk of becoming the resident toy geek, I can’t help but post this. Geeksugar has more on this house made of Lego. I used to do the same as a kid (on a slightly smaller scale).

Lego House

Lego House


Lego House - Brick Layer

Lego House - Brick Layer


Lego House Interior

Lego House Interior

This made me think of how ingrained the Lego Brand has become. They have done a tremendous job of associating themselves with cultural icons. Here are just a couple of examples:

lego-star-wars-the-game

Lego Star Wars


Lego

Lego Iconic Imagery

For more info on the Lego House, check out this link.

Part of the reason we love this so much is that James May, one of the hosts of BBC’s Top Gear, is going to live in the house for a small stint (see above link for details). Bryna and I are big fans of Top Gear (and Black Adder, but that’s another story). In tribute to our admiration to James,  please enjoy this clip of the show.  (It’s not about Lego, but it’s an office favourite, and is a bit of a comedic take on marketing in general.)

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →