Fashion brands and billboards

Its a full onslaught of the different clothing brands on EDSA as you pass through the omnibus area of guadalupe bridge. F&H here, Bench there, Bayo here, Kashieca there, Penshoppe here, and way over at the end near 'm roxas... there's Crissa haha, no that's not part of the post well not part of the complaint actually. They are all starting to look the same, luxe this, mr. designer that, but everything seems to be simply clothes on a celebrity posing, that's it. It would be nice to see those things in fashion magazines in a photo set with different backdrops and styling but for a billboard it just all seems too familiar and boring. Anne Curtis' partyphile board is a bit on top of the clutter simply because she's not looking into the camera and there is some emotion in the composition of the photo. but for adult fashion brand, the problem persists that they seem to forget what their brand is about, or in any case there wasn't any core values to start with for their brand, merely bringing new designs to the market. All these guys want to evoke cool, power, beauty and glamor but only a few achieve this, more so distinction and character. Take for example well composed shots from Lacoste, the feeling is almost calibrated. The look is clean and fresh, even for their winter and autumn collections. Payless also evokes a strong look and feel to it's billboards, with a sexy and confident woman taking a long stride through the material. Premium brand Louis Vuitton, goes a step further by placing the subjects in a exotic locale with their luggage, creating a sense of adventure and an avenue for emotion, more than making sure Bono looks good in his duds.

Needless to say, Philippine Fashion billboards still have a long way to go, but before tinkering with the elements of the ad they should really first take a look into who their brand is. Most of them simply place model after model and forget to communicate their core character. That's the reason why they all seem to look like the same ad material but with different people wearing different clothes.

I think only Bench has succeded with creating a distinct look and feel for their every brand. Kamiseta has a weathered and laid back look to their ads which show good sense of who their brand is, but I still can figure why it was shifted from the Cojuanco sisters, Alica Silverstone, to Natalie Portman to Kate Hudson then to Petra Nemcova and Natalia Vodianova. Odd shift from Hollywood to the Runwaywood. I know endorsers are effective in the PH market, but strangely, knowing your brand seems to be out of fashion.

Mabuhay Miles Credit Card - a short note on billboards

There's one in C5 and another one in NLEX. The billboard of Mabuhay Miles fails to realize that people will be driving by their ad and wont ahve any time to stop or slowdown to read the fine print, and a lot of fine print there is. As a hard and fast rule, billboards should be very graphic heavy and communicate through layout and color, too many elements will only serve to clutter what you really want to say. More so if the additional clutter is in the form of words or sentences. Keep billboards concise, leave the details for print and the net.

Zest Air Radio Ad

I have just heard Zest Air's new radio commercial featuring a jingle... theme song which I'm guessing should embody their brand personality. As a traveler who has flown on Sea Air and Cebu Pacific, this ad does nothing to shed any light on the Asian Spirit franchise. With lines such as "Zest in the Air", no talk on quality of services and a slew of motherly statements that all rhyme with each other just reinforces that this is a juice brand behind everything. The cheesy melody and nonsensical dr. seussery just made a strong dent in my head telling me not to trust such a brand. Airlines are a serious matter, selling it means you're selling trust of life and limb, and you just can't communicate that through a song and dance number. It starts with good fares and fierce customer service or customer savings. Cebu Pacific started out with their Piso fares, while Sea Air took a bite out of the Boracay market by offering the fastest flights from Manila (using their initial disadvantage of propeller planes which enable them to land in Caticlan as a positive). Zest Air coming from a brand that was tagged with a not so safe image, should have put more thought into it. The tag line also doesn't help, most refreshing airline? why because you're owned by a juice brand and Zesto is served? come on guys, work on the brand a little more. Zest-O works for juice because there is Zest in juice. Money wasted, change your ad agency.

Tide TV Ads

Boss Vic is really a good pick for an endorser. In Tide's flurry of TV ads covering, nasty socks, fishy t-shirts and most recently a basketball teams worth of clothes to wash, there is more to their method than a strong endorser.
If you notice endorser usage by most companies, they usually just create a spiel for the endorser and make him or her the focus of the full ad. This is a polar opposite of testimony ads where users swear by a product in a studio or home environment. JOY dish washing liquid makes a good play on this one using Micheal V as a disguised spokesperson and gets the usage experience of actual users.And finally, the use of non-celebrity talents in TV ads such as the surf series of ads.
Going back to Tide, it creates a new and seemingly effective middle ground in using a strong endorser such as Vic Sotto, and combines him in a portrait of everyday life. The difference now lies in how non-testimonial, scripted lines are provided to the non-celebrity talents who share an equally lengthy limelight with the main celebrity. As with their usage in stage plays, foil characters are also an effective medium in setting the stage for the main character, and often times prove to be more important than the lead in building and delivering a message. Kudos to the guys working with P&G for this ad. It's a breath of fresh air in a TVscape of heavy and plain endorsements by high-caliber celebrities.

HP ink advantage system

From what I've seen and heard, this is a radio and in-store campaign. The store banderitas and balloon arcs are eye catching and supplemented with an eye pleasing display of their inks on the shelves helps a lot to really make their presence felt. On the radio side, this is where the push comes to shove. It starts out good with a clear message, clean VO and cute but attention grabbing cut to emphasize the cost cutting efficiency of these ink systems. Then comes the corporate guys, hard sell and crude wanting to plug in all the additional details about the ink, where its available, suking tindahan stuff. Cut the ad cost in half my ass, the ending spiel defeated itself by providing too much information, and making the ad longer than it should be. Changing the system changes everything sounds good, but they should have left the details with the sales guys doing the activation on the store side. sheesh.