Archive for the ‘videos’ Category

« Older Entries

Don’t cut corners on creativity

Monday, January 18th, 2010

I’ve said it a million times: It takes creativity to break through the clutter. Here’s an ad that does just that:


View on YouTube

2009 was rough year, and a lot of companies have dramatically cut their marketing budgets. A lot of brand advertising budget has been moved to sales promotion.

You gotta do what you gotta do. But whatever you do, don’t cut corners on creativity. Bland and boring never sells.

Subscribe to this feed

. . .

Via illegaladvertising.com

Tags: , , ,
Posted in advertising, creativity, fun, videos | No Comments »

Marketing puffery never pays

Thursday, January 14th, 2010

Seems we’ve been up to our eyeballs in positioning and message strategy work at Outsource Marketing lately. Of course, positioning should be the cornerstone of all your marketing communications—without meaningful differentiation, you’ve got nothin’, after all.

But your positioning has to be more than simply unique and matter to your prospects. It has to be true, too.

With that in mind, watch this:

View on YouTube

If you are selling “the world’s toughest phone” that’s “virtually unbreakable,” perhaps it should be.

While Sonim XP1 CEO Bob Plaschke handled this with an amazing amount of grace, the fact is it would appear to some that this is nothing more than another hollow marketing claim.

Persuasion, good.
Puffery, bad.

Not just because you might get caught. It’s because it doesn’t respect the people that ultimately pay the bills—your customers.

Is Sonim guilty of the age-old marketer’s practice of marketing puffery? Considering their “unbreakable” phone broke, does it really matter?

What do you think?

Subscribe to this feed.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in authenticity, deceptive marketing, ethics, message responsible, no trust, positioning, videos | 2 Comments »

The Ringtone from Hell

Tuesday, November 17th, 2009


View on YouTube

“The Ringtone from Hell” is video six in our series of seven Responsible Marketing web shorts, but you could argue it has nothing to do with Responsible Marketing at all.

Truth is, a few of our shorts are about character development and having fun with the angel and devil characters as they go through their days working at Outsource Marketing.

We hope you enjoy it, and we’ll be back on message with video seven in a week or so.

Subscribe to this feed.

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in fun, movies, videos | 1 Comment »

The 7 Keys to Responsible Marketing in 2 Minutes

Wednesday, October 21st, 2009

Want to know what Responsible Marketing is about but don’t have the time to read our white paper on the topic?

Well, here’s “The 7 Keys to Responsible Marketing in 2 Minutes,” featuring the characters you’ve grown to love (or hate) in our Responsible Marketing web shorts.


View on YouTube

There ya go—with a video that short, now everyone has time to learn about Responsible Marketing. Share away. :)

Subscribe to this feed.

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in casting responsible, environmentally responsible, execution responsible, fun, message responsible, movies, roi responsible, socially responsible, strategically responsible, videos | No Comments »

Climate hype? Where there’s hype, there’s $

Thursday, October 15th, 2009

For Blog Action Day, I started crafting a post regarding the UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen in December, but then I realized, hey, this blog is supposed to be about Responsible Marketing!

Here’s an interesting Google Earth tour on the topic. Right after I’ll get to my real post.

View on YouTube

Okay, so I’ve decided it’s time for me to get something off my chest.

You see, I’ve been called a tree-hugger. A green-weenie. And most recently, an “eco-lib.”

Whatever. Sticks and stones and all that.

I doubt I’ll convince anyone reading this blog that thinks climate change global warming is just a liberal hoax that they’re wrong on the topic.

So I won’t try to convince you otherwise.

I promise.

But I do have a few questions for you:

  1. Are you sick and tired of hearing about global warming, climate change and melting ice caps?
  2. Do all the magazine covers, television shows and news programs on the topic drive you nuts?
  3. Are you ready to unfriend everyone on Facebook that are constantly asking you to sign yet another petition or the world will end tomorrow?

If you aren’t buying the “eco-hype” I can see why you’d be fed up.

So don’t believe the hype.

But do you believe that wherever there’s hype, there’s a buck to be made on it? There’s a sucker born every minute, right?

Then invest in green technology.

Buy the products that save energy and money—there are plenty of them.

And since consumers overwhelmingly prefer buying from environmentally responsible companies, be an opportunist and take the steps to make yours one too.

If you aren’t going to do it for your mother, do it for yourself.

And make a buck while all the rest of us suckers worry about something that will never happen.

Subscribe to this feed.

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in environmentally responsible, socially responsible, videos | 1 Comment »

We’re going to need to talk about your TPS reports

Thursday, October 8th, 2009

By Martin Pierce

Ah, ah, I almost forgot…I’m also going to need you to go ahead and come in on Sunday, too. Mmmmmkay? Thaaaaaanks!

We here at Outsource Marketing like to think that our office culture doesn’t resemble that of our good friend Bill Lumbergh’s Initech. But we do relate.

Don’t know who Bill Lumbergh is? Never heard of Initech?

Then you haven’t seen Mike Judge’s 1999 cult masterpiece “Office Space.” You don’t know what you’re missing. Here’s the trailer:


View on YouTube

A couple months back we took time out of our busy schedules to have a little fun and watch Office Space as a team. Somehow the movie is even funnier watched in a group.

But a movie packed full of classic, memorable quotes delivered with comic brilliance inspires imitators. Lot’s of them. Over and over and over again.

Yes, “We’re going to have to have you go ahead and come in on Saturday” is a brilliant line in the hands of Gary Cole but not in the hands of amateurs.

Thus was the inspiration for our latest Responsible Marketing movie.


View on YouTube

What’s the message?

There is none . . . unless you haven’t got the memo about putting the new cover sheets on the TPS reports.

Subscribe to this feed.

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in fun, movies, videos | No Comments »

Responsible or not? Audi’s “Do Your Part”

Tuesday, October 6th, 2009

It ain’t so easy being green. Unless, of course, you buy a clean diesel from Audi.

That’s the message of this Audi A3 “Do Your Part” advert:


View on YouTube

I get the idea: Show you can be environmentally responsible without having to put yourself out. You can have it all.

Here’s one point of view from @motorad666 on Twitter:

If ads are supposed to make you want to buy stuff, the Audi A3 Clean Diesel ads are working on me, and I should know better. Good work, VBP.

And the counterpoint from @markapennington:

bike riding: green. bus riding: green. buying an audi: not green. http://bit.ly/hD8TN Is this “green-jacking”?

Some might call this greenwashing because it implies driving a diesel is as good or better than riding the bus or a bike to work.

But this ad’s greatest offense is that it mocks its target audience. Was the Members Only jacket and tie for the guy on the Segway really necessary?

So what do you think? Is Audi’s “Do Your Part” ad is Responsible Marketing or not?

Comment below to weigh in.

Subscribe to this feed.

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in advertising, environmentally responsible, greenwashing, message responsible, responsible or not?, videos | 4 Comments »

Is your “Green Czar” an angel or a devil?

Friday, October 2nd, 2009

In 2006, we decided we needed get serious about greening Outsource Marketing after years of agreement about having an environmentally responsible workplace but no real plan to make it happen.

Since then, we’ve been recognized for our efforts and have even won a few workplace recycling awards.

The two secrets to our success:

  1. Everyone at Outsource is required to sign our Green Pact. The Pact is our personal vow to abide by a list of rules we developed as a team regarding paper use, bottled water, use of cleaning supplies and such.
  2. While several people were passionate about the idea, one person, dubbed our “Green Czar,” was given the responsibility and authority to lead the charge.

Some team members were perfect for the role: They motivated us to do what was necessary and made us feel good about the work we were doing.

Others? Well, let’s just say some people can drive you to drink.

So, what are some of the best practices you’ve seen in workplace recycling programs?

Comment below to share.

Subscribe to this feed.

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in casting responsible, environmentally responsible, fun, movies, socially responsible, videos | No Comments »

Sex Sells: Just Ask Him.

Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009

In advertising, it’s the gospel truth: Sex sells.

You’ve heard it a million times. So many times it’s gotta be true, right?

Hell, even the Devil himself says it’s true in our second of seven Responsible Marketing web shorts, here:


View on YouTube in HD

Why not believe it? You just heard it from the Devil himself.

Well, because it’s all a lie.

Sex sells sex.
Sex gets attention.
And sex creates controversy.

But it seldom converts attention to action.
And most people don’t recall the brand the ad was for.

Men respond better than women to sexy ads, as expected. But in Buyology, author Martin Lindstrom shared this interesting tidbit: One study found that even for men, recall for sexually explicit ads was less than 10%, but recall was nearly twice that for the non-sexually charged ads.

Steve Hall of Adrants puts it perfectly when talking about sex in advertising call it:

. . . a lame cop-out used by marketers who lack imagination to create more compelling work that will sustain itself beyond the initial titillation.

I couldn’t agree more, but what do you think?

Subscribe to this feed.

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in advertising, fun, message responsible, movies, sex sells, videos | 5 Comments »

Recycling: A Love Story

Wednesday, September 16th, 2009

He’s a muscle-bound, rough and tough lover of all things manly. She’s a petite girly girl that loves a nice glass of Chianti and long walks on the beach under the moonlight.

Learn how they meet, and what happens if you don’t recycle.


View on YouTube in HD

We dare you to litter in our parking lot. We double-dog-dare you.

ABOUT THE VIDEOS

This is the first of at least seven Responsible Marketing web shorts from Outsource Marketing. I say “at least” because we had so much fun doing these, we’ve already begun concept development on the next round.

As we launched our new responsible brand, we decided to crush any notions that Responsible Marketing might be boring—even prudish. Even the casual reader of this blog knows better.

While there are seven videos in this series, don’t expect them to focus solely on the Seven Keys to Responsible Marketing. Our goal wasn’t to preach responsibility.

Rather, it was to have some fun with the conflict every organization faces—that battle between commerce and conscience. Between doing the right thing or doing the other thing.

To accomplish this, we’ve put two characters you’ll know well into our everyday working environment to see how they’ll fare.  Eventually we’ll cover all “Seven Keys,” but it will be subtle and not in this round.

THE RESPONSIBLE MARKETING YOUTUBE CHANNEL

The videos will be be posted weekly here on the blog and on most video sharing platforms. We’ve given special treatment to our Responsible Marketing YouTube Channel where I’ve favorited over 300 marketing videos over the last few years. Subscribe if you dig quality and/or controversial marketing vids.

While you’re there, take as moment to rate and comment on Recycling: A Love Story.

Thanks for watching, and whatever you do remember to “respect Mother Nature!”

Subscribe to this feed.

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in announcement, environmentally responsible, fun, movies, outsource marketing news, videos, viral marketing | 1 Comment »

« Older Entries