Online+Ad+Critique

Advertisement these days have become a complex phenomena. Whereas ads of the past would include posters and television spots of their products and brands, modern day adverts include a vivid campaign to go with the advertising of their product. Advertisers and marketers are also reaping the benefits of all the networking tools that the consumers are using and integrating them within their advertising campaigns to directly involve the consumers. These tools have opened up new directions for the advertisers to venture into and upon inspection, most take advantage of the internet and the various tools available to market their products.

Both advertising campaigns that I chose to analyze comes from powerful, giant corporations that barely need to advertise their products as they have such strong foothold in their respective markets. Yet, with every new product and at the end of their current advertising cycle, they keep churning out praise-worthy adverts.

__**Nike "The Kobe System"**__

Nike as a corporation needs no introduction as they are the biggest manufacturer of sports apparel and endorser of some of the best athletes on this planet. Yet, time and time again Nike produces some of the most magnificent ad campaigns for most of their new products. This advert that I am analysing comes from their newest campaign for the mega basketball superstar Kobe Bryant and the introduction of his signature basketball sneaker, the Kobe System. The sneaker was introduced to the basketball world around the end of November 2011 but the advertising for it did not start airing till the beginning of the new year. Nike usually advertises their commercials on television but in recent years they have a massive presence in the online advertising sector. Nike, like most other companies, are utilising the colossal tools that online advertisings can provide.


 * Background**

The idea behind this campaign by Nike is to make Kobe Bryant, who is a hugely successful basketball star and winner of various championships, play the role of a motivational speaker/coach who is holding a seminar for other successful celebrities from a diverse selection of fields and backgrounds. All these celebrities seek to be even better and even more successful and thus are attending Bryant's seminars. The whole approach to the campaign is a comical one where Bryant advices each celebrity with witty and outrageous remarks that often times do not make any sense at all. The star-studded cast of Bryant's seminars are aware that most of his advices are absurd and bizarre but they seem to be accepting of it, albeit some hesitation. The tag-line of these adverts though are that each and every one of these celebrities are wearing the new Kobe System sneakers, including Kobe Bryant himself and that is what will elevate them to the next level. (Video)


 * YouTube - Vehicle for the Advert**

YouTube is a massive tool for most online videos and corporations utilize this piece of online video library to the fullest. Corporations cater to the masses by releasing various promos and adverts for their upcoming products as well as teasers and releases. These days most corporations have their own YouTube channels that provide them with their own identities. Nike has many channels for each of their sporting divisions, and this campaign falls under Nike Basketball and thus is advertised on Nike Basketball's YouTube channel. We can see from their YouTube page that the Kobe System is a huge campaign for them and they changed the whole aesthetics of the page to cater to the "Kobe System" campaign and product. This whole campaign by Nike for the Kobe System includes one video to introduce the concept of the ad, which can be seen above in the background section, and many other videos and snippets of Kobe Bryant interacting with and advising the celebrities (all videos can be seen here). Their YouTube channel does a stellar job of categorising each video and provides a repository for Nike's ads. Nike fully reaps the benefits of using an online platform to advertise their new campaign as they can make as many videos as they want, like they did for the "Kobe System" campaign, and still get many more views at the very minimal of costs. If Nike tried to do the same thing, that is if they made twenty videos and tried to get air time on television to air their product and campaign, it would be very expensive and inflexible compared to the method that they chose. Therefore, YouTube was an integral companion in the "Kobe System" campaign for Nike and the main vehicle used to drive forward their product.


 * Facebook and Twitter Integration**

Nike also utilised the other two most beneficent tools used regularly for marketing and advertising other than YouTube. Nike's Facebook page (FB page) boasts a similar look to their YouTube page, with their "Kobe System" campaign plastered all over that page. The same videos that are available on their YouTube page is also available on the most popular social networking website. Other than the videos, there are various pictures from the campaign available on their Facebook page. Another main integration on the social networking web page is the availability of the actual product, that is the Kobe System sneakers, tied in with Nike's NikeID system. NikeID lets users create and customize their own sneakers in any way and colour they like. They can then share their creation with their Facebook friends and even the world and if they want they can even purchase it from Nike.

Twitter is another social media that Nike avidly uses to cater to their consumers and fans. Nike Basketball's Twitter page (Twitter page) has the same treatment given to their other tool's pages and provides up to date information and news on their campaign and products. Nike even has the words "Kobe System" hashtagged on Twitter (example: #KobeSystem), which is a method on Twitter used to create buzz and start a trend. Nike urges it's followers and fans to hashtag their campaign in order to get it trending, thus bringing in light their "Kobe System" campaign.

All in all, Nike's "Kobe System" campaign for their new product has create a lot of buzz within the basketball community. The campaign integrates various social networking tools that is widely popular with youths and adults these days and fully utilizes the benefits these tools have to offer. They created a range of marketing videos that went viral with the use of such tools, which involved tongue-in-cheek humour and a star-studded cast, everything that people enjoy and want in a commercial. Therefore, not only were Nike successful in getting their product out and creating a buzz around it, they were effective in getting their message across.
 * Conclusion**

__**Coca-Cola: "Arctic Home" and "Coke Polar Bowl (Celebrate Game Day with Polar Bears)"**__

Coca-Cola is another major corporation that has been part of the beverage industry since the late 1800's. They are a major player in the carbonated beverage sector with a plethora of selections of carbonated drinks that is produced under their banner. Just like Nike, Coca-Cola can get away without the need to market and advertise their products just because of the sheer number of users that they can boast. Coca-Cola is a household name and can be recognised by anybody of any age from any cultural background. Then why is it that Coke still feels the need to advertise their main product, that is Coke, and keep generating advertisement for them. More recently, Coca-Cola has tied in their advertisements with various social causes that provide positive externality and benefits to the society or the planet. They shifted their resources from just plain advertising to creating advertisement with a message which holds cultural and societal meaning to the consumers. Once again, as with most corporations, Coca-Cola has geared their recent campaigns and adverts to be online-heavy with minimal presence on classic media such as television. The main campaign aired around the end of 2011 but their more recent one, the one tied in with the Super Bowl, was initiated on the day of the Super Bowl.


 * Background**

The main idea behind Coke's campaign regarding "Arctic Home" is their involvement with the polar bears in the arctic region in trying to conserve its natural habitat. This huge project has been collaborated with WWF (World Wildlife Fund) and Coke has created a whole campaign around it. The first thing they did was change their staple red coloured cans into red and white with polar bear imprints on them. They will also donate proceeds from the sales of each drink to the polar bear reserves. As with most campaigns, there are various videos of the promotions and Coke has aptly used the lovable polar bears and made them into their mascots for the campaign. To pull in further publicity coverage, Coke utilized the social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter and collaborated to implement real-time interaction with fans and consumers during America's most watched sporting event, the Super Bowl.


 * Coca-Cola's "Arctic Home"**

This campaign was the base of my main analysis, where Coke came together with WWF to preserve the polar bears' habitat. For this campaign. Coca-Cola invested heavily into the online segment of advertising, creating viral videos for the television as well as the internet. Once again, as is the case now most of the time, YouTube was used as the main tool in getting their videos across and making them go viral. The main videos of this campaign used YouTube not only to get the message across but used it as a valuable resource with instant feedback from their consumers (Video: Home for Polar Bears and Sense of Home).

The other driver for this campaign was the social networking tool Facebook and Coke used it to its full advantages. They created a page on Facebook to raise awareness about their cause and to garner support from the masses. Integrating Facebook in their campaign allowed them to interact with their consumers who share a similar passion for the cause. Their Facebook page also has the same adverts that they boast on their YouTube page, plus various pictures from the campaign.


 * Coca-Cola's "Coke Polar Bowl"**

Tied in with the "Arctic Home" campaign, Coke combined the "Coke Polar Bowl: Celebrate Game Day with the Polar Bears". Using the polar bears as their main protagonists, Coke created two loveable mascots for their project. Coke also kept in mind that American football plays a vital role in the lives of most Americans and they integrated their campaign with the Super Bowl. What they did was they used the Coke Bowl to garner the interest of regular football fans and turn their interests into views for Coca-Cola's worthy "Arctic Home" campaign.

The biggest tool used for the Coke Bowl was Facebook, where users of the popular social networking site could RSVP to the Coke Bowl. There was a clock with a timer which counted down till the Super Bowl kicked-off, thus kicking off their own Coke Bowl in the process. Those who would RSVP could chat and interact with the animated polar bear mascots, who would react to on screen plays and commercials in real time.

The promotional videos for the "Coke Polar Bowl" were posted on their Facebook page as well as Coca-Cola's YouTube page. It was not surprising that once again YouTube was used as a tool for dissipating their viral videos. There were many videos promoting the Polar Bowl event but the main videos are here as follows: "Superstition" and "Catch".

Twitter was another social tool that was heavily used for the Polar Bowl campaign. The whole promotion was broadcasted to the followers of Coca-Cola, updating about their campaign and letting the consumers know about their products. Coke used this tool to raise awareness about the preservation of the polar bears habitat and their "Arctic Home" campaign. Coke ardently used Twitter to transmit interest in their Polar Bowl and started the hashtag by trending #GameDayPolarBears. This let them raise awareness about their newest promotion. Also, integrated within Twitter was the ability to tweet the polar bear mascots during the big game and have the chance to have the viewers' tweets read out live during the broadcast of the real-time interaction with the bears on Facebook (Tweet Video).


 * Conclusion**

In conclusion, Coke's campaign that amalgamated the "Arctic Home" campaign with the "Polar Bowl" was a good choice on their part. Coke is doing a stellar job in promoting their product as well as rooting for a cause that they believe in and tying in loveable mascots, combined with America's favourite sport really caters to Coke's target consumers. This interactive method using the latest online tools really helped Coke send out their message to the mass consumers. In using a technique that made the users and consumers involve heavily with the interaction, I would say that Coke's campaign to raise awareness about polar bears and their endangered habitat was highly effective.

Reference:

Medina, Mark. "Kobe Bryant Explains 'Kobe System' in Nike Ad - Latimes.com." //Latimes.com//. Web. 04 Feb. 2012. .

Radic, Katrina. "Coca-Cola's 'Polar Bowl'" //Branding Magazine//. Web. 04 Feb. 2012. .