Welcome to the latest post of This Week in Marketing on the Bluewater Blog! This Week in Marketing we’ll see how Ikea is poking fun at itself, check out MetLife’s new tear-jerking ad, and take a look at what ads are in store for the Oscars!
See Ya Pepsi. Coke is Returning To the Oscars!
Spots for this year’s upcoming Oscars are quickly selling out after last year’s 43 million viewer audience. Last year, Pepsi was the Academy Award’s exclusive sponsor, but this year they pulled out from the show completely.
Coca-Cola didn’t have any ads during last years show but got some free advertising when Ellen DeGeneres handed out pizza with Coca Cola’s logo on the box during the broadcast (oops!). Instead, Pepsi is focusing more on music than movies with their new #OutOfTheBlue campaign. (Check out one of Pepsi’s ads from the Grammy’s here.) Coca-Cola has stepped in to replace Pepsi, running ads mostly focusing on Diet Coke.
ABC is selling these 30-second spots for $2 million each, and you can also expect to see ads from Netflix, AT&T, Anheuser-Busch and Samsung. If you remember last year, the Oscars was a huge success for Samsung because of the wildly popular celebrity selfie that Ellen DeGeneres took with a Samsung Galaxy.
Ikea’s Poorly Assembled Billboards
Ikea is finally acknowledging their “hard to put together” furniture! If you’ve ever bought something from Ikea, you know how difficult this DIY furniture can be. Ikea even knows that this customer struggle has beena running joke, so this week they decided to poke fun at themselves with this clever billboard campaign stating “Our assembly service is happy to help.” — with a slight ‘twist’ on the “assembly” of the ad itself. I’ll admit this is a clever ad, but it would be even better if they actually made putting together their products a little easier! Check out the ad below:
A Lying Dad? MetLife’s New Heartbreaking Ad
If the Super Bowl wasn’t full of enough tear-jerking ads, check out MetLife’s new ad below (and grab a tissue box). I won’t spoil it for you, but it’s a story about a daughter who wrote a letter about her father saying everything she loves about him, except for the fact that he’s…a liar. Sappy, tear-jerking commercials can easily become a cliché but MetLife did a good job delivering their message: “You can’t change your destiny, but you can create your own.”
Tell us what you think — are you over ads that play on your emotions or do you enjoy watching them? Respond in the comments section below, or tweet us @BluewaterBrand!
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