First, let's address some issues. Why does blogging matter to business anyway? Two words: Connection and Communication. A business blog is an informal, easily maintained forum that allows communication between companies, customers, employees. And the best part is a blog is dynamic. It doesn't just lay there like a static webpage. A business blog provides a voice for your company that educates and informs your website visitors. They speak about your company's culture, make customers feel as if they know you better.
Our latest series of posts includes talk about some of the greatest advertising ever created, back in the day when brilliant ideas ruled and technology had yet to burst on the scene.
The Maidenform "Dream" campaign ran from the end of World II through the 1960's. It featured gorgeous women, their bottoms modestly clad but their tops ensconced only in their bras, dreaming they went shopping, played pool, rode fire trucks or crossed the Nile on Cleopatra's barge in their Maidenform bras.
Kurt Kroner wasn't the copywriter or the art director. In fact, he had nothing to do with Doyle Dane Bernbach, the agency that ignited a creative revolution. Kroner was one among 3,400 Wolfsburg, Germany, assembly plant workers to flag a blemished chrome strip on the glove compartment of a 1961 Volkswagen Beetle and reject the vehicle for delivery.
In 1981, John Moschitta was hired by ad agency Ally & Gargano to do a commercial called "Fast Paced World for Federal Express. The spot, directed by Joe Sedelmaier, featured Moschitta playing a fast-talking executive named Jim Spleen. It is considered to be the most award-winning commercial in history, garnering six Clios and a Best Performance award for Moschitta.
In the mid-1990s, with the emergence of new juices, fruit drinks, iced teas, coffee drinks, bottled waters and soft drinks, Californians were drinking less milk every year. The dairy industry was in dire straits, and they needed help. San Francisco ad agency Goodby, Silverstein & Partners delivered.
"A Diamond is Forever" is one of the most recognized and effective slogans in advertising history. Diamonds are not the rarest gems (that honor goes to rubies), but they are the hardest. In 1938, De Beers hired ad agency N.W. Ayer & Son. The agency recommended a campaign that created the illusion of a diamond's scarcity and its association with romance. It changed everything. Since then, diamonds have become the de rigueur standard for engagement rings.
Circa 1985. Rolling Stone Magazine was having trouble selling advertising. Buyers thought the demographic was a bunch of aging, stoned hippies not worth chasing. Enter Fallon McElligott, an ad agency from Minneapolis. They created a campaign that showed, in fact, Rolling Stone readers were professionals who owned homes and cars and were more into health food than hash brownies. The campaign ran for seven years and was one of the most successful in history. Over the course of the campaign, ad pages increased 58%. Dude, that's sweet.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JCkF8MYf28
The Avis "We Try Harder" campaign is one of the most creative, respected and longest lasting in the annals of advertising. In 1962, Avis hired Doyle Dane and Bernbach to turn business around. Bill Bernbach recommended that the car rental company overhaul customer service and upgrade its product. "It's always a mistake," Bernbach told Avis management, "to make good advertising for a bad product."