Cherryflava

Signs on things

Posted on 30. Nov, 2007 by Jonathan Cherry.

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Copy: Avoid getting ~~R95~~ R93 in change, pay with your Visa card. [difficult seeing the minimum charge is R7.00]

Copy editor provided by a member of the public at Cape Town International Airport’s parking machines.

Thanks to Don for sending this in who added ‘Some good old revenge guerrilla marketing by the man in the street…nice.
ACSA have relieved us of a small countries’ GDP in parking fees so it brought a smile!’

Send your tips and sightings to us: tips@cherryflava [dot] com

Revealed: The Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games characters

Posted on 30. Nov, 2007 by Jonathan Cherry.

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Taaaaddaaaa…the Winter Olympic games in 2010 have official animals…and here they are.

~~The characters were designed by a super expensive, law firm named agency and cost the Olympic association $100 million dollars for them to be born.~~

These Olympic organisers must print cash when they sell toy versions of these things during the games.
Which makes us wonder – we can’t remember any *announcement being made of characters for the 2010 South African World Cup. Aren’t we due to get a fluffy lion or psychedelic giraffe as a games mascot, or did we miss it?

[*Must remember to make a note of that so that we can send the hot-off-the-press digital image over to China to have a million fake versions made to sell them by the truck load at traffic lights]

[via]

Bollywood meets World AIDS day

Posted on 30. Nov, 2007 by Jonathan Cherry.

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We’re sure our minister of health would strongly approve of the tone of this snappy public service announcement.

[via]

Do you ever watch the airline safety video?

Posted on 29. Nov, 2007 by Jonathan Cherry.

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It always starts off with the words, ‘Even if you are a seasoned traveler, it is in your best interest to pay careful attention to the following safety announcement’, which is usually the cue for the whole of economy class to starting looking for any alternative other than actually casting their eyes screenward.

Surely the airlines know this, but they don’t really care if you watch or not. It’s your ass that’s gonna get smoked when the thing pegs into the sea not theirs.

Virgin Atlantic, together with a creative agency, have attempted to do something a bit different with this new video, which reminds us a bit of the animated film SAA has, but it’s still hellava normal. Understandably there are International regulations that apply here, but with a captive audience of a couple of hundred people on every flight the opportunity to create something more watchable has to be tempting and potentially profitable.

[via Adfreak]

Where is the kickass online advertising?

Posted on 28. Nov, 2007 by Jonathan Cherry.

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Ever noticed that the most shared creative advertising examples on the web always seem to be those clever guerrilla campaigns, the largely silly Heidi Klum TV ads and the loads of websites full of print advertising?

If Internet advertising is the really the best thing since pre-rolled cigarettes and the biggest growing category which millions of online ventures are banking on to make their business models work, why are there so few remarkable online ads out there?
Have ad people not got to grips with the medium – or are the production budgets so low that nobody is inspired financially to dedicate more than 30-seconds to thinking up something that’ll work?

Two online ads that at least do make an effort are this Mac vs PC [Vista doesn't work ad] and something local, [which we spoke about on CapeTalk this morning] from ABSA.

E-commerce trends to watch in 2008?

Posted on 27. Nov, 2007 by Jonathan Cherry.

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Yeehaaa – we’ve just received important news via express carrier pigeon that the legends from Yuppiechef.co.za [who, we're proud to say, we offer our marketing insight services too] have just won the "Best Home and Garden store’ in this year’s South African E-commerce awards, beating much larger category rival Kalahari and eDreams.

Shane and Andrew from Yuppiechef have been relentless in their quest for innovation with their portfolio of brands in 2007 and apart from this award, their growth this year has been staggering.
Frankly, no other South African entrepreneurs deserve it more. Their passion for unlocking the secrets of a world-class online brand is remarkable. Nice one.

But what are the South African e-commerce trends to watch out for in 2008?

According to a recently released World Wide Worx investigation – the big thing to watch is mobile commerce as the tipping point for mobile in South Africa (including m-commerce) is very near.
So would it be wise to set up a m-commerce store selling anything other than airtime next year? Well, it completely depends on your target market and what you’re selling.

There is clearly a huge market with instant online mobile access ‘ready and waiting’, but we still believe that the most important asset in this category is still strong brand credibility. Focused, niche and specialised online South Africa brands are rare – and for us, hopefully the dominant trend as more entrepreneurs with flair enter the market next year.

See: The 2007 South African E-commerce Award winners
Read: The Tipping Point for Mobile is near – Biz-community
Best Home and Garden category winners – Yuppiechef.co.za

4 Christmas gift ideas for the much anticipated office party

Posted on 27. Nov, 2007 by Jonathan Cherry.

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Wondering what to get that lazy punk that calls himself your accountant? Here’s some ‘hot-right-now’ ideas you can throw around….

Kitty here is the perfect little something for the ~~office flyhalf~~ marketing manager.

Simply stick your pencil into the cat’s behind, sharpen and hear it meow! Every time your marketing maven has office meeting with the ad agency, the mere sharpening of a pencil will drive the point home that it’s results that count…not Loeries. [found here]

[...]

Hey Foureyes, when last did you have your eyes tested?

Posted on 26. Nov, 2007 by Jonathan Cherry.

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This is the letter some arrogant optometrist sent to patients he hadn’t seen for a while.

Copy at the bottom of the letter:
“Is it difficult for you to read these letters? If it is, than please drop by for a free eye test”

Apparently, the result of the exercise was that 12% of the contacts scheduled an appointment for a test.
Now if you take the sum of the cost of the letter printing, the creative cost of the agency to come up with the idea, the time expense of briefing the agency – subtracted from the profit the 12% generated, that would give a better ROMI number and a more accurate measurement of the letter’s overall success.
Still a clever idea though.

[via]