Pixelize This: Sanyo Camcorder Ads

Sometimes I’ll see a TV commercial, print ad or billboard and think, “how could I make an interesting online execution of that?”.  So why not take my random thought and turn it into a running feature here on Help Make Better Ads.

In our first installment of Pixelize This, I give you a Sanyo underwater camcorder campaign by Saatchi & Saatchi New Zealand (h/t BlogLess).

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These look primarily like print ads, thought they could be serving as fodder for multiple campaigns in multiple mediums (hard to tell from the info directly at hand).

If I were to “pixelize this” campaign, I would play off the space provided in a leaderboard (728x90) format with the water line being the bottom of the creative.  I would likely have the “top words” bobbing slightly on the horizon to showcase the water and create some visual appeal.  But like the “ice/berg” the creative would have more content than first met the eye.  This seems like the perfect time to leverage an expand ad to reinforce the campaign’s overall message that there is more to be seen under the water with the Sanyo camcorder.

I would use a call to action similar to the copy in the bottom of the print ad; “Rollover to see what’s under the sea” upon which the reveal would give you the “underwater counterpart” to its bobbing partner.

Thoughts?  How else might you transfer this campaign online creatively?

Is “Sponsored Content” the next iteration of display media?

As I read the front page of Wired.com this morning, I noticed something that caught my attention. Within the right rail below the fold, I found this “sponsored content” box.

Interesting…clearly paid for as it’s called out as “Sponsored Content” but there is no outward brand attribution (aside from the product shot itself). It’s programed more like an editorial feature than an ad placement.

The destination takes you to a richly branded Samsung LED TV promotion that engages users to “tell us what you would like to see from future TVs” using Reddit voting to bubble the best responses to the top.

The concepts of content as advertising and conversational marketing are “all the rage”.

This experience certainly provides a richer context to the product and brand as the future of TV and leading the industry in innovation. But only those people that navigate to the end destination are exposed to that message.

Given that the promotional “sponsored content” space isn’t free (no matter how the media plan was structured), did Samsung extract greater marketing return for their dollar by sacrificing scale of message to a targeted audience for a richer, deeper experience with a smaller segment of that same audience?