Written by Melissa Schwartz
In this day and age, technology seems to be establishing itself as the go-to medium for marketing campaigns. However, some major companies are taking an old school approach when it comes to promoting their products and services—and they are generating positive results!
Nike’s “Paper Battlefield” campaign, which consisted of a series of silk screen posters featuring and created by the top 10 teenage stars of the Nike Basketball League, just won the renowned Cannes Design Grand Prix on June 24th. What makes this win most interesting is that in an applicant pool consisting of over 1,100 campaign entries, many of which were touted as ‘technologically innovative’, Nike’s campaign utilized a 10th century platform (silk screening). They were renowned “for simplicity over technical virtuosity or category-busting innovation”; according to the Cannes design jury.
Nike isn’t the first power-brand taking a back to basics approach to marketing. In 2007, UPS launched their now infamous Whiteboard campaign, a series of commercials featuring a man drawing mundane pictures on a white board in order to tell stories about different UPS shipping options and company values. Since the commercials first aired they have received over 100,000 hits on YouTube and were even parodied by arch nemesis—FedEx.
So why are such basic campaigns generating so much consumer buzz? When companies such as CBS Outdoor are developing advertising platforms which allow consumers to connect their iPhone to a display screen via WiFi or 3G to create personalized posters, how is one guy with a pen and a white board making headlines? I could only imagine it is at least partially due to the fact that consumers are constantly inundated with cutting edge media. Ironically, technical and creative innovation has become the norm. In an era where each design company and advertising agency are attempting to outdo one another with the most attention grabbing and novel ideas, the presence of straightforward campaigns–where the message, not the medium, is the main focus—can be relieving. Throw in the fact that in this economy marketing budgets are being cut left and right, and everyone seems to be scaling down, letting go of some of the bells and whistles associated with modern advertising may just be the way to go.
See these ads at:
http://adage.com/cannes09/article?article_id=137548