Rocket Science Does your agency know you're here?

9Aug/100

Nice Work Jell-o!

The Innocent At Work

So unless you've been completely out of it, you've probably seen the new Hello Jell-O broadcast promotion ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7A7DdtKNLU ). Sweet! (no pun intended). Really. It’s a great example of breathing new energy into an iconic, but sleepy, American brand while staying true to its core essence.

Should come as no surprise – Jell-o's brand archetype is The Innocent, and the new promotion works perfectly with it. Simple, fun, young, sweet. Childlike, but not silly. Spur of the moment, but not reckless. It all adds up to a step-by-step example of how to really make the Innocent work for your brand.

The spots get their spontaneity from the nature of the production - they really did just cast a bunch of teens and tweens to run around New York handing out Jell-o cups, and filmed it.

If you’re anything like me, you find yourself humming or whistling the jaunty little tune while cleaning up, playing with the kids, or writing your blog entry. It’s hopelessly addictive, and it’s a nice little loop, so you can just keep right on humming or singing until you either get distracted, or give up and go grab a cup of Jell-o. It really is fun.

Now, a couple of suggestions, Jell-o:

1 - Think about SEO:
When I search “Jell-o” on Google, the new promotion doesn’t come up really at all. Try it. It’s all the old stuff (P.S…. make sure your family filters are on if you search by images – or not ☺).

2 – Why not include more of this in the brand identity:
The only tie-in I see on the Jell-o site is the swirly “o” in the Jell-o. Why no happy face? I could totally see that on the foil lids of the jell-o cups.

Overall, very nice work! Not often you get this kind of rich authenticity in brand communications. Take it a few steps further!

C’mon! Everybody now! J - E - L - L - 0 , j-e-l-l-o, J – E – l – l – 0, j-e-l-l-o…

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31Jul/100

Naming the new blackberry

So it's official. Several sources are reporting that Blackberry is releasing a pad in November.

Fine. Sounds pretty cool... 9" screen, front and back cameras for video conferencing, Wi-Fi, bluetooth, etc, etc.

Ready for the name? Drum Roll, Please.....

The... the... the BLACKPAD.

uh, yeah. You know, why not just call it "Blackberry II, the Sequel."

Seriously. How much money was spent on the name? Apparently not very darned much. Hopefully it's just a working title. If not, it's a big fail. A gaping miss where the opportunity for a stunning hit could have been.

How about Blueberry? What about Strawberry? Anything but BlackPad.

Stick with that, Blackberry, and you get a big Raspberry.

8Mar/100

The Cell Phone Popcorn Video – Booooo.

Here we go again… the Cell Phone Popcorn video. No link here, just youtube it. You can’t miss. As you likely know by now, it shows a series of friends making popcorn pop on a table by surrounding it with their cell phones and simultaneously calling the phones. No way. Really? Looks real. Looks indie – done on the spur of the moment by a bunch of friends who told each other to give it a go.

Ever the skeptic, I went straight to the hoax forums, and pulled back the curtain. I figured it was fake, but when I found the source, I was, well, bothered. Like some online Gadfly, it’s just a dumb ol’ stealth ad for a company that schleps Bluetooth headsets. Crap. Drink more Ovaltine. Had it been by a couple of graphics majors for some third-string university film class, I’d have thought – “Gee, that’s cool. Those cats are crazy creative. Sweet. See if they need a job!” But nope. It’s just a dumb ol’ corporate small budget ad. ...And I was having so much fun.

Note to new century advertisers – You don’t have to dupe the market to get attention. You have to spend money. Do something cool and engaging that wins on its own playing field. We all know you want to talk to us. Just do it. Don’t sneak around on our social networking groups, or skulk about in peer to peer networks. Pony up the bucks, make something wicked cool, and put it in the right place.

14Dec/091

We’re so trendy…

121409_1In September of 2008, Rocket Science moved from downtown Mason to Deerfield Township, into a sprawling new office with a fresh new color palette and more room than we knew what to do with. Also with the new move came a new identity for the company, which is still evolving to this day. Little did The Big Bossmen know that the fresh new color palette they established for the new space would be a precursor to PANTONE's unveiling of turquoise as the Color of the Year for 2010.121409_2As our brand has developed over the past year, PANTONE 7472 C emerged as one of our primary brand colors, which looks like a sister next to PANTONE 15-5519 Turquoise. You could say we're the Nostradamus of popular color choices.

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