The Venice Festival of Media

The Venice Festival of Media 2008 is a global meeting that has a guest list of 800 delegates of the world's advertisers, media agencies, developers, and media owners. It is a four day festival that is taking place at the Palazzo del Cinema, Venice, Italy on Sunday, April 13th and goes until Wednesday April 17th. The article "The Venice Festival of Media 2008" explains that this global event will focus on issues such as dealing with the "buying and selling of pan regional and global advertising communications." The four days have a full agenda of conference session, speakers, and scheduled social networking opportunities. Check out the agenda for the week. In addition to providing these four days of activities, The Venice Festival of Media is teaming up with WaterAid in which delegates will be invited to make corporate of individuals donations for the cause.   

There will be many speakers at the festival such as Brandon Berger, Director of Digital Innovation, MDC Partners; Joanne Bradford, the Vice President and Chief Media Officer at MSN; and Brett Brewer, President AdKnowledge & Co-founder of My Space. These speakers will be accompanied by many other big wigs in the advertising world. This 2008 festivals also has big name sponsors. Some of these include AD Europe, ESPN, Yahoo, Advertising Age, Euronews, and the Wall-street Journal. 

To find more speakers that will be attending as well as partners of the Venice Festival of Media check out their official website. 

The all natural Pepsi Raw

Pepsi has taken their products to the next, much healthier, level. Pepsi Raw is the brand new soft drink made by pepsi which features all natural ingredients. The article "Pepsi Tests 'Naturally Sourced' Beverage" announces that this drink has yet to hit shelves around the world, but is being launched in the U.K. to tests how well it does in the  markets. If this healthy soft drink is a hit in the U.K. international distribution is to take place. According to the article "Pepsi launch new drink made from 'all natural' ingredients," Pepsi Raw, is made with raw cane sugar that replaces artificial sweeteners. It also contains no article preservatives, colors, flavorings or sweeteners.  It is only sold in glass bottled and is said to be more expensive than regular pepsi. Lynn Dornblaser, a new-product analyst believes that Pepsi Raw is a niche product with a small target audience. Dornblaser also thinks that the main consumers will be the younger generations who want to know exactly what they are putting in their body. 

The U.K. is proud to have this new product on their market, although Coca-Cola is the leading brand. To learn more about Pepsi Raw check out heir offical website . To see what the public thinks about this healthy alternative check out this video.

Louis Vuitton International Ads

Louis Vuitton, the French born bag company has created a reputation as a high class delicacy in the purse industry. Dating back to the 1850's Louis Vuitton luxury bags have been a hot commodity. Print advertising had been their primary way of promoting their new styles ever since the sixties. But now the are taking their advertising to the next level by airing a television commerical. There 90 second commercial is travel themed and was shot in France, Spain, India, and Japan. Louis Vuitton is also sending this commercial around the world. It was aired in thirteen different languages in theaters, cable, and satellite television. Louis Vuitton plants to air their new commercial on most watched networks such as CNN and BBC. The campaign recently was started on February 15th and is to run throughout 2008. Check out recent print advertising campaigns for Louis Vuitton.
The article Vuitton Ads Venture on to Television states that the new television commercial aims at promoting the brand rather than specific product, therefor very few shot of the bag are shown in the commercial. By taking this new step in their television international advertising campaign they are changing the medium high end fashion brands advertise with, therefor creating a new edge for their brand.

McDonald's Advertising Ups and Downs

The biggest fast food chain in the United States is struggling through sales this year in China. Competitors such as KFC is ahead in sales due to the cultural preference of chicken rather than beef for Chinese consumers. Although McDonald's focuses its main attention on sales in the United States and Europe it is promoting a new advertising campaign in China that is putting more chicken items on the menu. Also McDonald's plans on opening 125 more restaurants throughout the country. But there is only so much money that can go into countries other than the United States and Europe where the majority of the money is being generated.
But sales are not even coming close to decreasing in Australia. In 2007, 1.2 million Australians had been in McDonald's a day. The are 762 restaurants across the country all stating their top seller is the cheeseburger. This seemingly healthy country has a soft spot for the golden arches greasy food and about 5% of Australians were reported eating McDonald's daily. Although McDonald's is promoting healthier options many more Australians are becoming over weight. There advertising is now promoted towards the whole family, especially at parents increasing their sales drastically. Check out McDonald's official website and their global campaign.

Sterrett, David. "Crouching Burger Hidden Nugget." Crain's Chicago Business 27 Nov. 2007: 1. Proquest. Ithaca College, Ithaca.

Tattersall, Hannah. "1.2 Million: That's How Many Australians Go Through the McDonalds Golden Arche's Each Day." The Sun Herald 27 Jan. 2008, First ed.: 9. Lexis Nexis. Ithaca College, Ithaca. 18 Feb. 2008. Keyword: McDonalds Internation Advertising.

Budweiser's International Sales and Advertising

Recently sales in the beer market has been down due to slower import sales. Unfortunately, this lack of grain is making a significant impact on the King of Beers. Although this beer is a favorite in America, Budweiser does not have what it takes to keep up in the competitive European beer market. The article in Marketing Week, Budweiser: Aspirational Images Goes Flat states that there might be hope for Budweiser when a 3.5 million dollar advertising campaign was developed. Back in 1980 Budweiser launched the ad campaign for Bud Light and Bud Ice, which later failed and was pulled off the shelves in the UK. The issue with Budweisers advertising is they are marketing towards Americans but also try to take the same ad campaign and market it towards other countries. This type of advertising can only take your product so far.Some Budweiser commercials were clearly targeted towards American like their humorous yet obnoxious "wassup" slogan. Clearly when aired in the UK some of these commercials were found offensive and banned. Check out a few banned Budweiser commercials.
Yet in the US, Budweiser remained to be the king of beers and has been rated the country's biggest brewers. During the 2008 Superbowl, Budweiser spent millions on creating "the year's most eye-catching ads." Most of the air time bought by Budweiser focused on Bud Light's "superior drinkability." Ultimately, Budweiser continues to financially grow in the United States even though sales are down overseas.

"BUDWEISER: Aspirational image goes flat." Marketing Week 18 Oct. 2007.
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Strawberry Frog: International Ad Agency

Strawberry Frog is an award winning international advertising agency that is based in New York City and Amsterdam. Strawberry Frog's creative logo and work strategy has sparked the attention of many well known clients. Clients include: Sam's Club, Fosters, Old Navy, Microsoft, MTV, IKEA, and Morgan and Stanley. Strawberry Frog prides itself of the teams of creative staff, digital media, and management teams who work directly with the client. This type of cohesiveness allows for the agency to create " highly effective and efficient cultural movements." Their unique strategies are based around "Frogism", which tells the story of a frog living in a the corporate dinosaurs world. Strawberry frogs are small but think big and challenge the dinosaurs who are large corporations concerned about revenue rather than their clients satisfaction. Kip Kreutzburg, head of Viagras global advertising, stated about Strawberry Frog,"Strawberry is all about the frog that can leap to a lily pad, not the lily pad that can receive a frog. What makes them unique is their people." 

Recently Strawberry Frog is in the running for the top Adweak's breakthrough ad agency. Frito Lay had chosen Strawberry Frog for their creative advertising campaign for their new snack line to come out. Check out more about Frito-Lay scooping up Strawberry Frog. In 2006, Strawberry Frog shot a commercial for their client Heineken on location during the filming of the James Bond Casino Royale. Check out the video of the making and filming of Strawberry Frogs Heineken commercial. 

South Africa: Coca-Cola's Message in a Bottle

December 1st celebrated World Aids Day and in South Africa a special type of advertising campaign was run in order to raise awareness. Coca-Cola teamed up with Nelson Mandela (former South African President) and his 4664 campaign to place one million message about HIV/AIDS inside glass coke bottles and be distributed around shopping malls, parks, street corners, ect. Cocoa-Cola donated one million glass bottles and supported the 46664 concert. South Africa's marketing manager Julian Byrant states about Coke " As an iconic brand which has the power to influence lives and change perceptions, it is important for Coca-Cola to have a voice and opinion. Our 'Hello' campaign does just that." Coke  donated all of  their profits from the limited edition "Style My Coke" bottle to the 46664 initiative. Check out more about the South Africa; Mandela's message in a bottle. 

Cross Cultural Awareness in Advertising

An important part of advertising is understanding the audiences values. When an advertisement is developed in the United States, ad agencies need to be aware that if they are planning on releasing this campaign internationally they must first understands cultural values. Other countries ideals on  family, religion, and politics can greatly vary. Also the language must be carefully selected, therefor not just one slogan or message can be developed. It must fit the appropriate audience. In the article International Advertising: Understand Cultural Differences by Neil Payne, he mentions a miscommunication by an advertisement for Ford Pinto that was launched in Brazil. Ford noticed that their sales were extremely low in Brazil and later found out that Brazilians did not want to purchase a car that meant "tiny male genitals". Slip ups such as this one makes Ford look culturally ignorant and has left a drastic financial dent in their sales. Check out more marketing translation mistakes.  As Americans things such as colors, numbers, and images do not have much meaning to us, but in other cultures these things can be a significant part of their cultural lifestyles. For example the Chinese believe red to be a spiritual color. Therefor advertising must be cautious not to offend anyones beliefs or values.  

Coca-Cola has recently made a cultural mistake when developing a new advertisement for their famous soda. The article in the Moscow Times entitled: Coca-Cola Bows to Believers informs that "Hoping to tap into a growing tide of patriotism, the U.S beverage giant have placed pictures of religious sites together with is logo on fridges in kiosks shops in Nizhny Novgorod, the country's third-biggest city." Now many Orthodox believe that this advertising campaign is not only offensive but is blasphemy . Yet Coca-Cola states that their cultural offensiveness as not intended.