Pulse2 Technology and Social Media News » Crispin Porter and Bogusky

Hulu To Have A Superbowl Ad Starring Will Arnett [VIDEO]

Amit Chowdhry — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 08:10:15 +0000

This Sunday is Super Bowl XLVI and this year’s advertisements are supposed to be really creative. It looks like Hulu will have an ad this year again. Hulu first advertised on the Super Bowl in 2009 in a commercial starring Alec Baldwin as a secret alien. This year Will Arnett is Hulu’s commercial star. Above is a teaser of the commercial. The commercial was created by Crispin Porter & Bogusky.

Domino’s Pizza Launches An iPad App For Building and Ordering Your Food [VIDEO]

Amit Chowdhry — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 17:58:31 +0000

Domino’s Pizza, Inc. (NYSE:DPZ) has designed an iPad app that allows people to design and order pizzas. You can design the pizza on the screen and then order it in real life. The name of the app is Domino’s Pizza Hero. You can use the app to knead the dough, spread the sauce, sprinkle cheese, place toppings, and cut slices.

The objective of the game is to design the pizza as fast as possible. Levels one through five of the app is called “Pizza School.” When you hit level six, then your scores are based on reviews from in-game customers as part of a system called Domino’s Tracker. Domino’s Pizza uses an internal system of their own called Domino’s Tracker which is a real-time feed of consumer comments.

Players can compete again each other on the leaderboard of the game. Scores can be shared on Facebook and Twitter. If a player likes what they designed, they can hit the “Make an Order” tab within the app to order their exact creation in real life.

Crispin Porter + Bogusky is the ad agency behind the app. There are some parameters based on the type of pizza you can make. For example, you cannot knead the dough into an odd shape or have a pizza that has sauce on only half the pizza. If the app crashes, then you can order the creation from Dominos.com.

[Mashable]

VitaminWater Ads Charge Your Phone While You Wait for Your Bus

Riley Kennysmith — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 18:35:02 +0000

VitaminWater is giving bus riders in New York, LA, Chicago and Boston a luxury usually only available to car commuters: charging your mobile devices on the go. There are USB charge ports in VitaminWater ads in bus shelters in those four cities, free for consumers to use as they wait for the bus. Mashable reports that the ports charge anything from phones to mp3 players to gaming devices, so long as you happen to carry a charge cord with you when you travel.

The ads were designed by Crispin Porter + Bogusky to advertise VitaminWater as an “alternative energy source.”

Groupon CEO Andrew Mason Says They Put Too Much Trust In Ad Agency CP&B For Super Bowl Ads

Amit Chowdhry — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 16:51:55 +0000

Groupon CEO Andrew Mason said that the company placed too much trust in ad agency Crispin Porter & Bogusky (CP&B) for their Super Bowl commercials and they fired them for it. This is a different perception Groupon portrayed as they defended the controversial ads shortly after they aired.

Andrew Mason said that they put too much trust in CP&B “to be edgy, informative and entertaining, and we turned off the part of our brain where we should have made our own decisions. We learned that you can’t rely on anyone else to control and maintain your own brand.”

The ideas behind the ads was to take sensitive causes and poke fun at them to promote coupons savings earned through Groupon. Groupon’s contract with CP&B was only through February 28th. Groupon’s television ads ran its course and no further ads with them were planned.

[AdAge]

Why Groupon Ran The Politically Incorrect Super Bowl Ads

Amit Chowdhry — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 04:05:05 +0000

Groupon CEO Andrew Mason took some time to explain why they ran the politically incorrect ads on the Super Bowl. Groupon partnered with community organizations like SaveTheMoney.org for on this idea.

“When we think about commercials that offend us, we think of those that glorify antisocial behavior – like the scores of Super Bowl ads that are built around the crass objectification of women. Unlike those ads, no one walks away from our commercials taking the causes we highlighted less seriously. Not a single person watched our ad and concluded that it’s cool to kill whales. In fact – and this is part of the reason we ran them – they have the opposite effect,” said Mason on the Groupon blog.

Crispin Porter & Bogusky conceived the ads. The ad firm also made an ad for Hulu showcases how TV rots your brain and they make fun of themselves for it. “Why make fun of ourselves? Because it’s different – ads are traditionally about shameless self promotion, and we’ve always strived to have a more honest and respectful conversation with our customers. We would never have run these ads if we thought they trivialized the causes – even if we didn’t take them as seriously as we do, what type of company would go out of their way to be so antagonistic?”

Groupon said that organizations like Greenpeace, buildOn, The Tibet Fund, and the Rainforest Action Network all threw their support behind the campaign. Groupon suggested that people head to SaveTheMoney.org to make some donations too.

[Groupon Blog]

Seth MacFarlane and Alex Borstein Hired For Windows 7 Product Placement

Amit Chowdhry — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 17:48:21 +0000

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has been airing commercials that feature a young Asian-American girl named Kylie to promote their new operating system called Windows 7. In the commercials, Kylie points out all the “happy words” that reviewers have been giving about Windows 7.

To get a further boost in publicity, Microsoft is hiring Seth MacFarlane and Alex Borstein to put on a variety show. MacFarlane is the creator of the animated series Family Guy. Borstein is one of the voice actresses for Family Guy, best known for playing Lois Griffin. The variety show will be aired on November 8 without commercials.

The deal was made between Microsoft, The Family Guy cast, and ad agency Crispin, Porter & Bogusky. Media agency Universal McCann brokered the deal. Crispin and MacFarlane worked together on a deal in the past for creating Seth MacFarlane’s Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy. The series was uploaded to YouTube and was sponsored by Burger King initially. The series is now being sponsored by Priceline.com.

The variety program sponsored by Microsoft will feature Family Guy musical performances, celebrity guest appearances, and Microsoft product placements. “You’ll see us deeply integrated into the content … you’ll hear a lot about how Windows 7 can help you simplify your PC — it’s simple, fast and easy to use,” stated Microsoft general manager of consumer engagement and advertising Gayle Troberman. “Think about metaphors and examples we might use, talking about how simple things are. We’ll be evoking the cast of ‘Family Guy’ in some interesting ways that integrate the product messages.”

Update: Below is a video sneak peek from Win741 of how Windows 7 will be used by Family Guy:

The New Microsoft Ad Gets The Point Across

Amit Chowdhry — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 03:12:10 +0000

Earlier today, I wrote about a new and upcoming Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) advertisement. I think that this advertisement gets the point across a lot better than the Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates advertisements. Crispin Porter confirms that Seinfeld and Gates will be returning in future ads, but they have put those on pause for now. Check out the new ad below and let me know what you think in the comments:

What I like about this ad is that it showcases the global impact that PCs have. Rather than creating an ambiguous advertisement about nothing, Microsoft shows a montage of celebrities and regular Joes. Satish Kanwar e-mailed Sean Siler, the star of commercial and received an auto-response, pasted below (it’s pretty funny, you won’t be disappointed):

Hello! I’m a PC – and I can’t answer your email right now. I’d like to say that I’m out climbing Mt. Rainier or biking across Europe with the Swedish Beach Volleyball Team, but in fact I’m probably just chained to a desk somewhere in the depths of Redmond pounding out product specifications.

Now that I have been in a commercial, Microsoft has given me access to super-secret “BillyG” level of executive resources. That’s right – I have my own email auto-responder!

This, as you have probably surmised, is my pre-prepared auto-response (All natural, no filler. No animals were harmed in the making of this response. Except for a ferret.) I really would like to have answered you myself, but if I did, (a) I’d probably get no work done, and (b) then I’d get fired, and (c) then I’d have no chance of doing any more of those really awesome commercials.

So let me try to prognosticate a few of your questions and answer a few of them.

Why did they put you on TV? I think it’s my devastating good-looks and animal magnetism. No, really – there’s a ferret stuck to my leg right now.

But really – you aren’t even an actor! No I’m not. But I play one on TV. I really am a Microsoft Program Manager. I work on IPv6, and other things that you haven’t heard of.

How did you get selected? I auditioned along with a couple of hundred others. I guess I looked very Engineery. And the ferret probably helped.

Are you interested in more acting? Oh no, I think that Engineering is MUCH more fun.

What’s with Windows Vista? You’ve been watching those commercials again, haven’t you? Windows Vista rocks. Listen to real users, not actors.

-The Real PC, Sean Siler

[Found via TechCrunch]

Microsoft Starting New Ad Campaign Featuring Eva Longoria, Deepak Chopra, and Pharrell Williams

Amit Chowdhry — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 18:29:48 +0000

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is putting their ad campaign featuring Jerry Seinfeld on pause for the time being. The $300 million campaign will continue to march forward with a new theme. The new theme is a rebuttal against the Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) ads, Mac vs. PC. The new Microsoft ad will start with a commercial that features an engineer that resembles John Hodgman, the actor that plays “PC” on the Apple ads. The new ad even starts by saying “Hello, I’m a PC, and I’ve been made into a stereotype.”

Crispin Porter & Bogusky came up with the new campaign idea. Microsoft is even bringing several celebrities on board as part of the campaign that includes Eva Longoria (Desparate Housewives), Deepak Chopra (author), and Pharrell Williams (musician). Others featured in the commercials will include 60 Microsoft employees.

“[Apple executives have been] using a lot of their money to de-position our brand and tell people what we stand for,” stated David Webster, General Manager of brand marketing for Microsoft [NYT]. “They’ve made a caricature out of the PC.” Through this campaign, Microsoft wants to take back the narrative.

When Microsoft launched the Seinfeld ads, the reviews were 25% positive and 13% negative. The ads became less negative as time went on. “It did what it needed to do,” stated Rob Reilly, Partner and co-executive creative director of Crispin Porter. “People who got it, got it.”

The new ad campaign will be beginning tonight. There is no word on whether Seinfeld will return to additional Microsoft ads or not. Other clients of Crispin Porter includes Ad Council, Bell Sports, Burger King, Coke Zeo, Compass Bank, Domino’s Pizza, Geek Squad, Giro, International Andy Awards, KNOW HIV/AIDS, Sprite, Volkswagen, and Old Favorites.