Time for a Royal Celebration: 

Share a Coke with Wills and Kate

           When Prince William and Kate Middleton debut their son, Prince George Alexander Louis of Cambridge, to the world the entire world entered frenzy. This wasn’t only a widely covered issue for England, but also from country to country. Even in America the public awaited the arrival of the new heir, advertisements capitalized on this new addition to the royal family and released series of adverts on a world scale.

           Coca-Cola released a non-descript advert of congratulations soon before the birth entitled: “Time for a royal celebration… Share a Coke with Wills and Kate.” The positioning of the Coke bottles was in the form of a “cheers.” The nod to the royal family that the public was wildly awaiting was an ingenuous move for the Coca-Cola advertising company. The company’s drive to become a part of the news-driven cultural movement worked to the advantage of Coke’s previous hashtag campaign from New Zealand and Australia. It was also one of the first companies to release a congratulatory message in the public.

Tiffany & Co. Holiday Campaign 2011

I selected the Tiffany & Co 2011 Holiday campaign for a creative international campaign due to its amount of advertising coverage. Covered in international magazines like W, Elle, Glamour, and People this advert received coverage worldwide.

Tiffany & Co is known for its advertising directive of luxury and the perceived notion of what love is supposed to be. In the holiday 2011 campaign they featured Laetitia Casta, a former Guess and Victoria’s Secret model, and Lee Pace, a famous American television and silver screen actor. It shows what every woman in love would like to imagine their holiday season. The advert shows Casta and Pace as a loving couple in snowy New York City, one variation even shows the pair building a snowman (Sam, 2014).

It was one of the first advertising campaigns that made me want to go into advertising. As a high school student, I cut out the advert from every magazine I could and hung it in my room. This idealistic aspect of love and hope during the holiday season is exactly what Tiffany & Co was aiming for. The adoration for family, friends, and lovers runs high especially during the holidays and Tiffany’s capitalized on those feelings.

BusinessWeek comments on Tiffany & Co’s income. At the end of this holiday season Tiffany & Co had a total of $2,151.4 million gross profit at the end of their fiscal year (Businessweek, 2014). And in the annual report Tiffany & Co spent $234.05 million, only 6.4% of net sales, on advertising. This advertising includes cost for worldwide advertising, which in turn includes costs for media, production, catalogs, Internet, visual merchandising (in-store and window displays), marketing events and other related items (Investor.tiffany.com, 2012).

This advert was another example of Coca-Cola’s achievements in viral video advertising. The newest Bond movie released in 2012, “SkyFall,” was an international success. The campaign highlighted both the movie and Coca-Cola’s Coke Zero product. I included this in my “Internationalism” portfolio due to the fact that it covered one of the top 2012 grossing movies across the world. The use of recognizable music, a fun tagline, and exciting candid actors aided to the viewing pleasure of this viral ad.

The creativity of this advert comes from the structure. The “reality” of this scenario and following unknown suspects through an everyday venue made this advert have a sense of realness. Coca-Cola is, at the point of the release of this video, known for their entertaining and viral commercials. I do not feel that it would be out of line to say that this is a strong suit in their marketing endeavors. Coca-Cola is also one of the first companies to create adverts like this.

The “Coke Zero drives you to unlock the 007 in you,” video was shot at the Central Station of Antwerp in Belgium inviting real consumers to unlock the 007 in themselves and overcome a “mission” to win exclusive tickets for the movie “SkyFall.”

The viral effect of the video was unprecedented; the new Coke Zero product was put on the map by this advert. The advert broke Coca-Cola’s company record for online views and engagement. As of 1 November 2012, the high reach was 7.1M views on YouTube with 98% “likes” and 832.3k “shares,” (Palmen, 2014). The video was placed in Mashable Top 100 most shared commercials ever and is still being “shared” through social media today.  Also, the video is the most shared Bond related ad and in the Top 3 YouTube search results of “007,” (Palmen, 2014). I would say this advert was ultimately successful.

Carlsberg - Fan Academy

I chose this due to the fact that being an international student, I was fully able to appreciate and understand it. Even though it was not shown anywhere other than the United Kingdom, I feel it represents internationalism well.

It was a creative commercial highlighting one of the biggest sporting events of the year (the European Championship football tournament).  Through this advert, the consumer was able to feel like an active member of the game and root for their chosen team.  Instead of focusing on the actual product, the advertising structure focused on the feeling of inclusion. The consumer was the focus instead of the actual product.

This advert, normally too lengthy to be shown on television, had its own TV spot. It marked the first change to the branding since it chose a new tagline (“That Calls for a Carlsberg”) in 2011 (Joseph, 2012).

With the help of this advert, Carlsberg’s sales in beer went up by 1.01%, and their net revenue increased by 1.06% (Carlsberg Group, 2012). And although there is no direct statement accrediting this increase to the 2012 advert campaign, one can only assume.

I selected this advert because for its time, it showed the consumer something that no other competitor had. It was a universal way to highlight the features of the product in real life. I found this creative due to the fact that it was the first advert worldwide to show something new, and also showed the consumer how the future affects everyday life. Variations of this were shown in the United States as well, making it a perfect example of global marketing.

It was made for a television spot, being only 30 seconds long, by iPhone Apple. It was released in 2011 and was among a series of adverts highlighting the Siri feature on the new 4s’. This feature-centered approach to advertising seemed to highlight the product effectively.

Forbes online released an article on this advert recording a few financial tidbits:

“According to its annual filing, Apple spent $933 million on advertising last year, $691 million in 2010, and $501 million in 2009. Its total sales those years were $108.249 billion, $65.225 billion and $42.905 billion.

Translation: Apple spent less than 1% of sales last year on advertising. And its sales growth has been far outpacing its advertising budget.” (Forbes, 2012)

Global advertising is “[advertising] on a worldwide scale reconciling or taking commercial advantage of global operational differences, similarities and opportunities in order to meet global objectives,” this definition was the basis for my choice in portfolio.  After much deliberation, I decided on “internationalism” as my theme. Being an exchange student, I found it was important for me to find something easily relatable, yet also something that I could find interesting advertisements on. My basis for my chosen theme is adverts that bridge cultural gaps.

In the business world today, it is becoming increasingly important to be a diverse and open-minded firm. Also it is becoming gradually more vital to the success of a company to produce adverts on an international scale. More and more ads are learning to focus on diversity in order to keep their adverts and product line adaptable. This theme is not only important on a business scale, but is something that also hits a bit closer to home. Being an international student, this theme is something that I can relate to.

The Spring Fling, which has become a highlight on the Miami social calendar, also offered music by DJ Le Spam, a fine wine auction led by Eric Larkee, Wine Director of the Genuine Hospitality Group, and the O Miami Poetry Festival poetry station where three poets created poems on demand.

Thanks to the dedication of the host committee, including power-house names like Debra & Dennis Scholl, The Related Group, Art Basel Miami Beach, Leni Sender, Craig Robins, John Speers, Greenberg Traurig LLP, and Holland & Knight LLP the Locust Projects’ signature event was a success again in 2014. Attendees enjoyed every minute of the event and the auction raised essential funding for exhibitions and programming.