Brand: The Simpsons (News Corp)
Execution: Event Marketing
Target: Simpsons Fans
Rating: *****
Reviewer: David

Description:
Eleven 7-Eleven stores nationwide have been transformed into Kwik-E-Mart, the (formerly) fictional fast food mart featured weekly on The Simpsons, a U.S. animated satire that has had a 20 year run and is about to spawn its first movie (The Simpsons Movie) this week.  The stores now sell products seen only on the show like KrustyO’s cereal, BuZz Cola and Krusty Burgers and employees are dressed in bright green outfits familiar to Simpsons fans from the character Apu who works at the Kwik-E-Mart on the show.

What Works:
This promotion (also written up in the Wall Street Journal, Advertising Age and others) is a brilliant reversal of the classic product placement strategy, where real life products are placed into fictional environments.  By placing these brands – which Simpsons brand enthusiasts have developed a real affection for over the past generation – into a real retail environment, The Simpsons has created a brilliant brand experience that allows users to temporarily step inside the world of the Simpsons.

7-Eleven also benefits from this promotion by suddenly becoming a leading-edge marketer and finding a way to make a few of its stores fun and relevant.  The investment for this promotion is relatively modest, as only 11 stores were affected by the redressing – however the Simpsons products like KrustyO’s cereals are being sold in all of the 7-Eleven Stores nationwide, offering 7-Eleven the potential for turning this small promotion into a big profit center.  As Bob Garfield notes, this self-mockery represented a real risk for 7-Eleven, and they are to be commended for it.

For NewsCorp, the buzz and publicity created by this promotion has been fantastic and well-timed.  It is a nice diversion from the normal business of movie promotion which has grown tired from overuse.

Although this may be the first example of fictional products making their debut in the real world, car makers have for years been using racing video games on the PS2 and XBox as a way to concept test the interest in cars aimed at enthusiasts.  Several car models including the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution were brought to the U.S. market based on interest generated by placement in video games.  In a world where thousands of people make real income in artificial environments (second life) and teenagers spend as much time immersed in the fictional world as the real, we can expect that there are huge opportunities to realize the appeal of fictional brands.

What Doesn’t:
Nearly flawlessly executed, we still think 7-Eleven could have made a more dramatic gesture by moving the promotion out to more retail locations – perhaps 111.

Branding Bottom Line:
7-Eleven is suddenly cool again.  And we remember to TiVo the Simpsons.

Brand: HBO (Time Warner)
Execution: Web Video Environment
Target: Web Influentials
Rating: ****
Reviewer: David Vinjamuri

Description:
This deceptively simple montage reveals a complex series of interconnected plots.  The website shows an apartment building.  Any of the apartments can be clicked on to reveal what’s going on inside.  The viewer can also zoom in or move forward in time.  As the viewer becomes more familiar with the environment it becomes clear that there are other buildings in the city that can be located and clicked on.  The plots are by turns odd, creepy (a ghost floats through the building at one point, a mortician photographs the dead), amusing and unexpected.  In addition to the website, Voyeur video can be found on HBO on demand, there is a blog and other ‘artifacts’ are rumored to be around the web.

What Works:
The old maxim in writing is “Show, don’t tell.”  Advertising is the living rebuttal of this line of thinking.  We are endlessly telling consumers what our products can do and depending on the strength of the brand and persuasiveness of our arguments to do the work.  When we demonstrate the products in an ad, we call that ‘showing’ but its really still ‘telling’ since it is a contrived situation.

HBO confronts the problem of maintaining its leadership in cutting-edge television content as the Sopranos goes offline.  The post-Sopranos, post-Sex in the City network needs to burnish its reputation as an innovator in order to keep viewers tuning in to new series like “John from Cincinatti” and attract professional talent.

HBO Voyeur is an intriguing way of showing HBO’s ability rather than telling about it.  This advertising blog is calling it a ‘Web Video Environment’ simply because we don’t really have a name for what it is.  No other advertiser has done anything quite like this.

This is effective advertising for HBO because it is both innovative and well executed.  The web environment works seemlessly, and it is easy to get lost inside the web of interconnected plots.  The explicit voyeurism of the site points out what we know but don’t say about television itself – it is serial voyeurism.  Part of the appeal of all good television drama is seeing inside someone’s life without having them know we’re watching.

What Doesn’t:
The site only runs well with a very high speed connection.  Not recommended for hotel-room wi-fi, for instance.  We would like to see somewhat deeper plotlines and the ability to tune in dialogue rather than tunes.  This site is an exceptionally good way to waste three or four hours – if, say, you’re reviewing it.

Branding Bottom Line:
Reminds us why we love HBO.  Now if we could only see the Voyeur version of “The Office” …