Assignment+1-+Online+Ad+Critque


 * Pick two instances of an existing online advertising/marketing campaign and critique their design and approach. Who is their target audience? What are they trying to advance? When did you see this campaign, and where? What techniques did they use? Do you believe they were effective? Why/why not? Post this on your personal wiki.**

MINI: Fan the Flame Social Installation

MINI in the Netherlands has created a way to connect the users of Facebook to the MINI homepage. The ad is simple, users on Facebook are asked to "like" the MINI Facebook page and for every "like" the fire is fanned in real time which is underneath a rope. The goal, if your "like" is the one to break the rope then you are rewarded with a Mini Cooper. This simple contest is directed towards any users on Facebook to increase the MINI Cooper's popularity. Bringing in the social interaction simply by "liking" increases the chances that users will participate in the contest. MINI makes it simple, they have a video encouraging that all the user must do is like the MINI Facebook page, this then will give them a chance to win their own MINI Cooper.

I found this ad campaign on //The Digital Buzz// in January of 2012. By having an ad incorporated with Facebook, MINI is targeting the users that are 16 and over. I believe that MINI was very successful in creating a campaign that generated interest, by having a chance to win a MINI that at the same time created exposure to their site. By incorporating a chance to win a prize it gives people more of a reason to join in in the contest.

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Heart and Stroke Banner

This campaign during November, is for the //Heart and Stroke Foundation// advertising for people to learn how to do CPR to save lives. This campaign was found in the form of web banners, as well on TV and in print. The goal of this campaign is to provide an image that many people would be afraid to be faced with, that is having a loved one fall as a result of a heart attack and not being able to help. The //Heart and Stroke Foundation// hopes to target people who do not know how to perform CPR and direct them to sites that will teach them how to perform it. By advertising a potential fatal situation, the Heart and Stroke Foundation targets the fear in people of not knowing what to do.

In order to capture peoples attention with the web banner, they animate it so that if people are intrigued they will continue looking at the ad to read more about what they can do. By placing the advertisement into a personal realm of saying that if you are not in an ER but you are in your living room are you prepared to save a life? They techniques although simple, are effective as many people probably do not know what to do in a situation like that. The benefit of having this ad online allows for people to be linked directly to the CPR page that informs the user of the basic information about Cardiac Arrest and what can be done to prevent it. Simply by educating the reader on information regarding Cardiac Arrest they will feel more at ease about clicking the advertisement.