The branding effect: coming to a butterfly near you.

File this under "Nothing is safe":

"A glowing green logo drawn by scientists on the wing of a genetically altered butterfly could herald the day that the insects are adorned with adverts and slogans.

A team at the University at Buffalo that developed the world’s first GM butterfly has now adapted the work to create the fluorescent marking on the wings of the insect to demonstrate an innovative tool that will make it easier to find out what genes do, in this case those that play a role in making the patterns on wings, from stripes to eye spots.

The researchers demonstrated their method by using a laser to stencil the silhouette of a butterfly upon the surface of a butterfly’s wing."

Seen on Adrants and Daily Telegraph.

Brand Quiz: Is your brand a sucking, swirling eddy of despair?

We launched our much-anticipated Mortar 360 brand quiz today.

Click through to test your brand management prowess against the Web’s most advanced (and we might say pithy) brand analysis tool.

The Web cuts the fat from our shopping basket.

Proponents of the "would you like fries with your burger" approach to marketing listen up.

Our days of foisting unwanted products and features on Johnny Consumer are numbered.  The Internet is freeing us from the tyranny of "added value". William Bulkeley points out in today’s Journal that "when customers find a way to avoid buying excess baggage, they move quickly":

- The film industry spent years selling us rolls of 24 shots when all we ever  wanted was one or two good pictures of Fido. Walgreen’s continues the tradition by offering two sets of prints for the price of one.  New web services like Flickr and iPhoto allow us to pay for only the pictures we want.

- For years, the music industry sold us albums packed with songs, when all we really wanted was one hit single. iTunes and Napster saved us from this horrible blight.

- Newspapers sell us advertising packaged around news. TV assails us with unwanted commercials every 5 minutes or so. While we, the ad industry, continue to fool ourselves with the notion that consumers WANT to see our ads. Not so Google (Well not so much anyway).

- Encyclopedia Brittanica sold thousands of unopened volumes to people seeking enlightenment on just a few issues. Saved by Wikipedia and search engines.

- Technology companies of all sizes sell us products packed with features we will never use (and never asked for). Well, no one has saved us from this just yet. But its coming.

- Ad agencies and the media have sold Corporate America billions of dollars of advertising solutions with vague promises of "creating awareness". Perhaps never before has so much been paid for such nebulous results. (Do I hear you say, Praise Be for the Mortar?).

There is an important point here. The Web has returned the power of choice to the people.

But then again think of what we will miss?

My kids will never discover they like the "B" side more than the hit.

And who wants to throw away all those shoeboxes full of aging photographs? Which of us has not spent a few fond, unexpected hours, rummaging through boxes of family photos?

For the full perspective on this dimension of the consumer-internet revolution, read the full story here.

 

Following Target’s lead, Home Depot turns to product design to fire-up sales.

"The new fire extinguisher with the smooth lines of a martini shaker is the centerpiece of a new line of Home Depot products, called Orange Works, that will be unveiled today and begin appearing in stores next fall.

"The Orange Works project is a collaboration between the retailer and Arnell Group, a New York marketing and design company that is a division of Omnicom Group Inc. Such private-label products have become a retailing trend, helping to differentiate what might otherwise be commoditized goods. They also typically carry fatter profit margins…

"Home Depot expects the line’s first three products to generate sales of $250 million the first year — a fraction of 1% of the company’s expected $90 billion in 2007 sales. But Chief Executive Robert Nardelli says he expects the new line to bring additional traffic that will result in increased residual sales."

Brand advocates rejoice, the new fire extinguisher is called a  ‘Home Hero’. 

And in a somewhat provocative move it appears to be silver and not red.  One wonders if that was a smart move?

Read more here (Wall Street Journal online, a subscription may be required).

eBay outdoor.

eBay in Belgium is fly posting closed businesses. Simple. Effective. Better than the "IT" campaign f’sure. Seen on The Coolhunter.

Another Starbucks toother.

Wrigley’s score with stickers on the base of Starbucks’ coffee cups. Seen on TheCoolhunter.

It’s a Small CrocsWorld After All

Brilliant, simple cobranding. Take two superpower brands that embody "fun and magic" and combine… "Wonder-Twin powers, activate! Form of a Tinkerbell Croc in lime green and pink! Shape of a Captain Jack Sparrow Croc in black and maroon!"

Crocs Press Release: "The Disney by CROCS line, which is targeted towards children and
adults, will debut with special-edition Mickey Mouse die-cut Adult
Beach and Kid’s Cayman models. These styles will be available in a
broad range of two-toned color pallets including Mickey’s signature
black and red. Other models include an array of unique designs
emphasizing the distinctive personalities of Disney’s characters
including Mickey and Friends, Winnie the Pooh and Friends, Disney
Princess, Disney Fairies, as well as Pirates of the Caribbean and
Disney*Pixar’s Toy Story and Cars."

I know my 4 year old daughter would be THRILLED to don a pair of Disney Princess Crocs!

If you are interested in reading more on Crocs, here are a couple great stories from Business 2.0 featured on CNN Money:

How a stay-at-home mom sold Crocs a $10 million idea.

(about Jibbitz, the charms you see all the "cool kids" wearing on their Crocs.

When Crocs attack, an ugly shoe tale.

By the way, did you know that in Israel, one in six people owns a pair of Crocs?

New ER campaign earns honorable blogosphere mentions.

Several blogs covered our new campaign for San Francisco’s St Mary’s Medical Center. Check them out:

St Mary’s Center Ad: A humorous approach to healthcare.
"…Of course, this ad campaign has humorously treated a very sensitive
aspect of human life and it could be dubbed as a path-breaking
advertisement in healthcare advertising.

MortarSF uses light hearted approach to healthcare advertising. Adland was the first to pick up the post. Their readers commented:

Come onnnnn. Not to be nasty, but the famous last words idea has been done a bazillion times. No, wait – quadrillion. – Plywood.

Well I like it. It feels fresh in this category and loads better than the last tagline I heard for an a & e clinic "Treat every illness like an emergency". I reckon consumers would appreciate this light-hearted approach. -  Genau

See also St. Mary’s Medical Center unveils "QuickCare ER",  Adhurl and MarketingBlurb picked up the release.

Get the Adultery Checker. And organize those bananas while you are at it. The Sky Maul gift guide debuts.

The new Sky Maul features a banana organizer and adultery checker. This is a must for every home. 

Which reminds me. We receive at least 5-7 catalogs a day at the Mortarmark home: I don’t remember one which was even remotely humorous.  Now that’s an opportunity.

Denver Saves water.

Two pieces from Denver’s "Save Water" campaign (September 2006). Seen on Advertising/Design Goodness. Click through for more.