Mondelez International is about to find out if it can keep the advertising momentum going around its Oreo brand, arguably the most important individual product line for the global snack giant that was spun off from Kraft last year.

Oreo campaigns have scored one hit after another over the last several months, culminating, of course, with brand stewards' savvy in turning the Super Bowl blackout in New Orleans into an impromptu social-media marketing occasion.

Now, Mondelez is counting on its recently demonstrated advertising chops to create a great reception for its new campaign for Oreo, dubbed "Wonderfilled." It employs new positioning as well as TV commercials with original songs, print advertisements, a strong social media presence and pop-up choral mini-concerts in major US cities next week.

"It starts with a very simple premise, about how something as small as an Oreo cookie can bring about a positive change in perspective," said Janda Lukin, director of Oreo, according to Advertising Age.Continue reading...

Walmart is definitely getting at something with its new TV and digital advertising campaign, "The Real Walmart." By focusing on a simple and clear-eyed approach on the strengths of the company and how various huge constituencies—American consumers, Walmart workers, and the company's supply-chain participants—benefit, the world's largest retailer has a good shot at engendering more of the endemic kind of goodwill that has often escaped it.

The campaign relies on TV ads that feature real Walmart customers, another that tells the story of a 19-year old employee in Chicago, and a third that explains some of the super-efficiencies inherent in the retailer's system that may be very familiar to MBA students but whose understanding really hasn't trickled down to the rank-and-file American consumer.

"We have wanted to do this for a long time because we know that people trust Walmart even more when they understand the opportunities we provide our associates, who the customers are that shop with us and how we deliver low prices," Bill Simon, president and CEO of Walmart US, said in a press release.Continue reading...

“Perrier is the sexiest sparkling water you'll ever taste,” according to the 150-year-old brand, which is trying to woo a younger audience with a sexy and sparkling online gaming experience, Perrier Secret Place. 

“Secret Place is an immersive experience with a surprise at every turn, something that will be highly engaging for our target audience. And at a party that goes on for hours, we like to think of Perrier as the drink that can refresh like no other," according to a press release.

It's being marketed as the most high-profile, crazy party experience ever, dispensing clues through the eyes of 60 different characters along with a sweepstakes to win an invitation to one of five mega-parties taking place at Carnival in Rio, Ibiza in Spain, St. Tropez in France, Art Basel in Miami or New Year’s Eve in Sydney, Australia.Continue reading...

The Old Spice Man is no longer on a horse, but he's got a few other creatures at his back.

The latest W+K effort by director Tom Kuntz for the P&G-owned brand promises unbridled (yet elegant) animal magnetism with The Wild Collection, a trio of manly new scents: Wolfthorn, Hawkridge and Foxcrest. The tagline, naturally, is "Answer the smell of the wild."

Watch the first two spots, featuring tuxedo-clad gents and their wolf and hawk companions, along with their social messaging, below. Update: According to Ad Age, the Wolfthorn spot will run during the Super Bowl — but only in Alaska, home to America's biggest wolf population.Continue reading...

Banking has become more consumer-friendly, particularly through sophisticated ATMs and mobile banking applications, but banks are still hampered by the stereotype that they are largely impersonal. TD Bank's new branding campaign, "Bank Human Again," makes the most of that deficiency.

New TV and web spots, supported by newspaper and digital media including a microsite, show a variety of consumers in what appears to be a cold, gray unwelcoming bank. Each consumer attempts a simple action only to be thwarted by a robotic-sounding voice that spouts bank policy.

In one spot, for example, a customer finds that the chain on the bank's pen is too short for him to write. When he asks about it, a disembodie voice says, "Here's the thing, Martin, banks can't have people taking their pens." TD Bank's answer: plenty of pens with no chains. Not to mention no rope lines, free coin-counting, and a focus on the little things that add up to the big things in customer service.

While a chained pen may seem insignificant, it's a remnant of banks' traditional (inflexible, impersonal) way of doing business. "The new marketing campaign viscerally communicates TD's attributes of unparalleled service and convenience, and our customer-first culture," stated the bank's Chief Marketing Officer Vinoo Vijay.Continue reading...

New York-based Gilt Groupe, the billion-dollar, members-only flash sales website, has just launched its first TV campaign. Two commercials (above and below) play up the Gilt brand of designer deal-shopping (in a cab, and in a gunfight that plays on Gilt's noon deal-posting) in time for holiday 2012. The Gilt campaign comes as Groupon, a rival deals website that relies on email to publicize a more general range of local daily deals, is struggling financially.Continue reading...

Thanksgiving is coming up. And while cans of vegetables will last for years, Del Monte decided that the timing couldn't be better to remind American consumers about the easiest way to elbow onto the Turkey Day table with side dishes worthy of the buxom bird: get them out of a can. Preferably a can of Del Monte vegetables.

So the brand is launching its most extensive and expensive ad campaign in a decade, under the tagline "Bursting with Life." The idea is to emphasize the freshness of Del Monte vegetables — an attribute that consumers don't naturally associate with foods that have been preserved in a cylinder of metal for weeks or months.

While they're not trying to make eating your veggies (let alone canned veggies) sexy, Del Monte hopes to claim a bigger share of mind stomach of a collective American household that at least is thinking more about vegetables these days, and the nutritional value of consuming them.Continue reading...

Lynx, which is sold by Unilever as Axe everywhere but Ireland, the UK and Australia, is expanding on its heavenly angel-themed Lynx Effect campaign with its latest campaign: preparing mankind (as befits the world's biggest-selling male toiletries brand) for the end of the world. Watch the full-length version below.Continue reading...