Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

Political tensions have reached a point where some brands are perceiving mainstream news outlets as too controversial, leading media buyers to pull ads from those sites.

One campaign manager at a holding group media agency said a major automaker decided last month to stop serving ads in the news category in case the content didn’t align with the brand’s values. Then, after violence erupted in Charlottesville, Virginia, the agency blocked keywords including “Nazis” and “Charlottesville” in programmatic campaigns for the brand. This exec, like the other three media agency executives interviewed for this story, spoke on condition of anonymity due to political sensitivities.

The executive said the blocked news category contains hundreds of publishers, including foxnews.com, which also is the only mainstream news site that has been on the agency’s blacklist since March....

If you're a marketer of any kind, this phrase is probably lurking somewhere in the back of your mind when you start a new project:

"How do we make this brand really stand out?"

The constant battle to differentiate a brand in a crowded playing field is challenging, and it's pushing some marketers to the extreme.We've rounded up 14 creative campaigns and promotions that rely on unconventional mediums to spread brand messaging to consumers. Check them out for some unique inspiration for your next big campaign....

In the old world, there was no effective way to target individuals searching for niche products, so the companies that succeeded — the household names, so to speak — offered products that appealed to broad swaths of people, and advertised by reaching thousands, and in many cases, millions of people at once (see: Super Bowl and radio ads). The companies who ran successful advertising campaigns through these mediums, then, tended to be of a certain ilk, whether restaurant chains, car brands, department stores, insurance agencies, or brands under the umbrella of a larger consumer goods company.

Enter the modern era, and the internet has flipped the traditional retail model — one characterized by massive investment into retail locations and brand advertising — on its head. Distance between buyer and seller no longer constrains sales — a consumer in Japan could just as easily obtain a watch manufactured in Detroit as a consumer in Detroit could obtain a Sake produced in Japan.

The internet has given buyers and sellers unprecedented access to one another; it has never been easier for a buyer to find a seller who has what they need, just as it has never been easier for a seller to find a user who needs what they have.Google and Facebook ads are a microcosm of this effect. No longer is the cost of individual consumer acquisition so high that reaching a million consumers at once is the only effective way to advertise. Now, through Google and Facebook, niche businesses can target specific individuals whose data determines that they are prime candidates for said niche product or service. ...

2016 was a year of unprecedented creative opportunities for advertisers.

Advancements in technology enabled agencies to develop campaigns across innovative new mediums, pushing the boundaries of digital advertising and inviting consumers to experience brands like never before.Before we see what 2017 has in store, let's take a look back at some of this year's most impactful advertising trends. The following four marketing tactics left a big mark on 2016, and they show no signs of slowing down as we head into the new year.

See which trends fueled some of the most creative ad campaigns, and start planning your first 2017 campaign. ...

Comedy is one of the most effective way to advertise anything, but some brands and companies take absurd to the next level in a trend you may not realize you’ve seen called “oddvertising.”

“Oddvertising is sometimes funny and sometimes it’s just plain odd,” according to Mike Johnston.

Advertising appeared as the first dot com bubble was burning and was birthed by marketers really pushing the envelope in advertising. many of the odd pioneers were startups or smaller brands trying to stand out with off-the-wall concepts like firing gerbils into their logos.

THE RISE OF AN ART FORM

But what they made went beyond unusual into a new realm that was later coined as “oddvertising.” Things got even weirder as they had some success reaching young audiences with money to spend. Some were all business and some were just fascinated with finding out how far they could get....