Apple Iphone Giving Free Advertising to Others Businesses?

Advertising these days can be super expensive! Why are brands focusing some time on making awesome Iphone Apps? Maybe because Apples Iphone Apps commercials have been featuring these brands with- Free advertising?

These Brands/Apps didn't ask to be the commercial (although I'm sure many would love to be and/or trying to get into them), Apple chose their favorite apps that they have found to be the most useful for users. Pizza Hut, Gap, Epicurious, Barnes & Nobel and Zagat are a few that were used in aired commercials. Pizza Hut lets you order directly off the phone with a touch screen menu. If you use their app they also take 20% off your order, which encourages more people to use it, perhaps rather than ordering over the phone or online so they can take advantage of the discount. Gap allows you to put outfits together in their app to pick out what you'd like to buy. Epicurious lets you download recipes. This showcase of useful apps in the Iphone commercial is drawing a lot of attention to the brands themselves, which is bringing more and more people to check them out and use them. With over 75,000 apps to choose from, apple chose the ones that were easy to use and used the most Iphone features in their app to feature in the commercials. I think this is a great way for brands to push the envelope and make a great app to grab not only the costumers attention, but to attract Apple's attention as well to get free advertising out of it. The commercials themselves are reaching a ton of viewers, thus which ever app is being shown at the time, will get a lot of publicity as well. TBWA/Chiat/Day are behind these Iphone ads.

There's an article about this on Advertising Age

Where to Start...?

New to this whole blogging thing. Not really sure where to start... I guess from the beginning. Abbreviated version- I originally wanted to do graphic design and/page layouts, which I fell in love with in High School. I decided I'd never make it through the University's art program so Creative Advertising was the next best thing. The decision worked out pretty well, especially now that I love looking at great ads and watching commercials. I used to hate commercials, they really annoyed me. Always interrupting my shows at the most dramatic scenes, but after having studied great ads, the history and people in the industry, I've come to really appreciate them. I find myself sitting on the couch discussing what I like and don't like about commercials that come on with whomever happens to be sitting in the room. Most of the time it's someone who hasn't been studying this, so they just smile and nod at me. I no longer look at ads as a ploy to get you to go out and buy something, even though that's their goal, or as a huge interruption; instead I've begun to see them as a work of art. I feel that Great ads should make you feel something or to get up and do something.

Just for fun, I've been re-watching these 3 commercials lately! Not to say there aren't many, many more that I could watch over and over again.

I love Adidas Ultimate House Party commercial. It's one giant party with all these different celebrities, it really makes me want to be there! You almost forget its an ad, you get drawn into the excitment, the fun, the people. They throw in subtle hints from the design on the invite, to logos on shirts, and clips of peoples shoes that its for adidas which keeps it relevant to the brand they are advertising.

HP is another really awesome commercial where the people are coming out of the pictures, or becoming the pictures. Hard to put in words but its really awesome to watch. Super creative.

Smirnoff took a different more passive approach, because they are so well known they were able to have fun with their product, they are pretty much making fun of themselves, their product, and who would drink it, but it works. It spurred a West Coast version too, but I gotta represent for the East Coast Tea Partay!