Catch of the Day (10.02.2007)

• La Marzocco Espresso Machines
• Ambi Pur
• Radeon X1K Family

Catch of the Day (07.02.2007)

• Sunkist (for kids)
• Outback Steakhouse (for kids)
• Nickelodeon (for kids)

KFC

There is something very wrong, and possibly a little evil (and definitely indicative of cluelessness) in advertising when the only multimedia content at a corporate web site (i.e., KFC) is targeted toward kids. Shame on you Col. Sanders.

(And that’s all I have to say about that. ~Forrest Gump)

Home page:  KFC

 

Hardee’s

Every once in a while, The Distillery finds something done quite right. For example, if your firm is determined to use rehashed TV commercials as its online multimedia content, then let Hardee’s show you how to do it–put them on TV! Even The Distillery cannot complain when such a novel approach is taken. Look and learn.

Beyond that, we find a wealth of other engaging content. Register to win a Harley-Davidson–in return for your e-mail address and future spam. You’ll find Paris Hilton’s phone number. (Not really, I suspect.) Play games, either Burger Time or Burger Invaders. And, there are dollar-off coupons for a couple of Hardee’s food products.

In sum, Hardee’s has a superb, engaging, and content-rich site. The firm is clearly in step with its fairly wide range of target audiences. You’ll find a little something for everyone, and all done quite well. Congratulations to a firm originally from my own home state of North Carolina. (One more thing as a lesson for others–pay attention to the little sounds throughout the site. Although many are just barely audible, they make a huge perceptual difference.)

Home page: Hardee’s

AquaMagic Water Generators

How about a cloud in a box? Normally, The Distillery would immediately pan any manufacturer using rehashed news footage as online multimedia content. However, in the case of AquaMagic the approach works reasonably well. That is because the news footage, from disaster-struck regions here in the United States (e.g., Florida, Mississippi), works to both demonstrate the product and also adds a strong element of legitimacy. After all, there is nothing like a successful field test to tout (and sell) an excellent product.

AquaMagic’s water generators seem almost amazing. The firm’s tag line: Create water out of thin air. And, that’s exactly what the product does. It provides a source of fresh drinking water in areas where fresh water is not available or is no longer available. Such water generators are the perfect product for disaster-prone towns, cities, and governments looking to save lives, provide sanitary conditions, and protect their populaces after a disaster. How many will take advantage of this superb and novel life-saver? Unfortunately, the next disaster–natural or otherwise–may give us the answer.

Home page:  AquaMagic

 

MarthaStewart.com

Every convicted felon should have it so well. Martha’s felony conviction has obviously not put a single dent in her sales and followers’ shopping. And, she provides a very media-rich web site for her loyal Martha wannabes.

We start with megabytes and megabytes of video from Martha’s video library. Full past shows can be found there. Recipes, of course, can be found there. (I especially liked the one for venison.) In fact, just as in retail stores, virtually everything Martha can be found in her video library.

You will even find video about a GE dream kitchen some lucky Martha lemming will win. And along with much more, but especially given the season, you’ll also find the 12 days of Christmas. All of that is just the beginning. There is enough rich media content at MarthaStewart.com to keep you busy for days.

The Distillery admits MarthaStewart.com is a very easy site to judge. It is excellent. Martha obviously spent her time in prison most productively.

Important note:  Do *not* misspell the site’s name and type in marthasteward.com. That takes you to a bad place where you will likely pick up computer cooties. I know, I’ve been there.

Home page:  MarthaStewart.com

Martha and fellow inmates out on parole?

Tolerate Mornings (Folgers)

Coffee. The holy bean. Seductively addicting. The start of Lloyd’s of London. Possibly second only to oil as an essential fuel. A food group. And from the latest news, a downright healthy one at that.

Where would we be without coffee? Still in bed? At Tolerate Mornings, Folgers goes beyond supplying us our needed morning fix of caffeine. It also provides morning Wake-Up Calls to your cell phone — for free. (Click on the button farthest to the right on the coffee-maker. Then select either Lucy, Sheldon, or the other generic somebody.) So even without Folgers coffee at hand, Folgers Coffee still wakes you up in the morning. (Ya just gotta love marketing.)

There appears to be an application of sorts called the Boss Tracker. I downloaded it, and suspect it allows several users to connect to a server and then each person can pinpoint the boss and have the information appear on each other person’s screen. Interesting and most unique. However, I did not test if fully and that is merely supposition. But before looking at that, instead click on the television to view a Tolerate Mornings “film.” (It looks like a TV ad.)

The Auto-Email Responses are actually not bad, except for a couple of them. They really are believable. And, Snooze-Saver is a screensaver. Another recycled TV ad can be found here. Feel free to sell your soul to Folgers’ marketing department by entering the Enjoy A Second Cup sweepstakes. (Actually, it asks for far less personal information than one typically sees requested. They don’t even ask for your telephone number! But, no P.O. boxes. Darn.)

In all, Tolerate Mornings is not a bad effort by Folgers. It is lame in some respects, but funny, unique, and downright useful in others. Still, I’ll take either my Kona or Costa Rican La Minita Terrazu in the mornings.

Home page: Tolerate Mornings
Home page: Folgers

Sing the Jingle (Oscar Mayer)

Some of us have advertising jingles in our heads that even the dreaded memory-robbing Alzheimer’s disease fears. For baby boomers, that means every single one of us can sing, entirely from memory, the Oscar Mayer jingle we heard a million times as kids. Oh, I wish I were an Oscar Mayer weiner….

It must be a great jingle. It has certainly lasted the test of time. (Is there another even close to its equal?) And now, decades after its introduction, we can not only sing the jingle, but also play with it at Oscar Mayer’s Jingle Jam. You get to choose the beat, musical instrument, auto or manual play, or best of all — play it yourself on your computer’s keyboard!

It’s always nice to find something new, different, and most unexpected. It’s an added bonus when that find has you recall your childhood and smile. With clearly deliberate design by Oscar Mayer, that means both children and adults will enjoy playing around with this online promotion.

Some of your kids (or you?) might still catch the current internet video wave with Oscar Mayer’s Be A Star video contest. Go ahead, give him or her your videocam. S/he just might make you famous. Many of these entrants, however, probably will not.

Oops…don’t overlook the games page. You might even go retro and hot dog your Pong skills.

Home page: Oscar Mayer

Ex-Centris

I will introduce you to Ex-Centris, a film production and screening complex, with a powerful clip from The Road to Guantanamo. To quote Forrest Gump, “…and that’s all I have to say about that.”

Ex-Centris delivers far more than the above. Enjoy this short clip from Ici Naja A Vous La Terre. Another from Lemming, a French film I would love to see if the clip is indicative of the entire film. There are others I’ll let you discover on your own.

Now click on Rental. Have a look at the interior of Ex-Centris’ Fellini Theater, presented with Quicktime VR. Once there, be certain not to overlook the underlined link Clicking Here, which demonstrates the transformation of the theatre from a conventional movie theater to an exhibition hall that can even serve as a 3D immersive virtual world. And in that space you now find yourself, turn around and visit the Control Room and other points of interest. Very nice indeed.

While at the Rental portion of the site, be certain to check in at the café and listen to some music by clicking on Albums. In all, quite astounding. I do believe a trip to Montreal is in order.

Home page: Ex-Centris

Toscana Promozione TV (Italy)

Somewhere inside me there is supposed to be the ability to somewhat translate Italian. However, it’s been a very long time since I dated the beautiful Luisa from Naples, my teacher. Therefore, and given the very little time I typically have, you’re on your own with this page of promotional videos from Toscana Promozione TV for the Tuscany region of Italy. (If you wish to cheat a bit, look here.)

Home page: Toscana Promozione

The 9 Beta (Yahoo & Pepsi)

More later, but The Distillery calls to your attention The 9 Beta, a new vlog (video blog) offered by Yahoo. The vlog is produced by Yahoo with fresh content available each morning by 9 AM. However, users are invited to submit an item for the “Pepsi 10th,” a segment sponsored by…well, it’s kinda obvious.

Ollie Pop Bubble Gum Co.

Yea, I like rap. So what’s it to you? To Ollie Pop Bubble Gum, it’s a great background beat with several different songs selected by D J Pain for a very cool skateboarding-oriented web site. (Yea, I’m an ol’skool skateboarder. As I tell the kids, they weren’t invented just yesterday. And as I tell too many adults, remember to never grow up.)

If the site played through the entire playlist instead of endlessly repeating whichever beat/song picked, it would be more engaging and likely to hold its intended audience’s short attention spans. The repetition eventually wears thin if one stays at the site to see all, albeit relatively little that is dynamical, that is there. However, different music is only a mouse click away. If I were still a “skateboarding-is-my-life” kid (vs. occasionally as an adult), I’d definitely have the Ollie Pop Bubble Gum among my favorites/bookmarks.

A few relevant excerpts from the Ollie Pop site:

Ollie Pop infuses the confectionary [sic] industry with new life with its cool skater image. Also, our sponsored riders are influential icons to today’s young consumers. Yesterdays [sic] role models were athletes like Michael Jordan, Pete Rose, and Eric Dickerson, while the youth of today emulate Sports Action figures like: Tony Hawk (upcoming at The Distillery), Eric Koston, Todd Richards, and Kelly Slater. Numbers don’t lie, over 10 million kids now participating in boardsports globally.

Ollie Pop’s mission is to encourage the expansion of board sports as a positive outlet for today’s youth, represent skateboarding in a truthful manner, and provide exposure for core companies that have fostered the growth of board sports. Building customer loyalty by providing top quality bubblegum and connecting the consumer with the world of Action Sports is our number one priority.

One last thing: I very much like Ollie Pop’s wallpapers featuring their cartoon spokesperson, Johnny Pop. The advertising does not leap out and bite you. As advertising to kids goes, it pretty much passes muster until one clicks on Free Stuff —> Giveaways. Tucked elsewhere and not at the registration point, Ollie Pop’s privacy statement reveals:

We sometimes share the personal information you provide with companies not owned or affiliated with Ollie Pop who want to market products or services to you. If you want us to stop using the personal information you provided in this way, please contact us at sales@olliepop.com.

Tell me. What kid, even if restricted to those over thirteen years old, will bother to read that–if they see it at all–before quickly giving up their e-mail address in hopes of winning an undisclosed prize? Parents, are you paying attention?