Thursday, April 10, 2008

you suck antler head. are you s enough?



you seen these things? they're everywhere. they suck. we discussed that its probably some company trying to reach a "edgey" audience or something with their campaign. totally shitty campaign. you can tell cuz its printed really crisp and its really got no interesting message behind it at all. except to wear stripes and have a vespa. so i checked around a bit and found this.

?There appears to be a trend towards ?What?s old is new again? and the whole retro vibe among the younger demographic,? says Jennifer Errico, marketing manager at Vespa Canada. The S is an attempt to reach the younger segment of the scooter?s traditional 25- to 45-year-old customer base.

Ad agency of record Dentsu has designed a campaign around a character with the scooter?s retro-styled handlebars for a head. Nicknamed ?Antlerhead? by the agency?s creative catalyst Glen Hunt, the character will appear online and in national daily newspapers under headlines such as ?Holy S? and ?Are you S enough??

Antlerhead will also be projected onto outdoor surfaces thanks to a partnership with Toronto-based Optiadmedia, which will use projectors mounted on Vespa S scooters.

Dentsu has also teamed with famed Canadian photographer and graffiti artist Faux Reel to produce some of his hallmark street art for the launch. Life-size, black-and-white images of Antlerhead will begin appearing in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal in early April.

Vespa is also launching a TV ad for its overall brand. Though it?s been available in Canada for four years, the brand is still very much in outreach mode, says Errico.

?People know it and recognize it, but [Canada] is still very much SUV land. Our job is to let people know that there are other options for transportation and Vespa is top-notch.?

Based on the idea that Vespas are decidedly not for hard-core motorcycle enthusiasts, the TV spot (which will also be online and likely in cinema) features a stunt rider trying unsuccessfully to jump a scooter over a row of cars and setting himself on fire.

The scene cuts to the same rider offering a lift to a young woman, who wraps her arms around his waist. The spot concludes with a voiceover saying ?Vespa: not built for jumping. Vespa: built for love.?

?Let?s face it, a Vespa isn?t a hog,? says Hunt. ?It?s iconic, it?s Italian, it?s sexy.?

booooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!



3 comments:

Anonymous said...

good work sherlock!

Stephanie said...

stupid marketers

churtado said...

Hello Crunchator. I'm trying to find more info on Vespa in Canada, and was hoping you could give me a push in the right direction? Any help would be really appreciated!