News from Dick's Desk
Peoples Gas Offers New Energy Solution: Hot Coffee
How do you like your coffee? Cream? Sugar? A free gas tip? Chicagoans passing through Daley Plaza today got the full service compliments of Peoples Gas. This early morning promotion not only opened eyes with a free cup of Joe, but also served up a helpful reminder to visit peoplesgasdelivery.com for money saving tips on natural gas consumption. The green-minded java jackets have been distributed to independent coffee shops throughout the city. It’s all part of Tom, Dick & Harry’s new multi-media campaign for Peoples Gas and North Shore Gas.
2 Ad Agency Websites Worth Viewing Before Lunch: Modernista and Tom Dick & Harry Advertising
I had a hard time coming up with a list of advertising agency websites that are innovative and truly inspirational.
I know, I know, it is hard to find the time to pay attention to your own brand, but, come-on guys, where's the creativity you so fervently direct towards your clients? Take an honest look at your website. Is it much more than an online brochure with an outdated client list, management bios and a map to your office? OK--OKAY, you've also got a couple of short paragraphs on your "proprietary process." Are you really showing off your insight into strategic planning, and your visionary creative process? If so, great. If not, check out two agency sites I find innovative and inspiring:
Modernista
Tom Dick & Harry Advertising
Heading to a Bar Near You!
What makes an ad campaign successful? Is it the jingle that gets stuck in your head? Or, perhaps, the commercial that drives you to leap from the couch and rush to the mail? Or is success merely based on the groundbreaking nature of the product? For Moosehead Lager and the folks over at Tom, Dick & Harry Advertising, success came when they all put their heads together.
In America, beer advertising is mainly dominated by Budweiser and Miller, especially on television. So, Moosehead, along with its San Antonio, TX-based parent company Gambrinus, sought other avenues for getting the word out. According to Tom, Dick & Harry’s Michael Herlehy, they were looking for a younger audience and less expensive ways to advertise.
The Chicago ad firm decided to create a bar game that would be both fun and would get the Moosehead name out there. Thus “Headball” was created, instantaneously transforming local watering holes into action-packed sports arenas. Inspired by ring-toss games and the absurdity of rock, paper, scissors tournaments, Headball takes teams of two, ties skullcaps with strips of Velcro to the players’ heads, and asks them to toss Velcro balls to one another. The object of the game is to use your head, literally, to catch as many balls as you can.
To drunken college kids, this is a recipe for fun with a capital S-W-E-E-T. This campaign, combined with a website (www.mooseheadbeer.com) sporting a dictionary of Headball lingo that includes such phrases as a “Double Hamilton” and “Melon Muff,” a message from the fake commissioner of the International Headball Federation (IHF), an illustrated tutorial and the petition to get Headball into the Olympics, covers all grounds. Gambrinus’ Shamus Hanlon also had a big hand in creating the campaign. He helped craft every nuance of the promotion, right down to the fake historical time line, which labels Abe Lincoln and Gandhi as avid Headball players. According to Herlehy, the strategy for the campaign boiled down to two options: “We could either make a joke or take it so seriously it became a joke.” They were also looking to establish an underground movement of sorts that would create buzz among barflies.
Since its inception, the Headball campaign seems to be a success. They have held tournaments around the U.S. and have scheduled additional stops in Pennsylvania, Delaware and Michigan. Since their main demographic is twenty-somethings, the tour hits mostly college towns. “You wouldn’t believe how serious people are about it,” says Herlehy. “They are practicing, naming moves, arguing over calls, etc. Meanwhile, they have a ball stuck to their head.”
All in all, Headball seems to be hitting people the right way, mostly in the cranium. They have collected around 400 signatures for the Olympic petitions and have every intention of submitting it to the IOC. Who knows, perhaps one day Headball will rank up there alongside darts or pool as the bar game of choice for beer-soaked coeds.