HP has launched a campaign for small and micro-businesses with the theme of “the office tool”. The idea is that small and micro-business owners and employees often escape certain stereotypical colleagues that are common in large businesses. The cartoon portrays an example of this – the annoying guy that takes credit for your work and brags about it to the boss, portrayed as the “tool” you don’t need. So, what is the tool you do want? Well, in this instance, it’s the HP Officejet Pro 8500 printer.
Here’s a link to the cartoon “The Office Tool“
What the?
I assume they’ve created it as something that can be passed around to get down with the peeps who run their own businesses and might be in the market for a new printer. They obviously don’t know those peeps very well. This has to be one of the worst executions I have seen in a long time. Not only is it really simplistic, they also explain it to you just in case you’re too dumb to get the joke.
The irony is that it’s so crap I’ll probably pass it on. Or not.
Filed under: Advertising, Social media | Tags: My RB Opportunity, Reckitt Benckiser
Quite some time ago I received an email from a lovely account executive over at Shiny Red in London about a new social media campaign they’re developing for Reckitt Benckiser.
As a part of said new campaign they have developed an integrated social media strategy to raise awareness of the global opportunities that exist at the company. At the centre of the campaign is a new blog, ‘My RB Opportunity’ which aims to offer a window into the world of work at the company. The blog is written by nine graduate trainees from Reckitt Benckiser’s offices around the world, who are sharing their thoughts and experiences to offer prospective employees a real understanding of the diverse environment and reflect what it’s like to succeed in the company.
If you don’t know Reckitt Benckiser, they make all kinds of products like Detol, Veet, Strepsils etc. I understand from the email I received that “this campaign has been created in order to demonstrate Reckitt Benckiser’s commitment to engaging with social media and that the blog is one part of an integrated campaign that encompasses everything from Linked In, to Facebook and Twitter”. I also assume that the email was sent to me so that I could review the blog and perhaps post on it. So I went to the blog and I checked it out.
My first question is: Why?. My second question is: Who?. Why does it exist and who do you think is going to read it? I know that there are countless reality shows on cable at the moment which chronicle the lives of interns at Vogue or Marie Claire, young guns attempting to crawl up the Master Chef ladder or become the next apprentice. I guess the factor that makes those shows work is entertainment. Great script writing or strong polarising characters or great filming [and editing].
We do want to watch the interns at Vogue scratch eachother’s eyes out over who gets to go to the latest fashion show because they’re bitchy New Yorkers and that’s funny. We love Master Chef because it has some moderately big names and who doesn’t love cooking? And just maybe, we imagine that it could be us one day. We love to watch the Apprentice and others like it. But who would want to read the musings of a real intern at a large multinational corporate?
They’re not going to write anything too interesting or be doing much except towing the line because they have jobs they want to keep. If they had hired a comedian or a particularly articulate journalist to write the copy, maybe I would read it. But as it is now, it’s a big black hole of corporate commentary about nothing much in particular. I appreciate that they’re trying to do something different and commend them for that. I’m just not sure what the point of it is.
Anyone>?
I’ve been in NZ which is one of the reasons why I haven’t posted in a while. The other being that there are times when I have a lot to say and others less. But right now I’m good for a little conversation.
I like NZ a lot. I like the people, they always seem friendly to me. I like the country, I like it’s landscape and I’ve always had this notion that NZ is a very innovative country. After all, they brought us Sir Edmund Hillary, they had a female NZ prime minister from 1999 to 2008 and let’s face it, their lamb is good.
I had also heard that NZ was a particularly innovative country for it’s size and that it had one of the largest numbers of patents both registered and pending, per capita. Where I heard this from is akin to the ‘my teacher told me’ adage and I have not found any robust statistic that proves this to be correct.
The unique demographic, economic conditions and geographic location makes New Zealand an interesting case study for understanding the processes which foster innovation. New Zealand is a small and isolated economy which, at least in a textbook sense, is institutionally almost ideal for promoting local entrepreneurship and innovation. Yet, in spite of a macroeconomic and institutional framework which should be ideal for promoting innovation, if you wade through the NZ Govt collected data and the latest innovation measures, the observed innovation performance of New Zealand is poor, and this is particularly noticeable in comparison with other small isolated countries such as Israel and Finland. However, I do know that some companies [Australian and otherwise] have used NZ as a kind of test market due to its size, isolation and the propensity of its residents to be receptive to new products. I also know that there is some great product development coming out of smaller NZ manufacturers as well as the big dairy cohorts like Fonterra who continue to innovate within their sectors and export around the world.
Anyway I digress. I simply wanted to share with you how much I enjoyed my local wanderings through the NZ supermarkets. Row upon row of interesting packaging, product positionings and use of typeography, colour, material and language. Tree hugging aside, I’m a big sucker for great packaging [if it's environmentally friendly all the better], but I love a bit of imagination and design goodness, especially when applied to the mundane things that we all need to buy – like toilet paper or peas.
So if you’re in NZ. Stop by a supermarket. You’ll be glad you did.
A little slideshow from Katie Chatfield over at Get Shouty I thought I’d share with you
