We’re told absence makes the heart grow fonder. But if you’re one of the 10,000 to 12,000 Americans who’s ordered an all-electric Nissan Leaf, the continued absence of your vehicle may be leading you to experience and express other emotions. As in: "@$#%$^%^&**(*&/!"

Nissan is encountering a growing problem fulfilling Leaf orders in the United States and elsewhere even though the EV is an extremely low-volume vehicle. The biggest culprit is setbacks in the supply and production network from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

In fact, a Nissan executive told reporters this week that the company no longer can count on beginning U.S. production of Leaf at Nissan’s Tennessee manufacturing complex before the end of 2012 as originally anticipated — further disappointing buyers.Continue reading...

Nissan's humorous new advertising campaign for its Leaf all-electric vehicle, called “Gas Powered Everything,” breaks this week. The TV commercials depict an absurd world where the evolution of energy for devices we use has stopped at gasoline power. That includes nearly everything that we’re used to running on electric power, from alarm clocks to dentists’ drills.

Point made: Electric power is superior and certainly suitable for automobiles because, gee whiz, gasoline power isn’t suitable for everyday appliances. Ha ha.

As amusing and well executed as these ads might be, they raise the question: Is Nissan really going to drive home the right message with the new 60-second ad and 15-second teasers that promotes GasPoweredEverything.com — which redirects to its Facebook page?Continue reading...

>The Federal Trade Commission is revising its “Dot Com Disclosures:  Information About Online Advertising” document that was released in 2000.

Those guidelines state that companies must adhere to the same consumer protection laws online that they do in print and TV, including notification to users about product risks and privacy policies advertised online, with specifics about how those disclosures appear on a website or online ad, and in accessible language.

Since publication over a decade ago, the online landscape has undergone a sea change to include mobile marketing, apps, widespread use of “pop-up blockers,” and the rise of social networking.Continue reading...

Eager to grab the interest of the younger drinking-age male, Dutch beer maker Heineken last December introduced a new marketing campaign under the banner "Open Your World." An elaborate 90-second spot titled The Entrance premiered online. It quickly became a viral hit, and has been viewed more than 3.6 million times on YouTube.

Three months later, the ad migrated to television, while Heineken's YouTube channel also became a destination for additional videos featuring vignettes of the characters depicted in The Entrance, extending the storyline and creating more buzz (and views).

Heineken is hoping to strike digital gold again, once again using a web-first strategy by premiering The Date, the second spot in the "Open Your World" campaign on its YouTube channel and Facebook page before running the ad on TV in September.Continue reading...

The “Army strong” marketing theme introduced in 2006 keeps on getting stronger – and more social. The above video, voiced by actor Gary Sinise, highlights "leadership" by playing up the army uniform as a “symbol of strength,” and suggests, “Try it on at goarmy.com.” 

Additional spots in the US Army's new campaign highlight the themes of education and opportunity. But the campaign goes beyond traditional TV advertising, as the US military's marketers, ever tilling for new recruits, are taking their campaign to Facebook, Flickr, Twitter and YouTube.Continue reading...

In a funny twist of virtual fate, turns out that social media-savvy moms wield substantial clout when it comes to recommending, among other things, eReaders and banking services to family and friends.

As competition in both markets escalate, it’s women with one or more children under 18 living at home, who regularly engage in social media, that are influencing brand choices. 

Motista's recent survey on eReaders asked consumers about brands including Amazon's Kindle, Barnes & Noble's Nook, Sony's eReader and Apple's iPad.

“Social media moms definitely feel a deeper connection to their eReaders that their non-social media counterparts don’t,” said Alan Zorfas, chief product and marketing officer at Motista, in a press release.Continue reading...

Remember the Pepsi Challenge? Launched in the mid-Seventies, it was a blind taste test, heavily used in Pepsi's TV advertising, in which participants invariably would pick Pepsi over Coke as the better-tasting cola. It spoke directly to relevant brand equities that helped Pepsi-Cola mount a rising challenge to Coca-Cola over subsequent decades.

Well, there’s a new Pepsi Challenge in town. But it has nothing to do with taste-testing, cola or even Pepsi per se. As part of PepsiCo’s ever-expansive Pepsi Refresh community-revitalization project, Pepsi Challenge is now the name of an online activity that encourages users to submit ideas and weigh in with solutions.Continue reading...

Single serving coffee brand Tassimo is taking a page from the Old Spice Guy's well-thumbed viral playbook with its 2011 Mother's Day promotion.

In a series of YouTube videos, Tassimo singers reply with personal Mother's Day messages for consumers. The videos address Julie, Jennifer, Elizabeth and other moms whose digi-kids get a kick out of this kind of thing.Continue reading...