my cartoonist went to Prague, and all I got was this lousy blog post
All quiet on the blogging front this last week. I spent the week on vacation in glorious Prague with my family. I lived and worked there after college in ’95 and ’96 after meeting a couple guys starting an English-language magazine called Velvet (kind of like "Time Out", except that we took much of our advertising in trade, particularly from the local breweries, which didn’t help our business model much, but was sure a lot of fun). My wife and I met each other there, so we’ve been dying to get back and show the kids.
Prague isn’t exactly a marketing mecca. Plus, I was more focused on the Gothic architecture than branding case studies. But, still, here are a couple random things I saw that you might enjoy.
Beneficial Capitalism. I first thought it was gaudy that the famous Jan Hus statue in Staroměstské náměstí was surrounded by a car ad, until I realized that the entire funding of the statue’s repair was coming from this ad, and that the ad includes a full size re-printing of the statue on the outside of the mesh screen, which sure beats looking at the typical scaffolding. Definitely made me feel better about Škoda, the Czech national car brand.
On a side note, I think it’s funny that Škoda actually means "damage" or "pity" in Czech. What branding agency came up with that?
Smart Distribution. I saw the HiPP brand of organic baby food everywhere in Prague, but most frequently distributed in family-oriented restaurants. These racks are right where mothers would want to find them when they’re out with the kids. The restaurants are only too happy to get some revenue on the toddlers who would usually eat what the parents bring with them. And they break out of the crowded clutter of the supermarkets. Smart. This may well be in other places, but I hadn’t seen this before.
Red Bull Art of Can. I know this promotion is running in lots of countries, but I thought it was well done in Prague. Red Bull was the one memorable brand I saw in supermarkets with their trademark can-shaped displays. The rest of the supermarket displays looked really dull and dated (and hadn’t seemed to have changed much since I lived there in ’96). Red Bull had this huge ad on Václavské náměstí. And, I saw Czechs drinking Red Bull everywhere: in pubs, on the street with morning cigarette, etc.
The World’s Worst Appetite Appeal. I just had to include this hysterical outdoor ad I found outside a supermarket. I can kind of see where they’re going with this. They do have a chocolate shaped kind of like a snail’s shell. But, really, a crawling slug? Yum.
