So earlier this week I was looking for some unusual advertising real-estate opportunities to shoot and mock up for a client proposal (if I happened to get some new shoes, too, so be it.)
As I was passing Banana Republic I did a serious double take.
Because Don Draper was looking right at me.
That's his lovely wife Betty giving me a frosty stare, as well. And if you don't watch Mad Men on AMC, a drama documenting the Madison Avenue advertising agency world of the sixties, these names might not mean a lot to you. But at Third Degree, they mean double-standards and scotch... secrets and stereotypes... and, mad, mad style.
After I caught my breath and started discreetly snapping away (mall security be damned), I saw how extensive this brilliant cross-promotion went. With signage throughout the stores, and early sixties office-inspired dresses and suits featured alongside profiles of favorite characters from the show. And this clever little collateral, which I quickly grabbed up...
a little mini Banana Republic Mad Men catalog.
It includes a free iTunes download of a Mad Men episode, a Banana Republic coupon, and a "casting call" contest, where you can enter to win a walk-on role in the actual show and a $1,000 Banana Republic gift card.
Third Degree might just have some entries among our employees. Not only do we have the season one DVD box set of Mad Men in our agency diner, we've also got a quiz at the bottom of our new web site home page where you can choose Donald Draper as your favorite ad guy among other fictional competitors, and we've had an employee win a costume contest dressed as Joan, the show's sexy office manager.
The little brochure also pairs characters from the show with a Banana Republic break-down of their style with corresponding outfits.
We also have another employee blogging about her own custom Mad Men character on AMC's web site where you can "Mad Men Yourself." AMC is hitting on all cylinders with environmental and online ways of getting fans excited, and hopefully getting non-fans interested enough to jump on board, for the fall season kickoff on August 16.
Obviously I am a target because I am already a fan. But this is just a great example of non-traditional advertising hitting the right person at the right time.
Oh... and it worked on my husband. Brilliant.
7 comments:
Awesome collaboration. Good job BR.
Thanks for the comment seesaw designs. It's amazing what can happen when companies can actually turn a "what if?..." into something really cool.
An open letter to my creative director:
Dear Tara,
I will only be using a color palette of light blue, red, grey and white after reading this post. I will also be smoking at my desk, sipping on scotch and passing out on the couch in the war room when I can't be bothered. Don't judge.
Best,
Kathleen
Your ambitious art director
Besides the hotness of Don Draper and the extensive cross-promotion awesomeness, they use the word "Dapper" which is one of my all-time favorite words that seems to be lost in the vocabulary of the present.
Brilliant is another word for this post! It's great.
I like the type on the windows!
Thanks guys! I guess there's a reason Mad Men is such a hit.
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