Online+Advertising+Critique

=**Labatt Breweries of Canada's "Know When to Draw the Line" Online Campaign**=

This ongoing campaign by Labatt launched in 2009 and has been avidly advocating for people to not drink and drive. The target audience are individuals of 19 to 25 years of age and the advertisements are featured on networks sites, particularly Facebook as well as through Google, Casale Media and Tribal Fusion. At the start of the campaign, Labatt asked Canadians to post over-the-top photos in order to win a trip to Las Vegas. Labatt also released a three commercials depicting an immoral scenario where at the end they state "Know When to Draw the Line". This campaign ran for approximately two years until Labatt released a similar concept simply retitled "Draw the Line" to the ongoing campaign where Canadians were asked to "Take the Pledge" through stating what they would rather do over drinking and driving. Canadians are asked to go to the "Draw the Line" Facebook page and click on the "I Pledge" application and submit their pledge and a $1 donation will be made to True Patriot Love Foundation in support of Canadian Military Families on the pledger's behalf. Labatt will donate an additional $1 for every person who shares their pledge to not drink and drive with their friends as an initiative to spread the word about the campaign.

This campaign attempts to address an issue that directly correlates to the consumption of their products but instead of hiding from the issue of drinking and driving, the company deals with it upfront and pleads with people to drink responsibly. Along with the online pledge made on Facebook, Labatt released a series of advertisements depicting random and scenarios as an alternative to drinking and driving to encourage that it is okay to find alternatives to drinking and driving. These ads could be seen on sites such as TheOnion.com, FunnyorDie.com and TheHockeyNews.com. This online campaign does not have enough awareness as only approximate 10,000 people have liked the "Draw the Line" page on Facebook. Although, the True Patriot Love Foundation is a great cause, most of the Canadians who take the pledge do not wish to share their pledge with their friends as it is taken as a form of spam. The advertisements themselves are witty and humourous which would reach to a youth target market but maybe Labatt should consider more viral marketing to reach a greater amount of people instead of waiting for people to find them on Facebook. As an intern for the agency that did the creative for this campaign, I became aware of this ad. As a Canadian within their targeted age demographic, I was unaware of this campaign and feel that Labatt is targeting male consumers specifically and although men are main consumers of beer; Labatt should target female consumers as well as drinking and driving does not discriminate on gender.

http://www.facebook.com/labattdrawtheline

http://www.newswire.ca/en/story/766811/labatt-s-new-campaign-against-drinking-and-driving

Labatts Commercial.mov. YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1vLpY1JCHw&feature=player_embedded

=**'The Vow' Movie Online Ad Campaign**=

The online campaign on Facebook for the movie 'The Vow' started in June 2011. The target audience of this campaign are women who love Romance movies and the campaign is trying to encourage people to go see the movie when it is released by reminding fans on their Facebook Newsfeed. The page master would frequently update the page with clips or still images from the movie. He/she would include current holidays and current events on the wall of the page to keep fans checked in to the page through asking them to click 'Like' to posts that they relate to. Fans are kept up-to-date on latest movie posters created, trailers, link to 'The Vow' on Twitter and direct quotes from the main characters of the movie. Fans are also asked questions with each photo posted and also asked to share it with someone they adore or love to keep with the genre of the movie, Romance. The Facebook page also posted achievements of the two main stars of the movie, Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams, which included magazine covers and awards or guest appearances they would make on talk shows. The fans were also asked to submit 'The Vow' Fan Videos. This kept the target audience engaged in the page by allowing them to participate to the page rather than just receiving posts from the page. This campaign is successful as it constantly reminds the fans of the upcoming movie release date and keeps the movie in their minds. Approximately, 826,382 people liked the page and that is on Facebook alone. 'The Vow' has been advertised on billboards, magazines, television as well and is sure to successful on date of its screening release coincidently is the weekend of Valentine's Day.



The Vow Movie Trailer HD. YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JoXHO3ceUY.

The Vow. Facebook. http://www.facebook.com/TheVow