Out With the New, In With the Old!

Isn’t it funny how the past 18 to 24 months have seen a revival of some old brands, old products and recycled ad’s from the 90’s.  A great move, some would say, in these ‘tough times’, re-using old ideas and packaging them up as retro.  Some are just clear that, the best and most economical way to keep their advertising and sales volumes up and their budget down is to go back to what worked for them before.

Whilst brands like Fairy have taken a slightly different tack than simply re-releasing an ad – they have actually played on the fact that they have had the same advertising format in nearly their entire existence “for hands that do dishes….” – others have simply re-run an old ad.  Milky Way’s red car and blue car are still racing – and red was still stuffing his face !

So does this bring back old memories, reminders of when we were ‘young’, and make us want to purchase all over again?

Wispa is a great success story.  Reportedly brought back from consumer demand through social media, its firmly back on the shelves alongside the other 100’s of chocolate bars with the same old packaging (but probably a bit smaller than it used to be).

Others to watch out for are “if its not Kellogg’s on the box….”, the modern versions of the Milky Bar Kid for their new product, Findus Crispy Pancakes (you can vote for your flavour online) and the good old Tetley Tea folk who have undergone  somewhat of a makeover.

What do you think of this recycling?  Can you think of any more oldies?  Would love to hear from you.

Alan

Ford Announces SYNC AppLinK

This week Ford has announced the downloadable upgrade for Ford Sync Systems which offers handsfree control of Android and Blackberry applications. Currently being supported are:

  • Pandora
  • Stitcher
  • Open Break

with more being rumoured to be announced shortly. To help gain some leverage, Ford has also announced the launch of its Mobile Application Developer Network in the hope of gaining support of Android and Blackberry application developers. It’s needless to say that safety is a huge benefit of this feature!

The video below shows a demo of Pandora being controlled with hands free technology:

What do you think of this new technology? Will it influence you to purchase the 2011 Ford Fiesta, which will be the debut of the Sync AppLink? Let me know with your comments!