Showing posts with label Promotions/Marketing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Promotions/Marketing. Show all posts

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Short Film Shows the Power of the Right Words

Many thanks to former student Jennifer Robinson, now of the Interactive Television Research Institute in her native Australia, for passing on this short film that shows the impact that good marketing can have.

It's less then 6 minutes long...

Give it a look.

The Story of a Sign

Friday, December 14, 2007

Think you're hearing voices? It may be a new cable promotion

I regularly listen to a podcast called The Business which comes out of KCRW in Santa Monica. It talks about goings on in the business of Hollywood. This week the show gave a very brief mention of a promotional campaign going on in the Soho district of NYC.

Imagine this...you are walking down the sidewalk in Soho and all of a sudden hear someone audibly say "Who's there? Who's there!?!" You look around because you are sure someone's asking YOU that question. But all you see are other hectic Sohoians (?) walking to their destinations. Except, now they are wondering why you are spinning around looking for someone that's talking to you. But there isn't anyone. It's a BILLBOARD for the new A&E show callled Paranormal State--and it's talking only to you!

The board uses the same technology developed for personalized audio tours in museums to speak to isolate single people walking by and send an isolated audio signal to you. Read about this campaign here in an Ad Age article. Or, for a slightly less institutionalized take, here's a blog about it on Gawker.

This also just reminded me of another story I heard on a favorite podcast, On the Media.
It's about a billboard that doesn't narrowcast to just one passerby...but broadcasts it's thoughts about MANY passersby on the streets of Las Vegas. This is a promotional gimmick for an outdoor advertising company. Listen to this story here:

Sunday, August 12, 2007

Can't Spot Too Good to Be True? Let the FTC help you.

Day after day desperate consumers buy products that claim to be effective in curing such maladies as baldness, impotence, obesity, and diabetes. The government has agencies that hold news conferences, print brochures and produce public service announcements trying to warn us that if something is too good to be true, IT IS!!!

But, when surfing the web we don't think about what we know...especially if we are surfing trying to find solutions to our woes. So, the FTC has started to try and protect us in a novel way...by producing fake websites that try to get you to purchase a fake product (using the same tactics other actual sham products use). When you click the "order now" link, the government agency snaps you back into reality...

Check it out yourself!

Thanks to IU Dept. of Telecomm Law & Policy professor Herb Terry for bringing it to my attention!

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Busan morning on the beach

Annyeong haseo.

Had a good night last night, which for me, in a strange place, is rather unusual. I woke up once at about 3am local time but was able to read until relaxing enough to go back to sleep.

Woke up for good at 6am...the room was too light and I longed for either pair of those darn eyepatches. But, I figured I was burning daylight, so I got up and went for a walk along a nice walking trail they have set up along the beach. Here are some pictures I took. First, here's a daytime shot of the same view from the room in the Hotel Homer:

It is, as you can predict from the haze, very humid here. Much tougher than even in Indiana. In fact, thanks to the 23-degree Celsius reading of the AC in the Homer, my camera lense kept fogging up for the first part of the walk until it warmed up.
Here's an outside shot of the hotel, which is (in case I did not mention it) very nice.


Last night, as Soyoung and her sister drove me in, she pointed out that the buildings in the distance housed floor upon floor of raw-fish restaraunts...although I'm sure that there are differences in each of the establishments, to me it seemed like having a McDonalds stacked on a Wendy's atop of a Burger King and then a Hardee's. That wouldn't happen in the States, and I had never realized how much our views on marketing & competition are due to the fact that we have plenty of real-estate to put space between our competitors. Here's an example of what I'm talking about:

Oh, and as if there was any doubt, Starbucks is here too. I was quite surprised by another difference between Busan and the States, though. It was 7am and this Starbucks was locked up tight. [Of course, I've since been back for a double-tall iced latte].

There were a lot of people out exercising along the walkway: runners, walkers, several people on bikes. So, I did not feel out of place by picking up the pace to get a little bit of a cardio workout in. Here's a nice ocean-front scene:
And a shot I like to call "Baywatch Busan" as the lifegaurds get ready for a day on the beach:

I did, of course, eventually get off the walking path and get on the beach myself. Here's proof:
One of the men who was out exercising eventually introduced some baseball swings in his workout as he hit rocks from the beach back into the South Sea:

Today, it's off to tour Kyungsung University, if I understand correctly. More later.
Aneyung-hi gaseo.

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Creating Buzz can certainly backfire...or can it?

Two stories have captured my attention recently.



Summertime is a big season for radio.



People are out doing fun stuff outside...and in order to stay in front of listeners, many stations run billboard campaigns figuring people will be outside driving to the beach (or whatever), the sun will be shining, people will be happy, and what better ways to get your call letters in front of potential listeners.






But then, marketers want to be creative. Can't just put up the call letters on a billboard! Gotta come up with something that will create "buzz" to show how edgy we are.






Here's one example, for a morning show that is syndicated right in my backyard The Bob & Tom Show.









Women in Boise thought the billboard was exploitative. I like the Bob & Tom show...it makes me laugh...and they have certainly done some crazy boards before...ones that were equally in poor taste as this one. But, this one caused an uproar...and resulted in terrible PR, right? Right? Well, that's a tough call because the target market for a station like 96.9 The Eagle ,the station in Boise that posted the boards, may feel a sense of solidarity with the station as it weathers protests from the local community. Plus, the show does have PLENTY of sexual inuendo and the board fits right into that theme. Should it come down? Yes, and it has.

This next one, though, leaves me shaking my head.


Here's a board posted in Cincinnati by News/Sports Talker WLW




The station isn't a Spanish station. It's a news/talk station. A station that shoudl be striving to build credibility in the market. Puns? Ethnic Puns? Makes no sense to me at all.
And boy is it creating buzz.

Monday, February 19, 2007

Grammy Red Carpet Humor

One of the best things about being a professor is when favorite students keep in touch after they graduate.

When I was on the faculty at the Telecommunications and Film Dept. at the University of Alabama, I was also the faculty advisor for the student radio station, WVUA-FM.

In that role, I met Demitri Ravanos. He was the promotions director for the station...and eventually took Audience Analysis and Marketing & Promotions with me. He has kept in touch since he graduated...and since I moved to IU.

He's a part of a morning show (#1 in the male demo...or so he claims) at 96 Rock in Raleigh NC. I appreciate his emails keeping me--and other 'Bama friends--updated on what he's doing in his life and his career.

Now, the other day...here's the email he sent us:

Howdy friends,

Today I want to share with you the hilarity of Rhett and Link. These
are two college students from Raleigh that we sent to the Grammys in
LA to be 96 Rock's official correspondents. All we provided were
plane tickets and a hotel room. Everything they did on ther own.

I whole-heartedly believe that these guys have the talent and
motivation to be famous for what they do. I hope Conan, Letterman, or
the Daily Show see this and give these guys a break. Enjoy their grammy video:


Go check it out!

I couldn't agree more.
My favorite part...the look on Al Jarreau's face.

Let me know what your favorite part was.

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Results of Super Bowl Ad effectiveness

I know that we're more than a week removed from it...but things have been a little busy here at IU-Bloomington.

In fact, it's taken an ice storm to close the University (at least until noon today!) for me to find time to post this.

Another excellent bit of Super Bowl Advertising Research Done by the folks at Media Post and The Center for Media Research (you should really subscribe to their email newsletter!!)

-----------------------------------------------


Ad Rankings For Your Super Bowl File
by Jack Loechner, Monday, Feb 12, 2007 8:30 AM ET
Ad Rankings For Your Super Bowl File

If you missed the complete ad review, or real time reactions to the ads by USA Today, here's a data summary to close out the season. In addition, there's a link at the conclusion of this Brief to view each of the ads individually, for which advertisers paid up to $2.6 million for a 30-second spot.

USA TODAY assembled 238 adult volunteers in Houston and McLean, Va., and electronically charted their second-by-second reactions to ads during the Super Bowl. Opinions Unlimited and Shugoll Research chose the volunteers, who used handheld meters to register how much they liked each ad, and a computer continuously averaged the scores. The scores shown in the chart are the highest average for each ad.

10 Most Popular Ads From USA TODAY's Super Bowl Ad Meter

Company

Description

Length(sec)

Qtr

Score

Budweiser

Crabs worship Bud ice chest.

30

4th

8.56

Budweiser

Stray dog and the Clydesdales.

60

2nd

8.29

Bud Light

Rock, Paper, Scissors game for beer.

30

1st

8.28

Doritos

Guy in car, girl show Doritos qualities.

30

1st

7.95

Bud Light

Immigrants learn to ask for Bud Light.

30

1st

7.87

Bud Light

Wedding shortened by auctioneer.

30

1st

7.83

Bud Light

Ape loses out on beer while posing.

30

3rd

7.76

FedEx

FedEx truck on the moon.

45

1st

7.74

Snickers

Mechanics enjoy candy bar.

30

1st

7.57

Bud Light

Scary hitcher gets ride for Bud Light.

30

3rd

7.51

Source: USA TODAY, February 2007

The Rest Ranked by Average "Like" Score

Company

Description

Length(sec)

Qtr

Score

Blockbuster

Rabbit uses (real) mouse to order.

30

1st

7.44

NFL

Fans mourn end of season.

30

4th

7.43

Coca-Cola

No more regrets for old man.

30

2nd

7.36

Snapple Green Tea

Fan researches mystery ingredient.

30

4th

7.27

Taco Bell

Lions chat about new Taquitos.

30

3rd

7.26

CareerBuilder.com

Dodging darts in office jungle.

30

2nd

7.10

Emerald Nuts

Robert Goulet and low energy danger.

30

3rd

7.07

General Motors

Factory robot dreams he's fired.

60

2nd

7.06

E-Trade

What one finger can do.

30

4th

7.05

Schick

Quattro tested in gym workout.

30

1st

6.99

Coca-Cola

Video game guy does good deeds.

60

2nd

6.96

T-Mobile

Fan doesn't recognize Charles Barkley.

30

3rd

6.91

Toyota

Tundra accelerates, stops at cliff.

30

1st

6.81

Disney

Movie trailer for Wild Hogs.

30

2nd

6.74

Bud Light

Slapping replaces fist bumping.

30

2nd

6.71

Sierra Mist

Beard comb-over doesn't work.

30

1st

6.66

CareerBuilder.com

Fight for promotion in office jungle.

30

3rd

6.54

CareerBuilder.com

Performance review in office jungle.

30

4th

6.52

Coca-Cola

Black History Month tribute.

30

2nd

6.50

Chevrolet

Bare-chested guys wash HHR.

30

2nd

6.47

Coca-Cola

Inside a Coke vending machine.

60

3rd

6.44

Bud Select

Jay-Z, Don Shula play 3-D football.

30

4th

6.30

Frito-Lay

Black History Month tribute.

30

2nd

6.30

Doritos

Checkout girl gets excited.

30

2nd

6.18

FedEx

Can't judge people by their names.

30

3rd

6.16

Sierra Mist

Karate students defend soft drink.

30

1st

6.15

Disney

Movie trailer for Meet the Robinsons.

30

3rd

6.10

Prudential Financial

What rocks can do for you.

30

4th

5.96

Izod

PerformX sportswear in the snow.

30

4th

5.89

Sprint

Mobile broadband connections.

30

2nd

5.81

Chevrolet

Stars sing songs with Chevy in lyrics.

60

1st

5.78

E-Trade

Bank robs customers.

30

3rd

5.70

Lionsgate

Movie trailer for Pride.

30

1st

5.63

Toyota

Tundra tows load on see-saw ramp.

30

3rd

5.63

Hewlett-Packard

PC, motorcycles, American Chopper star.

30

4th

5.60

Honda

Fuel efficiency of Hondas.

30

4th

5.49

Honda

Elvis' Burning Love for new CR-V.

30

4th

5.38

GoDaddy.com

GoDaddy marketing department parties.

30

1st

5.28

King Pharma.

Guy in heart suit attacked by risks.

60

2nd

5.23

Van Heusen

Man dressed for any occasion.

30

3rd

5.04

Nationwide Ins.

Kevin Federline dreams of rap career.

30

3rd

4.94

Weinstein Co.

Movie trailer for Hannibal Rising.

30

4th

4.77

Source: USA TODAY, February 2007

5 Least Popular Ads

Company

Description

Length(sec)

Qtr

Score

GoDaddy.com

2nd airing of marketing department.

30

4th

4.71

Garmin

GPS navigator vs. paper map monster.

30

2nd

4.34

Flomax

Prostate drug lets men bike, kayak.

60

4th

4.22

Revlon Colorist

Sheryl Crow sings new song.

60

3rd

4.09

Salesgenie.com

Salesgenie.com helps sales success.

30

1st

4.05

Source: USA TODAY, February 2007

And, how did the (some of) the advertisers fair with regard to market share of web visits on Super Bowl Sunday... The advertiser websites with the largest increases in market share of visits on Super Bowl Sunday versus Feb 3, 2007 were:

Super Bowl Advertiser Websites Ranked by Change in Market Share of Visits, Feb. 4, 2007 vs. Feb. 3, 2007

Advertiser/Product

Domain

Change in Market Share

King Pharmaceuticals/AHA

www.beatyourrisk.com

1727%

Budweiser

www.bud.tv

1401%

Salesgenie.com

www.salesgenie.com

534%

Pepsi

www.pepsi.com

374%

Snickers

www.snickers.com

234%

Bud Light

www.budlight.com

195%

Go Daddy

www.godaddy.com

74%

Doritos

www.crashthesuperbowl.com

69%

Van Heusen / IZOD

www.pvh.com

66%

Budweiser

www.budweiser.com

56%

Garmin

www.garmin.com

44%

Hannibal Rising

www.hannibalrising.com

35%

Emerald Nuts

www.emeraldnuts.com

33%

Taco Bell

www.tacobell.com

29%

Career Builder

www.careerbuilder.com

25%

Source: Hitwise

Note - the data is based on the daily market share of visits, which is the percentage of traffic, comparing February 4, 2007 visits versus February 3, 2007 visits among all US Internet users from the Hitwise sample of 10 million US Internet users

Please go here to view each of the ads individually

Saturday, February 03, 2007

Dirty Job promoted with Toilet Paper

I just found an interesting new blog. It's the MIT Advertising Lab blog. Although, its "affiliation" is due to the host being an MIT graduate.

While poking around on it, I found this posting about a unique way one of my favorite shows, Dirty Jobs, is promoting itself in Sweden.

Less than 36 hours until the Super Bowl!

Thursday, February 01, 2007

Boston Bomb Scare=Another Promotion Gone Bad

Recently I've been posting on a radio promotion gone wrong (see here and here).

Well, check out another example. This time (thank goodness) without any fatalities but what surely inconvenienced thousands of people in Boston. Be sure to watch the video link if you've got a high-speed connection.

Incredible. Could it be that our cluttered advertising environment has led to situations where marketers lose their common sense in desperate attempts to cut through?

One nationally syndicated disk jockey thinks so, check it what Mancow thinks here.

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Networks promote THEMSELVES during Superbowl


Tuesday, January 30, 2007


We're now down to 5 days until Super Bowl Sunday! For the past two years I have had favorite teams in the big game...this year the Colts, last year both the Steelers and the Seahawks. But, even without a "dog in the fight", the Superbowl is appointment viewing for someone interested in advertising and marketing. Although many advertisers are deciding that they can't justify the increased prices (in the hundreds of millions of $$$ as you'll see below), others are finding that the right commercial can cause buzz that's almost unmeasurable.

What's interesting, though, is that because networks know that the game/ads will lead to HUGE ratings, they are willing to pay the NFL for rights to the Superbowl. And, they take advantage of the eyeballs that will be focused on the screen this Sunday night. As the research reported by Media Post Research below, the biggest amount of VALUE taken up by single advertisers are by the host networks themselves promoting their own shows!


The following information is from Media Post Research.
20 Years of Superbowls Yielded 1400 Commercials and 1.72 Billion Ad Dollars

According to TNS Media Intelligence, advertising during the Super Bowl game has accounted for 682 minutes, over 11 full hours, of commercial time throughout the past 20 years (1987-2006). Those 11 hours represent 221 different advertisers, more than 1,400 commercial announcements and translate into $1.72 billion of network advertising sales.

The top five Super Bowl advertisers of the past 20 years have spent $613.4 million on advertising during the game, accounting for 35 percent of total advertising dollars spent in the game.

The FedEx Corporation, as the fifth top advertiser through 2005, was replaced in this year's report (covering 1987-2006) by Walt Disney. This is especially interesting as FedEx Corporation has advertised with the Super Bowl for 19 years, while Walt Disney has only advertised with the Super Bowl for the past seven years.

Top 5 Super Bowl Advertisers (1987-2006)

Rank

Advertiser

# of Years With Ads In Game

Ad Spend (
($ millions)

1

Anheuser Busch

20

$ 250.8

2

Pepsico

20

$ 190.0

3

General Motors

15

$ 65.7

4

Time Warner

11

$ 63.4

5

Walt Disney

7

$ 43.5


Top 5 Total


$ 613.4

Source: TNS Media Intelligence, January 2007

Each year, about 62 percent of the network TV ad money invested in the game comes from incumbent marketers who ran commercials the previous year.

Jon Swallen, senior vice president of Research at TNS Media Intelligence, said "While that's a very high retention rate, it's actually lower than the comparable rate for two other showcase TV events. Over the past 10 years, the average dollar retention rate has been 78 percent for the Academy Awards and 67 percent for the World Series," said.

The cost of an advertisement in the Super Bowl has more than quadrupled in the past 20 years, reaching $2.5 million in 2006 for a 30-second unit. For the 2007 game, CBS is reportedly fetching over $2.6 million for each 30-second spot.

Superbowl Advertising Rates (1987-2006)

Year

Cost :30 Unit ($000)

Total Ad Revenue ($ millions)

1987

$ 600

$ 31.5

1992

850

48.2

1997

1200

72.2


2001

2,100

136.4

2002

2,200

134.2

2003

2,150

124.7

2004

2,302

147.3

2005

2,400

159.2

2006

2,500

162.5

Source: TNS Media Intelligence, January 2007

Ad sales in the pre- and post-game coverage, plus ad sales by the network's local affiliate stations, are important components when considering the Super Bowl as an ad revenue-generating machine. For every dollar spent on network in-game ads, these ancillary sources contribute as much as an extra 74 cents.

Ancillary Ad Spend Around The Super Bowl


1996

2001

2006

Network In-Game

$ 69.4

$ 136.4

$ 162.5

Network Pre/Post Game

$ 22.7

$ 29.5

$ 78.1

Local TV (Top 75 markets)

$ 21.3

$ 28.9

$ 42.2

Totals

$ 113.41

$ 194.8

$ 233.8

"Lift" from ancillary sources

+63%

+43%

+74%

Source: TNS Media Intelligence

The popular perception is that beer, soft drinks and autos are the most frequently advertised on the Super Bowl categories, given their annual presence in the game. However, the perennial leader is promotional advertising from the network itself. In a typical Super Bowl, one-fourth of all commercial time is a plug by the network for its own programming. The value of that air time in 2006 alone exceeded $52 million.

Network Promotions In The Super Bowl


Time (mm:ss)

% of All Ad Time

Value ($ millions)

2001

5:55

19.1%

$ 24.9

2002

6:55

22.6%

$ 30.4

2003

10:55

31.0%

$ 46.9

2004

9:10

26.1%

$ 42.2

2005

9:45

26.2%

$ 46.8

2006

10:25

22.0%

$ 52.1

Source: TNS Media Intelligence, January 2007

The Major League Baseball's World Series and the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship are two other high-profile sporting events that attract significant interest from TV advertisers. While the World Series has a higher advertiser retention rate than the Super Bowl, the Super Bowl still rakes in more network TV ad dollars than each of the other multi-game events.

Major Sporting Championships Network TV Ad Revenue ($ Millions)


Super Bowl( Game

World Series (# games)

NCAA Basketball(

Final Four (# games)

2001

$ 136.4

$ 136.3 (7)

$ 88.7 (3)

2002

$ 134.2

$ 141.7 (7)

$ 101.9 (3)

2003

$ 124.7

$ 124.9 (6)

$ 117.6 (3)

2004

$ 147.3

$ 114.6 (4)

$ 126.4 (3)

2005

$ 159.2

$ 147.5 (4)

$ 142.2 (3)

2006

$ 162.5

$ 160.8 (5)

$ 154.7 (3)

Source: TNS Media Intelligence

For more information, please visit TNS Media Intelligence here.

Sunday, January 28, 2007

Football Withdrawl...Getting Ready for Big Week of Hype

I love NFL football.
I love their marketing practices.
I love the Pittsburgh Steelers (the reigning Super Bowl Champions for another 6 days), because I was born in the Steel City.

And, I love watching games on Sunday afternoon.
I'll admit that I was not rabid enough of a fan to continue my subscription to the NFL Sunday Ticket on Directv...just too much to do with the kids and family to commit to so many games.

Plus, living just outside of Indianapolis means that I'm promised a competitive game on the local broadcast almost every week.

But today...it was missing. The annual lull before the Super Bowl to remind me of how much I'll miss the NFL for the next 8 months or so.

But, for the next week this will be a GREAT place to be! Less than an hour away from Indianapolis and this place is going COLTS CRAZY. Except, for a big proportion of the Bloomington population that have been Chicago Bears fans for most of their lives.

It makes for a wondeful (and so far friendly) rivalry. And, it seems to be evenly split. I took an unscientifc poll in my T343 class last week, and was surprised to find it 15 students for the Colts and 14 for the Bears.

In our faculty hallway we have Julia Fox who has been posting Chicago Bear clippings from the Chicago Tribune all season on her office door. And RIGHT across the hallway is Andrew Weaver, who grew up in Indy and has started to fire up his own doorway propaganda machine.

Should be a great week...and then comes the games and THE COMMERCIALS.

Be sure to check back.

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

New Coke Ad--Grand Theft Auto...Creativity that beats TivO

Okay, first comment.
I'm glad that American Idol is back...and I'm not ashamed to admit it.
Secondly, while I was watching the show last night I saw this Coke commercial.
Now, I've never played Grand Theft Auto...the computer/video game.
I likely never will.
But, I KNOW enough about it to know that this is one heck of a creative concept.
Hit the 'rewind' button on my remote several times to watch it again and again.
Called my wife's attention to it. She didn't recognize the main character...but the moment I told her it was "that guy from Grand Theft Auto" she got it as well.

Then we both watched it twice.
Today, I Googled it and searched for it on YouTube.

In my advertising/sales-related classes we often discuss how to combat technology that allows people to actively avoid commercials. Great creative like this...creative that almost demands to be watched again and again...talked about...blogged about....that how you do it.

Monday, January 15, 2007

Sounded good on paper--a radio promotion goes terribly wrong

A radio promotion director's job--especially at a Top 40 or Alternative station--is to do the outrageous in an attempt to create "buzz" in your market. You know, get people talking about what crazy stuff your statioin is doing. It's even better if you get buzz while also giving away something cool and highly desired by your target audience.

On paper...the contest called "Hold you wee for a Wii" seems exactly what a the station KDND was looking for. Edgy. You bet. Do people in the target market for a top 40 station want Wiis? Of course.

Sounds perfect.

But, something went wrong. Tragic. Read it here.