Location, location, location - Part 2

In our travels in and around Panama City, Panama, we came upon a very sexy billboard ad (similar to the one shown) that caught our attention, more so my husband’s than mine obviously.

But what was really funny, or dangerous depending on your perspective, was where the billboard was located. We had just exited off one highway and were looping around to the next when BAM! this billboard appears at a point in the loop where the turn is the sharpest.

The scantily clad body was larger than life and we both gasped as my husband’s attention got diverted enough to jerk the car a bit off the road. We laughed about it, but even he said that it was bound to cause some accidents.

Alysia Shivers is a marketing professional in the real estate industry with a background in newspaper and magazine writing and editing. She blogs about life’s adventures at Unlyshd and you can visit her website at www.alysiashivers.com.

Stay on brand, my friends.

Recently, a friend of mine bought some Tecate beer, which had me commenting on their recent commercials featuring the Most Interesting Man in the World. What? He’s not promoting Tecate? Oh, yeah, it’s Carta Blanca. No? Bohemia? I know it’s not Corona. Or Pacifico. Then, what is it?

The Most Interesting Man in the World is a character who’s a cross between Ernest Hemmingway and Castro. A tough yet admirable guy. He’s shown doing interesting stuff, always with a beautiful lady at his side. He’s a man’s man. He’s cool.

A funny thing is I love these commercial. And I remember them. Yet I can’t instantly recall the beer brand. That’s because the beer name takes a backstage. The MIMITW even makes the beer less important. In one commercial, he says, “I don’t always drink beer. But when I do, I prefer Dos Equis.”

That’s it! Dos Equis! Now I remember. These are fun, entertaining commercials. Although I’m not sure if they’re going to help move beer off the shelves.

Karl Gromelski is a copywriter at sgdp in Chicago. He enjoys his Corona with a lime though sometimes it gets stuck in the neck of the bottle and he has to invert it several time to get it to climb to the bottom. 

Technorati Tags: Most Interesting Man in the World, Dos Equis

Who Still Reads Print Ads? Surprise, Surprise.

You may think it’s your grandfather or your father. But try asking your college-going younger brother.

A recent study found that college students are addicted to college newspapers. I found this was true in my own research as well.

Mainstream newspaper readership is declining everywhere, and yet college newspapers are still very much alive. The eye-opening facts:

* 76% read their paper in the past month. For dailies, it is 92%.

* Despite internet usage gaining strength, the print edition still gets more eyeballs.

* 73% say they look at the ads in their college paper.

* Top areas of interest? Entertainment news, sports, and current affairs.

Get Some Major Advertising Action:

* 78% (particularly females) use coupons or promo codes, mostly for food, restaurants, clothing, and big box stores.

* Advertising in the paper has significant impact on students’ actions after they read something, with almost 80% reacting:

• WOM is a strong driver of message sharing: 61% told a friend about something they saw.
• Over half attended an event as a result of reading.
• 40% saved an ad for future reference.
• 36% continued to research products or services online after reading it in print.
• 1 in 5 called or visited a retail store in response to an offer.

Source: Alloy Media + Marketing

Christine Babick is a marketing strategist and linguist specializing in marketing language, website text, “emo copy,” and cause and relationship marketing. More…

Location, location, location

Effective advertising not only means a thought-provoking and/or eye-catching ad, but also valuable placement, which is just as important as the ad’s message.

I just recently returned from a week-long trip to Panama and discovered that ad placement in some cases is not well thought out.

In the small, mountain town of Boquete, for instance, a billboard for Bvlgari fragrance stands next to a busy bus stop on the main street. The site of the alluring model and attractively packaged perfume literally made me stop. Not because it was a beautiful ad, but because of who was exposed to it on a daily basis — namely the townspeople of Boquete.

These hardworking Panamanian people take a bus from their small homes in the country to town each day to pick coffee or perform landscape duties for just a few dollars a day. So tell me, do these folks really need or even care about Bvlgari?

Alysia Shivers is a marketing professional in the real estate industry with a background in newspaper and magazine writing and editing. She blogs about life’s adventures at http://Unlyshd.blogspot.com and you can visit her website at http://www.alysiashivers.com/.

Next From IKEA

Ikea is going beyond comfy furniture, cool lamps and an awesome shopping experience and the company is going green!

In Denmark, Ikea is going green with a new program that loans bikes with trailers to customers to take home their Ikea purchases. The bikes are built in the classic Ikea design and sturdy enough to handle a good load, Trendhunter describes.

There’s no charge for the ability to deliver your purchases home by bike, but the store requires a small deposit.

This program comes after the fact that Ikea discovered 20% of their customers rode a bike to the store, in Denmark, even though most live outside the city center.

What do you think of this idea?  Would you take advantage of this service if available?

Is this good marketing for Ikea?  It probably helps that the Ikea logo is on the rental bikes!

Source: Trendhunter

Amy is a blogger at Talent Zoo’s website: www.beneaththebrand.com.  She really enjoys researching creative marketing, public relations and advertising ideas and techniques and is always on the search for cool ads!

What’s in a brand name?

If you love seafood like I do, you’ve probably eaten one of the ugliest looking fish around. And you’ve probably asked for more. In the areas where it thrives, it’s known as the Patagonian Toothfish. For years, commercial fishermen avoided catching this “cod of the deep” because nobody wanted to eat this nasty-looking thing. Today, things have changed.

According to “Hooked: Pirates, Poaching, and the Perfect Fish,” it took a Los Angeles fish merchant to rename this saltwater monster in the late 70’s to change Americas’ palate. Even though this fish is neither a bass nor from Chile (it is found both in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans), it was renamed “Chilean Sea Bass.” Today, this ugly beast is one of the most sought-after fish around and is in danger of being overfished.

When I first heard his story, I was reminded of the Chrysler Cordoba commercials. Having named the car after a town in Spain, the advertising team chose to hire Mexican actor, Ricardo Montalbán, to give this car an international flair. To make this car feel even more sophisticated, Chrysler went as far as to invent “Corinthian leather” to describe their seat coverings. Although manufactured in New Jersey, Corinthian leather was nothing more than the standard leather used in car upholstery. Yet, this name gave the Cordoba a unique selling proposition that no other car brand could match.

This just goes to show that product names can make a big difference for a brand. But knowing what your customers want is the key when creating one.

Karl Gromelski is a copywriter at sgdp in Chicago. He loves advertising and blackened Chilean Sea Bass with a lemon butter sauce. He also blogs at sgdp.com.

Technorati Tags: Patagonian Toothfish, Hooked: Pirates, Poaching, and the Perfect Fish, Chilean Sea Bass, Chrysler Cordoba, Ricardo Montalbán, Corinthian leather

Don’t Judge a Book By Its Cover…Or Should You?

Over the weekend, I went with some old friends from college to eat at this little “hole in the wall” seafood restaurant in St. Augustine. When I say St. Augustine, I say that loosely because the address may technically be St. Augustine but the restaurant is in the middle of nowhere, with nothing around it for miles. It sits on a portion of the St. John’s River that has extremely black, dark water and alligators. When you first drive up to the place, the parking lot is packed, which is always a good sign for a restaurant, but the building itself looks like a shack. Now, in fairness, “shack” is part of the restaurant’s name, so this may or may not be on purpose. When you walk into the restaurant it is very rustic, and the outside area isn’t anything to speak of either. The food, however, is amazing. This experience made me think of the old adage, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” Then it led me to think about how marketing is the direct opposite. Marketing and advertising puts products and services in pretty little packages, which attract buyers. Sometimes when you open the packages there truly are great products and services inside, but sometimes the package is much prettier than what’s inside. That’s what marketing is. It is the process of capturing “lookers.” Lookers of the pretty packages need to do their own research to find out if what is inside is as pretty and worthwhile as the package.

Kristie Lorette is a freelance copywriter and marketing consultant who specializes in the financial services, mortgage, real estate, event planning and non-profit industries. Kristie holds a BS in marketing, BS in multinational business and an MBA. You can learn more about Kristie and her expertise by visiting her website www.studiokwriting.com.

Cross Media Builds Purchase Intent

Everyone’s talking about measurement of results these days, and “intent to buy” is considered an important way to measure a campaign’s success. That’s why a recent report by research firm Advertising Perceptions is noteworthy:

Cross-platform exposure to advertising results in higher intent to buy. Here’s what the study examined: beer, apparel, automotive, consumer electronics and toiletries.

**TV produced weak intent to buy on its own.

**If you add online ad exposure to print campaigns or TV, consumer intent to buy goes up.

**When two or more media were included, all of them showed lift.

**Intent to buy also goes up when brand names are thought of as high quality. This suggests that brand equity also plays a role in shaping consumer behavior (just like persuasive ads).

**Consumers expressed a stronger intent to buy a particular product after they had been exposed to ads for it on more than one medium.

The firm surveyed 25,000 people, looking at a broad range of websites, TV networks and other media.

So if you’re a media buyer looking to justify cross-media ad spend….this is good fodder.

Christine Babick is a marketing strategist and linguist specializing in marketing language, website text, “emo copy,” and cause and relationship marketing. More…

Viral marketing has gone to the dogs

With viral campaigns being all the buzz, how can one dog food company make an impact on Internet users?

For Pedigree, they’ve created the “Million Dog Mosaic.” Dog lovers and owners are encouraged to submit their dog’s photo which is then used to create a larger picture of the Pedigree dog. So far, more than 47,000 dog photos have been submitted. And now, there’s only a small amount of the dog’s left ear and paw remaining to complete the mosaic.

In addition to having your dog’s picture become part of something bigger, Pedigree is donating $1 per picture to their adoption drive.

What a smart way to show that your company as one that cares about dogs! It’s also a genius way to build a relationship with future customers. Having dog owners download their dog’s picture not only give Pedigree your dog’s name and race, but also collects the owner’s e-mail address for future communications.

By the way, our boys, Beauregard and Robicheaux, have been submitted to be part of this mosaic. You’ll be able to see their photo by searching for “beauregard5″ once uploaded. You can also view them or any dog photo by clicking on the big picture, and then zoom in, zoom out and move around.

Technorati Tags: Pedigree, Million Dog Mosaic

Taste the Victory: Coke Zero

Coca Cola is rewarding U.S. residents above the age of 13 year to a free 20-ounce bottle of Coke Zero!Why, might you ask?

The “Taste of Victory” promotion, and soda giveaway,  is a celebration of the Coke Zero 400, which is the 18th race of the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup season held in Daytona Beach, Florida, win by Kyle Petty, one of Coke’s 13 sponsored drivers.

To claim your Coke Zero, you need to hurry up and visit the Coca-Cola Zero website by July 13 and follow the instructions to receive a coupon for the free 20-ounce bottle.

In addition to the free soda giveaway, Coke Zero is donating $1 to the Victory Junction Gang Camp charity on behalf of the first 10,000 people who request a free coupon.

Bill Kelly, senior vice president, Coca-Cola Brands, Coca-Cola North America  said, “In the end, it was a great race and that’s reason enough to follow through with our offer to give away free Coke Zero and to continue our support of Kyle Petty’s Victory Junction Gang Camp.”

Other Coca-Cola drivers who participated in the “Taste of Victory” promotion included Tony Stewart, Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton, Denny Hamlin, Mark Martin, Greg Biffle, Elliott Sadler, Jamie McMurray, Bobby Labonte, Michael Waltrip, Terry Labonte, Clint Bowyer and David Ragan.

What do you think of this promotion by Coca-Cola?

Source: Trendhunter 

Three Bus Ads that Grab Your Attention

Advertising is hitting the streets in all shapes and forms these days including on public transportation!  What do you think of the following three very creative uses of busses?

1. National Geographic

There is no better way to promote programming on the National Geographic Channel than using the artwork of a shark with its’ teeth strategically placed on the doors to simulate “taking a bite.”

Source: Small Business Commandos

 2. Dr. Best Toothbrushes

Who doesn’t love a flexible head toothbrush?  What do you think of this creative placement of a toothbrush ad?

Source: Design Idea

3. NZDating.com

Because of the routes of these two buses they often were seen in this pattern.  Talk about planning your advertising message!

Source: Ads of the World

What do you think of the idea of bus advertising?  Is it an effective advertising medium?

How do you rate the three ads above? Which is your favorite?

Removing Stains in One Wash!

In order to prove the claim that they can remove all stains in one wash, Breeze Excel laundry detergent, actually “delivered” on their promise to consumers.

Instead of sending a box with a gift in it, to the target market of women’s groups in Thailand, the box that was mailed was actually wrapped with the gift.

A t-shirt wrapped box contained a sample of the laundry detergent and if consumers wanted to see the results of their product all they had to do was wash the t-shirt with the enclosed laundry detergent sample.

The best part of the promotion was the ability to target the product sampling, as opposed to a general in store demonstration and the word of mouth buzz that was generated because of the mailing.

What do you think? Is this a quality direct mail piece?

Have you ever seen anything similar?

Source: Frederik Samuel

Say Hello to My Little User Friend

The likes of Red Bull, MTV, Nike, and Sony Music are now enabling users—to buy, that is. It’s like a one-step program for impulse buyers, where viral video meets e-commerce, where advertisers connect with social media users. A company called Splashcast released a tool that turns online videos into impulse buying opportunities. It’s called “HotSpot.”

Here’s how it works: HotSpot enables marketers to tag objects — like a chair or a table lamp — inside a published video. You click on the highlighted item and see a sponsored message and a link to the purchasing page.

The first thing that came to my mind was—not another annoying encroachment upon my viewing pleasure! But Splashcast knows enough to be subtle because they don’t want to irritate viewers. Video viewers are alerted to HotSpot content by subtle highlighting.
Splashcast is banking on HotSpot inspiring product placement opportunities in films that have already gone viral.

Source: Mediaweek

Christine Babick is a marketing strategist and linguist specializing in marketing language, website text, “emo copy,” and cause
and relationship marketing. More…

Other Uses for Starbucks: An Eco-Friendly Solution

With the recent news of 600 Starbucks stores closing, Starbucks is using alternative and very creative marketing messages to continue to sell and promote the Starbucks brand (and get you in the doors to buy a skim latte!).

Now, more than just your taste buds can enjoy the Starbucks experience; your garden can also take part in its enriching experience.  Starbucks developed “Grounds For Your Garden,” a program that reuses coffee grounds for composting, says Trendhunter.

Starbucks now offers free bags (made of recycled materials of course) of coffee ground waste to customers, parks, schools and nurseries as an initiative for waste reduction on a first come first serve basis.

This is a great asset to Starbucks and the environment as coffee grounds make up the heaviest portion of waste in Starbucks.

What do you think?  Creative marketing? Eco-friendly brand?

Source: Trendhunter

Redesign of My[insert ad here]Space

A summary of MySpace’s redesigned hp:
Less Clutter. More Advertising.

Hmm. Is there a paradox in there somewhere? It’s been said that the redesign addresses a nagging problem that beleaguers social networking sites: pages have “the aesthetic appeal of the locker door of a 14-year-old high schooler.” Which led me to imagine the site as the voice of a 14-year-old whining to its parent, Fox Interactive Media.

“Why can’t I be pretty like X website?”
“I want to make money like the other websites.”
“Can I have a new navigation bar? A search tool? A video player? I need these in time for school to start this fall.”

And like a lenient parent, Fox ignored the fact that the kid hasn’t been making the grade—more than one year into its $900 million contract with MySpace, Google said that it was not earning as much as expected, the site missed its revenue target, its sales force was rearranged, and the unit’s chief revenue officer was kicked out. Yet, MySpace is saying, “We’re seeing the dollars come in.”

This is an example of why questions exist about the ad value of social networks. When similar questions were raised in 2006, Fox brushed it aside, saying MySpace was more concerned about serving users than making money. Two years later, they are more concerned with making money. Also in 2006, not even Google was sure that it could provide enough ads to fill all the pages. However, recently Google said the situation had improved. Perhaps this is the reason for MySpace to be blithely optimistic?

Like the teen that wants to do what the adults do but hasn’t proved to be responsible yet, social networking sites have money-making ambitions but not enough proof that their plans work.

One analyst said, “We don’t have much conviction in the long-term ability to grow this business based on what we’ve seen lately. The jury’s still out on MySpace’s ability to monetize.” ….That is, if users don’t get “monotonized” by ads first.

Sources:
International Herald Tribune
MySpace Redesigns With Ad Sales in Mind Social Network Profit Remains a Riddle

Christine Babick is a marketing strategist and linguist specializing in marketing language, website text, “emo copy,” and cause and relationship marketing. More…

Inferior Brands Spiking

Do you know what is so good about having a generic or store brand right now? Well, for one the high price of gasoline. As the price to fuel vehicles continues to climb, consumers are turning to the lower cost version of their favorite products and to dollar or discount stores to purchase everyday necessities.

Stores can capture the action as consumers enter the doors by centrally locating their store brands of hot items before consumers even enter the isles. By clearly focusing on the generic or store brand you are giving them a first impression that will stand out when they are ready to make their purchase - same quality product, but at an inexpensive  price.

Small discount and dollar stores are going to draw in the customers. Dollar General and Family Dollar have already seen an increase in consumers because their brand specifically builds on the idea that you are spending only a dollar, compared to two or three dollars someplace else.

Going to an old stand by, Wal-Mart’s campaign, "Save Money, Live Better" definitely is bringing in the consumers simply because they can shop in one location for all of their items - home, toiletries, food, and more - purchase store brands, and all of this will come at a cheaper price then the competitor down the street, saving consumers money.

Source

Dannie McClain is a Category Manger with a New Jersey textiles company. In her spare time she also blogs on a personal blog and can be see at Simple Home Basics.

Mr. Gnome: Has It Really Been Four Years?

Recently Travelocity won a branding award for the Roaming Gnome campaign. Conducted by the Association of Travel Marketing Executives, these are the only results-driven marketing awards in the travel industry.

The strange, stiff little wizard-like creature became the spokesperson of Travelocity in January 2004. Ever since, he has been globetrotting, experiencing more adventures than I could ever hope to have.

The award means that Travelocity used breakthrough thinking, and that the campaign gained positive results.

Travelocity’s CMO commented that despite many critics disparaging a campaign based on a lawn ornament, the gnome “has become a pop culture celebrity and ambassador for getting out of the garden and great travel.”

While a little offbeat, at least the gnome is attention-grabbing without slithering into creepy like the “peeping Tom” Burger King.

Christine Babick is a marketing strategist and linguist specializing in marketing language, website text, “emo copy,” and cause and relationship marketing. More…

Screen Saver Advertising?

The new Toyota Hilux’s brand promise is “Unbreakable” and they are supposedly targeting “the” new generation of consumers.

In attempt to reach these consumers and encourage these new consumers to visit the showroom and arrange a test drive, they developed a screensaver using the motion sensor built into the latest generation of laptops, to deliver a truly interactive experience and demonstrate the “unbreakability” of the 2008 Hilux, according to Ads of the World.

They then distributed this to a database of potential Hilux buyers, and encouraged them to forward it on. From the screen saver, users could click through and arrange a test drive at their local dealership.

What do you think of this advertising via screen saver?

Well, Toyota thinks it worked! There was an increase of 60% in some cases in Hilux enquiries reported by dealerships which of course resulted in an increase in actual test drives.

According to the articles, informal dealer feedback described the campaign as “compelling”, “entertaining”, “very engaging” and “really helps to reinforce that a Hilux is unbreakable.”

So, what do you think? Will we see more screen saver advertising in the future? Does this campaign work with the Toyota target market?

Source: Ads of the World

2 Interactive Coasters!

Advertising meets the coasters at your favorite local hang out!

What do you think of the following not only very creative displays of coaster advertising but also interactive?

1. Nicorette: Kick it!

According to Ads of the World, when smoking was banned in pubs in Australia, Nicorette created a coaster that could be turned into goal posts to give people something to do with their hands instead of smoke.

What do you think of the play on words with kicking and goals and “kicking the habit?”

Source: Ads of the World

2. Lowes: Build it!

These Lowes coasters were strategically placed at local bars. They were meant not only to be used as a coaster but also for users to interact and actually build with.

Source: Frederik Samuel

What do you think of the idea of using coasters for advertising?

Which one above do you like the best?

Are they effective? Does the interaction aspect of the coasters make them more so?

Happiness and Your Business

Here’s a fabulous presentation on happiness as a business model from Tara Hunt of Citizen Agency and HorsePigCow. It’s almost 200 slides but it’s worth your time to flip through and soak up the message and the imagery. If we could all operate this way, amazing things would happen. Think of where we could go if our business model was actually built on happiness.

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Technorati Tags: Beneath the Brand,Jamey Shiels,Tara Hunt,Citizen Agency,HorsePigCow,Business Models