Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Prices.

A long video (running time 1 hour 34 minutes)on Wal-Mart. Here's the link. The video starts with a speech from Wal-Mart's CEO and then goes to focus on the impact of Wal-Mart on small businesses, employees and communities.

Social Media vs. Company Microsite

From AdWeek. Read the full article here.

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EXCERPT:
Is Social Media Killing the Campaign Microsite? By Brian Morrissey
NOVEMBER 12, 2007 -

Digital advocates often proclaim the imminent death of the 30-second spot, but the interactive industry might now be witnessing the demise of its own version of the commercial: the campaign microsite.

The growth of social media is causing marketers to realize they cannot expect consumers to always seek them out. Web widgets and video-sharing tools make it easy for any user to take content that formerly might have lived only on a brand site with them wherever they go. And social media sites help them share that content with friends.

“We really believe in fishing where the fish are,” said Carol Kruse, vp of global interactive marketing at Coca-Cola. “The old model is to build your own site, then spend media dollars to bring them there.”

The Fit Is Go!

In late 2006, Honda decided to take America by storm with its "Fit", using a clever marketing scheme, flashy Asian-inspired ads that portray the compact car (formerly available in Japan and Europe as the "Jazz") as a nimble, fun-to-drive hyper-fuel efficient alternative to the bigger cars being offered by the competition.

Television, online, and print ads featuring an aggressively styled Fit with the phrase "The Fit is Go!", which called attention to the new fun to drive "small-car" trend while announcing its long-awaited presence in the states.

Since these ads started running, sales of the Honda Fit have taken off. Honda has successfully been able to sell thousands of the once feared ultra-small cars.

Credit Card "Bills"

I'm sure I'm not the only one who's opened my mailbox to find what looks like a stack of bills, or maybe even an envelope with a credit card I'd forgotten about ordering only to find that a financial institution such as "CitiBank" has cleverly enclosed a "Blank" credit card in the envelope.

I, like many others quickly tore into the letter only to find myself holding onto (yet almost instantly throwing away) another piece of advertising. I guess it's mission accomplished for CitiBank, I opened their advertisement, and their name got stuck in my head long enough for me to write this down.

Its interesting to see new avenues being taken in old mediums, such as postal service mail, as opposed to good old pop-up ads or spam email.

Pop Companies go viral

With "Diet Coke and Mentos Reaction" quickly becoming a household name, it didn't come as a surprise to me that PepsiCo wanted in on the action, with its "Glowing Mountain Dew"...now helping boost sales with videos such as this one.

Celebs Extending Their Brand Name to Credit Cards

In the past you may have bought Paris Hilton's perfume or David Beckham's cologne. But would you use a credit card with a celebrity's name on it?

As with any licensed product, there has to be an incentive to buy. The credit card forays include insider peeks into the celebrities’ lives, their tours and music, with rewards like first-in-line pick of tickets, special access and merchandise.

Check Out Brandweek to view the full article.

Maybe it will get you go switch credit card companies.

Writers Strike Changing Advertising

After a week of being on strike, Hollywood Screenwriters are beginning to concern television advertisers. The first shows to be affected from the strike include daily talk shows, late night shows, and soap operas. The major concern of advertisers is that the strike will turn viewers toward some other means of entertainment during these periods of reruns. If they loose these veiwers, advertisers will have to find another means of reaching them. If the strike doesnt get resolved soon, their will be extensive damage to the $70 billion television advertising industry.

Companies Going Green

Recently people have begun to realize the impact we and our corporations are having on the environment. Because of this many companies have begun to make their products environmentally friendly by making them more durable, and more energy efficient, and organic. Sales of environmentally friendly products have doubled in the last year to reach 10 billion. Now that company's have begun to realize the trend of consumers, more and more companies have begun to follow in the direction of Green. Wal-Mart for instance has become the largest consumer of organic cotton in the world in hopes of becoming the largest organic food and clothing retailer. I think that this is great for the environment, but think that the main reason why these companies are going green, is to earn more green. If they really cared about the environment why wouldn't they have recycling bins for paper and aluminum-trash in their stores? why would they print in-store brochures on fresh pulp non-recycled paper? and why would they run all of their semi trucks on diesel fuel? Their are many other companies who claim they are for the environment, but in the end for most it just comes down to cold hard profits.

Dell Now and Then

This past July Dell redesigned its Marketing Campaign with a more "trendier" strategy. Some observers skeptically note that Dell's new marketing, while colorful, has "been there, dont that" feel that merely mimics strategies of competitors, particularly Apple's. And no matter how eye-catching Dell's new marketing is, its products, service, and technical support have to measure up. Ad campaigns and spin are only one side of the business, the other side is, can Dell deliver the promises of quality, ease of use, productivity?"

Growing Green

Going "Green" is the new 'thing to do' among companies these days, and they are saturating our televisions letting us know that they are going green.

The most brow-beating effort of late comes from NBC Universal, which is currently in the midst of its "Green Week," where programs, PSAs, news reports and adverts are themed around the environment. Characters on Days of Our Lives are having a green-washed wedding this week. The Today Show talking heads are reporting from the Arctic Circle, Antarctica and the equator. Even the peacock's feathers are shimmering in shades of green.

Does anyone see this marketing campaign as anything more than green-washing? Perhaps the goal is simply general awareness, but a TV channel as social preacher isn't what most people look for in their television (except maybe Fox News). As I've caught bits and pieces of these green stories on the evening news, all it has elicited in me is a 'so what' and an urge to flip the channel.

Facebooks Latest Move

Facebook announced this week that corporations can now create their own Facebook pages for free and can buy banner ads that would appear under feed items, with links that'd take users back to the brands' profiles. The New York Times Co. has already set up pages for its publications (New York Times, Boston Globe, etc.). Facebook users can declare themselves "fans" of a product or brand and spread their thoughts on it to their Facebook pals.

It's an interesting move, really. But as many reports have noted, some marketers will have to do more than simply post content for Facebook members to preach the gospel according to [Insert Brand Name Here]. Coupons? Freebies?

Where will this lead? How will marketers keep their Facebook pages from being overlooked, left alone in a corner of the social media marketplace, as so much unloved (and "unpoked") Internet fodder? With so many more social networking sites popping up, will this potentially pervasive ad targeting drive Facebook members to use other sites instead?

Pontiac advertises on 50 Cent music video

This might be a few months old but its worth mentioning in here. General Motors is collaborating with 50 Cent to feature its to Pontiac G8 GT and G6 GXP. In the video Amusement Park, instead of Lamborghinis and Ferraris being surrounded by scantily clad hot women, it would be the two Pontiac vehicles that would be showcased. The video of amusement is available on this website: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnMk6fOoB4s

Businesses Crack Down on MyFace

This is an interesting article about a new trend that is emerging within the business world... companies are blocking access to social networking sites. "According to Dean Drako, the president and CEO of Barracuda, the two top reasons cited by companies for blocking access to social-networking sites MySpace and Facebook are security (70 percent) and productivity (52 percent). Other reasons cited by companies for blocking the social networks include bandwidth issues and legal liability.
Four times as many companies -- nearly 25 percent -- block MySpace, while just one in five block employees from accessing both sites. "

What are your opinions of this and what do you think should be changed if you disagree?

Should YouTube Use Censors?

I recently came across an article on cnet.com about how YouTube is in a heated debate about free speech, censorship, and whether the site is responsible for spotting criminals. The spark that started this debate stems from a recent shooting in Finland. Pekka-Eric Auvinen, the alleged gunman, supposedly posted videos on YouTube hours before the shooting that reveled his plans for the shootings. YouTube took down these videos within hours of the murders.

The question of debate is that while many people believe that's taking down the videos was right others say that YouTube should have allowed the videos to stay on the site for users to gain a better understanding of what happened.

Do you think that YouTube should have kept these videos up for the public or did they do the right thing by taking them down?

Mercedes Benz changes logo, adds sound logo

16 years has past since Mercedes Benz has changed it's logo, and so the German automaker decided that it was time to change the logo of it, which in my own humble opinion was a really nice logo. The old Mercedes Benz logo is of a three-dimensional tri-star logo in which now it has been changed into a flattened one-dimensional tri-star logo.

In addition to that, they also added a sound logo that will be added to all of its broadcast advertisements. The song is explained following the Mercedes Benz press release;

"The Mercedes-Benz sound logo is based on an original recording of an English boys choir from the 1990s. Sound engineers extracted a choir boy's solo vocal from the recording and adapted it for use in the sound logo."

The link for the sound logo is available here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zhcv3k22Ek . Honestly speaking, it's really spooky and reminds me of halloween. Well, check it out yourself and tell me what you think.

Beyond the 30 Second Spot

A new survey, released by the Association of National Advertisers and Forrester Research, Inc. found that 78% of advertisers feel that traditional television advertising has become less effective in the past two years. The survey also found that marketers are exploring emerging technologies to help improve their television advertising spend. With new technologies such as Digital Video Recorders (DVR's) and Video On Demand, it is becoming incresingly difficult to capture the audiences attention when watching the Tv. As new and traditional media alternatives compete for a share of the media pie, and marketers look to improve consumer targeting, reduce costs and enhance accountability, television is responding. With technology-based advances in addressability, enhanced television options, Internet convergence and branded entertainment opportunities, television is likely to continue as the dominant part of the marketing mix.

For more please click the link below:
http://www.marketingtoday.com/research/0306/tv_advertising_less_effective.htm

I am out of the office today

While TV channel surfing this morning, I came across this story about buying excuses to skip work. What do you think about this business? I think students may look into using this service to get out of work or a big test.

Click on the title to see the complete article from CNN.

How much Advertising is too Much?

Cool article that mentions some new developments in advertising including Facebook and MySpace which brings up the question when will we finally tell advertisers enough is enough? It seems you can't go anywhere these days without being bombarded constantly by ads. Do you think we'll ever try to convey to advertisers that we've had enough?

Click on the title to this post to view the article.

IBM Predicts Major Change in Advertising

Small article includes a PDF report titled "The End of Advertising as We Know It" in which IBM claims there will be "greater disruption for the advertising industry in the next five years than has occurred over the previous 50."

Click on the title of the post to view the article and link to the PDF report.

Marketing Trend Predictions for '07

Interesting article with some predictions on marketing trends for 2007. The first one about college grads is pretty interesting, but a good read in general. Click on the title of this post to view the article.

25 Free Music Downloads!

I hope that caught your eye because it sure caught mine!

eMusic is the world’s largest retailer of independent music and the world’s second-largest digital music retailer overall, offering more than 2 million tracks from more than 13,000 independent labels spanning every genre of music. A subscription-based service that allows consumers to own, not rent their music, eMusic is the largest service to sell tracks in the popular MP3 format—the only digital music format that is compatible with all digital music devices, including the iPod®. eMusic targets and successfully direct-markets to consumers who are interested in music outside the commercial mainstream, dramatically expanding the sale of catalogue typically known as "the long tail." Since Dimensional Associates acquired eMusic in 2003, the company has more than tripled its subscriber base. (taken from emusic.com)

Not only do you get 25 free downloads just for trying it out BUT it's only $9.99 for 30 songs and $0.33 for any song after that! Beats $0.99 compared to other sites!

The bonus for trying the product got me, I hope you try it as well!!

Graduates Looking For a Job

Being a December graduate, I've just started to get into panic mode about finding a job after graduation. I found www.talentzoo.com to be super helpful. It differs a lot from other job sites like Monster because it only has posting for certain industries which include: Marketing, Advertising, Broadcasting, Public Relations and Publishing. The site allows you to search within each of the industries as well as choose where in the country you want to end up. You also have the capability of searching different locations at the same time. What I noticed and really enjoyed about this site is that it gives you the link to the company's direct website which allows you to further your knowledge of the company as well other positions they have available. I found this site to be very user friendly and I hope you can as well.

Happy Hunting!!

Linked In Linked Me In

I blundered into the social networking site "Linked In" the other day. These sites are popping up like it's 1999. But this one began to turn a profit in early 2006.

When I say that Linked In is a social networking site, I really mean that Linked In is a social networking site. It takes networking and network theory totally seriously; at face value. A Friendster for professionals if you will.

In a sense, YouTube and blogging sites use networks and Word-of-Mouth like processes to generate content. That content attracts viewers and then advertisers. But with Linked In the network is not just a mechanism to create a library of videos and a base of video viewers. Here, the content is the network, that is the whole focus. People can use the site to reconnect with old friends, to look for a job, to find a recommendation for a plumber, or to get themselves recommended.

Many of the network growth mechanisms are well thought out. For example, it lets you upload your email client's contact list of addresses. It will then, if you want, show only those folks who already have a LinkedIn account. From that set you can pick and choose who you are comfortable in inviting to be in your network. That is a nice example of a viral process that lets the user constrain the viral mechanism.

I personally find it very interesting viewing other people's contacts, the list of people at degree 2. And when I do a search, I like sorting on closeness degree.

The navigation is not 100% transparent in my view, but the site is simple enough that it is not a deal killer.

Count me as being Linked In,
Charlie Hofacker

Subliminal Advertising

It seems marketing are all over the place today. We have advertisements everywhere from the normal billboards, advertisements on the televisions to even on the parking lot strip.

taken from: http://brandautopsy.typepad.com/brandautopsy/2005/11/home_depots_par.html

With that being said, advertisements are soon creeping into the tv shows and movies as well. This include movies like:
Transformers (2007) - Originally a japanese cartoon series, the movie itself features several car models from General Motors. The movie was used as a publicity stunt to show it's new Chevrolet Camaro concept car

taken from: http://www.thetorquereport.com/transformers_movie_image_gallery_016.jpg

The Orange County (OC) - Ford motor company and Lexus motors provided vehicles to the show in exchange of free publicity. It featured cars like the Lexus RX330 and SC430 while Ford provided a red hot Mustang GT driven my Mischa Barton (Marissa Cooper).

taken from: http://www.imcdb.org/thumbnail.php?pic=024-484.jpg
It seems that the trend now would be to use subliminal advertising. Subliminal advertising does not outright advertise a brand name but rather cleverly incorporated into the movie or TV series. Automobile companies are especially capitalizing on this and with big automakers like Lexus, Ford and GM being in it, others are soon to follow suit as well

Universal McCann CEO Nick Brien: A Brand Is No Longer 'Ownable'

Universal McCann CEO Nick Brien: A Brand Is No Longer 'Ownable'
By Megan McIlroy Published: November 08, 2007

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- To Nick Brien, worldwide CEO of Universal McCann, the notion of new media is almost irrelevant. "When clients say, 'Talk to me about new media,' I say, 'No I am not going to talk to you about new media, I am going to talk to you about new marketing,'" he said.
Mr. Brien said the marketing model has fundamentally changed with emerging media, and if marketers don't progress, they will jeopardize their brands.

Avoiding 'legacy' thinking
"If you are not the leader, you are going to lose your market share opportunity to a new competitor who is not encumbered by legacy mentalities or legacy business models or legacy agency relationships," Mr. Brien said in his keynote address Nov. 6 at the interactive marketing conference Ad Tech in New York.
In this new marketing model -- where media enhances personality -- brands have to become experiences and destinations and consumer insight has to be smarter, Mr. Brien said.
"A brand is ultimately a promise ... it is something that is not ownable by a corporation any more," Mr. Brien said.
Helping consumers generate their own content is one of the smartest ways to embrace the new marketing model, Mr. Brien said, noting that marketers need to become experts in understanding the marriage between traditional aspects of persuasion-based marketing and user-generated influence.
He cited a Yahoo case study, which was shown during the online giant's upfront media-buying event last year, in which more than 200 Shakira fan groups were asked to record impersonations of her song "Hips Don't Lie," which ultimately became the No. 1 downloaded song of the summer.
"It was helped to no end that this was about users participating in brand development. And there was no conventional advertising around," Mr. Brien said.

Innovation and collaboration
The new marketing model also calls for innovation and collaboration among media and creative agencies and brands, Mr. Brien said. He cited a campaign executed by Universal McCann and Interpublic Group of Cos. sibling Lowe for Lynx deodorant in Australia. To target young adult males, the campaign used insight that men find air travel sexy and exciting and then created a campaign that centered around a fake airline. Spots were created to promoted the airline, complete with sexy stewardesses dressed in tight yellow dresses and carrying the line "Lynx Jet -- Get on, Get off." According to Mr. Brien, sales of the deodorant increased within four weeks of the campaign's launch.
"The old notion of integrating and being smart players is an absolute must. ... I don't know whether it's going to go back to full bundling in the way that it was, but the plan will come back together," Mr. Brien said.
He also acknowledged that some marketers are still hesitant about embracing the new marketing model, but that agencies must teach them to love new technology and not fear it. "They always say that the two greatest motivators are love and fear, and I find that many agencies are playing the fear card -- 'The world is collapsing, the sky is falling.' I think it has to be a love thing."
Though the new marketing model may be frightening, it is also an opportunity, Mr. Brien said, "if we have the creative intellectual juice to come up with different approaches.