Archive for the ‘Trendspotting’ Category
Friday, July 3rd, 2009
On Thursday, June 25, 2009 the world of pop culture received a jolt of massive proportions as its king, Michael Jackson, passed away. Since then the entire world has been consumed with the sudden death of a mega superstar and everywhere you look people are discussing his immense impact on the world. He was the most successful musician of all time and sold reportedly more than 750 million albums worldwide. To put that in perspective, he sold one album to 11.82% of the world’s 6.7 billion person population. It is simply amazing how he impacted the culture of our world and it was astonishing to watch his fall from superstar to superfreak. Jackson is going to be remembered for many things from music, to almost dropping his child from a balcony, to his impact on the advertising industry.
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Tags: Advertising, Michael Jackson, Pepsi
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Friday, June 19th, 2009
Why is it that every advertising professional in a movie or television show passes a newsstand on their ultra-cool walk to work? The answer, I have no idea, but perhaps Hollywood only understands the Madison Avenue lifestyle of advertising. The real answer is not that important to me but the next time you are walking to work in a movie or passing a newsstand take a second to view the magazine covers. A number of magazine publishers are allowing advertisers to place new and unique ads on their covers.
According to the American Society of Magazine Editors, ads on magazine covers violates a rule which requires a clear separation between editorial space and advertising space; however, the penalty is typically minimal. There are a number of magazine cover advertisements; some examples include, Us Weekly’s mock cover, promoting the HBO movie “Grey Gardens” or Esquire Magazine having a cover with a special pull-back tab for the new Discovery show Trapped but Popular Science this week has taken their cover to a whole new level. Popular Science, with the help of General Electric, has created the first-ever interactive 3-D cover.
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Tags: Advertisement, GE, Interactive, Popular Science, Print, Trendspotting
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Tuesday, June 9th, 2009
Outdoor advertising is a medium that continues to expand the ways in which technology is integrated and utilized. Over the past couple of years, billboards have grown in both size and digital capabilities and now CBS Outdoor is launching a new service to offer clients a way to increase their outdoor brand experience. The service is called Txt2Go, and it allows CBS Outdoor advertisers the opportunity to include a text keyword in outdoor displays. Consumers who view the special text keyword can SMS it back to the advertiser via their mobile phone to take advantage of any additional content advertisers wants to communicate.
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Tags: CBS Outdoor, Outdoor advertising, SMS, Txt2Go
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Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009
KFC, previously known as Kentucky Fried Chicken, has started to launch a number of unique, non-traditional marketing campaigns all focused on changing consumer’s current brand perceptions. These smaller campaigns are happening around the same time as KFC’s announcement to renovate 50 stores nationwide. According to KFC, the first store will open up in the company’s hometown of Louisville, KY and it will look, smell and feel different to consumers.
The first non-traditional marketing tactic done by KFC was an effort to give back to the city of Louisville. The company offered to fill potholes in exchange for free advertising space. KFC, once given clearance, dressed individuals up in the Colonel’s outfit and sent him out to fix the city. Once a pothole was filled in the company would mark the pothole with the words “Refreshed by KFC” in a non-permanent street chalk. KFC chose the word refreshed in order to remind consumers that the chain uses only fresh chicken that is shipped weekly to its stores; but the brand did not stop in Louisville. The chain has offered up the service to a number of U.S. mayors throughout the country. So far, KFC has gotten mixed reviews on these public service-related marketing efforts. Some individuals think that it’s great someone is taking care of the potholes, while others think it’s just another way advertisers are trying to interrupt their lives. No matter what, KFC has people talking about their brand. (more…)
Tags: Chicken, KFC, Non-traditional marketing
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Monday, April 13th, 2009
The effectiveness of television advertising has been placed under scrutiny lately as clients demand their agencies deliver more concrete results in order to help justify advertising budgets. Over the years, the television viewing audience has become more fragmented; there are over 500 cable channels and more than 30 million households have DVRs with the ability to skip advertisements. Clients want to make sure that the consumers they want to reach are actually watching the ads they paid to place. This week, a number of cable companies joined together to announce plans to launch a new interactive television advertising platform. The new platform, referred to as “addressable” advertising, allows advertisers new and exciting targeting opportunities while producing more measureable results.
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Tags: Advertising, Interactive TV, Marketing, TV Ads
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Tuesday, April 7th, 2009
Over the past couple of years, high-speed Internet conductivity has continued to grow. According to a report by Nielsen, more than 67% of Internet households in the US have high-speed Internet access allowing them to access all of the internet’s capabilities. As access grows, so do the number of people who watch videos online. The popular video-sharing Web site, YouTube, receives over 100 million visitors per month quickly making it one of the most popular media outlets available. As the site continues its rise in popularity, the company is making changes to its content structure in order to help drive more advertising revenue. (more…)
Tags: Advertising, Online advertising, youtube
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Thursday, March 26th, 2009
A number of factors are influencing how small-and-medium businesses (SMBs) are deciding to allocate their advertising dollars. First, the economy is a major factor affecting SMB’s advertising budgets. During the time of a recession, SMBs are typically hit hard forcing most to analyze where to cut spending. The majority of SMBs find that advertising budgets are characteristically the first thing to be cut. Second, the ways in which consumers are continually striving towards a more absolute digital lifestyle are demanding SMBs to react. Each and every day consumers are more and more reliable on digital technologies in order to solve their information thirst. SMBs, competing with larger corporations, are looking to digital marketing to help quench consumer’s informational needs while making their companies more relevant to the target audience.
Traditionally, SMBs have been slow to allocate dollars toward the improvements of their digital presence but they can no longer rely on traditional techniques to deliver tangible results. According to a forecast by Borrell Associate titled “Main Street Goes Interactive”, they predict spending by SMBs on “non-adverting” marketing to more than triple over the next five years to $1.63 billion. As consumers demand instant answers in a digital fashion, SMBs are going to have to start to pour money into building out their Web sites in order to stay relevant to their audience’s lifestyle. (MediaPost 3/17/09). SMBs can no longer just have a simple web presence. As the Internet ages and technologies grow consumers expect all companies to update their digital appearance. (more…)
Tags: Advertising, Digital, Search, SMBs
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Tuesday, March 24th, 2009
March is a month known for many great things: the official start of spring, St. Patrick’s Day and that special time of year referred to as March Madness. In case you can’t remember what March Madness is; it’s when the NCAA College basketball tournament takes over America’s attention span. During the last couple weeks of March a total of 64 teams compete in a single elimination tournament to decide who the best college basketball team in the country is. CBS, the broadcaster of March Madness, has made a number of digital partnerships allowing advertisers unique opportunities to get their products in front of American eyes.
Since 2003, CBS has offered March Madness On Demand (MMOD), an online service allowing consumers with an Internet connection to view live games on their computer screen. In 2003, MMOD cost an individual $19.95 to have access to the Webcast; however, today the service is free as advertisers are footing the bill. (more…)
Tags: CBS, Digital, March Madness
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Monday, March 9th, 2009
What do you do when your brand is so large and recognizable that consumers are able to identify any logo ever produced by your company? You start to recycle and go “retro”. For years companies have reverted back to previous logos or package designs in order to tap into consumer’s sense of nostalgia. Brands have always had to update their look, feel, tagline or color to refresh their image in consumer’s minds, but not every brand redesign is popular. Just recently, Tropicana announced they were changing back to their previous logo after an online consumer backlash created an Internet uproar. When it comes to changing your brand’s image, some companies are benefitting from remembering past designs.
General Mills, the king of cereal manufacturers, is launching a unique brand packing campaign that is attracting a substantial amount of consumer attention. General Mills teamed up with Target to launch a month-long promotion granting the retailer the exclusive opportunity to display a number of popular General Mills cereals featuring retro box designs. The promotion runs from February 15 until March 21 and includes the brands: Cheerios, Honey Nut Cheerios, Lucky Charms, Cocoa Puffs and Trix. The old school box designs seen in Target are the exact same as they were years ago with the exception of updated product shots.
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Tags: Advertising, Branding, Retro
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