Motel Six has been running a heavy schedule of radio spots in the DC market in recent weeks. They are still using their "spokesperson" Tom Bodet. And he still uses their signature tag, "We'll leave the light on for you." They understand who they are as a brand and who their customers are. The copy writing is excellent in the latest advertising. One of the latest spots this line -- "and at Motel Six we have free Wi-fi. Which stands for wireless..fi-something." Pitch perfect.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Auto Makers Need To Fear Apple and Facebook
via adage.com
Really interesting article in Ad Age this week about the decline in younger drivers. http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=144155
It is clear that the Internet is direct competition for the automobile. It used to be the way to be free and see your friends was to get your license and drive. Not any more. Just log on to Facebook. No need to leave your room.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Battered KFC Gives Itself Another Spin - Advertising Age - News
via adage.com
KFC's marketing is hopelessly lost. Its not hard to see how they got here. They are, and have been, the market leader in fast food chicken for years. They got there with Finger Licking Good fried chicken. At some point, consumer demand for greasy, heavy food began to change. So KFC had to adjust its menu away from Finger Licking Good chicken.
This is where their marketing nightmare began. With a changing menu they the tried what seemed like a new slogan every month. Let's hope that Unthink is the last of these changing slogans. What the hell is Unthink? Seriously? Its like Think Outside the Bun, only not effective and stupid.
But perhaps marketing isn't the problem. Perhaps the product is the problem. After all, Taco Bells campaign has worked because young men want to it its food. Who is dying to eat new KFC products? Well, perhaps, like me, you can't actually think of a new product they serve. That might make it a little difficult to crave it wouldn't it?
Ad Age reports that the company is launching a new campaign. "So Good" doesn't sound any more promising, but maybe they will stick with it long enough to come up with product people actually want to eat.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Apple Adobe Spat Is Proving Irresistible
Is it just me, or is this spat between Apple and Adobe regarding the use of Flash on Apple products gotten to be irresistible in the way a beheading may have been in medieval England? And this morning Adobe ran a full page ad in the WSJ with the headline "We (HEART) Apple!" Looks like, unfortunately for Adobe there other technologies that advertisers can use.....stay tuned. This isn't over yet. From ReadWriteWeb:
Apple Flash Ban Good for Greystripe: Company Behind "iFlash" Ads Sees
200% Growth Written by Sarah Perez / May 13, 2010 7:08 AM / 1 Comments « Prior Post Next Post »
No Flash on the iPhone? It's not a problem for advertisers, apparently. Developers tasked with creating rich media ad units for Apple's popular mobile devices have been busy porting their Flash-created ad collateral into an iPhone-friendly HTML5 format using mobile ad firm Greystripe's "iFlash" ad technology, which provides a Flash-like ad experience. The iFlash ad format has become so popular, in fact, that Greystripe is just now announcing a 200% growth spike for these "iFlash" ads following the iAds announcement. According to news the company linked to by way of Twitter post , but not press release , the growth for the 18-month old iFlash technology is due to the experience it offers, something that's similar to Apple's recently announced iAds technology. Like iAds, iFlash also provides rich media animation, touch interactivity and click-through actions, all of which are available without leaving the mobile application where the ad appears. Greystripe's CEO Michael Chang sees iAds' imitation as a form of flattery in this case, proof that his company is doing it right. "Apple's selection of an ad format almost identical to our 'iFlash Custom' ads is a testament to the incredible potential of interactive, rich media mobile advertising and the value of customer engagement," he is quoted as saying. The company claims it holds a 75% market share on the full screen rich media mobile market and have ads that reach 14 million unique monthly users in the U.S. Over the past two years, it has served over 2 billion full screen rich media impressions. Recent reports from comScore Inc. put the CTR for these iFlash ads at 2-5% on average, with 15-30+ seconds of user engagement. While "fat-fingering" may contribute to some accidental ad launches, it's the engagement time that's really telling. Spending /half a minute/ watching or interactivity with an ad is proof that creative, engaging ads can and do appeal to mobile users. (At least for now. Web banner ads used to be popular too, believe it or not).
Flash's Backdoor to iPhone What's interesting about this news, besides, of course, the incredible growth rates the company is seeing, is how the iFlash ad technology actually works. It takes pre-created rich media ad units that were built using Adobe Flash and transcodes them to run on the iPhone, iPod Touch and, as of this month, iPad. The resulting ads are transformed into HTML5 format, a web standard that is supported on Apple's iPhone operating system. For ad developers used to working with Flash technology, iFlash is essentially a workaround for the Flash ban on Apple devices, explained in detail by Steve Jobs himself back in April. Apple caused quite a stir when it announced that iPhone apps created using Adobe's now-discontinued Packager for iPhone would not be allowed into the iTunes App Store, prompting Jobs' eventual response to all the hubbub. The Adobe software had allowed developers to create mobile applications using Flash and then port those to an iPhone-ready format. Although the technologies behind the Adobe converter and the iFlash transcoder are quite different on the back-end, the idea is the same: /create with Flash, then port to iPhone./ With Apple's iAds launch just around the corner, one wonders if Apple will continue to allow a Flash transcoding product that competes directly with their own advertising initiatives to remain in business. Booting them out, though, would be tricky. After all, iFlash ads are in supported HTML5 format. Still, considering Jobs' opinions on Flash , it must irk him to see that Flash developers have found such an easy workaround for the Flash ban, if not for apps, at least for ads
Apple Flash Ban Good for Greystripe: Company Behind "iFlash" Ads Sees
200% Growth Written by Sarah Perez / May 13, 2010 7:08 AM / 1 Comments « Prior Post Next Post »
No Flash on the iPhone? It's not a problem for advertisers, apparently. Developers tasked with creating rich media ad units for Apple's popular mobile devices have been busy porting their Flash-created ad collateral into an iPhone-friendly HTML5 format using mobile ad firm Greystripe's "iFlash" ad technology, which provides a Flash-like ad experience. The iFlash ad format has become so popular, in fact, that Greystripe is just now announcing a 200% growth spike for these "iFlash" ads following the iAds announcement. According to news the company linked to by way of Twitter post , but not press release , the growth for the 18-month old iFlash technology is due to the experience it offers, something that's similar to Apple's recently announced iAds technology. Like iAds, iFlash also provides rich media animation, touch interactivity and click-through actions, all of which are available without leaving the mobile application where the ad appears. Greystripe's CEO Michael Chang sees iAds' imitation as a form of flattery in this case, proof that his company is doing it right. "Apple's selection of an ad format almost identical to our 'iFlash Custom' ads is a testament to the incredible potential of interactive, rich media mobile advertising and the value of customer engagement," he is quoted as saying. The company claims it holds a 75% market share on the full screen rich media mobile market and have ads that reach 14 million unique monthly users in the U.S. Over the past two years, it has served over 2 billion full screen rich media impressions. Recent reports from comScore Inc. put the CTR for these iFlash ads at 2-5% on average, with 15-30+ seconds of user engagement. While "fat-fingering" may contribute to some accidental ad launches, it's the engagement time that's really telling. Spending /half a minute/ watching or interactivity with an ad is proof that creative, engaging ads can and do appeal to mobile users. (At least for now. Web banner ads used to be popular too, believe it or not).
Flash's Backdoor to iPhone What's interesting about this news, besides, of course, the incredible growth rates the company is seeing, is how the iFlash ad technology actually works. It takes pre-created rich media ad units that were built using Adobe Flash and transcodes them to run on the iPhone, iPod Touch and, as of this month, iPad. The resulting ads are transformed into HTML5 format, a web standard that is supported on Apple's iPhone operating system. For ad developers used to working with Flash technology, iFlash is essentially a workaround for the Flash ban on Apple devices, explained in detail by Steve Jobs himself back in April. Apple caused quite a stir when it announced that iPhone apps created using Adobe's now-discontinued Packager for iPhone would not be allowed into the iTunes App Store, prompting Jobs' eventual response to all the hubbub. The Adobe software had allowed developers to create mobile applications using Flash and then port those to an iPhone-ready format. Although the technologies behind the Adobe converter and the iFlash transcoder are quite different on the back-end, the idea is the same: /create with Flash, then port to iPhone./ With Apple's iAds launch just around the corner, one wonders if Apple will continue to allow a Flash transcoding product that competes directly with their own advertising initiatives to remain in business. Booting them out, though, would be tricky. After all, iFlash ads are in supported HTML5 format. Still, considering Jobs' opinions on Flash , it must irk him to see that Flash developers have found such an easy workaround for the Flash ban, if not for apps, at least for ads
Friday, May 7, 2010
The Smartest Move GM Has Made in a Long Time
Who was one of the best marketers of the last couple of years? Hyundai. Not even just the best car marketer. What they have been able to do is nothing short of miraculous. It was a sound long term strategy that was made successful through smart, effective marketing. And now GM has gotten its hands on Joel Ewanick, former marketing head of Hyundai. It also looks like he held out until he got the control he needs to actually be successful. Something tells me that GM is a company to look out for in the next 18 months. ewanick From Forbes.com
/
GM Scores A Marketing Coup
Joann Muller, 05.05.10, 1:55 PM ET General Motors' revolving door of management continued Wednesday with the naming of a new vice president of U.S. marketing, but this one ought to be a keeper. GM snatched Joel Ewanick, Forbes' CMO of the Year in 2009, from Nissan North America, which had just hired him away from Hyundai two months ago. He's being handed perhaps the toughest job in marketing: resurrecting GM's Chevrolet, Buick, Cadillac and GMC brands after a decades-long slide capped off by GM's 2009 bankruptcy. GM’s cars are greatly improved, but old perceptions die hard. GM’s government-sponsored bankruptcy only made the job tougher. “People are angry with GM for taking a lot of government money and they won't even consider buying a GM vehicle,” said John Wolkonowicz, automotive analyst at I HS Global Insight. “And there’s nothing they can do about it until the time is right to do an IPO [initial public offering] and they can pay the taxpayer back.” Ewanick, who will report to GM's North American president, Mark Reuss, will start May 24. He replaces Susan Docherty, whose star seemed to have fallen as quickly as it rose under new chief executive Edward Whitacre Jr. But that's the way it is at GM these days. Whitacre is pressuring executives to perform, and if they don't, they're out. In April GM's sales rose 7.2%, well off the industry's growth pace of 19.8%. So Docherty, who'd already been stripped of her sales duties, is now out as chief marketer too. (GM said Docherty's future role will be announced later.) It was Reuss who decided to replace Docherty with Ewanick just two months after he reorganized GM's sales and marketing leadership, including Docherty as vice president of marketing, declaring, "This is the winning team." Reuss was not available Wednesday to talk about his change of heart. In a statement, Reuss said, "Susan has been deeply involved in GM's sales and marketing initiatives for many years. With her drive and focus, she has laid the groundwork for solid plans and rejuvenated our agency relationships, placing us in good stead for the future. We look forward to her contribution across the business moving forward." Outside marketing experts, though, called the move long overdue. "They had their backs against the wall and they absolutely had to do this," said Peter M. DeLorenzo, a 22-year automotive marketing veteran who now runs Autoextremist.com, a blog devoted to the auto industry. Ewanick made his mark at Hyundai, where he is credited with developing last year's "Hyundai Assurance" program, which guaranteed customers could return their Hyundai purchases with no credit implications should they lose their jobs. In an interview DeLorenzo said GM had tried to hire Ewanick before he went to Nissan, but the deal fell apart because GM wanted to protect its old guard. He wrote on his blog: "Ewanick is smart enough to know that without the CMO title, and without absolute control over GM's marketing efforts, he wouldn't stand a chance to make an impact, so he walked away. Finally Mark Reuss stepped in and made it happen." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The timing isn't ideal, however, DeLorenzo pointed out. Chevrolet is about to launch an advertising campaign created by its new agency, Publicis Worldwide, reportedly featuring the tagline "Excellence for All." Cadillac's new agency, Bartle, Bogle, Hegarty, is also working on a new campaign. Ewanick will have to decide quickly whether the ads can match GM's iconic campaigns of the past--like "See the USA in your Chevrolet"--or he won't last long either. /
/
GM Scores A Marketing Coup
Joann Muller, 05.05.10, 1:55 PM ET General Motors' revolving door of management continued Wednesday with the naming of a new vice president of U.S. marketing, but this one ought to be a keeper. GM snatched Joel Ewanick, Forbes' CMO of the Year in 2009, from Nissan North America, which had just hired him away from Hyundai two months ago. He's being handed perhaps the toughest job in marketing: resurrecting GM's Chevrolet, Buick, Cadillac and GMC brands after a decades-long slide capped off by GM's 2009 bankruptcy. GM’s cars are greatly improved, but old perceptions die hard. GM’s government-sponsored bankruptcy only made the job tougher. “People are angry with GM for taking a lot of government money and they won't even consider buying a GM vehicle,” said John Wolkonowicz, automotive analyst at I HS Global Insight. “And there’s nothing they can do about it until the time is right to do an IPO [initial public offering] and they can pay the taxpayer back.” Ewanick, who will report to GM's North American president, Mark Reuss, will start May 24. He replaces Susan Docherty, whose star seemed to have fallen as quickly as it rose under new chief executive Edward Whitacre Jr. But that's the way it is at GM these days. Whitacre is pressuring executives to perform, and if they don't, they're out. In April GM's sales rose 7.2%, well off the industry's growth pace of 19.8%. So Docherty, who'd already been stripped of her sales duties, is now out as chief marketer too. (GM said Docherty's future role will be announced later.) It was Reuss who decided to replace Docherty with Ewanick just two months after he reorganized GM's sales and marketing leadership, including Docherty as vice president of marketing, declaring, "This is the winning team." Reuss was not available Wednesday to talk about his change of heart. In a statement, Reuss said, "Susan has been deeply involved in GM's sales and marketing initiatives for many years. With her drive and focus, she has laid the groundwork for solid plans and rejuvenated our agency relationships, placing us in good stead for the future. We look forward to her contribution across the business moving forward." Outside marketing experts, though, called the move long overdue. "They had their backs against the wall and they absolutely had to do this," said Peter M. DeLorenzo, a 22-year automotive marketing veteran who now runs Autoextremist.com, a blog devoted to the auto industry. Ewanick made his mark at Hyundai, where he is credited with developing last year's "Hyundai Assurance" program, which guaranteed customers could return their Hyundai purchases with no credit implications should they lose their jobs. In an interview DeLorenzo said GM had tried to hire Ewanick before he went to Nissan, but the deal fell apart because GM wanted to protect its old guard. He wrote on his blog: "Ewanick is smart enough to know that without the CMO title, and without absolute control over GM's marketing efforts, he wouldn't stand a chance to make an impact, so he walked away. Finally Mark Reuss stepped in and made it happen." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The timing isn't ideal, however, DeLorenzo pointed out. Chevrolet is about to launch an advertising campaign created by its new agency, Publicis Worldwide, reportedly featuring the tagline "Excellence for All." Cadillac's new agency, Bartle, Bogle, Hegarty, is also working on a new campaign. Ewanick will have to decide quickly whether the ads can match GM's iconic campaigns of the past--like "See the USA in your Chevrolet"--or he won't last long either. /
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Apple Keeps Changing The Landscape
I held my first iPad this week. Ok. I am sold. Apple is simply unbelievable. I don't NEED and iPad, but I WANT one badly. But perhaps more importantly, we see huge potential for our sales force (development officers) to take these devices on the road loaded up with Keynote presentations, videos and photos to help make our case. The potential as a business tool is huge.
And don't underestimate the utility in the home. Check out this guy who has made a custom cabinet in the kitchen. Very smart. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cq6My3kEqqk
Thu May 6, 2010
*ReadWriteWeb*
* iPad Killing Netbooks Already? *An interesting chart released from Morgan Stanley Research this morning shows
that during the month of April - the month the iPad launched - netbook sales
stalled. Did the iPad really have that much impact on an industry that was once
the fastest-growing segment of the PC market? Or was the netbook's fall from
grace bound to happen at some point,...Continue Reading »
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Don't Waste Your Promotion Dollars
My first thought was "why would the company do this?" They can't be making money on a haircut at this price. But the more I thought about, the smarter I thought it was. Think about it. If you like the person who cuts your hair or the way they cut your hair, you will go to that person even if the price goes up a bit. So it is a classic loss leader strategy. I get it.
About the time I have this thought, the spot is over and I realize I didn't actually know the name of the company promoting the $4.99 haircut. Was it Hair Cuttery? Or one of the other chains? What are their names?
So I googled $4.99 haircuts. Which I am sure plenty of other people did. But I the results surprised me. I didn't get anything clean. I got a couple of "retail offer" aggregator site results. And about half way down a result for Great Clips. Could it have been a Great Clips spot I heard?
I clicked on their site. Try it. Great Clips home page. Do you see a $4.99 offer on there anywhere? I don't. And not under any of the tabs.
So then I click on their Facebook page that they promote.....seriously? A Great Clips Facebook fan page? Ok, I guess. And I look there for their announcement of the offer. But I can't find it, but I do see some fans talking about the a $5.99 promotion and then another about the $4.99 promotion.
Next I Google it again and look at the "Coupon" sites that have come up. It looks like I need a coupon for the haircut. Fatwallet.
Was there a print component to this campaign? Postcard coupons perhaps? That would make sense. Did it tell me where my nearest Great Clips was or did it drive me to the web? Did it drive me to a "send a friend a coupon" feature?
Here's my point. Great Cuts obviously spent money, good money I would imagine, to run a morning drive time spot to promote a product. But they did not have their channels aligned. At the very least, the promotion should have been on the home page of the company site. I guess a splash page for the promo replacing the homepage temporarily would be to much to ask.
I don't want a $4.99 haircut. But I know people will. Make it easy for them next time. If you spend for a promotion, create a mousetrap where all your channels lead back to each other.
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