“There’s a Soldier in All of Us”

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call of dutyCall of Duty: Black Ops is one of the hottest video games coming out on the market just before the holiday season.  Wal-Mart, GameStop and other suppliers are opening at midnight tonight when the game will first be released to the public in the US. The game will be released for PS3, Xbox, and Wii and is widely known for the online play.

I’m not sure if you were watching any of the commercials during the football games yesterday but the commercial for Call of Duty: Black Ops was quite unique. This may have been the first ever Continue reading →

How your Common Sense is hurting your Marketing Sense

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Little Caesars Slogan MarketingThere was a great article posted this week on Ad Age by Al Ries that really hits a point most people do not understand about marketing.  That point is the difference between common sense and marketing sense.  While both are crucial to business operations, you cannot run your operation without one or the other.

Everyone remembers the “Pizza, Pizza” slogan of the 90’s used by Little Caesars, but what most people don’t know is where they are today.  They are virtually invisible.  Ranking as the second largest pizza chain in 1994, they are now sitting in 4th well behind the current leaders Pizza Hut, Domino’s, and Papa John’s.

What happened to Little Caesars is simple. Continue reading →

Are you lovin’ McDonald’s 24-year promo campaign?

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mcdonalds monopolyFor 24 years now, McDonald’s has used one of the most popular promotional games that will always seem to get people excited.  This genius marketing idea lures people in with the chance of winning cash prizes, cars, vacations, gift certificates, as well as free food.  It is extremely rare to see a promotional contest last this many years but I have a feeling this one is here to stay.  Over the past few years the prizes have been getting larger and larger with the top prize being $1 million.  This has only added to the hype as you can see advertisements about the monopoly game on TV, billboards, and hear them on the radio.

Students at the University of Michigan have gotten involved as they created their own blog about their McDonald’s Monopoly experience.  They have vowed to keep track of their game pieces and statistics based on the winning percentages of each item they purchase.  They want to find out if the more expensive items have a greater chance of winning as well as testing McDonald’s claim that one in four wins.  Bargaineering, a personal finance blog, has even posted tips on how to win with the McDonald’s Monopoly game.

What is most exciting for the players is the vast amount of prizes offered by the game.  McDonald’s has teamed up with EA Sports, Wal-Mart, Ford, Beaches Resorts, and several other companies to offer a wide variety of prizes in the U.S.  The contest ends today, so if you’re looking to get that $1 Million top prize good luck.  Although, the guys at University of Michigan say the cheapest item you can get a game piece on is a 24 cent medium water…happy hunting.

(Another Awesome) Video of the Week: Gillette – A Mayne and his razor

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OK, so we have two favorite videos this week. Hey, it’s our blog, we can post two videos if we want to! And this one has actually killed all the competition in views this week, topping the Ad Age charts with 2.5 million views.

I know we bashed Gillette’s last campaign – no need to remind anyone of “Mullet Nation” – but props for getting your stuff together this time, Gillette!

It’s the company’s newest viral – a spot featuring ESPN analyst Kenny Mayne. Mayne peps himself up with a little self-talk before the show, and although it’s a little on the dry side, we like it. This is one of a series of spots featuring other ESPN personalities in Gillette’s newest campaign. Instead of airing on ESPN itself, on Visible Measures’  distribution advice, the ads appeared on guy-oriented video sites like Break.com and DailyMotion’s Mag.ma.

Why advertisers can’t afford not to consider digital advertising

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So what’s the deal with digital? We all know, and by this point love, everything digital. Even if we don’t honestly know what the letters LCD stand for we know it’s a good thing. And when it comes to high definition, whether we’re fast forwarding through infomercials or yelling at a questionable sports call (trust me, the World Cup in HD is totally worth it every four years), as viewers we like what we see.

But consumers aren’t having ALL the fun. Why should advertisers be so excited about digital? Because digital signage advertising is one of the most effective and cost-efficient forms of advertising, way out performing the reach and results of television, online, print, and practically any other medium.

Why should advertisers take a hitch on the digital bandwagon? Studies found that consumers are three times more likely to successfully recall digital advertisements as compared to television, and four times more likely than television ads. Nearly two-thirds of consumers say that digital signage advertising catches their attention – the highest level reported across all media surveyed, including billboards, magazines, TV, the Internet, newspapers, radio, and mobile phone advertising.

If you’re looking for numbers, take these for a spin. It takes an average advertising investment of $21 to reach 1,000 people via television. So how does that compare to the ROI for digital? Continue reading →

Stop doing the same old, well, you know

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OK, so poop jokes aren’t exactly new, but we were trying to make a point here. The point being that marketing today is about really pushing the envelope. It’ s about not just getting creative, but about being getting people’s attention by being different – extreme and outlandish, even. Because if your marketing is none of these things I’ve just described, well then you’re just doing the same old s#!%.

The magazine ad that’s getting attention

Continue reading →

@Companies – Tweeters just aren’t that into you

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In recent marketing history every brand and their mother have been talking about using the most popular social media outlets at hand, in this case, Twitter, for promotion. Well, the companies may be tweeting, but is anyone listening? A study just came out today suggesting that companies still aren’t in on the conversation.

Now this study only considered a sample of 1,800 tweets, which you can only imagine is a fraction of the eternal chirping going on, but if we did assume that the results are a fairly accurate representation of the whole, the study concludes that brands are still having a one-way conversation.

So here’s the deal: 90% of tweets are posted by individual – or “real” – people. Of these tweets, only 12% mention a brand name. Which brand name do you think constitutes most of these shout-outs? Yup, Twitter itself. What other companies made the short list? Apple, Google, YouTube, Microsoft, Blackberry, Amazon, Facebook, Snuggie, ebay and Starbucks, in that order. Continue reading →

But it looked soooo good on TV?!

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kfc chickenkfc chicken

When I was little I always wondered how the kids in the TV commercials poured such perfect bowls of cereal. A crunchy layer of cereal three-inches thick sat on top of a pool of bright white milk. Not a single sugary nugget was disturbed; and none of it ever got soggy when it hit the milk.

That’s never how my cereal bowls looked, I can tell you that! I eventually realized that “as seen on TV” isn’t how it happens in real life. Things are always a little more soggy, a little less golden brown, a bit messier and disproportioned, and never as juicy as they look in the ads. But boy, those food photographers do a heck of a job because they still pull us in every time.

fast food sandwichfast food sandwich

(For more food ads versus reality, check out this site!)

Is it ethical for advertisers to visually enhance their products for the photoshoot? Well, other commodity companies photoshop and air brush their models for ads every day. Is this any different? Not really. But can anyone blame them? If they did photograph and show you how their meal REALLY looks when it leaves the basking light of the heat lamp and hits your tray, would you go out of your way to get it? As consumers we’ve learned not to take certain advertising at face value. We’ve been conditioned on the mass market.

For example, we know that Happy Meals aren’t really nutritious, even if McDonald’s marketing stakes that claim while targeting kids with an irresistible ploy of toys and figurines. Now a public watchdog group in Silicon Valley, California has banned the fast food giant from including toys in their meals and marketing. Apparently they aren’t offering our kids “the best,” as they claim. Since when? Even so, is legal action against McDonald’s marketing focus necessary? What do you think?

http://www.thewvsr.com/adsvsreality.htm