Live shows are becoming a great way for brands to interact with consumers. This concert was a big success for Alain Miklli eye wear in Japan.
This spring a normally conservative client, Nestle, will sponsor the Bamboozle Festival and USA Tour for WONKA candies no less…Let’s see if that raises the brand’s profile in the eyes of teens…
Check out the link…
http://www.thebamboozle.com
This video will give you a few ideas how to take advantage of the power of the iPhone for marketing and advertising.
For the second year, Kentucky Fried Chicken is working with Yahoo to take advantage of the large public interest in the NCAA “March Madness” basketball championships in a way that avoids expensive official sponsorship.
KFC is one of several brand advertisers using Yahoo and the Web to capitalize on such big sporting events without buying high-priced TV ads or other cost-prohibitive placements that usually involve official involvement or sponsorship.
As it did last year, KFC is again serving as the March Madness “Tournament Pick’em” sponsor on Yahoo Sports. Fans will be able to create printable tournament brackets that can be taken to KFC restaurants nationwide to garner discounts on hot wings. Yahoo regional sales VP Chris Karl said KFC was so pleased with the success of last year’s similar campaign it is committing to Yahoo all of its March Madness online ad spend.
“The Yahoo relationship is a great one, with excellent visibility for our brand with a key customer base, and we’re going for a breakthrough number of impressions and video views compared to last year,” said a KFC spokesman. KFC’s 15-second commercial spot is included with each view of tournament video highlights and the printable bracket.
With the NCAA championships, a 4.5-week marathon of games involving 64 teams, college basketball fans rabidly participate in Yahoo’s “Tournament Pick’em” game, Karl said. He called the month “arguably one of the best opportunities to engage sports fans because of the length of time.”
I would love to see some MMS, Tethering, Background Processes, UNLIMITED APP PAGES, Easy App Management, Overhaul of the Springboard (Not that I don’t love it, I just think it needs a refresh, Video Recording, and Whatever removes all the gripes from the first iPhone software!
Let’s see.
As consumers troll online to save money, searches that include value words such as “coupons” rose 161% in December vs. 2007 to 19.9 million and “discount” rose 26% to 7.9 million, reports tracker ComScore.
As a result, spending by marketers on such search words is up, too. They bid online to tie their brands to search terms so their website appears as a “sponsored link” above the unpaid results or their text ad is to the right of the results. They generally offer to pay from 4 cents to $1 each time someone clicks on the link or ad.
Google, which controls 60% of the paid search ad market and whose AdWords is the largest auction system, says ad spending on value-related words such as coupons rose 30% in the fourth quarter over the same period a year earlier.
“Search is very much a barometer of the times,” says John Burke, Google director of industry development.
Promotion Marketing Association Coupon distribution and redemption had been flat in 2008 until the fourth quarter, when coupon distribution rose 7.5% and redemptions rose 15% vs. a year earlier, the Promotion Marketing Association says.
“That’s when consumers suddenly starting saying this is for real and marketers said we need to react with more coupons to keep our sales up,” says Charles Brown, co-chair of PMA’s coupon council and a vice president for coupon company NCH.
Brown says the Web is the fastest-growing coupon distribution medium for big marketers, up 80% in 2008.
How they are searching for sales:
Kraft.
Last fall it added “cooking on a budget” and “value” to its search roster. Offers include $1 coupons for Kraft Macaroni & Cheese.
“We are using some different methods of paid search to reach people,” says Basil Maglaris, Kraft spokesman.
Procter & Gamble.
A brand search for Crest Whitening Strips will yield a $7 coupon. “By understanding what search terms to buy we are able to better understand how consumers are searching for our products,” spokeswoman Barbara Hauser says.
Unilever.
A search campaign linking coupon terms with Bertolli’s Oven Bake Meals boosted clicks for a $2 coupon. It’s been “generating a 25% to 30% click-through rate on couponing terms,” says Russel Lilly, senior brand manager. Even better, people buy the meals: The coupon has had a 30% redemption rate.
Selling a 50-year-old icon to the seven-year-old set likely wasn’t going to be a cakewalk anyway. But this probably wasn’t the way Mattel would have wanted to open the campaign.
The toymaker, preparing to launch an anniversary effort to make its half-century-old Barbie product more relevant and appealing to a consumer easily distracted by videos, games and all things digital, posted a fourth quarter that’s nothing short of forgettable – if not outright regrettable. Net fell 46%, as margins declined and internationl sales slumped.
Earnings missed forecasts by a huge margin – coming in at 49 cents a share, versus projections of 76 cents, as the company’s net plunged 46% on a year-over-year basis. Revenue came up short of forecasts, hurt, in part, by the performance of the dollar.
Still, this wasn’t any kind of mechanical, currency-driven shortfall.
According to Wall Street this is a dismal company, with a poorly performing product line and a management that’s willing to blame the economy, rather than figure out how to turn around its signature products. ”Barbie” – at least as a brand – is a global icon. Yet, sales plunged 21% year-over-year.
What can be done to revive the brand? I am giving it some real thought.
A new Harris Interactive study on people’s attitudes toward the economy and technology reveals that despite skyrocketing fuel prices and rising costs for daily household staples, over one-third of consumers say the dire economy will not affect their spending habits. 
Harris Interactive reports that the majority (60 percent) of consumers who will now limit their discretionary spending will curtail going out to restaurants (74 percent) and limit their purchase of electronics (71 percent), among other choices like buying fewer clothes and taking fewer vacations.
Grabbing consumer’s attention through their mobile devices is seen as an increasingly viable advertising channel. To many the use of mobile phones has become an indispensable part of their lives.
People are actually severing ties to land lines with increasing frequency. According to a new study from the National Center for Health Statistics, 16 percent of U.S. homes are using wireless phones exclusively – more than double the amount from the same period in 2004.
These trends support the push by marketers to leverage mobile advertising as part of an integrated marketing program to promote their brands and sell products and services, Harris analysts conclude – especially during difficult economic times.
Business may be slowing for many companies but, the fact is, there are a lot of people who are still spending money and even those cutting back still need to buy essentials. The key is to reach out to them through innovative marketing including mobile advertising and provide the right incentives to capture their business.
The Harris Interactive research indicates that mobile advertising, especially via mobile phones, can gain a foothold among this large and growing group if it is unobtrusive, targeted toward an individual’s personal tastes and offers something unique.
Among adults surveyed, 37 percent said they would be interested in viewing mobile ads with incentives.
No other advertising medium approaches the personal relationship consumers have with their mobile devices. This relationship needs to be respected, but can be leveraged by marketers through robust segmentation and personalization.
The key is to gain consumer interest by providing them with something traditional advertising cannot.
Harris Interactive asked survey respondents to identify the best mobile advertising incentives. Cash is king, with 80 percent of adults identifying it as the top incentive for responding to mobile advertising. 
Among adults, free minutes (49 percent) and discount coupons (37 percent) are appealing incentives. Free entertainment (31 percent) and music (24 percent) downloads also captured the attention of adults.
In terms of how these incentives should best be delivered, the Harris Interactive research indicates text messaging is the most preferred advertising approach among over two-thirds (69 percent of adults consumers.
The allure of video imagery in mobile advertising is key and 30% more of these adult mobile technology users are open to ads being transferred automatically to their email than in the past.
“Adults are growing more accustomed to mobile advertising, but it appears this technology in general has yet to deliver the needed advertising experience to consumers, but this will surely come as the medium evolves,” said Judith Ricker, division president, Harris Interactive research group.
“No matter how mobile advertising messages are delivered, our research shows that consumers demand that if a company is going to invade their personal space with advertising, it better be for something of interest to them so personalization is hyper-critical.” 
Providing personal information to marketers to help them target advertising messages and products has always been a sensitive topic, but more than half, 54 percent of adult respondents said they are comfortable doing so for mobile advertisers, especially if offered for the right incentive.
Like any good advertising, mobile ads must be relevant to consumers by conveying a clear value proposition, as well as tightly integrated into marketing campaigns that are aligned with the overall brand strategy. Adult consumers in will provide some degree of personal information to help marketers achieve this.
Paul Harvey, the news commentator and talk-radio pioneer whose staccato style made him one of the nation’s most familiar voices, died Saturday in Arizona, according to ABC Radio Networks. He was 90. I really enjoyed listening to him when I lived in the USA.
He was known for his resonant voice and trademark delivery of The Rest of the Story, Harvey had been heard nationally since 1951, when he began his “News and Comment” for ABC Radio Networks.
He became a heartland icon, delivering news and commentary with a distinctive Midwestern flavor. “Stand by for news!” he told his listeners. He was credited with inventing or popularizing terms such as “skyjacker,” “Reaganomics” and “guesstimate.” Guesstimate I use every week!
