Decent Marketing

Citizen Advertising

I love football (to my readers around the world, I'm referring to the American version FYI). College and NFL alike. I'm somewhat enjoying the little "stick-it-to-you" campaign that LSU fans are putting together for USC. Yes, I was born in Louisiana. Yes, my dad went to LSU. So I have a bias. But I'm not a meanie. I just found it extremely annoying that ESPN and all the hypemasters decided to market this year's college championship as a potential threepeat, when it simply wouldn't have been even if USC had won this year (which they didn't).

USC was and is a great team. Lots of Heisman Trophy winners and all that. They deserve accolades. But LSU won the BCS last year, my friends, fair and square. That accomplishment shouldn't be ignored. Perhaps the frustration of LSU's fans should be aimed at the sportscasters instead of USC fans, but that's not what's happening ... check out the billboard ad they'll be putting up in the next couple weeks in California: adfreak: LSU ‘Onepeat’ taunt aims for a real dynasty.

I wonder if we're headed toward a trend where citizen marketing includes more citizen advertising?

Tag: marketing

Does this count towards my 15 minutes of fame?

Thought I'd share with you my interview with AdPulp that appeared last week, focusing on experiential marketing. Thank you, David Burn. There were no comments to the post, so I'm not sure anyone else was interested in my thoughts but David. Should I feel sorry for myself? No. I think not. Here's the link: The AdPulp Interview: Katherine Stone - AdPulp.

Save the Blackberry!

Can anyone tell me if there's a SAVE THE BLACKBERRY campaign going on anywhere in the blogosphere or elsewhere?  I'll cry if my Blackberry service is cutoff.  I love my BlackBerry.  Really and truly I do.  If you haven't heard the news, according to MSNBC:

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear an appeal from the maker of the BlackBerry in the long-running battle over patents for the wildly popular, handheld wireless e-mail device.  The high court’s refusal to hear Canada-based Research In Motion Ltd.’s appeal means that a trial judge in Richmond, Va., could impose an injunction against the company and block BlackBerry use among many of its owners in the United States.

Apparently NTP, the company that is suing for patent infringement, is simply a small patent holding firm.  According to Wikipedia, the company's only asset is a set of wireless email patents.  It's not like they actually make products, or ever planned to use the technology from what I can tell.  Can I say I don't like them?  A lot?  Didn't RIM offer to pay them something like $450 million dollars -- was that not enough?

NTP apparently couldn't give a crap less about the 3 million or so people who use a BlackBerry.  (I can't believe it's not more than 3 million.  It seems like everyone I know has one.)  Their comment says it all:

... NTP downplayed the hardship that RIM's commercial customers would suffer from a shutdown, saying "there are "a number of licensed alternatives which can fully meet their requirements."  Among the alternatives to the BlackBerry is the Treo 650 smartphone made by computer and smartphone maker Palm Inc.

My husband has a Treo.  It sucks.  I can't stand the thing.  I don't want one.  I choose BlackBerry.  Give me BlackBerry or give me death! 

Well ... maybe not death.  Maybe a sore throat.

Celebrity Marketing Overkill

Corporations of America, listen up!  Please stop giving awards and free stuff to celebs in an effort to get us to buy.  It doesn't really work. To wit, consider this post on Reveries.com's Cool News of the Day about celebrity gift bags, Bag Swag:

Lavishing gift bags on celebrities may be doing more harm than good to brands and stars alike, suggests Hilary de Vries in a New York Times essay (1/14/06)... it’s now at a point where celebrities “expect to receive thousands of dollars worth of merchandise — jewelry, perfume, sunglasses, cosmetics, vacations, electronics and other assorted bling — in exchange for even brief appearances at glamorous events.” Problem is, “the gift bag industry has become so over-saturated that it no longer works as advertised.”

... what are the chances that swag will stimulate sales? Not very good, apparently. Even if the celeb likes and uses the product, what are the chances consumers will care? Not that good, either. As Hilary observes: “You don’t need to look at the dismal state of the movie industry, the declines in ticket sales and the growing ennui among audiences to know that stardom has undergone a serious devaluation, that celebrity has become another commodity and a pretty cheap one at that.”

Amen.  The only people this kind of marketing really benefits are the stars who get lots of nice free stuff when they are in the best position of anyone to be able to afford it.  It drives me crazy to watch multimillion dollar heiress Paris Hilton poring over the gift tables and picking out opulent goodies like she's at some rich person's version of Goodwill.  Check out this video to see swagness in full swing right now at the Sundance Film Festival (click on the "Sundance Swag" video and watch Rob Lowe and Terrence Howard with armfuls of merchandise -- can you believe they're promoting this?). 

I can see every now and then that getting products in the hands of celebs can help their cool factor.  But celebrity marketing seems to have hit the apex of silliness.  Wait, no.  There's even more silliness to attain.  The new genius is the presentation of fake awards by brands to celebs at award shows.  At the Not Billable blog, Irene Done observes:

"How was your People's Choice Awards watching party? Mine was fantastic! And in case you missed it, these were the big winners:

-- Crest Whitestrips Fans Favorite Smile: Cameron Diaz.
-- Nice 'N Easy Fans Favorite Hair: Faith Hill.
-- Olay Total Effects Fans Favorite Look: Jennifer Aniston

So seamless, so integral to the content -- it's like you couldn't even tell it's a Procter & Gamble production! And even though they have to admit that the winners are notified in advance, the whole thing was still filled with suspense and genuine excitement. Right?

Right.  "Entertainment Tonight" (yes, I'm shallow and am sheepishly willing to admit I watch Entertainment Tonight) has been doing this with the brand Pantene.  A cheesy announcer comes on the show and informs us that so-and-so won the Pantene Award for shiniest hair or whatever -- Charlize Theron was lucky enough to win for her tresses at the Golden Globes.  I wonder if she displays her Pantene Award right next to her Oscar.

Please stop the madness.  For more information on this, check out Grant McCracken's great piece on product placement as marketing malfeasance. 

Tags: marketing product placement celebrity swag

Marketing Copy for the Heat Activated Urinal Billboard

Decent marketers, the signs of the apocalypse are upon us ...

"The world of 'Interactive' Urinal Advertising is endless... HAUB (Heat Activated Urinal Billboards) has taken heat sensitive ink technology to a new level. This innovative medium combines high definition color graphics, hidden by 'disappearing ink' delivering an interactive message to a captive audience... A perfect strategy to get your message across.

Used successfully in a drink driving campaign in New Zealand, it is a perfect Billboard to deliver any message to a male audience. Strategically placed in the corner of a urinal, (yes that's correct... studies show that 8-10 males prefer the corner), it's sure to generate interest when a male enters the bathroom.

The heat in a male's urine will deliver the message and the automatic flush from the toilet will re-set it for the next unsuspecting visitor... A perfect repetitive marketing tactic.

• Because it's New
  With so much advertising being thrown at consumers these days, people tend to switch off!! HAUB will give you on average 45 seconds of undivided attention from a male, and studies also show that males will take notice when it's in the toilet. The interest generated by HAUB in New Zealand, did more for drink driving awareness than any other campaign of its type in the past.
• Guerilla marketing at its best
  HAUB will deliver your message when a male urinates on the board, it will reset to a black poster when the urinal does an automatic flush, ready for the next visitor. The perfect guerilla medium.
• Demonsratable Success
  Its novel, amusing and will definitely get people talking, we discovered by combining HAUB with traditional indoor advertising you are guaranteed to reach perfect saturation of your campaigns message. It's worked before why not for your campaign...
• The elusive Male
  HAUB is a messaging medium - an exciting and unique way of conveying any message or illustration. Males can be a particularly hard target market to penetrate, however our novel delivery gets your message across when they are most vulnerable... the toilet.
• Long life and reliable
  HAUB boards will last for 3 to six months, depending on the amount of use and cleaning chemicals used. This will give repetitive exposure of you message throughout your campaign to your targeted audience."

There's just not much more I can add.  Thank you, Innovative Solutions Oceania.