Middle Finger Marketing

I really enjoyed this post from Greg Verdino's blog where Greg reflects on how big-budget marketing moves like slapping your name on a sports arena can actually create animosity among your customers.

In his real-life example, Greg had just gotten off a flight where staff was overworked, space was limited and bags of peanuts no longer flow freely from the carts of perky flight attendants.

We can all accept these little sacrifices in a time where most businesses are struggling to keep afloat. However, upon hopping in a cab Greg came face to face with an arena sponsored by the very airline that served up a down-graded customer service experience. This, says he, is middle finger marketing. Spending the big bucks on flashy branding projects instead of on the customer experience - right under our noses!

Think about it, in these time there is probably more value in creating a buzz-worthy customer experience that will generate free word-of-mouth advertising from a trusted source (our own friends and family!) than shelling out to sponsor an event that most of us can no longer afford to attend.

Celebrity Endorsements Gone Wrong

In the past week or so, we've seen a few celebrity endorsement deals go south - most prominently, Michael Phelps for Kellogg and Chris Brown for Wrigley's.

It was also rumored that Subway was considering dropping Phelps as a spokesperson after the Olympic gold medalist was photographed smoking marijuana at a college party. Now, even the conservative among us know that smoking marijuana is popularly linked to binge eating, so the fact that food brands were dropping endorsement deals exposed the companies to some amount of ridicule, including a Saturday Night Live skit surrounding Kellogg. Bloggers, forums and news writers have have been abuzz with clever quips about Subway sandwiches being the perfect food for college smokers nationwide.

The Chris Brown case unfortunately takes on a more serious note, as he was arrested for assaulting his girlfriend, the famous Rihanna. Brown has been suspended "until the matter is resolved" from his major endorsement deal with Wrigley's Doublemint Gum. The partnership was a new frontier in advertising - Wrigley's actually financed and produced Brown's song specifically for their campaign - a modern day, tricked out jingle, if you will. Brown also endorses a number of other projects - at this time it is not clear if these are also in jeopardy. He has been forced to pull out of his scheduled NBA All-Star Game appearance this weekend in Phoenix, surely meaning more lost revenue for the singer so that the NBA can save face.

The bigger question here is not what will happen to these individuals, but what will happen to celebrity endorsements as a whole. Marketers post big bucks to associate their brand with a celebrity - and this week has been a clear example of how these efforts can backfire, exposing a brand to ridicule or unpleasant associations and leaving an unpleasant taste (how appropriate, in this case) in consumers collective mouths.

GPS Targeting Personalizes Bus Ads

A New York CBS news station is reporting that Manhattan buses are testing a new technology that allows for ads to changed based on the location of the bus.

The ads, which are more like TV commercials than traditional outdoor advertising, can also be made time-sensitive, showing breakfast items in the morning and beer at happy hour.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority reports that ads could be seen on as many as 200 bus routes by early next year.

WCBS via Gizmodo

LinkedIn to Launch Ad Network

To capitalize on high membership rates and a desirable audience profile, LinkedIn has announced the birth of its own ad network.

LinkedIn will launch the network, in conjunction with Collective Media, on Monday. The CPM (cost per thousand impressions) starts at an astoundingly high $30 at a time when most social networks are struggling to sell at rates of $1 CPM. Text ads are available at a lower cost. LinkedIn is able to demand higher rates because of their affluent and influential customer base. With an average household income of $110,000, 64 percent of LinkedIn members are male, the average age is 41, and 49 percent are business decision makers.

The network will utilize partner sites. LinkedIn browsers will be cookied upon visiting the site. Members will be grouped into different, targetable categories to serve up ads on partner websites. Users will, of course, be able to opt out.

A simpler way to avoid companies tracking your every move? Set your browser to periodically clear cookies.

More details and stats at TechCrunch.

Coupons Make a Comeback

Hard times call for Sundays spent clipping coupons from your local paper.

A Prospectiv study published by Brandweek indicates that 72% of consumers are using more coupons today than they were six months ago. 81% of those polled admit to using coupons at the grocery store.

Most consumers are getting their coupons for newspapers and magazines, but there was some interest in receiving them via direct mail (39%) or email (26%). In fact, though newspapers are a popular way to obtaining coupons now, only 14% of those polled indicated it was their preferred method for future coupon clipping.

Good news for online advertisers (and for trees):

80% of participants said they would be very likely or likely to increase their use of coupons if they could be tailored to their interests and delivered online.

TV Still the Main Source of News in America

Despite the rise in popularity of blogs and online news feeds, Americans are still getting most of their news through the good, ol' fashioned TV set.

The unsurprising results of a Pew Research Center's biannual survey, released Sunday, show that younger Americans trend toward online news, while older citizens op for the traditional television broadcasts.

According to Pew, there is now a sizable group of a more engaged, sophisticated and well-off people, called "integrators," that use both traditional and online sources to get their news - accounting for 23% of the surveyed group.

"Like Web-oriented news consumers, integrators are affluent and highly educated. However they are older, on average, than those who consider the Internet their main source of news," the survey said.

The survey also showed that the heaviest news viewers tend to be older and of a less affluent, accounting for the trend to seek out news on TV rather than online. Cable news is gaining popularity with TV viewers, with local broadcasts losing steam.

As expected, there has been an overall decline in the percentage of people who said they read a newspaper the day before [the survey], to 34 percent from 40 percent two years ago.

Those who rely on the internet for their news have a median age of 35 and make up the smallest percentage of the polled audience. However, when combined with the "integrators" who are trending toward online sources as well, this makes up a significant group for advertisers to pursue.

NBC Now Selling Reserve Supply of Olympic Advertising

According to AdvertisingAge, NBC has sold off $10 million dollars of Olympic advertising time in the first part of this week, indicating that they'd been holding back supplies in order to lure in potential advertisers with impressive viewer-ship numbers.

This added revenue is coming from both new and existing parties and tops off the $1 billion of ads NBC has already sold going in to the Games.

This year's Game have garnered 168 million viewers in the first five days, surpassing the numbers from Athens in 2004. The vast majority of these eyes have come from TV views, and NBC is battling criticism that they are slacking on streaming online coverage in order to force people to watch TV broadcasts, which bring in higher advertising revenues.

NBC says that commercial pods during the Olympics have been more frequent than a typical prime-time broadcast, but also shorter.

Airlines Look to Advertisers to Subsidize Rising Costs

CNN Money reports that major airlines are now so desperate for cash-flow that they are willing to sell advertising space on almost every part of the in-flight experience, from tray tables to airsick bags.

The appeal to advertisers is, of course, the idea that there's no escaping their ads as you sit on your 3-hour flight across the country.

"It's a captive audience, literally - and sometimes involuntarily - for an extended period of time, so there are certainly opportunities to make contact [with potential consumers] in-flight," said Michael Derchin, an airline analyst for FTN Midwest Securities.

Future flyers can expect to see more ads popping up on tray tables, boarding passes, airsick bags and of course, during your in-flight entertainment in the form of commercials or sponsored "networks." Those who've flown on Delta since July 15 may have already notcied advertising for destination-specific venues on their boarding passes.

I can't imagine anyone would pay much for advertising on an airsick bag - the bags are rarely used, and when they are it isn't exactly a pleasant association for the company's products. Perhaps if they did this, it would be required that the bags be placed on your seat so you'd see them upon boarding, instead of buried in the seat pocket.

image via flickr.

Discover Card Shows Their Softer Side

Apparently, Discover Card has been telling us they care since 2006, but it's only in their recent commercials that I've really gotten the message.

Though I think what they are trying to do is pretty cool, I'm not sure I buy it. I just have a hard time believing that a CREDIT company legitimately wants me to pay down my debt, thereby not having to pay them any more interest. Though they do counter this a bit by reassuring me that it's that we are "a nation of consumers."

So, even though Discover Card does have a lot of innovative features like great cash back programs, a hearty online interface with many options for personalization and a Pay-On-Time bonus that actually -gasp- refunds you interest if you make six consecutive on-time payments, all I see is a commercial that seems to convey a fake sentiment.

It is the same feeling I get when I know anti-smoking ads are sponsored by tobacco manufacturers. It just doesn't sit right.

Image via discovercard.com

Don't Listen to the Voices in Your Head

Advertising has moved to a new realm... invading your thought. So next time you think you hear voices in your head... it may just be Coke telling you that you're thirsty.

Companies are beginning to use hypersonic sound - a targeted beam that causes anyone who crosses it's path to hear a message in their mind.

Freaky.

Clive Thompson writes about his first encounter with this futuristic advertising medium in this month's Wired. He writes:

"Trolling down the street in Manhattan, I suddenly hear a woman's voice.

'Who's there? Who's there?' she whispers. I look around but can't figure out where it's coming from. It seems to emanate from inside my skull.

Was I going nuts? Nope. I had simply encountered a new advertising medium: hypersonic sound. It broadcasts audio in a focused beam, so that only a person standing directly in its path hears the message. In this case, the cable channel A&E was using the technology to promote a show about, naturally, the paranormal."

Yes, it's pretty cool... fascinating, actually. But is this new invasion of our thoughts ethical? Or even legal? Thompson also examines the greater world of emerging brain technologies... leaving us feeling that we're losing our grasp on what may be our only true sanctuary... our own minds.

The Future of the Newspaper

One of the more memorable scenes in the futuristic film Minority Report features Tom Cruise reading a newspaper that changes in real-time - and shows a news report about him.


Now with smart phones dominating the market and newer products like the Kindle coming in to use, that future doesn't seem so far-fetched.

Today at the Associated Press' annual meeting, the news giant announced the Mobile News Network, a service that delivers news formatted for the iPhone and other cellular handsets. Accoring to Associated Press President and CEO Tom Curley:

“The Mobile News Network will provide a national platform for smart phone users to access local content from brands they trust. Members can participate by providing local news that will appear alongside their logos. Importantly, the network also offers a new outlet for members to sell local advertising to the mobile audience.”

This is certainly an interesting opportunity for selling advertising and for those with news to share, but it's one more sign that the traditional newspaper is slowly declining in relevance.