About Advertising

Something I have learned while working in advertising is that it is completely necessary for reaching your customers. If you are not advertising you are not creating a new customer base. Old customers begin to die out or get tired of your product and if you are not advertising and gaining new customers, your product/company may begin to wither away.

If you are going to advertise, you need to sign up for at least a 3-month period before seeing any effects. You must be consistent in advertising, ex: Pepsi and McDonalds logo. You begin to create top of mind awareness. If you are continually looking at the same advertisement, it becomes the first brand that comes to your mind.

Advertising is necessary and will always be around. If you want to see how effective it is, take a look at your own personal experiences. Sometimes advertising can be subliminal, so stop and take a look at what is around you.

Giving Samples Away...

I was flipping through magazines the other day and came across perfume samples. Of course I had to smell every single one to find out which one I liked best so the next time I went shopping I could buy some. It made me realize how effective samples and giveaways really are. All you have to do is get your product out there and people will learn about it and hopefully like it and go buy it. You cannot make money with a product no one knows about so I high recommend giving samples away for free. Everyone wants something free, it is human to want free right? But just think, you are gaining customers and hopefully loyal ones.

Monopoly

Have you guys heard about the new Monopoly board game? Well apparently they are coming out with a new game that is no longer using cash but VISA credit cards. Their concept was to start at an early age and begin brand awareness in childrens minds. Once the child grows up, they will only think VISA when choosing their first credit card. Smart huh? I think it is completely brilliant on the behalf of Visa, although I am not sure if the message we are sending to small children is positive or negative.

Will it help them when deciding how to spend their money one day or are we teaching them that you can buy whatever you like with a credit card and one day this will get them in money trouble.


I am curious to see what the effects are in about 10-15 years.

Mike Huckabee: Chuck Norris Approved

Have you guys seen the ad Govenor "Mike Huckabee: Chuck Norris Approved"? I am 22 and I absolutely loved this because I could relate. Chuck Norris jokes have been very popular this past year and I thought it was so funny. The fact that it was funny kept my attention and I wanted to see what Mike Huckabee was all about, but I am not sure how much our older generation approved of this message. I will be curious to see how much controversy this commercial will bring.

CHECK IT OUT!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDUQW8LUMs8

Shopping Online

Christmas is just around the corner, and what better idea to buy your gifts online? You sit right there in your home and scroll through what you want to buy your friends and family. There are many advantages to this. 1) You do not have to fight the crowd. 2)Save money in gas 3)More sales 4) More of a selection, you type in what you are looking for and there it is. You do not have to go from store to store searching for something you may never find.

Do not get me wrong, there are disadvantages as well. Sometimes sales are final, You may get the wrong size, there is a chance it will not get here in time. In my opinion I am going with shop online because Christmas is such a crazy time of the year and I do not want to be out in that crazy mess. Any other time, I will go to the mall.

Ralph Lauren

Has anyone heard about the new Jewelry and Watch collection that Ralph Lauren is coming out with? They are merging with Richemont Jewellers, a well known brand already in the market. I am curious to see which direction they take with advertising this brand. Ralph Lauren ads consist of their logo plus a picture of what they are advertising that explains itself. Will they take this same concept? RL is already a very well known brand that is known for being classy and sophisticated and this is the exact perception you want when selling luxurious jewelry. No matter what direction they take, I know it will be successful.

Good Publicity vs Bad Publicity

When it comes to good publicity and bad publicity, which one is going to get you noticed? In my opinion, both good and bad publicity are great for someone’s career if they want to get noticed. Take Paris Hilton for instance, she for one became famous because well…she is Paris Hilton. Her name alone got her noticed and it is because of her outrageous acts that she is one of the most recognized women in Hollywood. Another example is Britney Spears. She is on every cover of every magazine because of her disgraceful acts towards her children and society. Every time she makes the cover of a magazine, more people are going to read and more money she is going to make. If you look in the magazines, it is bad publicity that people want to read. It is rare when you see a magazine with highlights that are positive, but that too will get you noticed.

Myspace versus Facebook

I for one am addicted to both myspace and facebook. I get on each account at least 3times a day. It is a great way to connect with people all around the world; especially those you care about but never have the time to stay in contact due to different schedules. I love to get on and add people that I went to High School. Without myspace or facebook, I would have no idea what they were up to. It is natural for a girl to snoop around and find gossip about others right? Well myspace and facebook has become that site for me, without getting in the middle of drama up close and personal. Through experience, I have seen it do many great things and I have seen it ruin people’s lives. If you want to stay out of drama I would chose facebook. It is safer because facebook is targeted more towards college students and myspace is filled with child molesters and rapist. I do like that myspace is more creative and shows who you are more so than facebook. There are mypace layouts and as well as songs you can add to your profile. It will be difficult for any other website to compete with these two sites because they are already established.

Superbowl Advertising

The average price for a 30 second commercial in the Super Bowl is $2.4 million. That is a 6 percent increase from 2004 and more than double the cost from a decade ago. At press time, Fox had sold 90 percent of the 59 slots available, putting the network on track to haul in more than $140 million from the broadcast.

The Super Bowl, the most widely watched sport event in the US, has long commanded the highest ad rates of any television program. By way of comparison, 30-second ads on prime time typically run about $400,000, though it's worth noting that last year's NBC 'Friends' finale cost advertisers $2 million a slot.

I wonder if people get back their $2.4million in sales/profit by the end of the year or better yet I wonder if they get it back before then. I believe it to be a big risk to take by putting that much of your money on the line for a 30 second commercial.

Something we talked about in class the other day was if Pepsi puts on a sale right before super bowl that says by 1 Pepsi get 2 free and lets say Coke buys a commercial during the Super Bowl. People are not going to need Coke by then because they have loaded up on Pepsi and this could be appalling for Cokes profit after Super Bowl.

Dove.

After coming across the website for "Dove" I thought it was very interesting to see everything Dove stands for. They have something called "The Dove Self-Esteemed Fund" which was developed to help free the next generation from self-limiting beauty stereotypes. Committed to reaching 5 million young women by the end of 2010. They have help tips to help you get through your hang-ups about your body and self-esteem. This is something that has faced America for years and the percent of eating disorders and low self-esteem are gradually increasing year after year. This is due to high profile actresses obsessed with their bodies and it is our young girls who look up to these figures and this is where it all begins.

I think it is great that Dove has taken the initiative to help stop this craze in society. Dove has models that are what we call your "average" girls and it is only the beginning and I cannot wait to see the effects of this campaign.

Online News vs. TV News

New York Times and BBC are great sources for receiving news. It has many different categories that you can access such as health, science, weather, business, technology, travel, etc. It is quick and easy to click on the topics you are most interested in. It is a little different than your local news because your local news focuses more on your major topics for the day.

If you go online, you can look up local news as well as news from all over for the entire week, and on TV it is usually local and daily. Going online helps you find out about current events instantaneously. Most people want to get information immediately, so going online is a great source for getting that information quickly

Fed Ex

I was watching an old Fed Ex commercial from the Super Bowl the other day and it was set back when there were cavemen. It showed a caveman attaching a package to a flying dinosaur and telling him where to take it and all of a sudden a trinosaursrex comes out of no where and eats the flying dinosaur. The caveman goes back to his boss and says the package didn't make it and the boss asked if he used FedEx and the caveman said that FedEx doesn't exist yet, and the boss said that wasn't his problem and fired him. I thought the commercial was a great idea although you would never know it was a FedEx commercial until the very end when they said it. The problem here is, you are not thinking FedEx the whole time so you forget what the commercial is about. I believe in Brand Awareness. If you have a 20 second commercial, take that 20 seconds and drill your brand into people's head.

Avatars

I think Avatars are "cute" meaning for young users. This is what I thought of when I first heard of Avatars. After creating one, I think it is a great idea to add a little fun and excitement to your email. As for a college student, they might feel this is somewhat childlike. Something that might catch their attention would be a tool where you could add your face on the avatars body. This would be funny, not so personal, and something extra.

As I searched for clothes and accessories as well as backgrounds, I feel that they shoud be categorized so that it might be easier for one to find what they are looking for. My Avatar has a pretty red dress and it was difficult for me to find a background that went along with this.

Yahoo: Way to make things interesting. It is only the beginning, so there is plenty of time for advancements.

Viva Viagra

"Viva Viagra"
We watched this commercial in class this morning and it is still in my head at 1:00am. For one, it is funny and the song they chose is catchy. It is a group of older guys singing about how they cannot wait to get home to their "honey". I did not hear the lyrics until I got home and replayed it, and I did not think this was inappropriate in the least. The song says "At the end of the day, I'm not a guy who strays, she's my hearts desire." They are having a good time and not embarrassed by using viagra what so ever. It lets older men and women know that this issue is common with all men. The group of men they use are not that old, so it lets you know viagra is not only targeted to older men in their 60's and up, which is the first thing that comes to my mind.

Viagra lets a guy keep his manhood, and losing this can be embarrassing. This commercial made me think all men have this problem, so no big deal. It shows men are comfortable and realize it is normal and their is something for their problem. Viagra is not something easy to market, because people feel uncomfortable when it is brought up, but this commercial achieves a feeling of ease. It is more of a medical problem, rather than a personal problem.

Google

Something I learned about not long ago was Google advertising. 5 months ago I started an online magazine for the triad called "contagiouslifestyle.com". I was looking at Google one day and they offer a way for your site to advertise Google and get paid. It is called AdSense. Google AdSense matches ads to your site's content, and you earn money whenever your visitors click on them. Contagious Lifestyle offers Entertainment, Fashion, Health, Local News, Classified, and now Real Estate and Automotive. I put Google AdSense on our Fashion page and Google advertises Retail stores such as Saks and Adam+Eve. As I learned about this new product, I decided to sign up and put Google on my site. Now, every time someone clicks on that Google ad, I get a percent of that and they send me a check in the mail.

I just signed up for this about a month ago so I have not yet received a check, but I will keep you updated.

Pepsi

A company's marketing and/or advertising campaign can affect a company either positive or negative, therefore it is crucial in trying to decide what you need to do to make your product better.

Pepsi for instance has been around for years and have experienced both gains and loses. They decided to switch things up and make pepsi clear. This was no good for pepsi. People felt as if they were drinking water and pepsi sales dropped tremendously. The greatest advertising idea that Pepsi ever had was the-Pepsi Challenge. This showed people on the streets tasting both pepsi and coke and people were choosing pepsi over coke including die hard coke fans and famous people as well. This helped pepsi steadily increase their sales. As for Pepsi changing the color of their drink, it was worth a shot but people are set in their ways when it comes to food. The color of food/drink is important which is why most food is dyed to satisfy its customers.

When they did the Pepsi Challenge, I thought this was extremely clever because it shows people picking their product over their biggest competitor, Coke. Also, if famous people drink pepsi, this makes others want to as well.