Promoting the blog

I'm really getting into blogging. It's fun to write updates on product placement, product releases, sponsorships, and current events that are happening. I realized that with all my posts about promotion, I should focus on promoting my blog.

I have sent the link to my blog to my brother, who is at grad school in New Mexico studying creative writing. He sent the link to his housemates, girlfriend, and classmates. I have sent the link to quite a few of my friends over IM; many of them have started asking me about my blog every week and even have given me input about what they would like to see me write about. I also sent an email to my high school teachers, so they could get a better idea about what I am studying in college.

I am planning on searching through the blog network and finding people with similar blog topics, and send them my blog link.

Hopefully through all of these different strategies for promotion I will get more readers and find out what other people think about the different topics in my blog. If you think of another way to promote my blog, let me know!

Oscars & Apple iPhone

It's the biggest night of the year for actors/actresses, directors, producers, editors, and more. It's the night of celebrities dressing up in gorgeous gowns and amazing suits. It's the night of 40 million viewers tuning in to one of the biggest nights for Hollywood. It's Oscars night!

The Oscars were packed with amazing performances, hilarious bits from Ellen, and surprising moments. During the commercial breaks, I tried to pay extra close attention to who the target audience of the advertisements was and the types of products that were being advertised. Among the various commercials throughout the night were tons of L'Oreal spots targeting women of all ages. One commercial that seemed to surprise everyone however, was an advertisement for the new Apple iPhone.

It was a strange commercial, featuring 31 clips from various movies and tv shows. John Travolta, Mr. Incredible, and Lucille Ball were all in the iPhone ad, just to name a few of the many celebrities. Throughout the 30-second spot, the celebrities were shown answering their phones saying "hello". At the end, the screen went black, and with that famous white iPod writing, "Hello" appeared on the screen.

It was surprising to see this iPhone plug because the product is not being released until June. Reporters stated it was the first time that Apple has advertised something ahead of its release date. The ad did not show the phone network that would carry the iPhone, or the name of the iPhone.

So what's all the hype? The iPhone is positioned to be a very cool, very expensive, and very stylish product. It serves as a widescreen video iPod, a camera with two megapixels, and it can also be used to access the Internet. Oh yeah...it has a touchscreen too. Apple is known for its amazing marketing plan; all of their products are consistent with the brand image, including the packaging.

Apparently reporters couldn't reach Apple to find out if they will be showing the advertisement again. It could be just something they created for the Oscar audience. Hopefully we'll see it again on tv, or even different editions of the ad!

Go to: http://adage.com/article?article_id=115206 to read the article.

Zoo Marketing...what a wild idea!

Advertising and product placement is everywhere. Whether we know it or not, we are exposed to thousands of advertisements a day. Product placement is constantly reaching new heights; marketers are always eager to think of an innovative way to reach their target audience. I just listened to a podcast from Ad Age about advertising in zoos. Surprisingly this option was not explored until recently by marketers.

In the Ad Age podcast, they talk about the unique experience of placing brands and products throughout the zoo. Fisher Price is a company that has done a lot of advertising through San Francisco Zoo and San Diego Zoo. The results of having play areas and food stands with the Fisher Price brand were very positive, so Fisher Price started incorporating zoo advertising in their marketing/media plan. Inspired by the great outcome from zoo advertising, they have also decided to reach out to cruise lines and hotels.

At the Philadelphia Zoo, there is a lot of advertising for Dodge. They have different Dodge vehicles positioned around the grounds of the zoo as well as various print advertisements by different animals exhibits. They also have an amusement park ride at the conservation center where zoo visitors sit in a Dodge Durango and take a virtual tour. The Ad Age podcast revealed the zoo's intentions to increase their sponsors' exposure and to help develop long-term relationships with their sponsors.

Zoos are a great place to advertise, because zoos attract a lot of families. Another good reason, is that there isn't a lot of competition for the companies to market their products since not a lot of companies think to spend money to advertise at zoos. Zoos attract over 143,000,000 visitors per year, giving companies access to a huge audience. There are more than 200 zoos and aquariums in the country, which gives marketers a lot of different options and opportunities for marketing.

This podcast was extremely informative and interesting. Check out the variety of podcasts that Ad Age has available to find out more on product placement and sponsorship!

Go to: http://adage.com/article?article_id=48120 and click on the podcast link that directs you to a huge number of podcasts available for free through itunes.

Trump in Trouble?

Hey all! I'm here to give you an update on the product placement world. There are many positives and negatives to having a celebrity endorse your product. They attract a lot of consumers, because of their image, talents, and popularity, but they can also hurt your brand if they are not responsible.

One of the main sponsors of Donald Trump's famous show, "the Apprentice LA", is Lexus. While watching the episodes, you can see the contestants being driven around in Lexus cars and SUVs. This sponsorship got turned upside down when Donald Trump was spotted driving around in what reporters think was a Bentley or Rolls. Although the show has lost about half of their audience, Lexus is still not getting the complete sponsorship that they paid for from Trump.

These types of situations and problems can hurt brands and celebrities in the long run. Donald Trump will probably not be asked to sponsor another product, based on his lack of reliability to actually use the product in real life. (This is just my opinion). Right away this news caught my attention. It's interesting to hear when a celebrity doesn't use a certain product that he/she agreed to promote.

If you want to read some articles that are similar to this story I was talking about, check out Jeff Greenfield's articles. He is always on top of what's going on!

Check out: www.productplacement.biz/

The future of virtual product placement

Inspired by my last post, I found an extremely interesting article about virtual product placement. Recently, billboards at certain sports events have been using virtual advertisements. They make advertisements appear on billboards, but the ads aren't really there. If you were watching the sports event on television, and Ford was trying to make a push for their product in your area, you would see a Ford ad up on the billboard. If you were in a different area and Toyota was trying to make a push for their product in that area, you would see a Toyota ad. This helps marketers reach their specific target groups effectively, and helps the sports event get a variety of promoters.

Another example of where virtual product placement can take place is in the movies. While filming, an actor can be drinking soda from a solid color can. Later during post production, they can place product names on to that solid color can. The distributor of the movie can sell advertising space by adding digital tags on to objects that marketers can put brand names. The technology is similar to Photoshop, where advertisers can change the tags.

Marketers are discussing the idea about adding virtual product placement in old movies. Although they could successfully add the brand names into old movies, they are worried that the ads might affect the movies in a negative way. Eventually, virtual product placement will be available for all advertisers to use and won't be expensive. Researchers are also talking about how viewers will probably be able to skip the ads placed in movies using similar technology.

This article blew my mind. Just when you think advertising has reached its peak, more and more opportunities develop.

Check it out: http://www.ad-mkt-review.com/public_html/air/ai200008.html

If you have opinions on the subject, let me know!

Interactive Product Placement

Popular items that get a lot of action in the product placement world include all types of cool and innovative technology. You'll see these strategically placed items such as cell phones, computers, and more, within movie and television scenes. Television shows that are well-known for having such product placement items include CSI, Alias, and 24.

Because of all of the ways that potential customers are getting away with not watching commercials through Tivo, websites, video games, and more, marketers are forced to think of new options. There is talk floating around that marketers are looking to create interactive television, where if a viewer sees an actor holding a product, they can click the remote and be able to buy that product. The same thing can happen if the viewer is watching the program on the internet. If they click a certain product, they will be offered a link to purchase the product.

This idea can be related to what Seth Godin said in his speech to Google about making things available for the customer when they want them. CEO of GoldPocket interactive, Scott Newnam, explained his thoughts on the new marketing strategy and the progress of their research: "It's about not making it intrusive. So far, the focus groups are terrific."

Many technology products are constantly being sent to writers, directors, and producers to be used for product placement in the various movies and television shows. With the knowledge that product placement is taking a more interactive role in customers' lives, marketers are fighting hard for the opportunity to make relationships with the important people that can help with promoting their products.

If I find more information on interactive television and product placement, I'll post it.

The article that I read is available at: http://www.wired.com/news/culture/digiwood/0,67723-0.html

Let me know what you think!

Diesel in Jamiroquai's video

While working at the radio station, I get the opportunity to learn new artists and bands everyday. One of my most recent favorite songs that WICB has been playing is Jamiroquai's "Runaway". The song itself, has been stuck in my head for days. Earlier today, I was scanning through articles and magazines, when I stumbled across some very interesting news about product placement.

Diesel landed a huge product placement deal with Jamiroquai. In their new video "Runaway", the lead singer of Jamiroquai (Jay Kay), is wearing a special pair of sunglasses that Diesel makes. Diesel is an Italian based designer clothing company- and the sunglasses are featured in the Fall Winter 2006 fashion line. The glasses were specially designed for Jay- going for a cool, underground look. The video was shot at Trafalgar Square, Tower Bridge, and Piccadilly Circus in London. It has been featured for weeks on various music videos shows all over the world- and will keep growing in popularity.

For some reason, the idea of product placement in music videos never occurred to me. This deal, which was handled by Propaganda Gem, will definitely boost sales and exposure for Diesel. I was excited to find this music-related product placement news...if I find more updates on other music videos, I'll post them!

American Idol podcast

I realized how much I have been missing out on in the media world this past weekend when I listened to my first podcast. It never crossed my mind to search through available podcasts and listen to what's going on in the industry. I selected a podcast from the AdAge website titled: "'American Idol': A Marketing Mammoth Expands Further". American Idol is one of my favorite shows because of some of the ridiculous contestants and judges' reactions. Although American Idol is a show I laughed at and enjoyed, I failed to notice how big of an impact it has on the marketing world.

According to the podcast, in 2001, 'Pop Idol' was launch in the UK. Simon, my favorite judge, came to America and tried to pitch his idea to NBC, ABC, and CBS. He was determined to get ABC to take the show, but they turned him down twice. Soon after that, FOX agreed happily to air the show. I think NBC, ABC, and CBS are all kicking themselves right now, having turned down a marketing opportunity of a lifetime.

In the podcast, Claire Atkinson, reported that the revenue American Idol pulls in is above 2.5 billion dollars. She admitted that the estimated 2.5 billion dollars was a very conservative number, and they expected the actual revenue to be much higher. She referred to American Idol as "the biggest integrated advertising platform on the planet." Atkinson compared Idol to the Superbowl and mentioned how Idol's audience is the size of the Superbowl audience every week for 19 weeks.

There are two co-owners of the franchise: 19 Entertainment and FremantleMedia. 19 Entertainment handles the music side of the business. This includes the music sales and exploitation of the albums. FremantleMedia takes care of all the off-air licenses. There are over 40 licenses using the Idol name right now. American Idol has become a brand name in many different product lines. There is Idol-branded chocolate, candy bars, Ice-cream flavors, and more. They are even looking into making a fashion line that's based on what the contestants wear on the show.

There is alot of talk going on about how people think that American Idol has reached its peak going into their 6th season. Atkinson confirmed that Idol is only 'scratching the surface' and that there are many more possibilities for the show. They have just started to get into streaming Idol footage on their website, something that other television shows have started. There is also talk of how a virtual game will be made where consumers can become virtual contestants and go through the whole process in a virtual world.

The three main sponsors of American Idol are Coke, Cingular, and Ford. All three of these companies bought huge packages with FOX, which sold between 30 million and 50 million dollars. Being a sponsor of this popular show is an extremely powerful position to have in the marketing world. Atkinson mentioned how while it's easy to watch product awareness increase, it's hard to measure exactly how the sponsorship is affecting the companies' sales.

This podcast was interesting, informative, and entertaining. I learned more than I expected about the marketing aspect of Idol. It also got me thinking about product placement. During the show, viewers might see the judges drinking Coke or Coke products, which is a good example of product placement. Although podcasts themselves aren't the best media channels to use product placement, they raised my awareness on where to spot product placement. I would definitely recommend listening to the various podcasts available on AdAge; you can learn so much about products and services that you love.

All Marketers are Liars

I just watched an interesting speech, "All Marketers are Liars", by Seth Godin. With an entertaining and humorous presentation, Godin revealed his thoughts to Google on the importance of creating buzz among consumers. Within the first eight minutes of the speech, Godin talked about how signifcant a role that word of mouth plays in marketing. What really sells a product, is the consumer who tells their friends about it. Word-of-mouth is the fastest and most efficient way that people become aware of certain products. Right away a trust is formed with the consumer and the product, because the consumer trusts their friend's opinion. With this trust, the consumer decides to buy the product- to start believing in the product.

Throughout the whole speech, Godin gave specific examples on people talking about products. He mentioned Fancy Feast, a rather disgusting form of cat food (if you ask me), and how people will voluntarily pay 5 times more for this brand of cat food than normal dry food. The reason? It's not for the cats; it's for the people. Fancy Feast has successfully created an image that people believe in. A cat can survive on any type of cat food, but people buy Fancy Feast for their own satisfaction. They know that they are trying to provide "the best" for their cat, and that's what makes them happy.

Godin told Google that people want a story they can tell themselves. They want to tell their friends about the cool or interesting things they have found. He threw out an example about Tiffany's. "Tiffany's gives the jewelry away for free; the box is what they charge for!" Godin made a solid point; people want the story behind the box. Of course, people could go to a different jewelry store and perhaps buy the same thing, but they wouldn't have that small blue box- the blue box that gave people something to talk about.

He presented a challenge to Google by saying, "If you're going to do something, is it worth talking about?" I thought this speech was very educational and interesting. It proved the point that a product's best marketers are the consumers themselves. I realized that a huge part of why I buy certain products is because of the buzz my friends create about them. Godin's speech to Google can open eyes to what is important in a marketing plan. You need to make something worth talking about.