Category: Marketing (Page 22 of 25)

Is Google trying to Affect Politics?

October 11, 2007 / Andy Boyer

So, here’s an issue that only matters when you are a company serving 40% of the ads on the Internet.

According to an article written by someone named Robert Cox, founder of the Media Bloggers Association, Google is not allowing a Republican senator to run ads that denounce MoveOn.org.

According to the article, the banned advertisements said, “Susan Collins is MoveOn’s primary target. Learn how you can help” and “Help Susan Collins stand up to the MoveOn.org money machine.” The ads linked to Collins’ campaign Web site with a headline reading “MoveOn.org has made Susan Collins their #1 target.” The Collins Web site claims that MoveOn has contributed $250,000 to her likely Democratic opponent and has run onine ads against her costing nearly $1 million. The Web site also displays MoveOn.org’s controversial “General Betray Us” ad.

So, is this paranoia? One one hand, a company should be able to run whatever ads it wants. But on the other, if you are the ad serving technology running ads on millions of blogs and web sites, doesn’t the line get blurry if you are banning ads you may not agree with?

Google uses the argument of, "You don’t have right’s to MoveOn’s Trademark so you can’t use it in an ad." But that’s a pretty slippery slope, and I’d be shocked if every other ad in Google Ad Sense avoids using an unlicensed trademark. In fact, the article states, "Google routinely permits the unauthorized use of company names such as Exxon, Wal-Mart, Cargill and Microsoft in advocacy ads. An anti-war ad currently running on Google asks “Keep Blackwater in Iraq?” and links to an article titled “Bastards at Blackwater — Should Blackwater Security be held accountable for the deaths of its employees?”"

If Google’s not careful, long term these kind of issues could turn into a reason for the DOJ to start looking into whether Google is a monopoly that needs to be broken up, using the same logic they used on Microsoft a few years back. Exept this time it’s not a piece of software Google isn’t allowing to be distrubuted, it’s censorship of speech. If a single entity that controls 40% of the online ads decides to censor those ads to affect public policy, even the non-paranoid might get a little spooked.

C’mon, Someone Thought This Was a Good Idea?

October 11, 2007 / Andy Boyer

(Note: Correspondent Garrett Galbreath contributed to this article)

This actually made me add a new category to the blogroll, one for "Dumb Ideas."

In an apparent attempt at global expansion no matter how little common sense the idea involves, Taco Bell will be entering Mexico. However, the company must change some of its marketing.

First, they will not be selling Mexican food. In fact, an ad reads, "It is a new fast-food alternative that does not pretend to be Mexican food." Instead their brand will be, ""Taco Bell is something else." Hmm, it’s lunch time, I feel like ordering "something else."

Second, there will be some unusual items, with a menu that projects a more "American" fast-food image by adding French fries — some topped with cheese, cream, ground meat and tomatoes. So basically, nachos, but using fries instead of chips.

And third, no tacos – the hard-shelled items sold as "tacos" in the U.S. have been renamed "tacostadas."

Why all the changes? Let’s ask the executive in charge. "Taco Bell wants to take advantage of the perception that if something comes from the United States, it tastes better, that a country that has been Americanized is willing to Americanize food that is central to its cuisine," Monsiváis said. "It is an absurd idea, and given that it’s so absurd, it may just be successful in upper-class areas."

In case you are wondering, YUM shares are struggling. Perhaps it’s because people are walking into the CEO’s office, announcing they have an "absurd idea" and having that idea greenlighted.

Now you might be saying, "Andy, you’re being way too hard on these guys. Why not try something, and if it doesn’t work, put it in the scrap heap and forget it ever happened, just don’t do it again." Well, I agree. So for a kicker – "Taco Bell failed with a highly publicized launch in Mexico City in 1992, when it opened a few outlets next to KFC restaurants."

Evil Evil Marketing

October 4, 2007 / Andy Boyer

I am honestly offended when people have negative things to say about marketing people. When done well, marketing campaigns bring joy and deliver products to people who genuinely want them.

Who among us have not been uplifted by ads such like the Geico Cavemen, Bud Light Real Men of Genius, Lite Beer’s Men of the Square Table, any of the iPod ads, and the Mac vs PC campaigns? This is why Marketing is a great profession.

Then there are the other marketers. The scumbags, the scourge, the absolute low-lifes.

if you’ve known me for any time at all, you know that for 6 or 7 years, I have placed Zango/180 Solutions on the very pedestal of scumbag marketing. For the life of me, I cannot figure out how anyone can continue to fund these guys. I thought they would live at the top of my list forever.

But now, we have a new winner.

Celebrity Calculator is the lowest of the low. The most despicable form of bait and switch marketing ever to combine itself with a mobile subscription service that I can only assume is almost impossible to get out of. I won’t even give you a straight link to their site because it will help their Page Rank. But copy and paste http://www.whichcelebrityami.com/ into your browser.

This site is obviously targeted at teens who don’t know any better. All of the legalese is below the fold. If the teen fills out all the survey questions, and enters their phone number, then they are automatically signed up for a $20/month bill from these scumbags.

This is worse than slimy. It’s just gruesomely ugly. I wish these guys ran ads on Google, so I could click on them all day long and run their ad budget into the ground. But all I can do is tell you about these vermin. Maybe you can come up with a way to punish them.

Check out Widget Bucks

October 3, 2007 / Andy Boyer

I’m going to give a big ol’ plug to my friends over at mpire, and congratulate them on the launch of Widget Bucks. Here’s the straight skinny from one of their promotional emails:

Are you earning $2 – $15 CPM on your current ads? Do you wish you had more control over the type of content being displayed on your site? Are CPA ads frustrating because you can’t control if a user actually does make a purchase?

After years of dealing with ad networks, we saw too many ads that sucked and networks paying too low of CPM’s to effectively monetize people’s sites, we decided to do something about it. We’re proud to announce the launch of WidgetBucks.com a shopping ad network. With our widgets displaying contextual product offers in an engaging format, we’re seeing $3-6+ CPM on thousands of sites.

Today we have made our beta available for you to try it for yourself and start earning more money. Configuring the widget for your site is quick and easy and you’ll see immediate results.

I will be playing with Widget Bucks tonight here on AndyBoyer.com, and we’ll also be testing it on MyElectionChoices.com.

A Plug for Proper Direct Marketing

September 28, 2007 / Andy Boyer

I sign up for a lot of things to check them out, so I’m on a ton of mailing lists. I’m not complaining, because it certainly doesn’t take me very long to zap through my inbox and delete 25 emails from Shutterfly, Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity, Art.com, etc… who obviously have a spreadsheet that says, "If we send 1 million emails per week, 10,000 people will open them and 100 will buy something." Such is the world of anonymously blasting your email base.

But today I got an email from the folks at Lumosity, a "brain games" site I wrote briefly about a few months back. I had forgotten about them. They sit in my favorites bar, but the link is dusty from lack of use. So getting an email from them was an actual pleasure. I *wanted* to read that email because I had forgotten about them. And they had new things to tell me, so I appreciated hearing them.

So here’s a lesson to take from everyday life and apply to Direct Marketing. "Don’t talk unless you have something to say." After all, it’s free to talk too, but you rarely see people coming up out of the blue to start a conversation about nothing with you. And "Special 20% off sale" is not something to say. "New package discounts to Fiji" does not count as something to say either. Lumosity’s message was, "You joined our beta program, now we have new games for your brain, do you want to check them out?" That counts as news in my book. Now if they hit me every week about their newest game, they’ll go in the "Annoying yet not Spam category." But for now, they get a plug.

Targeting the Young (and Single?) Voter

September 27, 2007 / Andy Boyer

Young crowds, a charasmatic performer, a lot of hype, affluent people – it has all the makings of an event or concert designed to drive single people to a bar or show.

But this is not a bar promotion, it’s a polical event.

If you believe the New York Daily News, there are more than a few undertones from the Barack Obama campaign team that Obama rallies have become the new *it* scene for young single people tired of the bar scene, office romance or match.com.

According to the article, "Like-minded city singles are looking to tonight’s Barack Obama fund-raiser as more than just a politically charged soiree: It’ll be a raging pickup scene."

With a web site featuring social networking (complete with photos), events that seem to purposely weed out the old and stodgy, and a candidate that can almost be described as "hip and cool," it’s hard to think this is an accident. It seems like the campaign team developed a smart strategy of, "Smart single people don’t have a great outlet for meeting other smart single people. Let’s have our campaign be their meeting place."

If it works, it won’t be the first time someone used sex to sell a product, but it might be the first time it was done for a political campaign.

Shock and Awe Marketing

September 15, 2007 / Andy Boyer

It’s easy to talk a good game. But there’s proof when you point to something you did and say, "Yeah, that was me."

This link is not a new site, nor is it a new company, but it dawned on me this week that the most powerful marketing is proof of concept. So I think this is the benchmark. If your web site proves what you can do better than what the folks at Zaaz.com have proved they can do, then you have achieved something noteworthy.

The Battle of Shareholder Value vs Environmental Concern

September 12, 2007 / Andy Boyer

So back in the 90’s, it started becoming en vogue for Corporations to donate profits to charitable organizations. This started a very interesting debate about whether companies should simply deliver value to their shareholders, or be responsible for bettering the communities in which they belong.

An easy argument was to drop the charitable giving money into the overall Marketing budget and call it "Community Relations." If a giant bank sponsors runs for Leukemia and Breast Cancer research, then one could argue the CPM was worth the donation. It’s a pretty compelling argument that you can get a lot of community goodwill on your side, which then helps with non-tangibles such as recruiting, brand management and corporate morale.

Fast forward to 2007, and the magic bullet is in going "Green." Companies are denting their bottom line to use recycled paper, advanced heating and cooling systems, subsidizing public transportation for employees and other efforts. And shareholders seem to be ok with that.

But what about Google’s latest announcement. According to a Google release, "Google.org is committed to finding innovative transportation solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming…As part of this initiative, we are issuing a $10 million request for investment proposals (RFP). We plan to invest amounts ranging from $500,000 to $2,000,000 in selected for-profit companies whose innovative approach, team and technologies will enable widespread commercialization of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, electric vehicles and/or vehicle-to-grid solutions."

Now, you can look at this 3 ways:

1) Google makes $10 million in an hour, so it’s irrelevant to shareholders. Great PR move.

2) This is a completely for profit effort for Google, stemming from their M+A group, and Google Shareholders should benefit down the road.

3) This $10 Million is nice, but why is an online search and media company investing in Transportation, something they could not possible know anything about? Shareholders should be annoyed.

On a lighter note, what happens if Google ends up building the killer transportation app? Will everyone be commuting to the Microsoft campus on the Google Mobile?

Do Protesters Need Image Consultants

August 27, 2007 / Andy Boyer

So President Bush visited Seattle, or more accurately, Bellevue, this afternoon for a fundraiser for Congressman Dave Reichert. I happened to be driving by the hotel a few hours before the President’s appearance, and was surprised by the hundreds of protesters gathered on street corners around the hotel.

As I drove through this collection of people, I was struck with a thought. Just based on their appearance, I don’t know if I could ever agree with them. They were ragged, dirty and unkempt. I found myself wanting to disagree with whatever their signs said, just so I couldn’t be classified with them.

It made me wonder whether protesters could be more effective if they spent a little more time tuning their message to the mainstream, rather than preaching to the fringe. How many worthy causes are derailed by failing to observe basic tenets of marketing and public relations? Furthermore, if a protester’s goal is to sway and persuade, and their actions instead make me sympathetic to the cause they are protesting, shouldn’t the protester stop attending events? Isn’t in the protester’s best interest to evaluate the effectiveness of his campaign?

I wonder if the power of Freedom of Speech is diluted by zealots and loonies who use it to push people away. From a marketing perspective, how do you control your zealots, and make them unharmful to your cause? If you were the Prius Marketing Manager, and someone started a blog campaign asking people to send in pictures of where they get stoned in their car, how would you react? In today’s internet where everyone can be heard, how do you control your fans that can do harm to your ability to market to the mainstream?

Ripple TV, and the Emergence of Localized Advertising

August 13, 2007 / Andy Boyer

So I have to admit being very intrigued by a company called Ripple TV. You may have seen Ripple at a neighborhood Tully’s. The concept is pretty straightforward – a typical High Def TV, displaying canned news and sports information from CBS and ESPN. But the catch is, the screens are designed to run locally targeted ads that small business can create and upload themselves.

Or to put it another way, the two major pains about advertising are the creative costs and the inability to target effectively. Ripple TV solves both these problems. I get to choose which Tully’s my ad runs, and they provide me the tools to create the ad on the fly and upload it.

"Ripple has partnered with many of the World’s leading retail brands to provide a powerful in-store digital media experience that keeps their customers engaged, entertained and informed. Ripple’s user experience is customized specifically for each distribution partner, providing a truly custom experience that perfectly supports the brand, demographic, geographic and user experience requirements of each partner. Ripple keeps your customers engaged with the very latest news, financial information, sports, weather, traffic, local information and entertainment programming from the World’s leading content brands."

So, the only initial limitation, which I’m sure will be solved soon, is that they have relatively few major partners (Tully’s), and so the audience is not very diverse. But, that’s hardly a criticism. Instead, I applaud Ripple for landing such a great anchor partner. That really is quite a coup.

I don’t this affects agencies at all, because if anything the Ripple system grows the advertising pie, catering to small business owners that agencies didn’t really care about anyway. And the small business owner only needs a rudimentary sense of style and analytical skills to run a test ad for $75 in a neighborhood, so the cost to get started is minimal.

Fascinating concept, and I hope it does well.