By Katie Earley, Copywriter
Peppermint mochas at Starbucks. Charlie Brown Christmas specials. Extra candy in the break room. Long lines at the mall. The holidays are here! And one of my favorite traditions of the season is the end-of-year list. Perhaps it has to do with my love of lists in general. But of special note today, is Advertising Age’s America’s Hottest Brands of the Year.
My personal favorite from their list? Honestly? The Snuggie.
For God’s sake people! I’m trying to work here! My tweet deck has been pinging relentlessly with mindless yap from people who are savvy enough to know better. When did all these social media experts cross the line from helpful reporting and commentary to navel-gazing narcissism?
Rupert Murdoch just announced he is going to take all New York Times material out of Google’s search engine, putting it all exclusively on Bing. He claims he will be getting a more targeted reader, and less of the casual looky-loos Google brings. There is also talk afoot that he will begin charging subscription rates so people can look at their content online. Is this really what it will take to save the future of world class reportage?
How do you get a group with widely different views from all around the world to help build classrooms in Tanzania? The answer is Twitter. This social media campaign, “Tweetsgiving“, is a stroke of genius, and shows the enormous power social media can have to mobilize people for real world action. (more…)
By Katie Earley, Copywriter
Randall Stross reported in the NYT last week that Apple is filing a patent request for a new advertising technology, what it calls an “enforcement routine”, that can place an ad on anything with a screen and force the consumer (essentially) to watch it. An example of this force might be an ad that will stop your device from working until you click or enter a response to demonstrate your awareness of the ad.
Stross feels that this is a very un-Apple move. It sounds like something that Microsoft would do, and is similar to things they have tried in the past. While filing a patent does not guarantee that this is a technology that Apple will use, they are throwing a lot of money into research for this so I’d expect that they would use it somehow.
In personal life and in business, no one likes a sell-out. Particularly when you think of Apple’s biggest fans, they are anti-sell-outs, anti-Microsoft, anti-business-as-usual. This is a move that could alienate their loyal customers and they are a brand that relies heavily on customer loyalty.
I do think that this “enforcement routine” could have some positive effects for Apple and not go against their laid-back brand image. One possibility is that they could offer their wares at large discounts with built-in advertising. You would pay more for the ad-free version, and if the ad version got to be too annoying, you could pay to have the ads removed (a possibility Stross mentioned).
Solely based on personal comparison shopping, Apple’s not cheap. There are several less expensive MP3 players, laptops and phones out there. I don’t want to get into whether Apple is better or not, but there have been several occasions where I’ve bought a non-Apple product because at the end of the day I’d rather have the extra money and a product that still gets the job done. I doubt I’m alone. This could be a great way to expand their customer-base, as long as they don’t alienate the loyal followers who have gotten them where they are.
By Katie Earley, Copywriter
It’s been a busy week, so as I was catching up on my Google Reader addiction, I saw an article from The Denver Egotist about a great campaign by Water for People to promote World Toilet Day (which was yesterday. Sorry I’m a little behind.).
The ads are entertaining and clever, yet they highlight an important and frequently overlooked cause: people need a safe place to…you know…pee and such.
One of my good friends was in the Peace Corps in Africa and her project was to help her village build some new, clean latrines. Until then I hadn’t really thought about it much. We all know people need food, clean water, access to medicine, mosquito nets, but until then I had forgotten that toilets are probably an important part of that. So as the ads remind us, let’s stand up so others can sit down!
By Katie Earley, Copywriter
In a previous job, I was the marketing assistant at a non-profit and shared an office with the marketing director. Every time a new project came in, she would play with it for awhile and ask me for ideas. By sharing an office everyday we had developed a comfortable rapport, so I would not hesitate to throw out all of my absolute worst ideas. They were generally quite laughable and we would spend a good ten minutes laughing at the worst headlines and worst pictures that we could put together. Then somehow, out of the laughs, awkward pictures and horrible headlines, we would strike upon a good idea.
I was reminded of this process today by a post on Write to Done, and it’s something I often forget. When I think there are no good ideas and my head is just absolutely empty: write. Just keep writing. Once you get all of the bad ideas on paper, the good ones will follow.
Does the birth of social media mean the death of the press release? I don’t think so. Especially when so many companies are putting up new and shiny examples of newsblogs. In fact, the genre may be in for a renaissance.
By Katie Earley, Copywriter
I have long enjoyed the “I love the whole world” Discovery Channel commercial. They just give me that warm-fuzzy feelings that makes me want to cuddle on the couch with my husband and watch Mythbusters. I think it has to something to do with the “Boom de yada” because I love little sound refrains like that in songs. Any songs with some “la la”-ing is sure to be a hit with me. But anyways, I saw on The Denver Egotist that they’ve redone the spot with the same song and some new images. And I still love it.
boom de yada boom de yada boom de yada boom de yada…
Imagine this scenario…you are walking down the street on a business trip. You don’t know where to eat for lunch. Not to worry–you just pull out your cell phone, turn on the video function, and point it at the restaurants on the street around you. Up pops restaurant reviews, menus and health department ratings, directly over the image of the restaurant you’re filming. So now, you instantly know where to eat, what sounds good on the menu, and you’ve got an online coupon, too. Welcome to the world of augmented realityLayar Demo…which could be a potential wonderland for advertisers. (more…)
