>Advertising on the West Coast (part one)

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>After a week spent in Las Vegas and San Francisco, one thing is certain – there is no where like the west coast. It’s true what they say out there: California is a lifestyle in itself.

As you can imagine, the marketing structure in Las Vegas is centered on being very loud and exceptionally large in size.

As this was my first trip to Vegas, everyone asked me what I thought of it – and I only had one response: “Everything was really big.” But, that is true. Advertising, buses, buildings, food, colors, performers, cars – everything was blown up to larger than life.

Perhaps the most, ahem, blatant form of in your face advertising came on the side of the Paris hotel. Their theme, “Everything is Sexier in Paris” flaunts two young lovers caught up in the moment on their wedding day.

An example of their advertising:

Ahh, gotta love Vegas. Has anyone else seen other similar shocking advertising?

>Oh, baby

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High heels for babies is one of the new trends in babywear… and sadly enouugh I’m pretty sure this product will catch on. Celebrities such as Nicole Richie and Tori Spelling have already dress their soon to be divas in these heels.

Featured on The Today Show this morning, click here to visit A Heelarious Experience and see the array of products they have available.

>Against Marketer’s Advice

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Many of you know that I spend my weekends as a firefighter and paramedic. Often times we are called to someone’s home that needs help, but refuses to allow us to help them or transport them to the hospital. We try our best to convince them of the dangers of their situation, but often to no avail. If they are of sound mind and an adult, we often have no choice but to present them with a legal release and let them sign out AMA (against medical advice).

So, here’s a new term AMA (against Marketer’s advice). In marketing and advertising, it is easy to get swayed to make constant changes in your plan. As the next great medium or advertising offer is placed in front of you, resist. We encourage you to do your research or at the minimum, listen to the agency you hired for that purpose and try to stick by your plan. Know what you expect to happen and how you will measure the results.

There is no point in planning a 26 week campaign, only to kill it after just two weeks (or 2 ads!). Then, blame the creative, the TV station or worse yet, your sales people for a lack of results.

Plan your work and work your plan. Yes, make adjustments as needed, but trust in your advisors and let the plan play out.

– Rob Felber

>Word of the Day

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>Today’s word of the day: Bacn

Definition of bacn: the middle class of email; email which is not classified as spam because it is not totally unwanted, but isn’t really wanted either.

>"Facebook called me a bad name."

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>We’ve all heard how social networking sites have advertising based on what items you click on and which sites you visit. All fun and innocent, right? Not anymore.

Facebook is playing hardball.

A writer from the Washington Post told her story here about Facebook calling her “fat” and how she needs to lose a few pounds before her upcoming wedding day. Talk about in your face advertising! How awful.

For those of you not familiar with Facebook, you select your relationship status from the options of: Single, In a relationship, Engaged, Married, It’s Complicated and In an Open Relationship. (This particular individual had her relationship status set to “engaged.”)

After she got married and changed her relationship status to “married” she was then presented with “Are you infertile?” ads.

Yikes.

Just to see what would happen, I logged in to my Facebook account to see what ads it would show me.

Here is a summary of my profile:

Sex: Female
Age: 26
Location: Ohio
Relationship Status: In a Relationship
Interests: THE BEACH. Cleveland Sports. Photogrpahy. Writing. Traveling.
Favorite Music: I have very random taste in music.
Favorite TV Shows:Sex and the City, Survivor and Ally McBeal.
Work info: Marketing and Advertising

The ads I am greeted wtih are trying to get me to buy competitor’s secrets, the Gambling Addiction Hotline (that’s odd), the DMA conference and a new hair eliminator promising to remove all of your unwanted hair.

I’m not horribly offended by these ads – aside from the Gambling Addiction Hotline because I’ve been to one (1) casino in my lifetime and spent roughly $10. None the less, this was a fun experiment.

Has anyone else noticed these in your face advertisements?

>Jessica Simpson’s new ad

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She sings, she acts, she dates high profile celebrities like Tony Romo and John Mayer – what’s next? Endorsing beer of course!

Stampede Light Plus, made by Dallas’ Stampede Brewing Company, has signed the catch all bombshell to be the new face of their brand – a vitamin-enhanced beer.

Ms. Simpson has even taken a 15% share in the company to solidify her interest. Although terms were not yet made available, one can assume it’s a rather large chunk of change.

In a statement released on her behalf, Simpson said as an entrepreneur she’s “always looking for ways to diversify my portfolio with good ideas and good people.”

Mind you, her great portfolio includes box office hit “Blonde Ambition” (huh?), skin care line ProActiv (which she admits to never using) and Dessert Beauty (which resulted in a number of lawsuits).

Any guesses what will result from her endorsing Stampede Brewing Company?

>Google’s at it again

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>Is there such a thing as too big or too much power? Rightfully so, some can argue both points and each would be correct. But, when internet giant Google launches their own browser, Chrome, is it time for other browsers to say “uncle?”

Click here for the full story.

>Out of touch

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>Diana Kingsbury, my co-advisor, and I were talking last night about our weekends before our weekly meeting.

“I feel so out of touch now. I’m back in the stone age!” she said very impatiently. “I don’t know how I’m going to survive!”

You see, Diana had an unfortunate experience with her cell phone and some dampness. Her cell phone didn’t make it.

This conversation got me thinking more about this wave of technology and how much our daily lives are wrapped around it. When I was in 9th grade I had a pager and that was considered VERY risky (and a bit trendy). Now, cell phone providers are targeting kids of all ages using the array of family plans to sweeten the deal.

And actually, to tell you the truth, they are doing one heck of a good job in advertising to this young generations.

For example, we’ve all seen the T-Mobile commercial with the parents engaged in a conversation on awarding their kids with more minutes based on their behavior – with a clever shot in to the driveway showing these same adorable youngsters fighting while washing the car and the father saying something clever about also taking away minutes too.

This ad will hit home for the parents and the children looking for yet another reason to ask their parents for a cell phone.

I can just picture it…

Father: “You don’t need a cell phone.”
Daughter: “Yes I do! Pleaaaase?”
Father: “No. Why do you think you need a cell phone? You are ten years old!”
Daughter: “Because! Everyone else has one! I promise I’ll be good!”
Father: “How can you promise that?”
Daughter: “If I’m not good then you can take my minutes away and I won’t be able to use my phone but just to call you and Mom!”

And just like that, T-Mobile sells another family plan to this family. Why? The son has a point, everyone else DOES have one. Plus, it is good to have on you for emergencies and it is an excellent way to keep track of your kids.

>Driving along the marketing highway

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>Do you know how you drive? I mean, do you honestly know your habits? Pay attention next time you drive. I’ll bet you’ll find it interesting which habits you have that you are completely unaware of.

For example, when I drive I seldom will watch the car in front of me. Instead, I watch the car in front of them for brake lights, road hazards and other causes for slowdowns or swerving.

In business, this “habit” may also apply with trends. In emerging media trends, for example, few businesses are actually on the cusp of picking up on these trends. In fact, less than 14% of businesses are using these innovative trends.

Trendwatching.com is a website I have come across who is actively pursuing emerging consumer trends. They give free monthly reports on just what trends are getting hotter in our industry. Check them out, I think you’ll be impressed.

Perhaps, if more businesses looked farther ahead in where they were going, they would be able to proactively jump on emerging trends and see potential bumps in the road before others.

Stay tuned for more on this topic in future blogs.