>Today’s word of the day: Circle of Influence
Definition of circle of influence: people who are closest to you and who make up your warm market. These people are easily influenced by you because of your solid reputation in your profession, community or general area of interest.
>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?
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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?
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Today’s word of the day: Incentivized traffic
Definition of incentivized traffic: viewers of a website who have received a form of compensation for visiting a particular site.
>Today’s word of the day: Mousetrapping
Definition of moustrapping: using browser tricks as a way to keep a visitor captived at a particular site. This often happens by disabling the “Back” button or generated repeated pop-up windows.
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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.
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Word of the Day: Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC)
Definition of IMC: A combination of appropriate marketing communication disciplines, media and vehicles in a marketing campaign designed to achieve a set of objectives.
>PlayStation Portable (PSP) made its debut in the United States in March of 2005. Afterwards, like any smart company, Sony decided to beef up the advertising and chose to include larger than life PSP units mounted on billboards.
Very neat. Oh, but wait… what is that error message in the lower right corner?
That can’t be good! Sadly, it was too late to fix this problem and PSP billboards all over the world crashed.
How could this have been prevented? Well, I have never claimed to be a technowiz, but certainly I am no stranger in the field. But, this is a matter of simple testing. It was a great idea, one that is very unique and very appealing to the eye… that is, when it is actually functioning up to its capabilities.
What can we learn from this failed (and very expensive) advertising lesson?
When marketing something (or yourself), make it appealing – but also ensure you are in it for the long-haul. Nothing is more frustrating than learning too late about a problem that could have been solved before launch – imagine how Sony felt!
Also, make sure you are emphasizing your capabilities and strengths. People will see you for your abilities and respect that you have challenged yourself in your weaknesses before launch. That’s a lesson we can all learn from.
-k
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Today’s word of the day: Free-standing insert (FSI)
Definition of FSI: an individual or group of advertisements inserted without bound in a print publication. It is only located on pages that contain the ads and are unique to any other editorial or entertainment matter.
