What My Marketing Degree Has Taught Me

"Who Says Your a Good Lover?"





[source]

Remix to Ignition

I must say, this is pretty brilliant. Basically, you're reading your favorite magazine (Vogue, J-14, Playboy - for the articles, etc.) and you come across an ad with a paper thin key with a usb device on it. So say you see this car ad, and you punch out the faux key, plug it into your usb drive on your computer, and it will automatically take you to this car company's website! Haven't come across one yet, but I'm dying to try it. I wonder how effective this ad actually is...

[source]

Gorilla, Guerrilla

From what I've learned as a Marketing major, the times are changing, and advertisers need to keep up with the trends to reach their target audience. Remember door to door salesmen? No, you don't because it was probably phased out before you were born. But that's how they did it back then. Imagine a salesman coming to your door and attempting to sell you Shiitsu knives. Homie would be arrested in 5 seconds.

That being said, it's the things like new technologies, social networking, and product integration that get brand names out there. Some of the advertising I find most interesting is guerrilla marketing. Some are effective, some are not. Some are controversial, some are not. And once in a while, some are both [see Aqua Teen Hunger Force Scare: Boston 2007].

But I'd say, the most effective marketing schemes are ones that you have absolutely no idea what's going on or why, that you just have to watch it all unfold until the end where it's revealed who's wasted the past few minutes of your life. So, pop quiz: watch this video, and before it ends, try to guess what the product is they're trying to sell to you.



Did you guess right? If so, 10 points for you. I'm just saying that if I saw this happening in front of me, I would stop and pay attention to see what it was all about. And that's marketing, my friends. Can they please do something like this in Boston? I'll be a part of it! Especially if Pink is in the crowd!

Here's another vid from them from a few months ago. Enjoy, and get T-Mobile!

Twitter is Another Word For ...

So after about a year and a half of the pressure to join Twitter, I've finally decided to conform to the Twitter society.

For those of you who don't know what it is, think of Twitter as one single site to update your Facebook status. Except it's your Twitter status. You can "Follow" anyone you want, and anyone can follow you. Everyone from college students to CEOs to celebrities can update what they're doing or what they've found on the internetz. You can even take a pic or video from your phone and send it directly to your Twitter to give a complete visual of your life at that very moment.

Now I know it sounds like a stupid idea. Why does anyone need to know exactly what you're doing every single minute of the day? "Traci is brushing her teeth with Colgate Total and will be rinsing out with some tasty tap water." Honestly, NO ONE needs to know that. I thought these exact thoughts when I first heard of Twitter from a friend who also happened to be a Marketing major like me. I told her that it was the dumbest thing I've ever heard of in my life. She said "no, it's actually really addicting." I didn't believe her at the time.

Anecdote: Senior year, I arrived at my Entertainment Marketing class right when it was slated to start, and about half of the class was not present, including our professor. Come to find out 15 minutes later that he had cancelled class because he was sick (very frustrating for people who only had that one class that day). But my aforementioned friend had TWITTER, which our professor was also on, and he had put in his Twitter that morning that he was cancelling all his classes that day because he wasn't feeling well. She got the message, and didn't even go into school because she got his Twitter. UGH, right?!

For the sake of argument, you have to understand (if you were not a marketing major, or not into the latest social media trends) that Twitter is actually a very important platform for the marketing/advertising/business industry. A lot of CEOs and business professionals use Twitter to update their Followers on the latest trends, what's hot, what's not, etc. Yesterday I even saw someone post a job opening at the company they work for. So for these guys, Twitter is a big deal.

Then there are those who I think fall into one of three categories:
1) The vain, narcissistic type that want everyone to know what they're doing because they need attention.
2) Those who are too lazy to write a full out blog, and a 140 character post will do just as good.
3) Celebrities/companies that are a mix of the two previous types, and in addition want to reach out to their fans/customers.

To be completely honest, the only reason I finally caved was that so I could Follow the Backstreet Boys. Seriously. They're on tour in South America right now and they update every day as to where they are, personal pix, and show the INSANE fans down there. I've also taken to following other celebs, such as Diddy (who twittered DURING his 48 hour tantric sex session), Lily Allen (who eats ribs in her hotel bed, apparently), and Shaq (who is arguably the most entertaining, and even gives away free tix to his games via Twitter). For some reason though, Twitter has become even more popular as of late and even made its way into an article today on Yahoo News, giving a spotlight to MC Hammer who doesn't give up the chance to plug his current ventures on his Twitter. I guess that's the best thing about Twitter, is that the Tweets (?) from these celebs and companies come directly from them, and the news wasn't filtered through the media.

I still admit though a fairly unnecessary site, Twitter is the next big thing in social media, whether you think it's dumb or not. I'm sure people thought Facebook was a dumb idea when it first came out. But in all honesty, I think there is a little part of us that wants to know what their friends and celebrity friends are doing and thinking throughout the day. It's why we stalk Facebook pictures. It's why we flip through the latest People magazine. It's why when we're driving on a highway and there is traffic and when it finally starts to clear up you realized that everyone was slowing down to stare down the car accident on the side of the road. As human beings, we can't help but be slightly interested in other people's business [see: The Hills/ALL REALITY TV]. And right now, I can't help but refresh my Twitter to see what movie Demi and Ashton are watching together, or look at pix of John Mayer's version of 'interior decorating' because I'm just that addicted. Tweet ya later.



ps: my twitter name is tracileigh27, so follow me if you so choose.

Say What?

I knew going into my major that I was not going to make my concentration Advertising. Don't get me wrong, I definitely appreciate the creative side of it, which is why I could never go into that field. I'm just not creative enough.

But you know who is? These guys. Here is The Bubble Project, a global project in effort to take the advertisements to a whole different level. The creators say:

"The Bubble Project instantly transform these annoying corporate monologues into open public dialogues. They encourage anyone to fill them in with any expression, freed from censorship. More bubbles mean more free spaces, more sharing of personal thoughts, more reactions to current events, and most importantly, more imagination and fun."

Obviously, because this is basically a blank canvas, (and I have a deteriorating perception of the general public) I expect people to write offensive things. But actually, I was quite surprised to see some clever and witty speech bubbles written on ads across the globe. This one is one of my favorites. Wilma looks much hotter with her hair down. I wonder what Betty thinks of this.

What would you guys put on your speech bubbles??

If Only Anna's Taqueria Did This, Half of My Friends Would Be Dunzo.

I'd like to think that I actually got something out of Emerson College. More specifically, I would like to think that I got something out of my Marketing Communications - Concentration in Public Relations degree. Throughout my time at Emerson, I wrote a critical analysis on "The OC," did a final project discussing the stereotypes in the casts of "The Real World," and created an entire media relations plan on the launch of Disney Channel's DCOM, "Camp Rock." Four years later, I finally earned my well deserved degree, but there is absolutely nothing I learned that could possibly come up with a BRILLIANT marketing tactic such as this.

This is called "Whopper Sacrifice." It's an advertising campaign by Burger King, where you, the Facebook user, adds the Whopper Sacrifice application to your profile. Then you select ten friends whom you would like to delete from your friends list. Once you have deleted them, you receive a coupon for a FREE Whopper at any participating BK locations.


Now I myself find this to be just plain smart. Advertisers are using social networking sites more than ever to get their point across to their desired demographic. Here, BK is not only utilizing FB, but it poses a challenge to its customers to see what they are willing to give up just to get a free charbroiled hamburger.

The inner marketing major in me would really like to see the evaluation of this campaign and how well it fared, how many people did it, how many Whoppers were given away, how many licks it takes to get to the center of the tootsie roll pop, etc. But based on their site, it looks like a lot of people are willing to delete their "friends" off FB. Me? I didn't do it. Not really in to Whoppers. Plus if I deleted 10 friends, I would be down to 505 friends, and that's just unacceptable. I can't afford to lose any friends. Whether they're real or not.