A recent Advertising Age article discusses how marketing and advertising agency executives spent $2,500 to spend the day with super hip, trend setting youth (aged 16 to 29). The Trend School is a monthly 1 day forum organized by Creative Artist Agency's Intelligence Group at New York's Soho House.
These communications professionals spend all day learning about these cutting edge youth, what they are into, and what drives them.
The idea is that by spending time with these youth, executives will be able to pick up on cutting edge trends and bring them back to their clients. By actually spending time with their clientèle, these professionals are supposed to better understand what motivates these youth to purchase.
My question is "Why haven't these executives been doing this all along?" If I have learned only one thing in my marketing and public relations classes, it is that you need to know who you are communicating with in order to do an effective job. No marketing executive worth their salary should attend something like this "Trend School" and find it eye opening.
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Thursday, February 22, 2007
playing it safe
Why do advertisers pull ads at the first sign of controversy? In our politically correct obsessed culture, it seems like some great, though perhaps edgy, advertising gets pulled because it's too offensive. This frustrates me when clever advertising that resonates with it's target audience gets pulled, yet garbage that moves nobody gets to continue airing. I think the only way to create truly memorable advertising that compels people to listen is to take risks.
A perfect example of a somewhat edgy strategy is an old school ad campaign from Levy's rye bread. While this ad ran in the 1960s and was well before my time, I still cracked up when I saw it. As the article points out, this kind of ad would never happen in today's society. The ad plays on stereotypes in a comical way, yet these ads would never fly in today's culture.
I think that advertising and marketing are supposed to be two way conversations and when consumers find an ad offensive, they should be listened to. However, I think one or two outspoken opponents to an advertiser or an ad should not ruin something that is genuinely entertaining or enjoyable for the masses -- especially if these outspoken critics are not even in the advertiser's target demographic.
A perfect example of a somewhat edgy strategy is an old school ad campaign from Levy's rye bread. While this ad ran in the 1960s and was well before my time, I still cracked up when I saw it. As the article points out, this kind of ad would never happen in today's society. The ad plays on stereotypes in a comical way, yet these ads would never fly in today's culture.
I think that advertising and marketing are supposed to be two way conversations and when consumers find an ad offensive, they should be listened to. However, I think one or two outspoken opponents to an advertiser or an ad should not ruin something that is genuinely entertaining or enjoyable for the masses -- especially if these outspoken critics are not even in the advertiser's target demographic.
Thursday, February 1, 2007
No such thing as bad publicity?
I have to wonder to myself today whether publicity at any cost is really a smart strategy. After Cartoon Network's outrageous stunt that involved the posting of small, battery powered light screens all over the city of Boston. These screens displayed cartoon characters, but were mistaken for bombs by local authorities.
While this marketing campaign to draw attention to an Adult Swim program, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, took place in nine other cities without a hitch, it went horribly awry in Boston. The bomb squad was called, traffic was diverted, and the mayor even got involved. Two employees of the New York marketing group, Interface, Inc., were arrested on Wednesday for their participation in the "incident."
Who knew small, battery powered light screens could cause such an uproar? As of now, Turner Broadcasting System Inc. has already offered an apology for the incident, but it will certainly be interesting to see how this pans out. The guerrilla campaign certainly drew media attention... but perhaps not how Turner Broadcasting Inc. would have liked.
I can't decide whether I think this snafu was a clever tactic to break through the clutter of traditional media that was horribly misinterpreted by some paranoid Bostonians or extremely irresponsible on the part of Interface, Inc. This debacle is just another example of how even the best marketing plans can go astray in the execution.
Adam Hanft, CEO of marketing/advertising firm Hanft Unlimited, described the Cartoon Network stunt as an act of "marketing terrorists," who blur the line between dangerously cool and just dangerous.
While this marketing campaign to draw attention to an Adult Swim program, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, took place in nine other cities without a hitch, it went horribly awry in Boston. The bomb squad was called, traffic was diverted, and the mayor even got involved. Two employees of the New York marketing group, Interface, Inc., were arrested on Wednesday for their participation in the "incident."
Who knew small, battery powered light screens could cause such an uproar? As of now, Turner Broadcasting System Inc. has already offered an apology for the incident, but it will certainly be interesting to see how this pans out. The guerrilla campaign certainly drew media attention... but perhaps not how Turner Broadcasting Inc. would have liked.
I can't decide whether I think this snafu was a clever tactic to break through the clutter of traditional media that was horribly misinterpreted by some paranoid Bostonians or extremely irresponsible on the part of Interface, Inc. This debacle is just another example of how even the best marketing plans can go astray in the execution.
Adam Hanft, CEO of marketing/advertising firm Hanft Unlimited, described the Cartoon Network stunt as an act of "marketing terrorists," who blur the line between dangerously cool and just dangerous.
ohh Wal-Mart
Do you ever feel like Wal-Mart can't seem to do anything right when it comes to public relations? From the fiasco of the fake blog by the couple visiting Wal-Mart locations across the country to this most recent public battle over the firing of two marketing executives for having an affair, it seems like Wal-Mart can't catch a break. Is this bad karma for driving small, local stores out of business or are these just a few symptoms of an underlying problem? Perhaps Wal-Mart needs to be more careful and strategic in its relations with media and the American public.
It seems like Wal-Mart is constantly in the news trying to manage another public relations crisis and down play criticism. For a company with 288.2 billion dollars in sales in 2004, surely Wal-Mart could do a better job of managing their media image. I feel like executives from Wal-Mart should have left the reasons behind the firing alone, instead of bring up the lurid "evidence" they have of this affair.
It seems like Wal-Mart is constantly in the news trying to manage another public relations crisis and down play criticism. For a company with 288.2 billion dollars in sales in 2004, surely Wal-Mart could do a better job of managing their media image. I feel like executives from Wal-Mart should have left the reasons behind the firing alone, instead of bring up the lurid "evidence" they have of this affair.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)