You are currently browsing the category archive for the ‘advertising’ category.
Online shopping is not just my obsession, it’s my primary mode of shopping. In the spirit of true confession, I admit I’ve grown so accustomed to purchasing the majority of my housewares and clothes online that I can’t stomach confronting an overstuffed rack at Nordstrom’s. The thought of digging through piles of clothes to find my right size makes me queasy. And, oh the horror, not seeing the garment displayed on a model or as part of a styled outfit gives me the hives. I’m a visual person and I need to see the shape and movement of a garment on a real person. And that is just one of the reasons I can see marketing genius in Madewell’s new mobile marketing campaign.
If you are not familiar, Madewell is J.Crew’s sister company. Madewell embraces a hybrid urban, Americana, chic aesthetic; it’s all gauzy tops, textured patterns, and classic jeans. If I remember correctly, the company made a big splash on the retail scene about 3 years ago and has steadily accrued a crowd of dedicated fans ever since. But Madewell is setting its sights on something larger than urban buzz.
To promote their tailored jeans, Madewell is sending a Pop-Up store to untapped frontiers.To bring the jeans to the people, Madewell has outfitted a 1978 Airstream trailer with a denim bar, a braid bar, and dressing rooms. The trailer is currently on a tour of America, hitting some major cities but also stopping in little towns were no brick and mortar Madewell stores exist. Shoppers are encouraged to hop on board, slip into the perfect jeans and experience the expert quality and cut of Madewell denim.
But here’s the catch: you can’t buy that perfect pair on deck. So what can you do? You can take a picture of yourself in the jeans to post to Facebook, search the area surrounding the trailer for golden tickets, and get a free ‘do at the braid bar. You have to purchase the jeans online or in a store. What a brilliant way to engage consumers through multiple channels: online shoppers get a chance to really experience the jeans with no commitment to purchase; in-store shoppers get the full retail experience but are driven to the website for purchase; and those who have never experienced the Madewell brand are given a personal, customized introduction. Plus with the added social media and in-store incentives, Madewell is committing a grand feat of brand channel cross-pollination. For more information on the Airstream activites click here.
Millennials present marketing, advertising, and market research professionals with a unique challenge. A distinct combination of social, cultural, and environmental influences have formed a generation of consumers with very specific needs and touch points.
A force of approximately 80-90 million strong in the US, with an estimated $200 billion in purchasing power, Millennials are not an audience to be taken lightly. Understanding Millennial consumers’ mindsets, values, and purchase patterns and behaviors through creative and innovative Millennial-specific market research methodologies is essential to the success of most mainstream brands and products.
Our white paper, W5 on Millennials, outlines key characteristics which affect their attitudes toward and interaction with products and the marketing surrounding them, as well as how W5 approaches gaining a true understanding of how to effectively communicate and connect with them. Here is a snapshot of this force by the numbers:
24% of Millennials say that ‘Technology use’ is what most makes their generation unique, the #1 answer (Pew Research 2010)
50 median number of text messages teenagers send every day (Pew Research 2010)
48% of Millennials who say word-of-mouth influences their product purchases more than TV ads. Only 17% said a TV ad prompted them to buy (Intrepid Study 2010)
47% of 16-to-24-year-olds are employed, the smallest share since government started recording data in 1948 (Bureau of Labor Statistics 2011)
46% of Millennials say they’ve had vigorous exercise in the past 24 hours
45% of Millennials highly associate their lives with simplicity, compared to 51% of Gen X and 58% of Boomers
44% of Millennials say that marriage is becoming obsolete, compared to 35% of Boomers who feel the same way (Pew Study 2010)
43% of 18-24 year-olds say that texting is just as meaningful as an actual conversation with someone over the phone (eMarketer 2010)
42% of teens say the primary reason they have a cell phone is for texting. Safety was second at 35% (Nielsen Study 2010)
41% of Millennials have made a purchase using their smartphone
40% of Millennials think that blogging about workplace issues is acceptable. Compared to 28% of Boomers (Iconoculture 2011)
39% of Millennials have a tattoo (Pew Study 2010)
38% of Millennials count themselves as Democrats, 28% Independents, 26% Republicans (Brookings Institution Study, March 2011)
35% of employed Millennials have started their own business on the side to supplement their income (Iconoculture 2011)
33% of Millennials live in cities and 14% live in rural environments
32% of Millennials say they don’t like advertising in general, compared to 37% of the general population (Experian Simmons Study)
31 the age of the oldest Millennials in 2011
29% of Millennial workers think work meetings to decide on a course of action are very efficient. Compared to 45% of Boomers (Iconoculture 2011)
28% of Millennials have a gun in their home (Pew Study 2010)
27% approximate decline in email usage among those ages 12-34 over the past year (ComScore Study 2010)
26% of Millennials say they are not affiliated with any religion (Pew Study 2010)
23% of Millennials think they will still be with their first employer after two years (8095 Live survey 2011)
21% of Millennials say helping people in need is one of the most important things in life (Pew Study 2010)
20% of Millennials are Hispanic. Millennials are more racially diverse than any generation before them (U.S. Census Bureau 2011)
19% of Millennials have voted on American Idol (Pew Study 2010)
15% of Americans ages 25-29 who had never been married in 1960, compared to 55% in 2011 (U.S. Census Bureau)
14% of the Millennial population is African-American (Pew Study 2010)
12% (only) of Millennials disagreed that they should pay more for higher quality items (Intrepid Study 2010)
11% of Millennials have boomeranged back to their parents house after graduating from college because of the recession (Pew Study 2010)
8% of 18-29 year-old internet users have used a location sharing service such as FourSquare (Pew Study 2010)
7 average number of jobs a person will have by age 26 (Intrepid Study 2010)
6 # of text message sent by those ages 13-18 every waking hour (Nielsen Study 2010)
4 average number of times that Millennials eat out per week (3.39 per week to be exact), more than any other generation
A new analysis of gender-specific social media chatter has revealed what occupies women and men’s daily thoughts. Can you guess? No, it’s not shopping and sex. But it is another guilty obsession of most Americans.You can scroll down to see the final results, but before doing so let me mention that the below infographic was created by social media monitoring company Netbase.
To get the data for the graphic, Netbase analyzed 27 billion online conversations taking place over the course of one year. After the conversations were observed and collected, Netbase used natural language processing to search for the phrase “I want X.” The data was then analyzed and compiled into a top ten list for each sex.
Think you know what women and men want most? Keep reading to find out.
The fracturing of advertising along media lines and through disruptive technology has created a strange nostalgia in us for the good ol’ days when you could be forced to watch a commercial on television rather than switching to something else or hitting fast forward. It’s not that we want more interruptions, but there was something in that collective, obligatory experience of laboring through advertisements on television that today makes us go all misty-eyed at the thought of “giving the world a Coke.”
The web is a big problem when it comes to emotive advertising. Online ads are functional and easily ignored, most often search algorithms that return relevant but uninspiring results. Google with Project Re: Brief is taking on this challenge by retrofitting four classic advertising campaigns for the web: Coke’s “Hilltop,” Volvo’s “Drive it like you hate it,” Alka-Seltzer’s “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing,” and Avis’ “We try harder.” The whole thing is called accompanied by a documentary, the trailer for which is below:
John Carter landed in theaters this past weekend with a quiet thud. In reality, it should have landed to a symphony of gold coins falling from the pockets of Mickey Mouse’s red shorts to the floor. That’s right, Disney ate it big time on this cinematic flop, coming in second place at this weekend’s box office.
But how? It seemed all the pieces were in place for the film to be a smash hit. An esteemed director of other Pixar hits (Wall-E and Finding Nemo), Andrew Stanton, stood at Carter’s helm and the film boasted a plot that would resemble Indiana Jones on Mars-an almost surefire guarantee for box office gold. Yet when Carter hit American big screens it-as a New York Times article stated-was treated as a corpse.
But perhaps Carter’s box office death was not in vain. Disney has made it clear it will not point fingers and place blame but, rather, look at this as a hard-earned lesson. We can learn something here too. One of the key missteps that Disney and Stanton took was a lackluster marketing campaign that failed to consider its audience. Pixar creates quirky, fun-loving animations, not war-torn epics about outer space and the Civil War. Most of Pixar’s target audience doesn’t know of Edgar Rice Burroughs or the Barsoom novels. Nor is Pixar’s audience familiar with Taylor Kitsch (star of TV series Friday Night Lights). Marketing also did little to educate and attract this crowd. So when creating a new product (of the film kind or any other) be sure to consider your audience. Be sure to ask questions like: What has appealed to my audience in the past? Who are they familiar with? What’s the best way to educate them about a new product? How can I make them care about this product too?
If Disney had considered some of these questions during the (many) rounds of production for John Carter and subsequent phases of pre-release marketing, then the film may not have derailed and disappointed.
SXSW2012 is underway. A beautiful marriage of 
technology, film and music, the 2012 conference lasts ten days, with SXSW Interactive lasting for five, Music for six, and Film for nine days. Growing from 700 registrants in 1987 to nearly 20,000 in 2011, SXSW continues to be one of the highest revenue-producing event for the Austin economy.
As you may be aware, SXSW Interactive is focused on emerging technology, a focus which has earned the festival a reputation as a breeding ground for new ideas and creative technologies. Not attending? You can still be a part of it. Thanks to SXSW.com and @SXSW (Twitter) you can stream live keynote speakers and get festival highlights and headlines. Interactive Live Streaming Events for tomorrow, March 13, include:
- 11:00AM CST
Advise THIS! Matchmaking Startups & High Profile Advisors - 2:00PM CST
Coding the Next Chapter of American History - 3:30PM CST
Digital Debauchery with Anthony Bourdain
Combine technology, film, music and Austin, Texas, in March, and you have a festival too big to ignore. If you haven’t jumped on the SXSW bandwagon yet, what are you waiting for? Hop on and see what its all about.
This past Sunday was a pretty big commercial day (and I guess there was some football in there, too) and I noticed quite a few brands teamed up to try and catch viewers’ attention. Co-branding works a lot of times as you can tell by the popularity of Haagen-Dazs’ Bailey’s Irish Cream ice cream or Betty Crocker’s brownie mix with Hershey’s chocolate syrup. But this Super Bowl there were a few interesting combination commercials that were unexpected, which may or may not be a good thing.
This year, GE worked with Budweiser to show how the turbines GE produces provide the power to make the beer and to keep it cold. It’s an interesting combination; not one you’d expect from either company. Another odd combination included Old Spice teaming up with both Charmin and Bounce. While you do see the Bounce Dyer Bar and Charmin Freshmates, Old Spice takes over the commercials saying “It’s so powerful it sells itself in other peoples’ commercials.” Interesting concepts but in all honesty, the Old Spice commercials scare me a little.
In my opinion, the best show of teamwork goes to OK Go and Chevy’s new Sonic, who produced a music video that was referenced in their Super Bowl commercial. In the 60 second spot, Chevy intrigues you with shots of “Sonic’s first music video” with OK Go along with “Sonic’s first skydive” and “Sonic’s first bungee”. I was most intrigued by the music video and checked out OK Go’s new video for their song “Needing/Getting” and have been obsessed ever since. The video took four days of filming, stunt driving lessons and over 1,100 custom-made instruments to make and it was all worth it. I’m intrigued to see how successful this was for Chevy’s newest product, but with over 9.5 million views on YouTube, it definitely gets the name out there.
Be sure to check out the Chevy Super Bowl ad and OK Go’s “Needing/Getting” video (below)!
