Costco end of world marketing

Is it concerning to anyone that Costco is marketing for the end of the world? Every little event now is turned into a reason to market - whether it's holidays (yes, think of what Christmas has turned into) or even the end of the world supposedly coming today. Now Shelf Reliance is offering a year supply of food through Costco, which is a great way to live after the end of the world comes and you are still here. Yes, it has other purposes too, but the bigger picture is scary that every little event today is turned into a marketing opportunity. Take Black Friday which is now becoming Black Thursday as another example. I am all for marketing, but marketers need to learn their boundaries, but companies would be much better off in the consumer's eyes if they acknowledged the importance of holidays and events again and stopped making them into one big selling event.

Point of purchase displays in the holiday season

We all are ending up in the store these days picking up groceries or continuing our holiday shopping. It is interesting to look around at the point of purchase (POP) displays throughout the store. How do you notice these changing for the holidays? Why are displays placed where they are? Take time to really look at the difference between items that are on displays and on the shelves. Which do you see consumers grabbing for more? In a recent trip to Fred Meyer (grocery store mainly based in the northwest US), there were over eight POP displays in the middle of the main aisle leading to the checkout stands. I didn't see them flying off the displays and into carts today, but I am sure they will be as it nears closer to Christmas. Yes, it may cost more to create the POP displays or, in some cases, pay the stores an allowance of some sort to put up the display, but having your product right in front of the consumer's eyes is of great benefit to your product.

New Expedia Ad

A recent Expedia ad is gaining traction and popularity in the media (see ad here). It builds off of Expedia's Find Your Strength Campaign. The ad is quite emotional yet empowering in talking a cancer survivor's journey as well as the journey of another cancer patient who did not survive. Expedia is using this to liken the journeys that we travel on to the travel that Expedia can take you on.

It has a powerful emotional pull, though does anyone else see the similarity between this and the recent Facebook commercial relating Facebook to chairs? Facebook's commercial got trashed in media outlets around the world for being abstract and not a true celebration of now having 1 billion users. Of course, the Facebook ad did not have the benefit of this recent Expedia ad with reference to the emotional appeal, but both are abstract. In any case, it may show that Expedia cares for the journey of others, but I still wonder if this is going to contribute to increased brand awareness or sales.

Health Halos

My main area of research now looks at health halos, which is the idea that one piece of information on a product package or advertisement can cause a consumer to think that the entire product is healthier than it actually is. Prior research shows that adding a "low fat" label to the front of a package makes a consumer think the product is much healthier than without the label, even if calorie, sugar, sodium, and other nutrition facts still show the product as being extremely unhealthy.

Recently, I have looked at how cause-related marketing efforts (i.e., a brand donating a portion of proceeds to a brand) influences health halo formation. Initial findings show that consumers perceive a cause on a package as endorsing a package making the product appear healthier than it actually is. This includes well known healthy causes such as the American Heart Association, American Red Cross, World Health Organization, and also the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. Interestingly, I was listening to Pandora when the ad above appeared for a 5-hour Energy bottle that is donating a portion of the proceeds to the Avon Foundation. Likelihood is great that adding this makes the product appear healthier than it actually is - having less sugar, fewer calories, etc. than the normal 5-hour Energy. Scary? It's true.

Black Friday Really No More

As stores began opening earlier for "black friday" this year than ever before, initial stats from Black Friday show that sales are down on one of the biggest shopping days of the year. Obviously, some of those sales are pulled over to Thursday as retailers keep trying to beat one another out. Retailers argue that the new strategy is better for all allowing people that enjoy staying up late able to get deals in the evening and people that enjoy getting up early able to get deals in the morning. However, retailers are NOT thinking of the consumers. As each retailer fights to open earlier than the previous retailer, it is just a fight to get the consumers' dollar before the competitor gets it. But how are consumers feeling about it? What is happening to a great holiday that consumers have to be thankful for the things in their lives? Marketing is beneficial for businesses to enhance awareness and provide incentive to purchase the business' products, but there is a point when the business crosses the line of helping the consumer. Is entreanching on Thanksgiving day helping or hurting the consumer? In my opinion, retailers need to realize where they need to draw the line. Thanksgiving is a holiday. Consumers enjoy having this holiday. Allowing consumers to fully enjoy a holiday with family will help consumers to be in a better mood and enjoy shopping more. Plus, respecting the consumer and the holiday may encourage the consumer to have an attitude of your company as more respectful and a place where they would rather shop.

Black Friday at WalMart

Often times when we think of Black Friday, we think of sales, early mornings, gimmics, deals on computers and TVs, and of course, crowds. However, this year we also see a coalition of Wal-Mart workers gathering together to protest against low wages and to make their statement more powerful, this group of workers plans to stage their protest on Black Friday. Some may wonder what implications this has on Black Friday sales. Others may wonder if this will take away from the cheer of the beginning of the holiday season (wait... who said there is cheer involved in waiting in line for two hours in the freezing cold only to fight with others to buy stuff that you don't even know if you want).

One of the biggest questions right now is what exactly is going to happen and how will this affect sales for the big day? More than likely, some employees will follow through with their protests, standing outside of Wal-Mart stores picketing against the low wages. In my opinion though, Wal-Mart is a smart enough company that store managers have already analyzed how many employees they expect to join these protests, scheduled in additional employees, and even alerted appropriate authorities to remove protestors that become out of control. Wal-Mart employees are replaceable so I'm sure Wal-Mart is not concerned about the employees. And plus, do you really think the people that are rushing to the Black Friday sales are going to care whether or not the employees are getting low wages? I highly doubt it.

ESPN Gameday Sponsorship

A bit of local marketing for today around the University of Oregon. ESPN Gameday is going on today (the 17th of November) in the heart of the University of Oregon campus. I find it particularly interesting that the Home Depot and Cheeze-Its are the sponsors for the event. First we must ask, what do these have to do with football? Yes, men who watch football may be likely to visit the Home Depot... and eat Cheeze-Its? Kind of strange. Yes, great advertising to a campus of about 23,000 students. However, was Home Depot necessarily the best major sponsor for the event? The University of Oregon colors are green and yellow with orange being one of the colors of the main competitor for the University of Oregon ducks. Yes, Home Depot may be the national sponsor for the gameday events, but students seeing the color orange may instantaneously associate Home Depot with their rivals. It's a small similarity but could have a big influence. In any case, just a reminder that sponsorship is another form of marketing communication that is often forgot about.

Windows 8 Advertising

Windows 8 came out for consumers at the end of October.  In a variety of different advertising mediums, Windows has tried to get the message out about their new operating system. However, reports have come back that consumers are left more confused than informed. The advertisements showing a mobile like (and also very Apple like) graphical user interface leaves consumers wondering... how do I use this? This reminds me of when Apple came out with ads initially introducing the first version of the iPhone. Consumers thought it was neat but didn't understand how to use this new type of phone. Apple quickly realized that they needed to introduce "how to" ads to show consumers how to use the new device. Seems like Windows needs to consider something similar.

Companies too often assume they know consumer's needs and desires with regards to advertising but fail to conduct adequate copy testing before sending ads out to market... or they conduct copy testing but push their own agenda so much as to forgo actual consumer feedback. Advertising needs to answer consumer questions, inform consumers of news/changes, remind consumers of purchase opportunities, and/or provide consumers with the resources to get more info. Is Windows 8 doing this? Not really - they are informing consumers of the new opportunity but failing to answer the key consumer question of how easy is this going to be to use? Consumers wonder, is this going to be like the big changes when the Office 2007 suite came out? If so, what is the motivation to upgrade to this new operating system??? Key here - focus on the customers and their needs, not on your own thoughts and desires as a company.

Buying clicks to go viral

Now you don't have to go to all that extra effort to promote your video on Youtube in order for it to go viral. You can pay a company such as Buyral to click on your video continuously and make your video appear as if it is going viral. This could then potentially lead to the video actually going viral as a result of consumers believing the video is already on its way to being viral. Does this sound fishy or what? It seems like something that may work for a short time but as soon as companies catch on, consumer skepticism of video views is going to grow higher causing money paid for clicks to be wasted. Other thoughts?

Hiring an an ad employee

I talk a lot about what makes good advertising but don't mention much the process of actually getting a job in the advertising industry. Wieden and Kennedy (pronounced why-den not wee-den) is one of the larger ad agencies in the country with one of its main headquarters in Portland, Oregon. They are famous for producing the Old Spice campaign, among others. It's interesting to see the tasks (as a potential employee you can choose one or more to write a case study on) they ask potential employees to complete for the possibility of being a social strategist. Any takers?

• Challenge 1 - Create the best original Pinterest board dedicated to the sport of inline speed skating (NOT roller-hockey).

• Challenge 2 - Create and post an original piece of content to Reddit that then receives the most upvotes in a single week.

• Challenge 3 - Create and upload to SlideShare an original, in-depth competitive analysis of the Ed Hardy social media ecosystem.

• Challenge 4 - Get the most people to friend your mother or your father (or a parent-like figure in your life) on Facebook in a single week.

• Challenge 5 - Create an original (new) Twitter account and then use it to get the most followers in a week using any verbs you like, but only the following nouns: "BLUEFUDGE," "HAMMERPANTS" and "GREEK YOGURT."

• Challenge 6 - Create an original YouTube video that then receives the most plays in a single week using this script verbatim:
        #1: "Wait. What are you doing?"
        #2: "Trust me. This will be fine."
        #1: "Ok. Go ahead."

• Challenge 7 - Get recommendations on LinkedIn from at least three other people trying to get this job.

• Challenge 8 - Create the most reviewed recipe on allrecipes.com in a single week using cottage cheese as an ingredient. The reviews don't have to be good.

• Challenge 9 - Upload the most pictures of your armpit(s) to Instagram during the course of this challenge. The pictures must have your face in them to verify your identity and include the hashtag #mypits.

• Challenge 10 - Using Quora, give thought-out, meaningful answers to as many dream catcher-related questions as possible in a single week.

McDonalds trying to appear natural

McDonalds has been trying to follow the natural trend to make their products appear more natural in the public's eyes. Take a look at the article and video here as an example of how McDonalds Canada is showing consumers the production of the french fry from potato to McDonalds fast food joint. Yes, these fries may come from actual potatoes, but that does not make them healthy... that's a huge concern I have with commercials like this. Consumer thinks, oh, potatoes are healthy, but NO! Not after they are deep fried in vegetable oil. And then doused in salt. Yes, he shows that there is only about a tablespoon worth of salt on four medium fries, but this one tablespoon of salt contains over 2,000 milligrams of sodium - just about what a person is supposed to consume on average for an entire day. On a positive note, it is neat how it appears that the narrator is taking the consumer through actual consumer questions, but this still does nothing for me as far as improving the image of McDonalds. Okay, so your fries are made from potatoes. That doesn't make them healthy or natural. And besides, how many consumers are going to spend 5 minutes of their time (besides some of us marketing geeks) to watch about McDonalds french fries being produced from the potato to the fast food joint?

Lance Armstrong

Interesting story about Lance Armstrong. Accused of doping during his bike races at the Tour de France. Stripped of his medals. Stripped of his sponsorship by Nike. Voluntarily left the head administration at the Livestrong foundation. What does this tell us about marketing?

First, Nike was cautious to continue a retired cyclist who is also accused of doping in fear of the sponsorship hurting their brand. Yes, Nike has kept on other athletes in the past who have gone through similar situations, but the previous athletes were not nearing/at retirement and also had incidents that happened on the personal scene rather than the athletic scene. Though it is interesting that Nike continues to support the Livestrong foundation. Thus a reason that it is good Lance stepped down from the Livestrong foundation because otherwise it might appear that Nike is inadvertently supporting Lance by supporting Livestrong. I am happy to see that consumers are not revolting against the Livestrong foundation which is providing much help in cancer research and instead separating the two elements (Lance and the foundation). A word to the wise for companies - be ready for instances like this and no beforehand how you plan to handle them.

Facebook is like chairs

What are your thoughts on the recent commercial/support video that Facebook put out to celebrate their one billionth user (see video here)? They made an attempt at a strong emotional appeal to draw consumers close to Facebook and think the social power of Facebook is similar to many other connecting entities, even as great as the universe. However, they tried to hard in a short amount of time to make this successful. The vast majority of consumers finished watching the video with looks of perplexity on their faces. Is this what Facebook needs in the midst of their stock spiraling downward?

Oreo and AMC Theatres - a social media discussion

Oreo made a recent twitter post asking its followers if they ever sneaked Oreo cookies into a movie theatre (read more about it here). Then comes along AMC Theatres with the reply above: "NOT COOL, COOKIE". For a brand's twitter post, it's quite impressive to get 236 retweets and 66 favorites. Is taking on another brand the new way to get followers and interest in your brand's social media efforts? It can be but is definitely an area that needs to be considered cautiously. This series of tweets is tasteful, but there is a fine line between tasteful discussion and discussion that leaves a follower thinking the brand is vengeful. So nice job AMC and Oreo. It will be interesting to see if this goes anywhere from here.

Kellogg seeking tweets

I really enjoy reading articles about how companies employ non-traditional means of promotion. In a recent article (see the article here), I read that Kellogg is giving away bags of their new chips for customers visit one of their temp stores and make a tweet about the chips. Word of mouth (customer to customer) communication is the most effective, most trusted, and longest lasting form of promotion a company can get. Why not encourage the customers with some free chips to help spread the word of mouth. This could also be seen as a form of stealth marketing (basically undercover marketing), which has been found to be extremely effective. Many companies could take some advice from Kellogg's strategy.

Westin and New Balance ad... what are they thinking?

 

Take a look at this recent ad by Westin. If you took off the copy at the top and the bottom of the ad, what would you think it is for? Probably the New Balance shoes because that is what stands out most with their red color on the background of everything else white. The only connection to Westin is the fact that Westin is offering you to rent out New Balance shoes and clothing when you stay at a Westin hotel to make you have to pack less. 

Though do you really think higher class individuals that would be staying at Westin hotels would be wanting to rent clothes and shoes? Think about how you feel when you go to the bowling alley and have to put on those rather smelly, old bowling shoes that you know hundreds of other people have worn. Not sure how well this one is going to work for Westin...

Best Buy moving on campus

When we think of marketing and advertising, we often think of traditional bricks (physical) or clicks (online) stores or traditional advertising in the form of print ads, video commercials, or radio ads. It's when a company breaks out of the clutter of tradition that marketing can be extremely effective.

I saw just that today walking around a university campus where students were preparing to start back up with fall term classes. Best Buy had set up a large tent near campus that allowed students to actually purchase Best Buy products on campus - computers, TVs, all sorts of connection cords, even soda making machines. Everything to "pimp" out that new dorm room or to pick up a last minute essential. Instead of advertising store sales and trying to draw customers to the store, Best Buy simply brought the store to the customer. Genius. I'm sure Best Buy had to pay a pretty penny to get that position on campus, but I am also sure it was worth all their money. Even if a student or parent did not buy anything from the on campus make shift Best Buy store, the giant tents act as a huge piece of reminder advertising. Good going Best Buy.

Chobani social marketing

Interesting article just came out about Chobani and the company's social marketing efforts. Read about it here: http://m.entrepreneur.com/article/223999. There are some key points to pull out of this. First, notice the active and immediate engagement with posters. Second, notice that not all posts are directly related to the product. Think about things related to the consumer's lifestyle rather than constant hard selling of your product. And third, note the integration of social media platforms. Nice job, Chobani.

Product packaging - new Starbucks fruit beverage

Some of the most interesting marketing illustrations come from experiences in everyday life. I was drinking the new starbucks refresher drink that is a mixture of sparkling fruit drink and green coffee bean extract. I was given the bottle from a friend but probably never would have purchased it in the first place.

I am not a coffee lover, and the label on the front of the can states it contains green coffee bean extract. Nowhere on the front does it tell you that the drink will taste only like fruit and not at all like coffee. That is a huge deterrent and mistake for starbucks as they try to attract a new audience with this beverage. Remember, advertising is only one component of a complete marketing package.

Transit advertising - the Chicago airport

I find non-traditional advertising particularly interesting. Toss together transit advertising (anything displayed in places of transit - e.g., airport, bus station, etc.) with the olympics and you've got an interesting combination. The Chicago airport has consistent messages across all united terminals saying that they are the carrier of US olympians. These ads are found hanging from the airport ceiling, on active billboards throughout the airport, on the sides of moving walkways, and in many other locations as well. Quite interesting given the fact that the olympics ended now several weeks ago.

Transit advertising can be very effective when you have a captive, interested audience. However, companies should be cautious about a variety of things including timing. After a major event is over, take out the ads and start a new campaign.

Cobranding with McDonalds

Is cobranding with McDonalds necessarily a good thing? I ran in a race this weekend to support breast cancer awareness. One of the sponsors for the race and on the back of the race shirt is McDonalds. It seems strange given that foods at McDonalds have been linked to cancer along with numerous other diseases. As marketers we face ethical issues every day - who do you market with? What does that portray about your company? Are you just seeking a partnership for the money or for true value being added to your brand? All of these are important questions to consider.

Geico

It's interesting when you start to take notice of changes in marketing communications for companies over the long run. Take Geico as an example. They used to be placing a large portion of their marketing communications budget on TV ads. Now you rarely see a Geico ad. Though take a look in just about any magazine, and you're pretty much guaranteed to see a Geico ad. So why the change? It may be slightly cheaper to run a print ad than a TV spot during a prime time show, but print ads can still be expensive. Take a look at any company's media kit, and you can see that print ad rates can easily run $40,000 for a half to full page ad for just one magazine issue. Though when you get into magazines with more prestige and more readership, rates go up. For example, Forbes magazine is going to cost you $135,730 for a full page color ad in one issue. That's expensive! And that's just one ad. So cost is still high. Back to Geico again... perhaps they're changing they're finding new ways to reach their target market, find it easier to convey their message in a print ad (remember print ads have the benefit of being a self-paced medium so users can easily read them at their leisure and come back to them too), or a host of other things.

As you are seeing ads, take notice of the medium they are using and how that changes over time. Can be quite interesting and telling about the company too.

Non-traditional marketing communications

This is a short post as I type this from my iPhone (note how me just saying this is an endorsement for the phone). Anyhoo, isn't it interesting how marketing communications are all around us? Found this one today with Fred meyers. Sponsoring a tide book - breaks through the clutter of traditional advertising and definitely a clear brand statement for the company. As you meander through everyday life, stop and think about all the non-traditional marketing communications around you.

Marketing Alaska

Do certain marketers have it easier than others? I am from Alaska, and as soon as I tell anyone this, they seem instantly interested. Yet, I see my husband, friends, and colleagues introduce themselves from other states and no one seems to raise an eyebrow. Is Alaska a well marketed place that everyone knows about or rather is it a marketer's dream of a place that sells itself? I'd say a little of both. The Travel Alaska website (see it here) is an example of online marketing that uses visuals to easily draw a consumer in. Who doesn't love beautiful snow-capped mountains and calm seas like the picture above (ok, maybe I'm biased).

The point I'm trying to get at here is that every product, service, idea, etc. comes with its own advantages and challenges. Alaska has amazing visuals and experiences to captivate just about any consumer, but consumers may have high fears of costs and the unknown. We have to remember that ease in marketing does not correlate with ease in advertising. Advertising is only a part of marketing. As the American Marketing Association defines it, marketing is "the performance of business activities that direct(s) the flow of goods and services from producer to consumer or user". Remembering back to any intro to marketing course, this marketing includes product, place, price, and promotion. Although Alaska has the advantage of great visuals to use in promotion, marketing can still be challenging with price and demystifying rumors about the product (e.g., you will get mauled by a bear if you move to Alaska). See it as a fun marketing challenge.

Gatorade Non-Marketing Ad

I am not quick to say an ad is great because so many ads have many flaws. In marketing, and specifically ad development, it is important for all elements of your ad to contribute to the message you are trying to convey. So many ads have random backdrops, misplaced people, music that doesn't fit, and I could go on and on with other failures.

I must say though, I am impressed with this latest spot that Gatorade put out. Watch it here. This ad spot featuring Usaih Bolt (Olympics winner of the 100 and 200 meter men's sprints) talks about how Gatorade did not sponsor the Olympics, did not have ads around the Olympics, did not hand out swag at the event, or anything of the like. Rather Gatorade was used by real athletes to fuel their bodies. That's a powerful message that breaks through the clutter of traditional advertising. Nice job Gatorade.

Progressive tweet

Companies far too often ignore a critical element of the marketing communications mix - public relations (or more commonly just known as PR). Or if not ignored, this area is not given enough attention. This is the case with the latest Progressive social media fiasco (read more about it here). As a quick summary, a customer of Progressive died due to a car crash where the customer was not at fault. The brother of the lady who died filed a lawsuit against the person who killed his sister. When in court, Progressive was actually defending the killer rather than the customer's sibling. Progressive didn't want to have to pay out on the claim. Then, to top it off, Progressive posted on Twitter that they felt they sufficiently responded to the claim within their required contractual obligations.

What companies don't realize is that good PR truly manages the image of your company and ultimately the number of customers you have. Bad PR, customers and sales decrease. Good PR, customers and sales increase. Progressive should have responded with a sympathetic response and say that they were actively going to do something to help out the brother of the crash victim. But rather, they give a response that directly references only their level of obligation and nothing beyond that. What does that tell the customer? It tells the customer that in the event that you are in an accident or need anything from Progressive that you won't get anything more than what they are required to give you. And that, my friends, is enough to cause you to find another insurance agency.

Healthy? Vending Machine

Most of us would never think of a vending machine as an advertisement, but they really are an advertisement for the products they contain (think about Pepsi or Coke vending machines with branding covering the machine). I found this one in a public high school over the weekend and found it particularly interesting. Note the "healthy" label on the vending machine, yet it contains gummy words, chocolate cookies, and rice krispie treats. Another example of contextual priming (where the context around an item influences evaluation of the item). Isn't this bad that vending machines in public schools are advertising highly sugared sweets as healthy???

Olympic Athletes as an Advertisement

Often we think of marketing as purely done by marketers in big agencies in the form of print ads and television ads. We really need to expand our view of marketing. First, marketing incorporates both strategy and advertising, among many other things. Second, when we think of advertising in particular, there is both company paid advertising (e.g., those prints ads and annoying video commercials before the Olympics come on) as well as free publicity.

It was interesting to see this article and picture relating Kinesio tape to Olympic athletes. Athletes and athletic experts claim it helps improve performance and decrease possible over-extensions. Though think of this from the side of marketers involved with Kinesio tape - this is free communication about their product - or as we call it in the marketing world, publicity. Celebrity athletes are in a sense endorsing the use of Kinesio tape, thereby potentially causing desire for Kinesio tape to soar. What more could a company ask for than free publicity, top athletes as free celebrity endorsers, and also being features on one of the most watched programs around the world? Nice going makers of Kinesio tape. Get ready for the sales to role in.

Oldie but goodie: Pepsi max viral ad

Yes, this was really popular back in May, but I think it's a great viral ad to watch again (watch it here) or see for the first time if you haven't seen it yet. The ad went viral because of Kyrie Irving, but the question is... can you remember the brand that the commercial is for? So often we find awesome commercials or viral adverts but can't remember the brand. I'm sure this commercial cost tens of thousands of dollars just to shoot and to have a celebrity endorser. However, Pepsi Max is only featured in the hands of a few audience members and then again in Kyrie's hands at the end of the video when showing the 4 hours prior shot. Yes, the brand is at the end (which is referred to as a recency effect in marketing), but is that enough to leave the viewer talking about Pepsi Max instead of Kyrie Irving?

I want to bring notice to an interesting tagline near the end of the video: "a zero-calorie cola in disguise". Finally connects the disguise of Kyrie Irving to Pepsi Max. However, this point could have been brought out more in the video. In any case, a very effective viral ad in the sense of drawing viewers but not so effective in drawing attention to Pepsi Max. Thoughts? Disagreements?

Songs in commercials

Has anyone seen the recent Liberty Mutual commercial? Watch it here. The music sounds like you should be in an elevator, but the commercial is all about people getting in accidents or otherwise damaging their vehicle or surrounding property. They could have thought of many types of music much more appropriate for the commercial. Granted, the song used in the commercial is titled "humans" which is slightly comedic, but their song choice is still poor.

This reminds me of a comedy I saw a few months back talking about popular brands and new song choices that would be good. Quite funny. Here's the link to the comedy video. There is a vast amount of research showing how song choice, tempo, pitch, etc. influences evaluation of advertisements. In this case, Liberty Mutual would have benefited from either no music, suspenseful music, or very slight background music that is almost not perceivable. Also, they could have benefited greatly from some market research beforehand.

Virginia for lovers ad

 

I ran across this ad when reading through Backpacker magazine over the weekend. I love Backpacker magazine and usually find their ads very relevant and well crafted. However, this ad makes me stop and think... why is Virginia for lovers???

I realize they are attempting a rebranding effort here. Trying to encourage more tourism to Virginia. However, besides a couple hiking together, there is no indication about why Virginia is for lovers and other states are not. What specifically would attract you to Virginia rather than say, Alaska where hiking is very well known? I'd be very curious to learn about any concept or copy testing the Virginia department of tourism did on these ads before running them.

For all those marketing nerds wanting to learn a tidbit today - this ad falls under a type of advertising known as transformational advertising. The ad is trying to transform commonly held perceptions of Virginia. Though, obviously, this is not a great example of transformational advertising. Have your thoughts been changed?

Monkey olympic commercial

 I thought it was interesting to read the recent news on the Olympics to find big disputes regarding a recent commercial showing a monkey doing gymnastics (see the article here). The commercial aired right after an interview with Gabby Douglas, America's African American gold medalist in gymnastics. The raises a great question for TV networks and many others in the ad industry... is it anyone's responsibility to be pulling commercials in the case that contextual effects (in this case, the interview) cause the commercial to potentially be offensive?

In marketing there is a large body of literature on contextual effects. In simplest form, the information around you or around an advertisement influences your perceptions of what you are evaluating. Take the example of a popcorn package. If the popcorn package is surrounded by unhealthy bags of fried chips, this will cause you to feel the popcorn is more unhealthy too (yes, there is research on this). Also, more research in this health arena shows that consumers develop perceptions of restaurants and use that to guide for consumption. For example, what do you think of when I say "subway"? You're most likely thinking of a sandwich shop, maybe a healthy sandwich shop, or maybe even Jared's pants. Interestingly, these perceptions actually cause consumers to eat more calories at Subway than they would if they went to a McDonald's restaurant. At Subway, you may opt for a cookie and a drink thinking the sandwich is healthier, whereas you may limit your consumption at McDonald's. Quite interesting, right?

In the case of the Olympics commercial, the contextual effects (in other word, the interview) caused consumers to change their perceptions of the following commercial. In my opinion, industry and consumers shouldn't make that big a deal of it. Yes, during high watched shows like the Olympics, there should be someone concerned with airing of commercials, but should we really be taking NBC down for doing this?

NBC pays $1.18 billion for Olympics

After so much hype with the Olympics, you begin to think... how much money is actually being spent here? I shared with my class today that Olympics sponsors (e.g., Coke, Acer, Samsung, McDonalds) pay $100 million for JUST the rights to use the Olympics symbol. That's not actually an advertising at all, just the rights to be able to use the olympics logo and state that you are an official sponsor of the Olympics. Ouch!

So then the question arises - how much is NBC paying to host the olympics? The olymipcs are essentially a syndicated program - in other words, a program that networks bid to host. In 2012, NBC paid $1.18 billion to host the olympics. NBC has won the bid for the next four olympics for a total cost of....

$4.38 billion! Wow... how many problems with world hunger could we solve with that amount of money? See more on these costs from the article.