Month: November 2011

Cyber-Monday

Black Friday-Date Time and Place?

Black Friday was all about figuring out when it started and where?  Wednesday at Midnight? Thursday at 6P? Thursday at Midnight or Friday morning. Once that was done it was time to stand in line or shop at your favorite store. And according to the CEA/Consumer Electronics Association’s survey, Nearly 50% of Black Friday and the weekend bought electronics.  Black Friday also saw a nice surge in Retailers radio advertising:  Media Monitors reports that Home Depot ran 50,924 commercials and Sears ran 20,932 commercials for their Black Friday Sale-A-Brations.

Cyber-Monday Deals and Creativity

Cyber-Monday advertising seemed to have a lot to do with email marketing.  I found ALL of these deals via emails to my 3 email accounts. Some have some pretty creative ways to sell their products on this special day.  Living in Hawaii, if you want to get the best deals here, its best shop Sunday Night before going to bed, to catch all the Eastern Time Zone deadlines.

NBA.Com Cyber Monday:  Save 25% with promo code SLAMDUNK  Not really sure when this ends, the site says 3AM Eastern, is that Monday or Tuesday morning? BTW Their Black Friday sale was 15% off.

NFL.com:  20% off everything and some selected gear at up to 65% off regular prices.

Delta.com:  Here you could use your miles to buy gifts for the Holidays!  They have everything from Macy’s to Barnes and Noble to QVC.  And today your points could double,triple and even Quintuple!!  And I just thought they gave away free magazines with the points I’ve never used. Go figure.

Jeffrey Gitomers Sales Caffeine Site:  25% off everything on the entire Website.  (Except Webinars and Seminars)   The Big 25% off Everything headline was really Big and direct.

Ticketmaster.com Merchandise Store:  This was a fun one, just a little confusing.  Buy 2 get 10% off, Buy 3 Get 15% off, Buy 4 Get 20% off, and buy 5 of anything and get 25% off.  Also free shipping for purchases totally over $125.

Beyondtherack.com: Also another fun way to market the big day.  They staggered their sales with different products going on sale at 5A, 11A and 4P.  They also provide free shipping now through November 30, 2011.

Macprovideo.com:  Has the Big 50% Deal going on now

Shopnbc.com:  It’s just one big sale on everything you could imagine over there. Watches, Jewelery, Beds, lamps etc. Just too much to write about.  

LogicBox.com:  I’m a Mac person myself but this deal is really good.  Dell XPS 17 2nd Gen Intel  laptop with 8GB of RAM, 1 TERABITE of storage, 1080P and Blue Ray.  Was costing you:  $1,613.99 and today on Cyber Monday its only:  $899.99 Plus FREE shipping!

What did you buy?  Which did you prefer? Black Friday? Cyber Monday?  or maybe shopping later in the month?  LMK Have a Nice Cyber-Monday-I bet it starts on Sunday next year.  LOL

 

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QR Codes vs Blippar

Well, a few weeks ago I was thinking what would be a great way to make a QR code look cooler? Mobi has some that are colorful, Macy’s put a Star around theirs, But these guys at Blippar have taken the concept to a whole new level. I received this tip from springwise.com then went to Google-Ize the word blippar and I found us this awesome video.

The video has some slow portions, but I’d advise staying patient through it until you at least see the Omega watch portion. What happens here is he puts the phone on a print ad for Omega and within seconds the man in the video has placed 3 or 4 different Omega watches on to his own wrist! Not real watches, but virtual watches and they do look like they are on his wrist. Blippar is Pretty happening. Congrats on the cool concept to all the folks who work over at blippar. I can’t wait until you get Nike as a client and I can wear all the Jordans I could ever imagine! I wont have to buy another pair of shoes ever again. I’ll be able to virtually wear whatever I want-whenever I want. Too cool!

QR Code Cuts

QR Code Hair Cuts

QR Codes have to be the most fun thing I like to write about this year.  We started off on how easy they are to make, then how to capture them, then many an article on various ways marketers are getting them out to the public.  This Has to be one of the coolest ways yet and it’s sure going to garner a lot of free publicity.

What they have done is hired Wayne Rooney’s hair stylest-Daniel Johnson to cut QR codes directly into the heads of the Bromley FC players.  I’m sure these take a long time to do and you would need a really good stylist to do it right due to the preciseness of a QR code.  By the looks of the video, seems like Daniel Johnson has achieved this.  The QR codes are cut into the player’s heads and the fans are supposed to capture the codes with their QR code Readers and Scanners, which will then take them directly to the Betfair Mobile Site.  I love the idea and the heads look pretty rad, it will be great for publicity, just not sure how many people will be able to scan a running Footballer’s head when he’s trying to score a goal or defend the opposing players. Thanks to Trendhunter.com for the tip.  Check out the Video below, it shows one of the players getting the Betfair QR code cut into his scalp. Pretty Amazing!

*The Bromley FC Footballers will sport these new QR Code Haicuts this Saturday when they take on the Leyton Orient Team. 

Happy Veterans Day

Happy veterans Day-Yummy Breakfast Food-Bi Bim Bop!

I had breakfast this morning with my good friend Gene from Non Stop Travel.  I always have the same Sizzling Steak. But today, since it was breakfast and a special Holiday, I ordered this delicious Food.  It also comes sizzling and all you do is mix it up and the egg cooks and there are lots of healthy vegetables in there.  Yum-from one of my favorite places to eat on Oahu-Sorabol on Keeaumoku Street across Ross and Sam’s Club. Have a Happy Day! Bi-Bimitty-Bop-Bop-Bop. (Photo shot with my new iPhone4S)

NO NBA-YES NIKE


Just a couple of days after talking about the really nice videos on the web especially the 5BORO Skate Vid, I opened up my email today and Ad Age MediaWorks Had a pretty cool Story on The Bigger companies and their videos. I personally am not buying any new sneakers until the NBA season starts, but NIKE has come out with a pretty good way to TRY and help their sales without the NBA playing their games. It’s the video above, It is pretty good especially the people doing the “Pop a Shot” I would have included a bit more street ball if it was me, but overall pretty nice video and the slogan “Basketball Never Stops” sounds like it will help sell some kicks.

Then AdAge MediaWorks listed the top 10 bigger brands with the most views this week. Was interesting, I don’t seek videos like these out much, but I have seen the Hot Pockets video and I wrote about the Carlesberg video on  this blog on October 29th, thinking it was A REALLY GOOD VIDEO and thought it was also a  Burlbling underground video. But lo and behold it’s in the TOP 10 this week. Bet they are for sure selling some beer from it!

For quick view access for all ten videos click here

Here’s the listing:

NIKE  Basketball Never Stops
APPLE  Introducing iPhone 4s
YOUTUBE/LENOVO Spacelab what will you do
HOT POCKETS Teens in the Wild (I saw this somewhere this week-I wasnt the target audience that’s for sure)
FIAT  Life is best when Driven
DERMABLEND Go Beyond the Cover- (This Vid is quite amazing!)
MICROSOFT Productivity Future Vision 2011
EVIAN Live Young  (My Favorite bottled Water-For some reason it tastes the cleanist-maybe it’s the advertising?)
GOOGLE The Web is what You Make It
CARLSBERG-That Calls for a Carlsberg (One of the best on-line vids I’ve ever seen)

With APEC in Town, You Might want to skate to work?

If you need to get around Waikiki, Why not try some alternative methods from your usual car? You could walk, Bike, jog, Rollerblade, hoverboard, sail or boat, Heliport, teleport or even skateboard your way around town. Any of these modes might help you ease your stress of getting stuck in traffic in your car or truck.

Actually, Since I write a few different blogs, I run into many different trends, New gadgets, lots of modes of advertising, and many really cool new exciting things. While I was checking for something to write about on streetzblog.com I found this video. And I decided it was much better for advertising in Hawaii.First-It gave me the idea of alternative ways to get around town this week during APEC. Second and most importantly This Vimeo Video matches my advertising blog the best because, lately I’ve been seeing some GREAT video work coming out on YouTube and Vimeo. These video’s are like mini movies, they are professional looking, usually come with great music and sound effects and give the viewer a great vibe of the brand being portrayed. Like this video, one can totally breathe and feel the brands vibe in less than 3 minutes. I actually bought a pair of Jump sneakers after watching a really cool Vid done by them. I’ll try to dig it up on the net if it’s still there.

The video above is for a skateboard company in NYC called 5Boro. It has a real nice NYC vibe, plus some pretty awesome tricks and I totally love it when they show the guy skating while filming the other skater, that just plain amazes me every time I see something like that. And for once, someone actually does wipe-out in the Vid!It adds some real cool reality to the vid and Not everyone is a perfectly awesome street skater and Yes, they do fall..at least sometimes.

I’m still a big believer in using traditional media to get things done for you, to direct people to take action, promote a concert or event, and TM is especially effective as the best way to let people know that you or your website, blog, Facebook, vimeo or YouTube sites actually exist! I suggest trying a radio campaign with enough frequency on the right station to fit your brand and I will tell you right now-it will work in getting people to your other means of advertising. We recently did a campaign for Bespoke Custom Tattoo and their Facebook likes increased each day the spots ran. We also included a pretty topical Wiz Khalifa promotion to go with it, but that’s what we do and that’s another reason it worked.

As I continue to write these blog posts, I am finding that the quality on the videos are getting better and better and are quite a nice way to brand your product. The point here is it’s another great tool to use or add to your arsenal. And I like it!

Note: From a Blog I wrote a few weeks ago. I still think it makes sense to pick 3-4 modes of advertising and do them well. Like Radio, Facebook and Videos. Or TV, Facebook and twitter. Or newspaper/billboards, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. As you noticed, for now at least I have Facebook in everything-that is the one constant I would use no matter what. Last I checked 800 Million ++ people are using it, the numbers are just staggering. And at least as of today, November 8, 2011-I don’t think you want to do 11-12 different modes, unless you have a really, really big passionate staff or no life. Things change so quickly, but for now, I’d go with the 3-4 modes of advertising and do them well.

If you’re looking for some marketing ideas or want my team to work on a campaign for you, just call or text me at 808 479-9928 or email me at scott.mackenzie@coxradio.com ..Hey and if you decide to skate to work this week, wear some safety gear, I don’t want you getting hurt from something I recommended. Peace!

What Day is It?

What Day of the Week is the 24th?

In the Late 80’s, when I was first in radio, I remember writing a :10 Live event commercial for the DJ’s. It said something like “Join us on January 24th at Masquarade to see…” Well, within a couple of days I got called into the bosses office. He told me some of the best advice I’ve ever heard when writing copy and some of  the best advice that I still use to this day, but has not been passed along to enough people.Its a pretty simple, yet mostly overlooked “RULE” in copywriting. here it is:
PEOPLE DON’T THINK IN DATES, THEY THINK IN DAYS” Especially for people like me who think in pictures, I can barely remember what day it is let alone what date it is. And I am not the only one who doesn’t always know what Day a certain Date is. Thus, if a print ad, TV or Radio commercial is telling me to be somewhere on November 24th with no Day listed next to it, It’s going to be extra hard to advertise to me.  I actually just mentally tallied it up and came up with Thursday.  Not totally sure if that is correct, but pretty sure.

This poster is an example of someone who didn’t use a Day. It only says the date.  And they have been putting ads like this in my elevator for months, DATES with no DAYS listed. It’s pretty frustrating for someone like me and probably you too? It’s really not their fault, no one mentored them or called them into their office to explain this easy “trick” to better remembrance of when to be somewhere. Please use Days to help your advertising in Hawaii or around the world become more effective.

Even today which is Halloween I was listening to the radio and a couple of the commercials  didn’t say “Join us Tonight” Or even “Join us Monday October 31st”. It was playing today and just said “join us on October 31st” ugh! Yeah-I know,  it’s a bit different since most people know October 31st is Halloween, but you get the point, if it was next Monday and it said “Join us November 7..” it would have been pretty easy not to know that it was That Monday night and not some other day since Tonight nor This Monday Night were not used in the commercial.

Here’s how I take care of updates for all of my clients.

1.  A couple weeks out:   Join us Thursday November 24th

2.  The Monday before the Thursday:  “Join us This Thursday” or “Join us this Thursday November 24th”  Up to you on that one. I personally go for the simpler “Join us This Thursday”

3.  Wednesday all day:  Join us TOMORROW NIGHT ..How many radio spots do I hear on a daily basis that are still saying “join us November 24th EVEN the Day before the event!  double ugh!

4.  Thursday November 24th:  “Join us Tonight” People think in days and even simpler-use tomorrow night the day before the event and Tonight the day of the event. Totally throw your dates out the window now!

People think in days not dates and this also goes back to the KISS principle..”Keep it Simply Simple” or as us Ol’ Schoolers used to say the politically incorrect KISS principle: “Keep It Simple Stupid”..LOL

You May not want to get this involved in your copywriting, In Such a fast passed world, many get lazy on these simple updates. But it really is the right thing to do. It’s what I do to be as effective as I can for my clients. However, if you remember one thing from this blog, remember that people remember DAYS much easier than DATES. I would recommend adding in Days to all of your print, TV and Radio Commercials.  Even if you forget to all the different updates, for a better remembrance of your event ad, please add the day to your commercials, promos, and Ads.  Have a Great November!!

If you need any ideas for upcoming events or promotions, send me an at scott.mackenzie@coxradio.com and I’ll get you a bunch of free ideas for your upcoming marketing dilemma.

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