Smile for 5-O
Take a look-see at this Trident commercial. It should help put a smile on your face. I wouldn’t rank it too high on brand recognition, but the ending is quite funny and good for a Monday afternoon laugh or two.
Category: TV/Video Advertising
Roy Firestone LIVE in Hawaii!
Some Laughed..and Some Really Did…Cry!
- Roy Firestone’s Autograph-inside the Book-“Don’t Make Me Cry” 2-8-12
Yesterday-2-8-12 I had the pleasure of seeing and hearing Roy Firestone Speak at the HAB Luncheon at the Ala Moana Hotel, Hibiscus Ballroom. Prior to seeing him speak, My friend from Work-Wade and I went over to meet him and purchase his book entitled “Don’t Make Me Cry”. He was really friendly, chatted with us a bit, and signed my new book.
Next we had some of the best Mass Luncheon food I’ve ever tasted. The meal consisted of a delicious Caesar Salad with super good dressing, Chicken with tomato Parmigiano sauce, with delectable fried eggplant and a side of olive oil, butter and spinach spaghetti.. Oh Yeah, it was G-O-O-D!
Then Roy came on and spoke, what I liked best is how he incorporated both his own personality and various voices along with lots of fun clips from past interviews including the time he made Cuba Gooding Jr “Cry” in Jerry McGuire! Roy has won 7 Emmy Awards and has interviewed over 5,000 people. Much of the time it looks like he’s just winging it, but He told us point-blank that when he does an interview, he totally researches his subject and memorizes almost everything he can about him or her. Then he doesn’t pre prepare questions, he writes down general words that he wants to cover in the interview. And he didn’t say this-but I suspect he does write down some tips on how he will get the interview to become emotionally appealing. I doubt he tries to get them to cry, but I figure he does try to get them to open up emotionally for a more appealing interview for the TV audiences.
Roy actually made half of the room cry when he was talking to us. Most of the time he made us laugh, but during a really captivating story about a girl who fell down when she was running, then got up to finish the race and WON the race, half the room was in tears!
Some of the fun things and Highlights from his talk were:
1. A Story about the time he met Wilt Chamberlin-Wilt was sitting in a luxury mobile wearing a bright suit, hat with a big long feather, fancy shoes, the whole works. Roy asked him “How Bout an interview sometime?” and Wilt responded by saying “Aaaah, not right now, I’m trying to keep a LOW Profile”.
2. The time he interviewed Shaq and asked him the difference between him and Kobe, and Shaq said “Kobe’s more of a loner and I’m more of a socialist”
3. He showed famed coach and broadcaster, Hubie Brown talking about his father and this was extremely emotional-it was another time that the crowd went into tears-this time MORE than half the room. In Roy’s Book he mentions “When Hubie talked about his father, he went into a virtual trance, it was the most intensely emotional interview I’ve been part of”. and even the tape of this sent more thanhalf the room into tears!
4. Many of the biggest stars have a lot in common-Competitive Greatness, Passion, and Preparedness. This included Jimmy V, John Wooden, Ali, and my favorite and Roy’s favorite running back of all time-The Great-“Sweetness”-Walter Payton.
And the last story he told was about M. Ali and how he had the ability to “uplift” practically anyone. Even though Ali had a huge ego and a loud mouth, he was quite passionate about others. Roy Ended the session by letting us all know that we should all try to go out into our days, throughout the world and our lives and try to uplift others. This included giving help and positivity to everyone-your waitress, the Janitor, the CEO, your co-worker and especially your Team-Mates!
All in all it was a good Hour or so spent at the Ala Moana Hotel. When I get a chance I’ll read my new book and let you know more. Have a nice weekend!
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
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)What Day is It?
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.
Should I Stay or Should I Go?
I really enjoy European Advertising and I totally dig the City of Brussels in Belgium.This ad or viral video whatever you want to catogorize it as-is pretty fun to watch. And I’d also give it an A for Effectiveness in selling the brand. I remembered the beer was “Carlsberg” after just watching it once and I dont usually even see that kind of beer around Hawaii very often.
Check out the video, it’s lots of fun. And let me know “What would You do if you you were at this Theatre? Stay for the movie or leave before even sitting down? Interesting decision and discussion. “Should I stay or Should I Go?” (The Clash circa around 1983)
Pretty Awesome Jump Roping seen Here!
Lately, I’ve been a bit bogged down with paperwork, writing proposals, just keeping up with advertising in Hawaii that I havent been able to write about Hawaii advertising too much. But whenever this happens, it just means that something big is on the horizon. For today, I just want to share this social media marketing spot that I found on ibelieveinadv.com
It’s advertising Penguin Jackets and has some great Jump roping stars in it that are not people. Just watch it and see. Pretty fun Vid. BTW I saw a girl in downtown Honolulu wearing a full-blown Down Jacket two weeks ago and it was 82 degrees outside. I’ve seen this before when it gets down to the 70’s, but never in the 80’s. The jacket even had a fur hood!
Hope you enjoy the Penguin commercial. Red’s not exactly my favorite color, but the ad is pretty fun to watch and I only wear a jacket when I hit the mainland at Christmas Time. But maybe, you’re due for a new Fall coat. LMK what you think. Aloha.
The Search Vid
Facebook Facts
We’ve chatted about it a bit before, How I would recommend picking a Social Media medium and using it well instead of doing 4-8 different mediums and doing them all haphazard. Well, today, it looks like if you want to pick one-pick Facebook. Check these interesting facts out:
Research by DDB Worldwide and Opinionway Research finds 84% of typical Facebook fans of business’ and products are existing customers. Tip here is you are marketing to people who already like your brand! Treat them this way and You’ll win in the end. Treat them like people who don’t know or care about your brand and you’re missing the boat. What I’d do is give them free things, secret specials only found on Facebook, Announcements about new products coming out just to these “favorite” fans, some sort of frequent Facebook Club, etc
Social Media Products Director of web analytics firm Webtrends Mr, Kistner says 51% of people in the US HAVE Facebook accounts, 8% have Twitter accounts and only 4 % have geo location accounts like Foursquare. That’s some pretty big numbers for Facebook! I personally like to goof around with Foursquare to get the badges, but as a business, I would for sure go with Facebook first, then pick one or at the most 2 other mediums that fit my brand and goals and work with them on a secondary level. But for sure go for Facebook first and foremost and do it well!
Note: Visits to company websites are almost all down over a year ago and of course visits to Facebook sites are up compared to a year ago. Another reason FB is the place to do your social Marketing. But, like we’ve said before if you’re a new or newer brand the best way to get your Facebook marketing working is to use traditional media like TV, Radio, magazine, Newspaper, billboards to reach out to the masses and bring them to your FB page.
And we’ll leave you with one last fact Facebook fact from Jack Neff- 117 Brands already have at least a MILLION fans! with 40 on pace to join the million mark this year!! Wowza!
Big Blow Ups Rule in Seattle Advertising!
I’m in Seattle for about 4 days this week and I’ve been noticing a lot of Balloon/Blow Ups Advertising in Town.
I Saw Vinnie over at the Duck Tours, a GIANT purple ape and a Paul Bunyan at a used car dealership, Huge Ice cream cones on top of an Ice Cream Store and Big Yellow Hot Air Balloons tethered to the ground at another used car dealership and some pretty usual yet very High in the sky Yellow, Red and Green circular balloons.
It seems Seattle is pretty infatuated with these big balloons. My thoughts on them are: They seem to catch attention IF and only IF you are driving by them. And they seem to catch my attention. The only thing that is really wrong with this type of advertising is many places let their balloon shapes get dirty and kind of ugly which can give your business a worse image instead of more customers. they are pretty expensive, thus if you do this type of advertising, please budget in for a new one every few months or at least once a year so that they will look good.
The Radio Advertising in Seattle was pretty good, the good spots that I heard told a topical story and I could picture the scenarios happening in my mind. The spots that didn’t do to well had way too much copy in them and too many cluttered words read way too fast.
A billboard I noticed Said “Advertise here..250,000 people see this Billboard each Day” I liked that a lot, many times us in media forget that one of the best places to advertise about ourselves is with our own media. A few years back I let my employees run 20-30 ads a week about themselves and also during their “ad” week they were spotlighted on our internet sites. Each Account Executive received an additional 1-5 calls each week that they were on and we had a 20% closing ratio, thus we DID make money from running ads on our own medium. Congrats to the Billboard company!
Advertising In Hawaii 