April 6, 2009
According to a new report from the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council, almost one-third of global marketers plan to increase their marketing budgets this year despite the recession. The CMO Council’s “Marketing Outlook 2009″ report was based on an online survey of more than 650 global marketing executives, conducted from January through mid-March. Read More
March 25, 2009
The next phase of sponsorship for huge corporations is to get small. As short as an instant message on your iPhone. Marketing through Twitter and Facebook, the social media websites, was in force at last week’s South by Southwest independent music festival in Austin, according to this New York Times article. Brands such as Levis and PepsiCo attempted to sway music fans through events and then get them Twittering to each other.
(Twitter has a maximum character count of 140 for individual posts. And Facebook recently redesigned its pages to compete with Twitter.)
“Having a name on a banner now, if that’s all you do, it’s become wallpaper,” Frank Cooper, PepsiCo’s vice president for portfolio brands said. “We’re past the world where Read More
March 25, 2009
The W Hotel and Residences Hollywood, set to open this November, landed quite the coup when the New York Times recently wrote about the luxury property’s pitch to movie studios to bring press junkets back to “Tinseltown.” Typically, a junket is a weekend-long event involving reporters, publicists, cameramen and film stars who get together to promote new movies. Read More
March 12, 2009
In this challenging economy, marketers must justify every penny they spend. And it isn’t just about the quantity of people they attract; it’s about zeroing-in on the ‘right’ people. Google is now elevating its online-advertising model to include behavioral targeting. According to AdAge.com, the company has launched a “beta test of ‘interest-based targeting,’ which lets advertisers target web users based on where they’ve been surfing across the internet.” Read More
February 20, 2009
For this Hot Sheet author, the taste, texture and gooey Oreo goodness of a McDonald’s McFlurry are reason enough to indulge. The 71-gram-of-sugar delight – from its innovative spoon placement to its near-miraculous ability to cling to a half-frozen physical state – needs no assistance appealing to the taste buds of us flavor-happy Americans. But – nevertheless – that’s exactly what it received last week when NBC’s hit comedy “30 Rock” made the dessert a major plotline between co-stars Alec Baldwin and Salma Hayek. Advertising industry watchdogs didn’t miss a beat, quickly questioning NBC for its seemingly shameless, revenue-driven product placement. Or was it? Read More
February 17, 2009
For the once seemingly bullet-proof coffee chain that is known for its long lines around 8am, even Starbucks is being forced to find new sources of revenue – even if it means finding a way to package their high-end brand into the instant-coffee world. With more and more people reluctant to spend money on a cup of coffee from Starbucks each morning and opting to brew their own, Starbucks is launching “Via,” their new instant-coffee product. Read More
February 13, 2009
Valentine’s Day is here, and what’s typically “peak-season” for greeting card companies has subsided thanks to glum economic times. But that’s not the case for Andrew Shaffer and his irreverent greeting card company, The Order of St. Nick. Read More
February 12, 2009
Bill Gates once said: “If I was down to my last dollar, I’d spend it on public relations.” It seems that’s how more and more corporate marketing executives around the country feel as well. Click here for an article from BtoB magazine to read how some companies are putting the power of PR to work for them.
February 6, 2009
Unless you have been living in a cave for three months, you have seen the non-stop, awkwardly-amusing Snuggie commercials. You may have even caught yourself actually watching it – just before you snapped back into reality and asked yourself why, how and who came up with this? This little (or big) blanket with sleeves has managed to capture the attention, hearts and dollars of Americans – in fact 4 million Americans (it even has its own Facebook page)! That equates to $40 million in revenue. Read More
February 5, 2009
This week, an online classified ad company, Bailout Booth, decided that instead of spending money on advertising, it would promote itself in Times Square by setting up a booth and handing out $50 or more to people willing to stand in line and ask for it. The only catch was that each individual who received money was taped on video for potential use as a testimonial on the company’s website.
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