Ever question the power of advertising? A recent article published on Yahoo! News states that banning fast-food advertising on TV in the U.S. could reduce the number of overweight children by as much as 18% . Interesting enough, simultaneously, Subway announced a deal with Michael Phelps to be their new pitchman across all marketing channels. He will be touting healthy, smart choices for food. The celebrity endorsement combined with a timely message seems to be right on target!

Recently, the Motrin controversy was still unfolding.  Instantaneous response to the advertiser’s campaign caused their TV spot to be pulled off the air – and some people may even have lost their jobs.  Who is in charge of a brand?  The tables have turned and obviously the consumer really is king now.  This can work to a brand’s advantage, if the brand is response, involved and engaged with the appropriate audiences at every level.  Consumers must be your advocates – as they will make – or break your brand.  Social media has changed the game and response to a campaign is now real time.  It is our job to develop a plan that integrates with this discipline in order to navigate a brand – and participate in world conversations.

While blogging is a hobby for some, a job for others, it ultimately shapes opinions, matters to readers and can drive brand value.  Blogging is increasingly popular and influential amongst the 18-29 year-olds.  As a matter of fact, according to a study conducted by SNCR and Middleberg Communications, 87% of 18-29 year-olds believe that bloggers have become important opinion-shapers, versus 69% of 50-64 year-olds (still a large number).

The moral of the story is – be actively involved in online conversations, be aware of what is being said about your brand.

A company that we have used the past couple years in NCC which focuses primarily on Spot Cable today announced that it has booked $1 billion in annual ad sales for the first time in its 20-year history.  This is a network that we have used to help us plan and buy media in multiple makets simultaneously dating back to the FNB One-of-a-Card Campaign.  By way of comparison, when NCC launched in 1988––at the time it was known as National Cable Advertising––total billing was around $10 million, or 1 percent of this year’s take.

The agency has enjoyed particularly robust growth in the last several years, as the expansion of cable ad interconnects allows the NCC to reach 99 percent of wired cable homes in some 132 markets.

Jointly owned by three of the nation’s largest MSOs (Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Cox Communications), the New York-based NCC reps all of the major cable operators, as well as DirecTV and Verizon’s FiOS TV.

“This is a proud day,” said Greg Schaefer, NCC president, by way of announcing the milestone. “The confidence and support that our client and ad agency customers have show is a testament to the special value they place on cable television’s array of programming, geographic and consumer targeting, and exclusive digital advertising platforms.”

We are practicing what we preach by jumping head first into the Social Media space on the new Bozell website. Each of our executive committee members are required to post blogs on a regular basis. Many of us are already active in the blog’o’sphere on a personal level and we commonly recommend this tactic to our clients, but this is an integrated approach for the company. Read More

Many marketers are wondering right now what the best advertising approach is in these tough times.  I say spend but spend wisely.  Go into the marketplace with a sound strategic plan that will allow greater frequency with a more efficient use of limited dollars.   When the majority of your competition is reducing ad spend during this time GET OUT THERE!  Now more than ever marketers have the ability to gain marketshare and keep in front of engaged consumers.  Look at this time as an opportunity to move the needle for your company and stay one step ahead of the competition.

I say go the “Schooner Tuna” route from the 1983 comedy hit Mr. Mom and show consumers that you also feel the hard impact of the economy and are there for them in this time of uncertainty.  Of course this can be applied easier to consumer goods but this approach can also work for any marketer.  Whether you are offering a two-for-one offer, a free night’s stay, mail in rebates or special financing this relays to the consumer that your company cares and is stable.

Marketing examples from the Depression Era

Proctor and Gamble – This is a company which has a philosophy of not reducing advertising budgets during times of recession and they certainly did not make any such reduction during the Depression. P&G has made progress in every one of the major recessions and that is no accident. When their competitors were swinging the budget axe, P&G actually increased their spending. While the Depression caused problems for many, P&G came out of it unscathed. Radio took P&G’s message into more homes than ever.

Chevrolet – During the 1920s, Fords were outselling Chevrolets by 10 to 1. In spite of the Depression, Chevrolet continued to expand its advertising budget and by 1931, the “Chevy 6” took the lead in its field and remained there for the next five years.

Bottom line is this is exactly the time to go full throttle with ad dollars and gain much coveted marketshare.

I will be the first to admit it. When it comes to standing up for our concepts, or proving the reasons behind why we created something a certain way, I will totally throw myself on the chopping block for design. If we don’t stand up for it, who will?! And can you imagine a world without any thought put into the way things are designed? From directional street signs, to buildings, to the cars we drive, and the books we read…It can make us designers feel like we take life way to seriously. And for good reason!

But here we go – here is finally a book about design that infuses humor into the fold! I have read what feels like a trunkload of design books and few of them really compel me to read past the first few chapters. THIS however, is a different story!

http://www.youworkforthem.com/product.php?sku=P0607

Chasing the Perfect is a personal reflection on Modernism’s influence on the teaching of design and its practice. Writer/designer Natalia Ilyin delivers it up in such a honest and wry way that speaks directly from designer to designer. I cannot help but feel her angst: “this silent pressure that a language of design based in perfectionism had brought to bear on how I developed as a person.” She knows what touches and frustrates our hearts and our minds.

But ‘funny read’ put aside, this book is a solid critique of Modernist principles and their influence on Western culture. Even if you are not a design hound like me, you will totally enjoy this book and the way Ilyin documents her life and her views of the world molded by the ever evolving principles of design.

Plus, with a sweetly designed ‘Dada-esque’ book cover, this could take a proud position on your living room coffee table. Viva Design!

What is a vacation? To some it’s a destination. To others it’s spending extra time with friends and family.  These things and more can be obtained close to home with a Staycation at a CoCo Key indoor water park.

CoCo Key Water Parks are connected to hotels, but you don’t need to be a guest of the hotel to enjoy the water park. Besides water slides, a lazy river and other water entertainment, CoCo Key also features a full restaurant and bar along with cabanas that can be rented for larger groups and birthday parties.

Whether it was a three day stay or just for the afternoon, CoCo Key guests are able to create memorable and fun experiences for the entire family.

Beyond competing with themed indoor water park hotel chains, CoCo Key also goes head-to-head with recreational community pools and outdoor water parks in many of the markets in which they are located. It was our goal to create “buzz” in each market on the value proposition of CoCo Key and the Staycation concept. Prior to working with Bozell, each individual property manager at each location was responsible for their individual media buy.

CoCo Key was able to create a uniform brand across the country by having a single agency develop its media plan. We leveraged our strong relationships with national broadcast, print, online and outdoor companies to create an efficient and integrated plan. It was important for us to develop a media  mix that not only provided a desired level of reach, but also a level of frequency that could support multiple promotional offers.

CoCo Key has successfully opened 10 additional properties across the U.S. in the last 14 months and plans to continue expansion in the next year.

Besides providing overall quality health care services, Alegent also promotes messaging around preventive health services and well being.

Alegent provides services that consumers do not always associate with major health systems including classes and services on weight management and healthy cooking. This lifestyle focus has provided a great platform to implement non-traditional grassroots marketing components, an area of expertise for Bozell.

Signs placed outside high traffic stores in area malls provide clever reminders to shoppers.

In addition to efforts at area malls, Alegent sponsored public art projects/displays and encouraged people via contests to get out and walk around, to see the sculptures placed all around town.

Working with a local TV station, a special “Health Check” program was developed with station news anchors presenting news and health tips for healthy living both on air and online.   A special section was created on the station web site to provide further reference information for consumers.

The various grassroots efforts help Alegent spread the message to consumers in effective and efficient ways.

WildSmiles Brackets are patented braces with unique shapes: stars, flowers, footballs, diamonds, and circles. The product allows consumers to have fun with their braces experience and be individual in the way they design their mouth.

The average age for children to receive braces is 12-16 years old. Naturally, children entering this age range were our target audience. More specifically though, our primary target audience consisted of those children who already shaped their peers’ opinions by regularly offering ideas and experiences concerning braces. The goal was to spread awareness of WildSmiles custom braces brackets to a large geographic area with a very limited budget.

YouTube has roughly 71 million users with children aged 12-16 being the largest single age group using it. Bozell found a way to stand out in the crowd and impact our target audience.

We filmed a short viral video that featured real opinions from kids with braces. This video became the icon video for a YouTube video contest and group. We then promoted the contest by searching out other YouTube users who were also peer influencers on the subject of braces and encouraged them to join our group. You can view the contest and its videos at www.youtube.com/group/wildsmiles.

Even with tiny budget, the four-month contest produced better than expected results. The contest also spurred hundreds of comments on other videos, groups and users’ pages. One nice aspect to this contest is that all of the content produced and shared will now live forever online. It is searchable forever. The contest also helped drive traffic to the company Web site. The contest resulted in more than 4,600 views of WildSmiles Braces branded videos. This number will continue to grow without aid as long as it is up. Additionally, the Wildsmiles Web site, www.wildsmiles4you.com, saw a 20% increase in traffic.

Driving east on Cumings Street, there is almost always a shopping card wedged into a bush, resting beneath a tree, or rolling 30 mph towards the Bag and Save parking lot. It always got me thinking about how this area just wouldn’t be the same without these “icons” of the hood making their presence known.

It reminded me of a website that I visited a few years ago that is since going strong. The Stray Cart Shopping Project. http://www.strayshoppingcart.com/shopping_cart/1_introduction.htm

Julian Montague is an artist based out of Buffalo, NY and designed this system of classification that allows stray shopping cards to be identified based on the situations where they are found.

There are True Strays: ones that left a parking lot and gone into the world; and False Strays: ones that have stayed close to their source. He has identified nine sub-categories of false strays and 21 sub-categories of true strays, all of which are documented with photo examples. Montague feels that this kind of classification system serves as a kind of vector for looking at the social makeup of a place. (Vandalism is also a good indicator.)

Shopping cart found near graffiti.

“Over the last several decades, the stray shopping cart has quietly become an integral part of the urban and suburban landscapes of the industrialized world. To the average person, the stray shopping cart is most often thought of as a signifier of urban blight or as an indicator of a consumer society gone too far. Unfortunately, the acceptance of these oversimplified designations has discouraged any serious examination of the stray shopping cart phenomenon.”

It is a well designed website that definitely has Montague’s aesthetic, and it is a truly interesting and refreshingly NEW and different way to look at our urban landscape and class system. I would visit this site for the photography alone.

Rusted shopping cards smashed into the sides of buildings (damaged at source carts), a wheel poking up out of a hill of snow, etc…the images tell a thousand stories.