"Just an Online Minute" blog - shows free on itunes

I found a number of really interesting blogs on MediaPost. One of the blogs I found that discusses product promotions is called "Just an Online Minute." Visit this blog - I really like it!

The blog entry that caught my eye was the one about TV network promotions on iTunes. The post is titled "Nets Develop Online Deals for New Season." The post describes how various networks are promoting their shows to premier this fall. I think what Fox is doing will be really effective in promoting their shows. NBC's joint venture partner News Corp. is making season premieres of Fox shows available for free on iTunes that users can view for one week! Shows including "Prison Break," "Bones," and "K-Ville" will be available in the form of free downloads before the shows air. ABC is going to stream its shows on AOL, and NBC will provide free ad-supported downloads.

What News Corp. is doing for Fox will allow viewers to own the shows once they are downloaded to their computers and transfer them to their iPods. As Wendy Davis says in her blog, most Television viewers are more likely to choose ad-free versions of a show. Therefore I think the promotion for the Fox shows will be highly successful and I agree with Davis that it will probably surpass the response that NBC or ABC's promotions receive.

Personally, I would take advantage of the promotion for the Fox shows. They are free and contain no ads! Ads in the shows can be very annoying. I know that when I have tried to watch shows online it is annoying to have random breaks in the program with ads you can't skip over. Visit http://www.fox.com/home.htmto watch some of their latest programs online. Click on the show you would like to watch and there is an option to download it for free on iTunes. Check out Fox's new show "K-Ville" it looks pretty good.

Also don't forget to check out Wendy Davis' blog - "Just an Online Minute."

The blog post discussed was found at: http://blogs.mediapost.com/online_minute/?p=1570
?p=1570

Sponsors of Daytona 500

A huge part of promotions is sponsorships. I never knew how much money sponsors will pay to advertise their companies at large events! An article about sponsors for the Daytona 500 discusses just how much money sponsors pay. Hype for the 50th anniversary of the Daytona 500 next year is already growing! Around 40 brands will spend a total of $100 million dollars in activation fees around the event. That is a crazy amount of money! Some of the sponsors include Coca-Cola, UPS, Gatorade, and Holiday Inn. Many of these companies signed contracts with the International Speedway Corp. (ISC). For example Coca-Cola signed a 10 year deal with the ISC in which they will distribute commemorative bottles and cups with the Daytona Logo. They will also have signage at the event where it will provide refreshments.

The article goes on to discuss why there is such a "sponsor rush" for the event. This can be attributed to the fact that NASCAR sponsorships convey a tremendous amount of brand loyalty. The article says that, " NASCAR fans are three times as likely to buy NASCAR sponsor's products - and the response rate doubles for NASCAR devotees to go the tracks."

I think that the amount of money that gets tossed around by sponsors is unbelievable but on the other hand worth it. The Daytona 500 is an event watched by a tremendous amount of people and sponsors will definitely receive recognition. People will be more inclined to purchase the advertised brands, especially if their favorite NASCAR driver is promoting them!

It's incredible how many sponsors the Daytona 500 gets - way to go! For all you NASCAR fans out there here is where you can buy tickets and learn more about the Daytona 500: http://www.daytona500.com/. Here is a picture of my favorite - Jeff Gordon! Looks like he just won!

The article discussed in this post can be found at:
http://promomagazine.com/othertactics/news/
coke_gatorade_kroger_sponsor_daytona_500_092707/

Gillette Video Contest

When looking for my next topic to write about I came across Gillette's new promotion. It caught my eye because it is a promotion that uses a professional athlete to attract people to it. Gillette partnered with former Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn. The sweepstakes encourages males to create videos that show their "game face." The winner of the contest receives an all-inclusive trip for four to New York City to meet Quinn. They also receive a Gillette GameFace entertainment package which includes an LCD HDTV, multimedia surround sound and a Nintendo Wii. You can enter the contest at GilletteGameFace.com. This Web site includes Quinn's very own Game Face video.

I think this contest is an excellent idea for multiple reasons. I think the Game Face concept would be very appealing to many males as guys always talk about being tough and putting on their game face for sports. If you are a guy and you are not tough you take a lot of flack!

Another reason this contest would attract many males is the use of the professional athlete Brady Quinn. Every guy that I know loves to watch football and no matter what team they are a fan of I am sure they would not pass up an opportunity to win an all inclusive paid trip to meet Quinn.

For all you football or Quinn fans out there here is a Brady Quinn highlight video.


The article discussed was found at: http://promomagazine.com/news
/gillette_razor_video_contest_092407/

Dairy Queen Promotions

When searching for my next promotion to blog about I came across an excellent source of information. Promomagazine.com has a tremendous amount of information on the latest product promotions. It includes the top stories, webinar information, blogs, research and more! If you are looking for information on current product promotions I suggest you visit Promo Magazine's Web site!

During my first viewing of Promo Magazine an article caught my eye about Dairy Queen's latest promotions. The article is called "Dairy Queen Builds Loyalty with Innovative Promotions." The article really impressed me because Dairy Queen is running a number of contests and sweepstakes that have been successful. Their use of interactive media is stellar. The article reports their loyal customer base, however they do not stop promoting their products because of this.

Dairy Queen's latest promotion is the Blizzard Sweet Sounds Game. If you play this game you can win up to $50 in music downloads, ring tones, or gift cards to Dairy Queen! To play you enter codes from Dairy Queen Blizzard cups at BlizzardFanClub.com. This game also entails quarterly prizes as big as a Sony MP3 music player!

The article goes on to discuss how successful Dairy Queen's other promotions have been. In the company's summer promotion called "Free, Click, Win," customers were asked to upload photos of themselves eating a Waffle Bowl (one of DQ's products). This contest for the best video brought a total of 194,000 unique visitors to the DQ Web site!

I was extremely impressed with Dairy Queen's promotions. The company is a great example of not letting an increased customer base stop you from continuously promoting your product. It is very important that companies stay modest and I think DQ has done an excellent job in doing so. Not only are they currently running many promotions but they are brainstorming for the future as well. The article discusses their plans to launch a Blizzard Fan Club Web site in October which contains social networking components and online games. I think this is an excellent way for Dairy Queen to attract consumers and spread the word about their products. It is not surprising to me that Dairy Queen has a large consumer base as their Blizzards are delicious! I am a huge fan! You have not fully experienced childhood if you haven't consumed a blizzard here and there. Kudos to DQ for their very successful and clever promotions. I will leave you with this hilarious Dairy Queen commercial I found for Kit Kat Blizzards.


The article discussed was found at: http://promomagazine.com/news/live_promo_
live_dairy_queen_promotions_091907/

To find out more about Dairy Queen and their products visit: http://www.dairyqueen.com/us-en/

McDonald's Monopoly

Everyone loves splurging with fast food. What better than splurge and play a game at the same time? The McDonald's Monopoly game has been going on for years and attracted many people to the fast food joint. It is a sweepstakes where customers receive tokens with certain menu items which correspond to a specific property space on the monopoly board. When the tokens are combined into color-matched properties they can win you money or prizes such as video games. A description of the game can be found on wikipedia.org.

The picture above is the "vault" from the 2006 monopoly game. The number at the top is "total winners and counting." I think it is very smart of McDonald's to have this number at the top of the page because it is so large and in turn, a higher number of people will think they have a chance to win.

I think using a monopoly game as a promotion for McDonald's is very clever as most people are familiar with the game and would want to play. I also think this contest was successful because it is on going. Since you need to keep collecting tokens to win, people will buy more and more food from McDonald's. Everyone knows fast food is unhealthy, but I'll admit I like to splurge sometimes. My friends recently had a contest at Burger Kind to see who could consume the most calories. I'm sure this monopoly game made some people consume more calories than planned in order to collect tokens.

Another way to tell that this monopoly game has been very successful is by how long it has been around. When searching youtube I found a very dated advertisement for the monopoly game from the 1980's!

To find out more about McDonald's monopoly visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonald's_Monopoly

Apple Promotions

When trying to find my first promotion to write about, Apple was one of the first companies that came to mind. Although I do not own an apple computer many of my friends do and have received a free ipod or free printer through a promotion when they purchased their computer. However, I do in fact own an ipod as I was drawn to it by Apple's advertising.

The image above is advertised on the Apple Product Promotions page. This image is what comes to mind for many when they think of apple. Currently on their product promotions page Apple has three main promotions. The first is a promotion for college students in which they receive a free ipod nano with their purchase of a mac computer (depicted in the picture above). For the second promotion, between July 24, 2007, and October 22, 2007 if you buy any .Mac Retail Box or .Mac Family Pack Retail Box you save $30 on a .Mac annual membership. The last promotion currently listed on the apple Web site is if you purchase an apple computer and a qualifying printer between July 24, 2007, and October 22, 2007 you can save up to $100.

Apple is very clever with their promotion tactics as they know what is appealing to the consumer and the particular target audience. I think it is very smart of apple to promote a free ipod nano with the purchase of a computer to college students because many college students use ipods - at the gym, walking to class, and for entertainment. The last two current promotions in which consumers can save money on a Mac annual membership, and on a purchase of a computer and qualifity printer, are smart because they are very practical. They provide an opportunity for consumers to save money on items that are frequently purchased from Mac.

Not only do I think Mac employs very clever ways of promoting its products, but its advertisements are very visually appealing, yet simple, which quite often catches the viewers attention. Mac has a very sleek, modern look to its products as well as its advertisements. For example, the picture I included above is very simple but conveys the message - computer plus ipod nano - the two go together.

Apple also includes Past Promotions on its Web site.

To learn more about apple products visit their Web site at http://www.apple.com/

This article was found at http://www.apple.com/promo/

"Calling all pets" and "Targeting Harried Commuters"

After reading these two articles it became apparent that the industry learns about the audience through their habits and what appeals to them. For the "Calling all pets" article the industry learns what pet products appeal to consumers through current trends in society. Since people are passionate about their pets, the industry knows they will be willing to spend the money on quality products. Also the pet industry takes into consideration the recent interest in home-improvement reality TV shows and subsequently markets products that mesh well with the home. I think it is very important to consider the current trends in society as many people are extremely concerned with keeping up with them.

The "Targeting Harried Commuters" article makes it clear that the industry knows their audience well - the average working American is extremely busy and on-the-go all the time. As a result the industry tries to think of clever ways to market to people during their commute. One point made in the article that I thought was very interesting was that advertisers want to be sure not to disrupt commuters' personal space. I think this is very important because if the advertisements get in the way of the commuter they will most likely be in a rush and get frustrated by the interruption. It is important to find a balance - the advertisement must catch the viewer's attention but at the same time be sure not to get in their way.

Marketing Edge Podcast

I listened to a podcast on Marketing Edge by Albert Maruggi. My initial reaction to the podcast was that it was difficult to stay engaged in what the speaker was saying. For the first few minutes of the podcast it was hard for me to retain the information being discussed. However, after about the first five minutes the information started to become more interesting and the speaker began to make some interesting points.

Maruggi made some really good points about marketing tactics. It was very helpful to me when he broke marketing down into three words: regularity, relavance and speed. Some people would consider some of the things he discussed to be trivial and "common sense" but they are often elements of marketing that people overlook.

Overall I thought the podcast I listened to was very helpful and broke marketing down into simple terms. Also the speaker was very engaging. Since a podcast is only audio it is very important the the speaker sounds enthusiastic as it is their main way to keep the listener's attention.