Break on through to the other side

Interesting move by Honda buying all the online and mobile advertising space from Sony for a week. The intent is to break through all of the marketing clutter to get customers to focus exclusively (and repeatedly) on Honda's campaign. The move is bold, one that Sony hopes to replicate for other firms.
The one potential pitfall is that people will tune out this advertising as it is happening so many times and it becomes an annoyance.
I am sure other vendors will be looking at the results as marketers not only look for unique ways to be noticed but also look for ROI in this economy.

Promotions in a down economy. What works and what does not

Adage has a list of promotions that are being launched by various retail and food chains to drive purchases in this tough economy. The one that I like best is Campbell/Kraft because it ties in 2 products and it promotes cost saving without sounding desperate. All the other promos seem like "me too" (esp. the food chains) and do not do anything to cross promote their portfolio like the Campbell ad does.

Pricing in a recessionary economy

I had an interesting discussion yesterday about pricing strategies in this economy. The discussion involved mergers and pricing power.

We have seen several large scale mergers that have eliminated accounts for many firms. What do you do if you have 2 firms as clients and they merge? You went from 2 clients to now only one client. Let's say Company A and B merge. Both were clients and had similar contracts and populations, around $100k and 2,000 users. They merge and you now have one client paying $100k but potentially servicing 4,000 people. You have now gone from $50/seat to $25/seat. A substantial hit. How do you gain some of that revenue back? Not an easy answer but one that a lot of marketers are faced with today.

Can you raise prices in this environment, especially if a competitor is lowering them? I think you can always raise prices, but you need to market the value first. If you have not proved the value proposition of your product or service you will never have pricing power regardless of the economy.

I believe that both speak to knowing your customers and knowing what their pain points are and how you can relieve this pain. If anyone is looking for a good book on pricing I suggest buying "The Strategy and Tactics of Pricing: A Guide to Growing More Profitably."

Wanted: Marketing Communication Manager

Wanted: Marketing Communication Manager
Location: Washington, DC
Reports to: Treasury Secretary
Key capabilities:

• Must be able to clearly articulate complex financial plan to Barney Frank
• Tell Nancy Pelosi to not talk through the close
  

Sponsorships: Jet Man

Remember Dan and Dave? Two athletes sponsored heavily by Reebok for the Olympics in 1992. Only problem was Dan failed to qualify, making an 8 month campaign useless. According to Sport Business Associates, global sponsorship of professional sports teams in 2006 is estimated to reach US$33.6 billion. This amount of spending certainly shows that sponsorships have become a huge venue for advertising dollars but do they always deliver?

Obviously, some sponsorships work out just fine, but for every win there is the prospect of a Dan and Dave fiasco or a Michael Landis in the Tour de France.

The impetus to write this post was Jet Man. If you did not see this, Yves Rossy strapped a 120lb winged contraption onto his back and flew across the English Channel. He was sponsored by Hublot Geneve, a high end, technically advanced watch firm. A very good fit. I went out to Hubolt's website and they have done a great job of integrating the sponsorship into their website and relating Jet Man to their brand. I can't help to think, though, what would have happened if Jet Man blew up over the English Channel?

State of the Blogosphere

Technorati put out an interesting survey on the state of the blogosphere here.

TV to Web Advertising

The Lexus ad with 4 golfers going on a race to the US Open was played over and over this weekend during the Ryder Cup (despite the fact the US Open was played in June. Another pet peeve - using outdated material. Lazy)

For those that have not seen the ad they give the initial story line and tell people to go to the Lexus website to watch the rest of the story. No desire whatsoever to do so. I would love to know the hits they got on this as well as other (BWM did one I believe) firms that have done such a campaign.

To me, they just seem too disconnected.