Tag: marketing

Nacho Libre Swag

Post ImageOne of the cool things about having a bigger audience for my blog than just friends and family is that occasionally I get some free stuff sent my way. For example, I have received a bunch of Nacho Libre (IMDB, RT) marketing swag over the last couple weeks, so I thought I’d share it with you. The movie which stars Jack Black opened on Friday night, by the way.

Seems the good folks at Paramount are banking on the movie’s soundbites to drive traffic. I got a DVD with the trailer, and a CD that contained sound clips from the film. I also received a sort of “introductory” letter, which is big on using phrases from the movie. Here’s an excerpt:

This is your ticket to get your “stretchy pants,” so “join us in our quarters this night for some toast,” and “be the gatekeeper of your own destiny and enjoy your glory day in the hot sun.”

Here are some of the other things I received:

I think my favorite item is the bobblehead – it’s pretty cool actually! There’s a few more pictures in my Nacho Libre Swag photo set.

The funny thing about the swag is that it didn’t compel me to see the movie (at least I haven’t gone yet). From the moment I saw the first preview a few months ago, I had pretty much tagged the movie as worthy of a DVD rental but maybe not a theatre visit. I guess first impressions really do matter!

Read: Nacho Libre

See Windows Vista

Post ImageI just stumbled across the SeeWindowsVista site via Scoble. It’s basically a marketing site that gives you some interesting information on what Windows Vista can do for you (when it finally launches).

Apparently the site got 39,000 unique visits in the first 24 hours of being live, which is pretty good. My only complaint with the site? Let me see the start menu! Gah, why put the icon there in the bottom left if it doesn’t do anything?! I was very disappointed I couldn’t activate a virtual start menu.

Read: SeeWindowsVista

Edmonton Radio Ratings Spring 2006

As you may recall, back in December I posted about 96X becoming Big Earl and the reasoning behind the switch, which was based mainly on ratings. Now that the first quarter of 2006 is complete, the radio station ratings have been updated, and it doesn’t look good for poor old Earl:

The Spring book measured Edmonton radio audiences from January 9th to March 5th, 2006.

CKRA “Big Earl 96.3” (Newcap) had a more disappointing book than newcomer Magic 99, posting an all-time low at 2.7 for station formats occupying the 96.3 frequency. Despite the popularity of the country format in Northern Alberta, Big Earl seems to have repelled listeners rather than attract. If Corus is to take some good news from this book it would be that CISN seems bulletproof.

Yeah no doubt! CISN fell from 11.2 to 10.5, but still easily occupied the second spot. I am impressed that The Bear made such a comeback, rising from 5.5 to 8.7, totally didn’t expect that. You can check out the full listing and commentary at lastlinkontheleft.com. The site also contains the Fall 2005 data, and links to more detailed data sources.

In a somewhat related story, it seems that podcasting and MP3 players are in fact stealing some of the audience away from radio:

According to Dave Van Dyke, President of Bridge Ratings, “By 2010, today’s 94% penetration for terrestrial radio will have sunk to 85%.”

27% of people 12-24 attribute their reduced use of radio to MP3 use; 22% attributed it to tired radio programming; 3% attributed it to podcast listening.

I can only expect that last number to grow as podcasting becomes more widely adopted. And once it does, advertising dollars will follow. Too bad there is no geographical data. It would be interesting to know if the audience in Edmonton has shrunk at all because of MP3 players or podcasting or something.

UPDATE: Check out the new 630 CHED helicopter which launched on Wednesday, April 12th!

Podcasting Research from Forrester

Post ImageNo disrespect to Peter Chen or the Diffusion Group or anyone else that has done podcasting research thus far, but I was pleased to see a research report from Forrester. Finally something from a widely respected and referenced research group. Also refreshing is the fact that the report doesn’t make podcasting out to be an amazingly fast growing technology (though it is growing pretty quickly and will probably grow faster over the next couple years). In the new report, titled “Podcasting Hits The Charts“, Forrester shows that only 1% of North American households regularly download and listen to podcasts:

Podcasting will get easier and the content will get better, but it will all take time.

So should companies be putting podcasting on the backburner? Hardly. Content that already exists – such as earning calls, training updates, and executive presentations are all excellent fodder for podcasts. Think of us poor analysts who must listen to streamed quarterly calls while chained to our laptops! My caution is that companies shouldn’t be dashing out to create expensive original content for a small audience – unless they gain value from being seen as innovative.

That first sentence is incredibly important, I think. Podcasting still isn’t easy enough for most people! And yes, these things take time, but hopefully we can help solve that problem in a couple months. The goal of our podcasting solution is to first of all make it easy.

The second bit of stuff I quoted there is important too. We’re doing a lot of our own research on the business sector of podcasting right now, and we really agree – there’s a huge market. Podcasting is an excellent way to solve some communication problems that have always existed.

Read: Charlene Li

Windows Live .NET

Post ImagePretty meaningless title don’t you think? You may remember that when .NET was launched, Microsoft started attaching the .NET moniker to all of it’s product names. After a while, no one knew what the heck .NET was (fortunately today it only refers to the programming environment). I agree with Microsoft Watch’s Mary Jo Folely, they’re going to do it again with Windows Live:

With over 30 services potentially taking on the “Live” moniker, industry watchers are warning that the Redmond company risks diluting the brand like it did with the .NET concept.

“Within a matter of months [after .NET’s initial release], Microsoft marketers began attaching the .Net moniker to all kinds of products, from Windows .Net Servers, to MapPoint.Net,” said Mary Jo Foley, author of the Microsoft Watch newsletter. “.Net became a meaningless term that even Redmond’s own couldn’t explain concisely.”

Looks like we’re well on our way with Windows Live. The latest service to get the name is Passport:

Microsoft plans to roll its Passport authentication service into the Windows Live family of Web services by 2007, renaming it to Windows Live ID, BetaNews has learned. While the company is keeping mum on specifics, the service will make use of Microsoft’s new InfoCard technology.

I don’t see why they felt the need to rename Passport. I think they had pretty strong brand recognition with the name, and everyone knows it is used mostly for Microsoft sites and services.

Joe Wilcox has a related post up at Microsoft Monitor where he talks about Microsoft’s marketing strategy with the Origami project. I guess we can be thankful it’s not called Origami Live!

Read: Beta News

Purple Cow

Post ImageOne of the items we got in our Gnomedex goodie-bags was a book! Yes, a real book. I thought it was a pretty cool idea for swag, to give away books. Anyway, the book was Seth Godin’s “Purple Cow”:

Cows, after you’ve seen one, or two, or ten, are boring. A Purple Cow, though…now that would be something. Purple Cow describes something phenomenal, something counterintuitive and exciting and flat out unbelievable.

You’re either a Purple Cow or you’re not. You’re either remarkable or invisible. Make your choice.

The above quoted text is taken from the book’s description. Unfortunately, now that you’ve read that little paragraph, you don’t need to read the book, because that’s about all it says. Seth spends 160 pages explaining just what a purple cow is.

Yes, I thought the book was interesting. No, I didn’t find it that useful. I mean, of course marketing is going to be easier when you start with a great product, that’s common sense isn’t it? The fact that Seth wrapped it up into a concept with a funky name doesn’t change that. There are dozens of other books out there that preach the same thing.

The book does have a few positives though. It’s a very quick read, so it won’t take up a lot of your time if you do decide to read it. And Seth has written the book in such a way that the read is stimulating, not boring. Still, I think there are better books to spend your money on.

Read: Seth Godin