Using athletes to sell your products

Let’s talk about using sports figures in your advertising. In honor of the World Series I’m going to focus on baseball players. I have to watch the commercials since my Phillies won’t be playing; the commercials are the only thing I care about at this point. 

One of the commercials that was running frequently during the playoffs for the NLCS and ALCS playoffs was with NY Yankees Joe Girardi and Mariano Rivera. 

The commercials are for Taco Bell and feature the coach taking away a taco that is too big for the customer to eat and instead he brings in Rivera as a sub to eat it for him. The commercial was running at the same time the Yankees were trying to win the ALCS against the Texas Rangers, but they ultimately lost. 

The commercial is cute but now that the Yankees are out of the running is it going to be worth airing. That can be the problem when you put a sport figure in and the team doesn’t perform. You have to decide if people will still be interested in the product if it’s endorsed by players who aren’t contenders anymore. 

The next challenge when you deal with athletes is that all their talent can be on the field and not acting. For the perfect example of that check out the series of commercials Comcast runs with Cole Hamels. He is a great pitcher who is also a World Series winner. Cole is athletic, talk and handsome but his commercials can be painful to watch. 

What do you think? Do you think athletes make you more or less likely to want to use the product?

You can follow me at www.twitter.com/sandeemiller or here at  www.marketingdaze.com

American Express and Glee look for ways to give back

How do you combine a major financial brand and popular television show to do good deeds? You start the American Express Members Project. 

The members’ project is being advertised with Fox’s Glee to encourage people to volunteer in their community. 

American Express is asking people to go to the site to look for opportunities and to learn about those in need. You can search the site based on issue/topic and see what is being done in your area. Or if you have something that you feel needs to be addressed, you have the option to create your own action to be considered. 

If you are able to volunteer you can see what groups are looking for help and learn more about the organization’s mission. If you can’t volunteer you can donate cash or vote for the charity that you feel is worthy of a donation from American Express. They will be giving 5 charities $1,000,000.

Glee has joined by asking people if they are a Shue or a Sue. There is a series of commercials where the show’s characters talk about how it can work. Will Schuster is working with the kids on projects to give back and the character Sue Sylvester comes in and tries to stop their efforts. It’s a fun way to use a popular show to deliver the message. 

Look at the site www.takepart.com/membersproject and see what deserving groups are in your area that could use your support. 

 

You can follow me at www.twitter.com/sandeemiller or www.marketingdaze.com

The scariest marketing you will ever see

I know some people get scared when they think about planning their marketing and advertising strategies. But if you are Eastern State Penitentiary then you’re in the perfect frame of mind to do it.

The prison has been on Fairmount Avenue since 1829 and has hosted famous prisoners like Al Capone and Willie Sutton. When it opened it was a model for prisons worldwide. It closed in 1971 and now stays open during the year giving tours. 

Starting in September and running to November 6th the prison hosts Terror Behind the Walls. Being able to visit the haunted prison is something that many are terrified to do to but at the same time they wouldn’t think of missing the experience.

The prison does a good job of promoting itself in the area. You can see their sponsors Regal Cinemas, LukOil and Halloween Adventure offering discount coupons. Other sponsors include the CW Philly, Kyw Radio and Philadelphia Weekly. 

The prison knows that they will bring a large group of people to the area so they partner with local restaurants who can take advantage of new customers that might not come to the neighborhood on a regular basis to provide dinner and haunted house tickets. Because the prison is located in an area that can be tight for parking they do offer you the ability to park at the zoo and take the Ghost bus to the prison. 

For tickets and more information you can go to www.easternstate.org. If you don’t have friends who want to go with you, don’t worry you won’t be alone, there are plenty of ghosts to keep you company.

You can follow me at www.twitter.com/sandeemiller or here at www.marketingdaze.com.

Candidates that abuse advertising

It’s not unusual when you meet someone to ask them what they do for a living. This is the only time of the year that I dread that question. The reason is because I work in advertising. During election season when I see what candidates do and how they use the industry, I cringe. 

It doesn’t matter whether you are talking about republicans, democrats or independents all politicians seem to use the medium to disparage their opponents instead of sharing their own platforms. I could even live with the negative ads if they at least used the same facts that could be proven. 

Some of the ones I have seen recently are the PA Governor’s race between Dan Onorato and Tom Corbett. Onorato claims to have created jobs and Corbett says unemployment rose. It seems like stats such as this should be easy to prove one way or another. 

My personal favorite is Chris O’Donnell and Chris Coons who are fighting for Delaware’s Senate Race.  I think when any candidates’ campaign ads start with “I am not a witch”, as they do for Chris O’Donnell, then we can all agree that maybe the election process needs some reform or oversight. 

I don’t understand why there isn’t a governing body where candidates would submit facts for ads and would have to prove where the facts were found. We put more pressure on school students to fact check and provide references for material when they do reports than we do for our politicians who are going to be in a position of power and influence. 

I only have to hold out till November 3^rd when all these ridiculous ads are off the air. The problem is that I will still have to live with the winners who created them in office for much longer. 

You can follow me at www.twitter.com/sandeemiller or here at www.marketingdaze.com

Phillies and Yankees on the same side

I never thought I would see the day that Philadelphians and New Yorkers are on the same side of an issue. These baseball sports rivals both agree they want to see their teams play.


Currently the Philadelphia Phillies are playing the San Francisco Giants for the NLCS and are behind in games. The New York Yankees are playing the Texas Rangers in the ALCS and are tied. Both match ups have diehard fans tense over how their teams are playing.

Fans in both towns that subscribe to Cablevision aren’t able to see their teams play because the games are on Fox. The cable network and Fox are locked in a battle over the price to air Fox shows through the provider.

This affects 3 million subscribers to pay television. The FCC has stepped in and sent a notice to both parties that as a cable provider and a network they are required to act in good faith to negotiate these proceedings.

Fans are hoping that the two can come together to work this out because of the current baseball playoffs and the winners of these matchups will play in the World Series that starts next week.

At this point no one knows if an agreement will be reached in time to help baseball fans. But if the Phillies and Yankees don’t make it to the World Series than their fans might be just as happy the games won’t be on cable.

You can follow me on Twitter www.twitter.com/sandeemiller

Television executives need to have patience

Television network executives spend a great deal of time and money trying to determine what their audience wants to watch. Using all of this research they develop their schedules and produce shows that they hope will make their network number one and get them the best price for their advertising.


So far this television season isn’t setting the world on fire and two shows Lone Star for Fox and My Generation on ABC have already been cancelled.

Both of these shows were well reviewed and the networks had high hopes for them. But Lone Star was pulled after only 2 episodes aired.

The problem networks have is that we have all been here before. We have seen shows that look like they might be good but will take you a while to get into the stories and even sort out the characters. The show gets pulled before you can even have a chance to decide if you like it. So the audience is now trained to not even bother.

When you have so many channels and options for you to view why spend even an hour of your time with a show that you can see the network is never going to give enough time to grow.

It’s a little bit like the Peanuts cartoon with Lucy holding the football for Charlie Brown. Network executives need to be aware that unlike Charlie Brown we know that football is going to be yanked away and we have chosen not to even play the game.

You can follow me on www.twitter.com/sandeemiller and  here at http://www.marketingdaze.com/

Bank using local resources to reach consumers

The creative piece of an advertising campaign is only one piece of the puzzle. Another is identifying your audience and then determining the best way to get out your message to them. 

Currently there are ads running for Beneficial Bank. The ads talk about the great service they give to their clients. To prove their point they talk to the owner of DiBruno Brothers who give a testimonial about why they use the bank for their business. DiBruno Brothers gourmet store offers various locations and is very well known in the area. 

The ads were running during the Phillies versus Giants game. This is part of a campaign to offer targeted ads. Beneficial Bank is located in Philadelphia and so is DiBruno Brothers. 

Showing these ads during a Phillies playoff game guarantees you’re going to be seen by a large Philadelphia audience which is exactly what Beneficial wants. It also helps using a well know local business in the commercial who is giving the testimonial. Consumers tend to trust organizations when they see businesses they frequent are already using your services. 

This is part of their strategy to deliver targeted ads to a local audience to increase their business. As long as the Phillies keep winning than Beneficial Bank will be sure to have an audience that is glued to the television.

You can follow me at www.twitter.com/sandeemiller and www.marketingdaze.com