ESPN

ESPN has had a personal touch with advertising in the last few years. They use sport center hosts in commercials and reach the audience in a more personal way by being featured in both the show and commercials. In most commercials the hosts are featured with sport stars and college mascots which build an even higher connection with fans. By using sport hosts who are already familiar with ESPN fans and combining them with fans or mascots makes watching commercials enjoyable which I can't say the same for most other networks. One example is for the NHL where the Penguins and Devils feature their mascots. The Penguins mascot comes in and turns the heat to minimum, then the Devils mascot comes in and turns it to full blast. The commercial is funny and may draw new viewers in because of its friendly attitude and nature. Link -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIhFoVy1v70&feature=endscreen&NR=1

Twitter Treasure Hunt

For the last three years Tony Hawk has been using Twitter to set up treasure hunts for his products. He saw the value in Twitter and how the information traveled so quickly and decided he could use it as a form of promotion and way to connect to his fans. His first time he hid a skateboard in a bush and tweeted the location, by the time he was back at his office a fan had tweeted back with a picture of himself and the board. He has now expanded the hunt globally and does it once a year. This is a great form of promoting himself and his company and this kind of technique using Twitter can inspire other companies to try similar techniques. http://www.entrepreneur.com/video/223326

That Used To Be Us

That Used To Be Us By Thomas Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum is the story of "how America fell behind in the world it invented and how we can come back".  I'm reading this book for my population analysis class and it seems that are future depends on IT and Globalization. A lot of the topics in marketing relate to this book, however Friedman and Mandelbaum cover it much more broadly. I'm halfway through and my gist from it is; America has lost its values, become lazy, and is lost in politics within the U.S.. One primary example that stands out dramtaically was China building a world-class convention center including giant escalators in 4 corners in 32 weeks, while in our capital Washington D.C., it took Washington Metro crew twenty four weeks to repair two tiny escalators. The book goes on to explain many of the U.S. successes and why in a time like this (flat word, the ability of the internet and sophware utilization) we should be more motivated than ever to once again take iniative as we did during both world wars and during the Cold War. Highly reocommend it and should be some copies in SMC book store.

Guerrilla Marketing

I was surfing the net the other day and came upon some different approaches to guerilla marketing. The marketing form is one of they cheaper ways to market your product and you can be very creative when excercising it. For the breast cancer campaign Taiba Hospital began painting the speed bumps with pink stripes and adding signs next to them saying "Felt the Bump", trying to encourage women to be checked by doctors. The other examples range from airline companies to fresh apples and are marketed in unique ways that really stand out. Here is the link http://www.creativeguerrillamarketing.com/guerrilla-marketing/8-interesting-guerrilla-marketing-campaigns/

Jet Blue

Today I took Jet Blue airlines for another trip and was once again very content with my travel experience. Jet Blue lets you keep your points and guarantee that they won't expire or blackout certain dates. In the beginning of the flight they told passengers that there will be turbulence during the flight and be prepared, however within the first 10 minutes they were able to find the right altitude giving the smoothest ride. The flight attendants once again catered to all of my needs which was a pair of head phones and an extra water, not to mention Jet Blue gives the most leg room. If any airlines know how to advertise their company, I would have to put Jet Blue and SouthWestern at the top. The whole package comes with Jet Blue, direct tv, extra leg room, better than average service all for a bit more of a price.

Gilt ??

High quality clothing for up to 80% off, its a deal that got me hooked one the site Gilt. Gilt is a online store that started off as only a mens discount clothing. Gilt has exploded in the last four years and ranges from discount vacations, dinner, yoga classes and offers men and women designer clothing. When it first started out you had to be invited by a user in order to use the site. Now the site has expanded so much that you may be able to join another way. I have bought a few shirts and jackets off the site for 70% off. I think the discounts alone market this site, however the exclusivity site also intrigues many customers. If you need a referral I'll be happy to send you a link because another addition gives gilt members credit if you find more members.

Pop up shops

Within the past couple years two former classmates from my high school have started up a clothing line in NYC. The clothing line is called Ethik and is still in the early stages of becoming successful but they are well on their way in marketing the company. So far they are on twitter and Facebook and have made most of their money through their website. Besides social marketing they have entered the market through opening pop up shops where you can rent out a empty store and sell your products for a day or a week depending on how long you want your pop up shop to last. Ethik has some cool clothing that you can check out here at http://ethikny.com/.