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Mar31
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Marketing Blurb loves amusement parks as much as the next pundit, but we haven’t been to one in years. (The kids are grown, and we don’t really have a good excuse.) But when we used to frequent amusement parks, we opted for those rides that stayed  close to ground and moved a slow speeds. This is essential because we love amusement park food. And if we did go to Six Flags, we would discover they just signed a multi-year agreement with Papa John’s Pizza. Papa John’s is now the official pizza of Six Flags. The deal includes in-park branding at 60 locations distribution of Papa John’s coupons, web and email initiatives to Six Flag customers. Papa John’s will also feature Six Flag point-of-sale promotions in their 1100 restaurants. So have fun at Six Flags, and eat a ton of the official Pizza. Then stay off the roller coaster, thanks!
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Mar31
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Chances are your lips chapped sometime this past winter. But they can chap at any time actually, and when they do, you need lip balm. And in the world of lip balm there is Blistex, and there is ah, what’s...
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Maybe you eat lunch at Subway restaurants. You probably do so because a really convincing average Joe named Jared Fogel said you could eat whatever you want at Subway and actually lose weight! So why not go to Subway for...
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Marketing Blurb regrets that we missed the official Betty Crocker Bake and Take Day on March 25th. The event has its origins as a community service project. Participants bake their favorite dishes and then hand deliver them to someone special,...
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Marketing Blurb loves to poke fun at ridiculous marketing campaigns—but we’re just a blog pundit standing outside the kitchen. As such, we realize we should also applaud the efforts of those who create intelligent campaigns that motivate consumers to take...
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Mar30
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Your mother always told you to eat breakfast, and your mother is wise. Your mother never told you to eat at McDonald’s for breakfast, because she knows better. But since countless Americans ignore mom and skip breakfast, McDonald’s sees an...
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If you are a disenchanted auto worker, we feel your pain. But it could be worse, you could work in the airline industry. Fortunately, there are a few bright spots, including JetBlue’s new mixed media campaign. The campaign features traditional...
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You already know that Marketing Blurb is not keen on soft drinks. But we’re always eager to follow the industry, especially when The Wall Street Journal announces (paid subscription required) that Coca Cola is launching a new advertising campaign and...
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Can we talk? Remember those suggestive TV advertisements for Levitra with the women wearing her man’s shirt (sans anything else) and cooing about their re-energized sex life as a result of his treatment for erectile dysfunction? Or how about those...
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You already know about so-called laddie magazines like Maxim. These publications are a terrific way to target a specific demographic. On the minus side, when you reach those readers, they do not spend as much money as their sisters. So...
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Mar29
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Marketing Blurb wants to steer clear of the whole global warming debate. We don’t know much about green house gases--we just know that weather world-wide is going to hell. So now seems like a great time to jump on the...
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In the future, everyone will have an online avatar. (Marketing Blurb just made up this claim, but quote us if you must.) You will need an avatar to achieve ubiquity in multiple communication channels. We intend to have our avatar...
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Back in February, Marketing Blurb told you the Beer Institute was updating their voluntary industry guidelines for advertising the golden elixir. We expressed a degree of skepticism then, and it seems we are not alone. The New York Times is...
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If you market upscale cooking utensils, or refrigerators that cost as much as a house trailer, you can readily reach your target audience via gourmet cooking magazines. But most American families rush through their days like adrenaline zombies, with little...
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You already know that Marketing Blurb loves celebrities considerably less than other marketers. But what we think isn’t really important. Here’s the headline from New York Magazine: “Has America's seeming insatiable appetite for celebrity finally begun to cool?” Their answer...
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Mar28
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CGM, or consumer-generated media, is the buzzword in online marketing these days. Brave marketers have decided to let brand enthusiasts create their own advertising for various products. Some participants submit creations from scratch. Other words with online toolkits including pre-produced snippets,...
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Now you might think that consumers would not likely confuse The Beatles and their music with Apple Computer iTunes, but you would be wrong, naturally. The Beatles claimed the Apple brand name in 1968 for their record label, Apple Corps...
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Marketing Blurb did not see the King Kong movie. (We heard from a favorite movie critic that some people left the theater with their hearing impaired for life. Note to theatre owners—we are never coming back until you turn down...
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Okay, we just told you Marketing Blurb is not attending the OMMA Expo in Hollywood. But we are not sure we understand these folks, anyway. Here’s the headline from the keynote address by Albert Cheng, executive vice president digital media,...
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Marketing Blurb is not attending the OMMA (Online Media Marketing Association) Expo in Hollywood this week. We are stuck in central Ohio in the rain. But if we were attending, we would have heard the debate about fat bald white...
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Mar27
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Marketing Blurb loves beer more than the next pundit. But we never drink any brand you’ve seen advertised. We only drink hand-crafted beers from micro-breweries or foreign brews. No, we are not snobby. The issue is simple. Mass market beers...
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We couldn’t help but reminisce about the King tonight, when we heard on the national news that Graceland was designated a National Historic Landmark. This elevates Presley’s modest home to the same stature as the White House, Mount Vernon and...
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Marketing Blurb is fascinated by the consumer PC business. First, we were amazed how consumer software makers used to spend a half million dollars developing multimedia CD-ROMs for kids and then selling them at retail for $ 19.95 before the...
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When Marketing Blurb was young, we could blow pink bubbles as big as your head. (There is not much demand for this talent anymore.) We used Bazooka Bubble Gum, naturally, and followed the antics of Bazooka Joe and his friends...
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We’re heard people call their cell phones all kinds of names (damned piece of #*%& comes to mind) but in the marketing world, the new buzz term is third screen. And according to a new report by researcher Magna Global, the...
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Mar26
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When Marketing Blurb attended college a zillion years ago, campus dining halls were only open an hour for dinner. The student union snack bar closed at 11 pm. If you were hungry anytime after 11 pm, you were screwed. That...
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Marketing Blurb has this love hate relationship with ink jet printers. We used to have this simple HP model that did the job. You asked it to print, and it printed. It would not scan or fax or make coffee,...
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Convenience store retailer 7-Eleven just held their annual orientation meeting for store operators. The confab is an opportunity for store managers to preview new product and merchandising, and attend pep talks and seminars. Coming soon to a 7-Eleven near you...
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Mar25
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As a child, Marketing Blurb loved candy, and we have the gold crowns to prove it! But these days, we don’t give candy much thought. And as it turns out, we discovered it best just to keep our memories rather than eat...
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Back in February, we told you about Vocalpoint, the Procter & Gamble buzz network for moms. P&G uses the network to research and launch new products, but also sells network access to others. For example, WD-40 turned to Vocalpoint to...
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Marketing Blurb does not frequent Victoria’s Secret stores because our wife and our girlfriend already have a closet full of lingerie. So even though VS is headquartered right in our back yard, we didn’t know they launched Pink, a store...
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Marketing Blurb loves street teams, because the technique is outrageous, and it makes advertising and promotion come alive with real people. But since we don’t live in New York of LA, we missed the street team promoting Heist, a new...
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Now you might that free market forces guide our economy—the so called invisible hand of famed economist Adam Smith. You would be wrong, naturally. Wal-Mart guides our economy, and their very visible hand is huge. So here’s the latest news....
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Mar24
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You know the video game industry is in a serious creative funk, when Walt Disney Co.'s Buena Vista Games announces they are going to release a PC video game based on the popular television show Desperate Housewives. According to Reuters,...
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It used to be easy to look down your nose at wine in boxes. After all, would a real man romance a woman with wine from a box? (Of course, if you read Marketing Blurb on a regular basis, you...
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Marketing Blurb does not want to talk about Burger King marketing. Unlike other pundits, we think their online Subservient Chicken promotion was ridiculous. (If you don’t know what we’re talking about, consider yourself lucky.) Sure this was ground-breaking. Did it...
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For you football fans who just can’t wait for baseball season to start and then finish—here’s news about college football’s next season. Allstate Insurance will be the new sponsor for the Sugar Bowl, replacing Nokia, who sponsored the game for...
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Maxim magazine is going mobile in the May issue. The magazine will include dial-in links to editorial and advertising accessible by mobile phone. For example, readers can follow article links to see photos of more Maxim models on their tiny...
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Mar23
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America Online used to mail every man, woman, child, and dog in the country a trial sign-up disk every six weeks. Critics called this technique dumb, (although more than 25 million people subscribed to AOL before the Time Warner acquisition...
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Marketing Blurb believes you should smell like a celebrity, so we have introduced you to several celebrity fragrances over the past few months. Well, if smelling like P Diddy or Desperate Housewives is not your style, get ready for—shudder—Britney Spears....
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Now you might think that Easter is a religious holiday, but marketers know you are wrong. Easter is really just another gift occasion, a great time to buy too much candy, new clothes and toys for the kids. Hasbro was...
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Marketing Blurb is not especially keen on television advertising, but then again, we are not keen on television programming, either. But what we think is really not important. Pay attention instead, to media buyers who place television advertising. It turns out these...
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Now you might think that distributing samples of Clorox Disinfecting Wipes to teachers via a promotion called Clean Up the Classroom is a good idea, and you would be wrong, naturally. A box of requested samples arrived at Coal Creek...
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Mar22
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Back in January, we explained that size matters in entertainment marketing. Of course the same is true for fast food, so Papa John’s has decided to enlist the mother of all primates, King Kong, to hawk pizza. Okay, so the...
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Since our children are grown, Marketing Blurb has not shopped Toys R Us for ages. We remember the stores as over-merchandised to the point of appearing junky. Perhaps that has changed. But countless children and their parents are shopping the...
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Marketing Blurb deserves a vacation. We could use a cruise with a beautiful, passionate Italian. And if we could take that cruise, we would book MSC Cruises and take along Sophia Loren. Yes, Sophia is probably old enough to be...
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Marketing Blurb does not believe in regulating the advertising industry. We do believe that children should be spared from certain kinds of advertising--but this is a role for parents, not regulators. Likely fearing possible government action, the Distilled Spirits Council...
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Marketing Blurb remembers the original Gatorade, before marketers mucked it up with weenie flavoring and coloring. Real men Gatorade was salty and tasted awful. Athletes endured the real juice to re-hydrate. But today, kids pack sports drinks in their school...
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Mar21
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Get ready for the new Superman Returns movie this June. According to Ad Age (free registration required,) Time Warner is counting on the super hero to boost its sagging performance in the stock market. Even though he is 73 years...
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Target Stores is in the mail again with a clever clipless coupon. The 8-page saddle stitch mailing features an eclectic promotion for toys and video electronics, but tipped inside is a folder with a peel and stick card or clipless...
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Marketing Blurb believes Newton Minow of the FCC who in 1961, dubbed television a vast wasteland. Only today, vast is even bigger. Fortunately, a tech startup company from San Francisco called AirPlay Networks, it about to change the face of...
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Marketing Blurb told you about POP Broadcasting video shelf talkers. Earl from the POPBroadcasting Company was even kind enough to post a comment. Point of purchase is big business, and advertisers are eager spend money and measure the impact. According...
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Nope—Marketing Blurb is not talking about online dating. We’re talking about marketers eager to reach women online. We’d to believe that USA Today is reading this blog, because this article echoes themes we covered weeks ago. Here’s the deal. According...
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Mar20
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Marketing Blurb already told you about Orgasmic Chocolate, but now we’re talking the big O—organic foods, which are huge. Organic foods entered popular culture about 1976 when Safeway stores offered produce from smaller organic farmers as a counter-cultural reaction to...
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Marketing Blurb loves to trash celebrities because they are easy targets. But are we secretly jealous? Well, if we had a few extra bucks, we could find out. The newest trend these days is leasing luxury. According to Associated Press,...
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If you need to know who is listening to what in radio land, the answer has always been Arbitron, the company that tracks station listening habits via “pen and paper diaries” tallied from survey participants. According to The Wall Street...
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Marketing Blurb wears blazers and open collar shirts. Every time we don a suit and tie for some occasion, we end up overdressed and embarrassed. But sometimes, threads make the man. And guess what? According to retail research firm NPD...
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Some advertisers believe that teens don’t read, and as such, avoid print media directed to this audience. But according to Samir Husni, a professor at the University of Mississippi who tracks magazines, "The idea that teens don't read is just...
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Mar19
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You’ve probably already heard the flap over Volkswagen’s GTI Turbo-conjones billboards targeting Hispanics in New York, Los Angeles and Miami. English speakers often use the Spanish term as slang for balls. But the native connotation is vulgar rather than clever....
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Few products have changed the landscape of media as quickly as the Apple iPod. But the ubiquitous jukebox is suitable for more than music. Increasing, university professors are recording lectures as podcasts and making them available to or mandatory for...
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Mar18
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Marketing Blurb does not smoke and we encounter fewer smokers these days. But we do know underage kids are still smoking, and they’re trying to cop their smokes from CVS Pharmacy. But according to Promo Magazine, potential lawsuits from 37...
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Marketing Blurb will never drink Pepsi to earn points for a free movie ticket. If we did, we would discover we did not have the teeth necessary for the popcorn. But forgetting our bias, Pepsi is running this nifty promotion...
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Marketing Blurb loves rock and roll more than the next pundit. But we’ll be honest and admit that we don’t really listen to many tunes post 1975. This means we don’t recognize many of the new bands until they annoy...
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Mar17
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Marketing Blurb does not listen to podcasts. We are not anti-podcasts mind you, we just suffer for media overload without podcasts, thank you. But if we were a kid, we would listen to Radio Disney podcasts coming in June. The...
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While taking out the trash yesterday, I noticed free coupons for McDonald’s new Premium Coffee atop the recycling bin. Even though Marketing Blurb missed the free Starbucks coffee offer earlier this week, we decided to pass on a premium brew...
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Every merchant and their dog has an affinity program these days. You give away your personal data to your local grocer, and in return you get cat food coupons. But the real deal these days is gasoline. Even time you...
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Marketing Blurb has already told you about product placement, which the media industry has now dubbed as branded entertainment. You would think that news programs would be off limits for this ploy, and you would be wrong. Local news stations...
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Marketing Blurb remembers when Amazon was a great place to buy books online. Next they added music, followed by consumer electronics, lumber, livestock, and eventually, anything you can possible ship or download. Well, get ready to purchase your retirement for...
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Mar16
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Marketing Blurb does not cover body advertising. Selling advertising space on breasts, buttocks, and foreheads is old news. But The Wall Street Journal (paid subscription required) delighted us today with an article about selling naming rights for babies. This is...
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Now you might think that selling soup and baby food is a good business—but you would be wrong. In fact, Del Monte decided to sell off its private-label soup and baby food business to raise cash for—pet food. Del Monte...
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Microsoft is not known for ground-breaking advertising. In fact, some in the advertising industry find Microsoft advertising forgettable at best. But Microsoft did receive kudos for their upgrade Office 2000 campaign featuring cubicle dwellers sporting plastic dinosaur heads. The message...
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Marketing Blurb loves chocolate more than the next pundit. We are not talking about anything that comes from a vending machine or convenience store checkout counter. We are talking about the real deal, the nectar of the Gods, which is...
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Marketing Blurb has already told you about bad news advertising for sugar-laced cereal and soft drinks targeted to children. But according to Bob Liodice, CEO of the Association of National Advertisers,” blaming advertisers is easy.” The ANA believes that everyone...
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Mar15
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You already know that Marketing Blurb is a serious coffee drinker. But when no one is watching, we secretly drink tea as well. But we can’t picture ourselves networking with other pundits at the tea bar—at least not yet. But...
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Our wife and our girlfriend often ask how we maintain our healthy glow. Okay, loyal readers, here is the secret. Marketing Blurb eats raisins. Not one of those little red boxes now and then, but fistfuls of raisins around the...
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