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February 19th, 2009

Facebook Fury

If you haven’t heard yet, Facebook attempted to change their Terms of Use under the radar to say that they OWN everything on Facebook, even if you cancel your account. Needless to say the 150 million users were not happy about the new terms saying Facebook owned their information for “forever”. The response was immense in the fight against the new terms of use. 64,000 users joined a group to fight it and thousands of people canceled their accounts.

I think its remarkable to see what an effect this has had on the social networks and how quick users are to react – in a matter of a day or two, online protests became a fury and forced Facebook to make a change. Amazingly, Facebook listened and reverted back to their original terms of use. The power of blogs and groups should not be undermined. This is the first I have heard of an online uproar at this scale and think that it can change the way we market. Getting a reaction from your audience is always the hardest thing to do but it looks like if you are dramatic enough, you will get the feedback you want (or don’t want).

Posted by Nirali on February 19th, 2009
Filed under Fun, Media, Miscellaneous | Comments Off

December 1st, 2008

Facecard

Facecard Logo

It’s a new world out there for kids these days. No more asking for a couple bucks from their parents, no more chores for 10 cents. Instead, Mastercard is providing them with a prepaid debit card. Essentially it is a reusable gift card but so much cooler! Facecard is the new thing, it is a debit card that you can sign up for online and allows you, or anyone else, to transfer money onto the card from a bank or your paycheck. Kids must be going around giving out their Facecard number to friends and families for their birthdays, graduations, etc.

Though this is a very simple idea, I think the marketing behind it is very interesting. Facecard is being promoted on Facebook, MySpace, concerts, and colleges. Banks and Credit Card companies have been looking for new, innovative ways to target this age group with an age appropriate item, and I think this simplicity is making the way. Facecard will email or text specific people about special promotions that their demographics, which they received from signing up, would be interested in, like sales, clothes, music, etc.

Even though this is a not a novel idea, it opens the doors to marketing financial products to this age group. The age group in which print, tv, nor direct mail are effective.

The website itself is very cool, check out Facecard!

Facecard

Posted by Nirali on December 1st, 2008
Filed under Banking, Marketing | No Comments »

November 5th, 2008

On a historic day…

November 4th, 2008 will go down in history…Barack Obama has been elected the 44th president of the United States. I get goosebumps just saying it! Now after all is said and done, looks like us marketers have a lot to learn from the Obama campaign. This great article sums up the brilliance and strength behind the campaign and its tactics and has compared it to the best brands out there. I just wanted to share how the Obama campaign has really captured our hearts like no other brand has done before, between the Obama logo my husband carved into a pumpkin for Halloween, or my Fantasy Football team named Team Obama, to the cookies we made last night for our election party with Obama’s logo on it. We are embracing the Change! Simply amazing…Congrats Barack Obama!

Posted by Nirali on November 5th, 2008
Filed under Fun, Marketing | Comments Off

June 27th, 2008

Olympic size advertising

It is coming close to my favorite time of year, every 4 years – the Summer Olympics! It already started with the trials in which USA spares no one and are brutal. The excitement, nervousness, and despair that the Olympic games bring upon are like nothing else. However, this year, I feel as though certain athletes are being “pimped out”. Michael Phelps, my personal favorite, winning medal after medal in Greece is in every commercial promoting not only the Olympics, but also their sponsors. I swear I saw him swimming in a pool of beer the other day. Amanda Beard, also a swimmer, posed for Playboy this past year. I guess being featured on the Wheaties box isn’t enough anymore.

Posted by Nirali on June 27th, 2008
Filed under Fun | No Comments »

December 11th, 2007

HBS Marketing Conference

I attended the Harvard Business School marketing conference on Dec. 2, 2007, at which I met with and listened to people from all different product companies that make decisions on marketing and advertising avenues and strategies for their business. There was nothing new that I really learned, however listening to the perspectives and being on the agency side, was interesting. Speakers included the president of Unilever Americas, vice president of global brand marketing for Yahoo!, Inc., and the general manager for Hasbro. In addition to the speakers, there are panels surrounding revitalizing brands, globalizing brands, and alternative marketing which included people from some of these same companies, but also from companies such as Johnson & Johnson, Dunkin Brands, Proctor & Gamble, and Nike.

The main point of interest to me that was touched upon was this idea of reinventing the brand and gaining a new target audience. Dove is a great example of this since they provoke discussion with their advertising. As a brand, they are really trying to get to their audience through another avenue. They are targeting “normal” people by using “normal” people instead of models/actors. Unilever has done a great job in evolving the brand and using different media outlets to get their message out there. Their ads and spots are so controversial that they get to the next level of marketing by causing controversy, which were discussed on “Good Morning America”, “The Today Show” and “The View”. If you want to spark interest to reinvent the brand, look to Dove.

In case you haven’t seen these provoking ads (to my surprise most of the HBS students had not):
Evolution

Onslaught

This second commercial was only aired some 4 times because of how graphic it was. Go figure that America can’t deal with the realities of natural beauty…

Posted by Nirali on December 11th, 2007
Filed under Advertising, Marketing | No Comments »

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