Hyundai Santa Fe

Product : Hyundai Santa Fe
Title : Life Shapes
Agency : The Richards Group
# Creatives : Steve Levit (Creative Director)
# Mike Bales (Copywriter)
# Tim Tone (Art Director)
# Mike Duckworth (Copywriter)
# Terence Reynolds (Art Director)
# Phillip Lopez (Agency Producer)
# Allison Collinsworth (Agency Producer)
# Director(s) : Jörn Threlfall
Prod. Co. : Outsider
Country : United States of America
Other Credits : Editorial: Chrome/Santa Monica
Editor: Hal Honigsberg
Telecine: Rushes/LA
Colorist: Gino Panaro Post/Effects: Moving Pixels/Santa Monica
Music: Primal Scream

10 Marketing Trends to Watch in 2007

From MSNBC and Entrepreneur.com

By Kim T. Gordon
Entrepreneur.com

10 Marketing Trends to Watch in 2007


Throughout 2006, I've been watching and interpreting the marketing stats and studies that impact small businesses to give you tips on staying one step ahead. Now, with 2007 fast approaching, let's look at a roundup of the hottest trends, from changes taking place among consumer audiences through what to watch for in traditional and online marketing. Here's the info you need on the most important trends and how to make the most of them to increase sales and grow your business in the New Year.

Consumer Trends

1. College Grads

If you're searching for the most effective way to reach this desirable prospect group, move your marketing dollars into online media. The internet is now the primary source of media and entertainment among college grads, whose top planned purchases upon graduation are professional clothing, travel/airline tickets, health insurance and furniture according to the “Y2M: eGrad College Graduate Survey”. Nearly 80 percent of respondents are online purchasers, making them ideal candidates for your online campaign.

Editor's comments: Just look at facebook.com!

2. Affluent Working Women

The big news is that this group is increasing in size, and the best way to reach them may be online. According to The Media Audit, affluent working women with family incomes of $75,000 or more are growing in number, and 94.3 percent access the internet during an average month. About half are now considered heavy users of the internet, while heavy use of radio, television, newspapers and direct mail has all declined within this group. To increase sales from this expanding audience, alter your media spending to place greater emphasis online.

3. Asian Population Growth

The southern region of the U.S. boasts the fastest Asian population growth rate (31 percent), followed by the Midwest (24 percent), the Northeast (23 percent) and the West (19 percent), according to an analysis of Census Bureau data in the “American Community Survey” by Kang & Lee Advertising. Asians represent a prospect group with higher than average household incomes and education levels. Can you offer a product or service that will appeal to this growing market?

I somewhat disagree with this subtopic. As an Asian-American, I don't feel that products or services must be specifically targeted towards us. The reason for this is that the Asian-American culture is very very complex because it combines traditional Indian, Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and other cultures with the globally unique American culture. I don't think there is a product or service that can accurately appeal to this hybrid culture. If there is, I would love to see it.

4. Word-Of-Mouth

Want to build buzz? Lucid Marketing's study, "U.S. Adults: Word of Mouth Communications," found that women were more likely than men to share a positive experience with a business or recommend an enjoyable product; full-time employees made substantially more daily contacts than those not in the workforce; and people with household earnings of more than $100,000 were more likely to make recommendations than those earning less. So buzz marketers should direct efforts to these three "chatty" groups.

Trends in Traditional Media

5. Yellow Pages

According to a study from the Kelsey group, marketers targeting younger demographics should transition away from print. Only 28 percent of teens said they would turn to print Yellow Pages first to find a local business, product, or service, while 47 percent said their first choice would be search engines. And just 44 percent of respondents between the ages and 18 and 34 favored print Yellow Pages.

6. Simultaneous Media Usage

There's no longer such a thing as a captive media audience--consumers are frequently participating in more than one form of media at any one time. Seventy percent of web users, for instance, watch TV occasionally to regularly while online, according to BIGresearch’s “Simultaneous Media Survey.” It also found that nearly 65 percent watch TV while they read, and 51 percent of radio listeners read the newspaper while listening. The rise in multitasking among consumers mandates an integrated media approach and an increased emphasis on advertising within the most relevant and engaging content.

7. Newspapers

This past year, many of the websites of major newspapers have become the number-one portals in their geographic markets and are drawing a larger, younger and more affluent readership. The audience that reads a newspaper’s website but not its print version accounts for 2 to 15 percent of the Integrated Newspaper Audience, according to Scarborough Research, and that represents hundreds of thousands of readers for many newspapers in larger markets. They’re successfully attracting 18-to-34-year-olds to their sites, and the online readers are more upscale, which can make them a more desirable audience. If you're an advertiser in the "print" newspaper, you can negotiate for a combo rate to run online as well to reach these additional readers. And if advertising in the print newspaper is too expensive for your business, you may find more affordable rates online by drilling down past the main pages to place ads on content-rich, but less frequently visited web pages.

Hot Online Trends

8. Web Conferencing

As business travel becomes increasingly challenging due to increased security, advance check-in times and transportation delays, online workshops and meetings that require no travel are coming to the forefront. It’s more desirable than ever to demo your new product to a group or make a sales presentation without anyone ever leaving home. Participants can watch your presentation on their computer monitors and hear you live on their computer speakers or by phone. In fact, I'm now transitioning to this technology to deliver webinars, and you can, too.

9. Online Research

Whether you sell exclusively online or primarily through a brick-and-mortar site, online search will have a profound impact on your sales in 2007. When asked how often they researched products online before buying them in person or in a store, 87 percent of nearly 7,500 respondents to a BIGresearch “Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey” said they did so occasionally to regularly. And a comScore research study showed that 63 percent of searchers completed a purchase in offline retail stores following their search activity. So no matter whether you sell online, off-line or both, you need a great website with deep, persuasive content that keeps your prospects and customers shopping on your site or sends them to your store.

10. Local Search

Want to know where to invest your online marketing dollars in 2007? Aim for higher rankings in the top search engines. Sixty-two percent of searchers click on a link within the first page of results, according to a report from iProspect and Jupiter Research. To win higher rankings in natural search results, you can optimize your site by sprinkling the keyword phrases your best prospects will be searching for throughout all the pages of your site, in your page descriptions and in metatags. You should also secure links to your site from other high-ranking websites. But to guarantee you'll turn up in the top search results, invest in a paid search campaign. Local search campaigns are often the most affordable and will bring traffic from your immediate market area in the New Year.

Kim T. Gordon is the "Marketing" coach at Entrepreneur.com and a multifaceted marketing expert, speaker, author and media spokesperson. Over the past 26 years, she's helped millions of small-business owners increase their success through her company, National Marketing Federation Inc. Her latest book,Maximum Marketing, Minimum Dollars, is now available.

Copyright © 2006 Entrepreneur.com, Inc. © 2006 MSNBC.com

Save Denver water

Sukle has done some work for the conservation of Denver public water. Their strategy seems to be spread across every medium available including youtube. Because of this all encompassing, and expensive, strategy, the Denver water organization must have a large advertising budget or everything was pro-bono.

from Houtlust.

Be wary of what you hear

Court TV is paying for a Big brother-like marketing initiative where customers in bookstores are targeted with prerecorded voices. It's called audio spotlighting and the thirty second voice is triggered when someone walks in front of a sensor.

Until now, this technology has been used in prestigious musuems around the world for educational purposes.

Patrick West of Zoom Media, who designed the system, has this to say, "What's great about this is I can hear the message perfectly clear ... the person sitting there reading their book or having coffee, it doesn't interfere with them whatsoever."

Excuse me Mr. West, but I would think that hearing advertising messages beamed at my ears while I browse Barnes & Noble is interference.

thanks to David Roth for the link

Make and produce your own commercial for $349

Spot Runner is a LA-based company that sells do-it-yourself commercial toolkits ranging from $349 to $499. It's helped small businesses such as Findley's meat market in Atlanta (or Hotlanta as the Rappers say) generate more business according to CNNMoney. Now, every small business owner can ditch their local ad agency. The future of advertising is clients make their own commercials!

The commercials cost Findley's $349 and $499 and the shop spent about $2,100 in March and $1,100 in May to air the spots on ESPN, Food TV, Fox News Channel and Fox Sports.

"We found out that it was very affordable and they help you work with a small budget," said Findley's owner Dolores Barr.

And right away "we saw a noticeable increase in first-time walk in traffic" that translated into a "35 percent sales increase," Barr said.

"Spot Runner is very interesting," said Greg Sterling, an industry analyst. "They're doing something unique right now, which is offering traditional TV advertising to the small business market."

Business Week also asks, "Is Spot Runner Revolutionary?"

But wait a second, does this sound too good to be true? If you scroll down to the last comment on another Businessweek article about Spot Runner you'll find an interesting and very pricey catch.

One of my concerns about this is about the creativity of it all. Is Spot Runner allowing a free-reign on ideas (with them being the Kingpin)? After all, advertising is an idea business.

An Ad Stopped Me In My Tracks.

And today, I literally STEPPED ON AN AD.

GEICO is also taking it to the streets of Austin by scattering flyers. While students at UT are chasing an IKEA living room they are running over ads, ads that I noticed, but does anyone else?

In an age of new media why are companies still using less innovative tactics? Hasn’t it been decided that flyers and direct mail are not effective, especially for companies as established as GEICO car insurance? Consumers remember the commercials, less can be more.

Just as there is an innate desire to belong there is also an innate desire to throw flyers on the ground. Should I even mention the environmental concerns? Probably not.

Will it continue in spite of smarter, emerging tactics or will we soon read about “Death of the Flyer?”

A radical new way of media buying?

Philips Inc., the Dutch consumer electronics giant, has had very revolutionary media buys in the past year or so. Their model reflects their brand message of "sense and simplicity." What they do is buy up all the ad space in magazines or on a TV show thus allowing the consumer to have a more pure ad-free consumer experience. In the past, they bought up four magazines thus eliminating the "annoying subscription cards."

Their newest media buy is buying up all the ad space in the upcoming Texas vs. Oklahoma State game on TBS thus allowing viewers a more pure game experience of watching the Longhorns dominate the Cowboys. They would give the ad space back to TBS for more game related coverage and analysis.

Philips has done more "simple" media buys in the past but apparently they were not as successful or didn't gain as much attention. My question to you readers is does this media buying model a true extension of their "sense and simplicity" brand message? Do consumers even care that they see less commercials and print ads because of Philips "generosity?"

Like what Brad says in his post, could this be a way that media is the new creative?

update
They're taking over the internet! First, the NYTimes exclusive paid content, now ESPN.com insider content.