Brand Utilities!

So I have a bunch of widgets on my dashboard for my laptop that are brand utilities. My favorite brand utility I use constantly is my ESPN scoreboard widget. It’s operated by ESPN and keeps you updated on scores and everything else to do with the NHL. I also use The Weather Network widget keeping me up to date with the weather. Also the Google widget that lets me search on Google from my dashboard works great as well.

 

I don’t use too many utilities that are actually branded, I have this no-name measurement converter on my dashboard, but a brand that might have missed out on this utility could be “Buffalo Rulers” or something like that, or a car company can create a brand utility like a phone app that talks about road conditions and up to the minute updates.

 

I don’t know if this was actually mentioned, but I recently saw a gorilla marketing campaign that had a picture booth set up and what not on the streets. But I was thinking maybe Polaroid could do it with their instant photographs, because normally people have to wait a while for those pictures. But since Polaroid is instant and bigger people may enjoy it better how it captures their moment. I also think everybody is looking for deals on beer, whenever there is a deal on cases of beer, me and my friends want to know about it. So I thought it may be a smart idea if the Beer Store or actual beer companies created a widget for beer suggestions, and upcoming deals. 

Guerilla Marketing.... Can be effective.

To be honest living in Ottawa I find there isn't enough creative and interesting guerilla marketing out there. Here in Ottawa it seems that companies stick to more conventional advertising which can get pretty boring. Except in bars there's sometimes funny advertisements above the urinals. Can't remember exactly what these ads said (for obvious reasons in a bar) but I remember stopping and saying to myself... huh, thats funny... mostly some double entendre copy is used. But other than that I don't really notice too much guerilla marketing at all, well non that absolutely jumps out at me as effective or a disaster. 

But going to New York I remember seeing people walking around with T.V's attached to them on a school bag. I find its a different way of promoting something, but I don't find it necessary, its interesting but the concept or message may have nothing to do with this. I find good geurilla marketing is used in situations that best fit the message and concept used for a campaign. 

I find this website here provides great examples of well executed guerilla marketing campaigns. 

http://www.startupottawa.com/?p=294

2010 Oscars Predictions - AVATAR of Course!

2010 Oscars Predictions! – Of Course AVATAR!

 

So after reviewing a few social media websites that cover topics such as: The 2010 Oscar Nominees. In the Facebook fan group page of the 2010 Oscars, it provides links that can give you updates on the new nominees, and people are allowed to comment on these posts, where most of them are either saying: Go Avatar! Or Go Inglorious Basterds! So it doesn’t give too much insight on why they are choosing the movie or director they did, all we can gain is that they like them really. Normally when I make predictions for the winners of Oscars, I just choose the movies that I like. I find the social media will interest those who have not watched all the movies nominated to actually go and watch the movies with more and more people recommending it.

 

Popsugar Celebrity Gossip shows a little more in depth of the nominees and asks the viewers for their opinions. With an invitation into a conversation, viewers are able to gain better insights on these nominations and can help them predict and also provide their predictions to other viewers of the site.

 

After reviewing these websites, I came to the conclusion that the movie, “Avatar” will win for best picture, and James Cameron for Best Director. But I am also hoping for the movie “Up” to do well in its nominations.

 

 

Advertising Age had some cool information on the 2010 Oscars that I stumbled upon. That the Award show is actually revamping their website in order to develop Iphone Apps opening up the show to many new viewers who do not have access otherwise. Also there are many other elements of interactivity that the Academy awards company want to use for future use.

 

Facebook 2010 Oscars:

 

 http://www.facebook.com/pages/2010-OSCARS/282316279493?ref=search&sid=501123866.4105674711..1&v=info - !/pages/2010-OSCARS/282316279493?v=wall&ref=search

 

 

Popsugar Celebrity Gossip:

 

http://www.popsugar.com.au/Which-Film-Win-Best-Motion-Picture-2010-Oscars-7285974

 

 

Advertising Age:

 

http://adage.com/madisonandvine/article?article_id=141978

Barack Obama!...

Barack Obama used social media brilliantly while running for president of the United States. He had created profiles on all of the top social networking sites available. By creating these accounts on social media such as Twitter, Youtube, Facebook, etc. He was able to gather millions of supporters and 100,000's of followers. He also made a website  called Change.gov where he updated blogs, press releases, and articles daily for the viewers to see. But the best part of this website is that it offered the viewers to input their opinions and comments. This opened up to the audience and created a discussion and a community that welcomes the countries opinions, almost making their time on the site feel valued by Obama (future president at the time). 

What I have learnt from this Campaign? 

Is that when dealing with social marketing to reach your target audience. You don't want to just do it for the sake that its the new trend, but you really need to understand that its about a community and you need to converse with them on a related topic. You want to create discussions with them, shift the focus on them and they will feel appreciated. 

This is HIP HOP!

This is Hip Hop

 

 

I always had an interest in hip-hop and its culture; I have always liked the music and found it inspirational when designing and drawing. I guess you can say I’m from the “projects” and grew up living in an urban environment and culture. So when it comes to Hip-Hop, I guess I can relate to what most of them are saying (besides the drugs, money and ho’s). So I decided to further my knowledge in this region and go beyond learning more about how the hip-hop community works and how other people view/relate to it.

 

 

Ways to discover more information?

 

-       Joining Urban Blog Sites

-       There are tons of Rap forum sites that I have discovered where people even upload music, etc.

-       Social Media (facebook fan pages of local artists, etc.) as well as Myspace.

-       Youtube videos of hip-hop videos

-       Also a no-brainer is going to artists personal websites

 

So I tried all of the ways to discover new information on this topic of interest and registered for a couple of  hip hop forums and participated in conversations about upcoming artists and on the views of the hip hop community. I started my own threads on one sight called Letsbeef.com finding out why they enjoyed the culture and music. Most of the people that joined in on the conversation said that they were able to relate to it, and almost treat the music as a sanctuary from the outside world, an escape almost.

 

It really expanded my view on the community and realized how world wide this culture goes, it allowed me to understand the culture a lot more and why people actually enjoy the music etc. I also became fans of facebook, and myspace pages and viewed peoples comments and how they interact in the community, observed the language that they used too. It showed me a whole new vocabulary almost.

 

Most of the advertisements on these sites have advertised about Hip Hop satellite radio stations, and places to download this music such as DatPiff.com (download mixtapes etc.) Also the urban clothing brands mostly advertise in these sites.  

 

Brands that are missing out?

 

The hip hop community has so many brands that can appeal to them. But I couldn’t really think of any brands that are missing out because I found these sights were really cluttered. There’s so many different activities that this community participate in that it seems like its all covered to me. It’s a pretty refined market, so not to many things appeal to them unless its actually joining in on the conversation.