13. February 2008 by bryan.lonn.

Recently, a study done by Nielson on Baby Boomers found that almost 25% of the Baby Boomers didn’t even know they we’re a Baby Boomer.   Furthermore, the study found that this group hates being labeled by advertisers as the Boomer and would prefer not to buy from companies that labeled them as such.  The real question is, does this fall for any big Generation cohort?  Could both Gen X & Y feel the same way?  Should we stop advertising to age groups but rather the experiences that one would go through in their life?  Some agencies believe that age brings new mediums to advertise too but each age group is so segmented that one can’t advertise to just a Generation.  Others think it’s just a fluke.

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13. February 2008 by bryan.lonn.

It’s no surprise that Yahoo didn’t sell to Microsoft. The only benefit would have been to the board that was given the 44 billion dollars. As we all know in the search community that Google is the tyrant and everyone else falls way below. Putting MSN and Yahoo together would take years to integrate because their both on different systems. This would give Google more time to dominate and probably ruin both Microsoft and Yahoo in the process. Remember Time Warner joining AOL in the past? Sounded good at the time and the stockholders loved it until it just didn’t work and everything fell apart. Same situation but with different companies. If Microsoft wants to face Google they need to start thinking more on the freeware department and repositioning their company.

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5. February 2008 by bryan.lonn.

Both Walgreens and CVS are blaming the smaller amounts of flues this season to the reason why cold medicines aren’t selling at their locations.  Does this mean that CVS and Walgreens may start working on a new flu-strain to boost sales?  Who knows but the CEO of Walgreens hopes some more people will get sick this year so his stocks wont flatline.

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5. February 2008 by bryan.lonn.

People magazine just finished doing their “50 Hottest People” issue.  This years issue though was different.  Customers we’re given the chance to upload their pictures and vote online for the 51st most hottest person.  The incentive sent one lucky contestant to New York for a photo shoot and was given an acting role in the next soap.  Adding user empowering helped boost People magazine and raked in millions of visits online.

This gave me an idea.  Why not offer reality show contestant picks online and let users choose who they want to see on their next reality show.  This would connect interactivity with reality shows and boost more advertising sales.  Plus the Gen Y market will love it.

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5. February 2008 by bryan.lonn.

Does sex really sell?  Well it did during the GoDaddy Superbowl spot, when customers we’re offered to see NASCARS, Danica Patrick nude.  The ad was vulgar and repulsive.  The original ad was banned for the Superbowl.  But it still seemed to pull in viewers, over 2 million went to the website after the ad was aired.  But the CEO of GoDaddy.com did not comment about how many of these customers even bought their service.  My guess is that traffic was high the first day the ad aired and then plateaued after.  Come on GoDaddy, Americans aren’t stupid and won’t fall for the old sex sells theory.  Because it still never goes the way you want.

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5. February 2008 by bryan.lonn.

Recently Dove has scored big praise for the $50,000 dollar ad “evolution.” The ad featured a regular female and showed the process of editing done before the final figure is revealed. The ad won numerous awards and was scene by more than 50 million people. Showing the process of how much editing is involved to create the perfect female, gave a real-life look into the industry. Fans now are using this piece to show how fictional ads are compared to reality. Gen Y cohorts are looking at this ad as a staple of past advertising works to more realistic pieces done for our time. Dove is truly leading the edge into defining women as they should be, women.

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4. February 2008 by bryan.lonn.

NBC’s CEO, Jeff Zucker, recently said that NBC will be stopping most pilots for fall quarter on.  The reason is because of the high cost to develop them ($10 million a piece) and the low turnover rate for a new season.  NBC points out to HBO and Showtime for their great shows that cost almost nothing compared to what Primetime spends.  “We need to have better writers and go with our gut-feelings more,” he voiced.  Well if thats true they need to start making shows more interactive in order to keep Gen Y glued.  Gut-feelings are crucial but NBC needs to make better decisions then copying other networks and bring back an anniversary season of Seinfeld.

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4. February 2008 by bryan.lonn.

NBC’s chairman recently said. “that the big shows on television may be a thing of the past thanks to new mediums.”  Could the Oscars and the Golden Globes be a thing of the past?  Not necessarily.   Especially with the big numbers the Superbowl brought in.  But it’s getting harder for new shows and returning shows to make big numbers with DVD sales options, iTunes downloads and web-casting.  I figure that just the budgets will drop to prepare for new shows this fall season.

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4. February 2008 by bryan.lonn.

What was Hershey’s thinking releasing a product that resembles Cocaine? Millions of dollars went into marketing this hilarious product even when law-enforcement and communities around America said, “It was a bad idea.” I feel like someone at Hershey’s loved the energy drink Cocaine and decided to go with a similar idea. Since the Cocaine energy drink failed and was pulled off store shelves, it was no surprise that this product was pulled too. Some of my Gen Y friends thought the idea was funny and brought vital issues to the table. For example the Drug issue in America and the problems that we still have with censorship over real issues. Unfortunately, since the product was already pulled most couldn’t even try it. Note to product makers: Don’t resemble illegal drugs, Americans can’t handle it.

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4. February 2008 by bryan.lonn.

After watching the Superbowl I figured the viewer ship would be high this year. A team that hasn’t been beaten all season taken down at the Superbowl. This was one of the most exciting games of the entire Superbowl ever. The epic fourth quarter drew in 105.7 million viewers, which almost topped the best viewed show in history M-A-S-H (106 million viewers). This was possibly one of the most watched sports games in the history of television. The game pulled a whopping 43.3 rating, 65 share overall this year. Thus more than half of all televisions we’re watching the Superbowl. What a game!

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