More Event Marketing for 20009

According to Brandweek, 53% of 300 senior marketing execs surveyed said that event marketing best accelerates and deepens relationships with target audiences out of all the marketing disciplines.

Slightly more than a quarter of those surveyed said that event marketing drives the greatest ROI. Event marketing gives way to experience marketing, with the difference described as: "involves integrated live and online experiences that drive deep brand interaction through highly relevant story telling and brand immersion."

These two trends are coming together at the same time along with another growing trend: being green. Of those surveyed, 66% plan on implementing or have already implemented a green initiative--up from 32% in 2007.

How Marketing Has Been Recession-Slapped

A survey from the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) shows that within the last 6 months, things have gone from bad to worse for marketers.

The latest survey found that:

87% of marketers surveyed plan to restrict travel and expenses (versus 63% 6 months ago)

77% are reducing ad campaign media budgets (versus 69%)

72% are reducing ad campaign production budgets ( versus 63%)

ANA president Bob Liodice said in a statement that there is a "need for brand building ... that acknowledges consumers' financial circumstances, and offers them products, services and solutions that meet their needs.

"For some marketers, that will mean skewing their media mix towards promotional spending and direct marketing. For others, it will mean framing a new, relevant and timely brand message."

More stats and details available at MediaPost's Marketing Daily.

Photo: http://blogs.timesunion.com/capitol/archives/8297

Product Integration Experiment with Jay Leno

With the economy down in the dumps, advertisers are looking for new ways to get their products in front of those watching TV since they can't afford to go out. The solution? Product integration. Maybe not the solution, but certainly a solution that we'll be seeing more of.

And Jay Leno's new primetime show at 10 pm on NBC is the experimental platform. Leno worked referenced to the Garmin GPS systems into The Tonight Show in May 2007 and since then other talk show hosts including Letterman have included product references.

It bugs me to no end when I watch The Biggest Loser when the scripted "oh let's make something in the kitchen with Jell-o and then let's hit the 24-Hour Fitness gym" scenes appear. It used to be more subtle, but now it's like the music and mood changes and I can tell something is about to be hawked my way.

But, unfortunately, that seems to be the way things are heading. Bravo's Top Chef has partnered with Toyota, Clorox and Diet Dr Pepper. Even Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, which hasn't aired yet, is making product integration deals.

I avoid commercials by choice; now I can't avoid ads within the shows I watch? I don't like it, but then again, no one asked for my opinion.

Read the whole scoop at Broadcasting & Cable.

Photo: http://www.collider.com/entertainment/tv/article.asp/aid/10079/tcid/1

Carmakers Slash R&D to Stay Afloat

Financial Times reports that carmakers are now cutting off monies to producing and researching future vehicle models. Ford announced last week that it was "postponing production of a new version of its Transit van. BMW decided against creating the CS, a high-end car and the X7, which would have been its biggest SUV.

“The global auto industry is under extreme pressure right now as a direct result of the financial crisis,” says Christoph Huss, president of the international Association of Automotive Engineers and a group vice-president at BMW. “It is inevitable that some companies will be forced to review certain production and engineering projects, along with wider spending cuts in areas like marketing.” Huss says that cutting R&D is "not a viable option" since carmakers have to meet regulations to keep cars safer and more environmentally friendly.

With less research and development, and marketing budgets getting cut, it's not looking good for us marketers or the driving society as a whole. With less research we'll be nearly back to square one with pollution issues.

2009 Top Trends

Consulting giant KPMG surveyed media and advertising pros about the top six trends for 2009. Here are the results (the pros were asked to choose the top from six options):

Ad downturn/ad spending down: 49%
Transformation of cell phone into personal computers: 40%
Thinning of "old media" through bankruptcies and closures: 38%
Internet penetration opening global markets: 25%
Failure of social networks to monetize as expected: 18%
Smartphones' potential for location-targeted content, advertising and marketing: 17%

The expectation of shifting ad dollars from traditional to digital media is down to 75% from 90% a year ago. The recession has changed everyone's expectations of what's to come in advertising for 2009. Those that were optimistic now have a wait-and-see attitude.

You can read more about the story at MediaPostNews.

Photo: http://gadgetsonthego.net/labels/blackberry.html

Survey Finds Personalized Online Ads Work Well for Big Spenders

According to a 2008 Personalization Survey from ChoiceStream, 39% of consumers are more likely to click on an ad if it is personalized. That number rises to 58% among those who shop online at least several times a month. Bigger spenders (those that spend more than $250 online in a 6-month period) are more interested in personalized ads than small spenders.

In addition, 70% of spenders say that their purchasing decisions are sometimes influenced by an ad they've seen.

This means marketers need to personalize online ads for a bigger ROI.

Read the full press release at ChoiceStream's website. You can also download a PDF of the full survey findings from this site by clicking on the "survey" link in the third paragraph of the press release.

TV Ads at the Movies Are Annoying, But Effective

I can't remember when TV ads started showing up in my movie theater. Maybe two years ago? All I know is I was stunned and thoroughly annoyed by the presence of product ads before the movie previews. And they aren't going away.

According to Media Daily News, a e-newsletter from MediaPost, two new studies have found that TV ads at the movies work.

A study conducted by the Cinema Advertising Council found that "combined cinema and TV ad campaigns more than doubled the conversion rate and lift compared to a TV-only campaign." The CAC study tracked the results of three ad campaigns for cable TV shows and found that 10.1% of subjects that only saw the TV ads watched the show's premiere, versus 22.7% of subjects who saw combined TV and cinema campaigns. Later, 24.7% of the former group watched any one episode of the show, versus 49.5% of the latter.

Another study has placed brand recall from movie ads at 68%, or four times more than TV ad recall.

Twenty-eight percent of movie-goers are "ad-avoiders" so the best choice for advertisers is to place ads where people don't want to leave.

Photo: http://www.orangecountybillboard.com/products/