Promotion in the Internet Marketing Mix

2006-10-08T20:20:00.000-04:00

Online Marketing Heats Up Holiday Retailing

Article: http://www.techweb.com/wire/ebiz/193104234

Online marketing has become an essential tool for retailers in the upcoming holiday season. 41.6% of retailers are planning to utilize RSS Feeds, which are used for increasingly popular sites such as Bloglines. Additionally, 79.5% are planning to use viral marketing on social networking sites such as Myspace and Facebook to promote their products. Also, 97.4% of retailers are planning to invest in search engine marketing, which has been continuing to grow in popularity and usage. Retailers are also continuing to utilize traditional advertising mediums, but the percentage of retailers utilizing each medium is not nearly as high as the percentages of retailers utilizing the internet.

By Thanksgiving, 62.5% of the retailers' utilizing the web are planning to begin with holiday promotions by Thanksgiving. This is great news for online shoppers, because a growing portion of online retailers have begun to offer discounts around the holiday season with free-shipping promotions and discounted shopping. Most online retailers are also expecting a huge growth in online sales in comparison to 2005, which is fueling the boom in internet marketing and online advertising.

I am excited to see that a large percentage of retailers are planning on utilizing discounts and free shipping to entice shoppers to their websites over the holiday season. Being a busy college student makes it very difficult to find time to buy gifts before the holidays, so for the past few years I have found it easy to buy presents on internet on websites such as Amazon. With the additional online promotions, more people are going to turn to internet shopping in order to save time and money. I think companies are finally starting to realize the importance of internet marketing, and by utilizing popular mediums like RSS Feeds and social networking websites they are going to increase both the success of their products and also grow to utilize internet marketing more in the future.

Myspace image from: Physorg.com (Clink link to go to full URL, too long to paste here)
Amazon image from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/1615000/images/_1617835_amazon300.jpg

2006-10-04T15:38:00.000-04:00

Comcast Offers Politicans Digital Platform

Article: http://www.adweek.com/aw/national/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003190476

Comcast has recently announced that it plans to offer politicans running in the upcoming state and local mid-term elections the opportunity to make their stump speeches digital. This would be possible through the new Elections 2006 initiative, which is video-on-demand and allows candidates to explain their campaign platforms beyond the typical 30-second commercial. Politicians running for office in over 70 Comcast markets will be given the opportunity to put together up to 2 minute spots for Elections 2006. Comcast hopes that Elections 2006 will help better inform their customers leading up to the November elections.

Candidates have already expressed their appreciation for Comcast's new initiative, and praised the ability to create a more detailed message than is available through something other than the traditional mediums. Comcast has stated that in its mature markets, more than 75% of its digital cable customers have accessed video-on-demand within the past 90 days. Of those customers, over 80% are registered to vote and 72% said they generally vote in the statewide elections. These numbers demonstrate the potentially huge audience of voters that will be available for candidates to reach with their campaign messages once Elections 2006 is underway.

I think that Elections 2006 will be a great opportunity for busy Americans to learn more about candidates stances on key issues. I also think that smaller initiatives aimed at students like the recently-introduced Facebook ele ctions and upcoming Myspace elections have become very successful, which has opened the door to more wide-spread election pushes to all audiences like videos-on-demand. With the overall American population becoming more tech-savvy, candidates are eager to take advantage of new mediums to promote themselves and their campaign. These online and on-demand programs are all brand-new, and their effects will not be known until after the November elections. However, I am sure they will be extremely successful and will continue to grow every election as the internet becomes more popular to the overall American public.

Elections 2006 image from: http://todaysseniorsnetwork.com/american%20flag%202006%20elections.jpg
Comcast logo from: http://www.sihahockey.com/ispn/comcast.jpg

2006-09-25T22:43:00.000-04:00

Microsoft to Unveil Global Advertising Brand Strategy at Advertising Week

Article: http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060925/sfm053.html?.v=66

Microsoft will be announcing a new and improved integrated advertising strategy at this year's Advertising Week 2006. The new product being launched, Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions, will combine all of Microsoft's global advertising products and services into a combined, unified offering for advertisers. This product will enable advertisers to connect to their target market through various mediums including PDAs, PCs, XBox games, and cell phones.

Microsoft's Digital Advertising Solutions will help solve a growing problem that many advertisers face of being unable to reach their target market through a single medium. Through the new product, advertisers can create advertising campaigns that span a variety of different Microsoft products and will reach a large percentage of their target market. Microsoft has a large global audience at their disposal, along with high levels of customer engagement, which creates a great opportunity for advertisers to promote their products and services. The new product will enable advertisers to reach 465 million customers each month worldwide, and is an amazing opportunity to penetrate target markets.

I was amazed to see the new advertising platform that Microsoft is about to launch and all the poosibilities it holds for advertisers. Because people have been using the internet in a variety of ways, it has been hard for advertisers to reach their target markets. With this new tool, a company can make a multi-platform advertising campaign that will span all of Microsoft's different products and reach a large percentage of the companies target market. This will be an extremely profitable product for Microsoft, and will also be extremely valuable for advertisers to reach target markets that have become fragmented in a variety of internet products. I am excited to see how this will change the advertising industry and enhance advertising campaigns. Customers already see ads on all of their Microsoft products, but they are largely different from product to product and there are not many campaigns that cross product lines. This new product is an amazing opportunity that I hope will develop into an extremely valuable asset for companies to reach their markets in the future.

Microsoft logo from: http://ultralight.caltech.edu/web-site/common/logos/logo-microsoft.jpg
PDA image from: http://www.dotcosoftware.co.uk/images/mc50_pda.jpg

2006-09-13T10:28:00.000-04:00

Chevy Launches Ad Challenge

Article: http://www.adweek.com/aw/national/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003120884

Chevy is looking to utilize talented college marketing students to develop a commercial that will be debuted during Superbowl XLI. This contest is an amazing opportunity for students, because over the years the Superbowl has become the biggest marketing platform during the year and is known for its excellent commercials.

The "Chevy Super Bowl College Ad Challenge" is a contest in which marketing students will develop new promotions for Chevy's new vehicle line through a 30-second television commercial spot. Students can assemble teams of up to 3 people to create the concepts, and the commercial is to be aimed at a younger car buyer demographic. To compete, the students must send in completed concepts, including storyboards and script, aimed at the target market. Faculty at schools that do not have participants will judge the competition, and the top 5 finalists will be flown to the Chevrolet headquarters in Detroit to present their concepts to top Chevrolet executives. The winning concept will be made into a 30-second commercial by Campbell-Ewald, Chevrolet's advertising agency, and will premiere during the Superbowl.

I think that this contest is an amazing opportunity for students interested in either marketing, advertising or television production. The ability to form teams of up to 3 people will be a huge benefit in the long run, because it will enable participants to play upon their strengths to create even more cohesive and strong concepts for a commercial. The Chevrolet executives are smart to utilize their target market of young adults to create the commercials, and the format of a contest will encourage students to come up with very creative and original advertising concepts. The grand prize of a 30-second commercial is an especially alluring aspect to the overall contest. The overall contest is a very innovative idea to lure the best and brightest to create an original, exciting advertising concept for young adults.

Car image from: http://www.adweek.com/adweek/photos/2006/09/06_N_News_ChrvroletAveo_L.jpg

Superbowl stadium image from: http://images.nfl.com/images/2006/dolphin_stadium_400x210.jpg

2006-09-08T10:23:00.000-04:00

New Theme, Van Drive Vonage Campaign

Article: http://www.brandweek.com/bw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003118240

Vonage is rolling out a new advertising campaign this week with the theme "One Smart Decision". The advertising campaign was developed by Havas' Arnold Agency and directed by Bryan Muckley of Hungry Man Productions.

The advertisments feature people about to do stupid things in keeping with the overall theme of "One Smart Decision". Examples of commercials include a geek about to dump his hot girlfriend and a woman about to swim with sharks. The main character(s) are interrupted by a flying Vonage box that is thrown out of a colorful van, known as the "Von". The advertising campaign was developed with the intention of reaching a broader audience, to go along with its new strategy of reaching larger demographics. Other promotional efforts include sponsorships as well as sports and entertainment advertising. Additional promotion will occur with the use of the Vonage van, which will soon appear at events nationwide to help further promote the Vonage advertising campaign.

I think that the overall Vonage advertising campaign is very clever and memorable. The Vonage commercials are playing with taboos like the geek and cheerleader, which is a quick way to start buzz about both a commercial and a brand. I really like the idea of interrupting the commercial with the flying Vonage box, because it startles the viewer and Vonage will stick in their mind better. The overall advertising campaign has been very successful and will continue its successful run as long as word of mouth buzz continues. With the new memorable and unconventional commercials, along with other clever advertising methods, I have no doubt that the campaign will only continue to grow in popularity.

Vonage image can be found at: http://media.vonage.com/identity/vonage/images/logo.gif

Image of commercial can be found at: http://www.brandweek.com/brandweek/photos/2006/09/vonagegeek.jpg

2006-09-05T22:57:00.000-04:00

Article: "Junk food makers using internet to target children, says watchdog"

Introduction

My name is Jackie Van Pelt and I am a senior marketing major at the University of Delaware with minors in Management Information Systems and International Business. I will be graduating in spring 2007, and have accepted a job at Chase in Wilmington as a Marketing Associate upon graduation. At school I can be found running around campus with different forms of advertisments, because I am the Vice President of Advertising for the Student Centers Programming Advisory Board. This blog is a project for my Fall 2006 BUAD477 class, section 011. The topic of my blog is "Promotion in the Internet Marketing Mix" and will contain various articles relating to promotion and the internet from various sources.

Advertising to Children

My first article comes from The Guardian, and is titled "Junk food makers using internet to target children, says watchdog". The article focuses on how children are increasingly being targeted to visit junk food websites through various internet mediums. Internet chatrooms, game websites, branding in children's educational materials and text messages send to phones are just a few of the many different ways that advertisers are getting to children. The mediums have been aimed at avoiding parental control and targeting children directly.

One example of a successful internet campaign was Fanta's "Text 2 Win" competiton, in which children could have a chance to win a prize if they texted a promotional codefrom a specially-printed pack. International organizations have been calling to have standards set up to regulate the influx of children-targeted advertising, but nothing has been implemented yet to control advertising to children.

I feel that it would be very hard to set up any international regulations to control advertising on the internet to children, but general guidelines need to be set up. Commercials aimed at children have existed on television for years, but are highly regulated. I feel that the internet is a natural progression of advertising to children, but it is important to set up some type of general controls. These controls would help to ensure that the messages children are receiving are appropriate. As long as some general controls are put into place to control advertising to children, I think the overall concept of promoting using various internet mediums is acceptable.

Image of child taken from: http://www.sunncity.com/photos/FunPhotos/BabyAdvertising/Commercialized%20Baby.jpg
Image of Fantanas taken from: http://blogging.la/archives/fanta.jpg