Effective Commercials

At some point in your TV viewing lives you have asked yourself, what the hell was that commercial all about?

You may be familiar with the Vonage ads where people get hit with a Vonage package. I've wondered - what is the best quality to have as a TV commercial? I remember the commercial but if I had no prior knowledge about what Vonage is I would have been lost. I couldn't explain it to someone if they asked me what it their service is, but I could tell them I saw the commercial. So, did the advertisement work effectively?

That is a tough call, especially with TV ads. It did spark attention with the humor of the ad but could have done a better job at displaying the actual service that it can provide its customers.

SIMPLICITY

In American Culture there are a number of things that we deal with on the day-to- day. The stress of the little things we do such as paying bills or studying for an exam. The added pressures in life tend to distract us from the things that bring joy to our lives.

After I returned from South America after living there for five months I found a greater appreciation for the simplest things in life. Being in a third world country will make you ask yourself a lot of questions.

In the beginning, I found it very frustrating as I tried to make my transition in a foreign country. It annoyed me how slow the lifestyle was. It took forever to get anything done. For example it would take three to four hours just to have a meal at a restaurant.Eventually, I adjusted and slowed my pace down. I sat and ate for every meal, walked two miles every day to and from school and almost everywhere else, functioning with no cell phone, no microwave and no car. These little changes might not seem like much but it has forever changed my views about my lifestyle here in the States.

Upon my return to the US I was overwhelmed with the speed of things. I learned to relax and not stress so much. What the hell was I always worrying about? I know one thing for sure is that I don’t miss is driving - everyone speeding around in all directions, not caring where the other driver is going; creating a cluster of stressed and anxious people. It took me sometime to re-adjust.

“Taking it so seriously” simply should be stated to “slow the hell down”. We tend to throw ourselves in fifty different directions and it is easy to get lost in the middle of it. We all have responsibilities in our lives but we treat them more like chores; just going through the motions.

When I thought of this saying I thought to myself and I’ve thought about this many times before - what if I lived in the past where technology was not around. So, I imagine myself working all day on a farm in a wide open field, nature all around and with just a few simple worries any farmer might have. I have found that living life like a simple farmer has greatly reduced the stress in my life and allows me to take the time to be around those I love and do the things that that I love the most.

Radio Strengths/Weaknesses

Bouncing off the previous post I have listed some strengths and weaknesses related to Radio advertising. They are as follows:

STRENGTHS....

1. Radio has different formats allowing it to reach specific audiences.
2. It is less expensive compared to other media, making it more affordable for advertisers.
3. Radio goes where the consumer goes. Almost every car has a radio in it, therefore reaching a larger listening audience.
4. It is flexible (ie. wireless, portable radio with MP3)
5. It provides room for creativity
6. It is current

WEAKNESSES....

1. Commercials can be background noise. There are so many that listeners tune them out, change stations or are distracted by something else.
2. It has a lot of clutter, but getting better.
3. Radio commercials are short -lived.

Hires Root Beer would benefit from radio advertising. It is a quick item, meaning it is pre- packaged and ready to go. Let's say someone stops to get gas. They decide they are going to go inside the gas station to get a drink and they just heard the Hire Root Beer commercial on the radio. This might entice the person to pick their soft drink.

ADVANCES

The other day my boyfriend and I were discussing what is to come of radio next specifically Sirius/XM radio? There is so much you can do with it. F0r example we were discussing how cool it would be if you could hook up your ipod to the radio and stream the music from the radio to your ipod or if your radio could function more like DVR were you save, forward and rewind. Ideally it would be cool to have a interactive Radio touch screen but accident % might increase.

The Radio

There once was a belief about Radio that it would some day die off. Radio has taken it's toll while movies, video games and Internet grow rapidly. But I hope now we can all agree that Radio is a Media that we will be using for quite sometime. The concept of online Radio already exists with sites such as Pandora.com. It is quickly changing and evolving, just look at Sirisu/XM. In a few years everyone will have Sirius/XM radio in their car. Why?... Why not? It is commercial free non-stop music radio with over 600 stations to choose from; sports, cooking, reggae, classical, hip hop, News, weather, traffic updates and the list goes on. No, it is not free but right now it's somehthing like $9.99 a month. I know advertisers are thinking, "O great non-advertising radio how can we embark on that?" There is tons you can do! I currently work on the Infiniti car account and I recently did some research on Sirius/XM Radio. Seeing that they are still in transition from the two companies merging they are still making a lot of changes but if you want to embark on the radio industry, program sponsorships are a good way to go. Sponsorships are more streamlined with the programing content and are less invasive than regular radio commercials and with over 600+ stations there are a lot of opportunities to take advantage of.

What is a Maverick?

After reading Guy Kawakaki's blog about Polly LaBarre's book Mavericks at Work: Why the Most Original Minds in Business Win I was left with a whole new perception on who a maverick is. I always just thought of Mel Gibson's character in the movie titled Maverick but now I percieve them someone who is as LaBarre describes "stand out from the crowd because they stand for something truly unique." In a way a maverick is like a fool; they are apart from the rest of the crowd and challenge the norm or status quo. I like LaBarre's choice to use the word maverivk. It almost sounds heroric; someone brave and daring. People such as mavericks are a breath of fresh air when it comes to business or media planning. They stretch the limits and bring new creative insights to the table. It could never hurt to have more mavericks in an industry that is thirsty for creative insight.