advergirl

Some major record labels make 40% of their revenue from ringtones

Wow, right?

I was listening to a story about hip-hop artist T-Pain last night and was reminded of just how important it is to think about 'marketing' - not just advertising - at this planning time of year. The trends that we use to shape brand experiences have powerful impacts on all sorts of larger marketing questions - from product development to operational planning.

Consider this incredible example about how shifts in audience behavior wildly changed the business sources for the Zomba record label:

• Artist T-Pain has a signature vocal style that has played a defining role in hip-hop and R&B music this year
• Four of his singles are in the Billboard's Top 10
• He owns up to 1/3 of the popular playlists on some R&B stations

But here's where it gets interesting for marketers:

• His top single has had 1.5 million digital downloads at $.99/each
• BUT - that same single has had 3 MILLION ringtone downloads at $2.50 - $3/each

Record execs call ringtones a personalization product. And, it's interesting, in an era when boom boxes and big stereos have been replaced with earbuds, maybe your ringing pocket is the last bastion of showing off your style through your favorite band...

Not to show my radical uncoolness at the end of a hip-hop post, but, as the aging rocker said, Times, they are a changin' (,marketers).

No one reads copy

Before America's ad writers go on strike from this Web site, I should probably say that I'm kidding about no one reading copy, but, check out this game changing stat of the moment:

8 in 10 Internet users also do some offline activity while online

They shift focus, blur focus, multitask.

Their attention is widely divided from Ugly Betty to the latest Jodi Picoult pageturner to your client's Web site.

Seeing the big numbers is great reminder of just how important the experience is online. Of how important it is to concept the visit upfront, long before copy is written or a pixel is placed.

Check out the details on eMarketer:

Ripped from Women's Magazines: Smart niche advertising

Forgive the crinkling. These ads literally came from my bedside table where one of them may have served briefly as a coaster.

AIG's 'How to pick a puppy that's right for you'
Challenge: Couples are waiting longer to have children and a still-small but economically-influential niche is choosing not to have them at all. For this audience, the typical guilt and responsibility ploys that have delivered in retirement and financial planning for the last several decades may be a little less potent.

Strategy: Find a niche and talk to it. Pet parents, maybe? Yeah, why not. Hugely passionate group of humans who are as happy to invest time and attention to advice as a nervous new real mom.

Result: Bare minimum?  Pet parents spent some time with this brand. AIG stopped the page flip and may have given them something to talk about at work the next day.

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Citi 'Dividends are a girl's best friend'

Challenge: Being impactful in their own media buy. Finding eyes for a message about the serious work of being a successful grown-up in the most escapist medium of them all -> women's magazines. Great recipes, cool clothes, fun room makeovers,  workouts I'll never do ... that makes me think about a bubble bath, not my theoretical portfolio.

Strategy: First, borrow equity from the medium - take the ad you'd expect (diamonds) and make it about the product we want to talk about. Second, play into the ambivalence a lot of women feel about even spending time reading this fuzzy stuff by delivering a message of empowerment in an unlikely source.

Result: Increasingly, women in their 20s and 30s are making more money than their partners. They're the responsibility and income hub of the household. Often, they are the household. I can't imagine this ad doesn't connect with them...

Great ads -

Free Colts Ring Tones vs. Free ING Toilets

This week at the agency, we extended Huntington Bank's Indianapolis Colts affinity program (see AdFreak story) online with this snazzy little Web site featuring the spots, free ring tones and sundry silliness.

But, just when we thought we'd pushed a financial brand to the near-limit of consumer engagement and real-guy zaniness, well, ING launched a free toilet ...

If you haven't been to the ING site, I definitely suggest a visit - if only for the transition to the sponsoring brand at the end of the, uh, bathroom experience.

ING's is really a very controversial approach for anyone managing an advertising  budget. The  viral part of the experience lives entirely separately from the brand sponsorship - at once making pass-along more likely and making the eventual brand impression less assured.

Cover letters and Google searches

Ad newbie and job searcher Dan Culhane recently asked for advice on cover letters - to pen or not to pen? What to say?

Short answer: Absolutely write a cover letter.

If you're lucky your resume hits the inbox of someone who needs help. Who is short on time. Who needs the services of, well, you. So, don't expect her to do the work of reading your resume and applying it to her needs. Just tell her who you are and how you can help...

Advergirl's five rules for effective cover letters:

• Stay brief: We're an email-addled industry. We want bullets and conversational style and an ability to get to the point. Don't feel compelled to write a page. Or even print on a page. Just write brief and smart.
• Be relevant: If you have a cover letter template, you're doing it wrong. Drag it to the trash can and empty. If you really want the job, check out the agency. Write - I just saw the amazing work you did for Lowe's and I want to be a part of it. Understand the agency's position in the marketplace. Know their work. Tell them how you can add value in the year ahead.
• Think personal: To whom it may concern concerns me. You have Google. Find a contact. If the agency's Web site doesn't list staff members, use the URL to find them. For example, say you want to work at SBC Advertising. URL-sbcadvertising.com. Google @sbcadvertising.com until you find someone who used their work email in a chat room on a blog on their resume and talk to her.
• Worry the details: Even as a diva of typos (I occasionally cringe when I read old posts), I'm still completely turned off by cover letters and resumes with horrible punctuation, blatant misspellings and 'your' instead of 'you're.'
• Go accessible: Send an email attachment. Send a link. Show your Web site address. Make it easy to pass on and easy to learn more about you. Speaking of which - please check out this manifesto on your personal online brand. Lots to know.

And, then get out there and get a job, people, you can't just sit around reading pedantic blogs all day.

A Challenge to Lowe's

As an ad girl at a retail shop I get my fill of holiday cheer by oh-right-about October 1. By then, the hoopla has been in full swing since balmy July when reindeer were being sprayed down on a set that tested the limits of modern air conditioning.

Spring forward to the week before Halloween. Retailers finally get to debut their holiday TV spots to a consumer populace that's not ready for them and an ad community that's already over them.

The early spots look great this year with one glaring exception ...

Lowe's is recycling their "I'm looking for..." spots. The cute idea where a harried shopper hits the store unable to remember the name of the holiday home adornment she's hunting and launches into a charades-style pantomime which the savvy sales girl immediately guesses as a giant inflatable with life-size santa and reindeer.

Yeah, you've seen it.

Clever idea.  Slightly annoying talent. Highly over-exposed spot here in year 2.

First up, let me say, I like the strategy. They're setting themselves in direct opposition to every other big box - from the Depot to Target. It's story about service and knowledgeable sales staff. It is targeted at a busy, high income, high expectation female customer. I love that.

But, America has seen it. And with talent that grating, there's a good chance they'll miss the highlighted product as they lunge for the fast forward button.

Lowe's is a fantastic brand. With great agency partners. But, for some reason, this year, they're leaning on expired creative. So, here's my challenge:

I'll talk my agency bosses into slashing our fee in half if you give us a shot at reinventing the spots. There's still time for a holiday miracle ... call me!

One other note, I don't think that all spots necessarily expire after one season. A great example is the super iconic Nissan Heisman spot ... which I believe has been running for as many as three years:

Mourning the loss of the inbox

Back when a busty blond was a sure-win on any ad. When pitch meetings were choked with Marlboro smoke. When packaging led with recipes instead of calorie counts. When personalization meant reading Dear Mrs. Ben Harben on your junk mail.

Well, then, there was a special place for incoming communications. Sometimes shimmery silver wire. Sometimes cracked black plastic. Sometimes a simple stained beige. But always emblazoned with the optimistic, type-written label: INBOX.

There, all your communications gathered. To be sorted. Responded to. FOUND.

That was a time when no one would ever:

• Come back from lunch balancing a Starbucks and a full meal only to sit down on a stack of vacation requests and creative briefs stacked on her chair since her brief exit 20 minutes prior
• Check her office voicemail, cell phone voicemail, email, mailbox, shared comment email, floor around her desk, and text messages before getting started for the day
• Get a frantic call asking if the change order dropped somewhere in the detritus of her desk had been executed by the deadline buried on page 3
• Receive a surprise notification from IT that her email inbox is full and will no longer be sending or receiving mail (frankly, you could see when an inbox was approaching its teetering capacity)
• Belatedly discover that the two-minute heads up communicated in the kitchen while waiting for the coffee to brew was in fact the workstart meeting. And, the work is now sadly past due
• Or, spend the several minutes prior to any conference call rustling around stacks of paper, sorting by subject in email, cursing the darn server that won't come up all in search of the agenda ... ahhhhh.

Where is my blessed inbox?

Mazda culturally tone deaf?

I think this spot premiered last month. But I believe the controversy it will create is yet to come. Watching the spot the first time I was uncomfortable. Since I've seen it more, it's genuinely changed my perception of the brand.

An all-black chorus singing in gospel-style ... a song that includes the phrases 'come shine here with me' and  'I'm finally free.' The the zoom out hits as they sing the brand's hallmark 'zoom, zoom' in a closed circle around a car.

Excessive religious references aside, it seems like a particularly offensive cultural lift.

In principle, I agree with the approach. Car buyers have changed. Over 50% of them are women. Growing numbers are Hispanic and African-American. Yeah, we need to get away from the white guy in a convertible zipping around the windiest roads of the Italian countryside with a thrilled woman by his side. But, there's a big, big 'in between' from talking to a niche to lifting an experience.

Big Lots North Pole

This is a proud-mommy post.

Advergirl cheers to the teams at SBC Advertising and Big Lots for the fun new holiday 'brand love' content on the site.

(The North Pole portion of the site was built out from the new TV campaign produced by Amalgamated)

Get out there and play. You know you want to...