Pop Relevance

Obama Says 'Yes We Can!' to In-Game Advertising

The gaming blogosphere was abuzz last week about images of an in-game advertising billboard that appears to have been paid for by the Obama campaign. 

Gamepolitics.com reported that an Xbox Live gamer, Dragunov765, posted screenshots while playing EA's race game "Burnout Paradise." The screenshots feature a Barack Obama billboard that says early voting has begun and references voteforchange.com, a site paid for by Obama for America, which points voters to early voting locations in states where the practice is permitted. Ad Age (10/13/08)

Underwater ads for Ironman Athletes

Coffees of Hawaii put a floating coffee bar on the swim course at Kona during the week leading up to the Ironman Triathlon World Championship. Athletes warming throughout the week leading up to the race could score some caffeine infused beverages from the bar(They did it last year too. See pics.)

To ensure nobody would miss the hype-heavy, espresso-peddling raft bobbing near shore, it targeted swimmers with ads on the sea bed. AdRants (10/14/08)

Audi Warns Drivers, Winter is Coming

Audi wrapped snowplows with the message “Winter is coming” and sent the fleet around the streets of Toronto. Winter could potentially put an end to your driving fun but not if you are in a Quattro equipped Audi. One of Audi's selling points is its Quattro all-wheel drive system, which aids in traction over a variety of surfaces, including snow. This particular stunt proved successful in that it definitely grabs attention, "People were putting down their Starbucks so you know it has to be a good ad campaign," said a witness on the streets of Toronto. For what it's worth, this appears to be the second year in a row that Audi has used this advertising campaign. Autoblog (10/20/08)

Green Clorox Products Clean Up

Clorox launched an eco-friendly line of cleansers earlier this year and has seen its Green Works line leap to the head of the green cleansers class.  A recent story in the San Francisco Chronicle reports that, “Just eight months after its introduction, Clorox’s Green Works line is on track to generate first-year sales of well over $40 million. It’s already outselling all other brands in the green cleaning products niche.”

Though on the face of it this may seem like another win for the big corporation, one rather late to arrive to the sustainability party, it appears that Green Works’ success isn’t coming at the expense of greener companies like Method and Seventh Generation. Overall, consumers’ desire for green cleansers is on the rise and though Green Works occupies the top spot for green cleaning, its competitors are also growing. Data from Information Resources Inc. “based on sales at supermarkets, drugstores and mass retailers, but not at Wal-Mart” shows that Method’s sales in all-purpose cleaners/disinfectants are up 17.45 percent from last year and their sales of glass cleaners/ammonia are up 13.45 percent. Dwell (10/21/08)

 

GMAC Limits Auto Loans to Buyers With 700+ FICO Scores

If you're in the market for a new car, you'd better get your credit score in order first. Auto lending units are looking for top tier customers right now, and GM's captive credit arm is going so far as to mandate a FICO rating of 700 or higher. GMAC is requiring this measure in response to the instability in the global capital and credit markets. The move is likely to cost GM some sales, but according to credit information services company Experian, 74.3% of all auto loans went to consumers with a credit score of over 700. That number is up from the 71% average of 2007, and the number is likely to increase again next year as a result of our country's current economic calamity. 

Mandating near perfect credit may sound like one of the best possible ways to ensure GM will see even lower sales totals at the end of October, but that's likely the only way GMAC can get loans from banks. The question isn't whether GM will be the only automaker to look for FICO ratings of 700+, it's whether any other automaker won't follow suit. Autoblog (10/14/08)

'Recession-Resistant' McD's Forges Ahead With Menu, Store Changes

McDonald's Corp. CEO Jim Skinner took great care during an earnings call today to paint his company as recession-resistant and tout its franchisees' access to credit.

"There's no denying that these are interesting times to be doing business," Mr. Skinner said, adding that McDonald's business is still growing and "we continue to be recession-resistant." The company reported third-quarter earnings of $1.2 billion, up from $1.1 billion a year ago. Same-store sales in the U.S. were up 4.7% with chicken, breakfast and beverages the key sales drivers. 

Even so, the company is not immune to inflation and rising commodity costs, which have made its value-menu platform and its top-selling double cheeseburger a difficult business proposition for some franchisees. Mr. Skinner said that in the U.S., McDonald's is working with franchisees to solve profitability issues with the double cheeseburger, which has been selling for a dollar in most markets since 2002. The chain has been testing the double cheeseburger at higher prices and with one piece of cheese, instead of the usual two. "We expect to have a decision soon," he said.  Ad Age (10/22/08)

Texas dealers offers 50 GM shares to GM vehicle buyers

Two brothers that own dealerships in Texas peddling the General's wares decided that the best way to combat the inevitable depreciation inflicted on their customers is to give them 50 shares of GM stock.

The promotion involves the first 100 buyers (for GM's 100-year anniversary) and 5,000 shares in GM that the siblings bought at the end of last week. GM stock is floating between $6.00 and $7.00 today, meaning that the lucky 100 will have something in the neighborhood of $300-350... assuming GM's stock hold steady. Autoblog (10/17/08)

CBS Launches Social Viewing Rooms for Online TV

To accompany their fall lineup, CBS launched a new feature for their website which allows online TV viewers to join a virtual viewing room. In the room, you can watch the latest episodes with groups of other viewers, commenting and reading each other’s comments. There is a “LOL” button you can hit every time you find something funny and even a list of icons to choose from which allow you to throw virtual tomatoes, blow virtual kisses, or throw virtual darts. In addition to the chat room feature, you can compete against others in quizzes about the show you are watching and other CBS shows.

The virtual viewing room provides a unique social/interactive element to watching shows online, something that hasn’t necessarily been used up to this point. You can give it a shot by testing out the new CBS comedy, “Worst Week” on the CBS website. Ad Pop 9/30/08

Mobile Texting Up 450% in Two Years

Mobile subscribers in the US initiate and receive significantly more SMS text messages than mobile telephone calls, with teens sending more text messages than any other age group, according to research from Nielsen Mobile, MarketingCharts reports.

As of the second quarter, a typical cell-phone user in the US sent or received 357 text messages per month, compared with placing or receiving 204 phone calls. Though the number of calls has remained relatively steady, the number of text messages is up 450 percent from two years ago.

Q2 was the second consecutive quarter in which the average number of text messages sent was significantly higher than the average number of phone calls placed. Text messages first outpaced voice calls in 4Q07, when the average number of calls placed was 213 and the number of text messages sent was 218. Marketing Vox (9/29/08)

Showtime’s Dexter Goes Guerilla with Season Premiere

The TV world isn't exactly a trailblazer when it comes to marketing but we've discovered a fun exception. The season 3 launch of cult 'serial killer' TV show Dexter by Showtime took a guerrilla marketing approach to the launch, mounting fake pop-up news stands in heavily trafficked public spaces in cities across America including New York (positioned right by Central Park), Philadelphia (at 30th Street train station), Los Angeles (outside the Kodak Theater), Chicago (in the financial district) and San Francisco (Union square). The stands featured Snacks wrapped in suitably blood-red packaging and the show's star Michael C Hall on mock covers of high-profile magazines like Rolling Stone, The New Yorker and GQ. To extend the initiative further, The mock covers were also ran as ads on cover four of publications like Rolling Stone nationwide. The Cool Hunter (9/30/08)