Well well well. It's certainly not the way I would have expected it, but it appears that flattery is to be ours, here at Jay Standish, Inc. LLC! That's right, imitation - being the "sincerest" form of flattery - is what I mean, and CBS is who is doing it.
Even as you read, in a supermarket near you, there may be large "screens" installed (or being installed!) which will allow the shoppers to view specially designed CBS programming - or "content" as we are coming to call it these days.
Why, you ask, do we at Jay Standish, Inc. LLC consider this flattery? Simple - they are moving their marketing messages into a position where there are viewers who are already in the buying mood and mode! It's the same concept we have been promoting with such vigor to all who will hear us - especially those in the automotive industry - with our full-motion capable beverage vending machines.
We hate to say we told you so, but we, in fact, did tell you so.
Now, if we can just get an order form for something beyond unpaid market research ....
Excelsior!
Monday, March 27, 2006
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
I'll Just Google It ... Yahoo!
Yes indeed, the vagaries of fame and function along the information superhighway (or so its inventor was wont to call it) seem to ebb and flow with frightening irregularity. It was only a few years ago that the Yahoo! cowboy! was suing for more residuals! because he could yodel!, yep, yodel real good! Now, it's increasingly infrequently that the compulsory ! is included with the word Yahoo, and Google has become a verb. I think it would make R. Buckminster (Bucky) Fuller proud, but I think it makes the rest of us uneasy.
Google, the company which pledges to "do no evil" is busy planning to store, index, and cross-multiply your (and my!) personal data - all in the cause of making the all world's information available to all the world all the time (except portions of that information deemed too "true" or "dangerous" in certain countries, of course).
Still, Google does have a huge advantage over Yahoo! in my book - they are all about the business of context, while Yahoo! is all about the business of lists. A shopping list is all well and good, assuming I'm headed to the market, but if I want the answer to a question, I'd prefer information related to my query.
Ah, context, and its close relative: environment. It seems we always come back, in these screeds, to that conceit of ours: your message is always better delivered in an environment where the consumer either expects it or requests it. It's all well and good trying to force cod-liver oil down my throat, but I'm likely to choke if you do it in my sleep. (No, really, Pat, it's not a good idea!) If, however, I realize that I need a good dose, I'm more than happy to swallow - just please, when I'm expecting - even better, when I'm craving it!
So, how do Google, Yahoo!, cod-liver oil, and shopping lists come together? It's quite simple, really. If you want to deliver a message to a consumer about the benefits of purchasing your product, why not deliver that message when said consumer is already in buying mode?! That's right, full-motion capable beverage vending machines are the Google to a television program's Yahoo! Oh, it's plenty of fun to watch the Super Bowl for the commercials, but when the dramatic tension between, say, Will and Grace, or Patrick and Sponge Bob is quashed with a commercial for medication or cereal, there is no positive rub-off. When, however, a blast-chilled, sanitized-for-your-protection tasty beverage is dispensed with an invitation to drive away in a new Previa (or is it an Odyssey!), the purchaser is bound to stand up and take notice.
So, I say it's time to Google your customers' thirst, so you won't have to hear your competition yelling Yahoo! as they convert your customers to their products. It's truly that simple.
Excelsior!
Google, the company which pledges to "do no evil" is busy planning to store, index, and cross-multiply your (and my!) personal data - all in the cause of making the all world's information available to all the world all the time (except portions of that information deemed too "true" or "dangerous" in certain countries, of course).
Still, Google does have a huge advantage over Yahoo! in my book - they are all about the business of context, while Yahoo! is all about the business of lists. A shopping list is all well and good, assuming I'm headed to the market, but if I want the answer to a question, I'd prefer information related to my query.
Ah, context, and its close relative: environment. It seems we always come back, in these screeds, to that conceit of ours: your message is always better delivered in an environment where the consumer either expects it or requests it. It's all well and good trying to force cod-liver oil down my throat, but I'm likely to choke if you do it in my sleep. (No, really, Pat, it's not a good idea!) If, however, I realize that I need a good dose, I'm more than happy to swallow - just please, when I'm expecting - even better, when I'm craving it!
So, how do Google, Yahoo!, cod-liver oil, and shopping lists come together? It's quite simple, really. If you want to deliver a message to a consumer about the benefits of purchasing your product, why not deliver that message when said consumer is already in buying mode?! That's right, full-motion capable beverage vending machines are the Google to a television program's Yahoo! Oh, it's plenty of fun to watch the Super Bowl for the commercials, but when the dramatic tension between, say, Will and Grace, or Patrick and Sponge Bob is quashed with a commercial for medication or cereal, there is no positive rub-off. When, however, a blast-chilled, sanitized-for-your-protection tasty beverage is dispensed with an invitation to drive away in a new Previa (or is it an Odyssey!), the purchaser is bound to stand up and take notice.
So, I say it's time to Google your customers' thirst, so you won't have to hear your competition yelling Yahoo! as they convert your customers to their products. It's truly that simple.
Excelsior!
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
I think we're all Bezos on this bus
And no, I don't mean that hulk of a man, Jerome Bettis when I say bus.
I recently came across an old quote from the Amazon guy, Jeff Bezos. He said that "anything worth doing is worth doing badly," or words to that effect. I suppose the idea is that one is better off getting started and going back to fix things than to wait until everything is in order and then finding out that someone else has beaten one to the proverbial punch.
In the heady days of the dot com false alarm, that must have seemed like awfully good advice. In fact, given the situation, what with Amazon boxes featured in nearly every trash pickup across these United States, it may well have been exactly what it seemed. However, now that irrational exuberance has been nipped in the bud, and the closest thing to it we see on the horizon is Web 2.0, it seems that it might be time for one to actually do something well!
As everyone seems to know, in order to do well on an internet search, one's paid search text ad should be fewer than 15 words, but more than 13 words. That works out to about 14 words of plain text to get across a "unique selling proposition" or "unique product benefit" on a page awash with text and "graphic" elements. Sounds difficult to me.
Get my message across in fourteen words? How about fourteen scenes? That's right, in a full-motion, full-audio mini-theatrical presentation of fourteen scenes (lasting approximately 30 to 32 seconds) an enterprising marketer can certainly reveal the wonders of his (or her!) brand to the interested viewer.
Imagine, as you no doubt already are, the benefits of sight, sound, and motion all on the screen of a full-motion capable beverage vending machine. A customer walks up - to make a purchase! - deposits cash - to make a purchase! - and receives his (or her!) beverage. But wait - where do the fourteen scenes come in? Right here, gentle reader, right here.
By way of engaging the customer(!), the advertiser offers to pay the deposit on the beverage container (ranging from $.05 right on up, depending on locale!) in exchange for the viewing of the mini-theatrical presentation (actually, a form of a commercial!). While the film rolls, the customer is assured that his (or her!) beverage is being cleaned, sanitized, and blast-chilled for his (or her!) added enjoyment.
That's right - we offer to pay the deposit on the beverage container in exchange for viewing a commercial. Just imagine if all marketing transactions were so transparent; consumers would no longer balk at commercial messages, as they would understand that the media (and beverage containers!) they enjoy so much are being under-written by the providers of commercials.
We at Jay Standish, Inc. LLC believe that this new open-ness will lead to a virtual perestroika of purchases, yea, a veritable glasnost of gelt, from which the noble American Consumer will never willingly depart.
Excelsior!
I recently came across an old quote from the Amazon guy, Jeff Bezos. He said that "anything worth doing is worth doing badly," or words to that effect. I suppose the idea is that one is better off getting started and going back to fix things than to wait until everything is in order and then finding out that someone else has beaten one to the proverbial punch.
In the heady days of the dot com false alarm, that must have seemed like awfully good advice. In fact, given the situation, what with Amazon boxes featured in nearly every trash pickup across these United States, it may well have been exactly what it seemed. However, now that irrational exuberance has been nipped in the bud, and the closest thing to it we see on the horizon is Web 2.0, it seems that it might be time for one to actually do something well!
As everyone seems to know, in order to do well on an internet search, one's paid search text ad should be fewer than 15 words, but more than 13 words. That works out to about 14 words of plain text to get across a "unique selling proposition" or "unique product benefit" on a page awash with text and "graphic" elements. Sounds difficult to me.
Get my message across in fourteen words? How about fourteen scenes? That's right, in a full-motion, full-audio mini-theatrical presentation of fourteen scenes (lasting approximately 30 to 32 seconds) an enterprising marketer can certainly reveal the wonders of his (or her!) brand to the interested viewer.
Imagine, as you no doubt already are, the benefits of sight, sound, and motion all on the screen of a full-motion capable beverage vending machine. A customer walks up - to make a purchase! - deposits cash - to make a purchase! - and receives his (or her!) beverage. But wait - where do the fourteen scenes come in? Right here, gentle reader, right here.
By way of engaging the customer(!), the advertiser offers to pay the deposit on the beverage container (ranging from $.05 right on up, depending on locale!) in exchange for the viewing of the mini-theatrical presentation (actually, a form of a commercial!). While the film rolls, the customer is assured that his (or her!) beverage is being cleaned, sanitized, and blast-chilled for his (or her!) added enjoyment.
That's right - we offer to pay the deposit on the beverage container in exchange for viewing a commercial. Just imagine if all marketing transactions were so transparent; consumers would no longer balk at commercial messages, as they would understand that the media (and beverage containers!) they enjoy so much are being under-written by the providers of commercials.
We at Jay Standish, Inc. LLC believe that this new open-ness will lead to a virtual perestroika of purchases, yea, a veritable glasnost of gelt, from which the noble American Consumer will never willingly depart.
Excelsior!
Monday, March 13, 2006
The Next Big Thing
Well, perhaps I'm "giving away the store" in this post, and perhaps I'm not. We here at Jay Standish, Inc. LLC are not ones to toss away opportunities for billed consultation, but this is such a "mega-trend" that it probably is better served here than in a more formal "report" or other document.
You've probably seen the news reports that - for the first time in recorded history! - the sales of carbonated soft drinks (i.e. "soda" or "pop") actually declined in the US this past year. Why is this? Most likely a combination of the aging of the population (did you know that the leading edge of the Baby Boom generation is entering its 60's? That's right, the 60's generation is in the 60's again!), and the health conscious dietary habits of the youth of America. What with bottled water and all, it's like pulling teeth to get these tykes to drink a sweetened, carbonated beverage (oh dear, no pun intended there!).
So what are we to make of this? We here at Jay Standish, Inc. LLC believe it's time for more and more marketers to take advantage of our unique selling venue - the full-motion-video-capable beverage dispensing machine. That's right, a savvy marketer could find his (or her!) commercial playing on the front of a Pepsi (or other soft drink) machine in nearly no time at all.
What with the decline in sales, this means the soft drink is becoming more of a considered purchase, rather than simply the impulse, knee-jerk kind of habit it had been in its hey-day. With a considered purchase comes consideration. This means that the purchaser is doing two very important things:
Still, imagine, if you will, your consumer - for example, a Man (or Woman!) aged 25-54 with a household income of $60,000 (or more!), pumping gas into his (or her!) current vehicle. As the tank fills, and the bill mounts, what better time to catch his (or her!) eye with that full-motion video of a new, fuel-efficient, possibly even hybrid, automobile? The simple answer is, there is no better time, and in this case, the simple answer is the correct answer.
But this brings us to the question of where one can find such machines. Ah, where indeed? Let's leave that conversation for a later post, or even a personal sales call, shall we? We shall indeed!
Excelsior!
You've probably seen the news reports that - for the first time in recorded history! - the sales of carbonated soft drinks (i.e. "soda" or "pop") actually declined in the US this past year. Why is this? Most likely a combination of the aging of the population (did you know that the leading edge of the Baby Boom generation is entering its 60's? That's right, the 60's generation is in the 60's again!), and the health conscious dietary habits of the youth of America. What with bottled water and all, it's like pulling teeth to get these tykes to drink a sweetened, carbonated beverage (oh dear, no pun intended there!).
So what are we to make of this? We here at Jay Standish, Inc. LLC believe it's time for more and more marketers to take advantage of our unique selling venue - the full-motion-video-capable beverage dispensing machine. That's right, a savvy marketer could find his (or her!) commercial playing on the front of a Pepsi (or other soft drink) machine in nearly no time at all.
What with the decline in sales, this means the soft drink is becoming more of a considered purchase, rather than simply the impulse, knee-jerk kind of habit it had been in its hey-day. With a considered purchase comes consideration. This means that the purchaser is doing two very important things:
- Considering a purchase - i.e. actually "thinking" and,
- Making a purchase - i.e. actually "buying,"
Still, imagine, if you will, your consumer - for example, a Man (or Woman!) aged 25-54 with a household income of $60,000 (or more!), pumping gas into his (or her!) current vehicle. As the tank fills, and the bill mounts, what better time to catch his (or her!) eye with that full-motion video of a new, fuel-efficient, possibly even hybrid, automobile? The simple answer is, there is no better time, and in this case, the simple answer is the correct answer.
But this brings us to the question of where one can find such machines. Ah, where indeed? Let's leave that conversation for a later post, or even a personal sales call, shall we? We shall indeed!
Excelsior!
Friday, March 10, 2006
Can't get it out of my head!
Well, I'm sure it can't be just me, but I am completely unable to get my mind off the image of SNL's Jimmy Fallon dancing on a taxi cab with the delicious Miss Parker Posey.
There, I said it - she is simply delicious! I can't say with absolute certainty, as I'm not certain that the opportunity would ever present itself, but I think she could turn a gay man straight, at least for a while. (Ah, would that I could have been there to catch her when the foolish Mr Fallon tossed her away!)
I know not everyone is as enamored of the advertising and marketing game as I am (after all, that's where I earn my wages, as it were!), but I find myself inventing commercials for various products, just as vehicles for the delicious (there, I said it again!) Miss Posey's considerable thespian abilities. I had made a suggestion to an agency friend, complete with story line and some basic direction, but there was no interest, apparently. Alas, the auto industry seems not to be as forward-thinking as the beverage industry.
Go, Pepsi!
Well, I think that suffices for now. Watch for the video of the commercial - you can find it on Youtube.com as well as at ParkerPosey.org - you won't regret the view.
Excelsior!
There, I said it - she is simply delicious! I can't say with absolute certainty, as I'm not certain that the opportunity would ever present itself, but I think she could turn a gay man straight, at least for a while. (Ah, would that I could have been there to catch her when the foolish Mr Fallon tossed her away!)
I know not everyone is as enamored of the advertising and marketing game as I am (after all, that's where I earn my wages, as it were!), but I find myself inventing commercials for various products, just as vehicles for the delicious (there, I said it again!) Miss Posey's considerable thespian abilities. I had made a suggestion to an agency friend, complete with story line and some basic direction, but there was no interest, apparently. Alas, the auto industry seems not to be as forward-thinking as the beverage industry.
Go, Pepsi!
Well, I think that suffices for now. Watch for the video of the commercial - you can find it on Youtube.com as well as at ParkerPosey.org - you won't regret the view.
Excelsior!
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