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Can Responsible Marketing save baseball?

By on April 1, 2008 in message responsible, multicultural marketing, social networking, word of mouth

I love baseball. And I loved winning our home opener. But as a fan, I’m disappointed, frustrated, even embarrassed, about steroids in baseball. I saw Barry Bonds play in his quest for

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Easter Bunny hogtied, candy stolen. Story at 11.

By on March 21, 2008 in creativity, love it or hate it?, word of mouth

Rest assured, I understand no bunnies were harmed during the photo shoot for this ad. This is from the following ad for Shaw’s Candies of San Francisco: + enlarge The other ads in the campaign include X-rays of teeth and a belt from folks that couldn’t resist their chocolates. Kind of makes me think of [...]

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I bet you’ll fail this test

By on March 20, 2008 in creativity, information overload, PSA, simplicity, videos, viral marketing, word of mouth

Before you read ahead, play the video below and take the test. You won’t need paper or pencil, just your full concentration. It will take you one minute. This awareness test is powerful in so many ways. It’s short and simple: One video. One minute long. 30 words. No fancy graphics. Just a single powerful [...]

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D2 Man swoops in to save Top-Flite’s sagging brand

By on March 14, 2008 in advertainment, branding, creativity, videos, viral marketing, word of mouth

Think your company is too conservative to be creative? Think again. Top-Flite’s fading brand desperately needs help. On March 5th, D2 Man arrived to help the company become relevant again amid a sea of strong new competitors. In nine days, the following viral has generated nearly a million views on YouTube and a fair amount [...]

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Liberty Filmore, Cart Whisperer

By on March 4, 2008 in advertainment, creativity, responsible or not?, videos, viral marketing, word of mouth

Liberty Filmore can’t understand it: You know, I don’t know what it is in a person…make ‘em just…up and abandon a perfectly good shopping cart. You see, Filmore is a cart whisperer. He cares. And because he cares, he spends his time searching for abandoned carts and then helping find their way back home. With [...]

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Not interested in Blow? Try Meth instead.

By on February 28, 2008 in corporate responsibility, responsible or not?, socially responsible, videos, word of mouth

The response to my post regarding Blow Energy Drink yesterday was a hearty two thumbs down. So, I can only imagine what you might think of Meth Coffee. From their homepage: Dear Agent, I am dispatching to you a sample of smooth and highly seismological coffee bean substance. Try this new flammable specimen, but distribute [...]

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Responsible or not? Blow Energy Drink Mix

By on February 27, 2008 in corporate responsibility, responsible or not?, socially responsible, videos, word of mouth

Energy drink marketing is kinda like soda pop marketing — on steroids. And taurine. And caffeine. All at once. Energy drinks are mostly geared toward thrill-seeking youth looking for a coffee alternative…a legal high. The packaging is aggressive–even dangerous–with monsters, aliens, skateboards, crocodiles, rattlesnakes and other creatures meant to make the customer feel just a [...]

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Responsible or not? PETA’s campaign against KFC

By on February 22, 2008 in corporate responsibility, responsible or not?, socially responsible, videos, word of mouth

It really doesn’t matter how you feel about PETA, you have to admire their marketing chutzpah. I heard their ad was banned from the Super Bowl, but couldn’t find it on YouTube. A visit to Gino Cosme’s Bridging the Gap blog revealed all. Here’s the banned ad (viewer discretion advised): Clearly, this was meant to [...]

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Afraid of being different?

By on February 15, 2008 in creativity, videos, word of mouth

We love to push our clients around. I don’t mean physically. We just love to push them out of their comfort zone to get them to try something they simply never would have thought of doing themselves. “That’s just not us.” “I’ve never seen anyone in our category do that.” “Our customers will think we’re [...]

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What are you doing to drive word of mouth?

By on February 13, 2008 in books, word of mouth

Each month, the Outsource Marketing Book Club gathers to review a marketing book of interest and chat it out. Our goal is simple: find new ways to help our clients. Everyone knows word of mouth is the most effective form of marketing, and for that reason it’s one of the ingredients of Responsible Marketing. Problem [...]

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SHIPOOPI! When bad ain’t so bad.

By on February 11, 2008 in advertainment, creativity, responsible or not?, videos, word of mouth

“Remember to honk when you drive by Vern Fonk.” If you live in Washington or Oregon you probably never thought you’d see that phrase here. Because while Vern Fonk offers commercial insurance, it’s known for its bargain basement advertising targeting tough-to-insure drivers—mostly on cable, often at night. Their brand is low budget in all ways. [...]

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Social networking is ready for business. Are you?

By on January 31, 2008 in social networking, word of mouth

I was shocked when I realized how many of Outsource Marketing’s clients and friends of the firm still haven’t gotten their feet wet with social media. No LinkedIn. No Facebook. No Plaxo. No Twitter. No fun. So, I decided to write Social networking is ready for business. Are you? (84 KB, PDF) for this month’s [...]

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Super Bowl mania and the Lucy effect

By on January 29, 2008 in advertainment, videos, word of mouth

Today is media day in Phoenix as a press contingent of 4,786 was on hand to ask the players everything from the intelligent (“how will you defend Randy Moss?”) to the inane (“what will you have for breakfast?”). It’s all news and apparently just about all of it is fit to print. The Super Bowl [...]

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Super Bowl Advertising warm-up

By on January 22, 2008 in advertainment, creativity, videos, word of mouth

Believe it or not, I used to actually require students in my Integrated Marketing Communications class the University of Washington to watch the Super Bowl…for the ads. In the coming weeks I’ll be touching on television advertising a little more than usual, and on February 3rd, I’ll conduct an anonymous poll listing all the main [...]

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Can subliminal advertising be responsible?

By on January 18, 2008 in creativity, responsible or not?, subliminal advertising, videos, word of mouth

We’ve all seen examples of subliminal advertising in print ads over the years. I use the word “seen” loosely, because usually you have to look pretty hard to find that suggestive image that’s supposed to burrow itself into your subconscious and get you to buy! buy! buy! Anyway, subliminal advertising on television is a whole [...]

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Tide offers “Loads of Hope” for natural disaster victims

By on January 2, 2008 in cause marketing, socially responsible, videos, word of mouth

Do you have an affinity to your laundry detergent? You might after you read this. After Hurricane Katrina and the recent California wildfires, Tide dispatched their CleanStart trucks to the scene to help. These mobile laundry facilities provided the families of these disasters with free laundry services when they needed it most. The CleanStart trucks [...]

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Entertaining, but effective?

By on December 26, 2007 in advertainment, responsible or not?, videos, word of mouth

Ready for a little break from the barrage of holiday advertising? I am, and I like advertising. I was hoping I’d find a few holiday-themed ads to share, but then I realized, the most entertaining and memorable ad I’ve seen this season wasn’t a holiday ad at all. It was a Jack-in-the-Box ad, and I [...]

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On first impressions and sweating the small stuff

By on December 10, 2007 in execution responsible, strategically responsible, word of mouth

On the surface, Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market looks like the type of company I’d enjoy profiling on The Responsible Marketing blog. They are saying all the right things: they believe in making fresh and high quality food affordable in every neighborhood, they are active in their communities, they treat their people well. So it [...]

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I deserve a hot, juicy burger…and a cup of water

By on November 26, 2007 in creativity, signage, simplicity, word of mouth

Last summer, I took my mom to Wendy’s for lunch with my kids. Believe it or not, it was the first time she’d been there. Hold the ‘heavy hitter’ and ‘great son’ comments — it was her idea. Anyway, after we sat down for our gourmet meal, there was a bit of a stir near [...]

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