Super Bowl vs Olympics vs World Cup
This is the epitome of comparing apples to oranges. The Super Bowl is a single-day television event, largely isolated to just the United States. The Winter Olympics, while international, doesn't have the same kind of viewership that the Summer Olympics has, possibly because it largely excludes countries that don't participate in winter sports. The Winter Olympics also has the advantage of putting up large numbers because it is televised on multiple stations that showcase multiple events over the course of a couple weeks.
The World Cup trumps even the Olympics. It is a month-long event that takes place in the summer and televises the world's most popular game to an international audience. Corporate sponsorships are priced ~$75 million per sponsorship. That's nearly 20 times the cost of a Super Bowl ad, BUT this includes a lot of bonus spots and a confirmed number of spots that eclipses 400. This puts increased pressure on agencies and corporations to keep their message fresh because no one wants to be diluted with the same commercial over 400 times for a month.
The Olympics offers more competitive rates over a sustained period, but ratings will likely diminish based on time of day, event, and so forth…Figure skating may not appeal to a younger audience, whereas snowboard superpipe may not appeal to an old crowd.
The trick to determining whether or not to advertise during one of these highly visible sporting events is to do some thorough cost analysis and opportunity cost analysis and decide which suits your target demographic best. Will the impression you get with a Super Bowl ad give you the frequency you want? Will the frequency you get with a World Cup or Olympics ad reach the number of people you want it to reach (think Croatia vs Cameroon in the WC or Curling for the Olympics)?
Regardless of what happens, the CPM will continue to rise and so will the price for a single spot (as high as $10 million/ 30 seconds for the Super Bowl by 2040). Why does this happen? It's not just because of the VOLUME of people reached, but the quality of ads increases on the world's biggest stages. During the Super Bowl, people don't turn the channel, the viewership of advertisements actually EXCEEDS that of the game itself! Exciting times indeed….
ME-Commerce
Any retail item can be purchased online, often with free shipping or some other incentive that actually makes it the pereferential method of shopping. Gone are the days of waiting in endless lines behind the person that has to write a check as slowly as he or she possibly can. Mobile e-commerce has replaced traditional e-commerce…or rather, improved upon it.
You could be strolling down the beach, basking in sunshine while ordering a new grill for Labor Day. Even GM is rolling out a new application that would allow savvy consumers to trade-in their car, and take delivery or test drive a new car, all without bothering to get dressed in the morning.
I already order all of my take-out online when I used to phone it in. Further innovation will herald the dawning of a new Kondratiev Cycle that could yield innovations in every single industry on a global scale, and this would represent a huge boom for the logistics industry, with higher levels of import/export and international shipping business. It would also mean smaller businesses could level the playing field a bit. For instance, I love the asadero cheese from the Licon Dairy in San Elizario, Texas. I encourage everyone to find a niche product that you absolutely love, and see if it's available for international shipping. What an industrious age in which we live!!!
New Fall Season Changes Media Buying
New fall shows, mean new ratings. New ratings mean new places to spend your money and a new audience to see your product or service. The new fall season will definitely shake up prime time, although I don't foresee CBS relinquishing the cobra clutch they have on Thursday nights. I encourage everyone to get excited, step out of your box, and break with the norm a little. You might be glad you did.
For those of you who advertise, rest assured that Mad Men Marketing will be their every step of the way, monitoring viewing habits with NSA-like precision, down to what people DVR. We are the only agency in the market to implement Rentrak, a service that gives us an extensive breakdown of what viewers watch based on innumerable sub-categories and demographics. While Nielsen utilizes an archaic journal-entry style system with less than a thousand people in the Jacksonville market participating (less than 1/8 of one percent), Rentrak uses 68,000 set top boxes that you're already using to gather data (roughly 8 percent). This is what sets us apart among agencies, being well-informed of where to spend YOUR money on advertising and being ahead of the curve with a research-oriented approach.
Research And Why We Love It
Research in marketing is utilized to discover consumer insights which, in turn, drives business decisions and the strategy that is to follow. The world is quickly beginning to quantify and track EVERYTHING (and I do mean everything). This is fantastic news for marketing and advertising. We can use these metrics to our advantage. As a matter of fact, we better use them because it's adapt or die out there.
Fortunately, Mad Men Marketing is ahead of the curve. Not only did we become the first in our market to begin using Rentrak, (a wonderful little tool that lets us target the appropriate media buy to your target audience) but we also offer customizable research delivery and custom-tailored case studies.
Why case studies, you may ask? They explore CAUSATION to underlying principles which allows us to tweek our approach. It is empirical research that investigates real-life phenomena. So while every other agency is out there telling you to “trust them”, we do not remain static in our approach like so many others. We are not so overzealous to think we get it right all the time. NO! We are dynamic. We will get you results, quantify them, and show them to you. We will constantly refine and improve our approach, guaranteeing the highest level of efficiency possible.
In 1985 Michael Porter attempted to improve upon Ricardo's comparative advantage and suggested his own theory of competitive advantage. This emphasizes production, efficiencies, and the acquisition of attributes that can be utilized to outpace the competition. Think of Mad Men Marketing as your Swiss Army Knife or the ace up your sleeve because we are delivering our clients comparables, measurables, and demonstrating causative reasons for market change utilizing a number of inputs.
In short, when you perform research, and you can deliver the goods to your client, you're allowing them to track progress….no matter how small it may be. This keeps clients abreast of changing market conditions and keeps them competitive in their industry.
Get On The Bus, Or Get Left Behind!
It's as though he had some kind of perception that increasing the visibility of his law firm were somehow detrimental to his business plan. When reading what he wrote over and over, his words had the connotation that Morgan and Morgan and the rest of the big law firms that thrive via advertising, were somehow less than honorable for incorporating methods that exceeded word of mouth.
I read those words again. This time they seemed envious…like someone who feigned distaste for something simply because it was out of their comfort zone, their little bubble of what was familiar. The last time I read that lawyer's words made me think he was a child who wanted a toy that another boy had, and acted like he didn't want it just on the off chance that the other boy would stop playing with it long enough so that he could have a turn.
The world of legal representation is like any other. You're selling something you want people to buy, but in this case, you're selling your legal expertise. How will people ever like you….ever build a rapport with you, if they don't even KNOW you? I'm here to tell you that advertising in the legal industry WORKS. I've never needed an attorney in my life, but if I did, I would surely call one that advertises because those names immediately pop into my head, and my personal opinion is that one is just as good as another for any service I may ever need.
While I'm on this legal kick today, have you ever listened to a Morgan and Morgan commercial and noticed the emphasis on “FOR the people?” For them…..not against them. Why not “for the PEOPLE”? Farrah and Farrah really “gets it” in my humble opinion, because he portrays himself as a very affable “every man”. “Call me Eddie.”….and if I were ever in Mr. Farrah's office, I might feel comfortable doing just that, and I feel that he would make me feel welcome and not overwhelmed. I salute these two law firms for doing it the right way. Some of you may tire of the Morgan and Morgan, Farrah and Farrah, and Harrell and Harrell commercials, BUT I BET YOU REMEMBER THEM.