In 2006, Time magazine declared YOU as the person of the year. The magazine felt it represented a change in society that we have never really seen before. The popularity of YouTube, MySpace, and many other personalized websites gives a good example of what Time magazine is getting at.

The main tool that makes this possible is the World Wide Web. This tool has changed quite a bit since it was created over 15 years ago; it is much different then it was when scientists just used it to share research. The development of the web allows people all over the world to interact with each other. Whether its Second Life avatars flirting or bloggers arguing, the web has enabled the common man to voice himself.

The generation YOU has filtered into society more than just through online interaction. Many brands have picked up on this societal change and have modified themselves accordingly. For example, Simple Coffee, a new organic coffee bean distributor, offers over 10 different types of personalized beans. The types have names like “Connoisseur” and “Mom” with characteristics that represent each personality.

Even Kleenex tissue has thought of new ways to be part of the YOU generation. Their website features a way to create a personalized tissue box by submitting your own photo to be printed on the cardboard box. Not only have new products been introduced due to the society change but the ways in which the products are sold have also changed. For years and years we have been bombarded with advertising for products that don’t pertain to them at all. As technology advances and brands find their niche, advertising becomes more personalized-like guerilla marketing.

Guerilla marketing is new and there is a reason for that. The YOU generation has shown agencies that traditional media affects the younger audience less. The introduction of devices like TiVo has forced brands to find ways to interact with its audience instead of just preaching to them.

Throughout my blogging this semester I have noticed that most of the guerilla marketing campaigns has been to promote products whose target audiences are primarily under the age of 40. One of the most famous guerilla marketing campaign this year was the infamous Aqua Teen Hunger Force fiasco. I would say the show targets male and female ages 15-45, with a primary audience in the middle.

Look at the other brands- Pepsi, Ketchup, Mission Impossible, Burt’s Bees, Dr. Pepper, and Office Max. All of these have both male and females under 40 years old in their target audience, many in their primary target audience. So it seems obvious that this generation is being hit with guerilla marketing the most. We are the most resistant to traditional advertising, duh, it has been said before. So what is to come? How will marketing be different in 20 years?

I believe that more and more niches will be created, instead of 500 cable channels families will insist on the 2,000 channel package. The You generation will produce a new generation who wants even more personalized attention. Finely targeted face lotions and their own personalized Coke-Cola website. Even the product’s packaging might differ depending on where and to who it is sold. The ketchup design contest is a great example of personalized markets. The packets, which were printed with the student’s designs, were placed in elementary school cafeterias and not just at the local McDonald's.

In terms of guerilla marketing, I think it will soon be as popular as TV and radio. More and more brands will need a different type of media to express its image as their audience’s attention will continue to get harder to capture. The guerilla marketing tactics will have to get more extreme with every campaign. So what happens if these campaigns and market tactics get out of control?

Like the Marlboro Man, will laws soon be passed in order to keep America safe? When Turner Broadcasting created a citywide panic in Boston, people were stuck in traffic for hours and valuable police officers were forced to attend to fake bombs. One major reason the story got so out of hand was because people were angered. It seemed ridiculous that thousands were negatively affected by some cable TV shows promotions.

The posts that discuss this event as well as the Mission Impossible and undercover marketing posts makes me wonder how things will be dealt with in the future. Will the U.S. government just allow companies to disrupt cities and lie to Americans? I doubt it. It is only a matter of time before we will see the law and the brand converge.

And Another One!

Well, once again the art of guerilla marketing has disrupted a major U.S. city. This new report comes from an incident that happened last April in West Los Angeles at The Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

Last spring Paramount Pictures, "placed digital devices in 4,500 news racks around the city" that played the Mission: Impossible III theme music whenever the door was opened. Some city dwellers, as well as a patient in the medical center, mistook the device for a bomb. The medical center was even evacuated for 90 minutes so the Los Angeles County Sheriff arson squad could blow up the device and news stand.

In result of the confusion, Paramount Pictures has given $75,000 to the Veterans Affairs Medical Center to compensate the hospital for having to do an emergency evacuation. "The matter was settled out of court after the U.S. attorney's office sent a letter to Paramount and the Times in January, saying it intended to sue but would be willing to discuss a settlement."

Paramount Pictures and all other companies that plan to use guerilla marketing need to respect people's lives, and I really mean that. I don't understand how Paramount got the devices placed in the building without being questioned or told otherwise. A hospital is a place that most feel safe in and a bomb threat from some bad sequel is the last thing patients and doctors need to worry about. Damn, Have some RESPECT!

Next Level of Guerilla Marketing!

Imagine yourself sitting in the park watching a family, who seem to be tourist, taking picture after picture. As they get closer the women asks you take a picture of all of them. They seem like a great family and it would be your pleasure to help them out. The slick camera slides into your hand and you examine it, looking for the right button. If you seem interested at all the "tourist" will help to to tell you about the camera and where it can be found by staying in character the whole time. Would this make you feel deceived?

A 60 Minute report says that they received different kind of responses. One participant said "I think that the moment when we discover we've been duped causes a backlash" while others thought it was a great way to learn about new products.

Sony Ericsson is just one company that has begun to use this kind of method to promote new products. Sony hires representatives that have good social skills and knowledge on the product at hand to casually entice its audience. The actors are usually situated in large cities where there is high traffic volume.

Other companies such as Essential Reality hired young adults to sit in a Starbucks and play around with a new product called the "P-5 Glove". The product, aimed at males, is a video game device used to fly planes and and fire weapons on their computers. Because the nature of the product and the target audience, the company felt it would be more effective to use undercover marketing rather than main stream media. As the reporter explained, the two young men let many Starbucks visitors try out the device as well as answered many of their questions about the product.

It seems like a smart way to get people looking at your product but there are two things to consider before using undercover marketing. One, does your product make sense to advertise this way? Electronics seem to work the best because they are interactive. If your trying to advertise the new Tide detergent, this type of marketing would not be as effective. Two, if someone was to find out about the scheme what would it do to the brand? A threat that seems possible is when consumers find out they then have less trust and respect in the brand.

Technically the representatives are not lying to its audience but morally it seems as if they are. The two young guys with the P-5 Glove sat in Starbucks not because they really wanted to but because they were paid to.

As of now, people trust word-of-mouth marketing because they see it as the truth and not funded by a companies bank account. Undercover marketing is an innovative way to break through the clutter but if more and more companies use this option, I believe that our society as whole could become less trustworthy with each other.

Although the concept is strong, these companies should not be allowed to do what they are doing. Companies are still able to let the generally public play around with new products but only when the endorser is clearly stated. We get lied to enough by advertisers, I think society should at least have the decency to know when this is happening.

Pepsi aren't the only smart ones....

It seems that Heinz has already adapted the "design" contest idea. Heinz has awarded 12 kids the chance to have their design on ketchup packages this fall. Each kid will be able to have their design on 16 million packs, which are distributed to restaurants and cafeterias nationwide. In addition to the fame, the contest winner were given art supplies and ketchup for their school. In order to properly reach their entire target market they made the contest open to 1st-12th graders.

Just like the Pepsi can, this contest really gives the consumers a chance to interact with the brand. It also works because they are getting children aware of their brand at an early age and as the article says "teachers got classroom materials that let them talk about the contest in class".

Surprisingly enough, 1 of the winners was a fifth grader from Cayuga Heights Elementary School whose name is Ina Joo. An Ithaca girl!

Pepsi Drinkers get to Design a Can!

Pepsi and Coke are both in similar positions, sales of soda continue to decline. The health craze that America is overwhelmed with has effected all soda companies and the leaders in these industries, Pepsi and Coke, are beginning their struggle to stay atop.

Today Pepsi will start a new contest, which they hope will attract more young customers. The challenge is to create a Pepsi can and the winner will receive a cash prize and have their design on 500 million cans. This contest is one part of a large Pepsi campaign, which focuses on the customers desinging everything from a NASCAR vehicle to a national billboard.

This campaign reflects the You Generation, a time where the consumers have so much say in what companies control. The Internet has made it possible for all of us to input our personal opinion on issues that only could have been expressed to your family and friends 10 years ago. Now it is possible for a student in Australia or Japan to design a can that will be seen by millions of other people worldwide.

Like the Ithaca College graduate who got to have his Doritos's commercial shown during the Superbowl, it is a privilege to have 500 million cans showing your design.

This campaign also gets their consumers interacting with the brand. During the contest, a participent will probably visit the website often, be more aware of Pepsi products and plublicity, and ofcourse, with hope, drink Pepsi. Because there is so much advertising now a days companies understand that they need to get their customers interacting with the brand rather than just viewing the message.

All in all I see this as a great campaign for both Pepsi and the participents involved. Letting the audience take control is a great new field that advertising is exploring.

New Scent of Newspapers

This is an update on USAToday's new approach to gain back lost customers by using scented paper. On Monday, April 2nd, a joint promotional effort was waiting outside guests door at the Omni luxury hotels. The USAToday newspaper has joined forces with Starbucks to create blackberry and/or lemongrass scented advertisement. The guests at the hotel will find their free copy of the newspaper with a scented sticker on the front page. The smell will suggest that the reader start there day with a fresh cup of Starbucks and a berry or another type of muffin.
USAToday will be the first to offer scented advertisements and I guess we will have to see how the results turn out. The promotion, which will be tested for about 6 months, seems somewhat easy to rate the success. Because the stickers will only be placed on the newspapers in the Omni hotels, Starbucks in those surrounding area will be able to see sales in coffee and muffins rise or stay the same.
Other newspapers like the Wall Street Journal has also been looking into scented advertisements. Other campaigns such as Got Milk? has even been using scent to stand out of the clutter. What's next? A scented computer?

The Marlboro Man

We all know what Marlboro's are, but why? I believe that it is time to pay tribute to one of the earliest and most successful guerilla marketing campaigns in Americas advertising history.
Before the whole cancer scare and negative light that cigarette's now have today, Marlboro cigarettes had high status as a real American brand. This high status came from the introduction of "The Marlboro Man" in 1955 by Leo Burnett Co. Before the rough cowboy image was introduced, Marlboro brand was ranked 31st but once this great marketing tactic went national they reached the number 1 cigarette brand in America. Marlboro sales rose to $5 billion, a 3,241% increase from the previous year, 1954. The Marlboro Man stands worldwide as the ultimate American cowboy and masculine trademark, helping establish Marlboro as the best-selling cigarette in the world.
Before Burnett introduced Marlboro Man, the cigarettes were positioned to ladies. They had a very week image with little exposure. This new character that they slide into American culture broadened the target market by enticing both genders. In simple terms he was an American idol; guys wanted to be like him and girls wanted to be with him.
During this time, the American people were not educated on the effects of smoking. Society welcomed cigarettes into their homes. Smoking on planes were even legal and the concept of limiting cigarette advertising was unheard of. Marlboro struck at the right time. Even when the first article in Reader's Digest that linked lung cancer to smoking in 1957 was released, Marlboro ads kept bringing in the big bucks ($20 billion that year).
Research finally caught up to the Americans bad habit and in 1971 cigarette ads were banned from television. This didn't stop The Marlboro Man though. The handsome cowboy posed on horseback smoking a cigarette continued to increase sales and by 1972 Marlboro became the number 1 tobacco brand in the world.
Placing the legal aspect of cigarette advertising to the side, The Marlboro Man is and was one of the greatest advertising tactics ever used. Marlboro created a desirable lifestyle, which is a concept that many successful brands continue to use, such as Starbucks and Polo Ralph Lauren. Although society continues to strike harder against cigarettes, The Marlboro Man will always represent one of the great advertising icons.