Facebook’s New Suggested Interest Page

Good morning and I hope it has been pleasant for you.

I read with interest that Facebook has started a new “suggested interest” page and I began to think how that could be used as a great marketing tool.  Some of the current ones I saw today are:

Lady Gaga

Monster Energy

Skittles

Playstation

The Office

 

I am certain that Facebook will begin to let advertisers pay to be within the suggested interest page, probably similar to Google ad words. 

Lets say for example I talk about boating (which is a hobby of mine) on my facebook page.  I would think some of the interests that would come up with be Sea Ray Boats, Mercury Engines, Overton’s (boating accessory store), and other related items.  I am sure the technology is in place to do keyword recognition.

I can recall when Twitter had the exact same thing but it seemed very controversial, so far the same has not been true for Facebook.

Give it time!

marketmpb

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Mobile Marketing Trends for 2010

Good afternoon and Happy 4th of July!

I think it is interesting that now there is almost 4 times as many cell phones in the world as computers, in fact almost 1/4 of US households are mobile only, no land line!

Here are some trends to look for:

-continued growth of text message marketing, including mobile coupons and increased text usage among folks older than 45

-texting offered by local media, do you recall when TV stations began to offer texts to warn you of severe weather?

-pay by phone and I-phone apps will continue to increase

-companies will let their consumers build their own apps (eg: mobileapploader.com)

There will lots of “fireworks” with mobile marketing the rest of the year, and I hope you are enjoying your 4th of July bbq.

matt (marketmpb)

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Marketing Humor Video

I thought all you marketers would appreciate this (some adult humor)

 

enjoy your weekend!

matt

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For Profits are Changing the Game

Good evening, I had some other thoughts before the holiday weekend regarding “for profit” institutions and how they are changing the landscape in higher education.

The landscape has seen a tremendous amount of non-traditional students attend these school to improve their job prospects.  Currently there are around 2 million students who attend these school and the average enrollment growth is 20% each year.

I think traditional colleges have been very slow to adjust to students who want a flexible education.  I think what makes these non-profits successful is that they are filling a need.

However, they do come with controversy.  It is my understanding that when the University of Phoenix receives your information, you will get a call within 30 seconds and folks have told me they can be very aggressive.  Although some vendors out there can be overly aggressive too, but none the less. 

The lack of good customer service at some large institutions tends to help the non-profits too,  the students are “customer-service starved”.

Personally, I think they do more good than harm by showing the non-traditional they need to be run more like a business and be more “customer friendly”.

be safe this 4th!

matt (marketmpb)

(I am also very excited to announce my new marketing blog on the Cincinnati Enquirer, please see link at top of page!)

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Enjoy the 4th, Forget the 5th!

Good afternoon and I hope you are ready for your holiday weekend!

I would encourage all of my readers this weekend to spend time with family, attend some good bbq’s and call someone you have not talked to in a while.

This weekend the United States of America was born,  breaking away from the tyrannical British colonies and what a time to celebrate!

There are so many negative things going on right now,  I know I am going to try to spend time with family and friends, attend some cookouts and just appreciate how good I have it.  We know the 5th will eventually come, but lets forget about that this weekend.

God Bless the USA!

matt (marketmpb)

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BP= Bad Publicity

Good afternoon, are you ready for the weekend?

I can not tell you how much sadness and disappointment I have read over the last few weeks regarding the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill.  However, to make matters even worse , British Petroleum has turned into “Bad Publicity”.

I can recall shortly after the catastrophe began, BP immediately blamed its contractors, instead of taking on the blame itself.  I can also recall at this point Tony Hayward (CEO) stepping into the limelight and saying that the leak was “relatively small”.

At this point, things got even worse for BP and their public relations nightmare.  Tony Hayward proclaimed he wanted his life back as fisherman lives were being ruined and it was turning into an ecological disaster.  Also, there were 11 people killed/missing and this guy wants his life back.

As I write this the boycott BP’s page on Facebook has over 640,000 fans.  In my opinion BP’s marketing/pr campaign after this event has been insensitive and grossly incompetent.

BP might not ever be able to recover.

enjoy your day,

matt (marketmpb)

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Sex sells, or does it?

Good morning, and I hope you are ready for the weekend.

Both males and females are attracted to sex appeal advertising,  because of the powerful instinctive attraction that usually takes us away from anything else that we are doing, and most advertisers know this.

If something is over the top sexually (which I don’t think is necessary, I happen to think that sexuality is a gift from God) but these overtly sexual images tend to get discussion going regarding a product.   However, sometime this can backfire.  There have been instances whereas the sex has been so present, people forget the brand name all together. 

Most importantly, it is never wise to do anything that would unacceptable to the audience you are trying to attract, this can really hurt your brand and the product.

Personally, if you are going to use sex or sexuality in your advertising I would use real people.  These would be real people with pot bellies, imperfections, and just not beautiful people.

As a society, we have become so desensitized to “perfect people” and overtly sexual images or situations that I just don’t think they sell as well.

Did you also know that the most satisfied sexual partners are married couples???  This would be contrary to a lot of advertising you see out there.

matt (marketmpb)

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