Chris Miller on Marketing.com

The Marketing of Earthquakes in China (or lack thereof)

While most of us are well aware of the recent earthquakes in Chile and Haiti and the volcanic eruption in Iceland few of us are aware of a recent 6.9 magnitude quake in China.

In a recent spade of natural disasters, the quake last week in the Qinghai province responsible for 2,000 deaths so far has gone relatively unreported; perhaps hindered by a government-controlled media and a lack of access to the region. It took a few days of difficult travel for the media to access the area and assess the damage.

Luckily our friends at Google posted some satellite images to make surveying the devastation a whole lot easier by comparing before and after photos: Take a look »

The Chinese government notorious for censorship and downplaying conflict and disasters in the past has taken a decidedly different approach this time around by quickly sending aid to the region and allowing transparent reporting. Read on »

Google has set up a crisis response page, apparently not blocked by the Chinese government, to aid in relief efforts.

Masters Tournament Makes History with Fairytale Ending

Despite the hype surrounding Tiger Woods, the Masters came to a fairytale ending yesterday as Phil Mickelson took away the top prize.

Predicted to be the most watched Golf event of all time, the most uplifting moment came at the finish as Phil Mickelson gave a big hug to his wife Amy, who has been undergoing cancer treatments. Easily regarded as a moment where karma made its way back around, and a victory for women and decency, Phil put on a stunning performance that wasn't overshadowed by Tiger.

And don't miss SNL's Tiger Wood's Masters Return Skit...

This tournament was the latest in a string of big wins for CBS as this year's super bowl was the most watched TV show ever and last week's NCAA Duke-Butler title game viewership was up 31%. If you recall, NBC also enjoyed much success this year with it's Olympic coverage so when it comes to sports and advertising there is no question these are well spent dollars. Read article »

iPad makes TV advertising debut worthy of an Oscar?

Apple's iPad made its television advertising debut last night during the Oscars. Amid Apple's recognition as one of the world's most innovative companies by every major tech and business publication that creates such a list (FastCompany ranked Apple #3 behind only Facebook and Amazon), all eyes are on the popular juggernaut to once again turn computing as we know it on its head.

This product is perhaps the most anticipated technology release of all time, similar prior successes including the iMac, iPod, and iPhone were met with more skepticism as Apple entered well-established markets. But the iPad is arguably something very new and very different as it attempts to take modern computing mobile like never before.

Learn more and watch the new ad here.

   

"Tiger Woods" and Chris Miller Demonstrate the Importance of a Strong Headline

I won't need to check my Google traffic reports to know that this will be my most clicked and read blog post to date. This post is about the importance of carefully crafting attention getting headlines, titles, and subjects to break through marketing clutter and get the attention you deserve.

By including a hot phrase like "Tiger Woods" in my headline, I was able to stop you in your tracks and have you take action toward reading my blog.

Let's take this opportunity to go over the three goals for creating a wildly-successful headline, does it:

1. Get the reader's attention
2. Describe and attach value to the information that follows
3. Elicit a response from your intended audience

Without a strong headline this post may have gone unread. Always remember and reference the above goals when structuring your communications, even when it comes to leaving phone messages with prospective employers or introducing yourself to your next soulmate.

Unfortunately the general media also knows these tricks and that's how they keep you coming back for more. Most recently they enabled Tiger Woods to nearly eclipse an entire day of golf and the Olympics following his press conference on Friday. People are mesmerized by celebrity and armed with that knowledge even a small-time blogger like myself can leverage Tiger's name to get attention. Luckily I'm trying to educate not sell newspapers.

Olympic Advertising Goes for the Gold!

Not since the record interest brought by the Nancy Kerrigan/Tonya Harding scandal of 1994 have the Winter Olympics seen so much success in viewers and advertising.

With the bad economy keeping families at home, the deathly luge accident, and the devilishly hard downhill ski course (with all eyes on Lindsey Vonn) contributing to a 25% rise in viewership (as compared to Torino '06), the advertisers are getting their money's worth.

Amazingly, for ads that ran during the opening ceremonies, brand recall levels were 40% higher than the prime-time average (read more). Brand recall is the relative consumer awareness of a brand within its product class. For instance, if I say "electronics" and you say "Best Buy," we'd say that Best Buy has strong brand recall.

Furthermore, with a 70% boost in message recall, it's clear that consumers are not only remembering the brands, they are remembering what the brands are saying. This proves that, like the Superbowl, the Olympics are a tremendous platform for TV advertising.

Despite the excitement, NBC is projected to lose $200 million during this year's Olympics, but hopefully an unforeseen boost in its own branding and longer-term viewership will help to revitalize the struggling network. ...And I'm sure the NBC execs are banking on this side effect as well, along with bringing back Jay as the late-night King of course (RIP Conan...see you on Fox in September we hope!).

Marketing the Presidency, One E-mail at a Time

In an "unpresidented" move (pardon the pun), the first president to use e-mail while in office, let alone a Blackberry, Barack Obama has been forwarding copies of "highly-confidential" e-mails to The Guardian for over a year now. Read them here.

I believe few would disagree that this is little more than an ongoing marketing campaign toward increasing the perception of transparency of government and the White House, a stigma that plagued the last administration.

Last week's topics included a thoughtful e-mail to his daughter regarding how Bill and Hillary will likely spend Valentines Day apart, how different terminology makes a difference in public opinion polling on the "don't ask, don't tell" policy, and a humorous jab at John McCain and the GOP's disbelief of global warming. My biggest takeaway was a question: Did someone in the White House really throw a snowball at John McCain (from the East Wing of course), hilarious!

On a serious note, I sincerely hope nothing highly-confidential (e.g. matters of national security and internal discussions on public policy) is being sent by our president via plain-text e-mail/Blackberry, and certainly not to a British newspaper ahead of one published in the States.

As a marketing lesson, what better way to create transparency and outreach than through opening up lines of less-formal communication, especially ones with such positive undertones as these? Maybe this is part of the reason that I, along with many other leaders and CEOs, have started their own blogs.

Brachydactyly: The top Superbowl-related search term?

Brachydactyly was the top Superbowl-related search term on Monday, according to Google Trends it was given "volcanic" status and came in at #6 overall.

For those that dispute the marketing and advertising power of a Superbowl ad, one must only look at this keyword to uncover the truth. But why did this particular term rise to the top?

Of course the answer lies in the age-old adage that "sex sells!" ...During Motorola's now famous commercial featuring Megan Fox in a bath tub, most American's never would have cared, guessed, or noticed that a "thumb double" was used in place of Megan's actual thumb as she typed away on her phone. Apparently Megan suffers from Brachydactyly (a condition resulting in short fingers and wide nails) and once the celebrity bloggers got a hold of this tidbit "brachydactyly" became the new "wardrobe malfunction" for Superbowl 2010. For the record, Motorla also airbrushed away the Marilyn Monroe tattoo Megan has on her right arm.

My question now is whether or not this extra publicity is better or worse for Motorola's brand? My opinion... there's no such thing as "bad publicity" of course.

Advertising nuclear power's ability to create jobs: A lesson in piggybacking your marketing message

The nuclear industry, building upon and following a shout-out by Barack Obama during his State of the Union Address last week, has announced a new advertising campaign emphasizing the promise of new job creation.

As the economy shows little signs of a fast recovery and as the east coast is hit by some of the coldest temperatures since the 70's, intuitively (albeit wrongly), concerns about global warming and environmental pollution will no doubt take a backseat this year as policymakers in Washington make decisions about America's future sources of energy. Currently ~19% of our energy comes from nuclear power but I wouldn't be surprised if we see that number increase to ~30% or more in the next couple decades.

Without speaking to the environmental impact of these decisions, the marketing lesson to be learned is in the extreme power of piggybacking your own agenda on top of current events to sidestep resistance that might have been present just 18 months ago or even a couple months ago ahead of Copenhagen's conference on global warming. Suddenly job creation is paramount and certainly the world can wait another couple years before we address global warming, after all look how cold it is outside.

Furthermore, the campaign is being specifically targeted toward policymakers so most of us in the U.S. will never see a single advertisement toward which we might revolt, tweet about, post to Facebook, or otherwise voice our agreement or dismay. Another smart marketing lesson: know your audience, target them precisely, and avoid the naysayers.