Chris Miller on Marketing.com

What Happens in Vegas... Gets Recorded and Analyzed at Aria

Despite the Big Brother side effect of meshing a tremendous amount of technology with a brand-new, ultra-secure Vegas casino, my next trip to Vegas will certainly include a stay at the Aria hotel; currently touted as the most sophisticated and high-tech hotel ever built.

For starters, the rooms remember your preferences upon check-in: When you step into your room your preferred temperature setting, lighting mood, and music selection are set automatically complete with a drawing of the curtains to reveal your view of the strip below. Couple that with geo-cell phone tracking and text messages with special offers, if you happen to be standing next to the buffet or craps tables you frequent, and you have a marketing powerhouse.

Real-time analysis and response to consumer behavior represents the next era in marketing automation. Some of us might recall the eyeball-recognition technology from the movie Minority Report, only this opt-in system might be something consumers enjoy as it pairs your historical wants and preferences with relevant products.

Even the touch-screen games/slots on the casino floor can be changed on-the-fly based on current usage patterns on the property, everyone in the casino can literally be pulling slots or playing video poker if that's what they demand. C'est la vie to waiting for that next blackjack seat to open, I'll see you in Vegas. Learn more »

Create Your Own Google Commercial with Google Search Stories

During the Super Bowl you may remember seeing Google's now famed Parisian Love commercial showcasing its search technology in a way that all of us can understand and appreciate. 

Now, watch my commercial as I plan my next inexpensive tropical vacation.

Well, I didn't do this all by myself as Google gives you the power to create your own Google Search Story with a nifty online tool: Try it for yourself »

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.

   

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.