A special form of advertising in the USA, perhaps not for GB
I saw this picture on the church of customer blog - this is well worth subscribing too, a great read.
I’m not sure whether this would work in the UK, possibly for the fuel card, but not for guns. What were they thinking? Imagine if some company started giving out free knives? Shocking, especially with the escalating knife crime in the UK 
Advertising needs to find a happy balance. People must always ask a few questions:
- What do you want people to do when they see your advert?
- Does the advert have continuity? (Does it match your other communication channels?)
- Is there some form of measurement? (So you can track ROI – hard to do with traditional media)
- Is the advert memorable? (But for the right reasons and not just for shock value)
- Can you afford to advertise? And sometimes, can you afford not to in some circumstances when your customers expect to see your brand)
Whatever you do, don’t get suckered by people hawking unnecessary advertising, cheap deals, last minute placements. Make sure you think first, plan and then book.
Clintstone vs Barry
The race between Mrs Clinton and Mr Obama to gain the Democrat nomination has been a tough, hard battle, and after Barack Obama yesterday declared victory, we should see Hillary admitting defeat later today.
The NY Times has just gone live with this excellent flash-based page showing the breakdown of the voting, buy sex, age group, income, and of course, race.
I’ve taken a quick peak at the candidates websites, and it is very interesting to see what they are doing. Firstly Hillary Clinton:
Straight away she is getting people to give her their details before going to the main site. Obama on the other hand, is doing something slightly different:
He is already saying he has the nomination (true) and is also getting people to donate funds. Both sites are getting straight to the point with VERY strong calls to action prior to arriving at the main site. Many blogs have been reporting over the past few months that Barack Obama has really embraced the online channel in terms of communication and PR. It seems to have paid off.
