In an effort to push their DC ENTERTAINMENT brand of comics, movies, video games, and more, DC has ditched their age-old logo for a new one.

Brilliant reasoning aside, is this really what was approved in the end? You remember the Gap Debacle right? Is DC making the same mistake? Do you like what they’ve come up with? Yes, or no, comment below as we’d love to hear your thoughts!

Editor’s Note: Flora Nicholas is the Chief Executive Officer of Brainwave, Inc., and the author of many great posts on the Mad Woman Blog. The following post is from her blog and is reposted with permission.

Last week, the unemployment rate in America, went up by at least one, as Anthony Weiner finally did the decent thing — in my humble opinion any way — and resigned as a member of the US House of Representatives. Yes folks, Anthony Weiner is leaving the house to get his own house in order. Awesome!!

As Anthony will be considering his career options sometime soon, I would like to give him a few, helpful suggestions in my capacity of business and image adviser extraordinaire. So dear Anthony, put that blackberry down and listen up because here I go.

First of all, you should hang out your shingle – but absolutely nothing else whatsoever — and try to become a social media marketing consultant. As you probably know, this is a rapidly growing field and you do seem to have a natural talent for it.

You have already proven to the entire country that you know how to use Twitter and Facebook to devastating effect. And you could feasibly claim that with just one tweet you ensnared coverage of your credentials and positions on all the broadcast networks, every cable station known to man, and thousands of web sites all over the Internet.

So trust me, it wouldn’t take much to convince your former democratic colleagues that you would be an invaluable asset — as opposed to an ass-et —in the 2012 election campaign.
Given everything that you’ve recently learned about PR crises and how to manage them (after you mismanaged them), I also believe that you could pursue a very lucrative career in crisis communications consulting — of the political kind, of course. Your list of potential clients would be enormous and you could demonstrate your ability to work across party lines by counseling errant republicans and democrats alike.
Indeed, I am sure that Arnold Schwarzenegger, John Edwards, Chris Lee, and John Ensign would readily sign up as clients. You could charge them a fortune and advise them of the three most crucial things to do when the maid, videographer, picture, staffer or tweet hits the fan. (And as you know, those “things”, in no particular order are: 1. Fess up immediately, 2. Fess up immediately and 3. Fess up immediately.)
As you now have unbelievable name recognition, you could, if you prefer, seek a lucrative career as a spokesman for some of the most famous companies in the country. And although I don’t want to be one of those people who make fun of your name, really I don’t, you would be a natural spokesman for Oscar Mayer’s Wieners, Cockburn’s Port, Cox Communications, and yep, even Dick’s Sporting Goods. (Sorry, Anthony, I couldn’t resist, but you get the drift. There’s money to be made from the right brand endorsements, baby!)

Now, given your pre-scandal ease in front of the cameras, you should also absolutely consider a career in television. Consider this: CNN hired Elliot Spitzer even after he admitted using the services of call girls while he was attorney general and later governor of New York. So I’m sure that CNN, at the very least, and possibly NBC, ABC, and CBS would be very interested in you.
In fact, to be honest, I can easily see you being the host of a number of great current affairs shows — including Anthony Weiner 180, Hard Face the Nation, Dateline with Anthony Weiner, or even This Week With a Guy Who Needs a Job When Christiane Amanpour Has a Day Off.

And before I forget, please, please, please don’t rule out an acting career either. In the last three weeks, you have after all demonstrated the ability to deliver the most fictional lines — “I did not send that tweet”, “My system was hacked”, and “I was pranked” — without batting an eyelid. So if a casting call goes out for HBO’s “ In Treatment” series” throw your hat (or should that be your underpants) into the ring and keep your fingers crossed that they need an actor to play the role of a sexty — I said “sexty” not “sexy” — politician.

But when all is said and done, the best career advice I can give you dear Anthony, is to
keep a low profile for the next few years and run for Republican David Vitter’s Senate seat in Louisiana in 2016. As you know, in 2007 Senator David Vitter confessed, with his poor wife standing alongside him, that he had used the services of a prostitution ring on several occasions back in the late 1990s. Not only did Vitter survive the scandal, but he was actually re-elected— yep re-elected!!— to the Senate in 2010 by his constituents.

So Anthony, as you consider your future career options, please take note: No matter how much of an ass you are, there is always room in politics for a weiner.

“Our role is not to be controversial or even edgy. We want to be noticed — and there’s a difference,” Jeff Leslie, vice president of sales and marketing at Hacienda, told the South Bend Tribune in an interview. “We have a responsibility to (advertise) with care, and that’s why we’re pulling this ad. We made a mistake and don’t want to have a negative image in the community.”

Responsibility to advertise starts with concept approval, Mr. Leslie. There are many more ways to capture your target market’s attention than by creating, implementing and placing ads that refer to the 1978 Jonestown cult massacre in which more than 900 people died. First Kenneth Cole, then Groupon and now Hacienda? Marketing departments at these companies are really dropping the ball.

There are many ways to perform a market test to make sure your ideas help sell your product or service. Here are two you may be able to use if you don’t already have a testing process in place.

1) Place a few TV ads in a small region-

Choose the area and shows or events specifically to match your target demographic. Don’t put ads up in areas and times that your target market cares nothing about. For instance, it’s probably not a good idea to play commercials for a surfboard in Kentucky during Days of Our Lives. This would be a waste of your money because your commercial’s call to action will fall flat on the viewers.

This test works best with direct response but can also work well if you have a strong call to action.

Once the ads have been placed keep track of everything!

For the duration of the test (two weeks, one month) monitor the amount of orders, and the type of people that are calling (income, age, sex etc).

2) Do a field test for your product and commercial-

Good ads don’t save bad products. Before you throw away your money on advertising make sure people see your product as something they would be willing to buy. This is going to take some legwork (if you work for a large company it’s time to grab the interns!). You’ll have to ask everyone possible and a good place to get started is at a trade show.

Sometimes you can set up a test online by use of a blog or even set up a center right in front of your store (or one of your store locations) or even at a busy park on a weekend. All you have to do is ask people walking by to be part of your study. If you have trouble finding test subjects bribe them with candy or prizes (just try not to be creepy).

Test sites are especially good for testing the commercial itself. Play the commercial for the subjects (this is as easy as bringing your laptop, tablet or iPad… or can even be done online with a podcast and virtual questionnaire or poll). Once your volunteers have watched the commercial you ask them a series of questions: Does that product seem like something you can use? Were you entertained by that commercial? Did the commercial make you want to sign up/find out more/run and buy it…?

Make sure you write down everything from the subject’s responses to their ages and income levels. It’s a good idea to develop a questionnaire to give them at the beginning as well. That way you can compare their thoughts before and after seeing your advertising materials.

Once analyzed you will notice certain things you already knew and other things that you had no idea about. Once you’ve figured out what people want you can implement changes and watch your business grow by leaps and bounds.

I hope that was helpful,

Happy marketing!

Nike in Back to the Future 2

When working on print ads in Copywriting 101 the instructor always urged us (the students) to get the readers to believe that the ad is just another article in the magazine. That way, she would assure us, the reader will see and read the ad without skipping a beat.

In television, movies and music videos there is a way to do the same exact thing. It’s called product placement.

Benefits and drawbacks to product placement

We have all seen product placement in one form or another; whether we were aware of it or not.

During a normal commercial many people change the channel or tune out the message. But with product placement you are exposed to thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of people who are paying close attention. It’s great for getting your name out to a massive audience quickly and uninterrupted.

Another benefit? Well, if people are already watching the show there is a certain amount of trust they give to the characters and personas they watch. This adds a certain amount of clout to your product similar to the way an endorsement might with certain demographics.

The downside to product placement is the lack of a call to action if the movie, show or video is not scripted to show off the benefits of your product. Also depending on the placement it can get pricey.

So please; if you choose to pay for product placement, make sure you have control over how your product is presented. You don’t want to turn off your perfect customer by botched product placement. An example you say? Here are two, both from Days of Our Lives. Be warned, you will cringe.

Days of Our Lives product placement horror #1:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Days of Our Lives product placement horror #2:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Placing your product

When talking about pricing you should always keep in mind the cost of placing an ad in different mediums and the recurring costs. With product placement it’s a one time deal. And it usually gets played longer or more often than a commercial.

Most of the time the process of product placement starts with you calling the producer of a show movie or music video; but now that Assurance Advertising has teamed up with AZ Film Studios, in Hollywood, California, you can get your products out in front of giant audiences easily by using our noteworthy and talented artists’ music videos and films. If your product needs to be placed in a movie that we aren’t involved in don’t worry, we can still handle the legwork of contacting producers for you.

So if you want to get your product out in front of hundreds of thousands in a way you know people will see it, contact us for a quote and list of up coming

It was late June and the streets were buzzing with excitement about the new iPhone 4.

Two of the guys at work were flipping out and blabbing like chatty Kathy’s about the cool features they had on their new phones and how long the line was to get one.

About twenty minutes went by when I began noticing that folks online were already complaining. Among the top of these complaints was a reception issue which was later found to be due to a faulty antenna.

The complaints continued to pour in and Apple just sat defensively silent.

Since then the Apple corporation has done very little to calm the worries of their patrons.

They have even managed to scare off potential clients. What we’re now witnessing is a PR nightmare.

Had they managed their response better they could have avoided their falling stock prices and collapsing client base.

However I do believe they’ll be ok in the long run for two reasons: They still make good products, and people can be forgiving if you make it up to them (especially when it comes to technology). And per Apple’s most recent press conference (see the video below) they hope to have “made it up” to their customers.

Apple forgot that the cardinal rule when dealing with a mob of angry customers is; SHOW THEM YOU CARE.

Instead of avoiding responsibility and trying to keep things quiet, Apple should have stopped everything right away, recalled the units and made a loud and heart felt public apology.

People want to feel as though they are dealing with companies that care. When you deny something or try to keep things quiet people feel betrayed. Making a bad product once can get you in trouble, but betraying people will make them hate and fear you.

Unfortunately I think this is a lesson Apple is learning the hard way….

But tell us what you think.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Advertising Mistake #1- No Call to Action

It’s been proven time and time again that if you don’t ask people to buy what you’re offering, chances are they‘ll go to someone who does. But we must look deeper than that.

Does your call to action truly evoke desire in the mind of your target audience? Is there urgency? How honest is it?

It may not be possible to have all of these elements in every ad but the closer you get the stronger the ad will be.

Advertising Mistake #2- The Use of Superlatives

Believability and honesty are the two things people expect from companies they buy from. The use of superlatives distracts them from your main selling points and brings up a debate in the mind of your target consumer.

Words like: best, greatest, perfect, etc. make the human mind go around and around trying to decide whether or not the claim being made is true.

In most cases superlatives make statements un-provable and cause the target audience to distrust the company who made the statement.

Remember, honesty is your friend and if you can find a creative and honest way to make your product shine your target consumer will not only applaud your honesty but they’ll buy from you before they do with anyone else.

Advertising Mistake #3- Over-complicated Promotions

When you come up with a promotional motivator make sure it is easy to understand and extremely creative. “Buy one, get one free,” has become cliché but the concept is still nice and simple.

When people don’t understand a promotion it can actually scare them out of participating.

Advertising Mistake #4- Failure to Make a Logical Connection with the Target Audience.

This one is obvious but frequently overlooked. If you aren’t making it clear why your product is beneficial no one will want to buy it. No matter how creative your advertising is unless, of course, you are already a brand people are familiar with.

Let your audience know why your product is superior or necessary by connecting it to something in their day to day lives, or to a feeling they would cherish.

If creativity isn’t your strong suit, find people who can help. It can mean the difference between ads that get lost in the shuffle and ads that work.

Advertising Mistake #5- Failure to Make an Emotional Connection with the Target Audience.

People only spend time on things that they can connect with. If you can make an honest emotional connection with your target client they’ll not only take the time watch the ad but they’ll also buy the product.

Simple features and benefits are not enough to connect with the audience you’re selling to. You must evoke a feeling that makes your consumer connect with the advertisement.

Be as shocking or inspiring as you want but don’t forget to maintain honesty. Both your product and your target market must live up to the ideas in the ad.

Finding the right concept, the right words and so on, takes imagination and a willingness to go through a million ideas that don’t work to find the one that does. Its hard work but the results are worth their weight in sales.

If you can’t do it yourself find, people who can. You won’t regret it.

The human mind, especially in the fast paced 21st century, isn’t stimulated by anything short of amazing.

If you fail to stimulate the mind, you may as well be invisible.

Click on the image of the silly ad to see the full blog post at Ask a Copywriter blog!

Should I Advertise in a Recession?

(A time to gain market share!)

*PART ONE*

Did you know that you could set your business up to gain market share when the economy is bad?

All you have to do is focus your marketing efforts to gain the clients your competitors are no longer fighting for. The key here is to get really good at understanding your competitors and your target markets.

First, let’s talk about understanding your competitors. You need to know their names, locations, websites (not just how to get to it but actually what it looks like and what sort of content is on it). Find out what their current sales promotions are so you can make sure you are playing in the same ball park. But most importantly, how are they (or aren’t they) reaching their target audience.

Second, look at your own target market. Think of this more like looking at one or two specific people that would be the perfect customer (or the new type of customer you’re trying to gain). What makes them view one company as a superior choice to another? What types of media do they have exposure to? For example, if they regularly ride the bus to work or drive certain freeways the understanding of these facts can let you know how to take advantage of all sorts of media that will get your message to a very specific group of people that aren’t being reached currently. Is there a promotion that those customers will feel the benefits of more than another? What level of service do they expect? How do they actually get your product or service? Study these things, and write them down. Analyze the information and then your campaigns will be more effective in making you more money, even in a so-called recession!

Digest that information and start employing some of those practices into your daily routine and tune in next time to read about more you can do to gain that competitive edge!

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The first one is a myspace ad with typos and a free or stolen image that was used which still had the original owner’s watermark! Horrible!

This next one is a McDonalds billboard that reads “My Ass” opens at 6am!!

Regarding the banner ad for myspace above: The way the copy is written you get the jist of their message, but it is confusing to read. Even the bullet points are somewhat vague and fail to create value or have a call to action. The headline is ok and it makes you want to read on, but there is no follow through. Why should anyone care to read the ad? Compare that ad’s copy to the way one of our copy writers would have done it:

Headline:
You Won’t Pay Too Much for Health Insurance Again.

Body:
At Premium Insurance Quotes we are serious about saving you money.
We compare the qualified brokers in your area and find the best brokers with the best deals.
People just like you are saving up to 47% on their insurance bills everyday.
It’s easy to stop paying over-priced premiums!

Base line:
Just call or click here now to get more information and a free quote!

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