The thin line of synergy

Fox and Rupert Murdoch's NewsCorp has become an expert at synergistic marketing. Why? They are genius at implanting cross promotional opportunities. They are one of the "Media Giant Oligopolies" who maintain control over the media.

What does this mean for you? When you turn on one or more the following television stations there is a high degree of chance that you will see a promotion for a program on one of the other stations. This allows for low cost promotion of their programming, while filling their adverstising space.

Something that I have been noticiing is that there is more and more product placement on numerous paid cable television channels. The first example comes from Cablevision's AMC. Their slogan is "Stories Matter." However, they have been increasingly blurring the line between their programming and their commercial advertisements. They have had a number of ads for Contacts.com that mirror the program "Mad Men." This show details the lives of powerful advertising executives when advertising was born. It makes the viewer question as to whether or not AMC is trying to reinvent the way that advertisers gear their commercials.

The second example, is HBO's Entourage that follows the "superstar" Vinnie Chase and his posse's lives around. In the most recent season, Turtle gets a gig for promoting Avion tequilla and he gets his superstar friend to tweet about it, and also give it a soft endorsement. In this plot arc, the owner of the company is afraid that he will lose his company to Mark Cuban a wealthy business man. After the episodes aired, it came out that the creator of the show had this company written into the storyline to help out a friend's company. The company did not pay a dime for the promotion, and the story. Benevolence? You decide.

As a marketer, I appreciate the new and innovative ways that people are utilizing television programming to promote products and services. However, as a consumer, I am mildly irriated that I can't escape the messages, even when I want to shut down my brain. If I shut down my brain, I may just fall victim to the product placement....

Downsizing and Decluttering!

Each move that I make I seem to accumulate more and more stuff. But does it all have a purpose or a meaning? Some days I truly wonder. This move marks the 14th in the last nine years. No, you did not read that incorrectly. Over the years, I have lived in any number of combinations of roommates (1, 2, 3, 5). I have to say that I am very excited about the prospect of sharing space with my new roommate.

A few months ago, I lost my beloved dog Spike. Now that he's not around I find myself with a lot of down time and I notice how very empty the house is. Having someone or something to come home to definitely is a good thing and it's a new exciting change that I welcome into my life.

It is only a matter of time before I will have another animal in my home, but I am still going through the greiving process. It's proving more difficult than I ever imagined. With my new gig, I have become a SmartBrief reader. It might be something to check out if you are in the Association space. I find I get a lot of these communications, but I tuck them into a folder and read them when I have spare moments.

My client list at work is growing and so is the requests for additional marketing support from yours truly. I find learning InDesign and other programs to be a challenge that I am up for.

Because I will probably not blog tomorrow, a special and warm thanks to those who have and do continue to serve our country. I thank you for fighting for our freedom each and everyday!

The power of the Mommy Bloggers

During my morning routine of job searching and hanging out around the house, I was watching the Today Show when they did a segment on Mommy Bloggers. These bloggers will review products and offer tips to other Mom's.

Tori Spelling was co-hosting the final hour with Kathie Lee Gifford and she said that she felt that the books that she had read were outdated. The blogs that the Mom's run offer a support system and virtual network for Moms with questions or concerns. Tori went even further to say that she trusts these women's opinions and suggestions because they are Mom's and have done the same. The power of these Mommy bloggers is probably huge. Everyone in marketing knows that referrals are the cheapest and most effective way to continue to grow your business. I think about all my friends who ask for my dentist, who I love. I always give out her name and number and a good number of them go to her. My ENT I found through a bunch of co workers.

At one of my former employer's Sunrise Senior Living we were trying to push our communities that we helped market to use the "Friends & Family" referral program because of the low cost-per-lead. We put together a program where we'd give the resident or their family member $500 for every person they referred to Sunrise that moved into a community. The success of this was hard to measure because the communities used to code the referral source to Site & Signage. They are now not running any print media for the core business. I wonder how well the "Site & Signage" is treating them now?

The importance of networking...

Today I got a Facebook message from an old co-worker to phone her sometime today because she could really use my marketing and sales skills. I have never actually worked in sales but I was up for the conversation. When we worked together she had conceived this idea to open a cooking school and was working hard on her business plan. In January, Cookology opened its doors.

It's been up and running successfully and even got some good media coverage within the first few weeks of its open. So she's looking to expand her business some and needs someone to help generate leads and close deals for team building activities. I have always wanted to get into sales and I told her I was totally up for it. It's commission based and so it doesn't pay until I close a deal so the higher the team building event, the better the pay.

Tomorrow I am going to go in and learn more about the store, and start training to be a kid's instructor. While I don't have elementary education experience, I do have swim lesson, and teaching assistant experience. I also feel good about it because I don't have to worry about what will happen when I get a permanent position. It could turn out to be something really lucrative, and I am excited about the prospects. If you know of anyone who is need of a creative, delicious, cost effective team building event. Please contact me and we'll talk numbers.