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Real Time Advertising

Saturday, May 18, 2013 | Categories: Season 2 |

This week on Under The Influence, we look at Real-Time Advertising.

For over 100 years, most ad campaigns took months to produce. Suddenly, with the emergence of the Internet and social media, advertisers can react in minutes. From answering questions live on YouTube to the immediate messages brands put out during the blackout at this year's Super Bowl to instant marketing during snowstorms and hurricanes, it demonstrates how far advertising has come.

It's no longer a game of inches, it's a game of seconds.

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Nothing In Common:
How Hollywood Portrays Ad People.

Saturday, May 11, 2013 | Categories: Season 2 |

This week, we look at how Hollywood has portrayed advertising over the years.

Most pilots, lawyers and doctors roll their eyes at the way Hollywood depicts them, and ad people are no exception. From the 1947 movie The Hucksters, to the Rock Hudson/Doris Day film Lover Come Back, to Darrin Stephens in Bewitched, to Dudley Moore in Crazy People, to the Tom Hanks movie Nothing In Common, all the way to Mad Men - we'll rate them all. We'll see where they got it right, and where they got it very, very wrong.

It's The Little Things

Saturday, May 4, 2013 | Categories: Season 2 |

This week, it's an encore airing of the episode that looks for companies who go above and beyond the call. Smart companies add thoughtful, little touches that make all the difference. Like hotels that help you fall asleep at night with smart sleep aids, grocery stores that help you read the small type on vitamin bottles, hardware stores that give you maps of their aisles on shopping carts, airports that know you need to charge up between flights, and business cards that are so unique you never forget them. Grab a coffee and join us as we search for companies that go the extra inch.

Brand Envy

Saturday, April 27, 2013 | Categories: Season 2 |

This is my annual look at the brands I envy.

They may not be the hippest, or the latest, or even the coolest brands. They could be a product, a service or even a person - but I envy them for a reason.

Like a famous toy that was discovered when its inventor was installing a light fixture, a television network that leads the Emmy race every year, a knife that can be identified from 30 feet away, and a person who has built an empire by breaking all the rules.

All extraordinary brands, all I envy as a marketer.

Loss Leaders:
How Companies Profit By Losing Money.

Saturday, April 20, 2013 | Categories: Season 2 |

This week on we explore the concept of Loss-Leaders.

Loss-leader are products offered at a loss, in order to lead people to purchase more profitable products. It's a fascinating aspect of marketing. We'll talk about the very first loss-leaders ever used in marketing, and how that learning led to loss-leaders in the printing industry, the book industry, the movie industry and the world of video games. We'll even explain how Corvette Stingrays lead you to buy other vehicles from Chevrolet.

Loss-leaders swirl all around you every day - influencing your buying decisions - but you may not even know it.

Game Shows As Marketing

Saturday, April 13, 2013 | Categories: Season 2 |

This week, we look at Game Shows as Marketing.

They've been around for almost 80 years, and entertain millions. But game shows are also powerful marketing vehicles. We'll trace their history from early radio to their debut on network television, and explore their interesting evolution from quiz shows (and the quiz show scandals) to the modern game show format. We'll also analyze how Let's Make A Deal and The Price is Right work with advertisers to sell thousands of products, and we'll tell a fascinating tale of how one contestant broke down the basic advertising formula of The Price Is Right to win big.

Famous Marketing Blunders

Saturday, April 6, 2013 | Categories: Season 2 |

This week on Under The Influence, we explore Famous Marketing Blunders.

Along with the most famous marketing blunder of all time - the Edsel - we'll look at what caused Coke to make the mistake of changing their fabled formula, how a company actually went out of business by promising a product improvement, how a fashion house tweeted inappropriately and had an immediate PR disaster, and how a fast food company made a big mistake betting on the U.S. Olympic team.

Hyper-Targeting:
How Brands Track You Online.

Saturday, March 30, 2013 | Categories: Season 2 |

Hyper-Targeting is the next frontier in 21st century marketing.

Marketers are gleaning and buying more and more personal information about consumers. That information is then being used to track people online, as marketers watch their buying habits. As a result, advertisers are "hyper-targeting" consumers with ads that are tailor-made for individuals, featuring the products they want, when they want them, at a price based on their spending ability, at the precise moment they are about to make a choice. How do you like your ad - over easy or sunny-side up?

Selling Danger

Saturday, March 23, 2013 | Categories: Season 2 |

In the history of the advertising industry, the full force of persuasion has been put behind many products that turned out to be incredibly unsafe.

Even when those products were used exactly as advertised - they created enormous hazards, physical risk, and in some cases, even death. We'll explore how we invited Asbestos and DDT into our homes as miracle products, how certain games for children ended up posing incredible risks, and how a much-heralded drug ended up being one of the most devastating products in modern history.

In most of those cases, no one could foresee they were selling danger.

Tales of Customer Service

Saturday, March 16, 2013 | Categories: Season 2 |

This week on Under The Influence, we tell Tales of Customer Service.

We're on the hunt for great companies that went out of their way to treat their customers well. We'll look at an amusement park that delivered such superior customer service that other corporations asked for lessons, a shoe company you can order a pizza from and a store that actually accepted a returned product they didn't even sell just to keep their customer happy.

Join us as we search for companies that go the extra inch.

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Nobody's Dead Anymore:
Marketing Deceased Celebrities

Real Time Advertising

Nothing In Common:
How Hollywood Portrays Ad People.

It's The Little Things

Brand Envy

Loss Leaders:
How Companies Profit By Losing Money.

Game Shows As Marketing

Famous Marketing Blunders

Hyper-Targeting:
How Brands Track You Online.

Selling Danger

Tales of Customer Service

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