BILLBOARD ADVERTISING IS STILL RELEVANT IN TODAY

Present day billboard advertising roots can be traced to lithography, an invention of the late 1790s. This invention paved way for the possibility to mass produce as many posters and announcements as businesses needed. At that time the quality of the posters could not stand up to the exposure of outdoor elements for prolonged periods of time, which was a major limitation. Technological advancements however has made it to overcome some of these limitations

                             

It is hard to escape a billboard, as it stares in the face most people who spend more time in their Billboard advertising is one of the most cost effective forms of advertising on the market. There are tons of endless design possibilities in billboard advertising as it is continuously employing new technologies. Digital billboard appeals to technologically-driven minds. It also helps advertisers stay on top of current trends and incorporating those into daily messages.

Billboard advertising can help people to find the place to eat, sleep, and get fuel for their cars, the nearest ATM machines. In fact, most billboards are memorable images that help us make our lives more worthwhile. Imagine driving yourself to a place you are not familiar with and suddenly be struck with the urge to eat; or your car conking out on you because the gas tank is empty. Billboards provide do you information when there's no available person to point to.

The following statistics by Forbes reveals shopping decisions while in the car.

72% of billboard viewers frequently or sometimes shop on their way home from work

68% frequently or sometimes make their shopping decisions while in the car

38% make the decision to stop at the store while on their way home

24% say they were motivated to visit a particular store that day because of an outdoor ad message

32% visited the retailer they saw on a billboard later that week

50% reported receiving directional information from a billboard

24% said they have immediately visited a business because of an outdoor ad message

ONLINE VIDEO ADVERTISING 

Video advertising is the fastest growing form of online advertising.It uses both the power of storytelling which is traditionally associated with TV advertising.It’s an effective way to drive leads and generate demands.The visual element plays a crucial role for business, as it gives them the opportunity to reach a wide audience that they might not have reached with traditional marketing and advertising.

Gone are the days when companies had to make strict budgets for an advert for a TV advertising. Today, you can create a very simple concept, quick and cheap to create, and get it up and running online in a matter of hours. If you can create a piece of video content that goes viral, it can have a huge effect on your business.

With the likes of YouTube and Vimeo giving the opportunity to everyone from small businesses, it is no astonishing that video has become the largest area of investment for business marketing.

Online videos have the potential of going viral online. Because videos are easy to pass along to others, often when the viewer of a video sees a product, service or information they like, they will share it with other people they know or other people they feel can benefit from what the video contains.

According to a current a current stats here YouTube gets more than 1 BILLION unique users each month. Nielsen reports that YouTube reaches more US adults 18 to34 years old than ANY cable network. Over 6 billion hours of video are watched each month on YouTube and that number is growing every year.

ARE DRONES THE FUTURE OF AN EFFECIENT DELIVERY SYSTEM OF E-COMMERCE?

The simple thought of using drones 20years ago to deliver packages would have been an insane idea. Today the speed at which technology is evolving in our world is making imaginations and thoughts a reality. More companies are inculcating cutting edge technologies in e-commerce in order to ensure maximum customer satisfaction as they deliver products just in time.

Australia's largest and fastest growing educational platform Zookal provides cheap textbooks to university students including textbook rental, used books and new textbooks for sale. In addition The company moving ahead of Amazon will soon start using drones to deliver text books in Australia. Zookal in partnership with Flirty intends to send parcels for free and claims deliveries can be made in as little as two or three minutes, compared to two or three days for traditional shipping methods. The use unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) commonly known as drone will cut Zookal’s costs from $8.60 Australian dollars to 80 cents per delivery. Real-time GPS tracking of each drone’s location will be available through the Flirty app for smartphones. 

  

Amazon is testing drones to deliver goods. Being the world’s largest e-commerce company, it is working tirelessly to improve efficiency and speed in getting products to consumers. In the next 5 years same day delivery will see a drastic reduction in wait time, it is called Amazon prime air. The e-commerce company intends to use a gadget called Octocopters which serve as delivery vehicles with the ability to carry as much as 5 pounds within a 10-mile radius of an Amazon fulfillment center.  Amazon estimates that the Octocopters will be able to make a delivery within 30 minutes to their prime customers.

What are your thoughts  on this new soon coming package delivery system? What do you think are the advantage and disadvantages.

       

CELEBRITY BRAND ENDORSEMENTS: IS IT REAL VALUE FOR MONEY?

     

A marketer’s brand is its most valuable asset. In order to gain a market share, marketers try to use celebrities or famous people in the enhancement of a particular brand.Celebrity endorsement has been established as one of the most popular tools of advertising in recent time. It has become a trend and perceived as a winning formula for product marketing and brand building. It is a tactic by which a celebrity acts as the brand’s spokesperson and certifies the brand’s claim and position by extending their personality, popularity, stature in the society. In simple terms it is a concept by which marketers pay famous people to a huge sums of money just to use their product conspicuously, with the anticipation that the celebrity’s fans will see it, want it and buy it. Marketers who would rather spend thousands and millions of dollars just to reach out to their audience could be wasting money. 

The evolution of technology has made it extremely possible to be proactive and creative in establishing a genuine connection with a target even more cost effectively. I see celebrity endorsements as a waste of money. The richest.com show cases some of the biggest celebrity endorsement deals. Actor Brad Pitt earned $6.7 million for one ad for Chanel No. 5. Soccer player David Beckham has a lifetime deal with sporting brand Adidas worth over $150 million. In fact, Beckham earns approximately $55,000 per day for his endorsements with companies that include, but aren’t limited to: H&M; Diet Coke, Armani and Samsung. It’s hard to understand why 

marketers spend millions on a method that is neither a source of credible information nor a financially efficient tactic. Recent findings on the effectiveness of celebrity brand endorsements by Ace Metrix indicates that the presence of celebrities in an advertisement in itself does nothing to improve the creative effectiveness of the advertisement. Simply put with or without the celebrities, a good, creative advertisement is has equally or more potential to very effective in promoting a brand. Choosing a celebrity is quite easy but most marketers fail to establish a strong association between the product and the endorser and the impact of celebrity endorsement on consumer's buying behavior as well as how consumer makes brand preferences. In a case where a celebrity endorser sometimes misbehaves, the endorser’s poor behavior can damage the brand’s reputation. This can be very detrimental with all the money invested. Celebrities are often associated with both positive and negative meanings. For example, American consumers typically like Jessica Simpson and consider her sexy, but also ditsy. Similarly, many see Lady Gaga as creative, but also weird.  Are celebrity endorsements giving marketers the real value for their money? 

Under Promise and Overdeliver: Are marketers going the extra mile?

The idea of under promising and over delivering certainly gives a good feeling, regardless of which position you find yourself, either a as customer or a service provider. Can you imagine the delight of a customer when they’re expecting one outcome, but get something pleasant entirely outside of their expectations. Most often, marketers who make ambitious claims and promises, end not living up to them, and customers then become very unsatisfied and irritated.  Failing live up to expectations can make a marketer look very bad, in cases when those expectations are set by the marketer. This makes customers disconnect or detach. In my own experience 2 weeks ago, I ordered a laptop at a particular website and was promised 3 to 7 business days  of  free delivery. It still hasn't been deliver yet. I have promised my self that never again will I buy from them regardless of how good the deal is. I am now a dissatisfied customer.

Under promising and over delivering is marketing technique which can help build loyalty and customer confidence. When a customer makes a purchase it’s always nice to provide a deadline but with a little padding. It is very important to give realistic time frames or deadlines. For instance if you know a delivery will take one week to complete, as much you want to be as accurate as possible, it’s always wise to give a little room for uncertainties. I feel when you under promise and over deliver as a marketer it adds value to your service, because it gives your customers a delightful experience and a pleasant surprise they’re certainly not expecting.

In the quest to under promise and over deliver marketers must keep in mind to never to deliver late or deliver short, strive to deliver when you said you would or earlier if you can, without any exception.  I believe it’s always better to negotiate a longer delivery time in the first place than to have to let a customer down.

My question then is do you know any company that under promises and over deliver? Have experience a pleasant surprise lately? Did it change your perception about the company?