Super Bowl Sunday

Exactly one week from today comes the biggest day of the year for marketers. Super Bowl Sunday. Whether you're watching the game or the commercials, everyone is tuning in.

Super Bowl commercials have been talked about for years and the really great ones continue to live on. So, how do you create that commercial that will be remembered in 10 years? Theres a million ways to go about it. You could make it funny, emotional, logical, celebrity based, or totally outrageous. It's all been done before and they've all come out great. But, what is the one thing they are missing?

Many commercials tend to forget to represent the brand. Marketers get so caught up in making a memorable commercial that they forget to make the commercial memorable for the brand. It's easy to make a funny commercial or pay a celebrity thousands of dollars to say what you want. However, it's not so easy to get your viewers to remember what that commercial was for 20 minutes later. As a marketer, it is our goal to make our brand known.

I wish I could tell you the secret of how to do this, but there is no one way to accomplish brand recognition. It must be done differently by each company. This year, as you sit down to watch the game, notice the commercials. Think back about your favorite commercials at the end of the night. Do you remember what brand they represented?

By: Sydney Smith

Video Production & Marketing

Online video is gradually becoming one of the most effective and efficient ways of marketing and advertising for a business. Video advertisements seen across the internet are similar to the ones that are seen on television, but normally they are shorter. Video advertisements do not simply show exactly what a product is or what a business does, there are also techniques that come into play that attempt to interest people in buying a product or paying for a business’ services. One common advertising technique used in commercials is testimonials, where a celebrity gives their approval of a product or business. The hope in using this technique is that the target audience will respond positively to the advertisement and product due to the celebrities presence, and that the chances of them purchasing the product will increase. This is just one example of the many techniques used in marketing and advertising, techniques that i will need to understand. My major is Media and Information, and I hope to work in video production, which may include filming or editing commercials. To create effective video commercials, correct use of advertising techniques must be implemented.

  

- Proactiv advertisement featuring a testimonial from Adam Levine, lead singer of the band Maroon 5.

After becoming aware of the advertising techniques that are used in commercials, it becomes easy to spot them in every day usage of television, the internet, and more. Learning about this has given me perspective on why specific advertisements are made the way that they are, and why they are or are not effective in marketing a product. Marketing could be considered the art of convincing people to buy things, and this art is perfected through proper advertising. Learning about the advertising techniques that are behind the success of many marketing plans has made the idea of marketing more clear, and the reasoning behind the decisions made in advertising a product make more sense.

- Paul Gielow

A list of some advertising techniques:

http://www.foothilltech.org/rgeib/english/media_literacy/advertising_techniques.htm

Sources:

- "ADVERTISING TECHNIQUES." ADVERTISING TECHNIQUES. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Apr. 2016.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnrampton/2015/04/17/how-video-marketing-is-changing-online/#59dfb435475d

- Harris, Steven. "The Option of Video Production & Its Role in Live Marketing." JackFrancis Media Ltd. N.p., 07 Feb. 2014. Web. 09 Apr. 2016.

http://www.foothilltech.org/rgeib/english/media_literacy/advertising_techniques.htm

http://propagandaproject2013.weebly.com/commercial.html

- Rampton, John. "How Video Marketing Is Changing Online." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 17 Apr. 2015. Web. 09 Apr. 2016.

http://www.jackfrancismedia.co.uk/the-option-of-video-production/

Marketing Switching Screens

            Companies have used marketing and advertising to attract customers to their products for centuries. Of course, as time goes on, different mediums of advertising become very effective as other forms that were once popular fade out. As a marketer, tracking these patterns and studying the most successful ways to market a certain product to the target audience is key to making sales.

Up until the early 2010s, advertising through commercials was one of the most successful ways to get the product into consumers’ homes. Since the introduction of DVR, TiVo, and Netflix, marketing products through commercials is becoming less and less effective. While marketing on television may be making its way to becoming obsolete, marketing on the internet is taking over. Most people aren't watching commercials anymore, almost everyone is on the internet and social media sites.

I can’t remember the last time I scrolled through Twitter without seeing a promoted tweet for a product or checked Facebook without being bombarded with advertisements on the sides of my feed. Before watching a YouTube video you almost always have to watch a 30-second ad first. Also, companies can access what you’ve searched and websites you’ve visited and place advertisements on pages you visit tailored to products you appear to be interested in. I searched Sperry Duck Boots over three months ago and still continue to see advertisements from Sperry on almost every website I visit. I personally find it a little creepy that companies can do this, but many people may find this helpful as it advertises products to them that they may actually be interested in, not just random junk. For marketers this is the perfect way to advertise products that the consumer has shown to be interested instead of trying to guess what the consumer might want to buy.

Whether you’re against advertising taking over your computer and phone screen or not, it’s safe to say effective marketing is definitely moving on to the World Wide Web.

By: Rachel Seyfarth

Prompt #1 Asking Questions and Breaking Assumptions

My preconceptions of the marketing field of business:

• Marketing is constantly changing due to the growth of technology
• Business working hours are 9-5 Monday-Friday
• Business workers are expected to dress professionally at all times
• Marketing gets put on the back burner in many businesses
• You need to invest if you want to grow
• Businesses believe they have enough marketing
• Small businesses don't think marketing is necessary
• Marketing only applies to gaining new customers

Thanks to the "Introduction of Marketing" (Palmer, Adrian. Introduction to Marketing. 3rd ed. N.p.: Oxford University Press, 2012. 1-576. Print.) I was able to learn more about the previous preconceptions I've had of the marketing field. Many of the preconceptions I had actually did turn out to be true. For starters, marketing is constantly changing. Technology grows every day which allows us to expand with it. Think about all the ads you now see on your computer every time you open it. Another truth, is that you need to invest if you want to grow. Marketing is a key to business growth. You need to invest in marketing and the media in order to keep your customer pool growing.

Some of my preconceptions of marketing happened to be false. Many marketing executives work hours extending beyond the typical 9-5 work days. As well, not all jobs require you to be dressed professionally. A lot of retail marketing jobs actually require you to dress based on the product they sell. The absolute worst misconception I had was that marketing only applies to gaining new customers. If a business wants to be successful it is equally important to put in effort to gaining new customers as it is to keep the old customers coming back.

A few preconceptions above are technically true, but that doesn't mean they should be. Marketing is usually the last thing many businesses want to invest in, however, it is the most important. In order to grow you need to gain new costumers, that's where marketing comes in. Businesses also believe that they've done enough marketing simply by putting out a few ads. Wrong. You can never have enough marketing, the more your name is out there, the more people will remember it. Last but definitely not least, small businesses don't think marketing is necessary. As the daughter of a small business owner, I know from experience that if you want that business to succeed you need to help it grow. If you market your business correctly it can grow rapidly.

Marketing may seem small in the huge field of business but it plays an even larger role in its success.

By: Sydney Smith