Burgers Gone Wild

Has anybody noticed how "sexy" (and by sexy I mean trashy) burgers have gotten these days? Carl's Jr. has gone mad (cow) with this strategy, and now we have Audrina Patridge from The Hills eating a Teriyaki Burger in a bikini. Burger King just caught on too...

The Unknown Future of Media Agencies

I watched an interesting "3 Minute Ad Age" video on Tivo about reinventing media by a company called VivaKi, "a global media services network of Publicis Groupe." Tim Hanlon, SVP, discussed that we must re-envision the role of media agencies. Historically an agency has been a useful and necessary component for creating and delivering content. As marketing becomes more organic and grassroots, agencies will have to think about what new and innovative content they can provide. With the craze of social networking sites, marketing and brands can manage this themselves, and directly and intimately engage with their consumers through mediums such as facebook. How do agencies buy social media and does it make sense? It's seems as though a lot of brands have found very creative ways to engage their customers anywhere from creating your own M&M to creating your own commercial (Dove did this nicely). There are plenty of fun and useless iphone applications out there too that could be quite an engaging medium. Perhaps agencies will need more programmers and video game developers for this form of interactive content.

This made me think about the world of market research, and the variety of free tools out there like Google Insights, which pose a threat to the research industry as well.

Nothing is constant, everything is always changing, and we must learn to adapt and move forward, otherwise we will fall behind.

The Ford Flex

Typically I do not enjoy radio commercials as rarely do they stand out as unique or interesting to me. However, a few that always make me laugh are those "Real American Hero" commercials for Budweiser and "The Most Interesting Man in the World" commercials for Dos Equis. A new brand has caught my attention recently... the Ford Flex. I have heard about 3 different commercials that I loved and they weren't even funny. They were just normal people talking about their experiences with the Flex, and they had such passion for it. There is this focus on "trading up," positioning it as a luxury vehicle. It's a little funky looking, perhaps too long. I haven't seen any on the road yet, but here is an image from their website.

Credit Card Safety

My boyfriend has been using my credit card since Friday now and it makes me feel quite unsafe that nobody has asked yet why his parents named him Amanda.

Lays as a Choice Architect

I'm reading a book called Nudge by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein and just realized that I was nudged by Lays to buy their new Southwestern Ranch Baked chips. I went to Subway today and when selecting my chips I was immediately drawn to the ones that were displayed separate from the rest. They were in nice wooden baskets at the front on the line, separate from the rest of the chips that sit on the same shelf all competing for my attention. They caught my eye, and of course I selected them without even blinking; then I thought about it when I got home. God forbid, they're baked and glutin free! Nudge says that "A choice architect has the responsibility for organizing the content in which people make decisions" meaning that they basically try to persuade you to make your decision. Lays knew that placing their chips at the front of the line in nice baskets would work. Nudge also discusses their movement called "libertarian paternalism" which basically gets at the idea that people are free to make their own decisions but that choice architects (those trying to nudge you to make your choice) can try to influence your behavior if it results in making people's lives longer healthier, and better. We all like to think that we are solely responsible of our decisions, but realizing that you can easily be persuaded will help you make more educated choices. As a person who considers myself very aware of marketing, I cannot say that I make all my own decisions as clearly Lays was able to Nudge me to select their brand.