Filed under: Minnesota Marketing | Tags: Grose, Lawyer TV commerical, Minnesota law firm, Minnesota Marketing, Sieben, Von Holtum & Carey
Typical lawyer commercial formula options:
Option 1:
One or more of firms partners sit on edge of conference table and stare slightly off camera and read from a cue card that they are ready to fight for your rights, that they get tons of $ for their clients, and that “you don’t pay unless we get win $ for you.” Most of the time, it looks like the guy has to poop.
Option 2:
The Testimonial: victims of car crash victims, injured workers, and various felons sit with their backs to the camera or in the dark and explain how XYZ law firm got them out of their jam. Most of them look like someone we went to high school with.
But today, is a brighter day in local law firm advertising. Sieben, Grose, Von Holtum & Carey have departed, at least temporarily, from the norm of bad lawyer TV commercials and set the bar higher. Nice use of video and animation. Lets see if they keep it up. You can view them here.
Filed under: Minnesota Marketing | Tags: allianz, great river energy, land o lakes, minnesota business, Minnesota Marketing, sponsorships, Sports Marketing, Twins Ballpark Naming Rights, Twins baseball
Lots of speculation has been circulating about what the new Minnesota Twins ballpark set to open in 2010 will be called. New stadiums provide a great branding opportunity for corporations looking to tie themselves in to the fabric of a city and their passion for sports. The new Twins ballpark will have a corporate name attached to it, but who should it be? A Twin Cities blogger apparently uncovered the urls landolakespark.com and landolakesfield.com are owned by the Twins, Fox 9 News reported. Others said to be in the running include Allianz and Great River Energy. What Minnesota companies would you like to see?
Filed under: Minnesota Marketing, Remarkable Blogs and Sites | Tags: Chocolate Rain, Minnesota Music, Tay Zonday, YouTube Video Awards
A 25-year-old University of Minnesota grad Adam Bahner, better known as “Tay Zonday” climbed the YouTube charts in 2007 and is now being acknowledged for it. Zonday is one of 12 winners of the second annual YouTube Video Awards, recognizing the top user-created videos of 2007. His song and music video “Chocolate Rain” has been viewed over 15 million times. Zonday recorded the video in his Minneapolis living room in a make-shift studio space made of two-by-fours and bed sheets.
Filed under: Minnesota Marketing | Tags: Band band names, Bands that suck, Minneapolis Music, Minnesota Music, MN Music, music marketing, Naming your band, Tim Mahoney, Worst Band Names of 2007
If your band’s best gig in the past year was at 11:45 p.m. on a Wednesday at O’Gara’s Garage and you really think that your cover of “Jessie’s Girl” sounds “just like the original,” then you already know you are a no talent ass clown and should just unplug everything.
Being in a band is tough. Marketing a band is even harder (at least it was before YouTube and MySpace). But most bands don’t consider the ramifications of their name. A bad name will sink a band. Would you ask your friends to go see The Asbestos Tampons? Do you want your girlfriend to say she’s dating the lead singer of SuperHeavyGoatAss?
Here are some basic rules for creating a band name:
1.) Don’t put the word “Funk” anywhere in the name. You aren’t “funky” despite what that 44-year-old cougar drunk dancing in front of your monitor says.
2.) Don’t use your real name unless you are freakishly good (i.e. Hendrix, Dylan, etc.). We already know you have lead singer disease; we don’t need to know what it’s called. It’s probably not a cool name anyway (ahem… Tim Mahoney). Try modesty. People like that.
3.) Don’t put a number in your band name unless you think 3 Doors Down rocks. It worked for 311, Matchbox 20, 3rd Eye Blind, etc. but they are the exception. Numbers are retarded. Don’t do it.
4.) Don’t try to be clever and do a play on words. Examples of this unoriginal douschebaggery include, Statutory Grape, Chevy Metal, and Clusterfunk (they get a double word score on ass Scrabble).
So you get the idea. A list of the worst real band names of all time was published by the Onion A.V. Club. Check it out.
Share with us some bad Minnesota band names. Got a rule for naming a band? Let’s hear that too.
Filed under: Minnesota Marketing, National Marketing & Advertising | Tags: back-to-college, back-to-school, brand ambassadors, Buzz Marketing, college marekting, Facebook, Facebook Advertising, Rounders, student marketing, Target, WOM marketing
Ok, so Target has been called out by angry customers and bloggers for having a Facebook page that encourages its group members (called Rounders) to post good things about Target and Target products but to make their affiliation with the Facebook group a “secret.” The Minneapolis StarTribune has reported on how this was done. Basically, college students are given some free swag to say good things about Target online. It’s called a brand ambassador program, and they are almost always bullshit. The problem with them is this: It’s fake and manufactured buzz. The first problem is relying on students to actually do what you say. Good luck with that. The second issue is that students will destroy your brand if you are not being honest and genuine with them. Real, genuine buzz or word-of-mouth will come on its own by being true to your brand, true to your customers, and actually doing something innovative that will move the needle. Paying people with free stuff to say good things about you isn’t genuine or good for your brand image. It’s just plain lazy. Kinda like buying ads on Facebook when you need to come up with a real back-to-school strategy. Facebook ads are what a brand does when it has no original ideas and is simply following the masses because “that’s where the students are”. Target doesn’t need to do this and can stand on its own with college students. That’s what’s sad here. The upside is that when Target realizes that brand ambassador programs are typically crap and that Facebook advertising is a colossal waste of a college marketing budget, they will move on, and people will forget they ever tried.
Filed under: Minnesota Marketing, National Marketing & Advertising | Tags: Best Buy, Box of Tiles, Poor Customer Service, Retail news, Western Digital
Big box electronic retailer Best Buy needs a smack upside the head and possibly more. The Consumerist reported this story (click link for full story and addtl images) in detail this week shedding light on this poor guy’s misfortune while trying to buy a Western Digital hard drive. What happened? He brought it home only to find it was really a box full of tile. Best Buy’s remedy to the situation? Send him home without a refund. Ouch! Western Digital or Best Buy better step to the plate and make this right or Christmas sales are gonna take a hit. I’ve heard of this happening before. Anyone else experience something like this?
Filed under: Minnesota Marketing | Tags: 2nd Wind Exercise Equipment, Bathroom advertising, Dick Enrico, Marketing and Advertising, Minnesota Marketing, Minnesota State Fair
Through blood, lots of sweat apparently (see picture), and tears, Dick Enrico has punished the competition in the world of fitness gear. He’s used a strategy not so different from other brands in the past: being in front of everyone and creating a memorable company image by casting himself in his commercials. Sure, he may look like the love child of Ron Jeremy and Gaucho Marx, but you have to admit, he’s memorable. And who do you think of when you are considering a new treadmill or weight bench? Steady television spots, bathroom advertising, and bobbleheads are an equation that made 2nd Wind Exercise Equipment roughly $80 million in sales last year. His strategy, outlined here, is simple: Be somewhere everyone goes … Restrooms. We all have to drop the Cosby Kids off at the public pool once in awhile, and while your pushing, he’ll be there pushing you to buy a weight bench. Image above is from the 2007 Minnesota State Fair, where Dick was working his magic on the fair-goers who were loaded with calories. Do you have your Dick Enrico Bobblehead yet? Click here.
Filed under: Minnesota Marketing, National Marketing & Advertising | Tags: christmas retail display, Halloween in-store, in-store, Merchandising, Minnesota Marketing, Retail Display, Target
During a late-September shopping trip to Target for Halloween candy, I found something surprising …
Christmas decorations! Who in the world thought I would already need a light-up reindeer to put in my yard? I simply find this disturbing. Just like nature, I need to go through a natural progression of the seasons. Halloween tells me it’s fall, Thanksgiving tells me the snow is coming, and Christmas means I have a few days left before hibernation. I don’t want to experience holly-jolly ho-ho-ho before I have even carved a pumpkin.
Isn’t this ruining it for the kids? How can they focus on picking out a Halloween costume when there are flocked trees and Christmas stockings in the next aisle? Who needs to be a ninja when Santa is apparently coming? Explain that one. Long gone are the days when it was taboo to put out the trees and ornaments before Thanksgiving, but is Christmas in July going to be the new normal?
Weigh in: When do you think it is appropriate for retailers to parade out the Christmas decorations?
Filed under: Minnesota Marketing | Tags: Hormel, Minnesota Marketing, Minnesota State Fair, Product line Extensions, Spam Advertising, Spam Curds, Spam Marketing
The Minnesota State Fair gives us a glimps of shameless marketing tactics at their finest. Stuff you couldn’t get away with anywhere else is accepted here. Bumper stickers, news anchors on-a-stick, and the shittyest chotchkeys the Renminbi can buy all permeate this annual event. I love it all…but maybe the grease is affecting my judgment. 
One new item at this year’s fair caught my attention, however – SPAM Curds. This wonderful Minnesota brand has a great history. See: The SPAM Museum,the SPAM Mobile, and the SPAM Cookbook After experiencing the SPAM Curds some at the Great Minnesota get-together, I am convinced the folks at Hormel are working with the Pentagon to create a new form of food warfare. I’m talking about explosive diarrhea, folks. You’ve been warned. Nice product line extension though, even if it is used in future wars. BTW, people in Hawaii love SPAM and call it “Soul Food.” Did anyone else get to have the “full” Spam experience?
Filed under: Minnesota Marketing, Remarkable Blogs and Sites | Tags: Customer Service, Edina Minnesota, Ethan Esparza, Ethan's Lemonade, Lemonade Stand Marketing, Marketing in Minnesota
Near 50th and France Ave., there is a lemonade stand that is giving away free lessons in marketing. Twelve-year-old Ethan Esparza has been in buisness for nearly five years now (most new businesses make it that long) and has grown it on a solid foundation of simple, yet sound, marketing principles: dress for success, location-location-location, good product, simple pricing, and a genuine care for his customers. It’s worked so well that some people simply just give him money for being nice. This tells me that customers these days are desperate to be treated well.In the past four summers, this little lemonade slinger has raked in nearly $3000. Not bad for a one-man shop selling a beverage for 25 cents. Keep an eye on this one. We may see him on the cover of Forbes one day. He already has plans for a cafe and a line of kid-friendly cleaning supplies. Check out his webpage to request an autographed picture and get a copy of his first book, “Money from Lemons.” This story was also recently featured on Kare 11 (NBC affiliate). Check out the video here.
Filed under: Minnesota Marketing, National Marketing & Advertising | Tags: Best Buy Advertising, Best Buy Marketing, Best Buy Rebates, Best Buy Recycle Program, Richfield MN
Ok, so they “relocated” a bunch a bunch of Richfield residents and imminent domained the Walser Group’s ass, but Best Buy is doing something good for the community and for our basements. Their annual electronics recycling event is next Friday (6/22) and Saturday (6/23) at its corporate headquarters. Get all the details here.
I think it’s great that they are doing it, I just wish they didn’t charge us to drop stuff off.
In other Best Buy news, BBDO in New York has been awarded advertising duties. Media spending could be between $170 million and $200 million. View the story here.
Filed under: Minnesota Marketing | Tags: billboard advertising, Clear Channel, digital billboards, Minnetonka, outdoor advertising minnesota
The City Council in
Minnetonka, MN, will approve a Clear Channel settlement about a billboard issue that no one really cares about but Clear Channel and
Minnetonka. The ruling will allow Clear Channel to run its two-sided digital billboards 24 hours a day and switch their messages every eight seconds. This is a victory for Clear Channel in a state where everything is against the law.
Minnetonka thinks the brightly lit signs will distract drivers and cheapen the look of their precious city. Aren’t the old, dilapidated wooden billboards with peeling graphics of Dick Enrico from 2nd Wind Exercise & Equipment already doing that? In any case, I’ll be sure to give the new digital boards a looksee when I’m driving while talking on my cell phone, eating a burger, and surfing the web.
