May 27, 2008

A Marketing 'Eureka!' Moment

The above "212-degree service: the extra degree" comes from the University City Sheraton's webpage. This gave me a totally superb idea, though: A manuscript-editing service -- perhaps for bloggers who want to write books! -- where I promise to give your work the 451-degree treatment.

Thanks, Caitlin.

Posted by D-Mac at 11:37 AM | Comments (2)

November 05, 2007

There Are Apparently A Lot Of Asians In Atlantic City

No, really. Just ask this guy:

On a recent Saturday night, Kevin Yu played a few hands of baccarat at the Trump Taj Mahal, then headed to the casino arena to catch the Hong Kong singing sensation Twins.

To Yu's surprise, the postmidnight concert was sold out. "Wow, so many Asians!" said Yu, 45, a Hong Kong native and truck driver who lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Asians are way more likely to be compulsive gamblers than anybody else, so the casinos are doing the only sensible thing: Marketing to them as much as possible!

A.C. RIDES ASIAN TIDE [Inquirer]

Posted by D-Mac at 10:24 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

July 16, 2007

Apparently, There Is This Thing Called The 'Gayborhood'

As you may know if you are me and you live in it and walk through it every day on your way to the office, there are a lot of gays in a certain section of Philadelphia, helpfully called the Gayborhood. A few years ago, the city realized gay people have a ton of disposable income and started marketing trips to Philadelphia for them; according to a report in 2005, Philly made $153 for every dollar spent on marketing.

But now with more places marketing to gays and lesbians -- perhaps copying off Philly, a twist worthy of M. Night -- Philly has to get a little more creative. The secret? Marketing toward... ah, groups of people, I guess.

With so much competition, it's important for cities to play to their strengths, said Ben Finzel, co-founder of Out Front Blog. If they're marketing to single gay men, for example, they should advertise opportunities for meeting other gay singles. Older gay couples might be more interested in hotels, dining options and historic sites. [...]

John Wermuth, 43, who lives in Atlanta, visits Philadelphia about once a year. On a recent trip, he went to Independence Hall, the Museum of Art and the theater -- the same attractions that draw mainstream tourists. When he visits, he stays at the Alexander Inn, a gay-owned hotel in the heart of the "gayborhood," an area of gay-friendly stores and restaurants.

But, as usual, the comment section wins the award for "most interesting part," especially this comment by Camden Beer: "How much does the city pay per year to pick up used condoms that are littered everywhere on Chestnut Street?"

Philly refines its pitch to gay tourists [AP/Camden Courier-Post]
[Photo via GPTMC]

Posted by D-Mac at 12:28 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

June 27, 2007

SEPTA To Improve... Marketing

SEPTA has finally heard your complaints, people! For years, people of pretty much all Philadelphians from every walk of life saying that while SEPTA has impeccable transportation provided you want to travel down to Broad, Frankford or Market streets, the rest has a leaves a bit to be desired.

And SEPTA has finally answered the call.

“Some critics have said we haven’t marketed ourselves well,” [SEPTA GM Richard] Maloney said. “This is an example of very targeted marketing in areas of the system that have growth potential.”

Oh. Yes, that's right, SEPTA is now marketing to annoying people in Manayunk and Roxborough bars with beer coasters, along with magnets, maps and buttons. Ooh, I can't wait to wear my R6 button! (Where's my Cornwells Heights station pin? I gotta rep the R7, guys!)

Now, while the campaign is only costing $45 grand and, sure, maybe it will attract riders, the quotes from SEPTA brass are all pretty priceless.

• “We also produced a pocket-sized map,” SEPTA marketing director Rich DiLullo said yesterday. “On one side is a map and the other side is a quirky characterization about the different routes.”
• “What I liked about this campaign is it’s portable,” DiLullo said. “If we did some route restructuring in Chester, we’d be able to promote it in this way as well. We’ve created a template.”
• “The challenge has always been, how do you target people without spending a gazillion dollars ... and attract people’s attention,” DiLullo said.

Rich: Duh, you start a blog.

EPTA hopes to pick up riders with bar campaign [Metro]
[Photo via Metro]

Posted by D-Mac at 12:11 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)

April 13, 2007

Group To Mayor: Water Is Cheap, You Idiot

An coalition of students, environmentalists, Christians and thirsty people have written a letter to Mayor Street asking him to get rid of all the bottled water the city buys.

Philadelphia, as you may know, has a pretty decent water supply, not full of arsenic or lead or blood or floating heads or whatever. The push is organized by Corporate Accountability International, who is leading the push against "the marketing muscle of bottled water corporations." Indeed!

So will Philadelphia abolish watercoolers, thus also boosting productivity due to a lack of watercooler talk about last night's American Idol? Mayor Street's spokesman says he'll have to read the letter first. I see a coalition of bored office workers who will soon be protesting the proposed regulations fiercely.

Update: Fortunately, we can expect the Street administration to be a bit more courteous than the government in New Dehli, which arrested 60 people for asking for water.

Groups Tell Mayor: Tap Water Is Good Enough [KYW 1060]

Posted by D-Mac at 12:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

December 22, 2006

Casinos: It's All In The Marketing

A quote from anti-casino activist and Philadelphia Will Do Person of the Year Jethro Heiko in a story about how neighbors are fighting the casinos:

"Who'd want to live across from a giant box with neon towers, 24/7 liquor licenses and free drinks?"

Nobody answer that.

Done deal on Delaware? Don't bet on it! [Daily News]
Dec. 7: PWD People Of The Year: Jethro Heiko

Posted by D-Mac at 10:58 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

December 15, 2006

Stallone's Underdog Tale: As Fake As The Rocky Statue?

Hey, remember that old story about how Sylvester Stallone walked into the United Artists' offices and demanded they buy his script and let him star in the film? And how he only got $18,000?

Bullshit, says a report by Alex Ben Block.

Hollywood Today is reporting that the "underdog" tale of the actor's office-storming, $18,000 payment and related Rocky-like tales to the press was just a PR stunt:

“We came up with a tremendous publicity campaign,” recalled Gabe Sumner, then head of marketing at UA. “It was about how this unknown guy named Sylvester Stallone walked into our office with a script and the company was prepared to buy the script, but Stallone said, ‘I’m not going to sell it to you unless I star in the film.’ And we (supposedly) said, ‘No way.’ And he said, ‘Well, you can’t have the script.’ And we said, ‘We will give you $18,000.’ And that was the figure we used. And a deal was made and Stallone could star in this film which he wrote. And he got all of $18,000. Now is this true? It was horseshit! But it worked. It promoted the whole underdog concept and kept on going.”

“I don’t have to tell you how the press feeds on the underdog story,” said Sumner. “It filled up space on entertainment pages, and in columns looking for something for the next day. They ate up the idea that this actor loved his work so much, and was willing to sell it for a nickel and a dime in order to make it, blah, blah, blah. It all became part of the underdog fabric that brought people in. Period. They just totally bought into it.”

Representatives for Stallone said on Wednesday, “We stand by Sylvester Stallone’s story as the accurate truth.”

Rocky, the report says, actually went into production without anyone at United Artists meeting Sly Stallone. This shocking truth that a PR flack might say something untrue will no doubt cause many Rocky series fans to go into convulsions.

The Untold Story: “Rocky” Underdog Origin a Studio Myth [Hollywood Today via Defamer]
Photo by hardillb, licensed via Creative Commons

Posted by D-Mac at 02:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

June 23, 2006

Leftovers: The, Hey, It's Friday Edition

• Ahh! World Cup Quarterfinals Round of 16! No U.S., but still lots of fun. [Yahoo!]

• The new Philadelphia marketing slogan is "Forever Independent." They want it to be the Intel logo of Philly. Can we get one of those catchy jingles, too? [Metro]

• Rick Mariano could get 10 years in prison when he's sentenced in early July. Better make friends with Corey Kemp now. [Daily News]

• You know what? We're with Bunch on this one. We'll probably obsess over it a bit less, though. Maybe. [Attytood]

Posted by D-Mac at 03:00 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

December 28, 2005

It's the season for marketing backlash!

We just passed the holiday devoted to the celebration of commercialism in this country, conveniently placed on a day when a carpenter many consider to be the Christ was born over 2,000 years ago. And, during the run up to this big ol' commercialism holiday, there are plenty of ads. Too many to really attract everyone's attention.

And so the ad wizards at big companies come up with these pseudo-underground campaigns that try to be all hip and edgy and, of course, fail. Sony recently launched a campaign for the PSP, the portable video game console, that uses graffiti art, like the image at left (which I took with my camera phone at Good Dog, I think).

Once the pseudo-underground campaign launches, there's the oh-so-predictable backlash. It seems silly to me. It's like when someone in the media makes fun of bloggers and every third person with a blog has to weigh in about how the media doesn't respect this more pure form of "citizen journalism" and blah blah blah. (It's no surprise that bloggers have been bashing this.) Who really cares if Sony is using an art form usually done by people just for fun to promote their product? If you really hate it, just ignore it. Or, you know, deface it. That's kinda funny, at least.

Either way, the backlash has extended past the usual "corporation infringing on our counter-culture" argument. The Society Created To Reduce Urban Blight called the ads "very arrogant and very disrespectful." And the city's managing director accused Sony of encouraging graffiti. All well and good, I guess. But the real graffiti artists are only going to find Sony's ads stupid at best. And anyone inspired to tag somewhere else by an ad for a PSP is, well -- there's not really much to be done with someone that receptive to messages.

So don't worry. These stupid ads will disappear in a few weeks and we can all move back to complaining about more important things -- namely, the Eagles.

Sony ads draw public ire [Inky]

Posted by D-Mac at 11:16 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)