What did you See?

As an avid Lost fan, I was glued to my TV screen last night as the series progressed with yet another wild and surprising episode. Since I am such a nerd when it comes to marketing and advertising I do not really channel surf much anymore. Throughout the commercials I would look away and look back to see a black screen with the simple text, "What did You See?" appearing in white font. Each time I was confused since it only lasted seconds at most and led into a seemingly completely unrelated commercial. Finally I caught a flash of school children coming out of a building and then the phrase appeared. Next came a Grey's Anatomy preview which I concluded had nothing to do with these curious advertisements.
After Googling the phrase, the third organic result yielded to my curiosity. I wondered whether this was similar to the one second Superbowl commercials sponsored by Miller.
It turns out ABC is promoting a serious that isn't even contracted yet entitled, "Flash Forward." It is a spin off of the popular book by Robert J. Sawyer's Flash. The story basis is something along the lines of the entire human race blacking out for two minutes and seeing a flash of their future in 21 years.
The show doesn't interest me much, but the teasers did. Is this a good advertising tool? It gets the viewer's attention and curiosity if they are paying attention. I had text messaged a friend to see if he knew what they were and he didn't even know what I was talking about. I also looked to see if I could figure out whether ABC is promoting this on all their hit prime time serious, or just Lost. No research revealed the answer to this though, which means the viewer's of Lost was the chosen audience.
Is this effective?

It is curious advertising to say the least. I actively looked it up and researched into it, but then I know I am a minority when it comes to watching commercials let alone researching the advertisements.
I'll look for more of these weird flashes tonight while I watch the epic Grey's Anatomy this evening.

For your viewing pleasure, here is the video I found online of five flashes. :)

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid21500443001?bclid=21520217001&bctid=21592854001

Social Media Releases

Over the past weekend I was fortunate enough to have the daunting task of writing the paper from hell. It was for my Visual Communication class and involved analyzing an image, or set of images, with the semiotic analysis and other technical terms like that. After flip flopping six or seven times, I finally chose to analyze Pepsi's new logo and the billboard they put up in Times Square for the New Year. Here are the actual images I analyzed:




















Most of my research for the project came from Blogs. In the process I learned about the "Pepsi 25" which was Pepsi's innovative way of getting their new campaign out there. The gist, is that during one coordinated hour, 25 prominent Bloggers would receive three packages within an hour and a DVD. The packages would be spaced twenty minutes apart, exactly. Each package contained ten cans of Pepsi soda with each can holding a classic logo Pepsi once held.



I thought this approach was interesting. It was a real example of the new digital promotions that we've been learning about in class. Throughout reading about it, I came to a couple of conclusions.

1. The goal was not to turn these prominent bloggers into Pepsi drinkers, but gain exposure on their blogs highlighting the new logo.
2. It would have been more effective if Pepsi could guarantee delivery to the person directly. I am under the impression many didn't get the packages until later and learned the strategy from other bloggers.
3. While it promoted the new logo and gained exposure, it did not persuade consumers into buying Pepsi's product. Which you would assume would be their primary goal.

I thought it was fascinating. The paper was probably mediocre at best, I don't think I went as deep as my professor would have liked, but the research I did gave me real life examples of interesting promotional techniques in today's ever-changing world.

Twittering?

I'm taking this class, called Digital Promotion Management, and I'm learning all this new stuff about stuff that I never knew existed. It is also the reason I have this blog in the first place. Speaking of, I should probably work on updating more frequently to keep up the grade.
Anywho, to the point of this post. Twitter. We've discussed it a lot in class, which was the first time I had ever heard of the social networking site. What is there to this Twitter? I wondered if I should get one, but then thought to myself, "what the heck to I need to twitter about?" We learned it to be a good business/celebrity/promotional device, and I, as an undergraduate not ready to graduate, have nothing to promote, therefore I don't need one.
Then Patrice shot me a text which ordered me to get on Twitter. Just after I had decided I should at least check it out. Hello peer pressure and the desire to be hip and in the know, thank you Patrice.
Thus far, I am following 12 people/twitters/things with one post of my own. Its interesting because it looks as though Twitter requires its own language. As you can see, I do not yet speak the language fluently. I expected it to be similar to my Facebook homepage, with a constant feed of posts. Thus far, however, I am just confused.
Do I need to go to each Twitter-er (?) profile to see their updates? Is there a central location to check everything out? Why won't it let me find people? Why can't I add my phone number?
I feel like my mother the first time she tried to explore Facebook.
Either way, I am twittering. I am in with the new social media promotional tools. I'm sold. Am I hooked? Not yet, but it is an interesting contrast to Facebook and MySpace. I am over MySpace, I use Facebook minimally, is Twitter my next big addiction?

Twitter me, lets find out. BrittBlitz