Odeon Cinemas to show Rugby World Cup

With the Rugby World Cup fast approaching, 20 Odeon Cinemas including Liverpool, Bath and London will show live games of the rugby. This is to be showed for free as the Rugby Football Association and National Sports Federation seek to attract people to uptake the sport.
All England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa games as well as the knock out stages will be shown.
Watching the new film, The Bourne Ultimatum, ads were shown before targeting rugby players. The ads tried to attract past rugby players by reminding them what they are missing.
I think this a great idea socially as it increases awareness of rugby, and will nationally increase children and adults in sport participation. With there being no fee to watch the games in the cinemas, it is a free form of entertainment. Sport participation is something that the government is desperately trying to achieve, and with this type of option I feel it will certainly help the cause. Some feel that rugby is quite a specialist sport, but by opening the doors to everyone, there will be a much better chance of rugby being something that ‘jo public’ understands.

Plans to Offer Targeted Advertising on Facebook

Having seen that Cadburys was bringing back Wisper due to social networks, I decided to research further into these social networks to see what they were doing about advertising. When reviewing Facebook, I found that they are to launch an advertising system that will allow marketers to target users with ads based on the large amounts of information people freely provide about themselves on the site.
They hope to produce a system that predicts what products and services users might be interested in, even before they have specifically mentioned an interest. The company aims to accomplish what Google did with AdWords, which allows anyone to place ads next to search results by buying keywords online.
The service allows advertisers to visit a website to choose a wider variety of characteristics for the users who should see their ads, such as favourite activities and preferred music. However, advertisers would not be able to access personal information about the Facebook users. These ads would appear on the "news feed" of each user's page and not as on banner ads and boxed flyers that appear on the borders of the site at present.

Cadburys Wispa comes back due to Social Network Pressure

We often hear how social networks have become so powerful that applications for jobs are now judged upon your profile. However it has now been taken to new levels with Cadburys. One of its most famous brands, the Wispa chocolate bar is coming back after a growing campaign on social networking websites forced the confectionery giant to bring about its return. The iconic 1980s chocolate bar, which was discontinued in 2003, is set to return next month after thousands of consumers lobbied Cadbury on MySpace and Facebook, which spawned a 14,000-strong Bring Back Wispa group, to reintroduce one of its most enduring brands. It shows how large companies are now listening to the internet as they believe it is a fair reflection of the public. I wonder how many more brands are now closely surveying social network activity to see if significant gains to be made. What else will the power of social networks lead to?

Virgin v Sky Advertising. Is there a need for this mass advertising campaign?

Over the last couple of months, many advertisements have been produced by Virgin Media and Sky trying to entice customers to subscribe to there services. The reason for all this advertising was due to a fall out in prices. Sky asked Virgin to pay more for offering Sky channels, in which Virgin disagreed. Since this fall out Virgin have decided to offer a product which rivals Sky. Mass advertising campaigns have been produced by each company trying to sell there product to customers. Millions of pounds have been spent on billboard posters, press, TV etc in order to achieve this. The cynic in me says if money was such an issue, why have they spent so much on advertising? And has advertising really been the most effective way of gaining new customers? I must say Virgin has persuaded me into looking into its service, but the jabs been made by both brands about each other has been rather like a teenage dispute. It has created humour and discussion, but it hasn't raised the profile or either brand for me.

The o2 Business Picnic Lunch in London

Wondering near Carnaby Street in London at lunchtime the other day I came across a sponsored picnic event from o2. The brand had taken over a very popular square at lunchtime where many city business workers go for lunch, and created a picnic lunch. Providing branded umbrellas, beanbags, frisbees, board games (such as jenger and snake and ladders), barbeque food etc the square was buzzing full of city workers lavishing in this fantastically sunny chilled out atmosphere. Without directly trying to push sales, there was the opportunity to go up to one of the o2 girls if you wanted to ask further questions about the brands products and services. What o2 achieved by doing this was great brand awareness and an association with fun times. With work in the city being stressful and fast moving, the opportunity to escape from this on your lunch break was provided with this event. Since going to the event, participants would have virally mentioned the success of the activity as well as who sponsored it. Without having to try to hard and spend a large budget, a great atmosphere and talk point was created. It has certainly raised the brand profile of o2 within me.

'Go to Work on an Egg'

The British Egg Marketing Board have recently tried re-releasing the 'Go to Work on an Egg' advertisement in celebration of it being 50 years of British Lion Eggs. However the ad has been banned by the advertising watchdog, Ofcom for going against the principle of a varied diet. This decision has hit the media headlines and made me want to look into why so many people are disappointed not to be able to see this advertisement once again screened on television. Therefore I have decided to research this famous ad and see what it achieved and how it achieved it.

My Review-

In the 1960s the British Egg Marketing Board launched the 'Go to Work on an Egg' ads. No one within the corperation expected it to be become the most famous catchphrase within this period and transform life within the Eggs Marketing Board. The ads featured 1950s legendary comedian, Tony Hancock and the infamous catchphrase 'Go to work on an egg' was derived from Fay Weldon. Having watched the advert its witty, light humoured, informative about its nutrition and value for money. Finally its catchphrase ties it altogether so that it remains memorable to the viewer. This clearly worked in increasing sales as is in the 1960s the UK egg consumption peaked at nearly 5 eggs a week per person.
For more information and to watch the adverts visit www.gotoworkonanegg.co.uk

New Films are getting a bit to commercial

Having gone to see Oceans 13 the other week, it soon became apparent within the film which brands were sponsoring the film. Close shots of Brad Pitt and George Clooney drinking 'Stella Artois', Al Pacino wanting to get hold of the new 'Samsung' phone, it was all a bit to obvious and deliberate. Its not only Oceans 13 that has done this, when I watched the latest James Bond movie Casino Royale several products were being advertised within the film such as the Ford Mondeo, Omega watches, Sony Ericsson mobile phones, Song Vaio laptops and the classic Aston Martin. Don't get me wrong both films are great, but there will come a point where big blockbuster films will become just like big advertisements. Film makers must remember what the viewer is coming to watch, and products being used on set must fit in smoothly not deliberately.