Branding Blog

Grabbing Attention: Ejector Technology for Passenger Vehicles

It's one thing to grab someone's attention. It's quite another thing to bait and switch. As a blogger, I get quite a bit of PR email. Today, one came from DENSO corporation with a file attached which was named "DENSO Develops ejector technology for passenger vehicles."

My brain said "CRIKEY! What's this about?". I opened it and found out that it is some kind of new-fangled air conditioning technology.

Sigh.

By using an ejector that rapidly injects and expands high-pressure refrigerant, the energy that previously was lost in the expansion valve is converted to pressure energy and reused, thus boosting energy efficiency*2. As a result, high cooling and refrigeration performances are both achieved even when the cooler box is used.

“An ejector system can drastically improve the energy efficiency in the refrigeration cycle, and we are now working to develop a system specifically for car air conditioning systems,” said Hikaru Sugi, managing officer in charge of DENSO’s Thermal System Business Group.

Unless you are really into the whole air conditioner technology groove, this is total boredom.

Really, this is just a PR typo, but doesn't it remind you of some of the marketing and advertising crap you see every day? Don't do this type of thing in your advertising.

Another example is the stupid travel site emails I get every day. Southwest Airlines sent one the other day which promised Denver-Austin for $79 each way. Not on the dates I wanted, and only on about 2 dates between now and Christmas. Sheesh.

How have the marketers been fooling you?

Tree Branding: Vote Yes! for Trees

My buddy Tim Miles sent me a link to this tree site. It's clever. If you vote "yes" for trees between now and May 28, they'll plant one for you.

The site has a very clever FAQ. All I can say is 'amen' to the part about Hackberry trees.

I hope they come plant all 5,000 trees where I live. We could use a few. This is the view of my drive to the airport.

Here's the best part...it's a viral initiative from Emma, the email marketing company.

If you want people to spread the word about your company, you have to do something worth sharing. Tim loves using Emma for his clients and had no problem sending a shout-out to some of his friends. There's nothing in it for him.

There's nothing in it for me, except for an opportunity to create a light-hearted Saturday morning post while I wait to catch a flight back home from Austin so I can drive on THAT road. If you'd like to read another road story, click the photo.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Wiener Dogs

Our home office in Austin always helps with the Buda Wiener Dog races. Sean Taylor has worked on 9 of the 10 posters and always has a good time with it. Here's the still of this year's poster with the radio ad playing in the background. If you want to see the rest of the posters, scroll to the bottom of this page.

Mine Your Customer Base for Your Next Employee

When you need an employee, do you consider hiring your best customers? Read Michele's experience at American Small Business.

JCPenney and Diet Coke Drop The Ball

Both JCPenney and Diet Coke ran lengthy ads during the Academy Awards tonight.

Diet Coke failed to put the commercial on their web site anywhere I could find it. They have a link to their ads, but NOT the ad that played in the Academy Awards. Go figure.

JCPenney has a prominent link that opens a new browser window with a date. Then, we must click a category with no contextual information that would lead us to believe that we are on the right track to see the ad. On a leap of faith, I click.

There it is. A link to their ads. I found it. Not great, but better than Diet Coke.

Bloggable Oscar Persuasive Scenario

I'm only a half-hour into the Oscars and there have been several bloggable moments.

No, I'm not talking about the awards ceremony. It's about the commercials. I'm enjoying this show better than the Super Bowl.

First, Bank of America. Their "Window of Opportunity" ad was truly memorable. A mirrored logo hovers over the sidewalk and as people stare at themselves, they see the possibilities for their lives.

In Persuasion Architecture, we'd call this the Driving Point to the persuasive scenario. It's the start of the trail which we hope will lead to a conversion...in this case, I would assume a new customer for the bank.

What we hope to find at their site is either more of what the ad promised, or a chance to view the ad again.

On the Bank of America home page, a large part of the "above the fold" real estate is dedicated to a flash piece which reinforces the theme of the ad..."Opportunity Starts Here". Just below the flash piece is a link which connects us to the TV ads..."See opportunity come to life in our new TV ads"

After clicking the link, instead of just showing the ads, Bank of America takes a moment to explain the campaign and their high concept for it. It's ok. It is the major element on the page (in the big red box). What's even better are the links to 3 products in the smaller box on the right.

Oh, and if you want to actually see the ads in the series, they offer links to all of them.

Unfortunately, if you watch the ads, the scent trail ends. The ad plays on a big white background leaving you no context in which to continue. Nice job up to the very end of the scenario.

[Update: This is what it looks like on my Mac. I'm at a dead end unless I click the back button. On my PC, the ad launches in a separate windows media viewer session. Once I close the viewer, I'm back on the page and ready to be engaged by the scenario again.]

Grok, Grok, Grok

My buddies over at FutureNow have consolidated all of their bloggy efforts into the NEW GrokDotCom blog.

It's a great new site powered by a ContentRobot installation of WordPress with some very cool technology humming in the background.

In addition to the original content, it pulls in feeds from some great marketing blogs and sites. It may just be the only blog you need to read! I've added the post feed to my sidebar. Check it out.

Still Posting on American Small Business

I've been posting now and again at American Small Business.

Big favor to ask of you. Please have a look and click 'thumbs up' on all of my posts. hehehe. (I'm not asking you to click thumbs down on anyone else's, just to give me a little boost).

Especially my latest. I found a story about Lane Bryant's new store, Cacique, and put up a post. The story I link to is absolutely a must-read for business owners who are trying to relate to their customer base.

Rex's Buffalo Wings

Rex Williams got burned. His eyes, nose, mouth and stomach were seared by some spicy chicken wings. It's a great story and you should read it.

I feel as if I've been cheating. Writing stories on a new site and ignoring my poor neglected BrandingBlog. I've been involved in helping our Wizard of Ads group create a new work called American Small Business. We've also mirrored it on Canadiansmallbusiness.com and Australiansmallbusiness.com.

Like any new venture or multi-authored site, there is good and bad. The very cool thing is that you get to vote on what's good and what's bad. Enough bad votes and you save future readers from seeing a bad story. That's right, we elected to allow our readers to eliminate content that they think is not worth reading.

You're invited to come on over and see what it's about. Be sure to read Rex's Chicken Wings Story.

I'll keep posting here too. See you around!

Terrific New Columnist at Inc.com

Inc.com has a new Marketing Columnist. Michele Miller of WonderBranding fame will be dishing up her marketing wisdom on a regular basis.

Check out her first column and be sure to subscribe to the Inc.com feed!