Category Archives: Share of Mind

Ad Targeting for Beautiful People

Remember Sarah Ripley, the future of marketing?

She emailed me a link to this TaB commercial from the olden days (well, the ’80s).
Her observation was that with only a jingle, the commercial was very simple. No voiceover, no copy, no actors reading lines. Couldn’t be easier.

I was curious about another thing.

After I watched the ad, the jingle was stuck in my head. Don’t you just hate that?

“TaB cola has a beautiful taste
So good for beautiful people
TaB cola beautiful to you and me
‘Cause every can has less than two calories
TaB cola helps a beautiful shape
Just right for beautiful people
TaB cola tastes so good to you
Great taste low calorie TaB”

The line that stuck with me was “So good for beautiful people” and again near the end, “Just right for beautiful people.”

I got to thinking about it. You could never say that in spoken copy without sounding like a total jackass. “Enjoy TaB, the preferred drink of beautiful people.”

How strange that you can sing it, and slip it right past the judgmental left brain. Huh.

A good jingle can be very powerful. Because music is processed by the right hemisphere of the brain, you can take in a message and remember quite disturbing thoughts if you do so in lyrics. Think about songs such as the MASH Theme, Mack the Knife and any country song about adultery.

So, it was actually quite brilliant of TaB to slip in an unspoken message through song rather than announcer voiceover.

Can you think of any other jingles that do this to us?

BrandingBlog Radio: Using Rituals to Generate Word of Mouth

In this episode, Craig Arthur and I discuss how businesses can use ritual to make their customers feel like “insiders” which will make them more apt to talk about the business to others. This is a form of kinetic Word of Mouth.

At the beginning of the podcast, we discuss Sarah Ripley’s article “Where DIDN’T you hear about us?” from the Wizard Chronicles.

I love riffing with Craig. This conversation is a great example of why I’m podcasting. I’ve had many dozens of calls like this over the years with Craig. We finally got smart enough to record them. Enjoy.

Another Benefit to the Radio + Web Marketing Strategy

I've talked a fair bit about the strength of using radio (or any other off-line medium) to drive search for your business's name, or your "brand."

The primary benefit is that prospective customers will not find your competitors when they're searching for you.

Google-brand

There's another very strong benefit that I haven't mentioned. It's a bit more complex because there's not much you can do about it. It all takes place in Google's mighty brain, and on your own browser…as explained by SEOmoz.

Personalized search is now on by default. This means that every click, branded search, and expression of a "brand preference" or "brand affinity" in Google's results is likely to result in preferential biasing towards that domain in future searches. A "Google" Pontiac message during this Superbowl wouldn't just send users to their site, it would also mean that tens of millions of searchers would now be "personalized" towards that domain.

This means the more I search for your brand, the stronger your brand will show up in my own searches, on my own computer. This doesn't apply to search results across the web because it is a part of "personalized search" which is an individualized component of Google's system. It's the kind of thing that used to feel kind of creepy to us, but now that we're desensitized, and now that they aren't so blatant about it, feels ok.

Humorous sidenote…if you spend a lot of time Googling your competitors by name, you'll likely see their results go up, and your brand decline on your own computer. Frustrating? Yes. Worrisome? No.

SUGGESTION: If you dominate search results for your name, instead of telling people to "click over to acme-heating.com" start telling them to "Google Acme Heating!"

If you have a generic name like "Denver Heating and Air," this isn't likely to work for you because a search for your name will also show all of your competitors as well.

The truth is, most folks will search for your name anyway because it's easier than remembering your exact domain. Even if they do remember your domain, they're just as likely to type it into Google as they are to type it into the address bar. That's why "google" is one of the most searched phrases on Yahoo and vice-versa. Given the choice (or not knowing the alternatives) people will do the easiest thing.

So, tell them in your ads to do the easiest thing!

Here's the old Pontiac commercial they mentioned in the SEOmoz article: