Verse 4: Advertising +Technology = Advernology (can I TM that?)

I have a company cell phone here in China in case I get woefully lost and end up in a dark alley filled with shady characters. At least I can call a Chinese speaking co-worker to come on the line and negotiate for me!

Well the other day I got a text message, which was unexpected since very few people have the number. It was all in Chinese so I couldn’t read it but on handing it over to a co-worker they translated the advertising message for me! Quite a difference from the US where do-not-call lists and privacy acts are increasingly shielding consumers from advertisers’ messages. Still this got me thinking as to how advertisers are having to evolve to keep up with technology trends with an ever more ad-weary consumer.

The SMS (text message) advertising is just one example of advertisers evolving to keep up with changing consumer trends. Recently KFC introduced a “DVR-ready” commercial to launch their new chicken sandwich. Embedded within the commercial were a few frames that showed a secret website and code. If you followed the instructions contained within those certain frames of video you would get a voucher for the new sandwich. Now, Sprite has also launched a similar DVR themed commercial with strange and hypnotic imagery. I don’t think you get anything free for watching the commercial frame by frame but you do get to see the images that everyone else does not. While advertisers never really anchored ads around the VCR, DVR technology is giving firms new and innovative ways to reach their audiences and compel them to watch (and scour!) their ads.

In Canada, Pepsi has jumped all over the portable music craze by introducing a subway ad that incorporates a headphone jack. Go to any large city and you will see almost 70% of the people have portable audio players and headphones. Using this knowledge along with the fact that people are inherently curious Pepsi created ads where you can plug your headphones in and listen to receive access codes for a website where you receive free music and other offers.

These are just some brief examples of advertisers using technology to spread their message. Now if you’ll excuse me, I just got another text message….

Chapter 3: Live from Tianjin it's, uh, Thursday night!

So I've been here in China since last Friday night and thought that I would have this really cool epiphany to write about in my insights blog. Well, that epiphany never came, either as a result of the jet lag, work fatigue, or general sensory overload. The latter is a normal function of visiting any developing country after being the US for too long.

So instead of writing one cohesive entry, instead I’ll channel Saturday night live and post the literary equivalent of comedy skits, only mine probably wont be as funny (although judging by how unfunny SNL has been the last few years who knows?)

- First thing I noticed about the advertising here is that that most of the non-print ads (billboards, posters at bus stations etc) have a lot more writing on them than in the US. The advertising seems to be more informational than appealing to your higher order goals. Not sure why that is exactly, but the vast majority of ads I’ve seen have a paragraphs worth of writing on them. Compare this with the average ad in the US that puts the product next to a scantily clad girl and calls it a day.
- Second thing I noticed is that there is advertising EVERYWHERE. It’s similar to the US, but I expected China to show some of it’s demure, non-capitalist roots. Color me pleasantly surprised but this country has conspicuous consumption written all over it. There are ads on busses, taxis, on buildings, at bus-stops, on banners draped across street signs, in subway stations, on the little handles that you grab in the subway cars. No really, there are little ads inside the actual clear handles! With capitalism alive and well in “communist” China (quotes intended) seems like every business is trying it’s best to get the attention of a billion attentive consumers
- On the topic of consumption, the people here *heart* shopping. Every mall is bustling with people with stuffed bags and carts. The funny thing is that prices here for original name brand stuff is actually more expensive than in the US…. And most of it is made here! I guess shipping across the ocean depreciates an asset. That combined with the lower salaries here (along with lower general cost of living) explains why the San Marcos outlet malls are so popular with our Chinese visitors in Austin!
- Tourism is a HUGE part of the economy here and they display their historical and cultural wares to visitors at every turn. Here in Tianjin they have a specially constructed “culture street” that has slightly higher end gifts, souvenirs, and handicrafts. Sure you could find most of the stuff cheaper at a seedy mall down the street but on culture street there are lots of cool photo op’s as well! In Beijing, the Forbidden City is an industry unto itself! It begins a few blocks away outside where street merchants urge you buy a Chairman Mao wrist watch (!!??). Inside they sell everything from location-sensitive self-guided tours, to umbrellas, to coffee and ice cream. In and of itself no different than any other popular tourist spot, but I expected China to be a little less aimed at the capitalism than this.
- Lastly, with the Olympics approaching in 2008, China is getting ready for it’s close up. Construction is rampant everywhere with the infrastructure getting a major overhaul, and new building and hotels springing up like weeds. The Forbidden City itself had many sections covered in scaffoldings and undergoing repairs. Across from Tiananmen square a giant clock counts down to the start of the Olympics. I believe that 2008 will be a coming out party for the Chinese to the rest of the world. US manufacturing and industry has been on the Chinese bandwagon for a while, but after 2008 I think the rest of the world will become believers as well!

(I would post some photos but: a) the network here is really slow, and b) while I can visit the blogger dashboard I can’t actually see my published blog. Not sure if they are blocking the site or whether there’s some other reason?)

Version 2.0: I space, You space we all space for Myspace

Social networking sites on the internet are nothing new. From friendster to classmates.com to orkut to yahoo360, there are numerous ways for people to connect with friends, both new and old. Most of them, however, have been a short lived phenomenon with the exception of the wildly popular myspace.

Despite a spate of recent bad press myspace has endured and passed the point where it is merely a disposable novelty. The site allows you to setup a profile and add photos, friends, a blog, media, and custom skins. These last features differentiates myspace from the other social networking sites, offering a degree of customization that makes your "space" much more personal. You can add music, videos, and hack your site to add html and java scripts.

As myspace's popularity started growing, garage bands realized the portal was a great way to introduce people to their music and start grass roots marketing for free. Bands could also use the site as a great way to connect directly with their fans and virtually make fans into "friends". The site expanded to setup music charts for major label artists, indie label artists and unsigned acts.

Several formerly obscure bands, such as Hawthorne Heights, AFI, and Gnarls Barkley greatly increased their exposure by setting up myspace accounts. The former two were unsigned acts that signed with major labels after being "discovered" on myspace. The site offers services where new bands can sign up and promote their music through the site. By adding songs to personal profiles users can discover new music through their friends.

Myspace has recently expanded to include books, movies, careers, and comedians. This increased media availability allows artists, writers, filmmakers, and employers to directly connect with their target audience. The site offers a very specialized search tool that allows users to parse data based on a users age, school, or even zip code. With millions of users, many revealing their personal tastes in music, books, and movies the site is a marketers dream. Recently, movies have started adding myspace pages at the end of movie trailers and it is not uncommon for a movie to ask to become your "friend".

Such "grassroots" advertising allows businesses and artists to connect more intimately with users. Having a more personal connection with musicians and filmmakers gives users (and hopefully consumers!) a greater vested interest in the success of a particular movie or song.

Other industries are also trying to get into the action. Sites such as linkedin.com are offering users business networking (vs. social networking) and allows startups and VC's and investors and employers to all "mingle" online. I foresee many other markets benefiting from this user generated hype and awareness.

EDIT: I just read today (Monday) about a new site called prosper.com that offers users the chance to borrow and lend on a peer-to-peer basis!? It's networking with a lending angle. Using the power of community and trust to allow ordinary people to become "VC's" and for those who would rather pay interest to a person rather than a bank, the opportunity to borrow from an individual. Not sure how ssecure the site is, but the concept is interesting.

Episode 1: Jet Blue wont make you feel, uh, blue

I recently flew on jetBlue from Austin to JFK direct. It's a service they just started recently and besides being very convenient, the entire experience of traveling on jetBlue was enjoyable from start to finish. Being my first time on the airline I expected another Southwest airlines "low frills" type experience, but I was pleasantly surprised.

First of all, even booking the seat was a smooth experience. The airlines' booking interface and website in general has a very clean and uncluttered look to it. This makes finding what you want very easy and fast! Now you may be saying that these days almost all websites are clean, modern and well designed, but I disagree. Comparing the linked travel websites to jetBlue's interface shows the different design philosophies between them. The first two, AA.com and Delta.com, are very busy with information and specials and entry fields. The latter, Southwest.com, while being well-designed (to be expected since online booking is one of SW's hallmarks) looks terribly outdated compared to the modern, clean lines of jetBlue's website.


Moving past the ticket purchasing experience, the self check in was comparable to other airlines
but the quickness, layout and design of the kiosks was a tad nicer than other airlines. The best analogy I can come up with is a new car (jetBlue) vs. an old car (other airlines). The jetBlue staff was young and energetic, and their equipment was clean and looked new.

On the plane itself, the leather seats had much better legroom that I've experienced on other domestic carriers. The biggest surprise was the entertainment system they offered. Each seat had it's own video screen, pretty much standard nowadays, but the content offering was very different. Each seat had 100 channels of XM satellite radio, 36 channels of Direct TV (live), AND $5 pay-per-view movies!! I generally travel with several forms of entertainment (ipod, books, magazines etc) but having this much content available to me was a great novelty and made the 4 hour flight fly by (pun intended).

I'm a fairly techno-gadgety type person and I like to keep up with current innovations, so having all this live, satellite fed entertainment available to me was a huge plus and will likely increase my chances of flying jetblue again. Not only are they a budget airline, but they have differentiated themselves with they modern, consistent design and with their technology offerings. To someone like me, this is also a great way to promote and advertise services that I otherwise would not have exposure to. Sure I had played around with the XM receivers at my local Best Buy but on the plane I have hours to check out every station imaginable and my own headphones with which I can appreciate the quality. Similarly with Direct TV, I could sample their channel line up and they quality and compare it to my digital cable at home. As a marketing tool I think this is a great way to give a larger audience access to your technology in an environment where they can explore it at their leisure. In addition, jetBlue has recently announced that they will pioneer further and offer the in-flight, high-speed internet access.

For a traveling technophile like me, all these innovations are welcome since they help pass the time and keep you "connected" to the outside world, be it through live news, radio, or soon internet access. I don't see any downside to these added innovations since if you don't want to use them you don't have to.

In closing, I think other airlines could learn a lot from jetBlue's design philosophy and their inflight innovations. Using some sort of similar cross branding, there's no reason an airline couldn't hand out ipods for each off their passengers to use in-flight. Besides, an airplane is the one place where you are looking for entertainment even if it is in the form of product placement.

What did one snowman say to the other?
Smells like carrots

ps. My personal blog is here if you care to read it.