Posted by Tony on Nov 19, 2008 in
marketing
Adage magazine had an interesting article analysing the three main sponsors of American Idol – Coke, Cingular and Ford – in which they assessed the relative impact of their sponsorships. What stood out for me was this insight (emphasis mine):
Whereas Coca-Cola and Cingular had created reasons for their existence, Ford had struggled to find a solid and justifiable role. What we learned was that if a brand is part of a story line, our brains will accept the role of the brand and remember its presence. However, if a brand and its role don’t support the story line, the opposite will happen: Our brains will simply erase it. That’s the way we survive and keep from ending up like zombies, considering the average of 2,000 brand messages we are exposed to every day.
Read more…
Share on Facebook
Tags: american idol, brand, branding, marketing, sponsor, sponsorship
Posted by Tony on Oct 26, 2008 in
Thought Leader blogs
It is either slightly disconcerting or enormously flattering when you arrive at a hotel for the first time and the receptionist greets you by name. In the case of my arrival at the Rapid Waters Hotel (and I use all three of those words advisedly) 29km outside of Potchefstroom, it could only be the former. The whole place has an air of being somewhere that no one has stayed at for weeks. Getting there involves a slow crawl along a pockmarked, gravel road that winds through a trail of rusty farm debris and dilapidated houses. In anticipation of my arrival, the staff have probably been gazing at the sole entry in their booking register every morning, lovingly running a finger over the inked curves of my name, mouthing each syllable, tasting the delicious prospect of, well, a guest. And so it was, after a long and dusty drive from Johannesburg, that I stepped across the threshold. A flicker of relief across the lady’s face. I hadn’t let her down. “Anthony Lankester” she told me as I pushed open the jangly door, stepped over two mangy poodles and tried to decipher her outline from under a cloud of smoke (hers, not mine).
Read more…
Share on Facebook
Tags: arts, festivals, marketing, music, sponsorship, travel
