MasterCard’s Priceless Contest

Back in 2000 when .com television spots led the charge during the Super Bowl, the advertisers attempted to use clever tactics and competitive advantages to steer consumers to the websites that they were advertising for. Blowing two million dollars on a thirty second spot was a chance for those created by the hype to hit the big time. With the internet being a relatively new avenue for commerce, this may have worked for few advertisers, but now everyone, and there grandmother, has a .com website.

In today’s market there needs to be more of a draw to bring someone to your website and advertisers are stepping up the ante after more and more people see the advantages of using the internet as an interactive marketing tool. The two commercials that MasterCard ran during the 2006 Oscars urged people to write their own Priceless commentary for a MasterCard commercial. Sending viewers to their website priceless.com, MasterCard setup an avenue for establishing a relationship with the viewer to look for upcoming commercials, whether it be to see a winner, or possible their own commercial.

Using the Academy Awards as the launching point for this ad campaign was a prime choice for MasterCard to start this Priceless promotion. Gearing the ad to those who are enthralled by the Hollywood persona would brag to their co-workers, family, and friends if they have a commercial airing on TV. MasterCard’s Priceless promotion is a look into the future of how advertisers are going to use forms of interruption media and transform those views into measurable hits on the Internet’s interactive arena.

*See the MasterCard commercials here.

American Express’ newest “My Life. My Card.” Commercial

American Express’ newest “My Life. My Card.” commercial that aired during the Oscars. This commercial starred Hollywood director M. Night Shyamalan, who also directed the two minute flick.
*Watch it here on Ad Blabber.

This commercial goes to show how interruption marketing has caused commercials to gain awareness by using a majority of the length of a spot to grab viewers attention. While only a small portion of the spot is used to sell an actual product. In this example, American Express spends 112 seconds of the 120 to grab attention, while the American Express card logo or name doesn’t appear until there is less than 10 seconds left.

At a going rate of $1.7 million per 30 second spot during the Academy Awards, American Express spent $6.8 for the two minute commercial. That means Amex spent over 6 million in media spending to grab viewers attention and just over half a million for brand awareness.

This commercial demonstrates the trend of advertisers using more and more money just to get consumers’ attention, while less time is being used to sell a product or service. In today’s market, companies are forced to use varying forms of Advertainment to reach consumers, just to sell a product or company for a matter of seconds.

How to make KFC's Slow-Mo Promo Work

So you’ve probably heard about this already, KFC is going to offer a free Buffalo Snacker coupon code to those who view the KFC ad in slow motion on a DVR. The offer isn’t that great and it won’t work in the future unless GREAT deal is offered. The best part of this offer for KFC is the free publicity that they are receiving. Think about it, the Buffalo Snacker is a .99 cent product, not too great of a savings. Sure you might get some additional sales from the people that actually look for the coupon and visit KFC.com. Right now, millions of people are talking about the offer, most of them will not even see the commercial, and even less of those who do will go to the website and print it out.

Okay, so in the future, say something worth while is offered… how long does it take for one person to post the code on the internet, anyone could search for the code and find it on the internet.

When a car company gets a hold of this idea, then your talking. You’ve got a double bonus here. Say for instance Ford and NBC team up to promote a new television show (or an old one for that matter). Every week a code is given out during the show. You can then go to NBC.com/Ford and punch in your code each week for up to one hour after the show. There are a couple tricks that can be thrown in, only one of three ads running during the show display a code, or all three. After the code is submitted on the website, the ‘contestant’ must wait for an email that has a quiz about the show or about the Ford vehicle that was used in the episode.

By further involving the ‘contestant’ with a dialog, the advertiser is engaging the consumer with Permission marketing through Advertainment. This form of Permission marketing via the avenue of Advertaining will help increase brand awareness, television ratings, and in the long run, sales.