LG's Mobile Banner Ads Are Getting Aggressive

"LG G2 (Black)," © 2013 Fetx2002 used under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en.

LG brings a new kind of creativity to mobile banner ads, as they introduce their newest advertising campaign that targets Galaxy and iPhone users. M&C Saatchi, for LG, created several banner ads that mocked the unfavorable features of the Galaxy and iPhone, then followed up with an ad for the G2 that promoted the positive alternate that these LG phones provide.

For example, owners of the Galaxy phone may see "Waiting for your GALAXY to catch up?" followed by a message that LG phones have a 20% faster processor.

The other banner ads are shown below:

This campaign is on the right track to bring the innovation that banner ads need in this continuously evolving type of media. Banner ads have a reputation for remaining static in this industry by not cutting through the online advertising inventory. However, the creativity that is shown in this campaign could bring a greater popularity to banner advertisements.

Sponsored Ads Filter into Instagram

      Just as I thought I was safe from overbearing advertisements when I use Instagram, I'm forced to think again. This week, a sample sponsored ad popped up in my feed as Instagram announced they will be incorporating these ads as a part of their new sponsored look. They will be presented just as other photos look, with the availability for users to like and comment, except these ads will include a "sponsored" tag. Plans for sponsored videos are already on the way as well, according to Ad Week.

So far, Instagram has several advertising partners on board with this launch including Michael Kors, Burberry, Levi's, PayPal, Macy's, Ben & Jerry's, General Electric and Starwood.

With these network having a value of $1 billion when it was bought last year, the fact that an advertising component was added should not come as a surprise. This is just one more outlet for consumers to be swallowed by the advertising clutter. 

My Instagram by Emily Ruffing is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

How Marketers Are Making Healthy Foods More Appealing to Children

Marketers now need to make fruits and vegetables “cool” for children, as if doing something good for your body isn’t enough for youngsters these days. Although I may be appalled at the implications that makes about our culture, I do see some hope in the stress that has been applied to food companies and brands like Disney and Nickelodeon to drop the junk food advertisements marketed towards children. According to this article in Advertising Age, marketers now use “packaging gimmicks and tie-ins with children’s media properties” to win kids over with healthier foods. If that is what it takes to get kids to eat healthier let’s give it a try.

Sure, giants in the marketplace (Walmart, Target, Disney) are capitalizing on the healthy foods for children movement, but at the same time there are small companies that are jumping at the opportunity, too. These smaller companies selling goods like prepackaged olives and freeze dried fruit have small advertising budgets. They typically do small print and radio ads and focus on in-store events. This has proven to be successful enough to get their products in major retailers. This seems to be a good sign for the future health of our young people.

We do not know much of an effect this movement has had towards increased marketing of healthy foods to children. There have not been statistics published on marketing healthy foods towards children and Disney will not release their figures on their sales of branded food. Nonetheless, the preliminary success in popularity with kid-friendly fruits and veggies is refreshing. I’m glad to see Mickey Mouse doing good with the weight and power of his smiling face. That is what I call social responsibility. 

How Effectively Are You Targeting Your Consumers?

Behind The Glory of Real-Time Marketing

For years, advertisers have researched ways to not only target a certain audience, but reach a particular customer at a particular time and place. Real-time marketing (RTM) provides consumers the most appropriate offer for the given customer sales opportunity based on their interaction through website clicks or verbal contact. Sounds great, doesn't it? Why wouldn't consumers want to receive offers or view ads for the brands they were clearly already interested in?

The problem with this type of marketing lies a bit deeper. Instead of brands wanting to connect with people, this approach forces brands to publish at them. In the primary years of social media website's popularity, they once provided an online community for consumers to interact with each other. Communication and brand recommendations were significantly more sincere than what they have become today. Since advertisers are now more focused on gaining likes and shares without a comprehensive business strategy, the idea of engaging with consumers is progressively diminishing. 

RTM is appealing to so many advertisers because of its timeliness and relevancy to consumers. However, this is only beneficial and effective if used in relation to connecting and interacting with your audience.