With devices such as DVR’s and satellite radio it;s been a long time coming that the technology is now available to skip advertisements. I remember first hearing about DVR’s back in the early 2000’s and I certainly thought it was some sort of gimmicky and cheap electronic system, a glorified VCR. It somewhat is but then of course my tune has changes since owning one and being able to watch 30 minute shows in 18 minutes.

Now, being in advertising and media it is a challenge to get sales and branding messages out to audiences. Although we have produced TV and radio ads that is not our main concentration, ours is actually a result of the advertisement skipping technology and that is non-traditional or alternative media advertising.

Enter DigiAd, our info-tainement system. DigiAd system reach people in public places where they are somewhat of a captive audience and deliver location information, entertainment aspects and then of course advertisements.

Let me describe the latest version that we have working in our restaurant and bar/nightclub locations.
1) Patrons at the location are eating/drinking/socializing and are within reach of one of the establishments televisions.
NOTE: with the adaptation and price decrease the flat screen television had become ubiquitous in locations from doctors offices, to your supermarket produce section, public transportation and of course service industry locations.
2) The television displays content that is a mix of information about upcoming events for that locations (internal advertising), pictures/video of people drinking/dancing or even just posing for the camera (entertaining) and then a graphic comes on mentioning to try a new margarita by XXXXX alcohol company/distributor.

A mix of information about the establishment, entertaining photos and then subtle messages from sponsors which are in line with the establishment all equal infotainment.

For more information on the DigiAD system, please visit our website. www.digiadvideo.com

Print is dead. With the news today (Detroit Free Press and News redirect staff, resources to digital delivery of news) Article Here the death knell tolls for the sixth-largest Sunday paper in the nation. Actually, it’s not the death knell as the paper will still circulate but more specifically it is not delivering to homes on certain days. The newspaper industry as a whole has certainly come down with a bad case of (fill in the blank here - with something fatal).

How does this translate to print in general and specifically to business materials for communication, marketing and promotion.

The simple answer as my marketing professor puts it, “it depends”. Books, annual reports, and other high-end and high quality printed materials will still have usage. These items will be seen to be worthy of printing in order to stand the test of time as they are deemed worthy enough to put on the modern day, evolved stone tablet that will be known as the book. Items that are more topical will easily be translated to the digital format. Direct mail marketing is being replaced by email marketing, flyers for nightclubs will be replace by Twittering Tweets or MySpace Bulletin notices, it goes on for all the rest of the junk mail, door flyers, and even product brochures.

*Special bonus points to those of you who know what movie the quote “Print is dead” came from. Of course it was Egon fro Ghostbusters.

It was officially announced in the past few weeks that the United States is in a recession. Without going into the the vastly complex aspects of what that means, many businesses ask the question: How will this affect my business?

My general take on it is that it doesn’t have to. There is still a very good amount of customer purchasing and you don’t have to plan or expect that your sales will be cut back. What is different is that the business is harder to get to and customers/clients are more aware and scrutinizing spending to ensure that it is in line with their business model and operations.

In general, dollars are hard to get but they are still out there. The next question that you might have should be along the lines of: how do I get those dollars?

When the market is clearing out and thinning down, now can be your chance to stand out from the crowd. Revaluate your current marketing/advertising plans and even increase them in order to take advantage of other businesses pulling back.

One of the first areas that businesses look to downsize or cut budget from is marketing/advertising.
This makes a little bit of sense in the short term aspects but in the big picture it starts to drift into unfit businesses practices. Think of it from this perspective, do you have a great product or service?
Then why wouldn’t you want to keep letting customers know that you are open for business on a continuing basis? Even if you have a solid customer base you still need to communicate with them in order to reinforce your brand in their mind otherwise your customer base starts to get eaten away by your competitor who is drawing your customers by their continued or new advertising campaign.

“Research shows that companies that consistently advertise even during recessions perform better in the long run. A McGraw-Hill Research study looking at 600 companies from 1980 to 1985 found that those businesses which chose to maintain or raise their level of advertising expenditures during the 1981 and 1982 recession had significantly higher sales after the economy recovered. Specifically, companies that advertised aggressively during the recession had sales 256% higher than those that did not continue to advertise.”

Out with the old and in with the new for both the year 2008 and the old Think Tank Creative Studio website. We are using our blog as a placeholder until the new site is ready in January 2009. Yes, you certainly can visit the old site to see past projects and other info. It is located here: www.rollwiththetank.com/website2008/

As always please feel free to email or call to get immediate assistance.