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Welcome to the first post of Spoken Whirred, the new Spoke Marketing blog. (note: there are old posts on here from my old Creative Reason blog but this is the first post under this new name and design.)
Spoken Whirred will be an outlet for our thoughts on marketing topics, advertising campaigns, client work and anything else that we feel is worth sharing. Authors include Dan Klein, David Meyer, Chuck Hart and me (Brian Schwartz).
In this first post I want to make sure to thank everyone who attended our open house. It's humbling how many of our friends showed up to wish us well and see our new office. For those who missed it, you missed a great night of networking with 250+ business movers and shakers (and drinkers).
Also we need to thank Sub Zero, Juniper Grill and The Fountain on Locust for their generosity and the wonderful drinks, food, wine and deserts.
Below are some pictures from the event:
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!
Cheers,
Brian Schwartz
I often watch The West Wing re-runs when I'm working at home and since I'm working I don't use the DVR as quickly as I would if I was actively watching the show.
Most commercials harmlessly play in the background, however I can't help but nearly jump off the couch as soon Billy Mays starts yelling about Oxi Clean or some other home cleaning product.
I don't understand why Billy Mays must yell at me every time he is on TV. Also, why is this an acceptable and popular form of television advertising?
I'm sure he's a nice guy and all. But please stop yelling at me.
So today I'm listening to Pandora again and I see the ad below, confirming what I guessed at in a previous post - Pandora is geographically targeting ads to users.
This banner ad is specifically for an open house at the University on November 21. This Open House is in St. Louis.
The landing page is also well-done because it's well designed and has the requisite social media sharing toolbar. Although it should probably list the address of the open house on the landing page somewhere.
A few years ago I managed a similar campaign for another college in St. Louis, and although those campaigns were successful at driving traffic from direct mail, organic searches and pay-per-click advertising , it
would have been nice to use other tools like this.
Well done Fontbonne and well done Pandora.
I've been a long time user / supporter of Pandora Internet Radio. I don't want to be one of those "I used them before anyone knew about it types...", but in this case I think I did. I stumbled upon their site a long, long time ago and a quick check of the station I listen to most on their shows I created it in 2005...
Anyway, back when I started using Pandora, it barely showed advertising, and when it did, it appeared it was doing so with some cool CSS tricks, but nothing targeted or relevant to me.
Today, I noticed that I was getting served ad content for Fontbonne University. Impressed, I grabbed a screenshot (click to make large). Why is this impressive? Well, Fontbonne is in my hometown of St. Louis. This could just a coincidence, but I think it's probably using geo-targeted ads. I hope so. If so, Pandora has come along way since they were showing Jamieson ads (and from my fuzzy memory - nothing else) back in 2006.
If you're a regional marketer, I strongly suggest you considered using geotargeting to reach your audience. It's usually less expensive and more effective. I think I'm going to have to talk to them about one of my clients and find out.
Biased media?
Spoken Whirred is a blog from Spoke - Marketing | Branding | Interactive. This blog will feature posts on marketing and advertising trends, campaigns we like (or loathe), or anything else that catches our fancy.
Spoke is a full-service marketing agency serving entrepreneurs and emerging business located in St. Louis, Missouri. Visit Spoke at www.WeAreSpoke.com.
