Before long, everyone will own a tablet. This means new opportunities as well as new challenges for marketers.

I’m not an early adopter. I let other folks experience first-generation electronics to pave the way for me. I wait to hear a little more, watch the products and read reviews to make completely sure of any new purchase.

But this past Christmas, I was starting to feel left behind. Young children were walking around with iPads. So we added not one, but two tablets to the Qualls household. And we’re not alone; lower-priced tablets further fueled tablet adoption at the end of 2012. More than half of the students in my daughter’s first-grade class received a tablet for Christmas.Read full post...

A great alternative for out-of-home spending.

According to Media Life, digital out-of-home spending will leap 13.2% from 2008 to 2013 — total spending will reach $4.53 billion, up from $2.6 billion this year. Video ad networks (screens in office buildings, health clubs, fast food chains and gas stations) will make up the largest portion, but the fastest growth in the category will come from digital billboards.

Digital billboards are currently available in the Philadelphia market on the I-95 corridor, but there’s also good news for our Delaware-based clients: The first digital billboard in Delaware will launch mid-September on I-95 near Newark. Digital billboards allow for unlimited design executions with no associated production costs and can be purchased on a weekly, every-four-week or annual basis. Yet another outlet to keep in mind as we search for the most effective ways to get our message out there.

Peel n' Taste

First Flavor Inc. of Bala Cynwyd and US Ink, a Carlstadt, NJ–based company that provides ink for the newspaper industry, recently launched “Taste-it Notes” – newspaper front-page sticky notes that double as flavor strips. Now you can smell and taste a food or beverage product in your morning newspaper!

So far, flavor strips have been used in national campaigns for Welch Foods, Arm & Hammer, SKYY Vodka and Campbell’s Soup. In addition to newspapers, the ads have appeared in People and Rolling Stone magazines.

The Philadelphia Business Journal reports that Taste-it Notes are being billed as “a new way for struggling newspapers to build up ad revenue. … This delivery leverages the power of print advertising and brings an interactive experience that is not possible with online, television or radio ads.”

Now I’m not sure if Taste-it Notes will revitalize the newspaper industry, but this is an interesting new take on product sampling.

Image courtesy TVGuide.

According to Nielsen, nearly 37.8 million U.S. viewers tuned in between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. to watch inauguration events on a total of 17 broadcast and cable networks.

This is the most viewers on an inauguration day since Ronald Reagan’s in 1981 (41.8 million viewers).

Read full post...