Fog City Media Blog » advertising

Porsche Signals Its Move Into The Family Market With A Slick New Panamera Ad

admin — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 04:51:35 +0000

No related posts.

Guess Who Just Released A Great Tilt-Shift Video?

admin — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 20:03:38 +0000

Nice and clean. Great music. No over the top branding. Makes me want to go to the park. Nice work, Disney folks.

Via Boing Boing

One Of The Best Ways To Market A Restaurant In New York City

admin — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 20:10:37 +0000

I recently came across the work of Liza de Guia. She is a filmmaker based in Brooklyn who specializes in producing videos about food and eateries in and around New York City. She’s made a number of films which she has posted on Vimeo.

One of Liza’s latest films is about a couple of restaurateurs from the Brooklyn area who have taken up beekeeping as a hobby. Please watch the film and then I’ll tell you why I think hiring Liza to shoot a film about your establishment is perhaps one of the best ways to advertise your craft.

Brooklyn’s Urban Beekeepers: Breaking The Law For The Planet (Part I) from SkeeterNYC on Vimeo.

The opening interview is perfect. It is funny, quick and provides a sets the tone for the rest of the piece. Throughout the 5+ minute video the music consistently matches the imagery. The individuals she interviews are funny, quirky and enjoyable to watch. It is obvious that Liza knows what she is doing and how to tell a story and that is what makes her work so valuable.

While having Liza tell your story if you are a beekeeper must be loads of fun it really doesn’t pay dividends. However, if you happen to be the General Managers and an Executive Chef of two Brooklyn eateries then having Liza tell your story can have seriously positive side effects. Roberta’s Pizza in Brooklyn and Frankies Spuntino in Brooklyn and Manhattan are both mentioned in the piece and while the video is basically about beekeeping you end Googling the two places pretty damn quick once the video is over.

What makes Liza so effective is that she understands that in order to be able to get people interested in a product you first have to find the story that surrounds it and work on telling it. Start by telling stories about the people, their human qualities and their quirks and whatever it is they are selling will appear that much more attractive. One of the most interesting people you will ever meet is Dan Machin, who is featured in Liza’s latest video, and if you watch it you will understand why I initially titled my post about it, ‘I Would Buy This Guy’s Veggies In A Heartbeat If I lived In Brooklyn’.

While I am big fan of Liza’s work I am more interested in what she represents. Liza is producing work that, I believe, represents the future of advertising. While her video was not intended to be a marketing piece I thought it was extremely effective at introducing an establishment by first casually introducing us to the people that work there. She has turned out a number of pieces that are more direct with their message but throughout all of them Liza succeeds in humanizing a business thereby making its product that much more desirable.

I am really not trying to pitch Liza here, I just think she has a lock on what works. Hopefully, we will begin to see more of these relaxed, informative and enjoyable videos that let us know about great eateries in New York City that some of us didn’t know were in existence. If you are unsure about whether or not you want to hire Liza and her camera (minimal overhead and a small footprint – another plus) consider that once your video is branded released into the wild it will take on a life of its own and continue to pollinate other sites on the web giving you maximum return. Give it a shot and see what happens – at least with Liza you know you will get a great product.

You can find all of Liza’s contact info here and the rest of her videos here.

Please be sure to leave a comment if you know of other people who are out there shooting fantastic material and deserve recognition. Another site to definitely check out if you are into food videos is Foodtease.com which is shot by two Canadians in Texas.

The Best Gelato In Rome

admin — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 19:01:34 +0000

I thought I would take a minute and do a little advertising for Gelateria Fatamorgana, a small gelateria artisanale here in Rome. A friend and I had lunch today at a restaurant near Ostiense, one of the main train stations near the center of town, and afterwards we decided to stop by the shop which was only a few blocks away.

Photo: Gelateria Fatamorgana

Situated on Via Ostiense only a stones throw from the giant Pyramid of Cestius, Fatamorgana is a little hole in the wall that sells some of the most unique and delicious ‘ice cream’ I have ever tasted. You can easily miss the shop if you are not looking for it and if you don’t believe me take a look at this Google Map image:

Click on image for actual Google Map Streetview

It may look a little rugged from the outside but, as with all things in Italy, looks can be deceiving. Once you step inside you are presented with an array of ice creams that you never thought could exist. Originally founded by an actress, Fatamorgana specializes in highly unusual flavors. The three I had today (Kentucky, Panacea and Madagascar Chocolate) were absolutely incredible.

Via Ostiense 36/E (Piramide) - 00127 Rome

Kentucky is a blend of rich chocolate and real Kentucky pipe tobacco. It may sound disgusting but the taste was incredible. Panacea is a blend of almonds, fresh mint and ginseng. The mint tasted as if it had just been picked. Madagascar chocolate is made without sugar but amazingly there is still a sweetness to the rich, nearly black concoction. All batches are made in small quantities in a machine a few feet from where it is served by one incredibly friendly guy.

When in Rome be sure to do as the Romans do and stop by Fatamorgana on Via Ostiense. Esquire, The Sunday Times and Il Tempo have all written about this little gem so you don’t have to take just my word for it. It is easy to get to (here is a map) and if you are interested in learning more please be sure to visit their site.

One Of The Best Ways To Market A Restaurant In New York City

One Of The Best Reasons To Avoid Advertising Online

admin — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 19:47:17 +0000

Adblock Plus: Save your time and traffic

For those of you who have never heard of Adblock Plus you would be wise to familiarize yourself with this simple little tool. Typically used as an Add-On with the Firefox browser, Adblock Plus strips ads from just about any site out there leaving you with just the content.

Most sites despise Adblock Plus as it cuts out advertising revenue. Daily Kos even has a front page plea asking users to either disable the extension while on the site or opt for a paid subscription so that they can keep paying their staff.

SUBSCRIBE! (or exclude from AdBlock)

If you use ad blocking software while viewing Daily Kos, you’re getting all the benefits of our site but we’re not getting any of the advertisement revenue associated with your visits. This site relies on ad revenue for daily operations: a decrease in the number of ads seen means a decrease in the funding available to run the site, to pay those that work on it, and to create improved site features.

We won’t stop you from using ad blocking software, but if you do use it we ask you to support Daily Kos another way: by purchasing a site subscription. A subscription is an inexpensive way to support the site that eliminates the advertisements without using ad blocking software.

Revenue generated from the subscriptions goes to the Daily Kos fellowship program, providing a steady income for bloggers and allowing them to concentrate full time on expanding the reach and influence of the netroots through a variety of projects.

By using ad blocking software, you may be hiding the site ads but you’re also reducing the site’s primary source of revenue. So if you must use one, please do your part to support the site and the people that bring it to you by purchasing a site subscription today.

While I can certainly sympathize with their plight I am not sure how successful they are with deterring the use of Adblock Plus. When you have to dedicate prime real estate to making sure that people don’t lessen the value of the rest of your site’s real estate I think it is clear you are fighting a losing battle. The value of online advertising is diminishing while the value of social media and the delivery of top notch content is increasing.

The Christian Science Monitor recently ran an article about Adblock Plus titled, “A block for those annoying online ads“, on a page that was full of online ads. One commenter rightly asked, “Hmm…I wonder how your advertisers that are investing their money to advertise on your site feel about this article.”

If a mainstream paper like the Christian Science Monitor is not concerned with running articles which highlight useful tools like Adblock Plus perhaps they know something we don’t. I wonder if the popular newspaper has decided that the traditional advertising models don’t pay all that much and that it is time to look for greener pastures? When I wrote about the sorry state of television advertising I knew I’d have to write this article as a follow-up piece. It is just too easy to, with the click of a button, wipe out advertising revenue for a site. While I have nothing to lose you, the advertiser, might want to take a second look at your marketing strategy.

Don’t dismiss Adblock Plus as a tool for the technically savvy. According to The Christian Science Monitor article the extension is the number one downloaded Firefox Add-On and averages 780,000 new downloads each week. That equates to a city with a population only slightly smaller than that of Los Angeles downloading the software each month. For advertisers that is certainly not a laughing matter. If you still think Adblock Plus is just too difficult to use and it is not worth the added effort take a look at this quick video:

When I worked in the deep field, in places like Africa and SE Asia, I had to use Adblock Plus so I wouldn’t crash the delicate satellite networks we used and so I could avoid having to pay $8/MB for massive amounts of unwanted bandwidth. I have never looked back and for me it is an invaluable tool. Pages load faster, they don’t hang, I am not subjected to the strobelike effect that so many ads now employ and, lastly, I can’t help but think that I am helping to do my part to ‘green’ the internet. By cutting back on ads you are not only decreasing bandwidth loads you are forcing advertisers to rethink their strategies and helping highlight the importance of high quality writers, photographers, videographers, etc. If you want to see where advertising is headed take a look at my previous post.

There will always be a need for effective advertising. Thankfully, with tools like Adblock Plus gaining in popularity advertisers will realize that they need to evolve to survive and that it is no longer about just getting your product in front of someone – now you actually need to start talking to them.

UPDATE: TechCrunch just posted a great article about another negative aspect of online advertising – the CPM.

One Of The Best New Media Video Advertisements I’ve Seen This Week

admin — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 19:41:15 +0000

What a great way to sell yourself and your product. Dan Machin is the owner of the Lone Acre Farm in Riverhead, Long Island and he was recently highlighted on Foodcurated.com’s Vimeo site. Here’s the video:

Notes from a Lone Acre: 1 Dude. 1 Acre. Many Little Anecdotes. from SkeeterNYC on Vimeo.

Liz De Guia shot the video for her soon to launch Foodcurated.com site. She captured Dan’s quirkiness and eccentricity. Dan seems to really know his produce and he seems to have amazing varieties of fruits and vegetables growing on his farm. If you want to contact Dan you can email him at theloneacre@gmail.com or just stop by his stand Sunday’s from 11-5 at J.J. Byrne Park in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

I think Liz did a great job with the video, I only wish that she had asked Dan to mention the location of his stand in the video, or, at least held up a card with the address, dates and times. That way I would not have almost missed it since it was buried in the Vimeo description. If the address had been mentioned in the video it would have been a full and complete package and would have carried its message no matter how many times it was reposted. This is exactly the type of positive advertising I hope to see more of.

Thanks Liz and good luck Dan with the farm! I hope you both stop by and let us know what new videos we can look forward to and what new produce we can expect.

Why You Should Buy WIRED’s Terminal Man Lunch

admin — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 20:45:06 +0000

I am not sure if you have been following WIRED’s Terminal Man series on their Autopia blog but if you have you’ll recognize these two:

Josh and Dan DuVall Photo: WIRED/Brendan Ross

Josh DuVall (@JDDuVall) has been following Terminal Man (aka Brendan Ross/@Flyered) on Twitter and when he saw Brendan was headed for Charlotte, NC he offered to buy him lunch at his family’s airport restaurant, the Stock Car Cafe. As a result Josh and his dad Dan had their photo taken by Brendan and included at the bottom at one of Brendan’s posts. The DuVall’s are living proof that southern hospitality is alive and well.

Odds are most people won’t remember to stop by the Stock Car Cafe next time they are passing through the Charlotte, NC airport but for those that do it would be great if they sat down and had a proper meal so that the DuVall’s good deeds don’t go unrecognized. I tried to do my part by giving @Wachovia and @Ask_WellsFargo a heads-up about Josh’s additional offer of assistance:

@Wachovia employee @JDDuVall taking initiative to provide customer service to @Flyered. Maybe some kudos for this guy, @Ask_WellsFargo?
4:27 AM Sep 20th from twhirl

Josh works part time as a customer service rep at Wachovia and had just offered to help Brendan out with his banking needs if he ever found himself dealing with Wachovia. Wachovia picked it up and sent this reply:

@fogcitymedia Thanks for the tip. We’ll look into it! ^IM
about 10 hours ago from CoTweet in reply to fogcitymedia

Hopefully, Josh will get some recognition for his efforts and this whole thing will come full circle. What strikes me most about this experiment is that it seems few, if any, businesses are taking this opportunity to show the kind of hospitality that the DuVall’s were able to serve up. A little kindness would probably do their bottom line some good.

While I am sure the DuVall’s would love to welcome a few more visitors I bet they would prefer that folks lend a hand to Brendan who is still out there flying around the friendly skies. I would hope that at least @Peets_Tweets (Peet’s Coffee) and @Starbucks would offer him a free cup of coffee. Perhaps @AAirwaves (American Airlines) could comp Brendan a free pass to the Admirals Club for a day so he could take a proper shower. I recently flew American home for a visit and their lounge in Chicago looked pretty nice from the outside.

Terminal 5 at JFK has a dozen eateries and various shops all of which could have stepped up and Twittered their offers. I am also a bit surprised that no NY news outlet and/or publication has at least sent someone down to the JetBlue terminal to meet up with Brendan. While I wouldn’t expect Conde Nast, which owns WIRED, to send a GQ or Traveler writer down to Terminal 5, I could envision a local TV network arranging an interview. (I don’t have any @’s for local NY news so please pass ‘em on if you do.)

The point is Brendan is out there sleeping on benches and living on burritos. I don’t think it would be too hard for a marketing department in a hub city to show Brendan a little hospitality and maybe even buy him a new sleeping pad, which he seems to be in need of. Those who do manage to treat Brendan to a meal might be able to convince him to send out a courtesy Tweet to his 2,687 followers on Twitter and maybe even give them an honorable mention on WIRED. While I am pretty sure the DuVall’s never had that intention it might turn out that thanks to their kindness their restaurant becomes one of the more popular stops in Charlotte. If not, at least their hospitality is now well known.

No related posts.

My Love/Hate Relationship With Advertising

admin — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 22:39:30 +0000

On a recent trip home I had the unfortunate experience of watching some of our local provider’s 800+ cable channels. The lineup is so dreadful that I can no longer imagine watching TV without a DVR so that I can record only the shows I want and zip through all the commercials. I realize now that television has become, and maybe has always been, an advertisement delivery platform with the shows serving as merely filler. Broadcasters must be absolutely desperate for revenue. I think I might finally be ready to hook up my computer to our TV, or drop $100 on a Roku box with a Netflix subscription, and be done with cable altogether.

I have spent the last 6 months without a TV here in Europe and I love the solitude. I find I am much more productive and my senses appreciate the fact that they are no longer bombarded by the jarring audio and staccato imagery of today’s TV commercials. Unfortunately, while I can avoid TV ads I am still intermittently subjected to online advertising.

They are trying – “GM learned via monitoring blogs and web postings that there was quite a positive reaction to the spot, she said. The marketer hasn’t determined exactly how long the spot will continue to air.” -Via AdAge

Due to issues with Firefox 3.5 I recently moved to Apple’s Safari at which point I ran headlong into a slew of web ads. The front page of my hometown paper was running an ad for a big box store which was so large it actually swallowed the full screen. On a different site the ads had taken over control of the page and constantly forced me to the top of the page where the ad was located. I also found that I was once again subjected to video ads that seemed to kill the speed of the entire page while they promoted stuff I would never buy. I immediately reinstalled Firefox and activated the Adblock Plus add-on. I refuse to subject myself to poorly executed, low quality advertising.

The Firefox Adblock Plus add-on is without a doubt a web workers best friend. I have been using it for years and appreciate the fact that it has kept me safe from literally billions of dollars in advertising. I have no idea what I missed but I do know that I am perfectly happy not owning whatever it is they wanted me to buy. Of course I like to be reminded now and then about new technologies, services, etc but I like to search them out on trusted blogs and occasionally useful websites. Even on those sites I have no interest in seeing their paid ads – I let the writers do the advertising.

When the big guns are hosting events with the title “Is the advertising model dead?” you know you’ve got a problem. Via Guy Kawasaki at OpenForum

I certainly appreciate good advertising but I can’t stand advertising that is poorly made, poorly presented and that oversaturates the environment. Aside from there being too many ads filling the ad space there is also a problem with the rubber not meeting the road. In my opinion most ad campaigns oversell a lackluster product and almost never provide a forum where the company can then say, “You know what? We blew it. We sold you a crappy product and we are sorry.” Blogs provide that ability as do a number of other new/social/interactive media tools.

I know that a lot of time and effort is put into creating great TV spots, print ads, etc. and the artists used to produce the content are of the highest caliber (I have been lucky enough to have worked on some very large ad campaigns) it just seems that traditional advertising has become more of an irritant rather than a panacea. Gone are the days of “Hey, I need that!” They have been replaced by the “Oh no, not another commercial.” lifestyle that we are forced to live 24/7. For the businesses that are trying to promote what they feel is a great product mainstream advertising has started to become a liability rather than an asset.

Advertisers, talk to people. Put yourself out there but doesn’t mean when you Twitter constantly apologizing for some little screw up. Have some character and speak with the voice that you would talk to your family with. Take ownership of what you say and be proud of your product.The challenge now is for you to become more human than your competitors. Blogs are a great way to do this especially with media that is not too high brow. Create videos that show your company’s humanity (sort of like the GE commercial up top) and use images that show your business in an balanced light.

Don’t worry about the ratings. Be the nice guy/gal at the party that is clutching his/her drink a bit too tight. People will gravitate to you. I don’t agree with Eric Bradlow of the the Wharton School’s Interactive Media Initiative when he says that the idea that ‘content is king’ is a myth. If you don’t have great content no one is going to want to link to your site no matter how much you pitch them. Talk about issues that are trending, speak with authority, say what everyone is thinking but is too nervous to say and always, always, always give something to your readers and they will do the work for you.

U2 – I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight from David OReilly on Vimeo.

A few months ago Boing Boing featured the David O’Reilly video you see above. I don’t know if U2 commissioned the piece but so far they haven’t asked it be pulled for copyright reasons. I remember hearing the song before I read that post but ever since I saw the video I turn the radio up every time it plays. The fact that David O’Reilly took the time to create a video for a U2 song that Boing Boing ultimately wrote about is what made me want to buy that song. Once I get my iTunes issue sorted out I’ll be adding it to my collection. Rather than forcing your product on people with more traditional advertising start talking to them about it and let them decide its fate. Odds are if you what you say is true and your product is good it will take on a life of its own and you’ll be able to sit back and watch it take off.

Am I advocating the use of a blog to sell your product? Absolutely. Believe it or not people want a place where they can go and listen to a voice they trust talk to them about a product and what it can do for them. If you give their senses a rest and stop spending so much on all that noisy advertising they actually start to be able to hear what you have to say. And once they have heard you out be sure that you then take the time to listen and, more importantly, respond. If you are a popular brand this could mean a mountain of work but it could also mean a very healthy return over an extended period of time. Even if your message is not a smash hit straight out of the gate it is better to be the brand that people seek out rather than the one they try to avoid. If you are still not sold just remember this: I can easily block an ad on a page but not the content.

Every company is a media company

admin — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 20:24:51 +0000

I realized that every company is now a media company. It doesn’t matter if it makes network gear or diapers, every company needs to publish to its various communities, its customers, its staff, it’s neighbors. It needs to know how to produce compelling content, great video, podcasts, etc. And now with this emerging two-way Internet it also needs to learn how to listen, how to get involved in online discussions, how to behave on Facebook or Twitter. Every company needs to master the media technologies of RSS, blogging, and more.

-Tom Foremski via ZDNet and Silicon Valley Watcher