AdAge.com reports that Samsung has topped Sony for first time on Interbrand’s Top 100 Brand List. Sony’s decrease was attributed to a confusing portfolio of brands.
Slicksta owns both Sony and Samsung products and cannot decide which has more brand equity in his eyes. Then again, Samsung did gain a bigger share of Slicksta’s wallet with the purchase of the Samsung HL-R4266 last year.
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The Slingbox connects a TV to an internet router and makes programming from broadcast, cable, satellite or DVR available over the internet. Slicksta likes the idea of watching TV from his PC at work but thinks this would probably be detrimental to his career.
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This is the coolest refrigerator Slicksta has ever seen:
“The Sub-Zero PRO 48 is around 800 pounds of cleanly sculpted stainless steel. Not just outside, but inside, too. It’s design is bold, brilliantly reflecting Sub-Zero’s incomparable mastery of form and function. Nothing else looks like it. Or performs like it.”
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Slicksta loves the folks at Google and how they keep cranking out new and innovative products. Sure they keep stuff in “beta” for years and years while they work out the kinks, but most of their services are useful and free. Slicksta likes free stuff. Today Google commemorates the first lunar landing with Google Moon. Flags indicate the landing positions of the various Apollo missions. As with Google Maps, you can navigate around in all directions and zoom in or out when you find something interesting. Try zooming all the way into see what the moon is really made of!
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TVGuide.com is promoting their website with an online commercial that plays up the relationship (lust?) between their website and television. A survey and sweepstakes entry form are served immediately after the spot to gather feedback and contact information for remarketing purposes. It’s smart marketing and bold creative from a brand that Slicksta previously saw as a relic of supermarket checkouts from back in the day.
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Slicksta was suckered into watching ET’s Celebrity Weddings Unveiled. The premise innocent enough: get a sneak peak at behind the scenes footage of celebrity weddings a “lucky” couple getting married on national television.
Imagine Slicksta’s delight when the show degenerated into a product placement bonanza. Stylists were brought in to give free consultations. Their advice, inevitably, was for the couple to try cool new products like Crest White Strips, Secret Deoderant, Clairol Root Color and Oil of Olay Eye Gel. Slicksta watched in awe and shock as the products were demonstrated and talked up. At one point the groom was asked to try the Crest product on. Too bad they didn’t make the bride rub Secret on her armpits.
Each “advice” segment was followed up by a 30 second spot featuring the product featured. It had to be a product marketer’s dream-come-true. A new breed of sponsorship was born on June 28th: Advertainment.
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No wonder MySpace is doing so well Slicksta thought as he opened an account and was greated greeted by MySpace hottie, Jenny. In the last year this new site has surged past first-mover Friendster to become the most popular networking site on the web. Too bad the site sucks and hardly works.
Slicksta ran into a number of errors while setting up an account:
In the days since, Slicksta has tried unsuccessfully to invite friends to his network. Currently his network consists of one friend, some guy named Tom, who has 21,500,000 friends. Tom sure is popular but he does a crappy job keeping the site up!
Usability and scalability problems like this keep Slicksta from checking out the hotties on MySpace. With difficult or unreliable access, can the site sustain its growth?
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Slicksta sends a big thanks to Hoy for the latest distraction: Victoria’s Secret’s strip poker flash site. The site is supposed to promote VS’s new PINK underwear line or somthing . . . Slicksta is not exactly sure. He’s actually still playing in another window and is not really paying attention right now.
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In general, Slicksta considers himself a Snapple fan and he appreciates their campy, grass-roots approach to marketing. Also, he loves making that sound by tapping a bottle while holding it upside down. But when Snapple tried to launch a new line of frozen juice products they made a terrible blunder.
Someone in the PR or marketing department (probably PR) thought that erecting a giant popsicle made of Snapple during 80 degree heat was a good idea. The result, predictably, was syrup spilling all over the street and firefighters having to be called in to clean it up. “Imagine the press we’ll get when we break the world record” Slicksta can hear some fool saying. That’s right, the press was on hand and they documented this phenomenal failure for the world to see.
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Over the past few weeks Slicksta has received numerous suggestions for posts on marketing blunders. It appears Slicksta’s readers are not content to hear about compelling creative and smart campaigns. Instead, they want to point fingers at poor decisions and awful ideas. Slicksta likens it to rubber-necking at car accidents, watching reality television or smelling a fart . . . one cannot help but being somewhat fascinated or strangely compelled.
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