Me, Myself & Media.

An article which appeared on Advertising Age’s website this morning detailed Procter & Gamble’s $57 billion acquisition of Gillette Co. five years ago. The author of the piece, Jack Neff, says that while P&G has had increased market share since obtaining Gillette, that the full price tag value has not be reaped just yet. $57 billion is a lot of money -- and these last five years have been tough economically. I bet P&G did not see the economic crisis coming when they handed over such a hefty sum of money. In the past five years, Gillette rolled out their newest “blade innovation” -- the Fusion. The problem with Gillette’s problem is that with people having less money and 10% of the population without a job, pricy razors are not high on people’s priority lists.

One of the things I find most interesting about this article is that as I was reading it, I could not think of a single competitor to Gillette. I sat and racked my brains and came up with Schick, but that was it. I suppose I am most familiar with female razor brands, but I could not think of any separate “male razors” either. Gillette seemingly has a monopoly in the razor marketplace. Even if the $57 billion has not proven measurable results equal to, or greater than, this acquisition price tag, I do not think that the decision was a bad idea. I feel like it is unwise to judge success of financial decisions in such a tough economic climate.

Lastly, this acquisition made me think of companies that I wish would branch out, or create subsidiaries, or even other product lines. I would LOVE for Whole Foods to create a separate entity, sit-down, restaurant where they served delicious, organic, healthy food off a menu. And TCBY needs to start selling their frozen yogurt at the grocery store. And iTunes should host concerts -- at a live venue. These are very random thoughts, but I love trying to think of new M&A or new ways that companies can create new products which compliment their current assets.

I find Twitter very interesting. Last semester, my Advertising Research group conducted a focus group about social media, and nearly every single person fervently denied having a Twitter, or even thinking about opening one. Just a couple of months later, nearly everyone in my Media class has an account. While I cannot pinpoint the tipping point just yet, I strongly believe that it is now “cool” amongst college kids. Don’t you know the people at Twitter are celebrating?!?

I opened an account mainly because I wanted to “follow” my favorite celebrities. Slowly, I began to post good movie quotes, inspirational verses, and random thoughts on my site (although I still have only about 15 Tweets!). However, I was asked to research a client’s Twitter usage at my internship and was given a crash course on how to best operate and utilize this microblogging site. The tool that I find most useful is to the “#tag”, which basically picks up trending topics that people are talking about on Twitter and pulls them onto one big list. AdAge.com just announced that they will produce a “10 Most Tweeted Brands of the Week Chart” which highlights the coolest of the cool trends. I believe that this is a great idea. I would like for them to publish this list at the end of the year, as a sort of “Twitter Yearbook: Trends through the Weeks”. I love to look back at my old yearbooks at the section in the back that highlighted the coolest songs, movies, stores, etc. of that year. Essentially, Twitter is capturing this for us, and AdAge is distributing the details.

As a marketer, having your brand be one of the 10 top “Tweet” subjects would be like striking a GOLD MINE. That is, unless they are bashing your brand. Then that could get ugly.

While I may be one of the only people in America who did not watch the Super Bowl last night, my roommate did beckon me downstairs when Tim Tebow’s commercial aired. And I was mildly disappointed at how ambiguous the spot was. I suppose the ad had received so much publicity before the game that I expected an ultra-controversial message, driving the point that abortion should be banned. However, the spot merely alludes to the fact that Mrs. Tebow’s doctors had suggested that she abort Tim due to medical reasons, but that she refused. She called him her “miracle baby.” And then he tackled her to the floor.

I actually thought it was very appropriate and cute -- but I would like to have seen a little more emphasis on the message that abortions should be made illegal in America. For the amount of money spent running that commercial, you think that there should be a little more oomph to it. At the end of the spot, the Tebows told viewers that they could go online to Focus on the Family’s website for the full story.

Interested in seeing what the press thought about the advertisement, I scoured AdAge.com this morning and came across an ad titled “WWJD? He’d Skip Most of This Year’s Super Bowl Ads” by Bob Garfield. The article says, “Seriously, have you not noticed that Jesus gets as many plugs as the Monday night prime-time lineup?” I was so excited to read that line. It’s true -- I always get so excited when I see prayer circles before games, or when you read bible verses written on players’ cheeks. Or even better, when you have sweet quarterbacks like Colt McCoy thank Jesus for his victory after a game. It is a beautiful and moving thing to see Christianity displayed in such a highly publicized industry. Both Colt and Sam Bradford are featured on www.IamSecond.com, which is a website devoted to celebrities discussing their faith and how they are second in life to Jesus.

Anyways, I thought that the Tebow spot was innocent enough, and I hope that all of the controversy surrounding the ad dies quickly. I know that a lot of Americans dislike Tim (the author of the article said he was “pro-TiVo” but I think that he seems so genuine and I like him a lot.

“Our 14-oz steak is going once... going twice... gone to the man in the black, pinstripe Armani suit!!”

While the restauranteurs at Smith & Wollensky in NYC may not be auctioning off their steaks, they certainly are bartering them off. In the New York Times today, a stark, yet bold worded, ad reads “STEAK FOR STOCK”, followed by body copy explaining the new deal. When the bill arrives at the table, customers are able to pay for the meal by presenting an original stock certificate and a separate stock power with a medallion signature guarantee.

The impetus for Smith & Wollensky’s innovative transaction idea results from large Wall Street banks’ paying of bonuses in stock, not in cash. The effects of their doing so will be catastrophic on the local economy, and therefore, the steakhouse decided to take action and seize the opportunity to advertise in order to gain positive publicity and increase restaurant traffic.

Allan Stillman, owner of Smith & Wollensky, said that the response has been “over the top.” He also commented on how rare it is to have such widespread media coverage of a restaurant’s advertising. He said, "When we do our advertising, we consider the fact that if you can get it to be cutting-edge, then you're doing something different from everybody else, and you don't have to worry about people copying your advertising."

I love this idea. It is well thought out, creative, and is aimed directly at their core target market -- businessmen and women. Bravo Smith & Wollensky (& Creative Team at Walrus), bravo!

After Apple’s reveal of the newest piece gadget -- dubbed the iPad -- many tech savvy bloggers have been blasting off messages of excitement, anticipation and feeling of awe at Apple’s ability to continually produce products that further the boundaries of modern gadgetry. However, there has been a large amount of criticism and disappointment from the tech community about features that are missing from the iPad, one of which being Flash software.

At first, I felt like people were overreacting about their dismay at the lack of Flash, but after thinking about it, I do find it strange that a product which Apple is touting as the ultimate personal entertainment device would be missing a software which enables most advertisements, websites and online TV shows to run. In an article on MediaWeek.com, Mike Shields points out that without Flash, the increasingly popular alternative TV venue Hulu.com will be unavailable. According to Shields, “Hulu, which reached 43.7 million unique users in November, streamed a record 924 million videos”. These numbers are staggering -- and I must admit, I am one of those unique users. Do not get me wrong, I am an avid iTunes downloader, mainly thanks to my parents generosity in giving me a monthly iTunes allowance.

However, as my hard drive filled up and my laptop began to move slower, I decided to try Hulu.com, so that I would not have to buy Ugly Betty and House episodes and have them take up so much space. Before using this site, I was morally against it -- thinking that it was furthering the death of commercials. However, after watching an episode of Ugly Betty and being interrupted four times throughout the show to watch ads (which you are unable to forward through), I realized that Hulu was even better than TiVoing for advertisers. After a couple of episodes of the show, I could recite to you the NyQuil spot in my dreams -- and this is an advertisers greatest wish.

So while I am still very excited to get to play with an iPad when it finally arrives at Apple stores, I may perhaps hold off from buying one until iPad numero dos comes to the market, hopefully with the addition of Flash software. Still an owner of the original iPhone, I am reminded that patience is a virtue with Apple’s techie gadgets every time that my little sister quips out her iPhone 3GS and whizs about Safari at a speed unknown to my seemingly decrepit cellular device.

In the news this morning, Merrill Lynch’s $20 million marketing effort stole the headlines. The focus of this recent advertising strategy is retirement, which is the number one savings goal for most people, according to Justine Mertz, the head of marketing for retirement and philanthropic services at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. In the recent recession, many people’s savings accounts shrunk significantly in size, and although our economy is yet to fully recover, Metz claims that Americans have proven themselves as “cautiously optimistic.” I believe that this newfound positivity about the financial markets will trigger a series of new advertising campaigns, as companies attempt to capitalize on what journalist Dan Neil of the LA Times describes as “Americans’ amnesia”. Neil also points out that the US economy is “led into and out of recession by consumer confidence, which turns on our faith in our institutions”. Perhaps Merrill Lynch’s campaign has arrived at the perfect time -- the economy is far from prosperous, with 10% of people in the United States still unemployed, but our country appears to be on the road to recovery.

Albert Einstein once stated: ”In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.” Well, here it is -- one big opportunity. I believe that firms should continue to be careful with their messaging, but that given the current optimism in our nation, they should begin to roll out new strategies with services offering to help Americans. Copy in one of the new “help2retire_____” Merrill Lynch campaigns reads “A Merrill Lynch Financial Advisor can explain the potential benefits and help you determine if one is a good fit for your long-term strategy.” People want help, they desire stability, they need security.