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April 8, 2009 Posted by ej | Marketing to Women, Shopping, Technology | Advertising, Business, Marketing, Shoes, Shopping, Women | 1 Comment

Mars Introduces New Candy Bar for Women: “Fling” Uses Provocative Ads to Stimulate Sales

Mars Encourages Women to Have a Fling

First New Brand From Candy Giant in Almost 20 Years Rolls Out With Fewer Calories and Plenty of Double Entendres

Rupal Parekh and Emily Bryson York, Advertising Age

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Mars is prepping its first new candy brand since Twix nearly 20 years ago: a low-calorie chocolate bar dubbed “Fling,” aimed at women.

Click below to see one of the first commercials for Fling:

The candy is positioned as “Naughty, but not that naughty.” In the first commercial that breaks next week from longtime roster shop BBDO, New York, a woman appears to enter a dressing room occupied by a man, with the two then getting undressed and proceeding to act, er, naughty. But then the camera pans over the top of the fitting rooms, revealing they are actually in two separate dressing rooms, as he struggles with his clothes and she secretly nibbles on a Fling.

Print work for the brand declares “It’s not cheating if you don’t feel guilty,” “Your boyfriend doesn’t need to know,” and “Pleasure yourself.”

The campaign, which also includes cover wraps on issues of People magazine, breaks in the California market next week, and the full push will roll out nationally this year.More . . .

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April 8, 2009 Posted by ej | Food, Marketing to Women | Advertising, Business, Food, Marketing, Women | Leave a Comment

The Ultimate User’s Guide to Everything Twitter

Okay people!! We have found it!! We have found the BEST user’s guide to Twitter, and we have to say that it is the people on Twitter that let us know about it. It covers everything from how to sign-up, to how to customize your background, to how to get more followers , to how to use it to market your business, etc!! Thanks Twitterites!!

And most importantly, thanks to the team at The Webdesigner Depot for putting it together!

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The Ultimate Guide for Everything Twitter

Twitter isn’t just a cute way for keeping in instant touch with friends on mobile phones anymore. It has ramped up quickly to be the search engine of choice for some with its human driven results.

Applications galore allow you to find friends all over the world with similar interests and keep up with them in real time.

Businesses can form instant direct relationships with their customer bases simply by signing up and using the service regularly, and according to the models Twitter is trying out, they will soon be able to advertise to the Twitter community as well. It has grown into a behemoth that is hard to get your hands around, which is why we’ve put this article together for you.

We’ve compiled an alphabetized glossary here for you so that you can just scan down the list and find the term that you are looking for, as well as a list of popular Twitter applications and instructions for incorporating Twitter into your website and blogs.

Twitter Basics

If you had no idea what Twitter was walking into this article, we’re going to start you off at the very beginning. To sign up for Twitter, go to twitter.com and click on “Get Started – Join!”. Fill out the information and voila – you have your own Twitter account. I set up two accounts; one on my personal name, and one for my business. It’s important to grab your names before someone else does, even if you don’t plan on using the account for a while. More . . .

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March 26, 2009 Posted by ej | Gadgets, Technology | Business, Education, Gadgets, Leadership, Marketing, Parenting, Technology, Toys, Twitter, Women | Leave a Comment

Time Inc. and Lexus Experiment with Made-to-Order Magazines: How to Get Yours

Have you ever wished for a magazine where you determine the content? How about a mix of Time, Sports Illustrated, Food & Wine, Real Simple, Money, In Style, Golf, and/or Travel + Leisure? Well, Time Inc. and Lexus are running an experiment that you may be interested in.

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Made-to-order Magazines Let Readers Choose

Time Inc. experiment aims to mimic Web’s personalized news feeds.

The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES – Time Inc. is experimenting with a customized magazine that combines reader-selected sections from eight publications as it tries to mimic in printed form the personalized news feeds that have become popular on the Internet.

Called “mine,” the five-issue, 10-week experiment also aligns readers with the branding message that its sole advertising partner, Toyota Motor Corp., has for its new Lexus 2010 RX sport utility vehicle: It’s as customizable as the magazine carrying its ads.

The magazine is free, but the print edition is limited to the first 31,000 respondents, while an online version is available for another 200,000.

Sign-ups are available immediately at http://www.timeinc.com/mine, with the first issue to be shipped in the mail in early April, and then once every two weeks. Online subscribers will get digital editions that look just like the printed version, but in a special format that allows virtual page turns with clicks. A promotional push for the magazine kicks off Friday.

Readers can select five titles from eight published by subsidiaries of Time Warner Inc. and American Express Co.: Time, Sports Illustrated, Food & Wine, Real Simple, Money, In Style, Golf, and Travel + Leisure.

Editors will pre-select the stories that make it into every biweekly issue, and readers won’t have the option of changing the picks from issue to issue. More . . .

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March 26, 2009 Posted by ej | Magazines, Marketing | Automotive, Business, Fashion, Food, Lexus, Magazines, Marketing, Money, Sports, Women | Leave a Comment

“Home Meal Replacement Solutions” – A Look at What Pizza Hut is Up to

Pizza Hut isn’t just focused on pizza anymore, they want to drive growth by providing home meal replacement solutions such as pasta, lasagna and buffalo wings. Here’s a look at what they’re up to.

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Q&A: How Pizza Hut is Going After the Over-35 Crowd

From Elaine Wong, Brandweek

“Times are tough for the pizza industry. Not surprisingly, the largest player in the category, Pizza Hut, has been affected.

It saw same-store sales drop 1 percent in the fourth quarter. Parent company Yum! Brands attributed the decline to a slowdown in the number of consumers eating out. Additionally, the pizza chain is off to a slower start this year than expected, as pizza falls under the “higher-ticket dinner occasion,” as Yum! Brands CEO David Novak said in a recent earnings call.

Still, Pizza Hut CMO Brian Niccol attests that consumer demand for newer menu items such as lasagna and the WingStreet brand of wings are holding strong.

These options, along with its pizza, make the chain a top source for “home meal replacement solutions,” he said. Niccol also discussed how the chain is driving value in a down economy and how it’s taking its WingStreet brand of buffalo wings national. Here’s what he had to say: ” More . . .