Pittsburgh Penguins Find Their Future in College Students

With almost 300 straight sellouts, three championships, a young team, and a brand new state-of-the-art arena, it's no wonder that the Pittsburgh Penguins of the National Hockey League are popular with the people of the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Penguins merchandise is among the best-selling out of all of the teams in the league, and tickets for home games always sell quickly. While the crowd at Pittsburgh's Consol Energy Center arena is filled with season ticket holders, businessmen, and those lucky enough to grab tickets, there is a consistant presence of college students.

Six years ago, the Pittsburgh Penguins weren't selling out every game and decided to try selling the extra tickets to students at a discounted price, a tactic they called "Student Rush." Students jumped at the opportunity to see a professional team for a cheaper price, and soon students were lining up hours before the game outside of the ticket windows to guarantee a seat. Student Rush was an instant success, and though the Pittsburgh Penguins team began attracting a larger, wealthier crowd, the Penguins front office didn't disband Student Rush. Instead, in a surprising act of public relations, they expanded it.

Today, the Penguins organization selects certain home games with 600 tickets for Student Rush, have a disc jockey to entertain the waiting students, give out prizes, and even bring out members of the team and coaching staff to dish out free pizza before the game. The Pittsburgh Penguins have made the message clear that they want college students to be able to enjoy the games, and by catering to the college crowd by giving them discounted tickets year after year, they are developing their consumer base for the future.

While the Pittsburgh Penguins also reach out to other audiences within their fan base, their specific outreach to students is unique in the National Hockey League. The Penguins organization recognizes that college students are an opportunistic audience to attract, since students are close to earning their own independent wages, are willing to spend money on good entertainment, and can also easily become loyal customers to the brand. Other teams in the National Hockey League, such as the Tampa Bay Lightning, have seen the success of the Penguins' Student Rush and are trying to emulate it in order to build their fan base as well.

Student Rush continues to be a successful and inspiring promotional event for the Pittsburgh Penguins, and there are no plans of disbanding it any time soon.

SOURCE: "Student Rush offers kids a chance to attend Penguins games"
Pictures are from the Pittsburgh Penguins official site.

'Tis the Season: Classic Christmas Commercials

'Tis the season for Christmas shopping, music, shows, and, of course, advertising.

Every year, consumers look forward to their favorites of each as signs of the season, and classic holiday commercials are no exception. A handful of television advertisements have found their way into the hearts of consumers and so are expected to air during the Christmas shopping season.

Such classic commercials are the M&M's "Christmas Faint," "Hershey's Holiday Bells - We Wish You a Merry Christmas," Campbell's winter Chicken Noodle Soup commercial, and, in the Pittsburgh area, Eat 'N Park's "Christmas Star" commercial.

The ads range in tone from humorous to relaxed, but all have the same warm mood that consumers associate with the Christmas season. Since people have grown to love the commercials, associate them with the holiday season, the ads also inspire brand loyalty from the consumers who enjoy them. People may purchase the products advertised in the classic commercials as a way of supporting their favorite classic ads and as a way of participating in the holiday season as a compliment to their favorite commercials. After watching the "Hershey's Holiday Bells" commercial, one might purchase those holiday-themed Hershey's Kisses in order to bring the 'magic' of the commercial into one's home for the holiday.

In the advertising frenzy this holiday season, companies will compete to grab consumers' attention and their hearts. They hope to inspire consumers to not only buy the product, but to associate it with the holiday season and become loyal to the brand as a holiday tradition, just like with their classic predecessors.

Penn State Hires Ketchum Agency for Crisis Communications

In its latest move for crisis control, Penn State University hired the Pennsylvania based Omnicom Group agency, Ketchum, for crisis communications. This is another response that the university has made in light of the Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse scandal.

While the Ketchum agency is better known as a PR firm, it is also recognized for having around 50 crisis executives and has also built a reputation for its success in crisis communications.

It will be Ketchum's responsibility to advise Penn State and help the university reach out to all parties involved in the scandal and speak to them and the public truthfully about the scandal in order to build trust with the public and rebuild its image again. No matter what the public opinion is of the scandal and the university, it is Ketchum's hired duty to help Penn State recover from the scandal.

SOURCE: "Penn State Enlists Ketchum for Crisis Communications"

Disney Magic for Disney Parks in Times Square

Times Square in New York City is full of lights, billboards, and screens, all vying for the attention of the thousands of tourists that visit it each day. One screen in particular captured the attention and imagination of visitors in order to promote Disney Parks by using a bit of 'magic' called an Augmented Reality Billboard.

When someone stands on the special marker located opposite of the billboard, a Disney character appears on the screen and interacts with him or her in Augmented Reality. It was a success with children and adults alike, as people danced with Donald, dug for buried treasure with Captain Hook, helped Cinderella try on her glass slipper, and modeled with Cruella De Vil.


This short-lived promotion for the Disney Parks is not only memorable for the people who saw it and participated, but is an example of how to successfully promote a business using Augmented Reality Billboards.

SOURCE: Disney: Augmented Reality in Times Square

Kohl's "Friday" Parody for Black Friday

Back in March, the now-infamous song, "Friday," by Rebecca Black, went viral and garnered lots of attention for the 13 year old aspiring singer and her song.

Kohl's recently parodied the song in their latest ad to promote their Black Friday sales, and it certainly got my attention. Since "Friday" is so well known, for both good and bad reasons, just hearing the song has people paying attention to the ad. It's humorous seeing "Friday" being used in a real commercial, and the commercial is well-done in that it gets the point across quickly that you can get all of your holiday shopping done at Kohl's on Black Friday at good prices. However, the ad could also have a negative impact on consumers as well, since so many people voiced their dislike of Black's "Friday," those people could also dislike Kohl's for using the song, and even featuring Rebecca Black herself in the ad as a background shopper.

Either way, Kohl's using the infamous viral song for their Black Friday ad proves that using internet pop culture in advertising is effective for reaching out to multiple generations of consumers since so many are familiar with "Friday."

See the commercial here.

Dermablend Go Beyond The Cover Commercial with Zombie Boy

I still don't quite understand why someone would want to tattoo themselves THIS much, however, at least Rick Genest is putting his tattoos to good use. Rick Genest, also known as Zombie Boy, not only appeared in this advertisement for Dermablend, he can also be seen in Lady Gaga's music video for Born This Way.
The ad campaign "Go Beyond The Cover" for Dermablend skin concealer is unique and effective. I first saw this advertisement while on StumbleUpon (a search engine) about a month ago and have been meaning to blog about it since. The ad certainly has a freakish effect, mainly because of Zombie Boy's signature stare, but also because the product is so fantastically successful! Watching him take off the concealer and then seeing the process of applying the concealer play in reverse was rather mind blowing.
The ad campaign for "Go Beyond The Cover" is a clever idea as well. Especially since now so many people are concerned with judging others by their appearance. The campaign attracts a wide range of people including both male and female, particularly ages 13 to 35, depending on the person's lifestyle and attitude.
I love the ad and would even consider buying the product...now I just need to get a tattoo!

Super Bowl Aerial Ads

Even though the Super Bowl is still months away, that doesn't mean that advertisers and marketers aren't thinking about their commercial time during the game. It is known that Super Bowl ads are one reason why some people watch the event while spots cost millions of dollars for just 30 seconds of air time. For this year, the price for each thirty second commercial is 3.5 million dollars, being half a million higher than last year. The problem is that smaller companies and companies that do not have a large marketing budget can not afford to advertise in this manor.

To solve this problem, AirSign Aerial Advertising is now offering advertising live at the Super Bowl for a fraction of the cost on a first come first serve basis. The company has been experienced in the the business since 1996 in advertising in the air. Stated by the founder of the company Patrick Walsh, "One of the best options for Super Bowl aerial advertising is our newest branch of advertising, Blimp or Airship advertising, the manned airship is customized with a client's brand and it can float over the open stadium for the entire game." On these ships, companies can have whatever message they would like with their logo and company name illuminated through internal lights.

I think that this is a great new method of advertising during the game- although viewers of the game can not see the ads, the attendees of the Super Bowl will be seeing the ads during the entire game. What do you think? Do you think this is an effective way of advertising besides commercials?

Click here to read the full article.

In Honor of Veterans Day

On Veterans Day, Outback Steakhouse aired a commercial in honor of those who have served and who are currently serving for our country.
The restaurant played black and white footage of servicemen coming home to their families and friends.
Like many other restaurants, Outback Steakhouse offered a free meal for all veterans on Friday the 11th.
I actually really like this commercial. It's patriotic and uplifting. Airing this commercial and offering a free meal was a great way to get more people into the restaurant...even if they aren't a veteran.

Subscription Shopping…Good Idea?

Most of us have been ordering products off of the internet for years now, but things can be made even easier. Now we have what is known as “subscription shopping,” wherein certain websites will automatically send products to you without your ever having to do a thing. Venture capitalist Phineas Barnes claims that consumers are overwhelmed with all of the choices out there; this service can only make things easier for them.

This service operates much like the Fruit-of-the-Month Club, though it is a bit unclear as to what exactly these services offer. Can one rely on the website to not take advantage of their subscription by automatically sending them the items with the most exorbitant prices? Also, can a consumer set the automated ordering system to send them the same items each week or month, or are these subscriptions entirely controlled by the company one is purchasing from?

I don’t foresee this as being a long-standing trend, or at least not one that is likely to grow very far beyond where it is now. As the article on Adweek says, a lot of orders sent via subscription companies are a direct result of consumers simply being too lazy to cancel. If a lazy consumer were to be charged a decent amount for one of these subscription purchases, I believe they would rather swiftly cancel their subscription. What do you think? Would you ever subscribe to a shopping service? I wouldn’t.

Read more about this trend here.

New Life to Old Brand

The company Procter & Gamble is bringing life back into one of its oldest and most well known brands- Ivory soap- by producing new packaging, advertising, and social media initiatives. The company is using the Ad firm of Wieden & Kennedy which is based in Portland OR to produce the new packaging with features bright colors like cyan, purple, and green chosen to contrast with the soap's pure white. Its social media efforts include producing a Facebook page. At the same time, the company is producing ads that are intended to promote the Ivory Brand's "value and simplicity".

Ivory is one the six soap brands sold by P&G, the others are Olay, Gillette, Old Spice, Safeguard and Camay. This Advertising effort is the first major marketing strategy for the company in years- having only advertised minimally since 2006 spending a high of $1.4 million that year and less than $325,000 in total between 2007 and the first half of this year. Therefore, this new marketing is definitely a change for the company to push their products.

I think that is is important for brands like this to bring new life into their products. The company already has a strong foothold in the industry with history and trust. But, it is important to bring the products into the 21st Century to market to new consumers. It will be interesting to see if their sales increase due to these new marketing techniques.

Click here to read the full article.