Playing to Your Audience

All I can say is, "Congrats Walmart!"
And if you're not laughing after watching this, I have some serious doubts about your sense of humor! Walmart has finally found a commercial tame enough for their family and housewives while appealing to the darker humor of their younger audience.

Walmart, regarded as the biggest retailer on Earth, with an budget of over $800 million dollars, has plenty of loyal fans and plenty of haters. With such a big budget, it is impossible to have one target market. Instead Walmart has had to appeal to a larger audience in order to draw more people into their stores.

Walmart has tapped into one area that very few can truly hate - humor. This commercial made me laugh and for a few, short seconds I forgot about the evil side of Walmart. Humor is, after all, the ultimate distraction.

Stealing the Golden Goose

So your small business doesn't have the advertising funds of that giant across town. No worries! As a smaller business you have abilities that a giant doesn't. Just think Jack and the Beanstalk! You move left, you move right and before that giant can even think about reacting you're on your way down the beanstalk with that giant's golden goose.

Okay, so maybe you aren't Jack and maybe there isn't actually a beanstalk, but you can still run off with the giant competition's golden goose. You just have to be ahead of the curve and make smart decisions about how to reach your target market.

One of the best ways to stay ahead of the curve is to watch what's happening with mobile these days. Smartphones are becoming so popular that this is one trend you need to watch closely. And if you're a small business, this is a great opportunity for you.

"A number of new location-based services are beginning to provide attractive alternatives for such small-scale advertisers. Foursquare, for one, allows small business to target offers based on a user's actual proximity to their location. These offers can deliver heightened relevance by appealing to a player's status, nearby friends, or demonstrated preferences." - Five Mobile Trends for 2010

What does this mean for you? It means that if your customer is within a certain distance of your business, you can reach out to them in a timely, attention-grabbing, cost-effective manner! Now, isn't that so much better than trying to compete with a million dollar ad budget?

Take that golden goose! RUN!!

Something to Talk About

Google has decided to continue it's attempt at global domination by patenting new technology for selling ad space in 3D mapping technologies.

Now that's something to talk about. In a world of clutter, where every consumer has learned how to tune out even the most obnxious advertising, Google has found another new way to grab attention. Now when you search the map for that new restaurant across town you'll see active billboards displaying advertising for your convenience.

This does, of course, raise quite a few questions about how one would go about purchasing this ad space, how tracking would occur and how often you can change or update the billboard.

My theory? It's going to be a combination of alternating billboard (out-of-home) ad buying with banner ad tracking and some low pricing (at least until this becomes more popular).

Just imagine the future possibilities of this technology. Similar to Second Life, I predict 3D maps will soon give you the ability to view directions in a 3D environment. You'll know to turn left at the McDonald's because you've already seen yourself do that from your own, personal computer. You'll know the building you're searching for is gray and black because you've already been there in virtual reality.

If you're the last person on earth to view Google Earth, go check it out. We're getting there.

As for the media and advertising gurus? Be there, be on top of this technology and be ready to take advantage of the low, low initial price offerings. ;)