Hi all, I’m writing this post today mainly to introduce you to a very funny advertisement I saw the other day. As I said in the title, it will have you wondering…what is being advertised!

I will get to it in a bit, but for now I want to update you on the status of my marketing ecourse “The Total Marketers Handbook”.

I have just finished adding a few testimonials to the sales ad that I have been provided by some of my happy customers. The use of testimonials are very important if you sell a product online because it gives your potential customer some insight into the thoughts of other people who have purchased the product. Effective testimonial use can actually be the difference between a sale or not. But whatever you do, make sure they are real honest testimonials!!

Marketing is something that a large majority of businesses and websites do poorly and as a result, either fail and must close up shop, or just don’t create enough profit to remain profitable only to constantly lose money hoping things will “magically” turn around on their own.

Well let me tell you that if you utilize the fundamentals of marketing on your current or up and coming business, you can see extremely large increases in your bottom line…and this is something that absolutely every business enjoys. After all, profits are the lifeline of businesses around the world. This is where The Total Marketers Handbook will prove very beneficial for you!

I don’t want to babble on to much though because the main reason I made this post is simply to show you a very funny commercial that I saw the other day (At least I find it as being funny). As soon as I saw it I knew that I wanted to pass it on. I won’t tell you what it is promoting until after you watch it because you probably will not expect it. It’s not in English, but does has subtitles…I definitely urge you to check it out. I am sure you will want to pass it on to friends too because it is a very humorous commercial!

I bet you didn’t think that the commercial was promoting an eye care company! haha… It is a prime example of an comedic story based commercial that keeps you wondering…”What is the commercial about?” until you get to the end. It is entertaining throughout as it sort of plays out a story of people robbing a bank…obviously with a huge twist as it was actually a sperm bank. (Dumb robbers if you ask me, lol). The twist mainly arises due to the thought of the sperm being yogurt…and from there on I am sure your face puckered up with the thought of eating/drinking sperm! haha

Now because the commercial/advertisement is promoting a foreign company of which I can not even read the name, it is not effective at getting me as a potential customer. However, those who are familiar with the language may just remember the company in the future because of how the ad caught their attention.

To your Success!
Mark Garland

P.S. Don’t forget that if you currently struggle with your online business and would like to learn how to change things around that I have created an online business training program that will show you how to turn your efforts into profits!

I am a frequent web surfer…looking for new and exciting things. These things can range from products and services to marketing mediums such as video ads, audio ads, even text ads.

As you may already know, I enjoy letting others know my feelings for commercials and promotional videos. If you didn’t already know this, now you do! Since I have a marketing background my comments are usually done from a marketing standpoint.

Yesterday, while I was doing some online surfing, I found an ad that was very well thought out. There area some areas I would have suggested be changed but overall it was a well made ad. Appealing to a widespread audience due to it’s “adultesque” humor (I may have just made that word up, not too sure!). By it I mean it is based towards a more mature audience of college students and up who are of age to drink. It is a viral advertisement for the AMP energy drink, I don’t know if it was ever a commercial on the mainstream tv, or if it is just viral, but here it is:

What did you think of the ad? Did you find it as being humorous?

I would expect a very large amount of people would enjoy the ad itself but many people may not know that it is actually marketing an energy drink. It is not directly sexual in nature as it is about the morning “walk of shame”, but as you may have noticed, everyone would get an AMP energy drink when they were on their “walk of shame” early in the morning to give themselves an energy boost (because they would have lost most of their energy the night before..wink, wink, nudge, nudge). This direct product placement can be an effective way to get a product in the thoughts and minds of consumers.

Now even though I did like the ad, there was something I didn’t like about it. The products themselves, AMP energy drinks, were tough to distinguish. Only people who were familiar with the product would most likely be able to associate themselves with it. Now this is fine if the meaning of the ad was to refresh the current image of the energy drink in consumers minds, but I highly doubt this is the case as I for one have never heard of the AMP energy drink until now.

I am unsure if this specific ad was cut back a few seconds or not, but they should have had a final scene showing just the AMP energy drink itself. Doing this in an ad solidifies in the consumers mind, what the ad was about (Energy drink) and allows them to place it visually in their minds (because they will be able to clearly see the product). Doing this will make them more familiar with it and this simple familiarity can easily be the distinguishing factor between purchasing the AMP energy drink itself or one of its competitors. With fierce competition in the Energy drink market, personally thinking about such drinks as the always popular (in this area anyway) Red Bull, Monster, SoBe, or Full Throttle, something distinguishing has to be done…and this is a great start!

So what is special about this ad?

Well it’s a good example of how to market using a comedic video. Obviously, this ad is a funny or comedic energy drink ad and as such is humorous throughout the entire ad quite well. I thought the song was both written well and was played out well with the scenes throughout the ad, making it a interest keeping and entertaining ad to watch.

The ad tells a story instead of clearly just promoting a product. It’s theme doesn’t normally make you think of an energy drink either. When you think of “the walk of shame” you probably don’t think about energy drinks being associated with it. But now after watching the ad…it could be a possibility in some people minds.

And now for your educational aspect of this post:

You see, part of marketing is associating your product with what you want it to be associated with. But another part is just actually getting it into the evoked set of consumers. Your evoked set is the initial products that come to your mind you think about using in a situation. For example, my evoked set for energy drinks are are ones I can think of directly (as listed above) Red Bull, Monster, SoBe, Full Throttle and now AMP energy drink. This is in my opinion one of the biggest benefits of advertising…getting the product into the evoked set of a consumer for as specific use or time. This is beneficial in the long term for a company!

I hope you enjoyed this post, any comments would be appreciated!

To Your Success!

Mark Garland

P.S. Have you checked out my marketing training program yet? It is a training program that will help you take your current business to new heights on the Internet or help you create a profitable business for yourself from literally scratch. Thorough training materials are included on many of the most critical aspects of a successful online business. You can even learn how to create such an advertisement as above and add it to your site and to your business marketing tactics. Check it out by advancing to the complete online business training.

If you know me well, you will know that I enjoy gaming. I have a Playstation 3 which I purchased soon after it was released, so as you can imagine I pay extra attention to ads or commercials that include video game consoles or video games themselves.

I play all different variations and categories of games. In the past I have enjoyed the Grand Theft Auto series and they are releasing a new version on it on April 29th labeled “Grand Theft Auto IV”. Now I have not seen too awful much in terms of advertisements for this one on the television networks I tend to watch, but Rockstar has a very large marketing campaign going for it that includes television ads, internet ads, viral marketing, they even created an entertaining website.

Here is a preview of Grand Theft Auto IV. It looks amazing in terms of both graphics and gameplay.

In terms of marketing in my immediate area, I think that Rockstar Games could have done a much better job, but overall they have done a pretty good job! In addition to all of the new customers they will get, they will have a HUGE amount of repeat loyal customers because of the previous following for the game. I am sure that this game will be very well adopted by millions of consumers around the world.

Keep in mind though, that this game is not for children. It is extremely violent and graphic in nature.

The main reason I chose to purchase the Playstation 3 system instead of say the Xbox 360 is because of the graphics and the future potential. The Playstation 3 can handle much better graphics than the Xbox 360 can and has much better potential for the future as far as “graphics” goes. I am also used to the Playstation controller because I have been with them since the original playstation.

Currently it can be argued that the Xbox 360 is keeping up with the Playstation 3, even beating in terms of performance, but if you are a future looking person, the Playstation 3 should be a clear winner (in my opinion). The question in my head is “how long will the Xbox 360 be able to keep up” as the Playstation 3 software and game developers continue to advance and realize its true potential. But in terms of games, the Xbox seems to have a larger variety currently…thanks to Microsoft backing it!

Now, I do not compare the Playstation 3 system to the Nintendo WII because in my opinion the WII is more for group entertainment purposes. Don’t get me wrong though because it is incredibly fun to play, I just prefer to play games that have good graphics when I’m not playing in large groups of people. If I remember correctly, the Nintendo WII is based on the Gamecube graphics processor so is not even in the same league as the Playstation 3 or Xbox 360 in terms of graphics potential. The interactivity is a definate plus though!

Do keep in mind that I am no console programming professional by any means…I am only a person who plays the end result (games). I am happy with the gameplay of both the Xbox 360 and the PS3. The above is my personal opinion as a result of any research that made me purchase a PS3 instead of an XBOX 360 (PS3 vs Xbox 360).

Let me know if you are a gamer yourself and what you think of the Grand Theft Auto series.

To Your Success!

Mark Garland
AnalyzedMarketing.com