Google Android- Reaching a Mobile Market

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Gardner/?p=2571

While surfing around the Internet, I came across this blog talking about Google Android, and through it's development would come the end of the personal computer. I like my personal computer, so I was fairly interested in reading this. Google Android, along with the Open Handset Alliance is looking to make a common open platform that can work on any mobile device, turning your cell phone or PDA, into a mobile Internet enabled device able to run different programs and applications with relative ease. Basically it will make it easier for programmers to go across providers.

The best example of a mobile device according to Dana Gardener, the author of the blog, is the i-Phone. If you were to hook an i-Phone up to a monitor and keyboard, you would basically have all the functionality of your home computer. Android gives the possibility of carrying around a laptop in your pocket, instead of in your brief case.

http://code.google.com/android/

Google's information on the subject says similar things. It totes its openness, and your ability to access the core of the functionality of your mobile device. The applications on your phone will be equal, or seamless. You won't be able to tell the difference between the first party applications and the Google applications, neither will have preference over the other. It will break down boundaries by allowing you to use information on the Internet in sync with your phone, or information in your phone with the Internet. It also allows for fast and easy development.

For marketers this is a dream come true. Finally a way to code once what may have taken six. You can reach people on a vehicle that they always have handy. You can provide useful applications and put your name on it. Or you could install an application that alerts consumers of special deals, upcoming sales and the like. Heck you could just come up with advertisements that will work on media enabled phones, and it will be easier.

That's all the rambling for today
Peace

Irony in Advertising

If I were advertising for a high speed Internet connection like Time Warner Cable's Road Runner, I would make sure that everything about my message said high speed.

This Sunday at the Bengal's horrible performance against the Cardinals there was a sign for Road Runner. It was a digital sign, but the animations made it look like it was running on a dial-up connection. The words stuttered instead of having a fluid animation.

I think that whoever worked on the creative, or whoever placed those particular ads should fix this problem, as Marvin Lewis should fix the Bengal's, before the next game.

And that's enough rambling for today.
Peace

New Advertising Method-Tatoos

OK, I have to be an advertising geek. It's official. This weekend, while at dinner with my girlfriend, I freaked out and found the topic of this post. Advertising in the shape of temporary tattoos.

We were sitting relatively close to the entrance to Chipotle when a couple walked through the door. I looked up to see a tattoo on the guy's neck. I thought, how strange that someone would have a tattoo on their neck. It was even stranger that it said Beowulf. So, like an ill-mannered 4th grader, I continued to stare, till I remembered about the Beowulf movie that was coming out soon. And that this must be a form of advertising for the movie.

I've heard of boxers renting out their bodies as ad space with the same kind of temporary tattoos, but I've never thought of the general public doing the same. And it was amazing.

Oddly enough, a little later that night, we found the temporary tattoos in a cookie shop. I picked a few up (I have since lost them, I know, it blows).

Well that's enough rambling.
Peace

Billboards=Strongest Message?

Last week, one of my professors stated matter-of-factly that billboard messages provide the strongest messages. I don't know whether or not this is true, but I've never heard this statement before. Why is the advertising world looking at different avenues for advertising, if billboards speak so strongly?



I have nothing against billboards, but aren't other advertising vehicles successful. If billboards provide such a strong message because of their brevity, then shouldn't they just put pictures all over of the brands symbol? That would be a "strong message." I guess I'm just confused about the message, and would like to see the research on the statement before I openly believe it.

Well I think that is enough rambling for today.
Peace

Well this is discouraging

I'm not going to update this blog on any sort of set concrete schedule, only when the whim strikes me. The whim struck me while I was driving home tonight, so I decided that I'd post again. Why is this discouraging, you ask? Well, no one has read my first post. Yet, I must press on.

The Toyota Tundra... I think the message Toyota is trying to put out is that the Tundra is the manliest truck ever. This wouldn't bother me so much if I didn't think that the ads make no sense at all. There are two ads I would like to look at particularly.

1- The tie-down ad- Now, maybe it's because they are pitting the Tundra up against my favorite truck ever, the Ford F-150, but I hate this ad. They strap a dirt bike into the bed of both trucks, and then proceed to shake, rattle, and then roll the trucks upside down. When will a truck ever roll upside down. This position is not safe for trucks. If my truck were to roll over, I would fear not for my cargo, but for my life. This is their USP, their truck can flip over, and your dirt bike won't be damaged, they hope. They could have shown their tie-down clips any number of ways, on an actual road, but they use a robotic arm instead. The ad just upsets me.

2- The one with the train- (Can you tell I don't know the exact names of the ads) The chain breaks before the chassis. WHOP DI DO!!!! It's a chain. The chain is made of metal. Your chassis is made out of metal. Way to make a big chassis stronger than a small couple links in a chain. AHHHHH! OK, I've gotten that one out of my system. I apologize.

Now this is not to say that I hate the Toyota Tundra. Quite the opposite, I think they are nice looking trucks, and being made by Toyota, they would probably run forever. The ads are just horrible. Bring back the strange ads where the truck is going down that incline see-saw thing, I like that one. But these two need to stop.

Well I think that is enough rambling for today.
Peace

A Start for Things to Come

I'm starting this blog in an attempt to earn some extra credit for my Comm 332 class, Media Strategies in Advertising. The requirements, it has to be about communications and/or advertising. I'm not quite sure what I'm going to ramble on about here, but hopefully I'll learn something, as will you the reader, I'll become a better writer, and I'll get a little bit of extra credit for my work.

This week my professors have been shoving game advertising down our throats. I think it's a perfect platform for advertising, and have been saying this for the past three years since I became aware of product placement. To me, product placements in games makes the world of the game come alive. In real life, when I walk down the street, I see billboards, flyers, and other advertisements. When I walk down the street in a game with these product placements, I see the same thing. It adds to the realism.

In one particular game, Rainbow Six Vegas, for the Xbox 360, there are actual products throughout the game's world. Axe body spray billboard's, movie posters for an upcoming release, and every car is a Dodge. Some of these are loaded into the disc (Dodge) others are updated through Xbox Live (the movie posters). This game specifically shows the applications that smart advertisers can use to tap into the audience of the gamer. The best part of these ads, is that gamers will seek them out. Their game's environment will change, and they can look to find out what is different.

Well I think that is enough rambling for today.
Peace