Archive for the ‘Television Advertising’ Category

Possibly The Worst Television Commercial Ever Conceived: Celebrex

April 12, 2009

Its bad enough that network television has basically become the channel of choice for the pharmaceutical industry to distribute their magic pill messages to the masses.

Try watching a major network news cast without being bombarded by Pharma Ads for every known real and imaginery disease.

Without the Pharmaceutical industry, where would Network television be?

Probably break even.

With their latest Celebrex ad, Pfizer has taken their messaging to new lows by creating the extended play sales message / this drug may kill you television ad.

Its the most obnoxious television ad I can ever recall enduring.

I am sure their ad agency has argued it gets viewers attention and creates word of mouth.

Yep – It does.

Problem is – its negative attention and although this blog post isn’t considered word of mouth – their ad caused me to go out of my way to write about how much I hated it – and by association – their product: Celebrex.

Under what stretch of the imagination would this blog post be considered good for the Celebrex brand?

Or this YouTube post with all its accompanying comments?

Maybe if your a Pharmaceutical company there isn’t any such thing.

Developing commercials that don’t make viewers angry for being subjected to them might be a start in the right direction.

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Google Advertising Seminars

May 26, 2007

I decided to apply for the Google Adwords Seminar leader position again.

Their latest application was slightly different from the first one in December of 2005. After looking over my original application, I am surprised my application was even given serious consideration.

Two Google Adwords Seminar Leaders were chosen in early 2006. I believe they have since presented Google Adwords seminars to over 1,000 attendees.

Spending the last year and a half preparing for and writing my book: For Sale By Google – How To Make Money on the Internet Selling Your Products Using Google Adwords and Search Engine Marketing Strategies has given me an entirely different perspective on the paid search business and search in general.

I believe my answers below do in fact reflect that change in perspective.

Section 1:
Background Info
All fields are required.

First Name: Tim
Last Name: Cohn

Email address: timcohn at gmail.com

Website: Search Marketing Communications

Phone number: 405-842-0163

Current Address:
(Street address) 6403 NW Grand Blvd., Suite 208
(City) Nichols Hills
(State / Province) OK
(Zip Code/Postal Code) 73116

1) How long have you been an AdWords advertiser?

Since March of 2002.

2) Do you have experience with other advertising channels? If so, please explain.

Yes, since 1989 I have been a direct marketing consultant.

I have developed marketing campaigns through nearly every form of advertising media available to the small and medium size business.

I have created and ran advertising campaigns in radio, television, magazines, newspapers, yellow pages and direct mail. No other recognized form of media compares to Google paid search. Word of mouth marketing out performs paid search but the process has yet become measurable and thus manageable.

Since the advent of Adwords, I have focused exclusively on producing results for myself and clients through reaching the search audience through paid search.

I have personally managed the production of 100 million impressions and one million clicks.

3) Do you have teaching or training experience? If so, please explain.

I spoke several years ago about the power of Google Adwords to business audiences in Atlanta, GA and Scottsdale, AZ. I have since accepted a contract to write a book about my Google Adwords experience for John Wiley and Sons. The book, For Sale By Google – How to Make Money Selling Your Products on the Internet Using Google Adwords and Search Engine Marketing Strategies is nearing completion.

As you may gather from the title, the book targets the small to medium size business market with an emphasis on how they can reach their audience more cost efficiently with Google Adwords as compared to their other media options while generating leads and sales in the process.

I believe my direct marketing background which is rooted firmly in advertising accountability and return on investment helps me give proper perspective to the small business owner who needs guidance when it comes to choosing where best to place their advertising dollars.

4) Do you or any of your family members work in the internet search and advertising industry, or for any company that you might reasonably consider to be a direct competitor to Google? If so, please explain.

No.

5) Resume: please paste your resume or a URL linking to your resume into the box below.

As a self-employed marketing consultant, I don’t have a resume per se. However, I do however keep a Curriculum Vitae of the projects and deals I am working on.

Section 2: Short Answers
1) Why do you want to be an AdWords Seminar Leader? (1-2 paragraphs)

A. If I am not constantly teaching others all that I have learned and I continue to learn about Google Adwords, I will be doing both them and my self a disservice.

B. I believe in the power Google Adwords has to transform the small business and the small business owner’s life! I made a commitment to understanding and mastering Adwords to the best of ability long before it became a requisite for being competitive in the market.

2) What is the most challenging situation you have faced when managing AdWords accounts? (1-2 paragraphs)

Being ignorant of any Adwords feature.

3) If you could change one thing about AdWords, what would it be? (1 paragraph)

Add Zip Code Targeting.

4) What is your favorite AdWords tool or report? Why? (1 paragraph)

The Keyword Tool.

Because it rationalizes demand into language.

Section 3: Video Presentation
Please submit one video presentation containing the following 2 components:

a) Introduction (max 1 min.) – Tell us who you are, when you first started using AdWords, and why you want to be an AdWords Seminar Leader.

b) Lesson (max 7 min.) – Choose one of the following two topics and create a lesson as if it were a partial session of an AdWords Seminar. You may use visual aids, but please do not repeat or reuse any materials from the AdWords Learning Center.

* OPTION 1: Your audience is a group of local small business owners with small advertising budgets. They are concerned about competing with large, national advertisers who are also advertising on AdWords. Explain to them how AdWords pricing works, and which AdWords features can help them advertise effectively in this competitive environment.

* OPTION 2: Your audience is a group of new AdWords advertisers. During the Q&A session of the seminar, one advertiser asks: “I’ve been advertising on AdWords for a few weeks. I’ve spent a few hundred bucks, but I’m frustrated because I can’t get my ad to show up on the first page of search results. I’m always in 7th or 8th place on the second page. How do I get my ad to show up on the first page?” How would you address his question?

ABC, NBC and CBS Nightly News

September 23, 2006

For the last week I have been at my new lake house working on the John Wiley and Sons book For Sale By Google.

My retreat is at Lake Tenkiller in the eastern region of Oklahoma called Green Country. The closest town is Cookson, Oklahoma. The population of Cookson is 1255.

I don’t have cable television or internet service there which helps me focus on writing.

At 5:30 PM each day after writing, I would turn on the television and sample one of its five available local channels.

As an internet consumer, I have become accustomed to controlling how I consume information. If I don’t like something, I move on. I have infinite choice. This isn’t the case with television particularly when you don’t even have cable.

I decided to approach consumption of my three network television news broadcast choices in the same way I consume web news – simultaneously.

Was I in for a surprise…

With the decreasing attention span of the masses quickly approaching ADHD, the three major television networks have begun sequencing commercial breaks for their nightly news broadcasts at the same time.

What a pleasure!

What better way to retain your attention than penalizing you to switch it?

How much longer can network television expect this strategy to last?

Are the only people left watching network news broadcasts also the ones without any other channel choices?