Consumers Threaten Clairol With Boycott If Omarosa Appears in Ads

In what has to be some of the worst brand management in recent history, Clairol is toying with the idea of placing Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth, the deceitful "The Apprentice" contestant, in some of their Herbal Essence commercials. Surely, it's a bid to capitalize on her 15 minutes of fame but one that could go sour as consumers threaten to boycott Clairol products if the company makes this brainless move.

There's An Ad in Your Pocket

As the camera pans in on a dude dancing in a club, then pans to the inside of his pocket, we realize there's a lot going in this New Zealander's pocket. What we see inside his pocket amounts to a humorous snuff film for Panasonic's new D-snap digi-cam. The clip ends asking, "Would your pocket like a D-snap?" Viewers can click off to a site, play some games and win a free D-snap.

B to B Marketers Not Happy With Their Ad Agencies

Something's amiss with the business to business client/agency relationship claims a news study from GfK Custom Research. Among 209 C-level executive in B to B companies, only 11 percent plan to retain their current marketing firm without a review. Further 47 percent have planned a review and 42 percent will do so in the next six months. The key reasons for this, according to 42 percent of survey respondents, is that their agency "failed to demonstrate an understanding of their business."

One explanation for this dramatically negative view among C-level execs of their company's agency is the trend towards top management becoming less and less involved with the ad agency and delegating the management of the relationship to lower ranks. This has resulted in a disconnect between management and agency leading to "disenchantment" according to HSR Agency CEO Rick Segal.

Segal also says agencies don't do enough work to get inside their client's businesses and their client's customers. It's very easy to create an ad for a valve manufacturer and place it in Contractor Magazine. It's entirely another thing to craft a marketing communications plan that contains a closed-loop program which maintains contact and measures the involvement of the potential customer from first brand contact to final sale.

Product Placement OK With Consumers

A recent Mediaedge:cia study claims 60 percent of consumers would consider a product they had seen in a product placement in either a movie or on TV. While the study found traditional televison advertising is still more effective in terms of brand recall and purchase intent, product placement boosted brand recognition by 40 to 100 percent. Younger demos expect to see product placements integrated into content and are more likely to buy a "placed" brand than older demos.