Go Daddy wins the Superbowl

Go Daddy Puppies

Go Daddy Puppies

I have been avoiding Go Daddy ads for years now. They are usually so raunchy that I just change the channel or look away. This behavior continued when I saw “Go Daddy ad causes a stir” on my Facebook timeline this morning. Then my wife told me she thought it was funny. So I checked it out. Once again Go Daddy creates an ad that generates as much or more coverage from controversy as from actually ad placement. This time it doesn’t feel like they were aiming for controversy but some companies are just better at finding it then others. The ad is well made and funny even if the message irritates some people. Here is the video:

Also in this debacle we get a lesson from the school of “always being on your toes”. HostGator decided that it could maximize this situation for its benefit. This is the ad that came up when I googled ‘Go Daddy Puppy Commercial’:

Hostgator loves puppies

 

Well done HostGator.  This might be as on the same level if not on the same scale as the now famous Oreo ad during the super bowl power outage. Maybe we all need to watch our competitors ads just to pounce with a witty retort when they make a mistake!

 

 

A Resource for Free Stock Photos

This week I wanted to tell you about one of my favorite tools on the internet: Unsplash. Unsplash is an amazing resource of curated and free to use stock photos. One of the key components that makes Unsplash great is the curation. You can find free to use photos in different corners of the internet but often the quality is only so-so. Unsplash brings your breath taking photography each week. The cool part about it, it is completely free to use! I mean you do have to pay for… oh wait, no it is completely FREE TO USE!

Now if you have used Unpslash before and found finding the perfect picture difficult you might want to check back with them. Recently Unsplash answered the prayers of many of it’s users but adding a tag search of their entire database. That is a game changer. Instead of scrolling through hundreds of beautiful images you can bring the search time and effort down significantly if you know a good keyword or two.

In fact the featured image on this post is from Unsplash! Hopefully with my new camera I will be able to get some photos onto Unsplash!

Visit Unsplash.com for a amazing collection of photos!

TV is changing

 

TV is going to change dramatically in the next few years and this week it took a big step that way.
Streaming services are growing!

The chart above from Marketing Charts shows a stat that we probably already knew: On Demand video services are growing significantly. 76% of all households in America use some sort of media on demand. This statistic could be artificially high because it contains DVR’s which is become more standard with modern telecommunications. I think it would be safe to say 50% of households in America have a streaming service.

The number of cord cutters (aka people who do not have cable in the home) is growing. initially some thought it might be a victim of the recession but as the economy returns to full strength the number of families without cable has not wavered much. Premium tv is becoming aware of this increasingly large group of people. ESPN decided to do something about it and in doing so might have placed the first nail in the coffin of cable/satellite tv.

ESPN has announced that it is joining a completely cable free streaming program with a few other channels offered through DISH Network for $20 per month. ESPN is one of the reasons most people stay on a cable subscriptions! Why would ESPN do this? Ad revenue. As cord cutters continue to grow the value of ads on channels exclusively on cable and Atlanta networks will begin to drop.

Imagine a future where you will be able to buy small packages of the channels you actually want to watch. This is great for consumers and for local advertisers. Local advertisers frequently get mixed in with all the channels a media company has access to. Advertisers will be able to better target their ads to specific packages of channels that their customers will be watching.

This maybe the first nail in the coffin of cable/satellite tv but do not clear your schedules for their funerals anytime soon. This transformation will be years in the making and will be restricted by fast broadband access. Not everywhere is as lucky Jackson with our 1 GIG fiber network. Thanks JEA!

 

 

 

 

Gender in Social Media Use

Gender effects social media use.

Another great chart from Marketing Charts. This one chronicles social media adoption in the general population and by gender. There is a lot of interesting information that comes out of this graph and some of it matches stereotypes. Pintrest is vastly more popular among females. This is not very surprising but if you are primarily marketing to women this means that you should really be using Pintrest!

I find it very interesting that there are only three social networks that comes in stronger for males than females: Google+, Linkedin and Vine. The running joke for a while was that only Google employees were on Google Plus and well Google has a propensity to hire males (83% are males). This could be the explanation or it might have to do more with cultural tendencies for employment. This article indicates that almost 2/3 of business owners and those who are self employed are males.

Google requires Google Plus pages for the business map pages. Linkedin is the business social network. This is probably not the only factor but it might help explain the disparity. I think these adoption statistics will change in the coming years as women become more empowered in our society.

It is also interesting that a 6% larger share of males ignore social media all together.