Tag Archives: marketing

by | Wednesday, December 11, 2024 · 7:23 am

‘Tis the Season for Advent Calendars

I don’t know about you, but I have seen a LOT of Advent calendars this year. For years,  the only Advent calendars available were rather inexpensive and had a single piece of chocolate behind the door for each day of Advent. But now it seems as if every product category is offering some sort of Advent calendar.

You may now be asking “what is Advent?” Advent, from “adventus” in Latin, means “coming” and refers to the four weeks leading up to Christmas. It started as a religious period for both remembrance and anticipation. Now, as the times have changed, so too have Advent calendars changed.

While the calendars still mark the days of the season and countdown to Christmas, they have evolved from having a small piece of inexpensive candy each day to now having full-sized products and gifts.

Today, Advent calendars are sold with makeup, jewelry, toys, foods, spices, alcoholic drinks, and more, with prices ranging from a few dollars to hundreds of dollars. [There are also more expensive and branded Advent calendars such as one from Swarovski with jewelry priced at $1,200 and Williams-Sonoma’s calendar of foods and goods is $300.]

One of the more popular calendars this year is from French jam company Bonne Maman with 25 days of differently flavored jams for $45. The calendar has become so popular that this year it opened for ordering in July (last year it opened in August). Since 2017, it has increased production of the calendar by 400%.

What Advent calendar would you like?

Group Activities and Discussion Questions:

  1. Discuss the use of Advent calendars in marketing a product or company.
  2. Poll students: What types of Advent calendars have they received or seen?
  3. Google Advent calendars and view an assortment of products.
  4. View Wirecutter’s list of Advent calendars: https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/our-favorite-advent-calendars/
  5. Divide students into teams.
  6. Have each team select a product that they believe could be promoted using Advent calendars.
  7. Develop a marketing plan for the calendar. Make sure to start with target market and include product description, price, distribution, and promotion.
  8. Since this is a time-sensitive product, build the timeline for development and promotion, through delivery.
  9. Teams could also prepare a mock-up calendar with artwork and daily gifts.

Source: Hennessy, M. (29 November 2024). How the Bonne Maman Advent calendar became a hot commodity. New York Times; Wirecutter. (24 October 2024). Our 20 favorite Advent calendars of 2024. Wirecutter.

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by | Tuesday, February 20, 2024 · 7:46 am

Super Bowl LVIII Sets a Viewing Record!

Winter may be cold, but the Super Bowl game always pumps up the heat! The thrills, the chills, the excitement and surprises – and that’s just the advertisements! The Super Bowl has become one of the premier venues for marketers. And, according to Nielsen and CBS, this year’s event broke a viewing audience record at 123.4 million. (The Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce romance certainly helped to increase female and youth viewership.)

At a cost of a $7 million for 30 seconds of air time, the Super Bowl is also the most expensive advertising placement of any event or show. Add to the air time the costs of designing and producing ads, plus the integration into other marketing tactics, and a company can easily spend upwards of $8 million on a single day.

However, the ads aren’t limited to just the Super Bowl viewers; 39 brands released their ads in advance of the game as well. There were also a number of new brands making their Super Bowl debut, including Starry (owned by PepsiCo), Etsy, SNAP, Nerds, Lindt, and more.

Love them or hate them, Super Bowl advertisements have become a talking point before, during, and after the game. More than 50 brands took out ads designed to help them stand out to consumers, many with high-profile athletes and celebrities such as Ben Affleck, Jennifer Lopez, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Danny DeVito, Jennifer Aniston, and Michael Cera.

While the metrics for sales linked to Super Bowl ads won’t be available for months, many respondents watching the game stated they would be open to purchasing products by Doritos, M&Ms, and Budweiser. Ads also led to increased global YouTube views with Booking.com, T-Mobile, and Beyonce’ (of course) generating the most engagement and social mentions.

Commercials were all over the place with top ads as ranked by viewers going to State Farm, Dunkin’, Kia, Uber Eats, Dove, and NFL. And for animal lovers, the Budweiser Clydesdale horses made an appearance and were in fine form.

Which ad is your favorite this year?  

Group Activities and Discussion Questions:

  1. Show one of the Web sites that have all the Super Bowl ads: https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/Ad-Meter/2024/02/12/best-super-bowl-2024-commercials-ad-meter-rankings/72538932007/
  2. Divide students into teams. Have each team select a Super Bowl ad to analyze and present in class.
  3. What is the target market, key message, and offer from the ad?
  4. How does the ad integrate with a company’s other promotions?
  5. Are the messages integrated with a company’s Web site and social media?
  6. As a class, after each commercial have students assign one to five stars for the advertisements.
  7. Which advertisement won the class vote?

Source:  Koblin, J. (12 February 2024). Super Bowl viewership rose to 123.4 million, a record high. New York Times; Nerkar, S. (6 February 2024). $7 million for 30 seconds? To advertisers, the Super Bowl is worth it. New York Times; Schultz, E. J. (12 February 2024). Super Bowl alert: Big game ad winners and losers. Ad Age Daily; other news sources.

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by | Thursday, March 16, 2023 · 7:19 am

Tik Tok Interns

Do you use TikTok? If so, you are a part of a community of 1.5 billion monthly users around the world!

TikTok was launched in 2016 by Chinese tech company Bytedance.  In 2017 TikTok went global and has since grown to become one of the most popular social media apps in the world. Downloaded more than 3.5 billion times since launch, the app regularly garners 500 million additional downloads each quarter, and was the most downloaded app of 2022!

TikTok may have started with a young audience of teens, but it is far from being just a teen app.  In the U.S., the age range of 25-34 year-olds accounts for nearly 25% of its users, an important demographic for brands and advertisers. And, 18% of all Internet users use TikTok. TikTok is available in 154 countries and 90% of its users access the app daily.

TikTok is so valuable to brands that many companies are now hiring TikTok ‘interns’ to help them reach users. Job sites have listings for “TikTok content creators.” These creators are being asked to both make and appear in videos promoting various products and retailers. Companies hiring this expertise include Claire’s, Whole Foods, Travel Pro, and even Rosedale Mall located in Roseville, Minn. Brands are hiring college students and other young people to help them successfully navigate TikTok, and create an impactful campaign.

What will you create?  

Group Activities and Discussion Questions:

  1. Show TikTok in class: https://www.tiktok.com/
  2. You could also show a specific company/brand. (Ex: Fenty Beauty: https://www.tiktok.com/@fentybeauty )
  3. Poll students: How do they use it? When? How long? How influential is it on their behavior?
  4. Have students uploaded their own videos? If so, show several of their videos in class.
  5. Divide students into teams. Have each team select a brand/company and analyze the company’s TikTok campaigns.
  6. Make sure students first identify the target market including demographics, psychographics, behaviors, values, etc.
  7. [Additional assignment: Have each team create an original TikTok video for a product or company they would like to work at.]
  8. Show TikTok’s career site: https://careers.tiktok.com/campus/project/internships

Source:  Maheshwari, S. (14 February 2023). Wanted: Interns who can make TikTok hits. New York Times.

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