Category Archives: Communications

The Power of Scent

Posted in Communications, Lifestyles by

Scent branding can be a powerful extension of a brand’s existing marketing strategy. For decades, it’s been a successful tactic for bakeries, popcorn stands and fast-food retailers. I dare you to pass by a Cinnabon or even a KFC and not have your mouth water!

Scent can affect your mood, your memory, in fact, your entire sense of well-being. We associate scents with people, places and specific memories because our olfactory nerves connect directly with our brains, where scent impulses create virtually instant memories. Case in point, to this day I will always associate the smell of Calvin Klein’s Obsession cologne with my hubby – even though he hasn’t worn it in over 15 years – because it’s what he wore when he first came-a-courting.

As scent is tied to memory and feelings, it’s not surprising that marketers and the like have been trying to cash in on this concept by adding smell to our media experience. In fact this has been happening through trial and error for over 50 years! In 1959/1960, competitors Hans Laube and Charles Weiss introduced to ‘Smell-O-Vision’ and ‘AromaRama’ respectively to North America movie goers. The principle was simple, movie goers experience would be enhances by experiencing the same scents as the characters on screen.

While the concept never really took off, researchers today are revisiting the concept to bring the power of scent back but this time to our personal media devices. Tokyo University researchers Haruka Matsukura, Hiroshi Ishida, and Tatsuhiro Yoneda, created a prototype of a “smelling screen” that they debuted at the 2013 IEEE Virtual Reality Conference. (IEEE is a professional association for the advancement of technology.) The “smelling screen” features fans on both sides of a computer screen and uses hydrogel pellets aka “aroma chips”, which are heated to create different scents to accompany content.

fb-shareNot to be outdone, a Tokyo company called Scentee has an app for that! Scentee’s app is used in combination with an add-on for smart phones that plugs into the headphone jack that releases scents on demand. For example, you can set it to give a burst of scent when you get a text from someone, or even LIKE on Facebook. They’re calling it a “new way of communication with aroma” as you can send an apology text and the scent of rose could be released (provided the receiver happens to have the rose scent disc inserted). I’m not sure how this will translate for marketers as the choice of scent is up to the user, but if you want to give it a go, a Scentee starter kit will run you about $70USD… and for an extra $7.50 you can have them toss in a bacon disc! Mmmmm bacon.

 

Are You “The Expert”?

Are you challenged with making your client’s vision come to life, regardless if they fit into their over-arching strategies/objectives?

When working with clients, there is always a fine balance between giving them what they want and providing what they really need. Since they’ve called you, ‘The Expert’, your success comes down to only one thing: a happy client – even if at times seem like the most difficult result to achieve. The key to ensuring your clients are happy is to manage expectations – that balance of what they want and what you can deliver. Managing expectations has a lot to do with perception, semantics and communication and a little to do with project management.

One of my co-workers share this video that depicts a client meeting that I’m sure we’ve all sat in at one time or another. Take a load off, put your feet up and start relating…

Are you an April Fool?

Posted in Communications, Lifestyle, Lifestyles by

April Fool’s Day.

Ever wonder about the history of this day of fools?

FoolOne version is that back in the day, France once celebrated its New Year at the start of the spring, around late March/early April. But in the 1500s they changed it so that it would begin in January to match the Roman calendar. However, word of this change traveled slowly, so many people in rural areas continued to celebrate the New Year in the spring. These people became known as “April fools”, or so the story goes…

Another version is that the day grew from age-old European spring festivals, in which pranks and camouflaging your identity was common. This one makes more sense to me personally, as April Fool’s Day is about pranks.

Pranks bring people closer together. It’s a fact. (It’s also a fact that most facts are made up on the spot.)

If you work in an office with a lot of computers and people who foolishly trust you, go ahead and take this opportunity to create some memories. A great idea from a former co-worker of mine: take a screen shot of their desktop and have it displayed on the screen. Then watch and laugh as your co-worker can’t click on anything. Ha! Classic. You can modernize this one by using a broken screen wallpaper. Your welcome.

Or you can go the high-tech route and using this same idea, download the broken screen app to make someone think you cracked their beloved iPad or iPhone! Yes, there is actually an app for that! And that’s no joke.

 

 

The Oscars: Product Placement

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The subject of the selfie is hot, hot, hot again what with Ellen DeGeneres and a group of A-List celebs snapping one at this year’s Oscars.  Posted to Twitter, the group selfie was so popular that within about 16 hours it had been retweeted more than 3.4 million times – almost crashing Twitter.

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Interestingly, this seemingly spontaneous moment was slightly planned as Samsung was an official sponsor of the Oscars. According to this article in the Wall Street Journal, Samsung spent an estimated $20 million on ads to run during breaks in the broadcast. However, Ellen playing with the Galaxy Note 3 during the award show was an additional paid marketing tactic that you may remember called product placement.

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Thinking back, the first time I can say there was a noticeable product in a movie would have been E.T. with Reeses Pieces. (Elliott used them to lure ET out of hiding if you’ve forgotten.) Not that I was old enough to realize what it was, but at that time product placement was a relatively new and not a widely used marketing tactic. However, it’s safe to say that this when brand placement marketing really took off. This 1982 Time Magazine article reported that the sales of Reeses Pieces shot up 65% after the movie. Here’s an interesting fact: M&M was actually Steven Spielberg’s first choice for E.T.’s favourite candy, but they declined as they didn’t want their candy to be associated with an alien. #Regret

Today, product placement is so pervasive we hardly even notice it – a Pepsi can here, an iPhone there. We don’t question when these things appear, as these are usually things that we use in our daily lives; so it just seems natural that characters would use them too. Then there are others that we just don’t give a second thought because they are so well written into the script. Can you imagine the movie Cast Away without Wilson?

Well the placement seems to have certainly paid off for Samsung in the buzz factor.  Kontera, a social media tracking company, was quoted in above mentioned the Wall Street Journal article reporting that Samsung was getting about 900 mentions a minute on social media! Only time will tell if this will translate into product sales.

Fashion Fun Friday: Beyond the Rack

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Over the years discount shopping stores like Winners, Century 21 and Feline’s Basement have become more mainstream. It’s been almost 20 years (!!!!) since a friend first told me about Winners. At the time it was dirty little secret that she shopped discount. I’m not sure why shopping at discount stores was so frowned upon then but I’m happy that everyone has embraced the concept today. Personally I’ve always loved a good discount. I credit my mom for bringing me to Frenchys when we lived in Nova Scotia.

Today we boast about getting something for a steal. And online discount sites are abundant! One of my favourites is BeyondtheRack.com – a Canadian flash sale discount site. Launched in March 2009, they call themselves a ‘private shopping club’, as you need to be invited by a current member, a marketing partner, or by submitting a request. If you are one of the few people who haven’t been introduced/ invited to this site, then allow me… http://vnlink.co/Ssiz1yY

Beyond the Rack has a great selection of new and “vintage” items; and at around 70% off, it won’t kill your bank account! Each sale, or ‘event’ as they call it, starts at a specific time and runs about 48 hours. Once it’s closed they submit all the orders to the supplier and then it gets shipped to you. Since they don’t have any stock onsite it does take a little while to get it, but it’s worth the wait. Trust me on this.

On a side note, last year I met with their director of marketing when I was looking for a new gig and, while they weren’t hiring, he was gracious enough to meet with me and chat about the company. They have a brilliant business model! They don’t have any of the items physically in stock so they don’t have to pay for storage space; and since they only order based on the quantities that customers buy, they don’t have any real overhead.

If you love shopping AND getting a smoking deal then this is the site for you…Happy Shopping!