Lip-Sticking

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince Film Embraces Emerging Media Marketing

 By Guest Blogger, Donna DeClemente, Donna's Promo Talk

For any us mothers with teenagers we are all aware that today is the official release date of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the sixth Harry Potter film in the series. My daughter and her friends attended the midnight show last night and didn't get to see it at their usual movie theater location since that one was already sold out. Now that my daughter has friends that are old enough to drive at night, we don't have to worry about which parent is going to go with them or stay up late enough to pick them up. They drove themselves all back to my house and I woke up with four young bodies sleeping in our living room this morning.

My older daughter is currently away this week attending a summer drama camp, so I don't know if she's seen the movie yet. If not she probably will by tonight. Since she came home from her freshman year in college she's been talking about this film and reread the first three books to get back into the story again. She even got her dad reading the books now. He just finished the second book and she's thrilled that he's reading them. My turn is next which I promised I would do when we go on our summer vacation this year.

Both of my daughters, who are just a little over a year apart in age, really grew up with Harry. It has been an really wonderful experience and they can't thank J. K. Rowling enough for inventing these characters and the world that they live in. They constantly are throwing out character names and phrases that leave me bewildered. Even though I haven't read the books, I have seen the movies, so I'm not completely ignorant about what they're talking about. I wrote about Harry Potter before in this blog post back in July, 2007 which was Harry Potter Month since the 5th movie was released, Order of the Pheonix, followed 10 days later with the release of the last book, Deathly Hallows.

SocialSweeps - Integrating Interactive Promotions with Social Media For a Winning Combination

By Guest Blogger, Donna DeClemente, Donna's Promo Talk

The use of social media marketing by businesses and organizations has been exploding. Today more and more marketers are utilizing these platforms as innovative and effective ways to reach their targeted audiences while also achieving their branding and marketing communications goals.

I have been working lately on several proposals for prospective clients that want to get started with social media. This usually takes some education first that includes an overview of where the industry is currently at, a brief description of the main social media platforms and an explanation of the services that I could provide for them. So, I thought I'd share with you here some of what I've been saying and thinking and ask for your input and ideas.

Now the first step for any social media strategy is to set clear objectives. Goal setting a social marketing program should be no different than with any other brand communications plan. The goals that work best are traditional brand-health objectives, however my experience in this new marketing environment shows that most campaigns may involve the following:

• Increased brand awareness
• Brand engagement (pages viewed, time on site)
• Publicity, positive buzz and word of mouth (often uncovering brand evangelists)
• Relationship building
• Driving traffic to a website
• Sales conversions for products and services
• Strong inbound link generation, which benefits organic search engine rankings
• Positive ROI when maximum exposure is reached

Some of this Year's Father's Day Promotions

By Guest Blogger, Donna DeClemente, Donna's Promo Talk

This Sunday, June 21, is Father's Day so I thought I would mention a few promotions that I know of that have been developed to help celebrate Dads.

First is one that I recently wrote about on my blog; Kmart's “TRANSFORM YOUR DAD” promotion in which they've partnered up the upcoming theatrical release of the film “TRANSFORMERS: Revenge of the Fallen” which will be out on June 24th. They're offering a variety of Transformer merchandise along with a free movie offer good for two tickets with a $50 menswear purchase.

Kmart is supporting the promotion with a national television spot (in both English and Spanish) highlighting men’s apparel, the movie ticket offer and the film. The interactive promotional micro-site is where consumers can redeem codes for movie tickets, download “TRANSFORMERS­: Revenge of the Fallen”-themed content, watch movie trailers and purchase TRANSFORMERS merchandise. To read more on this promotion link to Donna's Promo Talk.

Recession Marketing to Moms - Tips & Insights

By Guest Blogger, Donna DeClemente, Donna's Promo Talk

Lately we've all been seeing many marketing messages aimed at us women that are embracing the fact that we are in a recession. Some are good, some not so great. If you now Google the term "recession marketing" you've find quite a few recent articles on the topic as well as some paid "sponsored" ads from those jumping on the bandwagon as well. 

I wrote about this marketing trend last month in this post here which was about giving value for consumers as well as values! The recession today is affecting most people, but specifically women with children, no matter what age their kids are. Young children are just not in tune with the economic concerns of today even though moms are trying to teach them. And teenagers, well there teenagers, and even though they are aware of what's going on, the world still revolves around them and they "need" many things. 

So one thing moms today are doing is seeking more products that are durable. We need to make things last and brands and companies that are offering this are experiencing growth. This image is an example of "brands that last" which I've included courtesy of John Gerzema, author of  "The Brand Bubble".

And the Oscar Goes To....This Year's Winning Promotions

by Guest Blogger, Donna DeClemente, Donna's Promo Talk

There has been quite a lot of buzz around this year's Oscar nominees and this Sunday we'll be able to pull up a seat to watch the 81st Annual Academy Awards on ABC and see who get to take home a coveted Oscar. We have some favorites back this year, as well as some brand new names, with a first time host, Hugh Jackman.

As with the Super Bowl there will be some memorable ads broadcast during the telecast. Here's a few of this year's interactive promotions associated with it.

First off the film academy is adding a "Project Runway" element to the Oscars this year by asking the public to vote on which dress the trophy presenter will wear. Fans were able to vote online for their favorite gown up until yesterday, Feb. 17, with the winner of the "Oscars Designer Challenge" being announced during the red-carpet show preceding the Feb. 22 Academy Awards.

Confessions of a Back-To-School Marketing Mom

Well I now have survived my first full week without our oldest daughter, Kelsey, at home and she survived her first full week as a freshman at NYU learning how to get around the campus as well as Manhattan. We dropped her off last Sunday along with many other parents across this country for freshman orientation week. Official classes started on Tuesday.

When we arrived in NYC I have to say that NYU was pretty well prepared. They had blocked off most of the parking places in front of the dorms and had traffic cops which allowed you to pull right up to unload. However, once uploaded, you had to move your vehicle out ASAP and then check out your options.

Next steps included signing up on a waiting list for a cart to put your stuff in and then waiting on a line that was out the door and down the street for the elevators. Since there was four of us and my daughter's room was only on the fourth floor we decided to skip the elevator line and instead carry her stuff up the stairs ourselves. On my first way up with stuff in tow I passed a mom who was walking up to the 12th floor! She said she had no choice but to do the elevators since they were 12 floors up!  I have to admit that my husband carried the majority of the heavy stuff up to her room which concerned me because it was your typical humid, NYC summer day.  Thank god he quit smoking last year and with the help of some water bottles that we brought with us, we're all still alive today.

Sweepstakes: Robin Hood Marketing

Exciting news: the August Sweepstakes* officially begins today! I've been a bit lax at getting it announced - so I apologize to Katya (our sweepstakes focus this month) and readers who were waiting for it.

Katya Andresen is the voice of non-profit marketing. Her book, offered as the prize this month, is the bible of non-profit marketing, if you ask me. Register now to win a copy of this wonderful book, Robin Hood Marketing: Stealing Corporate Savvy to Sell Just Causes. Whew! Long title but very appropriate.  Learn more about Katya and her work at Katya's Non-Profit Marketing Blog: Getting to the Point. Good Luck!

Register here to win! View/download complete Sweepstakes Rules here.

Sweepstakes: Let's Not Call It Meditation

Exciting news: the July Sweepstakes* officially begins today! I've been a bit lax at getting it announced - so I apologize to Padme (our sweepstakes focus this month) and readers who were waiting for it.

Padme Livingstone is a local writer and healer. She calls her work "Healing with Awareness." This month you may register to win a copy of Padme's wonderful book, Let's Not Call It Meditation: Practical Guidance for People Who Think They Can't Sit Still and Quiet the Mind. Whew! Long title but very appropriate.  You can learn more about Padme and her work at her blog, Living with Awareness and at her Lip-sticking interview. Good Luck!

Register here to win! View/download complete Sweepstakes Rules here.

*(note: the winner of June's Sweepstakes will be announced shortly - stay tuned!)