Go places with the new craze: Smartphones

If you are planning on going global with your corporation or just partnering with an international business, supplier, company (etc.), you're going to need a way of communicating with them besides email, fax, snail mail:

Top phones for International Communication:
[Phone Scoop][apc magazine]

1. iPhone[Apple (AAPL)]: This new phone from Mac has been in the market for a while and still has buzz going on around it. I'm sure everyone knows everything there is to know about this phone. The iPhone is now selling for $399, as opposed to its original listing at $599. The phone has many pros and great software features including iPod, Safari, youtube, Google Maps, and widgets that supply weather etc. This phone is great for International travel. The Global SIM card can only be from AT&T but thats the only downfall if your looking to get a SIM card from a different network. One big con which seems to be generally haunting Apple in general is the battery life. My three year old Powerbook barely lasts an hour, I have to dim the screen to make it to two hours. Reviews about the iPhone generally say that the battery life seems to barely last three hours which is difficult if your traveling and need to use it for its various features, especially the internet. Additionally, ITS PHONE!! Only having three hours of batter life is absurd.

NOTE: when looking for a smartphone that you can use for your international communications and management you'll probably be looking at many PDAs. Just remember that it was designed as a PDA before a phone. So if its the phone part that you are looking for DON'T BUT ONE!

2. Audiovox PPC 4100/SP230 [AT&T (T)]: This is the first GSM PDA phone from Audiovox. Its mainly PDA with a phone function the dials previous calls and your speed dials. Better if you're preference of communicating is email.



3.Blackberry 8830 "World Edition" [Verizon (VZ)]: The new phone from Blackberry was launched by Verizon oh May 14th was the first Global CDMA/GSM BlackBerry. Verizon also announced the availability of the Global Blackberry service, with quick email and effortless internet connection. Verizon Wireless’ new Global BlackBerry service allows customers to place and receive voice calls from more than 150 countries and send and receive e-mails in the United States, Canada and more than 60 countries worldwide. This goes for any Verizon wireless users. What a great deal. Check it out at Verizon and Blackberry's Research in Motion.

the branding of small town america

In our audience research class we are doing a project in which groups were assigned on of the new 7th Wonders of the World. Our assignment is to come up with a media plan and analysis for our destination. This is very appropriate for the new age of marketing. When you sit down to watch just a half hour of television you can possibly see five different commericials for locations in the United States and around the world, mainly on food channels or "Discovery channel" sorts. Countries and destinations are considered products, which need to be marketed to tourists. In many countries the tourism industry is the main supply income to the eonomy because of the money that is brought in when tourists come for their goods and services.

Countries, and mostly states (after all I live in the US..i've seen plenty of I <3 NY commercials) have their own tourist boards that come up with campaigns to promote their destination in any season. In Ithaca, NY the DownTown partnership came up with a publicity stunt, to challenge a little town in Wisconsin to the title of "Birth Place of the Sundae." It attracted national coverage and brought in many tourists to the now annual sundae festival. Other locations do similar things to get (no pun intended) on the map. The most sucessful publicity event that a city could have is the Winter/Summer Olympics.

The 2008 Summer Olympics are being held in Bejing. I can only imagine the boost that this is going to give China's economy. But for the non-Olympic locations, theres always the option of hiring a spokesperson for your location or a catchy slogan (like: ST LOUIS...is with in reach - not one of the more creative ones, but at least they try).

Destination slogans: amazing or just plain horrible...you decide:

Let's Talk COLORADO
UTAH Life Elevated
NEW JERSEY Great destinations in any direction

Go Green Go

Environmental activists and politicians have been talking about global warming since the early 1980s, but no one paid notice to them. We couldn't feel the changing in the temperatures, so to us it wasn't happening.

The term "global warming" refers to a phase of climactic change that the earth is going through. This change is mainly due to human interference, primarily the emission of greenhouse gases, throwing off the cycles of the Earths climate.

Today is October 9th, in Ithaca, NY, and the high temperature for today was 80 degrees F. That is 20 degrees higher than the average high for Ithaca. This is the first year that students at Ithaca College are actually starting to really wonder (and are worried) about global warming. The companies of the world have also become more aware of the climate issue, trying to do all they can to help. From the international fashion industry to GE to Ithaca College, everyone is seeing green.

Companies have a corporate social responsibility and a responsibility to their consumers. Just saying your company is "green" does not mean anything. Branding experts have a hard time of pin-pointing what exactly is green marketing. A company can be accused of greenwashing. "Consumers appear to be wary of companies who label their products as being 'green,' or environmentally friendly," said Market Research Company Ipsos Reid. [GreenBiz] Securing guidlines for green marketing would be better for the consumer and better for advertisers. Is just going organic enough to say that you are green. What about the entire production of the product. Is it eco-friendly, fuel efficient, biodegradable, natural and organic?

When a company wants to make their building green The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) Green Building Rating System (LEED) created by the U.S. Green Building Council. The amount of points achieved will determine which level of LEED® certification the project is awarded. There are 69 possible points and four certification levels. Corporations should have the same type of cirtification process when going green. This would get rid of consumer scepticism, build the brands trustful image and strengthen brand loyalty. Beyond all these questions as to what is "green marketing" there are many benefits to it.

Here are the top five reasons to GO GREEN:

1. You will receive attention and business from the environmentally concerned consumer
Consumers are recentrly concerned with their carbon footprint in the environment. One thing that consumers do to decrease their impact is buying products that they know have a smaller impact on the environment than other products.

2. You will create positive public awareness towards your brand
If you are doing something positive for the world, the world will have a positive view of you

3. The impact that your company singularly has on the environment will be dramatically reduced

4. You will save your company money in the long run
By investing in making your production process more friendly to the environment and more fuel efficient, you will save your company money on energy and other utilities, as well as decrease its negative impact on the environment. Its a Win-Win.

5. You will be making the world a better place to live in!

For more GO GREEN marketing information, data and tips, go to Yankelovich

[GE green commercials]

Happy 55th Cannes Lions!!

The Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival is the primary global meeting of all people in the advertising industry interested in creative communications. The first Cannes Lions was held in 1954, inspired by the International Film Festival. Cannes became the Lions permanent home in 1984. The festival has grown tremendously since then. At the 2007 Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival there were 9,000 registered delegates from 85 countries. They participated in competitions, attended 45 seminars and 20 workshops. This is a great opportunity for all levels of professions in the creative sect of advertising. Whether you have been in the industry for years or just starting out, the workshops and seminars they offer seem to cover a wide-range of topics. Last years workshops focused on the booming digital age of advertising, from web technique sessions to revising and revolutionizing print advertising to a presentation on Latin Americans creativity in marketing. And I am certain that every delegate who attends the festival can definitely find a seminar or two that peaks their interest. There is a huge variety of topics, ranging from digital vs traditional agencies to ambient media.

But the number one thing that gets me more excited then just dreaming about being in IDEA CITY this summer, is the fact that they are now have a students program that allows university students to come and experience the festival. I am definitely applying!

[Metropotam]

Industry Issue: Lost In Translation

One important thing to know about advertising in an international market is that you must be sensitive to others cultures, and languages. Most advertisers who market over seas, or who just market to the large (and growing) Hispanic market in the United States, will over look this fine detail. This has been a topic of discussion in a few media classes that I have taken at Ithaca College. One famous example was the "Got Milk" campaign.

The "Got Milk" campaign is a national canpaign in the United States done by Gooby Silverstein & Partners, to entice people to start purchasing and drinking milk again. When they translated the slogan into Spanish they realized that the literal traslation meant "Are You Lactating?" NOT "Got Milk". They than did the smart thing and hired Siboney USA, a spanish-language advertising agency, to do an adaptation of the campaign. This is a very common occurance in the advertising industry. Companies try to traslate their own campaigns without the help of professionals in the foreign market. According to a survey done by TransPerfect Traslations Inc. in 2003, "of 513 people surveyed, 57% said they had spotted advertising that was incorrectly translated from English into other languages. [article: Lost In Translation The Wall Street Journal Europe - September 19,2003}

TransPerfect Translations Inc. is a service with the mission "to provide the highest quality language services to leading businesses worldwide." It is agencies like these that save companies from running into trouble while expanding to other cultures, like the Coca-Cola co. when it first came out in the 1920s.

Coke expanded to a global proportion in the 1920s. In China, shopkeepers who sold the product tried to find characters that translated the brand name. The literal translation turned out to be something along the lines of "female horse stuffed with wax" [Lost In Translation].

Companies and marketers just aren't allocating enough money and time to foreign campaigns. They spend as little time as possible on translating the copy. It isn't enough to just translate. Companies now need to adapt campaigns to the foreign culture or they might be at risk of loosing an entire demographic.

I now make a call to action, for marketers and advertisers to stop being lazy!! And start paying attention to the cultures of their demographics and to start catering to those people.

iPhone travels across the pond

Apple has chosen O2, the leading wireless carrier in the UK, to offer the iPhone to UK customers. Their website posted a press release on Sept 18th but information about the deal for over a week. The race to carry the iPhone was a global competition between four of the top carriers in Europe, O2, T Mobile (Germany), Orange (France), Vodaphone, and O2 (who ultimately "won").
It seems that O2 will be sharing much of its revenue from selling the iPhones as part of their contract with Apple. According to an article from the Guardian O2 will be sharing 40% of its revenue with Apple. Wowza!!!
Despite this, other carriers are still vying for a bite of the Apple. T-Mobile is rumored to have signed a contract with Apple to make the iPhone available in Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Hungary and Croatia. (CNN Money) This has yet to be confirmed but I believe that the iPhone's availability in the UK has laid the ground work for new expansion of Apple's product in all of Europe.

Get in the LOOP: ProductionPoint

News Flash:
I just stumbled upon this amazing free networking web page for companies who are in the entertainment industry. ProductionPoint is an international production consultant that has contributed to more than 1,000 productions in over 70 countries. Wow!! I think their slogan is genius: source. network. promote. Simple and to the point, clients don't need to be confused or bewildered by a complicated slogan and mission statement.

The productionpoint web site includes an internal search engine, making it easy to navigate the site, QPOINT, their forum for industry questions, WORLD UPDATE, which contains industry news from all over the world and one can filter by region as well, and P.O.V., discussion boards for the Advertising and Entertainment Industry.

I can see this website becoming the FACEBOOK of the entertainment industry. Its a state-of-the-art international resource for networking between the people of the Advertising industry and the international production scene. Membership is free. However, to receive a Preferred Listing status or to advertise on various pages, there are monthly fees. Check out ProductionPoint to network within the worldwide Advertising and Entertainment industries.