Outdoor advertising- A breath of fresh air

The world of outdoor advertising billboards, transport and “street furniture” (things like bus shelters and public toilets) – is worth about $18 billion a year, just 6% of all the world’s spending on advertising.

Outdoor advertising’s appeal is growing as TV and print losing theirs. Dennis Sullivan, boss of Portland Group, a media buyer, calls outdoor advertising the last true mass- market medium. It is also cheap. In Britain, a 30-second prime-time TV slot costs over £60, 000 ($100,000); placing an ad on a bus shelter for two weeks works out at about £90.

Adding to its attractions has been a revolution in the quality of outdoor displays. Famous architects such as Britain’s Sir Norman Foster are designing arty bus shelters and kiosks with backlit displays. Movement is possible too. Smirnoff used new multi-image printing to make a spider, seen through a vodka bottle, appear to crawl up a man’s back. And Disney advertised its “101 Dalmatians” video on bus shelters with the sound of puppies barking.

This sort of innovation has attracted a new class of advertiser. Particularly attractive to the new advertisers is street furniture, the fastest growing segment of the outdoor market. It accounts for some 20% in Europe and about 5% in America.

From Business Wire

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New style quality

The term ‘quality’ is one of the most misused in the business world. What exactly does it mean? Quality meant excellence. As defined by the American statistician Edward Deming some 50 years ago, quality means consistency, a lack of defects. Further damage to old-style quality was done by the rise of Japan. When Japanese cars, toys and television sets first reached the market in the US and UK, local manufacturers considered them cheap trash. In the beginning, they were. But under the teaching of Edward Deming, the Japanese were learning about the second definition of quality. In time of course, Japanese cars became stylish and comfortable vehicles. Quality has a third meaning that of value for money. To qualify for that meaning, a product must be of certain standard.

 The US fast foods group McDonald’s, for instance, talks of its ‘high quality food’. But at 99c or 99p, its hamburgers are as close to absolute cheapness as any person in the developed world could desire. But as anyone who has eaten a really good American hamburger knows, a McDonald’s is also a long way from quality in its original sense.

FINANCIAL TIMES

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Three promotions

McDonald’s.The famous fast food company, McDonald’s, launched Campaign 55 help it compete against rivals like Burger King and Wendy’s. They had a six-week promotion costing $320 million. McDonald’s offered a Big Mac for 55 cents instead of $1.90.

Pepsi.The Pepsi Cola Company had the idea of offering a Harrier jump jet as a ‘joke’ promotion. The advertisement was shown in the Seattle area in the US. It showed a teenager modeling some merchandise available as part of the Pepsi Stuff promotion. At the end, a Harrier jet landed outside the school and the boy came out of the cockpit saying, ‘It sure beats taking the bus to school.’

Irish Tourist Board.The Irish Tourist Board used to have the shamrock as its symbol. Recently it spent $100 000 developing a new logo to attract tourists to Ireland. The logo showed two people with their arms outstretched in welcome. A tiny shamrock can be seen between the two bodies. The new logo was part of a campaign to promote Ireland as a modern country offering good food and company. The television and advertising campaign included music by the well-known group the Cranberries and showed pictures of a romantic, fun-loving Ireland. It was very successful abroad. Tourism increased by 14% in four months.

From The Economist

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Telepathy … the proof really is all in the mind

Researchers claim that while many people have strange, even bizarre experiences in their lives, almost all can be explained by coincidence. Psychologists Dr Richard Wiseman, an expert in the paranormal from the University of Hertfordshire, and Dr Julie Milton, came to their conclusions after looking at 1,200 published scientific investigations into telepathy from all over the world. Under these rules volunteers sit on their own in a room with half ping-pong balls over their eyes and a strong red light to stop visual distractions. In another room a second volunteer is given a picture and instructed to concentrate on it and transmit the image mentally to the other person. After 20 minutes the first volunteer is shown four pictures and asked to nominate the correct one.

Some strange events which may seem fantastic are actually statistically not so unlikely. For instance, if there are just 24 strangers in a room, there is 50/50 chance that two people will share the same birthday. If these two meet, it will seem like a coincidence. Dr Wiseman has studied the phenomenon of people who dream about death, and then have a close relative or family member die the next day. But in a UK population of 60 million, two people will have this frightening experience each week.

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Anyone can do it!

David Thomas failed all his math exams and left school with no qualifications, yet this 30-year-old fire fighter has just gone into the Guinness Book of Records by reciting from memory 22.500 digits of the mathematical constant. After five months of training, in which he spent ten hours a day memorizing a quarter of a million digits, David Thomas took part in a 16-hour mental battle. Witnesses watched in awe as Thomas set a new European record, earning the title "Most Powerful Memory in the Western Hemisphere".

Thomas became fascinated by O'Brien's theory that anyone can improve their memory by using specialized techniques. These techniques involve linking everything to familiar people or objects. If you want to remember a phone number for example, you have to give the numbers life. Sometimes I associate a number with a person. Number 10 for me is always the Prime Minister Tony Blair (who lives at number 10 Downing Street) and 50 is my uncle John who died at that age.

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Famous couturiers

They were twenty-eight when it happened – the chance that every dress designer dreams. The Princess of Wales, still «Lady Diana», asked them to make her wedding dress. David and Elizabeth Emanuel were famous. Born in ordinary families, the Emanuels had had to work their way to the top. He met Elizabeth, daughter of an English mother and American father, at Harrow College of Art. The two young students liked each other at once, and they liked each other’s work. The next step for the young married couple was the Royal College of Art. The fashion show at the end of the M.A. course is a big chance for young designers. The Emanuels were lucky.

A new world of romance was being born in the small building the couple had rented in fashionable Mayfair. Actress Susan Hampshire wanted something extra-special that people would notice and remember. The Emanuels were becoming well-known. It wasn’t always easy. People took their designs home to study, then had them copied more cheaply. The Emanuels had to learn from their mistakes. But then came the royal wedding. For weeks they worked in secret, hiding their designs from the cameras of the many curious newspaper men. But when at last they stood in St Paul’s Cathedral and watched the Princess walk down the aisle to marry her Prince, they knew they had reached the top.

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