It starts with a great product, or many in Google’s case. Then market the heck out of it. So what’s different about that? It’s free, absolutely free* for users. In fact, people who “buy into” using Google products aren’t even called consumers, they’re called users.

Take their SPAM fighting team for the Gmail product, for example. How do you make that an interesting topic worth sharing with users? Google created an informational video with their “Top SPAM fighting engineer” explaining what Gmail does differently to help you. If you aren’t already asleep you’ll have to check it out because it’s actually very entertaining (that’s not a typo). SPAM fighting video.

You’re probably aware of how they make their money, selling ads for other companies products. Hmmm, so they create kick-ass products, have fun marketing them in a way that leverages Web 2.0 and give it all away for free and somehow they expect to make money? Yep, $1.07 billion. For the most recent quarter. Net. All companies should be so lucky. Then again, a lot of companies can’t get past the first requirement in this equation.

“Hook” me up with Google’s marketing tactics, HookorSink.com fully approves.

*No disclosure needed, weird huh?

No tags

Part of marketing is making something that stands out from the crowd, part of it is customer retention and part of it is establishing a brand. Combining all those items is not only challenging but often the failure of campaigns all around us. Enough of the grandeur philosophy, check out this cool Jeep Liberty commercial called “Rock Me Gently”.

As a Jeep Liberty floats through a rural highway a squirrel pops in and the driver starts an unlikely duo with Andy Kim’s “Rock Me Gently”, a hit in 1974. The wilderness meets Jeep as birds fly in and eventually a wolf climbs into the back seat. Yeah, I wouldn’t get it either by that description. So just take a look for yourself.

Jeep Liberty gets a “Hook” rating for blending the illusive trio of marketing spices. Go Hookorsink.com, it’s your birthday, go hookorsink.com it’s your birthday. (It’s not at all but repeating the domain name might help in search engines – wow that was shameless)

No tags

Basketball icons don’t get much bigger than Tracy McGrady, Kevin Garnett and Tim Duncan. So when a high school basketball team picks their bunks and has to fight with Kevin Garnett the brotherhood of basketball sinks in. Adidas has launched a website and commercial/documentary episodes that give a glimpse into the life of a NBA basketball star.

In one series Tim Duncan takes the group out to an empty pool with two basketball hoops in it. He explains that his passion came from swimming but when a hurricane wiped out his local pool he took to basketball. Can you imagine getting bank shot lessons from Duncan? How about shooting three’s with McGrady?

A common theme is teamwork which is probably a great idea for Adidas to promote. There was a time when they sponsored the least team-minded player in basketball but Kobe’s moved on to Nike now. After watching these “episodes” the viewer gets a down-to-earth look at basketball in some of the biggest names in the NBA. Does this approachable campaign work for Adidas, absolutely. The German company posted a 62% increase in profits from 2005 to 2006, bringing in over $13.6 billion for the year.

Adidas gets a “hook” rating from HookorSink.com for hitting nothing but net on these great NBA campaigns.

No tags

iPhone has a new set of commercials using testimonials from real people swearing by the new phone. The 2007 Grand Effie Winner “Get a Mac” series set the bar pretty high for Apple and the new commercials don’t quite have the same punch. It’s one thing to compare your product to the biggest company out there (Microsoft) and prove that you are better but it’s not quite the same to grab some people off the street and say “no really, these are cool”.

The testimonials make it easy to appeal to a lot of different demographics with speakers ranging from a ballet dancer that does real-time blogging to a big muscular guy who was frustrated by carrying too many devices. A pilot claims to have received more accurate information from Google maps about a storm than air-traffic control. Not likely. But the different ads speak to the cool features of the iPhone like being able to surf the Internet with ease, communicate more efficiently, carrying only one piece of technology instead of four, surfing your voicemail and more.

Not bad for a company that recently posted an increase in it’s profit for it’s fiscal Q4 at 63% more than last year at the same time, with 1.39 million iPhone’s being sold. Oh, and AT&T increased 41%. Bet they’re glad they did that deal!

Is it enough? Tell us what you think.

No tags

Nevermind the spooky children’s fables that market fear during Halloween like poisoned candy and blade-filled apples. The real story behind Halloween is frightful enough to wake the dead. According to the National Retail Federation consumers will spend over $5 billion in 2007 with the average person spending nearly $65. Each person will spend a little over $23 for costumes, nearly $20 on candy, almost $18 on decorations and just under $4 on greeting cards. Though, if you can find costumes for $23 please write to any of the writers at HookorSink.com.

Specifically missing from those statistics is the huge trend towards theme parks special Halloween events. The parks, along with other haunted houses, is estimated to bring in between $300 and $500 million. While entrance to these scary nights used to be $13 (for frighteningly symbolic reasons) they have soared to $65 in some places. In California alone there is Knotts Scary Farm (Knotts Berry Farm), Halloween Horror Nights (Universal Studios), Disneyland’s HalloweenTime (Disneyland, duh), Mickey’s Halloween Treat (California Adventure – Disneyland II), Fright Fest (Six Flags Magic Mountain), Brick-or-Treat (Legoland), Nick or Treat (Great America) and Halloween Treasure Hunt and Scarecrow Alley (Gilroy Gardens – need some garlic?). Say that three times really fast.

Not really your bag? Perhaps you’re one of the 80% of Americans that plan on watching a scary movie. Is there any other reason 30 Days of Night was the top movie last weekend?

Halloween is rapidly becoming one of the biggest consumer spending events of the year and may only lose out to the Christmas/New Year Holiday season. So before you dismiss it as that October thing, think about how to get a piece of that rather large pie!

No tags

Normally you pile up all your “junk mail” and throw it away before even giving it a second thought. Perhaps you pause occasionally to see if your favorite pizza joint sent a coupon. With great use of technology direct mailings are getting personalization down to a science. Take this postcard-like mailing for example, it has the consumers name printed right onto the T-shirts, hats and hoodies.

Breaking the barrier of being annoying is an art form that is shared across different mediums of advertising. It’s amazing that there are Internet companies out there that aren’t using personalization to break out of that barrier. There a lot more hurdles involved in printing someone’s name on a card than there are with sending emails boasting the consumers name. Here’s a wakeup call from www.aotees.com, “We can do it why can’t you”. Time to get personal!

No tags

The hunt for flat panel TV’s is on (Plasma or LCD). Prices continue to drop and sales continue to increase. The competition is becoming ferocious. Sales of plasma units increased 30% from February ’06 to the same time this year. LCD TV’s brought in an additional 58% in revenue. What is Sony doing about it?

They’re launching creative campaigns to promote “Live Colour Creation”, like this recent commercial. Hundreds of different color threads are tossed over one of the Egyptian pyramids, creating a melting pot of color. It’s a fun concept that promotes the brilliance of Sony Bravia televesions.

If you’re wondering what to get your significant other this holiday season and aren’t one of the few pinching their pennies take a look at the Sony lineup, which starts at $749. Normally HookorSink.com doesn’t promote but my wife may “accidentally” read this post.

No tags

Axe has turned status quo marketing on its head and it’s latest website is a great example of that. As pointed out by our friends at Alternative Marketing 101 the website promoting the Axe sweepstakes is hilarious. By watching the videos and looking for clues users are eligible for a trip to Vegas.

Axe has made a name for themselves by promoting their fragrances in a boldly sexual way. Usually, a young man wearing Axe fragrances is attacked by a sexy woman who can’t control herself. This series revolves around a “Naughty to Nice” program to help rehabilitate those women. In a mocking, Geraldo style story, a journalist tries to get to the root of the issue that causes women to lose their control. To make sure you don’t take it too seriously the “documentary” goes over the top very quickly. The extreme is hilarious and the shameless advertising is almost as funny.

For using the Internet to promote a retail product Axe gets a “Hook” rating from HookorSink.com, THE most irresistible marketing discussion blog. Check out the microsite.

No tags

Despite it’s long tradition of sponsoring the “minor league” of NASCAR, Anheuser-Busch decided not to renew it’s sponsorship. Instead, Nationwide Insurance has taken over the duties. Beginning in 2008 it will be known as the NASCAR Nationwide Series. The seven year agreement is believed to be in the $70 – $80 million range.

Anheuser-Busch decided that it needed to revisit its billion dollar marketing budget and that title sponsorship wasn’t enough, instead focusing on the driving teams.

Nationwide wasn’t the second choice for sponsorship though. After deals fell through with Subway, Dunkin’ Donuts, KFC, AutoZone and others Nationwide stepped in. NASCAR needed only two weeks to to get the deal done.

Sponsorship is big bucks though and the $10 million isn’t all. ESPN made a deal that will have Nationwide spending $4 – $5 million annually on commercials and it’s track deal with Motorsports Inc. is around $4 million a year. In total, Nationwide will be spending about $20 million a year on the sponsorship.

Kind of ironic that an insurance company is sponsoring the riskiest cars being driven legally.

No tags

Google’s share prices have quickly surpassed $600 per share. Not bad for a company that has been traded for only three years (August 2004) and set its opening price at $85. Since Google hasn’t done anything specifically amazing lately this rise in price indicates a general confidence in the company.

Google recently said it will begin showing YouTube clips on “thousand of other sites” and trying to capitalize on the in-video advertising.

With Internet ad spending reaching new highs and Google making a name for itself as the premier company that can help make it work for you, it’s no wonder their stock prices are going higher.

For what its worth, in the same time frame Yahoo!’s stock prices have done remarkably little.

No tags