Advertising in a sardine tin
I read Jeremey's blog entry about Nokia's advertising blitz in the PUTRA LRT (for those from overseas - this is the innercity train in Kuala Lumpur). He described how every car is plastered with advertisement for the (already older N-Cage). In addition, every station stop is announced with one of their ringtones via the train's loudspeaker system followed by their catch phrase - Nokia ... Connecting People.
Imagine how you feel when you have to go a couple of stations. First of all, the wagons are full - packed, no space to move.
It is early in the morning and you go to work, just fall off the bed and you are tired. Or it is later in the evening and you go home and you just fall of the office chair and you are tired. The person next to you has bad breath, or body odor, or too much makeup, or too much of the perfume that you really can't stand.
However, ringtone business is big business(http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0ECZ/is_2004_Jan_19/ai_112320442. Now, what better chance as a company in the handphone business to team up with a public train company to spread the news about your great ringtones. Imagine - what opportunity. People cannot run away! They cannot switch channel. They have to listen to your message and it is played loud enough and persistent enough to overwhelm any conversation. What arrogance!
This isn't the interactivity that I wrote about yesterday. In business, companies often lock their customers in - be it in the business-to-business world or business-to-customer world. For instance, locking in means that you sign a contract with a telco provider for a couple of years - its not a great move, according to my opinion, from the telecommunications provider, but this is an entry for another post. Locking in in this situation in the train means that you cannot run away. A silent suffering endures. Will you like it? Some might like it the first time around, may be a second time - but longer?
Some great marketing guy must have thought that this is a great way to scream louder at his or her audience. That this would create business or more loyalty. Will it really?
I read Jeremey's blog entry about Nokia's advertising blitz in the PUTRA LRT (for those from overseas - this is the innercity train in Kuala Lumpur). He described how every car is plastered with advertisement for the (already older N-Cage). In addition, every station stop is announced with one of their ringtones via the train's loudspeaker system followed by their catch phrase - Nokia ... Connecting People.
Imagine how you feel when you have to go a couple of stations. First of all, the wagons are full - packed, no space to move.
It is early in the morning and you go to work, just fall off the bed and you are tired. Or it is later in the evening and you go home and you just fall of the office chair and you are tired. The person next to you has bad breath, or body odor, or too much makeup, or too much of the perfume that you really can't stand.
However, ringtone business is big business(http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0ECZ/is_2004_Jan_19/ai_112320442. Now, what better chance as a company in the handphone business to team up with a public train company to spread the news about your great ringtones. Imagine - what opportunity. People cannot run away! They cannot switch channel. They have to listen to your message and it is played loud enough and persistent enough to overwhelm any conversation. What arrogance!
This isn't the interactivity that I wrote about yesterday. In business, companies often lock their customers in - be it in the business-to-business world or business-to-customer world. For instance, locking in means that you sign a contract with a telco provider for a couple of years - its not a great move, according to my opinion, from the telecommunications provider, but this is an entry for another post. Locking in in this situation in the train means that you cannot run away. A silent suffering endures. Will you like it? Some might like it the first time around, may be a second time - but longer?
Some great marketing guy must have thought that this is a great way to scream louder at his or her audience. That this would create business or more loyalty. Will it really?
posted by Andreas @ 7:03 pm
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