The financial crash of 2008 hit few industries harder than automotive.  We saw timeless US automotive manufacturers file for bankruptcy while others experienced record sales declines.  Despite this, some brands, like Audi, were able to weather the storm better than others.  How?  In part, thanks to successful marketing.  I first started paying attention to the brand after seeing a creative, futuristic commercial about a year ago.  Beginning in a dimly lit hallway, the camera pans into the living room as features of the house gradually evolve from 1970’s furnishings to contemporary décor.  As the camera turns to look out the window to the driveway, a Mercedes-Benz flickers and is replaced by the redesigned 2009 Audi A4.  “Progress is”, indeed, “beautiful.”  Since then, I have felt overwhelmed by clever Audi advertising and surrounded by sleek new models.  Am I alone?

Apparently not.

Continue reading “Truth in Engineering… and Marketing” »

Last week was an interesting one for trends on Facebook.  The week started off with celebrity doppelganger, where everyone changed their profile picture to their supposed celebrity look alike.  As the week wrapped up, another trend started where the Facebook masses used urbandictionary.com to search for their first name.  They then pasted whatever definition was returned and used that as their status message.  So, what impact did this Facebook phenomenon have for Urban Dictionary?

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Compete recently held a webinar in which we analyzed the role that search plays in consumers’ online research for deposit products (savings, checking, CDs, etc.).  The study revealed some interesting findings about just how prevalent search is within the consumer buying cycle.  Some of the key findings from this webinar include:

• Overall online shopper and applicant volume declined in 2009, however share of online shoppers utilizing search, especially Google, increased
  • >65% of deposit shoppers who used search in September 2009 chose to use Google, compared to <60% in January 2008

Continue reading “The Role of Search in the Online Deposits Market” »

I had mixed emotions when I tuned into Conan O’Brien’s last episode as the host of NBC’s Tonight Show a couple of Fridays ago.  However, my emotions quickly became “joyous and inspirational” as I listened to Conan, also known to his fans as Coco.  Conan mentioned how he was finally allowed to say anything he wanted about NBC and the debacle with Jay Leno over the Tonight Show spot.  Conan had nothing but kind words to say though.  He was grateful for his fans and for NBC making everything possible in his career of over 20 years as a writer on Saturday Night Live (SNL), host of the Late Night Show, and his short stint on the Tonight Show.  He claimed, “This should be a happy moment,” and had encouraging words particularly for his younger audience to not be “cynical” in life.  Conan showed behind all of his goofy, off-the-wall humor, there is a genuine class act.

Continue reading “Conan vs. Leno: Coco Must Go” »

With the unemployment rate at 10%, the stock market 30% below its peak from the fall of 2007 and companies continuing to announce layoffs, it can be hard to remain optimistic these days.  However, Oscar Mayer is trying to change that by bringing some cheer with its Good Mood Mission campaign, which is a charity program aimed at feeding the hungry.  Consumers are encouraged to go to their Good Mood Mission site to submit a “good mood” comment that starts with “it doesn’t get better than”.  For each good mood submitted, the company will donate a pound of food to Feeding America, a hunger relief charity organization.  I submitted a “good mood” myself and I did end up in a better mood just by thinking about the things that put me in a good mood.

Continue reading “Oscar Mayer Brings Good Mood” »

Last Thursday, Compete released its ranking of the top 50 food and cooking Web sites for December 2009. In addition to the typical seasonal traffic spike, the cooking and grocery sites categories have both sustained significant year-over-year growth. Traffic to recipe sites grew in 2009 as a number of the online outlets added mobile applications and new ways to interact with their brands. In addition, grocery store chains attempted to capitalize on the number of online shoppers by adding home delivery services, featured products and online deals.

Continue reading “Compete Ranks December’s Top Food and Cooking Sites” »