The topic this week is product placement in TV shows, movies, and video games.

The tactic I chose was product placement in video games, specifically Need for Speed Carbon. As a kid, I was a huge fan of the NFS games, and racing games in general. What I didn't notice as an 11-year-old kid was the use of advertisement in the game in 2008.

During that time, the election between McCain and Obama was taking place and one of Obama's tactics to self-promote was to use in-game advertisement. Obama's wasn't the only one who used the billboard tactic in a video game, but I'll bet that it was the most effective due to the timing of the release of the game.

According to the text, "the primary game playing market segment is 16-34- year old males" (Clow, Baack, 2014). Due to this age gap, many young men are interested and involved in politics, which might explain the reasoning behind this in-game advertisement of Obama's marketing team. Because of the timing the game was released and the interest in politics from the age group most likely playing the game, I do believe that this was an effective ad. I mean, he did win.

The topic this week is strategies that marketing brands use on social media. I chose to pick the Influncer Marketing strategy, which "involves an individual endorsing a brand on social media sites" (Clow, Baack, 2014).

Above is the ad that I chose. It is a Lincoln commercial, but focuses mainly on the actor and his surroundings. Matthew McConaughey is sitting in a coffee shop, as he looks at his parked Lincoln soaking in the water on a rainy night. Ambient music plays throughout the commercial, and every now and then Matthew displays philosophical thoughts that may engage the customer. You may even see a dancer enjoying the weather if you wait until about the 45 minute mark!

Although McConaughey is a celebrity, and the book states that "although celebrities have large followings, they may not be the best choices", I believe he is wonderful in this instance. I do not know of anyone who dislikes the man, and throughout the video, he presents many philosophical points that may shift opinions on Lincoln as a car company and the demographics of the people who drive Lincoln. Both Lincoln and McConaughey have large followings, which has provided the video with hundreds of thousands of views. The video was posted to Youtube and has received many positive comments, stating how relaxing and thought-provoking the video is.

The topic this week is digital marketing. The ad that I first thought of as being effective (and digital) to me was Sony's Bravia Colour ad shown below. 

This is an older ad by Sony, but it is a great one. It's obviously a digital ad, but that isn't why I think it's effective. The ad most definitely uses the consumers' emotions to sell their product and they do this by using visual effects and sound. Throughout the commercial, the song "Heartbeats" by Jose Gonzalez plays, which many people tend to think of it has an emotional song. It's slow, and calms the listener down. The way Sony added this to the visual effect of thousands of colorful bouncy balls falling down the streets of San Francisco was absolutely genius.

I have watched this ad probably about 10 times already, because it truly is beautiful. It immediately grabs the audience's attention until they finally advertise their product, and it ultimately makes great use of the pathos aspect of the consumer.