A New Medium for Advertisers: Prayer!

If you haven't seen it already, please drop everything and hit the play button below...........NOW!!! You will not be disappointed.



Channeling his inner Ricky Bobby of Talladega Nights, Pastor Joe Nelms of the Family Baptist Church delivered a prayer that no one will ever forget. He delivered this invocation before the Nationwide Federated Auto Parts 300 at Nashville Superspeedway.  

It turns out this prayer even had an impact on the drivers participating in the race. Eventual race winner Carl Edwards appreciated the humor that came with Nelms’ prayer. “I turned to Jack (Roush) after that. Edwards said, ‘If anything happens, I want him to be at my funeral.’ That was one of the best invocations I have ever heard.”

Don't blink, because it appears that advertisers now have a new medium to target with their ad messages, thanks to Pastor Joe Nelms.

Get a Quick Charge With Vitaminwater

Have you ever been witness to the following scenerio? You are out and about, and you just realized that you left your charger at home and your cell phone or iPod battery is just about to die. Well you may be in luck now, if you live in Boston, Chicago, New York or Los Angeles.

 
It turns out, Crispin Porter + Bogusky and Glacéau's Vitaminwater wants to help you out. CP+B is installing USB ports in bus shelter ads in the above cities for an ad campaign for Vitaminwater. The bus shelters, installed on bus routes in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Boston, offer a 5-volt battery powered USB port that allows users to charge mobile phones, music players and gaming devices. They form part of the soft drink brand's 'You're Up' campaign, underlining its message that its formulated to provide a quick boost when you are on the go. 

Too Good To Be True

If you missed it, apparently Sears was offering the new 16GB, wi-fi only version of the iPad 2 for the low, low price of $69 online. That's an amazing 86% off the SRP of $499. The 32GB, wi-fi only model was also priced at an unbelievable price of $179 or 70% off the SRP of $599. So what's the catch with these unbelievable offers, you ask. Well, as it turns out, these offers was posted in an online ad by mistake, says Sears. Apparently a third-party seller, GSM On Sale, is being blamed for this mistake.  In response to this third-party seller's mistake, Sears issued the following statement on its official Facebook page: 

Unfortunately, today one of the Marketplace third party sellers told us that they mistakenly posted incorrect pricing on two Apple iPad models on the Marketplace portion of the website. If you purchased either of these products recently, your order has been cancelled and your account will be credited. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Many of the customers who initially jumped at these offers, were extremely upset that neither Sears or GSM On Sale were willing to honor their orders at the mistaken price(s). So they did what everyone does in today's society, they turned to social media to vent their frustrations.

As it turns out, this mistake has affected GSM On Sale even to this day. When news of this mistake was first reported on Sunday, their website was already out of commission. GSM On Sale left the following message on its homepage:

Our online store is currently closed for maintenance. Please visit us again soon    

Now come the question of whether or not GSM On Sale or Sears can recover from this mistake in the eyes of their consumers. Only time will tell!

Cooming Soon: Cheesy Poofs to a Walmart Near You

If you haven't heard the news already South Park fans, Erik Cartman's favorite snack food is coming soon to a Walmart near you. That's right, Cheesy Poofs will shortly become the greatest thing since sliced bread.

As part of an extensive promotional campaign ("Year of the Fan") to observe the 15th season of the show, Comedy Central, which has been home to South Park since August 1997, is teaming up with  Frito-Lay to bring this snack to a Walmart near you. Thanks to this deal with Frito-Lay, 1.5 million packages of Cartman's favorite fattening snack food will be available at Walmart by the end of August, for the low, low price of $2.99 for 2.375 ounces of cheesy goodness.

For those of you who are reluctant to pay $2.99 for a 2 3/8-ounce bag of Cheesy Poofs can get a free bag at an exhibit, called the Ultimate South Park Fan Experience, that Comedy Central is sponsoring in conjunction with Comic-Con International in San Diego July 21 to 24. The exhibit, running 15,000 square feet, will also offer artwork, memorabilia, photo and tattoo booths, trivia contests and a station to create South Park avatars that can be uploaded to profile pages in social media like Facebook.  

Roger Ebert Should Lay Off the Fatty Foods
Tags: SOUTH
PARKmore...

For those of you who forgot, Comedy Central is presenting the 15th season of South Park in two parts. The first part ran from April 27 to June 8 and the second is scheduled from Oct. 15 to Nov. 16. Also, the series has already been renewed for a 17th season through 2013.

This isn't the first time something like this has happened to an animated series. To help promote The Simpsons Movie in 2007, products like Frosted KrustyO’s cereal and Buzz Cola were sold in 7-Eleven stores; some stores were even temporarily converted to Kwik-E-Marts, after the inconvenient convenience store in The Simpsons.

So now comes the question, which promotional branding campaign will be deemed more successful. South Park's - Cheesy Poofs or The Simpsons - Frosted KrustyO's cereal and Buzz Cola at 7-Eleven stores. Only time will tell. 

Tips on How to Survive the NFL Lockout

Does the NFL lockout have you down? Are you afraid that your fantasy football league will be cancelled this year, as a result of the lockout? ESPN has some advice for you. In this humorous spot, ESPN reminds its faithful followers that while it may seem bleak now, don't forget that you've had to endure many bad things before, so don't let the lockout get you down. Also, if you haven't already, make sure you sign up for this year's fantasy football league on ESPN. Why, you ask? Because ESPN told you to. That's why!

What's Wrong with this Picture?

Attention How I Met Your Mother fans, be on the lookout for a very bad teacher. If you have been watching syndicated reruns of the popular series you may have noticed something different with some of the older episodes. Apparently ads for some current movies like Bad Teacher and Zookeeper have made their way into episodes from as early as 2006. How could an ad for a movie released in 2011 make its way into a HIMYM episode that was produced in 2006, you ask. Was it magic? No, not exactly! It turns out that 20th Century Fox Television, the studio distributor of HIMYM, has partnered with a company called SeamBI, which stands for Seamless Brand Integration and is responsible for digitally altering old episodes with new products and brands. SeamBI's CEO Roy Baharav calls his company an “advertising technology innovator.”  “What we do is we insert, very efficiently, brands into content in a natural way and in a way that is valuable to advertisers,” Baharav says. “So we find the balance between not compromising the integrity of the content and, on the other end, bring a lot of value to the advertiser.”

After seeing the pressure that DVR penetration was putting on the 30-second commercial, Baharav decided to do something about it. So in 2005, he started SeamBI, to provide advertisers another avenue to get their message across to their audience. It took over two years to fully develop the technology, according to Baharav. But in September 2009, it finally went on the air appearing in syndicated episodes of My Name is Earl, which is another 20th Century Fox Television property. After working their magic, SeamBI was able to place two to three insert opportunities (depending on the storyline) in each of the 96 episodes of My Name is Earl. SeamBI has also worked new brands and ads into the show Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?

The really interesting thing about this technology is that the advertising can be changed for different markets and can also be changed to a new advertisement in subsequent re-airings. The Bad Teacher ad placements in HIMYM, for example, were specific to the New York metropolitan area.

According to Baharav, SeamBI is already looking at the bigger picture with this technology. They have already started to look beyond syndicated reruns and have targeted broadcast and cable networks with this technology.  “Definitely I see this as something that is going to be a part of the future, as we see the pressure on the commercials keep increasing,” he says. “I think this is going to be a very popular alternative.”