Chris Stenberg dot com » Marketing

Moosehead Cracked Canoe

Chris Stenberg — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 01:16:46 +0000

I saw the ad on TV and almost thought it was a joke. Cracked Canoe? Really? Yes, it does exist, and it’s a slow brewed premium light lager. Premium light lager even sounds a bit oxymoronic, but there is something else going on here.

Despite our constant desire for the latest and greatest, and our now over-communicative nature, there is a flip side to that coin. In a time where life and messages go by at a frantic pace there is an underlying craving for simplicity — a throwback to the simple times.

I personally couldn’t do this for very long, now that I have fully adapted to a well connected life, but there are moments where I just want to push pause on life and enjoy the scenery.

I don’t think I’m alone on this one, and clearly neither did the respondents who likely influenced the latest effort from Canadian independent brewery Moosehead. John St. is the ad agency behind the communication which features a lot of positive slow motion moments like a man and woman exchanging a seductive glance in passing, and even a baseball going through a TV set in slow motion — apparently taking aim at media for creating for us an undue hectic lifestyle.

The Cracked Canoe website also pokes fun of our over-produced lives with a mock newspaper covering everything in a ridiculous “fast.”

Will Cracked Canoe be a hit? It’s a little tough, but as the slogan goes it’s an Ode to Slow, so when you’re thinking of those quite moments on the lake with a beer in hand, the folks at Moosehead are banking that you will be sinking a few Cracked Canoes.

Here’s to you slow!

Source: CBC News

Marketing Mag

Redundant Textplanation

Chris Stenberg — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 09:24:39 +0000

I wonder who sued this company for false bean size advertising? Anyone that has seen a garbanzo bean would know that they are not that big, and there was no other labeling on this can that would indicate that these are super-sized garbanzos. Unfortunately the bi-product of living in a litigious society is that we have to provide redundant explanations about pretty much everything to fill the void where common sense once stood.

(Red)efining the English Language

Chris Stenberg — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 09:18:16 +0000

Product (Red) has become so ubiquitous on the shelves of some of the nations big chain stores that I wonder if anyone actually remember what it means? I honestly didn’t and it was seeing this mug at Starbucks with the parantheses inserted into the word rediscover that made me think about it again.

In the marketing world the bastardization of the English language is more than common, but it makes me uneasy. We are losing so much of proper communication to slang and short form messaging abbreviations that I wonder what the future of language will be. In some ways we are regressing back to a simpler more hieroglyphic way of speaking to each other.

So if Starbucks and (Red) want to start retooling words for the purposes of marketing is that okay? (Red) has raised substantial sums of money to treat AIDS and malaria in Africa, so perhaps the over misuse of the parentheses is justified, and maybe this is just the evolution of our language like the oxford comma, but personally, I’m still clinging to full sentences and proper punctuation. Call me old fashioned, but it bothers me, but in this case I am willing to let it go.

What do you think?

Alexa Rank — Ongoing Case Study

Chris Stenberg — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 16:20:02 +0000

Alexa Rank is a way of gauging your website’s validity on the world wide web. I should mention that there is also Google PageRank, but it seems a little more ambiguous and each page is only rated on a scale of 1-10. While extremely relevant the Alexa ranking is somewhat representative of your Google PageRank and more specific in its reporting.

When it comes to Alexa ranking the lower the number your site carries, the more influential it is. Having a lower Alexa number will likely bring you further to the top in searches and will also give you greater influence over the Alexa rank of other sites. Alexa rank is totally relative though, and depending on the subject of your site the rank may not carry as much weight.

For example: a new search engine would have to compete with Google, the number one ranking site on the internet, with an Alexa rank of 1. A site on the subject of Blogging would have to compete with Problogger.net, one of the top ranked blogging sites on the internet with a score in the low 2000′s (That is actually extremely good in the big scheme of things). If you ran a figurative marathon against every website owner in the world and came in the low 2000′s you would actually be one of the top runners/sites in the world. Blogging about blogging is highly competitive though, and a new site could expect to have an Alexa ranking in the 20 to 30 million range.

On another front, if you had a website with a strong niche and little competition you may not need a high Alexa ranking to be at the top of the Google search for your niche. If your site was specifically about kayak paddle tips you would probably not have much trouble reaching the top, and an Alexa score of 20 million might not be so bad.

In terms of influence if a site with a high Alexa ranking links to a site with a low Alexa ranking the low sites ranking will go up. Maybe not a lot, but probably a considerable amount. If several high ranking sites linked to a low ranking site, the low site would probably make leaps and bounds very quickly.

Anyway, with that explanation aside, the following is an ongoing tally of my Alexa ranking since I rebirthed this site in the Fall of 2009.

I will continue to update this from time-to-time as I notice any substantial changes.

June 24, 2010 – 605,460 – Total posts = 232 – I’ve been hovering around the low 600,000′s for the past couple of weeks. The highest I got to was about 600,000 even, and on the lower end I was at 610,000. This is likely due to some new posts and some increased traffic from the Nissan Leaf post I wrote that was picked up by Nissan on their Facebook Leaf fan page. There were a couple of days here and there that had referral traffic into the 500+ visitors range, but mostly now I seem to be in the 45-70 range with 70 being on a Monday and 45 being a weekend or later weekday.
May 17, 2010 – 687, 575 – Total posts = 196 – I finally break the 700,000 mark.
May 14, 2010 – 708,752 – After a couple months of bouncing around between 722,000 and 750,000 I seem to have broken the rut. A recent all out-post-athon where I posted about 10 of posts within a couple of hours on travel and also television seems to have led to a significant increase in traffic this week. It just goes to show, if you want more traffic, start writing more.
April 14, 2010 – 736,210 – Total posts = 131 – The last month has seen my Alexa rank drop by about 200,000 spots and for the first time I actually went backwards, but thanks to a post about product placement on 24 I have sustained a decent amount of traffic and bounced back ahead.
March 12, 2010 – 988,305 – Total posts = 84 – I finally broke the 1 million mark! Yesterday I was hovering at 1 million + 555, but today I’m sub-1-mil. It’s a bit sad and geeky that I know and/or care about that, but it was a goal and I made it. Now my mission is to crack the top 100,000 websites in the world, which may not seem like much of a feat, but considering how many websites there are I think it’s kind of a big deal.
March 3, 2010 – 1,084,827 – Total posts = 75 – I have been hovering around the 1.2 million mark for a couple of weeks now and am now in the low 1 millions. Woot! I’ve introduced a more mobile blogging approach and have tried to include a few posts here and there about current events. Recent posts about the Vancouver 2010 Olympics have probably helped improve my ranking. I plan to start doing a few guest posts here and there and also to start including more links with trackbacks or pingbacks in my posts.
January 31, 2010 – 1,871,340 – Total articles = 31 – The site finally cracks the 2 million mark. Now my goal is to break the 1 million mark and eventually to be in the top 100,000.
January 18, 2010 – 2, 810,080 – Total articles = 25
January 12, 2010 – Alexa Rank: 4,468,552 – Not as much growth, but decent in only a couple of days and a couple more posts. Google is indexing my new posts within 20 minutes. I like!
January 12, 2010 – Alexa Rank: 4,800,000 – I make another couple of posts which Google indexes extremely quickly and I end up gaining another 500,000 spots
January 11, 2010 – Alexa Rank: 10 million (approx) – In the wake of the Facebook Bra Color Update Post I end up dropping about 5 million points or so
January 7, 2010 – Alexa Rank: 15 million (approx.) Web traffic goes a bit crazy after I make a current events post before most of the high ranking sites – 600 visitors in 2 hours – Alexa ranking drops by several million points very quickly
December 1, 2009 – Alexa Rank: 18 million (approx.) Number of posts: Less than 20

Ben & Jerry’s Go Viral — Jimmy Fallon Style

Chris Stenberg — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 21:11:52 +0000

Ladysmith Snack Mambazo appeared through a cloud of smoke on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon once again this time to sing about Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. I doubt that Ben & Jerry’s, the famed Vermont ice cream company, paid for this 3 minute plug, but it will likely reap some benefits just in time for summer.

It’s an example of how something creative and funny can sweep the internet super quickly. I can see this video quickly making the rounds on Facebook and Twitter.

Every kind of product from brands to television are having to change the way they approach their marketing in an increasingly difficult communications landscape. A clever viral message, or social media campaign will ultimately drive traffic. In this case it helps keep Jimmy Fallon on the radar and will also spur some interest in Ben & Jerry’s.

These days it is important to remain on the top layer, but is far more difficult to do now that people are cycling through information at such a rapid pace. The proof of whether or not this works will be if I tune into Jimmy Fallon, or pick up a tub of Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia next time I’m in the grocery store.

Steve Jobs Talks iAds and the Nissan Leaf Electric Car

Chris Stenberg — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 09:13:41 +0000

Follow Chris Stenberg on Twitter.

Nissan is set to release the latest in their fleet — a 100% electric vehicle called the Leaf.

At the recent Apple Worldwide Developer’s Conference Steve Jobs unveiled the new iAd for the Nissan Leaf and goes through the motions to the point where he apparently orders one for himself.

What’s cool about how they are advertising the Leaf is that this will be one of the first vehicles promoted using the iAds platform on the iPhone. The HTML5 compatible video and interface seem as cool as Flash, but is obviously more browser compliant and will play on mobile devices.

The ad is triggered and displayed in the iPhone app, so there is no longer the cumbersome application switching and re-switching that previously occurred with the iPhone app advertising provided by the now Google owned AdMob.

What I like about these ads are their interactivity. Jobs illustrates this using a graph that shows how far the Leaf will travel on $1 worth of electricity versus other popular cars on 1$ of gas. The result is comical particularly when comparing a Nissan Leaf to a Hummer.

The landscape of advertising is changing and the ability to provide a high level of engagement and interactivity in ads is going to be crux to the future of advertising. No longer will it be enough just to put an advertisement in a consumer’s face, rather, it will be necessary to involve them in the process and make them a part of the product. As always these days engagement is key.

The world is a changin’.

Focus Group Moderator

Chris Stenberg — Fri, 14 May 2010 06:56:59 +0000

Over the past 4-5 years I have been working in market research primarily in the area of ethnographic research. The ethnography is a valuable tool in qualitative research and provides a level of in-depth insight that can result in very actionable insights for a brand as there is a direct and personal connection with the end user, or the consumer, if you will. I’d rather just call them people!

I have been fortunate to work all over North America connecting with some amazing people from all walks of life along the way. Primarily my work has taken me to the major market cities such as New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Vancouver, Montreal, and Toronto, but I have also worked on a variety of custom research projects that have taken me to other cities with rich and unique cultures like Kansas, Atlanta, and Austin.

I have done this work primarily through other research companies for some of North America’s top brands like Nike, The Gap, Beam Global Spirits, Time Warner, and many others, but it is now time for me to evolve and continue my work in Market Research through a new Vancouver based company which I will be spearheading called Core Strategic.

Over the past few years qualitative research has moved toward more and more online research — particularly during the recession. While I believe that online research is an amazing tool for both quantitative and qualitative research, I am a firm believer in continuing to conduct research in person — up close and personal. Core Strategic will focus on delivering highly focused and actionable insights in custom market research in a very inter-personal way.

There are so many rich insights to be gleaned from in-person observational methods and discussions, and it takes a skilled observer to interpret this information into valuable insights. I see the world in a different way than most, and am infinitely curious about the reasons that people do things and how they interact with things and their environment.

At Core Strategic I will be offering my services as a focus group moderator and qualitative researcher. I have a track record for delivering highly visual and engaging content in market research reporting and look forward to working with some exciting new clients. I have a deep understanding of the human spirit and bring with me a depth of experience particularly in areas surrounding youth research and modern youth culture.

If you are interested in hearing more about what I do please feel free to contact me here at my personal website, or at the forthcoming CoreStrategic.com.

Blatant Bing Product Placement Continues

Chris Stenberg — Wed, 12 May 2010 09:53:04 +0000

The blatant product placement on Gossip Girl continues as Microsoft continues to bash the American pre-teen audience over the head with its Bing browser.

The Bing Browser has been featured in several episodes of the Upper East Side Manhattan text messaging driven melodrama. In one episode a horribly uncool and relatively old Eleanor Waldorf exclaims “just Bing it” in a bout of frustration. In season 3 episode 20 Jenny Humphrey, aka “Little J” uses the Bing browser to foreshadow a pivotal plot point.

Gossip Girl is a show known for its product placement. In another episode I recall someone buying a Vitamin Water off a giant stack on a counter at a chic coffee bar. Do you think brands are pushing too hard by featuring their products on shows like Gossip Girl, or is it just par for the course?

24 Sprint Product Placement

Chris Stenberg — Wed, 12 May 2010 09:17:08 +0000

Last night’s seat-gripping, nail-biting episode of 24 (season 8 episode 21) had me glued to the TV until Chloe O’Brien, played by Mary Lynn Rajskub, decided she needed to drop some product placement for Sprint into the scene. It was almost as bad as the Jack Bauer Hyundai incident.

Literally, the whole day would have been blown, and Jack Bauer would be dead if it weren’t for the Sprint Overdrive 4G Mobile Hotspot technology that saved the day. In an episode where they quoted the US/UK military communications intercept network ECHELON, it is ironic that Sprint’s consumer level 3G mobile internet device would save the day.

Later in the episode Jack Bauer performs a rudimentary surgery to remove a Sprint SIM card from the Russian agent Pavel Tokarev’s innards. After a quick wipe to remove any guts and stomach acid, the card is inserted into a Spint enabled HTC smart phone and low and behold it works!

Despite my groaning, this is why I love 24. Call it MacGyver for the tech generation.

Cullman Liquidation Commercial

Chris Stenberg — Wed, 12 May 2010 05:47:31 +0000

This takes truth in advertising to a whole new level and Errol Morris says that it’s the best commercial he’s ever seen. Who am I to argue? Wanna mobile home?

(via Errol Morris)