The Big Fat Marketing Blog

Doug Garnett, CEO/founder of direct response television agency Atomic Direct , has come out with a new book “Building Brand with Direct Response Television” that tries to inform readers of the medium’s overall effectiveness and evolution from its former stereotypes of “yell and sell.”

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Finally, for all those couch potatoes around the country who continually fend off advice to get up, drop to the floor and do 20, help has arrived. A new app, Viggle, is designed to reward us lay-abouts with points for checking into our favorite TV shows.

This is all new and untested, so whether TV viewers, and maybe more importantly, network partners, actually buy into the idea of rewarding loyalty to broadcast programming is yet to be seen. more

Three new videos from the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA) seek to inform consumers to the use, value and control of banner ads. There is good intent behind these spots: Consumers should have the value of behavior-based ads demonstrated, and they should be alerted that there are ways to control the ads they are shown.

Unfortunately the script, sound effects and visuals combine to create three of the most unwatchable ads ever produced. The ads, which were generated for the DAA (a coalition of several advertising groups, including the American Association of Advertising Agencies, the Direct Marketing Association, the Interactive Bureau and a handful of others) were produced pro bono by MRM Salt Lake City. They’re almost worth the price.

The spots use retro ’50s style art and graphics, which serve only to draw attention to the images and away from the message. The scripts go for stunningly unfunny wacky humor, and in the process overshadow the messages the ads are trying to convey. The text graphics pop, pulse, spin and otherwise manage the neat trick of distracting from themselves. more

Hello from the center of the experiential world,

I addressed the recent post re: Walgreens with absolute shock. You must be either a paid consultant, or a person fishing for business to think that a company the size of Walgreens told 47% of their customers to go elsewhere as part of their strategy - Have you lost it? more

The latest assault on the U.S. Postal Service comes from some libraries, if you can believe it.

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So much for home-field advantage. Among the top 10 companies an American Express/National Retail Federation Foundation survey recognized for excellence in customer service, fully half are pure-play online marketers. As in, no brick-and-mortar presence whatsoever. more