This week I decided to use my blog to explore Breast Cancer Care’s new efforts to raise awareness and funding for the disease. As part of Breast Cancer Awareness month the charity are taking over Euston train station in London, England and placing nine large digital screens on the walls of the station which will display live feeds of updates on subjects including news headlines, weather, horoscopes and trending topics. The screens will intermittently display the message of “You can check a million and one things all the time.  Make one of them your breasts.” I thought this was a very effective way to both raise awareness of the charity and also aid in efforts to identify breast cancer in its earliest stages, significantly increasing the chances of recovery.

From personal experience I know that Euston station is one the busiest places in England. A constant hub of activity, which will allow the charity to reach such a wide target market from professionals travelling to their next meeting to young adults meeting at a cafe in the station to university students on their way to lectures. The station sees thousands of users from all age groups pass through every day.

Having chosen such an opportunistic location the charity have also managed to plan a marketing activity that will attract maximum viewing, by allowing commuters to easily view the information they seek out practically everyday and then by consequence the viewer will also be shown Breast Cancer Care’s message. I think Breast Cancer Care are displaying a well planned and evaluated marketing strategy with this campaign and for such an important cause, I hope the results are as effective as the planning!

After recently reading Vicki Waschkowski’s blog about the dangers of Procrastination (see link included) I was left partially with a sense of guilt, as procrastination was exactly what led me to the blog, a feeble attempt to avoid finishing off my latest Accounting Assessment. But I also started to think about the time many consumers, particularly teenagers and young adults spend on the art of procrastination. Thanks to the Internet, from updating your status on Facebook to being the first to “discover” Justin Bieber on YouTube, there are endless possibilities to allow users to escape from their daily routine for hours on end.

It would be wise for companies to use this and seek advantage from the ever-growing number of online visitors.

The Internet has enabled marketers to more easily enter either specific or mass markets. Through research into the sites most used by particular segments of consumers whilst surfing the web, companies can customise the online channels they use to most effectively reach their target markets. An obvious example here would be companies aiming their products at young adults advertising on social media sites, since 48% of 18-34 year olds check their Facebook before they even get out of bed in the morning. That’s a lot of consumers who could potentially see your company’s advert seconds after waking up every morning.

Whilst I am in no way encouraging students to go online instead of completing their work (our university years have the potential to shape our entire future remember) I do take comfort in knowing I am not alone – the average American teenager spends 31hours online every week compared to the average of 4hours per week they spend doing homework.

If a company can take advantage of the huge Internet craze it could provide great rewards in future sales and awareness of products. With over 1 billion different users surfing the Internet each month, chances are someone in your target market is going to see your online advertisement.

Vicki Waschkowski’s blog:

 http://www.canadianmarketingblog.com/archives/2011/09/procrastination.html