Marketing&Me

A new use for traditional advertising channels: the FBI began a campaign (as of dec. 07) to help identify and apprehend criminals using the sheer number of people passing through public places. http://www.nytix.com/Blog/newyorkcity/2010_01_01_archive.html Missing children, etc. will also be displayed on the billboards. The campaign has over 1,000 billboards in 20 cities, and has already lead to over a dozen criminals being apprehended.

The FBI is not necessarily ‘marketing’ their service but they are using marketing or advertising techniques in order to improve that service.  The publicity is improved even more by the fact that the ‘ads’ stand out so much compared to most billboards. I think this is a good example of finding a new application for an established medium: the kind of innovation an effective marketer needs to develop.

As a non-smoker I’ve always found it interesting the marketing tactics that tobacco companies are forced to resort to. The advertising of tobacco products is highly regulated in North America today, so much so that we almost rarely come across ads in a given day. Many such ads may only be a picture of the packaging and a slogan, with the a bold warning being the most eye-catching aspect. I always wonder the value of the advertising when the ad is dominated by a warning of how dangerous the product is to use.

I suppose that this type of marketing does not even attempt to target new customers; there is nothing attractive to the non smoking observer. They mainly serve as a reminder to continue the habit for those who already are familiar with the product. The ironic packaging, as in the picture above, may even appeal to users who are trying to make some kind of statement of recklessness.