Archive for February 12th, 2013

Games: Let’s play Obama Bingo during tonite’s State-of-the-Union Address …

February 12, 2013

It’s that time of the year … let’s play Obama Bingo during tonite’s State-of-the-Union Address.

image

Irish bookies lay odds on which clichés President Obama will drop first and say most often in his State of the Union address.

Why not turn it into a game …. like students do with boring profs.

Randomly post the most likely clichés to squares on 5 x 5 game cards.

First player to score a row, a column, a diagonal or the 4 corners with “he said it” marks wins the game.

Here’s the official odds on what Obama will say first and often …

(more…)

Gotcha: Shrouding prices in mystery …

February 12, 2013
A couple of years ago, behavioral economists Xavier Gabaix and David Laibson wrote a seminal paper on the concept of “price shrouding,” and “information suppression”.

In other words, techniques that make it practically impossible fo a buyer to ascertain the real economic cost of a product.

image

Here are some of the ways that sellers shroud their prices to flatten your wallet … 

(more…)

Jobs: Now, MBAs are competing against Justin Timberlake, too.

February 12, 2013

Well, not really … but it sure sounds like that..

Working with celebrities used to be a simple matter.

Marketers would write a big check for a star to perform a specific purpose — for Olympian Mary Lou Retton to grace boxes of Wheaties, or for model Cindy Crawford to don short-shorts and sip Pepsi.

20130211-NEWS--0001-NAT-CCI-AA_--.qxd

 

Now, according to AdAge, brands aren’t just featuring celebs in marketing campaigns — they’re giving stars a place in the marketing suite. 

Big brand names are going beyond celebrity endorsements and hiring celebs for actual marketing jobs, giving them titles like Brand Manager, Creative Director, and even CMO.

Here’s what’s happening … (more…)