Feb
27
The Return of the Shamrock
February 27, 2008
Due to public interest via online communities, blogs and web sites, McDonald’s Canada has announced the return of the popular Shamrock Shake.
“We are so excited to re-introduce a product that so many of our customers love,”says Laurie Laykish, Senior Vice President, Menu and Strategy, at McDonald’s Canada. “We knew the shake had maintained a nostalgic connection with customers – we just couldn’t believe how many of them had taken the discussion to a whole new level online.”
Once again, online social tools have enabled consumers to voice their opinions and gain enough critical mass that a company has listened. Online tools are a marketer’s dream – whether people are praising or complaining – valuable information can be collected and strategies can be developed based on what the public wants or how they perceive your product.
One could suggest negative press and consumer reaction has helped McDonald’s improve their product by pressuring them to eliminate trans fats.
Tags: Advertising Stuff, Brand Experience Stuff, Customer Service Stuff, Marketing Stuff, Retail Stuff, Technology Stuff, Web Stuff
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Feb
26
It’s NHL Trade Deadline Day!
February 26, 2008
There is no more proof than the NHL trade deadline to show just how deeply hockey has woven itself into the fabric of Canadian culture. The McGuinty Liberal government may just as well have declared the NHL trade deadline a holiday instead of the new Family Day. In office settings, the water cooler chat is centred around the trades or non-trades, people have their ear close to their desktops listening to online reports from radio stations and some people even get a mysterious 24 hour virus.
It’s addictive. It is amazing how your ears perk up, a chill climbs your back and the hair on your neck stands up when guys like Dreger, McKenzie or Duthie utter those magical words, “We have a trade.”
I remember two years ago I was in Florida for the trade deadline, and I was going through serious deadline news withdrawal. I knew that news wouldn’t be forthcoming at Disney’s MGM Studios, and quite frankly watching ESPN when we got back from the park really didn’t shed a light on things either. The next day I picked up a copy of USA Today from a box outside the restaurant at the Disney resort where we were staying – and not a whole lot of news there. It wasn’t until we were in Downtown Disney the next night that I stumbled upon an Internet cafe in DisneyQuest and was able to go to TSN’s web site to view a quick overview of the trades.
That all said, I am not expecting a very busy trade deadline this year. There are far too many teams in the hunt for a playoff spot – a result of the parity that the cap has created. There will be a few ‘rental players’, but there is more chance of good old fashion ‘hockey trades’ as more teams are trying to improve themselves at both ends of the deal.
In any case, it will still be an interesting day.
Updated 7:30PM: Hmmm, I guess I read that one wrong. Lot’s of teams stocking up on players for their playoff run, resulting in 25 transactions today. Some of the surprising buyers were teams that are currently out of the playoffs and looking for some muscle to help them get in.
Tags: Sports Stuff
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Feb
25
Monday Round-Up
February 25, 2008
The Toronto Star has an interesting column from noted Internet and e-commerce law expert, Michael Geist, called
Microsoft has announced that it will no longer support HD DVD for the Xbox 360, but has not indicated whether or not it plans to support Blu-ray – which of course was developed by its greatest rival in the game console space, Sony, and available on the PlayStation 3.
Speaking of Sony, the sale of their chip manufacturing plant in Japan to Toshiba comes at a most interesting time.
Here is the Google translation of an article that appeared in an Italian paper called Repubblica.it, describing a new technology that may replace windshield wipers.
Tags: Just Stuff
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Feb
22
Is the DVD Format War Really Over?
February 22, 2008
With Toshiba bowing out of the battle between their HD DVD technology and Sony’s Blu-ray machine, I have read many articles declaring an outright victory for Sony. I can’t agree.
While on the surface it may look like Sony, backed by the majority of major studios, was victorious when they finally piled so high on Toshiba’s aspirations that they finally turned with tail between legs and ran for cover – to do so would be forgetting two other major sources of competition for the $400+ Blu-ray players.
First, with blazing high speed connections reaching ubiquity in North America, downloading movies (legally) will become the norm. As people become more comfortable with the idea of hooking their media PCs to their 46″ LCD screens and DVD/Hard Drive players are network enabled, this will take a good chunk of the market – especially once some of the larger distributors like Apple jump on the scene. Cable and satellite distributors have made on-demand movie rentals as easy as selecting a movie and punching in a password – all right from the comfort of your couch. HD pay-per-view movies are already available and I wouldn’t think that HD on-demand is that far behind. But I still don’t see this as the largest competition for Blu-ray.
The second, and deepest entrenched front I see in the HD market, is against upconverting 1080i and 1080p DVD players. I foresee that a large part of the market will not be able to justify dropping another $400 or more on a player when they are already getting a pretty damn good picture with their current DVD player. Apathy and inertia are a marketer’s two most dangerous foes – and I see this to be the largest potential stumbling block for the Blu-ray.
So in effect, what we have is a situation where the true bleeding edge crowd will likely jump into the virtual/download space while the mass market will likely be quite happy keeping their current upconverting DVD player until they need to upgrade it – and by then they might just go directly to the hard drive or PC model.
Somewhere in the middle is the market that is left for the Blu-ray. Unfortunately, the HD war took so long that many people were turned off buying a player until one format took hold. A large portion of the window for the HD technology was missed as was opportunity to really market these players to the hoards of consumers drooling at the mere thought of picking up a nice HD player to hook to their new HDTV.
The people who have already bought their big screen are seeing pretty good results with the upconverting DVD players, and the techies are already seeing how close the next wave is coming over the hill.
The war isn’t over for the Blu-ray – just one battle has been won. The war for consumer dollars is still very much in play, and I would think the next battle will be even harder to win.
The Blu-ray does have a couple things going for it, and a couple potential strategies.
For $400, the Play Station 3 will play Blu-ray disks, (the optional $25 remote would be a good idea), and you get to play games with smokin’ hot graphics too!
If they are smart, the studios will provide content exclusively on the Blu-ray versions of their releases – and what about adding downloadable versions for the iPod or PSP – it’s all about the added value.
And the best market is obviously the thousands of consumers who have been chomping at the bit waiting for the HD war to end. I would suspect that their will be an initial ‘blip’ in sales and then again at Christmas (when prices are reportedly going to go down) – gotta love the low-hanging fruit.
Tags: Business Stuff, Experience Design Stuff, Marketing Stuff, Retail Stuff, Technology Stuff
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Feb
19
Andrew Brash Returning to Everest
February 19, 2008
To some, the name might seem familiar, but you can’t quite place it. To others, you will recognize that the name Andrew Brash belongs to a Canadian Hero.
In 2006, Andrew was part of an expedition climbing to the summit Mt. Everest. As they inched within 200 meters, a relatively short distance to accomplishing their goal, they came upon Lincoln Hall, an Australian climber who had been pronounced dead high on the mountain. The only thing is that Lincoln wasn’t dead, and thanks to Andrew and other members of the expedition abandoning their dream, he is very much alive and well today.
In the Spring, Andrew is returning to Everest. I wish him the best of luck, and a safe, successful climb.
Tags: Just Stuff
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Feb
19
Monday Round-Up : Holiday Edition
February 19, 2008
Yes, due to Ontario’s first “Family Day” holiday, the Monday round-up is being brought to you on Tuesday. Although I am not sure how spending the new long weekend installing ceramic tile in the kitchen can really be considered a holiday. McGuiunty!!! ;)
Seems that after Warner Bros.’ announcement at CES the dominoes just kept falling with announcements from Netflix, and now Wal-Mart that they will distribute Blu-Ray discs exclusively. Now there is heavy speculation that Toshiba is going to dump their HD DVD format – which I am sure will not be a welcome announcement for all the people that bit at the chance to purchase a $199 HD DVD player at Wal-Mart in the last couple of months. I have been following the format war, and will post more on it later.
NASA is saying that the water on Mars was likely too salty to support life. Guess that blows a hole in the science behind Total Recall.
I guess you can survive Freddie Krueger and Michael Myers. You just have to legislate them out of existence – it worked in China.
Speaking of China … there is a virus/trojan horse that has been developed buy a “well-funded” group in China that is being distributed via electronic picture frame. This virus has been described as “the nuclear bomb” of malware.
Tags: Business Stuff, Just Stuff, Marketing Stuff, Neat Stuff
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Feb
15
It is Hard to Understand Why …
February 15, 2008
Thoughts go to the friends and families of the seven who senselessly lost their lives at the NIU campus in Illinois, to those who are fighting for their lives in hospital, those recovering from injuries and to those who are left wondering why.
Tags: Community Stuff, Just Stuff
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Feb
14
LifeLock – Talk About a Bold Message
February 14, 2008
I just saw a commercial about LifeLock’s identity theft protection for the first time. In the commercial, (similar to the one I’ve posted below), LifeLock CEO, Todd Davis, reveals his own social security number – by handing out flyers and applying it on the side of a large truck no-less.
The impact of the commercial is fantastic. Using this type of theatre, Davis establishes confidence in his product by broadcasting his SSN to tens of millions of people. THAT is selling your USP!
The only approach that I think can beat this, is when Med-Eng President, Richard L’abbé would effectively blow himself up to demonstrate the effectiveness of their protective suits.
Here is a commercial similar to the one I saw:
Tags: Advertising Stuff, Brand Experience Stuff, Marketing Stuff
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Feb
12
An Exciting Night at the Rink!
February 12, 2008
I want to congratulate the Carleton Place Lightning Boys Novice B team for their first place finish this season. It came down to the last game tonight, and we would need either a tie or win to capture the season championship. The boys did it in true Lightning fashion – playing as a team.
It seems rather simple and cliché, but at this age the discipline required to play this way doesn’t come easy. There is a natural tendency at this age to just follow the puck around and the more skilled kids tend to indulge in individual play. At this level, some coaches choose to simply ride their talented players, but our coaching staff decided early that we would play as a team, give kids equal opportunity and teach teamwork.
The boys have worked hard at practice and during games to play positionally sound hockey. They play disciplined hockey and understand that team success is their success, that every member of the team can contribute in their own way. We’ve had kids who surprised the coaching staff, their parents and even themselves. We’ve had goals and even a hat trick come from unlikely sources. We’ve had defensively-minded kids break out into very solid forwards. We’ve seen kids improve their skating, stick handling and understanding of hockey. Most important though – is that we’ve seen kids and parents have a lot of fun at the rink.
Congratulations boys, now it’s time to get to work in the play offs!
It’s been a pleasure,
Coach Lee
Tags: Sports Stuff
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Feb
11
Monday Round-Up
February 11, 2008
A week after creating a blog to open two-way communications, the TSA has changed a screening practice based on feedback it received. An example of how blogs can facilitate positive discussion with your customers & stakeholders.
There is an old story about a family on vacation coming across a commotion at a bridge. Seems there was an 18 wheeler wedged under. Out of curiosity, the family decided to get a closer look. As they looked over the situation, they came closer to a group of men standing around discussing how they would get the tractor trailer out from under the bridge without too much damage to either. The young daughter pulled on the sleeve of one of the men and suggests that they simply flatten the truck’s tires. I am reminded of the story when I read this story in the Toronto Star about Thane Heins, born in Ottawa and now living in Almonte, Ontario, who is tugging at the sleeve of the scientific community. Despite a lack of scientific education Mr. Heins just might be the person who invents a perpetual motion machine.
Toshiba continues to lose battle as Netflix announces that it will dump HD DVD technology in favour of Sony’s Blu-Ray disks.
Tags: Just Stuff
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