Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Target Reinvigorates the Staycation

Many cash-strapped consumers cut back on their vacation plans this summer and took their "staycations" to the extreme by just staying home and not doing much of anything. Now, it's early autumn, the weather's been pretty great, and the natives are restless!

Well, if you are a regular reader of my blogs, or even the articles I write for the Hudson Valley Business Journal, you already know that there are loads of amazing things to do here in the Hudson Valley.

Supermarket retailer, Target has taken notice of the staycation trend and has begun sponsoring art and culture events in cities including NYC, Boston and Miami. Their sponsorships range from free Friday night attendance at the Museum of Modern Art to the Oklahoma City Arts Council's Twilight Music series. Going out to art museums and performing arts events for day trips are a great way to find excitement when a larger scale vacation just doesn't fit the budget.

This is another example of how local sponsorships can prove to be a strong asset to your business and help enhance the community. Take a page out of Target's book and sponsor local youth and arts events. People are looking to get out and find fun, low cost things to do and they will remember your company for being the one that sponsored the event that allowed them to do it.

June Bisel
BBG&G Advertising, Inc.
junebisel@bbggadv.com
845-291-7399
Visit us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/BBGGadv
BBGGadv.com

Thursday, September 3, 2009

R U Twittering?

Many people still do not know what Twitter will do for online marketing in the future. Whether it will be a powerful online marketing tool, or become a passing fad, has yet to be realized.

There seems to be a divide between ad-folk and the average consumer over the future of Twitter. Advertising insiders are more likely to think that Twitter can amount to something big, while 70% of consumers surveyed said that they didn't even know enough about Twitter to predict how effective it can be. So that begs the question: How useful can an online medium be if 70% of consumers don't even know what it is?

Twitter is still very young, and there is the ever-present generational divide of the internet that must also be accounted for. Twitter is used and recognized most by younger audiences and 1 in 5 advertising professionals think it will stay that way. Even among industry professionals, those under 50 had the most faith that Twitter would grow quickly within the next 5 years.

If your tweets can be interesting and useful to others, I believe that Twitter has a future in the online world. If you are considering using Twitter as part of your marketing, remember that its usage is highest among younger age groups, so craft your tweets accordingly but make sure you don't talk down to this audience.

I twitter. Do you? Click on the link below to see my twitter page.


June Bisel
BBG&G Advertising, Inc.
junebisel@bbggadv.com
845-695-1880
Visit us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/BBGGadv
BBGGadv.com