Tremor In Cincinnati Felt In Adland

Kevin Dugan writes about P&G's Vocalpoint (part of the Tremor system) being used to encourage soccer moms to visit downtown Cincinnati with great success.  Tremor is an intriguing - and closely guarded - part of the modern marketing landscape.  But is also a best case study.  So much so that the system is bought into by brands beyond P&G's own stable including WD-40, Animal Planet and People’s Choice Awards.  ABC TV even uses the system to get input into its programming feedback.  It's no surprise as the system has signed up 225,000 teens and 500,000 mums across the US.  All of which are handled with the type of care and attention that shows up the common marketing 'eyeballs' parlance.  However, Tremor isn't magic - it's a well-organised, useful social network which, as we are all very aware by now, people like.  The question is what does this all mean for the marketing industry?  An example given by Bob Garfield in his recent AdAge article illustrates the issue:  "Listen carefully to Jan Leth, executive creative director of OgilvyInteractive North America, as he tells a funny little story about an agency assignment for Six Flags:  'They had a promotion for their 45th anniversary. They wanted to give away 45,000 tickets for opening day to drive traffic. So we got a brief to do whatever: ads, microsite, whatever. But our interactive creative director just went off and posted it on Craigslist. Five hours later, 45,000 tickets were spoken for. No photo shoot. No after-shoot drinks at Shutters,' he adds, with faux regret. Then, with somewhat less irony: "Now, the trick is, how do you get paid?"

Comments

[Kevin Dugan]

James - Thanks for the link and the humorous Craigslist story. It's a good problem for an agency to have, but a problem to consider nonetheless.