Youtube (Google) and Officemax have come up with a rather creative viral youtube campaign.  Below is a screen shot of the preferential Youtube placement to generate additional views on Youtube.  The number of impressions this Youtube channel is generating must be massive (so this must have been a big advertising deal - probably worth $250,000):

Below are more pictures of the OfficeMax Youtube channel and the video with the advertisement:

The videos are rather funny and viral as the actor tries to pay for things with nothing but pennis.

It’s hard to say whether or not this is generating additional business for OfficeMax.  I would certainly hope so as it has probably cost them a lot of money to produce and place on Youtube.

If you are a fortune 500 company and interested in developing edgy viral content advertised on Youtube we would like to help you produce the marketing campaign.  Please contact us for more information.  We can only take on this project if you have a minimum of $50,000 to invest into it.  We can develop an engaging consumer based website, viral youtube campaigns, and purchase premium Youtube video placement to make the campaign go viral.  Kudos to this creative and entertaining online viral marketing campaign from Youtube (Google) and OfficeMax.

American politician’s are able to get elected because they use traditional “scare marketing” tactics to prey on the weak minded. Below is a screen shot of an advertisement put out by John McCain:

The advertisement reads, “Is it ok to unconditionally meet with anti-american foreign leaders?” You are then given the option of clicking “yes” or “no”. The advertisement appeared on Youtube under the Charlie Rose channel (which is great by the way). The advertisement was hyper-targeted probably through relevant keywords (further demonstrating google’s impressive content advertising system).  You are then directed towards this landing page:

The landing page above is a squeeze page (it doesn’t matter whether or not you agree with John McCain’s political stance) where you can give up your email; where you will probably be sent political messages and requests for donations.

It sickens me to see John McCain (2008 Republican Presidential Candidate) to phrase the “Iran Question” in this way. US political rulers need to get it through their thick heads; that just because someone doesn’t like you, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t meet with them or have no lines of communication with them.  That’s just plain stupidity and childish. It reminds of me of adolescent young boys fighting in the playground - they often end up becoming good friends later on because they “communicated” at some point.  Most countries/people mature after a few years as a result of communicating with “perceived” enemies.  American media, politicians, and the world seem to have “anger” issues with Iran for producing nuclear products; as well as making anti-zionist/Israel rhetoric. These are both serious issues that correctly piss people off. However, it is immature and potentially more harmful to American’s if people like John McCain are elected and further ruin potential relations with “trouble makers” like the Iranian President.  More dialogue and communication is the answer to increasing national security in America.

Opening lines of communication with your perceived “enemies” does not harm American’s in any way. Bullets and military weaponry harm people. Words do very little. The lack of words are the root of the problem. In all relationships - unhealthy communication is generally the biggest problem.  Governments are just like everyday people (which they actually are) - and they generally have problems because they are bad at communicating with one another.  Advertising campaigns like the one above are solely intended to empower American politicians. Instead of fostering better relations with Iran, American politicians would prefer to create more conflict, in order to empower themselves once in office.  In summation, John McCain sucks and is going to suck even more if he gets elected.  With marketing scare tactics like this - he might just do it.

While touring the Thailand country side I was amazed at the number of large scale manufacturing facilities that were for sale or sitting vacant.  I can only imagine that in parts of the former Soviet Union, Western Germany, and third world countries there are excessive amounts of manufacturing and large scale industrial complexes sitting vacant.  The marketplace for purchasing and selling these massive facilities can best be optimized through - The Internet.  I don’t know of many websites that connect buyers and sellers of these awe-inspiring facilities.  Can anyone say business opportunity!?  eBay is certainly a great place to list these facilities; I regularly see strange pieces of real estate for sale on eBay in Brazil, Costa Rica, and other American retirement destinations.

Most of these massive complexes can probably be purchased for pennies on the dollar.  With rising inflation across most western countries the costs of material are going up; and for many US manufacturers shifting operations to third world countries is the only way to stay compeitive in a global market place.  Recently, Intel announced a $600 million dollar semi-conductor manufacturing facility in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Banner Blindness Inc. (my company) currently has far too many projects in the works to invest in an eBay type website for large scale manufacturing and industrial.  However, if any readers of this website would like to invest in a project of this sort, please email Support@BannerBlindness.com or call 843-425-3566 and leave a message.  The following is my proposal to potential web investors interested in this project:

$5K will buy you 49.9% of the website.  I won’t relinquish control of marketing and business decisions.  This is purely a long term investment and you will receive a 49.9% controlling stake in the company.

Value of company at time of initial investment will be $10,000.  For $5K you will own 49.9% of the company.

Banner Blindness Inc. will own 50.1% of the $10,000 company.

The website will be built within one month

The website will undergo testing and optimization in the second month

The website will launch in the third month.  In the third month Banner Blindness Inc. professionals will initiate a marketing and advertising campaign as well as hire independent writers, content producers, and “listers: around the world to document and bring forth vacant large scale properties in third world countries.

The fourth month should result in dozens of listed properties and hopefully a sale of one large scale property.

Potential customers will be able to call in to our offices in order to learn more about the property.  Potential customers must sign an NDA and agreement to enter into business with the website only.  We will outsource all legal actions to an international legal firm in order to pursue companies that purchase property as a result of our exchange.

Why not just steal this idea and do it yourself?  Well, you certainly can!  We just currently lack the funds, but not the talent or employees (as we have over 30 on retainer in India), to build our projects and even handle some of the marketing.  So once again, if you are interested in investing in this web start up, please email Support@BannerBlindness.com or call 843-425-3566 and leave a message.

I’m constantly impressed with the way that marketers and Google are creating advertising campaigns on Youtube. The example below is a marketing campaign for the upcoming summer blockbuster: Get Smart. Well, it’s not quite a block buster yet, but with marketing like this I have a feeling it will be.

Viral video marketing like this is very effective in generating brand loyalty. Over a million people have watched the Get Smart Youtube contest and thousands are uploading videos to participate. I doubt the numbers will be anything substantial, but it is certainly generating quite a bit of cognizant buzz about the movie. When the movie releases people that have seen the Youtube video will certainly recall the video they saw online and will probably opt to see Get Smart verses other movies.

This GetSmart viral video has the components of other successful online viral video marketing campaigns that Youtube has helped create: users participate in the conversation. When “users participate” by uploading videos of submitting any form of user generated content the marketing campaign is a success. Numbers, therefore, become the most important component of user generated marketing - you want as many people to participate as possible. So make it easy to participate! This Get Smart campaign is simple to be a part of; videos submitted are no more than 15 seconds.

If your company is interested in crafting an online viral video that includes user generated content - please call Banner Blindness at 843-425-3566 or email Support@BannerBlindness.com

We do quite a bit of online marketing for both our internal products as well as affiliate products. A common affiliate offer and online marketing product is “Cash for Gold”. You fill in a lead form and you are contacted by a gold liquidator. These offers are directed towards people who are in a cash crunch and need to liquidate their assets in order to survive. The worse the economy gets the better this offer will probably convert. Below are screen shots of the banner and landing page creative:

The above creatives are very very good. The landing page is very attractive with only a few fields to fill out and is somewhat generic. They truly emphasized “less is more” The banner creative is simple and to the point, but could probably use a more attractive female and the color scheme should match the landing page.

I was recently in Florida visiting some family and picking up a new convertible. My aunt and uncle have a few friends that are senior citizens and I was amazed at how many of them live month to month on social security and other fixed income cash flow; and boy do they love the race track. It was sad to see so many poor senior citizens at the race track gambling away their rent and food money. Anyhow, I was amazed to see how many of them had gold, diamonds, and other vintage jewelry that could probably be converted into cash. The company running the “cash to gold” offer is most likely Right Media/Yahoo and they get paid a CPA (cost per action) of probably $5 - $10 per lead filled out. I didn’t fill out the form, but I would imagine the user is immediately sent an email follow up and a phone call to close the deal. I think most people that mail in their gold are probably ripped off by the company and given an unfair price for their gold/valuables. If you try and dispute the amount given I would bet you have to pay for return shipping, handling, and insurance - which can be quite expensive.

It’s sad to see so many seniors, middle-class, and even poor people truly suffering from the recession the US is going through. I recently read a statistic that over 20 million Americans are using food stamps to help them eat. It’s even worse to see ruthless companies buying up their gold for pennies on the dollar.