We always see the celebrity perks…goody bags at awards shows, free fashion goods or free custom rides picking up the famous at the closest airport. An article (subscription required) in the WSJ today talks about Nico Bossi and Jaguar’s attempts to push ‘tryvertising’ to a new level.
His job is to drive around his new Jag to all the hot spots in NYC. He’s basically a the real-life rich male version of Ms. Carrie Bradshaw. The car costs nothing except his time.
I’d like to have that job, but I have to pay some bills. The job pays $0 plus no expenses. You do the math.
What ways could you turn this into a viable business that pays?
(email me if you’d like a copy of the article)
I read an article on AdAge about the CEO of Black Enterprise magazine, Earl Graves, calling the ad industry racist for not targeting blacks. I was a little confused at first because I know that in my industry, OOH, we target the black community all the time. Black/Hispanic advertising is a large chunk of our business.
He speaks about how the media buying habits of blacks are different than everyone else. He illustrates it by saying how Seinfeld was the number one show in America for years and he’s never seen it. Moreover, he speaks about how the black community has proven their net worth, but people don’t want to pay for it. Mr. Graves make his case and point with, "More than 20% of consumers who have bought a Chrysler 300C are black,
yet far less than 20% of the vehicle’s ad budget is being spent to
target blacks directly."
I wholeheartedly agree with Mr. Graves about the power of the dollar amongst blacks, but I don’t agree that the lack of ad-spending is racism. In my opinion, because targeting black Americans is different than the general public, different ways need to be used to market to them. The typical TV ad that gets the 35 year-old white professional is not likely to get the 35 year-old black professional. Targeting the black community typically involves using guerrilla marketing tactics and product placement. I hear/see it often from experts and friends that are black.
For instance, less than 20% of the ad budget may have been used to target blacks specifically, but how many times were they used in a hip-hop video or given to an NFL rookie for an endorsement. Things such as this are not figured into the mainstream medium equation. They only uses things such as TV, radio and print. In fact, I’d venture to wonder if on-line and OOH, the two biggest gainers in ad spending, are included as well. Mr. Graves even proves my point with the Seinfeld comment. If I asked most white Americans about Seinfeld, I’d probably get a mixed response to the likes and dislikes; however, if I asked black Americans, I would virtually get a response of all dislikes.
I hope they study this further and not cause a bunch of reactionary ‘diversity councils’ to tackle a problem that may not exist. This is too quick to play the ‘card.’
