I was served up an ad trailer of a game day ad by Toyota. And it was the feeblest 30 seconds of my day so far. Part of the excitement and anticipation for the half-time show is to see what new spins on ad creatives that agencies and corporations have come up with, to laugh and be amused.
This ad trailer already has more than 44k views. I imagine the email advertisement went to all current Toyota owners who are also registered subscribers. I can understand why marketing and sales would have chosen to run a preview of the ad; perhaps they can use early feedback to tweak the ad components or to test campaign tracking; but isn't that what Q/A testing is for? Or maybe they want to prep the audience for what looks like it will be an over-spent ad spot.
Anyhow. I don't see the point of wasting an existing customer's time to read an email to click through to a video hosted on YouTube for content that isn't even an entire ad. Ugh. And the micetype? Watch outtakes? Not even close. These are just clips of the same ad hastily pasted together.
The saddest part? There will be Super Bowl ads on game day from companies and organizations that lack deep-pocketed agency resources but will be able to pull off a good ad that drives home a relevant selling point and reasons why you should buy or invest in that company.
When people ask me what I do, I usually tell them that I consult on questions that are too small or obscure to ask of a full-service marketing agency. My clients come from different backgrounds and not everyone is as tech as someone who immerses in it for fun. I was recently asked, "Internet of Things. This is supposed to be the future. Can you find out what it is all about?" This was my response:
I met up with a long-time friend in Los Angeles who told me about this new dating site called "Coffee Meets Bagel". An interesting enough name that got me hooked. However, as a marketer, after being on the site for less than an hour, I found that I couldn't unsubscribe nor delete my account. And, because I have so much fictitious info on Facebook, much of what is displayed on the CMB profile is inaccurate to say the least and there are aspects of the CMB profile that you can't edit, like your age. Apparently I have a bachelor's degree from the Restaurant at the End of the Universe, according to my CMB profile.
What caught my attention on their privacy page was this statement: "...we reserve the right to send you certain communications relating to Coffee Meets Bagel such as service announcements, security alerts, update notices, or other administrative messages) without affording you the opportunity to opt out of receiving such communications."
Oh really. Plenty of startups have burned on such flagrant disregard for privacy standards.
If I delete the smartphone app, would that in turn really delete all my info on their server; or would they continue to use my info to hook other people into the system?
From the app's web and iPhone interface, it doesn't look like I can delete my account at all. How to do this is not apparent. I had to look at the intro email and it's not terribly obvious. It's in the mice print section of the email where one normally unsubscribes. But, before you opt for permanent deactivation, be sure to unsubscribe yourself from everything you've been already subscribed to. Because heck, there isn't anything more annoying that receiving email from a deleted account.
One thing comes to mind when it asks for my mobile number as a means of tracking, I mean matching, my profile to a potential bagel: lead generation. Nothing nefarious here. But it has the makings of bait and switch written all over it.
