Millions across the United States watch the Superbowl for not only the football game, but to rate the commercials. From this years Superbowl, which aired on February 6 2011, you wouldn't have even guessed that the car industry had previously declined. There were commercials for many various car manufacturers: from GM to BMW. My question to you is, how effective do you think these Superbowl commercials really are for car manufacturers?
There is a very large competition between brands during the Superbowl each year, but I have come to realize that car manufacturers have the biggest! Having only 30 seconds of fame, I can imagine how hard it is to get your selling point across. One of the commercials that stood out the most to me, and I can imagine it did to others, was the Volkswagen commercial with Darth Vader. It can be seen below. I wasn't aware this was even a car commercial until halfway into it. The music made you tune in until you knew exactly what it was for. What car commercial do you think stood out the most?
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I agree, the VW commercial was my favorite. I also wasn't aware it was a car commercial until the very end. I recently remember seeing an article about the different types of commercials in this superbowl. Usually beer companies dominate the commercial spots, however, this year car commercials made up around 50% of the total commercials. I think that car companies are beginning to see the financial recovery and the Super Bowl commercials are evidence of the car manufacturer's new confidence.
I also noticed, although I can't claim to have watch every commerical, that there was an increase of European imports and domestic cars and less, Japanese imports like Honda and Toyota. Could this be due to, specifically Toyota's, bad press over the past year?
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Monday, February 7, 2011
Week 4: AOL Huffington Post Merger
My inspiration for this weeks post is this WSJ article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704858404576129234044123852.html?mod=WSJ_newsreel_technology
About the AOL, Huffington Post Merger.
The article states that AOL and the Huffington Post have merged, with the Huffington Post making $315m on the deal. The article also mentions that AOL is looking to expand its news, entertainment and digital content.
AOL was once the internet equivelant for me. When I thought internet, I thought AOL. Before facebook, this was how people were using the internet to communicate and stay up to date. However, for reasons that I do not know, I feel that AOL lost a lot of its momentum coming in to the digital age. It now represents images of “acient” technology and the terrible dial-up noise.
This change of perspective and business practice that AOL has gained from the merger I think is a step in the right direction. By changing their service to be more digitial information, they are able to once again use their name to help market themselves as internet leaders. The Huffington Post has been doing a great job as an internet-only newspaper, one of the first of its kind. With AOL’s size, and the Post’s innovation and business model the merger could be great for both companies. It is important that the services that customers are receiving does not change drastically. For instance, if customers are requred to pay for the new services, it could do damage to the Post’s reputation.
I think it will be interesting to see, in the coming months, how AOL and the Huffington Post collaborate and move forward with their merger. I think both companies can benefit , and complement each other if they can agree on a particular business model that is customer orientated. With the influx of information readily available on the internet, and websites like twitter that allow users to share imformation freely and quickly, AOL and the Post have interesting road blocks in their growth. But the potential is there.
What do you think? Is this merger good for the companies? Do you think anything will change? Do you think that this could lead to great innovations?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704858404576129234044123852.html?mod=WSJ_newsreel_technology
About the AOL, Huffington Post Merger.
The article states that AOL and the Huffington Post have merged, with the Huffington Post making $315m on the deal. The article also mentions that AOL is looking to expand its news, entertainment and digital content.
AOL was once the internet equivelant for me. When I thought internet, I thought AOL. Before facebook, this was how people were using the internet to communicate and stay up to date. However, for reasons that I do not know, I feel that AOL lost a lot of its momentum coming in to the digital age. It now represents images of “acient” technology and the terrible dial-up noise.
This change of perspective and business practice that AOL has gained from the merger I think is a step in the right direction. By changing their service to be more digitial information, they are able to once again use their name to help market themselves as internet leaders. The Huffington Post has been doing a great job as an internet-only newspaper, one of the first of its kind. With AOL’s size, and the Post’s innovation and business model the merger could be great for both companies. It is important that the services that customers are receiving does not change drastically. For instance, if customers are requred to pay for the new services, it could do damage to the Post’s reputation.
I think it will be interesting to see, in the coming months, how AOL and the Huffington Post collaborate and move forward with their merger. I think both companies can benefit , and complement each other if they can agree on a particular business model that is customer orientated. With the influx of information readily available on the internet, and websites like twitter that allow users to share imformation freely and quickly, AOL and the Post have interesting road blocks in their growth. But the potential is there.
What do you think? Is this merger good for the companies? Do you think anything will change? Do you think that this could lead to great innovations?
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