Advertising Coming To A Windows 7 Desktop Near You

In an interesting move, Microsoft has announced the launch of a pilot program that involves selling advertising space on Windows 7 desktops.

A number of high profile brands, including Coca-Cola and Porsche, are participating in the pilot scheme.  Advertising will appear in the Windows 7 interface itself as well as add-ons to the Internet Explorer browser, according to Microsoft.  There will also be downloadable Windows 7 Themes designed by the brands.

Why are Microsoft making such a move, and will it be effective?

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A Microsoft Marketing Mishap

There are many examples of disasters when it comes to international marketing.  Most are related to differences in language, or in some cases customs.  The latest example, from Microsoft, was perhaps more avoidable.

In a bid to promote their business products, Microsoft used the following image in a series of adverts in the US:

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Top brand values fall in the recession

This brief video report from the BBC looks at the newly published list of the values of the Top 100 brands globally. A look down the list, which shows not only where they are now and where they were last year, but also how much the value of the brand is estimated to have changed in that time, gives some interesting reading, and it could be worth spending some time in class considering the reasons for these changes. For example, notable gains include:
- Amazon +22%
- Google +25%
- Food manufacturers eg Heinz, Kraft, Nestle all approximately +10%
- Value + quality clothing ranges Zara +14%, H&M +11%

The dramatic slump in advertising revenue continues

Here’s the reason why executives at ITV are so worried about the current downturn and why newspaper and magazine journalists are collectively worried for the survival of their titles…

Some firms will do anything to get publicity!

Just when you thought that the advertising industry had run out of ways to get a message across, a website has taken to promoting its brand and special offers on...sheep

Hovis - a classic example of successful product extension

Premier Foods, the owner of a strong portfolio of consumer brands, has announced a 7% increase in grocery sales in 2008 compared with 2007.  One of the main contributors has been Hovis bread…

Young, white and super-skinny models out of fashion?

This article in today’s Guardian looks at research being carried out by Cambridge University’s Judge business school into the way in which women react to the models used in advertising. 

Business cutbacks and job losses

The British economy is in falling into a recession and this brings about a fall in the demand for labour and a rise in unemployment.

In many of the examples I have shown below, the root cause of the labour shedding is a decline in demand in a related industry – for example a cement factory that is finally shutting down because of the severity of the slump in new house-building. Or the employees at a local newspaper in Guernsey in the Channel Island affected by the steep drop in demand for traditional forms of media advertising. Markets are inter-related and there are few businesses in the UK at the present time that can describe themselves as ‘recession proof’.

Green shoots of growth for a gardening start-up

I liked this feature in today’s Telegraph about a business start-up where “growth” is definitely an objective…

Big Brother audiences suggest a product on the slide

There are lots of examples of products which are firmly in the decline stage of the product life cycle.  The latest series of Big Brother in the UK is a good way of explaining this phase of the theory…