Blog Post 2

Now, after attending more than a week's worth of media planning classes and having preformed research for last week's blog, I feel I am learning a lot about the future of digital advertising. For this week's blog entry, that I will look at my own personal experience with digital advertising. I love living in Chicago because of the hustle and bustle of city life. This busy city life comes with a constant feed of new and innovative ways to do everything, including grocery shopping.

CTA Red Line Lake station featuring Peapod's virtual grocery store

Over the summer, Peapod introduced a new advertisement and way to shop to the commuters of Chicago. Peapod is a company, which caters to city dwellers by providing online grocery shopping and delivery services. The photo above shows the Red Line Lake CTA stop that Peapod transformed into a virtual grocery store isle for commutes to do a little shopping. I remember learning about virtual grocery shopping in South Korea last summer from my marketing and the Internet class. (Oh, 2012) For some reason, I believed that this type of shopping would not come to the States for many years later. I was so excited when I saw this idea in my own city! I thought that the concept was genius and convenient!

Peapod was smart about this advertisement because it was an engagement tool as well. Interested consumers had to first download the Peapod mobile app, then scan the grocery items they wanted, sign up for an account, and lastly have the items delivered to your home. (Oh, 2012) Along with this process, the Red Line Lake stop is one of the busiest in the city with an average of 17,640 commuters each weekday. (Blackwell, 2012) These commuters are Peapod's perfect target audience because they live fast paced lives and know how precious their time is each day. These commuters would be the ideal consumers of Peapod. Northwestern's News Network took a video of the shopping process, and conducted an interview with Peapod's Elana Margolis to talk about the thoughts behind this virtual shopping idea. (Oh, 2012)

This concept was not only an attention-getting advertisement and promotional campaign, but also a research experiment. Once the 12-week test is over and the research is completed, the company will determine whether they will open more Chicago locations. (Blackwell, 2012) As a college student, I do not have the financial resources to invest in Peapod. However, I would definitely sign up once I am more financially stable, therefore I hope that there is a commute location for me to conveniently order my groceries so I can cook and enjoy a meal that same evening.

References 

Blackwell, Kelsey. (2012, May 10). New virtual grocery store Peapod lets consumers shop while they 

           commute. NewHope 360. Retrieved September 10, 2012 from http://newhope360.com/retailing/

Oh, Gloria. (2012, May 16). Peapod brings virtual grocery store to CTA. Medill Reports. Retrieved 

           September 10, 2012 from http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/ 

Blog Post 1

From the research done in and out of the class, it seems that digital advertising is the way to go if you want to get your audience's attention. It is the next "it" thing in the media industry. Two interesting articles about investing in digital advertising support this claim. 

In the first article by Andre Bourque (2012), he gives the following statistics: 

A study released by Martini Media today reports agency executives estimate that 37 percent of mass marketers’ branding dollars are spent in digital marketing (online display, video, mobile), whereas only 31 percent of luxury marketers’ budgets are spent in that space. (Bourque)           

The article focused on the new trend that luxury brands such as Jaguar, Mercier, Aston Martin, and others, are starting to move towards digital advertising. This image below is a diagram of information found by Martini Media during their research on luxury brands and digital advertising. (Bourque)

Along with this new information, Martini Media found that it was a smart move for luxury brands to transfer to digital advertising over traditional media. The loyal consumers who invests their money in luxury brands are tech-savvy individuals who are now using their technological devices to seek information and consume goods. Therefore, these luxury brands should plan to advertise via technological devices on websites, social media, and other digital outlets. (Bourque)  

Luxury brands are not the only ones looking towards digital advertising. The political campaigns of Romney and Obama have chosen to invest money this year into advertising digitally. The Obama campaign has dropped $31 million on digital ads, which is almost 4 times the amount of money Romney spent on them. (Kay) The fact that Obama's campaign is spending a significant amount of time advertising digitally is a great idea in terms of reaching a younger audience that is up to date on technology.

Kay (2012) highlights this comment from Pew Research Center:

Earlier this week, the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism unveiled a study that claimed, “Barack Obama holds a distinct advantage over Mitt Romney in the way his campaign is using digital technology to communicate directly with voters."

No matter industry a person is in, whether it be technology, clothing, or even politics, investing in digital advertising is a new trend that will continue to grow in the coming years.

References 

Brouque, Andre. (2012, August 23). Luxury Brands Migrating to Digital Advertising. Business 2 

         

         Community. Retrieved September 3, 2012, from

         http://www.business2community.com/consumer -marketing

Kay, Kate. (2012, August 23). #VoiceYourVote: $19 Million, Obama Outspends Romney on

         Digital Ads 4:1. Politic 365. Retrieved September 3, 2012, from http://politic365.com/2012/