Hulu-huh?

Might be a bit behind the curve on this one, but just saw a recent advertisement for Hulu. Hulu is a free online video service, where you can watch television shows, and is a joint venture of NBC and NewsCorp.

Now, I found the advertisement a little confusing- take a look:



To me it seems like they are trying to reign in "illegal" (that's still a bit of gray error to most of us) downloading by offering a service for which they've most likely arranged compensation for those involved in developing the TV show. However, at the same time, it seems as though they are also trying to promote a state of cognitive dissonance within the watcher. Indeed, that watching Hulu is part of an alien plot at domination, which promoted a feeling, within me at least, that I should NOT be watching TV online. Just found it interesting that it would be promoting itself with a bit of a bad spin about watching TV online.

Interestingly, this is a Super Bowl commercial, so perhaps it was just trying to be edgy. But, I think it may also be trying to put people off watching TV online, and watching it on TV instead, but at the same time saying that if people MUST watch TV online, that they should do it at Hulu.

I'm sure confused- we'll see how it works out.

What IS your favourite colour?

Found this really interesting study conducted by one of my favourite professors, Juliet Zhu. The study centered on the effect of colour on behaviour.

They found that red groups did better on tests of recall and attention to detail, like remembering words or checking spelling and punctuation. Blue groups did better on tests requiring imagination, like inventing creative uses for a brick or creating toys from shapes. Indeed, the color red appears to make people’s work more accurate, and blue can make people more creative.

In term of pratical applications, the study also tested responses to advertising, finding that advertisements listing product details or emphasizing “avoidance” actions like cavity prevention held greater appeal on red backgrounds, while ones using creative designs or emphasizing positive actions like “tooth whitening” held more appeal on blue.

Certainly this discovery could be heavily utilized in e-marketing, and the selection of backgrounds for product/service websites. Indeed, if consumers can be primed to be more detail oriented, perhaps a red background will increase the likeliness of performing detailed product comparisons, and noticing the distinguishing characteristics of a product.

Definitley an interesting find, and one which can be easily integrated into e-marketing communications!

Our Economy is Going Down Under...

Looks like e-marketing could be more heavily utilized with our entrance into an economic downturn.

An Australian survey conducted by WebTrends showed that Australian businesses "(have) found that 48 percent of Australian businesses surveyed consider internet marketing a key component to overcoming the challenges faced by the economic downturn. The report also finds that 68 percent of Australian respondents believe that more sophisticated web analysis would boost online sales."

As a result, Australian internet advertising will see increases of up to 9.7 per cent, according to a recent report by Aegis Media.

Perhaps this will spur the development of improved web analytic tools, in order to negate the high risk that is often associated with online marketing, due to a failure to reach the desired target audience. Indeed, there is a significant amount of information to be had, but there needs to be the e-marketing infrastructure to support listening to consumers, and identifying which consumers to listen to, in the vast domain of critics and creators.