Grand Theft Auto IV

WHOO HOO! It's finally here! I don't really know what all the fuss is about because I have never played the game, but I do know that millions of other consumers have and it is HUGE! According to the AdAge article, the Grand Theft Auto IV release "is expected to lift the entire industry even further, while putting the spotlight firmly back on the core gamer audience."

Currently the record for video game sales is held by Halo 3 with $300 million, but that is expected to be broken with the GTA release by up to $50 to 100 million more.  The game producers are not the only ones who will be getting direct sales increases. Gamestop, Game Crazy, Best Buy, and Wal-Mart will all benefit from the sales of the game, especially those that held special opening nights and promos for the game.

The M rating has had some downfall on strictness  for minors and some marketing activities. With those problems, the game has still received all perfect reviews so far and special recognition for its "first-time interactive play as well as superior graphics on the next-generation platforms of both Sony's Playstation 3 and Microsoft's Xbox 360." 

Tyson's misleading promo gets disputed!

In my two health classes I have heard so much about diet and the national food intake lately. One of the biggest topics has been meat and the harmful substances that are used to raise chicken, pigs, and cows which are then turned into the meat we consume and those harmful substances and put directly into our own bodies. Many consumers are still unaware of these huge problems but it is becoming a more popular and serious topic everyday.

According to AdWeek, Tyson's latest ad campaign contained ads that read ,"Raised without antiboitics" but that claim does not include the detail that the specific antibiotics it does not contain are those that can also affect the antibiotics that humans take. Tyson does actually use other antibiotics when raised the animals. Competing companies, Perdue and Sanderson brought the ad campaign to a federal judge and showed that no companies use antibiotics that can affect the antibiotics that humans use, but the ads would appear to consumers that those other companies do.

There was a preliminary injunction granted against the marketing Tyson used, in part because of the huge loses that the competitors have been experiencing. Sanderson reported $4 million in loses while Perdue reported $11 million.

Tyson has all of the materials for the campaign and although they had not released it yet, it had plans to begin before the main summer grilling season. As passionate about advertising and marketing as I am, I have learned about the information from the other side, the meat industry in particular, and so I strongly feel like is one campaign that needs to be left alone because of the amount of misleading information consumers will get.

Meaningless Promos

I'm not really sure how this makes sense, or why people would be interested, but hey, people will do anything for more money and fame. Oprah has been in the news a lot for her weight problems and inability to cook, not like it's anyone's business, but people still talk about it.

Oprah's magazine, O, is now coming out with a new cookbook that even features a special recipe from Oprah herself (and her personal cook), reports MediaWeek. The companies excuse for putting out the cookbook is that it is more of a reflection of Oprah's style and attitude rather than her eating habits.

The cookbook also includes recipes from other famous cooks like Bobby Flay, Daniel Boulud and Ina Garten. This thing is, Oprah doesn't have to have cooking ability and maybe her weight will help sell the delicious recipes, but no matter what she is interested in or what she is trying to sell, as long as Oprah's name is on it people will buy it. And from a business perspective, there could be nothing better than to be able to sell absolutely anything because of the name you have created for yourself. Congrats Oprah.

Virtual Worlds...right on time

After the great presentation in class last week I thought this would fit in perfectly with what we have been learning about! Although there are already hundreds of virtual worlds already set up "Big Media Players Going 'Virtual' for Kids" is the topic of this MediaWeek article.

I have honestly never visited a virtual world site, even though I always remind myself to while I am having a discussion about them with someone else, but then I always forget... I always have a lot going on and I really can't imagine having enough time to just hang out in a second world. Sure, if I had two of me I'd love to create another, better me to play with...but I don't see that happening anytime soon. But either way- tons of people do have the time and obviously they love doing the virtual world thing cause it is still growing like crazy!

Today there are virtual worlds designed for any target- older adults, young children and all ages in between. People from different ages visit and participate is other sites as well. The bigger media companies are now targeting mainly 'tweens' which are 8-12 year olds. This is actually probably the best market because these kids don't have a lot of homework to do, money to go out, or even cars to leave with. They sit at home until their parents get home from work and what better to do then play on the computer?

I really do want to discover what this virtual world thing is all about, and maybe this blog will finally push me over to edge to actually put the time into explore. Companies are putting a lot of money into them...so there has to be something cool there, right?

Will Physical Media Completely Disappear?

The ways in which customers can rent and watch movies in the last few years has changed dramatically, and is getting kind of confusing now with all of the options. I am used to the one option of going to the video store and walking around aimlessly for hours trying to pick out a movie, but definitely not getting my movies in the mail or on my computer. Of course most consumers of these products are well past that stage at this point and will be more welcoming to this addition from Blockbuster.

Blockbuster is now introducing a set-box top, compaired to the Apple TV, and will be available for competative prices overall. This set-box top will "allow video content to be streamed directly to a television," says The Hollywood Reporter. "The service would take advantage of video-on-demand technology from Movielink that allows movie downloads from Universal Studios, Paramount, Sony Pictures, MGM, and Warner Brothers," THR also noted.

No report has been released about how much this service will cost or how it will work, except that it would be simple to make it competitively affordable with other similar services. On top of that, Blockbuster has one more advantage because of its strong relationship with the studios, a vast selection, greater than other services may be able to offer.

Overall, it leaves the business of movie rentals in a wobbly spot once again, especially for those customers like me, who may actually prefere the whole experience of going to rent a movie and not just staying at home and having it appear when I want. If newer additions are continuous there may not be any such stores in the future, and although that may not be realistic for now, it will leave many customers in the dust.

Latino MySpace! whoo hoo!

I don't really have a great use for a MySpace, Latino style, because I am the whitest girl around, but I know many people that will LOVE this new addition.  Latino, everything, has been a growing trend in the past little while with special television stations, radio stations, rising popularity in music, etc. It is not really that surprising since Latinos and Latino Americans make up such a large percentage of our population. 

Although the MediaWeek article is short, we do get some necessary info from it, including that "among the site's initial media partners are ImpreMedia, Spanish Broadcasting System, Billboard en Espanol and Remezcla.com."  Although some test runs have been out for awhile this is the official launching of MySpace Latino- which by definition is "a bilingual version of its mega-popular social networking hub geared for U.S. Hispanics. 

The site features a variety of Hispanic-aimed content that will benefit anyone from music lovers to sports fans.  This popular social networking is designed specifically for Latino Americans.  MySpace already has 9.7 million Hispanic members but now those members can also choose to become a part of this extended edition. 

One more thing to embarrass yourself with while walking alone

Although this somewhat new technology is really cool and interesting, I just don't see the need for it.  Anyway- Yahoo has teamed up with vlingo, a speech recognition technology firm to provide users of Yahoo with the ability to make web searches on their mobile devices without actually doing anything. 

The same technology that is already in cars and on computers can now be used anywhere. This new option is called oneSearch 2.o. Users only simply have to speak the words of what they want to search for...and vola! According to the MediaWeek article, "over time, the product's voice recognition capabilities will adapt to an individual users' voice, said Yahoo executives."

The technology will start out only on BlackBerry devices but will eventually expand to other sources.  In addition, Yahoo will enhance text-based mobile search tools as well. Sometime in the future users will not even have to open a browser to conduct a web search.  That sounds just plan lazy to me! 

Now, I'm usually very busy but I don't have a BlackBerry or other crazy devices.  Even for people who use things like that 24/7 this may seem a little much. On the other hand, this new idea could be everything they ever wanted. I guess we will just have to wait and find out. 

Cold Hard Fan Contest

Coors Light is now hosting their Cold Hard Fan Awards contest where fans can enter for a chance to win and compete in Las Vegas. The contest does not appear to go along with any certain sport so any fans can enter. On the home page some entries are listed,  "I once attended a playoff game shirtless, in January" and "I have a cape made of all my basketball ticket stubs."  Those sound like pretty cold hard fans to me!

My favorite Cold Hard Fan reason so far, "My doorbell plays my team's fight song, " is so funny! I would really like to read all the submitted reasons so far. I bet there are some pretty intense fans out there. If you would like to enter the contest you of course have to be twenty-one years old, as I found out the hard way. 

The online advertisement doesn't have a lot of other information about what the trip to Las Vegas actually consists of so it is a little confusing for participants. If I really wanted to enter, I still wouldn't know exactly what the contest was in Las Vegas or what I was competing for. Although it is the 8th year of this competition there are always newcomers and therefore Coors needs to include some more info.