Important Lesson

In the new age of media, we in the field of public relations won't be watching tv, we won't be sifting through print media looking for clips, we will be monitoring the internet for comments. Now in the age of blogs, anyone can say anything about you. This is quite different from the time, not but a few years ago, where you usually only had to worry about what writers or reporters were saying. Using Technorati, it showed me what I have to look forward too, a mess! When searcing for Bacardi, which I feel is a very well known brand, I got stories of couples on a walk seeing condems and Bacardi bottles. Many results were in different languages, and the worst stories of people getting completely trashed off of Bacardi. Not the best for Bacardi's image, which is why it is important to monitor this kind of stuff.

March is over

So March is over, not because it is April 3, but because the Men's NCAA Basketball Tourny ended. UF once again showed Ohio State who's the boss in a title game. What does this mean for the ad agencies? Sweeps! After the NCAA tournament, one of the highest ranking sports events in ad dollars, April sweeps approaches. By this time new campaigns should be ready to be launched. Also, MLB kicked off this weekend. I don't know of a stadium in the country that doesn't have a major alcohol sponsor. Last year, on the Lexus Level in Turner Field, Bacardi launched major Mojitos specials. April showers bring May flowers, but this April it might be raining money.

Groups

I forget sometimes that not every person thinks the same. I working at the bar this past weekend when several people, who were not from this country kept ordering Bacardi. This was great since I am researching the company currently. It made me think of Bacardi's marketing. Instead of using the same company to hit different target markets, it uses a company for young people, a company for black people, a company for every person you can think of. I think this is smart, a jack of all trades can only have such know-how on one topic. A master will know the best way to do things.

What March is really great for

March is a great month. Every one who doesn't live in Florida gets to finally warm up, and most importanly people exposed to TONS of marketing. It has been three months since the intense Christmas marketing, and the first time companies think of the summer months.
March brings us the NCAA basketball tournament, which in itself brings in millions for ads and marketing. New seasons of shows are kicking off in the world of television. Students are on spring break. Spring break is a perfect time to launch a new product. If a company went south and gave out a certain amount of a new product and let college-goers use them all spring break, come summer your product is probably in several photos on Facebook and is will remembered, so remember that.

Funny

All public realtions majors must read this!

Censoring

Drinking alcohol in ads is banned in today's world. What does this really prove? Conversations have been going on about making movies with people smoking an automatic rating of "R". Alcohol is legal much like smoking, however you cannot drink it in ads.
Showing people with drinks in their hand, and even drunk shows the effects, why not just allow people to dirnk it? I think this is rediculous. I don't feel there is a real impact on the alcohol industry, however this just shows how sometimes the government oversteps its right to regulate sometimes.

Sponors

After running in the Gainesville Marathon this past week, I got to thinking about sponorship. There were TONS of sponors that made this race possible. I feel it is important, not only to get the company's name out there, but its a good way to practice corporate social responsibility.
Bacardi, the company that I said who has the best positioning to produce "bar in a bag", sponors events quite frequently. This is yet another reason why I have decided that company's marketing and public relations department works quite well together.