In an age where Eco friendliness is being embraced by the mainstream, and our national market forecast remains bleak, businesses continue to find new ways to push the envelope with the almighty advertising dollar (even though comedy and sex do soften the blow).

Mobile billboards started appearing in the mid to early 90s in larger cities (we have even passed a roving IKEA bedroom set on the highway before), but the trend seemed to have skipped over Charlottesville, until a few nTelos examples were spotted in the past weeks.

In opposition to arguments over fuel use, & increased eye & road pollution, companies have started turning increasingly towards outdoor advertisements, where station changing and Tivo concerns are alleviated.  Larger locales have additionally seen an upswing in on-sidewalk posters, and projection ads shown on buildings after dark.  Locally, however, Albemarle county previously filed charges against Tom Slonaker, the Forest Lakes Arby’s franchise owner, for improperly parked advertising vehicles, displaying ads in his windows, and affixing flags to light posts outside of his establishment.

A few locales have managed to ban nuisances of this type, while others have had enforced bans marked unconstitutional.  What do you think?  Merely a nuisance, or are you green enough to be concerned?  Whatever the case may be, the first time one of these gets stuck under the railroad bridge on the corner, please snap a pic for posterity.

Quiznos, McDonald’s, Burger King, Hardees, I can’t get over the level of marketing stupidity you have when you associate fast food with hot women, sex, blow jobs and all the other stuff which has NOTHING TO DO with your crappy food.  It doesn’t make the food taste any better.  Walking into McDonald’s the other day I couldn’t stop thinking about the “Awesome Threesome” and how gross that would be if it were included in any real (read: non-food) sexual experience.  Burger king, you just kind of piss me off with Seven Incher ad.  Anyone else notice a recent rise of the porno food ads?

Quiznos Tasty Torpedo

More sexually dirty food advertising videos after the break… »Read More

Tonight I was cruising home from work when I saw something odd. It was a taxi bearing the name of a recently-opened Main Street kabob shop, Ariana. The back window was emblazoned with an add for said restaurant, so at first I thought it was a delivery guy. But closer inspection revealed the name “Ariana Transportation” on the side. Risking life and limb (and possibly a ticket) I snapped a couple of pics with my cameraphone.

I’m not sure if anyone has tried them yet, but Ariana has some damn tasty food. If their cab service includes a complementary lamb kabob, then I think they may give Wahooptie a run for their money. Of course, I’m still not sure how kabobs and taxis relate, but I guess you have to get there somehow.

Hello cVillain readers.  Many of you have asked about publishing information about your business, sales, specials and events on our site.  As you know, we reach about 40,000 visitors each month and have the largest, most interactive online audience in Charlottesville.  We can’t cover everything, but that doesn’t mean you can’t reach our audience.  We’re going to start experimenting with clearly labeled sponsor posts (in addition to our standard banner advertising).  Sponsors’ posts will not be published more than 3 times per week.

You can write whatever you want to our readers and you can choose your publish date.  It’s really effective and that’s why a lot of the major blogs are doing it. If you are still buying print advertising, you are probably overpaying.  Make sure your message is read by sponsoring posts!

Benefits and details after the break… »Read More

It’s that time of the year again when we all open up our doors and you trip on that bag of plastic and that 5 pound waste of paper.  Oh, that’s right… it’s a phone book.  The relic of a dead tree, the anachronistic waste of energy and  and thoroughly the most useless piece of printed information, ever.

I don’t know about you, but I have not even considered using a phone book in the last 10 years.  Business doesn’t show up in Google search results? Use a free 411 service.  It really grosses me out to see these things delivered to my front door step and the companies doing it need to stop.

Do businesses that advertise in the yellowpages actually get results these day?  I know I won’t be calling you. How do we stop this?  If 50,000 people get phonebooks in Charlottesville, can you imagine how much paper that is?  50,000 x 5 lbs = 250,000 pounds of wasted paper.  Oh, they do this at least once a year…don’t forget.

[pic from Matt Sheppard]

This is Part 1 of a Series Titled “Advertising Online” which I’m writing to help local advertisers, brands and agencies understand how and why internet advertising represents a much stronger medium to market your brand.  Part 2 will talk about accountability and Part 3 will discuss demographics and engagement. 

You Have Limited Advertising Budgets

You probably have to make the decision between print, radio, television, direct mail and internet every week.  If it weren’t for your pocketbook, you’d advertise everywhere.  Most advertisers decide to buy ads based on their familiarity with a product.

Have you stopped to think about the reasons for making that same weekly purchase?  Have you evaluated your budgets and the effective reach of your advertising dollars?  Can you even do that (more on accountability in Part 2)?  We are facing uncertain economic times; consumer spending will decrease, and your need to advertise effectively and efficiently has never been more important.  You need to figure out the best place to spend your money and the internet represents the best medium.

Large Marketers Have Already Figured It Out

We obviously have some bias about online advertising at Spicy Bear Media, but the truth is the only advertising mediums that are growing today are the outdoor and interactive channels (interactive means email, search, online display, social networking, etc.).  Outdoor is pretty worthless in small markets like Charlottesville.  We always ask ourselves “if large brands and national mediums are seeing advertising dollars move online, why hasn’t this hit the local market?”  The time will come when this trend dramatically affects local markets.  Don’t you want to be ahead of the curve? According to ZenithOptimedia:

Newspapers, magazines, television and radio are all losing share to the internet, but newspapers are clearly suffering the most. Newspapers have been steadily declining in share since 2006, when they claimed 28.4 percent of global ad spend. By 2010 that number is expected to reach 23.7 percent.

The graph below is something we use in all of our presentations because it’s particularly telling about the future of advertising. It’s from a study by Forrester Research in which they interviewed 235 major marketers and asked them about effectiveness of various channels.

»Read More

Hello Everyone – I thought it would be good to let you know that we redesigned cvilleStyle.com and added Zikki Munyao to our team. I know you probably don’t want to read a press release, so here are some FAQs:

Why did we redesign cvilleStyle.com?

Because Haidee was on strike until we made it look better.  No, seriously, the default look to our theme was extremely ugly.  We reskinned it with a bright, modern look. I hope everyone likes it.  We do.

Who is Haidee?

Haidee Cline has been managing cvilleStyle for several weeks now, but she sent us a short bio which you can read in full.  She graduated from the University of Richmond, worked for national geographic and graduated from Darden.  She is married to Matt Cline, a Charlottesville dentist.  She has a slight obsession with shopping, decorating and parties.  If you see her, make sure you ask her about this slight obsession.

Who is Zikki?

Zikki Munyao grew up in Kenya and recently graduated from the University of Virginia.  He was a member of the US Army and has experience driving 18-wheelers, so we decided to hire him to manage our advertising sales.  He is a billiard player and enjoys mountain biking.  He’s busy meeting everyone in Charlottesville, but I’m sure he’ll make time for you.  Say hi if you see him!

[full press release here]

I totally spent way too long making this post, but at least you can discuss your favorite Super Bowl ads. Let me know what I missed and I’ll add it. I know I missed a bunch, but I tried to remember all the good ones. My favorite is the E-Trade baby.

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[pic]

Ladies and Gentlemen, step right up for your week in review.

We got villains dissing on wine bars, gunshots at the Outback and some Grecian food. Don’t forget to stop around back to sample our smelly PR move, celebrity wannabies, and your favorite musical acts. When you leave, grab the gift bag– it’s full of tats, lawsuits, and monkey sex. Enjoy!

»Read More

We really appreciate our advertisers!  We love you guys.

X-Lounge: Our first and bravest advertiser!  Thank you for being such a nice, well thought-out and service-oriented scene.

Jim Duncan:  Jim, thank you for trusting us with your first true online banner.  We hope you stick around and keep giving us the deets on real estate in Charlottesville.

First Settlement Title: Karina, your ad rocks the house.  Thanks for loving our site so much and we hope that you stay with us through an exciting 2008.