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You can now buy organic pajama pants at Wal-Mart.

Apparently the retailer is pumping up its awareness of its eco-savviness in honor of Earth Week with some new television and print ads, its first campaign produced by The Martin Agency. The ad I saw last night featured one woman talking directly to the camera about her organic pajama pants. The ad was spare, and included her gently acknowledging that she never thought she would be the type to go organic when it came to her clothes; that her mindset in making the purchase of organic was more of a 'why-not' rather than a necessity. It also made a thinly veiled guilt trip appealing to all Wal-Mart shoppers, all 180 million of them, that if they all just purchased one pair of organic pajama pants (at a reasonable, everyday low price of course) that they could make a difference in the environment. And have the world's largest pajama party (to which I say eww, but I get the gimmick.) The ad certainly was a departure from the company's usual ad style--no bouncy smiley faces in this one--but is public opinion of Wal-Mart at the point where efforts for sustainability and 'greeness' are even going to be considered remotely believeable? Can the green movement go large-scale corporate, or does it have to reside in the grassroots groups where principles are the driving force, not profits?

Posted by Allison at 3:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

In an interview recently with a champion of Web 2.0/social web technologies and their usefulness to marketers, I asked after a timeline of when this interaction would be considered an essential, intrinsically assumed ingredient to any marketing strategy, just as having a digital strategy has finally became standard (although some would disagree?) after being the baneful, bastard step-child of traditional planners for years. This source felt that every company will be integrating at least some element of Web 2.0/social web interaction within one year; that in one year it will be a 'must-have' rather than a 'maybe-try-it-out-and-see-what-happens-and-stop-it-if-it-gets-too-out-of-control' experiment. What do you think? Do you know enough about Web 2.0 and its possibilities for your own marketing strategy to catapult it into the essentials by 2008?

Posted by Allison at 2:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

The California Milk Processor Board has taken the popular, national "Got Milk?" ad campaign online and made it interactive. The campaign offers up an online game and contest called "Get the Glass" that teaches players the good points of milk consumption while they participate. Top trivia scorers can then play against other top players for a $5,000 cash prize. The game is cleverly designed, and actually kind of fun to play, and the "Got Milk" print ads have garnered their own cache. But will older kids and teens, the campaign's target group, play or pass? Don't kids these days consider themselves way too cool for something like this? It all seems rather too wholesome when compared to the other online games and interactive sites that are so popular with the group today.

Posted by Allison at 12:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This one falls into the category of 'why didn't I think of this?'

Frucall.com is a website, still in beta but set to launch properly later this month, that offers price comparisons on all sorts of goods (electronics, books, music, clothes, etc.) sold online. It sounds a lot like a metasearch, but there is one twist--you can access their search capabilities through your mobile or land-lined phone, without needing a data plan or text messaging. The system works by searching items online by their UPC code. So a consumer out shopping at Best Buy, for example, can call a toll-free number, tap in the bar code they see on the product in front of them and, in about five seconds, get a list of prices from online vendors, including shipping charges. If you are a registered user (but it is not necessary to use the free service), you can also purchase the product via the system. The ad-supported service (although the system is relatively light on ads at this time) seems like it will be a handy number to have logged into your mobile address book--especially if you are bargaining with a salesperson for the best deal.

Posted by Allison at 11:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)