Joy Thomas
February 13th, 2012 | Filed under: Motiv | No Comments »
Love is in the air…or maybe it’s just pizza I’m smelling.
News recently broke that Pizza Hut has released an intriguing new temporary revenue stream: the Pizza Hut Engagement Package, which includes the company’s $10 dinner box (a medium one-topping regular pan pizza, five breadsticks with marinara sauce, and 10 cinnamon sticks with a sweet icing cup).
![[Fox News/Pizza Hut]](http://motivstrategies.com/motiv_blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/pizza_hut_proposal640.jpeg "Pizza Hut Engagement Package")
Photo: Fox News/Pizza Hut
That the pizza conglomerate is offering a Valentine’s Day special is no surprise. After all, what’s more traditional than sharing a romantic dinner with your valentine? But what
is unusual is the engagement package’s
$10,010 price tag, which includes costs for a ruby ring, limo service, flowers, a fireworks show, a photographer, and a videographer. Although some may raise eyebrows over Pizza Hut’s foray into romance, a company spokesperson
reports that Pizza Hut has already received over 800 serious inquiries.
I think Pizza Hut’s over-the-top new pet project was a brilliantly thought-out guerilla marketing tactic. But the marriage of food and engagements (sorry) seems to be, well, a match made in heaven—and an opportunity that has been seized by marketers for years.
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Joy Thomas
October 31st, 2011 | Filed under: Motiv | 1 Comment »
Like Carl, I am also a sports fan. Specifically, I am dedicated to my hometown teams and particularly my darling Redskins, who I watch each Sunday almost religiously.
Photo: Redskins.com
Imagine my delight when the Redskins recently launched an official fan club targeted at women: Women of Washington Redskins (WOW). Unveiled in August, this free club already boasts over 12,000 members. Via an interactive website and social media outlets, WOW provides access to exclusive interviews with the coaches and players, as well as fashion advice and health and wellness information. It even plans to host networking events to allow female Redskins fans connect with each other on a professional level.
There are so many promising prospects regarding female fandom that I’m surprised more women-oriented fan clubs don’t exist. In fact, the more I think about it, I don’t understand why more NFL teams haven’t yet tried to take advantage of the interest in football among women across the nation. To me, it looks like an obvious win-win situation for everyone involved.
Here are just a few reasons why I think that all teams should acknowledge and market to this traditionally underrepresented consumer segment:
1. The NFL benefits from having loyal fans
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Colin Hudson
October 26th, 2011 | Filed under: Motiv | No Comments »
Leonardo DiCaprio at Mobli's office (Image via Mashable)
A hallmark of American culture has been the extent to which we have been able to squeeze every dollar of celebrity out of our star athletes, musicians and entertainers. From the eponymous Air Jordans to Joe Namath’s 1974 advertisement for hosiery and Britney Spears’ perfume, merchandise and endorsements have been a great way for stars to supplement their (and their agents’) incomes, and expand their marketing reach.
A more interesting phenomenon as of late has been the foray of celebrities into the world of Venture Capital. Leonardo DiCaprio and Ashton Kutcher are some of the biggest names to handover cash to promising startups, but other notable stars such as MC Hammer and even tween heartthrob Justin Bieber are reported to be scratching their entrepreneurial itch by way of VC investments. Can you imagine the Silicon Valley headlines? “It’s not a bubble, it’s Bieber Fever!”
Are Kutcher and DiCaprio really as adept at identifying emerging technologies and talented entrepreneurs as the veterans at Kleiner Perkins and Andreesson Horowitz? I doubt they can model cash flows or advise on go-to-market strategies as well as the true VC players can, but apparently the Ven”star” Capitalists are doing fairly well for themselves. Kutcher, through his investment partnership called A Grade, was an early investor in such hot startups as Foursquare, Path and Flipboard, and was even part of a group that bought Skype in 2009 before selling it to Microsoft in April for more than three times the purchase amount. Yesterday, social video and photo platform Mobli announced that Leonardo DiCaprio was one of a handful of investors that had participated in its latest round of funding – a $4 million seed round – and in April, MC Hammer announced he was joining as an investor/mentor in a tech incubator in Silicon Valley called NewMe. Continue Reading»
Colin Hudson
October 5th, 2011 | Filed under: Motiv | No Comments »
As Germany’s infamous Oktoberfest winds down to a close, I find it appropriate to reflect on one of my favorite subjects: beer. After water and tea, beer is the third most popular beverage in the world, and one of the oldest prepared beverages – evidence of beer brewing, accidental or not, pre-dates written history by millennia. I find it particularly interesting to think about the challenges modern brewers face in marketing and distributing beer in such a competitive market, especially in some of the world’s largest populations and economies: the BRICs. 
A recent Businessweek article profiled the push by Budweiser, Anheuser-Busch InBev’s flagship brand, into Brazil. Interestingly enough, Brazil is the birthplace of the majority of the parent company’s board, and is the world’s fourth largest beer market by volume. The annual per capita consumption of beer in South America’s largest country was 47.6 liters, according to Japanese brewer and holding company Kirin; seeing as how per capita consumption for the top 20 most fervent beer drinking markets is at least 59.6 liters, Budweiser and its competitors must be licking their chops at the opportunity to convert more Brasileiros from drinking caipirinhas to drinking cervejas. Continue Reading»
