Next week in San Diego, ComicCon International will take place.  This festival allows for movie studios and film makers to reach out to their fans individually, and reach them on a personal level.  Through booths, panels, and fan signings, it allows companies to access their fans directly.

Lexine Wong, senior EVP of worldwide marketing for Sony Pictures Home Entertainment,  “Each year Comic-Con presents a unique marketing opportunity for us to reach the fans of our various properties and interact on a truly personal level at our booth with signings or through various panels that allow fans to get sneak peeks of our upcoming product and even ask questions of their favorite filmmakers or talent.”

Two of the big themes this year are 3-D and DVDs.  Read the full story here.

I came across this interesting article on Seth Godin’s blog in which he discusses a story of how Red Lobster claims that their originated from Maine, even though there is not even one Red Lobster in that state. In fact, Maine residents need to drive about 130 miles to the nearest location in Connecticut. Even though Maine is the only state identified in Red Lobster’s menu, many people are buying it. Susan Paquete of the Weathervane Seafood Restaurants chain mentions the lesson learned in this quote, “If the company would like to claim their roots, like ours, are on the shores of New England, then perhaps they should try living with and serving the fine people of Maine.”

Marketing Vox reports that buyers of the TiVo brand DVR at Best Buy will, as of July 19, have a unique user interface for customers who buy TiVo DVRs directly from its store.The interface would allow Best Buy to market digital content services, offer guidance and advice to consumers, and engage in interactive dialogue with consumers about its products and services. As part of the partnership, Best Buy is committing to substantially increasing the levels of marketing and merchandising of retail TiVo DVR devices, as well as other devices that feature the TiVo user interface and platform in the future.

Will we see more partnerships between retailers and brands for electronics?

The Market Research Event is the industry’s leading conference – bringing you the world’s best keynotes, most influential speakers, the latest case studies, the most client-side Market Researchers, and the most diverse selection of topics… with over 120 sessions and more than 125 speakers it is the ONLY event you need to attend in 2009. Visit www.themarketresearchevent.com for details on the “World’s Top MR Event”

With the much anticipated release of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince next Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal recently took a look at how the franchise is being challenged for young adults attention by the most recent series of books to be made into movies: Twilight.  The Harry Potter franchise is facing competition for their market for the first time in their series.  The Wall Street Journal states that they’ve had to alter some of the marketing campaigns and that they could have also been impacted when they moved the release date from November 2008 to Mid-Summer 2009.  Has the challenge changed the way Potter is being presented?  Warners Brothers states that it hasn’t changed any marketing campaigns on account of Twilight, and is still reaching their loyal audience it’s been building since the first movie was released in 2001.

Warner Bros. says the “Potter” movies have become more grown-up in order to follow the narrative of the books and to appeal to an audience that’s getting older. Nearly a decade has elapsed since the “Potter” producers cast an 11-year-old Daniel Radcliffe in the pivotal role of Harry. “As the characters and storylines of the Harry Potter films have matured, our marketing materials have followed suit,” says a studio representative. (A 2006 survey found that the average age kids started reading the series was 9 and that nearly 60% of kids aged 9 to 11 had read it.)

Read the full article here.

Here are what some of the speakers of this year’s Customer UNinterrupted Event have been saying about this customer-inspiring event. By the way if you’re planning on attending the conference mention XM2199BLOG for a 20% discount of the standard rate.

“Customer UNinterrupted is a cost effective way to get new ideas, access to other company’s best practices (and some of their research) as well as their results and proven business cases of what works for project implementation.”

- Lynn Holmgren, Vice President and General Manager, Customer Care, Whirlpool Corporation

“You’re fired! That’s what your customers are going to tell you if you ignore them in this economy. When the consumer dollar has to go further, the last thing consumers want to hear is ’sorry we can’t help you with that’. Learning what others are doing right, and applying new ideas to improve your own business never ends for service professionals. Get busy sharing. Get busy learning. And get busy succeeding at Customer UNinterrupted!”

- Boyd Beasley, Senior Director, Customer Support, Electronic Arts

“With companies cutting costs it has an impact on the customer support and service you provide. How can you differentiate yourself in the market place unless you provide superior service? Join us at Customer UNinterrupted to learn how to improve Customer Service and Customer Treatment while controlling your costs.”

- Dave Spedden, Director, CRM Services & Technology, United Parcel Service

“Times are tough and now more than ever you need to attend this conference. There will be practical tips of how you can improve customer service and your bottom line. Look forward to seeing you there.”

- Tim Cook, Vice President of North American Operations, Hilton Reservations and Customer Care

“As economic factors weigh more heavily in consideration and managers are firmly scrutinizing budgets, engaging in customer centric discussions at a time customers are being more selective about where they spend their money is a clear choice. Customer experience and best practices in delivering service is time well spent that has an inherent ROI not just by driving satisfaction and loyalty, but by expanding potential on the efficiency front.”

- Percy Hoffman, Director, Call Center Operations, Cricket Communications

“Your customers are having conversations across the social web right now deciding if brand loyalty matters, if your company isn’t participating, you’re not growing.”

- Scott McIntyre, Director, Multi-Channel Development, Best Buy

“Unless you are USAA or Amazon, you still have a lot to learn. Why do some key names always appear on the top of independent evaluations of service experience? If you don’t know, as Zappos who is giving these big boys a run for their money. Why does EA have an award winning CS team? Because we beg, borrow and steal ideas from those that are doing it right – then we iterate, innovate and make them our own! We dare you to keep up!”

- Boyd Beasley, Senior Director, Customer Support, Electronic Arts

Hi Everyone:

Hard to believe that July is already here and the 9th annual Shopper Insights in Action Conference is taking place next week, July 14-17, 2009 at the Hilton Chicago. We’re excited to announce that the show is going to be a hit, with hundreds of best-in-class brands, retailers and industry thought-leaders attending.

The event producers are busy adding new speakers and sessions as well as developing new onsite elements that add value to your experience. It is our goal to ensure everyone who attends leaves with a plethora of contacts, insights and ideas.

We’re excited to announce 12 new speakers and 7 new sessions have been added to the program totaling over 50 educational sessions with 75+ speakers.

NEW SPEAKER HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:
• Candace Adams, former Senior Director, In-Store Experience, WalMart joined the retail panel on Thursday afternoon. She will join fellow panelists Chris Borek, Manager, In-Store Digital Marketing for Target, Mark Heckman, Vice President of Marketing for Marsh Supermarkets and Ryan Mathews, Consultant for FedEx Kinko’s. As seasoned retailers, they will discuss their perspectives on how the in-store shopping environment will evolve in the next 5, 10 and 20 years to meet shopper needs. Candace recently left WalMart and has joined shopper-centric research consultancy, SmartRevenue.

• Candace Adams will also participate in a breakout session on Thursday afternoon featuring brand executives from Unilever, Sara Lee and Kimberly Clark. This session will feature how WalMart worked with their brand partners using virtual reality technology to improve the shopping experience of their SuperCenter stores.

• Stephen Day, Global Consumer Insights for Electronic Arts along with Brand Cruz, VP of Retail and eCommerce Practice Leader for Chadwick Martin Bailey will discuss “The Evolution of the “Gamer” Market and How Segmentation Helped EA Develop a Groundbreaking Strategy”

For a complete list of new speakers and updates, click here http://bit.ly/SLYdV

To download the full event agenda, visit http://bit.ly/C9ZhC .

Plus, Shopper Insights producers have added 3 NEW RESOURCES AVAILABLE to Attendees Only
• Everyone who attends will have access to the POST-CONFERENCE REPORT, written by Socratic Technologies. This report will synthesize key findings from the event.

• Attendees will also get access to a USER-GENERATED POST-CONFERENCE REPORT, a collection of key takeaways by various participants at the event. This report will be made available to all attendees 2 weeks following the event.

• Everyone who walks in will be given an ROA, Return on Attendance Toolkit to ensure they get the valuable information needed to prove their return on attendance.

If you haven’t already registered, don’t worry, it’s not too late! And because of how important you are to us, our LinkedIn group members receive a 20% discount to attend. Use my personal code AMANDASHOP09 when you register. To register visit http://bit.ly/epBbm.

I hope to see you there!

All the best,
Amanda

Amanda Powers
Shopper Insights in Action Conference Director

According to cNet, there’s a strong correlation between Twitter users and the amount of music they purchase.  They’re interactive with music both on and off line and purchase 77% more music than users who are not on Twitter.  They also consume more music in other forms, such as 41% of Twitter users listen to internet radio while only 22% of non-Twitter users don’t, and 39% on Twitter users watched music videos while only 25% on non-Twitter users didn’t.

Read the full article here.  How can the music industry use this to their advantage?  They’ll have to find a way to balance the marketing with their internet savvy users who look for their new music online.

In an effort to build the tourism industry after the failure of the automotive industry, the Michigan government is set to establish a $21M plan to boost the tourism industry. The plan, House Bills 5017-5018 and 5088-5089 and Senate Bills 619 and 620, creates the Michigan Promotion Fund, which would have two revenue sources: New tourism-generated sales tax revenue and a $2.50 daily assessment on vehicles rented at or near airports, as well as at hotels, convention centers, passenger train stations, bus terminals or harbors. According to Crain’s, Local governments don’t like the capture of sales tax revenue because they say it will hurt revenue-sharing, and Enterprise Rent-A-Car, which includes the National Car Rental and Alamo Rent A Car brands, are fighting the vehicle rental fee.

But others, such as Michigan Lodging and Tourism Association President and CEO Steve Yencich, said the legislation is a creative approach to a chronic problem with promotional funding and could produce benefits even for its opponents.

A $2.50 fee seems miniscule in relation to a $21M marketing boost to the tourism industry–so hopefully the hang up won’t last and tourist will flock to the sandy freshwater beaches of Michigan.

Satwaves.com recently wrote about the new marketing efforts going on at SeriusXM radio.  They began a few years ago with heavy marketing, but as the article pointed out, marketing has slowed to new potential customers.  They’ve recently begun advertising for their new free App.  This app is not only free, but also gives a free trail to the radio service.  Read the full article here.

Do you think this is the right way to reach SiriusXM’s target market?  What do you think of this form of marketing?