Could This Possibly Work for Amex and HP?

“I love money. I love everything about it. I bought some pretty good stuff. Got me a $300 pair of socks. Got a fur sink. An electric dog polisher. A gasoline powered turtleneck sweater. And, of course, I bought some dumb stuff, too.”

-Steve Martin

I try to make these posts positive.  The world has enough negativity without me adding to the stinking pile.  However, not long ago I got the most unbelievably dumb direct mail piece from American Express. Not wanting to go negative, I held my tongue.  

Today, I got an equally rediculous piece from HP, and here I am -- joining the screaming hoard!  

That is right, American Express sent me a 30 inch long remote control speedboat!  To buy an equivalent item on Amazon?  $30+!  

Any company doing a direct mail campaign where the item shipped is over $30 must have over $50 invested by the time it hits my door -- particularly with the custom box, shipping...  Any company spending that kind of money per item, must have done their targetting homework... right?

WRONG!

I am already an American Express customer!  One would think that before sending this list off to the mailing house, Amex would have done a quick compare to the current customer list.  

Hmmm... maybe they were targetting current customers specifically.  After all, the name and address matches exactly to my statement.  Why would anyone spend that kind of money to reach out to their current customers?  I have no idea.  American Express must have one talented advertising agency.

According to AdAge, Ogilvy and Mather New York is the agency of record for American Express, who is the 9th largest advertiser in the country with an annual budget of over $2 Billion.  These guys must be super smart -- do you think this campaign could possibly work?

HP and BBDO - Just Keeping Up

Not to be left out, HP sent me a remote control Ferari.  Now this is a bit more modest, less that a foot long, and probably in the under $20 price range.  Also, we are an on again, off again HP customer and partner, so getting in front of us could make a difference in our purchasing habits.  Lower cost, more upside... but I still have a hard time believing that this campaign could even pay for itself.  Incidentally, HP's ad budget is only $1 Billion.

I didn't respond to either and my kids looked at the plastic crap and shrugged.

What on earth will the big spenders think of next?

More Drinks and Less Advertisements Please

I like movies.  All kinds.  I like watching them and talking about them and recently I have gotten into documentaries, but that is another story.  

On this the day of the Oscars however, I am thinking about how much worse the experience of actually going to the movies has gotten.  One would think that in the face of increased competition the movie studios and theaters would try harder to attract customers.  Instead they have come to the conclusion that I am going to sit there and watch half an hour of crap before the movie starts.  I don't know about other people, but I don't respond well to being force fed advertisements while strapped into an airplane seat, but have you ridden the train lately?

I don't respond well to the previews that cannot be turned off on DVDs either.  And when the movie on Netflix just starts -- without advertisements or previews -- I get a warm feeling of calm and satisfaction.

Yes we have more options than ever before and no, the movie studios are not giving me any compelling reason to go to the theater.  My house being a mess and my wanting to get out of it and go to a movie does not count as something the movie studios has done to be more competitive -- but if you give me a minute I bet I can come up with a reason my messiness is their fault.

There is one exception however.  Just about every big city now has a handful of theaters that have comfortable chairs, serve food and drinks, and charge a fortune -- but they have reserved seating, so you can hang out at the bar right up to the start of the actual movie.  That way if they are silly enough to try to force advertisements on you, there is an escape.  I really hope this trend continues and the number of movies available at this kind of theater goes up.  

Oh, and one more thing, there is a scene in Argo where the army guy at the airport picks up the phone and just dials Hollywood from Iran -- in 1979!  Come on, really!

Dirty Electric Cars

Electric cars are clean in that they produce no emissions.  The dirt I am referring to in the headline is on the cars.  Why is it that so many electric car owners fail to clean their cars?  Could it be that car washes are at gas stations?

There are several other ways that electric cars are disrupting the way things work.  Here in Washington we pay 37 cents per gallon in taxes - largely used for road improvements.  Electric car owners pay nothing for gas and therefor nothing for road improvements.  I know I use about 25 gallons of gas per week, so my weekly tax is about $9.25.  Over a year then I pay $480 for road upkeep.  ​

In response to this our legislature passed HB 2660 charging each of the electric car owners $100 per year for road upkeep.  Sometimes I am amazed at how fast certain bills get passed (tax increases) and others drag on forever (anything having to do with education).  So this year, our 1,600 electric car owners will contribute $160,000 to road maintenance in Washington and the three million other vehicles will pay through the gas tax.​

As the cars on the road change, so will the business opportunities   Edmunds reports that 5% of all new car registrations in Washington State are for electric cars.  Since electrics make up just 1/20th of a percent of registrations now, change is clearly coming. Who is going to wash all of those electric cars?

Bitcoin on the Rise

Trying to assess Bitcoin during this frenetic flurry of activity in the ecurrency is like ​trying to get a squirmy dog to sit still long enough to read the weight on the scale.  Since January the value of a Bitcoin has grown from 20 USD to today's 46 USD.  This week there was a spike involume at Mt. Gox, the largest bitcoin exchange, where 170,000 Bitcoins changed hands in 24 hours and the price ranged from $49 to $33.  

It is true that $7.5M of volume in a 24 hour period is not going to seem like much to traditional markets that regularly trade the equivalent of $4 Trillion per day, but this mosquito may soon get the elephant's attention.   

Here are a few stories from this week for those of you that are interested in virtual currencies and Bitcoins.​

• Wired on a Bitcoin Heist
• ​Tech Crunch on the same theft
• Forbes ruminating on a government ban on Bitcoin​
• CNN on the run up to $50​
• PC Advisor on the history of Bitcoin​
• Forbes on the first Bitcoin denominated hedge fund in Malta​
• Business Insider about how to mine Bitcoins and make money
• Poker site adds Bitcoin to payment options​
• TechHive on Amazon.com and Bitcoin​
• The Guardian on Bitcoin's rise to legitimacy
• ​Knight News on the same rise

​Quite a week for a currency that was only invented 5 years ago and has not ever actually been seen (it's not printed money) by anyone.