In many cases this year, we’ve seen our clients gain market share and actually grow their bottom line.   Can you believe that?  We have some incredible leaders at the realm of our dealerships.  Leaders who know when it’s the right time to trim their expenses, and where the best places are to do this.  As an agency who’s client base is 85% Automotive, we recognized the Automotive crisis as far back as 2006-2007 and shifted our focus away from traditional media to interactive.   Notice I say shifted- not abandoned- that is the key to their success.  We have designed inexpensive ways for our clients to reach both “right now” buyers as well as keep them out in front of the masses.  It takes careful planning and execution, but we have seen tremendous results for our clients, which in turn has helped us to grow our business in 2009.  I am proud of the team I have at Bravura, and the success our clients have had- despite the economic recession of 09.

Now, as we move into 2010 - Here’s to a turn in the right direction, a SAAR of staying over 10 million, and to shiney new cars in everyone’s driveway!

Jennifer Ballinger

President

Some other St Patrick’s Day traditions include eating Irish food such as Irish Stew, Corned Beef and cabbage and kissing the famous Blarney Stone. Kissing the stone is supposed to give you the ability to talk your way into or out of most anything. The legend says that an old woman cast a spell on the stone to reward a king who had saved her from drowning. Kissing the stone while under the spell gave the king the ability to speak sweetly and convincingly. It’s difficult to reach the stone. People must lie on their back and bend backward or downward, holding iron bars for support.

St. Patrick’s Day customs and traditions vary significantly far and near. Whether you celebrate in a big way or not at all, wear green and clink a toast to the amazing St. Patrick.  Remember, a Toast on St. Patty’s day is as much a tradition as anything else.  Here are few Irish standards to get you by.
Sláinte!
(Pronounced ‘slawn-cha‘, meaning Health! A common toast in Ireland, the equivalent to ‘Cheers’)

‘Lucky’ Irish Toasts
Wherever you go and whatever you do,
May the luck of the Irish be there with you.
If you’re enough lucky to be Irish…
You’re lucky enough!

May you have all the happiness and luck that life can hold—
And at the end of all your rainbows may you find a pot of gold.

May your pockets be heavy— Your heart be light,
And may good luck pursue you each morning and night.
Irish Toasts to Friends & Family
May you have warm words on a cold evening, a full moon on a dark night, and a smooth road all the way to your door.

There are good ships, and there are wood ships,
The ships that sail the sea.
But the best ships, are friendships,
And may they always be.

May the hinges of our friendship never grow rusty.

Here’s to you and yours, And to mine and ours,
And if mine and ours ever come across you and yours,
I hope you and yours will do as much for mine and ours,
As mine and ours have done for you and yours!

May the lilt of Irish laughter lighten every load…
May the mist of Irish magic shorten every road…
And may all your friends remember … all the favors you are owed!

Here’s to the land of the shamrock so green,
Here’s to each lad and his darlin colleen,
Here’s to the ones we love dearest and most.
May God bless old Ireland,…That’s this Irishman’s toast!

Irish Everyday Toasts
May you be in heaven a full half hour before the devil knows your dead!

May you live as long as you want and never want as long as you live.
May your heart be light and happy,
May your smile be big and wide,
And may your pockets always have a coin or two inside!

Always remember to forget the troubles that passed away.
But never forget to remember the blessings that come each day.

May neighbours respect you,

Irish Birthday Toasts
May you live to be 100 years, with one extra year to repent.

We drink to your coffin. May it be built from the wood of a hundred year old oak tree that I shall plant tomorrow.

May God grant you many years to live, for sure he must be knowing, the earth has angels all too few and heaven is overflowing…

May the good Lord take a liking to you…
But not too soon!

May you die in bed at 95, shot by a jealous spouse.

Trouble neglect you,
The angels protect you,
And heaven accept you.

May you have the hindsight to know where you’ve been, The foresight to know where you are going, And the insight to know when you have gone too far.

May the saddest day of your future be no worse than the happiest day of your past.

May misfortune follow you the rest of your life, and never catch up.

A lot goes into that line
It turns out that adding the first down line to your TV screen takes an incredible amount of human labor and technology. It’s actually created by a company called Sportvision, and they use a tractor trailer full of equipment—including eight computers and at least four operators—to make it happen. The system needs an incredible amount of data and needs to solve a number of problems:

• It needs to know the orientation of the field in relation to the TV camera covering the field so that the line can be “painted” with the correct perspective;

• The system needs to be able to detect camera movements, including pans, zooms and focusing;

• It has to be powerful enough to refresh the line 30 times a second to keep up with your TV’s refresh rate;

• It has to be able to tell when players, referees and flags cross the line.

And that’s not even the half of it. Key to the process are special camera mounts that detect the movements and digitize them, as well as a computerized 3D model of the football field that helps the system account for crests and irregularities in the field. Equally important is a color palette built into the computer system. This helps the computers recognize when something that’s a different color than the underlying grass crosses the line.

The geeks behind the game
When a game is in progress, the Sportvision system collects all of the data from the camera mounts and then combines that with the data from the 3D map and the color information in the video feed. Two people, a spotter and an operator, manually enter the correct yard line information into the system. The spotter sits in the press box, and the operator sits in the production trailer. Two other people in the trailer work to make any manual changes necessary, including adding colors to the computer’s palette. This usually happens due to changing field conditions, including snow and mud. Once all of this information is collected and combined, the yellow line finally appears on your TV.

So this Sunday, when you’re sitting down on the couch watching your favorite team win (or lose), give a shout-out to the four guys putting in the hard work to make sure your favorite player’s foot doesn’t turn yellow when he crosses that first down line. They’re the geeks behind the game.
Article by Matthew West - Circuit City Life - September 2009

Neither is a smart strategy. Just as any wise investor knows that the best opportunities are found in down markets, the savvy marketing executive knows that this is the perfect time to proactively market their product or service.

Recessions are periods of opportunity that can be taken advantage of or can take advantage of you. Make certain you know how to capitalize on the great marketing opportunities provided by a recessionary period.

Here are four reasons why you should market during a down economy and how to go about doing it best:

1: Compounded problems today equals more expensive problems tomorrow. When budgets are tight and fewer members of your target audience are buying what you’re selling, even fewer will buy if you stop marketing to them. By cutting your marketing spend, you risk compounding your troubles today and your bottom line will shrink even further tomorrow. Not only will you sell less than if you had kept your marketing steady, but you’ll cede your core customers to the competition. That means you’ll have to spend more time, money and energy in the future to win them back.

According to “How Advertising in Recession Periods Affects Sales” by the American Business Press, “The findings of the six recession studies to date present powerful evidence that cutting advertising funds in times of economic slowdowns can negatively impact sales and profit levels on a short-term and long-term basis.” In fact, when the sales of companies which cut back their advertising expenditure during the 1974-75 recessions were compared with companies that did not cut their ad spend, the statistics were startlingly clear. The companies that did not cut their advertising budgets had increased their sales by more than 200 percent two years later, while sales from the companies that cut their advertising had barely gone up 50 percent.

2. Cut through the clutter fast. Marketing is often the first to go when businesses cut back on spending during tough economic times. For the smart business, this is a godsend! The usual marketing clutter and noise from competitors is minimized, leaving you with a more captive audience.

Even if you invested significantly in marketing to your core target audience for six months and didn’t sell a thing during that period, it would still be a smart investment. Why? Because the incredible amount of brand awareness and brand preference you will create among your core target audience will pay huge dividends after the economy recovers. To boot, think about how much ground your competition will have to make up.

That’s how Wal-Mart cornered the market in 2000-2001 with its “Every Day Low Prices” slogan. It’s why Intel launched its “Intel Inside” tagline during the early 1990s recession, and why Procter & Gamble pushed Ivory soap during the Great Depression. It’s also why in 2002 P&G’s president said he planned to do more advertising and take advantage of the lower prices for Super Bowl advertising.

3. They ARE spending–so make it on you! The truth is, in a down economy people will still spend money–but only if you convince them that spending their money with you makes sense both on an emotional and practical level. Therefore, if you’re not actively marketing to your core target audience, another provider of the same product or service, or an entirely different shape of product or service, will win their disposable income. Remember, in the absence of proactive marketing, consumers’ perceptions of, preference for, and desire for products or services will change naturally–very often because they simply forgot about you and something else is now top-of-mind.

4. Spend less and make a strong impact. Even when a business is cash-strapped, there are relatively low-cost ways to market during a down economy that take advantage of the less cluttered playing field and enable you to enjoy greater dividends than usual. Two sound marketing investments that have great bang for the buck are:

Brand-centric public relations campaigns focused on reaching and moving your core target audience to action via credible third-party sources such as national, regional and trade media coverage.

Update your Web site so that it uses the latest search engine optimization (SEO) techniques. When done well, this will dramatically increase your chances of being found by your core target audience when they do a Google or Yahoo search to find your type of product or service.

Smart business people know what to do when it comes to financial investing during an economic slump. They understand that when they continue to invest or buy even more when the stock market is down, they secure themselves for a stronger future. They know that the market will eventually go back up, and when it does, they will be ahead of the game.

The same approach is true for marketing–only you’re investing in your company’s future, not someone else’s.

David Warschawski is CEO of Warschawski, a brand-centric marketing communications agency based in Baltimore.

I stumbled across a very interesting web site this morning that caters to the baby boomer generation.  Baby boomers can now meet and chat just like their younger counterparts Myspace.com and Facebook.  BOOMERTOWNE.com is an ad supported web site designed to be a credible resource for baby boomers to learn, collect and share information about everything boomer related.

Here is some demographic information about boomer towne.

What is a Baby Boomer?

• Largest and wealthiest segment in America today.
• 79 million Americans born between 1946 and 1964.
• Considered the sandwich generation – between aging adults and somewhat financially dependent off-spring.
• Nearly 30% of US population.
• Consumers who spend more than $1 trillion per year, double the spending power of today’s 60 to 70 year olds.
• An active, independent member of the workforce – 80% of Boomers say they will work past 60.

What do Baby Boomers Believe?

• They expect advances in health care to permit them to live to 100.
• 67% believe working will allow them to stay mentally active.
• 57% believe working will allow them to stay physically fit.
• They are obsessed with looking younger and consider 60 to be the new “40.”
• They are open to new experiences, products and brands and therefore are not as brand-loyal as Traditionalists.
• Boomers believe it’s not just about living longer, it’s about living better.

Aug. 20 (Bloomberg) — Intel Corp. and Yahoo! Inc. are creating software to give televisions the ability to display the Web without interfering with the programming, allowing a viewer to check the bio of an actor in the movie on the screen.

TV watchers can access a news story, sports score or weather forecast from the Web by clicking an on-screen icon with the remote control, Intel Senior Vice President Eric Kim said today at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco. The software will be given for free to TV-service providers.

A drop in the price of computer-processors brought on by increasing competition has sent Intel, the world’s largest chipmaker, seeking growth with consumer-electronics devices. For Yahoo, owner of the second most-used Internet search engine, offering content on TV may yield more viewers for its Web ads.

“Consumers are ready for more,” said Kim. Internet traffic increased during the Super Bowl, one example of TV watchers wanting simultaneous access to more information, he said.

Televisions will need a device for the set-top box that enables them to pull up content from the Web, Kim said. Intel will sell chips for such devices, which will be available next year. Later, the capability will be built into set-top boxes and televisions directly, he said.

Comcast Corp., the largest U.S. cable-TV service provider, said it will begin test services in the first half.

Two Shows, No Waiting

The Intel chips will also be capable of displaying two high- definition programs on the screen simultaneously, allowing the viewer to pause and fast-forward each independently, Kim said.

Companies such as Samsung Electronics Co. have already received samples and are working on products based on the chips, Kim said. Intel will start making the processor, known as system- on-a-chip, in larger quantities in a few weeks, he said.

Intel, based in Santa Clara, California, fell 20 cents to $23.39 at 4 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The shares have fallen 12 percent this year. Yahoo, in Sunnyvale, California, dropped 25 cents to $19.17 and has declined 18 percent this year.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ian King in San Francisco at ianking@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: August 20, 2008 17:45 EDT

I am a true believer in no matter what the size of the pie, you still want to get your piece of it. When the pie begins to grow, your business will reap the benefits.

From Advertising Age….

SOME PACKAGE GOODS CUTTING BACK…

What two things do Mervyn’s and Bennigan’s have in common? They both cut back on marketing dramatically in the last year — and they both filed for bankruptcy protection last week.

Advertising Age, quoting TNS Media Intelligence figures, reports Mervyn’s, a large advertiser in its markets, cut back spending about 25% to $76 million last year. Bennigan’s isn’t nearly the size advertiser of the department store, but it cut a budget that had been more than a million dollars in 2006 to just $347,000 last year. They weren’t alone. Ad Age notes that Sharper Image had cut its budget by about 82% in the two years before it filed for bankruptcy in February, and another restaurant chain, Baker’s Square, cut back 19% last year before it filed in May.

Certainly, there’s no way to prove the results might have been different if spending hadn’t been cut back. “Obviously, there are a lot of factors at play,” Dartmouth marketing professor Kevin Keller told the magazine. “But the pattern is there. It’s not like they were investing a lot in advertising and failed.” Darren Tristano of restaurant consultancy Technomic said that while marketing may seem like an easy place to cut when business is difficult, “ultimately, because a lot of traffic you’re driving is through marketing and promotion, you’re really cutting off your nose to spite your face.” Larry Light, formerly of McDonald’s, added that when that company had tough times earlier in the decade, it made marketing cuts but “the problems didn’t get better, they got worse.” But when McDonald’s started to implement its very successful turnaround beginning in 2003, it increased marketing, and same-store sales rose shortly thereafter. Tristano is quite concerned about the restaurant business. He notes that restaurant chains have averaged about 5-6 bankruptcy filings a year for the last three years, and there have been four already this year. Tristano predicts at least three more restaurant chains will go under this year.

But in what appears to be disturbing news, Advertising Age notes separately that some of the biggest package goods makers, including Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, and Unilever, started to cut back their spending as the economy weakened this year. It notes that P&G’s cutbacks have been particularly felt in the magazine business, as brands like Olay and Pantene have sliced their spending, but its monitored television expenditures were down 4% in April and 31% in May. Figures for June, the last month of P&G’s fiscal year, weren’t available yet.

On the opposite side, we’ve been able to report recently on a few major companies, largely in the food business, that have seen good sales results and are actually crediting increased marketing and advertising for helping their businesses. Kraft, Hershey, Kellogg and General Mills have all had encouraging sales and profits in their latest quarterly reports, and Advertising Age points out they have each cited increased marketing and advertising investments as part of the reasons for the good numbers. “Our commitment to advertising investment is a key component of our strategy,” Kellogg CEO David Mackay told investors.