MARKETING MIX: Sony yet so far for ill-targeted ad

Tightly targeted marketing is a wonderful thing, but when you have

a target audience of just one, it is always prudent to check you are

sending your message to the right place.

Last week Marketing was besieged by a personalised moving ad for Sony’s

PC1 camera. The Freight Media vehicle, arranged through A-Vision, spent

a morning cruising around Marketing’s office before stopping outside

local watering holes that looked likely to house a thirsty hack or

two.

It was, in attention terms, unmissable - for everyone except the named

newshound, Julian Lee, who left Hammersmith for less-lovely Croydon nine

months ago.

It might seem churlish, in light of the effort put in, to ask whether

A-Vision picked the right man. But Mix feels bound to point out that,

while at Marketing, Our Jules was never famed for being at the cutting

edge of high technology.

Once, on being asked to supply copy on a floppy disk, he asked: ’What do

you mean by ’floppy’ exactly? I’ve got the ones we normally use, but

they’re not particularly floppy ...’

Mix was interested to receive a press release from Berber Events

announcing the launch of ’Mail Order Live - The Home Shopping

Experience’. This consumer event is ’dedicated to home shopping’ and

takes place at the NEC in Birmingham next March.

Is Mix missing a trick? We always thought the point of home shopping was

that you did it from home, not by hacking all the way to the NEC.

This article was first published on Marketing