Created for Miami Advertising Agency Crispin Porter and Bogusky by The Barbarian Group, the Subservient Chicken is a viral marketing promotion of Burger King?s line of chicken sandwiches.

The campaign is based on a web site that features a person in a chicken costume. The actor performs a wide range of actions based on a user?s input, showing pre-recorded footage and appearing like an interactive webcam. The takes literally the advertising slogan ?Get chicken just the way you like it?.

There are more than a hundred commands the chicken will respond to, including:

? Michael Jackson dance moves such as moonwalk
? River dance
? The elephant
? Lay an egg
? Walk like an Egyptian
? Yoga
? Rage
? Spank
? Taco Bell
? Fight

When told to do anything the Subservient Chicken thinks is offensive, like perform sex acts or take off his mask, the chicken walks up to the camera and shakes a scolding chicken finger in disappointment. If he is told to east food from rival fast food places like McDonald?s he approaches the camera and places his finger down his throat but when told to eat Burger King he has a more positive response. The chicken responds to the command ?smoke crack? by smoking but when told to ?smoke a bong? he waggles his finger scoldingly.

Burger King?s Chicken Fights campaign was recently introduced. The two cockfighting chicken characters are modeled off this chicken.
There seems to be no end to the variations on the theme from Burger King. There has also been a lot of criticism leveled at the chain about the Subservient Chicken but for now it looks like Burger Kind is crying all the way to the bank.

A successful viral campaign isn?t always in good taste? maybe that?s what makes them so tasty.

Podcast Yahoo, is an example of a very full featured
podcast directory. Yahoo’s beta offering presents
podcasts from many professional organizations
including NPR, Slate Magazine, and others. They also
organize their listing by categories, offer a list of the
most popular series and episodes currently available,
and let users search through the entire database.
Yahoo’s site is professionally done, and likely has
people permanently assigned to work on it, and so it
differs from many of the other podcasting directories
available. Many directories are little more than listings
of amateur podcasters, but Yahoo’s site brings out a
number of feeds done by mainstream organization,
raising the level of quality available.

For anyone who wants to find a podcast, Yahoo is
certainly a good choice. They have a slick, well done
site that is easy to use. Yahoo even includes software at
the site so that podcasts can be listened to from within
the web browser. After logging in, Yahoo allows users
to subscribe to feeds they enjoy, letting them be notified
when new episodes are available. Yahoo even has a
detailed walkthrough to help visitors create and begin
publishing their own podcast.

Podcast Yahoo clearly demonstrates the ability of a
corporate group to create a well made site. While it’s
very unlikely that Yahoo or a company like it would
have been able to come up with podcasting, once they
know what to do, they can do it well.

Since the time the first ever commercial to be aired on television of Bulova Watch Company in July 1, 1941 many categories of advertisements have been formed. The advertisements have become a part and parcel of daily life and are playing a significant role in decision making of the consumers. Such has become the power of advertisement that even a politician cannot assure his success in election campaign in if he hasn?t advertised on television. The different categories of television advertising are political advertising, promotional advertising, infomercials, television commercial donut, promo, and sponsorship.

Political advertising is nothing but reaching out to the citizens of a particular region to capture their vote bank. It?s the most influential advertising method and is also very important as it affects the nation in a big way. The two main platforms to advertise for a political campaign are television and radio known as broadcast media. This also depends on the money raised through political campaigns. The earlier the money raised and the more the money raised, the better the method of advertising. Usually the candidate?s party committees contribute the money. To advertise through television specialized consultants are be contacted to buy slots on local or national network. It has been observed that even a candidate for local office position places an ad on television.

Promotional ads or product placement ads are commercials placed on television by marketers involving commercial products to increase their sales and services. Promotional ads can be featured on television, movies, music videos, books, websites and even video games. Good amount of money can be saved by consulting sales executives and by renting location, models and props.

Television commercials are popular with automobile industry and James Bond movies are credited for promoting them. Promotion of cigarettes or any other tobacco products in movies have always been a point of controversy as most of the State Governments have set up a limit for promotion of such items. Authenticity of the products and services being advertised are many times questioned by the consumer as some of them can be misleading. To tackle this, many consumer groups have been formed who ask for complete disclosure of the product from companies advertising them. In case of any refusal for cooperation of any kind these groups are liable to slam a case against the product and its company. The product ads can be differentiated on the basis of appearances like sponsorship, cost reduction oriented, brand integration and fee based. Sponsorship is the contribution by the company to soaps or sports matches. Brand integration is known as the annexing of the product in a movie or video song.

Infomercials are differentiated from other television advertisements on the basis of time. They are usually thirty minutes long like a regular program. They are also known as teleshopping or paid programming. One can catch them at odd hours of the day like early morning or late in the night. It?s actually a commercial letting out the complete information about a particular product like expert advice on the product, how it should be used, its cost, and where it is available. They resemble more like a talk show than to a commercial as the advertisers communicate to viewers with the help of catchy phrases, celebrities and experts.

Television commercial donut is a template. Its like a blueprint and has all the necessary elements to make a finished commercial but the actual product is missing. Usually advertisers who find producing a commercial difficult use it. The local networks in return of purchase of airtime on their respective channels usually provide the commercial donut. It is a very cost effective method but it has a lack of creativity that will not ensure customer attraction. With the advancements in video editing technology this option is becoming increasingly popular among advertisers.

Promos or network promotional advertising involves television advertising. The amount of commercials that are being hosted on local and national television has been rising by the day and has featured almost everything one can imagine in the world.

Sponsoring a program or a channel is done to promote products or a program for a cause. The group or individual supports financially to advertise his product, service or organization.

Podcast downloads are a wonderful new online way to
share files. A podcast is a way to send files from a
distributor’s online site directly to the subscribers
computer, where they can view them whenever they
wish. A podcast works by having a small file called an
RSS file placed somewhere on the podcaster’s web
page. This RSS file is updated regularily, usually
automatically with text and links to new media files
available for downloading. The RSS file is then
accessed by the podcast client of the subscriber’s
computer. A podcast client is a small program that goes
online to look for the RSS files that the feed subscribers
wish to view. There are many podcast clients available
for every conceivable need, and most are free to
download and use.

The podcast download will be done when the podcast
client downloads and views the file from the feed’s
website. After finding the links to the media files
embedded in the RSS file, it will download those files
and store them on the computer, allowing the user to
view them whenever and as many times as they wish.
The podcast files may be of many things. There are
comedy shows done by people who enjoy creating and
writing a regular show, but aren’t able to do it as a
business. Some podcasts are music mixes, an mp3 file
that subscribers can play. Even some radio shows are
getting into podcasting, allowing subscribers to
download portions of their shows from the internet in
podcast form and play them on their home computer.

Podcast downloads could conceiveably be applied to
any type of file. The RSS files that allow the mainly
audio and video files now used in podcasting to be
downloaded can be customized to enclose almost any
type of file. This has led some analysts to believe that
podcasting could eventually be used to distribute
software updates, demonstration programs, and many
other types of files, moving beyond the simple use of
podcasting to share media files. All that would be
neccessary would be for the users to subscribe to the
feed with their podcast client. They could then stay
regularily updated for nearly anything.

Podcast downloads offer many different possibilities for
distribution of files across the internet. Because it is a
different mode of using the internet, allowing the data
to come to the user rather than the user having to visit
each site they enjoy, podcasting has the possibility of
changing the way the internet works. Content can be
given directly to the individual, easily and ever more
quickly as broadband use spreads. This means that what
the internet is will change drastically. The web changes
from something connected to in order to be used to
something that is integrated and connected with our
personal life.

When you buy something from an eBay seller, you are giving them your money and hoping that you will get something in return. However many guarantees of safety eBay might make to you, nothing is certain: if you just give your money to scammers all the time without doing any checks then the chances are you won’t get all of that money back.

That’s why you should always check the seller’s reputation, or ‘feedback rating’. This is a quick and easy-to-read summary of their history as an eBay seller, which gives you some idea of whether or not you should trust them with your money. Buying anything is a calculated risk: you want to minimise that risk.

How to Check Feedback Ratings.

On each item’s description page, there is a box in the top-right hand corner about the seller, with the title ‘Seller information’. This contains the seller’s name, their feedback score, and their positive feedback percentage, as well as any stars they have earned.

Different coloured stars are given to eBay sellers depending on their rating, in this sequence: yellow, blue, turquoise, purple, red, green, shooting yellow, shooting turquoise, shooting purple, shooting red. Anyone with a ’shooting’ star is an experienced eBay member who you should be able to trust.

If you click on the seller’s name, you can get to a more detailed view of their reputation - their ‘member profile’ page. This page shows the total number of people who gave them a positive or negative rating, as well as a breakdown by time. You can also see a complete history of all the comments that have ever been left about them, with the most recent first.

What to Look For.

You might assume that anyone with a very high number can be trusted, but that isn’t always true. It is more important to look at their positive feedback percentage - and you should really consider anything below 99% to be a red flag and investigate further.

Take a look through the first visible page with the most recent transactions: are there any negative comments? What do they say? Take others’ experiences into account, as they could happen to you if you deal with this person. Be careful not to punish sellers unfairly, however, if they did bad things in their past on eBay but have improved since. You should look at the breakdown by time and ignore any negative feedback that was left a long time ago. Equally, though, you should sit up and pay attention if a seller seems to have been left an out-of-character amount of bad feedback in the last month or so.

Now that you know who to trust, it is worth learning a little more about how the different kinds of auctions work, so that you don’t accidentally slip up and make yourself and your feedback page look bad. Our next email will be about the different kinds of auctions you can expect to encounter during your time on eBay.

Viral marketing has an array of possibilities and ways to achieve your overall goals. However, just like everything else, preplanning and the right setup to create success are the things you will need to make it work for you and your e-business.

The first thing you want to be sure you don?t do is get over-zealous. The one thing you need to avoid at all costs is spamming. Spamming is still used widely, but with the government establishing more restrictions and fines you don?t want this to be a problem for you. The professional image of your site will also suffer if you send mail blatantly.

Spamming requires a database that contains a huge list of e-mail addresses set up so that the message can be delivered with one click. The problem with it (aside from the governmental restrictions and associated fines) is that it irritates the recipients and kills the validity of your campaign, which in turn kills the factors that would motivate someone to refer your site.

You need to personalize by creating your website with personal appeal. You must see to it that your website makes your customers feel safe, secure and cared for. E-mail is important, because it is going to be one of the most affordable ways to keep in touch with your customers.

The proper way to handle email permission is to first let your customer know that you will not transmit their e-mail addresses to third party companies. The next thing to do is to attach the need for their e-mail addresses to benefits they can receive.

For example: Coupons or discounts that are only available to members who receive e-mail notifications. With each e-mail you send the viral marketing effect takes place.

The practice of using video games to promote a particular product or an organization is known as ?Advergaming?. Wired magazine first used this term in a column to describe the commissioning of free online games by large companies, in 2001. There are three categories of Advergaming: ATL Advergaming, BTL Advergaming and TTL Advergaming.

ATL Advergaming can be vaguely explained as a promotional video game. The business incorporates interactive video games on their website so as to create more awareness about their product among the website visitors. This method is also used to attract more visitors to the site and to increase the traffic flow on the website. If the games are made for product advertising, the product is highlighted in the game.

Before the invention of the internet, floppy disks and later compact disks were used as a medium to promote games and in turn a particular product. It started with floppy disk basically to create awareness as well as product promotion. The first Advergame was distributed by American Home Food, which was developed by Chef Boyardee. Taco Bell and Coca Cola followed it by giving customers floppy disks containing promotional games. The first Advergame to be distributed on compact disk was by Chex and General Mill. The graphics of these games have matured from arcade style flash to three-dimensional.

BTL Advergaming comprises of recruitment tools like In-game advertising, militiamen and edutainment. Usually the mascot of the particular company is depicted as the hero in such games. Pepsi man and Burger man were the mascots used in promotional games designed by Pepsi and Burger King respectively. The storyline of these games can be commercial, educational or political like the game American Army created to attract more youth towards devoting their life to army and also games meant to promote sports like Formula One racing are also a part of this technique.

In-game advertising is more commercial type and is purely targeted for promotion of the product via the game. This is really picking up and even movies are promoted by this method. Like on the website of the movie, The Mummy, there are games which have a storyline similar to the movie and the player is given knowledge of the facts about the movie and its subject, Egyptian Mummy. Educational Advergaming refers to games that portray a moral message to the players.

These games can also act as a medium of advertisement themselves like in the video game of EA Sports; banners of Pepsi line the frame of the game. By using this strategy the companies are able to provide low price or free games to the consumers. This is also effective in reducing the price of games that have a monthly fee.

TTL Advergaming or through the line Advergaming is the most rare form of Advergaming. URL links are embedded into a game that takes the players to the web pages, which has BTL Advergaming. Different methods are used to attract the player to a particular webpage. In the game ? Enter the Matrix? URL hyperlinks are depicted in the background, which the player is forced to click to learn about the facts relating to the plot of the next level and at the same time advertises about the product. The curiosity to learn about the theme of the game attracts the player, although it might not be necessary to click to finish the game. Such kinds of games are usually known as link-chases as one link will lead to another. Website visitors are sometimes tempted with a prize to prompt them to click the URL.

This technique of advertising is really beneficial as it not only creates awareness among the player but also among his friends who lands the website upon friend?s suggestion. The success of Advergaming is dependant on word of mouth and thus is also known as viral marketing. In the year 2004, this industry generated around $83.6 million and involved 105 million players.

There is no better advertisement campaign that is low cost and also successful at the same time. Great business ideas when utilized effectively can save lots of money. This is not only easy for those who work full-time as an advertiser, but also for those who work from home.

Advertising from home is also a low cost option, which involves making and distributing fliers. Usually potential customers will visit home for business dealing. Print good amount of fliers and give it to anyone who is visiting home like family, friends, mailman, etc. Business cards can also be distributed. Few selected people can be given sample of the product. For those who work outside home, employ college students to distribute fliers at supermarkets, community centers, or malls, especially on weekends, when there is a rush.

Spread the word by the mouth. Talk to everyone about the product and ask them to talk about it to others. It?s a very powerful tool to increase the network and doesn?t even cost anything. When receiving a casual call from family members and friends, don?t forget to tell them about the latest events, discounts and promotions and ask them about what they are up to. If the parties are into the business, it won?t hurt to promote each other. Joint ventures can be started with trustable people of the same trade. The only cost that will be incurred during the whole process is of printing fliers. For a better quality, professional can be hired to design them, as they will be able to play with colors and write motivating material.

Most of the businesses have company bulletin board that they use to put up company?s latest news. Fliers and business cards can be tacked on such bulletin boards. But before doing so, check out with the human resource department before placing the information as most of the HR departments make it compulsory to consult them.

Parents are required to be in regular touch with the teachers to know about the progress of the child and they have meetings from time to time. Do not miss this opportunity and spread the word. Hand them the business card and fliers personally at the meeting, instead of just giving the contact number.

Get involved with fundraiser at schools, as it?s a nice approach to market business. Prior to handing out the order received, collect all necessary information like business card pack, fliers, with proper information. Information can be based on what is the company about, what are the products and services provided, or how to get in touch with the company. In each individual order, carefully place all of them and seal the package properly. Presentation, too, is of importance and should be paid attention.

Voice mails can be put to good use, other than recording messages. They can help to deliver the marketing message. Greet with a brief message, following with website and email address, so that who ever calls will be already having the telephone number and they will be able to learn more about the business by visiting the website. When the company is providing special promotional offers and discounts, include information about those in the voice mail. Discontinuation of any services of products can also be informed about. Repetitive voicemails sound boring, so keep changing the voice mail frequently and add some creativity to it.

Most of the big businesses attach business cards or fliers with out going mail. This works for companies who send bills to their customers. For those who have customers paying online, they can send the information through emails.

Advertisements can be done, in the locality, by placing fliers on the bulletin boards of the local grocery stores, businesses, barbers, or butchers. People frequent these places and there is a possibility of getting a good response. Some businesses place a jar at the reception counter where the business cards can be dropped for future reference, while visiting them.

So you’ve got the buyer in front of your auction, and they’ve read the description. They’re must be interested, or they wouldn’t be looking? but just how can you push them over that line and make them leave a bid? Read on for some tips.

Improve your picture: In all that description writing, you might have missed the vital importance of your item’s picture. A picture with bad lighting or an intrusive background looks amateurish and won’t make anyone want to buy from you.

Add an About Me page: You’ll be surprised how much you can reassure bidders just by creating an About Me page and putting a little bit about yourself on your business on there. You can also have a few special offers there for people who bother to look at the page, and let people subscribe to your mailing list so that you can email them updates.

Use SquareTrade: Signing up at SquareTrade and displaying their logo on your auctions shows that you are committed to have them resolve any disputes that arise. You always see this on PowerSellers auctions - it makes you look more professional.

Write terms and conditions: Have the ’small print’ clearly visible on all your auctions, giving details of things like shipping times and prices, your refund policy, and any other business practices you might have. This helps build confidence with buyers.

Show off your feedback: Copy and paste a selection of the feedback comments you’re most proud of to each item’s description page, instead of making bidders go and look for it. If you have 100% positive feedback, be sure to write that on every auction too.

Add NR to your titles: If you have extra space in a title, put ‘NR’ (no reserve) on the end. Bidders prefer auctions that don’t have a reserve price, and doing this lets them see that yours don’t.

Benefits not features: Make sure your description focuses on the benefits that your item can give to the customer, not just its features. This is a classic sales technique. If you have trouble with this, remember: ‘cheap’ is a feature, ’save money’ is a benefit.

List more items: If you want more people to respond to your items, then list more items! You might find you have better like listing items at the same time, instead of one-by-one. There’s no need to use a Dutch auction - you can just keep two or three auctions going at once for an item you have more than one of in stock.

Accept unusual payment methods: To reach those last few buyers, accept payment methods that many sellers don’t, like cheques.

Buy some upgrades: The best upgrade is the most expensive one, which makes your item appear first in search results. In crowded categories, you might find that this is worth the money.

Once you’ve got some buyers, you want to keep them coming back to you. The next email will show you how to turn one-time buyers into long-term customers.

I can answer this question for you right now: the answer is ‘yes’. In fact, the answer is ‘YES!’ - the biggest yes you’ve ever heard. Of the course the customer is always right. If you want to be a successful eBay seller, you should go miles out of your way to make sure every single one of your customers is 100% satisfied, however much time or money it might cost you.

A dissatisfied customer will leave negative feedback, and negative feedback is to be avoided at all costs. That one piece of negative feedback will always cost you more than it would have to deal with the complaint, whatever the value of the items you sell. You should consider any positive feedback percentage under 100% to be an absolute disaster, and a personal failure on your part.

But What If?

But nothing! There is no situation where you, as a seller, should get into any dispute with a buyer. Here are a few common situations and how to handle them.

They say the item never arrived: Politely ask the buyer to wait a few more days to see if it turns up, and then email you again if it still hasn’t arrived. If it still hasn’t arrived, you should assume it was lost in the post somehow and offer to send a replacement if you have one, or give them a full refund otherwise. No, I don’t care what that costs you. Are you serious about selling on eBay or not?

The item has been damaged in the post: You must offer to replace it or take it back for a refund without hesitation.

They say the item doesn’t match the description: Resist the urge to email back with “yes it does, you just didn’t read the description properly”. Take the item back for a refund, and edit your description if you need to, to make any confusing points extra clear.

I’m sure you’re spotting a pattern by now. Offering a refund will make almost any problem go away, and it really will cost you less in the long run. Remember, one piece of negative feedback will stay with you forever, while having a 100% positive rating is like owning a bar of solid gold.

You should always handle customers’ complaints before they complain to eBay - in fact, you should email them pre-emptively to ask if they have any. Going through the dispute process is time consuming, reflects badly on you and is downright unnecessary.

Are you still not convinced? Think this would only work with cheap items? Well, you see, the higher the price of the items you sell, the more your reputation is worth to you. Let’s say you were selling $10,000 worth of items each week, for example, and making a $1,000 profit per week overall. You might think that refunding one customer’s $1,000 purchase would be a tragedy, losing you your whole week’s profit. It’s far better to look at it this way: if you don’t give that refund, then not only will you lose the next week’s profit, but you’ll probably lose a few weeks’ profit after that too. Now which option looks better?

I absolutely can’t emphasise enough the importance of really believing that the customer is always right. But trying to make excuses for complaints isn’t the only thing you need to avoid. There are a lot of pitfalls that you need to avoid if you don’t want to kill your business before it’s even started properly - and I’ll show you in the next email what they are.