Category: Sales & Marketing

Mediapost: With the childhood obesity issue and food marketing back in the headlines, McDonald’s is launching a summer PR effort it says is in response to consumer rather than political pressure. Six moms will serve as embedded citizen reporters, covering the company from the inside.
McDonald’s cites a March survey by GfK Roper Custom Research showing that nearly 90% of moms believe it’s important that fast-food restaurants provide more information about the food they serve.
The six moms–of different ethnicities and from disparate parts of the country–will report to the outside world via blog and video on a McDonald’s Web site for the next few months. They will be getting an insider’s “Willy Wonka” view of the Oak Ridge, IL-based company, and how it chooses, prepares, and distributes food.
Through the Moms’ Quality Correspondents program, the women will meet McDonald’s nutritionists, chefs, ingredient suppliers, executives and others.
McDonald’s Lets Mom Bloggers Into The Kitchen [Mediapost]

PowerHomeBiz: Online videos are growing in popularity, as more and more people watch videos on the Web — from movie previews to amateur productions. Broadband penetration is increasing especially in the United States, allowing more Internet users to enjoy sound, movement, advanced interactivity, and hence videos online.
You can create product demonstration or video instructional videos to show visitors how to use the products you sell. These videos allow customers to see your products beyond the 2-dimensional pictures, and provide them an opportunity to see how the product works, understand the functions of the product, help them know what they can do with the products, and give a better sense of the size and shape of the product.
You can also offer videos that appeal to your audiences as additional content of your site. Visitors are likely to come back to your site if you offer videos related to their interests that cannot be found anywhere else. Better yet, make the visitors feel more valued and important by letting them share their own videos about your topic.
Google bought the video sharing site YouTube for a whopping $1.65 billion in 2006, a clear indication of the growing power of videos. With YouTube’s traffic quadrupling in the first half of the year, companies are flocking to YouTube to boost brand awareness and benefit from the power of viral marketing.
How to Use Video and Rich Media to Drive Online Sales and Loyalty [PowerHomeBiz]