A Marketing Cynic

On Thursday night, Megan Fox, the beautiful young movie actor who starred in Transformers, appeared on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. She was promoting her upcoming Saturday night guest host appearance on the first show of the new season of Saturday Night Live and both SNL and Fallon are on the same network. So, her appearance on the show was as the expected typical self-promotional guest.

At about 3 minutes into an 8 and 1/2 minute interview, Fallon says to Fox that he hears she has a new game she plays and really likes. She responds excitingly and mentions and describes a game called "Sally's Spa" that she plays on her IPod. Almost all of the audience appears to be unfamiliar with the game.

The next day on my cell phone, which has internet access, prominently displayed on the cell carrier's home page for games, is "Sally's Spa." It was not on the page prior to her appearance.

Now, I am fully familiar with prominent product placements in TV shows and movies, e.g. example where the star visibly drinks a certain soft drink or eats a certain candy bar. Movies and TV shows also place open containers of name brand foods in the kitchen or on the table, etc with the labels visible, but it was not until the game showed up on my cell phone apps for purchase the next day that I realized the exchange between Fallon and Fox was most likely preplanned marketing.

So, Megan was being efficient and productive. She promoted more than one thing in the same Late Show appearance slot. She promoted SNL, herself as host, a new game seeking a broader audience and IPod. She also got in a mention for Kindle. She was like one of those internet video viewing sites that frequently interrupt the video for a commercial break for a few seconds before it continues. I did find that she was much less obvious than one of those video commercials.

She is well on her way to monetizing her actor image and recognition to its fullest marketing potential. If she were a company, I would invest in her for her tremendous future profitability and earnings potential.

One of my previous posts, about the tennis player Melanie Oudin's "believe" sneakers by Adidas, continues to rank in the top 15 of entry points to this blog with people out clicking to the manufacturer's website. Too bad I do not have any agreement with Adidas for payment for clicks to their ordering site.

Celebrity and sports marketing are a big part of an advertisers game plan these days for major companies and products.