Stapleton developer, exec donate prize
Stapleton developer Forest City Enterprises Inc. and company co-chairman Albert Ratner declined the $100,000 prize after being named joint recipients of the 2005 Urban Land Institute J.C. Nichols Prize for Visionaries in Urban Development.
Ratner requested that the ULI use the money to help create a revitalization strategy for storm-damaged New Orleans. In addition, the Ratner family and Forest City donated $100,000 to support the ULI’s work in New Orleans.
Study: Voice-overs sway TV-ad viewers
Companies such as Qwest, Sprint, Lipton and Volvo have all featured voice-overs by celebrities in advertising campaigns.
Not surprisingly, viewers’ prior attitudes toward the celebrity being featured influenced how much they liked or disliked the product being sold, according to a study conducted by Rice University and the University of Washington Business School.
But, the study found, the influence was greatest when the viewer could not identify the celebrity.
The study’s authors called the responses an example of “implicit cognition” – advertising that influences people independent of their conscious awareness.
However, when viewers could identify the celebrity being featured, their opinion of the ad shifted in the the opposite direction of their opinion of the celebrity.
For example, in the case of Qwest, which used actor Willem Dafoe in late 1990s ad spots, viewers who liked Dafoe and were able to identify him as providing the voice-over responded negatively to the ad. Viewers who liked Dafoe but could not identify his voice responded positively to the ad.
The reason?
Viewers “believed the voice-over should not logically influence their evaluation and therefore tried to remove the influence of the celebrity,” the study stated. “However, they tended to overcompensate and thus produced a negative effect.”
Nonprofit can win marketing makeover
In need of a makeover?
How about an extreme makeover?
Denver-based Idée-Force has partnered with the Denver Office of Strategic Partnerships to provide a marketing makeover to a Denver nonprofit that may have let itself go where marketing is concerned.
One contest winner will receive a marketing overhaul valued at $22,000. The package includes a new logo and stationery, website and one-year free Web hosting, overview brochure, e-mail newsletter template, press-release template and Colorado media list.
Qualified applicants must be registered 501(c)3s that demonstrate the greatest need as well as innovation in achieving goals that fulfill their missions. Application deadline is Jan. 16, and applications may be obtained by e-mailing jocelyn@idee-force.com.
No. 1 resolution for 2006: Travel more
Forget dieting or quitting smoking. Many Americans plan to take to planes, trains and automobiles as part of their New Year’s resolutions.
According to a recent survey by online reservation system Expedia, 61 percent of participants said traveling more in 2006 was one of their New Year’s resolutions, followed by 45 percent who said they want to spend more time with family.
And don’t be shocked if your office is a little more empty during key holidays next year: Thirty-seven percent said their goal was to use all of their vacation time.
Codes let you bypass automated hotlines
The problem: You can’t reach a human being when you call customer-service hotlines.
The fix: Little-known codes let you bypass automated phone systems and go straight to a live operator.
Blogger Paul English has posted a customer-service “cheat sheet” at www.paulenglish.com/ivr that offers tricks for finding a live operator at dozens of frequently called companies, from American Express to Verizon Wireless.
The site lists codes that you can punch in as soon as the automated system picks up to have your call routed directly to a person. It also helps you foil the newer breed of customer-service hotlines – those voice-recognition systems that ask you to speak aloud your requests. Saying “agent” or “operator” will usually redirect you to a person at many companies, but you might have to be persistent.
English is constantly adding new companies to the site, but he also takes requests. If there’s a company you need help contacting, click the “update” link at the top of the page and type in the name.
Denver Broncos score with Mile High Milk
Mile High Milk, the curiously orange-colored official milk of the Denver Broncos, is now a certified hit.
According to the Western Dairyfarmers’ Promotion Association, Mile High Milk was the second most popular single-serve milk in Colorado’s school cafeterias and retail stores in October, second only to chocolate.
The low-fat milk was rolled out at the Denver Broncos Dove Valley training camp in mid-August and heavily promoted via television and print advertising campaigns.
Texas firm’s services are out of this world
A Texas company specializing in extraterrestrial services for space lovers has a gift line that few others can match.
Houston-based Space Services Inc. certainly markets its gifts out of this world. Since 1997 the company has offered the opportunity to have one’s ashes delivered up into orbit for posterity.
More recently, the company has offered the chance for people to single out a star and have it named for whomever they like.
“We are attempting to give the public around the world the opportunity to be involved in very real space missions,” said Space Services chief executive Charles Chafer.
The challenge of arranging space flights for its special payload notwithstanding, the company’s space burials have taken off. It is preparing for its sixth launch in March 2006.
The first launch in 1997 carried the remains of 24 men, including Gene Roddenberry, the creator of the legendary television series “Star Trek”; 1960s counterculture icon Timothy Leary; and Princeton University physicist Gerard O’Neill.
The upcoming launch also will evoke “Star Trek” memories, carrying the remains of the late actor James Doohan, who played the engineer on the starship Enterprise.
