• 6 NOV 2008

    Saved By Zero

    A post by Joey Liner as Uncategorized

    Post By
    Joey Liner

    I am a huge TV fan. My daily or nightly regimen is a healthy blend of Reality-TV and Sports. I take advantage of my DVR (some use TIVO) and record all the shows that I cannot watch in real-time.

    Why I am a telling you this?

    When you are watching an event in real-time and the commercials come on you have two choices; channel surf or stick with the same channel and watch the commercial. In these troubling economic times you can tell there are really only a handful of companies that are spending money to do national advertising campaigns through commercials. They are Toyota with the “Saved By Zero” (0% financing), Geico (Cavemen), Apple (Iphone-game changer) and Subway ($5 foot long).

    Now I know there are more commercials out there but these are the ones that stand out to me. I have seen the “Saved by Zero” commercial the most and even back-to-back in certain instances.

    Now, are we really in that bad of a shape when the major networks are desperate to get advertisers?

    I guess so.

    From my understanding the rates to advertise really have not come down that much so it makes sense that really only a handful of companies can do it on a consistent basis. I think all of these companies will be rewarded now for sure but even bigger in the long run. I can see myself in 5 years singing “Saved By Zero” because I was brainwashed with the commercial in 2008. We all know that Toyota makes a great product and they are known for their cars/parts lasting a long time.

    A hot political topic during the election was the American auto industry; should we bail it out? Whether you are to the right or the left, I think we can all agree that the United States must continue to try and come up with a superior product that will compete on a fuel-efficiency and overall durability standpoint, but that really should be the topic of another blog post :) I don’t want drift too far from my point.

    Toyota has done a great job over the last couple decades to increase market share but now they are even positioning themselves for more market share in the future. Right now to get business they are willing to offer 0% financing but when the economy turns around this commercial will pay off big time for whatever interest rate they are offering because everyone and their mamma is going around signing “Saved by Zero” because that’s all we see right now and will continue to remember in the next couple years.

    It’s a catchy stupid song that I find myself singing and joking around with my friends and wife all the time. Same with the Geico and $5 foot long song. Maybe I am off and in left field somewhere but I think these companies are brilliant for what they are doing now and how this will pay off with huge dividends in the future because they get you hooked!

    In a couple months from now, we will have the biggest commercial day of the year in the Superbowl and I think these guys will step it up even further. Will there be others that step up? Do you think the network will have to drastically reduce price for the SuperBowl to attract sponsors and advertisers? Will there be too many open gaps and just a bunch of companies repeating like Toyota? Only time will tell but I would like to hear what you have to say on my thoughts earlier as well as the Superbowl.

    We are ALL in sales and marketing so I feel everyone should have a strong opinion on this

    You just read:

    Saved By Zero by Joey Liner

1

    Dimitrios Gikas 1288 days ago

    I think that playing your commercial too much can have a negative impact. I am annoyed by the ZERO campaign at this time and would avoid Toyota. However I may be in the minority, so what do I know.

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