Pioneer commits $20M to promoting their Plasmas

http://www.twice.com/article/CA6368354.html

Long Beach, Calif – Pioneer Electronics (USA) announced plans to spend more than
$20 million on a new national advertising campaign highlighting the company's
Pioneer and Elite PureVision high-definition plasma display lines.

"Blah blah, look at us, the future is now...yodda yodda...hype hype..." Just kidding. I've got enormous respect for Pioneer and their products. Pioneer's *ahem* pioneering efforts in both technical R&D as well as promotion contributed enormously to Plasma's success in the marketplace. And it's not too much of a stretch to foresee the entire Plasma Display Panel category will directly benefit, across vendor lines, from the exposure Pioneer's media blitz will give plasma technology to consumers. Believe it or not, there's still an apalling number of mistruths and old-wive's tales about plasma circulating on retail salesfloors. My favorite: when a befuddled gentleman asked the kid at an unamed big box store why plasma tvs were so expensive, the young man's deadpan response was "Because it's so hard to find donors."

I do enjoy the notion of issuing a press release that trumpets both the expense and the who, what, when, were, and why of your forthcoming multimedia ad campaign. Advertising your advertising, how cutting edge is that? That's meta-advertising! All this meta-advertising makes my teeth ache from the grinning.

Even more interesting, the key takeaway for me from this press release is buried down near the bottom:

The developing ad agency, RPA, will also implement a
collection of online tactics including search engine optimization and “point
roll” interactive banner ads that consumers can click through to learn more
about Pioneer plasma technology, the company said.

I know that this is all "So 2005" but I'm still fascinated at the way the marketing industry has adapted to the changes in consumer's media habits. From search optomization to distributing commercials virally via YouTube, I just wish the film and music industries would take the hint from advertising firms and find a business model that profits from the new digital world instead of whining about it and trying to legislate it back to the way it used to be.

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