Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly

It's our last episode of the season. And every year, we turn our annual season finale over to listeners and answer their questions about advertising. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This penultimate show of the season features the various lessons I've learned over the course of my 30-year advertising career. From the fact small brands need big personalities, to thereason why committees aren't creative, to the truism that all marketing is theatre, to six tips for presenting ideas that have never proven me wrong, to a secret my car mechanic taught meabout presenting invoices to nervous clients, it's a collection of insights and learning. This I know: All knowledge should be shared. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s become a $2 billion dollar industry. And the marketing of dead celebrities not only attracts lots of big brands, but lots of controversy.We’ll trace the use of dead celebrities in advertising, we’ll analyze “Dead Q Scores,” we’ll list the top-grossing dead celebrities, and we’ll tell some amazing stories about ads that featured Audrey Hepburn, Michael Jackson, Fred Astaire and Marilyn Monroe – and how their families felt about those commercials. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode explores the arrival of real-time advertising. Over the past 100 years, advertisers could never respond to an event or opportunity in minutes. But now with the Internet and social media, advertisers can. This clip talks about two of the most talked-about instances of Real-Time Advertising with Oreo Cookies and AMC Theatres. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Most pilots, lawyers and doctors roll their eyes at the way Hollywood depicts them, and ad people are no exception. From the 1947 movie The Hucksters, to the Rock Hudson/Doris Day film Love Come Back, to Darrin Stephens in Bewitched, to Dudley Moore in Crazy People, to the Tom Hanks movie Nothing In Common, all the way to Mad Men. We'll rate them all, and see where they got it right, and where they got it very, very wrong. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is my annual look at the brands I envy.They may not be the hippest, or the latest, or even the coolest brands. They could be a product, a service or even a person - but I envy them for a reason. Like a famous toy that was discovered when its inventor was installing a light fixture, a television network that leads the Emmy race every year, a knife that can be identified from 30 feet away, and a person who has built an empire by breaking all the rules.All extraordinary brands, all I envy as a marketer. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the very interesting selling strategy where one product is given away for free, or at a high discount, in order to attract people to buy another more profitable product. We’ll track the earliest loss leaders of shaving blades and Jell-O recipes, all the way up to today’s printers, video games and even Kindles – all of which are loss leaders. You might be surprised to know how many loss leaders swirl all around you every day.Advertisers know what to give away in order to profit.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

They’ve been around for almost 80 years, and entertain millions. But game shows are also powerful marketing vehicles. We’ll trace their history from early radio to their debut on network television, and explore their interesting evolution from quiz shows (and the quiz show scandals) to the modern game show format. We’ll also analyze how Let’s Make A Deal and The Price is Right work with advertisers to sell thousands of products, and we’ll tell a fascinating tale of how one contestant broke down the basic advertising formula of The Price Is Right to win big. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

 Along with the most famous marketing blunder of all time - the Edsel - we’ll look at what caused Coke to make the mistake of changing their fabled formula, how a company went actually out of business by promising a product improvement, how a fashion house tweeted inappropriately and had an immediate PR disaster, and how a fast food company made a big mistake betting on the U.S. Olympic team.They are all great stories. Just be glad they didn’t happen to you. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the history of the advertising industry, the full force of persuasion has been put behind many products turned out to be incredibly unsafe. Even when those products were used exactly as advertised – they created enormous hazards, physical risk, and in some cases, even death. We’ll explore how we invited Asbestos and DDT into our homes as miracle products, how certain games for children ended up posing incredible risks, and how a much-heralded drug ended up being one of the most devastating products in modern history.In most of those cases, no one could foresee they were selling danger. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.