Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly

This week, it’s our annual Brand Envy episode, where I tell the stories behind some of the brands I admire. We’ll talk about a romance novel company that was started by a fur trader, an empire created by a cartoonist and a certain cream cheese with its very own spokes-angel. We know you want to listen to all the ads in this show. On the off-chance you  don’t ,  subscribe ad-free her...

This week, we explore the world of torture tests. Torture test commercials are one of the advertising industry’s most powerful techniques - because when a product can survive a dramatic test, it can convince a lot of people to buy the product. Unless, that is, the torture test goes very wrong… We know you want to listen to all the ads in this show. On the off-chance you  d...

This week, we explore the world of online reviews. These days, you can leave a review for anything - from a cup of coffee to your dentist. 90% of us read online reviews before buying a product - that’s why those reviews are so influential. Yet how do you tell fake ones from the real thing? Thumbs up or thumbs down, welcome to the world of online reviews. We know you want to listen to all the ads i...

This week, we explore the quiet world of ASMR marketing. ASMR stands for Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response. It’s a new form of marketing that creates a calming feeling often accompanied by a tingling sensation. Marketers create that experience using sound effects and whispers. Everything from beer brands to fast food restaurants are using it - hoping that ting...

Dum dum da dum. This week, we explore the lucrative world of Wedding Marketing. Weddings are big, big business. As a result, the wedding industry is a big marketing category. From invitations and flowers to dresses and cakes, weddings are an $80 billion-dollar industry. And planning the perfect wedding day is a lot of...

This week, we explore how airports are now becoming brands. You may not know it, but airports compete against each other for business. That intense rivalry has led to the complete transformation of airports - they now have movie theatres, skating rinks, rooftop pools and top retail stores. These days, airports are destinations unto themselves. We know you want to listen to all the ads in...

This week, we explore the surprising ideas companies use to attract new customers. Like “Finger Lickin’ Good” nail polish from KFC. Or NASCAR’s partnership with Harlequin romance novels. The search for new customers is endless. And the resulting marketing is endlessly fascinating. We know you want to listen to all the ads in this show. On the off-chance you  don’t ,  subsc...

This week, we explore why companies change valuable brand names when expanding to other countries. Sometimes the reason is a language issue. But other times, the reasons are far more interesting. For example, Mr. Clean is called Meister Proper in Germany and Maestro Lindo in Italy. And the reason it’s hard to find a Burger King in Australia is the most curious story of all. We know...

This week, we look at the phenomenon of Set Jetting. That’s when tourists flock to a city to see the sets and locations where their favourite TV shows and movies are filmed. Some towns have embraced set jetting as new-found tourism marketing. Other towns absolutely resent it. It’s a fascinating love/hate relationship. We know you want to listen to all the ads in this show....

This week, it’s Part Two of our Album Covers As Marketing episode. In the 1980’s, album covers shrunk down for the first time to accommodate CDs. And in the 2000s, the advent of iPods shrunk them again to the size of a postage stamp. Forcing album artwork to become highly creative. We know you want to listen to all the ads in th...

This week on Under the Influence, we analyze album covers as marketing. We’ll look at a world famous record cover that was almost ruined by a zipper, why flights at Heathrow Airport had to be grounded for one band’s cover art and which album jacket is considered to be the worst of all time. We know you want to listen to all the ads in this show. On...

This week, we look at the fascinating ways sports teams market themselves. We’ll unpack why one stadium replaced its ushers with librarians, why another encouraged fans to wear “awful" clothes and how a grammatical error put Toronto on the map. It all comes down to a strategic…game plan. We know you want to listen to all the ads in this show. On the off-chance you  don’t ,  subscribe ad-...

This week, we analyze how small brands outsmart their giant counterparts. We’ll look at a snack food company with a cult-like following that outsells Frito-Lay in Baltimore. A tiny soda brand that obliterates Coca Cola in Scotland. And a bubble gum-flavoured drink that beats all the big boys only in Peru. Goliath, meet David. We know you want to listen to all the ads in this show. On the...

This week, we step into the highly competitive world of Television Marketing. Between Netflix, Amazon and Crave, the marketing of TV shows has become a rat-race. And in a world where we can watch any thing  any time,  luring viewers back each week calls for some  outside the box  marketing. We know you want to listen to all...

This week, it’s the final episode of our 2019 season: Ask Terry. And as we do every year, we’re turning this show over to you, our listeners, and answering your questions on the air. From whether subliminal advertising exists, to if my career has made me a cynical consumer, to which of the Beatles was the best marketer, this year’s questions were fun and insightful. Oh - and you’ll get a chance to...

This week, we look at banned commercials. The majority of the time, ads are banned for being sexist or too suggestive. But many commercials are banned for other, more fascinating reasons. Sometimes bans cripple a campaign, other times they’re puzzling, but more often than not, they’re rocket fuel. Hope you’ll join us.  We know you want to list...

This week, we unpack the nuanced world of Advertising Disclaimers. We’ll look at the most absurd product disclaimers of all time, why a shocking disclaimer on a brand of Lays chips sparked a 50% drop in sales and the Presidential attack ads that changed political disclaimers forever. It really puts the “risk” in asterisk. Hope you’ll join us.  We know y...

This week, it’s our annual Bookmarks episode - where we tell fascinating stories from our research that didn’t make it into the regular season. Like - the shocking reason Beatles producer George Martin first met the Fab Four. Why an episode of Mary Tyler Moore was considered to be so morbid that a brand new director had to be brought in to handle it tastefully. And why there were bl...

This week, it’s our annual look at brands I admire. They may not be the coolest or the biggest brands – but they’re fascinating studies in marketing. From a record store with a sense of humour to a cartoon with virtually no dialogue, this year’s list gives me a mean case of Brand Envy.  We know you want to listen to all the ads in this sh...

This week, we look at the use of profanity in marketing and the resulting upsurge in Vulgar Trademarks. Four-letter words aren’t just sought out by small, feisty companies looking for attention anymore, but by some of the largest advertisers in the world. Is it obscene, or is it free speech? These days, I swear it’s hard to tell. We...

This week, we look at the fine art of selling the dream. The world of Real Estate Marketing has its own rules, its own techniques and its own unique breed of sales people. We'll tell the story of how the word "Realtor" was reluctantly blessed by Merriam-Webster, why so many real estate agents use photos of themselves as a marketing tactic and what happens when the real estate business tries entici...

This week, I’ll be sharing some of the major influences in my life that helped inform my thinking and shape my career. Including a snowplow ad from my childhood, the sound effects from one very specific cartoon, hilarious actors I worked with and seeing the corner of a billboard flapping in the wind. It’s a little lesson in who’s had  me  under the infl...

This week, we look at celebrities with their own brands. From a small town general store owned by a comedian to a cosmetics empire started by an 18-year-old to a winery that was funded by the  Godfather  movies - a few of them are even billion-dollar enterprises. We know you want to listen to all the ads in this show. On the off-chance yo...

This week, we explore Word of Mouth Advertising. Most businesses hope good products and excellent service are enough to encourage positive recommendations. But the smartest companies actually have strategies to ignite word-of-mouth chatter. It’s the oldest form of advertising, but it’s the most effective by far. We know you want to listen to all the ads in this show. On the off-chance yo...

This week, we explore roadside attractions as marketing. Interesting and often quirky landmarks that put small towns on the map. We’ll look at one town that leveraged its name to bring in thousands of TV fans, one that built a giant animal statue to get highway drivers to take a detour and another that built a monument to attract both human and non-human visitors. We know you want to lis...