Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly

In this episode, we look at the wild and crazy world of Viral Videos. Some brands spend big money on videos and nobody watches, meanwhile a cat video is viewed by millions. It’s a world with no rules, fuelled by luck and timing. We’ll look at the most viewed videos ever, including a video a woman made when she quit her job that attracted almost 10 million views, the Evian bottled water video that...

After a 100 years of Mass Production - where one size fit all - 21st century marketing is moving to Mass Customization - letting you custom-design everything you buy. From cars, to clothes, to shoes – to your own breakfast cereal. This week on Under The Influence, we’ll explore how companies profit from personalized products, how they market those products, how consumers are drawn to companie...

This week, we look at Ambush Marketing. It's a form of marketing where a brand tried to connect itself with an event like the FIFA World Cup - but WITHOUT paying sponsorship fees. It merely ambushes the festivities. Or one brand intrudes on another brand's advertising to gain attention. Either way, it's uninvited advertising, it's very controversial - plus the stories are riveting. And the Olympic...

Just in time for the Sochi Olympics, we take the opportunity to look at the big-money world of Olympic advertising.  From the very first Olympic sponsors in 1896, we'll track the ever increasing presence of advertising in the Games - from the marketing milestones to the resulting controversies - including the year the IOC approved Olympic cigarettes!  We'll also analyze how the IOC deals...

Unlike public service announcements or corporate philanthropy, Cause Marketing is when a Not-For-Profit organization teams up with a For-Profit company to further a good cause – but the For-Profit partner makes a profit while helping.   It’s a contentious strategy – as most people don’t like to hear the word “profit” in the same breath as “charity.” But this new marketing strategy  depen...

In this episode, we explore how we're all influenced by pricing. Like how the price of a bottle of wine has an enormous affect on how much you enjoy that wine. We’ll analyze how restaurants design menus to steer you toward the most  profitable  dishes, and how retail stores use psychology to persuade you to spend more.  We know you want to listen to all the ads in this show. On the...

In our first episode of Season 3, we explore #1 Brands. We'll look at popular categories and identify the runaway best-selling brands and analyze why they are #1. We know you want to listen to all the ads in this show. On the off-chance you  don’t ,  subscribe ad-free here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. We know you want to listen to all the ads in this show. On the off-chance you  don’t ,  subscribe ad-free here. 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 the reason 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 me about presenting invoices...

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 Jacks...

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. We know you want to listen to all the ads in this show. On th...

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 rat...

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...

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 m...

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 &n...

 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....

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 en...

We’re on the hunt for great companies that went out of their way to treat their customers well. From an amusement park that delivered such superior customer service that other corporations asked for lessons, to a shoe company you can order a pizza from, to a store that actually accepted a returned product they didn’t even sell just to keep their customer happy – join us as we search for companies...

There are millions of successful brands in the world, but very few of them are in the exclusive billion dollar club. We'll test your ability to guess which brands in your life are the billion-dollar ones, and we'll tell you which of P&G's brands reached $10 billion first, which cookie is worth a cool billion, which Hollywood movie star is has sold the most tickets, and which NHL franchise is t...

This week we look at Marketing Stunts. Many brands try to get into the Guinness Book Of World Records as a marketing strategy. With that in mind, we’ll talk about how an energy drink staged a record-breaking jump from space, why a giant popsicle stunt melted before it even started, why unsuspecting travelers ended up running through a train station like James Bond, and how Richard Branson pulled o...

This week, just in time for the Oscars - we take our annual look at creative movie trailers. We’ll see how Walt Disney convinced the public to watch the first-ever full-length animated movie, how some trailers don’t show a frame of the actual film they’re advertising, how some trailers contain footage not found in the movie itself, and we’ll tell you the story of why thousands of people bought tic...

This week on Under The Influence, we look at the companies that actually profit by asking you to  BUY   LESS . We’ll explore a burger company that asks its customers to eat less beef, a printing company helps you print less, why Gillette has suddenly started encouraging men to change blades less often, and why a clothing company insists that you buy less of their apparel. It’s...

This week on Under The Influence, we look at the incredible creativity happening in radio advertising today. Many advertisers think radio is yesterday's medium, but judging by the incredible work being done around the world, radio isn't dead, it's hotter than ever. We'll look at the top radio advertising ideas that have won in recent international award shows, including one remarkable idea that us...

This week, we look at the critical importance of timing in marketing. It’s one thing to put the right message in front of the right person, but it’s a fine art to put it in front of them at the perfect moment. We’ll look at how the United States Navy used perfect timing to double their applications by taking advantage of a certain movie playing in theatres. We’ll explain why Dr. Scholl’s chose to...

Remember when you were growing up, and you’d find a prize inside your cereal box? Prizes, premiums and box-top offers have been a staple of modern marketing since the 1800s. We’ll tell the story of how the first ever box-top offer was the result of a critical marketing mistake – but it set the stage for a century of product giveaways. We’ll also explore the psychology of free prizes, like how the...