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I am not yet convinced about mobile commerce.  But we are seeing increasing experiments in this area – particularly in Asia and Europe.  Toys “R” Us, which apparently does pretty well in Hong Kong , has launched a new multimedia campaign that utilizes QR codes, vidoes, and rewards.  The toy retailer has 18,000 Faceboook members in Hong Kong and its YouTube channel (HKTOYSRUS) is one of the 10 most viewed in Hong Kong, and there are more than 700,000 Hong Kong members of its Star Card Loyalty Program.

The article, “Toys “R” Us unveils multichannel mobile CRM tactics” (Mobile Commerce Daily, September 9, 2010) offers a good example of integrated marketing communications that utilizes a variety of new media in a foreign country.  One element of the campaign is an iPhone app — the video below shows how that works.

Many of us are familiar with the old “Man in the Chair” ad (if not, link to the blog post first).  It does a nice job of demonstrating integrated marketing communications and how in business markets, advertising works in combination with personal selling.  I saw this post at Mac Macintosh’s Sales Lead Insights blog that brought this point back home to me (click on the ad in the blog to see if full size).   One of the comments on the blog post pointed me to this great presentation (see below) by Ralph Oliva at a Business Marketing Association event.  It is a bit long (5:41), but might make a nice video to show when discussing organizational buying — or for an example of IMC in the B2B context.  It updates the “Man in the Chair” ad — but also shows how the core marketing concepts have not changed.  To fully appreciate this, I suggest you check out the blog post first and click on the ad to see if full size.  Then watch the video below.

BtoB Magazine’s “Best of 2009” issue has come out.  If you click on that link you will be connected to a page that shows all the categories — with subsequent links to the top three in each category.  Lots of great B2B examples for you there.

My favorite campaign is Cisco Systems “The Human Network Effect” which won for best Intergrated Campaign (over $200,000).  The campaign focuses on the Cisco’s video conferencing product and I think really demonstrates the value it can provide.  The original “Welcome to the Human Network” cannot be embedded because of copyright issues (but my link takes you to it on YouTube).   At YouTube you can find the Chinese (and several other language) versions of this ad — as well as many more from the campaign.  I have embedded the “I Will Survive” ad from the campaign below.

This article (“Fertilizers on Wheels,” The Wall Street Journal, October 16, 2009, no subscription? click here) and short video (2:39, see below) describe the marketing strategies for two different firms selling fertilizer to farmers in rural India.   The video provides an interesting addition to class because it gives students a look at rural India.  The topics covered include selling to businesses, integrated marketing communications, and distribution – all in the international context of a developing country.  I showed this video in class after lecturing from our first promotion chapter.  I asked students to think about why I thought this reflected IMC and to note the different types of Promotion they observed.  A variety of different forms of promotion (even sales promotion) are demonstrated and can be tied to the AIDA model.