Hey folks, let's kick this off real quick and review our old standbys when it comes to advertising approaches/appeals (Caps indicates yelling):

    * BANDWAGON APPROACH
    * HUMOR APPROACH
    * SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE APPROACH
    * TESTIMONIAL (Hint: this is the one this blog is about!)
    * GLITTERING GENERALITIES APPROACH
    * SNOB APPEAL
    * APPROACH APPROACH

That last one was included to make sure you are paying attention. There is no such thing as an 'approach approach'.  [Seriously, I just typed that word so many times it looks weird to me now.]  Anyway, that may not be the most comprehensive list of appeals used when advertising but we're only going to focus on one; one that I'm sure is in the list...  I think.

As Wired Magazine and the New York Times recently reported, garnering celebrity endorsements (and more specifically, professional athlete endorsements) for TESTIMONIALS is about to become quite the turn-key affair.  A company called Brand Affinity Technologies has created an online marketplace that connects local advertisers and what Brand Affinity might call a 'regional celebrity' for use in local marketing and media creative. 

So, while you may not be the fanatical Vikings fan that I am (which I find incomprehensible) and thus probably do not know their starting Center is John Sullivan, those in Minneapolis that see him in a Burger Jones ad are going to recognize him and subesequently take him up on his recommendation to "come on down and take the Sully Burger challenege!"  Burger Jones is banking on that fact, anyway. As well as the fact that out-eating their favorite center in the National football League is something all Minneapolins (Minneapeeps?) aspire to do.  

Garnering celebrity endorsements is something that's traditionally been very difficult. Time, expense, lengthly contracts, and just tracking down the damn celebrity, have all hobbled the process.  With Brand Affinity promising to rid the ordeal of long-term contracts and reduce negotiation times to no more than 96 hours, most of those pain points are removed and a platform that makes creating celebrity testimonials more simple emerges!

So... with their catering to local/regional marketers, wouldn't it just go over like gangbusters if Balihoo and Brand Affinity Technologies teamed up and a BAT component was integrated into our ad builder software?  Now that's a top-to-bottom marketing software tool!  Imagine this, my local marketing audience: Balihoo creates your brand, plans and buys your media, produces and builds your BAT-supplied, celebrity-infused ads, and then follows up with constant campaign optimization... AND it all takes place within one easy-to-use platform?  DONE. Nailed it.  

And hey, as I'm leagally obligated to say, even without the Brand Affinity Technology component, our software can do incredible things.  Check it out!  In the meantime, however, I suggest you incorporate more of the bandwagon approach into your ads. Why? C'mon! Because everyone else is!