Desperate for cash, the state of California is looking for ways to generate new revenue. One option that is being explored is to monetize license plates by adding digital advertising to them. Is this a smart, forward-thinking move or is it a far-fetched attempt to get funds?

Advertising is certainly a way that a lot of individuals and businesses generate income these days. Heck, Google‘s made a big business off of the money-making properties of advertising. Mobile advertising is one of the hottest new emerging ways to make money. So it’s not too far off to think about the potential for generating revenue through digital ads elsewhere in the world.

But on license plates? Not surprisingly, the idea comes from Los Angeles (having been proposed by Sen. Curren Price), a city where people spend a whole lot of time sitting in traffic. The thinking surely has to be that instead of that time being totally wasted, you can use it to advertise what you want others to buy. It is possible that this would help to generate significant, much-needed income for the state. The new technology used to digitize license plates could also end up saving money for the state in the long-run if it streamlines the process of car registration.

Anticipating the arguments, it has already been established that the advertising would only happen while the car was not in motion. While the car was actually driving, only the license plate number would show. However, there are surely other kinks that would have to be worked out with this technology. After all, if you’re digitizing license plates then you may be opening up a whole new can of hacking worms that we aren’t prepared to deal with.

Still, it’s an interesting idea, isn’t it? Nevertheless, the proposal itself won’t be finalized until early 2011 so it will be a long time before this actually gets realized.

Tags: california advertising, digital advertising, digital license plates, license plate advertising

A German marketing company named BUTTER has come together with a medical imaging firm named EIZO to create a very creative marketing campaign. They’re using the popularity of the pin-up girl calendar to showcase the work that they do in x-ray imaging. They’ve taken gorgeous women, added stilettos to them and taken their x-rays for display in a calendar.

Are the images sexy? That’s up to you to decide but they’re definitely alluring in a strange kind of way. The flesh and flirty fun that makes pinups appealing isn’t there but it’s hinted at in the poses of the bodies. Gone are things like pouty lips and Brazilian blowout hairstyles. In their place are perfect bone structure and vacant eye sockets. Creepy, in a way, and yet a super creative approach to marketing what the company does. To my knowledge, it’s not something that’s been done before.

And for some personal information about myself … I actually hate having my X-rays taken. There’s something about the idea that a stranger (albeit a medical professional) can literally see through me that creeps me out. I’m not one to hide things but the fact that they can see things in me that I can’t see or know about myself is eerie to me for some reason. Does anyone else have this problem?

Via Geekosystem

Tags: creative marketing, x-ray pinups

More and more people are starting to use online press releases to spread the word about their products and services. These press releases are very similar to print press releases. However there are some key differences between the two.

Here’s a look at some of the differences between social media press releases and print press releases:

• Social media press releases may be easy to release to a larger group of people due to cost efficiency as well as to the global reach of the web.
• Social media press releases can be optimized for search engines to get random attention that you don’t get from print press releases.
• Social media press releases can link to other articles and sites around the web.

The one drawback of social media press releases is that some people find print releases to be more credible in terms of professionalism. People trying to reach a professional audience may do both types of press releases to get the benefits of each.

Tags: business, kathryn vercillo, marketing, online press release, press release, social media

Marketing has been a big business for a long time. Mobile marketing has also been around for quite awhile. Basically, as soon as mobile phones started being a popular item, savvy marketers started wondering how they could use it as a way to deliver marketing messages to people. But in the last few years, as mobile technology has seen some serious advances, the interest in the mobile marketing business has really finally boomed.

Mobile marketing refers to basically any type of marketing or advertising that is done through the mobile phone. In the past, the primary method of marketing has been through sending text messages that advertise a product. However, with mobile Internet growing so quickly, mobile marketing is now much more focused on advertising and marketing through the mobile web.

It will be really interesting to watch the changes that take place with mobile marketing in the next few years. The mobile web is starting to look a lot more like the desktop-based web so there may be no difference at all in how we receive marketing messages between the two. Then again, phones and computers still do have their differences and smart marketers may harness those difference to change the face of mobile marketing in a way that the rest of us haven’t yet predicted.

What do you expect to see from mobile marketing in the next few years?

Tags: business, cell phones, kathryn vercillo, marketing, mobile, mobile marketing