We all do that.

Companies do that too – sometimes overtly and sometimes in a very subtle fashion.  One of my friend told me that the movie “The Italian Job” was sponsored by BMW as part of a marketing campaign for Mini Cooper. I also heard that it will cost a fortune to get some product featured as part of the TV show “The Apprentice.” I can see why. In the world of Tivo, companies have to find other ways of getting people’s attention. And, they are willing to pay a big  price for that.

I saw two simple examples recently.

Here is a key to a room in Econo Lodge – sorry to be more precise here is the image of a key card for a room in Econo Lodge. As you can see, it features an advertisement for Pizza Hut with a local number (Anaheim) that will make it easy for the guests to order Pizza. A person can either look up something in the yellow pages or he or she can quickly dial the number on the card to get food. Leveraging the space on the key card to play on the convenience factor.

Second one is a card that they were handing out when people came out of Lego Land. It says clearly that someone might instantly win $25,000 and the way to check is to swipe the cards on a computer terminal closeby. There were many terminals actually and people were in a queue to check this out. It was also very clear on the card that it was sponsored by some resort company and they were actually conducting a survey right then and there and getting all the information from you to see whether you were “qualified” for them to make you an offer.

On one hand, the consumer is overwhelmed (actually bombarded) with information and on the other hand, the companies are relentless in their pursuit to get the consumers attention!