Big business thinking like a library

Few libraries have a budget for marketing and even when they do, libraries are frugal with their marketing expenses.  Big business is now faced with the same situation libraries have always been in: how to do more with less (many marketing budgets have been severely cut, even for consumer brands that have long been ad driven).  It seems like in the last 6 months, almost every article I have read about marketing has discussed cost conscious ways to market.  For example:

Game Advertising Goes Mainstream - Advertising Age - Print Edition. "The strategy of seeding Suave's communication of 'achieving salon-quality beauty for less' into a game when [players] organically had to bid on the price of the products was a no-brainer," Mr. Roberts said. "The brand-messaging part is TiVo-proof, as the user cannot skip over the brand message or visual, as it is integral for the player to bid on the product."

What I like about this example is that it combines Suave's need to get more bang for their buck with a message about quality for less!  It seems like poetic justice, right?  I also am happy to see that games have now been accepted fully as a way to interact with consumers... and encourage libraries to think about how the games that McDonald's and Coca Cola have long played with consumers not only are fairly simplistic, but are big hits with the consumer!  There's no need for the game to be in Second Life or to be complex...Bingo still works!