Metromix Memories, Part 1

I was sitting in a friend's living room the other evening with a small group of other friends. One game or another had just ended on television. We were trying to decide where we were going next because the night was too young for us to say good night.

In what has to be one of the most perfectly timed ad buys, a commercial for Detroit's version of Metromix came on the screen. I silently groaned to myself and resolved to be quiet for the next 30 seconds. It was late. I really didn't feel like having yet another discussion about psychographics and/or why it was that I despised Metromix with a passion.

The shocking thing is that I didn't have to hold those thoughts in. Within 5 seconds of this commercial coming on, one of my friends mentioned to no one in particular that Metromix was the web site that Kerry Doman loosely based After 5 Detroit on.

I continued to remain silent as this observation led to a 20 minute discussion about Ms. Doman, her web site and her latest venture of planning corporate events. During this conversation, the comments were almost universally positive about After 5 Detroit and its founder. No one mentioned Metromix again.

I should mention that all of those in the room were single and, with the exception of myself, everyone was between the ages of 21 - 34. This, by the way, is Metromix's target market.

To recap: the folks at Metromix spent a considerable amount of their money to produce and air a television commercial. The result of said commercial was to provoke a 20 minute discussion among members of their target market about how great one of their competitors is.

I guess this is why, even though Metromix has been making significant media buys for almost a year in the Detroit market, After 5 Detroit doesn't seem to be suffering at all. In fact, it turns out that After 5 Detroit is expanding their operations and hiring new staff members.

Somehow, I don't think this is was reaction that Metromix was hoping for when they spent all of that money.