Thanks to MediaBizBloggers for publishing this first!
I’ve been working on a presentation to give at iMedia Sydney Australia, built around the idea that we need to think about creating relationships with consumers as akin to courtship, nuptials, and married life. In it I am using examples from about 20 countries to show how a variety of brands are courting their customers socially.
And the most salient observation I can make is that the idea of a one-size-fits-all approach to brand participation is patently absurd. Our collective rush to identify and exploit digital magic beans sometimes makes us forget that our brand campaigns have to be as unique as our brands.
For indeed social is simply participatory marketing, not a medium. Social is permeating every media channel, reflecting the truth that consumers prefer personalized experiences across the board, not just on sites where we friend one another.
Preparing the presentation has been a great experience because it has forced me to seek out examples and industry news from across the globe – which is not something I want to do during a typical week. I’ll leave to you to interpret whether that is marketing xenophobia or simply focusing on what matters most in my job today.
In my quest for examples, I’ve learned about Walls, a UK food company that has a multimedia effort showcasing the unique eccentricities of Britons. The campaign asks ordinary Britons to compete to appear in ads where they can showcase their peculiar passions. Mind you, this in a country with a high standard for eccentricity. Where an obscure aristocrat collected thousands of wigs that stuffed every room in his manor house from floor to ceiling. A country where Chelmondeley is pronounced “Chum-Lee”. A place where yeast extract is a delicacy. There is a unique, delightful form of crazy that Britain has a lock on. Tender Britons', please note that I point to your obscure behaviors with loving support. Long live the Belisha Beacon!
But back to the contest. Entries range from “Extreme Ironers” who press clothes while balanced on speeding cigarette boats, to a knitting circle that has created a blanket the size of a soccer field. Where seniors have organized a club in which they compete at pole dancing. Where other people delight in making ginormous versions of snack foods because…well just because. And the whole kit and caboodle of this effort goes far at reinforcing the uniquely British “Proper Food” Walls excels at producing.
The campaign is superb.
And so is the wonderful Australian Tourism effort in which Aussies were asked to submit photos of their favorite hideaways across the country. More than 29,000 people participated, providing what has to be the only travel site that didn’t use (or for that matter, need to use) pro photographers to capture azure ocean vistas and the Opera House at sunset.
Personally, I’d much rather see a snapshot of someone’s favorite billabong.
Another: the fascinating Raymond Weil campaign that asked consumers to describe in their own words what the brand should be in the future. To read these entries is to vicariously experience sincere love.
Which is not to say that good old Yankee ingenuity is dead. Not by a long shot. Pepsi’s Refresh Everything effort and its remarkable charitable overlay are growing that brand as it cures social ills that for whatever reason our government is unwilling or unable to address.
My point is each of these campaigns is wildly different. Each took the essence of its brand and its customers and shaped a participatory initiative around that message. They all recognized that social isn’t a channel. It’s people. People who are anxious to be part of the brands they love.
I for one am delighted to participate in a marketing era where a major national brand is delighted to associate itself with extreme ironing.
Showing posts with label Pepsi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pepsi. Show all posts
Friday, November 12, 2010
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Brands that made consumers love them forever
Special thanks to iMediaConnection for publishing this piece first!
Building a brand romance
In Italy, there's a principle called la bella figura. It essentially boils down to the idea that you ensure that your public persona always "looks" good -- that you consciously work to control other people's impressions of you. La bella figura has been the driving principle behind brand marketing for decades. We put gorgeous people in ads using hero packages in gorgeous settings, telling our stories in the most flattering ways.
But today we have nuova figuras -- consumers anxious to be a part of brands but also unwilling to simply accept an impression we package and deliver to them. They want to help, but they want their brands to be real. They want to know about the experiences of other real people, and they want to participate in defining and portraying the brand.
As a boomer, I find all this pretty remarkable. When I was little, brand identification was rarer and more subtle. You were proud to wear Levi's or whatever, but buying a T-shirt emblazoned with a gigantic Levi's logo -- that would have been a bit over the top.
Sometime in my formative years -- I think it began when Brooke Shields started talking seductively about her Calvins -- all that changed. Today, kids will engrave logos in their crew cuts. Brands can sell logo shirts for $20-plus, rather than having to give away the shirts to get people to wear them. And Flickr is chock full of photos of people proudly sharing the limelight with their favorite products -- from Marmite to Tide.
This all poses a remarkable opportunity -- but one that requires careful "strategery."
How do we cultivate relationships with consumers that create lifelong loyalty? I think there are lessons in human relationship building -- in dating and marriage. The way we attract, impress, and partner with consumers have strong parallels to the ways in which we find mates. It's a progression, from dating, to marriage, to having babies, to starting to look, sound, and act alike. People don't marry us just because it's what we want. Relationships are joint decisions, and brand relationships are no different.
With this piece I want to take you through four stages of relationship building:
• How brands get consumers to "date" them
• How they get that marital level of commitment
• How we work with consumers to develop new products (our babies)
• And how ultimately we enable our brands to define us, and, to some extent, vice versa
Around the world brands are tackling this concept of brand marriage in unique and intriguing ways. Remarkable brands are jumping headfirst into the relationship pool, finding themselves at different stages on this four-stage continuum. Just as with human relationships, there's no cookie-cutter formula for making a relationship work. The paths to sharing a life together are as different as the brands themselves. Let's take a look at some of these brand romances and see what we can learn.
Dating: Brand meets user
When we're out to meet someone, we try to look the way that they will find appealing. Some brands manage that on their own, albeit with real consumer insights. The Dove campaign is a powerful example from a brand that used substantive consumer analysis to land on an idea with universal female appeal.
But many brands -- and people -- are presentation challenged. In dating, a new book pointing out the fashion and appearance mistakes of men is selling well. Entitled "Undateable," it also has an important metaphorical lesson for many brands. If you want her to be truly happy with your appearance, it's best to just let her dress you.
Hundreds of brands are using digital to do just that. In its simplest incarnation, car banners that allow viewers to try different colors are built around this concept.
More complex examples can be found across the globe. DHTML banners and ads powered by technologies like Linkstorm enable users to drill down and customize their ad experiences. Still more extensive examples of user-customized marketing experiences come in many forms. An Australian supplement company called Blackmores http://www.blackmores.com.au/ has transformed its website into a peer-to-peer community revolving around users' goals and questions.
Rather than hawking jars of supplements, the brand allows users to discuss needs and benefits on their own. Products arise organically in conversations. Perhaps most remarkable is that this community has more than 300,000 members, in a country with about 22 million inhabitants. To give American readers an idea of what that means, if Australia's population matched that of the U.S., the site would have 4.3 million members.If it were in the UK, we're talking about more than a million members. RE-MARKABLE!
Retailers are getting in on the game with virtual mirrors that allow users to customize brands entirely on their terms. Meanwhile, websites like Ray-Ban's have long made it possible for users to try on eyewear virtually, another incarnation of this same concept.
In another example from Down Under, the Australian Defence Force uses multiplayer games -- as does the U.S. Army -- to enable users to virtually sample military experiences of their own choosing.
Since they began using the games as recruiting tools, more than 1.5 million people have registered and played, and thousands have made inquiries from the games.
In short, different brands can find unique ways of enabling consumer customization -- and a program can be devised for virtually any budget.
Getting hitched: Sharing the stage with the consumer
This stage is about becoming a "we" -- about collaborating with consumers to develop marketing messages. The best U.S. example I can think of is the Pepsi Refresh Everything campaign. As we all know, Pepsi spent decades winning sales by juxtaposing stars of the instant with young messaging and a flavor profile best suited to under 18s.
Pepsi entered the new millennium doing what it had for years -- pairing the white-hot celeb with a youthful message. This 2002 ad, starring Britney, pretty much encapsulates the entire campaign -- a bajillion dollar ad with everything that always worked until we entered the social age: celebs, singin' and dancin', massive casts, beautiful settings, and catchy tunes.
The social era made the brand head in a decidedly different direction. The Refresh Everything charity overlay lets consumers determine how Pepsi marketing dollars get spent. Pepsi sales are up, and the web traffic to the Refresh Everything website eclipses that garnered by Pepsi.com.
That's only natural seeing as how there's a decidedly real reason to want to visit.
An English meat brand has launched a multimedia campaign starring its users, who demonstrate that special brand of crazy at which Brits excel. The "Proper Food" rebranding effort for Walls began with ads that show people with deep passions -- for hobbies and Walls products.
The next phase of the effort was a social media program pitting Briton against Briton in a contest to win £5,000 and a role in a Walls ad that showcases their eccentricity. And what sorts of response are they getting? Some examples:
• Chess boxers (a simultaneous fight and chess game)
• Extreme ironers (who iron in unusual venues like on the hood of moving cigarette boats)
• OAPoleDancers (OAP is the abbreviation for old age pensioners)
• Snack pimpers (makers of enormous versions of U.K. junk food)
(Check out these and others here. http://bringitonbrits.wordpress.com/)
Unmistakably British flavors of nuts, from a quirky proud British food company.
Bun in the oven: Making products together
The next logical step is co-creation, the co-defining and sometimes the co-designing of new products. Obviously this takes a higher level of commitment from both the brand and the consumer.
Pizza Hut is using social media globally to devise new flavors to meet local tastes. A recent effort in Brazil unearthed 80 different distinct recipes, thousands of votes, and a hot-selling new item.
In Korea, Pizza Hut did the same on the Korean social net Cyworld.
A mindboggling U.K. start-up called Ucodo http://www.ucodo.com/ actually enables consumers to co-design consumer products online, which are then produced. Within broad parameters the consumer can push, pull, stretch, and twist the virtual design and have their co-designed item delivered to them.
I have never said "Will wonders never cease?" with greater sincerity.
Starting to look alike: Becoming the consumer (and vice versa)
There's a centuries-old meme about couples converging on similar appearance over the years. This is perhaps the strongest evidence of a symbiotic relationship, and a number of brave brands are taking the plunge with great results.
Back Down Under for the first example. Tourism Australia created an amazing effort that asked Australians to upload photos and descriptions of their favorite places across the country to give tourists ideas on things to do. More than 29,000 responded, and the happy would-be traveler can explore this user-generated content in a wonderful visual interface.
This is just one of Australia's social tourism efforts -- a participatory strategy that has garnered it more than half a million likes on Facebook. Compare that to the number of likes for the U.S. on Facebook.
Although spouses might grow to look alike, one of the best things about having a partner is that often one person finds it easier to say things that the other can't. One can speak up while the other might simply endure to avoid a scene.
Consider this effort by U.K.'s Labour Party during the last election. While Labour lost, it's easy to see the power of its social effort that asked Labourites to make parody ads for the super-slick "I am a just a bloke too" efforts of conservative David Cameron. Lefties delighted in mocking Cameron's protestations of folksiness. First, everyman David as Ali G.
And a biting attack on the Tory's defense of fox hunting:
Now, the party couldn't officially print things like this. But its consumer spouse? Why not?
Conclusion: Are you ready for a consumer LTR?
You sort of have to be. With the latest figures from Forrester showing tens of millions of consumers anxious to connect and create content for brands, it's incumbent on you to harness this enthusiasm in light of declining marketing effectiveness for traditional media. These five points offer a starting point for brands hoping to tie the knot with consumers:
1. Just like dating, it's important not to get ahead of yourself. Pick a level of commitment that works for both of you now. Not every brand or every consumer is ready for serious commitment yet.
2. Don't say things you don't mean. Don't promise things you won't go through with. Remember that Chevy Tahoe campaign? Think your program through.
3. In a relationship, the idea is to share decisions -- not be a doormat. It's your responsibility to enhance the brand through participation, not abdicate your role.
4. Marriage is work, and not everything turns out as you expect. Some programs will succeed, and some will fail. You need to be ready for that.
5. Dating the young has a special challenge. Young people expect more of a role. If your target is under 25, be prepared to give consumers a pretty big role.
Finally, whatever stage you are ready for, make sure your campaign reflects your brand as vividly as a TV ad might.
Building a brand romance
In Italy, there's a principle called la bella figura. It essentially boils down to the idea that you ensure that your public persona always "looks" good -- that you consciously work to control other people's impressions of you. La bella figura has been the driving principle behind brand marketing for decades. We put gorgeous people in ads using hero packages in gorgeous settings, telling our stories in the most flattering ways.
But today we have nuova figuras -- consumers anxious to be a part of brands but also unwilling to simply accept an impression we package and deliver to them. They want to help, but they want their brands to be real. They want to know about the experiences of other real people, and they want to participate in defining and portraying the brand.
As a boomer, I find all this pretty remarkable. When I was little, brand identification was rarer and more subtle. You were proud to wear Levi's or whatever, but buying a T-shirt emblazoned with a gigantic Levi's logo -- that would have been a bit over the top.
Sometime in my formative years -- I think it began when Brooke Shields started talking seductively about her Calvins -- all that changed. Today, kids will engrave logos in their crew cuts. Brands can sell logo shirts for $20-plus, rather than having to give away the shirts to get people to wear them. And Flickr is chock full of photos of people proudly sharing the limelight with their favorite products -- from Marmite to Tide.
This all poses a remarkable opportunity -- but one that requires careful "strategery."
How do we cultivate relationships with consumers that create lifelong loyalty? I think there are lessons in human relationship building -- in dating and marriage. The way we attract, impress, and partner with consumers have strong parallels to the ways in which we find mates. It's a progression, from dating, to marriage, to having babies, to starting to look, sound, and act alike. People don't marry us just because it's what we want. Relationships are joint decisions, and brand relationships are no different.
With this piece I want to take you through four stages of relationship building:
• How brands get consumers to "date" them
• How they get that marital level of commitment
• How we work with consumers to develop new products (our babies)
• And how ultimately we enable our brands to define us, and, to some extent, vice versa
Around the world brands are tackling this concept of brand marriage in unique and intriguing ways. Remarkable brands are jumping headfirst into the relationship pool, finding themselves at different stages on this four-stage continuum. Just as with human relationships, there's no cookie-cutter formula for making a relationship work. The paths to sharing a life together are as different as the brands themselves. Let's take a look at some of these brand romances and see what we can learn.
Dating: Brand meets user
When we're out to meet someone, we try to look the way that they will find appealing. Some brands manage that on their own, albeit with real consumer insights. The Dove campaign is a powerful example from a brand that used substantive consumer analysis to land on an idea with universal female appeal.
But many brands -- and people -- are presentation challenged. In dating, a new book pointing out the fashion and appearance mistakes of men is selling well. Entitled "Undateable," it also has an important metaphorical lesson for many brands. If you want her to be truly happy with your appearance, it's best to just let her dress you.
Hundreds of brands are using digital to do just that. In its simplest incarnation, car banners that allow viewers to try different colors are built around this concept.
More complex examples can be found across the globe. DHTML banners and ads powered by technologies like Linkstorm enable users to drill down and customize their ad experiences. Still more extensive examples of user-customized marketing experiences come in many forms. An Australian supplement company called Blackmores http://www.blackmores.com.au/ has transformed its website into a peer-to-peer community revolving around users' goals and questions.
Rather than hawking jars of supplements, the brand allows users to discuss needs and benefits on their own. Products arise organically in conversations. Perhaps most remarkable is that this community has more than 300,000 members, in a country with about 22 million inhabitants. To give American readers an idea of what that means, if Australia's population matched that of the U.S., the site would have 4.3 million members.If it were in the UK, we're talking about more than a million members. RE-MARKABLE!
Retailers are getting in on the game with virtual mirrors that allow users to customize brands entirely on their terms. Meanwhile, websites like Ray-Ban's have long made it possible for users to try on eyewear virtually, another incarnation of this same concept.
In another example from Down Under, the Australian Defence Force uses multiplayer games -- as does the U.S. Army -- to enable users to virtually sample military experiences of their own choosing.
Since they began using the games as recruiting tools, more than 1.5 million people have registered and played, and thousands have made inquiries from the games.
In short, different brands can find unique ways of enabling consumer customization -- and a program can be devised for virtually any budget.
Getting hitched: Sharing the stage with the consumer
This stage is about becoming a "we" -- about collaborating with consumers to develop marketing messages. The best U.S. example I can think of is the Pepsi Refresh Everything campaign. As we all know, Pepsi spent decades winning sales by juxtaposing stars of the instant with young messaging and a flavor profile best suited to under 18s.
Pepsi entered the new millennium doing what it had for years -- pairing the white-hot celeb with a youthful message. This 2002 ad, starring Britney, pretty much encapsulates the entire campaign -- a bajillion dollar ad with everything that always worked until we entered the social age: celebs, singin' and dancin', massive casts, beautiful settings, and catchy tunes.
The social era made the brand head in a decidedly different direction. The Refresh Everything charity overlay lets consumers determine how Pepsi marketing dollars get spent. Pepsi sales are up, and the web traffic to the Refresh Everything website eclipses that garnered by Pepsi.com.
That's only natural seeing as how there's a decidedly real reason to want to visit.
An English meat brand has launched a multimedia campaign starring its users, who demonstrate that special brand of crazy at which Brits excel. The "Proper Food" rebranding effort for Walls began with ads that show people with deep passions -- for hobbies and Walls products.
The next phase of the effort was a social media program pitting Briton against Briton in a contest to win £5,000 and a role in a Walls ad that showcases their eccentricity. And what sorts of response are they getting? Some examples:
• Chess boxers (a simultaneous fight and chess game)
• Extreme ironers (who iron in unusual venues like on the hood of moving cigarette boats)
• OAPoleDancers (OAP is the abbreviation for old age pensioners)
• Snack pimpers (makers of enormous versions of U.K. junk food)
(Check out these and others here. http://bringitonbrits.wordpress.com/)
Unmistakably British flavors of nuts, from a quirky proud British food company.
Bun in the oven: Making products together
The next logical step is co-creation, the co-defining and sometimes the co-designing of new products. Obviously this takes a higher level of commitment from both the brand and the consumer.
Pizza Hut is using social media globally to devise new flavors to meet local tastes. A recent effort in Brazil unearthed 80 different distinct recipes, thousands of votes, and a hot-selling new item.
In Korea, Pizza Hut did the same on the Korean social net Cyworld.
A mindboggling U.K. start-up called Ucodo http://www.ucodo.com/ actually enables consumers to co-design consumer products online, which are then produced. Within broad parameters the consumer can push, pull, stretch, and twist the virtual design and have their co-designed item delivered to them.
I have never said "Will wonders never cease?" with greater sincerity.
Starting to look alike: Becoming the consumer (and vice versa)
There's a centuries-old meme about couples converging on similar appearance over the years. This is perhaps the strongest evidence of a symbiotic relationship, and a number of brave brands are taking the plunge with great results.
Back Down Under for the first example. Tourism Australia created an amazing effort that asked Australians to upload photos and descriptions of their favorite places across the country to give tourists ideas on things to do. More than 29,000 responded, and the happy would-be traveler can explore this user-generated content in a wonderful visual interface.
This is just one of Australia's social tourism efforts -- a participatory strategy that has garnered it more than half a million likes on Facebook. Compare that to the number of likes for the U.S. on Facebook.
Although spouses might grow to look alike, one of the best things about having a partner is that often one person finds it easier to say things that the other can't. One can speak up while the other might simply endure to avoid a scene.
Consider this effort by U.K.'s Labour Party during the last election. While Labour lost, it's easy to see the power of its social effort that asked Labourites to make parody ads for the super-slick "I am a just a bloke too" efforts of conservative David Cameron. Lefties delighted in mocking Cameron's protestations of folksiness. First, everyman David as Ali G.
And a biting attack on the Tory's defense of fox hunting:
Now, the party couldn't officially print things like this. But its consumer spouse? Why not?
Conclusion: Are you ready for a consumer LTR?
You sort of have to be. With the latest figures from Forrester showing tens of millions of consumers anxious to connect and create content for brands, it's incumbent on you to harness this enthusiasm in light of declining marketing effectiveness for traditional media. These five points offer a starting point for brands hoping to tie the knot with consumers:
1. Just like dating, it's important not to get ahead of yourself. Pick a level of commitment that works for both of you now. Not every brand or every consumer is ready for serious commitment yet.
2. Don't say things you don't mean. Don't promise things you won't go through with. Remember that Chevy Tahoe campaign? Think your program through.
3. In a relationship, the idea is to share decisions -- not be a doormat. It's your responsibility to enhance the brand through participation, not abdicate your role.
4. Marriage is work, and not everything turns out as you expect. Some programs will succeed, and some will fail. You need to be ready for that.
5. Dating the young has a special challenge. Young people expect more of a role. If your target is under 25, be prepared to give consumers a pretty big role.
Finally, whatever stage you are ready for, make sure your campaign reflects your brand as vividly as a TV ad might.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
5 Fantastic Digital First Campaigns
Muchos besos for running this first, iMediaConnection!
Broadcast vs. digital-first
What is the role of TV in the new media environment? Most brands continue to see TV as a one-way broadcast medium -- a platform by which we can deliver marketing messages that consumers should simply absorb and remember. In this world view, digital is an add-on -- a means of overlaying an interactive element onto what is primarily an old-school sledgehammer-to-consumer-skull effort. Little more than checking a box. You know the drill. Or perhaps I should say mallet. The brand blasts away a nice "strategic ad" over the airwaves, but spends 7 percent of the budget pushing some "viral" or "social" effort that essentially asks consumers to spit back the broadcast message.
Fortunately, a few brands are leading a transition. They understand that TV is no longer a broadcast medium so much as it is a mass distribution channel -- one that establishes awareness for a larger campaign effort that gives consumers a real role in shaping and communicating the brand essence. These are "digital-first" brands. That doesn't mean they necessarily spend a larger proportion of dollars on digital. Not at all. Rather, they use all media -- traditional and digital -- to seek out consumer participation. Participation that is channeled through digital platforms.
It might sound like a nuanced difference, but it really isn't. A good digital-first campaign has participatory experiences that consumers seek out; TV simply grows the awareness for such efforts and uses its unique experiential qualities to make the larger campaign more vivid and impactful.
We all know a little prime-time can blow the doors off awareness and seed an idea to a broad audience. With such a foundation, literally millions of people seek out interactive experiences that make the campaign and brand a vivid part of their lives.
Here are five brands and their efforts that showcase the power of the digital-first model, along with one brand that really needs to embrace this approach.
Axe
Those who read what I write regularly (Hi Mom!) know that I talk about Axe a lot, and it's because the brand is a leader in so many digital areas. And digital-first marketing is no exception. While TV certainly communicates the "get Axed 'n get laid" message, the best bits of Axe marketing always take place online. In part, no doubt, because broadcast standards wouldn't let them do this stuff during the family hour.
Need an example? Oh good Lord. Everything Axe does is digital-first. Check out the Axe Undie Run, proof positive that even dirty birdies can care about their fellow woman:
In short, the people at Axe are geniuses, and part of their wisdom is in always being digital-first.
Pepsi
While charity is a small overlay for Axe, it's a big deal for the new Pepsi.
We knew to expect significant changes in Pepsi's marketing approach when it broke with BBDO after something like 2,000 years of partnership. The old Pepsi sought to create TV epics that associated the brand with the hottest celebs of the moment. It was a subtle-as-a-nail-gun effort to link the brand to the next generation. And it worked like a dream until people became the new brand marketing engine.
Here's the "before" vid:
The new Pepsi connects with youth by relating to one of their deepest held values -- community and social responsibility. Pepsi fronts a portion of the marketing budget to help charities, and asks Pepsi drinkers to choose the recipients of blue largesse.
Extended across all traditional and digital media, the effort puts the brand in service of user desires instead of treating their brains as sponges for "we're young and hip and cool like Britney" messaging.
Kia
Auto advertising is perhaps the biggest creative ghetto on the planet, but the Kia hamster campaign for the entry-level Soul stands out as a shining example of how being different and digital-first can drive big dividends.
Let's face it: Most Kia advertising is pretty much invisible. It's the usual shiny car doing the usual things in the usual places making the usual claims, with a bit of value thrown in for differentiation. Not so with the Soul ads.
There's message in all that fun. About juxtaposing the attractive Kia with its toaster-like competitors. That the brand went digital-first for a car targeted primarily to younger and more venturesome buyers is a natural. What isn't is how well the brand delivered this idea across popular forms of digital and traditional media -- and did it in so many ways that consciously invite consumer participation.
It starts with the 60-second viral bait commercial, but there's also a lot more. From "making of" videos to Facebook apps to dedicated social sites in support of the hamsters, this brand clearly understands that attracting attention through TV advertising is only part of the opportunity for this campaign. Rather, TV was simply the catalyst for getting people to seek out and take ownership of other brand experiences featuring the furry spokesrodents.
The side scroller Go Hamster Go app is an example. The user fires up his or her webcam to enter the hamster world and drop hamsters into the Kia as it rolls by.
Kleenex
I think it was two years ago that Kleenex began its Let It Out campaign with TV ads and interactivities inviting consumers to share their feelings.
Of course, feeling has both physical and metaphorical meaning, so it's a nice way to tie up tangible and emotional benefits.
But this is by no means Kleenex's first digital-first effort. From promotions like Choose Your Mom to an interactive application that lets you upload photos and design your own Kleenex box, this brand is way ahead in interactive and marketing evolution in general.
Bing and Yahoo
One of the most interesting things to watch is how digital companies approach traditional media campaigns. Portals can be fascinating on this score because their offerings are, by their very nature, participatory.
Let's start with Yahoo. Forgive me, my fair purple sweet, I have used these pages to confess my love for you before. And I am well aware you have replaced this effort recently with something far better. But your old effort was a good example of what not to do.
Here goes.
You and Yahoo was a classic broadcast-style effort. It had some other layers. But ultimately, it was about delivering a message for us to remember and regurgitate. Me: individual. Yahoo: for individuals. Ergo. Me likey Yahoo. C'mon. I don't even know where to begin. Oh, yes I do. How about with what Yahoo called its anthem spot?
The campaign seems to have evolved into something a little less ether-y with new efforts titled "It feels good to feel." A combination of TV, print, and online is seeding the idea, but the centerpiece appears to be a host a ways that consumers can share their own feelings and memories.
Not "new" ways. "You" ways. Get it?
Yahoo -- Je t'adore. Let me say that again. Je t'adore. But good grief! It strikes me that this was an ideal time to let people experience how Yahoo can be the center of their online lives. Or to let people like me tell the world how Yahoo is the center of our lives. Je t'adore, Yahoo, but those jeans did make your butt look big.
Meanwhile, in Redmond...
Now, obviously Bing's challenge was different. The company needed to make people try a new search engine, not communicate the site as the center of an online life. But Bing could have done the broadcast thing and promised us the most unbelievably unbelievable search experience. Ever!
And oh my god, can you imagine the 60-second spots packed with vignettes of Sydney Opera House and Tuvan yurts and tea parties in the Sahara and people on Melrose just being in-di-vi-du-als that Bing could have served up? And a sort of whitewashed anthem, "If search is your thing, now try Bing (brand search engine)."
Instead, Bing's campaign really hinged on a variety of placements that made it easy to try Bing and see how the results are different.
I can look up words in in-text ads. I see Bing's stab at search results as a supplement to site search. I get to start the process of using Farecast in an ad unit.
Oh, and there was broadcast as well. But these TV ads made you ache to try Bing and see if it was really different. Cuz you've been there. We all have. Wanna see what it's like to be somewhere else?
Conclusion: Is digital-first best?
It's tough to imagine a brand that wouldn't be well served by inviting its users in -- as a central part of its marketing efforts. But perhaps even more than choosing such a campaign idea is inviting the consumer into all aspects of a brand.
Digital companies have unique opportunities to do this. That they sometimes don't makes me wonder if they understand that so much of their brand power comes from the minds and hearts and mouths and typing fingers of consumers -- not 1-inch tape or however TV ads get distributed these days.
Now, there's nothing like TV and those tapes to get the word out. Nothing. But brands that decide to use their TV to invite consumer to participate are going to fare better. It's time that we drop our sledgehammers and start sending out engraved invitations to join us in our brands.
Broadcast vs. digital-first
What is the role of TV in the new media environment? Most brands continue to see TV as a one-way broadcast medium -- a platform by which we can deliver marketing messages that consumers should simply absorb and remember. In this world view, digital is an add-on -- a means of overlaying an interactive element onto what is primarily an old-school sledgehammer-to-consumer-skull effort. Little more than checking a box. You know the drill. Or perhaps I should say mallet. The brand blasts away a nice "strategic ad" over the airwaves, but spends 7 percent of the budget pushing some "viral" or "social" effort that essentially asks consumers to spit back the broadcast message.
Fortunately, a few brands are leading a transition. They understand that TV is no longer a broadcast medium so much as it is a mass distribution channel -- one that establishes awareness for a larger campaign effort that gives consumers a real role in shaping and communicating the brand essence. These are "digital-first" brands. That doesn't mean they necessarily spend a larger proportion of dollars on digital. Not at all. Rather, they use all media -- traditional and digital -- to seek out consumer participation. Participation that is channeled through digital platforms.
It might sound like a nuanced difference, but it really isn't. A good digital-first campaign has participatory experiences that consumers seek out; TV simply grows the awareness for such efforts and uses its unique experiential qualities to make the larger campaign more vivid and impactful.
We all know a little prime-time can blow the doors off awareness and seed an idea to a broad audience. With such a foundation, literally millions of people seek out interactive experiences that make the campaign and brand a vivid part of their lives.
Here are five brands and their efforts that showcase the power of the digital-first model, along with one brand that really needs to embrace this approach.
Axe
Those who read what I write regularly (Hi Mom!) know that I talk about Axe a lot, and it's because the brand is a leader in so many digital areas. And digital-first marketing is no exception. While TV certainly communicates the "get Axed 'n get laid" message, the best bits of Axe marketing always take place online. In part, no doubt, because broadcast standards wouldn't let them do this stuff during the family hour.
Need an example? Oh good Lord. Everything Axe does is digital-first. Check out the Axe Undie Run, proof positive that even dirty birdies can care about their fellow woman:
In short, the people at Axe are geniuses, and part of their wisdom is in always being digital-first.
Pepsi
While charity is a small overlay for Axe, it's a big deal for the new Pepsi.
We knew to expect significant changes in Pepsi's marketing approach when it broke with BBDO after something like 2,000 years of partnership. The old Pepsi sought to create TV epics that associated the brand with the hottest celebs of the moment. It was a subtle-as-a-nail-gun effort to link the brand to the next generation. And it worked like a dream until people became the new brand marketing engine.
Here's the "before" vid:
The new Pepsi connects with youth by relating to one of their deepest held values -- community and social responsibility. Pepsi fronts a portion of the marketing budget to help charities, and asks Pepsi drinkers to choose the recipients of blue largesse.
Extended across all traditional and digital media, the effort puts the brand in service of user desires instead of treating their brains as sponges for "we're young and hip and cool like Britney" messaging.
Kia
Auto advertising is perhaps the biggest creative ghetto on the planet, but the Kia hamster campaign for the entry-level Soul stands out as a shining example of how being different and digital-first can drive big dividends.
Let's face it: Most Kia advertising is pretty much invisible. It's the usual shiny car doing the usual things in the usual places making the usual claims, with a bit of value thrown in for differentiation. Not so with the Soul ads.
There's message in all that fun. About juxtaposing the attractive Kia with its toaster-like competitors. That the brand went digital-first for a car targeted primarily to younger and more venturesome buyers is a natural. What isn't is how well the brand delivered this idea across popular forms of digital and traditional media -- and did it in so many ways that consciously invite consumer participation.
It starts with the 60-second viral bait commercial, but there's also a lot more. From "making of" videos to Facebook apps to dedicated social sites in support of the hamsters, this brand clearly understands that attracting attention through TV advertising is only part of the opportunity for this campaign. Rather, TV was simply the catalyst for getting people to seek out and take ownership of other brand experiences featuring the furry spokesrodents.
The side scroller Go Hamster Go app is an example. The user fires up his or her webcam to enter the hamster world and drop hamsters into the Kia as it rolls by.
Kleenex
I think it was two years ago that Kleenex began its Let It Out campaign with TV ads and interactivities inviting consumers to share their feelings.
Of course, feeling has both physical and metaphorical meaning, so it's a nice way to tie up tangible and emotional benefits.
But this is by no means Kleenex's first digital-first effort. From promotions like Choose Your Mom to an interactive application that lets you upload photos and design your own Kleenex box, this brand is way ahead in interactive and marketing evolution in general.
Bing and Yahoo
One of the most interesting things to watch is how digital companies approach traditional media campaigns. Portals can be fascinating on this score because their offerings are, by their very nature, participatory.
Let's start with Yahoo. Forgive me, my fair purple sweet, I have used these pages to confess my love for you before. And I am well aware you have replaced this effort recently with something far better. But your old effort was a good example of what not to do.
Here goes.
You and Yahoo was a classic broadcast-style effort. It had some other layers. But ultimately, it was about delivering a message for us to remember and regurgitate. Me: individual. Yahoo: for individuals. Ergo. Me likey Yahoo. C'mon. I don't even know where to begin. Oh, yes I do. How about with what Yahoo called its anthem spot?
The campaign seems to have evolved into something a little less ether-y with new efforts titled "It feels good to feel." A combination of TV, print, and online is seeding the idea, but the centerpiece appears to be a host a ways that consumers can share their own feelings and memories.
Not "new" ways. "You" ways. Get it?
Yahoo -- Je t'adore. Let me say that again. Je t'adore. But good grief! It strikes me that this was an ideal time to let people experience how Yahoo can be the center of their online lives. Or to let people like me tell the world how Yahoo is the center of our lives. Je t'adore, Yahoo, but those jeans did make your butt look big.
Meanwhile, in Redmond...
Now, obviously Bing's challenge was different. The company needed to make people try a new search engine, not communicate the site as the center of an online life. But Bing could have done the broadcast thing and promised us the most unbelievably unbelievable search experience. Ever!
And oh my god, can you imagine the 60-second spots packed with vignettes of Sydney Opera House and Tuvan yurts and tea parties in the Sahara and people on Melrose just being in-di-vi-du-als that Bing could have served up? And a sort of whitewashed anthem, "If search is your thing, now try Bing (brand search engine)."
Instead, Bing's campaign really hinged on a variety of placements that made it easy to try Bing and see how the results are different.
I can look up words in in-text ads. I see Bing's stab at search results as a supplement to site search. I get to start the process of using Farecast in an ad unit.
Oh, and there was broadcast as well. But these TV ads made you ache to try Bing and see if it was really different. Cuz you've been there. We all have. Wanna see what it's like to be somewhere else?
Conclusion: Is digital-first best?
It's tough to imagine a brand that wouldn't be well served by inviting its users in -- as a central part of its marketing efforts. But perhaps even more than choosing such a campaign idea is inviting the consumer into all aspects of a brand.
Digital companies have unique opportunities to do this. That they sometimes don't makes me wonder if they understand that so much of their brand power comes from the minds and hearts and mouths and typing fingers of consumers -- not 1-inch tape or however TV ads get distributed these days.
Now, there's nothing like TV and those tapes to get the word out. Nothing. But brands that decide to use their TV to invite consumer to participate are going to fare better. It's time that we drop our sledgehammers and start sending out engraved invitations to join us in our brands.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Pepsi's Inaugural Genius
There's been a lot of big change as regards the marketing of Pepsi. Something I never expected to see happen - the shifting of ad responsibilities away from BBDO which had handled the business for about 50 years, is a very real indicator of how Pepsi wants to renew itself.
How so?
Pepsi's always stood for youth and vitality -- at least throughout my lifetime. Witness this walk down advertising memory lane:
My suspicion is that there isn't a person in America that doesn't get it that Pepsi is for those who think young. But decades of using superstars to borrow relevance for reinforcing that positioning may have taken their toll. With any soft drink brand, there needs to be a strong visceral link between the consumer and the product, and I suspect that that link has been weakened over time with all this celeb stuff.
Pepsi's newest campaign is a radical departure from the past. With the central idea of "Refresh Everything," the brand is redoing its graphics and creating a populist campaign centered around rekindling brand connections. Here's a vid from the effort.
And their promotion surrounding the ascendance of Barack Obama, entitled Refresh America, is nothing short of genius. The program itself, which is HQed here online as well as on a dedicated YouTube channel, invites people from around the world to video their congrats, gripes, and ideas to the youthful new President. Here's the promo video for the event, and an online video enjoining people to send in their videos:
And here is one of the bazillions of video entries that have come in since the program broke.
This campaign is pure genius, and will go a long way to reconnecting people to Pepsi. Or, indeed, connecting young people to Pepsi for the first time.
Political associations are always a bit risky for brands, but this program really seems to transcend partisanship while continuing to project the "for those that think young" message that BBDO put Pepsi on the map with.
How so?
Pepsi's always stood for youth and vitality -- at least throughout my lifetime. Witness this walk down advertising memory lane:
My suspicion is that there isn't a person in America that doesn't get it that Pepsi is for those who think young. But decades of using superstars to borrow relevance for reinforcing that positioning may have taken their toll. With any soft drink brand, there needs to be a strong visceral link between the consumer and the product, and I suspect that that link has been weakened over time with all this celeb stuff.
Pepsi's newest campaign is a radical departure from the past. With the central idea of "Refresh Everything," the brand is redoing its graphics and creating a populist campaign centered around rekindling brand connections. Here's a vid from the effort.
And their promotion surrounding the ascendance of Barack Obama, entitled Refresh America, is nothing short of genius. The program itself, which is HQed here online as well as on a dedicated YouTube channel, invites people from around the world to video their congrats, gripes, and ideas to the youthful new President. Here's the promo video for the event, and an online video enjoining people to send in their videos:
And here is one of the bazillions of video entries that have come in since the program broke.
This campaign is pure genius, and will go a long way to reconnecting people to Pepsi. Or, indeed, connecting young people to Pepsi for the first time.
Political associations are always a bit risky for brands, but this program really seems to transcend partisanship while continuing to project the "for those that think young" message that BBDO put Pepsi on the map with.
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