Davis ThinkingHenkel Corp. is launching a national campaign for its Loctite product line of adhesives and sealants. The campaign -- the first-ever Loctite brand effort -- is designed to build awareness for the brand, although it is a widely used product in U.S. households. Via the Milwaukee, Wis. office of Cramer-Krasselt, the effort comprises TV, print, out-of-home, a new site and point-of-sale materials. Two TV spots show how the adhesive brand that can do everything from fixing toys to patching boats is the same one used by professionals. Print and out-of-home ads visually contrast the uses of the product in split-screen style between home uses and professional, high-profile uses such as race cars and space vehicles. One ad shows a space shuttle on one side with a high-heeled shoe on the other. Others show planes vs. Porsches and a Formula One racer opposite a coffee mug.
Coca-Cola's Dasani bottled water brand is running a green-hat giveaway to build awareness of its new PlantBottle, 100%-recyclable plastic packaging made up of up to 30% plant-based materials. The limited-edition line of hats was designed by Erica Domesek, founder of the designer do-it-yourself brand "PS-I Made This" and its eponymous Web site. Made from everyday household items such as sweatpants, zippers from sweatshirts, buttons and thread, the hats are meant to promote the recycling benefits of DIY fashion, as well as the PlantBottle.
Mr. Clean is a car wash in Texas. Gerber sells baby life insurance. Caterpillar makes flashlights. I think the brand extension business is just a little crazy. I get why it should work, and I certainly know why businesses want it to. Any survey or focus group will tell you that consumers associate brands with purposes. GM makes cars. Apple makes computers. They also attach emotions to them, however unfairly and unevenly. GM cars aren't any good, while Apple's computers are cool. Comcast is a service nightmare. These internal states of brand awareness have value that should be transferrable to other products and services, especially if they keep within the constraints of that knowledge. Gillette should be able to sell men's grooming products because its brand is already all about razors. Microsoft sells computer hardware because it’s already in the software business. Such "extending" isn't a reach because the new products are easier to embrace and buy due to the power of the brands. Selling them that way is cheaper than trying to invent awareness from scratch. Is it really that easy?
Some big marketers have begun shifting to value-based compensation instead of paying agencies a fee for labor hours. Value-based compensation aligns remuneration more closely with results, such as sales, share of market or brand awareness. This seems like a more reasonable way to compensate agencies, because there is no relationship between labor hours and results. It also aligns clients' and agencies' interests more closely, as both are measured by the same performance metric; however, it also compels agencies to have "skin in the game" by agreeing to forgo some upfront income for a chance at greater profits later.
Ford has tapped 40 people to participate in the second phase of its Fiesta Movement campaign, a social-media effort begun last year to drive awareness of the U.S. version of the Ford Fiesta compact car, which goes on sale this summer. While the first program had participants blogging about their experiences with the car for a series of assignments from Ford Motor, the second program -- involving 20 teams of two agents each -- will have participants developing local-market activity around the car.
In the week after he led the New Orleans Saints to victory in, and was named MVP of, Super Bowl XLIV, quarterback Drew Brees was guest of honor in a parade at Disney World; appeared in marketing for Unilever's Dove Men+Care, was part of Michelle Obama's "Let's Move" childhood obesity PSA campaign; made guest appearances on "Good Morning America," "Early Show," "Late Night with David Letterman," "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" and "Oprah"; and was back in New Orleans as a King of the Krewe at Mardi Gras. ESPN also dusted off its "This is SportsCenter" spot showing Brees driving a Mardi Gras float that gets jammed in the parking lot gates. Chris Stuart of Encore Sports & Entertainment, which handles marketing for Brees, called the demand "tremendous."
Ask any marketer who has been around for a while what the greatest form of marketing is in the mom market, and he or she will undoubtedly answer "word of mouth." Some may even cleverly call it word of mom. A decade ago, a marketer's dream was to have a mom tell other mothers about their brand or product on the playground. We jumped for joy if moms sitting in focus groups told us that they heard about our product from another mom at a play date. It was difficult to quantify this "word of mouth," but we knew in our guts it was either building brand awareness or driving sales. Then, almost miraculously, the mom blogger was born and suddenly marketers could see and track word of mom in comments, tweets and blog posts
I'm not a big fan of Mad Money. The whole Jim Cramer thing--the shouting, the close-ups, the boosterism, the hysteria--it just doesn't work for me. But this segment was interesting. Cramer had invited Martin Franklin, CEO of Jarden Corporation, to talk about why home goods, specifically appliances, are doing so well this holiday season. Also, to harangue him about the fact that Jarden may be one of the biggest companies that no one's ever heard of.
In case you haven't noticed it, almost every public and commercial establishment blew up this year. Your reputation and brand aren't what they used to be. Citizens no longer believe in their governments. Investors don't trust the markets. Science, history, and even the very definition of what constitutes facts are up for debate, quite often contentiously so. Even though our planet is evermore wrapped in the knowing embrace of instantaneous communications, networked conversation, and access to literally infinite amounts of information, people seem to agree less, distrust more, and rely on a shrinking list of common beliefs.
Managing your health requires achieving a balance between diet and exercise. In the same way, a healthy paid search campaign requires achieving a balance between branded and non-branded spending. Working together, the two create an optimal mix that will help you achieve the best results possible. Given branded terms’ reputation for delivering ROI, they often receive the lion’s share of a paid search budget. However, in this economy—where consumers are still hesitant to purchase—many marketers are not seeing the revenue from their branded terms that they had hoped for. As a result, they are desperate to find other means to boost revenues.
Coca-Cola is gearing up for its largest social-media project ever, one that will test its own internal flexibility and force a number of its global markets into the digital and social-media space. Expedition 206 will send three 20-somethings to 206 countries and territories where Coca-Cola is sold in 2010. The trio sets off on their 275,000-mile tour from Madrid on Jan. 1, stocked with laptops, video cameras, smartphones and plenty of other gadgetry, in order to document for the masses their search for happiness.
In August we reported that a large number of Fortune 100 companies have embraced Twitter, but how well are they actually using it? A study released today by Weber Shandwick says the answer is not very well, and that the majority of Fortune 100 companies don’t really get Twitter. Though 73 of 100 companies had at least one registered Twitter account (up from 54 reported in an unrelated study released in August), the majority of them weren’t using Twitter effectively to engage their followers, weren’t tweeting often, and didn’t display any personality in their tweets, according to the study. One major result of this ineffective use seems to be low engagement from followers. Out of the 540 total Twitter accounts registered by Fortune 100 companies, 50 percent of the accounts had fewer than 500 followers and another 15 percent weren’t being used at all.
n a new TV commercial for travel search engine Kayak.com, an old man packs a suitcase. "I'm returning to where it all happened," he says soberly. As though he's referring to a former war site, he says, "We stormed that beach like it was already ours, and after the first shot, it was all a blur." Behind him, on the type of schedule and boarding sign seen at busy train stations, a word and a price appear: Cancun for $139. The witty, 30-second spot is one of three new commercials that play up travel deals in a major ad blitz breaking today from online travel company Kayak.com. The outfit, a search engine for online travel planning that helps travelers compare air fares, rental car and hotel rates, plans to spend most of its $60 million ad budget offline. It is the first big traditional ad play for the Norwalk, Conn., company.
Kim Bremer, Earth’s Best’s Director of Infant Feeding, says parents and families should recognize the influence of characters like Elmo and the affect of Sesame Street’s brand on youngsters. “Kids know Elmo because they watch Sesame Street from the time they are one, and brand recognition is something they see, watch and recognize,” says Bremer. “We take the toddler audience very seriously.”
On July 1, Moonfruit was a below-the-radar Web-site building company with 400 followers on Twitter. Just a few days later, the London-based company had acquired 47,000 followers on the micro-blogging site, traffic to its home page had increased by 1,300% and the word "moonfruit" was popping up all over the Internet.
Any CMO who invites L.A.-based rap group Majesty into an insurance company for a performance is clearly trying to shake things up. Indeed, Jeff Charney has made it his mission to infuse new life to a still-misunderstood brand. Mr. Charney, 50, is senior VP-chief marketing officer for Aflac U.S., one of the largest sellers of supplemental insurance which is largely known for its spokesfowl, the Aflac duck.
Today, everyone knows we have to be smarter about how we spend marketing dollars regardless of whether we're increasing, decreasing or holding steady. But with an ever-changing media landscape and our country in an economic slump, the question becomes: is now the time to focus on short-term success, or do we wait patiently with a long-term vision in place?
From time to time I come across polls and surveys revealing the brands that have captured the highest levels of awareness. The results usually generate several sensationalist articles with one brand driving another to obscurity. This has prompted me to pause and consider the utility of measures of brand awareness. Frankly, becoming a best-remembered brand is an inconsequential achievement.
Blackwater Worldwide, the company of mercenaries responsible for shootouts in Iraqi traffic jams and general mayhem-for-hire around the world, has announced it is changing its brand name to "Xe." Rarely is branding used to make a business effectively disappear, but that's what's happening here.
All we need to do "is make our advertising so shocking that consumers will be outraged, the networks will censor us and the media will cover us." Instant PR and brand awareness! And what is more shocking than sex? Nothing. It is perfect formula, right?
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