Tag Archives for advertising

Risk it all, stop watering down the message

Recently, I have taken a bit of a hiatus from this blog, which gave me a chance to get consumed by client work and personal adventures, but I am back!

One item that rarely gets talked about in business today is “risking it all”. The concept is usually associated with a mad man or women who is potentially throwing away their money or a companies money on a BIG BET. Why is this always seen as scary and potentially the dumbest thing anyone could do?

In a recent New York Times article, The Birth of ‘Just Do It’ and Other Magic Words, the author highlights great bets that advertising people have been taking in copyrighting and concepts based on the documentary Art & Copy, directed by Doug Pray.

Enjoy the trailer!

The bottom line

Despite what this documentary says about a function or industry, being bold and risky seems to be a very, very good thing – Just do it!

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Will ESPN’s new local strategy succeed?

ESPN wordmark.
Image via Wikipedia

The New York Times is reporting that ESPN is rolling out their local site experiment that started in Chicago to three additional markets – Dallas, Los Angeles, and New York. In the Chicago test market they are now the top sports site, passing the local newspaper. This move will be one to watch.

The strategy is brilliant! Take a content mega engine and splice the coverage into micro sites that appeal to a more targeted, regional audiences. They are also using local resources from their owned radio stations with the option to use additional resources in affiliate station markets. Sports coverage is one of the easiest to plan and resource because sports by their very nature are planned events and have a ready source of data (e.g. box scores, etc.).

The Bottom Line

Keep you eye on this move as it could but another nail in the newspaper coffin. The one tricky part for ESPN will be scaling the advertising model effectively for Tier 2 and beyond markets. The cities they are going after next should be relatively easy to replicate Chicago’s success, but Charlotte or Detroit will be another kind of challenge. Stay tuned…

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Microsoft: leading by following

John Hodgman as PC and Justin Long as Mac
Image via Wikipedia

Microsoft must be doing some damage to Apple based on Adage report, which Apple is asking Microsoft to pull their laptop hunter ads. Being a commodity must be working out for Microsoft….

“We’re just going to keep running them and running them and running them,” — Kevin Turner, Chief Operating Officer, Microsoft

More disturbing, is the mention at the end of the Adage report that Microsoft plans to open retail stores right next to Apple Stores.

“We’re going to have some retail stores opened up that are opened up right next door to Apple stores this fall” – Kevin Turner, Chief Operating Officer, Microsoft

The Bottom Line

Having a follower strategy has worked for lots of businesses, especially those that are market leaders and have the most to loose. What should be of more interest is the impact on investors (see stock performance chart).

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Mac vs. PC: truth in advertising hurts

I could not help sharing the new Mac ad called “elimination” from Apple:

Disclaimer: I switch back to a Mac a little over two years ago and I believe I made the right decision for me.

Bottomline:

Why this ad works is it because it is based on truth or at least perceived truths and I would argue that in a consumers mind these are the same. What is Microsoft‘s next play? Who knows, but I would encourage them to focus on the core product to increase stability and work with partners like Dell, HP, Acer and Lenovo to clean up the messaging for the “PC” solution.

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Starbuck’s answer to McCafe: messaging disaster?

Starbucks logo
Image via Wikipedia

In a New York Times article today,  Starbuck’s answer to McDonald’s McCafé $100 million dollar blitz is:

“If your coffee isn’t perfect, we’ll make it over. If it’s still not perfect, you must not be in a Starbucks.”

In the article Terry Davenport, chief marketing officer at Starbucks, is quoted as saying..

“[Competition] is trying to just commoditize coffee and take it down to a level where all coffee’s the same, and if coffee’s coffee, you might as well buy the cheap stuff. … We just don’t believe that to be true. That’s why we wanted to tell our stories.”

See more of what Starbuck’s is saying and the ads on their blog.

So, what is the story? At Starbuck’s, we make a mistake once but never twice?

I am disappointed that the message for the ads has to be driven by negative undertones. I understand they hope to drive social media to help by employing a Twitter promotion contest. And negative news is good news, but for an iconic brand who defined a category for so long to not see a positive message to push is concerning.

If you want a story, talk about heritage or the fair trade efforts that you have helped to implement for farmers or even the premium ingredients. This type of story is real and authentic vs. “just don’t buy the other guy’s stuff”.

Comments welcome!

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Skittles is turning over the brand to consumers

Skittles
Image by Special via Flickr

The maker of Skittles, Mars Snackfood, is turning over the brand to consumers. The new website design at skittles.com, designed by Agency.com, is linked to social media content as its website content. The site includes wikipedia for product information, twitter comments on the home page as news and “chatter”, YouTube channel for video and Facebook to see Skittle friends.

This is a very innovative idea and I give a lot of credit to the courage of the brand managers at Mars Snackfood. Not many corporations would try something like this and I think this point is lost in the blog and twitter chatter of pros and cons.

More importantly, this is a great experiment on turning the keys over on your brand. I would say that Skittles is a fairly one-dimensional product that makes it easier to experiment than say a company like IBM.

The Bottom Line:

Short-term this is a stunt that has and will continue to get a lot of press, giving a renewed voice to one small brand in a crowded category. Success.

Long-term, less sure how this will play out, but I value the experimentation and courage displayed by the marketing team and agencies. Transparency and control are very sensitive topics for marketers and corporations to address head on and Skittles (a little brand that could) is leading here. The lesson for marketers is to watch, listen, and learn from this live experiment happening before us.

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Target gets advertising in a down-turn

I had to share this ad that a colleague was raving about — thanks Erin!

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The Bottom Line:

Target in this commercial holds true to their “Expect More. Pay less.” tagline. I am really impressed with the positive emotional message of how this value consciousness, we all are facing with the economy, can be an adventure of experience. Really classy and elegant versus the other brands out their hammering the rational side of savings. Target has something here we all can learn from.

Mplanet update: lots of video shared by executives

Today at Mplanet the top billed presenters included:

All were well received. John and Mary shared a number of videos and ads worth sharing in one place:

Members Project – American Express

Membership Moments – American Express

Dad’s night to cook -  McDonald’s

Find the Lost Ring – McDonals’s (Olympic social mystery game)

McNuggets Rap (amateur version) – Worth watching for a laugh!

Now the commercial version of funny – McDonald’s

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