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Dr. Pepper, which is expected to spend $15 to $18 million on Hispanic advertising this year, has launched Vida23, a program that “taps into Hispanic culture’s music and mix of languages,” according to Ad Age.
"They [Hispanic youth] have a broad palette culturally and linguistically," Alex Lopez Negrete, president-CEO of Lopez Negrete Communications, one of the biggest independent Hispanic agencies, reported to Ad Age. "These kids are living a big, bold life by being bicultural and bilingual."
Lopez Negrete co-wrote a Spanglish song with Cucu Diamantes and Andres Levin, founders of the fusion band Yerba Buena. The song is the centerpiece of the Vida 23 website, music video, and spots. Users can download the song and make their own mixes, or “turn up at a Vida23 mobile dance club and be snapped by the Pepperazzi.”
Dr Pepper learns how to speak a third language. Laurel Wentz. Advertising Age. June 8, 2009.
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excerpt: Glenn Pingul, VP of marketing at Mixpo, discusses an online video display banner campaign created for McDonald's at the end of 2008 to promote a new breakfast line...
Q Why did McDonald's want to use the online display channel?
A It wanted to extend the reach of its offline TV campaign to the online space. It ran these videos in advance of the national rollout to see which spots were more effective. And it wanted to test a couple of things that were purely for the Web, such as how consumers reacted to the different play modes of a video player.
Q What is the benefit of using video in banner ads?
A A company such as McDonald's knows it can't reach all of its audience through offline media. A lot of the audience is really more approachable, especially during the day, through the Internet...
Q What were some results?
...raditional display ads don't really give you that ability to drive brand awareness, because there is not a lot of opportunity to portray a message. But with video ads, you can actually portray a more engaging message in display...Traditional display ads don't really give you that ability to drive brand awareness, because there is not a lot of opportunity to portray a message. But with video ads, you can actually portray a more engaging message in display.
DMNews talks with Glenn Pingul, VP of marketing at Mixpo. June 15, 2009
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excerpt: "...in-game ads have begun to move out of the "experimental buy" bucket and into the media plan because advertisers now realize that ads in games produce results. "We have had many repeat advertisers," he says. "For all advertisers, especially in current economic times, they want to know what they get for their money. Measurement is very important...Earlier this week, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) released new in-game advertising guidelines for public comment to establish a common methodology for counting impressions and to simplify the process of buying and selling in-game advertising... Microsoft's advertising arm also has been involved in a study that examines the emotional reactions consumers have toward advertising campaigns in and around video games. The first phase of the study -- conducted with EmSense, a neuroscience company -- compares the findings with similar results from television commercials. The companies discovered that the interactive elements in the video game ad campaigns evoke stronger emotional connections with consumers and more positive emotional associations with the brands.
EmSense analyzed several different advertising campaigns on Xbox 360 games, Xbox Live and MSN Games. Some brands involved in the study include Doritos, Kia, Sprint, Hyundai and Microsoft.
In-Game Ads In The Ad Game. Laurie Sullivan. Online Media Daily. June 16, 2009
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excerpt: Across the board the message was that advertisers aren't interested in backing web content without having access to precisely the right performance data...Measuring engagement...is a big component of tracking ROI...Carls Jr. recently rolled out an online video campaign with eight YouTube stars, said Alex Levy, director of Branded Entertainment at Google. "Brands increasingly have an appetite for web content and the DVR has made everything old new again. We have to keep figuring out how to integrate into the content itself, she said.
New York Web Confab Reveals Hurdles Agencies Have Set for Video Ad Metrics. Screenplays. June 9, 2009
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excerpt: Client: Fast Food Restaurant Brand: Objective: A BRAND sense agency multi-sensory audit revealed that this well known chain of restaurants was suffering from negative consumer perceptions through the sense of smell. Whether justified or not, the brand had become deeply associated with the smell of stale oil used to cook the food...Approach: Based on the unique insight obtained by the BRAND sense agency multi-sensory audit and the carefully defined values that the brand wishes to convey, BRAND sense agency began by writing an aroma brief. The brief was written to ensure the final aroma would be compatible with and enhance the existing smell in the restaurant, communicate the brand values across all cultures and be capable of implementation in various formats around the world...
Research:..Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging or fMRI brain scanning, used to quantify the actual emotional engagement with the brand fragrance.
Sensory Psychophysics and the Implicit Association Task to identify inherent associations between various visual brand images and the candidate aromas...
BRAND sense agency’s research was able to demonstrate that the emotional engagement – measured as a response in the part of the brain indicating pleasure – was greater when a visual and an olfactory stimulus were received concurrently, than the sum of the individual responses added together.
Case Studies. BRAND sense agency.
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excerpt: Interactivity on the users’ terms was the reason that McDonalds chose Personal Expressions in Windows Live Messenger for their recent El Maco campaign,
targeting 15-44 year olds in Sweden. In just two months the brand inspired users to download 500,000 expressions, and over 1.2million Personal Expressions were sent or received..."We wanted to do something special that stands out. There is a much higher interest from the users when they can participate in the campaign and interact with the brand," [said] Mikael Wennerros, Brand Manager, mcDonalds Sweden...
When Coca-Cola wanted to create user engagement in Italy, they worked with Microsoft Advertising to take advantage of the rich functionality of MSN and Windows Live. The project engaged the target audience and let people play in the Happiness Factory 2, using community tools and Windows Live gadgets... "We obtained extraordinary results in all areas including visibility, participation, and engagement. On the whole, one of the best cases of online activation for Coca-Cola and Starcom Digital," [explained] Roberto Carnazza, head of Starcom Digital, Italy.
Engaging your target audience through experiences that enable interaction with your brand, and ensuring that messages reinforcing brand equity and value are included in an engaging way, you can not only build future demand and brand loyalty, bpurchase decisions for short-term.
Right time, right place, right message. Microsoft Advertising.
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The number one spot on the Top Ad Campaigns chart this week showcases vloggers from the Nigahiga comedy group chomping down for Carl's Jr.'s How To Eat A Burger campaign, which features the Portobello Mushroom Burger. The campaign grabbed a record-breaking 3.3+ million views, surpassing Samsung's LED Sheep's previous mark of 2.8+ million. Not only is the campaign the new record holder for the chart, but it swallowed those 3.3 million views in only four days. Wow! Speaking to the power and efficiency of viral video in an interview with MediaWeek, Brad Haley, EVP of marketing for CKE (Carl’s Jr.'s parent company), said of the campaign: “This whole program will be a fraction of the cost of producing a TV ad.”
"How To Eat a Burger" Campaign Munches Its Way to the Top Viral Video Spot of the Week. June 11, 2009
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excerpt: "With 1 vs. 100, the live game show it launched in open beta on the Xbox last week, Microsoft is also pushing another TV staple to the video-game console: The commercial break. The show 1 vs. 100 lets thousands of Xbox owners respond to questions while listening to a live host provide comedic commentary. And just like a TV show, segments are divided by 30-second ad spots. (There’s product placement too...Jeanie DuMont, a senior product planner for Xbox Live advertising, told us that the opportunity for advertising in 1 vs. 100 is particularly strong because it adds “to the realism of the game,” since game-show watchers (and therefore 1 vs. 100 participants) expect to see ads. Microsoft won’t break down ad sales so far, but Honda, Sprint, 7-Eleven and Doritos are all already running ads during commercial breaks...Microsoft said it would be part of a “collection of virtual game shows” that would be featured on a new Primetime channel on Xbox Live."
Microsoft Adds TV-Style Game Show (Complete With Commercial Breaks) To Xbox. Joseph Tartakoff. paidcontent.org. June 10, 2009.
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excerpt: "...MTVN conducted a three-day study of more than 60 gamers at a biometrics lab in Las Vegas; they showed the players various ads and games, all while examining stats like heart rate, respiration, movement patterns and visual attention. Interestingly, they found that 15-second pre-rolls were the most effective way to garner a player’s “focused attention”—beating out 30-second spots, in-game display ads, and even overlays. Pre-roll ads commanded up to 85 percent focused attention, MTVN’s study found, meaning that the vast majority of the viewers paid full attention to the ads...“The question we wanted to answer was do ads need to be more disruptive to be effective?” said Jason Witt, GM for MTVN’s Digital Fusion ad unit. “We can always stick a bigger ad in front of somebody. And we found that you don’t have to be more disruptive, by and large. The proof is that 15-second pre-rolls were the most effective.” The study also found that game ads had 8x higher unaided brand awareness over online display ads in general, and fueled a 12x higher intent to purchase...So for us, the goal is to see what’s the optimal way of connecting to this audience when they’re that rabid and that engaged.”
Need To Reach Casual Gamers? MTV Says 15-Second Pre-Rolls Work Best. David Kaplan. paidcontent.org. June 10, 2009
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excerpt: Justine Ezarik might not be a household name, but the 25-year-old has a cable TV-size audience. The only difference: Ezarik's audience is on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.
Thanks to Google, she's also now part of Carl's Jr.'s effort rolling out this week to sell the Portobello Mushroom Six-Dollar Burger to young men. The search-engine giant drafted Ezarik and eight other popular YouTube creators to participate in an ad campaign for the fast-food chain on the video-sharing site...
The YouTube stars were chosen not only for their creative flair, but for the networks of followers they can mobilize. Ezarik, for instance, not only has 94,000 subscribers to the iJustine YouTube channel -- the nine YouTube celebs combined total 3.8 million subscribers on the site -- but also boasts 590,000 followers on Twitter and 25,000 Facebook fans. These networks, in essence, comprise a new kind of media buy.
By promoting Carl's Jr. with their own videos, the content creators are giving the brand the crucial personal endorsement so important in social media, said Ezra Cooperstein, vp and director of innovations at Initiative, the Interpublic Group shop...
Google is adding such deals to its advertising arsenal as it attempts to turn the video site into a moneymaker... Other new tools include tying advertiser videos to search results and matching high-profile creators like Seth MacFarland with brands...
The Carl's Jr. videos will live on a dedicated YouTube channel, the creators' pages and in ad units across sites in the Google ad network. They won't be marked as ads on the YouTube pages, but will carry a notice they were paid for by Carl's Jr. Each video also invites users to upload their own videos of how they eat a burger.
...The bonus for CKE: it's cheap compared to traditional advertising. "This whole program will be a fraction of the cost of producing a TV ad," said Brad Haley, evp of marketing for CKE.
Carl's Jr. Makes New Kind of Network Buy: Burger promo leans on vast reach of YouTube content creators. Brian Morrissey. Adweek. June 1, 2009
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excerpt: Companies touting the targeting of online ads to consumers as a mixture of art and science could soon find psychologists employed among their midst…One To One Interactive will open its primary research lab, OTOinsights, to other advertising agencies and research firms… Along with the main lab in Charleston, Mass., a mobile lab that can travel anywhere offers input on eye tracking; click tracking; bio-feedback such as heart rate, respiratory rate, galvanic skin response; neuro-feedback such as EEG/active attention; and facial recognition technology that interprets six fundamental human emotions: happy, sad, angry, surprised, scared, disgusted, and neutral…The ability to tap into psychological and physiological testing for ad targeting is an emerging field…There are between 10 and 15 firms…spearheading efforts. …Neurofocus…focuses on EEG electroencephalographic- (EEG-) based neurological testing that reveals the degrees of attention, emotional engagement, and memory retention that consumers experience at the deep subconscious level of the brain.
BT: Can It Mean Behavioral Responses To Ads? Laurie Sullivan. Behavioral Insider. June 4, 2009.
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excerpt: As companies give mobile-phone advertising a try, many are starting to focus on the search ads that have worked so well on personal computers...Revenue from advertising associated with search results on mobile phones is expected to rise to $129 million this year from $99 million in 2008, according to JP Morgan... Google, which accounts for more than two-thirds of the U.S. search-ad market, is now trying to make it easier for marketers to buy ads that show up when people search for everything from celebrities to restaurants using their phones...Marketers like... Papa John's International say they are also still spending on mobile display ads...Jim Ensign, vice president of marketing communications for Papa John's International, says that he is looking, for example, for more research on whether consumers react differently to the pizza chain's search ads on the phone than on the Web.
Something New Gains With Something Borrowed. Jessica E. Vascellaro and Emily Steel. Wall Street Journal. June 5, 2009 [ sub. required ]
Burger King and Crispin Porter & Bogusky won the Grand Effie, the top award for marketing effectiveness, for the "Whopper Freakout" campaign...
"Burger King won the Grand Effie convincingly due to their boldness and creativity across multiple media platforms, delivering real cultural relevance and above all, outstanding business results," Carl Johnson, Effie Worldwide chairman and Anomaly co-founder, said in a statement.
"Whopper Freakout" was a documentary-style campaign in which the chain temporarily redecorated a restaurant to suggest its flagship Whopper sandwich had been taken off the menu. The resulting TV spots showed angry customers reading store workers the riot act. The campaign website, WhopperFreakout.com, got 250,000 unique visitors in December 2007, as measured by ComScore. But Burger King reported that the accompanying eight-minute video had gotten 1.5 million views by mid-January 2008. Consumer-generated YouTube imitations were numerous. More important, the work also drove double-digit sales for the Whopper sandwich, and the chain credited the campaign with some of its 4.2% same-store-sales increase during the same quarter.
'Whopper Freakout' Wins Grand Effie: Campaign From Burger King, Crispin Takes Top Marketing-Effectiveness Honors. Emily Bryson York.
Advertising Age. June 04, 2009
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Tribal DDB Shanghai has won the digital account for Pepsi beverage brands including Pepsi, 7Up, Miranda, Mountain Dew, Tropicana and Gatorade in China from January 2009...
“We are well positioned to deliver the best digital experience to connect with the target audience who are young, hip and online!” said Jit Hoong Ng, managing director of Tribal DDB. “As clients see the value and power of online, we’ve proven repeatedly that we can be the linchpin to connect their brands to China’s vast internet and mobile phone users. ”
Tribal DDB Shanghai wins Pepsi digital. Benjamin Li. Brand Republic. December 18, 2008
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excerpt: NeuroFocus, the world`s leading neuromarketing company, announced the results of
the first research that examines consumer responses to coupons at the deep
subconscious level of the brain. The findings carry significant implications for
marketers as coupon use accelerates across many demographics.
NeuroFocus` study analyzed consumers` brainwave activity and combined those
findings with eye tracking and galvanic skin response measurements to arrive at
results that reveal how print and online coupons fared in three primary
neurological measurements:
Key Neurological Metrics:
Attention
Emotional Engagement
Memory Retention
And three additional Market Performance Indicator metrics derived from the
KNM`s:
Market Performance Indicators:
Purchase Intent
Novelty
Awareness
Overall Findings:
Online coupons have significantly stronger potential appeal to consumers than
print coupons
The research shows that across the board, the online version of a coupon
outperformed the print version, by wide margins in almost every one of the
neurometrics categories. Only in Memory Retention were the two coupon types
close, and even there the online version still held a significant advantage...
"Our research gives companies the first clear understanding of how consumers
respond to coupons where it really counts: deep inside their subconscious
minds," said Dr. A. K. Pradeep, Chief Executive Officer of NeuroFocus.
"Neuroscience has proven that that is the level where product interest, purchase
intent, and brand loyalty are really formed."
Clip or Click? NeuroFocus Study Shows Online Coupons Top Print in Effectiveness - But Adding a New Branded Element Reverses the Results. Reuters. April 27, 2009
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excerpt: PepsiCo is seeking to inject itself into the online dialogue during the Internet Week festivities by launching events and new sites demonstrating the company's understanding of the online space. The New York-based event series runs from June 1 to 8, and PepsiCo will kick off the festival's launch date by unveiling a new press room in addition to a site where hand-picked “social communicators” will blog, podcast, Tweet, and film Internet Week events. Dubbed the “Open Newsroom,” the news site was created to provide substantial coverage of Internet Week...Like the Open Newsroom, the new press site was built “in the same spirit of creating packaged, liftable stories that can be collaborated on, [though] those stories happen to be about PepsiCo.”
These efforts were intended not only to show “from a purely social media standpoint, [PepsiCo] is dedicated to this space…[but] also looking to add value to these events,” [Bonin Bough, global director of digital and social media at PepsiCo.] said.
PepsiCo shows off digital savoir faire at Internet Week. Nicole Zerillo. PR Week. May 27, 2009 [ sub. required ]
Excerpt: “Boston-based Uno [Chicago Grill] began offering virtual gift cards last December as a convenience to guests, says Rick Hendrie, senior vice president of marketing for the 200-unit chain. Uno advertised the virtual cards via an e-mail blast to customers.
“To create the cards, givers visit the chain's Web site, click on ‘gift cards,’ and choose the e-mail option. Once there, they can select one of nine backgrounds and a denomination of $25 or $50. They then provide the recipient's name and e-mail address and proceed to a pay page, where they give their own name, e-mail address and payment info. Givers are sent a confirmation e-mail when the recipient opens the card.
“The virtual card captures data on both giver and recipient. That data will enable Uno to ‘segment messages to appropriate audiences,’ Hendrie says, though he will not elaborate.”
Source: Uno Chicago Grill’s Virtual Gift Cards Capture Customer Info. Lisa Bertagnoli. Chain Leader. May 1, 2009.
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Stan Sthanunathan, vp of marketing strategy and insights for Coca-Cola has been named to chair the Advertising Research Foundation's Online Research Quality Council, formed in 2007 to improve the quality of audience research conducted online. ...Conducting research online has grown exponentially along with the number of people frequenting the Internet...The ARF's Foundations of Quality project, which collected 100,000 responses across 17 of the largest online survey panels, will begin releasing its extensive findings of what methodology factors effected what results, in early June.
"I firmly believe that our work will impact the industry in a big way. The need of the hour is an industry solution. But we do not have the luxury of waiting for a long time to come up with a perfect solution. Let us set our respective agendas aside and work together to resolve this challenge," said Sthanunathan.
Coke Exec to Chair ARF Post. Kathy Bachman. Mediaweek. May 27, 2009
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excerpt: Coca-Cola is branching out to a demographic that's exploding in population- Hispanic Americans.
Reinaldo Padua, Coke's Assistant Vice-President of Hispanic Marketing, presented Coke's latest marketing strategies at Mplanet2009 in Orlando...Reinaldo expects additional Hispanic interactive features for Cocoacola.com in the near future. "We want to be consistent with all of our touch-points that we have with the brand, and online is a critical one. It's been growing by double digits with our Hispanic consumers. We do have specific website that is the Spanish version of Coke rewards called mispremioscocacola. It's an additional touch-point and experience with our consumers to be in touch with our brand. As we see our key Hispanic consumers growing in their usage of online tools and the internet, it will keep growing our investment behind that opportunity."
Reinaldo Padua of Coca-Cola discusses emerging Hispanic Market. IMarketingshift. January 29, 2009
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Coca Cola's site: [ visit site ]
excerpt: The MyCoke Rewards website is the centerpiece of the brand-loyalty building program Coke has devised to build customer data that feeds the decision-management system. After consumers register their MyCoke account on the web, they enter codes that become points in their account. Codes for points come from inside the bottle tops of beverages, and the points are redeemed for merchandise and experiences. The key is making the rewards and the content on the site as relevant as possible to Coke’s prized youth demographic globally (ages 13–25). Live music lovers who drink enough Coke can cash in a few thousand reward points to attend a live taping and go backstage at a concert. Skiers can escape to a mountain resort for three days. And NASCAR enthusiasts can win lug nuts from race cars used in NASCAR events.
The more time a consumer spends on the site and the more he redeems points, the more precisely Coke can know that person’s interests and can therefore emotionally engage him in the brand. The site captures psychographic information that, unlike traditional demographic data (for example, age and residence), reveals more about individual tastes and behavior. The decision-management platform uses business rules to automate the decision as to what content to show individual customers and when to show it.
This interactive platform is the first marketing program ever to go across Coke’s 13 brands; it is a great example of the power of connecting decisions. Now Coke can combine actions to maximize the value of a portfolio of brands per customer segment, instead of simply managing a single product, brand by brand. The technology dictates the nature, the pattern and the sequence of marketing messages to individuals. These variables, of course, change as the person’s consumer data profile changes. A dynamic survey engine captures relevant pieces of data through various iterations of the algorithm. Each decision is based on millions of consumer profiles developed from data collected from multiple customer “touchpoints” and stored in a single data warehouse. Coke views all of its interactive marketing efforts as a way to achieve improved marketing efficiency in a fragmented media environment, ultimately reducing the company’s traditional reliance on broad-based television advertising promotions.
The Deciding Factor: The Power of Analytics to Make Every Decision a Winner. Larry Rosenberger and John Nash. Jossey-Bass. 2009
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excerpt: Coca-Cola Great Britain steps up the promotional campaign for its new 'Coke Zone' this week, following a successful introduction of the site. 'Coke Zone' will enable 'Coca-Cola' to enrich its consumer engagement and interaction with all young adults, while offering regular 'Coca-Cola', 'diet Coke' and 'Coca-Cola Zero' consumers over 16 the chance to redeem points for fantastic rewards and money-can't-buy prizes.
From mid-March 'Coke Zone' is being supported by a fully integrated marketing programme, which includes TV, online advertising, in-store activation and a PR campaign...
A substantial digital spend will also aim to raise awareness of 'Coke Zone' and encourage young adults to click through and register. This will see 'Coke Zone' take over the Yahoo! Great Britain & Ireland homepage during launch month and will also target 16-24 year olds through other key media...
Rewards and entries to 'Coke Zone' prize draws can be redeemed by using points collected through unique laser printed 12 digit codes on 500ml bottles and 2-litre packs of 'Coca-Cola', 'diet Coke' and 'Coca-Cola Zero'. All new users will receive two bonus points upon registration during the initial launch period.
Members can choose to save up their points for a range of rewards including downloadable games, mobile phone accessories, gadgets and exclusive discounts at online partners. Alternatively, they can exchange points for entries into fantastic prize draws. For launch, there are six prizes up for grabs: a £1000 shopping spree at ASOS.com; a trip to the Billabong surf championships in Tahiti; a year's worth of downloads from iTunes (that's 366 songs this leap year); a private screening for a winner and 30 friends at a Cineworld cinema; a trip to Sweden to be filmed, pixelated and turned into a character in the forthcoming release Battlefield Heroes from EA Games...
Notes to Editors:
The list of agencies involved in the development and communication of 'Coke Zone' is as follows:
excerpt:
Apple's meteoric success with the App Store (launched a mere nine months ago) is fueling a mobile-application market boom...IPhone owners on average download more than 20 applications to their devices (upward of 40, according to some reports) and Google Android users are even more ravenous...All of this is igniting the imaginations of brand marketers and ushering in a land grab for an
increasingly valuable piece of real estate: the always-on device in our pockets. Enter "app-vertising," a new name for an emerging mix of branded mobile applications and in- application advertising that is finally poised to deliver on the promise of mobile marketing. Here are some marketers getting into the act..
Burger King: For Valentine's Day, Burger King crafted a clever in-app ad, "The Scent of Seduction," that allowed users to burst heart-shaped bubbles by touching the screen. Greystripe, which
ran the in-app ad, reported that 14% of users interacted with it and spent 16 seconds on average playing the game....
Campaign Goal: To increase awareness of Burger King in general and Burger King's Flame perfume.
Campaign Highlights: 13.9% of users interacted with Burger King's GS.Tailgate ad. Users spent an average of 16 seconds interacting with the ad. 167% lift in top of mind awareness of Burger King. 88% lift in intent to purchase Burger King's Flame body spray.
Mobile Marketing: Is ‘App-vertising’ the Answer? Ad Age. May 2009
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GreyStripe: [ visit site ]
excerpt: Four Grand CLIOs were awarded here for Emerging Media efforts on the second night of the 50th anniversary CLIO Awards... Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Miami and Boulder, Colo., in the Interactive bracket for Burger King's "Whopper Sacrifice." The effort generated considerable controversy. Rather than encouraging consumers to socialize, it invited them to cull unwanted connections from their friends list on Facebook. Rob Reilly, partner and co-ecd at Crispin (he also chaired the Content & Contact jury), said "Whopper Sacrifice" was effective because it leveraged both social media and basic human nature by convincing Facebook users to unfriend others in return for burgers. "We just took it and were able to use it to Burger King's advantage in a way that was fun. We're very proud. I'm always humbled and the agency is humbled any time we win anything. I would definitely like to win an interactive award over any other."
4 Grand CLIOs in Emerging Media. Adweek. May 14, 2009
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excerpt: How do you create edgy, prize-winning work like Burger King's "Whopper Virgins," "Sponge Bob Square Butts" and "Kingon Nipple Pinch"? For Crispin Porter + Bogusky -- agency of the year at 50th anniversary CLIO Awards -- the key is being willing to take risks and stay edgy over the long haul.
"We have to keep creating social currency...said BK CMO Russ Klein...With McDonald's entrenched as the category's "gold standard and frame of reference," BK and Crispin - as soon as they started working together six years ago -- immediately sought to stand apart via an edgier advertising sensibility, Klein said. Agency and client immediately strove to find areas of tension for the chain's "super fans," the 20 percent of consumers that represent more than half of all visits to the restaurants...Discussing the brand's success with movie tie-ins, such as the current Star Trek promotion featuring "Kingons" who use nipple twists to get their hands on collectibles, Klein explained: "We are not just a restaurant, we are a social brand. You have to participate in pop-culture. [That] can include videogames, movies. That's part of the balancing act in driving our own product agenda and marketing calendar, and taking advantage of things that can amplify our topicality."
BK, Crispin Dish on 'The King.' Eleftheria Parpis. Adweek. May 18, 2009
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excerpt: Dr Pepper Snapple Group this week is launching “Vida23,” a multifaceted effort to attract young Hispanic consumers to its Dr Pepper beverage.
“Just like the unique 23 flavors in Dr Pepper, Vida23 is designed to give consumers more out of every day,” said Monica Morales, Dr Pepper brand manager for the Hispanic market, in a statement...TV and radio spots will kick off the campaign, featuring a song created specifically for the effort, called “La La La Life/Vida23.” The song was written and performed by Cucu Diamantes and Andres Levin, founder of the band Yerba Buena. The song is available for download at www.vida23.com, the Web site for the campaign. Here, consumers can also re-mix their own version of the song, and download ringtones as well...
A Southwest regional tour, starting this week and featuring a mobile dance club, also supports. Consumers will be able to play games, dance and upload photographs when the mobile “Club23” visits Dallas, Los Angeles, San Antonio, Phoenix, Fresno and Stockton, Calif. Other efforts tying into the campaign include two sweepstakes: “Tu Ride23,” for a chance to win a new vehicle; and “Familia23” for a chance to win a family fiesta.
“The young Hispanic consumer drives a large share of volume for Dr Pepper,” said Morales...
Dr Pepper Ads, Tour Target Young Latinos. Yana Polikarpov. Brandweek. May 14, 2009
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Dr. Pepper Vida23 site: [ visit site ]
excerpt: Coca-Cola began airing a new campaign targeting the U.S. Hispanic market last week that translates the beverage company's "Open Happiness" theme in its general marketing campaign to "Destapa La Felicida." Further, the work tells Hispanics to "Unleash Your Dreams" ("Destapa Tus Suenos").
The campaign from Ogilvy & Mather includes TV, print, radio, mobile, digital, out-of-home and music components as well as new point-of-sale materials.
"For Hispanics, happiness means pursuing and achieving their dreams, and Coca-Cola has always been there to provide them with the simple pleasure of refreshment during their journey," said Reinaldo Padua, assistant vice president of Hispanic Marketing at Coca-Cola North America, in a statement...
In May, Coke will also launch a soccer-related marketing, advertising and PR campaign featuring the Mexican National Team. Fans will have the opportunity to attend matches and a soccer clinic with Guillermo "Memo" Ochoa.
Coke Tells Hispanics: 'Unleash Your Dreams'. Eleftheria Parpis. Adweek. March 21, 2009
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Coca Cola's Destapa Tus Suenos: [ visit site ]
excerpt: To entice night owls into its restaurants, Denny's created "Denny's Allnighter" between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. -- a special environment featuring affordable, easy-to-share menu items, alternative music and relaxed server uniforms.
Now, the Allnighter concept is being promoted via a campaign dubbed "Creature Comforts," employing "irreverent, tongue-in-cheek content," social media and mobile applications keyed to the target audience.
Denny's is "reaching out to a new generation of late-night diners who grew up in the fast-food universe," said chief marketing and innovation officer Mark Chmiel, in a statement. "We want them to know that Denny's delivers great, affordable food in a relaxed comfortable atmosphere, at the times that fit their lifestyles."
The campaign's... four characters: Wade the T-Rex, Steve the Unicorn, Finn the Leprechaun and Gary the Regular Guy...will also be featured in original webisodes hosted on comedy sites and at dennysallnighter.com, and personalized character profile pages will appear on social networking sites, including Facebook, MySpace and Twitter.
Fans also will be able to download an interactive iPhone application, "Denny's Dance Allnighter," from the Web and through iTunes. The app will allow users to compete as the characters...
Denny's Sends Late-Night-Munchies into Web 2.Overdrive. Karlene Lukovitz. Online Media Daily.. May 19, 2009
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Denny's site: [ visit site ]
excerpt: Our award-winning Marketing Solutions and Client Services team has extensive production capabilities that deliver effective marketing strategies and creative solutions to advertisers. By communicating their messages in Spanish, advertisers generate respect, loyalty and cultural relevancy within the Hispanic community.
The Marketing Solutions and Client Services team offers much more than Spanish translations and performance tracking of all online and wireless advertiser campaigns... Geo-Targeting, Behavioral Targeting...Wireless Device: • Sweepstakes Entry, Downloads: Ringtones, Wallpapers, Images and Content, Couponing...Online: Contextually Relevant Univision Móvil Sponsorships, Education and “How To’s,” Downloads: Ringtones, Wallpapers, Images and Content
Univision.com Marketing Solutions: [ visit site ]
excerpt: Current economic conditions have caused a rise in the need for comfort food so the folks at Dunkin Donuts are playing toward this need with an aggressive new campaign highlighting their long-stilted staple, the donut. Throwing the anti-carb movement to the curb, Dunkin has invited users to participate in their Create Dunkin’s Next Donut Campaign. Site visitors can vote for the top Donut creations, view the gallery of submissions and make their own donut! My creation is included here – a summer-inspired pink lemonade number.
This campaign has been truly successful – generating user feedback, viewer votes and creating a social media tie.
Dunkin’s Next Donut Campaign. Sundeep Kapur. May 22, 2009
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Ad Age video includes coverage of the campaign: [ visit site ]
excerpt: "Companies are working fast to figure out how to make money from the wealth of data they're beginning to have about our online friendships...Marketers are leading the way. They're finding that if our friends buy something, there's a better-than-average chance we'll buy it, too. It's a simple insight but one that could lead to targeted messaging in an age of growing media clutter...
An immense new laboratory of human relations is taking shape. Millions of us are playing, working, flirting, and socializing online—and producing oceans of data. Duncan J. Watts, a Columbia University sociologist now on leave and heading a research unit at Yahoo!, marvels at the change. "When I started network research 12 years ago, we had virtually no data," he says. Now he and his team can study the network behavior of 295 million e-mailers and legions of the 200 million Facebook users. For social scientists, Watts says, this flood of data could be as transformative as Galileo's telescope was for the physical sciences: "It gives us a new understanding of our world and ourselves."...advertisers are more interested in understanding individuals. Decoding friendship, many believe, could be the key to getting consumers' attention. ... Online friendship is a hot focus for Facebook, Google, and Yahoo. They joust to hire leading sociologists, anthropologists, and microeconomists from MIT, Harvard, and Berkeley.
...
In an office above Palo Alto's University Avenue, a lean 32-year-old PhD from MIT's Media Lab pores over the data connecting millions of dots. Cameron A. Marlow, a research scientist at Facebook, has perhaps the greatest lab in history for studying friendship. He can study social media communications including wall posts, shared photos, pokes, and friend requests among 200 million people...
It's an inexact science, to be sure. But that's not stopping a host of startups from hitching friendship analysis to advertising and media campaigns. A New York company, 33Across, has partnerships with social networks, instant chat providers, and makers of online applications known as widgets. Each of these partners tags users with bits of tracking code known as cookies. These let 33Across stitch together friendship profiles of tens of millions of people, says CEO Eric Wheeler. The people remain nameless numbers, but the company knows which ones are connected to which, how strong the connection is, and how many others are in their circles. Working with packaged goods companies, 33Across has focused on thousands of people who have bought a product online, sprinkling ads for the same item along the online pathways of millions of their friends.
Learning, and Profiting, from Online Friendships. Stephen Baker. BusinessWeek. May 21, 2009
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excerpt: Everyone loves a freebie and when a coupon for the new grilled chicken at Kentucky Fried Chicken was posted on Oprah.com, the impact was immediate. The volume of visits to Oprah.com increased 46x on Tuesday, May 5th as compared to the previous day and increased another 36% on Wednesday, May 6th. The promotion was very successful at driving visits to KFC’s Unthink website, which is promoting the new grilled chicken offering. The visits to unthinkfc.com jumped 178% on May 6th as compared to the previous day. On Wednesday, 79% of the traffic to Oprah.com visited unthinkfc.com immediately after.
The Oprah Effect on Free Chicken. Hitwise. May 8, 2009
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Day 2 continued: Measuring the branding impact of search
Laura James
07 may 2009
Mark Greenstreet and Jonny Protheroe from aevolve challenged some assumptions and provided insights on the use of mixed methodologies in measuring the impact of integrated campaigns and the branding potential of online search campaigns...Their particular challenge for this exercise, conducted with Google, was to understand the effect of paid search - the hypothesis being that search can create brand engagement.
Google and aevolve singled out an unnamed UK soft drinks brand for their study...The research was based on aevolve's communication evaluation technique ICE - Integrated Communications Evaluation - which is designed to measure the brand impact of all marketing comms equally.
The ICE methodology bought together cookie tracking, qualitative and quantitative research and two stages of statistical modelling.
The qualitative stage was based on focus groups in London which provided information on key brand attitudes and the most important experiential questions and stimulus.
The quantitative phase was an online questionnaire which captured attitudes, usage and exposure to brand advertising via recognition of audiovisual stimulus.
The two stage modelling approach was based on initially using linear regression and then structural equation modelling to create a 'brand system'.
To ensure that there was a robust sample to measure the impact of the targeted activity a mixed methodology was used - cookie tracking for the online activity and an online survey based on the recognition of specific communications and claimed brand experiences.
Recruitment was via targeted online overlays on websites. This was done during the campaign, rather than after the activity.
Cookie tracking was seen as the most significant way of measuring whether respondents had been exposed to search - this provided a passive measure of what they actually saw.
The essential measure of success was a brand engagement measure based..."
Measuring the branding impact of search. Laura James. May 7, 2009
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Excerpt: “As the ranks of out-of-work journalists swell, PepsiCo is stepping in with an offer: cover Internet Week events using various forms of digital media… PepsiCo is calling the ‘open newsroom’ experiment an effort to align the brand with the social media space. It is hiring nine people to use blogs, Twitter and Web video to chronicle events from Internet Week, running June 1-8 in New York…
“Applicants will be asked to submit a short essay on why they should be chosen, links to their LinkedIn resume/profile and a Twitter message pitching their qualifications in 140 characters…
“’We see the benefits of creating these relationships,’ [PepsiCo director of digital and social media Bonin] Bough said. ‘We want to move from impressions to connections.’"
Source: Attention Unemployed Journos: Pepsi Is Hiring. Brian Morrissey. Brandweek, May 15, 2009.
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As consumers reset shopping habits during the recession, a change that many experts expect to become the norm for the long term, Coca-Cola North America is sponsoring the creation of a commission dedicated to shopper marketing. The purpose of the commission is to work with industry experts to determine how to best leverage manufacturers’ insights to develop shopper-based marketing approaches and capabilities that enhance the shopping experience and increase same-store sales and profit performance, Coca-Cola said.
“Our strategy is to provide leadership to our retail customers in the area of shopper insight-driven shopper merchandising and marketing solutions in store,” Diane Wallace, vice president of shopper marketing, Coca-Cola North America, said. “Our objective is to drive more beverage sell through to shoppers, and to do this by connecting with shoppers in store through relevant shopper insight-driven ideas and solutions that include our brands.”...
Called the Retail Commission on Shopper Marketing, the group will be guided Dr. Brian Harris, chairman of The Partnering Group... The end result will be the development of a “Shopper Marketing Best Practices” white paper that will detail what changes must take place, why and how the industry can change... “Manufacturers, like The Coca-Cola Co, are on the leading edge of this trend and are producing new and highly valuable insights about shoppers and their behavior. Leading retailers recognize the power of this information. What’s needed now is to create the collaborative business practices and retailer organizational capabilities to fully realize its potential and convert more shoppers into buyers.
Coca-Cola Co. Sponsors Commission on Shopper Marketing. Patricia Odell. Promo Xtra. April 16, 2009
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excerpt [press release]: For the first time this "reality remixed" online series -- powered by Sprite -- will feature Facebook social network interactions inside videos on YouTube, enabling users to be part of the story.... Coca-Cola Europe has created a new, innovative advertising model for Sprite, launching young, remarkably talented musician named Katie Vogel.
The audience can follow and interact with this 23-year old singer from London as she creates new opportunities for herself by following her dream. By joining her journey online, the audience can influence her choices through commenting and voting directly in the GREEN EYED WORLD videos using their own Facebook profile.
Beginning today with "Episode Zero," the campaign will run for five seasons of four episodes, culminating in a finale in December 2009.
The "Episode Zero" show will be immediately followed by several viral extras on YouTube and Facebook updates from Katie leading up to premiere "Episode One" of "Season One" on May 1st. Viewers can also download a free application for their iPod/iPhone in time for the beginning of the season.
"With this show, Sprite shifts from creating the perfect branded content to content that perfects the brand," explains Stafford Green, Head of Digital Marketing Europe for the Coca-Cola Company. "Instead of repeating single messages in traditional media, Sprite supports these new experiences and deep storytelling to communicate our core brand values over time. It's a fresh advertising model. And everyone wins: the Artist, the Brand and the especially the audience -- getting free on-demand, truly interactive content without commercial interruption."
Austrian company FFP is producing GREEN EYED WORLD, while the FullSIX Group is orchestrating a global integrated multi-media campaign driving viewers online through…
* Pan-European YouTube Partnership with homepage presence in five languages (English, Spanish, French, Italian and German) with expected reach of millions of contacts
* Outdoor/Indoor displays (Billboards, Point of Sale…)
* Special packaging on Sprite cans in selected European countries
* Global diffusion of the series (mobile, legal peer-to-peer sharing, social networks, potential traditional television broadcasts & related TV commercials)
* Live Events/Artist Showcases (London, New York, TBA…)
* Green Eyed World promotional merchandising
"This interaction between YouTube and Facebook is the first of its kind," said Benjamin Faes, Head of YouTube & Display for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). "We are creating a new technology implementation with these platforms. At any time during GREEN EYED WORLD, viewers can comment or vote, creating a live dialogue between themselves, their friends and the hero. The video pauses, and a small window pops up where the interaction can take place quickly and easily."
Coca Cola Release. April 3, 2009
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Vitaminwater is making MySpace Music the centerpiece of its summertime launch of its new flavor, Sync. 24 million bottles of Sync will be stamped with the MySpace logo. They will also include under-the-cap codes that can be redeemed for a free MP3 download via MySpace Music. Vitaminwater is paying for the downloads and supporting the campaign with magazine, radio and in-store advertising featuring stars Carrie Underwood, Alicia Keys and 50 Cent.
The number of bottles coming into the market is higher than the number of unique visitors to MySpace Music in March.
The deal addresses two of MySpace Music's biggest challenges: boosting ad revenue and encouraging the service's many users to actually buy things such as music, merchandise or concert tickets through the site.
"We think this will show the ease of use of the site," Mr. Holt told Advertising Age. "There are buy buttons next to every stream of music. We think boosting conversions is really important for our business."
Sales of the new flavor have already put it among the company's top performers.
Michael Learmonth and
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Coca-Cola is to launch its Happiness Factory campaign on mobile via the release of an iPhone app to build on its most successful ad...The iPhone app is expected to be released in the coming weeks and will be focused around a game, following the earlier success of multi-player games on Microsoft Messenger as part of the campaign.
Miguel Moreno Toscano, interactive marketing manager for Coca-Cola Europe, said, “The original ad was probably the most successful ad in the history of the company in terms of video pick up, so we’re hoping to do it again with this third ad.
“Users can watch the ad online, and we’re hoping the environment we’ve created around it makes sure this lives up to the original Happiness Factory campaign,” he added.
Coca-Cola adds iPhone app to build on popularity of TV campaign. Luan Goldie. New Media Age. April 9, 2009
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excerpt: "Cadbury is promoting its new Creme Egg Twisted chocolate bar with a digital and direct campaign...the campaign has launched with a direct mailing ‘security strongbox' sent to hardcore ‘Goo' fans who talk about the brand on social networking sites.
The box contains Twisted bars, but there is also an empty wrapper amongst the bars and a hole in the bottom where one has escaped. The recipient is then challenged to become an agent of the Cadbury's Intelligence Agency and track down the escaped bars. Online ads will also direct potential agents to the site.
Visitors to the www.cremeeggtwisted.com website can sign up as agents and are tasked to track down Twisted bars. CMW uses a Google Maps mash-up and clues via a Twitter feed to the website to locate up to 16 targets, which have been ear-marked for a ‘gooing'.
Cadbury aims Creme Egg Twisted promotion at social-networking fan. Fiona Ramsey. Marketing [UK]. May 2009
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excerpt: Despite the overall drop in digital spend from FMCG brands, companies including P&G and Unilever are investing heavily in the creation of destination websites and online services such as widgets and iPhone apps to build brand value.
Coca-Cola, for example, recently partnered with YouTube and Facebook to launch Green Eyed World, on online drama promoting its Sprite brand. "Instead of repeating single messages in traditional media, we are supporting new experiences and deep storytelling to communicate our core brand values over time, says Stafford Green, head of digital marketing Europe for Coca-Cola. "It's a fresh advertising model."
FMCGs shin online as TV ad prices fall. Gareth Jones. Revolution Magazine [UK]. May 2009
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Pepe Antojo and Lupita Enojo splashed into the Hispanic market via over-the-top TV spots for SNICKERS® from the Cultura agency in Miami. Agency.com was engaged to create a non-traditional, multi-media campaign for SNICKERS® that revolved around these crazy characters. The result was dubbed “Antojo con Enojo: Road to Fame” and traces the duo’s past, present and future as they battle for fame – and enjoy their fair share of SNICKERS® bars.
Incorporating exclusive video, free downloadable music and ring tones, wallpapers and an old school web ring with a dubious alliance of supporters, the campaign truly captures the grassroots feel that speaks to our target...
P.S. – Help us get Pepe and Lupita on the cover of TVyNovelas magazine by voting at www.antojoconenojo.com
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excerpt: These days, with 3,261,218 members, Coke’s Facebook page is attracting lots more attention than many TV programmes. Every big campaign that Coke launches now has a social media element... Coca-Cola Great Britain’s marketing director, Cathryn Sleight, announced on 7 May at the 2009 Soft Drinks Industry Conference that Coke is going to ramp up its presence on social networks. She said: ‘Four out of ten people on social networks say they are more likely to buy a product if it is recommended to them by social network sites. We expect this will grow even further. Nine million people in the UK are members of Facebook and these cyber friends influence the decisions we make just as much as the friends we have at home, at work or on the same streets.’
[ visit site ] May 12, 2009
[ www.cokecreatures.com ]
excerpt: "Challenge: Coca-Cola needed help finding consumers of its products and converting them into active members of its My Coke Rewards program. But how do you drive mass participation in the program in the most cost-effective way possible?
Solution: Utilizing Platform-A's Behavioral Targeting solution, an initial campaign was launched casting a wide net to several audience segments, such as users with a passion for sports, music, movies, gaming, etc. These key consumer segments were seen as the likeliest participants in the loyalty program.
* The campaign was then optimized to focus on audience segments that drove the highest-qualified participants...
Results: By leveraging Platform-A's Behavioral Targeting solution as a part of the broader online campaign for its My Coke Rewards loyalty program, Coca-Cola was able to surpass its acquisition goals.
* While the clickthrough rate was similar to that of the total campaign, the click-to-conversion rates exceeded that of the total plan by more than 250%.
Client Feedback:
"The program outpaced the base plan performance, specifically on creative that aligned the offer messaging to the behavioral targeting segment's passion. Through effective planning and strong collaboration between partners, we have successfully acquired millions of consumers into the My Coke Rewards program, in large part due to the strong work of the behavioral target program."
Karna Crawford, Senior Interactive Brand Manager
The Coca-Cola Company
Coca Cola/AOL/Platform A
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excerpt: Challenge: McDonald's needed help improving perception of, and driving demand for, late night “big” burgers among trend-setters and celebrity-watching audiences.
Solution: Platform-A integrated McDonald’s messaging into the leading entertainment news channel, TMZ, which is part of our AOL MediaGlow Brands solution.
* Custom video and programming was created to track a well-known Hollywood socialite, Kimberly Stewart, on her late-night escapades.
* A mobile extension was launched, inviting consumers to access the mobile version of TMZ or receive alerts for new online postings...
Results: McDonald’s successfully increased brand awareness of “big” burgers through this unique custom campaign. It generated significant buzz across the web, spreading virally through celebrity blogs which embedded and syndicated the stories with the McDonald's message, driving even greater awareness among this key target group.
McDonald's/AOL/Platform A
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Pepe Antojo and Lupita Enojo splashed into the Hispanic market via over-the-top TV spots for SNICKERS® from the Cultura agency in Miami. Agency.com was engaged to create a non-traditional, multi-media campaign for SNICKERS® that revolved around these crazy characters. The result was dubbed “Antojo con Enojo: Road to Fame” and traces the duo’s past, present and future as they battle for fame – and enjoy their fair share of SNICKERS® bars.
Incorporating exclusive video, free downloadable music and ring tones, wallpapers and an old school web ring with a dubious alliance of supporters, the campaign truly captures the grassroots feel that speaks to our target...
P.S. – Help us get Pepe and Lupita on the cover of TVyNovelas magazine by voting at www.antojoconenojo.com/
[ visit site ]
excerpt: "...Turner-owned children's TV channel Boomerang [introduced] a line-up of presenters--Pix, Milo and Keys--who would be known as `The Insiders.'
Jam, i_level's social media unit, aimed to bring awareness of the trio and bring The Insiders to life online with a buzz campaign. Research for the campaign included the interviewing of none to 12 year-olds to find out what entertained them online. The results showed that visiting virtual worlds, getting involved in mysteries and being rewarded were some of the target audience's favourite web activities. Although children still played games online, they wanted to be treated more like young adults...
The campaign saw The Insiders represented inside virtual worlds, where they left cryptic clues about their identities...In the space of three weeks, traffic to Boomerang's website doubled, meaning that `cost per interaction' was 89 percent lower than expected."
Award citation: The Insiders. Turner Broadcasting/Boomerang.
Revolution Magazine Awards 2009 [UK].
except: From Gatorade's "Replay" of two high school football rival teams to Pepsi's "Dear Mr. President" viral video campaign, PepsiCo is making a big splash in social and digital media. Pepsi's point man on these efforts has been Bonin Bough, who oversees all things tweet, blog and YouTube-related at the company. Since joining Pepsi last fall, Bough has pushed for brand initiatives that drive and create meaningful conversations with consumers...
BW: What's a typical day like?...
BB:...I'm communicating on Twitter; monitoring reports across the brands; making sure we're reading influencers...
BW: Where are you taking social and digital media at PepsiCo? What's your vision for it?
BB: It's really about, "How do we take it from the campaign to the conversation?" and, "How do we move from impressions to connections?"...it's about making sure we're doing that across all of our brands in a way that is adding value to the conversations and not just being there for conversation's sake, but actually measuring value and tracking that back to real visual value.
It's also about bringing more voices into that conversation. There was a time when everyone was looking for the influencers. I think they are important, but so are advocates... Influencers, however, are people who have a huge audience. Advocates are people who are passionate about your brand. They might talk to one or a million people, but they have passion for your brand and ideals and what you are doing. How do we identify them and help them become advocates for us...
... For the first time, consumers want to have this open dialogue with you on Twitter: "Hey, love Pepsi, talk to me." For us, it's about figuring out how we can participate in an authentic way and delivering on the value that our consumer-who owns and loves these brands-deserves.
BW: If social media were to all of a sudden disappear, is there another media that would come close to filling that void?
BB: Mobile. It's the only device that you have next to you three feet away at any point in time. It's not the next huge thing; it's huge right now. But I think mobile would quickly fill that void. What we'll see are an extension of the same kind of thought and conversational processes we're having online onto mobile. When you do sit and look at Twitter, a lot of it is uploaded through [devices like TwitterBerry] so people are using these tools and there will be geographically distinctions which marketers will have to work with. That's going to be a game changer.
Pepsi Sees a Chance to Fill Newspapers' Void. Elaine Wong. Brandweek. May 9, 2009
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excerpt: In a recession, one group can usually be counted on to keep spending: teens. Their parents often pick up the tab for necessities, leaving them free to spend the income they earn from part-time jobs and birthday money from grandma on themselves. But in this downturn, a rather surprising phenomenon is emerging: tight-fisted teens.
According to research from Piper Jaffray, teens are becoming more attuned to the pinch on household budgets from the economy, which is having a "dramatic impact" on the $125 billion the demographic spends each year. Teens generally have about $5,000 a year burning a hole in their pockets, but they are spending about 14% less this spring than in spring '08...So what are they scrimping on? According to Piper Jaffray, they are cutting back on apparel, beauty and food, and excursions to movies, concerts and sporting events. Of course, there are limits: Teens are not willing to live without things such as music, DVDs, video games and video-game systems, and spending in those areas has been less affected...
Teens have also been trimming expenditures on eating out, spending some 20% less compared with fall 2007. Nicole Miller Regan, senior research analyst at Piper Jaffray, said one of the most interesting findings of the survey is the increasing importance of value to the group. Chipotle and McDonald's are gaining market share, though Starbucks remains the teen favorite.
"Key influencers have always been taste and convenience, but now value is trumping that," she said. "They're eating more at [quick-service restaurants] than they are at casual dining. It's all about value, value menus, dollar menus and a lower average ticket."
Teens, Too, Are Tightening Budgets. Natalie Zmuda. Ad Age. April 27, 2009
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excerpt: McDonald's wanted to roadblock Hulu.com to maximize impact among its 42 million monthly unique viewers.
The fast-food chain is promoting a commercial-free "prime time" on Hulu tonight, starting at 7 p.m. ET and lasting eight hours until midnight on the West Coast.
During that period, thanks to McDonald's, all shows from all networks will stream without advertising, except for a branded frame advertising the McCafe.
McDonald's bought all the available ad spots across all shows during that time period and is promoting its largesse with a countdown clock on the Hulu home page with "Family Guy" character Meg and "30 Rock's" Alec Baldwin. When users click on the McCafe display ad on Hulu, they are directed to a microsite for the coffee line...Danya Proud, a spokeswoman for McDonald's USA, said the campaign isn't about turning viewers away from TV, but about following the consumer "as their interests change and the avenues for how they get information and interact with brands change."
Indeed, Ms. Proud said McDonald's will also be advertising on TV for McCafe in prime time. "If you look at the [media] plan, it really is a nice mix of multimedia; we have aggressive TV commercials, radio, outdoor billboards, some digital executions."
McDonald's wanted to roadblock the site to maximize impact among Hulu's 42 million monthly unique viewers.
McDonald's Buys Prime Time 'Roadblock' on Hulu. Michael Learmonth. Ad Age. May 8, 2009
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excerpt: Client
Domino's Pizza
Title: An integrated approach to Paid and Natural Search using Local Search
Objectives: To identify and implement online initiatives that would drive more pizza orders and more revenue through the Domino's UK website.
Budget: Search was allocated a budget of £500k for 2008...
Category specific information / insight: The emergence of Blended Search (mixing relevant results from other Search catalogues e.g. Maps) in 2007 was a clear indicator that Search Engines had identified very specific search user habits. The inclusion of map technology and local business listings into mainstream web results confirmed that Search Engines were attempting to satisfy search users' regionalised queries.
Strategy
BLM Quantum identified that significant additional Search Volume was achievable by targeting users through Local Search on Google - a search engine with 90%+ market share in the UK.
By integrating Paid and Natural Search optimisation we would maximise the coverage of dominos.co.uk across Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) for all relevant, location-based queries and drive click through to targeted store pages.
By improving the usability of the store landing pages, we would also maximise the conversion of site visitors.
Method deployed: Over 500 store locations were submitted to Google Local Business Centre for inclusion in Google Maps and blended search results.
Individual store pages were optimised for Natural Search - improving the keyword relevancy for each location, store information and on-page call-to-action.
Paid Search keyword targets were expanded to include all store locations by Postcode and City. Keyword groups were categorised by Postcode and City to enable relevant, targeted ad copy; which was continuously improved to maximise click through rate. Regional targeting was deployed to target appropriate store delivery areas - cutting out wasteful clicks to maximise PPC efficiency...
Outcome: Year on year results for 2008 immediately benefited from site optimisation.
* Visitor to Order conversion improved by 100%
* Average Order Value increased by 11%
* Campaign results from March to December 2008 showed significant growth in contribution
Revolution 2009/Domino's
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excerpt: Technology is taking over. When you look at today's changing media landscape, online usage is growing at amazing rates. And in the multicultural space, the increased use of technology is even more marked as it has become a critically important empowerment tool. Social media has taken the driver's seat in reaching multicultural audiences.
Blogs, online forums, virtual worlds, and social media sites have become important sources of news, entertainment, and information for both the general and multicultural market. And Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and MySpace are quickly replacing traditional means for communicating and using technology creatively.
In fact, Florida State University's Center for Hispanic Marketing Communication recently analyzed data on social media behaviors of US ethnic groups and found that ethnic minorities have a higher rate of visiting social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace.
A recent survey on urban youth lifestyles by MEE Productions revealed 96% of urban youth access the Internet and are extremely connected, technologically smart, and brand loyal. Among all groups, Hispanics are the fastest growing of Internet users, with 18.1 million Hispanics online today, according to comScore Media Metrix. Last year, blacks accounted for 11% of Internet users in the US, according to Harris Interactive. And a nationwide survey by interTrend found that nearly 90% of Asian Americans are online...
...As you build out your overall communications plan, make sure online and social media strategies and tactics are included. With today's increasing technologically savvy multicultural consumer, social media could give you the edge to connect them with your brands, products, and services.
Lori George Billingsley is the director of community and multicultural communications for Coca-Cola North America.
Social media is the new avenue to reach multicultural audiences. Lori George Billingsley. PR Week. April 27, 2009
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excerpt: Coca-Cola has created a new office of digital communications and social media within its public affairs and communications department. Clyde Tuggle, SVP of corporate affairs and productivity at Coke, noted "mass media is declining in importance," when introducing the new department in a memo to staff...
Tuggle wrote. “Our new office of digital communications and social media will help us become even more comfortable and effective in these new spaces.”
The new unit will work in collaboration with global interactive marketing, IT, and consumer affairs, as well as legal and strategic security.
Adam Brown, digital communications director, and Anne Carelli, digital communications manager, will have oversight of corporate digital and social media communications efforts...
Coca-Cola launches office of digital and social media. Nicole Zerillo. PR Week. April 3, 2009
[ ]
Visible Measures is the independent third-party measurement firm for Internet video publishers, advertisers, and social marketers. Our platform reveals both how online viewers interact with video content and how that content spreads across 150+ of the top video-sharing destinations, from AOL Video, to YouTube, and virtually everywhere in between.
Our Top Viral Video Ad Campaigns Chart has been designed to help brands and their creative, media, and viral agencies better understand -- and embrace! -- the landscape of viral video... [#]7--Burger King/ SpongeBob. Crispin Porter & Bogusky. 252,952
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excerpt: "GOAL: Promote Chicken & Biscuit Bowl and www.therollingbowl.com
PROGRAM: Used cutting edge Bluetooth technology to send out coupons to cell phones around the vehicle. 15 scrolling billboards promoted flavors of Chicken Bowl. Segway team, dressed in KFC uniforms, distributed "Go Mariners" push cards with coupons on the back - this was captured during 7th inning stretch of Fox Sports...
...
TAKE AWAYS: Promotional contest for www.therollingbowl.com. Partner with SPD to provide community service. Interactive online advertising with rollingbowl.com. Giant 6-ft wide Chicken and Biscuit Bowl.
Client Profile: KFC
excerpt: The Nokia Vine mobile application marries a range of functions of the Nokia N Series phones, from GPS to cameras and music. Using those, users can capture, upload and share their experiences with friends in real time. "It's becoming clear that you can't separate something from how it looks, how it behaves," said VP-Director of Brand Design Marc Shillum, who joined R/GA last year from TBWA. "With Nokia Vine, the logo has become not a dormant, static object that is in the bottom-left-hand corner of communication. The logo is in the experience, rather than on the experience."
R/GA Smashes Boundaries of Digital-Shop Model. Rupal Parekh. Ad Age. March 30, 2009 [ sub required ]
excerpt: ...the chain's chief marketing officer, Russ Klein, said it's critical for the brand to boost spending now. "With the economic downturn, it's important for us to be front and center with value messaging, innovation and strategy...According to TNS Media Intelligence, Burger King spent $294 million in measured media during 2008...Mr. Klein said the company will fund the hike by drawing on money generated by soft-drink sales...The first big media splash will come next January, Mr. Klein said, when Burger King launches the Steakhouse XT, a premium, thicker burger made possible by the new batch broilers...Burger King is planning a "major gaming event" next summer, which Mr. Klein similarly declined to disclose. Summer is the biggest season for fast food, and the time of year when chains battle one another for the best entertainment tie-ins.
Burger King to Boost Ad Spending. Emily Bryson York. Ad Age. March 30, 2009 [ sub required ]
excerpt: For McDonald's, AKQA conceived and drove a worldwide multilingual alternate-reality game that centered on and coincided with the 2008 Olympics. "AKQA represents a very strategic, yet idea- and creative-driven shop that is bigger than a hotshop but still has the true value of a creative hotshop," said Johan Jervoe, McDonald's corporate VP-global marketing.
As tough as it is to engage young people, who often disdain blatant marketing, McDonald's put tough benchmarks and objectives in place before the campaign launched, Mr. Jervoe said.
The game, which involved user-generated content, began unbranded; one objective was for players to find out who was behind it. When the campaign concluded, purchase intent was 67%, and 5 million people in more than 100 countries had participated during a six-month period. The game snared more than 430 million measured media impressions.
AKQA Embodies New Digital-Agency Model. Rita Chang. Ad Age. March 30, 2009
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excerpt: Client
Domino's Pizza
Title: An integrated approach to Paid and Natural Search using Local Search
Objectives: To identify and implement online initiatives that would drive more pizza orders and more revenue through the Domino's UK website.
Budget: Search was allocated a budget of £500k for 2008...
Category specific information / insight: The emergence of Blended Search (mixing relevant results from other Search catalogues e.g. Maps) in 2007 was a clear indicator that Search Engines had identified very specific search user habits. The inclusion of map technology and local business listings into mainstream web results confirmed that Search Engines were attempting to satisfy search users' regionalised queries.
Strategy
BLM Quantum identified that significant additional Search Volume was achievable by targeting users through Local Search on Google - a search engine with 90%+ market share in the UK.
By integrating Paid and Natural Search optimisation we would maximise the coverage of dominos.co.uk across Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) for all relevant, location-based queries and drive click through to targeted store pages.
By improving the usability of the store landing pages, we would also maximise the conversion of site visitors.
Method deployed: Over 500 store locations were submitted to Google Local Business Centre for inclusion in Google Maps and blended search results.
Individual store pages were optimised for Natural Search - improving the keyword relevancy for each location, store information and on-page call-to-action.
Paid Search keyword targets were expanded to include all store locations by Postcode and City. Keyword groups were categorised by Postcode and City to enable relevant, targeted ad copy; which was continuously improved to maximise click through rate. Regional targeting was deployed to target appropriate store delivery areas - cutting out wasteful clicks to maximise PPC efficiency...
Outcome: Year on year results for 2008 immediately benefited from site optimisation.
* Visitor to Order conversion improved by 100%
* Average Order Value increased by 11%
* Campaign results from March to December 2008 showed significant growth in contribution
Revolution 2009/Domino's
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Dr. Pepper has teamed up with Imaginuity NM to release a free-to-play, Flash browser games called Dr. Pepper Matchcaps. It is designed to run perfectly on the iPhone through Safari. If you don’t have an iPhone, don’t worry - you can enjoy the game in your regular Firefox or Safari browser as well. It will just temporarily resize the browser.
If you’re good at Bejeweled, or other similar match-3 games where you must shift a piece up, down, left or right to make three of a kind disappear, chances are you’ll be a natural at Dr. Pepper Matchcaps. There are seven different cap designs to work with, and no timers so you can enjoy a leisurely game. If you go for a few minutes without playing, a cap that is available to move and match with two similar caps will briefly sparkle to get your attention.
Advergames are commonplace on the internet, but this is the first example of a company actually creating an advergame specifically for the iPhone....
Dr. Pepper introduces free match-3 iPhone, web browser game. Jenni Lada. GamerTell. Nov 13, 2008
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excerpt: "...Microtargeting at scale
Tribal Fusion can deliver personalized messaging to multiple niche audiences on an exceptional scale, combining consumer understanding with comprehensive targeting technologies and dynamic creative. The content of a single ad unit can be tailored by the geography, demographics and lifestyle of individual viewers, producing thousands of personalized ads in real time. Ad units with dynamic copy can perform six to seven times better than static ads...
CASE STUDY
A leading fast-food restaurant chain wanted to drive in-store visits by offering promotional $1 online coupons. To generate coupon downloads, the fast-food chain sought an innovative solution that would allow it to target 11 markets with personalized messaging. Tribal Fusion implemented Dynamic Ads, which serves personalized messaging in real time through a single ad unit, to:
* Save time and money by eliminating the need to create numerous ads.
* Serve personalized DMA messaging at scale.
* Display the address of the user's closest restaurant location.
* Create a more relevant user experience.
Results
* Generated more than 1,700 downloads in four weeks.
* Improved the click-through rate by 185 percent from the first day to the last day of the campaign through real-time optimization and attentive service.
Tribal Fusion: Ad Age. April 20, 2009
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excerpt: Blockdot is considered one of the pioneers of Advergaming...People play games built by Blockdot over 1.5 million times a day. This generates hundreds of hours of interaction with our clients' brands in a way that makes a memorable and lasting impression. Our artists and programmers can blend your brand and marketing message into a fantastic game experience that taps into the latest multiplayer or 3-D technology....
Client: M&M's
Project: Flip the Mix
With a goal of leveraging the brand equity of the best "spokescandies" in the word, Grey Interactive Worldwide turned to Blockdot to create an entertaining game experience that would drive candy lovers to the M&M's website.
The Fun Stuff
Blockdot cooked up Flip the Mix, a match style game that features the voice of the "Red" M&M. "Red" is the leader of the M&M pack (or so he thinks), constantly offering game players advice—along with the occasional trash talk! As players swap the positions of M&M's and create a string of three more like colors, they earn points and advance to the next round.
The Results
"Blockdot has proved to not only be a top expert in gaming, but also one of the most skilled and flexible gaming vendors in the industry."—Catherine Lim, Managing Producer, Grey Interactive Worldwide...
Client: Oscar-Mayer
Project: Lunchables Treehouse Test Drive
Here's the Rub
Oscar Mayer's goal is to bring fun and tasty lunches to kids across the country. They asked Blockdot to create an entertaining Advergame that would drive repeat visits to its Lunchables website.
The Fun Stuff
Welcome to Treehouse Test Drive, where players can race multiple Treeformers—treehouses that transform into a variety of vehicles—on their choice of six different tracks!
...The more codes a player collected, the more game features unlocked—encouraging kids of all ages to play Treehouse Test Drive again and again.
[ visit site ]
[ Case Study ]
[ Taco Bell Facebook game ]
[ Oscar Meyer case study ]
excerpt: Gaia Online's branded virtual goods strategy has in many ways become archetypal for virtual worlds that monetize more through sales of virtual items and microtransactions than by subscriptions and fees. Gaia Online offers advertisers the chance to create branded experiences in the world, which can involve anything from watching ads to participating in games and contests. The reward for taking part in these interactions is usually a virtual good that somehow evokes the brand in its design or function...Gaia gold is the main virtual currency of Gaia Online, earned through participation in the site and used to buy most of the game's virtual items..."In the case of Skittles, if you participate in various parts of the campaign, you earn items that are valuable because they're only available for limited periods of time. They're valuable because we have this auction site where users can trade or sell items to other users," said Hyrkin [Joe Hyrkin, Vice President of Sales and Business Development]...Shaping user perception, then, is an important part of what Gaia does during a branded campaign. It is of course beneficial to the advertiser, but it's also important to making the branded experiences feel like an inviting activity in Gaia rather than something intrusive...
In terms of stats, Gaia is an online advertiser's dream... The usual engagement time of a user interacting with a Gaia branded campaign area is between 15 to 30 minutes, not counting time a user might spend interacting with a brand by just wearing branded apparel or playing with branded goods. Advertisers, says Hyrkin, have been taking increasing notice over the last six to nine months... "Increasingly brands see Gaia as an integral part of their campaign for the 13-24 US population."
How Gaia Online Made Users Love Ads With Branded Virtual Goods. Virtual World News. April 14, 2009
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Pepsi’s entertaining media-rich “Air Guitar” campaign lets consumers rock out with an interactive guitar. Featured on MSN.com, the lively banner was music to the ears of its target audience that put Pepsi cola in the spotlight.
[ visit site ]
excerpt: GameMill Entertainment and Spark Plug Games today announced the launch of a new Match-3 casual game based on the Dairy Queen property, titled DQ Craze. The game will ask players to fill orders for a rush of customers by matching tiles throughout the game.
"DQ Craze is a wonderful app that is easy to learn and difficult to master." Jill Anderson, Senior Marketing Manager for International Dairy Queen, Inc. "With a little luck, DQ Craze will be as addicting as our Dilly Bars."
DQ Craze will be one of the first Match-3 games to have a strong brand behind it on the iPhone & iPod Touch. Throughout the game, players will fill orders for Blizzard Treats, dip Dilly Bars, GrillBurgers®, and other DQ favorites.
Dairy Queen Now Being Served on the iPhone and iPod Touch. Press Release. April 27, 2009
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excerpt: Yum Brands is engaging consumers and employees as it takes a major step to end world hunger through one of its numerous CSR programs...The Louisville, KY-based Yum Brands, which spun off PepsiCo in 1997, is the parent company of six restaurant brands, including KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell. It has nearly 36,000 restaurants in more than 110 countries and employs more than 1.4 million people...Each brand's Web site provides information and links to donate on fromhungertohope.com. The program also has Facebook and MySpace pages, and Sherman says increasing a Twitter presence is a focus this year.
“[People reached via social media] may or may not give money, but their awareness and engagement in the cause helps us,” Sherman says [Karen Sherman, senior director of CSR at Yum Brands].
Blogger outreach is also increasing this year. A team is tracking the top 20 bloggers concerned with global and humanitarian causes.
Yum Brands takes on world hunger. Tanya Lewis. PR Week. April 20, 2009
[ visit site ]
excerpt: This week, Domino's Pizza faced a brand crisis when a video “prank” of employees in a North Carolina store mishandling food surfaced on the Internet. The company initially became aware of the viral videos on the afternoon of April 13, and sought to “contain” the issue by reaching out to audiences who were already aware of the videos, according to Tim McIntyre, VP of corporate communications at the company...The pizza franchise was criticized by some for not launching a full-scale PR blitz, but in the days that followed it stepped up its efforts, launching its first corporate Twitter account (which it took over from a franchisee association Twitter feed, dpzinfo) pledging to "listen," posting information to its corporate Web site, and releasing its own YouTube video featuring the company's president Patrick Doyle apologizing for the incident and explaining its steps going forward...With the support of advertising AOR Crispin Porter and Bogusky (CPB), McIntyre said it began to shift its online strategy on the night of April 14 to include more online outreach, including tweets from staff's personal Twitter accounts. Staffers, thereafter, began tweeting and leading people to the company's online statement on its corporate Web site, which was also posted that night.
“[CPB] were able to identify that we were not actively involved in the dialogue, and they helped us with Twitter [in terms of] our thinking, commentary, and strategy,” said McIntyre, noting the company handles PR internally. Now the company is holding internal discussions on its strategy going forward including how social media and SEO should play a role, he added.
Domino's ramps up online strategy following prank. Nicole Zerillo. PR Week. April 20, 2009
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excerpt: After the success of its Superbowl Grand Slam Giveaway, which more than 2 million took advantage of, Denny's introduced another giveaway promotion for its new Grand Slamwich. Denny's CEO Nelson Marchioli noted that the February giveaway “frankly changed the way this brand is perceived,” and the new "Come Back to Give Back" promotion continues that brand evolution. It also introduced a friendly “pay-it-forward” message that allowed any customer who purchased a Grand Slam Breakfast from 6am to 2pm on April 8 to receive a new Grand Slamwich for their guest...Denny's announced the promotion on April 1, after the campaign gave exclusives to The Wall Street Journal and CBS Evening News with Katie Couric...Newly created Facebook and Twitter accounts have both been interacting with fans, gaining followers, and getting them excited," Rice said [Cori Rice, president of Hill & Knowlton/Samcor]. Working with Los Angeles-based interactive agency Filter, the campaign also has a Flickr page and a contest with music Web site Lala.com.
Denny's hosts second giveaway promotion of 2009. Kimbwerly Maul. PR Week. April 13, 2009
[ visit site ]
" The Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) bestowed its top prize, the 2009 Grand Ogilvy Award, to NeuroFocus, the organization announced.
The Grand Ogilvy is awarded to honor those companies who contribute to the advertising campaign that an independent jury of industry leaders cites as "demonstrating the most successful use of research in the creation of superior advertising that achieves a critical business objective."
Frito-Lay's "The Orange Underground" campaign for its Cheetos brand was singled out by the ARF jury as the Grand Ogilvy Award winner for 2009. Frito-Lay and its partners who created the campaign share in the prize. NeuroFocus contributed its industry-leading neuromarketing research to help the Cheetos campaign achieve marketplace success. The Cheetos advertising also received a Gold Ogilvy Award in the Packaged Goods category.
NeuroFocus (www.neurofocus.com) specializes in EEG (electroencephalographic)-based neurological testing that reveals the degrees of attention, emotional engagement, and memory retention that consumers experience at the deep subconscious level of the brain. Combined with eye tracking and biometric measurements, this brainwave-based methodology provides client companies with the most advanced, accurate, and actionable form of market research available.
Headquartered in Berkeley, with offices in New York, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, and near Cincinnati, NeuroFocus works with Fortune 100 companies across many categories. The company recently expanded its operations into Europe, and also has offices in Tokyo and Tel Aviv.
"Leaders like Frito-Lay gain and maintain that standing by constantly innovating and seeking out the 'best in class' with whom to work," said Dr. A. K. Pradeep, Chief Executive Officer of NeuroFocus. "Their success with Cheetos is a classic example of that trait. We're very proud to have contributed to the brand's marketplace success, and to share in this industry recognition with them."
NeuroFocus Receives Grand Ogilvy Award From the Advertising Research Foundation. Press release. April 2, 2009
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"The Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) has named Dr. A. K. Pradeep the Grand Winner of its "Great Mind" Innovation award for 2009.
Dr. Pradeep, who is Chief Executive Officer of NeuroFocus, the world's leading neuromarketing firm, was singled out to receive the Foundation's top innovation prize for being an "individual who brings excellence to advertising research in the category of research innovation."
NeuroFocus was also named one of the winners of both a Grand Ogilvy and a Gold Ogilvy award in ARF's annual competition for excellence in advertising research, for its work with Frito-Lay on its Cheetos brand, titled "The Orange Underground". The Cheetos advertising, for which NeuroFocus conducted its signature neurological testing, was recognized for "demonstrating the most successful use of research in the creation of superior advertising that achieves a critical business objective."
"NeuroFocus was founded on two principles: adhering to the highest scientific standards, and striving for best-in-class performance in the research we perform for clients," Dr. Pradeep said upon receiving the Grand Winner prize. "This recognition by the advertising industry's leading research organization is a very welcome and wonderful acknowledgement that we are achieving those objectives, and I accept this award in that spirit and on behalf of all the clients we are privileged to work with around the world."
Dr. A. K. Pradeep, NeuroFocus CEO, Named Grand Winner of the Advertising Research Foundation's 'Great Mind' Innovation Award. Press release. April 2, 2009
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Excerpt: “Starbucks Coffee, like many competitors, is trying to figure out social media and make it work from a business standpoint. But so far, the 16,000-unit chain can boast some staggering numbers, including more than 1 million Facebook fans and more than 81,000 Twitter followers. The most telling statistic, however, may be Starbucks’ No. 6 spot on the Top 100 Social Brands of 2008 list,” compiled by Vitrue. “The next closest foodservice brands in Vitrue’s rankings are McDonald’s at No. 32 and Subway at No. 40. Rounding out the industry’s representation are Wendy’s, Burger King, Chili’s, KFC and Taco Bell at Nos. 56, 57, 88, 93 and 96, respectively…
“In terms of ‘mindshare,’ which BrandIndex [a firm that tracks consumers’ perceptions] defines as the percentage of survey respondents who have heard anything about a given brand during a two-week period, the eight restaurants on Vitrue’s list also ranked very high in 2008. Starbucks, Subway and McDonald’s are Nos. 4, 6 and 10, respectively…
“[Starbucks] not only answers customer service questions with its ‘tweets,’ or postings on Twitter, but it also ran three promotions on Facebook… ‘You can’t go to market anymore with just a traditional approach or just online media,’ [Starbucks VP Chris] Bruzzo said. ‘You should plan across all channels. Think about how one media might lead to others.’”
Source: Brandau, Mark. Brands seek to garner attention through social media. Nation’s Restaurant News, March 31, 2009.
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excerpt: "Objective: Position the Special K brand in the female sector implementing a campaign with an attractive reward for the segment.
Project: Special codes were included inside the Special K Cereal boxes specially designed for this promotion. The consumers had to send the code found in the box via SMS, and they would automatically participate in a drawing for one of 800 jeans of the designer Carol Ginter. The application would immediately assign the winners randomly. In addition the winners could choose to be voted as the Special K Model, which would be chosen via web and SMS.
Benefits: Special K was positioned among the target segments generating affinity with the brand. Additionally by way of the registry of the website, a data base was generated with relevant client data."
[ visit site ]
excerpt: "...Double Stuf Racing League (DSRL) ...The highly stylized marketing and entertainment vehicle, billed as a professional sport...has enjoyed 16 consecutive months of sales growth since the program debuted in late 2007, per the company. That consistent performance was a resounding reversal of the brand’s previous sales declines that year, and it explains why Kraft continues to build on the effort in 2009.
It all began as Kraft’s marketing team and litany of agency partners searched for a new brand experience that would distinguish the creamier Double Stuf Oreo from the original cookie. Research revealed consumers’ resurgent desire for indulgent food products, and collective brainstorming led the team to focus on a familiar aspect of Oreo consumption.
“The spark came as we were thinking about fun new ways to engage consumers with Oreo,” explained John Ghingo, marketing director for Oreo at Kraft Foods, East Hanover, N.J. “Lots of people partake in the rituals of twisting, licking and dunking Oreo cookies in milk. Double Stuf Racing League focuses on the ‘lick’ aspect and takes Oreo to a new place in an unexpected way.”
Thus far, Double Stuf Racing League has pitted two sets of celebrity siblings against each other: NFL star quarterbacks Eli and Peyton Manning and pro tennis champs Venus and Serena Williams. In January 2008, a national TV teaser spot featured a mock press conference by the all-American football heroes declaring their entry into a “second sport.” The ad directed fans to a Web site (whatsthesecondsport.com) where they enter DSLR and participate in games by creating avatars called “Yoobies.” However, the identity of the second sport was kept alive, leaving viewers to chatter about the mystery on fan sites and blogs...
That buzz continues this year. A spring contest is slated for the Sunshine State, with appearances by both the Mannings and the Williamses. So what other famous athletes may join the competition? “Like any league, DSRL is always looking to scout great new talent,” demurred Ghingo."
We’ll just have to stay tuned for more great “stuf.”
Super REGGIE Winner: Oreo Double Stuf Racing League 'Licks' the Competition. Michael Applebaum. Adweek. April 6, 2009
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DSRL site: [ visit site ]
NabiscoWorld.com Privacy [data collection] policy:
"Our goal here at reach Messaging is to help publishers and advertisers reach millions of tweens, teens and Generate Y--where they hang out most--on the internet and mobile Instant Messaging Platforms."
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excerpt: "... NeuroFocus (www.neurofocus.com), the company that leads the global field in neuromarketing, has introduced a powerful new suite of products and services for the videogame industry. Titled NGame, the series provides game designers and developers with unique brainwave-based tools created to enhance players' engagement and enjoyment levels.
NeuroFocus specializes in measuring consumers' actual brainwave activity as they respond to stimuli. These stimuli can be anything that is experienced through any of the five senses. After capturing brainwave signals at 2,000 times a second across as many as 128 separate sectors of the brain, NeuroFocus analyzes them and distills the findings into primary metrics of attention, emotional engagement, and memory retention. Three additional metrics are derived from those: persuasion, awareness, and novelty.
The company is introducing:
-- NSequels: identification of core game elements that build a game into a
franchise
-- NTarget: user group analysis, design, implementation, and marketing
recommendations
-- NeuroNet: multi-player and social gaming
-- TGE (Total Gamer Experience): multi-sensory gaming effectiveness
-- NPlatform Analysis
-- NLevels: identification of NeuroFrustrators/NeuroRewards in games
-- GCA (Game Compression Analysis): automated selection of most powerful
neurological components in a game to enhance players' enjoyment in
alternative/shorter-play platforms
The NGame suite of products and services will accelerate the development process and heighten every aspect of game design, and players' enjoyment levels. The process covers the full range of game development, from concept to release to sequels....
By measuring players' neurological reactions to games on a millisecond-by-millisecond basis, at the deep subconscious level of the brain, the NGame suite precisely determines how gamers interact with and respond to:
-- characters/avatars
-- storylines
-- authenticity/realism
-- weaponry/properties
-- game scenarios/action sequences
-- colors/schemas
-- in-game advertising
-- sound effects/soundtrack evaluation
-- intense personalization
"The brain is the ultimate game controller, and our expertise lies in measuring the brain's responses and translating that massive amount of data to enable marketers, and in this instance game designers and developers, to create the most effective products and messages," said Dr. A. K. Pradeep, Chief Executive Officer of NeuroFocus. "Videogames are playing an increasingly central role in the overall entertainment industry, including serving as an effective platform for advertising. Now, with NGame, we are bringing the power of neuroscience to the art and business of videogame design."
NeuroFocus Launches NGame; New Suite of Neuromarketing Products and Services for the Videogame Industry Elite. Neurofocus. Press release. March 26. 2009.
[ visit site ]
excerpt: "It's a rare event for an anniversary celebration to generate much buzz among today's jaded consumers, but Burger King Corp.'s nod to 50 years of the Whopper did just that by denying customers the burger and showing their resulting consternation on TV and online...
Burger King, which hit the viral world four years ago with its Subservient Chicken, put additional footage online at whopperfreakout.com. The fast feeder reports that the site has gotten 3.6 million views. ComScore says the site drew 250,000 unique visitors in December but fell to 172,000 in January.
It all paid off. BK CEO John Chidsey told analysts on a January earnings call the effort led to a double-digit spike in Whopper sales. "
WHOPPER FREAKOUT. Emily Bryson York. Ad Age. March 17, 2009
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excerpt: "General Mills estimates that its consumer-marketing spending will be up by "double digits" for the full fiscal year...For the balance of 2009, the company said it is planning a broadcast blitz for its cereal brands. Ian Friendly, chief operating officer of U.S. retail operations, said... while the bulk of the company's spend remains on TV...it has begun to see significantly higher return on digital investment. General Mills has been diverting funds online..."We are seeing very high returns from digital than broadcast," Mr. Friendly said, declining to give the percentage of spending that's moved online. "It's not that our TV ads don't work, but when you're watching TV you're doing it for a different reason. When you go to a website you have a very specific purpose."
General Mills Thrives on Increased Marketing Spending. Emily Bryson York. Ad Age. February 17, 2009 [ sub required ]
excerpt: "Brazil has become one of its most important markets, and Coke Zero was looking for ways to reinforce its position as a leading low-calorie soft drink. To extend its relationship with young audiences it launched Coca-Cola Zero Studio, a project that fuses different types of music together...
Coca-Cola worked with Nokia to launch a special edition mobile phone brand ‘Coca-Cola Zero Studio’ to put their brand directly into the hands of consumers. The exclusive music content was bundled on device and acted as a real incentive to consumers to buy the Nokia 5310 Xpress Music Special edition, a handset that was designed by Nokia with music in mind....
The device... came bundled with
* 4 songs from the Coca-Cola Zero Studio
* Coca-Cola Zero branding on the box, sleeve, phone jewellery and headset
* 4 themes so that branding was even present on the user interface...
The Results – A totally immersive brand experience"
Nokia: Coke Zero
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excerpt: "Campaign Details
Client: Mountain Dew
Creative Agency: Tribal DDB Worldwide
Campaign Insight
The mission of the Mountain Dew Voltage program was to celebrate the launch of the new Dew flavor created by the consumer...The Dew target is the true multimedia consumer engaging with content and utilities across a diverse digital footprint...this is an experience-based website where users earn points that they may use to enter a variety of brand sweepstakes; each point is an entry, and points can be banked. We wanted to leverage the consumer's high interest in casual game play and -- by way of various communities, social networks, and virtual worlds -- the appeal of earning the ability to gain (in this case, more opportunities to win).
The challenge is delivering a set of experiences that connect with the Dew consumers where they are. Yes, they are online (websites), but they are also on instant messenger, across the social web, on the mobile phone, playing flash games, and using email...At first glance, the Mountain Dew Voltage site entices teens to play games to win prizes, and in that process Mountain Dew gets its contact information. It's targeted toward teens who have already been involved in a program to choose a new flavor of Mountain Dew."
Mountain Dew Voltage recharges its fans. iMediaconnection. March 20, 2009
[ visit site ]
excerpt: "Pepsi ran a sweepstakes on Facebook to promote and encourage subscriptions to their Pepsi Stuff Promotion. Although Pepsi Stuff is an ongoing promotion running on the web, Pepsi decided to run a sweepstakes on Facebook in order to get exposure to Facebook users and to benefit from viral features like friend invites and newsfeeds. The sweepstakes generated thousands of entries within a matter of days, a majority of which opted to subscribe to the Pepsi Stuff newsletter."
[ visit site ]
excerpt: " Both viral videos and viral applications can be very effective in spreading virally and driving results. Here are some observations:
1. A user who receives personalizes a piece of media is approx. 3 times more likely to share it than a user who receives a linear video.
2. Data collection: Viral applications offer a variety of opportunities to capture data, such as opt in email addresses, interaction rate and detailed sharing and usage reports.
3. Taking action: a viral application provides for interactivity, ability to click-through, register etc. Viral videos can display a URL at most.
4. Time spent: While a viral video is usually 30 – 90 seconds, users engage on average over 4 minutes with a viral application.
5. Engagement value: Time spent on an interactive application can be argued to be more valuable as users are actively engaging with the content, not only passively watching. "
Viral Videos vs. Viral Apps. Oddcast. [ visit site ]
excerpt: "Viral outbreaks don’t happen by following a formula. Viral campaigns need to capture users’ attention in an innovative, and often unorthodox, way. Take a look at Burger King’s Angry-Gram. Hats off to the Burger King marketers who embraced Crispin Porter’s risqué idea: to have users generate speaking hamburgers shouting personalized angry messages at their friends. It’s risky, but it’s worth a peek and millions experienced it."
Oddcast blog: [ visit site ]
Burger King Angry-Gram site: [ visit site ]
excerpt: "... 7-Eleven has launched a new online "experience" to promote its Slurpee beverages.
The "BrainFreeze Laboratory" encourages visitors to upload their picture to see how drinking a Slurpee beverage will change the color of their complexion, and then to send pictures along to friends.
"We chose to go viral with this campaign because we wanted to drive traffic to Slurpee.com, said David Morley, interactive creative director at FreshWorks/The Integer Group.
The campaign is expected to run through July, and is being cross-promoted through banner ads, the Slurpee Web site, and promotional emails.
The micro-site campaign is powered by Oddcast's PhotoFace--a technology that transforms a single photo into 3D avatar models."
7-Eleven Launches 'Brainfreezing' Online Viral Campaign. Gavin O'Malley. Online Media Daily. March 19, 2009
[ visit site ]
BrainFreeze Laboratory: [ visit site ]
excerpt: " As mobile attains greater reach, brands are shifting their views of the mobile channel—more and more think of mobile as essential, rather than experimental.
That was the view of a senior executive at market researcher Nielsen during her presentation at yesterday’s digiday: Mobile conference in New York. The company presented key trends in the mobile space, including the mobile Internet, moving from browsing to social networking and video; the iPhone effect and the next gear in consumption; the influence of youth ages 13-24 driving change...
“Advertisers want audiences, and we’ve already arrived at very real, substantive audiences on mobile,” said Julia Resnick, vice president of mobile media solutions for Nielsen, New York. ...
According to Nielsen’s numbers, mobile audiences are indeed big. There are 145 million mobile media consumers, with 127 million using SMS, 70 million downloading mobile content, 48 million using the mobile Internet and 12 million using mobile video...
Mobile content revenue grew from $5.8 billion in the fourth quarter of 2007 to $7.9 billion in the fourth quarter of last year, representing year-on-year growth 60 percent greater than the Internet...
“Social networking is a key frontier and an important point of engagement, as it’s grown two-and-a-half times in the past year,” Ms Resnick said.
In December, there were approximately 10.6 million people in the United States accessing social networks via the mobile Internet...
“Driven in part by young mobile video viewers, there’s also been a shift from news and information to entertainment content such as comedy, music and sports,” she said.
Teens aged 13-17 account for 21 percent of mobile video users. Teens are the leading consumers of several mobile video categories, including music, user-generated content and movie trailers.
...
All of these trends spell opportunities for marketers.
“Young subscribers have been driving data consumption for some time, but mobile is getting even younger,” Ms. Resnick said. “The penetration of devices among younger consumers is shifting, with the average age at which kids get phones dropping rapidly, so penetration of mobile phones is increasing.
“Teens send an average of 2,300 text messages a month, and while advertising and marketing to teens has issues and privacy concerns, mobile represents a great opportunity to engage with kids and young adults,” she said."
Mobile advertising moving from experimental to essential: Nielsen. Dan Butcher. Mobile Marketer. March 13, 2009
[ visit site ]
excerpt: "Google offers specialized AdWords for smartphones and the iPhone...Now...it appears the company is placing graphical ads in iPhone apps themselves."
"Google Testing Display Ads for iPhone Apps." Greg Sterling. Local Mobile Search. March 18, 2009.
[ visit site ]
More on Google mobile ads: [ visit site ]
Excerpts: Social Experiment and SXSW
PepsiCo is pleased to be participating in South by Southwest 2009 and bring you real time updates. From Twitter chatter about the conference, to live interviews via BlogTalkRadio, to dispatches from employees via our SxSW blog, we're bringing the best of the conference right to your computer...
Pepsi
Pepsi believes that every generation refreshes the world; and is pleased to be a presenting sponsor of South by Southwest music.
Sierra Mist
Welcome to the Sierra Mist Sun Lounge, a relaxing place where SXSW participants can take a break and recharge their batteries both literally and figuratively. Enjoy daily liquid sunshine happy hours and new Sierra Mist Ruby Splash.
Mountain Dew
Mountain Dew is proud to be at SXSW to celebrate the passion and vision of the cutting-edge creators of our time. Join us in the ScreenBurn Arcade, featuring the coolest games from the 70's, 80's, 90's and the millennium.
Daily Dispatches from the PepsiCo Podcast Playground at SXSW [blogs]
Josh Karpf - Manager of Digital and Social Media
Future of Branded Entertainment
"The agenda of filmmakers and brands are more aligned then ever before. Production companies and filmmakers are open to parnterships that make sense for them; and that help get good content into the hands of the right audience. This was the theme of a panel about the future of Branded Entertainment...the model has changed and the opportunities for brands and content creators to partner is wide open."
***
Sally Zuponcic - Director, Emerging Services, PepsiCo Business Solutions
Connecting with Pepsi’s CONN3CT at SxSW!
Well, I certainly got what I came to SxSW for! One of my goals was to connect with our new CONN3CT network and learn more about what they are looking for in terms of tools/technologies to employ with their new D&I network group..."
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Randy Boggs - PepsiCo IT Manager
Chris Brogan did a “flash” panel in the PepsiCo podcast playground with social media leads from brands including Crocs, PepsiCo, General Motors and JetBlue.
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Angela Gentile - Mountain Dew Marketing Manager
How Not To Be a Fascist While Managing Online Communities
From Flickr and Beyond: Lessons in Community Management Panel participants: Flickr, Current TV, Etsy Inc, MetaFilter, YouTube Yesterday i decided to check out a panel on community management just for fun.
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Rachel Mills - Pepsi Marketing Manager
Lets make money money money $$$$
I had no idea there was so much $$ to be made from virtual goods. Attended a panel this morning including 3 virtual worlds/gaming sites that are making LOTS of benjamins: *IMVU *Hi5 *Outspark Note: One important acronym to know is ARPU. Average revenue per user.
excerpt: As fast-food sales in China soften along with the economy, McDonald's Corp. has opened a virtual store to promote its Super Value Meals through an alliance with the online portal Taobao...What's worrying McDonald's executives, as well as senior management at rival chains such as KFC, is that consumers appear to be returning to traditional Chinese-style fast-food options...
To win back consumers and tap into their desire to save money, McDonald's is leveraging the popularity of the Taobao auction site "to communicate the benefits of everyday super value to more young netizens," said Phyllis Cheung, McDonald's VP-chief marketing officer in China. "We needed to find a way to raise awareness of our new Super Value Meals. A lot of online shoppers are looking for value, just like Taobao, and we're both talking to urban adults, especially people in their early 20s."
To promote the meals, McDonald's and Taobao launched a promotion that gives consumers a chance to win prizes for 16.5 RMB ($2.41), the price of McDonald's Super Value Meals.
Web surfers who visit the McDonald's Super Value online store on Taobao can bid for items initially listed at normal retail prices. Every time a user bids on an item, the price goes down by 1 RMB (15 cents) in a reverse-auction format. When the price of the item hits 16.5 RMB, the last bidder can buy it for that price.
...
There are 4,000 items on offer, including laptops, cellphones, digital cameras, digital music players, watches, cosmetics, apparel and household appliances, all of which are normally sold on Taobao. About 100 products will be auctioned daily through the end of March. The e-store also lets consumers buy McDonald's gift vouchers..."
McDonald's Opens Virtual Store to Promote Value Meals in China. Normandy Madden. Ad Age. March 16, 2009
[ sub. required ]
Taobao/McDonald's: [ visit site ]
excerpt: "A common misconception is that digital is just about advertising. But it’s not about creating a metaphor that shows an audience a product; it’s about creating something useful that allows people to experience and own a product, making the consumer a participant. Getting this right isn’t easy, but if it’s done well a campaign can fly around the globe in a matter of a few hours with incredibly powerful results..The evolution of social media and the rapidly developing ‘cloud’, along with the explosion of video content on the web have once again changed the user experience online and it’s key that advertisers ‘keep up’ delivering cutting edge campaigns across the ever-changing contexts that make up the consumer network.
... We know to a certain extent what people are doing, how they are interacting, how they are feeling and where they are. This means that adverts can be made relevant...What we are seeing is a digitisation of the real world. The cloud (wireless broadband, currently only in big cities around the world) will eventually cover the whole planet allowing us to dip into a multitude of alternative worlds in a universe where everything is clickable and updateable."
The Evolving Role of Digital Creativity. Flo Heiss. Microsoft Advertising Solutions.
[ visit site ]
excerpt: "Social media is now ubiquitous...millions of people now look to social media sites as their primary source of news, opinion, and entertainment...We recently conducted an analysis of newly collected data to examine the patterns of social media behaviors of different ethnic/cultural groups in the U.S... in each of the following cultural groups: Hispanics who prefer English, Hispanics who prefer Spanish, Non-Hispanic Whites, African Americans, and Asians in the United States...
Demographically, ethnic minorities are younger than non-Hispanic whites. It's no secret that younger people in general are more likely to adopt new technologies, particularly technologies that enable communication and provide social connectivity...We aggregated information to find out what ethnic/cultural groups are more likely to visit social networking sites. We found broad diversity in social media behaviors among different ethnic/cultural groups and that emerging minorities visit social networking sites more frequently than non-Hispanic whites...
Culturally, ethnic minorities tend to be drawn to collectivistic values and often look to one another to help guide decisions and opinions. In addition, ethnic minorities are more likely to leverage social networks to communicate with groups of family and friends who are geographically dispersed...In addition, market forces are driving ethnic minorities to use social media. There is a dearth of culturally relevant and in-language content available online. As a result, ethnic minorities tend to be proactive and create and share their own content and social networks are ideal platforms for publishing and distributing such original content...
Few marketers are proactively targeting ethnic minorities online and even fewer are leveraging social media to do so. A first mover advantage is available for those that devote the time and resources to engage these critical audiences in ways that they find meaningful. The fact is that we now have an unprecedented ability to reach and interact with ethnic minorities; and companies that deliver value to this segment today will be rewarded with the long-term loyalty of this market."
Social Media Marketing Is A Multicultural World. Felipe Korzenny and Lee Vann. Engage: Hispanics, Mediapost. February 19, 2009
[ visit site ]
excerpt: "I think [marketers] understand that digital media is the only 24/7 channel where your brand resides at all times. Everything else is just an emissary for the brand -- TV, billboard, print ad, radio spot..." Lars Bastholm, co-chief creative officer for AKQA.
AKQA on what's crushing creativity. Rich Cherecwich, iMediaconnection. March 17, 2009
[ visit site ]
"Kellogg’s Coco Pops engaged their consumers in an on-pack promotion SMS campaign in order to promote the brand and boost sales.
Working with Velti’s Mobile Marketing Platform, Leo Burnett were able to implement and manage the ‘Every Nth message wins’ campaign. The successful campaign ran for a single month.
To win, users texted a unique code to a short code presented on the packs of Coco Pops to stand a chance of winning one of 95 prizes.
The users were then instantly notified by text if they had one a prize."
[ visit site ]
excerpt: " Papa John's Papa John's is encouraging consumers to sign up as fans on its Facebook page via an NCAA-themed co-op promotion with Coca-Cola. This is the pizza chain's second Facebook drive in recent months...
Papa John's is offering all customers a large Ultimate Pepperoni pizza for $11.99. Those who order online and add two 20-ounce Coca-Cola beverages to an order for $2.39 get a free 20-ounce Coke Zero.
...
Late last year, Papa John's added 170,000 new Facebook fans by offering a free medium pizza for sign-ups. As of Monday, its fans stood at more than 234,000.
Papa John's--the first national pizza chain to offer online and text ordering--views Facebook as a key tool for consumer research and customer loyalty-building, as well as driving immediate online and in-store orders."
Papa John's, Coke Team On Facebook Promo. Karlene Lukovitz. Marketing Daily. March 16, 2009
[ visit site ]
and excerpt from Papa John's press release: "In addition to the offer to new Facebook fans, Papa John`s also is giving all customers the chance to try their limited-time offer of a large Ultimate Pepperoni pizza for $11.99 during NCAA March Madness (offer ends April 5). And to wash it down, add two 20-oz. Coca-Cola beverages to an order for $2.39 and
get a FREE 20-oz. Coke Zero if the order is placed online at papajohns.com.
Served on a thin and crispy crust, the Ultimate Pepperoni is loaded with double the amount of a traditional pepperoni pizza - more than 80 slices - topped with mozzarella, Parmesan, and Romano cheeses, and sprinkled with Italian herb seasonings."
Press Release: [ view release ]
excerpt: "Who has the most popular page on Facebook? Barack Obama. Who's second? Coca-Cola. Yes, sugared water runs second only to the leader of the free world. Who was it again that said people don't want to be friends with brands? Coca-Cola still remains perplexed over why, of the 253 pages on Facebook devoted to the beverage, Messrs. Sorg and Jedrzejewski's page is the only one that has amassed millions of 'fans.'
The Coke page, which totals 3.3 million "fans," wasn't even created by Coca-Cola, but by a pair of Los Angelenos who just love Coke.
In late August 2008, aspiring actor Dusty Sorg was hunting for a Coca-Cola fan page he could join on Facebook. He didn't find one that seemed legitimate so he hunted down a high-resolution digital image of a Coke can, uploaded it to Facebook and made a page..."We've discussed a dozen hypotheses about why it took off," said Michael Donnelly, director of worldwide interactive marketing at Coca-Cola Co. One theory the company keeps coming back to, he said, was the quality of the photo -- a crisp, high-resolution image of a Coke can covered with a thin layer of condensation....another theory is that Messrs. Sorg and Jedrzejewski had very active, expressive "social graphs," i.e., their network of Facebook friends...As the page picked up fans, it also racked up spam and obscene comments...
Facebook made the decision to either close the page or let Coca-Cola take it over. Coca-Cola instead proposed an alternative: Let the creators keep the page but share it with a few of Coca-Cola's senior interactive folks...Coke's actions in sharing the page are indicative of not only the lessons the beverage giant has learned in the social-media space but also proof that big brands can tread gracefully in social media."
How Two Coke Fans Brought the Brand to Facebook Fame. Abbey Klaassen. Ad Age. March 16, 2009 [ sub. required ]
excerpt [press release]: "As users browse the Web...they will encounter virtual stores on their favorite sites. "We view the Web as a virtual landscape that's now undergoing a real estate boom," says Steven Hoffman, cofounder and CEO of RocketOn. "A few years from now, we'll have tens of thousands of virtual stores and objects placed all across cyberspace, so every location you think of as a major destination will also have a corresponding virtual environment waiting to be explored and experienced."
A few of the stores RocketOn has built in cyberspace include:
* Virtual Hair Salons -- where you can buy new hairdos for your avatars
* Vintage Clothing Stores -- where you can pick up classic outfits
* Fast Food -- where you can get dancing burgers and fries
* Virtual Costume Shops -- where you can buy masks & costumes
* Pet Stores -- where you can pick up treats for your virtual pets
* Roach Motels -- where you can collect bugs
* Grocery Stores -- where you can grab your daily virtual veggies
* Virtual Vending Machines - where you can pick up a soda
* Virtual Gifts Shops -- special items you can purchase
"You might not realize it, but there's a parallel world out there right now," says Naomi Kokubo, cofounder and COO of RocketOn, "where users can browse the Web with their avatars, shop for virtual goods, and interact with other users on any website."
RocketOn Places Virtual Stores All Across the Web. March 10, 2009
[ visit site ]
www.rocketon.com
interview excerpt: David E. Tryder, Manager Interactive & Relationship Marketing, Dunkin’ Donuts
eMarketer: Dunkin’ Donuts ran a two-day Facebook event in January. What was the purpose?
David Tryder: We ran a customer forum on Facebook around our menu of healthy menu items, DDSMART, the “better-for-you” products like egg white flatbread sandwiches, Latte Lite and multigrain bagels...
In these times, when everybody’s marketing budget is tight, the Facebook program popped in our minds as a great, cost-effective opportunity. We have more than 370,000 brand fans on our Facebook page now.
“We have more than 370,000 brand fans on our Facebook page.”
...
So it was a great opportunity for us to test what I see as one of the great benefits of Facebook, which is that it’s a cost-effective way to get real-time feedback from real customers who want to talk to your brand and engage directly.
eMarketer: What was involved in implementation?
Mr. Tryder: We worked with our media relations team and did blogger outreach. We also reached out to our Facebook fans with an invitation and we used our Dunkin’ Perks database, which consists of customers who opt in for Dunkin’ communications. We spread the word about a week before the event and sent a reminder both the Friday before and Monday—the day of the event—through Facebook.
eMarketer: How many people are in the Dunkin’ Perks e-mail database?
Mr. Tryder: Unfortunately, that’s proprietary, but it’s a number that shows e-mail is an effective and very cost-effective marketing tool for us.
...
Facebook Fans and Dunkin’ Donuts. eMarketer. February 27, 2009
[ visit site ]
excerpt: "...the Engage! Expo conference...first panel... "Tap Into Emotional Triggers of Tweens,"... Sally Schmidt of Circle 1 Network laid out the five worlds with the deepest engagement (based on cross-referencing the list of top 150 tween worlds with various metrics including repeat visitors) as Club Penguin, Neopets, Stardoll, Cartoon Doll Emporium and Zwinktopia (WebKinz didn't qualify). She then broke down the five key strategic points into the 5 Cs: Creativity (dressing up avatars, decorating homes, designing clothes), Collection (free goods, paid goods, points), Caring (feeding a virtual pet, charity), Community (chat, events, message boards), and last but not least Competition (levels, comparing points with other players). Her conclusion was that each of the big sites encompass all five key points, but only strongly emphasize a few. For instance, on Stardoll the draw is obviously in the creativity of designing your own clothes and styling your avatar. On Neopets, your role as pet owner promotes caring."
Virtual Worlds Get A Dose Of Reality At Engage. Ypulse. March 12, 2009
[ visit site ]
excerpt: MySpace...maintains its edge on Facebook in the U.S., based on unique visitors and time spent on each site. As of January, each MySpace visitor spent an average 266 minutes on the site in a month, vs. 176 minutes on Facebook, according to the tracking firm ComScore Media Metrix. Marketers like that because it means people are hanging around long enough to see their ads. DeWolfe [its CEO] wants to keep visitors on MySpace even longer. His executives have been signing deals with TV producers to make more of the six-minute shows it needs to siphon off users from YouTube, and they are working on new video games... businesses can target MySpace users by Zip Code or by demographics ...70 percent of MySpace's orders include some form of hyper-targeting. And the company still gets huge traffic to its pages that have lured advertisers like Sony, State Farm, and McDonald's..."
MySpace: A Playbook for Beating Facebook. By Ronald Grover and Spencer E. Ante. Businessweek. March 13, 2009
[ visit site ]
excerpt of interview with "Jeff Benjamin, the award-winning creator of online viral campaigns such as the “Subservient Chicken” and the recent “Whopper Sacrifice” for Burger King...
Jeff Benjamin: We try and find spots where it’s not just about buying impressions—it’s about creating something that makes people create the impressions for you for free. People can do the advertising for you if you give them the inspiration and the tools.
That was the case with the “Whopper Sacrifice” application [a recent campaign for Burger King]...ultimately it was all about people putting it on their page and creating impressions and sacrificing friends. You’re getting more bang for your buck at the end of the day.
eMarketer: What are some misconceptions about viral marketing?
Mr. Benjamin: One big one is that in order to be provocative and get a lot of buzz, you can’t be true to your brand. I think a lot of brands make that mistake...
You always have to make sure those things belong to your brand. Otherwise, I don’t think it’ll work and people won’t remember you for it. It won’t do anything to further the brand.
...I don’t think viral is creating something terribly subversive or anything. I think it’s about utility and tools that make our lives better or easier. "
Creating a Whopper of a Viral Campaign. eMarketer. February 13, 2009
[ visit site ]
excerpt: "iLoop Mobile Case Study: Diet Coke Viral Mobile Campaign
Interactive agency imc2 partnered with Diet Coke to utilize iLoop Mobile's technology to expand the reach of its successful Diet Coke Plus podcasts campaign, by adding a mobile phone text-a-friend component. On the campaign site, users can easily opt in to send a friend a text message alerting the friend to five free music downcasts...The text-a-friend component was important for peer-to-peer endorsement among the primary target audience.
[ visit site ]
excerpt: "Carl's Jr...now promoting a new burger flavor by showing a "surgeon" in mid-operation confessing that he loves bourbon to the point that he "thinks about it constantly."
Skip to the "reveal" in the doctors' locker area, and it turns out that what he's actually knocking back between surgeries is a Carl's Kentucky Bourbon Burger.
... the 15-second TV spot... will hardly be a shock to the system for the 18- to-34-year-old males who are the chain's core customer base..."Edgy--sometimes with humor, sometimes with sexuality--is what appeals to the 'young, hungry guy' who's our target customer," sums up Brad Haley, EVP of marketing for Carl's Jr. and sibling Hardee's...
In addition to television, the Bourbon Burger campaign includes the usual regional radio and print coupon support, video posting on YouTube and online banner ads. A Bourbon Burger microsite will offer "fun, interactive components" and, due to the nature of this item, there will be branded coasters and other media in bars. "
Carl's Jr. Launches 'Intoxicating' Campaign. Karlene Lukovitz. Marketing Daily. March 12, 2009
[ visit site ]
excerpt: "Domino's Pizza is rolling out a mobile coupon program that will serve its franchises nationwide...Domino’s will use Air2Web’s services to send coupon codes to opted-in consumers via text message... Through this new program, Domino's customers can use the coupons when they place orders online in English and Spanish by visiting http://www.dominos.com or from a Web-enabled mobile phone at http://mobile.dominos.com.
...For the next year Domino’s will expand its mobile coupon campaign efforts and will continue to enhance the consumer ordering experience at http://mobile.dominos.com by adding new ordering features, additional coupons, new products and an improved user interface."
Domino's Pizza launches mobile coupon program. Giselle Abramovich. Mobile Marketer. March 5, 2009
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Domino's email signup: [ sign up ]
excerpt: "As mobile attains greater reach, brands are shifting their views of the mobile channel—more and more think of mobile as essential, rather than experimental.
That was the view of a senior executive at market researcher Nielsen during her presentation at yesterday’s digiday: Mobile conference in New York. The company presented key trends in the mobile space, including the mobile Internet, moving from browsing to social networking and video; the iPhone effect and the next gear in consumption; the influence of youth ages 13-24 driving change; and mobile advertising evolving from experimental to essential...
“Driven in part by young mobile video viewers, there’s also been a shift from news and information to entertainment content such as comedy, music and sports,” she said.
Teens aged 13-17 account for 21 percent of mobile video users. Teens are the leading consumers of several mobile video categories, including music, user-generated content and movie trailers...
All of these trends spell opportunities for marketers.
“Young subscribers have been driving data consumption for some time, but mobile is getting even younger,” Ms. Resnick said. “The penetration of devices among younger consumers is shifting, with the average age at which kids get phones dropping rapidly, so penetration of mobile phones is increasing.
“Teens send an average of 2,300 text messages a month, and while advertising and marketing to teens has issues and privacy concerns, mobile represents a great opportunity to engage with kids and young adults,” she said."
Mobile advertising moving from experimental to essential: Nielsen. Dan Butcher . Mobile Marketer. March 13, 2009
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excerpt: "Facebook’s recent move to make Facebook pages similar to user profiles (in-terms of interactivity) is drawing attention from mainstream publishers and marketers at top brands. New publishing features on Facebook are being used by brands like Coca-Cola..Take advantage of Facebook Advertising: Now that you can interact with current and prospective customers on Facebook, bring people to your page. Team your page effort on Facebook with a small Facebook advertising campaign. While the Twitter community shuns ads, Facebook users are used to them...Watch Coca-Cola: While brands like Jet Blue and Ford have mastered Twitter, Coca-Cola has mastered Facebook. Watch how they improve their brand page with the new features. They'll give you a good idea where you should take your page and what you should be doing to grow its following. "
5 Tips for Marketing on Facebook's New Pages. Kyle Austin. Fast Company. March 13, 2009
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Press release [excerpt]: "Betawave Corporation...the first attention based digital media company, with a domestic reach of over 25 million unique users, announced today the premiere of Betawave TV, an ad-supported video platform. ...Betawave TV offers marketers a scalable video advertising and distribution solution and enables them to extend their relationship beyond display media and immersive integrations...Sponsorship opportunities include the ability to feature messages before and after professionally produced video programming, as well as through overlays at appropriate points in the viewing experience.
Jim Moloshok, Executive Chairman of Betawave added: “... This is unique in the marketplace, and enables brands to be woven into the fabric of the consumer experience. Betawave TV is a prime example of our commitment to deliver attention based media.”
Upon its premiere, Betawave TV will be integrated into sites including Cartoon Doll Emporium, Minyanland, Hallpass, GameGecko and others...
Following its debut, Betawave TV will premiere original made-for-online branded content headlined by celebrities like Raven Symone, star of “That’s So Raven”; and high-profile programming such as the star-filled weekly show “Live from the Red Carpet” from Entertainment Premieres, Inc. These opportunities are designed for brand inclusion and will leverage the unique capabilities of various publisher sites with experiences that extend beyond video programming into gaming and virtual world integrations...
Betawave Corporation... is a leading entertainment and media company focused on brand immersion experiences that reach consumers in a deeply engaged state of mind. Betawave specializes in aggregating and distributing premium content on a large network of quality sites for which Betawave is the exclusive brand advertising monetization partner. The Betawave portfolio of publishers reaches over 25 million unduplicated online users domestically and 69 million worldwide.* It ranks as the third largest online U.S. youth opportunity and a top five ‘mom’ opportunity for blue-chip advertisers. *Source: Comscore Media Metrix Media Trend (with duplication), December 2008.
Betawave Announces Betawave TV. February 17, 2009
[ visit site ]
Betawave: [ visit site ]
excerpt [Case Study]: Client: Coca-Cola...
Teens and young adults (16 to 34-year-olds) needed to be reminded of this. Our challenge for the summer was to promote the product attributes and recruit teens back into the brand, while maintaining brand affinity.
Strategy
To tie Coke into the festival scene and engage with teens. Hinging on the statistic that 88% of 15 to 24-year-olds listen to the radio every week, we tied up with Bauer's Kiss FM, a brand already linked with the festival scene. While the product has historically been promoted in a visual way, we wanted to use sonic cues to convey that Coke is the most delicious and refreshing soft drink there is. Sounds of people opening and drinking Coke appeared in every piece of on-air activity.
Activity
A series of Kiss Does Summer on the Coke Side of Life promotions were staggered and run on Kiss over the summer, in the build-up to and following six major music festivals. Listeners could enter competitions to win tickets for themselves and three friends to events including Escape Into The Park, Gatecrasher, Ibiza Weekend and SW4. The 30 winners were also encouraged to file audio reports from the events and have their soundbites edited into features and broadcast on-air. A campaign microsite was created and branded to fit each festival. Following the events, Kiss transmitted branded content from the festivals and end-of-summer shows. Other activity included i-Phone compatible pre-rolls.
Results
Research from Millward Brown revealed that teens thought the Kiss activity conveyed the message that nothing is as refreshing as a Coca-Cola, that Kiss and Coke are natural partners, that Coke's links to festivals are relevant, and that the campaign's execution was upbeat and fun. It also delighted the client, renewing its interest in radio as an ad medium."
Coca-Cola uses Kiss to create a festival atmosphere. Roxanne Lomas, Media Week, 21 October 2008.
[ visit site ]
excerpt: "SocialMedia.com.. announced the release of their new product the WOMI. A WOMI is a positive branded message that is shared between friends within IAB standard ad units. SocialMedia.com WOMI campaigns get consumers to endorse a brand or engage in a branded conversation with trusted friends.
SocialMedia.com delivers these brand recommendations and opinions to the user’s friends using SocialMedia.com’s proprietary social ad server.
Brands today are looking for measurable, scalable and predictable ways to drive word of mouth about their products and WOMIs make that a reality. Tests by Dynamic Logic show WOMI campaigns enable advertisers to break through the clutter, out-performing existing digital and social media campaigns in driving awareness, favorability and purchase intent. SocialMedia.com has run successful WOMI campaigns for major consumer brands across CPG, Entertainment, Beverages and Retail categories...
“With the rise of social media experts it has become noisy and increasingly difficult for advertisers to operate,” said Seth Goldstein, CEO of SocialMedia.com. “We set out to create a product from the ground up that delivers the key measures brands are seeking–real lift in awareness, equity and purchase intent.”...
Given that consumers’ online experiences are increasingly social, it only makes sense that the ads themselves become social... SocialMedia.com found that messages that came from trusted friends were more meaningful. If the message incorporated the endorsement and opinion about a brand, the impact was higher than a standard message received directly from a brand. The WOMI product taps into existing relationships on social networks to deliver the message virally between real friends driving favorability, brand equity, and leading to increased purchase intent for brands...
SocialMedia.com’s WOMI product features a social advertising engine that scales across multiple social graphs....SocialMedia.com’s ad serving technology allows for scalability to tens of millions of users across multiple social graphs...
With WOMI campaigns, advertisers are in control."
SocialMedia.com Takes WOMI Impressions to Market. March 12, 2009
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excerpt: "Whether it's SMS text, WAP sites, banners, or proprietary apps, the brands involved [with mobile marketing] are impressive. Adidas, Nike, Coke, Paramount, P&G, and most every other major brand were either involved in or planning a mobile campaign, according to the agencies assembled...
AdMob sales VP Tony Nethercutt went as far as to show the conference preliminary results from a one-day test for three major brands. It put up a campaign for Honey Bunches of Oats cereal, Tylenol, and Splenda artificial sweetner. It spent the equivalent of $1,500 on the campaign adapting creative from each brand and agency. Honey Bunches of Oats attracted 4,600 mobile site visits and 600,000 total impressions..."
Mobile marketing moves toward brand future. John Gaffney. econsultancy.com. March 12, 2009
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excerpt: "...it's conceivable that soon all media will be social. Perhaps nothing made this more apparent than the recent CNN/Facebook partnership...Social media is in an evolution phase and Facebook Connect, along with Myspace Data Availability, Google Friend Connect, OpenId and OAuth are playing a central role in what it will become. These frameworks are working to automatically allow the transfer of data from one site to another, providing both instant access to our friend networks and a singular personal identity anywhere we go on the internet. Essentially, they serve as portable social graphs, creating a unified "plumbing system" that allows access to our social networks beyond the walls of an individual website, mobile application or IPTV extension....
This opens up a new world of interesting possibilities for brands. It also creates yet another drastic drop in the technical barriers to creating social activity around particular brands or services. In many cases, it alleviates the need for brands to create their own social networks from scratch. Brand loyalists and advocates can simply extend a virtual bridge to a website or experience and invite friends to cross it."
Tapping the Portable Social Graphs. Ian Spalter. Ad Age. March 6, 2009
[sub. required]
excerpt: "Carat CEO Sarah Fay... pointed to a McDonald's push last year...celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Big Mac. The fast-food company wanted to capitalize on nostalgia for the burger's memorable jingle to improve sales. So it used social-networking site MySpace as well as traditional media for the campaign.
...
Heidi Browning, senior vice president, insight and planning at MySpace, said 1 million people "interacted" with the Big Mac brand as the contest was taking place...
Fay, however, said that it is critical to avoid letting a MySpace page or presence on another site grow stale. Brand advocates are likely to lose passion if the site lacks vitality. "Keep it refreshed," Fay said.
Social Media: Effective Branding Tool, If Monitored. David Goetzl. Media Daily News. March 7, 2009
[ visit site ]
excerpt: "Omniture SiteCatalyst now integrates with Twitter to let online marketers monitor and measure tweets. The feature lets marketers import data from Twitter feeds... It tracks preset keywords to monitor who is talking about their brand.
The SiteCatalyst feature also helps identify brand advocates and cynics...
At a recent Omniture Summit, the telecom firm Comcast talked about being able to identify brand allies and foes, according to Matt Langie, senior director of product marketing, Omniture. ...
According to Forrester, nearly 5 million people use Twitter, where users send frequent, short updates to followers. Many of the followers look to tie themselves to the brand by joining in on the conversation.
The SiteCatalyst integration with Twitter enables marketers to take advantage of a real-time alert feature to send emails and SMS messages to mobile devices based on pre-determined criteria, such as a spike in mentions of brand-related terms..."
Omniture SiteCatalyst Integrates With Twitter. Laurie Sullivan. Online Media Daily. March 6, 2009
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excerpt: "Since the appearance of its Super Bowl ad last month... Jack in the Box has sustained considerable online engagement leading up to a refresh of its brand. The effort will culminate in the launch of a new Web site and logo on March 16.
The campaign, "Hang in there Jack," has brought considerable traffic and user interaction with the company's presences on Facebook, YouTube and MySpace.
After the Super Bowl commercial, a hospital drama unfolded over the following month on the site hangintherejack.com. The site, set up as a blog, contains videos from YouTube following the action surrounding Jack's accident and treatment in the hospital. Entries also included instructions on how to send wishes to Jack, and wish his wife happy Valentine's Day.
Through the course of the campaign over 67,000 people signed up to receive updates on Jack's condition through the Web site, and more than 77,000 get well wishes and videos were posted on the Web site and on his Facebook and MySpace pages, the company said. During the coma a Jack in the Box Twitter feed was maintained and grew to 5,634 followers.
The hangintherejack.com site will start to wind down now that Jack is out of his coma...We're going to send thank you coupons to those that were involved," said Terri Graham, senior vice president and chief marketing officer at Jack in the Box.
The campaign's next phase will bring the launch of a ... 3D appearance..."
Jack in the Box Sustains Super Bowl Ad Momentum Online. Enid Burns. ClickZ. March 6, 2009
[ visit site ]
Jack's Twitter page: [ visit site ]
Church’s Chicken has launched two advertising platforms to interact with “young, urban consumers.”
The chain is offering coupons via text message and a chance to win $1000 in a promotion with Coca-Cola called Be Heard. It also will target a “more multicultural demographic” by promoting the “Afro-Samurai” video game.
Church’s promoted the “Soulcaliber IV” video game last year. The promotion increased its website traffic by 30%.
“The urban youth market if the second-largest and fastest-growing segment in the U.S. and an audience we see emerging as one of our core customers,” said Farnaz Wallace, Church’s executive vice president and chief marketing officer. “It just makes sense to reach out to them in nontraditional media platforms where they socialize and play to supplement long-term brand building and recognition within this important group.”
[ visit site ]
Exerpt: A Super Bowl commercial in which Jack was hit by a bus kicked off a multi-week marketing campaign.
Jack’s fate remains in question as the company offers regular “official” updates on his injuries online at www.hangintherejack.com
...Throughout the humorous news updates on his condition, Jack in the Box officials have been urging consumers to visit the restaurants to order any meal, any time of day in lieu of sending flowers, “because Jack would want it that way.”
[ visit site ]
excerpt: "Earlier this month MySpace, Intel and Yahoo announced a partnership to let users interact with the social network through their TVs, allowing members to receive friend requests, browse photos and profiles, and read and interact with messages. Access to MySpace will come via a Widget Channel, developed by Intel and Yahoo, which will go live to US users later in the year...TV 2.0, or social TV, is the next step on the road to full convergence, where the oft-quoted vision is for content to be accessed from every screen, whether fixed or mobile. Social networks have been quick to incorporate video into their communities. Now the TV industry is now keen to see if it can build community around its content. "There's a lot of hype in this area but the time is finally ripe for convergence to really happen," says Anthony Rose, BBC head of digital media technology. "It's a new golden age."...
The way in which online social networks build communities by aggregating users' data and behaviours provides the model. "An operator can use such data to filter localised channel line-ups and create a personalised service," says Simon Forrest, chief technologist for STB manufacturer Pace. "I can list my favourite shows, surf my friend's favourites, even invite them to change channel."
Nortel, for example, has developed a prototype plug-in to Facebook that can push online content exchanged between friends to the viewer's PVR. NDS has worked with Turner to show how a viewer watching CNN on TV could simultaneously access a web news feed, further related videos and other online information. This could be extended to link to viewers' social networks for live chat or to share links to relevant content...The way in which online social networks build communities by aggregating users' data and behaviours provides the model. "An operator can use such data to filter localised channel line-ups and create a personalised service," says Simon Forrest, chief technologist for STB manufacturer Pace. "I can list my favourite shows, surf my friend's favourites, even invite them to change channel."
...
Personalised media access should prove a boon to advertisers, who can tap into defined niche communities and deliver tailored brand experiences."
nma tv: Social TV. Adrian Pennington. NMA. January 29, 2009
[ sub. required ]
excerpt: " Frito-Lay...has researched women’s feelings about snacking and guilt to produce new packaging, new flavors and a new ad campaign, all in an effort to get women to eat Frito-Lay snacks...To figure out how to sell Frito’s salty snacks to women, Juniper Park, a BBDO agency within the Omnicom Group...Juniper Park used neuromarketing in a slightly different way. Ms. Nykoliation began by researching how women’s brains compared with men’s, so the firm could adjust the marketing accordingly. Her research suggested that the communication center in women’s brains was more developed, leading her to infer that women could process ads with more complexity and more pieces of information.
A memory and emotional center, the hippocampus, was proportionally larger in women, so Ms. Nykoliation concluded that women would look for characters they could empathize with.
...Ms. Nykoliation then asked NeuroFocus to review her assumptions and, as Juniper Park developed ads, to test the ads to verify that women liked them.
She was especially interested by the guilt factor..."
Frito-Lay Tries to Enter the Minds (and Lunch Bags) of Women. Stephanie Clifford. New York Times. February 24, 2009
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excerpt: "It would be hard to come up with a cheaper ad campaign: Mars' new fruit-candy promotion consists of redirecting its homepage to a Twitter search for "Skittles." ...
A Skittles logo floats on top of the Twitter page, and sometimes Mars redirects to YouTube or Facebook instead of Twitter. The campaign is about as bargain-basement as you can get: Mars doesn't need a TV buy, ad agency or even much Web design work.
And Twitter users are, as planned, including the word "Skittles" in their posts in order to have the honor of appearing on the Skittles.com home page...
Right, but Mars.. just wants people hearing "Skittles this" and "Skittles that" over and over again...
In other words, Mars has reduced its advertising nearly, but not quite all the way, to mindless repetition of a single word."
Skittles Maker Invents Perfect Depression Advertising. Ryan Tate. Gawker. March 3, 2009
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excerpt: "... confectionery behemoth Mars, which is introducing a major campaign for its best-selling candy brand, Snickers, that is centered on a make-believe language called Snacklish.
“Our competitive set is moving ahead, so we can’t afford to pull back,” said Carole Walker, vice president for integrated marketing communications at the Mars Snackfood U.S. division of Mars in Hackettstown, N.J.
The Snickers campaign... is being rolled out in stages. The initial phase, which gets under way this week, includes outdoor ads and content on the Snickers Web site (snickers.com) as well as Facebook.
Television commercials are scheduled to begin appearing next week. And there will be more content on snickers.com in the spring, including a way to translate regular language into the Snickers lingo...according to the Nielsen Company, sales in the United States for all chocolate candy in food, drug and mass-merchandise stores totaled $6.6 billion for the 52 weeks ending Jan. 24, 2009..."
The Vocabulary of Snacking, Lightly Sweetened. Stuart Elliot. New York Times. March 2, 2009
[ visit site ]
Snickers.com
excerpt: "Based on 2,316 online campaigns measured globally over the past three years, people who are exposed to brand advertising online are more likely to recall the ads (5.1%), be aware of the brand (2.4%), be more favourable towards the brand (1.6%) and consider buying the advertised brand (1.2%) than people who saw none of the online ads.
Looking at automotive and FMCG specifically, we find that using online as a brand-building medium can have a positive impact and influence purchase decisions in both of these sectors. FMCG represents a wide variety of brands, many of which are lower-consideration inexpensive products. On average, online FMCG campaigns increase purchase intent by 1.6 percentage points — 16 in every 1,000 people are more likely to considering buying the brand after exposure to online advertising...
...on average we know that online works for communicating branding messages, building over time and working with other media for brand reinforcement."
Analyst Speak: Reassuring brands online ads really do have an impact of consumers. Christina Goodman, director of global marketing and client development, Dynamic Logic. NMA magazine. February 26, 2009
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excerpt: "The new Skittles website... is not really a site at all but an overlay that lives on top of Web 2.0 content, such as Wikipedia, Facebook and Flickr. When you head to skittles.com, you're prompted to enter your age and agree to a terms of service that acknowledges that the content beyond this page is not Skittles content.
The site then loads Skittles' Wikipedia page with a rectangular navigation overlay: Click on "Friends" and it takes you to the company's Facebook page; click on "Chatter" and you're taken to the Twitter feed. The release announcing the site said the landing page will change regularly. While it's Wikipedia today it might be its YouTube channel tomorrow.
...said Riccardo Zane, president of Agency.com... "it's the first time it's been used in [consumer product goods] that I've known about. And it's the first time it's been used not to just access other areas of what people are talking about skittles but it's also a way to propagate that and stimulate that. So to that end I think it's quite unique."
An Agency.com spokeswoman said that "Skittles as a brand is all about embracing and empowering the conversation online -- just look at the YouTube entries and their Facebook page. Its kind of a natural evolution for them moving in to something like this."
Skittles' New Site Is the Social Web. Abbey Klaassen. Advertising Age. February 27, 2009
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excerpt: "Case study: Disney has a long history as a global forerunner in mobile content and...has also negotiated around 120 operator distribution deals, built up its own content portal and pushed aggressively into new channels including mobile video and advertising.
...
Last June the Internet Group reformed as the Disney Interactive Media Group (DIMG) to bring mobile, online and video games into one division, with the intent of making more cross-platform entertainment. Sunil Gunderia, VP and head of mobile for DIMG, says... "It also enhances our ability to build communities across platforms... "Disney has a distinct and unique ability to do this as it has proven multi-platform successes, such as High School Musical and Hannah Montana," says Gunderia. "These franchises have worked across TV, film, DVD, music, console, live, online and mobile platforms."
nma mobile: Digital integration. Rufus Jay. NMA magazine. February 12, 2009
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Disney Interactive Media Group: [ visit site ]
excerpt: "Fresh idea:
Tap into the fanaticism of diehard Dew lovers by creating a campaign, Dew DIY, that provided the opportunity for fans to show their love of the brand through Dew-inspired creations in Art, Fashion, and Tech.
Grown up thinking:
New consumers thrive on the opportunity to own brands and make them their own. If given the chance to reinvent brands in a distinctive way, individuals will evangelize the brand's message.
What we did:
... Dew fans are truly hardcore, and will definitely step up to the challenge of making the brand their own. So we recruited an army of Dew devotees on 50 college campuses across the country through our RepNation network to deliver the campaign on a peer-to-peer level. How? By connecting with their online and offline communities to grab students' attention. The Dew Crew threw wild stunts like green carpet paparazzi photo shoots and extreme golf. They created and hosted local events that included Dew-inspired murals by local artists, Dew-branded ice sculptures, and samples of Dew products throughout their campuses. The best design submissions on DewDIY.com were featured on their campus at a gallery opening that gave students yet another reason to party in the title of Dew. Our enthusiasts successfully recruited thousands more passionate Dew consumers who will undoubtedly influence and inspire new fans."
excerpt: "Fresh idea:
Tap into the fanaticism of diehard Dew lovers by creating a campaign, Dew DIY, that provided the opportunity for fans to show their love of the brand through Dew-inspired creations in Art, Fashion, and Tech.
Grown up thinking:
New consumers thrive on the opportunity to own brands and make them their own. If given the chance to reinvent brands in a distinctive way, individuals will evangelize the brand's message.
What we did:
... Dew fans are truly hardcore, and will definitely step up to the challenge of making the brand their own. So we recruited an army of Dew devotees on 50 college campuses across the country through our RepNation network to deliver the campaign on a peer-to-peer level. How? By connecting with their online and offline communities to grab students' attention. The Dew Crew threw wild stunts like green carpet paparazzi photo shoots and extreme golf. They created and hosted local events that included Dew-inspired murals by local artists, Dew-branded ice sculptures, and samples of Dew products throughout their campuses. The best design submissions on DewDIY.com were featured on their campus at a gallery opening that gave students yet another reason to party in the title of Dew. Our enthusiasts successfully recruited thousands more passionate Dew consumers who will undoubtedly influence and inspire new fans."
[ visit Mr Youth site ]
excerpt: "MySpace has seen some impressive traffic growth for its mobile web site and its mobile applications over the last year. And the social network is capitalizing on it by developing new revenue streams and new ways to get its users’ data on more devices...McDonald’s came to us and said they wanted to update the Big Mac Chant. So users were able to upload audio and video of Big Mac Chants online. Then we created a branded campaign on mobile, a mini-site on mobile where they could download ringtones as well. So we used mobile as a continuation of the online experience. In the future users will be able to capture that audio and video on their mobile device and upload it straight away. That is, of course is even more compelling."
MySpace’s John Faith on mobile revenue and mobile data opportunities. Matthaus Krzykowski. Venture Beat. February 19, 2009
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McDonald's MySpace Big Mac Chant site:
[ visit site ]
excerpt: "To drive awareness of its new, lower-priced menu, Quiznos is giving away one million subs to consumers who register online for coupons...During the sign-up process, visitors are also being encouraged to invite friends to register for free sub coupons.
In addition, each day during March, Quiznos will award one individual free subs for one year as part of its "Making the World Better" campaign. Site visitors can nominate themselves or others for the prize by writing or videotaping a short essay describing how the person has made the world better and qualifies as a "hometown hero." Quiznos will share the stories received on the site... To drive awareness of the promotions and traffic to the dedicated site (www.millionsubs.com), Quiznos is using banner ads on a variety of Web sites, its presence on Facebook and Twitter, and local radio exposure. Radio stations have been provided with sub giveaways to use on-air.
Registrants for the coupon promotion and contest are being added to the Quiznos marketing database."
Quiznos Giving Away A Million Subs. Karlene Lukovitz. Marketing Daily. February 24, 2009.
[ visit site ]
excerpt: "... Little Caesars is launching a promotion that includes advertising with Pepsi and Sony Entertainment. The program, "Buzz In to Win," centers on scratch-off coupons and dangles 450 PlayStation Trivia Prize Packs in total...Customers get the "Buzz in to Win" scratch-off code cards when they buy a "Hot-N-Ready" pizza with any Pepsi beverage. Once they have revealed the codes, customers can enter them at www.LittleCaesarsBuzz.com to see if they have won prizes, which range from a coupon for items at Little Caesars to one of the 50 PlayStation Trivia Prize Packs the company is offering each week."
Little Caesars Building Rome Day After Day. Karl Greenberg. Marketing Daily. February 24, 2009
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excerpt: "A new marketing campaign premised on mascot Jack Box being run over by a bus generated brand awareness for Jack in the Box during this year's first quarter...Chairman/CEO Linda A. Lang reported that the chain's new marketing campaign--kicked off with a Super Bowl commercial in which chain's "founder" Jack Box was hit by a bus and seriously injured--has generated more than 2.8 million online video views to date and nearly a million unique visitors to the campaign's Web site (hangintherejack.com).
The campaign--a series of Webisodes and TV commercials updating Jack's status and featuring characters from the office and hospital-- is focused on creating awareness that the full Jack in the Box menu can be ordered at any time of the day or night."
Jack In The Box Logs Disappointing Q1. Karlene Lukovitz. Marketing Daily. February 18, 2009
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[ view email ]
[ visit site ]
excerpt: "Kraft Singles is kicking off its new, yearlong “Smiles Under a Single” campaign and is supporting the effort with free grilled cheese sandwiches. Reps today are giving away the sandwiches made with Kraft Singles cheese at the world premiere of Walt Disney Pictures’ “Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience” at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood...
people can enter a UPC code from the cheese product to request a free Jonas Brothers download. The exclusive content includes a Jonas Brothers song, a music video and poster from the movie. One million downloads will be available through April 30."
,br>
Kraft Singles Launches Yearlong "Smiles" Campaign. Amy Johannes. PROMO Xtra. February 24, 2009
Amy Johannes for PROMO Xtra [ visit site ]
excerpt: "The human passion for sharing experiences is finding new expression through digital media and transforming entertainment in the process. It’s now down to advertisers to make the most of the opportunities that this creates...Meanwhile, the opportunity to share video and discuss content such as TV and films online is turning communication itself into a connected entertainment channel...For advertisers, this extended world of entertainment offers a wealth of opportunities, provided they remain focused on the importance of sharing...Warner Bros, Burger King, Unilever and Ford are among the brands working with Microsoft Advertising’s Branded Entertainment Experiences Team to deliver the entertainment connections that consumers crave."
Building connections through the new entertainment. Microsoft. January 1, 2009
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excerpt: "SocialSpark is a Social Marketing Network that connects advertisers and bloggers through an online advertising marketplace. Advertisers are able to target blogs based on conversational topics and make cash sponsorship offers to the bloggers who publish them. Bloggers can make money by either placing display advertisements on their blog or by writing sponsored content. The sponsorships offered through the SocialSpark marketplace allow advertisers to build buzz, generate traffic and maximize social media exposure...Advertisers can purchase blog marketing as sponsored posts or blog ads. Pricing for our blog advertising solutions include PPP, CPA and pay per day blog sponsorship. Bloggers can make money blogging by either placing ads on blogs or writing blog reviews. ...
[Sample Opportunity] Though Coca-Cola Canada’s promotion on iCoke.ca, more than 6,760 people will have the opportunity to carry one of the most enduring and globally recognised symbols of the Olympics; the Torch. You don’t have to be a former athlete or have done something that is recognized around the world in order to become an Olympic Torchbearer. Canadians from many walks of life will have the opportunity and honour of being a torchbearer. So how do you apply? Simply visit iCoke.ca today to find out more:
[ visit site ]
Izea.com: [ visit site ]
SocialSpark: [ visit site ]
SocialSpark/Coca Cola: [ visit site ]
excerpt: "Robin Wight...is president of the Engine Group, which encompasses 13 media businesses...the future for advertising isn't just about building organisations; for Wight it is also about brain science. He is zealous, fanatical even, about the potential of mapping brains in greater detail and discovering what makes us tick. It is the "future of advertising - of everything", he says...The theory of memes, Wight believes, is the most interesting idea of the past 50 years; and it helps to explain how ads that make an impact ...
"It's still controversial but in the future we'll find little synaptic connections that represent the Guardian, BMW, all these brands. You put an electrode on someone's head and say Jennifer Aniston, for example, and one neuron fires," Wight says. "It took 50 years after genes were conceived of to find them in the body and it may take another 50 before we find memes - but we will find little clusters, bundles of connections that represent brands."
...
If we could scientifically measure which adverts worked, he says, then there wouldn't be any need for an "avalanche of annoying ads"... Scanning brains is no different from focus grouping, he believes - just more effective. "...
"Just imagine if you could pre-test an ad and you knew it would make people happy and it would be effective. If you knew that in advance, then maybe half of all advertising wouldn't need to run. You'd only be exposed to ads that engage with you - the products that fail won't be offered. You're not manipulating people, you're just measuring which particular thing has an impact."
'It's the future of advertising, of everything'. Jo Adetunji. Guardian. February 23, 2009
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excerpt: Facebook Page Statistics [as of Feb. 21, 2009]
Top Pages
Name # of Fans Daily Growth Rate Weekly Growth Rate
1. Barack Obama 5,544,158 0.46% 2.98%
2. Coca-Cola 2,938,318 0.81% 5.69%
3. Nutella 2,733,221 0.79% 5.57%
4. Pizza 2,644,946 0.91% 6.11%
[ Statistics ]
[ visit site ]
excerpt: "MySpace has 76 million unique online users in the US, and 139 million users worldwide; 40 percent of all Americans based in the US are on mySpace; and 40 percent of American mothers are on mySpace. Its hoping to capture the 600 million users that Jupiter Research has estimated will be accessing social networks through their phones by 2012...MySpace has been working on its monetization technology currently used online called Hypertarget, which is five algorithms that basically segments the “massive amounts of data” on mySpace users into “enthusiast buckets.” Currently, they have their audience divided into over 1,000 of these segments, and for example, if Pepsi wants to target alternative music users they can serve them up an ad. Said DeWolfe, “It’s incredibly effective, and increases our yields.” This will be moving onto mobile."
@ MWC: MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe Lays Out Mobile Strategy; Hypertargeting Mobile Ads To Users. Dianne See Morrison. moconews.net. February 19, 2009
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"JAGTAG is a non-invasive, "pull" mobile media that transforms a marketer's physical objects into interactive digital media...
As a consumer-initiated media, JAGTAG enables consumers to request and instantly receive on-demand digital content directly from a brand's print ads, out-of-home, point-of-sale, direct mail, sales collateral, packaging, products and physical structures.
Consumers can immediately access product information, category information, product demos, promotions, coupons, instant-wins, highlights, helpful tips, branded entertainment, subscriptions or notifications. In every case, the consumer’s desire to receive the brand’s offering transforms a single “pushed” impression into an interactive brand engagement.
Through this interaction, JAGTAG also provides advertisers superior metrics and analytics to measure the effectiveness of their physical media."
[ visit site ]
excerpt: "Nike 6.0, the footwear giant’s action sports brand, is running a mobile 2D bar code campaign targeting teens at the Winter Dew Tour, an extreme sports competition sponsored by Mountain Dew....At every Dew Tour event, consumers can now engage the brand’s physical media to request Nike 6.0 athletes’ videos, pictures and information, which are sent immediately to their mobile phone.
“Nike was testing 2D bar codes to connect their Dew Tour athletes with the consumers in a more personal way,” said Butch Bannon, director of business development and special projects for Taow Productions, Portland, OR...
There were Jagtag 2D bar codes on posters of various athletes inside of the Nike ID station igloo—a freestanding snow-block hut—that was built in the sponsor village at the base of the peaks.
...Jagtag received approval from AT&T and Verizon Wireless to integrate two-way MMS on their networks, which enabled the company to provide advertisers such as Nike with a 2D bar code service, which has the potential to reach approximately 80 percent of the market....The target demographic of Nike’s Winter Dew Tour campaign is youth between 13 and 18 who enjoy action sports such as BMX, mountain biking, wakeboarding, Moto, surfing, wakeboarding, snowboarding and free skiing."
Nike breaks mobile bar code campaign at Mountain Dew event. Dan Butcher. Mobile Marketer. February 12, 2009
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As the Steelers and Cardinals battled on the field, Twitter users across the nation pecked out a steady stream of "tweets." The map shows the location and frequency of commonly used words in Super Bowl related messages.
New York Times. Feb. 2, 2009
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excerpt: "Yahoo has been "quietly testing" the sponsored search tool Rich Ads In Search with a select number of national brand advertisers, according to Tim Mayer, Yahoo VP for search monetization and distribution.
The advertisers--including Pedigree, Pepsi and Esurance--have seen click-through rates increase by as much as 25%. The pay-per-click (PPC) service for video ads appears to increase brand exposure and influence higher conversion rates, according to those who have been testing the tool... Pedigree, Pepsi and Esurance have been testing the 30- and 60-second video too... Mayer said the visual ads influence consumers to click through more often from the ad."
Yahoo Unveils PPC Video Ad Tool In Search Query. Laurie Sullivan. Online Media Daily. Feb. 20, 2009
[ visit site ]
excerpt: "...the overwhelming majority of low-income urban teens are accessing the Internet, buying the latest cell phones and engaging in online social networking. A national survey of more than 1,500 African American and Hispanic teens and young adults, revealed that this group is highly-connected, tech savvy and brand loyal...There is extremely high Internet access (96%) by urban youth, at work, school or home. Many (68%) are accessing the Internet through high-speed connections like cable, DSL or wireless. However, only about half of those with access indicated that it was through a home computer...etter than two-in-five (42%) of the current survey participants reported accessing the Internet daily; and of those who do, 68% are spending at least two hours a day online...More than 9 out of 10 (92%) urban youth own a cell phone. The survey shows that urban youth take advantage of features like text messaging, taking pictures, making videos, accessing the Internet and downloading games, music and ringtones at a high rate...A considerable number of youth (61%) reported that they buy a new cell phone at least once a year. Nearly 60% planned to purchase a "smart phone" within six months of taking the survey...The study was co-sponsored by Black Entertainment Television (BET) and the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy."
The full survey report, Inner City Truth: An Urban Youth Lifestyle Study II, will be released on February 16, 2009. T
Is the Digital Divide a Myth? Press release. Feb. 2009
[ visit site ]
excerpt of interview with Bob Kraut, Pizza Hut’s Vice President of Marketing Communications:
...Bob Kraut, Pizza Hut: ...We know that Facebook has become a preferred method of communication for thousands of our customers, so we wanted to create a presence on Facebook that gave us a way to interact with customers...We’re seeing thousands of new fans join the page each day. In the last month, we’ve gone from 700,000 fans to 750,000 fans, which makes us the largest restaurant fan page on Facebook.
Nick O’Neill, AllFacebook: What promotional methods is Pizza Hut using for attracting new users to the fan page?
Bob Kraut, Pizza Hut: We’re currently running a “Passport to Italy Sweepstakes” through our Facebook page to celebrate the launch of our new Tuscani Lasagna. Anyone who becomes a fan of the Pizza Hut page on Facebook before March 7 is eligible to win. In 2008, we awarded $50 gift cards to Pizza Hut friends on Facebook on a weekly basis. We have more promotions scheduled throughout 2009 that are in development.
Nick O’Neill, AllFacebook: How much time does Pizza Hut invest in their Facebook fan page?
Bob Kraut, Pizza Hut: We invested significant time when we launched the site and when we created our latest sweepstakes, but on an ongoing basis, we’re looking to our customers to provide photos, videos and other content that will make the page a dynamic place, allowing us to check-in and see what our fans are sharing and discussing.
Nick O’Neill, AllFacebook: What information does Pizza Hut collect from the Facebook fan page and what does it do with that information?
Bob Kraut, Pizza Hut: We use the database of friends we have to send out promotional announcements and news about new products through Facebook. While we’re interested to see who our friends are and where they’re coming from, we’re not using their personal information outside of Facebook in any way...
AllFacebook Interview: Discussion With Pizza Hut About Their Facebook Strategy. Nick O'Neill. February 19, 2009
[ visit site ]
excerpt: "Marketing isn't what it used to be. It's no longer about creating snappy taglines, memorable jingles, and clever metaphors. Today, the product is the message. The platform is the story. And the goal is to forge real connections between brands and consumers. Unlike short-lifespan campaigns or disposable viral gimmicks, progressive ad agencies are creating useful platforms that become integrated into people's daily lives. Interaction Designers play an invaluable role in this new marketing world. In order for these platforms to have true staying power, they need to be useful, simple, beautiful, and intuitive."
Marketing + Interaction Design: The Real Deal. Interaction '09.
[ visit site ]
excerpt: "As Ed Mayo and Agnes Nairn put it, in this shocking and passionate book, the 21st-century child inhabits "a seamless, branded world". Commerce invades children's wardrobes, lunch boxes, bedrooms, and even their friendships and families...On the internet, it gets worse. It is not just that nearly half the sites visited by children try to sell something, often in a crafty way: by, for example, providing a "wish list" to email to friends and family. It is also that some children become what the marketing people call "consumer advocates" or "brand ambassadors". They are bribed with free products or even cash to spread the word about the latest brands. Primary school girls in effect act as salespeople on commission, promoting goods such as the Barbie Girls MP3 player and getting bonuses from the marketing company Dubit if they leave endorsements on chat-room sites or send photographic evidence of themselves showing a product to enthralled friends...Cookies on your computer monitor every site you visit on the internet, as well as whom you exchange emails with and what you write about. Corporations can then send out "targeted" advertising, and they target children at least as much as adults."
They want your sprogs. Peter Wilby. New Statesman. February 19, 2009
[ visit site ]
Link to book: Consumer Kids: How Big Business Is Grooming Our Children for Profit. Ed Mayo and Agnes Nairn.
[ visit site ]
YouTube video with the authors: [ visit site ]
excerpt: "Marketers and Brand Managers are set to benefit from two new brand research tools just launched by Ipsos Marketing...PERCEPTORPlus...uses a dynamic, predictive model that considers all aspects of a brand’s composition: functional properties; brand image; emotional needs served; and personality...
BRANDStretch helps consumer product companies identify categories that represent the best opportunities for extending their brands...
“Brands behave similar to living beings, so it is important for Marketers to understand what feeds the brand, what growth potential it has, and how consumers will interact with it,” says Lauren Demar, CEO of Ipsos Marketing, Consumer Goods. “These two new products enable Marketers to nourish and grow their brands. "
Two New Research Tools Help Clients Build Their Brands. Press Release. February 19, 2008
[ visit site ]
"A new IDC study of consumer online behavior found that the Internet is the medium on which online users spend the most time (32.7 hours/week). This is equivalent to almost half of the total time spent each week using all media (70.6 hours), almost twice as much time as spent watching television (16.4 hours), and more than eight times as much time as spent reading newspapers and magazines (3.9 hours).
"The time spent using the Internet will continue to increase at the expense of television and, to a lesser extent, print media," said Karsten Weide, program director, Digital Media and Entertainment at IDC. "This suggests that advertising budgets will continue to be shifted out of television, newspapers, and magazines into Internet advertising."
The data also show that consumers tend to use the media they grew up with. The older the respondents, the more they consume TV, newspapers, and magazines; the younger they are, the more the Internet displaces usage of traditional media."
IDC Finds Online Consumers Spend Almost Twice as Much Time Using the Internet as Watching TV. Press Release. Feb. 19, 2009
[ visit site ]
excerpt: Unkasoft Advergaming delivers a mobile gaming platform to mobile operators and publishers, which allows third party advertisers like Pepsi and Toyota to insert advertising messages inside free video games, offering a powerful personalized and interactive medium to engage with subscribers. The partnership with Mobixell, to create a joint solution, composed of Unkasoft's Advergaming platform and Mobixell Ad-It(TM) multi-channel ad-server solution, allows existing and prospective customers of both companies to deliver high quality, multimedia adverts across multiple channels, including WAP, SMS, MMS and video, as well as the highly interactive and engaging gaming medium.
The joint solution enables the dynamic insertion of rich media adverts in games, as part of a unified multi-channel campaign management environment. Contextual, behavioral, demographic or location-based criteria are, ensuring optimal relevance for the consumer, whilst enforcing policy and privacy protection.
Mobixell Partners With Spanish Mobile Advergaming Company Unkasoft to Deliver Multi-Channel, Rich-Media Advertising Campaigns Including in-Game Adverts. Press Release. February 16, 2009.
[ visit site ]
Pepsi Mobile Game: [ see game ]
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excerpt: "Britvic is a household name owning famous drinks brands such as Tango and Robinson’s. The company also produces, markets, sells and distributes Pepsi and 7UP under its exclusive appointment from PepsiCo...Britvic appointed mobile marketing and content interaction specialist mirada to drive forward its mobile marketing and promotional activity...NMK spoke to mirada’s director of new media services, Matt Cotton, to see what the new Britvic mobile campaign would look like...mirada has been brought on board to work in conjunction with Britvic’s other creative agencies with the aim of extending the level of interaction for the consumer that will immerse them with the brand. We are looking to create a truly cross-platform experience which will reward the consumer for their participation in an interactive campaign, and then maintain a dialogue with them beyond the initial entry.
We will be maximising Britvic's sponsorship opportunities and collaboratively trying to create 360 degree marketing campaigns...In terms of Pepsi however, judging by its current campaigns sport and music remain a key focus for the brand. So, the key here will be to excite and entice the consumer to interact with the brand on an ongoing basis. Consumers can now enjoy a rich media experience over mobile... And now that consumers have greater access to the Internet it is clear that there is a need to have a vibrant online element to campaigns."
Mobile Advertising Case Study: How Britvic Got There First. NMA. February 10, 2009
[ visit site ]
Mirada: [ visit site ]
excerpt: "Disney XD, a cable network launching today in 73 million homes. The ad-supported network is designed to super-serve boys 6 to 14, with a programming lineup that incorporates everything from live action to animation to music and sports...Disney "built it as a cross-platform brand because today...For us and our viewers and users online, being able to surround their viewers or people [advertisers] are trying to reach with relevant content and now relevant advertising was very important" [said Tricia Wilber, exec VP-Disney Media's advertising and marketing group]...
Disney XD will be the company's first major entrant into the ad-supported kids' market. Kellogg, General Mills, Lego, Pokemon USA and Kraft are all onboard as launch sponsors, with integrated sponsorships currently in the works for DisneyXD.com's virtual retail store. "
Disney XD Open for Business: Tween-Boy Cable, Online Network to Use ESPN Content. Andrew Hampp. February 13, 2009 [sub. required]
Disney XD: [ visit site ]
excerpt: "The personal nature of mobile communications enables us to blur the advertiser-to-consumer barrier, to enable the viewers to identify with the characters. It also offers opportunities for real interaction and personalization."
DCSF launches UK's first interactive mobile drama. January 15, 2009
[ visit site ]
Free best practice paper: Spread the mobile love [ visit site ]
excerpt: Kids' brands, like others, are shifting dollars into their digital ad buckets, say industry insiders -- good news for entrenched category leaders Nick.com, Disney.com and CartoonNetwork.com... Virtual worlds and kids-oriented ad nets are attempting to steal market share...as much as 50 to 75 percent of dollars being spent on kids' Web properties are not part of integrated TV packages...a result, most believe, of kids' heavier-than-adults' usage of digital media."
Kids' Brands Go Where Kids Play: Digital ad budgets grow in increasingly tough market. Mike Shields. Mediaweek. February 16, 2009
[ visit site ]
excerpt: "About 48% of consumers between the ages of 8 and 12 spend two hours online every day, according to eMarketer, while 24% of teens between 13 and 17 spend more than 15 hours online each week...Children growing up these days never knew a world in which NBC was a wholly different animal than TBS. For this digital generation, consumers have always been able to zip back and forth between a TV screen and a computer terminal or laptop, and TV aficionados can see whatever content they want at the push of a button or the load-up of a convenient DVD."
Where the Kids Are. Brian Steinberg. Ad Age. February 16, 2009 [sub. required].
excerpt: "It started with a lonely girl and a simple idea: tell a story incorporating the best elements of traditional narrative and online interactivity. Today that idea has transformed into EQAL (pronounced “Equal”), the social entertainment company...we currently produce the two most successful online interactive dramas: lonelygirl15 and KateModern. Through partnerships with independent producers, traditional media companies, and multinational brands, we are launching new interactive shows and building online communities that engage users like never before...we construct interactive shows that transform passive viewers into active participants."
Eqal [viewed February 16, 2009]
excerpt: "The makers of hugely successful online dramas KateModern and Lonely Girl 15 have called on production companies to wake up to cross-platform content in order to keep young people watching.
Miles Beckett, co-founder and CEO of Eqal, the content company formed by the team behind the web dramas, urged traditional production firms to integrate online with TV during the commissioning process.
"TV producers need to get used to cross-platform content," he said. "Younger audiences expect it now; this is how they want their content."
Teens expect more integration, says KateModern team. Luan Goldie. NMA. February 12, 2009 [sub. required]
Case study: Nestlé Kit Kash
on-pack promotion
Nestlé required a fresh approach to raise brand loyalty
Nestlé wanted to adopt the success of auction sites such as Ebay
The Mechanic: SMS-based on-pack auctions
* On-pack promotion of ‘Kit Kash' auction website: collect points and redeem on online auction
* Customers bank their codes at kitkash.co.uk using their mobile number as their bank account number.
* Customers bid for items including cash prizes, cars, holidays.
[ visit site ]
excerpt: "...Obama and Pepsi have just rebooted the entire system...Pepsi's recent campaign has made consumers part of the conversation: gone are the days of consumers sitting back and listening to the leader of the country. Now, it's about engagement at various points of media from social media like Facebook to blogs and tweets to in-banner video messages.
So, in celebration of the presidential inauguration, Pepsi launched a major web 2.0 event that empowered Americans to speak to the President directly through Pepsi's video banner ad, predominantly through a YouTube channel and complemented by a destination site entitled 'Refresh Everything'. The concept of the 'Dear Mr. President' ad campaign created by R/GA was promoted by celebrities voicing their well wishes and encouraging you, from your office or home, to do the same.
It allowed everyone with a webcam or messaging platform to share their thoughts and wishes on what should (and shouldn't) be changed about the country by sending a text or uploading a video to the dedicated YouTube channel, facilitated around key media placements though a fully interactive web banner and served through Eyeblaster's technology. So, in using online and social media channels to connect with consumers, Pepsi leveraged the common American theme, 'freedom of speech', to ignite this event -- utilising online media as open forum for consumers to communicate with Obama, yet all the while staying engaged with Pepsi's brand...
Pepsi's banner ad represents the more innovative use of online media: it empowers the end user to interact, form an opinion and speak directly to the American leader, something that truly is groundbreaking, and in doing so, speaks to a new generation of consumers. And the evidence speaks for itself; 14 cent of consumers who uploaded a video to YouTube did so through the banner."
How digital married Obama with Pepsi. Dean Donaldson. iMediaconnection. February 9, 2009
[ visit site ]
excerpt: "Free online gaming sites are more popular than ever. And that could be a boon for advertisers. Such sites racked up 27% more unique visits and 42% more total playing time in December 2008 than in December 2007, according to comScore. Free online gaming sites are more popular than ever. And that could be a boon for advertisers.
Such sites racked up 27% more unique visits and 42% more total playing time in December 2008 than in December 2007, according to comScore...“comScore’s measurements highlight the ongoing shift from high-cost, console-based gaming toward free, browser-based alternatives,” said Paul Verna, eMarketer senior analyst. “This trend has been underway for some time, but the economic crisis has accelerated it. Given current economic and consumer behavior patterns, we expect to see ad-supported, casual games continue on an upward trajectory in 2009.”
Traffic Spikes for Ad-Supported Games. eMarketer. February 10, 2009
From comScore release. January 28, 2009: "...Yahoo! Games ranked as the most visited site in the category with 19.5 million visitors (up 20 percent), followed by EA Online with 15.4 million visitors (up 21 percent), and Disney Games with 13.4 million visitors (up 13 percent). The tenth most visited site, Spil Games, saw traffic surge 269 percent to 6.7 million visitors...“It appears that online, ad-supported gaming is one of the activities that has benefited during this economic downturn,” said Edward Hunter, comScore director of gaming solutions. “Not only have consumers turned to outlets such as gaming to take their minds off the economy, but as they curtail their discretionary gaming-related purchases they are turning to free alternatives.”...Despite a challenging online display advertising market, trends are looking remarkably positive for the online gaming category. From November 2007 to November 2008, the total number of display ad views in the Online Gaming category grew 29 percent to 8.6 billion. The increase in display ad exposures is due primarily to the increasing number of visitors to the category (up 30 percent), while the average person’s frequency of exposure has remained relatively constant at 127 ad views per person.
Game On! Online Gaming Surges as Gamers Seek Out Free Alternatives in Tight Economy. comScore
[ visit site ]
"IndoorDIRECT announced today that it has signed an agreement with Denny's... to provide theBITE Network in its restaurant locations... Program content of theBITE Network is a combination of entertainment and advertising tailored to reach the 202 million Americans who visit quick-serve and fast-casual restaurants each month. TheBITE features a new 60-minute lifestyle program every week with four dynamic hosts reporting on news, entertainment, music and sports. Denny's will also collaborate with indoorDIRECT to bring its Rockstar Menu to life for its guests through content featured on theBITE...TheBITE Network will provide two programming loops for Denny's. "During the day and evening, theBITE will show entertaining content that appeals to a variety of ages," said Bill Myers, Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder of indoorDIRECT, "while during the late shift the content will be edgier to attract the attention of the late-night crowds. Denny's views theBITE Network as enhancing its brand with the entire range of customers that it serves."
IndoorDIRECT Signs Agreement With Denny's Corporation; theBITE Network to Provide Entertaining Programming for Diners. Press Release. February 9, 2009
[ visit site ]
About indoorDIRECT
"IndoorDIRECT is a dynamic digital out-of-home media network that reaches fast food and casual dining customers. We effectively place two to four 42 inch plasma screens in restaurant dining rooms, which show original content and advertising with the opportunity for customer interaction via cell phones. A third screen, the Promotional Board, is placed at the point of purchase and promotes the restaurant’s featured items... For advertisers, it provides a unique opportunity to reach the fast-food and casual dining customer directly. Presently, our restaurant partners are Arby’s, Captain D's, Hardee’s, Del Taco, Taco Bueno, Wendy’s, CiCi’s Pizza and restaurants across the United States.
[ visit site ]
excerpt: "In running a mobile coupon campaign, burrito restaurant chain Big City Burrito learned a valuable lesson: Be careful what you wish for.
The chain’s metropolitan Denver area mailed coupons to select residents offering a free burrito for texting in to a short code. What happened next at the three Big City Burrito restaurants is word of mouth at its best and mobile at its most enticing.
“Customers lining up to buy a burrito found out from others about the free offer, stepped out of line, texted and then stepped back into line,” said John Besley, owner of Money Mailer of Metro Denver.
“We had people broadcasting to their [mobile] address books,” he said.
...
Valid through Feb. 10, the coupons give a $5 discount on all burrito offers over $20 and another similar offer for takeout orders over $25. The third coupon is for a free burrito of equal or lesser value with the purchase of a regular burrito and two 22oz drinks.
A strip on top of that mailer was headlined: “Want a free burrito? Just text: BIGCITYB to 686868.”
“We’re having success by integrating mobile with our shared-mail platform or our one-to-one direct marketing solutions,” he said. “And the reason we’re successful is because we’re leveraging those channels to increase the opt-in rates for mobile" [ said Steven Gray, chief operating officer of Money Mailer]."
Big City Burrito sees traffic from mobile coupons. Mickey Alam Khan. Mobile Marketer. February 3, 2009
[ visit site ]
excerpt: "Subway is letting its customers place orders via their mobile phone, before they even get to one of the fast food chain’s locations.
The company has partnered with GoMobo...The service lets customers order ahead via the Web or through a text message to skip the line at quick-serve restaurants...Clients of GoMobo include Subway, Dunkin’ Donuts, Papa John’s, Quiznos, Booster Juice, Johnny Rockets and Krispy Kreme. The company also offers interactive marketing services to clients, allowing them to distribute opt-in promotions and specials to users of the service.
To participate in mobile ordering, Subway customers must first register online at www.subwaynow.com.
Users enter credit card information when they place their first order."
Fast-food chain Subway launches mobile ordering system. Giselle Abramovich. Mobile Marketer. February 6, 2009
[ visit site ]
excerpt: "Fast-food chain Jack in the Box launched a mobile marketing campaign during the Super Bowl that was recently expanded to include coupon offers.
In addition to the TV commercial, the campaign includes both wired and mobile Web sites, as well as a call-to-action encouraging consumers to sign up for SMS alerts and coupon offers. ...
“We’re powering the Jack in the Box mobile alerts with Horizon Media,” said Roger Pang, director of business development for FoneMine. “We’re serving video and mobile alerts based on Jack Box’s status, and it’s been spreading virally....
The mobile campaign is an extension of Jack in the Box’s TV commercial that ran during Super Bowl XLIII on Feb. 1.
...
At the end of the commercial, the campaign’s URL—hangintherejack.com—flashes on the screen. The site can be accessed via computer, and there is also a mobile-optimized version.
The Hang in there Jack mobile site contains the following message:
“Show your support for Jack. Download a coupon at http://coupon.hangintherejack.com. Use it anytime, day or night, on Tues., Feb. 10. Jack would want it that way.
“Jack Box was hit by a bus. He’s being evaluated at an emergency room. For more information, go to http://hangintherejack.com.
There is a call-to-action to opt into the campaign: “Sign up to get the latest on Jack’s condition.”
Consumers are asked to enter their name, mobile number, email address and ZIP code to subscribe to the SMS alerts."
Jack in the Box runs post-Super Bowl mobile campaign. Dan Butcher. Mobile Marketer. Feb. 9, 2009
[ visit site ]
excerpt from interview with Frito-Lay Consumer Strategy & Insights VP Pam Forbus:
Q. What are the “hot” concepts Frito-Lay marketers are working on right now?
A. Building SunChips into the preeminent “green” snack, the next consumer generated platform for Doritos, delivering on the “big idea” for the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl – and so much more!
News from the Center for Customer Insight and Marketing Solutions. August 2008
[ visit site ]
excerpt: "Was "MacGruber" a "Saturday Night Live" sketch or Pepsi commercial? Depending on when you were watching television over the weekend, it was hard to tell.
On Saturday night's "SNL," the recurring bit starring cast member Will Forte aired three times during the show, each time with comical over-the-top promotion for Pepsi.
Then on Sunday night, one of the same "MacGruber" sketches — in which Forte plays a parody of the '80s action series "MacGyver" — aired during NBC's broadcast of the Super Bowl as a commercial.
As it turns out, all were paid commercials by Pepsi, made in collaboration with producer Lorne Michaels' "Saturday Night Live."...Branding expert Peter Arnell was in charge of PepsiCo's Super Bowl campaign, which also included a 3-D commercial for its SoBe Life Water.
"The creative space is 'SNL's' and they were commercials we would have bought, so the economics were as normal as it ever was," said Arnell. "It's the un-advertising advertising."
PepsiCo American Beverages chief Massimo d'Amore: "...It's a very determined step to connect with the consumers of today in a new contemporary way."
Is 'SNL' Leasing Its Sketches To Advertisers? Jake Coyle. AP. February 2, 2009
[ visit site ]
case study excerpt: "Lotame aggregates data unique to the social web allowing our participating brands to locate, target, and message the sought after influencers inside these communities. These influencers are your consumers, who will not only pay attention to your brand, but also become engaged with it by creating, uploading, and sharing content about it. The following advertising campaign outlines the strategy taken by a national fast- food corporation...
WHO: A national fast- food corporation
LOCATE: Influencers and engaged consumers
HOW LOTAME HELPED THE CAMPAIGN:
• Created a 75% lift in purchase intent...
• Discovered new influencers....
• Revealed an “Intent to Purchase” group. Users with unlikely interests like in
Cars, Romance & Relationships, and Politics engaged with the campaign."
[ visit site ]
"Application publisher Slide is teaming up with Katalyst Media, the original content production company co-founded by Ashton Kutcher and Jason Goldberg. The partnership will involve exclusive distribution of the production company’s new series through Slide FunSpace, called KatalystHQ. This show offers a behind the scenes look at the inner workings of Kutcher’s production company. What’s most notable about this new deal is its exclusive partnership between Katalyst Media and Slide FunSpace, which is among the top five Facebook applications..."
All Facebook. February 4, 2009
[ visit site ]
excerpt: The Internet is accounting for a larger and larger share of total media time--particularly among young consumers; numerous studies demonstrate that teens, millentials and other young cohorts are spending ore time online per week than they are watching television.
The internet plays into the consumer-in-control movement and, therefore, provides new opportunities to be a part of their conversations about interests, attitudes, shopping plans and even brands.
Web 2.0 activities such as blogs, social networks and Twitter provide marketers with the potential to gain rich insights into consumer behavior and attitudes.
Unlike any other medium or channel, the interest allows marketers to reach consumers through the entire buying cycle..."
Why Internet Marketing and Advertising Will Continue to Grow. Digital Marketing Now: Seven Strategies for Surviving the Downturn. Geoffrey Ramsey. eMarketer. November 2008
[ visit site ]
excerpt: "Super Bowl advertisers are struggling to keep their 30-second spots fresh in the minds of viewers. Although Coke and Pepsi initially saw 373 percent and 244 percent increases in mentions on Twitter, respectively, those numbers have since fallen. Doritos also saw a short-lived spike in response, with almost 3,300 tweets on Monday, but just 933 mentions a day later, according to AdWeek.
Denny's managed to swing an extra day of buzz by offering consumers free breakfast on Tuesday. As a result, it inspired more than 1,700 tweets from freebie-loving consumers that day."
Twitter, Nielsen IAG measure Super Bowl ad success. Emily Chang. iMediaconnection. February 4, 2009
[ visit site ]
excerpt: "Is Jack in the Box’s new viral marketing campaign really worth $3 million? ...
The fast food chain kicked off a multi-week campaign during the Super Bowl on Sunday that puts into question the fate of the company’s founder, Jack.
In the spot, Jack is hit by a bus while walking across a street...Nearly 250 million have logged into the Web site, a company spokesperson said. Well wishers by the thousands are adding words of encouragement to the site where visitors can post their own."
Jack in the Box Campaign on Life Support. Amy Johannes. February 4, 2009
[ visit site ]
excerpt: "WildTangent operates the fastest growing games network in the world, reaching more than 20 million monthly unique gamers in the US and more than 40 million worldwide. We deliver integrated campaigns targeting casual gamers, core gamers, or kids across wholly owned properties and a network of premium online gaming properties who we exclusively represent. We enable advertisers to benefit from the reach and scale of our network while driving deep engagement and results that blow away market norms...
Advertisers can target by channel, genre, theme, and by individual games to effectively reach their demographic and psychographic target....Our Kids&Family channel delivers a primary audience of Kids 9-14 with a heavy male skew. Our Kids & Family channel enables advertisers to align themselves with top games from major youth entertainment brands as well as a number of massively multiplayer game worlds like Runescape, AdventureQuest, and Free Realms. Advertisers in our Kids & Family channel include Cartoon Networks, Kellogg's, and General Mills. "
[ visit site ]
excerpt: "The candy maker is asking consumers to pick the latest packaging for its Goobers, Sno-Caps and Oh Henry! brands. To come up with the finalists it used the Web-based shop MarketSplash by HP.
Participants are invited to go to Adeliciousdilemma.com to vote through March 6. For their trouble they are entered to win one of five $100 candy prize packs. Online marketing including a YouTube video supports."
Nestlé Asks Consumers to Help Repackage Candies. Kenneth Hein. Brandweek. February 4, 2009
Nestlé Asks Consumers to Help Repackage Candies
Adeliciousdilemma.com: [ visit site ]
Facebook: [ visit site ]
excerpt: "Coca-Cola has joined the stampede of brands onto the iPhone with a new app for users to play a 21st century game of spin the bottle.
Spin the Coke is billed as a way to "break the ice or to give that someone special a not so subtle hint." After downloading the app from the iTunes store, users spin a Coke bottle image that appears on their phone. The application is free....said Freddie Laker, director of digital strategy at Sapient, the Coke roster shop that created the app. "Living the 'Coke Side of Life' is about youth culture and sitting around playing spin the bottle epitomizes that."
It joins another free application Coke created for the iPhone.... Users can shake their iPhone's Coke bottle image to get answers to life's burning questions. Players can choose from five backgrounds and two themes, with each background having different music. They can also customize the bottle between the classic Coke and the modern version.
Coke will promote the application on its own properties and via blogger outreach..."
Coke Dabbles in iPhone Apps. Brian Morrissey. Adweek. February 4, 2009
[ visit site ]
excerpt: "Media-research firm Innerscope concluded that the most "emotionally engaging" ads -- surprisingly or not -- were those that in one way or another channeled concerns about the economy. ...
"Your unconscious emotions reveal what your conscious thoughts cannot,'' said Dr. Carl Marci, a co-director of Boston-based Innerscope, which gauges a person's emotional response through biometric vests, and former director of Social Neuroscience for the Psychotherapy Research Program at Massachusetts General Hospital. "The benefit of biometrics is that we can identify how people truly feel, and the economy is pervasive."
Dr. Marci, who served as the guest editor of the International Journal of Advertising's special issue on neuromarketing, contends that his method of weighing subconscious emotional engagement is the most objective measurement of whether an ad is well-received.
...
Along with the CareerBuilder and Cash4Gold, Castrol Oil's monkey humor and GoDaddy's familiar pitch rounded out the three and four spots. Bud Light's "Boardroom" spot was the fifth most resonant. There was no overlap with USA Today's rankings, which gave the Doritos' Crystal Ball ad the No. 1 spot. Budweiser's pair of Clydesdale ads, Bridgestone's Mr. Potato Head commercial and a second Dorito's spot rounded out the Ad Meter's top five."
The Top Five Most 'Emotionally Engaging' Super Bowl Ads. Maxwell Lakin. Ad Age. February 3, 2009
[ visit site ]
excerpt: "In a social media effort that is part of its new "Refresh Everything" campaign, Pepsi is making use of an application that lets users upload their own videos directly through an ad banner. The "Dear Mr. President" effort seeks to encourage Pepsi's Millennial target audience to upload videos expressing their thoughts to today's incoming president on what should (and shouldn't) be changed about the country.
The banner began appearing on Yahoo Music and the Google Content Network on Jan. 14, and will be online through today. A click into the banner takes the user directly into the Refresh Everything area on YouTube, where a video can be uploaded as usual. (Those without Webcams can instead submit a text message in either the YouTube area or the main Refresh Everything Web site.)...
"People are less and less interested in visiting destination sites," says Amit Rahav, VP of marketing for Eyeblaster. Technology that enables direct, immediate interaction, like this in-banner video upload, can increase response/conversion significantly, he says, adding that the banner is performing "nicely above benchmarks."
Pepsi Ad Banner Lets Users Upload Videos Directly. Karlene Lukovitz. Marketing Daily. January 19, 2009
[ visit site ]
excerpt: "Just like on the field, Super Bowl XLIII had its winners and losers among brand marketers trying to turn their big game spots into lasting online results.
This year, E-Trade, Kellogg's Frosted Flakes, and Cash4Gold.com were all integrated marketing winners, according to new data from IPG's search and social media marketing agency Reprise Media.
Reprise's Search Marketing Scorecard ranked Super Bowl advertisers based on the level of integration between their TV spots and online presence...
Denny's free breakfast promo failed to include a URL in their TV ad or an online call to action. Their Web site, however, still managed to crash soon after their ad aired, and was then down for the rest of the game."
E-Trade, Kellogg's, Cash4Gold Score Big On Integration. Gavin O'Malley with Mark Walsh. Online Media Daily.
[ visit site ]
excerpt: "This year's conclusion from search-marketing firm Reprise Media, which for the past five years has evaluated marketers' Super Bowl efforts: Most brands make an attempt to make the connection to online but some, remarkably, still don't...
One in five, or 22% of Super Bowl advertisements, directed viewers to a specific call to action, the highest since Reprise started to track the big game five years ago. As one might expect, search advertising is becoming a bigger part of Super Bowl marketing campaigns. Reprise says 65% of Super Bowl advertisers bought search terms related to their commercials, compared with 54% last year and 21% five years ago
...Among those that flubbed the online opportunity during the Super Bowl was Denny's, which didn't include a URL in its TV ad for a free breakfast promo. That was probably a good thing -- its site crashed right after the ad aired and was down for the rest of the game.
The marketers that best leveraged their big spend on the big game?...Frosted Flakes...Diet Pepsi Max...and Pepsi."
Which Marketers Best Tied Super Bowl Ads to Search? Michael Learmonth. Ad Age. Feb. 2, 2009
[ visit site ]
excerpt: "Sanrio's Hello Kitty... will also be featured on HappyMeal.com... Users logging on to the website can download Hello Kitty wallpaper, screensaver, icons and coloring sheets, along with interacting with the famous feline in McWorld, the virtual world of McDonald's."
Sanrio and McDonald's team up for QSR promo. Emily Claire Afan. Kidscreen. February 5, 2009
[ visit site ]
McDonald's: [ visit site ]
from Jack In The Box Twitter site [excerpt]: "jackbox.
This is Barbara, Jack’s assistant. Jack was hit by a bus. I’ll be updating his Facebook & Twitter with more info as I get it. about 11 hours ago from web
This is Barbara, Jack’s assistant. Jack was hit by a bus. I’ll be updating his Facebook & Twitter with more info as I get it. Stay tuned.... about 11 hours ago from web
Going downtown to have lunch with Phil. about 18 hours ago from mobile web
Teaching Jack Jr. French 12:21 PM Jan 31st from web
Thinking of new ideas for breakfast sandwiches. 8:47 PM Jan 30th from web
Having a taco-riffic day! 12:55 PM Jan 30th from web
Responding to comment cards. 1:47 PM Jan 29th from web
Getting a new frame for the self portrait hanging in my office. 7:23 PM Jan 28th from web."
http://twitter.com/jackbox
From Facebook [excerpt]: " * Discussion Board
* Topic View
Topic: Super Bowl and Jack
Reply to Topic
Displaying all 8 posts by 7 people.
Post #1
Karen Papin (Northern Arizona, AZ) wrote9 hours ago
It was bad enough that the Cardinals lost, but to lose Jack, too. How can a person in Arizona survive??
Reply to KarenReport
Post #2
Christopher Abeyta (Phoenix, AZ) wrote8 hours ago
TWO BIG LOSSES - ONE DAY-
TOO LATE FOR THE CARDINALS BUT
I KNOW YOU CAN COME BACK FROM THIS JACK.
Reply to ChristopherReport
Post #3
Glen Guerrero (Fresno, CA) wrote8 hours ago
I couldn't believe what I had seen! I almost choked on my mozarella sticks.
[ visit site ]
Jack In The Box Facebook profile: "
STATUS: Married
HOMETOWN: Grew up on a Cattle Ranch in Colorado
ZODIAC SIGN: Taurus
CHILDREN: Jack Jr.
HEIGHT: 7'2"
OCCUPATION: Founder of Jack in the Box
My goal is to rule the fast food world with an iron fist. And raise a happy family. I was born on a cattle ranch in Colorado. I didn't have much except a love for burgers and pretty women. What else does your average red-blooded American need? Then I headed to sunny California. Why? Cuz I had this idea to let people order burgers from their cars...and, well, people in California love their cars. (Not to mention I have a thing for blondes.) So I opened up Jack in the Box. Met my wife Cricket. Got my sweet yellow hat and an even sweeter jet.
(read less)
STATUS: Married
HOMETOWN: Grew up on a Cattle Ranch in Colorado
ZODIAC SIGN: Taurus
CHILDREN: Jack Jr.
HEIGHT: 7'2"
OCCUPATION: Founder of Jack in the Box
My goal is to rule the fast food world with an iron fist. And raise a happy family. I was born on a cattle ranch in Colorado. I didn't have much except a love for burgers and pretty women. What else does your average red-blooded American need? Then I headed to sunny California. Why? Cuz I had this idea to let people order burgers from... (read more)
Personal Interests:
Let's see. Hmmm...so many to choose from. I like making people smile by serving them tasty fast food, served in a jiffy for a great price. Ok, now that all the politically correct reasons are covered, let's get to the good stuff. I love doing loop-de-loops in my private jet. Wakeboarding behind my yacht. Running back-to-back marathons. Cutting and designing an 84-karat diamond ring for my wife Cricket. Teaching my son that he can make it to the big leagues without using steroids. What else? Hmmm...I also have an interest in psychology. I would love to know why people eat a "nugget" of anything and, if other people get the "heebie geebies" watching The King do just about anything.
Few people know I used to be a rock guitarist. But all that playing was messing with my burger flipping hand so I had to hang up the axe (that's cool musician slang for guitar). My favorite song I wrote was called "Baby Got Jack". You might be able to find it somewhere on the web. It's really catchy. Now that I'm retired from playing music I like listening to Meatloaf. Go figure.
I don't like going to movies much. Something about everyone sitting behind me telling me to "Sit my a-- in the back row so they can see". So I built a theatre in my home and have the studios send movies directly to me. I just watched Star Wars 26. George made it just for me. It's awesome.
I have 1,200 tv's in my house all hooked up to my private satellite so I can watch every tv channel on earth. At the same time. Except when my baseball team is playing. Then I tune them all into that channel.
Let's see. Hmmm...so many to choose from. I like making people smile by serving them tasty fast food, served in a jiffy for a great price. Ok, now that all the politically correct reasons are covered, let's get to the good stuff. I love doing loop-de-loops in my private jet. Wakeboarding behind my yacht. Running back-to-back marathons. Cutting and designing an 84-karat diamond ring for my wife Cricket. Teaching my son that he can make it to the big leagues without using steroids. What else?... (read more)
Contact Info
Email: jackboxfacebook@gmail.com
[ visit site ]
excerpt: Live from New York, it's ... a Pepsi commercial disguised as a "Saturday Night Live" skit.
Regular "SNL" viewers are familiar with "MacGruber," the "MacGyver" parody starring Will Forte...On Saturday, "MacGruber" was back --but the skit... showed up in the middle of several commercial breaks.
By the second spot (which took on the exact same form as past, actual "MacGruber" appearances), it was clear why: The sketches were actually ads for Pepsi....
The "MacGruber" Pepsi spots may be the most cunning use of TiVo-proofing yet....
Further blurring the line between commercial and "SNL" sketch: NBC"s website now includes video of the "MacGruber" Pepsi gags along side clips from this Saturday's other "SNL" sketches...."
'MacGruber' takes Pepsi challenge: Soda ad disguised as 'SNL' skit. MIchael Schneider. Feb. 1, 2009
[ visit site ]
Spot on NBC co-owned Hulu.com: [ see spot ]
excerpt: "The Doritos brand today announced that its consumer-created Doritos commercial "Free Doritos," which aired for the first time nationally during yesterday's Super Bowl XLIII broadcast, ranked No. 1 in USA TODAY's annual Super Bowl Ad Meter. The tortilla chip brand is now giving Joe Herbert, the ad's talented creator, a $1 million payout for claiming the coveted title many ad pros strive to attain each year.
Nationwide consumer votes put "Free Doritos" in the Super Bowl limelight from amongst nearly 2,000 entries and five finalist ads in the third annual Doritos "Crash the Super Bowl" program. Now, too, in the Super Bowl spotlight is finalist Eric Heimbold. Doritos surprised viewers by also airing his commercial "Power of Crunch," which placed No. 5 in the USA TODAY ad meter.
"We've said it before and we'll say it again, Doritos goes big or goes home," said Ann Mukherjee, group vice president, marketing, Doritos. "We knew Joe could take on the pros and now he has the financial resources to pursue his dreams. We are extremely proud of Joe's accomplishment and believe this is the best million dollars the Doritos brand has ever spent."
The brand also announced that it will continue to give control of its broadcast advertising air time to its fans. Doritos will also air all five finalist commercials as its national Doritos TV campaign to continue to shine the spotlight on their makers and their budding careers. In addition to "Free Doritos," the other finalists' ads that will be at the center of Doritos' TV advertising campaign are: "Power of the Crunch," "The Chase," "Too Delicious," and "New Flavor Pitch."
"We believe in our fans and will continue to provide them with opportunities to be discovered and live out their dreams," adds Mukherjee. "Doritos feels, as a brand, it should break the rules for it fans so they can make the impossible become possible."
Joe and his co-creator and brother Dave Herbert returned to meet the newly raised stakes of the third annual Doritos "Crash the Super Bowl." From shattering a vending machine full of Doritos with a snow globe to throwing the "crystal ball" at the Boss, the inspiration for their commercial is based on ideas the brothers felt would evoke laughter and emotion from the audience at different points of the commercial.
"To have 'Free Doritos' exposed on the Super Bowl stage was already amazing enough," exclaimed Herbert. "But, to now claim No. 1 on the USA TODAY Ad Meter and win $1 million is unbelievable and affirmation that we can and will fulfill our dreams. This means so much to my brother and I. We are very thankful to Doritos, our friends, our family and everyone else who supported us and believed in us."...
The "Crash the Super Bowl" campaign is the evolution of the Doritos brand allowing consumers to be in control...
Frito-Lay North America is the $11 billion convenient foods business unit of PepsiCo, which is headquartered in Purchase, NY. In addition to Frito-Lay, PepsiCo business units include Pepsi-Cola, Quaker Foods, Gatorade and Tropicana.
Doritos Fan Trumps Advertising Professionals and Wins $1 Million Super Bowl Advertising Challenge:First-Ever Consumer-Created Ad Takes No. 1 Spot in USA TODAY's Annual Super Bowl Ad Meter. Press Release. February 2, 2009
[ view press release ]
[ visit site ]
excerpt: "For the first time, it wasn't an ad agency that created the best-liked Super Bowl commercial. It was two unemployed brothers from Batesville, Ind., whose ad for Doritos — created for an online contest for amateurs — won them $1 million from Doritos maker Frito-Lay...What the duo did was beat 51 big-budget advertisers and won USA TODAY'S 21st annual exclusive Super Bowl Ad Meter real-time consumer testing of how much they liked the ads as they aired... Doritos is thrilled.
"We were hoping for this. This is going to be the best million dollars we've spent at Frito-Lay," says Ann Mukherjee, group vice president at Frito-Lay.
It will have an "ongoing relationship" with the brothers, she says. "They're now part of the family."
'Two nobodies from nowhere' craft winning Super Bowl ad for Doritos. Bruce Horovitz. February 1, 2009
[ visit site ]
excerpt: "The fast food giant owns three Web site domains targeting major minority groups - 365black.com, i-am-asian.com and meencanta.com. The sites feature interactive activities, even scholarships and career opportunities meant to elicit pride within each community..."
Out of the Frying Pan and into the Fryer. Jessica Tsai. OMMA Magazine. July 2008
[ visit site ]
www.365black.com
www.i-am-asian.com/
www.meencanta.com/
excerpt: "Last week a legit story appeared on a local news channel reporting that, because of the shutdown of a major supplier of chicken wings, there was likely to be a shortage of the tasty tidbits, which would lead to a raft of unhappy snackers during Sunday’s big game.
The Kraft team (client and agency) were inspired to expand on the story, implying it might be on account of hording do to the new formulation of Kraft Ranch Dressing, soon to be introduced.
With only a few days before the Super Bowl, we had no time to bog down in debate and discussion. Wednesday at noon teams were briefed at the agency. Friday night the video (see below) was posted on You Tube. A remarkable accomplishment, when you consider how long it usually takes to make a cohesive film, especially for a client as big and complex as Kraft.
The production company was Foundation, also out of Chicago. The mock news story we made together was written on the fly, sans approvals, shot and edited in 48 hours. Given all that, I’d say they did a pretty good job.
Such is the brave new world of viral filmmaking, where everything has to be done faster and cheaper than most agencies and clients are used to. But get used to it we must, because that’s where our business is going.
Kudos to Euro’s creative, production and account team for getting it done. And cheers to Kraft, for inspiring us as opposed to bogging us down. They were fearless. Oh yeah, and here’s to Crazy Bill, for taking the wing shortage way too seriously."
Gods of Advertising blog. January 31, 2009
[ visit site ]
excerpt: "The brands of the future will be vehicles and not just destinations. The success stories of the last decade were built on this principle...Our journey does not finish with Google and YouTube, that's where it starts. While sponsorship is in vogue at present, enabling people goes a lot deeper than patronage.... McDonald's is rolling out free in-store Wi-Fi around the world, making its outlets a jumping-off point for any inspiring experience. Groove Armada has signed an exclusive deal with Bacardi rather than a record label -- an unlikely creative partnership that has raised the band's creative flexibility and made Bacardi a trailblazing brand vehicle. The days of the static brand are increasingly numbered, as they become a means and not an end. In the future brands will live and, if they are any good, we will want to live our lives through them."
Leo Burnett's 9 predictions for the radical new world. Ben Hourahine. January 27, 2009. iMediaconnection.UK
[ visit site ]
excerpt: "In a small warehouse off Licking Pike, four Second City veterans are serving up improvisational comedy on the Internet for workers nationwide eating lunch at their desks.
"Working Lunch," the 12-minute sketches about office meetings, was created by a Cincinnati advertising firm to promote the new Healthy Choice Fresh Mixers pasta meals.
They are performed four times an hour, noon to 4 p.m. (through lunch on the West Coast).
"We wanted to interact with people when they were using our product," says Brian Lipman, interactive marketing manager for ConAgra Foods of Omaha, Neb., makers of Healthy Choice...An average of 65,000 people have watched daily, Lipman says. The show exceeded its goal by attracting more than 3 million unique visitors and 2 million video views in three weeks - two weeks in November and last week - Lipman says.
Minutes before each sketch, the performers are told the meeting "agenda" or topic. Web users can vote on poll questions during each show to determine plot twists...ConAgra has spent "multimillions" on the project, Lipman says."
Savor 'Lunch' on Web. John Kiesewetter. NKY.com. January 14, 2009
[ visit site ]
Link to ConAgra's online video series: [ visit site ]
"It's the Double Stuff Racing League--a fierce competition to see who's fastest to twist, lick and dunk their Oreo cookie. The league has gained popularity thanks to sports luminary like Peyton and Eli Manning, and now Venus & Serena Williams. While the sport itself dates way back, you can help take the brand new League to new heights. Ready to join?...
[and then in tiny print at bottom of web page]: "Hi kids, when you see "Ad Break" it means you are viewing a commercial message designed to sell you something. Remember, if you are under 18 years old, you should get a parent's permission before you submit any information about yourself or try to buy anything online."
[ visit site ]
[ see "Dewsletter" ]
[ see video ]
excerpt: "Church’s Chicken and Coca-Cola have launched interactive promotional initiatives that target mature, multicultural, urban young-adults with food, video games and mobile technology. The fast-food brand is in collaboration with Coca-Cola on a promotion called "Be Heard" that uses mobile technology to engage and interact with a younger segment of the brands’ target audience. Church’s Chicken and Coca-Cola set their sights on a mobile campaign that leverages the power of text messaging.
“Texting is an important and popular means of communication for our customers, especially among our younger audience,” said Farnaz Wallace, executive vice president and chief marketing officer of Church’s Chicken, Atlanta. “Therefore, we wanted to leverage the urban youth’s passion points cost-effectively and with marketing precision.
“By doing this, we hope to make our brand a more relevant part of their fast-paced daily lives and excite them about our promotions and value-driven messaging,” she said.
The Be Heard promotion, slated for implementation early this year, lets customers text in a keyword to a short code after answering four questions about their recent Church’s in-store visit.
Customers can to text keyword “Good” to short code 30123 in order to enter the sweepstakes.
Once the text message is submitted, customers instantly receive a bounce-back coupon with various offers, including $1 off any value combo meal and a free order of Bombers with any value combo purchase at regular menu price.
The promotion gives customers an opportunity to win $1,000 in cash to be awarded on a weekly basis for the nine-week promotion, and a Be Heard poster featuring artwork by Kadir Nelson and an inspirational poem by R&B artist Musiq Soulchild.
The urban youth market is the second largest and fastest growing segment nationwide and one of Church’s core customers.
The campaign is meant to supplement long-term brand-building and recognition within this important group.
“Since Church’s has limited broadcast media dollars in certain markets, one of our biggest challenges is that the only way many customers find out about a promotion is when they get to a store,” Ms. Wallace said. “To overcome this challenge, we are hoping to bring awareness to our promotions through other means such as mobile marketing.
“Our goal is to find a place ahead of the curve by exploring newer means of communications to target the young, multicultural segment,” she said. “We may find that it includes Twitter or some social media channel.”
...The brand last year sponsored Soulcalibur IV, yielding approximately 17,300 online sweepstakes entries. Nearly 20 percent of those entries actively requested to receive coupons and promotional information from Church’s.
The Soulcalibur IV promotion also increased traffic to Church’s official Web site by an average of 30 percent and supplemented an increase in the brand’s value combo sales.
...“The urban youth media mix is unique and technology-driven..."
Church’s Chicken, Coca-Cola use SMS to connect with urban youth. Dan Butcher. Mobile Marketer. January 28, 2009
[ visit site ]
[ visit site ]
"Church's Chicken is broadening its effort to appeal to young, urban consumers. The company is launching a promotional campaign for a new digital game, Namco Bandai Games' hip-hop oriented "Afro Samurai. The game...will include a collaboration with Coca-Cola's "Be Heard" mobile promo. The nine-week "Be Heard" promotion enables customers to text a code on their mobile devices for coupons and a chance to win $1,000 in cash to be awarded on a weekly basis.. The game goes on sale today for Xbox 360 and PlayStation...
Church's this week launches "Afro Samurai Enter-to-Win Sweepstakes..."Gamers are an emerging loyal fan base akin to those of traditional sports like football or basketball...[said Farnaz Wallace, EVP and CMO of Church's].
Church's Chicken Bows Effort For Digital Game. Karl Greenberg. Marketing Daily. January 26, 2009
[ visit site ]
Afro Samurai site: [ visit site ]
excerpt: "...We dug deep inside leading agencies to uncover the creative juice powering the online, mobile, social-network, virtual-world, and especially cross-platform marketing campaigns that pushed the envelope in 2008...Andrew Keller & Rob Reilly, Executive Creative Directors, Crispin Porter & Bogusky
This two-headed monster is responsible for some of the most talked about advertising in culture today. As Co-Executive Creative Directors they oversee all of CP+B’s clients which include Microsoft, Coke Zero, Old Navy, Guitar Hero, Domino’s Pizza, Burger King and Volkswagen. They're the brains behind Burger King's high-buzz ads, including Whopper Freakout and Whopper Virgins.
[ visit site ]
Whopper Virgins: [ visit site ]
Case Study [excerpt]: "Coca-Cola | Activating Sponsorship Opportunites...Vibes collaborated with all of Coca Cola’s agencies to implement a fully integrated, multi-media platform experience called “My Coke Fest.” Prior to the event, fans could opt-in to receive mobile alerts that kept them informed of all the “goings on” throughout the day. At the event, twenty foot screens were erected on either side of a large concert stage - popular bands performed throughout the day as fans sent personalized text and picture messages directly to the screen. Between the musicians’ set breaks, Coca Cola ran a series of new television commercials and prompted fans to text-2-vote for their favorite for a chance to win cash prizes or signed band memorabilia. After the event, all of the “My Coke Fest” participants received a bounceback message thanking them for their votes and directing them to the “My Coke Fest” website.
Coca-Cola | Activating Sponsorship Opportunites.
[ visit site ]
excerpt from interview of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg: "Facebook is, he told me, studying “sentiment” behavior. It hasn’t yet used that research in its public service yet, but is looking to figure out if people are having a good day or bad day. He said that already his teams are able to sense when nasty news, like stock prices are headed down, is underway. He also told me that the sentiment engine notices a lot of “going out” kinds of messages on Friday afternoon and then notices a lot of “hungover” messages on Saturday morning. He’s not sure where that research will lead. We talked about how sentiment analysis might lead to a new kind of news display in Facebook. Knowing whether a story is positive or negative would let Facebook pick a good selection of both kinds of news, or maybe even let you choose whether you want to see only “happy” news."
Zuckerberg: Facebook’s “intense” year. scobleizer.com
[ visit site ]
excerpt: "When it comes to the Super Bowl, one of the biggest sporting events in the world, technology has always played a very central role, and this year is no exception...for the first time, TV viewers will be seeing two extremely technologically cutting edge ads, modern 3D commercials for SoBe drinks...According to Steve Schklair, the CEO of 3ality Digital's technology division...all of the 3D spots will be possible to watch without special glasses, but will be much richer with pairs of 3D specs that are being handed out all over the country at retail outlets where SoBe drinks are sold...Schklair added that the value of showing 3D ads and trailers during the Super Bowl comes from the fact that research has shown that the retention rate for messages put out in 3D is far higher than for traditional 2D."
The tech that makes the Super Bowl super. Daniel Terdiman. CNET. January 30, 2009
[ visit site ]
3alitydigital.com: [ visit site ]
excerpt: "The Super Bowl isn't just about ads, or even football. It's the day Domino's, Pizza Hut and Papa John's fight for their share of the pie on the biggest pizza-delivery night of the year. ..Papa John's, the third-largest chain and scrappiest of the bunch, expects to sell about 750,000 pizzas and 1 million chicken wings this Sunday....Papa John's is also celebrating its 25th anniversary with a promotion tied to the Super Bowl. The chain enlisted former Green Bay Packer Desmond Howard to "invite" consumers, via a video posted on YouTube, to register for a chance to win a 25-cent pizza -- if the game's initial kickoff is returned for a touchdown."
Domino's, Pizza Hut, Papa John's Field New Products, Game-Day Deals, Publicity Grabs. Emily Bryson York. Ad Age. January 29, 2008 [sub required]
excerpt: "...this year it isn't just about television -- the spotlight's online.
Some of America's biggest brands are experimenting with viral ads, user generated ads, online remixes and web-only versions that are too-hot-for-TV...This year, brands as big as Miller, Doritos, PepsiCo... are running ads with a major online component.
Doritos is experimenting online this year with an ad consisting entirely of user generated content. "Crash the Super Bowl" had people submit their own ads and vote on the which one should appear in the official spot.
The winner gets an additional $1 million if the ad makes it to the number one spot on USA Today's Ad Meter...Gatorade, a Pepsi product, has been testing viral ads in anticipation of the Super Bowl that refer to the sports drink as “G.” The “What’s G?” teasers have been televised and also appear online. The vague ads feature multiple celebrities, including Li'l Wayne, Serena Williams, Derek Jeter and the JabbaWockeez Dance Crew, and have created quite a stir in the blogosphere."
Super Bowl XLIII Ads: Teased, Remixed, Too Hot for TV. Chris Snyder. Wired. January 30, 2009
[ visit site ]
Doritos Crash the Superbowl:
Gatorade's What's G: [ youtube video ]
[ visit site ]
Facebook: [ visit site ]
excerpt: "ARF Launches 360 Media and Marketing Super Council...The council’s mission is 1) to advance the approaches, ROI assessment, testing and evaluation methods of media and communications planning by creating a forum for articulating a 360 marketing belief structure; and 2) to be instrumental in identifying world-class cross media research tools in the context of a new ARF media model, enabling ARF members to operate efficiently and effectively in a 360 marketing world.
360 Media and Marketing Super Council. Advertising Research Foundation.
[ visit site ]
excerpt: "In social media, people talk about their needs, lifestyles, and brand preferences in their own words, so we refer to this form of research as ‘listening’”, said Joel Rubinson, Chief Research Officer at the ARF [Advertising Research Foundation]...Leading marketers, notably Procter and Gamble, Unilever, General Mills, Microsoft, Levi Strauss, Nielsen, and WPP have been working together as the core leadership team of the ARF’s new “Research Transformation” initiative to learn new ways to best bring humans and markets to life for their organizations. Demonstrating how to utilize social media for new insights to the industry is the first phase of this mission....“The ultimate objective is nothing less than to transform the practice of research”, commented Bob Barocci, President and CEO of the ARF."
ARF Using Social Media to Transform Research. ARF. January 7, 2009
[ visit site ]
excerpt: "Burger King's Whopper Sacrifice...application informed users' friends they had been "sacrificed" for a shot at a burger coupon. Facebook, however, wasn't happy. It informed BK the application could not go against user expectations because Facebook explicitly says it will not inform users about friend removal...
The incident highlights an oddity of many brand efforts on Facebook: they often do not involve the company itself. The open nature of the Facebook platform allows any developer, including brands, to create an application for users. Facebook often works with brands on applications as part of larger ad buys. In this case, BK relied on viral distribution of Whopper Sacrifice and did not consult Facebook."
Whopper Sacrifice Ends: BK, Facebook tangled over 'user expectations'. Brian Morrissey. Adweek. January 15, 2009
[ visit site ]
excerpt: "In their drive to become the Next Big Thing in teenage entertainment, the Clique Girlz have had more opportunities...Topps, the candy and collectibles company...has signed the Clique Girlz as commercial spokeswomen for Baby Bottle Pop, one of the Top 10 nonchocolate candy brands. The candy has two parts, a nipple-shaped lollipop top and a bottle-shaped container filled with fruit-flavored powder. Consumers are meant to lick the top and dip it into the powder...Topps will also emphasize the group on the Baby Bottle Pop Web site (babybottlepop.com), offering webisodes, ring tones, games and a tour tracker, starting next month. The centerpiece of the deal calls for the group to “re-imagine” the Baby Bottle Pop ad jingle, well-known among 6- to 12-year-old girls."
Sweet Deal to Promote Tweeny-Bop Girl Group. Brooks Barnes. The New York Times. January 28, 2009
[ visit site ]
[
babybottletop.com ]
excerpt: "Mars is pushing M&Ms with the Super Bowl teams' logos at a discount this week....Fans can get a 15% discount when ordering M&M’s NFL Blends featuring the Steelers and Cardinals by entering the code “BIGGAME” at mymms.com/nfl or by calling 1-888-696-6788."
Mars Discounts Super Bowl Teams M&Ms. Richard Tedesco. Promo P&I. January 28, 2009
[ visit site ]
excerpt: "Concepts for the spot or spots for Gatorade are being tested online, said Julie Hamp, senior vice president at PepsiCo, which is “a new approach” for the company’s Super Bowl ads."
Advertisers Change Game Plans for Super Bowl. Stuart Elliot. New York Times. January 28, 2009
[ visit site ]
excerpt: "Advertisers clamoring for deeper engagement with Facebook's 150 million members will soon have the ability simply to ask them what they are thinking, and then display the results for all to see -- or even better, comment on.
The social network this week will begin beta testing ads that allow marketers to poll Facebook members. The new units are the latest example of Facebook Engagement Ads, a program launched in August to more closely integrate advertisers into the fabric of the site.
The first two advertisers to use the polling ads will be Careerbuilder and Papa John's. "
Facebook Lets Advertisers Poll Its Users. Douglas Quenqua, ClickZ. Jan 28, 2009
[ visit site ]
excerpt: Disney says it sees online as a vital part of its strategy to turn its very well-known brand name into greater market share by making itself more relevant than ever to both children and parents..."That's why [says Edward Catchpole, senior European VP for toys, Disney] all the sites we operate for our brands are not extensions, they're seamless integrations, part of owning that toy, part of the play pattern. A young girl will run around pretending to be a fairy, then play with a toy and then go online and immerse themselves in a virtual world at one of our communities, like Pixie Hollow or Club Penguin. We also have a social network based around [Disney/Pixar movie] Cars in the US, which tends to be used more by boys," Catchpole adds.
Vertical Focus: Toy retailing. Sean Hargrave. New Media Age [UK]. November 27, 2008 [sub required]
excerpt: Pepsi’s activation work surrounding the inauguration of President Obama saw a giant symposium of activists and thinkers, and the launch of a campaign strategy more akin to a political movement...This campaign was concepted and created by R/GA in New York as an open letter to Barack Obama for his inauguration. Dawn Winchester, EVP, chief marketing services officer at R/GA gave us the inside scoop.
‘Every message begins with the words 'Dear Mr. President' and ends with the person’s first name and where they are from. The strategy is to use digital to make Pepsi relevant to a younger audience. This is helping people get closer to, and participate in a cultural phenomenon about which they care deeply. It’s being seeded and promoted with messages from celebrities including Eva Longoria Parker, Jeff Gordon and Will.i.Am. Most of the action happens on our YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/refresheverything) - where users upload videos and view submissions; the most popular will feature on the primary site, refresheverything.com. Text submissions are housed at our Tumblr blog. [ visit site ]
‘We created a banner using Eyeblaster technology that allows users who have webcams to record and submit messages directly from the banner. Users can actually upload a video message to Obama all without leaving Pepsi's banner ad, making this a shining example of mixing breakthrough technology and creative with social media. After vetting, the video is immediately available on both our Pepsi YouTube channel as well as the DMP website. [ visit site ]
Pepsi Refresh Everything. Contagious Magazine. January 27, 2009
[ visit site ]
excerpt: "...Jack In The Box’s network of large format HD screens featuring customized programming on hundreds of Jack in the Box locations nationwide to reach desirable, on-the-go consumers as part of their daily ritual. Currently deployed in 311 of Jack in the Box’s 2,100 locations, at least one screen is deployed in each location, strategically located behind the main counter or near the soda fountain to engage the on-the-go consumer.
Why Advertise at QSR - Jack In The Box?
* Engage the difficult to reach younger audience
* Communicate to on-the-go consumers during their average 10 minute dwell time
* Create campaigns to deliver messages to a group of earlier adopters
QSR - Jack In The Box.
[ visit site ]
Pizza chain Little Caesars ran a mobile sweepstakes campaign to build a database of names for future marketing... The pizza chain ran television ads...asking people to text CRAZY to 269411 to enter for a chance to win a Nintendo Wii and for a free Crazy Bread mobile coupon...
Viewers who texted in to enter the sweepstakes received a message back that said, “Success! U R entered 2 Win the Nintendo Wii! Show this msg @ Little Caesars 4 FREE Crazy Bread when U buy a 3 Meat Treat Pizza!”
The second message sent to viewers said, “Reply YES for 10 more entries 2Win & 2 get Xclusives from Cox + Little Caesars! Mx4msgs/mo. std txt rts aply. Reply YES Now!”
The last message users received said, “Success! U have 11 entries 2 Win & R sbscbd! 2quit txt STOP@any time. Look 4 More Chances 2 Win on Ur Mobile Phone!”...
Mobile allowed the pizza chain to reach out to people of all ages.
The mobile coupon component of this campaign was something that would be appealing to everyone. People always want something for free, especially “green-minded” individuals who could take advantage of the paperless coupon...
“The sweepstakes prize appealed to the teen/young adult demographic which is ideal for a mobile campaign and the fact that entry into the sweepstakes was included in the initial message prompted more people to be entered to win 10 more times,” Ms. Simmonds [president of Ping Mobile] said.
“The results were staggering,” she said. “In an 18 day period, the double opt-in rate was nearly 62 percent.”
Little Caesars sweepstakes campaign sees 62 percent opt-in. Giselle Abramovich. Mobile Marketer. January 27, 2009
[ visit site ]
"Advertising directed at children in the USA, is estimated at over $15 billion annually – about 2.5 times more than what it was in 1992."
Mindshare. January 27, 2009
[ visit site ]
excerpt: "Air2Web, a market leader in commercialized text messaging, has been selected to power a text-to-win mobile marketing campaign during the 2009 Super Bowl for Johnsonville Sausage, the number one national brand of brats, Italian sausage, smoked links and breakfast sausage links.
The campaign will run through February 28, 2009 and fans can enter by mailing in an entry form, entering online at www.johnsonville.com/gameday or via SMS on their mobile phone...
...To enter, all fans need to do is text “football” or “gameday” to 48775 on their mobile phone and let the games begin....
The campaign will result in ten lucky mobile users winning the Grand Prize of Coleman® Roadtrip® packages that include one Gas Grill LXE, two portable deck chairs, one steel-belted cooler, one blender, and twelve coupons for Johnsonville products."
Air2Web to Power Super Bowl Mobile Marketing Campaign: Johnsonville Sausage Selects A2W as Mobile Provider. Press Release. January 27, 2009.
[ visit site ]
"Male-centered website Heavy.com and video streaming site YouTube.com are partnering to distribute original content and branded entertainment across Canada, the UK, the US and Australia, under a new distribution deal. “Through YouTube, one of the most popular video communities on the Web, in 2009 Heavy’s irreverent sense of humor and renowned original programming will take over even more young men’s computer screens across the globe,” said Simon Assaad, co-founder and co-CEO of Heavy.com.
The ad-supported alliance of Heavy and YouTube will include a host of shows from Heavy.com. This includes: the award-winning “Burly Sports Show;” “Mini Entourage”; “The Heavy Hit List;” “Superficial Friends,” “Kung Fu Jimmy Chow” and the Web-classic “Behind the Music that Sucks.”
Heavy’s original line-up of shows can be streamed from Verizon V-Cast, YouTube, and MySpace. Some of the advertisers involved in these shows include Burger King, AT&T, Axe, Army, Diesel, Mercedes, and Foster’s. "
Heavy and YouTube team up for Branded Entertainment dominance. Product Placement News. January 27, 2009
[ visit site ]
"...how will the new Cadbury's spot from Fallon London measure up?... WATCH the ad. If you didn't catch it on TV or online last week, click on the link below and give yourself sixty seconds to take it in. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=TVblWq3tDwY
Over the last couple of days 'Eyebrows' has garnered 560,000 views on YouTube...Those who signed up online after the gorilla tickled their fancy have been received emails with teasers, remixes, competitions and links to new content since the new strategy was unveiled. This kind of cultural happening and the water cooler, 'have-you-seen-the-new-[insert brand here] ad' gossiping...
Cadbury's Eyebrows. Contagious Magazine. January 27, 2009
[ visit site ]
Cadbury ad on YouTube: [ visit site ]
Cadbury site: [ visit site ]
[Press Release, excerpt]: ANN ARBOR, Mich., Jan. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- As America prepares to tune in to the game where iconic legends are made, iconic brand Domino's Pizza launches Domino's American Legends(TM), a line of six flag-waving specialty pizzas featuring 40 percent more cheese than a regular pizza, cheesy crusts and delicious combinations of premium toppings. The world leader in pizza delivery (NYSE: DPZ) has been very aggressive in the new product launch arena over the past few months... said Russell Weiner, Domino's Chief Marketing Officer. "Since Super Bowl Sunday is one of our busiest days of the year, it gives more Americans a chance to try pizzas we think rival the best in the business. We use six legendary cheeses brought to you by America's dairy farmers; then we give you 40 percent more. I plan to watch the game with a Memphis BBQ Chicken on my right, and a Philly Cheese Steak on my left ... a slice for each touchdown!"
...Domino's expects to deliver more than 1.1 million pizzas on Super Bowl Sunday, a 44 percent increase over a typical Sunday...the company plans to launch a large-scale multi-media campaign beginning Feb. 9...Customers can place orders online in English and Spanish by visiting www.dominos.com or from a Web-enabled cell phone by visiting mobile.dominos.com.
Domino's American Legends(TM) Pizzas Premiere: New Specialty Pizzas With 40% More Cheese Launch in Time for Super Bowl
[ visit site ]
[ M&Ms Fun and Game site ]
www.mms.com/us/racing
[ M&M's MySpace ]
[ M&M's Twitter ]
[ M&M's Facebook ]
excerpt: "Hispanics, the country's largest and fastest-growing ethnic minority, are becoming a sought-after target for mobile advertisers as brands connect the dots between the group's receptiveness to advertising and its heavy mobile usage. Telecommunications and automotive advertisers have led the way in pitching to Hispanics through mobile, but other categories are joining the fray. Brands including Continental Airlines, General Mills, Sears, Kmart and Tag Heuer will be working in the first quarter to launch Latino-centric mobile campaigns.
Many marketers expect rising incremental budgets as brands look to integrate mobile into Hispanic-centric campaigns. Ad network JumpTap predicted Hispanic-centric campaigns would quadruple this year, with revenue increasing at least 20% in the segment... Research suggests that U.S. Hispanics are more engaged with their mobile phones than Americans overall...
Experts recommend embedding cultural relevance -- for example the "sweet 15" milestone Mis Quince, an age that marks the onset of womanhood for Latino girls -- into campaigns and tying them to compelling celebrities, content and cultural traditions...
"Hispanics are media junkies," said Peter Blacker, exec VP of Telemundo's digital media and emerging businesses. "The campaigns are really creating that circle between television and mobile."
Mobile Marketers Target Receptive Hispanic Audience. Rita Chang. Advertising Age. January 26, 2009
[ sub. required ]
excerpt: "YouTube users are 1.5 times more attentive and engaged in advertising than TV viewers, according to research conducted in partnership with General Motors Europe, Motorola, media agency MindShare and the Online Testing Exchange (OTX). The research used eye tracking and biometric data to reveal the brand impact of advertising on YouTube. It found recall and attribution for an ad viewed was up to 14% higher than watching the same ad on TV. Viewing a silent ad on YouTube in addition to a normal TV ad also improved ad recall and attribution.
Ads on YouTube can impact the perceptions of elusive audiences like young men and infrequent TV viewers. They also have a halo effect and increase brand perceptions such as innovative, cool, dynamic and unconventional."
Ads on YouTube have higher impact than on TV. Danielle Long. NMA. december 18, 2008
[sub. required]
excerpt: "PepsiCo's Doritos is running its third consecutive "Crash the Super Bowl" campaign, which asks consumers to vote on their favorite consumer-generated spot that will appear in the big game. But to spice up the contest, the chip maker is dangling $1 million reward if the winning ad tops a popular ad poll.
"Our consumers want creative control and to participate in the brand," said Ann Mukherjee, group VP, Frito-Lay marketing. she said consumer engagement has been consistently high for each contest. "We have to put our money where our mouth is. If we don't get them the biggest stage possible, it won't be as authentic."...
for Doritos, return on a Super Bowl ad investment is measured in months of engagement. The brand kicked off its contest back in September, and whittled the five finalists down from more than 2,000 entries. The chosen spots each have elements of mischievousness, not to mention more than 90,000 views apiece at SnackStrongProductions.com. Two of the spots had nearly 110,000 views by press time."
Doritos Wants 'Crash the Super Bowl' Spot to Hit No. 1: Offers Consumers $1 Million Bonus if Ad Tops USA Today. Emily Bryson York. Advertising Age. January 23, 2009 [sub required]
"According to researcher eMarketer, online ad spending will climb 8.9 percent next year, from $23.6 billion to $25.7 billion...The Web has moved well beyond its former role as a place where banner ads and microsites are used to support the real meat of the offline marketing. Nowadays, the most high-profile campaigns are centered on the Web. Take "Whopper Virgins," the latest Burger King push from Crispin Porter + Bogusky. The centerpiece is a Web film, which is then spliced into components for traditional media. What's more, the push has relied on the viral buzz of blogs and other digital outlets as much as big-money media buys."
Not-So-Banner Year for Digital. Brian Morrissey. AdWeek. January 5, 2009
[ visit site ]
"The Adweek Buzz Awards celebrate the best in brand and media integrations and look for campaigns that catch fire, demonstrate brilliant product placement along with branding efforts that invade the pop-culture consciousness.
McDonald’s Big Mac Chant, Social Media. Winner
Coinciding with Big Mac’s 40th birthday, OMD partnered with MySpace to create McDonald’s first-ever user-generated contest. The Big Mac “Chant-Off” competition encouraged Young Adults to remake the classic Big Mac jingle for a chance to appear in a national commercial. The campaign was such a hit it reinvigorated declining sales.:
OMD US Generates Big Buzz for McDonald’s and Visa. OMD. October 8, 2008
[ visit site ]
"Manhattanites craving sub sandwiches can now satiate themselves via SMS–and sammich-sellers are reaping the benefits.
Every Subway franchise in the New York city borough has started offering text-message ordering, powered by GoMobo–which... aims to permanently simplify and standardize the way busy people everywhere pre-purchase their fast food...
To participate in Subway Now, customers need to go online and set up their “favorite” food items and desired shop locations. When they’re hungry, they text the keyword MENU to the short code 466626 to receive the list of their favorites. Then they reply via SMS with the number of their desired food. Subway then texts out an order confirmation and pick-up time."
Subway + GoMobo = Text 4 Sammiches. Mobile Marketing Watch. January 15, 2009
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"In an effort to tie its Tostitos tortilla chip brand to Super Bowl revelry, Frito-Lay launched "Race to the Bowl," a guerrilla campaign sporting on- and offline components.
The online "Fiesta Bowl" portion is hosted on Facebook, where rival groups — fans for the Ohio State University Buckeyes and for the University of Texas Longhorns — compete for dominance between December 31 and January 5.
The company seeded the effort on Facebook from late November, at which time it began soliciting schools that could become finalists in the Fiesta Bowl...
A company representative said the campaign's purpose is to develop rapport with football-loving co-eds. By enabling followers of the Facebook groups to track their progress online, Frito-Lay hopes to maintain a tangible connection all the way up to the Super Bowl.
Notably, the online component for "Race to the Bowl" appears exclusively on Facebook...
Tostitos Rides Facebook All the Way to Super Bowl. Marketing Vox. January 2, 2009.
[ visit site ]
and Tositos Contest rules which foster data collection [excerpt]: "BY ENTERING THIS CONTEST, YOU AGREE TO FACEBOOK’S AND FRITO-LAY’S PRIVACY POLICIES, AVAILABLE AT THE CONTEST WEB SITE (AND WITH RESPECT TO THE FACEBOOK PRIVACY POLICY, AT HTTP://WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/POLICY.PHP?REF=PF, AND THAT YOUR ENTRY AND THE PERSONAL INFORMATION COLLECTED FROM YOU IN CONNECTION WITH THIS CONTEST WILL BE SHARED WITH THE SPONSOR, FRITO-LAY, INC. ("SPONSOR")...To enter the Contest, log on to www.facebook.com/tostitosracetothebowl during the Contest Entry Period. If you do not already have a Facebook account, you will need to register for a free Facebook account online at www.facebook.com (“Account”) in order to enter...each Entrant...revocably grants to Sponsor, Contest Parties and their affiliates, legal representatives, assigns, agents and licensees, the unconditional and perpetual right and permission to reproduce, encode, store, copy, transmit, publish, post, broadcast, display, adapt, exhibit and/or otherwise use or reuse (without limitation as to when or to the number of times used), the individual Entrant's name, Team name and Team members’ names, address(es), image(s), voice(s), likeness(es), statements, and biographical material(s) and Entry, including, but not limited to, the photograph, essay, and video of Interview (defined below) (in each case, as submitted or as edited/modified in any way by the Sponsor, in the Sponsor’s sole discretion), as well as any additional photographic images, video images, portraits, interviews, or other materials...SPONSOR: Frito-Lay, Inc. 7701 Legacy Drive, Plano, TX 75024-4099. This Contest is hosted by Facebook, Inc."
[ visit site ]
Posted by michael on Dec 30, 2008 in Mobile Marketing | No Comments
MobileVerbs, a provider of on-demand Mobile Marketing solution, has launched mobile marketing program for one of the largest franchisee of Jack-in-the-Box restaurants. The restaurant guests can provide their feedback and redeem coupons by simply using their cell phones... restaurant guests follow “call to action” instructions on tabletents and send a SMS message... The mobile service delivers a series of survey questions to guests’ cell phones. Once the guests complete the survey in couple of minutes, they are provided with a secure mobile coupon on their cell phones. The guests can redeem mobile coupons instantly at participating restaurant locations by showing a secure redemption code on their cell phones to the restaurant staff.
Jack-in-the-Box Sticks with MobileVerbs. December 30, 2008
[ visit site ]
excerpt: "Mars Snackfood U.S. is hoping to spark candy sales with an instant-win game and sweepstakes tied to the Super Bowl, which offers football fans the chance to experience the Big Game in person next year. The candy maker has teamed up with former New York Giants standout and Super Bowl XLII winner Michael Strahan to support the game. Visitors enter UPC codes from select packages of M&M’s, Snickers, Twix, Milky Way and 3 Musketeers through Feb. 1 for a chance at instant prizes...The promotion also contains an interactive component...People can choose how their online characters will celebrate on the field..."
Mars Snackfood Boost Sales with Instant-Win Game, Sweeps. Amy Johannes. PROMO Xtra> January 22, 2009 [reg required]
Mars Game site: [ visit site ]
Posted by michael on Dec 30, 2008 in Mobile Marketing | No Comments
MobileVerbs, a provider of on-demand Mobile Marketing solution, has launched mobile marketing program for one of the largest franchisee of Jack-in-the-Box restaurants. The restaurant guests can provide their feedback and redeem coupons by simply using their cell phones... restaurant guests follow “call to action” instructions on tabletents and send a SMS message... The mobile service delivers a series of survey questions to guests’ cell phones. Once the guests complete the survey in couple of minutes, they are provided with a secure mobile coupon on their cell phones. The guests can redeem mobile coupons instantly at participating restaurant locations by showing a secure redemption code on their cell phones to the restaurant staff.
Jack-in-the-Box Sticks with MobileVerbs. December 30, 2008
"...Coca-Cola has unveiled a new marketing effort and tagline, "Open Happiness."...Coke launched its new campaign this week with television advertising during broadcasts of "American Idol" on Fox...One of the new television commercials for the U.S. depicts people using their digital devices (computers, phones, etc.) and turning into their alter-ego online avatars. When one man--who has not turned into his avatar--reaches for a Coke at the same time as a scary-looking beast, the beast turns into a pretty woman and a real-life connection is made."..."Open Happiness is designed to work at every level--from national advertising all the way down to coolers and store shelves, with a clear call to action at the point of purchase," said Coca-Cola Chief Marketing Officer Joe Tripodi in a statement. "
Coke Joins Pepsi In Move To Slow Soda Decline. Aaron Baar. Marketing Daily. January 22, 2009
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[ visit site ]
[ visit site ]
excerpt: "Pepsi Music Challenge is launched today, a groundbreaking 3D game, instantly playable in any browser with Flash installed. With no installation of plug ins, the game is directly available on 97.7% of computers on the mature market. The need for plug ins to play rich 3D browser games is a thing of the past. For us it's always about lowering the entry barrier for the users. As soon as the site has loaded, you are ready to play, says Johan Peitz, CTO of Muskedunder Interactive.
The game is an engaging musical experience and features three difficulty levels, with different genres and artists who perform as you play.
Pepsi Music Challenge released (2008-11-03): [ visit site ]
play game: [ visit site ]
excerpt: Alltel Wireless has launched a new advertiser-supported service that delivers content and offers to the mobile phone’s idle screen. The white-label service, called Alltel Perks, will let subscribers receive customized content such as sports scores, discounts, trivia and weather updates to the screen when the phone is not in use...
McDonald’s, ESPN, Pizza Hut, Jiffy Lube, Progressive Insurance and TicketsNow are currently running promotions on Alltel Perks.
The Pizza Hut offer, for example, is a banner for free cinnamon sticks. Clicking on that unit takes the Alltel subscriber to another screen with this message: "Stop by your favorite Pizza Hut & show them this Phone." The message continues: "Get an order of 5 FREE Cinnamon Sticks with your dine-in Medium or Large Pizza purchase." Right next to an image of cinnamon sticks and dip are the H56 and MFS-100 codes, along side the Pizza Hut logo.
Alltel claims approximately 14 million subscribers for its wireless service. The Little Rock, AR-based company will soon become part of Verizon Wireless, making the acquirer the leading carrier nationwide...
After registration, the Alltel Perks service will proactively deliver offers and content to subscribers when their mobile phone is idle... The application sends content based on the Alltel subscriber’s ZIP code, age, gender, time of day and day of week.
“It’s eminently targetable and measurable,” Mr. Jackson said. “It’s one-on-one marketing.
Pizza Hut, others run advertiser-sponsored offers on Alltel idle screen. Mobile Marketer. November 20, 2008
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excerpt: "Fast food franchise Jack in the Box is running a mobile coupon campaign to drive consumers to its restaurants in six states.
Three separate mobile ads are currently running on the idle screens of consumers’ handsets within select U.S. markets. To power the campaign, Jack in the Box Inc. tapped idle-screen advertising services firm Mobile Posse Inc., which is guaranteeing advertisers a minimum click-through-rate of 10 percent.
“We believe that once advertisers have experienced the results of our advertising platform, they will choose to incorporate mobile idle screen advertising into their future campaigns,” said Anurag Mehta, senior vice president of sales and business development for Mobile Posse, McLean, VA...
The Jack in the Box mobile coupon offers include a buy-one, get-one-free promotion for Jack’s Classic sandwiches, a free combination upgrade with purchase of any burger or sandwich and a free pita with purchase of any Coke beverage.
Delivered at noon, mid-afternoon or early evening, the mobile ads containing the coupons are designed to drive traffic to select Jack in the Box locations for lunch, an afternoon snack or dinner.
Customers are instructed to redeem the coupon using a promotion code at the time of purchase.
The Jack in the Box promo codes are delivered within the Mobile Posse idle screen advertising experience rather than via the mobile Web or SMS. This allows all Mobile Posse consumers to take advantage of the offer without incurring additional data charges, the company claims.
Jack in the Box launches mobile coupon campaign. Dan Butcher. Mobile Marketer. January 20, 2009
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excerpt: "Marketers, seeking to boost their online exposure while keeping a lid on costs, are looking beyond Internet search engines such as Google and Yahoo to find new places for their search ads...For the past few years Pizza Hut has bought ads on the major search engines tied to pizza-related searches, such as "cheese pizza" and "pizza delivery." Placing bids on those terms pits the Yum Brands restaurant chain against many competitors, including Domino's Pizza, Papa John's International and even local pizzerias, which have made search advertising an important piece of their own marketing. The auction system for the ads ultimately increases the price each pizza marketer pays when a consumer clicks on an ad.
Lately, Pizza Hut has started working with its agency, WPP's Group M Search, to expand its search-ad buys to new areas. The chain started buying mobile search ads to pitch its products. And to publicize the launch of a new whole-grain pizza, Pizza Hut is creating a promotion and buying ads through Facebook. While the Facebook ads aren't technically search ads, they are part of a broader effort to boost the company's profile in the nonpaid search results consumers get when seeking online information."
Marketers Take Search Ads Beyond Search Engines. Emily Steel. Wall Street Journal. January 20, 2009
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Case Study excerpt: "Coca-Cola Soundwave is a great European contest that promotes new music groups and artists utilises Velti’s experience to create awareness and buzz through social networks, such as Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube...Such viral marketing leads to a huge increase in popularity of communities in a relatively short period of time. Soundwave was no different, attracting many new members in double quick time."
Coca Cola Soundwave 2008.
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excerpt: "Pzza Hut has claimed it's on track to become the UK's "ultimate" online restaurant after Christmas sales jumped 237%.
The pizza giant said sales through its online ordering service, which launched in March 2007, grew at an average of 25% a month last year.
It now claims to sit alongside rival Domino's, which has had an online offering in place for five years...Pizza Hut employed an aggressive marketing strategy over the festive season to raise awareness of its online services and drive customers to the site. This included email marketing alerting consumers about the VAT cuts, offering 25% discounts and a festive greeting, which had the highest open rate of the three."
Pizza Hut claims boom in sales over Christmas places it top of online food chain. Luan Goldie. NMA. January 15, 2009 [sub. required]
www.bluebarracuda.com [ visit site ]
"Fanta has developed its first mobile applications...Fanta Virtual Tennis and Fanta Stealth Sound System--are being rolled out...The Coca Cola-owned brand is supporting the move with viral...advertising."
Fanta targets via mobile. Revolution Magazine [UK]. January 2009
www.revolutionmagazine.com [sub. may be required]
Video on Fanta Virtual Tennis: [ see video ]
Fanta site with mobile downloads: [ visit site ]
Fanta's Facebook page: [ visit site ]
"...Pepsi is giving consumers the opportunity to submit videos as part of an open multimedia letter to the new administration. At RefreshEverything.com, videos beginning with "Dear Mr. President" range from the frivolous to the serious. A Florida woman asks that medicine not be socialized, while an Ohio man asks that utility companies be better regulated. One Michigan man tells the president the U.S. should claim pizza as the national food, if Italy hasn't already. Many wish Mr. Obama good luck.
But Pepsi's presence in Washington next week will go beyond traditional marketing and advertising. The brand is also sponsoring a Refresh the World Symposium on Jan. 19 and The Creative Coalition Gala Inaugural Ball on Jan. 20...The symposium is being organized with Spike Lee and Howard University and will feature such heavy hitters as Andrew F. Brimmer, former chairman of the Federal Reserve, the Rev. Al Sharpton and Arianna Huffington. Sessions include Refresh Education, Refresh Gender and Refresh Black America. There's also the light-hearted, Refresh Hip-Hop session featuring Sean Combs, Queen Latifah and Chris Lighty.
Meanwhile, Quaker Oats, another PepsiCo brand, will also be looking to connect itself with next week's historic inauguration. The brand is partnering with 11 "mommy bloggers" to host inauguration parties."
Pepsi Goes to Washington. Natalie Zmuda. AdAge. January 14, 2009
http://adage.com/article?article_id=133782
Pepsi: http://refresheverything.com/
excerpt: "A week after the Whopper Sacrifice application made waves for its creative (and aggressive) use of Facebook friend removals as a way to spread the application, Facebook has forced it to disable the app’s functionality, according to the developer.
Facebook has clarified that it has not shut the app down - it still exists - but rather it has required the developer to remove its functionality for violating “users’ expectations of privacy.” Normally, no notification is sent when a user removes a friend on Facebook. However, the Whopper Sacrifice application posted a feed story letting others know the friend was being sacrificed for a Whopper before finalizing the removal...."This application facilitated activity that ran counter to user privacy by notifying people when a user removes a friend. "...During the last week, the app was used by 82,000 people to delete over 230,000 friendships on Facebook. Users who “sacrificed” at least 10 friends received a coupon for a free Whopper at Burger King. The app...quickly became a hit the same day it launched."
Whopper Sacrifice Forced to Disable Behavior by Facebook. Inside Facebook. January 14, 2009
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excerpt: "...people saying Burger King's Whopper Sacrifice app on Facebook is very smart. The concept is simple. Creatives at Crispin Porter + Bogusky working on the BK account were remarking on the sheer number of distant acquaintances and in some cases complete strangers who had found their way onto their friend lists. They decided they could provide a service, and maybe a laugh or two, by giving Facebook users a way to cut the fat, so to speak. So they created an app that facilitated the removal of those fake friends, and then promised to pack the fat back on, in the form of a free Whopper offer for anyone who savages 10 of their so-called friends. The app's tagline: "You like your friends. But you love the Whopper."...some problems with Whopper Sacrifice. First, when you off someone on your friend list, that person is told about it, as is your whole group of frineds. ("Jchn sacrificed John Whitmore for a free Whopper")...As of this writing, Whopper Sacrifice has been installed over 30,000 times, and 53,080 friends have been sacrificed. That's somewhere north of 5,000 free Whoppers."
K's Whopper Sacrifice: Clever But Flawed. Zachary Rogers. ClickZ. January 9, 2009
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Whooper Sacrifice: [ visit site ]
excerpt: Burger King's recent "Whopper Virgins" campaign is on track to replicate the online success of the fast feeder's earlier viral success "Whopper Freakout," but its impact on sales remains to be seen. The documentary-style video...had 242,000 unique visitors in December. By comparison, Whopperfreakout.com had 250,000 visitors during its first month, December 2007...
"Anytime a promotional microsite can get a few hundred thousand visitors, it's pretty successful," ComScore spokesman Andrew Lipsman said. "Every now and then you'll have a MyCokeRewards with a few million, but that's not typical." MyCokeRewards is a loyalty program for Coca-Cola, where consumers trade in "purchase points" for music, videos or even hotel stays... According to Burger King, the site has had 727,075 total visitors and 698,149 unique visitors. They spend an average of nearly four minutes on the site. Consumers are also accessing the site via mobile devices, with 26,434 views so far. The documentary has 1.3 million views, whereas "Whopper Freakout" had roughly 1.5 million views by this time.
Another key measure of viral success: Online parodies abound....the fast feeder is commited to keeping WhopperVirgins.com live at least through December 2009."
`Whopper Virgins' Rivals Online Success of `Freakout.' Emily Bryson York. Advertising Age. January 12, 2009
[sub may be required]
excerpt: ""Marketing movies on the Internet is about engagement," says Jenny Wall, president of Crew Creative, whose agency produced elements of "Knight's" online effort. "It's about creating a more movielike experience."..."Marketing movies on the Internet is about engagement," says Jenny Wall, president of Crew Creative, whose agency produced elements of "Knight's" online effort. "It's about creating a more movielike experience."...Dot-coms from promotional partners also are looking to impress. ... Domino's dot-com for "Dark Knight" bested some studio-produced film sites when it comes to design and content offerings."
The art of engaging audiences: Web and mobile campaigns tantalize fans. Marc Graser. Variety. Januaru 7, 2009
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Domino's Dark Knight trailer on YouTube: [ visit site ]
"Fritolay challenged Americans to create and shoot their own 3-second TV spot for Doritos to air unedited during the 2007 Super Bowl. The real challenge lay in how to reach, inspire and brief the target audience to create spots that Doritos would want to air: strict guidelines were provided and a few tools provided to help production. Both MySpace and YouTube were used to reach 16-24s. Over 1000 entries were received and the subsequent winner among the five finalists generated so many views that it was given home page placement on YouTube. Entitled `Live the Flavor,' it is a fine commercial--worth every penny and more of the $10,000 paid to its creator. Sales rose by 12% and the idea was repeated in 2008."
Use social networks to drive sales gains. Peter Field. Admap. December 2008 [sub. required]
UK Case study excerpt: "Challenge: Use online media to promote Domino’s commitment to the environment in an engaging way which reflects the company brand values.
Strategy. We took the idea to Domino’s that they could engage with this critical group in a highly positive way by using digital media to raise awareness of Domino’s Pizza Boxes being fully recyclable.
Solution: We created a Domino’s branded user-generated content site on YouTube and MySpace where people could download clips of how they use their box before sending it to the re-cycle bin, with the funniest entrant standing to win an Apple i-Mac. Friends were recruited on My Space and online ads showing multiple uses of the box - from a record bag to a pub drinks tray - were targeted across YouTube, Sky and MySpace around store opening times.
Performance: ...sales from Domino’s traffic that came from My Space grew over 29% over the campaign period."
Domino's Pizza, Think Outside the Box, Social Media
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"Pepsi Max was looking for a new way of expressing its energy positioning in the U.S. The solution was the `Wake up people!' campaign, waging war on the yawn. A high-profile TV campaign established the idea and led to some imaginative spin-off online activity including a yawn-a-thon, yawn-o-grams and celebrity wake-up calls--ass seeded onto social network sites for maximum impact. Sales rose 12% during the campaign."
Use social networks to drive sales gains. Peter Field. Admap. December 2008 [sub. required]
excerpt: "Tie-ins, joint branding with other power brands and artists and in-store point-of-sales promotions using the mobile channel have been some of the ways Pepsi has raised impulse buying and strengthened its brand over the years....The goal has been to increase impulse buying of Pepsi by activating consumers and creating in-store attention utilizing the mobile phone as an interactive promotional tool. To do so, the campaigns must generate interest among retailers to get more attention for the brand and better exposure in stores. Pepsi has been a client since 2002 and has pioneered mobile marketing focused on consumer actions...The strategy has been to stimulate frequent purchases by consumers of Pepsi. Using the mobile channel, Pepsi can communicate directly with its target group and give the consumer a unique experience linked to the brand. Joint branding with selected power brands and/or artists in the target group has been another cornerstone.... Competitions have been a common way to trigger consumer actions, with generous prizes providing all contestants will get free ringtones, pictures and so on."
Much more than fizz: Pepsi pops open mobile marketing campaign.
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excerpt: "... Festis launched an innovative multiple mobile marketing campaign that invited people to forward a “secret” message and mobile coupon to their friends. The result was strikingly successful...Rebranded in the 1990s, Festis, a well-known Swedish non-carbonated soft drink, today targets the youth market in large cities...More Mobile Relations produced a mobile campaign based on the "whispering theme" tied in with the Festis TV ads. The target group received a funny, engaging and a rather cryptic call that invited them to forward the call to friends to receive a mobile coupon. A mobile coupon entitled the user to a free Festis in any nationwide retail store (Pressbyrån or 7-Eleven) in Sweden. Receiving a "secret" message from a friend gives it credibility and generates a positive reaction than if perceived as advertising....The viral campaign generated consumer interest in a new Festis product by using multiple mobile marketing disciplines and techniques such as text, speech, text-to-speech, IVR and mobile coupons."
A rumor spreads: Festis "whispering" campaign hits it big
[ visit site ]
xcerpt: “…Through the use of engagement marketing tactics in the form of applications, social ads, brand groups, sponsored pages and sponsored apps, brands have opened up communication channels with their customers on these platforms [social network sites, in particular Facebook and MySpace].…there is also a lack of research data into the behaviours and opinions of social network users who come into direct contact with brand campaigns and social ads on Facebook and MySpace.
The survey results show:
- Small % of social network users have become friend or fan of a brand...
…The industries of brands ‘fanned’ by Facebook respondents are: FMCG [Fast Moving Consumer Goods], Recruitment, Media & Entertainment, Charities and Travel.
- Facebook users more likely to share widgets and apps…
- Small % of social network users are aware of brand adverts...
The respondents on MySpace recalled adverts from Coca Cola, mobile phone providers (ringtones, games), Adidas, fake goods and the charity Red…
Facebook and MySpace are regarded by those interviewed [brand executives] as essential, as they assist brands to build loyalty and engage with users whom they would otherwise not be able to serve via their corporate website or micro-site….
…MySpace is seen as a platform that can deliver great success for engaging content such as music, video and games.
…The brand executives interviewed also see engaging with social network users as a great way to ‘crowd source’ and innovate a brand product or idea with the consumers.
…How effective social ads are, depends on how they engage with the social network users rather than direct selling.
The number of friend/fans a brand has does not determine the success of a social network campaign and as a metric looks good, but is worthless without engagement…”
Social network marketing, engagement marketing and brands. Tom Chapman. September 2008.
[ visit site ]
Case Study excerpt: "...children across Europe are being introduced to four fairies and four dragons that make up the world's first digital happy meal toy-the first step for McDonald's into the digital generation. With the product rolling out in forty markets, McDonald's is embracing a digital evolution...When Mike walked into the first meeting with McDonald's marketing, he arrived with a demo of an interactive desktop dragon, as well as the renderings of four fairies that began the adventure. The group loved the concept, and it wasn't long before the concept was developed into a world of four elemental dragons and their counterparts, four mischievous fairies who would change the way kids interact with their Happy Meal toys forever. Mike introduced the concept of bringing the Happy Meals of millions of children to life on their computers, offering a level of interactivity and play well beyond that of a plastic figurine...
Mike returned to Fuel's Ottawa offices with a loaded mission-lead his team in the creation of Europe's next Happy Meal and the world's first digital Happy Meal..."
Case Study: Fairies and Dragons. Partner: McDonald's. April-May 2008
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McDonald's Fairies and Dragons site: [ visit site ]
"Partnering with McDonald's and Conservation International, Fuel led the creative promoting awareness about eight of the world's most fragile species. the meal included a plush animal toy and a code for kids to enter into a website, which features an interactive globe that allows them to explore habitats and unlock games facts and media, encouraging them to get involved... From far before the dawn of the internet, one thing remains true: the key to reaching kids is to mix facts with fun, and appeal to a child's sense of exploration. We set out to build a site that would give kids the feeling of exploring the very habitats of endangered animals, learning why it's important to become aware, and what they can do to help protect them. The retail portion of the project would include toys that would allow kids to connect with the animals in question...Visiting FragilePlanet.eu, kids are presented with their very own passport--their ticket to a world of exploration surrounding these animals, as well as an additional four: the black rhino, the polar bear, the Siberian tiger, and the Gorilla. The passport contains a section for each animal, which, in turn, contains a series of tasks that the visitor must complete in order to stamp those pages. Children use their mouse to spin a globe that will lead them to the habitats these animals call home..."
Case Study. Fuel. "Protecting a Fragile Planet: Endangered Animals." Client: McDonald's. September 2008
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McDonald's Fragile Planet site: [ visit site ]
[ visit site ]
excerpt: "... WeeWorld.com GM Lauren Bigelow...