“The Super Bowl is a big cultural moment that’s about people coming together for a good time, so we believe we need to be there.” -Pio Schunker, VP/Creative, Coca-Cola
“After last year’s experience, I don’t have the stomach for it.” -Brian Sharples, CEO HomeAway.com
Pio and Brian articulate the two ends of Super Bowl advertising. Every season since 1984 some ads enhance “the big cultural moment” positively, and some negatively. The majority of the spots that fill the forty six minutes of ad time fall somewhere in the middle–ranked modestly by all the ad monitors and gradually fade away.
This year NBC is charging $3.5 million per :30 spot. Last season the average cost for a :30 ad was around $3 million. Hard to believe that just six years ago the cost was $2.5 million.
This season many marketers are following what VW did last year and releasing the ads beforehand. Consumers “like to be let in on the joke, let in on the story early” said Mike Sheldon, the chief executive of VW’s agency Deutsch/LA.
He’s right. These two ads are already at nearly 16 million views:
Judging from some of the pre-releases, it might be a good show this year. Socially, if you’d like to weigh-in on ads during the game and have them count in some form #BrandBowl is your hashtag where tweets will be streamed live on Boston.com as well as a new mobile-friendly version of the well-known Brand Bowl site during the game.
This season features two major market teams in a re-match. Last year saw 111 million viewers with two very popular teams: the Packers and the Steelers. This year the NFL could break the record again and bring total viewers to around 115 million.
There have beentonsofarticlesabouttheads. But our favorite is perhaps from Stephen Marche at Esquire who talks about the ubiquity of marketing and how there “is no outside the ad” anymore, regardless of where we are. We often don’t realize the degree to which marketing subtly surrounds our life. But the Super Bowl, proudly, just puts it out there:
“The Super Bowl offers the possibility of a new relationship with advertising, one that’s different from the game of hide-and-seek we usually play. It runs against the tendency for naked pleas to become grainy and peripheral. It puts advertising at the center and asks: Which are the good ads and products and which are the bad ads and products? And thus it serves the same function today as the great medieval trade festivals and the World’s Fairs of the early twentieth century: providing chances for the marketplace to indulge in fantasies of industrial possibility.”
Deloitte just released their 6th State of the Media Democracy. The survey of 2,000 people (ages 14 – 75) focused primarily on the proliferation of devices: smartphones, tablets and DVRs. If you’re in need of up-to-date numbers the study is another good example about how access to content is increasing American media consumption.
For tablet owners, 51% say they use their tablet in place of a laptop at home.
Of particular note, however, is that of DVRs. In this survey only 44% of people had DVRs as part of their current cable package. We thought that would be a larger number.
Find Deloitte’s State of the Media Democracy here.
The outdoor retail space is competitive. Separating yourself from other outdoor brands and differentiating your products or service is not an easy task. For the past decade, marketers have turned to green initiatives to stamp their brands with the Healthy Planet seal of approval.
Patagonia has started a new kind of green initiative—Buy Less. In the past, telling your customers to buy less has traditionally been a bad business model. Key words: in the past. Al Ries titled a recent Ad Age article, “It’s not marketing we do today, it’s branding.” The branding aspect of this new initiative is what hits deep. They’re not talking about 25% off their winter line; they’re branding their product with a bold association to environmental preservation. Perhaps this is why so many people have strong feelings, both positive and negative, about this campaign.
Some might say Patagonia is doing this to increase sales by initiating a cute marketing ploy around a fancy green initiative. Rick Ridgeway, Patagonia’s environment VP, stated, “Anyone who says this is a clever marketing ploy, we say that higher sales will allow us to carry out our mission statement. We take one percent of sales off the top, and give it to environmental groups. The better we do, the more we give back.”
Fast Company recently highlighted the positive feelings towards the brand and its new initiative and wrote, “After it was launched at New York fashion week last month, some commentators described the initiative as an inspired piece of marketing that would cement customer loyalty and reinforce the message that Patagonia apparel is long-lasting and worth holding on to.” On the other side of the table comes a recent post by Gawker, which took the conversation the other way and told Patagonia to “just give us a break with this sanctimonious crap.”
Love it or hate it, people are listening. I’m not here to pick sides because I think it is still early on in the campaign to choose sides. If Patagonia is really sincere about this promise, their commitment to this initiative over time will tell the story.
This idea of going beyond the bottom line to brand your products is not a fad—it’s a trend. The branding aspect of Patagonia’s Common Threads Initiative is encouraging (assuming this isn’t a cute marketing ploy). They’re willing to set profits aside and stand for something greater than a number on their income statement. By standing up for the cause and associating their brand with an initiative that seeks to reduce waste, they establish themselves as the dominant player in going green.
We sometimes talk about brands as “badges.” Every brand that is well executed is a badge for a specific immaterial symbol. A badge is defined as “a special or distinctive mark, token, or device worn as a sign of allegiance, membership, authority, achievement, etc.” Most of the time, badges are thought of as physical objects. When used in the context of branding, they represent something more than a physical object. They represent the metaphysical thoughts and emotions towards a particular category. Patagonia is one of the most powerful brands in this category. Their brand has always represented quality with an association to being Earth-conscious and this new initiative could potentially bring them to the next level.
Green Marketing is becoming a major part for some brands. Don’t believe me? Maybe you’ll believe the 40 million search results on Google. There are many brands out there trying to stand for a healthier planet but Patagonia is making some bold statements and making a case to be the one who owns the badge of environmentally conscious.
Written by Brad Weigle, Drake Cooper Project Manager.
“As is always the case, the more cloudy and confused the conception conveyed by a word, with the more self assurance do people use that word, pretending that what is understood by it is so simple and clear that it is not worthwhile even to discuss what it actually means.”
Tolstoy wrote that in the very insightful book What is Art? and it applies to words such as “beautiful” and “creative” and, nowadays, “like”.
Everyone thinks they know what “like” means. But it turns out that what consumers primarily think it means and what companies think it means are different…
When consumers “like” a brand the number one thing they expect today is to be eligible for exclusive discounts and offers. This is followed closely by the ability to enter unique promotions or opportunities.
However, organizations have a different perspective. They believe that people primarily want to be heard and that they want to read news about brand and product developments.
These were the findings of a new study by the CMO Council. And they follow what IBM reported in “From Social Media to Social CRM” early last year where they graphed the social media perception gap between consumers and businesses:
(click to enlarge)
It’s not really surprising that many organizations are focusing more on chatter than they are exclusivity. Since 2007 social media consultants from all over the world have talked constantly about “the conversation” and how “engaging in the conversation” is the essence of social. But as social continues to evolve that terminology may now be a bit misguiding.
Per the CMO Council, when consumers want to converse with a company they choose six methods over social channels:
- Email: 76%
- Phone Call: 54%
- Tradeshow: 27%
- Online Form: 21%
- Offline Event: 20%
- Visit Retail Location: 19%
- Online Forums: 12%
- Brand Facebook Page: 11%
- Tweet: 8%
Some companies, such as Amazon, are wise to the fact that social channels are towards the bottom of the communication list. In an excellent November Wired article Jeff Bezos relayed Amazon’s approach to customer service and the social web:
“Our version of a perfect customer experience is one in which our customer doesn’t want to talk to us. Every time a customer contacts us, we see it as a defect. I’ve been saying for many, many years, people should talk to their friends, not their merchants. And so we use all of our customer service information to find the root cause of any customer contact. What went wrong? Why did that person have to call? Why aren’t they spending that time talking to their family instead of talking to us? How do we fix it?”
A terrific thing about “like” is that every organization, no matter how small, has the ability to treat their fans to special opportunities. Who’s great at that? The music industry–rock bands and their fan bases. They appreciate every single fan and it shows at every touchpoint, from their websites to whenever they win an award and thank the fans while standing on stage.
Right now consumers who “like” just assume that the organization “likes” them too. But organizations largely view it as “look at all of these people who like us.” If companies had to “like back” the relationship would probably feel different on their end.
People who like each other share things and offer things that they don’t give everyone else. Embracing that “like” is automatically reciprocated may encourage more organizations to post those unique promotions and create those exclusive offers directly to people they like. Which would help align the primary expectations of what “like” is meaning to consumers these days.
The 2011 holiday shopping season turned out to be a solid one for retailers. But it was a strange and bumpy ride to get there… Black Friday started things off well but December sales were weak up until closer to Christmas when shoppers returned to stores. Overall, holiday retail sales were up 4.5% compared to last season while average daily spending during the holidays was $83/day (vs. $85/day last season per Gallup).
The post-Black Friday lull was deeper than usual this year. The two weeks after Thanksgiving weekend showed the biggest percentage sales decline since 2000. Then, during the final two weeks before Christmas, sales surged again, by the highest rate since 2005.
Interestingly, Christmas Eve and December 26th were the second and third heaviest spending days of the season. Which is odd because many analysts didn’t even have December 24th forecast to be among the top 10 days. (But it was on a Saturday this year, which should have tipped a few off.)
Online retail in particular had a great season, up 15% versus last season. (Weekly online spending is below–click to enlarge.)
The combination of aggressive retailer discounting, the long-enduring recession and some rebounding activity created four types of shoppers this season:
The Bargain Timer:
Wait until the prices are at their absolute lowest, then strike hard.
The Midnight Buyer:
Get the best inventory no matter what time.
The Returner:
Over-buy and return. (Interestintly, retailers plan on returning nearly 10 cents of every dollar taken in during the holidays.)
The “Me” Shopper:
One for you, one for me.
Most likely, everyone showed signs of each this season.
But a strong holiday shopping season kicks 2012 off in a welcomed positive direction and somewhat helps abate the worries of low consumer demand which, per McKinsey, is the key thing executives report to be concerned with as 2012 begins.
Online retail in particular had a great season, up 15% versus last season.
Regardless of what you thought of this new Twinings Tea ad, do you need to see it two more times to understand it?
How about this? Need three times?
For decades there’s been a commonly-accepted industry rule that an ad needs to run three times in order for it to be effective on the viewer. Where did this come from and is it true?
Paul Feldwick, an exceptional brand planning thinker, recently wrote about this over at Warc. I’ll let you read it for yourself but basically the idea of “three frequency” started in the research department of GE in 1972. Their findings stated that the first ad impression allows the viewer to understand what it is, the second is to evaluate its relevancy and the third would be a true reminder.
Around the same time another study was published by the Marketing Science Institute that talked about how two ad exposures were needed for brand switching. This study was then basically combined with the GE study and in 1979 the Advertising Research Foundation published a paper solidifying a recommended frequency of 3x.
So we’ve had this three frequency idea for over 30 years and it’s worth a renewed look…
One Ad
First, before we immediately jump to the importance of three ads, what’s the value of just one ad?
Single-source panels (research sources that link buying behavior and advertising exposure) have shown repeatedly that in 45 – 50% of cases exposure to just one ad in a short period before buying increases the probability of buying that brand by a considerable degree. One ad, done well, does a lot of work without relying on the reinforcement of repeat exposure.
This points to the core purpose of advertising that Stephen King, the founder of Account Planning at JWT, called saleability. Yes, advertising can create sales immediately, but it also makes it so everything else–from packaging to pricing–has an easier job of selling.
But because of its linear structure, the frequency model infers that we can’t get something the first time. It presumes that we make all of our decisions in a very logical, processed, step-by-step manner.
Is this how we think? Someone tells us something so we know about it, then we’re told the same thing again so we can determine if it makes sense for us and then we’re reminded a third time so we can act. Do you need these three steps appropriately spaced out when discussing what you want for dinner tonight? Or accepting a friend’s recommendation on a movie?
But the 1972 GE research had to have a reason to say we made buying decisions like this. One possible answer: consider that in the early 70s if we saw an ad for something new, like Instant Breakfast, we didn’t have any options for more information. All we had was what an ad told us, what a friend said or our own eventual trial.
So we waited for information to arrive. Attitudes surrounding consumerism moved slower than they do today. And if a research project discussed ad exposure and purchase behavior it probably would have reflected this sentiment.
How We Communicate
We communicate with feeling and tone. It’s commonly estimated that between 60 – 95% of all communication is non verbal and it was the research of Paul Watzlawick that helped identify that it’s the tone (or metacommunication) that provides true meaning to words that are said. Effective communication doesn’t have much to do with the order and interval of spoken events… It has to do with the way things are said.
It’s emotion and feeling that motivates. As neurologist Donald Calne nicely stated:
“the essential difference between emotion and reason is that emotion leads to action while reason leads to conclusion”.
Howard Gossage once wrotethat the buying of (advertising) time or space is not the taking out of a hunting license on someone else’s private preserve but is the renting of a stage on which we may perform.
This melds well with the idea of how things are said. Volume and repetition upon one person reaches diminishing returns quickly. The ad connects with them or it doesn’t and from there we’ll either have effective communication or non-communication.
Like this new ad from Deutsch. If you’re a gamer it connects on first viewing. If you’re not you could see it 1,000 times and still not have any idea what’s going on.
Distracted Viewers
But viewers are distracted. 40% of tablet and smartphone owners use them while watching TV. And with current adoption rates smartphones are approaching half of all mobile phones in the US. We are absorbing content on the go all the time. And when something connects we have instant access to take a next step. Danah Boyd articulated this perfectly:
“The goal is not to be a passive consumer of information or to simply tune in when the time is right, but rather to live in a world where information is everywhere. To be peripherally aware of information as it flows by, grabbing it at the right moment when it is most relevant and valuable, entertaining or insightful. Living with, in, and around information. Most of that information is social information, but some of it is entertainment information or news information or productive information.”
So what are the odds that one single placement (or only one execution for that matter) is going to reach us and be relevant as we dash around our lives, zoning in and out of digital absorption in between things? We need multiple chips across the roulette board to hedge our odds of engaging someone correctly. This requires a diversified and nearly constant plan. Colleen DeCourcy referred to this type of thinking once as constant communications, which I rather like.
Perhaps it’s the word and meaning of frequency that should be challenged today. We don’t need to run an ad three times in order for one person to come to a decision. We need to create multiple opportunities for at least one relevant, emotion-forward, successful connection.
Or as a sentence in the original 1972 GE research report on frequency stated: “Like a product sitting on a shelf, you never know when the customer is going to be looking for you, so you must rent the shelf space all the time.”
Congrats to Idaho Tourism for their big wins at the National Councils Awards at the ESTO Conference!
The ESTO conference was held earlier this week in Salt Lake City. One of several national conferences held by the US Travel Association, ESTO (Educational Seminar for Tourism Organizations) is a national forum centered around bringing local, regional and state marketers together to learn about the latest trends, marketing tools and global challenges that face the travel and tourism industry today. As a 3-day event, the conference included national speakers, breakout sessions, and several key-note addresses by industry leaders. The event ended with the annual National Councils Awards, which was a celebration of marketing and creative excellence across the national, including the Destiny Awards, Mercury Awards, and the State Tourism Director of the Year.
We are proud to announce that Idaho Tourism won two Mercury Awards:
Best Print Advertising for the Great Idaho Getaway Campaign, which features one great family from Seattle on a 10-day, 2,200 mile adventure of a lifetime through Idaho.
Niche Marketing for Cruising the Loop, which, through a partnership with Harley Davidson, featured a group of female motorcycling journalists traveling Idaho’s Grand Teton Scenic Byway and Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming.
We are so honored to have worked with such a great team and for a great state!
Forrester Research recently issued a terrific report called the Age of the Customer. I love the way the last 100 years are broken down: from manufacturing to distribution to information to the customer.
And while I find minor comedy in the fact that the ‘ages’ basically decrease by 50% at each stage thereby inferring that this latest age could last a mere 7 years or so I don’t want to dwell there. Because even if that’s the case, the amount of stuff we’ll get done and advance to in that time will probably be fairly amazing.
Anyway.
In thinking about the “Age of the Customer” and brands, consider some research insights from Bain:
- In most categories, strong customer loyalty brands grow twice as fast as the market.
- A 5% increase in customer retention can generate a 75% increase in profitablility.
- It typically costs 6 times more effort to get a new customer than to keep an existing one.
The age of the customer plays out well. So it’s helpful that earlier this year IBM issued a report that talked about the rise of Social CRM and I think it’s a great way to look at the evolution of social today within organizations.
It’s also nice that the pressure is off of marketing to be the sole champion of the possibilities of social within organizations…
Theory is great. We’re certainly not shy on theory as an industry. What we’re shy on is how—the actual application. Which is why I really liked how McKinsey broke that down into three general tactics that I think most organizations could immediately put to use:
1. Design a great customer engagement strategy and experience based on how people interact with the organization throughout their decision journey.
2. Build an infrastructure that achieves this and consider spreading out marketing teams to other divisions of the company such as service, sales and eCommerce.
3. Assign someone to be in charge of all digital conflict resolution within and across all functions in an organization. PepsiCo did this with the title of Chief Digital Officer.
So we are in the age of the customer. This requires us all to think and act a la Social CRM. And we execute that through design, build and assign.
For as complicated as this is I thought these three documents are extremely guiding. Please click on the links and explore as you like.
Take the Road Less Polluted With ACHD Commuteride and VRT’s May in Motion Campaign
There’s a reason Shakespeare wrote sonnets that reference the month of May. The magic of alternative modes of transportation enthralled him, of course.
ACHD Commuteride (Ada County Highway Department) and VRT (Valley Regional Transit) kicked off their annual May in Motion campaign which encourages locals to use alternative transportation. But this is much more than trying to save a few dollars by carpooling with a friend to work, taking the bus, or even riding your bike to save this world from car emissions. May in Motion is about education and it’s about making our community a better place to live and work.
Our challenge with May in Motion is educating people so they feel confident that alternative modes of transportation not only make sense from environmental and economical standpoints, but is easy to use as well.
Our mini boards take a playful approach to transportation and are given to each company participating this May. Headlines like, “I think, therefore I van” add interest to MiM’s signature colors and artwork.
Commuteride is the oldest multi-employer vanpool in the nation, and there are over 85 vans on the road here in the Treasure Valley, which is pretty significant. ValleyRide has 54 bus routes as well. More and more people are realizing that vanpools and bus rides give them time to relax before and after the work day, providing that much-coveted “me-time” to read a book, listen to podcasts, get caught up on work, chat with other commuters, or even daydream.
The MiM logo, a trio of transportation wheels set on vibrant spring colors, will be on every coffee cup lid at Tully’s this month in an effort to include downtowners.
Commuteride is also running two tv spots (below) this month to encourage participation.
Drake Cooper is also a proud sponsor this year, and we’ll be updating you with our miles saved and participation rates, as well as general MiM stats at the end of the month.
Big ups to: Kate Nichols, Malia Cramer, Sean Young, Karma Jones, Cale Cathey, Kirk Montgomery and Nicole Stern.
Some brands are more than just the packaged product. A brand can evoke a place and even a state of mind. At this level, the creative process becomes more like an existential quest for meaning—a step beyond a simple logo and tagline.
When 44° North Vodka approached Drake Cooper for branding, marketing, and digital work, we quickly realized this brand raised more questions than answers. Questions like “What is Idaho about?” And even, “What is America all about?”
Part of the reason was 44° North Vodka’s origin as an independent, crafted vodka in a world of bland, mass produced spirits. Unlike most global vodka brands that are produced from neutral grain spirits, 44° North is Grown in Idaho and five column distilled, using Rocky Mountain Spring Water, Famous Idaho Potatoes (aka earth apples), Mountain Huckleberries, Rainier Cherries, and Brundage Winter Wheat.
While this sounds like a refreshing break from the mainstream, what does “Grown In Idaho” really mean? Outside of the Northwest and beyond the Famous Potato, Idaho is pretty much a blank slate. Upon further exploration, this turned out to be a good thing. People can make Idaho what they want to make of it, defining and redefining in the process. This notion is at the heart of the rugged independence of Idahoans. Coincidentally, this is the same DIY spirit that sparked 44° North’s early backpack revolution style of marketing and distribution.
This insight evolved into the North of Center brand direction. This tagline-and-more speaks to the indie mindset and the iconoclastic spirit of the Northwest. The brand identity evokes a rugged authenticity that is defiantly optimistic, wide-open and refreshingly direct.
The new brand allows 44° North to handle all avenues of communication in a unified approach, all the way from shelf-talkers to ads and from out-of-home to an engaging website complete with up-from-ordinary swag.
The results? 44° North is the number one vodka in Idaho and recognized by the Idaho Potato Commission and Idaho Preferred. Nationally, 44° North continues to gain distribution in many states, becoming the ambassador of North of Center—and all things Idaho.
As for the work, Drake Cooper recently won one Gold and two Silver Rockies at the 2011 IAF Rockie Awards. Gold for the 44° North brand materials and Silvers for the website and Distilled by Earth & Sky newspaper ad. Boo-ya.
Shout Out: Ken Wyatt, Ron Zier, Harold Joyce, Dylan Amundson, John Drake, Sean Young, Jennie Myers, Matt Stevens, Chad Connelly, Amanda Cash-Crowley, Chris Robinson of the PromoShop, and Scott Kelch.
