Will This Work?

Some would look at the article below and think that Dominos Pizza has lost its marbles. Yeah, this promotion PROBABLY won't directly lead to a whole lot of extra Brooklyn-style pizzas being sold, but I do think that it will provide a solid ROI for Dominos. Think about it - what did it cost them to run this promotion. Other than the money they paid some ad agency or creatives to dream up the promotion, the main costs of this promotion are

And look at the press coverage it has already gotten. You're reading this blog, and you're going to probably at least glance at the article I am linking to at the bottom of this post. So the next time you think about having pizza for dinner, chances are it very well could be a Dominos Brooklyn-style pizza.

"Mission accomplished." - Dominos Pizza Marketing Director

http://promomagazine.com/news/dominos_brooklyn_113006/

Garret Ohm

PS3 or Wii ? We shall see!

I'm not a gamer. I used to be alright at some of the games when I was a young chap, but not really any more. I just don't see the graphics like I used to - I can't figure out when to punch those little buttons to win the game, and I just can't see things like gamers can see them. To me, it's just a bunch of abstract graphics. To them, it's a whole 'nother world.

So when I watched in amazement the news stories about people waiting in lines and getting into fist fights over the new Playstation 3 and the new Wii from Nintendo, I just didn't get it. Either way, there are millions of people out there that do get it. They're usually categorized as brand loyalists - passionate about the system they love, and it's either one or the other (although some prefer Microsoft's XBox). But which one is better? I think (and the article below agrees) that it is the system with the best game offerings. Sure, PS3 has hddvd capabilities and the Wii doesn't, but Nintendo's not even sure that matters - they have cheaper games and they think that will drive system sales.

The reason I wanted to put this article out there is because even though these systems are flying off the shelves, I have not seen ONE ad for either of these sytems. Yet, it's all the news talks about and the buzz is out of control throughout the United States. It's just one more example of how if you build a great product that is in high demand, THAT is what drives sales - not the marketing. As a marketer, it's crucial to just have a better product to market, than to have more marketing dollars to spend. It's always easier to advertise when you stand behind and believe in what you are pushing.

Here's the article from MediaPost:

http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.san&s=51788&Nid=25450&p=320064

Garret Ohm

Sports ACTIVITY Vehicle

So you're faced with launching a newly redesigned luxury SUV in a slowly shrinking, but very competitive market. Aside from building a car that just kicks the doors off of the competition, what's the best way to differentiate yourself - to ensure that when someone plunks down $50k+, it's on YOUR truck, rather than the competitor's?

BMW's answer? Create a new and exciting product category. In their case, when they went to launch their newly redesigned X5 and X3 SUV's, they didn't want to just release them as another SUV. A SUV is defined by Wikipedia as a type of passenger vehicle which combines the towing capability of a pickup truck with the passenger-carrying space of a station wagon. Sure, the X5 and X3 do that, but BMW wanted to get to the root of what made their trucks stand out.

It wasn't just the towing capacity and the storage space - every SUV has that, otherwise, not many would buy them. Instead of thinking in terms of features, they sought out the benefits of the trucks (marketing 101, right?). In short, they came up with the idea that SUVs allow you to participate in more activities than other vehicles. You can haul sports equipment in them, go on vacations with them, carry your friends and family in them, go off-roading in them, tow a boat in them. Pretty sweet deal if you live that kind of life. Luckily it just so happens that BMW's main TA are active affluent folks - folks that have the kind of money to do a lot of those activities. Neat how that works, isn't it?

From that idea, Sports Activity Vehicle was born. It doesn't hurt that BMW builds one hell of a good-looking and awesome-performing truck. But I have to imagine this strategy of promoting a different kind of truck will help make affluent men and women 30-60 salivate even harder and reach even deeper into their wallets than they would for any normal SUV.

Oh, and because I couldn't leave you with all these words and no eye-candy - enjoy the new X5 and below it, the X3:




















Garret

Nissan To Drive Microsoft Experience

From MediaPost - by Karl Greenberg, Tuesday, Nov 21, 2006

Nissan has a new deal with Microsoft that will give it a broad presence across all of the company's properties, first dibs on Microsoft's Web-based and emerging digital platforms, and a significant competitive twist--access to the Microsoft brain trust to develop unique marketing programs.

The deal was announced yesterday between Nissan and Microsoft's Digital Advertising Solutions group. It involves programs on PDAs, MSN, Windows Live, Live Search, Xbox and Windows Mobile.

The goal, said Steve Kerho, Nissan director of media and interactive marketing, is to flood target consumers' "communication eco-systems" with the Nissan brand.

Some forthcoming products of the alliance are: inclusion of Nissan and Infiniti dealerships in Windows Live local maps, Nissan's sponsorship of an Xbox 360 console game "Forza Motorsport 2," a global tournament on Xbox Live, and an Infiniti and MSN.com-branded magazine and blog called "Open for Design."

Nissan will participate in pilot advertising programs within Windows Mobile and Office Live. In addition, it will use Microsoft adCenter behavioral targeting tools for search marketing.

According to Microsoft, the MSN network reaches some 465 million consumers worldwide each month, with "millions more" tapping into Windows Live, Xbox Live and Office Online.

"It really started with the realization that big portals are really online networks," said Kerho. He said the new deal differs substantially from what had until now been a project-based relationship with Microsoft and its properties. "The breadth of it is different, and the fact that it is all integrated around one particular strategy," he said.

"Media is very fragmented right now," Kerho added. "Consumers are in control of when, where and how they consume media. We sat together with MSN, and carved up the whole day: how and when and where and what does [the target consumer's] day look like? We actually have the opportunity now to sit down with developers and brainstorm on what content will be engaging, where and when."

Kerho added that the expanded relationship with Microsoft reflects an effort to have more flexibility in choosing "push" and "pull" media based on needs of specific vehicles, and which part of the purchase funnel for a given vehicle model needs bolstering.

"Pull has a high level of engagement, but it doesn't scale that well. Depending on media property, and audiences, they have programs that scale very well for us," Kerho said.

For example, the redesigned Altima sedan, bowing early next year, he said, will benefit from awareness-building elements on the MSN portals, Messenger and Hotmail. Meanwhile, lower purchase-funnel activities will occur on Windows Live, and MSN Live Local, as local-dealer and MSN mapping technology drives the dealer locator within Nissan's own consumer Web site.

While Kerho said Nissan isn't abandoning traditional media, Nissan marketing chief Jan Thompson reportedly said at an Automotive News marketing seminar last summer that TV would get less media dollars because Nissan has become so good at analyzing ROI on digital media. Nissan, which spent over a billion dollars in measured media last year between its two auto brands, has also created similar strategic relationships with Yahoo and Google.

"Internally, we are talking about marketing 2.0. What's unique is the breadth and depth of this," said Kerho, who did not disclose the financial terms of the deal.

Microsoft set up its Digital Advertising Solutions group to simplify the buying process for advertisers who want to connect with their target audience across various digital touch points. "It is a response to one of advertisers' key pain points," a spokesperson said.

Christmas Coming (Too) Early?

It's just about that time of year again. You know, when you can't get within a mile of a shopping center without either being run over or getting in a traffic jam. I, for one, am not at all pumped about the mad rush that ensues as soon as the calendar passes November 23....As a marketer, though, I do get excited because I know that this is a big time for many of our clients in the retail world.

As I study the trends in order to keep up with what's going on in the advertising world, I have been noticing a disturbing trend toward advertisers beginning to advertise holiday gift items even earlier - some even beginning before Halloween has even come and gone. If you're like me, you're probably not even in the ballpark of thinking about buying holiday gifts yet, so I was a little skeptical at why some advertisers would choose this strategy. But after consulting the research, it turns out that around 40 percent of people start their Christmas/Holiday (to be PC) in October. Crazy!

So while I get why they're doing it, I still don't know if it's the right thing to do. In a day when consumers are even more skeptical about being marketed TO, many are offended by the mass commercialization of the holidays. They begin to resent people who are marketing AT them 24/7/365.

So I have an idea to make everyone happy - consumers and marketers. Sure, spend more marketing dollars and get in front of more faces in October, but please, please, please don't run ads promoting HOLIDAY GIFT SALES. It's just perceived as too rude, annoying, and perhaps most importantly, intrusive the the customer.

What do you think?

Garret

Thanksgaddy Time!

Hi all -

Most of the folks at our shop now know that we're collecting items for this years ThanksGaddy celebration, in parntership with the Advertising Association of Baltimore. This event is put on each year by the Bea Gaddy Family Center in Baltimore. You can visit their Web site at www.bea-gaddy-family-center.org. For those of you that don't know, Bea Gaddy was an amazing woman who devoted her life to trying to help the poor in the streets of Baltimore.

So if you have some non-perishable food items, or even some paper products, toiletries, etc, feel free to swing them on by. We have a bin that we're going to drop off on November 21st at the center - so let's FILL IT UP!

Garret Ohm

Special K as a Megabrand

From Adage:

In hot pursuit of the next megabrand, Special K is slapping its scarlet letter on everything from water to watches.

Special K, a dieting cereal that has become Kellogg's top brand, is now expanding into meal bars and water products. |ALSO: Comment on this report in the 'Your Opinion' box below.

Diet strategy
In the five years since Kellogg Co. and its agency, Leo Burnett Worldwide, devised the Special K Challenge diet plan, it's blossomed into the company's No. 1 brand, with an estimated $500 million in global sales. Now Kellogg is poised to push its diet credentials even further.

It plans this month to nationally roll out a line of protein waters and protein bars for the diet section already on the shelf at Wal-Mart. It will also launch Special K Chocolatey Delight to help assuage dieters' cravings come diet season this January (see sidebar). Special K Personal Trainer watches which calculate calories burned and are already sold in the U.K., could also find their way across the ocean.

Health and wellness VP
To mastermind this aggressive expansion, Kellogg named Alan Gravely, a former marketing executive in its frozen-foods division, to the new position of VP-marketing of health and wellness. As one executive close to Kellogg noted, Mr. Gravely's position was created "in recognition of the largess of the brand, to put a more coordinated effort against it."

As Special K has expanded in recent years to include new flavors, such as the 2001 hit Special K Red Berries, and new forms, including bars, snack bites and waffles, spending has also increased. Kellogg laid out about $45 million in measured media for the brand in 2005. In January through June of this year, it had already spent $31 million, TNS Media Intelligence/CMR figures show.

"Kellogg has done a great job by not just focusing on overall health and wellness but by segmenting the market within that for different need states, for example touting All-Bran for digestion and Special K for weight management," said Credit Suisse analyst David Nelson. In terms of the expansion of that weight-management area, Mr. Nelson noted that, of course, extensions "have to be consistent with a brand's positioning, but Kellogg has credibility in not taking things too far in the last five years since they've been back on track."

Sales up 16%
In the mostly declining cereal category, Kellogg managed during the year ended Sept. 6 to drive sales of Special K up 16% to $286 million in food, drug and mass merchandisers excluding Wal-Mart and, in the highly competitive bars business, to build its Special K bars up 67%to $96 million in those same outlets, according to Information Resources.

Those numbers have given senior management the confidence to bet in a big way Special K can survive and even thrive in new categories, including the ultracompetitive water arena, with its Special K20 Protein Waters, and in the pharmacy and diet and nutrition aisles, where consumers are not used to seeing the brand.

Retail buyers are bullish on Special K cereal and are confident as well about the protein bars. Water they're not sure about. "You never know with these things. It could be the flavor of the month and only click for a while, or it could be the next big hit," said one. "It's hard to know."

Shelf space commitments
With the Special K name and Kellogg's backing, though, retailers are certainly going to give the new products the shelf space Kellogg is asking for. Advertising for the lines will hit in January, touting their ability to help consumers stay on track with their weight-management goals throughout the day. Observers said that if the initiative is successful, Kellogg will gain a legitimate footprint in the diet arena and stronger credentials to take the brand even further.

Asked during Kellogg's second-quarter earnings call about how far Special K might be expanded, President-Chief Operating Officer David Mackay said: "Wherever we can find ways to bring to consumers things that help against a particular need state and work off our current brands, that's exactly what we're going to do."

(Good) Marketing Really Takes Guts

True story. The husband of one of our esteemed clients, who shall both go nameless came to us a couple of weeks ago as they were starting a new company. The company is involved in high end home electronics integration. They were just getting their company off of the ground and wanted a brochure to use as a leave behind and to give to architects and builders to show that they were a company capable of delivering a quality product and a seamless install. Sure, we can do that. But a little background - this company just started on 10/10/2006. They have a name and no logo, and a Web site only a mother could love.

So our strategy, rather than to take the graphic design approach, was to work to develop the brand before we went ahead and just designed a pretty brochure. The idea here is that we want to work to properly position this brand before we execute any deliverables. Do they want to be high end, low end, or in the middle? What about them makes them a better choice than the other dudes that are priced similarly? Why should someone NOT go with a cheaper bid? Do they hang their hats on quality, scalable product or seamless installs? So obviously there are a lot of things to consider. It's our job to position them properly and then execute this graphically and in print.

The bottom line is, we knew that they were going to other firms that would probably give them just the cost to design a brochure, without this added process of brand development, which IS a significant expense. It was clearly the best approach, though. The question was, do they see the value in this process and do they have the guts to invest in it, even though they are tight on cash? Or would they take the easy way out?

The pitch went well and all signs point to the former, but we won't know for sure for a couple of days. But it really sounds like these guys have guts and are prepared to throw caution to the wind and do it right. Our fingers are crossed.

More later,

Garret Ohm

I Strongly Dislike Logos

Notice I didn't say hate. Hate's a strong word for something that is a staple of the industry that I love. But over the past few weeks, I've come to the realization that I really dread when our agency has to do a logo job. It's not that we can't or we won't - we've done some really cool and awesome logos over the last 17 years - many of which you'd definitely recognize.

You see, it's just that it is one of the projects that we work on that causes the most undue stress, agony and HEARTBURN. The reason this happens, is because many business owners just plain believe that their logo is their brand. They truly believe that this is what defines them; therefore, it MUST be so incredibly mind blowing that they can barely speak real words when they see it.

And what happens when a small business owner thinks this way? They start to fantasize in their mind long before we present creative to them about how awesome it is. Do they realize that these types of expectations can rarely ever be met? Probably not. Inevitably, they are disappointed when they see the logos and don't fall ass first right out of their conference room chairs. It's a task that is seldom met by even the great agencies of the world, especially in the first round.

What we need to work on is making sure a customer's expectations are realistic from the start. The truth is, your brand is so much more than just how awesome your logo is. Your brand is your unique selling proposition (USP), your people, your culture, your product, your service, etc. These aren't things that can be communicated with just a logo or "graphic design." Think about it - some of the best brands in the world have logos that could have been designed by a wanna-be artist.

Don't believe me? Well, you've probably never even paid attention because logos are seldom shown by themselves without their other brand elements - they're usually communicated with an emotion or a message. Nike, Microsoft, VW, Sony - they're not good logos, they're well communicated brands. Check these beauties out:























So, Mr. or Mrs. marketing director or small business owner - the next time you have your agency design you a logo for your brand, make sure your expectations aren't out of whack - you could end up unnecessarily disappointed.

Until next time,

Garret Ohm