Digital Marketing Done Well

We want to take some time today to discuss Old Spice’s brilliant marketing campaign from January. You may have seen their communications efforts, which were targeted at 12-17 year olds, with their “mom ads”; but we want to take a closer look at a shorter campaign that went viral and was targeted primarily at 18-30 year olds.

The process was really simple yet really engaging: Old Spice created 9 fake websites showcasing men’s products and asked people to share the link with whom they thought relevant. You likely had the chance to encounter some on your Facebook feed, but to refresh your memories, here are some links to the sites: http://theflatteringman.com/ or http://www.partytanz.com/

The success was tremendous. The wide variety of websites allowed viewers to prank multiple people and the “hidden” advertisement, combined with an autoplay video was also a strike of genius, exposing people after 30 seconds or so to the brand’s new product. This type of advertisement is far more engaging than any pre-roll video they could have bought on Youtube. In addition to that, the videos were so hilarious that it enticed the viewers to go look for the other eight on their Youtube channel, a brilliant strategy to keep consumers exposed to your brand for 15-20 minutes straight.

Analyzing it from a marketing standpoint, this campaign had many brilliant pieces. Starting with the shareability of the content, Old Spice presented it in such a humorous way that their viewers really wanted to prank their friends, which gave the brand tons of earned media. The creators probably knew it could not be sustained for more than a week, but they took the risk of trying a short-lived campaign and it paid off.

To conclude, Old Spice brilliantly used 3 of their major assets: extensive understanding of its competitors, its consumers, and a great use of its emblematic spokesperson:

1) They know Axe is mainly selling to douchebags

2) They know Old Spice’s customers love to hate douchebags

3) They know how to use their Old Spice Guy (Isaiah Mustafa).

They did not change their approach and and it paid off once again. By combining these three ingredients, Old Spice created a recipe for success.

What are your thoughts on Old Spice’s digital campaign? Did it go viral in your own circle of friends? Do you expect these type of digital efforts to become the norm in advertising in the next decade?

Going Beyond Brand Equity

If you have ever taken a marketing course, you likely have at least a fundamental understanding of brand equity; it is that all important shift in the consumer’s mind that happens when your brand is present. The art of branding itself, is done with the intent of building this brand equity - which permits several benefits for both the customer and the company.

The powerful effects of brand equity can easily be seen through the classic Larry Percy experiment, which pitted different beer brands against each other. In this example, participants were asked to taste different beers and then rank them based on preference. However, the taste test was performed twice, once with the brands present and once with the brands hidden. The large and favourable inconsistencies in the answers for the “branded” and “unbranded” rounds coined branding as a potent source for creating strong association towards product, and as a generator of points of difference.

Think about the Cola Wars: Coca Cola and Pepsi sell essentially the same product, so similar that it is almost indistinguishable in a blind taste test; yet the two companies have developed different brand personalities, with Coke’s sitting clearly in the drivers seat. The gross difference in their financial performances can be neatly explained by the stronger brand equity possessed by the Coca Cola brand.

Also in your Marketing course, you may have been taught methods on how to build a brand, and what tends to drive brand equity. Absent however, are the tools needed to save a brand that has developed negative brand equity.

Lets take Beyond Petroleum as an example. Through a series of mishaps - the most prevalent being the 2010 Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill - the company managed to create such negative associations with its brand that employees were warned to be careful where they wore branded clothing, and to use caution when revealing their place of work.

A re-branding in 2000 already showed signs of confusion within the marketing department. A “Beyond Petroleum” Campaign was launched, along with a new logo, to promote BP’s positive environmental outlook. To this day, there remains confusion about whether British Petroleum actually changed their name to Beyond Petroleum, or if that merely became the company’s slogan. A quick google search will confirm the uncertainty. (Their webpage does little to help: http://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/about-bp/our-history/history-of-bp/special-subject-histories/bp-brand-and-logo.html)

The continuous inconsistency between the company’s communications and actions have created outraged consumers vowing to never again purchase the product. This leaves the obvious question; What can BP do to restore its brand, and create positive brand equity to benefit their bottom line?

What’s your opinion? Who is at fault for the negative associations now prevalent? What options exist for the brand?

Stanley Cup Playoffs: The On-ice and On-air Competition

On this Wednesday the 16th of April, the NHL Playoffs started off with a series of intense games, won by Montreal, Pittsburgh and Anaheim. However the puck drop announced not only the quest for the Stanley Cup, but also the time for brands to deploy their last NHL efforts of the year and an on air battle.

As we sat glued to Hockey Night in Canada, there were two advertisers that caught our attention, Budweiser and Molson Canadian; yet each used a different approach to catch our attention.

Molson Canadian promoted their brand by asking what fans would do for hockey. Reusing some of their best moves from the Sochi olympics (i.e. the Molson Canadian’s fridge around the world), the brand brought an exciting new ad on air:

The advantage of this strategy is clear: it starts a conversation among the fans. The #anythingforhockey hashtag had a good start with a mention every hour or so, coming mainly from participants expressing their joy of winning hockey tickets (search for #anythingforhockey on twitter for updated news). The success was also great using the french counterpart #fouduhockey. However, no matter how great their twitter movement, Molson Canadian lost the battle on air and is trailing in terms of TV exposure, as we recall seeing the spot only once during the Habs-Lightning game, the only one with a Canadian team.

On the other hand, we saw Budweiser investing differently in the playoffs. Starting with a revamped website for the occasion (http://www.budweiser.ca/en/), Budweiser also invested a significant amount in TV media buys as we have seen their new TV spot appear at least 3 times in the Habs-Lightning game alone.

Take a quick look at Budweiser’s new ad:



Even though the red light concept is nothing new, Budweiser made the effort to produce original content for their TV spots and it should eventually pay off, as frequency is likely to be huge as the playoffs progress; an event prone to viewership in real-time, eliminating consumers ability to fast-forward through ads. However, where Molson Canadian succeeded early on, Budweiser seemed to have missed the mark - with a non-existent participation rate on their microblogging platform. Indeed, they were the only one to use their #playoffexcuses the other night, and had their post retweeted only 5 times…

The following questions now arise: with clear and distinct strategies for both competitors, where will the 2014 playoffs beer battle be won? Is TV placement enough to secure this spring’s sales or will Molson’ participative approach yield higher results? We want to hear your thoughts!

Marketing Under the Influence

Are You Marketing Under the Influence?

The Spring of 2014 was officially welcomed in this weekend through the playing of Augusta National’s annual Golf Championship, The Masters. Bubba Watson finished an impressive eight under par to secure his second Green Jacket in three years, information I’ve discovered only after googling it just now.

Seeing as I am a golf aficionado and long-time player, why is it that I had no interest in watching this years Tournament? It’s the same reason celebrities hit up Jimmy Fallon before the premiere’s of their new blockbusters... influence.

In the digital age, Influencers play a crucial role in creating virality by projecting interests out to their masses of cult followers. Large network effects give these individuals incredible reach, and their relationships with fans tend to be strong and endearing. They are thus primed to build brand equity through corporate association and spokesperson roles.

But just how useful are they? This is where Tiger Woods comes in. As an individual who spent time as a dominant sports figure before having an media fall out due to his marital indiscretions, Tiger serves as a great example of the power of Influencers. At the height of his public career, he could be seen in promotions for brands such as Nike, Buick, and Accenture, his name was used to sell EA Sport’s golf video game, and his presence at a tournament could boost ratings between 30% and 50%, as quoted by Neal Pilson - former president of CBS Sports.

However in 2009 a flurry of media outbreaks, and an eventual confession, told the world of Tiger’s affairs. AT&T, Gatorade, and several other brands were quick to drop the star from promotional activities.

What do you do when a influencer linked to your brand goes bad? Well, here was Nike’s response.

There is no doubt that Golf’s popularity is hurting without Tiger’s dominance; and companies that used his sway as a point of promotion are now left unsure of what to do. Five years after the event, the impact of Tiger’s negative press is still being felt by all connecting with the former icon.

Influencers are powerful amplifiers, but are hard to control and have risks associated with them. What do you think? Are influencers good for branding? Are the risks worth the rewards?

When storytelling combines nostalgia and modern platforms

We would like to expand on the idea of marketing as a form of storytelling. We introduced this idea on Tuesday by showing how two giant brands have cooperated to create one of our favourite’s April Fools Prank of 2014.

We were delighted to see the launch of Google’s new contest ad, which was released on March 31st via their Youtube channel:

In brief, Google promised the position of Pokemon master within their organization, to the winner of the contest who would have to capture all 150 Pokemon by traveling the world.

Combining their Google Maps platform and augmented reality in a sleek video, Google tapped right into their Millennials target market with the hope of attracting individuals to their career page. Even though Google is likely not in need of new applicants, the video has the advantage of showing us their products (phones, google maps, etc.) in a creative and engaging way, and has people spending time using the application, to find each monster dispersed across the globe.

The 14 million + views in 10 days is a quick indicator of the video’s virality.

Any Pokemon passionate would be thrilled by such a promotional message (the nostalgia factor kicks in for any 20 yrs old who grew up with the dream of catching them all), but the quality of the video also makes it a must-see for non-aficionados…

Marketers are always pushing the limits in term of media and creativity, and here is a brilliant example of a company using owned medias (youtube + google maps) to diffuse its own content. With the expansion of digital marketing,  advertisers are  trying to find new ways to leverage the infinite promotional opportunities available.  A great way to do this is by using personally managed platforms (owned media) at no external cost, to create shareable content that could have a snowball effect and end up reaching an audience size that can’t be bought (user spread = earned media). Earned media representations the future of marketing, but it requires creativity and out-of-the-box ideas to stimulate demanding customers, who are constantly bombarded by thousands of promotional message  

What do you think of the contest? What is the future of paid media? Let us know your thoughts on this cool promotion!

Welcome to Marketing Mindspace

What is Marketing?

        As our first post, it seems only natural to depict what Marketing means to us.

        At a fundamental level, a textbook will tell you that Marketing is about communicating value to the consumer, allowing them to understand why your product serves a purpose in their life; but we believe there is more to it than that.  

Today, marketing is seen as a sort of villain in society; manipulating an individual’s perception of what they need, in order to generate profit. Our goal is to move away from this cynical view, and show that marketing is not actually a means of creating a want, but instead works to satisfies actual individual needs.

        What people often view Marketing as is really advertising: the spots you see on TV, or the giant billboards looming over cityscapes. However, that is only the tip of the iceberg – and what lies below is far more intriguing. Marketing is far more involved, ranging from understanding the unique elements of a brand, to making appropriate new product introductions; from creating communications objectives, to monitoring competitive positioning.

        But at the very highest level, marketing is really about storytelling. It is about understanding the personality of a brand, and sharing that image with the public. Lets put it this way: a great brand drives sales, but sales don’t drive great brands. Sales promotions tend to happen in the short term, and provide more for a company’s bottom line than for the consumer’s perspective. But brand building happens in the long term, and involves shaping the image of a product in the consumer’s mind; success at this leads to consistent sales in the long term, and a unique market position.

        After a week binge of Mad Men, it is easy to see how much the industry has evolved – storytelling is more prevalent and important than ever. With the innovations of the mobile sector, the way people consume data has rapidly changed, and with it, the way people communicate and measure marketing content.

        For us, something that highlights this shift is a YouTube video launched by Chipotle in September.

        Numbers don’t lie, and with 12 million views and counting at next to no media costs, it’s hard to argue the effectiveness of potent storytelling. What are your thoughts? Is this where Marketing is headed?