Caramilk’s Symbols: A Work in Progress

The premise of what seems to be like a huge contest by a food giant has attracted our attention in the last month. With its first TV spots in May and June as well as a collection of 15+ videos available on Youtube, the Caramilk Symbols campaign is trying hard to convince us that the weird symbols we have noticed (have we really noticed them?) on our Caramilk bars are not there by mistake.

Indeed, the main promotional video is our first contact with the campaign and it is still unknown if symbols have really been seen on Caramilk bars. With its suspense-type trailer, Cadbury’s famous chocolate is creating a context of suspense for its summer consumers. Here is a quick look at their TV spot:

Their Youtube channel allow for a lot more interactivity during the video as well as keeping the viewer’s attention for a longer period. The look and feel is positive so far, which is encouraging for the rest of the promotional material that should be released in this IMC. 

Take some time to check out the beautiful channel designed specifically for this campaign: https://www.youtube.com/user/caramilksymbols

It is hard to bet against Caramilk’s masterminds when it comes to contest, given their recent success with their golden keys promotion in the past few years. However, we are not convinced yet that consumers will really be attracted by the weird symbols on their bars, which seem a lot less noticeable than a golden key popping out of the packaging.

Caramilk promises to start releasing extra information on July 2nd and we will be on the lookout for any change in packaging or even the existence of the symbols on the bars. Hopefully, this contest will live up to its expectations and help the brand differentiate itself and create some hype and momentum for extra summer sales.

Stay tuned as we will keep on eye on the evolution of this contest as the summer goes along.

They Are Really Sorry for Their Competition

The restaurant chain St-Hubert, the well-known chicken serving franchise with over 100 locations in Quebec, designed a promotion that immediately grabbed Marketing Mindspace’s attention. Oh, and don’t be surprise, the subtitles are meant to be:

Aired during the Stanley Cup playoffs, the “Sorry for the competition” spot had a simple task: make people aware of a pricing promotion, before they arrive in restaurants. However, this simple looking task can be quite complicated in a world where most TV viewers are either inattentive during commercials or just simply skipping them. Where we were impressed is in St-Hubert’s ability to surprise the listeners and arouse their curiosity. Indeed, no matter if you are watching a French or English channel, the unexpected Chinese language coming out of your speakers is inevitably “forcing” you to direct your attention to your TV, following along with the subtitles. And that’s where the fun begin for the advertiser: for the following 30 secs, your are not only captive, you want to solve this problem of foreign language. The human being is a creature who has difficulty to handle the unexpected and prefer to come back to status quo whenever possible. Once an advertiser know that, it can use this tool to sell pretty much anything. The franchise brilliantly took advantage of it and decided to sell us discounted chicken.

As an extra, here is their most recent spot. Same theme (more World Cup oriented), different 
promotion:

When Product Innovation Becomes Top-of-Mind

North America's soft drink industry has experienced a bit of a slowdown in the last decade or so. With increases in health concerns, it is no longer well seen to enjoy a refreshing cola with your every meal. In this environment, two cola giants have looked to different creative avenues for developing their brand and finding a unique product position. With the constant need for new material in the marketplace, the producers at Coca-Cola and PepsiCo. cannot rely on new recipes alone to impress their customers.

We have recently seen an attempt from both organizations to bring in novelty flavors but consumers have not reacted well to changes in their recipes. This resulted in the development of innovative strategies that are simple, and highly interesting from a brand management perspective.

First to appear, MountainDew (PepsiCo.), introduced its built-in bottle cap tool for skateboarders; with a hex-nut wrench made as part of the lid. MountainDew provides clear targeting through this move, essentially saying: we want young, adventurous people, who won’t settle for typical.

Even though its target market is pretty narrow, it has the advantage of focus. From a skateboarder’s point of view, this cap was made specifically for their social group, therefore the product should satisfy their needs. Unfortunately, it is likely that from a consumer behavior standpoint, a cap, no matter how cool, is not the first thing a customer is looking for when buying a soda, and the innovation will thus need extra communications efforts and promotional displays to get the point across.

On the other hand, Coca-Cola has played a different card. Instead of targeting a specific customer segment, they worked to become more “environmentally-friendly”, by proposing different caps to turn empty Coca-Cola bottles into useful everyday objects. Even though the real impact is likely to be minimal (we do not expect millions and millions of people to now buy Coca-Cola based on basic everyday needs), it was certainly well received as a clever idea.

Overall, we think these two ideas were original enough to create excitement on the web; however, we doubt it will really impact each company’s bottom line in the near future. Brands are not built overnight, but these cutting-edge "outside of the box" efforts are a great step towards developing positive brand images.

A Commercial Break on Grandeur

In a world where brands are sending humans to space, or connecting cultures through a pop machine, it can be easy to disregard more conventional marketing tactics. But a glimpse into the global world of marketing can reinstill the value of a communication that just does its job.

During our recent escapades in Brazil, we had the opportunity to intimately visit local brands and advertising agencies. As we sat watching their mirage of recent work, we could not help but feel initially underwhelmed. As can be seen in the example below, the work was predominantly distributed through TV, with relatively linear and story-driven content. In addition, the Blue Man Group was a concept that had been seen in Canada before, and to us felt recycled.

(You can follow along despite the language barrier)

But then came their next slides, wherein they showed the massive positive response that the campaign generated, and the KPI’s that proved it successful beyond a shadow of doubt. From this we gleaned a series of insights. First, further research shows that Brazilian TV has 97% penetration without much heed for PVR/recording devices - thus making televised commercial highly potent. This is a lesson in humility, where bigger isn’t always better, but more importantly where a thorough understanding of consumption habits across different geographies or classes can provide an idea with better bang for your buck. 

Second, a global brand can learn the value of using popular campaign concepts in new markets. In this case, it becomes paramount to ensure cross-cultural compatibility, but if executed properly this leveraging of successful ideas can milk more lift out of a tried and true idea. Again, this provides cost savings and frees up time to spend in other disciplines. 

More than anything else however, we learned throughout our time in Brazil that there is something extraordinarily important about immersing yourself in other cultures. From a business standpoint, differences in best practices can teach you important lessons to apply locally or abroad. On a personal level, new cultures will force you to learn yourself, and everything you do will benefit.

What are your thoughts? What have you learned from global travels?

Ubisoft’s Greatest Release: How to Sustain Buzz Over 2 Years

On May 27th, a long-awaited title in the video game industry was released: Watch Dogs - and the producer was not disappointed. Ubisoft announced that Watch Dogs now holds the company’s record for most sales in the first 24 hours of a release. However, the path to success was not perfect and so we will take a moment to analyze the roadblocks that the firm had to overcome.

Developed by Ubisoft Montreal, the adventures of Aiden Pearce created an instant buzz, surprising the gaming world as an unexpected trailer coming at the end of the Ubisoft presentation, during the 2012 E3 in L.A. The multitude of different reporters from around the world left the conference with high hopes, with the game announced to be released for November 19th of 2013. At that point, Ubisoft’s marketing department had taken a risky bet to announce one of their most promising title 1.5 year before its release.

Unfortunately, the strategy backfired and the product was not at its best for the announced date. The developing team was then faced with a tough dilemma: release an unpolished version and surf on the buzz created in 2012 or improve the product to offer the best experience. They made the hard decision to postpone the release date.

In this situation, the marketing team likely had to change most of their launch strategy. However, as a result we now have the chance to admire their promotional prowess. Starred on Jimmy Fallon’s show, the game benefited from great exposure throughout the year, mainly through fans sharing the teasers and trailers. Also, Ubisoft was smart in offering 5 different editions of their game to please their hardcore fans and gain extra revenue out of their pockets. Different retail locations also offered various incentives for pre-order, a secured source of revenue for the seller and producers.

However, the promotional piece that attracted our attention and interest was a viral video put out on the web. In only 17 days, the “AMAZING STREET HACK” attracted more than 12.8 millions viewers!!!

In the end, Ubisoft did great in sustaining the huge buzz they had created in 2012, and their decision to focus on selling a great product ended up to be a positive one. From a marketing standpoint, we believe the lesson is straightforward: no matter how great your early promotions are, you should make sure to release a great product - even though it requires extra work. The result of these efforts will be worth much more in the long run and will allow you to build a new product line (or franchise) on solid bases.

Have you ever heard of other delayed products, in any industry, that ended up as great success stories?