Fat (Phat?) Marketing Idea

Let's say you work for a state agency charged with keeping obesity down. You have limited marketing funds. Oh, and it's the holidays, where the American dream is an overstuffed belly and a blissful turkey-induced nap.

You can give up, or you can get clever. My client, the NC Dept of Health and Human Services, got clever. Check this out (and maybe join up). I think this is a pretty good idea:

Sign up for the Eat Smart, Move More...Maintain, don't gain! Holiday Challenge!

Pumpkin pie, turkey with stuffing, fruit cake, fudge....the holidays are here bringing all sorts of delicious foods with them. Unfortunately for most, those holiday sweets and treats mean a couple of extra pounds gained. But we have a solution!

The second annual Eat Smart, Move More...Maintain, don't gain! Holiday Challenge begins on November 19. Registration is now open at www.MyEatSmartMoveMore.com. Participation is free.

Your goal for the holiday challenge is to maintain your pre-holiday weight. You will not try to lose weight; just avoid gaining any during the remainder of the year. This can be tough, especially with all of those holiday goodies!

To help you do this, we will send you a weekly newsletter that includes tips, strategies and advice for dealing with one of the many triggers that can cause holiday weight gain. Recipes and a quick and easy menu idea will also be included.

During the Challenge, you are encouraged to download an activity log, food diary, and weight log from our website to track how much activity you do, what you eat, and your weight each week. In addition, you will be able to read a blog with expert advice on avoiding gaining weight during the season.

Be sure to sign up now! We hope you will join us in the challenge to maintain your weight over the holidays.

Dove's OnSlaught Video Nearly as Powerful as "Evolution"

Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty is back again, with a new viral video. A follow-up to their wildly popular "Evolution" video (Remember that one? Average looking woman sits in a chair and is transformed over about 75 seconds into a supermodel on a billboard? If not, see below).

The new video, called OnSlaught, is compelling to anyone who has daughters. (I have 3, so I'm paying attention.)

Check it out:



IMHO, this video is excellent, on message, compelling and will be shared. It's just 5-10% short of the Evolution video. Here's why:

• Evolution came first. Sequels are almost never as interesting because you already know generally where they are going with it. You didn't know where Evolution was going when it started to play the first time.
• Evolution was more subtle. This one makes a great point. It's well produced, but it's like it's trying harder to be hard-hitting. The other hit us when we weren't looking. This one still hits us, we're just looking for it in this case.

What do you think? (If you don't remember the Evolution video, watch it below... It's great.)



Which one do you like better?




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Original Design Gangsta Video is Classic

This video is a number of things that marketing people will appreciate. It is:
a) hilarious, particularly to any designers/art directors out there, and those who work closely with designers; and
b) an absolutely great example of social media marketing on a shoestring budget. Enjoy.



I'm particularly proud that he's a fellow North Carolinian, and worked "North Cackalack"into the video...

~Jim Tobin
Life Is Marketing

Marketing is about much more than ads

I've been on the road a lot these last few days--including today. The other day, I dropped off my rental car at Enterprise in Romulus, near the Detroit Airport. Not only was I greeted nicely, but it was about 2:00 p.m., I had a flight to catch and I'd not eaten.

The woman told me to board the second shuttle, which was on it's way, but then pointed me to a grill where they were grilling hot dogs. They offered all the customers hot dogs, with all the fixings and bottles of water to take with them to the airport.

This is not only marketing, this is really good marketing. Despite the fact that I just got the American Express Platinum and that gives me free club access to some other rental companies, I keep going back to this Enterprise, because they always greet you quickly, offer you a bottle of water and get you on your way.

Congratulations to the Enterprise team for making sure that marketing goes right through to the customer experience.

Faux Social Media: Another Giant Corporation Fizzles in Web 2.0

AT&T is rolling out their U-verse product in select markets. The product allows people to get television over the Internet (along with high speed service). Now the potential for that is interesting, although as cable companies such as Time Warner Cable and Comcast have improved their service offerings and their service over the years, the argument for change is not a clear one.

To promote U-verse in Norwalk, CT, AT&T has a campaign under which they supposedly award free U-verse for a year to go named, conveniently enough, Bobby Choice. Get it, you have a choice. Uh yeah... They've put a bunch of videos on YouTube. Here's one.



Ok, so did that nauseate anyone else? We discovered it here in the office off of YouTube, and we immediately agreed that it was fake and cheezy. So why pretend that it's real? To AT&T's credit, they've admitted in the media that it's a campaign. But why pretend he's "won" this service? It deflates it, it minimizes it. He could've been just a funny spokesperson.

Ironically, in some ways it's better more in-depth information than is on the rest of the U-verse website, but the whole "faux social media" attempt just feels like another Wal-mart like mistake by a big company trying to understand the new rules of marketing.



While good web design for your site can help out, there is more than just web design to worry about. Do you need business checks or maybe even personalized magnets to give out? There are websites where you can get all of that taken care of and more.

Guerilla Marketing And Great Targeting Combined

Yesterday's post on guerilla marketing left some folks wanting some more. I've long believed that the more you know about your target audience and how they live their lives, the better your marketing campaigns are going to be.

I don't know anything about this campaign other than the pictures, but I'm assuming the folks at this Chilean beer company did their homework and found that their targets had a high propensity to ride the bus. If so, what a great idea.Makes me thirsty...

Jim Tobin
Life Is Marketing

More Great Guerilla Advertising from Mini

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about a great outdoor ad from the folks at Mini involving a subway stop. That one was about the car's surprising interior room.

Today a colleague sent me this bathroom advertising campaign for the Mini. This one focuses on the exceptional handling of the Mini around curves. I'm not sure what kind of person came up with this campaign, but they are both twisted and brilliant.The agency I work for invented urinal mat advertising in the 1980s, for an anti-AIDS campaign. That involved printing a clever message ("Use a Condom: Your Life is In Your Hands") directly after on a urinal mat. But this takes it to a brilliant new level.

And while we're on the subject, here's another fun bit of urinal mat advertising, this one for ESPN Brazil.
One of the guys in my office was jealous of this last one. He indicated he'd drink a lot more water if we had it here. I don't think I'll be putting that on my to-do list, although I appreciate how clever these ads are. More importantly, I think the target audiences in both cases will appreciate them.

~Jim Tobin
Life is Marketing

"Thank you, come again!" 7-Eleven and Simpsons are a great match

I'm amazed by 7-Eleven's recent moves to turn about a dozen of their stores into Kwik-E-Marts. They're going to even sell Simpson's related-products, like Krusty-Os, and Squishees and Buzz Cola. They've decorated the outsides of the stores to make them look just like Kwik-E-Marts as part of a promotion for the upcoming Simpsons Movie.The amazing part is not that someone thought of the tie-in. That's a no brainer in this case.

• What's amazing is that they're laughing at themselves.
• What's amazing is that they're willing to cover up their brand temporarily.
• What's amazing is the fact that Apu is a stereotype didn't stop them from doing it.

After decades of carefully packaging messages, the companies that are going to thrive in a Web 2.0 world are the ones that can be real. 7-Eleven is going to get a lot of benefit from this promotion. It's a great way to increase the value of the brand, don't you think?

Jim Tobin
Life is Marketing

Wired Let's 5,000 Subscribers Appear on Custom Covers

Did you ever go to the amusement park when you were a kid and pose for those phony magazine covers, like National Lampoon or Sports Illustrated. Great fun at the time.

Now Wired magazine has taken it a step forward. They invited the first 5,000 subscribers to sign up at their website to get their copy of the magazine delivered to them with their picture on it. Very cool mashup of personalized marketing, digital work flow and the use of a digital production press. An example is to the right.

So, of course, I'm flipping through Wired tonight and see it, and I'm bummed that I missed out on the invite. But to bring the point home, and leverage their brand positioning from this offline effort in the online world so it can live longer, they have a website where you can play too.

Not as cool, but fun nevertheless. Create and share your own wired cover. Here's mine. And if you're wondering if I know I'm a dork...yeah, I know. But hey, I feel a bit like I'm back at the amusement park...Go ahead, play with it. You know you want to... You don't have to share it, but you know you sort of want to try it... Or maybe that's just me...

Enjoy this *&#@!)% spot

I'm taking a break from the heavy discourse on how clients and agencies should work with one another because, well, I'm tired... And because a friend of mine sent me this spot and I thought it was funny.



For those of you who expect a marketing lesson with every post, go *&#@!)* yourself... Aw c'mon, I'm just kidding... It's a reference back to the spot... Don't get all mad like that! Come back here... There there...

But seriously, here's a quick fun fact. This spot comes from bud.tv, which is being widely panned in the blogosphere as a weak attempt at using social media. You need to log in to see the spots, provide personal info--even your drivers license number! Like YouTube doesn't have enough content like this for free? Heck, it HAS this spot... Why would I go give Bud my info... Funny spot. And a how to in what not to when you're trying to reach out...

~ Jim Tobin
http://www.lifeismarketing.com

Romancing the Audience

What marketing best practices can we learn from a first-time author? Turns out that my sister-in-law, Michelle Willingham Leonard, is a natural at this stuff.

When Michelle signed a three-book deal with Harlequin, she knew she'd sell a bunch of copies just on Harlequin's marketing muscle. But she also knew that to move herself up over other authors, she should sell some books, too. What things is she doing that we should all remember?

1. Make a Connection: Her first book signing ever was along with world famous author Nora Roberts. Michelle knew people were there to see Nora, but they had to stand by her table when they were in line. She told each one that she was a first-time author who was so excited to have a book in print. Suddenly the person in the line was part of her story, and they helped complete it. She sold every book.
2. Talk, and Listen: Michelle's had a blog for some time now. She shares her successes, her personal and business stories. She invites comments, and gets a lot of them. So much of marketing is one-way, you get a lot back from listening, too.
3. Break Down Your Audience: Michelle could have said, "Any romance novel reader in the world is my target, so I need a campaign to reach them." But she was much more realistic, sending books and simple press releases to local papers and magazines, playing up the "Local Teacher Makes Good" angle. She sent similar stuff to her alma mater, her hometown paper and other places, with "Hometown Girls Makes Good" type angles. As a result, she got feature stories in area papers. That's got to sell some books, right?
4. Look for Unique Opportunities: When Michelle saw two copies of her book on the shelf at her local store, she asked the manager if she could sign them both and put "Autographed Copy" stickers on them. He said ok. Both books sold quickly. (And I bet the manager ordered a few more copies once he knew she was local...)
   

I love some of the fun, big budget ideas that the pros come up with. But marketing is so basic, right? Who cares? Why should they care? Where are they? How can I reach them? etc. etc. Kudos to Michelle for getting it.

Ignoring Strategy 2.0

Just read a good post over on a blog called OkDork. The post was called Top 5 Stupid Trends of Marketing 2.0, and Noah Kagen, the writer, made several good points. Ok, actually he makes one really good point and 4 sort of fun ones...

The one really important point is that Web 2.0, if you 're applying it to marketing, is just a tool. And like all good marketing tools it can be applied intelligently or it can be swung around like a monkey with a hammer.

He asks good questions like, "Do you need a blog." Everyone wants to rush to answer yes, and many more should have them than do, but everyone? Seriously?

Learn about tools, to be sure, but think about strategy first!

Buying Buzz

Well, well, well... Advertising Age is reporting new data from the folks at Nielsen. They took data from two sources and found that the greatest chance of having buzz around a new product was to have advertising support of it. Yes, advertising support.

There's a lot to be said for blogs, Facebook, Second Life and all the other forms of social media out there today. And lots of the biggest advocates are getting a lot of ink in the ether saying that advertising is either dead or irrelevant. That's a great headline, to be sure. And there are issues with advertising, no doubt... But it's still a pretty powerful tool in the toolbox when used in the right way, at the right time...

Having said that, there are countless examples of using advertising badly...

The new tools in the toolbox are very exciting. But just like I was very happy to get my fancy new RotoZip a couple years back (until I lost the darn thing... I think my mover stole it), that doesn't mean the hammer isn't still pretty effective...

Online Evangelism

A few years ago, creating customer evangelists was all the buzz. If you ask me, it still is the right thing to do. Only a handful of companies actually do it, but that's another story.

Now the Washington Post reports that companies are looking to the web for a place to let their evangelists flourish.

From customized M&Ms, to placing your own Cadillac story, to My Tivo Gets Me profiles, there are good, and bad efforts out there.

One thing is for sure, this is an effort that makes a lot sense. Have you been able to do this for your company or clients? Let me know.

By the way, the Washington Post gives credit to the "Will it Blend" campaign I mentioned in one of my very first posts. It's fun though, so here it is again. This is sheer brilliance...

Tivo Pushes Ads Out of the House

MediaWeek reports that "alternative out of home" media is growing rapidly, up 27 percent in 2006 to $1.69 billion.

Alternative out of home is video advertising screens, digital billboards, and "place-based" media.

I think this comes from people trying to interrupt consumers when they least expect it. With Tivo and other DVRs causing commercials to be skipped. With consumers increasingly conditioned to flip over ads in 250-page magazines, the next idea is to surprise them, with either an ad in a place they don't expect or with an ad that has video when the consumer expects a single picture.

My thoughts: This trend will continue for years, before advertisers realize they are the victims of their own success. They've saturated the market to the point where everything is being ignored.

And then what happens next? Tell me what you think... I don't think it's industry salvation, even if it works in the short term...

Disgustingly Great Creative

I didn't expect to see a theme develop on this blog when I started it, but it's happening on its own. I love creative that comes out of looking at simple things and twisting them...

Here's another great piece of creative, developed when someone thought really far outside the proverbial box... Blank pieces of paper were hung in Vancouver. As bugs met their demise on the sticky sections, their bodies made the Orkin logo appear... How cool is that???


The agency that gets the credit is Rethink Communications, in Canada. Apparently, they are well named...

Creativity on Any Budget

The company I work for has been in business for 22+ years, yet we've never found a client with enough money to do what they want to do. Advertising is expensive. If they've got $200,000, they need $1 million. If they've got $1 million, they've got $5 million worth of needs, and so on. But these pictures here show that creativity is not a budget thing--it's a thinking thing.

Here are very creative outdoor executions on a tiny budget, a medium budget and a decent budget. The theme across all three is someone who saw things in a fresh way.

Tiny Budget: Brilliant Outdoor Medium Budget: Brilliant Outdoor
Decent Budget: Brilliant Outdoor

Cup-le of clever out-of-home campaigns

One my earliest posts on this blog was about a Starbucks campaign using magnetic cups attached to car roofs. Now it seems that others are using coffee cups in clever new ways.

DDB Canada has this design for their client Toronto Plastic Surgery. The coffee drinker, with the help of a mirror, can try on a new nose while they sip a latte. Clever clutter busting creative.

The folks at Wrigley's have a similar fun campaign, this time with stickers on the bottom of the coffee cups. Maybe more appropriate at Halloween, huh?


One of my favorite sites, the Coolhunter, found these...

Advertising on Second Life

"They paved paradise...and put up a parking lot."

There have been lots of articles written about Second Life. If you're into these kind of marketing, gaming, technology trends, you no doubt know about it. And, you may know that marketers like Virgin are already discovering it, opening stores in this virtual world, selling downloads, and making real money. (152 individual users made more than $5,000 in real money by doing business in Second Life in the month of March alone!)

The future of that world is crystal clear.

• Early adopters come in and create an economy;
• Some clever marketers see an opportunity to extend their brand into this world, many think it's funny, clever, good thinking;
• Less clever marketers start to come in. The humor of it all goes away;
• Every two-bit marketer finds a way to extend into Second Life, the users go away;
• The buzz fades, the "citizenry" shrinks but doesn't disappear. Marketers go away (mostly) and Second Life continues smaller, less hyped.

It seems a little sad to me on the one hand. On the other, it seems like the natural order of things. We find a new place and we all rush there, transforming it. Just a cautionary tale for those who would make millions in their alternative universe.

Absolutely Brilliant Outdoor

The key to good creative is narrowing your message down to one simple thing. If you can do that, and you have a good team, you'll get good creative. (Those are, by the way, pretty big "ifs".)

Here's an example of a campaign where they got it right: done for the Red Cross and running in San Francisco:

It doesn't have to say much of anything. A really powerful reminder of why you give to the Red Cross. It just takes something most people don't have: a narrow focus and a willingness to get outside and think...

Props again to Coolhunter for finding this.