Modern Retro ads for latest Newsweek issue

The latest issue of Newsweek has gone retro with Mad Men on the cover. To celebrate the 1960s theme, several advertisers such as Allstate, Lincoln, Tide, Mercedes-Benz, British Airways, Johnnie Walker, Benetton and Spam redesigned their ads in a 1960s style.


Via Adage. Vote for your favorite ad.

Digital Agencies.

Interesting benchmark on how we're doing on digital. These agencies I love, but we need to get on the boat and remember we are in the business of speaking in behalf of our brands no matter what the media is. The message and the experience tied to consumer-product relevance.

Which makes me think. Souldn't our first brand be our own agencies?

Thoughts?

über-cool Chiquita Banana stickers

Many design, marketing and advertising blogs have already covered the redesign of the famous Chiquita Banana stickers. However, I saw them for the first time only recently.

These are a good marketing idea because

READ MORE...

US Buick vs. China Buick

When I was in China, I noticed many upper-class people driving Buicks where in America they would probably be driving an European luxury car. In China, Buick occupies a cool, hip mindset while in America, the brand perception is different.

In China, General Motors has done a superb job of pitching Buick as a cool, even sexy, luxury car. It's not viewed as something your grandfather would drive. Instead, GM positioned Buick as an aspirational brand that fits in perfectly with China's national go-go race to modernity.

As a result, the Buick has become a symbol of the country's rising prosperity — a fun, four-wheeled, tactile embodiment of Deng Xiaoping's famous phrase, "To get rich is glorious."

Compare the two commercials below to see a brand that has already established a strong brand image so they can have more daring ads versus a struggling brand image that is trying very hard to portray hipness.


Chinese Buick ad




American Buick ad



Via Globalpost.

The best Black Friday deal

This holiday season's hottest item is nothing. The U.K.-based sustainability outfit Do The Green Thing is using creativity to combat conspicuous consumption and thoughtless consumerism. While innovative, this tactic of "selling" items to promote a cause or a non-profit has been done before.

Via GOOD.

adidas and $1 training shoes

Adidas, in response from the idea of Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh, is going to make trainer shoes that cost about $1 for people around the world who cannot afford to buy shoes.

Via London Telegraph and Brand Channel.

Red Bull street marketing

While brilliant on Red Bull's part, I think that this would be more ideal for a NASCAR marketing move as it introduces the northeastern US and urban dwelling crowd to a mostly rural and Southern-based NASCAR product.

Via Bized.

Is Google biased against certain nonprofits?

I received the following email about How Google and Social Entrepreneurs Perpetuate the Digital Divide Among Nonprofits. The attention grabbing title caused me to read the entire email which is unusually long. This particular excerpt caught my eye as it relates to advertising.

In the past few years, Google has “given away” $300 million worth of free advertising to nonprofit organizations through Google Grants. Following Google’s value of employee input, Google leaves most of the grantmaking decisions to regular employees. In the United States, Google’s employees are disproportionately White and Asian and from elite schools. These employees then give grants to organizations with interest like theirs and people they know, which most often are also White or Asian and from elite schools.

The advertising industry is not well-known for cultural diversity and this most likely affects advertising campaigns. For example, how would you expect college-educated people who grew up in the suburbs to figure out the "cool factor" of apparel targeted toward a more inner-city and urban demographic? How would a largely caucasian creative team understand the differences between Latinos or Asian-Americans (Chinese-Americans, Korean-Americans, Vietnamese-Americans, et al.)? How does this affect casting decisions? Not understanding demographics also relates to age. How would a creative team with an average age of 40 understand the 18-25 yr old demographic?

Read more of How Google and Social Entrepreneurs Perpetuate the Digital Divide Among Nonprofits below.

By Andrew Sears,
Executive Director-TechMission

In the past 10 years, I have been working to address the digital divide, which is the gap between those who have access to and training with technology. I serve as the Executive Director of TechMission, which runs the largest association of Black and Latino led nonprofits addressing the digital divide and manages UrbanMinistry.org, which is one of the most visited web portals of Black and Latino nonprofit leaders. During that time, I have seen many effective initiatives in addressing the digital divide. At the same time, I’ve seen many efforts that have been very well-intentioned, but in the end may have only made matters worse.

I grew up in the inner-city, but later went to MIT and co-founded the Internet Telecoms Consortium with on of the fathers of the Internet (David Clark) to study the social and business implications of the Internet. The most important thing I learned while studying complex systems at MIT is that often you make a change to the system and the result is exactly the opposite of what you were expecting.

Case in point: my wife and I went to Woodstock ’99—a complex system of people, alcohol, drugs, bands and unusually hot weather. At the concert, there was a nonprofit group wanting to promote peace, and it gave out thousands of “peace candles.” The result was the opposite of what they had intended because they had not thought through the consequences of giving candles to thousands of people who were inebriated and enraged from the extreme heat and exploitive prices at the concert. The result was that people used the candles to start hundreds of fires and burn everything in sight. A group wanting to promote peace at Woodstock unintentionally became a catalyst for riots, and in the worst circumstances, this is how complex systems work.

Addressing the digital divide and trying to help under-resourced communities is an extremely complex system. My assessment is that some of the largest efforts to address the digital divide by social entrepreneurs, including those at Google, may have unintentionally made matters worse among nonprofits.

Is Google Grants Hurting Black and Latino-Led Nonprofits?

In the past few years, Google has “given away” $300 million worth of free advertising to nonprofit organizations through Google Grants. Following Google’s value of employee input, Google leaves most of the grantmaking decisions to regular employees. In the United States, Google’s employees are disproportionately White and Asian and from elite schools. These employees then give grants to organizations with interest like theirs and people they know, which most often are also White or Asian and from elite schools.

This creates a bias in the process, but that is common in the nonprofit world. In fact, according to a report from the Greenlining Institute, foundations only give 3.6% of their funds to organizations led by people of color although people of color make up 52.4% of poverty in the USA. This bias is shown graphically in the adjacent diagram.

If that bias were the only effect Google Grants were having, then they would be no different than most foundations. The problem is how Google Grants works, by giving away “virtual money” that people can then bid on ads, they have essentially flooded the market for nonprofit ads with $300 million in virtual money.

Read more here.

The truth about bottled water

Bottled water is safer and more pure than tap water. True or False? According to Tappening and Start a Lie, it's false. Some facts from Tappening are below.

Bottled water often contains more bacteria and impurities than tap water, because the EPA regulates municipal water systems more stringently than the FDA regulates bottled water

Worldwide, 2.7 million tons of plastic are used each year to make water bottles, and in the United States, less than 20% of these bottles are recycled.

Via Adverblog.

Simple is The New Black

Simplicity Becomes a Selling Point
Foodmakers Emphasize Uncomplicated Ingredients
By Jane Black
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 7, 2009; A01

Haagen-Dazs's new line of ice cream, Five, doesn't hide the ingredients in tiny type on the back of the carton. Every one -- milk, cream, sugar, eggs and vanilla bean -- is prominently displayed in bright-orange capital letters. The fact that the brand's regular vanilla bean ice cream also has just five ingredients is beside the point. Food marketers have come to realize that simplicity sells.

Advocates for healthful eating have long tried to steer Americans away from highly processed foods that contain dozens of unnatural and unpronounceable ingredients. Now, driven by a drumbeat of food recalls -- ground beef, peanuts and, most recently, pistachios -- consumers may be more inclined to heed the call.

Last week, Snapple Beverage unveiled a reformulated line of drinks and an eight-figure marketing campaign emphasizing that its iced teas are made from green and black tea and "real" sugar. Frito-Lay is boasting that its potato chips, tortilla chips and even Fritos are each made with just three ingredients. The hope: that consumers will equate fewer ingredients with healthfulness, even when it comes to ice cream and chips.

"It's a convergence of health, food safety, taste and traceability," said Phil Lempert, a food and consumer behavior analyst who calls himself the Supermarket Guru. "People are reading labels more carefully than they were previously. When they pick up a product and it has 30 ingredients and they don't know what half of them are, they are putting it back on the shelves."

The message of simplicity and purity is just the latest in a long line of marketing strategies employed by food manufacturers. In the 1980s, product labels trumpeted low-fat credentials. In the 1990s, even packages of bread crowed about low levels of carbohydrates. "We've reduced fat and calories; that's reductive," said Aurora Gonzalez, a Frito-Lay spokeswoman. "Now we look at how can we add pluses. Whole grains are a good example of that. Another part that is complementary is the simplicity of ingredients."

On one hand, the move is a victory for those who have long preached the glory of simple, less processed foods. In his best-selling book "In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto" (Penguin, 2008), Michael Pollan writes that the first rule is to avoid any food products with more than five ingredients and those that contain unfamiliar ingredients (or high-fructose corn syrup).

But such advice was not meant to suggest that anything that contains a large number of ingredients is bad. A home-cooked stew or a Spanish paella, for example, has dozens of ingredients but is what Pollan and others deem "real" food. Sugar, in contrast, is just one ingredient but can be harmful in large quantities.

"It is better that the food be simpler than more complex," Pollan said in an interview. "On the other hand, this is another case of food manufacturers reformulating to reflect whatever the latest critique of their food is and turning what it is a criticism into a marketing strategy to sell more food."

Five is not a great departure for Haagen-Dazs, which has always catered to consumers who value high-quality ingredients. But it approaches the message in a new way, stressing wholesomeness and purity over indulgence.

For Frito-Lay, a focus on real ingredients is a new way to help consumers overcome their guilt about eating snack chips. Last year, the company redesigned the back panels of bags of Lay's potato chips, Tostitos tortilla chips and Fritos. The Lay's bag shows a pile of fresh potatoes. On Tostitos' bag, an ear of corn has the husk pulled back to show it filled with corn chips. "It's anecdotal, but we've had people tell us that they didn't know there were potatoes in potato chips," Gonzalez said. "What it is trying to reinforce is our agricultural base. People forget corn chips come from corn."

A new series of television ads drives home the message of purity. In one Tostitos spot, a young woman at the grocery store reads the ingredients on the back of a bag of another brand of tortilla chips. "Thirteen ingredients. That's more people than I invited to the party." Instead she chooses a bag of Tostitos. "White corn, vegetable oil and salt. Three ingredients is good."

In a new multimillion-dollar ad campaign, Snapple also promotes natural ingredients. The decision, said spokesman Bryan Mazur, was prompted by broad consumer interest in where food comes from and company research that showed that most consumers, even those loyal to Snapple, had little idea what each bottle contained. According to one survey, only 32 percent of Snapple customers knew that its tea beverages were made with real tea leaves.

The new Snapple label boasts that the drink is "made with green and black tea leaves." "We don't consider it rebranding but continuing to deliver 'the best stuff on Earth,' " said Mazur, the company's vice president of marketing, quoting the company motto. "What the best stuff on Earth was then is not what the best stuff is right now."

Will such products help Americans to eat more healthfully? Pollan is not optimistic. Successful marketing campaigns have led many to feel virtuous about eating large quantities of low-fat cookies or low-carb pastas, even as obesity among U.S. adults continued to rise.

Some experts dismiss such complaints, however. Government figures predict food prices will increase between 3.5 percent and 4 percent in 2009. Fresh fruits and vegetables already tend to be more expensive than processed foods, a gap that is more pronounced for families during hard times. A recent survey showed that 81 percent of U.S. adults are making some effort to limit spending on groceries; 40 percent are eating less nutritious foods as a result. Low-income people were hit hardest, according to Multi-Sponsor Surveys, a Princeton, N.J., research firm. Of those categorized as "down and out," 65 percent reported they were eating less nutritiously. The figure was 59 percent for those categorized as "on the edge."

"Processed food -- whatever that means -- is not all terrible," says analyst Lempert. "The reality is that in the next 20 to 30 years we're going to double the number of people on the planet. We need to figure out how to feed people in a good, affordable way."

Up next for food manufacturers' marketing plans: going local. The concept is the current darling of sustainable-food advocates and environmentalists because food sourced or processed locally tends to be fresher and have a lower carbon footprint. Frito-Lay's Gonzalez noted that the company has 32 plants around the country and that, for example, Tostitos sold in Washington area stores were produced 70 miles away in Aberdeen, Md. The company is working on new messages to connect their products to local communities.

For Pollan, a local pedigree and fewer ingredients may be better. But ultimately, he says, "It's still junk food."

Enrich Your Résumé

Matt Crump and Jocelyn Lai (see their portfolios in the portfolio section in the sidebar) have launched a new business called Vitamin CV. They fortify and strengthen resumes and cover letters through enhanced typography and diction.

Embracing Multiculturalism the Wrong Way.

McDonald's attempt at celebrating Asian Pacific American Heritage month: My Inspirasian

Please take special note to the following:
1. The "Shock Your Friends" on the bottom...because knowing how to speak a different language is shocking and unexpected. You should not be fluent another language, or else this game will not be fun!

2. In "Shock Your Friends," Koreans are kimchee, Indians are henna, Japanese are jeepney, Chinese are dragons. Congratulations, this is stereotyping in its finest form!

Let them eat cake

In this time of junk bonds greed, corporate fraud, and mismanagement of government bailout funds, Cessna-one of the major private-jet manufacturers- has launched a proactive campaign to combat the criticism of CEOs flying in their products while their companies are laying off thousands of workers.

Via Cliff Kuang at Fast Company.

When the truth comes out

"The most powerful element in advertising is the truth."
-William Bernbach, co-founder of DDB

I'd like to present two cases where advertising and marketing overshadowed the reality of the product.

1) The New York Times has an article about how wireless carriers charge for SMS (text messages). In summary, a text message is extra data carried on existing cell phone transmissions. This extra data takes up no extra space. So you're being charged for air. The smartest and most creative commercials can't overcome this revelation.

Via Fast Company and the New York Times


2) GM. Despite improving product quality, the perception that foreign cars were better than domestic cars drove away buyers. Spending $3 billion on advertising for subpar quality products won't help improve the product quality.

Via Google News search and Money Morning

images from zedomax and routing by rumor

update on text messaging: A California teenager sends and receives more than 14,000 text messages a month!

Some branding tips

Here are some links about how to brand yourself for dating, how to brand your hospital, and how to brand your tourism campaign.


1. Seattle Children's Hospital

From Brand New. Be sure to download their simple and effective branding brochure.


2. Tip 107 - If You Are Single, You Are in Sales

From Never Eat Alone.

Technically, this is sales. But sales and branding are intertwined
-David

----------------------------------------------

We're all in sales. Do you want a raise or a promotion? You're in sales. Do you have a new idea at work? You're in sales. Are you single? You are DEFINITELY in sales. Even though I was a CMO at Deloitte and then Starwood (where I also led sales for awhile), in fact I was really terrible at applying this "sales" wisdom in bars when I was single. But the rules are the same, whether you're selling a house, the services of your start-up, or yourself:

1. Understand your product. That's you. Know who you are - your strengths, your weaknesses, your mission - and what you have to offer someone.

2. Know your target. Focus on the other person. Ask about his or her passions. Be sensitive to the other person's emotional temperament (wild, introverted, etc.) and tweak your conversational style accordingly.

3. Solve someone's problem. Be generous by introducing her to a person she would benefit from knowing or offering him advice on his struggles. If the problem is a dateless Friday night, cha-ching!

Oh, yeah, if you're no longer single, you're also in sales! This is a great time of year to develop a little more "currency" with the one you love. Go overboard this year to remind her or him how much your relationship means to you! We're all in sales.

Happy Valentine's Day.

Warmest,
Keith

3. The iconic I Love New York campaign

From Brand New. It's nice to see a campaign develop around this classic logo.

Church Marketing Sucks

For those of us who work in the branding/marketing communications department of churches, there's a site called Church Marketing Sucks. I think it's intriguing how more and more churches are hiring business people and applying marketing communication principles to spreading the Gospel of Christ. I first read about how many non-profits fail because they don't even have basic business operating fundamentals in The Cathedral Within by Bill Shore. If you go to Volunteer Match, a lot of the help wanted listings are for marketing help. As more and more churches are growing, I hear of more and more churches hiring art directors, creative directors, marketing directors, and account executives from the for-profit world.

Close to perfect sub-branding

This is brilliant sub-branding.

Found at Brands of the World.

Turn on Your Cell Phones!

During Intermission, Cellphones Are Brandished in a Promotion

By ANDREW ADAM NEWMAN
Published: June 18, 2007

Typically you are told to turn off your cellphone before a performance. But at a recent Saturday matinee of “Spring Awakening,” the Broadway musical that garnered eight Tony Awards last week, the audience was told to do just the opposite.

“Win Your Chance to Come Backstage!” said a flier inserted into the Playbill, which encouraged theatergoers to send the text message “bdway spring” to a five-digit number before the end of intermission.

After the show, Becky Mitchell, 18, received a text message that she had won, and she bounded onto the stage with Alyssa Navia, 19, a friend from Boston College, where both are freshmen. “This is my first Broadway show,” said Ms. Mitchell, who wore a rugby shirt and Ugg boots. “This is fantastic.”

The production’s company manager, John E. Gendron, showed them the trapdoors in the stage from which, only minutes before, two actors had risen from a dry-ice ground fog.

But what the play’s producers hope to make magically appear in the future are audiences. At the performance, 62 people sent text messages, which included their telephone numbers and e-mail addresses, in hopes of winning the contest. All of their information went into a database that will be used to pitch Broadway tickets and other promotions.

In exchange, contestants were sent a ring tone of a popular song in “Spring Awakening” and a photograph from the show to use as wallpaper on their phones. Both of the souvenirs are potential conversation starters with friends, whom the producers think of as would-be ticket buyers.

“Those are numbers talking to numbers talking to numbers,” said Damian Bazadona, president of Situation Marketing, who is working with the producers and the owner of the theater, Jujamcyn Theaters, on the pilot program. “A year or two years down the road, that’s how you’re talking to markets.”

Americans sent 18.7 billion text messages in December 2006, nearly double the 9.7 billion that were sent the previous December, according to CTIA, a wireless industry trade group. While various companies have tried to beat a path from consumers’ phones to their wallets, theater promoters, weary of phones ringing infuriatingly during denouements, have held back.

Until now.

“There’s a tendency for Broadway not to be an early adopter, but that’s changing,” said Jordan Roth, vice president of Jujamcyn, which owns five theaters in New York, including the Eugene O’Neill Theater, where “Spring Awakening” is being staged. “Most producers now are really looking for new ways to communicate with our audience.”

The musical’s producers are sharing data with Jujamcyn, which is signing up participants for Broadway Phone, its wireless service for ticket deals and show information. Since the production draws young audiences with its themes of adolescent angst, it was chosen for the maiden cellphone effort. “But our goal is to expand what we’re doing to many shows,” Mr. Roth said.

As for whether this will result in more ringing during performances, Mr. Roth said that it has not been a problem, but that the promotion might not suit every production. “Will it interfere with the show?” he said. “Yeah, that is one of the things that is open for discussion.”

About 8.5 percent of audience members have been sending text messages in the 14 contests that the production has done so far, but organizers expect participation to reach 10 percent.

For a similar promotion with a tour of the rock-oriented theatrical production Blue Man Group, an average of 16 percent of audience members sent text messages, Mr. Bazadona said.

In a tour that covered 60 cities in 90 days, about 50,000 people sent text messages. “This means that each night, 16 percent of the house is leaving the theater with Blue Man Group somehow represented on their mobile phone,” Mr. Bazadona said.

At the Eugene O’Neill Theater that afternoon, the two students were enjoying their behind-the-scenes access when Stephen Spinella, who plays several characters in the musical, strode onto the stage on his way out of the theater. He asked Ms. Mitchell what she had done to win the contest.

“I texted,” she replied. “One of my favorite things.”

Pitches: No Longer a Death Sentence for Incumbents?

It used to be that a new client CMO = death sentence for incumbent agencies. Yet in the past couple months, we’ve witnessed several examples of incumbent shops beating the odds and retaining the account. MediaCom recently pitched against several other media shops and emerged the victor for Staples, even adding the UK and Canada to its existing domestic duties. Philips Electronics is re-awarding Carat London with its global media duties and Revlon has come running back to Carat after briefly handing over the reins to Initiative. To top it off, Initiative has also retained and added duties to their Big Lots account, after a review which included several other shops.

Notice that all of these incumbents are media shops. Perhaps it has to do with accountability: media shops are particularly good at pulling out the numbers and wooing clients with results and figures, while creatives…. Well, here’s a pretty storyboard we made??

Regardless of the cause, this could be a sign that incumbents may actually have a fighting chance in the crazy world of pitches.

Nintendo targets your mom

Remember Tupperware? Your pantry probably overflowed with it fifteen years ago thanks to the climax of the Tupperware party—a direct marketing getup masquerading as a social event where women (and a few men?) gathered to buy brightly colored crap. Since then, companies selling other brightly colored crap (notably makeup, lingerie and sex toys) have lifted the idea and enjoyed similar results.

Now, Nintendo of America Inc. is attempting to generate precious word-of-mouth for its new Wii console by emulating the Tupperware party to—you guessed it—sell even more brightly colored crap. Part of Nintendo’s current marketing strategy is to expand its client base to include unlikely gamers… like the alpha mom. She knows how to work a digital camera, use the Internet and even send text messages, so watch out—chances are your mom’s one.

The party plan effort was started by a buzz-making trio of LA alpha moms who invited 35 other LA alpha moms to the always classy Chateau Marmont to experience the Wii firsthand. Nintendo has since expanded its party planning crusade to Boston, Chicago, Denver, Miami, San Francisco, some place in Kansas, and right here in Austin.

I know what you’re thinking: Intuitively, this target is all wrong—isn’t it? Most normal moms are inherently anti-gaming, even alpha moms—nagging their kids to give the console (and their eyes) a rest. It just doesn’t make sense for Nintendo to target them; that is, until you realize who’s making the purchase decisions. Who got me a Wii for Christmas? The tag said “Santa Clause”, but I’m almost positive it was my mom—and she hates that I play video games. Absurd? Maybe. But if Nintendo can convince the very people that hate video games (but buy them anyway) to love video games, then logically, they’re going to love buying more video games and Nintendo’s profit margin will increase by a million-billion percent. It sounds like nonsense, but apparently it’s working.

One alpha mom who attended a Wii party said, “Most people were like, ‘I don't play games,’ [but by, like, the end of the night], everybody was playing it. People were working up a sweat.” Only in, like, America do we work up a sweat playing video games and have parties to buy brightly colored crap we don’t need.