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Aug

ChalkBot remembers Mom

By Kirk 0 Comments

Categories: cause marketing, event marketing, health care, interactive marketing, promotion and social media

Nike’s Chalkbot may be the perfect convergence of technology, social media, and cause marketing.

Essentially a pneumatic chalk-paint sprayer driven by a computer, ChalkBot takes messages from around the world via text messaging, Facebook, Twitter and the LiveSTRONG web site, and sprays them in yellow on the roads of the Tour de France during the event.

According to The Inspiration Room blog, the system includes a text-message interface, web-based queue and approval system for tour officials, onboard machine and nozzle control, spray mechanism, camera and GPS capture system, and Twitter integration. (See how it works below.)

The messages generally support the fight against cancer, encourage survivors, and memorialize loved ones. On the ChalkBot landing page are sample messages submitted by others and a Google map indicating their points of origination.

I gave it a try and submitted a message in memory of my mom who died of cancer in 2000.

On July 19, the Tour entered the Pyrenees during Stage 14. Christophe Riblon, a Fenchman, escaped early on the road between Revel and Ax 3 Domaines and held off the charge of the peloton to win the day. The main contenders, Andy Schleck and Alberto Contador, played cat-and-mouse games with each other during the stage’s two difficult climbs. Schleck retained the yellow jersey.

Meanwhile, a few miles away, the ChalkBot was spraying messages on the Stage 16 route, the roads between Bagnéres-de-Luchon and Pau. One of them was mine.

Recently I received an email message from Nike with a photo of my message painted on the road, along with the date, the time of day, and the GPS coordinates. Great followup. Mom would have been amazed.

Jul

Clean Bottle awareness summits at Tour de France

By Kirk 1 Comment

Categories: event marketing, packaging, promotion and social media

At this year’s Tour de France, Bottle Boy was a hit.

Bottle Boy represents Clean Bottle, a new reusable sports bottle that unscrews at both ends. The rather simplistic design concept makes the job of cleaning residue out of the bottom of the bottle easy and helps prevent mold, a concern among runners, cyclists, hikers, and other athletes. The product is available through REI and others.

Clean Bottle launched only months ago with a limited budget. So Dave Mayer, founder, built the five-foot-tall Bottle Boy costume and booked a flight to the Tour de France. On twelve of the stages, he ran alongside the slowing riders as they neared the tops of their climbs. Accordingly, he received significant TV airtime.

“The Tour de France is the Super Bowl of cycling,” Mayer says. “By running with the riders I’d essentially get free commercial time focused on my exact target audience.”

However, the daily logistics of lugging Bottle Boy up and down mountain roads was tough. “Driving all night to get to the next stage and then hauling the costume some times as much as 20 kilometers to the top of every climb is a lot of work, but it’s definitely been worth it,” Mayer says.

He blogged here about his experiences at the Tour with humor and humility. Example: “From all the reactions to (the costume’s carrying bag), I’ve now learned how to say, ‘Is that your mother-in-law?’ in French, Spanish and Dutch.”

So far, the plan seems to have worked. “I’ve gone from $4,000 a month in sales to $4,000 a day,” Mayer reports.

It’s going so well, in fact, one wonders if the stunt was truly guerrilla. Given the amount of airtime and mentions Bottle Boy received, could it have been paid product placement?

Jul

Tour de Tweets II

By Kirk 0 Comments

Categories: cause marketing, event marketing, health care, interactive marketing, promotion, social media and strategy

Note: It’s Tour Time! Here’s a post I wrote last year about the nearly seamless integration of social media into the event. In many ways, the 2009 Tour broke new ground for both participants and fans at major sporting events. And, yes, the ChalkBot is back in 2010!

The 2009 Tour de France, highlighted by Lance Armstrong’s return, may be remembered as much for being the first sporting event in history to fully integrate social media into the competition and the coverage.

Nearly every one of the 20 teams blogged and tweeted (e.g., Garmin-Slipstream and Astana).

Numerous riders and team managers tweeted as well (e.g., Levi Leipheimer, Andy Schleck, and Johan Bruyneel. (For examples of Twitter use by riders, see Dara Kerr’s post at CNET News.)

Active.com combined tweets from all of the participating riders and managers into one stream.

Armstrong, a skilled promoter, was most prolific. In Becky Ebenkamp’s post at Brandweek, Richard Rosenblatt, CEO of Demand Media, which owns the Livestrong.com community, said, “(Armstrong) called up and said, ‘I … want to broadcast through Livestrong.com exclusively and use Twitter to make sure people can not only see the tour, but actually feel it and hear it directly from my mouth — unedited.’”

His Twitter and Facebook posts regularly included behind-the-scenes videos and photos. A skilled promoter, he leveraged his celebrity and his celebrity friends to raise awareness for Livestrong, such as a video of Ben Stiller clowning on Lance’s warm-up bike.

Traditional sports media relied on Twitter for leads. The Daily Mail published Lance’s Twitter diary. And while many of the riders’ posts were banal, some provided real insight into the action, such as this comment by multiple-stage winner Mark Cavendish, “Yesterday with 3km to go, Piet Rooijakkers (skil shimano) kidney punched me.”

The official Tour de France site included a fantasy team competition as well as blogs and Twitter.

Versus.com, the site of the TV network which broadcast the race, incorporated a dazzling array of fan-friendly features, including live coverage, mobile alerts, daily blogs including Armstrong’s, a message board, a widget providing updates, podcasts, an ask-the-expert feature, a serialized graphic novel, a sweepstakes, a virtual library of video and photos, trivia quizzes, and games.

One of Armstong’s sponsors, Nike, donates proceeds from the sale of Livestrong products to the Lance Armstrong Foundation. Its tour site provided visitors the opportunity to post their own stories in words or video of hope in the face of cancer.

It also featured an ingenious innovation — the Chalkbot. Messages of encouragement and remembrance, texted by site visitors, were spray-chalked thousands of miles away on the roads of the tour during the event by the Chalkbot. Who could resist memorializing a loved one in this way?

The 2009 Tour was perhaps the most connected athletes, teams, sponsors, charities, media and fans have ever been. Where do you think it will lead?

May

Avoid physical abuse. Learn your VWs.

By Kirk Closed

Categories: advertising, event marketing and promotion

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Most promotions dangle a carrot.

Volkswagen’s, instead, brandishes a stick — the PunchDub game.

Painfully, you may remember “Slug Bug” or “Punch Buggy” — games wherein the first person to spot a VW Beetle slugs his or her companion.

“Punch Dub is a fun, engaging way to reintroduce Volkswagen and its growing product family to millions of Americans,” says Tim Ellis, Vice President of Marketing, Volkswagen of America.

Sure. As long as you know your models. Otherwise, you’ll be ducking for cover every time a car passes.

Therein lies the premise and hope of this campaign.

At an expo I recently attended, a Volkswagen display banner read, “Sharpen your VW spotting skills. Play PunchDub with all 13 Volkswagen models.” Silhouettes were provided to aid memorization.

In this way, informed PunchDub players act much like members of the Royal Observer Corps during the Battle of Britain, identifying enemy aircraft and alerting air-raid warning systems. Spot the VW first and avoid a beating.

The introductory spot features Stevie Wonder, Tracy Morgan and plenty of slapstick, but funnier is the video of Sluggy Patterson, the purported inventor of the game. (Okay, he’s an actor.) His make-up-the-rules-as-you-go delivery brings back memories of the playground.

Apr

Target and the naming-rights curse

By Kirk Closed

Categories: event marketing, identity and promotion

1_20091116115559_320_240 As Target was preparing to attach its name to the new Minnesota Twins’ ballpark, Star Tribune reporter, Jackie Crosby asked, “Is Target courting calamity?”

Good question. Arena-naming deals have a history of being harbingers of corporate failure.

As a marketing tactic, naming a stadium offers some advantages. The sponsor’s name appears on all signs, programs and tickets. National media coverage of games frequently includes the arena name. And the sponsor may be perceived as a good corporate citizen for underwriting the team.

Unfortunately, as with being featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated, there seems to be a jinx.

Chris Isidore, senior writer at CNNMoney.com, tracks what he calls “the stadium sponsor curse.” He suggests that naming-rights deals often predict bankruptcy or, at a minimum, plunging stock prices.

Consider these major-league sponsorship disasters:

CMGI Field (now Gillette Stadium), Foxboro, MA
Teams: Patriots, Revolution
Air Canada Centre, Toronto
Teams: Maple Leafs, Raptors
Enron Field (now Minute Maid Park), Houston
Teams: Astros
The National Car Rental Center (now BankAtlantic Center), Sunrise, Florida
Teams: Panthers
PSINet Stadium (now M&T Stadium), Baltimore
Teams: Ravens
United Center, Chicago
Teams: Bulls, Blackhawks
Adelphia Coliseum (now LP Field), Nashville
Teams: Titans, Tigers (NCAA)
Trans World Dome (now Edward Jones Dome), Saint Louis
Teams: Rams
CitiField, Flushing, New York
Teams: Mets
MCI Center (now Verizon Center), Washington, DC
Teams: Capitals, Wizards, Mystics (WNBA), Hoyas (NCAA)
Pro Player Stadium (now Sun Life Stadium), Miami
Teams: Dolphins, Marlins, Hurricanes (NCAA)
Wachovia Center, Philadelphia
Teams: 76ers, Flyers

Watch out, Target!

Feb

Olympic scorecard: how to judge ambush marketing

By Kirk 1 Comment

Categories: advertising, event marketing, mass media, promotion, retail and strategy

For the organizers of the Winter Olympics, the pressure is on. They are fighting to defend their sponsors against ambush marketing at the Games.

(Ambush marketers attempt to attach their brand to a major event without paying for the right to do so.)

As the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) states at the Games’ official web site, “Ambush marketing is a real threat to VANOC’s sponsorship and licensing programs as it undermines the value of official sponsorship and licensing rights and impairs VANOC’s ability to attract future sponsorship and licensees.”

Only official sponsors, licensees and government partners are allowed to suggest a connection with the Olympics.

This is because nearly all of the revenue needed to support the 2010 Winter Games is derived from sales that involve the Olympic brand, such as sponsorships, broadcast rights, merchandising and tickets.

Why would a potential sponsor shell out millions of dollars only to have their moment in the sun eclipsed by a non-sponsor?

It’s happening right now. Official Olympic sponsors McDonald’s and AT&T are charging rivals Subway and Verizon with ambush marketing. (See the previous post, “Ambush marketing: dirty play at the Olympics?“)

Why is it VANOC’s job to be the police?

According to them, “One of the key conditions of being awarded the right to host the 2010 Winter Games was a commitment to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that the Olympic Brand would be protected in Canada.”

VANOC’s goal is to ensure that consumers aren’t fooled into believing an advertiser is associated with the Olympics when it is not.

To determine whether a promotion infringes on Olympic trademarks and images, VANOC developed a scoring system. (See the accompanying illustration of how a retail promotion might be assessed.) It measures against six criteria: accuracy, relevance, commercial neutrality, prominence, use of official visuals, and unauthorized association.

The fairness of scoring systems at the Olympics has occasionally been suspect. (Remember the 2002 figure skating scandal?) How do you think this system for scoring marketing stacks up?