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Archive for the 'promotion' Category

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

Does Geico’s multi-concept strategy work?

By Kirk 1 Comment

Categories: advertising, loyalty, promotion, simplicity and strategy

images How many creative strategies can one brand successfully execute at one time?

Conventional wisdom suggests one and one only. Be focused. Be consistent. Hammer it. You’ll grow weary of the campaign long before the audience is even aware of it.

Geico has broken this rule of thumb again and again. With seeming success.

Martin, the talking gecko, is most closely identified with the Geico brand, but he no longer has to do all of the heavy lifting.

The cavemen characters handle some of that, unintentionally and tragically reminding us how simple it is to switch insurance companies (”so easy a caveman could do it”).

There is also the stack of money with googly eyes, called Kash, representing “the money you could be saving with Geico.”

Now, actor Mike McGlone, playing a tough-guy reporter, asks rhetorical questions, such as “”Is a bird in the hand worth two in the bush?” (Learn the answer to, “Did the little piggy cry, ‘wee, wee, wee,’ all the way home?,” below.

And there’s more. Deadliest Catch boat captains, Jonathan and Andy Hillstrand, have appeared in numerous TV commercials, some of which costar the cavemen and Kash.

Even, Bear Grylls of Man Vs. Wild recently happened upon Martin the gecko in the bush. I was expecting Bear to eat him, but no such luck.

Other creative approaches focus on individual insurance products for motorcycles, boats, RVs, etc. (Many of Geico’s current spots are available to view here.)

Fielding multiple concepts simultaneously seems like a recipe for disaster, but the strategy appears to work. How? Three reasons:

Lots of budget. Geico spent $751 million on advertising in 2007, $561 million in 2008, and $473 million through October of 2009, per Nielsen. The commercials run endlessly.
Integrated concepts. To help connect the executions, characters frequently appear in each other’s commercials. (See Mike McGlone and a caveman in this spot, for example.)
Simple messages. While Geico’s creative execution is not focused, its messages regarding cost savings and ease of switching are simple and consistent. Most spots open or close with “15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance.”

So far, the gecko seems to have more staying power than the Budweiser frogs.

Jul

Tour de Tweets II

By Kirk Closed

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?

Jul

Mayflower’s giant marionette: cute or creepy?

By Kirk 13 Comments

Categories: advertising, promotion and strategy

So, if Mayflower can move a 20-foot-tall marionette and her really big chair, it can move … help me here … you and your family?

Here’s my best guess at the strategy:

The challenge: Make consumers aware that Mayflower now offers a new portable moving and storage container service.

The solution: Build a giant puppet!

“We wanted a campaign idea that was as big as the new services that Mayflower offers, and I think we’ve found it,” Mayflower’s Chief Marketing Officer Steve Burkhardt said.

Or as Mayflower’s CEO reportedly said to Noah Garfinkel at BestWeekEver.TV, “No longer can we in good conscience keep helping people move by using four guys, boxes, tape, and a truck. From here on out, we will move like the pilgrims did when they came over on the actual Mayflower for which our company is named. Like them, we will construct a 20-foot-tall marionette doll in a pink dress that will lift boxes and blink slowly.”

The 700-lb. doll has received mixed reviews on the internet. Some find her beautiful. Some sultry. Some terrifying. What do you think?

Jun

Which brand logos does your car wear?

By Kirk Closed

Categories: advertising, art direction & design, promotion and retail

photo-4 Look at the rear end of a vehicle. What do you see?

Apparently, car and truck owners see a blank canvas.

From vanity plates to Darwin fish to “Support Our Troops” ribbons to Euro-style vacation destination decals to “Honk if you love ferrets” bumper stickers, many drivers proudly express their preferences.

Applying a decal to a bumper or rear window requires at least a degree of commitment. (Ever tried to remove one?) Therefore, it’s interesting to note the brands receiving the lion’s share of PDA.

Some of the brand logos most commonly displayed on vehicles promote:

sports teams, all levels
schools, colleges and universities
military service branches
radio stations
political campaigns

Think about the volume of marketing research being made available for free. Car owners are revealing where their kids go to school, who they voted for, what they do for fun, and with which station to reach them.

Some tell you even more. A select few consumer-goods logos also appear in rear windows. Some I’ve seen include:

Apple
Patagonia
Harley-Davidson
Abercrombie & Fitch

Like sports teams and universities, these are affinity brands. The drivers displaying these logos are proud members of their brand communities. The brands are part of their personal identities. Their club colors are flying for all to see.

Which other affinity consumer-goods brand logos have you seen displayed on vehicles ?