Brandable

A marketing blog with serious insights delivered not too seriously

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Gaming for life

We all remember in 2009 a little app known as Foursquare launched at SXSW. It was an app that rewarded your check ins with badges and in some cases cash rewards for sponsors. It was so ahead of its time that in 2014, Foursquare couldn’t get its user base to grow to compete, so they spun off the check in portion with Swarm, with the Foursquare app working more closely to Yelp (which was a competitor check in with restaurant rating application). Yes you heard that, instead of improving the existing application, they split it up.

So since 2014, Swarm tried all sorts of things to grow their base. They tried Plans which allowed users to group message to encourage meet ups. That really didn’t work since that isn’t what people were using Swarm form.

Swarm/Foursquare was social but more of a game of “hey I was here!” rather than “I want you here too.”

So what does that tell you? Brand/store loyalty for that user who is doing their share of check ins.

Rewind to 2011, Foursquare (when it was still one app), they got into deals with credit cards and brands. This was 2 years before Starbucks took mobile app paying by storm and forced all brands to use gift cards/online apps as a reward program. The Foursquare program obviously ended due to brand loyalty programs taking off.

So obviously with Swarm/Foursquare split and the popularity of the app in serious jeopardy, why talk about them now?

So check-ins and gamification have gone away, right? Swarm has just grown with but stuck to their guns of being a check in app.

The game part, where did that go? The rewards that foursquare had were that prize (sorry badges don’t cut it Swarm). WE WANT A PRIZE!

In the smartest move that Foursquare/Swarm has made since their odd split, they moved back toward rewards. Instead of being specific about check-ins, the app unlocks when you check into places, forcing you to check in everywhere. Smart right? As other’s have stated, this looks similar to the earlier rewards program (see I am not crazy) but what makes this different is this actually forced you to check into everything. Rewards you would only have you act like your Starbucks app, only pull it out when you enter a specific store.

Hard push? Maybe, but Swarm needs that if it really wants to make inroads in a very crowded continuous use marketplace.

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Tastes like...America

Last week, Budweiser made an interesting choice to change traditional “Budweiser” branded beer to “America.” 

Seems a little counter intuitive to push another brand (America) assuming you have tapped out (bad pun) your current brand. The marketing department’s argument with the brand change it is “to inspire drinkers to celebrate America and Budweiser's shared values of freedom and authenticity.”

Aside from my personal feelings on Budweiser maybe not being the best representation about what they are talking about. Ok so they argue it is a temporary promotion from Memorial Day until the Election. So in the past they have had cans look like the flag, quotes from the Declaration of Independence and Statue of Liberty.

See those promotions are ok because you still have your brand front and center, and for a beer people have to say it to order it at a restaurant, bar, etc. 

On the extremely unlikely event that this is an ingenious marketing ploy, or just a very desperate PR ploy by their branding firm JKR.  So obvious move like in the past for Budweiser to do this during peak drinking season over the summer, however they extended this run until the election in November. 

So the major issue with this from a branding standpoint, there isn’t anyone saying “wow this is genius” or “this will really help Budweiser.” Nope everyone is seeing this as a big joke. “Let’s throw back a couple of Americas” or “Man that America sure tastes good.” It is a parody on the level of Team America: World Police. 

However, what if Budweiser is pulling a fast one and that was their plan all along? What if they know their base will continue to buy Bud but they are trying to get the people who would just purchase a 6 or 12 pack as a joke.

It may just be a quick cash grab like that, however Budweiser this just perpetuates the idea of all their non-drinkers: Budweiser is a joke brand trying to be serious.

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Going Out of your Brain

You know you have gone to your favorite popular website and seen this junk at the bottom of a page staring at you like an unwanted billboard or the pop up ads of the 90s or early 2000s.

Trust me that is just a picture! And one of those wonderful companies that provides us these distracting ads: Outbrain.

Now Outbrain is not stupid, these ads are getting hits and brands will keep paying to get on them. However, as you can see based on this one ad, there is no focus. This has been the big complaint on these companies, among questionable and potentially adult content on very popular sites.

So now you know all about the company like Outbrain. Something very questionable happened this month and will soon be affecting everyone.

Outbrain will soon be launching their wonderfully poignant advertisements into your Facebook Messenger. Yes you heard that right, you are going to be chatting away and boom next bubble is not from your friend but from Outbrain telling you “Hey check out this article on Hoof and Mouth Disease!”

This movement will have disastrous effects on Facebook Messenger specifically but a huge outcry on Outbrain because if they want to be a good brand, they are going to attach their name to these messages. Why would someone continue to use FB Messenger if these distracting ads are on it? It shows the hubris of Facebook thinking people will continue to use Messenger with the advertisements within the chat windows.

I don’t blame Outbrain at all. What a great coup it was to get your ads on Facebook Messenger? However, for Outbrain to be a great brand, they have to reform their tactics

1. Better targeting

Their ads are all over the place when I go, nothing is focused on the topic of the article I view or even targeted to my demographic. Which leads into the next tactic...

2. Opt In or Out

With all of these sponsored ads, the only way for Outbrain to collect any form of metrics has been on clicks. Why not allow viewers to state if something isn’t relevant, offensive, etc. much like Twitter does?

3. Surveys

Another worthwhile endeavor for Outbrain and their clients would be to take general or specific surveys. Number 2 would give Outbrain and their clients some information, but limited answers won’t give you much. Surveys could really give insight into improving.

I am sorry Outbrain, but you have to do at the very least 2 of the above 3 to really transform your company. Right now you are the bane of the internet, but I do see what you are doing to improve advertisements. However, you are no better than a banner ad right now. You must reform or competition will be doing those tactics instead of you.

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Rhode to Ruin

Normally, when a state gets a new slogan/logo, there is only a small PR statement put out and you would be lucky to get it picked up by the local newspaper.

Enter: Rhode Island.

My home state decided to make a series of marketing bungles that eventually culminated in a national news event with significant outcomes for as something as small at this.

So let’s begin with the background, the State of Rhode Island is in the midst of one of the worst comebacks from the 2007-2008 financial crisis. Thus, RI is riding on investing in getting their tourism in gear. Thus, let’s get a flashy new logo and marketing tag line.

Ok so RI is underemployed across the state, so the Government decided to not utilize the talent within the state (RISD is right there you know...) and hire famed graphic designer Milton Glaser (he did the I ♥ NY logo for the State of NY) and Havas Worldwide, who opened an office in Providence for the duration of the project.

Mistake #1: Not using local talent

So using one of the top tourism graphic designers and one of the largest integrated international marketing agencies, you think you would get one of the best campaigns in years. Right?

Ok, so the logo itself in the middle isn’t terrible. The word placement is a little off and the tag line of “cooler & warmer” is one of the worst I have ever heard.

Mistake #2: Terrible use of focus groups testing the tag line

Then to really make matters worse, the marketing promo video had scenes from Iceland. Um...

Rhode Island’s CMO said they gave the agency explicit instructions to “only use footage from Rhode Island.” Why in the world would the agency think it was a great idea to use footage from anywhere else?

Mistake #3: Don’t show content from anything but the client

So outcome?

The Governor threw the CMO under the bus and she was forced to resign after only 4 months on the job. The Governor went back on all her decisions to outsource the job and now is utilizing instate resources.

Mirrored very similar marketing debacles like Gap a few years ago.

So ironically enough during this whole mess a Rhode Island graphic designer Missy Hardesty designed a quick replacement and got widespread acclaim (here, here and even on former RI company Teespring).

I mean I could go on and on about why this logo just fits but you can see the obvious fit for a state like Rhode Island. 

Is this another New Coke story for Rhode Island where publicity like this gets them even more focus for the new logo to come out? Maybe. However, to market a state, you never want to be the butt of jokes, and this debacle did just that.

Update!!!

Like any crazy story like this was, it is always providing new details. However here at Brandable, we wouldn’t bother with performing an update with the exception of something either wonderful coming out of this...or terrible. 

This is the latter.

So about a week later, the Rhode Island government performed a massive about face and said they weren’t seeking a new motto. Wait...what? After experiencing the national attention, you think the last thing they would want to do is just throw in the towel, especially with a school like the Rhode Island School of Design within your borders.

So well they did learn their lesson that terrible commercial. They are now employing a company to do outreach on citizens’ “Rhode Island Story”

A step back and a step forward. The one thing that Rhode Island can learn, along with most firms, consumers just want a firm to be honest and genuine. You are selling an experience with your product. This couldn’t be any more important than for a tourism agency.  

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Up Periscope!

Can you believe that little app known as Periscope turns 1 today? 

The insane thing is that Periscope was purchased by Twitter even before it launched in 2015. This was a quick move, because in that very year, Meerkat was a big hit at SXSW. A month later, I was an early adopter of Periscope and posted videos from Celebration 2015.

I will admit I personally don’t have anything interesting to truly offer Periscope at this point in time.

I think it is because I am not attending cool conferences or events. So to truly generate a following on a network like that, you gotta be one cool cat.

Well ok enough about me and my exploits on a network, what the heck are brands doing with Periscope and what does 1 year with it look like.

So we have Periscope live streaming in Twitter timelines now, which is very important as Facebook is doing the same thing this year. With that 1 year anniversary, Periscope also hit 200 million live broadcasts.

So why do brands care? Well that live stream in your feed makes a big difference. It is one less step for a person to click into and be brought into a landing page. Now it is just a simple scroll and your brand or representation of your brand is right there in a live stream.

Early adopters (like myself) of Periscope were Spotify, Mountain Dew, Red Bull and DKNY.

Now, I see SnapChat as the social media that these brands are trying to capture younger Millennials with. Periscope is a completely different entity. it is a content enhancer for Twitter, just like a 360 video or a Live Feed would be on Facebook.

Ok nothing is going to be a home run on Periscope for a brand, just like if I popped in and said “hey what’s up everyone, watch me eat a sandwich.” Adidas decided to film a soccer resign a deal with them. Fun stuff right?! Mashable also pointed out in the article that this was a little odd, why would viewers care? 

One great example of a brand using Periscope is Doritos. Doritos used Vine and Periscope to do a short term campaign with a contest. 

No one had done anything like that before and that was done early on in Periscope’s history, now contests and short term campaigns are no brainers.

I have yet to see any brand utilize Periscope or online video (aside from Youtube) for an alternate reality game. With the new live feed functionality, I see agencies such as 42 Entertainment being some of the first to pioneer this in a new campaign. 

So obviously, there is no fool proof yes or no for a brand to utilize Periscope, but just keep in mind, it is not a social media platform, it is only an enhancer.

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A Vision of the Past

Recently we had the one day for marketing professionals, the Super Bowl. Every single and I mean every single website is taking about the best ads and how great Puppy Monkey Baby is and how it is the new thing. 

Brandable doesn’t play that game. Ah you got me. Alright so new year, new me so they say...right? 

So the 1990s and 2000s were a wonderful time of experimenting with crazy, zany logos.

When the next decade hit (um the 2010s I guess is what we say), these brands all went through a logo change, for the most part to hit on their demographic. That last brand there went through a bit of a logo change and a slight change of focus at the Super Bowl. Here is the ad:

Not a huge change for Bud Light but one of their ‘safest’ commercials in a long time. Instead of showing a constant party or crazy cruise they just had, we got Amy and Seth talking life and pop culture references. 

But what they snuck in there was this logo change...

Looks familiar right?

Now Budweiser isn’t the first brand to go “retro” or “vintage” or [insert buzz word for old]. Is this to hit on the demographic that used to drink Bud Light? A little throwback?

Eh probably not, more than likely we are looking at the increase of “hipster” millennial drinkers who enjoy those vintage beers (PBR, Schlitz, Narragansett).

I honestly think this is the start of brands trying to honestly reach millennials. We have had very subtle ways of doing that. If we use the beer industry for example, we have Anheuser and MillerCoors buying up craft brands that millennials will drink, leaving out their main brands. However, this move shows they are slowly changing to recognize that millennials don’t want “new,” “flashy,” or “fun.” What they want is “vintage,” “engaging” and “no nonsense.” 

This is exemplified in a millennial targeted brand: Dollar Shave Club:

Millennials are slowly changing the life we live around us whether we want it or not. However, as you can see with Bud Light, those changes might look a bit familiar.

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Rebrand for the Ages

When we think of misogynist brands we tend to think of Carl’s Jr., Michael Bay doing Victoria’s Secret ads, and Axe.

Did you know Axe has been around since 1983? That’s a freebee for your next trivia night. We all know that Axe has been putting out the marketing to younger men that using their product will lure women. As crazy as this sounds, Unilever (parent company of Axe) actually won awards for studying young men and coming to the conclusion that sexism sells. So throughout the early 2000s, Axe ran with the muscles and promiscuous women in advertisements for years and was known as that brand, along with the few I mentioned earlier.

Proctor & Gamble’s Old Spice gave them a run for their money in branding and marketing message, but they still stayed on top in sales. 

Then, Axe recently releases this...

Just like you my brain just went...

As we know, Unilever has spent a lot of time and money on research and development within the Axe brand for the last 15 years. So what we have here is Unilever plus their agency 72andSunny going in a drastically new direction. Ad Age even focused on a quick detail in this ad, the two men who shared a bit of a flirtatious look.

Focusing on individuality, a homosexual couple and a rejection of the brand identity that has been incredibly successful sounds more like a total rebrand than a short campaign.

So with the popular opinion on this ad a major heights (over 6 million views in 2 weeks on Youtube), Unilever cannot ignore this.

What does Unilever do now?

Well their next steps with the campaign is a contest to work with John Legend, which in conjunction with the ad is very short term. They have to see this and completely transform into the lifestyle brand they were meant to be. With Find Your Magic, they have the ability to be an “individual male” brand. Almost how we view Mountain Dew with adventure or how Converse embraced individuality that with their Chuck Taylor new model. 

As Axe begins to grow with age, and millennials love a sense of being who they are, so maybe it is time Axe sharpen its focus.

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B13 for Convertible

Soda, chips, sandwich, terrible coffee, and now used cars? 

That’s right, Carvana, the online no dealer used car...dealer,  has unveiled a vending machine for used cars in both Nashville and Atlanta. This is to add onto the experience that Carvana has with their online viewing and purchasing (normally the car is delivered to your door).

Now is this a gimmick and why is Brandable talking about this you ask? So as you can see Carvana is a very little known company in the very crowded resell car arena. You have strong firms like AutoTrader.com, Cars.com, CarMax, the list goes on. So what a better way to generate buzz than something unique as this.

Carvana CEO Ernie Garcia recently stated on NPR that not only do these machines take the place of a billboard, but completely take away the need for any marketing. All of this is based on word of mouth and he claims the machine is less than the investment of a used car lot.

Does this work? From a marketing standpoint this is a massive differentiator. It might be a gimmick but if you can argue not just cost and the sight of something brand new, isn’t that enough? With the lack of true salespeople, Garcia’s hands are tied. There is no marketing and sales department, just marketing. Garcia really had to try something no one had done before and what better way than to get people to look at something without even considering purchasing a used car.

What do you think, do you believe this machine provides enough of a new service and new marketing tool to warrant investment?

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Here We Are Again

Last year Brandable predicted that we would enter into an era of Black Everyday from now until Christmas. 

And yes it is fairly accepted now that Black Friday isn’t what it used to be. However, what we didn’t predict here is that Black Friday shopping season would actually go backwards rather than forwards.

If you read between the lines on this article, Adobe has found that shopping on Thanksgiving Day itself it up almost 20%. The analysts are correct in assuming that after Turkey has been eaten, most are reaching for their devices rather than watching football or taking a nap. SunTrust analysts also support this theory and show that foot traffic is down for Thanksgiving however this supports Adobe’s theory that it was mostly online shopping.

So what does this all mean?

So our theory from last year still stands because it is just common sense people will shop between now and Christmas and retailers realize that online is easy to dump inventories. Consumer confidence is still low after the 2008 financial crisis. Analysts always talk of a “new normal” and I think we are there until the United States and European markets can come back.

However, I did not foresee that shopping on Thanksgiving would become popular. Now some details about millennials might hint as to why we are getting an uptick in early shopping. They are marrying later and having families later, the online shopping element pushes forward as they are not busy with preparing to go to a holiday gathering or having one themselves. This offers them more time during that day or prior to shop. Many would argue that they don’t have the disposable income, however they do need goods regardless of their income and what a better time to do it than during a sale. The obvious point is that they are more tech savvy, thus online sales increase. Now with this early adoption of a longer shopping period and online as a marketing channel, new families (once millennials have them) will be shopping on a longer time period than before during the holiday month.

Now a prediction for next year, we see a 5 day sale between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday. Some are sort of doing it, but I think online shoppers are forcing the retailers to offer those deep discounts, longer.

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Building a Generation

Normally here at Brandable we are pretty on top of the ad industry however one commercial escaped us for nearly a year. LEGO who has been at the top of their industry for over a year now after an amazing comeback. That isn’t to say LEGO hasn’t always been in our hearts and minds but they realized their differentiator (quality) and focused on it. What a great strategic move it was. 

Now being an independent, private manufacturer, it has provided LEGO a wonderful opportunity to focus on long term ideas. One of those ideas has always been how they can market to girls. 

In 1981 LEGO dropped this wonderful ad above. It is extremely famous not just for the simplicity but also that gender is completely removed here and it is just a happy child. Truly wonderful.

Now fast forward to 2015, after a few failed attempts to reign in girls, LEGO a few years ago unveiled LEGO Friends. Sales have grown exponentially each year since release. However it isn’t without controversy, being that these LEGO sets are slightly different than “boys” (pastel colors and more doll like minifigures). Many groups are asking why can’t LEGO just accept the 1981 ad and make all sets genderless.

So answer this question a little deeper I provide you their latest ad, granted it is from 2014 and we completely missed it but it was recently on TV.

Great right? As you can see it really gets to the two nagging questions people have had. (1) Can girls freely play with the “boys” sets and (2) Can LEGO Friends really be a piece in that large pie of girls play. Sure you have different personalities of girls just as much as boys, and I think over time LEGO will unveil sets that respect that especially with market research. 

This is an excellent alternative in this world of breaking that gender barrier to becoming genderless. Maybe we just need to embrace a little of what this ad is telling us and let the children decide how they want to imagine their world.

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Marketing to the Future

Community managers love invented holidays. National Pizza Day, National Siblings Day, National Railroad Day...you get the picture. As you can see most of these can apply to brands and that is where the community managers salivate, to be part of a large conversation. 

One of those holidays happened this past week but at the very least it was rooted in some truth. It was Back to the Future day!

This is the day Marty and Doc Brown went into 2015. Just like any major “holiday,” every brand wanted in because we are all in the future right?

Poor decisions on community managers inserting themselves into these holidays is a discussion for another day, what we here at Brandable want to talk about is the product placement from Back to the Future.

Who would have thought that product placement 30 years ago would make some brands relevant to this conversation?

Pepsi, Toyota, USA Today, Pizza Hut and Black and Decker were just some of the brands in the movie from the Future that could have used this day to insert themselves into this conversation.

So the brands that really took advantage of this day was Pepsi with Pepsi Perfect launching.

Pepsi bungled it a bit though and didn’t anticipate demand and sold out within minutes. However they did announce another run of the product for November.

USA Today changed their logo on social media for 2 days (as their paper showed two days within the movie) to fit with the Back to the Future 2015 logo. Just like Pepsi, USA Today did a print edition of their Back to the Future edition. Again like Pepsi, that sold out too.

Toyota went a different route, and a little more safe. They got the two stars (Lloyd and Fox) to talk about real vs. fake 2015.

Then they backed off anything special and just showed off the famous Tacoma truck that Fox got in the future.

Stuck in the past

So what brands, who more than likely paid product placement in 1989, ignored this holiday.

Pizza Hut in Back to the Future had dehydrated pizza.

Pizza Hut didn’t dignify the holiday with anything (deal, logo change, offering a form of dehydrated pizza). Now this is very odd for 2 reasons. 1) Yum Brands (which Pizza Hut is part of) is normally very in tune with social and digital marketing. Their budgets are on the high end. Why ignore this holiday? It is free content for that day. 2) Dominos is killing you in growth. You have a holiday that your competition has no play in (National Pizza Day keeps it level across all pizza joints) and you ignore it? In fact the community manager (and team) decided that day to just retweet a popular Youtube user. Then on the actual Back to the Future day, Pizza Hut marketing decided to do their own thing and did Pizza Hut Live and just did a random contest with top prize being pizza for a year. Ok this idea on the drawing board would have been great, but you do it on the one holiday where your brand has relevance. You even had other brands talking about you asking for some form of promotion. Really, really bad move Pizza Hut. Salt in the wound but what happens when you ignore the holiday you can say something: Your competition does.

Black and Decker at least went this route with a twist on a product they currently offer. Also the community manager there did constant retweets on anyone showing the hydrator within the movie. Yeah there are some that are complaining that we don’t have rehydrated food.

Now it wasn’t a total loss for B&D like Pizza Hut’s major fail was. However, as you can see these two brands had a major play on combining to make something really interesting. Why didn’t B&D/Pizza Hut try to do research on achieving something close to rehydrated pizza similar to what Nike did with Air Mags actually making self lacing shoes. 

However, as you can see B&D was given a free holiday and their marketing department and product R&D isn’t as large as Nike or even Pizza Hut. However an alliance with Pizza Hut could have given us something. Again as I mentioned, this is one holiday that no other brand can take it from you. You were in a movie about the future and you had the chance to bring us something close to it.

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Field Con

Field marketing was once focused on trade shows and working really tight with your sales team. Or in marketing terms, business to business (B2B)

Now we have entered a world of conventions. This isn’t just our pop culture focused conventions with every city/region having a Comic-Con. We are in a world of Twitch Con, Chipotle Cultivate, Life is Good Festival, CitizenCon, Vid Con, D23 EXPO, whew. If you look at that list, all but one are represented solely by one brand, and that one only has 2 major brands that are involved. Keep in mind this list grows and grows by the day. Why you may ask?

Field marketing! Conventions, expos whatever you want to call them are disrupting the traditional field marketing channel of trade shows. As you can see with that list, even conventions are becoming laser focused as interests are gathering in intensity. It appears brands are even putting out high cost festivals even to just gauge whether or not their base would want it. Chipotle is one of the more interesting ones on that list. Removed from technology, Chipotle is a fast food (yes it is fast food people) restaurant. Let me repeat again there is an entire festival dedicated to a restaurant. I understand that Chipotle is not just any restaurant, however there are dedicated fan bases to all sorts of food brands that don’t have a yearly gathering.

So what gives? We know why the brands are doing it, it’s one of the best communications/PR tools they can have. Now why are consumers pushing for these?

Because we demand it! Sounds simple right? We are just so giddy for pop culture things like comics, movies, video games, technology and food. We don’t mind the brand focus for the festival, we actually encourage it. Why? Well for starters we support the quality of the product and we want it to continue. We support it so much that we want to participate and hopefully allow things like this to be a 2 way communication tool rather than a 1 way. What I mean is, trade shows like E3 for brands tend to be just a PowerPoint presentation to attendees. 

This trend will not stop and I believe lifestyle brands will be pushing this trend out more and more. Sure some (Life is Good Festival) have disguised it with a music concert, but make no mistake, the era of the Con is here.

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Subwrongway

We have all seen the headlines. Jared Fogle, former spokesperson of Subway, did unspeakable things to minors. However, his now former employer only had this to say

Yeah...so this is all Subway has posted to their twitter since the issue has arisen. Ok so imagine the face of your company, literally the face, performed these acts and this is your response?

Right now, if I was Subway, you are calling up every major PR/Marketing firm and getting them to RFP immediately on a rebranding/PR campaign. This isn’t like one of your employees at a franchise, this is your company. Think I am exaggerating? Every time the media mentions Jared, they mention Subway. If there is a long article, there will be even more connections/mentions of your company. Not good. These “PR” statements about you cutting ties the minute it happened does not look good, it is more like “uh yeah we get that, but now what are you going to do.” This is not business as usual.

Here are some ideas for Subway

1. Rebrand Nothing says like we are turning the page like a complete overhaul of your image starting with logo and overall branding. Public image is what is at stake here.

2. PR Campaign Time to go on the offensive and take out page ads, TV commercials, etc. all saying how Subway really has a good moral compass and is prepared to do something about it. Take this negative and show the public  you are positive with donating time/money toward sexual abuse organizations.

3. Change your delivery Now that Jared kicked off your spokesperson commercials talking about how athletes eat your sandwiches, you cannot do that any more. Everyone who continues to see those ads will say “do you remember Jared?” 

These are 3 ideas that Subway can either all do or at least perform one to really show the world they are willing to change and distance themselves from Jared. Just saying it is a lot different than actually showing us you are.

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Old Spice, New Idea

Instagram has been the go to place for food pictures and to feel bad that your life is not as cool as the people you follow. Marketing has been all over the place with IG, but obviously focusing on great photos of their products. 

Old Spice, who enjoys zany commercials, employed Wieden + Kennedy to give them something better than an artistic picture of body wash with a sepia filter. We got ourselves a choose your own adventure game!

So as you can see when you tap the picture, you get options. When you click on it, there are subtle (and not so subtle) jokes about marketing. If you keep going deeper, the crazier the story gets.

Even though this is a game, it shows off the functionality that some brands can use IG for. The application of this can be used by all brands to make announcements; content interaction (as Old Spice did); calls to actions for discounts, special products, etc.; and limited time events. W+K and Old Spice really hit a home run here and this could appeal to a lot of social networks, not just IG.

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Marketing Death

Please watch this video and not get a tear to your eye...

Yeah quite sad once you get the understanding this man is doing it as a dog’s bucket list. So what was going through the Agency and Subaru’s mind when making this ad. The message is emotions. Brands do it all the time. Beer commercials are all about having fun and they equate having fun with drinking in their ads. Restaurants do the same thing.

So yes the owner was taking good care of the dog in doing his “bucket list” but what is the first thing that pops into your head: that dog is going to die. Don’t lie, that is what a bucket list is for. Pretty morbid and odd for Subaru to even have death associated with their brand.

The worst part of the commercial though is the end where you realize it is discussing the poor dog’s bucket list do they show the brand. Immediately associating the brand with the eventual death of the dog.

As careful are brands these days with being associated with something terrible, I was quite surprised viewing this which offers a nice lesson. Even if there is a slight hint of association, you don’t want a PR fiasco, avoid, avoid, avoid. 

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Snap to it!

Ok for those that follow the blog and my Twitter you know my lack of love for Snapchat. You have limited views and user base that is growing but still not enough for businesses to invest in. So from a marketing perspective...

So looks like Snapchat wants to grow up and get a little more focused by offering geotargeting. Oh you mean what Facebook already does? Sure I get it, some businesses do wait to make sure they do it right. So what is Snapchat doing differently? Sponsors for those geotargeted pictures. First up: McDonald’s with stickers of burgers and other products of theirs.

Their other revenue source is a sponsored post that pops up in the live stories section. Their first avenue of revenue I hate, hate, hate. No one wants it, just like Facebook advertisements that pop up. It is the passive pop up ad. Now these geotargeted stickers are a step in the right direction. Utilize what you are good at and what makes you different, then users might enjoy using the advertisement.

Example: Pinterest with sponsored areas/boards make sense because it will fit with why people are on the site, looking for ideas.

So as Snapchat grows, just like any site, know what you do well, focus on that and your user base will grow with you. When you start to water down your product, especially with the same thing that a competitor is doing, you are doomed to fail.

[brndbl]

Treat Yo Self

So we have all been there, that feeling of wanting to treat ourselves. With all that spending we do, it would be nice if that company rewarded our loyalty, am I right? Now loyalty programs are nothing new, airlines have them, retailers try to get you to charge their credit card to get any discounts, heck even some give you a free sandwich on your birthday. 

However the big problem, at least as I saw it, was that loyalty programs were for one brand and one brand only. Sure airlines let you earn points to a loyalty program on different airlines but ultimately you could only be registered for one program and that was the airline you earned points with. Now what if in your every day life, you were rewarded with choices of stores, gas stations, restaurants, etc? That would be ideal, right? Well we got ourselves a winner, winner chicken dinner:

The Plenti program. As you can see the major brands involved in the bottom of the card. The major one being Macy’s who before this only had a credit card rewards program. Ok so that list isn’t anything to really shake a stick at, unless you do a majority of your shopping at Macy’s and Rite Aid. No supermarkets, no restaurants and most importantly no coffee shops. But wait...

The most important brand in coffee shops is now partnering their famous rewards program with Spotify. Spokespeople from Starbucks said that the Spotify partnership is only the beginning for their rewards program. Keep in mind Starbucks has always had a good relationship with Apple to use rewards on iTunes and free songs within their stores. Now the CEO of Starbucks came out to say that aligning brands would be their focus for choosing partnerships. Now many have speculated that this could mean Whole Foods, Chipotle, possibly a clothing retailer? Well if you hear this and then look at Plenti above, Plenti looks...well not very plentiful. I feel Plenti is an experiment that won’t last but if you can gather worthwhile brands, now we have a marketing behemoth that may uptick more purchases. This might grant a foothold into the difficult nut to crack, millennial buyers who traditionally don’t have brand loyalty.