As part of its back-to-college campaign, Target has partnered with Feed Projects, a nonprofit founded by Lauren Bush Lauren, to create a limited-edition collection.
The collection marks the first time Target has treated a cause-related campaign like one of its designer collaborations, with TV and print ads, as well as a digital campaign and broad-based support in store.
"It's the first time we've had a really broad storewide effort behind social consumerism," said Michelle Mesenburg, VP-style marketing at Target. "In the past we've done smaller efforts around individual product categories or brands or a holiday initiative. We've never done anything at this magnitude before. ... It's in line with what we've done with other design partnerships like Prabal Gurung or Phillip Lim."
]]>Cal McAllister
A funny thing happened on the way to the future. We replaced the importance of patient craftwork with an overwhelming desire to hit “send.” Marketers seize every chance to tweet or post or hang from a lamppost -- anything to get out there fast. They get drunk on their new opportunities with the internet, like “leaking” Super Bowl spots on YouTube, instead of paying attention to the content and ideas in their work.
]]>F'real Foods is getting serious about marketing its milkshakes, debuting the first ad campaign in its ten year history.
Over the last 10 years, the beverage company has installed self-serve milkshake blenders in 10,000 convenience stores and college campuses across the U.S. and Canada. It positions itself as an alternative to the fast food milkshake, allowing consumers to grab a flavor from the attached freezer, play with the touch-screen menu and blend shakes to their liking.
But consumer adoption has been slow. Unaided awareness for F'real is only at 1%, according to Stephanie Brendel, vp-marketing for the brand. "We've not had a lot of geographic density for us to really get out of the stores and get the brand in consumers' minds before they walk in," she said.
]]>Beleaguered yet carefree site hopes to move from an email-based daily deals platform to a searchable deals database ideal for desktop, mobile browsing
Every job has its upsides and downsides, but Groupon CMO Rich Williams has dealt with some serious extremes overseeing the online-deals site's brand.
While the company has maintained a strong image with customers, it's done so amid a run of negative press, which included a disastrous Super Bowl ad in 2011, floundering financial performance, the ouster of its founder-CEO Andrew Mason and the rocky relationship with its most important business partners, the small businesses offering its deals.
]]>Heineken's "Legendary Journey," from Wieden & Kennedy, Amsterdam, won the first Grand Prix of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in the category of creative effectiveness.
This three-year-old category is a little different than others at Cannes. In order to enter, the work first must be judged to be creatively excellent by winning a Lion the year prior. Then, entrants are required to submit a 40-page paper that includes the business metrics proving the campaign's effectiveness. Those papers and metrics are vetted by PriceWaterhouseCoopers before being submitted to the jury.
What it is: The Heineken entry, titled "Legendary Journey: Justifying a Premium the World Over," was a global campaign that demonstrated significant increases in market share in every country, according to the jury. The campaign's most high-profile element was a highly detailed and produced video, "The Date," in which a suave gentleman takes a beautiful woman for a legendary night out. He shows off skills, ranging from fileting a fish to performing magic tricks. The campaign also included online integration, such as contests where entrants could try to win their own legendary dates.
]]>Main Street is getting a makeover thanks to Benjamin Moore. The 130-year-old paint company plans to repaint 20 American towns through its “Main Street Matters” campaign, while Chief Marketing Officer David Melancon gives the brand its own revamp.
While messaging around premium paint and service will continue, Benjamin Moore is adding the story of its Main Street roots and history of supporting independent retailers and stepping back from the do-it-yourself crowd in a bid to further distance itself from competitors. In the process, the company will increase its ad budget more than 60%. Benjamin Moore spent about $14 million on measured media last year, according to Kantar Media.
“It's the first time we're connecting the dots ... between who we are and how we act in our communities and how we actually sell our products,” said Mr. Melancon, who became CMO in October following a consulting gig for the company.
]]>​Mitsubishi's ad campaign to launch its redesigned 2014 Outlander crossover -- built around the tag line “Find your own lane” -- also will have to help the brand find a route back to relevance in the U.S.
Backed by a marketing budget that's been doubled for the current fiscal year, the campaign includes national cable TV, a return to network prime time for the first time since 2005, and the brand's largest digital ad outlay, said Francine Harsini, director-advertising, Mitsubishi Motors North America.
She wouldn't reveal this year's budget. But based on comments from a person close to the company about last year's figure, Mitsubishi will spend about $170 million in the fiscal year that ends next March.
]]>Dads are getting more love from The Proud Sponsor of Moms this Father’s Day, even if they’re coming up shorter than ever in the gifting race and moms aren’t fully buying their accounts of how much they do around the house.
Behind an effort to sell more power toothbrushes as Father’s Day gifts, Procter & Gamble Co.’s Oral-B this month introduced a heart-tugging online video from Publicis Kaplan Thaler, New York, honoring dads through footage culled from YouTube. The “Power of Dad” video reached 5.8 million views in 10 days through a combination of social sharing and paid media on YouTube and Facebook.
Meanwhile, the corporate P&G brand, a.k.a “Proud Sponsor of Moms,” chimed in with “The Daddy Effect” video from Grey, which has gotten more than 600,000 YouTube views in North America so far in the start of a global rollout. The campaign also involved soliciting video submissions on Facebook for another ad to launch this month.
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Smashburger may not be a household name, but the chain’s executives are hoping that will one day change. Founded in 2007, the burger chain is expanding at an impressive clip. With 197 stores at the end of 2012, its estimated systemwide sales were $174 million, including $3 million from new international locations, according to Technomic, up from $120 million and 140 stores the prior year.
]]>Patrick Adams, senior VP-head of marketing, Victoria's Secret Direct
Is there a company not in your sector that you admire for its creative approach to business?
Google continues to be an extremely impressive organization on so many levels. Corporate culture and their surgical focus on the customer. Google lives and breathes creativity and innovation.
]]>Diageo, whose brands include Johnnie Walker, J&B, Smirnoff, Tanqueray and Guinness, has appointed Syl Saller as its new chief marketing officer, replacing Andy Fennell, who has held the role since October 2008.
Ms. Saller becomes CMO after eight years as global innovation director at the London-based drinks giant, where her contributions include three premium drinks: Johnnie Walker Double Black, Singleton malt whisky and Snapp, an apple drink aimed at women, which is Diageo’s most successful new brand launch. She was previously marketing director for Diageo GB, and joined the company in 1999 from Allied Domecq Retail, where she was marketing development director.
Ivan Menezes, chief operating officer of Diageo, said in a statement, “Syl brings a great breadth of marketing and general management experience to her new position. In particular, her global track record on innovation performance over the past nine years has been outstanding.”
]]>When you ask a CMO what it takes to build a successful brand, you’ll likely hear it goes far beyond frontline commitment. When asked in a recent Forrester survey what parts of the organization are critical to brand-building success, marketing leaders agreed unanimously that it's “a companywide effort that requires employees in all departments to be brand ambassadors.” Nearly all, 96%, believe that executive team commitment to brand-building is critical to success.
Yet while marketing leaders see the importance of enterprise-wide support in brand building efforts, the reality doesn't reflect this belief. For instance, while 88% of these marketing leaders consider it important to have a clearly defined brand promise to guide the organization, only 55% rate their organizations as consistently doing so. Just a third of respondents said that employees can articulate the brand promise or are empowered to deliver a great brand experience.
The September 2012 Global Marketing Leadership Online Survey included 67 marketing leaders: 61% from the United States, 24% from Europe, 12% from Asia Pacific, 1.5% from Russia, and 1.5% from Africa/Middle East.
]]>Advertising Age Player
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For the past year, country singer Jana Kramer has sung the catchy “Nationwide is on your side” jingle. Wednesday night, during the CMT Music Awards, she’ll receive a promotion of sorts when she takes center stage in the brand’s new commercial.
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Pizza Hut's most recent pizza may have been crazy, but as it turns five years past AARP eligibility, it's promotion is becoming more subdued.
]]>J.C. Penney’s new home department is like Technicolor Oz plunked down in black-and-white Kansas.
Dreamed up by Ron Johnson before the former Apple retail wizard was ousted as CEO in April, the housewares emporium, which opens this week, features vibrant colors, wood fixtures and other modern flourishes. The rest of the century-old department-store chain? Not so much.
The dichotomy presents a challenge for CEO Myron Ullman. Mr. Johnson’s vision is too far along to abandon, yet J.C. Penney is consuming cash faster than any other U.S. brick-and-mortar retailer. So Mr. Ullman has opted for what might be described as Johnson Lite as he sets about renovating the two-thirds of store space left untouched during Mr. Johnson’s 17-month tenure.
]]>Oakley is a powerful brand in the eyewear and sports-performance arenas, but it's long been seen as a bit of a boys club.
The 38-year-old brand “shrinked it and pinked it” in 2005 when it launched apparel and sunglass collections for women, conceded Josée Perreault, Oakley's senior VP-global business and the brand's highest-ranking female executive. “Companies don't think about the special needs females have. It's a trap that male-dominant companies fall into. We're totally [past that] -- though there's still some pink in our collection.”
As part of the brand's effort to boost its women's business, Oakley has improved its designs, placed more women in leadership roles, launched women-specific ad campaigns and started an education program dubbed “Female Speak” in stores.
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]]>Lizanne Falsetto is not your typical underdog. She is a great cook, lives in sunny Malibu and is drop-dead gorgeous.
Yet the former fashion model -- who stands 6 feet tall in heels -- is staring up at some of the biggest players in the food industry as she tries to propel her ThinkThin snack bar to new growth at big-box retailers.
The brand, marketed as a “weight wellness” bar packed with protein and free of gluten and sugar, has already made a name for itself in the natural-foods channel. Sales grew 50% in 2012, reaching $22.4 million in the meal-replacement-bar category, putting it fifth, just ahead of Slim-Fast bars, according to Packaged Facts. And that figure likely severely understates the size of the brand because it does not include Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s, where ThinkThin gets a large chunk of its distribution. (Forbes has estimated the brand’s revenue at more than $70 million.)
]]>If men are from Mars and women from Venus, then Christina Menendez, Pam Forbus and Christine Kalvenes have just completed a galactic journey in potato-chip marketing.
After digging into the male psyche with what they called “bro research,” the Frito-Lay execs led an overhaul of the once-family-targeted Ruffles brand into a chip for millennial men with testosterone-fueled packaging, line extensions and campaigns. The three-year effort culminated a few weeks ago with a guy named “Ruff McThickridge,” a Ron-Burgundy-meets-Burt Reynolds-meets-Clint Eastwood character starring in a campaign that parodies 1970s action movies.
Conventional wisdom might suggest that men -- not women -- are better suited to lead a rebranding project that leans so heavily on male insights. But this trio insists their gender was an advantage. “The closer you are to something, the more you tend to overlook the "aha' [moments] because they are so familiar to you,” said Ms. Kalvenes, VP-innovation for PepsiCo-owned Frito-Lay, noting that they gained insights because “we weren't men.”
]]>Jonathan Salem Baskin
Now that A.G. Lafley has returned to lead Procter & Gamble, it begs questions about what he did that was so "right" and, conversely, what was "wrong" with Bob McDonald's tenure. I get it that sales and profits were down lately, and both activist and retiree investors weren't happy. But there's a bigger, deeper story about how each leader handled marketing's 4 Ps. The company's future success may depend on coming to terms with it.
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