Welcome to the latest edition of Marketer's Brief, a quick
take on marketing news, moves and trends from Ad Age's reporters
and editors. Send tips/suggestions to [email protected].
PepsiCo has a new global chief commercial officer overseeing
marketing and Church's Chicken has a new CMO. Find out more about
the moves in our weekly comings and goings feature at the bottom.
But we begin with McDonald's latest move to get inside people's
cars to push its burgers.
Putting McD's on the map
McDonald's is buddying up with Waze in hopes of driving better
outdoor ad results. The fast feeder, along with Omnicom's Outdoor
Media Group, recently partnered with the navigation app maker on a
pilot program in Southern California that involved geofencing more
than 300 billboards. Whenever a Waze user stopped driving for at
least four seconds, a full-screen ad complimenting the one from a
nearby billboard would appear on the Waze app and offer the driver
the option of driving to McDonald's.
Over the initial eight-week run last fall, 8,400 people clicked
through and chose to head to a McDonald's, according to the
just-released results. It's far from "billions served," but it's
measurable. Waze also says there were 6.4 million mobile ad
impressions and 1.9 million unique users reached. Following the
Southern California test, McDonald's co-ops covering Nevada,
Arizona, Houston, Tampa and Orlando have signed up, says Todd
Palatnek, who joined Waze about seven months ago as the navigation
brand's first out-of-home business lead.
Skipping the gimmicks
Kid toothbrushes have been rife with gimmickry for
decades—from endless models with licensed cartoon characters
to power brushes that play songs inside little ones' heads as they
brush. Quip co-founder and CEO Simon Enever is trying a different
route: treating kids more like adults, or at least trying not to
patronize them. Quip's kid toothbrush is the first line extension
for four-year-old direct-to-consumer brand, which already has more
than a million adult customers and distribution at Target. In an
interview, Enever says Quip sprang from more than a year of
research with about 50 kids of existing customers. The brand found
that kids get bored pretty fast with gimmicky brushes, just like
they get bored fast with toys. But Enever says they're eager to use
a stylish brush designed with a smaller, kid-sized head, rubberized
grip for easier handling and sonic vibrations timed with guiding
pulses every 30 seconds to get kids to brush a full two
minutes.
Gillette's non-controversial dad ad
Procter & Gamble Co.'s Gillette has a new ad portraying all
kinds of male virtue and non-toxic masculinity that so far is
engendering no controversy whatsoever. The video from Grey Midwest
(the Cincinnati outpost opened by the shop last year in P&G's
backyard) shows buff, heroic-looking, Gillette-antiperspirant-using
family-guy dads—one deployed in the armed forces away from
home, the other just trying to get a job back home— with the
tagline "Every Hero Sweats. Some Never Show It." Joshua Radin's
emotional cover of Bob Marley's "Three Little Birds" plays in the
background. Seeming lack of controversy aside, Gillette has the
YouTube comments turned off for this one. The video comes as the
brand continues to deal with backlash from its polarizing "The Best
Men Can Be." The latest twist involves
a petition asking Gillette to end its sponsorship of the New
England Patriots' stadium to protest team owner Robert Kraft's
arrest on prostitution charges.
Happy birthday, dear brand
Brands want to get their names out there whenever they can. In
case you didn't mark your calendar, March 6 is Oreo's 107th
birthday. It's partying all day on social media, including tweeting
at and receiving tweets from other brands, like this only somewhat
cryptic one below sent to Dairy Queen on Tuesday. Next Wednesday is
Chili's birthday. Once again, it plans to celebrate March 13 with
$3.13 Presidente Margaritas. And the restaurant's social plans
include giving away $313 gift cards to some of those who tag the
chain on social media.
Chobani Gimmies, a line for and inspired by kids (one girl in a
focus group helped with the name by saying "gimme, gimme, gimme")
is in the midst of a giveaway Chief Creative Officer Leland
Maschmeyer describes as being "in the model of a
Supreme drop."
Chobani Gimmies giveaways include a Super Berry Rocket Skateboard
To stand out from kid-focused rivals such as Danimals, Go-Gurt
and Stonyfield Kids, different items are released online at noon
EST daily from March 4 to 17, such as "cookies & cream crush"
hoodies, "poppin' cotton candy" hooded onesies and "ooey gooey
s'more" sleeping bags. There are talks to turn the Chobani Gimmies
characters into entertainment IP. They'll appear during the
Nickelodeon's "Kids' Choice Awards" in which Chobani has planned 36
co-branded on-air mentions as well as custom digital stickers in
the Nickelodeon app, its first time working with the children's
network.
Would you buy this?
Heinz is following Mayochup (mayonnaise + ketchup), with Mayocue
(mayo + barbecue sauce) and Heinz Mayomust (mayo + mustard).
Number of the week
5: The spot Chick-fil-A now occupies on Technomic's ranking of
largest chain restaurants, leaping above Burger King and Wendy's
based on 2018 systemwide sales tallies. The top four remained the
same: McDonald's, Starbucks, Subway and Taco Bell.
PepsiCo created the global chief commercial officer role and
filed it with Laxman Narasimhan, who moves up from his role as CEO,
Latin America, Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa. He is charged with
leading "the development of world-class commercial and marketing
capabilities," according to this week's announcement.
Church's Chicken named Brian Gies EVP and global chief marketing
officer. The move follows the February launch of the chain's
"Bringin' That Down Home Flavor" campaign from JWT Atlanta. Gies
was previously in marketing roles at TGI Fridays and Burger King.
Church's former CMO, Hector Munoz, left in December.
Claire Salter, who's been senior manager of global data and
analytics for Unilever the past three years, has joined AnalogFolk
in London as data intelligence officer as the firm builds its
practice in the U.S., Asia and Australia.
Laura Ashley, the floral-loving British lifestyle brand, has
appointed Christina Woollen marketing manager of North and South
America. Woollen formerly ran her own company 360 Marketing
Consultant and Coach.
Contributing: E.J. Schultz, Jessica Wohl, Adrianne
Pasquarelli, Jack Neff
