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    The ad danger forgot.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    There is a beautiful ad in today’s New York Times promoting Lindblad Expeditions and National Geographic conservation tours. Linblad Expeiditons has a long, wonderful history of running for-profit expeditions and National Geographic has partnered with them to reap some of the financial benefits. This particular ad touts a conservation donation of $250 for trips taken to certain locations before June 30th.  Exploration and Conservation are central to both headline and copy.
     
    The problem with the ad is that the two pictures used to promote the expedition convey what are clearly dangerous situations. In one, a rubber raft filled with smiling, though concerned people sits in calm waters a few feet from a huge swimming whale.   In the other picture, a young lad poses a la Ralph Lauren bathing suit ad next to a huge mature sea lion. This ad, running a few days after the much publicized and headlined story of the capsized Expedition ship Antarctica, is not a good branding building move. 
     
    To see the pictures from the ad check out the website http://www.expeditions.com/National_Geographic372.asp
     
    The art directors and designers have done a good job trying to make the pictures look lush and exciting, but don’t expect any mothers or grandmothers to be booking these trips any time soon. Hee hee.
     

    Social Cookie Net

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    Pepperidge Farms part of the Campbell Soup family is pushing cookies today using social networking (www.artofthecookie.com.) They are not buying ads on Facebook or Mypace (I love calling them that,) but creating a social network through which woman can meet other women, connect and – get this—improve their social lives. They have a connection curator by the name of Sally Horchow who wrote a book on the subject offering up lots of connection-related content.
     
    This shit kills me. It is a classic example of the marketing tactic de jour. In the yearly planning meeting someone senior says “We need something new this year. What’s hot? Social networking? Let’s do it.”
     
    Do you remember way back when and some unknown kid would come up to you and say “Wanna be my friend?”   Dohhhh!   
     
    Marketers who set up social networks to sell product and veil it with an objective of “improving lives” are destined to fail. People are social. Networks are technical. Cookies are cookies. 
     
    Sit down to Thanksgiving dinner this year and constantly remind your guests and friends what brands they are eating.  “Butterball is the best. Pepperidge Farm stuffing is so moist. Mrs. Smith’s Pies are the sweetest. Love that Land O Lakes Butter? Isn’t Gravy Master grand? Pass the Jolly Green Giant Beans. Just watch the improvements to your guests social lives and count how many come back next year. Listening Facebook?
     

    Bank of What?

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    Bank of America has been in the marketing news more for the way they bundle  their advertising and marketing agencies than for the branding itself. Not too many years ago, BofA made news by hiring a holding company — Interpublic Group of Companies – to do its bidding. Not long after Bruce Nelson, an IPG officer, moved to Omnicom and the BofA account followed. Yesterday, it was reported the CMO of Bank of America has decided that the bundled approach is a mistake, not allowing for best-of-breed marketing solutions. 
     
    Okay, so what’s the idea?
     
    If you must know, the branding idea for BofA is “Bank of Opportunity.” You’ve seen the TV ads where people are daydreaming about their future and it comes to them through some sort of almost rainbow-like logo’ed window? Say what? Bank of huh?  
     
    Bank advertising today is so bad and so lacking in ideas that the only thing left to talk about is the arrangement of the agencies.  This category has to change.   
     
     
     

    The King

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    Even though it markets the number one selling beer in America, Bud Light, Anheuser-Busch is in a slump. Craft beers aside, the problem with the portfolio is that the flagship beer, Budweiser, is not being consumed by 20-somethings. It has lost relevance. AB is pushing Bud Light and it’s working. Women like Bud Light because it’s low in calories and allows them to keep their wits about them (versus spirits). Guys like it because girls do.  If you go to an arena concert today the line for the Budweiser is non-existent, while those for Bud Light, Coors, Miller and Guinness wind around the bathroom.
     
    Augie needs to stay the course with Bud Light, but dial up the volume and relevance of Bud. Push the ingredients, trot out the Clydesdales, target 25-34 males, promote Americana, tight blue jeans, hard work and white teeth. And find a great song. Double ad spending, advertise in the right places and bring back the share. It’s the King of Beers for God’s sake.
     
     
     

    HyperTargeting by myspace.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0
    MySpace last week announced a new advertising service called “HyperTargeting.”  Product benefits discussed in the ad include: “connect with your desired audience on a massive scale” and “achieve significant performance increases vs. traditional targeting campaigns.” 
     
    What I loved about this announcement is that I had to read about it in an ad in the Wall Street Journal. The paper version. How “old school?”  Using an expensive business newspaper to promote the world’s most efficient targeting service?   You gotta love it. Hee hee. 
     

    Breaking the hotel chains?

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    Have you ever stayed in a hotel that is just very, very cool? Not opulent. Those are nice, but I always find myself checking my jeans for spots and feeling a little violated reviewing the bill.  Not corporate. Those are clean and crisp, offering starched white sheets at turn down with semi-firm, enveloping mattresses.  They tend to blend into one another and have names like Sheraton, Embassy, Marriott.   But in the cool ones?  In those you feel like you’re on a movie set. The design is beautiful. The art ravishing and inspiring. In the cool hotels the people are more interesting than the hotel, but it’s hard to keep your eyes off both. The Mondrian in Los Angeles is one such hotel.
     
    Le Meridien is a hotel chain on a mission to deliver “cool.”  They are doing all the right things, starting with hiring a cultural curator.  Le Meridian is also working with Jean-Georges Vongerichten the world-class chef, and Andrea Illy a famous coffee purveyor. In addition, Le Meridien is hiring designers of every art discipline to help fill their buildings with candy for the eyes.
     
    This approach will work. There will be some bumps in the road, but should the company not fall prey to favoring opulence over style, they will differentiate themselves.  And will never be called a chain again. Uncool.
     

     

    CommercialBook

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    Kids and adults (I leave anyone out?) adorn themselves with brands that show who they are and what they like. Some adorn themselves with anti-brands, e.g., nondescript trucker hats (sorry truckers) to show who they are. But one thing they rarely do is sell ads on themselves. That’s the line Facebook seems to have crossing yesterday.  Mark Zuckerberg (age deleted for the first time,) Facebook’s CEO has listened to the “man” and swallowed the commerce pill that will begin to bring him down.
     
    Mr Zuckerburg thinks that because some of the ad messages will appear to be referrals from friends, they will be more welcome. (Ever see a friend come down the street with an order form and a box of oranges?)
     
    Until today, Facebook’s reason for being has been its users. As users now allow Coke, Sprite and Bertolli Spaghetti Sauce to muck up the experience, Facebook’s coolness will begin to wane. It will bell curve up for a while, since the social ad thing is new, but start to slow down as users decides to regain control. And to those people in search of more control I say “Feel Free.”
     
    Social Computing, not social networking or social media is the next thing.   Key word “social.” For MySpace and Facebook the keyword is “Networking” and that’s a word that draws advertisers from miles away.
     

    Writers’ strike.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    The Writers Guild of America went on strike last night at midnight and unless resolved quickly we begin to impact the quality of electronic media soon.  

     
    DVD and online usage revenue are the key care-abouts. Figuring out compensation for online usage of written content is going to be difficult. Hollywood and other entertainment writers don’t want their art to be distributed freely, but knowing how to charge for it will not come easily.  I suspect similar usage tariffs normally associated with TV and Cable will be extended toward DVD and online, but the formula will be the sticking point.  DVD usage can be quantified, but online tracking still has a way to go.  Tracking of online objects and their usage is in our future and it is fundamental to resolving this strike, but I don’t think it will impact the new contract. Bet on the new contract being a short one. Maybe 2 years.  
     

    Le-grow-vo

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0
     

    Lenovo, the Chinese computer company that purchased IBM’s PC business in 2005, has decided now is the time to drop the IBM name which they are allowed you use until 2010.  With quarterly PC sales nearly twice the industry average, Lenovo feels it is time to spend its money banking equity in the Lenovo brand, not borrowing it from IBM.
     
    They will continue to use the ThinkPad name, but that, too, will probably recede in a year or so. Lenovo is doing some serious old-school blocking and tackling while the newer breed of PC manufacturers are trying to find their footing in PC 2.0.
     
    With a huge population base in China and a pool of engineers graduating in record numbers, I’m betting Levovo will be eating up marketshare and be the PC leader in 2010.
     

    Rolling Down Rodeo

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0
     
    There is a wonderful story in today’s Wall Street Journal about shopping on Rodeo Drive. The writer was accompanied by a test shopper who specializes in monitoring the body language of store employees. The degree to which shoppers are welcomed, smiled upon, engaged, and treated well, are all gauged by the guest shopper. The end game on Rodeo is to make customers feel comfortable, happy with their purchase, and pleased with the value received. 
     
    Reading about this exercise made me think of Internet usability. Usability is huge today on the net, supported by legions of digital ad agency professionals whose sole responsibility is to map user navigation and deliver a successful, positive experience.  If you go to sneakers.com and can’t find your favorite brand, color, and style within thirty seconds, you are likely to leave for another site. Not successful. 
     
    Usability on the net is not easy to achieve, but it should be driven by the same characteristics the best stores on Rodeo Drive use: be welcoming, attentive to the habits of all visitors, be thoughtful and caring about the users’ time, and lastly, don’t be snooty.  
     
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