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RealAge Coming of Age.

By
Steve Poppe
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Most agree that the future of online advertising is in the hands of the data gatherers. Those who collect user data and do something smart with it will garner higher CPMs, lower their online marketing costs and improve customer satisfaction. The $64,000 question is: How can this be done without invading consumer privacy?

 

RealAge.com has an idea of how to do it. RealAge provides members with a healthcare questionnaire that when truthfully answered will allow them to receive valuable medial information. People with a genetic or behavioral disposition to hypertension will receive targeted counsel. Owned by Hearst but sponsored predominantly by the normally heavy-handed pharmaceutical companies, this approach will stumble at first, but eventually find an appropriate operating level.   

 

RealAge does not sell its lists, acting as the list broker and trafficker of outbound newsletters, and it aggregates all the data and will, no doubt, do something smart with that too.  

 

I like this approach. If I were to fill out a hiking profile and get something of real value from an outdoor products companies, I’d be very happy. THIS is a business model. Peace.

 

MINI R57 Cabrio –Nice Idea

By
Steve Poppe
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0

 

"Always Open" is the idea behind phase two of the MINI R57 Cabrio communications campaign. Created by Berlin-based agency Plantage, the TV spots suggest some classic film car scenes, all of which suggest how manly it is to keep the top down, ergo the Always Open. In one ad, think the Rebel Without a Cause “chicken” scene meets Katrina. Good idea.   

 

Showing how much fun a MINI Cabrio can be with the top down is smart. It’s what the Cabrio does best. Plus it identifies its drivers as rebels, rebel wannabes and most importantly a car for "manly men."  The intent is to open up an untapped side of the Cabrio market. Volkswagen’s Cabriolet sales skewed heavily toward women and this was a likely issue for the MINI.  My bet?  It is going to work.
 


 

Opting Out of Paper.

By
Steve Poppe
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David Pogue, a pretty tuned-in writer, mentioned in his New York Times article yesterday that while at South By Southwest (heretofore referred to as South By) he noticed lots of newspapers and magazines at attendees hotel room doors each morning.  No doubt, most contained stickers and wraps touting sponsor messages.   What was odd, according to Mr. Poque, was that most people left the papers on the floor. And though this doesn’t say much for the housekeeping at his hotel, the many daily papers started to pile up over time in a subtle form of protest.  Last year while at South By, I noticed an anti-paper phenomenon which took place at the convention center. Check out the “paper protest alcove” picture and post.

 

South By-Interactive is filled with Posters (opposite of Pasters) who are content generating opinion leaders. South By-Music, held the following week, is filled with Music Posters.  Both are taste makers and both groups are opting out of paper. This is a trend which was very evident at South By and is coming to a neighborhood near you. Peace!

 

 

 

Robert J. Coen To Step Down.

By
Steve Poppe
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I worked for McCann-Erickson-NY in the 90s and was a big Robert Coen fan. Bob, famous for being the advertising’s spending guru, is stepping down after 6 decades in the business.  Two quick stories about Bob: Well into the 1990s, he presented his findings on large oak tag boards written in crisp magic marker.  He didn’t use PowerPoint.  No way. Second, one time I ran into him in the halls and suggested he might want to start tracking ad spending on the Internet. Though he didn’t exactly scratch his head, he said that spending at the time was just a blip compared to the numbers. He didn’t start including online for a few more years.

 

Bob is a great ad man and a great economist. Always very accurate, he may be the most important, powerful ad executive of the past 50 years.  Check out the story here. Peace!

Cisco Demonstrates Smarts and Backbone.

By
Steve Poppe
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Cisco Systems purchase of Pure Digital Technologies, manufacturer of the Flip video recorder, is a BIG move and Cisco’s first real push into consumer products. To date, the only people who have actually bought something from Cisco are business and IT people. Consumers have seen Cisco TV commercials promoting corporate video conferencing and the “human network,” but that was really a B2B and investor stock play.  

 

The Flip, however, is one of the coolest tech products to come along in a while and will finally give Cisco some real purchase in the consumer market. Cisco will evolve the product onto a wireless platform, somehow make it videoconference-able, and take personal video recording to a new level.  The Cisco Flip will be advertised using some serious cash, making ad agencies, media companies and retailers happy. In addition, the increased usage of Flips around the world will send some serious gigs over the net’s backbone routers, Cisco’s bread and butter.

 

This was a great move by Cisco and one which may catapult the brand into Sony landin 5 to 10 years. Peace!

 

Ads. TV vs. Online.

By
Steve Poppe
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Quick, think of the best online ad you ever saw. What is it?  Thought so, you can’t. Okay maybe the BMW webisode or Whopper Challenge…but that’s about it. Know why? Because, for the most part, web ads aren’t that artful. Low cost, lacking in original music and idea, most leaderboards and rectangles are stilted, choppy and pretty ham-handed (whatever that means). The audio is usually sub-par and often stock.

 

McCann-Erickson was once the best shop in the world at creating original music for its clients. Today it’s a lost art; now agencies crow about buying music from the next Emo or House band. On the cheap. Music adds a richness and a tone to advertising;it becomes part of the story. Most people on the web don’t want audio in their ads.

 

The reason TV commercials still work better than any other advertising medium is the story telling. The casting. The stylists. Sounds design. Editing. TV commercials create emotional responses. Writing for a :30 must be perfect because the story is so short. Every word counts.

 

Digital advertising is a wonderful new medium in that gets consumer one-click away from purchase or inquiry, but today that ROI metric is overshadowing the potential artfulness of the medium. When ideas have to be bounced off the Flash editor, you know you are in trouble. Peace!

 

Carl’s Junior Hungry for Share.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

 

Carl’s Junior, a hamburger chain with locations in the Western United States, has long been a fast food advertising poser. It has tried to break through and had some momentary hits but never really latched onto a powerful branding idea.

 

An article in today’s New York Times, however, shows they do finally have an idea and seem to be supporting it. “Young and hungry,” though slightly derivative of Burger King’s strategy is a tight, actionable branding idea.  I say it touches upon BK’s strategy because from a business standpoint the real turn around at Burger King IMHO was when it decided to target young males with big appetites, getting them to double and triple up their meat intake. And celebrate it.

 

Carl’s Junior has employed as spokesman Rob Dyrdek. Though not young, Mr. Dyrdek is certainly hungry and quite the skateboarding phenom. He comes with a prepackaged young and hungry persona, an MTV show or two, a strong following among the target and he does tricks. 

 

If Carl’s plays its cards right and manages this branding idea correctly, e.g., make the food look good (off-camera), serve obscene portions, etc. it will gain share hungrily. Peace!

 

Brand Strategy and Media Mix.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

  

The brand strategy construct I use is pretty simple: a single brand strategy sits atop three supporting brand planks. The planks need to fit logically beneath the brand strategy (or promise) and contribute to the story. The degree to which these planks are dialed up or down in messaging needs to be managed and measured, then tied to sales results. An even distribution of plank support, i.e., 33/33/33%, isn’t necessarily optimal.

 

Also, dialing up emphasis on one plank may inversely impact attitudes and perceptions on another, so the ultimate goal is a formula.  But here’s a new rub, and I learned this from Ford. Not all planks must be played out in all media.  There may be more efficient and, perhaps, media-appropriate ways to achieve market share gains through the messaging mix.

For instance, let’s say today Ford’s brand planks today are: reliability, innovation and financial stability. Ford is using PR to convey financial stability — it is not playing that card in paid media. Very smart.  The admixture of planks can be media- independent. A plank message better suited for social media, say, than print or broadcast might work harder their to support the promise. Oh shizz, this changes everything.

 

USA Network’s Character Project

By
Steve Poppe
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0

 

“Characters Welcome” is a strong branding idea used by the USA Network cable channel. It’s straightforward, easy on the ears, makes sense for the programming (most of the time) and is differentiated. When I watch shows like In Plain Sight, Burn Notice or Monk, I get it.   There are characters on these shows unlike characters anywhere else. And the Vincent D’Onofrio character on Law & Order: Criminal Intent, now only available on USA Network, could be TV’s most compelling.  Holly Hunter, on a cable show called Saving Grace, is also an amazing character. So much so, that I thought her show was carried on USA. (It’s actually on TNT.)

 

USA Network, in an effort to bring “Characters Welcome” to life, is sponsoring something called the Character Project.  I read a pretty print insert in Ad Age on the project and though I applaud the effort, it seems a bit misguided. The insert, filled with beautiful photographs of American characters, is quite handsome, but the whole thing is more about the photographs and photographers than the so-called characters. What makes USA interesting is the one-of-a-kind people portrayed in the shows. Their quirkiness, their back-stories, their lives. The Character Project needs to delve into this level of character development. Unfortunately, the idea gets lost in the photography sauce.

Honda Insight — Strategy is Off.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

 

Stuart Elliott, The New York Times advertising writer, did a nice piece today on the Honda Insight hybrid automobile. The Insight will be available in late March, starting at just under $20,000. For all the ad campaign talk about “democracy” and “a hybrid for everyone,” this advertising campaign is about price.  It’s a mistake and a missed opportunity. The campaign is from RPA in Los Angeles.   

 

The allure the hybrid is not the $1,000 above or below the $20,000 price point, it’s in saving fuel, creating less emissions, being forward thinking, and feeling good about it. Hybrid penetration isn’t about the initial car cost – though, if they cost $12,000 they’d be much more common – it’s about making the “late majority” of car buyers believe that driving a hybrid is a normal thing, not an advocacy thing. The late majority wonders if the cars will break down, if their friends will “out” them for being closet liberals, if the cars are peppy enough. These are the big market-moving issues, not price.

 

In a few years the combustion engine automobile will be the cultural equivalent of the turntable. Why would anyone today buy a non-hybrid car? The campaign should focus on the barriers. Peace!

 

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