Lots of companies use cause marketing like a magic bat with which they hope to get a quick hit. The commitment from the sponsor is obviously insincere and ends after one at bat, a strike out with both consumers and the cause they supported. Marketers who support a cause should do so because they believe it is the right thing to do and plan on staying in the batter’s box season after season.
Major League Baseball has made this kind of commitment to Breast Cancer and is doing so in quite an innovative way. Here’s a bit about their program this year from MediaPost:
Major League Baseball launched a Mother’s Day campaign to raise money and awareness for breast cancer research. A full-page print ad ran in USA Today on May 9 depicting a flower made from pink baseball bats. “This Mother’s Day, give more than just flowers,” says the ad urging baseball fans to support the Susan G. Komen For The Cure foundation by attending MLB games on Mother’s Day, or by watching MLB games on TBS and ESPN. Special pink baseball bats were available for purchase at the stadiums and MLB will donate $10 to the Susan G. Komen fund for every bat sold.
I know this is at least the second time around the bases for this effort by the MLB. And as far as I’m concerned, this cause marketing program is a hit. It’s good for Susan G. Komen since it raises awareness and money (the pink bats are auctioned off). It’s good for MLB because it brings a little good will into an arena of otherwise self-obsessed, absurdly-paid and questionably-muscled athletes. And its good for the baseball fan–I for one found the whole idea of these macho athletes swinging pink bats both hilarious and touching–reminding us all that these players have moms too.
At the recent iMedia Agency Summit in the U.K., I heard two ideas that I think are now among the most powerful in marketing. One, attributed to Simon Andrews of media planners Mindshare was the concept of ‘Branded Utility’. This means providing a service or content to our target market without asking anything directly in return as a way of positioning the brand in the minds of the audience.
The second was the famous quote from Axel Chaldecott at the agency JWT: ‘We’ve got to stop INTERRUPTING what people are interested in and BE what people are interested in!’ …
In summary, what they say is this: if we really understand our target market — I mean really understand our target market — then we should know what is useful and interesting to them. If that is the case, then digital channels allow us to develop content and services to serve these needs in a way which clearly positions our brand as a provider of real service and differentiates it from others who do not.
This was the second time in a 24-hour period that I had heard the words “branded utility” as a euphemism for Marketing as Service. So I did a little homework and found an interesting article in Contagious Magazine called, “The brave new world of branded utility.” Here are some highlights:
So how about brands giving something back? Being useful? Having something interesting to say? How about creating a topic of conversation? Planning guru John Grant recently reminded me of a Stan Rapp quote – ‘Ask not what your customers can do for you, ask what you can do for your customers’.
Welcome to the brave new world of Branded Utility, where brands look to provide a useful service or a helpful application; to give people something they actually need – without demanding an immediate return. Web 2.0 means that it’s never been easier or cheaper to develop applications. A key element is gadgets and widgets – the new, new thing on the web, as people build applications that can be added to your homepage on Google or Microsoft Live or your MySpace page. Widgets are little desktop gizmos that range from a time and date clock to a mini Amazon recommendations page. Useful services, at your fingertips – and catching on fast. Yahoo! is said to be investing heavily in the expansion of their Widget Gallery.
Not all branded utility occurs online. Ideas like Nike Run London (where 35,000 Londoners pay to run 10km in an event organized by Nike) and Innocent’s Fruitstock (a family-friendly music festival in London’s Regent’s Park that is completely paid for by cult smoothie brand Innocent) fit the label – but they’re inherently limited in scale by their physical nature. Tesco’s Computers for Schools scheme gets closer – vouchers given away for free with groceries to be pooled and redeemed against PC hardware.
The good news for this blogger is that it should be a bit easier for me to bring you more and more good examples of Marketing as Service. Call it what you want, the idea is sure to catch on soon.
Got a nice reminder from TED regarding Pangea Day’s inaugural event tomorrow:
The program on Pangea Day, May 10, is a celebration of the power of film to unite us all. You’ll see films that are funny — sad — gorgeous — stark — powerful. Voices that have never been heard before. Things you’ve never seen. Scenes from worlds you didn’t know existed. A cross-section of our amazing, complicated, noisy, beautiful world. Tune in or find a viewing party to watch on May 10, 2008, at 6:00 PM GMT. Click here to find the many ways to watch.
As a marketer, Pangea Day is worth watching closely as it brings together a number of Web 2.0 possibilities:
And just in case you’d prefer to following along in Arabic, French, German, Hindi, Portuguese or Spanish, this too will be possible courtesy in ingenuous subtitling service called DotSub. DotSub was developed by Michael Smolens, who also happens to be a good tennis player, which is how I got to know him. More on DotSub:
dotSUB is a browser based tool enabling subtitling of videos on the web into and from any language. There is nothing to buy and nothing to download. Recognizing the potential of global communication powered by the Internet, the founders of dotSUB created a web-based tool that enables video to be accessed in an open, collaborative, “wiki” type environment. The dotSUB tool gives anyone the ability to translate video content into multiple languages via subtitles rendered over the bottom of the video.
I recently shared our Marketing as Service video with a terrific interactive designer to get his reaction. He thought the video was cool but wanted to let the overall concept sink in for a bit. About a week later he sent me this note:
I came across this article in Ad Age and immediately thought of Renegade.
It’s in reference to engaging consumers by offering marketing as a
service, not an ad.
The article described a new travel-guide website created for footwear maker Crocs. The site is called Cities by Foot and provides hi-def video of different travel destinations across the country. The product rationale for the site is provided by the client:
“Crocs are the best travel shoes,” said Ed Wuensch, who happens to be Crocs’ director of marketing. “So we were thinking, ‘What platform could we use to get that across?’”
The agency behind the site, Red Robot, notes that this program is a true service to Crocs’ customers:
We didn’t want to hit consumers over the head with the Crocs brand. We wanted it to be authentic, that this is a service brought to you by Crocs,” said Mr. Flanagan [CEO of Red Robot.] And it’s a service not only to would-be pedestrian explorers but also the shopkeepers and restaurateurs, as the whole video is underwritten by Crocs. In fact, Cities by Foot offers businesses that don’t have it a one-year membership in their local Consumer & Visitor’s Bureau.
Now I realize that this is hardly the first time a client has created relevant content for its customers. The Michelin Guide comes to mind as perhaps the granddaddy of all such approaches and the most instructive. Michelin has been publishing its guide since 1900 and gave them away for the first twenty years. Hopefully Crocs will have the “wear-with-all” to stick with this concept long enough to become a trusted information resource that is so valuable travelers will be willing to pay for it and shopkeepers will covet its approval.
So, though this is a marketing road well traveled, I suspect well-heeled consumers will enjoy trekking through the site and subsequently through the cities profiled in a pair of anything-but pedestrian Crocs.
I was excited for a second when I read about Career Builder’s new Identifying Your Office Persona video. Perhaps they were actually going to provide a service to job seekers who would really benefit from an insightful self-assessment. Instead they elected to provide a different type of service–entertainment. And though I have often written in praise of a good laugh, I couldn’t help but think in this case that there was a bigger opportunity. Sure, get the laugh but then follow up with the real deal like the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator or some other self-awareness enabler. Job seekers have so many needs that can be supported, from resume assistance to career counseling, from career switching to finding a work/life balance. Getting beyond the giggles is no laughing matter–think of comedy as the sizzle and genuine service as the steak in a meat deprived marketplace.
Sedentary kids are a meaty social problem. Video games tends to exacerbate the situation, causing carpal tunnel and tooshie fatigue. Can WiiFit get these kids off the couch and help them burn a few calories? Dance Dance Revolution made some headway in this area and was even adopted by some school districts as a legitimate form of exercise (see previous post on DDR).
Here’s the blurb from Amazon about WiiFit:
Wii Fit features more than 40 activities and exercises, including strength training, aerobics, yoga, and balance games for play on Nintendo’s Wii. WiiFit will be released on May 19 and requires a Nintendo Wii game console to play.
Because the Wii itself has been such a phenomenal success on multiple levels, it should be a surprise that there is a huge buzz already building about WiiFit. Nintendo (at least I think it is Nintendo) has set up a very legit looking blog up called WiiFit.net that is even modestly self-critical:
The Wii Fit, meanwhile, sells the idea of the video game as a lifestyle solution. If, three years ago, a focus group had been asked whether they thought a video game could improve your memory or help you to lose weight, the answer would have probably been a rather bemused ‘no.’ Before Wii Fit, the idea of a fat-burning video game was an idea as outlandishly utopian as slimming beer or a carpet that reverses ageing.
But like it or not, Nintendo have pulled off an impressive marketing trick – they’ve convinced an entire untapped audience to buy their product, though it remains to be seen whether the nation’s waistlines will improve as a result.
Having worked up a sweat playing the regular Wii, I’m a big fan of this product and the lifestyle they are building around it. They have even created another support site called Wii Healthy that offers all sort of tips to eat and live a Wii bit better. This is quite a stretch for a gaming company but one that should embolden many other marketers.
A fellow Renegade recently took a job on the Client side and asked for some advice to ease the transition. Here’s what I suggested:
Know your brand: Seems simple enough but you’d be amazed at how many folks on the client side can’t articulate their brand’s values and aspirations. Without this understanding, how can you possibly judge creative work and arbitrate between what is and isn’t on brand? Knowing your brand means knowing its history, its customers, its competition and its strengths and weaknesses. This takes time and a deep sense of curiosity but is well worth the trouble. Once you know your brand, your job will become much easier and the work you get to approve, much better.
Know your company: Again, this seems like a no brainer, but if you, as a top marketer, don’t know the ins and outs of your company, you don’t stand a chance of getting great work through your company’s hierarchy. This understanding is especially important for new arrivals who are eager to make their mark but stumble when they incorrectly read the politics of their company. Before you jump in and set a new direction, make sure you have a firm foundation of support both intellectually and politically. The expression “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread,” comes to mind.
Own the integration process: Lots of clients allow each of their agency partners to have their own creative strategy for each of the marketing disciplines. This is not a bad practice in and of itself, but it can lead to disintegrated communication programs. A great client insists that their agencies work together to develop one over-arching strategy and one over-arching campaign. This approach leads to big campaign ideas like the Dove “Campaign for Real Beauty” and GE’s “Ecomagination.”
Have some chutzpah: Let’s face it, cutting through these days is tough and it takes some chutzpah. In the era of the ad-zapping DVRs, perhaps the biggest risk is not taking one at all. If you are uncomfortable trying to do something fresh, then marketing is probably a bad career choice. Imagine the chutzpah it took to tell the board of a conservative insurance company that their new spokesperson was a duck? Ten years later that same duck has increase shareholder value by a zillion and made Aflac a household brand. So the next time you are reviewing campaign ideas, keep in mind that one you are certain you could never sell to the CEO might be the campaign that makes you and your company famous.
When in doubt, test online: Since too much chutzpah could cost you your job, especially if you haven’t been there very long, you might need some ammunition to convince the boss that a particular ad or campaign is worth the risk. One way to do this is to test the campaign online. Online testing has the advantage of being incredibly targeted and swift to produce. We recently ran a campaign that was meant to drive online sales and included a pool of 5 different ads, one of which was a little racy. Turns out that the slightly racy ad outsold the others in the pool three to one. Ironically, we still ended up pulling that ad because of one complaint letter!
Be nice: Linda Kaplan Thaler wrote a whole book on the “Power of Nice” in business and in life. Unfortunately, her book is not on the “must read” list at many companies. For those of you just starting out in the business, it may not be obvious that being nice is a prerequisite to maximizing your ROA (Return on Agency). In fact, you may get the sense that the opposite is true, what with procurement beating up on the financial side, CEO’s crying “to heck with brand just give me sales,” and everyone else placing the blame on the agency for just about everything but product defects. It is a tough time to be Nice, but the rewards, I assure you, are extraordinary. Be nice and you’ll inspire a level of dedication reserved for the worthy, the heroic, the best of the best. And even if that doesn’t happen, at least you’ll have a “nice” answer to your kid’s question, “How was work today?”
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