Archive for February, 2009

A Recipe for Brand Experience

Friday, February 27th, 2009

When marketers think about a “brand experience,” we often jump straight to a big, bold example, such as branded stores in Times Square or something like the Virgin Airlines on-plane fashion shows with Victoria’s Secret models. Frankly, such examples scare the heck out of a lot of marketers. We wonder how our meager brands can afford the large budgets and commitments required to create an experience. But tiny investments on smaller brands can create experiences that are just as meaningful and maybe even more profitable. This weekend a simple recipe provided me with a great example.

About three years ago our President, Jay, rewarded me and the rest of his C-level team with a membership to the St. Supery wine club. This moderate-sized winery in Napa Valley has a great range of high-quality wines. Jay had recently joined the wine club and wanted us to share his experience of cooking the featured recipe that is paired perfectly with each wine. He has kept us on the club for three years now, and while I’ve enjoyed the wine thoroughly, I have never actually cooked a featured recipe—until this weekend.

The latest wine shipment of a 2006 Malbec came with a recipe for wild mushroom risotto that sounded amazing. Combined with the fact that my wife and I had a subpar Valentine’s Day due to mutual illnesses, I figured it would be a good idea for me to do some cooking. I’m not a frequent chef, but I do enjoy rolling up my sleeves in the kitchen every once in a while. Cooking this risotto dish was a lot more work than I imagined—I frankly had no idea how risotto was made, and my arms got quite a workout as I got the rice to absorb 5 cups of beef stock in nearly 40 minutes of constant stirring!

We put the girls to bed and enjoyed the dish with a lovely salad, a date movie (Love Actually), and the bottle of St. Supery Malbec. The meal, wine, and movie were all great together, and for a few hours we forgot about our laundry list of chores and stresses.

Thus, St. Supery brought me more than a great wine: Its simple recipe unlocked an experience of cooking and enjoying a lovely meal with my wife. And I cannot wait for the next wine and recipe shipment. The cost was merely that of a simple, folded newsletter tucked into the shipment box.

I plan to spend more time thinking about how other brands (especially my clients) can similarly do simple things to build experiences like this. It also would be interesting to test what kind of brand loyalty results. My hypothesis would be that St. Supery club members who cook the recipes are far more likely to stay in the club and buy more wine for themselves, while encouraging others to join, too.

What can your brand do to stage an experience? It might be simpler than you think.

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Posted in Connection, Experience, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

We’re #1 in Junta42

Wednesday, February 25th, 2009

I am extremely excited to share the news that our very own Marketing with Meaning blog has been ranked the #1 Content Marketing blog by the Junta42 organization. The Junta42 list continues to grow each quarter (up to 224 total from 187 last quarter) and has a long list of very strong bloggers that I follow each day. I also was excited to see that another Bridge Worldwide blog, Dose of Digital by Jonathan Richman, is now at the list, debuting at #163. My thanks to Joe Pulizzi for running this list and offering a great opportunity for all of us.

If you are new to this space, the Marketing with Meaning concept aims to lead a shift away from the old, interruptive advertising model and toward one in which the marketing we produce actually adds value to people’s lives. It’s an idea we use in our work every day for clients such as Abbott Nutrition, P&G, and ConAgra Foods, and it is the subject of a book that will be published by McGraw-Hill in October 2009.

When I started this blog in May 2008, I never thought of it as a “content blog,” but the fit with Junta42’s list is very strong. Brands that aim to add value with their marketing often end up creating, well, content. For Abbott Nutrition, we have created programs such as Diabetes Control for Life and Similac StrongMoms, both of which are rich content for people with diabetes and newborns, respectively. For Healthy Choice, we created a live improv comedy show during lunchtime (which is the new prime time, if you haven’t heard).

What I really like about the Junta42 list is that its judging criteria is based mainly on the quality of our content, rather than the number of visitors, Technorati links, etc. Because our site is less than a year old, it is difficult to match the visitor numbers of other marketing blogs that have been around for years. This list gives us a more even playing field, pitting idea vs. idea rather than audience vs. audience. Of course, I hope our ranking on this list helps us build up a huge audience, too.

Overall, the entire Bridge Worldwide team and I are very proud to see our concept and blog continue to gain fans and momentum. And it’s really only the start. This week I turn in the draft of our book to McGraw-Hill, and then we will start developing more cool tools and a community of like-minded leaders. Of course, I will be sharing all of our progress and developments here.

I cannot promise that we’ll be able to stay #1 on this very competitive list, but I pledge that we will continue to help lead the charge toward marketing that improves consumers’ lives. Thanks for reading and I invite you join our cause.

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Posted in Awards, Concept, Uncategorized, book | 4 Comments »

Connecting with Roy Spence

Monday, February 23rd, 2009

One of the really exciting experiences in our mission to spread the concept of Marketing with Meaning is the chance to meet up with brilliant people who have come to the same general conclusion of where the world needs to go next. Thanks to an introduction from our mutual friend Jim Stengel, I was able to spend some time chatting with Roy Spence last week.

Roy is the Chairman and CEO of GSD&M Idea City, one of the best and brightest advertising agencies in the world. He just released a book, It’s Not What You Sell, It’s What You Stand For, and had a great article in Adweek recently. Overall, Roy has a simple but meaningful message: “Companies that aren’t in the life improvement business are not going to be around for very long.” His firm has helped create memorable work and business success for many leading brands, including two (BMW and Southwest Airlines) that I mention in our upcoming book.

We immediately felt a common bond on the phone during this first conversation. I found Roy to be an incredibly personable and good-natured guy. In terms of our key messages, we share the same overall perspective but come at it in different angles. Roy is focused on convincing brands to focus their existence around a key purpose; Southwest Airlines, for example, is about democratizing air travel. Our Marketing with Meaning comes into play once brands have selected a purpose and need to start doing work that fulfills the purpose. It’s a great synergy and we obviously have a better chance at changing the world by teaming up around our common cause rather than debating definitions and interpretations.

Despite the fact that our companies operate within competing holding companies, Roy immediately suggested some projects that we might work on together, and mentioned several other business leaders and entrepreneurs who share our mindset. We’ll be getting together in person in a few months.

I encourage you to support the overall Marketing with Meaning cause by picking up a copy of Roy’s book today. Let me know what you think!

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Posted in Agency Marketing, Concept | 3 Comments »

Cessna Flies Into a Headwind

Wednesday, February 18th, 2009

Last week Advertising Age published a fascinating case study of a company in the crosshairs of changing times: The Cessna brand is seeing sales slow not only due to the overall economy but additionally because media coverage and everyday citizens have made corporate jets the new pariah. Exhibit A is the virtual riot against the Big 3 CEOs who all flew to Washington, D.C., in their own jets. What to do? An advertising campaign, of course! But Cessna’s strategy looks flawed from the beginning.

Cessna has decided to support its business by releasing full-page advertisements in the Wall Street Journal, with a copy message (see above) that essentially encourages corporate executives to ignore the naysayers (“Timidity didn’t get you this far”), and to continue to use “the full range of tools to do your job.” While this attitude might help a few CEOs screw up their courage and ignore the complaints from shareholders or the finance department, I believe Cessna is doing a disservice to its customers with this campaign.

There are a few big reasons why this campaign won’t stop the bleeding. First, it defies reason to expect that a full-page print ad is enough to tip a corporate executive into feeling better about flying a personal jet. “Taking advice from print ads” didn’t get them this far either. If anyone actually bothers to read the ad while flipping through articles, he or she would be more likely to see this as a blatant self-interested message.

But the bigger issue is that Cessna is completely ignoring the winds of change, which no well-placed print ad can hold back. Private jets are expensive, luxurious, and out-of-reach of most workers in this country. Those of us who fly around the world for a living (and are increasingly told to take coach overseas or drive 90 minutes to a cheaper airport) resent that top leaders get to avoid the surly security guards and greasy food-court meals. Other workers who are losing their jobs and benefits cringe at the idea that their bosses are too good for commercial travel.

Because of economic pressure and growing excesses at the top, the court of public opinion has shifted, and private jets are much less acceptable than only a few years ago. Cessna cannot change the movement of public opinion, and it will fail as a company if it doesn’t figure out how to change its image to adapt to modern times.

The good news is that I believe Cessna can shift public thinking by moving to Marketing with Meaning instead. What if the company started by focusing on its customers’ situation. Here’s one thought: The CEO with a private plane is feeling pressure from shareholders and stakeholders and is looking for ways to pare back for PR sake at least. Cessna could do something to meet this need while propping up its demand and brand image.

For example, Cessna could create a private social network that executives could use to coordinate flight sharing. After all, many executive offices are clustered around the same metro areas and they often travel to the same large cities or customer locations. Throw in the fact that they just might enjoy some value from the networking opportunities, and grow some much-needed digital sensibility.

Another option is for Cessna to create a software system that companies could use to coordinate flights by other employees who have reason to go to the same destination. Both systems would take some extra effort by executives’ administrators, but imagine the boost in media and public opinion that both Cessna’s customers and its brand would enjoy. I guarantee that both moves would generate significant, positive news coverage.

By being part of a solution instead of generating more problems, Cessna has a chance to salvage its image and its sales. My examples might not be perfect, but they show that meaningful marketing ideas can be generated very quickly as soon as you start thinking about how you can solve customers’ problems by doing something through the marketing itself.

UPDATE: JetBlue is advertising a welcome to C-Suiters who are downgraded to commercial flight. More of a laugh than actually adding value, though.

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Posted in Marketing Without Meaning | 5 Comments »

A ‘Meaningful’ Super Bowl Postmortem

Monday, February 16th, 2009


It is the sworn duty of every agency thought leader to play Monday morning quarterback with the annual orgy of advertising known as the Super Bowl. Yeah, I’m a little late to the conversation, mainly because the whole “building the business” thing has sucked my time away. (But, hey—we pulled out a couple of new business wins!) My tardiness actually works to my advantage, as it allows some time for the Super Bowl marketing efforts to actually start showing postgame results in the market.
So, I present the Inaugural Marketing with Meaning Super Bowl Winners and Losers!
Let me begin by laying out a bit of the criteria for selection. First, just making an ad doesn’t count. I will leave that type of ranking to an agency I recently discovered called a&g, which has been running what it calls a “most meaningful” ranking for six years. a&g has a nice idea and good ranking criteria, but its focus is only on the ad itself, rather than a complete marketing campaign. The second requirement is that the marketing campaigns must fit with our twin definitions of meaningful marketing: (1) the work is something people choose to engage with; and (2) the marketing itself adds value to people’s lives. Enough with the rules; let’s play ball:
Winners
1. Denny’s—When people heard this fading diner chain was making a play for the Super Bowl, most people figured it was quite a Hail Mary. (Sports metaphors are fun!) But we never expected that the company would use its precious time to unleash an offer of free Grand Slam breakfasts on Tuesday, February 3. A campaign that cost $5 million (including $3 million to the single commercial) led to 2 million takers in 1,500 restaurants. CEO Nelson Marchioli felt the time was right to reintroduce people to Denny’s—and instead of spending money on more interruptive, over-promising TV ads, he gave something back and reaped great rewards. The $5 million generated $50 million in PR already, and Marchioli claims that with sales of drinks and other items they probably broke even on the day. Aside from great strategy, the company was prepared for its giveaway with extra wait staff and cooks.
2. Hyundai—The brand had two ad slots, and while one was a forgettable farce around how other auto CEOs are cursing the brand, the award goes to Hyundai for the promotion of its Assurance guarantee. This clever and beneficial marketing approach provides a service for wary customers by agreeing to take back bought or leased cars in the event that the household has an unexpected financial issue: losing one’s job. I blogged about this a few weeks ago, and shared that Hyundai claims the results are strong. It’s not a funny ad and falls near the bottom of popularity polls, but by sharing truly original news of a meaningful marketing program, Hyundai has a good chance of winning market share and greater profits—while its buyers receive some extra security in these troubled times.
3. Doritos—It’s hard to believe that a brand could win both in most popular and place high in my meaningful ranking, but they really scored with this ad. The ad itself is just one leg of a now third annual consumer-generated marketing contest. For months, people have been engaged in creating and voting on videos, because the brand learned in 2005 that its young consumers love to create content and make brands their own. The output is a little juvenile, but people take it as lighthearted fun and marvel that it was created by a couple of guys with a handful of dollars.
Losers
1. Go Daddy—Everyone is having a field day hating on this brand, which continues to think that the Janet Jackson episode is still relevant humor. One might argue that the ad is meaningful to some small slice of guys, who ended up scooping up the most domain names. But the reality is that the game’s audience is much broader, and, as a&g remarks, “These days, men are as likely to be offended by ads that disrespect women.” As a father of two young daughters, I agree wholeheartedly. Enough. And Danica Patrick isn’t helping her image, either.
2. Gatorade—”What is G?” Most people really don’t care to research an advertising tagline. I wrote about this campaign a few weeks ago here. Some brands and agencies still believe that a new advertising campaign will create news and turn around share—especially if you toss in enough celebrities. But the only real news this is generating is speculation about what the heck the brand is thinking. The ad itself fell near the bottom of the popularity list. Meanwhile, Gatorade misses a huge opportunity to follow Nike’s lead and actually create events such as the Nike Women’s Marathon and Nike+ service, both of which are great examples of the brand helping people actually achieve something.
3. Any other brand that just ran an ad—It is remarkable to me that after countless case studies of brands who used an ad to start a conversation or service, so many still spend 99 percent of their time and budget on this single 30-second spot. Brands that might have won a smile or two amid so many distractions, yet failed to really capitalize, include: Budweiser, Castrol, Cheetos, CareerBuilder, Pepsi, Vizio, and H&R Block.
Special Note: Pedigree vs. Kellogg’s
A few posts ago I commented on Pedigree’s move to join the list of Super Bowl ad entries on behalf of its campaign to drive dog adoption. My point was that after amazingly meaningful marketing around this cause, Pedigree took a giant step back with a funny ad that fails to connect emotionally, and fails to do more than tell people at the end to “get a dog.” Some commenters said I was too tough on the brand and that the humor might have tugged people.
To those who think you cannot win with emotion on the Super Bowl around a cause, I direct you to Kellogg’s, which used the time to launch a campaign for rebuilding sports fields in communities around the country. The ad informs of the idea, while pulling the heartstrings of everyone who remembers those days of biking to the park and playing until our mothers called for us. But what’s really meaningful is that the ad directs viewers to get involved at frostedflakes.com. There, visitors actually can nominate and vote for a specific local park to be funded. The competition will spread over several weeks, and when you vote, Kellogg’s provides a downloadable $1-off coupon.
Congratulations to Kellogg’s, Denny’s, Doritos, and Hyundai for using the spotlight of our industry to show stellar examples of Marketing with Meaning!

UPDATE: Here’s another very good post-mortem with consistent themes from Joseph Jaffe.

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Posted in Achievement, Cause Related, Connection, Contests, Marketing Without Meaning, Solution | 3 Comments »

Content Aggregation for Legal Help

Thursday, February 12th, 2009

I love it when readers share stories and examples of meaningful marketing. Last week I discovered a pretty interesting new way for lawyers to promote their services in a meaningful way; it’s an interesting concept that represents a big opportunity to move toward a new model of content aggregation.

Emilie Cole at LaunchSquad, a PR firm focused on new products and services, emailed me about her client, JD Supra, which is hoping to provide a way to serve useful information to people in a way that helps build the businesses of law firms. At JDSupra.com, lawyers can upload articles, court papers, legal briefs, and other documents so that they can be read by visitors to the site. The general idea is that people who are in the market for legal services will do some online research before hiring representation. If they find something useful at JD Supra, they may be especially inclined to hire the firm that uploaded said document. (See the nice coverage from The New York Times.)

Cole makes a great point about how this might revolutionize the way lawyers advertise their services:

[In the old model] they have a website… and maybe a terrible phone book ad. Part of their problem is that they can yell about how great they are until they’re blue in the face, but that still doesn’t convince you or me that we should seek their services. And how would we know if they’re any good anyway?”

Overall, this concept fits very well under what we call Solution marketing, which happens when brands find a way to provide some kind of value-added information for consumers, which is related to the brand or category itself. Anytime a brand creates an article or a consultant writes a blog (such as this!) we are marketing in this way. We all hope that by providing useful information, customers will repay us with their business.

But JD Supra creates further value through its content aggregation service. The problem with blogs and websites is that they live on isolated islands and depend almost entirely on personal networks and their position in Google searches for visitors. Brands have a hard time standing out, and consumers often don’t find the best information on Google. A growing trend is to aggregate content under a semi-walled garden, where higher-quality information is stored and well-tended. Wikipedia is a great example, as are Squidoo and Alltop. Search engines such as Google actually send more traffic to content aggregators, in turn, because they provide more of what the user is looking for.

WebMD is a kind of content aggregator as well, and it clearly has succeeded as a first-search source for millions of people. The downside of WebMD, though, is that it is a fully closed information marketplace. The company “owns” all of the content, which means huge cost, complexity, and lack of outside voices.

I had a chance to speak with the founder of JD Supra, Aviva Cuyler, as well. She started the firm after working for 12 years as a litigator and realizing that fellow attorneys were drafting the same documents over and over again. She pointed out that with so many legal services becoming commoditized, this service can help law firms work more efficiently so that they can cut costs and spend more time on value-added advice. Cuyler described four key business benefits of the service to contributors:

  1. Attracts clients who are searching for information and end up impressed by the expertise of contributing firms
  2. Improves networking, as lawyers search for specialists in specific areas, who they may hire to help out on a specific issue or refer business their way
  3. Gains attention from the media, which is increasingly subscribing to JD Supra’s feeds and using the site for their own research. Reporters are starting to reach out to law firms that are submitting documents, and by quoting them, might generate further business.
  4. Drives strong search results (SEO), as each uploaded document means another link back to the law firm from a trusted, valuable, high-traffic source

The service is expanding its usefulness by embracing the latest social networking tools as well. A Facebook app that it created allows members to show their contacts whenever they have uploaded a new document to JD Supra. And it has several specific Twitter feeds with news around topics such as Tech Law and Banking Law.

JD Supra even has a business model: While contribution is free, lawyers who submit documents must pay anywhere from $450 to $750 per year to add links to their profiles, websites, and email addresses. Hey, that’s less than a couple hours of work billed for most of the lawyers I know! So even one client landed through this effort could pay out this investment very quickly. The business model element helps ensure that the folks behind JD Supra keep improving the service continually.

I’d love to see something like this in the marketing world. There are countless agencies, consultants, and bloggers such as us out there talking to a relatively small audience. We all hope that some article is read by the right person with a huge following who, in turn, links to us. Instead, it would be incredible to have a central place where marketing experts could leave articles around specific topics. Readers would find and rate the articles, and the best thinkers and writers (rather than the best networkers) would see their work rise to the top.

Until then, I’ll keep doing my best to keep you coming back here, dear readers!

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Posted in Solution, content | 1 Comment »

SunChips Becomes a Meaningful Brand

Monday, February 9th, 2009

Back in November I had a chance to join a panel on social networking at the Harvard Business School’s annual marketing conference. It was a chance for HBS students and other guests to get firsthand perspective from a range of leaders on the front lines of marketing change today. My panel went well, but I had more fun listening to some of the other speakers who joined the event. One of my favorites was a keynote presentation by Jaya Kumar, Chief Marketing Officer of Frito-Lay North America.

Kumar shared how the company is really rethinking its entire marketing approach across its brands, and was enjoying a 10 percent organic sales lift in 2008 as a result—the highest rate among the largest CPG companies in the country. Perhaps the best story he shared was that of the incredible shift of the SunChips brand toward meaningful marketing. I wanted to share his story here, bolstered by some other research I discovered.

SunChips was originally launched in 1991 as a healthier snacking choice, featuring whole-grain chips made with sunflower oil. The key benefit pitched at the time was its 30 percent less fat versus regular potato chips. While the brand held a niche on shelf, it never really took off and growth stalled over time. Most people only encountered it as a snack option on airline flights.

A few years ago, however, the brand team discovered that the same people who buy SunChips because they are more concerned about health also happen to be more concerned with the planet around them. According to Gannon Jones, Frito-Lay VP of Marketing, in Brandweek:

We started to see that there was an intersection of people who were concerned with their health and with the planet’s health. Out of that was born the hypothesis that we could begin to connect SunChips more prominently with the environment so [the brand would become] a small step for me and the planet.”

The team decided to test the hypothesis and realigned its brand and marketing to deliver on a promise to “Grow the best snacks on earth.” One early step was moving to a California manufacturing plant that is completely solar powered—thus literally delivering on the “sun” in SunChips. It’s the largest solar power field in the state and produces 145,000 bags per day. The brand also “buys green energy credits to offset 100 percent of the electricity needed to produce SunChips snacks.” The billboard above is another clever way to show what the brand stands for.

The results of the SunChips repositioning have been dramatic: Sales grew 17.6 percent to $201.8 million in 2008. It has tripled its household penetration in the past four years. Remember, that’s for a brand that has been around since 1991.

Now the company is driving aggressively to do more in support of SunChips by doing more for the environment. Kumar described how Frito-Lay is working to invent the first completely biodegradable bag. A teaser video claimed that they are targeting Earth Day 2010 for its arrival, and he promised to give away the technology to all competitors. Naturally, SunChips will be the first to bring it to market.

Lessons from the SunChips story:

1. Even an older brand can remake itself. It’s never too late to teach an old brand new tricks. Here, SunChips simply stretched what it could mean as a brand and discovered insights into what its core target market found meaningful.

2. “Marketing” means much more than advertising. Nowhere in Kumar’s speech was talk of high-scoring television copy or digital media buys. Rather, the marketing came in the form of PR about a change in the brand’s production process. It is remarkable that the brand positioning was able to impact how a factory was powered. It is extremely rare to see this happen in a large, established company—making this story even more powerful.

3. Actions speak louder than words. A few posts ago I wrote about how marketing with meaning involves actually doing something to show what you stand for as a brand, rather than simply throwing up a piece of advertising that talks about it. SunChips gets the fact that today’s consumer is skeptical of claims (take the oil companies’ advertising, please), so it had to take big actions to win.

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Posted in Cause Related, Organizational Behavior | 3 Comments »

Marketing with Meaning in Colombia

Thursday, February 5th, 2009

As I briefly mentioned last week, I just got back from a week on the road at an agency summit event in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It was a great chance to bounce the Marketing with Meaning concept off my colleagues there as well as gather a few examples of great work they are producing.

The most interesting case study that I had not heard before came from the Grey agency in Colombia on behalf of one of its clients, Pantene. For the launch of a new Pantene night treatment product, the team came up with an integrated and entertaining idea delivered on a shoestring budget. The agency recruited a national celebrity, actor Isabella Santo Domingo, and generated a juicy gossip story around “Who is Isabella sleeping with?”

Isabella fed the tabloids with teasers in interviews with the media, and a website was launched to announce that she would be announcing who (or what) she was sleeping with on a certain date. On the evening of the announcement, Colombian households were invited to see live video from her home at famososenvivo.com. Several male friends stopped by as Isabella filmed the action herself. Finally, she kicked out her friends, went into her bedroom, and announced that she was “sleeping with” the new Pantene night treatment formula.

Overall, it was a simple, cute, and entertaining way to build buzz around a new product launch. Much more than a traditional celebrity endorsement, Isabella’s involvement was innovative and played up her personality. Advertisers love to use a “rug pull” device in commercials—leading people in one direction before surprising them in the end. Here the device lasted more than 30 seconds, and engaged people in multiple media.

The teaser buildup and online experience resulted in 60,000 visits in only three weeks. The results were extremely strong for this product launch; the new product actually went out of stock early on, and Pantene reached its highest market share in Colombia since 2005.

So “salud” to the Grey/Pantene Colombia team for trying something different that added a little diversion to people’s lives while introducing them to an impressive new product.

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Posted in Entertainment | No Comments »

Pedigree Takes a Step Back

Monday, February 2nd, 2009

Ever think about getting an unusual pet like a bison, a boar, an ostrich, or a rhino? See what happens to the pet owners in our Super Bowl ad, and then you’ll know why you should get a dog.”

And so, with those words in a press release, the Pedigree brand stepped back from its successful move to meaningful marketing and back to the traditional advertiser’s home sweet home of humorous and meaningless television commercials. Oh, how the Super Bowl ad fest and desperate advertising agencies continue to pull brands away from what counts in people’s lives today.

A few months ago, I lauded the Pedigree brand in this space for its brilliant move to champion the cause of dogs in need of adoption. The brand’s emotional, heart-tugging print ads showed cute dogs behind fences, waiting for people to bring them into their lives. Pedigree stayed true to its new cause by putting out full-page ads to ask President Obama to adopt a shelter dog as First Pet. Brilliant.

The campaign raised millions for the cause, and raised national awareness for this issue. The result was both a significant increase in dog adoptions, and a significant increase in the brand’s sales. I even praised Pedigree’s advertising agency, TBWA/Chiat/Day for donating a $100,000 advertising award prize to the cause.

I started to worry, though, a few months ago when I heard that Pedigree would be buying a Super Bowl ad in this year’s game. It smacked of waste for a business that seemed to have gotten the right new marketing religion. While wary, my hope was that the brand would bring another heart-wrenching call for dog adoptions, using its emotional connection to bring another needed message to millions of viewers.

Alas, we have the actual Pedigree ad, which was posted days ahead of time by the brand on YouTube and other sites. Here it is again in case you didn’t see it or forgot about it:

This ad misses the mark mainly because it has nothing to do with the core proposition of the Pedigree product (quality nutrition for dogs), nor what it claims as its cause-related purpose as a brand (to put unwanted dogs in loving homes). Instead, Pedigree and its agency have gone for the traditional, clever, 30-second diversion. This ad could have been done for any other brand in the category-well, for any brand that has no differentiated positioning. It’s also a big step back from its previous TV campaign, “Dogs Rule” (thanks Advergirl).

Meanwhile, with its move to a fairly obvious commercial cliche, the brand lost the chance to leverage the emotional pull of the brand and pet ownership. Imagine what could have been done if the brand and agency chose to pump up “man’s best friend” emotional bonding, rather than following the well-worn humor path? What if the brand made news by saying that it would skip advertising in the Super Bowl, and instead donate the equivalent of the cost of a spot ($3 million) to its pet adoption fund. In this time of economic and social responsibility, I guarantee this would have garnered more meaningful PR coverage. I guess they were afraid that love would not win first place in the USA Today ad contest, nor win in Cannes this summer. Pity.

The blame for this goes to both the brand and agency, and I’m surprised by neither. After some momentum in turning the brand around-through meaningful marketing, I might add-they got greedy. I guess both are just too mired in the historic measure of marketing success. I hope this is just a minor sidetrack in the evolving Pedigree story. Time will tell.

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Posted in Marketing Without Meaning | 3 Comments »