The Blog

Thursday 07.22.10

Not All Wi-Fi Wants to Be Free

Bob Gilbreath

One of the most common complaints among fellow business-travel road warriors is the high cost of Wi-Fi outside the friendly confines of our offices. It’s a topic that comes up continually in hotel lobbies and airport terminals as we struggle to stay connected with the flow of business. We all go through gut-wrenching internal debates about whether or not we should expense the $14.99 for a day of Internet access just so we can sync email and maybe Skype the kids before bed. Why is it—we often wonder—that Wi-Fi is free at Starbucks and McDonald’s, yet we must put up outrageous charges where we need it most—where we are already spending hundreds of dollars for hotel rooms or plane tickets? A recent article in Slate has gained some attention in suggesting that the time has come to free up Wi-Fi at every business. While that would be nice, the law of supply and demand won’t change things, until someone recognizes the opportunity for Marketing with Meaning.

In Slate, author Farhad Manjoo tells the story of how Starbucks was recently pressured to offer free Wi-Fi service because a plethora of its competitors have provided the free access—ranging from McDonald’s to nearly every corner deli and independent coffee spot. He writes that many mid- and low-budget hotel chains have begun to offer free Wi-Fi, including Best Western, Comfort Inn, and Holiday Inn. According to Manjoo:

“The sooner that hotels, airports, convention centers, and other similar places realize this, the happier they’ll make their customers.”

Sounds great, but don’t hold your breath. Just because people want, nay, need something for free does not mean that they will get it. The real purpose of my post today is to remind us that the simple economics of supply and demand come before any Wi-Fi routers go up.

In general economic terms, free services are most likely to occur when three rules apply: (1) the cost to provide the services is low; (2) consumers specifically desire the free services; and (3) and competition is also offering them for free. For example, restaurants provide free salt, pepper, and sugar at your table. The cost of these condiments is very low, people want or need access to them while eating, and because so many restaurants provide them for free it would be ridiculous to start charging. In the hotel market, we similarly see free shampoo, soap, in-room coffeemakers, turndown service, and wake-up calls.

Wi-Fi passes these tests in some cases. In the U.S. at least, Wi-Fi is very cheap to install and provide and it is definitely a service that consumers desire. However, competition is where things get dicey. Restaurants and coffee shops feel the competitive pressure because people have a pretty broad choice of where to sit down and spend their money. One could literally drive by a dozen spots in less than five minutes looking for those that have a “Free Wi-Fi” sign in the window. The same goes for those mid- and low-budget hotel chains, as they are frequently huddled together along the same interstate exit.

But this competitive shopping process is very different for high-end hotels and airports. The competitive options for business travelers are much more restricted in these markets, and Econ 101 tells us that less competition means monopoly-like “rents” can go to the seller. Yep, it’s unfair and economically inefficient when Delta charges $9.99 for Wi-Fi on a one-hour flight, or when your $400-a-night W Hotel makes you pay $19.99 for 24 hours of its horribly slow Net access. But these services become huge moneymakers when you are stuck with few options.

The other free market “failure” here is that most end users of high-end hotels and airfare are not the ones actually paying for the Wi-Fi access—it’s actually the employer who gets stuck with the bill when the expense report is turned in. This is similar to the reason our health insurance costs keep going up—the end patient is agreeing to (or even asking for) medical services that he or she never pays for. Now, just because all three of these guidelines are in effect does not mean that companies will choose to offer free benefits; but it does mean that this becomes a true marketing choice and investment—and I believe this can be one of the most meaningful marketing choices a brand can make.

There is one great airline example about how bucking the charging trend can be a marketing win. Charging for checked baggage is an interesting case where a reduction in competition led companies to cut back on a service that everyone enjoyed for free for years. The few big players—Delta, Continental,  American, and others—are now reaping big bucks thanks to this shift in the market. In 2009 they collected $13.5 billion in “ancillary services fees”—which mainly consists of new baggage fees.

But building on its Brand Purpose of “Democratizing Air Travel,” Southwest Airlines saw a huge opportunity in this shift. It was the one major airline that refused to charge its customers for up to two pieces of checked luggage. Not only did it keep its free baggage benefit, but it created a marketing campaign around “Bags Fly Free.” The results are pretty amazing: Southwest gave up an estimated $300 million in profit by forgoing the fees, but its differentiated service allowed the company to gain an additional 1% share of the market, which translated into $900 million in additional revenue—not to mention earning it ongoing customer trust and brand loyalty at a moment of truth. This was a marketing investment that clearly paid off.

What I find interesting is that it may be that only those services that “violate” my three rules above are noticeable by consumers and should actually be considered marketing investments. When you and all of your competitors offer something it is no longer differentiated, meaningful marketing, but rather just a cost of doing business. At what point does Wi-Fi at a restaurant just become the equivalent of ketchup?

Wi-Fi on airlines or high-end hotels is far from destined to be free, but it does offer an opportunity for brands to stand out by offering it. I am starting to see movements in this direction. For example, last week Sheraton offered me free (but slow) Wi-Fi because I am a Gold Starwood Points member. And Delta provides free Wi-Fi in its Sky Club lounges.

Perhaps there is an opportunity for an airline or hotel chain to differentiate by offering free Wi-Fi credits or codes directly to the company procurement and travel managers who are paying for accommodations at the end of the day. Imagine a loyalty campaign or points program targeting these key decision makers. Working through a travel provider such as American Express, Delta, or the W Hotel could offer free Wi-Fi to heavy corporate buyers. This could help break through the clutter, reward the most valuable end customers, and win a nudge of business when prices are about the same. Another “scale” option is to partner with a company such as Orbitz or Travelocity to show people that free Wi-Fi is, say, a $14.99 value when the price search results appear. A customer might decide to pay an extra $10 for a hotel room when he knows the $14.99 Wi-Fi comes free. And remember, the incremental cost of a hotel offering this benefit is near $0.

You might find it useful to use this post to trigger a thinking exercise on your brand. What is a service that your customers will appreciate, that has reasonably low costs to execute, and that your competition isn’t offering yet? You might just uncover a powerful Meaningful Marketing idea.

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Thursday 07.15.10

Product Demos That Earn Attention

Bob Gilbreath

A little more than a year ago I wrote one of my most-visited posts about the power of engaging product demonstrations. If you haven’t read it, take a look. The purpose of this post is to revisit demonstrations with two killer examples that I saw just yesterday morning.

First, there’s the video above of the new Dyson Air Multiplier fan, above. The next chapter in Dyson’s re-think of age-old contraptions, this time we see a playful series of balloons sent through Dyson fans. The result is clever and interesting, and perfectly highlights the reason for shelling out a few hundred dollars for a new fan: It’s simply gorgeous. This two-minute film has been viewed by more than 725,000 people since late May.

The lesson here is that new products can be incredibly interesting. We like seeing what’s new, and continue to spend money on innovative items that can make our lives better. It’s the same reason that people spend billions of dollars a year on products sold in TV infomercials; in fact, I recall TiVo reporting that some of the least-skipped ads are two-minute infomercials.

The second example was forwarded to me from a friend. Instead of a new innovation, this is a series of videos for a brand in one of the oldest commodity product categories on the market: the DieHard battery. You might remember the old DieHard commercials from the ’70s and ’80s that put car batteries in torture tests; for example, this ad in which a car on a frozen lake starts after sitting on the ice all winter.

Now DieHard is back in the demo business in a much more updated way, showing that even an existing brand and category has the ability to amaze. The dramatic movie-announcer-like voiceover is back, but just about everything else is different. Check it out:

There are some other examples of the ads that I love. For example, this one of innovative musician Reggie Watts. It’s pretty easy to measure success of these demos based on the number of views. Reggie Watts is getting up toward 900,000 views, and the Gary Numan example above is at 75,000 in less than a week.

While these companies are polar opposites in many ways, their viral product demos have a few things in common:

  1. Presented in video form, which allows for a full sight, sound, and motion experience as well as easy sharing
  2. Brought to life in very creative ways, not just a side-by-side demo with blue liquid and before-and-after shots
  3. Go beyond the 30-second interruption, allowing space for a story to develop and for content to be enjoyed, on the consumer’s terms
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Tuesday 07.13.10

Embrace Benefits for Loyal Customers

Bob Gilbreath

On my way back from the Cannes Advertising Festival a few weeks ago a couple of work buddies and I decided to take a break and take advantage of our European travel to stop in London for a day at Wimbledon. I’m not a giant tennis fan, but I love any opportunity to experience a remarkable event. So it was a no-brainer to cross the channel and splurge on a day at Court 1 in this historic facility. But my “Marketing with Meaning” hat never comes off, dear readers. While enjoying the matches and sipping my new favorite summer drink, Pimm’s, I noticed something that sparked this blog post…

In the program for the event I noticed a full-page ad for HSBC—captured by my iPhone in the photo above. As you can see, HSBC offered free strawberries and cream for its cardholders at the matches. It struck me as a terrific example of Marketing with Meaning, and perhaps a new trend that other brands are picking up on.

Another great example of a brand that is providing added value for its loyal customers is Lexus. I recently had a chance to prepare a presentation for a group of Lexus dealers, and through the process of researching their work discovered how many of these independent businesses are similarly doing special things for their owners. For example, in several major cities around the U.S. local Lexus dealers have arranged for free, private parking for its car owners. You can find this benefit at the BankAtlantic Center in Tampa, at the Texas Rangers ballpark and AT&T Performing Arts Center in Dallas, and at the U.S. Open tennis championship.

All too often in banking, automotive, or other businesses, current customers get little care and feeding once the bank account is open or the car drives off the lot. In these and many other industries (e.g., phone service, credit cards, cable TV) a vast majority of marketing dollars are put against acquiring new customers. Marketing managers become completely focused on cost-per-acquisition and churn rate, but rarely think about how the easiest sell is the one they’ve already made.

There is tremendous opportunity for brands to win by moving more of their marketing budgets to the benefit of current, loyal customers. Broadly speaking, there are two main benefits of this approach. First, there is almost always an opportunity to sell more products and services to those who are already buying from you. Car makers can convince you to put another one of their vehicles in the garage or upgrade to a new model faster. Banks have an opportunity to cross-sell countless other financial services.

But the second, often-ignored benefit of marketing to your current customers is that it can be a way to impress and win over new prospects. This ad for HSBC naturally advises current cardholders of a special treat, but in doing so it also shows all non-HSBC customers how well this bank treats its own. Similarly, Lexus understands that free, premium parking means that friends will want to ride in the Lexus owner’s car and thus get a free sample of the riding and service experience. And in both examples, the brand has chosen special, high-end events where the prized, highest-income customers attend.

How might you use marketing dollars to benefit your best customers while attracting prized prospects to your side? Or if you are already providing valuable services to current customers, how might you better show prospects what they are missing?

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Wednesday 07.07.10

Looking Back on Our Burning Question at #Canneslions

Bob Gilbreath


“Wow!”

That was my first line to kick off our seminar at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival on Friday, June 25. “Wow!” is also the easiest way for me to describe the amount of work we put into the event, and the combined reactions of those who had a chance to join our seminar. After months of planning and preparation we pulled off our first-ever seminar in Cannes at the annual gathering of the world’s leaders in advertising and marketing. Although I am still in a bit of a daze since coming off the stage nearly two weeks ago, my mind is already racing to develop ideas for the next big way that we can spread the next evolution of marketing. But before rushing on to what’s next, I want to capture and celebrate what we pulled off here.

Before I go on, though, I suggest that you invest the 45 minutes to view our complete seminar footage, which is up and available here. Or if you’re really time-strapped, first check out some highlights in the YouTube video above.

Recap

Way back around October 2009, our President, Jay Woffington, and I had lunch with Jim Stengel, former Global Marketing Officer of Procter & Gamble and now global speaker/consultant and professor at the UCLA Anderson School of Business. My book had just launched and Jim was continuing to spread his belief in brand ideals. We talked about our common desire to change the way marketing is performed, and we agreed that there was no better place than the annual Cannes Advertising Festival—a place where advertising and marketing leaders from around the world gather once a year to judge the best work, compare notes on where the industry is going, and bring back lessons that might be applied to the incredible changes surging through business and society today. We decided to team up and the folks at the Cannes Lions organization were excited to have us onboard for a seminar in late June.

In retrospect, deciding to do a seminar in Cannes and getting agreement from its leaders was the easy part. The real challenge lay in deciding what to do on our big stage. Thankfully we had some help. Two of our top creative leaders at Bridge Worldwide, Jason Bender and George Alexander, came up with the idea of asking a Burning Question. They argued that people in our industry are spending too much time searching for answers to questions such as: “What percentage of my budget should I spend on digital?,” “Do I need a new ad agency?,” and “What should my Facebook strategy be?” They reasoned that marketers are spending too much time looking for answers in new media tactics, and are therefore missing the big, fundamental shift that is happening in business and society. Their idea was for Jim and me to ask our Cannes audience a Burning Question, that, when asked, could help organizations hit the reset button and fundamentally adjust their methods to not only improve business results, but also improve life for customers, employees, stakeholders, and society overall.

To prepare for the event, Jim and I set up interviews with key leaders at some of the world’s largest marketers in the world. We were blown away to get 100% of our requests accepted from IBM, AT&T, Kraft, P&G, Levi’s, Luxottica, Pepsi, and Samsung. We flew camera crews around the country to ask these leaders our Burning Question and learn about how they recognized a need for change, the initial efforts they are making to shift, and the business and stakeholder benefits that are resulting from these early efforts. We were surprised to hear similar stories, and eager to share them with our audience in Cannes and beyond.

And to engage with more than the relative handful of folks who can go to Cannes, we sought to bring marketers around the world into the discussion. On BurningQuestion.com we asked people to post what they believed are the questions we should be asking ourselves. And we even ran a contest to bring two people over with us based on their personal efforts to improve the marketing world. Our winners were Stan Phelps, who is pioneering a new way to “give a little something extra” through his Marketing Lagniappe project, and Tyson Adams, a budding “philanthroprenuer” who just started a business called liveGLOCAL, that sells high-quality coffee and provides books for children in Laos for each bag sold. Both guys are incredible leaders who will continue to drive the next evolution of marketing in their own unique ways.

The Results

After a week of final-final preparation and taking in the other seminars and award-winning work in Cannes (see my blog posts here, here, and here), I was very eager to finally take the stage on Friday. Overall I was very pleased with the seminar. As you can see in the full-length video, we did a lot of things to drum up excitement and ensure that no one was disappointed to be sitting in our session on a Friday afternoon. I think we were able to weave together many threads that were running through Cannes all week and give the group something to thinking about, our Burning Question:

“How can we, in marketing and business, hold ourselves to a higher standard to create a positive impact on those we serve, our employees, and even the world?“

After the seminar we invited everyone in the audience up to the roof of the Palais to continue the conversation. I loved the chance to meet people from places as diverse as Ecuador, Turkey, India, and Australia—all struggling to figure out where the marketing world is going, and all coming away with some new thinking that they can apply to their brands and businesses. I gave away a few hundred copies of my book and collected a pocketful of business cards from potential clients, partners, and even competitors who wanted to keep talking about how we might work together toward this common goal. (Check out some of the after-seminar photos below…)

I find that it’s always hard to look at the time and money investment of an event like this and figure out if it was worth it. This was the biggest thing our agency has ever put on, and ultimately we are betting that by driving the industry conversation forward we will attract new clients and further build our business. Just like all of you, we are betting that we will succeed by creating Marketing with Meaning.

The work is not over, however, as we’ve come back down to earth and back to our desks and day jobs. We are working on plans to further share our seminar and the hours of amazing interviews footage with industry leaders. Jim and I even have a few requests to repeat the performance at industry events and corporate training facilities.

And, of course, I’ve already started thinking about what we could do in Cannes next year. I think the topic will only be hotter in 2011, and we want to continue to build on the momentum we have started. I would love your ideas and feedback in the comments below!

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Thursday 06.24.10

Cannes Takeaways Days 3/4 #canneslions

Bob Gilbreath

As we get closer to our Burning Question seminar on Friday I’ve had less time than usual to relay my thoughts and discussions here in this space. I’m forced to combine topics from Wednesday and Thursday (today) here in Cannes, and in fact I only wanted to touch on one takeaway today—but it’s a good one.

Content Creators Are Waiting for Brands

Lots of people have written or spoken about how brands are becoming media properties and how they can spawn the stars of tomorrow, but this idea never truly crystallized for me until viewing relevant, related seminars over the past two days.

On Wednesday, master director Spike Jonze spoke about his work on everything from short films to television commercials to major motion pictures such as the recent Where the Wild Things Are. He spoke about how he loves to work with brands when they come to him with an idea that excites him. It can be a music video for Bjork or a commercial for the Gap in which he got to destroy a store. Jonze talked about how he often works with agencies to re-imagine the ideas that they bring him—usually tearing up all of the “junk” that got added to the brief or after dozens of client meetings.

His biggest advice for the hundreds of creatives in the room: “The most powerful weapon you have is ‘No.’” Jonze said he took his fair share of bad projects, but he eventually learned that only work that excited him would result in a positive result. It’s a lesson that I believe more brands (personal and corporate) must learn.

Thursday’s highlight for me was the annual Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors Showcase. For 90 minutes we saw a series of short films from some of the most talented rising film directors in the world. Examples ranged from the comedic (Drunk History) to delightful (Tone of Every Day) to animated (I Lived on the Moon).

The usual purpose of this 20-year-old event is to expose agencies to talent who might be great at filming their commercials someday. But after seeing dozens of examples of great branded content—rather than a raft of 30-second ads—I came to see the new model falling into place before my eyes. Whether it’s big name directors such as Spike Jonze or up-and-comers such as those in the Saatchi showcase, clients and agencies of all types were looking not for commercial directors, but rather for partners who could help bring ideas to life.

These directors have the stories, the passion, and the ability to capture people’s imagination—but they often lack the resources or opportunities to put their ideas in front of a large audience. Brands have the money and desire to connect with consumers, but most are not in the business of creating entertainment. So putting them together could make magic.

But it’s no longer about hiring a young director to film your commercial. It’s about crafting content and giving up control to the artist. It’s Gatorade filming a replay of a high school football game. It’s Red Bull sponsoring a rising fashion designer. If you get this right, the result just might be Marketing with Meaning.

On Deck for Tomorrow…

I don’t want to give away all of the special things we have planned for our Burning Question seminar Friday at 5:15 p.m. Cannes time (or 11:15 a.m. for those back in the ET). But I will share one secret for readers of this blog. We’re going to be opening up our seminar tomorrow with a live lead-in by a group of “parkours” who we flew over from California. Parkouring or “free running” is a new type of sport in which athletes turn everyday signposts, buildings, and other street-side objects into a jungle gym. We’ve been filming them jumping and leaping all week in Cannes, and they will come from the streets into our seminar tomorrow. Our goal is to shake people up with some entertainment to close out a huge day of seminars and it should be a fun way to start. If you’re reading this in Cannes, you don’t want to miss it. And if you don’t happen to be in the South of France tomorrow we will be sure to capture everything on video at burningquestion.com.

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Wednesday 06.23.10

Cannes Takeaways Day 2 #canneslions

Bob Gilbreath

Is it digital? Traditional? Or are we way past the point of the online versus offline debate? That’s the question that was resonating in my head and among colleagues on Tuesday, Day 2 of the Cannes Advertising Festival.

Unfortunately most of the seminars I attended left me with little to write about. They seemed to cover the same material or be a bit too direct of a sales pitch than what should happen at Cannes. So I spent a good chunk of time walking the floor of work in the Outdoor and Direct category. And I came back with the following observations.

Outdoor has no scale—but no one doubts it.

The outdoor work that made the short list and won Lions was outstanding. It was entertaining, linked to brand benefits, and smart. Although I have debated in the past in this space whether outdoor ads are meaningful, the work here demonstrates that even a traditionally interruptive medium can add value to people’s lives when it makes them laugh, cry, or think. It reminded me that any medium can be meaningful.

But one of the things that hit me was that these award-winning outdoor ads are often one-off executions that might appear in a single city for a limited time. Because they are innovative and often surprise people with a laugh, there’s little use in keeping it up once everyone has gotten the joke. Several of the executions were also expensive and difficult to place. You simply cannot expose them to enough eyeballs to generate “scale” like a print ad or TV commercial. Take this terrific example from Hot Wheels, below:

Another favorite of mine was this campaign for James Ready beer. It offered billboard/photo coupons for local stores so that you could save money in other ways and put the savings toward beer.

Clients are looking for scale, so why would they sign off on this kind of one-off work? It’s a challenge we hear all of the time in digital, but I’ve not heard it applied to outdoor before. Perhaps this comes from the agency test/award budget, or maybe, just maybe, clients are starting to buy into great ideas that make a big impact with a smaller audience. It’s a question I’d like to explore further and would love your comments here.

Direct is digital.

In looking at the range of Direct nominees and winners I was amazed by the amount of work that I would call digital. “Direct” has traditionally meant something that went in the mailbox—but if Cannes is the standard, that definition is done. My friend David Sable at Wunderman has said for years that “direct is digital” and he just might be right.

Take the example above for Nokia’s navigation tool: The World’s Largest Sign. Here, people could search for directions online in London and the sign would rotate in real-life to point to whatever you searched for. To me, this is a digital idea that just happens to connect to the real world. But it was offered in the Direct category.

Another example is this direct/outdoor piece for The Economist in India that asked people to text for clues to decipher the political debate behind the ad.

Where are the digital agencies?

This merger of Direct/Digital brings me to my final takeaway of the day. This morning I opened the daily Cannes Lions magazine to look for the short-listed work in the Cyber (digital) category. It’s the category we won a Gold for last year for our Pringles banner. I was blown away to see that of the 150 or so short-listed entries, only about 6 or 7 of them were created by digital agencies from the Advertising Age list. Very big names such as Razorfish and Digitas were missing in action. This could be the big news of Day 3 when the final Cyber winners are handed out.

I’m not sure what’s going on here, but there are a few hypotheses. Maybe digital agencies don’t know how to do the kind of work that wins Cannes awards—or they don’t know how to “campaign” to get their work into the winner’s circle (a little-known secret to winning sometimes). Another possibility is that a lot of the work digital agencies do—such as e-commerce sites, mobile apps, search optimization, and social media relationship marketing programs—simply don’t fit into a creative awards competition. What tends to win here are one-off “ideas” in the form of smart, funny, interesting engagements.

Or, maybe traditional agencies are now very close to mastering digital agencies’ space. After years of wondering and waiting, maybe they finally now get it. If so, and if Cannes is the place this is judged, it’s not great news for digital agencies like mine. But this also might be a wake-up call for those of us on the digital-agency side to take our game up a notch or two.

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Tuesday 06.22.10

Cannes Takeaways Day 1 #canneslions

Bob Gilbreath

Well, here we are in the South of France once again for the annual Cannes Lions Advertising Festival. I was last here two years ago for the yearly meeting of the world’s marketing leaders. (You can see some of my previous posts starting here.) Now, it’s one year after the economic crisis that impacted the advertising industry particularly hard. Attendance here at Cannes went down from a high of around 10,000 people to a mere 6,000. But things are looking up! Supposedly attendance is up to 8,000 or more and there is a positive spirit in the air here. Things are also looking up, of course, because we’re here preparing to answer The Burning Question on Friday this week. Preparation for our big event is going very well and I really wish we were on the stage presenting already. But while waiting for our big moment I’ve had the chance to listen and learn from others’ sessions and conversations over drinks. I will blog daily here to share a few things from each day. Read on for my takeaways from yesterday (Monday), the first major day at the Cannes Lions Advertising Festival.

JWT Presents “Ideas People Want to Spend Time With”

Bob Jeffery, CEO, and Fernando Vega Olmos, Creative Chairman, of our sister agency JWT presented some examples of their best work around the world, which represents an entirely new direction for one of the largest and oldest advertising agencies. Jeffery started by making the point that, “Time is the new currency… so we must create ideas that people want to spend time with.” It’s a concept that is perfectly consistent with Marketing with Meaning.

The pair proceeded to share examples of some killer work that is completely consistent with our concept of Marketing with Meaning. Examples included things that you’ve probably seen me tweet about over the past few weeks, including the Heineken classical music concert prank and hilarious videos for Kotex that poke fun of decades of tampon ads. But I was most impressed by two cause-related ideas that the company launched over the past year. First, a campaign for UNICEF in which vending machines were placed with the opportunity for people to donate their change to provide fresh water in Haiti. The campaign created a new way to donate and most users had never donated before. A second campaign for the Red Cross in Mexico created children’s rides (like the ones that used to be outside of supermarkets) in which all donations went to the Red Cross and kids got the chance to “play” hero. The campaign resulted in a +20% increase in donations during the horrible economy last year.

Schematic and Bridge Worldwide Show the Possibilities of a New Meaning Medium

One of our WPP sister digital agencies, Schematic, was back at Cannes with its revolutionary “touchwall” technology. Think of it as a giant iPad on steroids that reads an RFID tag in your conference badge and helps you get more out the event. You can find people, arrange for places to meet, get descriptions of the day’s sessions, and check out nearby restaurants.

This year our agency, Bridge Worldwide, was invited to join the Schematic demo to show how this new “medium” could be used for a variety of brands. We developed two ideas based on brands that we work on. We showed how Charmin could create an entertaining interactive game with mysterious people behind bathroom-stall doors, and we showed a concept for the Bounty brand in which people around the world could collaborate to make a work of art using the device. We’re a long way from having touchwalls installed worldwide, but the unit was a great chance to explore how new technology can become meaningful from the beginning.

Another Question…

One of my favorite things about coming to an event such as this is that you start hearing some common threads of thought as people have time to experience, reflect, and discuss. While we’ve been asking The Burning Question, a new question came to me when I did an interview with the Cannes Eye team here: “Should the word ‘advertising’ be dropped from the Cannes Lions Advertising Festival?” I had not really thought of that before, but the question came up a few hours later over drinks with my friend Rick Boyko, Director of the VCU Brandcenter (which I wrote about previously here). Rick talked about how we should evolve our craft away from “advertising” and all of its negative connotations and move toward something that is more relevant for our present evolution of marketing—around creating experiences and telling stories.

I’m not sure what the answer is yet, but a move away from “advertising” in Cannes and in our industry might be the “reset button” that we all need to elevate our game.

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Thursday 06.17.10

Takeaways from Sustainable Brands Conf #SB10

Bob Gilbreath

It’s officially conference season for marketers around the world and I’ve been doing my share to spread the good word of Marketing with Meaning on this variation of the campaign trail. Two weeks ago I got a chance to speak at the Cause Marketing Forum in Chicago, next week is our huge seminar at the Cannes Lions Ad Fest (where I’ll be blogging and tweeting all week), and last week I got a chance to take the stage at the Sustainable Brands event in Monterey, California.

Sustainable Brands is one of the largest and longest-running events dedicated to the topics of sustainability and corporate responsibility, and how they come to life in marketing for some of the biggest brands in the world. I had the chance to meet executives from companies such as Microsoft, Unilever, and Walmart. Some of the delegates hold specialized roles in their companies, while others were traditional brand marketers at companies that have mainlined sustainable business and marketing practices. I felt a little like the wild card participant at the event. I didn’t share a case study on sustainability or have an agency devoted to this surging specialty practice. Instead I got to come in and share how the interruptive model of marketing is no longer sustainable, but that Marketing with Meaning offers a new path—a path in which brands can reach incredible results both in building the business and improving the world. You can see the slides from my brief presentation below…

Interestingly, I got one piece of negative feedback from an audience member in a roundabout way that I would rather not describe here. Someone in the audience from a different advertising agency complained through certain channels that I was far too strong in my comparison of interruptive advertising to pollution, and that I might have embarrassed this person’s clients. This was a new first for me, as I’ve been tougher on our profession before (I always say “our” or “we” because I live in this industry, too) with many more advertising folks in the room, and never gotten this response. Sadly, I offered to discuss this concern directly with the person but I’ve yet to hear a response. What do you think? Was I too tough?

Moving on, I only got to attend one of the four days that the conference ran last week, but I did manage to capture some killer content for you, dear readers. There were three terrific presentations from marketers that had me giving my new TweetDeck iPad app a rigorous workout:

Timberland

Mike Harrison, Chief Brand Officer for Timberland, took the stage to share the story of the company’s resurgence behind its new Earthkeepers boots. A fellow Procter & Gamble alum, Harrison kicked off his presentation by saying that his years in traditional marketing at P&G did not prepare him for this new world of developing and marketing sustainable products. He went on to admit that the company is still figuring out the right path in this new space; but after listening to Mike on stage and in a Q&A session later in the day I believe Timberland just might be writing the missing manual for success.

Timberland itself is a company that is focused on delivering “commerce and justice” in everything it does; its positioning is “the authentic, sustainable outdoor brand,” and as a brand that is about enjoying and exploring the outdoors it has a built-in link to environmental sustainability. Last year the brand created a Facebook application that led the company to plant more than 1 million trees. The company has created a kind of “nutritional label” for its shoe boxes that shows what goes into them, and it has pledged to improve the sustainable sourcing of its products every year. And this also follows through the company’s organizational culture: For years, employees are encouraged to take a week of additional paid time away from the office to volunteer on causes they value.

This starting point helped the brand recognize the opportunity to create an Earthkeepers boot that uses recyclable materials and works with suppliers to minimize the environmental impact of activities such as leather tanning. The end product is something that looks good or better than other boots. (Well-used, recycled leather always looks better.) And the company is working on an Earthkeepers Boot 2.0 that can actually be sent back to the company for repair and recycling.

The idea works strategically because it is helping the company differentiate in a very crowded marketplace. As Harrison said, “Anyone with a fax machine and a friend in China can make a boot.” Results have been very strong so far: It should soon be a $400 million line and is helping the brand improve on key equity measures. Harrison showed how the stock price is up 50% since the company repositioned itself away from hip-hop and back toward the environment. Interestingly, a vast majority of sales of the boot are from outside the U.S., so this growth should only continue as the brand prepares to expand the line and its marketing budget. Expect more big things from this brand in the year ahead!

IBM

I was excited to see Lee Green from IBM at the conference because we will have his colleague, John Kennedy, join us at Cannes next week. Green is Vice President of Corporate Marketing at IBM, and he shared the story of the company’s move to make “A Smarter Planet.” Like Timberland and many of the best case studies, IBM’s new path came from years of slowing sales and growing competitive pressure. The company needed to be about something more than hardware or consulting services; it desperately needed a new focus and positioning on something higher-level.

IBM went to its roots and rediscovered its history of creating products that drive progress. It realized, however, that “progress” is not about the technology itself, but rather about how technology can be used to improve the world. IBM realized that “the planet is getting flatter… and smarter”—and it had an opportunity to make a Smarter Planet. This new direction is leading the company into some pretty interesting new businesses. For example, it is helping companies re-fit aging buildings to meet the latest green guidelines. It is working on a tool to allow people to see the energy they are using, which results in 15% less usage and a 10% cost savings.

Smarter Planet is more than a new ad campaign; this is really an entirely new positioning for the company—and it is delivering on the concept of Smarter Planet by doing more than running TV commercials. For example, it hosted an Eco-efficiency Jam earlier this year that brought together 1,600 business, government, and NGO leaders from more than 140 countries to work on some of these key problems together.

The results of this redirection are very preliminary but seem to be having an impact. IBM is growing again, and it was named as the second most valuable brand in the world in Interbrand’s annual survey, with a valuation of $60 billion.

Jack Daniels

We’ve recently begun doing some work the Brown-Forman, the parent company of Jack Daniels, so I was excited to meet and hear from Rob Kaplan, who leads Corporate Responsibility for the company. He shared the story of how Jack Daniels, arguably the number-one spirit brand in the world, is discovering the power of including sustainability in its marketing strategy. Like the two examples above, Jack Daniels did not have to invent or add a meaningful message—rather, it went back to its roots and what it has continued doing today. At its small distillery in Lynchburg, Tennessee, 99% of waste is reused. Used barrels are sold to others who reuse them, grain by-products are sold to local farmers who feed them to their animals, and the nearby streams are kept perfectly clean because it is this limestone-filtered water that gives Jack Daniels its smooth taste.

Kaplan spoke about how the company spoke with Sam’s Club, which was looking to feature brands that have true sustainability credentials. After hearing the story of the Jack Daniels recycling and reuse program, they asked for a very large order to feature on special nationwide. Now, those of you from the CPG world know that getting new distribution, on feature, at a chain such as Sam’s Club can basically make your number for the year. But instead of just putting some regular Jack bottles on a pallet and shipping them out, the brand took the opportunity to create a special SKU. This new, limited-edition bottle not only gave brand fans something unique, but Jack Daniels partnered with a nonprofit organization to plant 100,000 trees with proceeds from the sale of these special bottles.

Not only did this initiative help secure incremental sales at Sam’s Club, but it earned positive word of mouth from sustainable product fans. For example, this Sierra Club blog post glowingly wrote of the promotion.

Overall I came away from this conference convinced that “sustainability” is no longer just some kind of siloed corporate department or annual report box to check off. It is something that consumers are demanding of the products and services they buy every day, and it offers a strategic focus for brand marketing with meaning.

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Tuesday 06.15.10

Early iPad Impressions: Not an “Ad” Medium

Bob Gilbreath

A little more than a week ago I purchased an iPad. Typically I am an early adopter for tech toys such as this for a few reasons: First, in my job as strategy leader of a digital agency, my team and clients are eager to hear our take. Second, I am always looking for tools that will help me be more effective and/or efficient in what I do for a living. In this case I have been increasingly feeling the limitations of my laptop, especially when I want to, say, show a few slides or websites to a client over breakfast or lunch; the last thing you want to do in those situations is haul a heavy bag around and wait 10 minutes for the thing to power up and down. But I was really most interested in purchasing an iPad to understand for myself whether this promising/hyped new category of devices would be dominated by the old, interruptive model of advertising or start with a platform for Marketing with Meaning. And after a few days of use I can safely include that the latter is the case.

So far, the interruptive model for iPad advertising seems to be moving quickly up the hype cycle. Some people actually believe that this will—finally!—be the year of mobile advertising, even before Apple got into the game. Apple is preparing to launch its own advertising network for iPhone and iPad apps with special creative formats, dubbed iAd. It has raked in $60 million in commitments already from some of the biggest brands in the world who want to test it first, including Unilever, AT&T, Sears, State Farm, and Disney. The hope is that millions of app developers will earn a living out of turning a percentage of their mobile pixel space over to new ad networks and wait for the money to roll in—and marketers can reach people closer to where and when they actually pull out their wallets to buy stuff.

But a few of us are warning that mobile advertising is not necessarily the next big thing. Along with many others elsewhere, I wrote in this blog back in May about the limitations of iAd as an advertising option. The Wall Street Journal blog recently featured an interesting quote from Kevin Ryan, former CEO of online-ad company DoubleClick: “The answer that people want to hear is that mobile is going to be huge.” “The People” obviously means investors who hope to sell their mobile-ad companies to the highest bidder. But it also includes the largest advertisers in the world—who are watching TV commercial ratings and print subscriptions sink and know that they need to figure out a mobile solution quickly.

The central challenge, however, is the lack of “scale” in mobile marketing. At the end of the day, traditional advertisers such as the big names above depend on an interruptive model in which many millions of eyeballs are exposed to a short message in hopes that some small percentage leads to a sale. Just because they long for this scale does not mean it will actually arrive. There are already too many ad impressions to compete with, too many media options for consumers, and too many mobile-phone platforms to allow for such scale.

The alternative choice for mobile—and advertising overall—is Marketing with Meaning. In mobile devices this looks like creating value-added apps that a smaller percentage of people download (as compared to mass interruptions), but because the brand engagement is so much superior, this small group buys products and services at a much higher rate, over a much longer time period. This is the bet being placed by brands as diverse as Charmin (public restroom finder), Nationwide (car accident guide), Starwood (loyalty points tracker), and REI (ski report). The Gilt Groupe, a high-end online retailer, is now seeing 10% of its sales come from the iPhone and iPad. The reason? A killer interface made specifically for these platforms, and a business that has great deals for a limited-time only—i.e., if you wait to log on at your desk to check out the specials they might already be sold out.

Now to my handful of impressions after using an iPad for a few weeks:

  • First, the device is exceeding my expectations. I do love it! I expected to have a tool that would allow for easy reading of email, books, and websites, as well as something simple for presenting slides. It does that more than adequately, and so much more. The keys to greatness lie in a brilliant piece of hardware. The device is thin, lightweight, features an incredible screen quality, responds well to the touch, and you cannot beat the easy on/off button. This is really what computing should be about in 2010, rather than the endless boot-up of bloatware operating systems and unknown creatures in the taskbar bin. With this platform and basic OS, the possibilities for developing apps that make best use of it are limitless. So far I’m loving Netflix, Kindle, The Weather Channel, TweetDeck, and GoodReader. And I’m now reading the paper newspaper again thanks to USAToday and WSJ apps. So many great apps and we’re only in the first couple of months of this thing, folks!
  • The “magazine” model of advertising is weak. I have downloaded a few magazines such as Wired and Esquire to test what this experience is like. Chris Anderson, editor of Wired, talked at an Ad:Tech speech a few months ago about how his company was betting heavily on the iPad and promised to have many cool bells and whistles in its digital version. I also checked out Esquire on an app called Zinio that lets you subscribe to digital editions of many popular magazines. At Ad:Tech, Anderson was excited about the fact that people would be “forced” to flip past each full-page ad in his virtual magazine. (See more on his speech here.) In my experience, the iPad magazine reading is fine, but I hated having to swipe past each ad. This is a worse experience than a physical magazine, which you can simply shuffle past quickly. In this case you’re likely to get a finger cramp with the number of ads crammed in! Again, maybe people notice such ads in the short term because this is a novel experience, but after a while we will all just tune out another piece of unwanted clutter.
  • Improved websites might eliminate the need for apps. What I mean here is that the Web-surfing experience with the iPad is so strong (despite the lack of Flash) that you might not need to develop apps to provide similar value to users. For example, I considered buying the ESPN app for iPad, but then I just pulled up ESPN.com on my iPad’s Safari browser. The latter experience was outstanding because the network has built a site optimized for iPads. So there’s no need for the $4.99 app. Remarkably, this is something I have not heard in relation to the launch of the iPad. It could be a threat to Apple’s desire to “control” the user experience for its own profit, as there is no need to purchase or download a special app. For consumers, it means you skip finding/downloading/updating apps. We are already working on making iPad-ready adjustments for some of our clients.

Despite marketers’ desire to make the mass/interruptive model work in mobile, and Steve Jobs’s record of overturning and improving business models, my advice to brands is to create an app (or an optimized website), not an ad buy, as a way to connect with consumers on the iPad. There are simply too many challenges of making an interruption pay out—and too many opportunities to delight people by creating added value on the iPad platform.

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Friday 06.11.10

Takeaways from the Cause Marketing Forum #CMF10

Bob Gilbreath

Last week I had the chance to attend and speak at the annual Cause Marketing Forum in Chicago. Conferences that cover specific topics such as this are a real joy to visit. It’s a chance to peer a little into an “ecosystem” of individuals and companies that are united around a common interest and goal. In this case, it’s a very noble one—cause marketing and corporate social responsibility. I got to speak at a marketers-only dinner during the evening, both introducing Marketing with Meaning as a higher-level paradigm for marketing, and then sharing how Cause and CSR fit in—along with some tips and learnings we’ve seen in this fast-developing space. Instead of rehashing my presentation here I wanted to take this space to share what I learned during the event from some of the biggest marketers in the world. (But do take a look at the video above where I was interviewed at the conference.)

Nike/Livestrong

By now everyone has seen the yellow bracelets and admired the very innovative way that Nike has supported Lance Armstrong and his drive to cure cancer. But few have gotten the inside scoop on how the program came about and the results it has seen. Tom Kelley, brand marketer for Nike, shared some terrific insights. He began by setting up Nike’s mission: “To achieve human potential… and bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world.” He talked about when one of its prize athletes, Lance Armstrong, contracted cancer it became Nike’s first significant cause marketing effort. As Tom said, “We didn’t choose cancer; cancer chose us.” Nike, a brand that sticks very close to its roots in driving athletic performance, saw Lance fight back in the hospital, on the bike, and in the public eye. And when the brand got into the cause, it did so in a very unique way—by creating the yellow band campaign and raising millions of dollars for research.

Nike has also smartly continued its involvement in Livestrong as Lance, too, continues to ride to challenge himself and raise funds to fight the disease. Kelly spoke about the most recent innovation in the cause, the Nike Chalkbot, which debuted in the Tour de France last year. If you haven’t seen it yet, check out this great video:

What’s brilliant about the Chalkbot is that it hits on so many levels. It fits Nike’s drive for innovation and it inspires athletes to perform their best. It also builds off a tradition of this tradition-rich sport. It gives people around the world the chance to participate in a live event. And it’s all for a very good cause. I expect to see Chalkbot win a Cannes Lion when I go there in a few weeks.

The results from this one idea have been incredible: 36,000 cheers were submitted, there were 139 major PR stories, membership of Livestrong’s Facebook page rose 77%, and Nike’s Livestrong line saw the largest month ever for both product sales and donations. This year the Chalkbot will be back on the Tour with a few improvements—including a better eraser.

A final point on Nike: I later heard a presentation on Macy’s cause efforts which are vast and impressive. For its programs, Macy’s executives talked about how they closely look toward the causes that its consumers care about. This seems smart and is clearly what most marketers are trained to do. But this was not at all how Nike approached cancer. It didn’t survey its buyers and ask what they believe in; rather, the brand worked according to what it as a brand cares about. Maybe this is the way we are headed in the future: brands as true personalities (powered by social, of course), which attract fans who aspire to know and be like them. Something to think about…

Pepsi Refresh

Everyone wants to know how the Pepsi Refresh is going—mainly because it represents such a big step in a new direction by a major marketer that has done advertising the traditional way for so long. Bonin Bough, Director of Digital and Social Media at Pepsi, took the stage to update an eager audience. He started by grounding the effort on a bigger change, “Refresh is a small part of a transformation going on across PepsiCo… it’s part of our belief in ‘Performance with Purpose.’” (For more on that, check out my blog post a few weeks ago). The idea behind Refresh came from studying a survey of Pepsi drinkers. Thinking beyond just providing liquid refreshment, the brand uncovered the insight that “Optimism is a catalyst for ideas that change society.” Pepsi chose to embrace and encourage optimism, but not through just a logo change and raft of new TV ads—rather, they had to DO something. The marketing team knew they had to “create a movement, not a moment.” So Super Bowl ads were out, and Pepsi Refresh was in.

Best Buy

Tim Showalter-Loch spoke at an intimate breakout group at the forum with the title of “Teen Cause Marketing.” The room fit about 12 people, but somehow 24 people squeezed in to hear how this leading, growing group of Blue Shirts is tackling teen+cause marketing. Best Buy has begun to edge into cause marketing for a few reasons: First, the company is maturing and needs to better differentiate itself in a crowded marketplace. Second, research shows that the rising generation of young people expects brands to have a higher-level purpose. In fact, their research shows that teens see big companies as authority figures—and this generation expects authority figures to step up and solve problems (a variation on the helicopter parenting that they have experienced).

Tim talked about how the brand discovered a big opportunity to embrace “teens’ positive development.” Teens are obviously important because they purchase a lot of Best Buy products and influence their parents to buy a lot more. In fact, today’s teen is the household Chief Technology Officer. Tim made a great analogy to the first generation of immigrant children who grow up speaking the new language and have to translate to their parents. Technology is that new language now.

The company saw an opportunity to do something in “positive development” because the teen years are a time when little decisions and experiences can have a large impact on the personalities and paths of young people. And teens need something more than the “negative” campaigns against smoking, drinking, drugs, and texting while driving.

Best Buy’s focus here has just begun, but it has done some nice, smart work at a site called @15 where it is encouraging kids to learn and innovate. It already has more than 200,000 members thanks to partners such as DoSomething.org.

Tim talked about how this small start is getting Best Buy’s leaders to think about how they can do more. Perhaps enrolling teens to help design the company’s products and business models. Tim spoke about his evolving belief that “The future is about creating a business that works for social change… don’t just fix your reputation by giving money; do something.” We talked about how Walmart recently closed the gap in Medicare drug prices because of its enormous purchasing power.

Pedigree

John Anton, Marketing Director for Pedigree, spoke about the history of the brand’s embrace of cause marketing around pets. I first wrote about Pedigree well over a year ago here, so I was excited to get more firsthand info on its very successful program. Anton spoke about how Pedigree has a Brand Purpose both around providing high-quality food and a belief that “every dog deserves a loving home.”

Pedigree’s first major efforts in its cause to drive shelter dog adoption came in February 2007 when it aired a commercial twice during the broadcast of the annual Westminster Kennel Club dog show. The ad brought light to the tragedy of unadopted dogs and said that the brand would match donations during the event. This small effort raised more than $1.7 million and showed the brand they were onto something.

Anton provided some great background on the brand’s decision to create its own foundation rather than partnering with other, existing nonprofits in this space. The biggest reason came to light when a national nonprofit that it partnered with supported legislation that was seen as negative to pure-breed owners. Because of its association with the nonprofit, Pedigree received many negative responses and threats to stop buying its food.

So the Pedigree Foundation was set up as its own 501(c)3 organization apart from Mars, the owner of Pedigree. It has its own staff and annual report. Aside from funds from Pedigree marketing, the foundation receives about $1 million per year in donations from individuals. Anton admitted that it was new ground to figure out how to do this, but by creating its own foundation Pedigree is benefiting from added credibility, control, employee pride, and a positive long-term legacy.

Interestingly, this idea of companies setting up their own foundations is fairly controversial, as it creates some competition in the cause market. I’m sure this will continue to be a hot topic in the future.

JetBlue

One small new learning came from a conversation with an executive from JetBlue at dinner. In my presentation I talked about the Marketing with Meaning example of how Hyundai brilliantly grew sales in a down year by introducing the Assurance program—a program so good that brands as diverse as Pfizer and the Toronto Raptors followed with similar programs. She mentioned that JetBlue, too, had offered to fly you free if you lost your job. This program returned immediate results and virtually no tickets were returned.

Many thanks to David Hessekiel and his staff at the Cause Marketing Forum for putting on a great show and inviting me to both teach and learn. It’s clearly a pocket of Marketing with Meaning that is leading the way.

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