Posts Tagged ‘event’

BlackBerry Loves U2: Who Cares?

Wednesday, October 28th, 2009

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Over the weekend my wife and I took a break from everyday life to head out to Las Vegas for a long weekend featuring the U2 concert on Friday night. Your dedicated blogger took the opportunity to spend a little time sampling BlackBerry’s enormous sponsorship of the band’s 360 Tour, and what I found is Marketing Without Meaning.

By now you have probably seen BlackBerry’s splashy, sexy TV commercials featuring U2 and the tagline “BlackBerry Loves U2.” The concert arena in Las Vegas had plenty of banners put up (like the above) announcing the brand’s love for the band. BlackBerry reportedly paid up to $150 million for the rights to love U2 in public and brag about it in a massive advertising campaign. Here’s the thing: Who cares if BlackBerry loves U2?

For one thing, let’s take a step back and think about how the tables have completely turned in the sponsorship world. Today, celebrities are in so much demand by desperate brands that they don’t even have to really support the products that pay them! It’s not “U2 loves BlackBerry,” but the other way around. Heck, I love U2 and I didn’t have to pay anything more than $200 for a concert ticket. This reminds me of a raft of other examples that I wrote about a few months ago; for example, the AT&T commercials with TOMS Shoes in which the guy from TOMS never once praises or mentions AT&T.

There are also lots of issues around BlackBerry trying to gain popular acceptance and credibility with a wider audience by borrowing interest. Slate magazine does a great job of hacking away at the brand’s strategy, suggesting that it’s much better off sticking to its positioning as a more serious business tool, rather than trying to become as cool as Apple.

BlackBerry did create one piece of meaningful marketing as part of its U2 tie-in: The U2 Mobile Album, an app for BlackBerry only that includes music, videos, news, and a way to see where other app users are at a concert. It’s interesting but not exactly a news-maker. I believe that it was a mistake to not create the app for the iPhone platform as well as its own. It might seem odd to do something for competing phone owners, but by doing this BlackBerry could show iPhone users that it has cool apps, too, and win over some who are tired of AT&T’s poor service, for example.

It looks like a big waste of money, and the early results suggest this is in fact the case. In parent company Research In Motion’s 2nd quarter financial report in September, sales came in weaker than expected and the company might now have to cut prices.

So now that we’ve established that BlackBerry is pursuing a meaningless path, let’s turn the tables and examine how U2 is fairing from the deal. Financially it’s difficult to argue that this was anything less than genius in the short term. The band pocketed many millions in sponsorship dollars and every ad featuring the band was more free marketing for its music and concerts.

But many seem to believe that U2 is taking a brand equity hit from “selling out” to a brand that doesn’t build the U2 equity. Most of the doubts and complaints come from the band’s technology partnership switch from Apple to BlackBerry. The Apple tie-ins, which helped in the launch of the iPod, felt good on all sides: a great, creative band and a great, creative brand to match. The co-branded U2 iPod was a coup, and Steve Jobs and Bono are buddies; it was a great match. But by switching to BlackBerry, a brand most popular with financial types, felt like U2 was just selling out to the new highest bidder. The lack of anything very interesting and positive for the U2 fans from BlackBerry makes this connection even weaker.

That said, band brand fans are pretty forgiving, and the incredible music and history of the group will likely overcome any short-term dint from this tie-in. I will conclude by adding that I enjoyed how U2 allowed its concert fans to take unlimited pictures, video, and audio of the show. Last year I went to a Bruce Springsteen concert in Cincinnati and the bouncers were pulling camera phones out of people’s hands like they used to pull lit joints away years ago. I’m not sure if this was an official U2 acceptance policy or if we’ve reached a point in society that you just cannot prevent people from pulling out their phones. Either way, it gave me and the other 40,000-plus fans a chance to take away a few visual memories to share with friends.

UPDATE: Over Halloween weekend I turned on my TiVo and saw that I could watch the band’s Rose Bowl show, which took place a few days after the Vegas one.  After walking my kids around the neighborhood for trick-or-treating I settled in and watched this entire show for free on my TiVo thanks to YouTube and U2.  Very, very cool!  And many other people found it cool, too, as there were as many as 10 million streams of the concert on YouTube as of October 29.  If this were a TV show, it would have been a top 8 rated program in terms of number of viewers.

In that spirit, check out a few photos that I snapped (with my iPhone) during the show, including one of my wife and me having a blast. Thanks, U2.

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u2 vegas ticket

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Posted in Entertainment, Event, Marketing Without Meaning | 5 Comments »

T-Mobile, McDonald’s Make Memories

Wednesday, May 13th, 2009

I am happy to report that two of the biggest traditional interruptive advertisers are finally getting it. This week I discovered incredible examples of how T-Mobile and McDonald’s are launching marketing that creates meaningful experiences for their target consumers. Both examples happen to take place in London; here’s hoping that their model spreads both geographically and habitually.

Over on our Marketing with Meaning community space on LinkedIn (where 367 people and counting have joined despite little promotion), Jonathan Levy shared a video of T-Mobile’s recent event in Trafalgar Square. The brand distributed 2,000 microphones, and more than 13,000 people joined to sing The Beatles’ ballad, “Hey Jude,” together. Here’s what it looked like:

This event is part of a campaign from T-Mobile called “Life’s for Sharing,” which brand representative Lysa Hardy calls, “…something that’s unexpected, wonderful, and exciting that you want to share with your friends and family.” The surprise sing-along was aired for the first time on the TV show Britain’s Got Talent last Sunday. This campaign execution follows a few months after the brand filmed a commercial in which dozens of improv dancers spontaneously appeared and performed at a Tube station in London.

After enjoying a special moment in Trafalgar Square, locals and tourists might have ventured over to Piccadilly Circus to take a picture with an entertaining digital sign from McDonald’s. No, it wasn’t another high-tech tool for ordering a Big Mac from your cell phone. Video describes it better than words:


Find more videos like this on AdGabber

Both the T-Mobile and McDonald’s examples are clearly examples of Marketing with Meaning. More specifically, they fall under what I refer to in my upcoming book as Branded Experiences. What I love about both of these campaigns is that they deliver on what the brands hope to stand for in their target consumers’ hearts and minds. T-Mobile recognizes that mobile phones are used in a very emotional way by people who want to enjoy and share life together. The McDonald’s vision statement is to make every customer smile. Instead of continuing to show us commercials that tell a story of some other people (actors) enjoying life and smiling, the brands finally understand that they have the ability to make special moments happen for consumers—through the marketing itself.

One similar example that I share in my book is that of De Beers and its “When Forever Began” event in New York City in December 2008. The brand created a romantic stage in Madison Square Park and offered kissing couples the chance to be photographed with a 360-degree camera. Instead of more staged actors and TV ad copy, this time De Beers enabled couples to experience and remember a very special moment together. The brand created real moments—through the marketing itself.

There are some downsides to both of these branded experiences. First, there were a few comments on the T-Mobile sing-along that suggested the enjoyment of the event was weakened by the fact that it was organized by and for a brand. This cheapened a special human experience for some people.

Another complaint could be that both programs are difficult to scale up to replace the millions of eyeballs that are lost when TV or print dollars are shifted to expensive events. After all, how many people were in London on April 30? How many Big Mac buyers will get to Piccadilly Circus this summer? There’s no easy answer to this complaint, but I believe such events can be very effective. First, they generate a significant amount of sharing through photos on personal networks—in effect breaking through the clutter with a trusted endorsement. The YouTube video above already has more than 200,000 views, and imagine the PR coverage that comes from taking over a global city like this. Second, I believe it can succeed by winning lifetime loyalty from a core group of consumers, rather than spreading interruption across millions of eyeballs and hoping some tiny percentage actually buys your brand (only because they were unconsciously seeded).

So here’s something to think about over the weekend: How is your marketing creating special, personal moments for your target consumers? Needless to say, 30 seconds of a canned message times a few million pairs of eyeballs won’t cut it.

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Posted in Connection, Experience, Uncategorized | No Comments »

An Idea from the Daddy Daughter Dance

Friday, March 6th, 2009

Like many fellow marketing-geek friends, I have a hard time disconnecting my brain from my day job when I’m outside of work and just having fun. Recently there was just such an occasion, when Jay, Michael, and I from Bridge Worldwide took our girls to the annual Daddy Daughter Dance in the Cincinnati suburb of Anderson. We had a blast with our little princesses, but we also came up with a few ideas that could lead to meaningful marketing and business results in our local area.

This annual Daddy Daughter Dance is a pretty big deal here in Anderson Township, a fairly large and higher-than-average income area. The dance is so popular that it actually is held on both a Friday and Saturday night in February each year. Many fathers who I know in the area attended on the Saturday we went. There had to be at least 250 couples in attendance. It was the first time attending for Jay, Michael, and I, as our girls are just now able to attend a later-night event such as this without melting down.

We had a wonderful time. My wife bought the girls corsages, and we met for dinner at a fancy restaurant nearby before the dance. The price of the event included a free photo (above), and a red carnation for the ladies as we left. We danced and had a blast, but I just couldn’t help thinking that many opportunities for marketers were left untouched.

Let’s start with the opportunity at hand. First, there are several relevant selling occasions wrapped around this annual dance; it’s the kind of event where parents open up their purses and wallets to make the experience as special as possible. The local Macy’s in the center of Anderson could benefit from clothing sales to both little girls and their fathers; the flower shops could see sales from corsages; the restaurants could benefit from hundreds of pre-dance diners; and limo services even could pick up some extra business.

Imagine what these businesses could do to add value and reap greater sales. Macy’s could set up a fashion show for mothers and daughters a few weekends before the event, and have dress consultants on hand to help them pick out a new outfit for the dance. Local restaurants could set up a special prix fixe meal served especially to get dancers in and out on schedule. I’m sure that a small sponsorship would allow the businesses access to the database of ticket purchasers for direct marketing—the kind of marketing that people would find extremely helpful and relevant.

Aside from incremental sales linked to the event, there are other benefits of creating meaningful marketing around this event. Because it is an annual tradition, it becomes less complex to prepare and plans can be made well in advance. And imagine the long-term loyalty that could result from adding value to this meaningful event. Whem Mom brings her daughter into Macy’s for a special event, she feels a tighter bond to the store, leading her to consciously and unconsciously choose this chain more often throughout the year.

So what’s the holdup? Why aren’t Macy’s, Olive Garden, and FTD lining up to get into events such as this? I think the biggest reason is that this means a major change in how these companies look at marketing. They are all raised to think in terms of TV ads and Sunday circulars. Local tie-ins such as these also take more human labor to set up at a time when head-count reduction is rampant.

Perhaps the current economic pressures will lead traditional marketers to try something new. In fact, local, meaningful event marketing such as this plays right into the hands of a company such as Macy’s. Its large, central locations and range of merchandise allow it to beat e-tailers and small specialty chains with such an approach.

We’ll be back at the Daddy Daughter Dance in 2010—and we’ll see if any marketers seize the opportunity by then.

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Posted in Connection, Experience | No Comments »

Analysis of RecessIsOn

Wednesday, December 10th, 2008

As the word gets out about Marketing with Meaning, we are starting to attract some interesting outreach from unexpected places. A few months ago, a company engaged us in a project to do some consulting, which I hope to talk more about later. More recently, for the first time, I was asked to provide a review of a new marketing campaign from an agency on behalf of its client. In other words, I was suddenly elevated to the lofty list of targets for “blogger outreach.” I feel so special. But seriously, it is cool and I am happy to provide my honest assessment—according to Marketing with Meaning principles—in this post…

The Morgans Hotel Group has launched a new advertising campaign under the mantra RecessIsOn, a clever play on the word “recession,” which is dominating too much of the news lately. Morgans is playing on this depression around the now-official recession by calling for fun. The boutique hotel chain is using targeted print ads (see above), wild postings, and PR to drive traffic to Recessison.com. Once there, visitors can discover the path to parties and other enjoyment at Morgans’ hotels in cities such as New York, Los Angeles, and London. Each hotel is hosting events (most seem to require a charge) as well as several added-value offers such as free massages, room upgrades, and complimentary dirty martinis (full disclosure: my favorite kind).

Survey Says: It’s just so-so.

First, let me say that I love Morgans’ decision to focus on the economy and to embrace the idea of having more fun with more freebies. Many marketers (including our clients) are working on ways to adapt messaging to appeal more to people who are struggling to make ends meet. It is very clever to see a company stare the recession in the face with defiance.

Second, I think that Morgans has some smart promotional offers for its customers. Each hotel has a wide variety of packages with complimentary services at a lower-than-usual cost. I really felt like Morgans was doing something special in this down economy.

My main issue is that this campaign is not offering significant value aside from these specials. If you’re not staying there or buying a party ticket, there’s really no meaning for you. The posters and ads might make you smile for a minute, but they don’t merit more than a half-second pause. This is not Marketing with Meaning.

My big suggestion is for Morgans to turn its party atmosphere into an open event. Once its clever campaign got the attention, it needed a meaningful hook to pull people into something valuable. What if Morgans held weekly parties with free admission, cool music, and low or no-cost drinks? They could use word-of-mouth and these wild postings to, say, publicize a code word to get in these parties. And the company could focus on its historic guest list as the best source of traffic. The attendance could even be limited to out-of-towners to encourage a hotel stay on an upcoming trip. The idea of a free party with a guerrilla-marketing guest list worked well for the Stoli Hotel, which got a ton of buzz for its effort. And if this can work for a $20 vodka brand, it’s got to work for a $300-per-night hotel.

Finally, Morgans and its agency should make sure to do more in terms of blogger outreach. I received an email and a request to cover the campaign. Thanks very little, guys! How about an invite to one of these parties with celebs such as those below, or even a free night’s stay? In case you’re listening, I’ll be in L.A. on December 16 and will be happy to update this blog with more of the Morgans experience. :)

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Posted in Agency Marketing, Entertainment, Experience | No Comments »

Painting the Coast Plaid

Wednesday, July 30th, 2008

Half the battle in our campaign to convert the world to meaningful marketing is for advertising agencies to get the religion and lead their clients to this promised land. As a first step, we agencies need to market our own services with meaning. For Bridge Worldwide, we practice what we preach by using this site to build and educate the marketplace of this concept – in a way we’re giving away our secret sauce for businesses (including our competitors) to use without payment.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about how the agency Red Direct has created a new sustainability site and business model to live and breathe this critical issue. Another great example comes from an agency called Plaid in Danbury, CT. I learned about Plaid from Giuli Lewis, a former Plaider who came to Bridge Worldwide when her husband was relocated (full disclosure: This post is a blatant thank-you for their recommendation of Giuli). In spring 2007, this branding agency decided to change its own brand, renaming itself from Visual Intelligence Agency (which sounds like a new secret DARPA project) to Plaid. After many brainstorms around how to get their new name out there, the team decided to drive around the country in a Plaid van.

Thus was born the first Plaid Nation tour. I got some really neat stories from Giuli:

We wanted to showcase our knowledge of social media, how it could be used, how it could really benefit a brand and help connect with customers/consumers/the public.

We spent three weeks visiting current clients (e.g., Sony, Ironhorse bikes), other agencies we admired (Martin, Digitas), and brands we thought were cool (Segway, Hanes, Alltel). Some knew we were coming and others we totally dropped in on.”

In other words, Plaid toured the country to promote themselves, but by creating meaningful moments and conversations with those they met along the way. It was a pretty big effort for a small agency, especially with no traditional benchmarks or success measures.

But it paid off in many ways. The biggest was the tour’s stop at Segway. The team decided one morning to head to Segway’s office “mainly because we hoped they’d let us ride a Segway.” They didn’t get to ride one, but “a nice guy from the marketing department” came down and spent time with the team. A week later he called and asked Plaid to build a social app for current Segway owners, and months later social.segway.com was born (itself great meaningful marketing and a future blog post).

Overall, the tour resulted in new business, clients, and partners who enjoyed the experience and knowledge, and lots of fun for the entire agency. Success is further proven by the fact that Plaid is in the middle of its next annual tour. You can check it out here and enjoy experiencing the event while seeing some really cool social applications in action. Kudos to Plaid for taking this risk and offering agencies a model for meaningful marketing.

Now, next year you guys need to come to Cincinnati….

(also check out Advergirl’s take)

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A Tale of Three Ales: (2) Speight’s

Monday, July 7th, 2008

(This is part two of a three-part series on beer companies that are building meaningful connections with their target consumers. – updated with video 12/5/08))

By now I’ve talked about my trip to the Cannes Lions Advertising Festival so many times that I’m starting to feel guilty. But I do believe that each case study I share from the trip helps pay my financial and boondoggle debt to Bridge Worldwide, and to you, dear reader. Today I have a beer example that fits perfectly into this three-part series.

Next Up: Speight’s

You probably have never heard of Speight’s beer, even if, like me, you enjoy finding the most random beer brand in the cooler of The Party Source. Speight’s is actually a regional brew from the South… of New Zealand. According to Wikipedia, Speight’s markets itself as “the pride of the south” (who knew that there was a whole north/south thing in NZ, a country of only 4 million people?) and is the favorite beer of students at the University of Otago (which is known for a tradition of “couch burning” – not to be confused with bench burning at Duke University, my alma mater, after a big basketball win – but both happen to occur when large quantities of beer are consumed).

Enough of the trivia. According to marketing legend, the brand learned that fellow Kiwis in the UK missed their Speight’s beer. So in 2007 Speight’s launched “The Great Beer Delivery” – an actual working Speight’s Alehouse was strapped to the deck of a cargo ship. People in New Zealand applied online to accompany the vessel on a 24,000 kilometer trip to Samoa, Panama, the Bahamas, and New York City, before landing in London to thousands of thrilled – and thirsty – brand fans. The trip was covered by PR media in NZ and the UK for weeks as it made its way. It’s a brilliant idea and had brilliant results in terms of meaning and marketing.

I think the meaning here is pretty obvious: The brand connected itself with pride for the nation of New Zealand as it built a bridge between those in the home country and transplants in the UK who missed their mates. This reinforces the idea that beer can be a category that people closely identify with. So efforts to deepen that identification – or connection – are critical to success. A key measure of success is the number of people who chose to engage in the program: According to the brand, “6% of all New Zealand men” (I’m estimating more than 100,000 people) applied online to crew the floating bar.

The marketing results were also pretty impressive. The brand received millions of dollars of free PR for the effort. Speight’s regained its leadership share in the NZ market and drove a “double-digit increase in Brand Adoration… whilst all other mainstream beers declined.” Plus, it drove new distribution and sales in the UK.

The bonus benefit is the pride and fun that this event created for the employees and agency partners of Speight’s. How much more fun is launching a floating bar versus launching a 30-second ad? And, hey, you can even still win a Gold Lion!


The Speight’s Great Beer Delivery
Uploaded by hourigan

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Posted in Connection | 4 Comments »