DR4WARD

The Future of Marketing - Cannes Lions

Day 4

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, today's blog will be rather short due to misplaced notes. Sorry!

Getty Images (Seminar)

The first seminar I attended today was hosted by Moderator Lewis Blackwell of Getty Images. This presentation/forum discussion was titled "Advertising Activism! New Secrets for Going Beyond Propaganda." As mention in many of my previous blogs, the Advertising world is evoling rapidly with the emergence of new technologies. The way consumers are engaged with new media content, whether it be strictly visual or an interactive experience, has given Marketers and Advertisers newer and modern opportunities to engage. A key message taken from the seminar had been, "Advertisers must embrace and align all channels of communications (Both Online and Offline) with an audience whenever, whereever and however the ever-on individual desires." We must be able to work on various levels to create a unison approach to create not only a simple Ad campaign, but also a entertaining one as well.

Cows In Jackets (Workshop)

The first workshop I attended today was hosted by Daniela Kraustsack of Cows In Jackets. The workshop was titled "From Art to Urban Trends: Future Directions of Ambient Advertising." To understand the workshop completely, you must first understand what Ambient Advertising is. Like Guerilla advertising, Ambient advertising utilizes the world as a platform to create an interactive brand experience fused with entertainment. Major cities may very well represent the future of advertising through the interactivity being used to engage consumers. One example mentioned was a Installation with Phillips and the use of light. Phillips Energy utilized a national landmark to get their message of an efficient product. Ambient Advertising mixes these live experiences to reach target audiences in “hard to reach places” and keep the message fresh and clear in their minds on a day-to-day basis. The future of Advertising will rely, as Krautsack states, "...by new mixes of light, architecture, and [mass] media." These relevations will drive the way brands communicate and interact with their consumers daily. The following link showcases many of the different ways brands utlizing natural space to create an out of home experience. Ambient Advertising Media

Until next time,

Cheers!

Irving Escobar

Socially and Emotionally Connected - Cannes Lions

Day 3:

42 Entertainment (Workshop)

The first workshop I attended today was hosted by Susan Bonds and Alex Lieu of 42 Entertainment. The presenation was titled "How Game Play, Social Networking and User Generated Content are ReShaping the Playing Field." The world today is connected digitally with one another. From computers to music players, mobile phones to the world platform. The entire world has endless opportunities for Advertisers and Marketers alike to tell stories. The opportunity to tell an interactive experience that is both engaging and entertaining has gained prominence in digital era. "Distributive Narative," as Susan Bonds calls it breaks down the barriers of how audiences are intimately engaged with rich storytelling. No longer are marketing limited by traditional methods of advertising such as Print, Photo, and Audio. ARG's,or Alternative Reality Games allow users to now drive the naratives created by advertisers. This direct engagement of user-participation allows individuals to contribute and build much stronger relationships with brands. Read here for details of their award winning campaign for Year Zero. Year Zero Case Study

Cheil Worldwide (Seminar)

The second event I attended was hosted by speaker Andrew Berglund of Cheil Worldwide. The presentation was titled "A Day in the Life of a YMC (Young Marketing Consumer) in Seoul." In the 21st Century, Korea has been able to emerge as a global leader in the mobile communications era. The mobile phone, as it has also done in American life, has become a significant part of Korea life. Utlized completely through the use of branded services and products such as SHOW Video Call and SHOW Internet, the mobile phone has emerged as a significant tool for connecting to the world. Cheil has allowed users to be engaged with brands through customizable content. Both the technology and culture are connected in YMC life, allowing mobile to enrichen their experiences this day and age.Being able to provide branded services and products that enhance day-to-day experiences allows mobile to create stronger connections to the brand. Mobile is become something more, it has gone beyond a method a communications. It has enhanced everyday life to create a digital platform for these YMC's in Korea.

R/GA and Nike Present (Seminar)

The third event I attended was a seminar hosted by my favorite, Stefan Olander of Nike and Bob Greenberg of R/GA. The seminar was titled "Three Ideas" and dealt with the user connecting to the digital world in a physical world. Nike Id - Making Your Own Shoe. It is important to understand that connecting a digital experience to a physical experience is important for creating lasting relationships to the brand. The convergence of digital and physical has allowed Nike to create engagement with their loyal customers and enthusiasts. Enrichening their experience through customizable and engaging content has placed Nike as a model for strong brand relations this decade. These connections create everlasting bonds that have allowed Nike to emerge not only as a brand, but as a community for consumers to connect with brand and each other.

Until next time,

Cheers!

Irving Escobar

Digitology: The Evolution of Marketing - Cannes Lions

Day 2:

Accenture (Workshop)

My day began with the workshop hosted by Mark Inskip of Accenture titled Creating the Ultimate Web Presence with Your Brand. The world of marketing is changing dynamically. The change is driven by the creation of emerging technologies. The Accenture workshop dealt with how the Web communications of many popular brands influence their Brand equities in the 21st Century. Major brands must be able to creativitely communicate with consumers to get their message across. Inskip went on to say, "Creativity is essential, but not at the expense of usefulness." In essence, the workshop stressed that companies must take into consideration the "total user experience" by not sacrificing a consumers need of information with just a visually appealing experience.

Profero (Seminar)

The second event I attended was a seminar hosted by speakers Daryl Arnold, Wayne Arnold and Lord David Puttnam of Profero. The seminar was titled Digitology: The Revelations. The presentation started off with several questions aimed toward the audience and their use of social media content. The questions ranged from "Do you use facebook?" to "How many of you have ever heard of Twitter?." The purpose of the questions was intended to create the understanding of how the Internet has gone "mainstream." Although the term "mainstream" has carried a negative association in the last decade, Puttnam disagrees with the negative association to the Internet. As advertisers in the digital era, both Wayne and Daryl Arnold stressed the importance of connecting and understanding the audience [consumers]. We must understand that "Digital is no longer a new media, it is mass media." Profero/Lord David Puttnam

IGA (Workshop)

The second workshop I attended today was hosted by speakers Ed Bartlett and Guiseppe Bellanca of IGA. IGA, or In-Game Advertising represents a much more digitally focused approach to advertising in the 21st Century for brands. With a projected forecast market value of $950 million in 2011, IGA is the hottest media opportunity for many popular brands. The purpose of IGA is quite simple as Bartlett states, "IGA enables advertisers to target millions of engaged customers across a wide range of platforms. In-Game Advertising understands the need to create an artificial real-world experience with gamers.  3rd Party Research has found that 70% of gamers find that real brands/products make video games more realistic. Furthermore, 57% of players feel In-Game Advertising is a more relevant approach to advertising than other types of advertising. IGA is allowing advertisers to target specific demographics directly. IGA represents a fresh, new and exciting solution for advertisers seeking diverse opportunities. IGA and Battlefield 2142

Until next time,

Cheers!

Irving Escobar

Living Naked and Eating Savory Foods! Cannes Lions

Hello everyone! just finished my second full day here at the Cannes Lions Advertising Festival. Once again, I had an amazing day filled with inspiration and learning. I will be talking about a few different things that really excited me today.

I started today off at the savory food commercials. These were very entertaining, I didnt want to leave early for my Masters Class! I find the tv advertisements to be one of my favorite parts of the festival because every country approaches their products in different ways. This can be very influential and bring new ideas to the American plate. Comedy in commercials is something that will never get old. they are attention grabbing and memorable. Some countries advertisements had a more serious approach to food advertisement. I am sure they were affective in the given culture, but were not something I could see being aired on television in the US.
Here are a few of the commercials I really enjoyed...
">hungryman
">fresh farms dove campaign mock

">kavli kaviar mix

">pot noodles
">robertsons spices

I went to a Masters Class in the morning, "Living Naked" by Paul Woolmington. I won't go into too much detail because Stephanie's blog covers it pretty well. It basically talked about listening to the consumers, they are the important part of advertising and marketing. "You should treat your consumer as a partner", "people don't trust advertising, they trust friends". advertising is moving more toward a consumer made approach.
These are some interesting things that we looked at during this workshop.
www.brandtags.net
www.cannestags.com
burger king whopper freakout

"Don't write an ad - start a conversation" complimented the living naked workshop. during this seminar, Nick Moore spoke about 5 major things that advertisers need to do to become more successful with their consumers.
1) actively listen...we hear what we want to hear, not what people are really saying. watch digital conversations, blogs, youtube videos. this helps you to clearly listen to your consumer.
2) join and lead conversation...dont write an ad, say the next interesting thing. join and continue your conversations.
3) become a topic of conversation...the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about at all. people trust people. tell stories! ">bud light video was shared.
4) let go of control!!!...creatives are control freaks and need to learn to let go more. clients can also become too controlling.
5) create many conversations. the more material you have the more consumers you can reach.

and finally, im going to briefly touch on the IGA workshop. In game advertising is becoming a huge market! it is said that advertising for in game marketing will reach $54 billion by 2011.
so why advertise so much in games?
-its a lean forward medium
-totally engaging
-everyone plays video games. (the average 18-35 year old male plays 12.5 hours a week)
-30% of gamers are female
-70% of gamers feel that real brands and products make fames more realistic.
-61% favor in game advertising.
">in game advertising

--Kayla

MARVEL IRON MAN BOX OFFICE BLAST OFF

My wife and I had a blast at the Friday, May 2nd opening of Iron Man (starring Academy-Award nominated Robert Downey Jr. and Oscar winner Gwyneth Paltrow.) My wife, who is not a Super Hero Fan like me like me, loved the movie. I also heard from another female professional who is not a Super Hero movie fan who thought the movie was great. Although not a scientific study both of these responses point to the potential of Iron Man to attract a much broader audience beyond the comic book crowd and appeal to a larger female and older audience thanks to a tremendous performance by Robert Downey Jr. Jeff Bridges makes a great villain too and the whole supporting cast comes through with flying colors. Iron Man offers plenty of fun and exciting action for all and the sound track rocks too.

The Iron Man opening weekend box office blasted past $100 million exceeding expectations. However, the broader potential appeal with women and the non-Super Hero crowd may give Iron Man surprising staying power at the box office.

I only have one concern with Marvel after watching the film. I wanted to buy an Iron Man comic book, video, t-shirt or some other paraphernalia after the film and could not find anything. I went to every store in the mall after seeing the film and I even stopped at Target and could not find any Marvel related signagage, promotion or products. Seems like a missed opportunity for fans and Marvel.

Did you have any trouble finding Iron Man products at retail? If you found them, where were they?

I look 4Ward to your feedback.

Keep Digging For Worms!

MARKETING SKEPTICS RESISTANT TO BRAND MESSAGES

The degree of marketing skepticism and resistance to brand messages was highlighted this week when a student asked me in class if the brand examples used in the text book and discussed in class were paid product placements. I think this student has a future in marketing because the thought never occurred to me to sell my lectures in class to a captive student audience. Instead, the brand examples and case studies that I use are to demonstrate a concept or make a point about a company that does a particularly good or bad job at marketing. Where does this level of skepticism and resistance to brand messages come from?

Millennials is the label given to those born between 1982 and 2000.  They have grown up with instant and continuous multi-media communications, entertainment and social networks and are more dependent on technology, their peers and parents than previous generations. Millennials are continuously plugged into their iPods, mobile phones, video games, PC's, televisions, and social networks and multitasking. They consume so much media and entertainment through so many different channels that they receive over 3,000 distinct advertising messages daily.  This bombardment of sales messages and fragmentation of media use make Millennials difficult to reach and highly skeptical of marketers messages.
Image from www.matrixbusinesscoaching.com

This level of skepticism about information and communication is not unique to Millennials as consumers in general have become more suspicious and resistant to marketers messages.  This is a challenge and opportunity to marketers as the traditional brand marketing approach is no longer working.  Instead marketers are turning to new interactive models that give the control to consumers to create and share the marketing message with their peers through word-of-mouth. Brands are using consumer-created content and social networks to create and transmit something that is entertaining or helps to facilitate communication with others and make their lives better or easier. The best marketers understand that consumers do not need brands interrupting their lives and instead must be invited in.  Do you have examples of brands that you have invited in to your lives and shared with others?

I look 4WARD to your feedback.

Keep Digging For Worms!

NIKE PLUS DIGITAL SUCCESS CHANGES RUNNING FOREVER

I often point out marketers who do not get it.  However, I have to admit that I would much rather point out innovators and brands that I admire and think we can all learn from. Nike is one of them and it starts with their mission statement. The Nike mission statement is to bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete (anyone who has a body) and help improve their lives and reach their potential.  Nike has created innovations with their physical products since the beginning but  now they are creating digital success through the Nike Plus Apple iPod and Nike iD.  The merging of the digital and physical world for Nike and the 360 Degree Brand Marketing focus on improving the lives of the consumer has changed running forever.
 

A sensor in your Nike shoe wirelessly talks to your iPod as you run and you can hear your pace, time, distance and calories burned while you run through your headphones.  You can download your runs on NikePlus.com, set your goals, check progress, challenge friends and interact with runners from all over the world.  You can even share your music and running routes.  The physical world of running and Nike products is now enhanced with the digital social network experience.  In 2007 I attended the Cannes Lions Interational Advertising Festival where Nike was awarded a Gold Cyber Lions and a Titanium Lions recognizing Nike Plus as one of the world's top interactive marketing and integrated advertising campaigns.

Nike iD also improves the physical experience with the digital ability to custom design your shoes, clothing, and equipment by selecting the materials, colors, and features.  You can visit the NikeTown store or go online to customize through Nike iD and have your order shipped directly to your home.  The success of Nike digital and innovation points the way towards success for other companies.  Do you have examples of other companies that have supported their mission and enhanced the physical experience through digital?  Are  there  digital ideas that you would like to see enhance the physical experience of your favorite brands?

I look 4WARD to your feedback.

Keep Digging For Worms!

NINTENDO Wii TARGETS ITS WAY TO SUCCESS

I just returned from Fort Pierce, Florida after visiting my retired parents over the holidays. They are both aged 70 +, live in an active seniors only community, and are the proud owners of a Wii (Nintendo video game) . We had several bowling tournaments during our visit and the women usually beat the men.  They often invite their friends over for Wii parties.  Mom is also the family boxing champion and frequently knocks Dad out.

The Wii is the year's game console champ. Much of their success is due to their targeting of seniors and other niche markets not typical of the traditional gaming industry.  Do you  know any seniors or nontraditional gamers that have played on the Wii?   How did seniors discover the Wii?

DID RAMBO HIJACK THE SUPER BOWL?

My wife and I were sitting in our Lazy Boy recliners in our living room when we were possible victims of RAMBO hijacking the Super Bowl. I was working on some new blog posts on our Apple MacBook Pro and my wife was surfing the web on our Dell Inspiron while we simultaneously watched a Hollywood gossip show on TV.  (Look for future blogs on the impact of multi-tasking on integrated marketing communications.)

While looking between screens I heard the word "Super Bowl" and quickly popped my head up to see the word "SUPER BOWL" superimposed across the television screen for an ad promoting the new RAMBO film.  I hit rewind on the DVR to take it in a second time and hear the words "RAMBO - The Super Bowl of Action Movies."  (I am sure some of you are wondering why the steroid fueled senior citizen Sylvester Stallone felt compelled to revisit his action hero glory days with new Rambo and Rocky movies.  We can only hope that there was compelling market research demonstrating consumer demand.)         

As I write this I cannot confirm if RAMBO is an official Super Bowl sponsor and has permission from the NFL to use this word in their advertising prior to the game or not.  We will have to watch the big game on Sunday to watch for a RAMBO ad.  If RAMBO does not have official permission then RAMBO marketing is guilty of ambush marketing and runs legal risk for Super Bowl infringement.

The practice of ambush marketing of being around an event or trying to be associated with event but not paying for it will be getting a lot of attention this year with the upcoming Super Bowl and the Summer Olympics in Beijing. 

KFC did not pay the $2.7 million run an ad in this years Super Bowl but did offer to donate $260,000 to charity in the name of the first player to do a chicken-dance in the end zone.  Significant cost savings for KFC if they get can get their name in front of the Super Bowl audience.  Needless to say the NFL is not pleased when marketers try to gain advantage by being associated with the Super Bowl without paying for it.   

The World Cup Soccer Championship has been at the forefront of this debate internationally and courts have upheld FIFA'S  legal trademark rights to control the use of the licensing of the name and preventing others from using the name or logo without permission. 

It is understandable that marketers would want to use ambush marketing to save money.  It is also  understandable that the promoters of significant events would want to protect and enforce their legal trademarks. The bigger question beyond the ethical debate and legal issues in marketing practice is do consumers perceive the distinction between an official sponsor and an ambush?  Do consumer perceive ambush marketing as deceptive is this issue even on their radars? 

The only reason I paid attention to the RAMBO ad was because I heard the word Super Bowl.  If  consumers find out that the marketers of RAMBO were drafting on Super Bowl interest and were not official sponsors will there be any consumer backlash or is it purely a legal question for the courts? 

When Best Buy and other brands use the words "The Big Game" (completely legal) in their advertising to allude to the Super Bowl without paying for the use of the official words do consumers view this negatively? 

I am betting that the Chinese government will be cracking down on ambush marketing very severely during the Summer Olympics.  They will want to demonstrate their seriousness on the world stage with the larger legal issues of international copyright and trademark infringement in China.  Keep your eyes out this summer for more serious attention on Ambush Marketing and potential consumer backlash if China clamps down too hard on offenders.

I  look 4WARD to your feedback.

Keep digging for worms.
 

SUPER BOWL AD SUCCESS A GAMBLE

Over the years I have had the pleasure to be interviewed on Super Bowl ads in publications like USA TODAY and the Wall Street Journal . Although trends and technology have changed, the one constant I see is that having a positively reviewed ad in the Super Bowl will always be a gamble. Even top brands like Budweiser and Apple, who have been ranked as some of the best Super Bowl ads in history, have also had some of the worst ranked ads. 

The $2.7 million gamble for the success of one :30 second ad has helped the arm chair quarterbacking for the ads become a past-time greater than the game itself. There is no guarantee that an ad will be successful once aired during the Super Bowl. However, if done well, I believe the hype leading up to game day can offset the negative word-of-mouth and fall-out if an ad bombs.  What happens when the hype leads to backlash?

The big story last year surrounding Super Bowl ads were interactive contests with consumer-created content . Consumers vote online for the user-generated idea or entry submitted. The winning entry is then aired during the Super Bowl along with all of the professionally created spots. I believe the user-generated ads also suffered their creative hits and misses. The Doritos Super Bowl ad creative was a hit while The Chevy Super Bowl Commercial making light of homeless people forced to wash car windows for change, was a miss. However, both Chevy and Doritos received positive press and word-of-mouth related to their contests.