Posted by: Michael Arndt on November 17
Turns out candy is dandy, at least during recessions. Beer is pretty OK, too, but cigarettes are a vice that even smokers increasingly say they ain't worth it. Overall, says the latest customer satisfaction survey by the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business, American consumers are as happy with grocery-store goods as they were three months ago.
Among food companies, Hershey and Nestle both moved up 2 points while Mars gained 1 point from a year earlier, to an average score of 86 (out of a possible 100). That's their highest score ever. The trio last had an upsurge that big in the 2001 recession and in 2004, when worries about the widening Iraq War and higher fuel prices had consumers scurrying back to comfort foods, says Ross School Professor Claes Fornell, who heads the index.
Not every comfort food maker is more beloved, however. Conagra's standing dropped 7 points from a year earlier, to 78, an all-time low. Fornell attributes the decline to higher prices—Conagra jacked them up an average of 25%. Heinz retains its No. 1 ranking, with a score of 89.
Beer still hits the spot. Customers say they're more satisfied with their beer buys than ever before, pushing the industry's average score to 84. The biggest gainer: Anheuser-Busch, which rose 4 points to an all-time high of 85. Yes, the company is no longer American. But U.S. consumers appreciate its cheaper brands Natural Light and Busch. Meantime, Coors, which is generally pricier, sagged 2 points, to 81. Miller moved up 1 point, to 83.
Higher prices, this time from federal taxes that more than doubled, made smokers think less of cigarettes. Both Philip Morris and Reynolds American sagged to 72, falling 9 points and 8 points, respectively. Neither had ever been below 75.
Posted by: Helen Walters on November 03
Small companies without the vast budgets of large corporations have no choice but to think creatively about how to market their wares. On Wednesday November 4th, Minneapolis-based furniture design Blu Dot is launching an interesting-sounding experiment in New York City. Capitalizing on city denizens' apparent obsession with both leaving and taking pieces of furniture on the sidewalk, Blu Dot is leaving 25 of its iconic "Real Good" metal chairs (one shown) around the city.
Banking on the idea that they won't be left lying around for long, the designers hope that each one will be taken to a "real good" home. There's a 2.0 twist, too: the chair has its own Twitter account, while most of the chairs have been embedded with a GPS chip so that they can be tracked online in real time. "Who will take them? Where will they end up? How will they be used?" asks Blu Dot co-founder John Christakos. "We have visions you may find one under a bridge being used by a group of homeless people, another in a hipster’s apartment. We don't know what's going to happen. It's fun."
Both Christakos and Michael Hart, co-founder and creative director of Mono, the agency working with Blu Dot on the project, are aware that the project could backfire. After all, some New Yorkers might not respond well to a chair left lying in the street with a potentially ominous cell phone/GPS tracker/battery pack device attached. And some might not like the idea that they were stalked by the project organizers, who intend to approach the chairs' new owners to see if they'd take part in a documentary film about the project.
But Hart and Christakos are both open to seeing what happens. "This isn’t about tricking people. It's more about curiosity and an invitation," says Hart. "If folks aren't happy to tell their story then we’ll totally respect that. It’s not about invading their privacy. And really, if nothing else then we will have given the city of New York 25 free chairs."
Continue reading "Blu Dot's 'Real Good' Marketing Experiment"
Posted by: Helen Walters on October 30
Everyone knows that print magazine advertising figures aren't quite adding up as publishing executives might like. So I was intrigued to be taken on a tour of Esquire magazine's "ultimate bachelor pad." The tony, 9,200 square foot space is actually two adjacent penthouse apartments (valued at around $20 million) in the heart of SoHo in Manhattan. Together, the pads serve two purposes: to show off a carefully curated environment fit for 2009 Esquire Man—and to lock in sponsors to buying pages of magazine advertising.
First things first. It seems like EM'09 himself isn't too troubled by the state of the economy. In this world, he shoots pool on an $80,000, digitally-enhanced table designed by Obscura Digital (shown, left. Pool balls, tracked by motion sensors above, "reveal" the image of an Esquire magazine cover as they roll across the table). He hosts poker nights in a room filled with large portraits of "poker-faced" celebrities and a Baccarat chandelier designed by Philippe Starck. His art installation room shows an incredible piece by video artist, Luke Dubois, and when all the excitement gets too much, he can step outside and hop into one of his two hot tubs to stare out over Manhattan or along the terrace, past the sun screens/night lights custom-designed for Davidoff (below).
And as for the advertisers? Well, Stephen Jacoby, the project's mastermind and Esquire's associate publisher of marketing, was keen to emphasize that sponsors were still keen to participate in this, the seventh year. "This is a huge undertaking for the magazine and our staff. We don’t automatically say we’ll do it again," he said in a phone interview. "But we took it to market last fall, when the economy started falling apart, and people said 'sure, sign me up'. It wasn’t so much us forcing as them pushing."
Room sponsors this year include Diesel, which installed an in-home recording studio, and Hugo Boss, which took care of the master bedroom. The brands also committed to taking out six ad pages in the magazine, at around $100k a pop. Jacoby declined to share details of Esquire's own investment in the project, but reckons that this year they sold 50 incremental ad pages off the back of it. Not to be sneezed at.
Of course, show homes are nothing new, but Esquire also throws charity events at the venue, so that movers and shakers can actually play with the technology and the toys. (I do wonder how the swirly moving graphics on the pool table mix with alcohol.) Around 5,000 people attend an event to see the space up close in the two months that it's open. Mere mortals get to take the virtual tour.
Images: Zach DeSart
Posted by: David Kiley on October 16
The CMO CLUB Weekly Poll Question: Which of your groups is best equipped to help you with your social media efforts today?
Survey question conducted October 1 – October 7, 2009
114 CMOs responded:
65.6% In House
15.6% Interactive Agency
9.4% PR Firm
9.4% Social Media Agency
0% Creative/Ad Agency
A few Quotes from CMOs in the club who responded:
“With all the chatter in the industry on social media and all the agencies scrambling to stay relevant through social media, the combination of our internal marketing expertise and hiring millennials in our group that understand social networks, is working well."
“Our strategies for engaging our consumers and differentiating ourselves have not changed. Social media is simply new channels for us that we have incorporated into our marketing mix”.
“Social Media is changing the way our entire company works and engages with stakeholders. It’s not a marketing initiative but a company wide initiative.”
“We looked at a few social media agencies but they understood social networks but not our industry or customer engagement insights for our products.”
“We are still thinking through our social marketing strategies and I have assigned a team of 3 within my marketing group to help leverage social media as part of larger integrated marketing programs.”
To learn more about The CMO Club, go to www.thecmoclub.com
The CMO CLUB Thought Leadership Summit, Nov. 12-13, San Francisco: www.regonline.com/cmoclubsummit
Sign up for "CMOs only" dinners at www.regonline.com/cmoclub_dinners
Posted by: David Kiley on October 15
Interpublic Group of Companies made it official today. Its Deutsch unit will absorb Lowe & Partners in the U.S.
But they didn't take my advice by bagging the Lowe name in the U.S.
Instead...ugh...Deutsch will be known as "Deutsch Inc.: A Lowe & Partners Company."
Of course, no one in their right mind will call it anything but Deutsch. But still...
Why are ad agencies so often terrible at naming themselves?
I disagreed with the idea of renaming J. Walter Thompson JWT. Indeed, it makes sense, I guess, from a logo standpoint. But I can't bring myself to call it anything but J. Walter...or Thompson.
The worst ever was when a merged agency actually called itself CME-KHBB. And then there was Messner, Vetere, Berger, McNamee, Schmeterrer: Euro RSCG. Ick.
I often wondered what the clients thought. "You can't even market yourself coherently...what am I paying you for?"
Oh, well....here are the details of the announcement. But I say....Lowe is dead (in the U.S) Long live Deutsch.
INTERPUBLIC ALIGNS DEUTSCH INC. AND LOWE WORLDWIDE
• Deutsch To Assume Management Oversight of Lowe Operations in North America Under Leadership of Linda Sawyer
• Deutsch New York to Absorb Lowe NY Office
• Moves Further Strengthen Lowe Worldwide, Adding Dynamic U.S. Hub Agency to Growing Global Network
• Deutsch Gains Access to Global Presence to Secure and Grow Multinational Client Relationships
New York, NY – October 15, 2009 – Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG) announced today that it will be aligning its Deutsch agency with Lowe Worldwide. Deutsch will become the North American hub of the Lowe & Partners global network, assuming management oversight of Lowe operations in North America, including Lowe New York, Lowe Roche Toronto and Lowe Healthcare, under the leadership of Linda Sawyer. Deutsch NY will absorb the Lowe New York operations. Lowe Roche and Lowe Healthcare will continue to operate without any change to their current leadership teams and branding. Deutsch LA will also be unaffected, continuing to run as an integrated agency, reporting to Deutsch Inc. Going forward, Deutsch will operate under the name “Deutsch Inc., a Lowe & Partners Company.”
