Marketing BEEP

Super Bowl Ads Not As Effective During Slumping Economy

When U.S. consumers are worried about money, it detracts from their ability to remember Super Bowl commercials, according to a Gallup & Robinson study. The study surveyed 12 years’ (1997-2008) worth of recall and likeability of 30-second commercials that appeared during the Super Bowl and found that there is a direct relationship between the people’s confidence in the economy and the amount of attention they pay to Super Bowl commercials.

When consumer confidence is down, recall is 11% lower than average and 36% lower than in good times.

The president of Gallup & Robinson, Scott Purvis, said that marketers who are planning on running a 30-second Super Bowl commercial should be “more cautious” this year. He also said that advertisers running their “ordinary fare” of TV ad will be taking hits on their recall levels.

In other words, the most successful Super Bowl advertisers will be the ones with the most original commercials.

Advertisers’ Quandary
The Gallup & Robinson findings accentuate the quandary advertisers face when running a Super Bowl ad this year. Many marketers depend on the publicity of the pigskin classic to set the tone for their company for the rest of the year. The word-of-mouth buzz and Internet buzz afterwards are what some brands use to leverage their industry position for the rest of the year.

The event draws the biggest TV audience of the year, and many people watch the game live and therefore can’t skip the ads. Some people even watch the game just to catch the new ads. This coupled with the shaky economy has made many companies pull out of their usual 30-second spot, making those that did buy a spot feel the pressure of having a great, memorable commercial.

NBC has been seeking a record $3 million per 30-second spot, and while the network was selling well last spring and summer, the fall and winter brought on the recession and regulars like GM and FedEx have “passed” on advertising this year, citing economic considerations.

It’s Not Only the Economy
As noted earlier, the content of the ad is important to the recall factor. And to a lesser extent, the quality of the game also affects how well people recall commercials. If the game isn’t intense or exciting, less people pay attention to what’s going on on the TV whether it’s the game or the commercials.

Purvis said that about 25% of change in recall was related to change in consumer confidence.

With only 25% accounted for in consumer confidence, that means that advertisers still need to create inventive, memorable ads for people to recall them the next day. Sounds like the same kind of advice needed for any type of advertising, really.

Product Placement Makes Up for Lack of Ad Revenue from Detroit

Television networks that are used to high ad revenue from automakers are feeling the pinch as U.S. automakers are losing money and not taking out TV ads. But one potential buffer for networks trying to hang on is to sign Detroit automakers into more product placement deals. 

Of course, this isn’t the easiest way to go in today’s economic climate, as no companies want to part with too much of their money. But if an automaker has “X” amount of money to spend, it might make sense to try to steer “X” amount into brand integration via product placement.

Advertisers have various options to pull out of upfront commitments, which allows them to take back some of their money. But while that may be easy to execute, when a deal involves spots in a prime-time TV show, it would seem extremely complicated when a marketer has paid for using its new car into a TV series.

What’s Good for the TV Series Isn’t Necessarily Good for Detroit
Once a product placement deal is in place, the series goes into production, highlighting a particular brand or even making it part of the story line, it would seem difficult to get that money back and to rewrite the script to get the car out of there.

That makes product placement a smart deal for the networks, but not necessarily for Detroit.

FX has taken advantage of this type of deal by signing with General Motors last summer to include its Cadillac brand within the legal drama “Damages”. The FX’s show started its second season January 7, and sure enough, Cadillac was a sponsoring the premiere commercial-free.

Before the show even began, there was a promotion for three Cadillac models. At the end of the episode, actress Glenn Close thanked the brand for its support. So much for subtleness.

This support came from the same company that dropped Super Bowl and Oscar advertising.
“The issue is we were already signed, sealed and delivered,” Joanne Krell, Cadillac director-communications told Advertising Age last month. “While it's true we have cut back on a number of things, we are honoring our commitments where we have them and this was one of those.”

Ford Still Sponsoring American Idol
Ford is returning to “American Idol,” even though money isn’t flowing as it did in the first few seasons. But Ford isn’t going to drop that prized integration unless it absolutely has to, and before that happened, it would probably look to Idol for a loan.

Cadillac’s Placement Future
Cadillac’s Krell indicated that GM would have scaled back on the “Damages” promotion if the deal hadn’t already been made. This season, Cadillac is placing three of its brands into the show: the SUV Escalade Hybrid, the CTS and the XLR convertible. And the placement is getting bolder: A voiceover at the beginning of the show proclaims “All season long, follow the new Escalade Hybrid, CTS and XLR through the twists and turns of season two ...,” with close-ups and aerial shots of the vehicles in motion.

Ad Age reported that Cadillac has “a right of first refusal” whether to return for “Damages’” third season. Considering GM may not even be operating by that time, product placement may not be right due to the lack of options that might come with it.

Top 8 Places to Shop for Eco-Friendly Goods

ONLINE

GreenShopper.com
http://www.greenshopper.com

GreenShopper is the largest environmental store and online community for eco-friendly shoppers. The Web site is currently linked to over 200 companies who devote their product lines to eco-friendly and organic products. Instead of creating a separate username and password at each of the company’s Web sites, GreenShopper lets you order from one site. You can order anything from Pet Organic “chew-stop” spray for dogs to hemp sandals from Old Glory.

EcoChoices
http://www.ecochoices.com

EcoChoices has been offering earth-friendly, quality products at low prices since 1997. You can find anything from organic bedding to biodegradable kitchen trash bags to clothing (including baby clothing) to cast iron cookware.

Green Home
http://www.greenhome.com

Green home started in 1999 in San Francisco as a way to educate and supply customers with green products. The homepage has a cool “Green Your Home” image, where you click on a room of the home pictured and you can find ways to green that room, of course, with products that will help you on your green path. You can find appliances to furniture to lighting that’s all eco-friendly. GreenLivingNow http://www.greenlivingnow.com/ Ran by green living expert Amy Todisco, this site features products that have been researched and personally used by Todisco. From natural hand lotion from Sea Buckthorn to water filters that remove E. Coli, Todisco has used and approved all the products on the site. This site is a great way to save time – by not having to do research on your own!

CLOTHING

Edun
http://www.edunonline.com

Edun, founded by Bono and Ali Hewson, specializes in organic clothing, eco clothing and graphic tees. Its mission is to drive sustainable employment in developing economies. You can get a plain organic fitted tee made from 100% combed, ring-spun certified organic cotton for $28. Greenloop http://thegreenloop.com Greenloop has everything from men and women’s clothing to cute Envirosax reusable shopping bags. All brands Greenloop carries employ a variety of responsible practices, including: using eco-friendly, sustainable materials, using energy efficient production methods, investing in renewable energy and carbon offsets, and maximizing recycling while reducing waste.

HOME

Green Design Furniture
http://greendesigns.com

Green Design Furniture creates living room, office, dining, bedroom and any other kind of furniture you can think of. The wood used is harvested American black cherry, and is domestically grown solid wood, logged following sustainable forestry guidelines. When possible, the manufacturing waste is recycled or repurposed.

A Cooler Planet
http://www.itsaCoolerPlanet.com

Chicago-based A Cooler Planet offers Pacific Rim Beds, organic mattresses, Peace Keeper Causemetics and all-natural skincare and shower products. It also carries organic clothing made from chemical-free fabrics and shoes made from recycled car tires.

BEAUTY

Yves Rocher
http://www.yvesrocherusa.com/control/main/

Yves Rocher uses eco-friendly botanical products that respect plants. How so? One example is using “headspace” technology to capture scents from flowers without harming any blossoms. You can find natural bath soaps (raspberry shown in photo), shampoos, cologne and moisturizers from Rocher’s own Bio Specific line.

Green Presidential Inauguration Celebrations

For the inauguration of a president who has put saving the environment at the top of his “to-do” list, what would you expect but carbon-neutral inaugural balls, organic menus and valet bicycle parking?

During the Inaugural Speech
In his inaugural speech, Obama states while talking about America’s problems: “…and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.”

In regards to what work needs to be done, Obama again referred to the environment: “We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories.” With Obama on the environment’s side, hopefully we’ll see a greener America in the next four years.

Green Inaugural Balls
Two Green Inaugural Balls were planned this year, one even featuring a green carpet from recycled rugs. The invitations were green as well, of course, printed on recycled paper.

“Our goal is to create an unforgettable evening while treading lightly on the Earth,” said Jenna Mack, an organizer of one Green Inaugural Ball -- not to be confused with another Green Inaugural Ball featuring Al Gore. Organizers of a number of other balls and celebrations used energy-efficient lighting.

“We're obviously not going to have paper towels in the bathroom," said Shelley Cohen, helping organize the green ball featuring Gore, the ex-vice president who shared a Nobel Peace Prize for efforts in raising awareness about climate change. “We're going to have air dryers.”

“Making the inaugural balls as low-energy and low-carbon as possible won't stop global warming, but it is a very important symbol about the direction of the incoming administration,” said Dan Weiss, director of climate strategy for the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank.

Other Inaugural Celebrations
Many groups that promote causes around the country hosted an inaugural celebration. PETA gave away fur coats to the homeless while offering hot soy-milk cocoa to celebrate President Obama’s first day in office.

The Inauguration Itself
The greening of inauguration celebrations is drawing a special effort because Obama has made green projects a main theme of his economic stimulus plan. “Not only are we committed to holding an inauguration that is the most open and accessible in history,” said Linda Douglass, chief spokeswoman for Obama's inaugural committee, “but we are also committed to making sure that it is as environmentally friendly and sustainable as possible.”

The EPA has provided a liaison to the Presidential Inaugural Committee to advise on “best practices,” which is a first.

To reduce the inauguration’s carbon footprint, attendees are asked to carpool or ride public transit. For those driving long distances, they’re encouraged to use a hybrid vehicle or to purchase carbon offsets to make up for their pollution.

Inaugural organizers only used biodegradable containers, plates and utensils, made from corn resin. Plastics and Styrofoam were banned. Caterers were instructed to put food scraps, containers and utensils into a “composting stream” that will be taken to a facility in Maryland. 

Direct Marketing’s Future in Customers’ Hands, says DMA

"We are all direct marketers now, whether we know it or not," states Michelle Tiletnick, research manager of the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) to conclude the executive summary of the DMA's new 78-page qualitative report, “Future of Direct Marketing.”

The DMA’s first ever “Future” report details trends in direct marketing for the next 5 and 10 years, as well as how it will get there. The report contains insights from 35 direct marketing leaders, such as Herschell Gordon Lewis of Lewis Enterprises; Alan Moss of Google; Jeanniey Mullen of Zinio; and Akira Oka of Direct Marketing Japan Inc.

The experts were asked specific questions with the most interesting being: “Where do you think direct marketing will be in five and ten years?”

• Customers will be in control. If you don’t give them what they want, one of your competitors will.

• Measurable and accountable marketing will increase because with the economy, companies can’t afford to use marketing strategies that may not work.

• Traditional direct marketing (mail, catalogs) will decrease while digital marketing rises.

• Marketers will increase the use of multiple channels--but will communicate a single message.

And how will marketers prepare for all of these changes?

• Invest in the future (use technology to capitalize on data digital channels offer)

• Ask customers for their media preferences

• Test everything

• Be open-minded

The experts also weighed in on 19 industry categories, including:

• Social media: “As social and mobile channels develop, the metrics and analytics available will become more useful to brand and merchandising managers alike. Rather than simple volumetric measurements (how many people saw our YouTube ‘viral’ video, or ‘friended’ us on Facebook?), you can anticipate learning about how influence spreads through a network, and across channels,” states analytics expert “Wandering” Dave Rhee.

• Email: Jordan Cohen, senior director, industry relations for Goodmail Systems, predicts the reinvention of email as a an app that is “able to support all the functionality of a website [streaming video, rich media graphics, one-click shopping, one-click bill pay and more] with the added bonus of being able to push the content to an audience of opt-in recipients.”

• Print Catalog/retail: “Traditional retailers will become more direct, and direct merchants will look to stores as a means of competing with larger rivals and growing their brands,” according to Neil O'Keefe, the DMA's vice president for the catalog and multichannel segment.

• Interactive Marketing: According to Alan Moss, Google’s director of online sales and operations, “the current state of the economy may accelerate movement down the path that direct marketing has already begun traveling over the past few years--the path towards increased measurability.”

• Media/publishing: In 2009, Mobile Marketer Editor Mickey Alam Khan expects “resources will be moved to the Internet and even mobile, although those two channels will not be able to pay the bills for most media companies, especially with the way they are set up today.”

(Report quotes courtesy Les Luchter, MediaPost’s Marketing Daily.)

Green Design for Green Advertising

While many companies are going green, and that’s something to applaud, the green initiatives are mostly staying in the office. Energy efficient light bulbs, recycling paper, turning off computers at night are all great ways to go green, but what about advertising and marketing materials? There’s no reason that items going out the door shouldn’t get a green makeover too!

From design to product materials, brochures, postcards, posters and other advertising elements can be eco-friendly with just a few tweaks. 

DESIGN:GREEN WORKSHOPS
Design:Green is an organization whose mission is focused on sustainable product design. And, it’s goal is to teach other businesses exactly how to create green products by changing up the business model, product development and packaging. Design:Green offers workshops and consulting services to businesses who want some help on how to go green.

Three workshops are currently offered as two-hour, half-day or full-day sessions to industry groups.

1. How to Design and Sell Greener Products That Consumers Want
Designed for consumer packaged goods brand managers, product designers, marketers and R&D pros. Present five strategies for driving profitability and growth which will make new products fly off the shelves.

2. A Fresh Approach to Better Interior Design
This is for any business, but in my opinion, a service-based business where customers spend a lot of time at the company’s space would benefit the most from this workshop. Participants learn about Life Cycle Assessment and LEED. Qualifies for 2 ASID credits.
3. Green Building Products From Concept to Market
For designers, manufacturers and marketers from building products industries, like carpeting to window installation. Focuses on Energy Star, LEED and other market drivers that help in marketing these building products. 

STUDY PAST GREEN ADVERTISING
Ford did a good job with its advertising of the Ford Escape Hybrid, using Kermit the Frog, who says “It’s not easy being green” until he finds an Escape Hybrid. Then he changes his mind to “I guess it is easy being green.”

GE’s Ecomagination advertising initiative is both advertising and a brand change. GE is committed to reducing its water footprint 20 percent company-wide by 2012 – enough water to fill more than 3,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools. You can check out latest advertising on the Ecomagination web site.

Volkswagen launched a green campaign a few years ago, and is still going strong: the 2009 Jetta TDI was named Green Car of the Year by the Green Car Journal. Here’s an example of one of many print ads VW has launched. You can find more examples of other green ads, including Chevy and Waste Management at http://greenworldads.blogspot.com/search/label/GREEN%20ADS.

 

The New York Times’ Deal with Monster: Sign of Hard Times

Monster Worldwide, owner of Monster.com, partnered with The New York Times in the spring of 2007 to share brands on the newspaper’s career sites. The deal isn’t shocking – many newspapers are forming partnerships with online companies that were once taking their ad business from them.

But in November, The New York Times ran a special for companies to advertise their job listing online and get a free print ad in the Sunday edition – the most read edition of the newspaper. According to a Mashable editorial, this deal is “one more nail in the coffin” for print newspapers.

But whose idea was this? 

It was Monster’s idea, according to Douglas E. Klinger, president of Monster North America. Monster approached The New York Times in the fall of 2006, along with more than 60 other newspaper sites. Monster’s goal is to tap into local markets, which newspapers still have a stronghold on. Monster can give local consumers better access to nationwide job opportunities that they might not otherwise see.

Other pairings

This isn’t a novel idea. In November, Yahoo reached an agreement with seven newspaper chains to integrate the newspapers’ job listings with Yahoo’s HotJobs Web site. Google, Yahoo’s nemesis, signed a deal in which it will sell advertising space in 50 newspapers, including The New York Times.

It sounds like The New York Times is selling out during hard times, but a spokesperson for the company, Abbe Serphos, said “This alliance is about the strength of The New York Times Company brand and local market penetration combined with Monster’s expertise, recruitment tools and brand strength. This is part of our long-term strategy to build our online recruitment product offerings and revenue.”

A step forward

I don’t see this move as something that will break The New York Times. Many people, including Mashable author Paul Glazowski, still want to hold on to the print version of the newspaper. Many people like to read the paper at their leisure, placing their breakfast plate on top of the bottom section of newspaper while they’re reading the top.

The New York Times has simply taken a step further into making their newspaper profitable in a space that is losing money. And, both companies’ stock prices went up after the deal was announced.

The move is something that the newspaper couldn’t not do when the trend of posting classified ads on the Internet is taking over the industry. JupiterResearch analyst Barry Parr told the E-Commerce Times, “We're in for a period of innovation as newspapers try to figure out what they should look like when all the news they print is already online.”

With online job sites taking away one of newspapers’ biggest profit centers, what else would experts expect newspapers to do? To me, this is a smart choice, and really, the only choice.