Posts Tagged: Marketing

Advertising / Branding / Event Promotions — No Comments
12
Jan 09

Sharpen your Blades! Red Bull Event Promotions

Red Bull has me really hooked at the moment with their Crashed Ice Promotion coming up in Quebec City. I’ve looked at the promotional materials and a few clips of this event and it looks like complete insanity. Upon looking at it further I’ve noticed that this is a very different sports sponsorship than what many other larger companies have been doing ( such as sponsorship of an established event or buying naming rights to the venue) .

Rather than take something proven and established , Red Bull has partnered with  a host city ( locations included Helsinki, Stockholm, Moscow and  Quebec City since 2006) combined popular aspects of hockey and luge and created an event that they take they can take  full credit for.  Risky business, but obviously for Red Bull this works as this event has been going world wide since 2000.

This isn’t the first event Red Bull has hosted and created as they’ve been involved as well with the creation of FlugTag USA  ( home made gliders going over a cliff competing for the farthest distance, amazing!) . Overall I’m really excited for Crashed Ice to come around and thought this was a  great case of  a  brand promoting itself. You can check out the Crashed Ice Website here  or check out the the Youtube clip I’ve included . Crashed Ice is going to be occuring on Jan. 24th on TSN for those of you who want to watch it for yourself….. my goal is  to go and see it live in 2010!

 

 

Questions/Comments?: contact me at kevin.richard@ryerson.ca or send me a twitter message.

Advertising — 2 Comments
22
Dec 08

You Stole My Virginity! Can I have another Whopper?!

In terms of advertising and promotions Burger king has been using a lot of creativity compared to their competitors in the fast food industry. This included the viral site Subservient Chicken  and the creation of the “King”   in commericial campaigns  and even his own  series of successful video games . Going in a different direction the creative minds at Burger King have come up with another interesting idea, a documentary!

Titled the Whopper Virgins  a crew of researchers hired by Burger King  are tasked  with finding once and for all who has the better Burger ? Mcdonanlds or Burger King. This documentary created by ad firm Crispin, Porter and Bogusky  goes into remote villages of  Greenland ,Romania and Thailand places that have never seen a burger  where the term Whopper Virgins come in. Through comparative taste tests between the Whopper and Big Mac  from a taste test of these populations the researchers come to the conclusion that tasters preffered the Whopper.  

While some claim that the whole idea  offensive  or even exploitive,  I thought it was brilliant! Barring all the arguements that its intruding on these villagers, making light of hunger issues or  exposing them to potentially harmful North American culture( is a single burger so bad?)   it none the less sparked discussion and feelings about Burger King and its Whopper sandwhich,something that  every promotional campaign builds towards.

I’m sure this documentary won’t be seen by a large portion of the population  and it won’t create new markets in Greenland any time soon but  more importantly it  went on to instill ideas and has even sparked  discussion among consumers making it more likely that BK will stay in their  top of mind awareness . This is unlike general commercials from Mcdonalds and Wendy’s which may spur a quick hunger pang from the thought of all of that greasy goodness ( mmm burgers!) but will be forgotten within a few minutes of viewing like all the other commericials consumers are bombarded within a day. 

I’ve included the documentary below (its short!) check it out if you can: 

 

Communications / General Business — No Comments
17
Dec 08

Monster Cable’s Ugly Fight

In an interesting he said,she(?) said sort of battle Monster Cable has filed suit (since dropped) with Monster MiniGolf over the use of Monster in its name arguing that it holds the legal trademark of “Monster” and only they have the right to liscence and sell it .Monster MiniGolf feeling pushed into a corner has smartly brought this fight to the public via an Ebay posting appealing to the general public to buy a $1 Monster Mini Golf coupon to defray their legal costs. Since then this name battle has been picked up in local news media ( ABC News 10 of California) prominent blogs ( Consumerist, Engadget) and social news sites ( Reddit,Digg) and has recieved a large negative reaction.

Noticing that the company is recieving a lot of negative press coverage and feedback, Monster Cable has since dropped the suit and laid out its side of the story on a page of its website . In a video statement from CEO Noel Lee the company claims that they too are the little guy and they simply don’t want to see a franchiser make profit off their trademark ( video after post) . In an act to make the company seem less cold and uncaring they have also asked Monster Mini Golf to donate a monthly $100 fee to a chosen charity for use of its name .*

I think in the end of it all Monster Cable has wasted time and resources just to come out looking like a bad guy and will loose sales as a result . If they had a redo I would suggest to them that they do one of two things: either calling Monster MiniGolf out publicily stating that hey, you’re using our trademark , stop or pay up and follow it through to the end ( rather than look like a company that waivers or is just out to get people) or that they just not bother with the whole mess to begin with.

This is a case of dragging your ( already tarnished?) name in the mud over an issue that most people don’t care about…. and hey if you want to protect your name so much what about Monster Energy Drink? I would understand if it were a more obscure name like Twitter or Microsoft, but with such a generic name the company shouldn’t be dependant on just the name but what product and brand attributes they stand for.

*Monster MiniGolf has since made a public statement

Branding — No Comments
15
Dec 08

Going Viral: Building Awareness or Weakening Your Brand?

Just recently I came across 2 videos from DETAILS Magazine on you-tube that made me do a bit of a double take: Gabe and Max’s Guide to  Man Style and Video #2  Beauty Tips.  The First video ( posted below) starts in a style similar to what you would expect from a magazine like DETAILS ( except the photo-shopped photos)  but as the video goes on it becomes obvious that its an over the top  comedy video that’s not great but is OK for a bit of a laugh. Included in the 1st video  are the “4 pillars of  Man Style” which include:

1. Only owning silk underwear.

2. Confidence : “Never don’t be confident” 

3.Wear a little bit of Makeup ( all men want to look,manly?)

4. Be Yourself: Everybody has their own ‘personality’ (I’m  obviously Mr Pure Granola!)

Posted last month these videos are among DETAIL’s more successful videos with the more recent video “Beauty Tips” gaining over 180,000 views. This would be great if it were a clear part of the brand or if this channel were specifically dedicated as a magazine “funny page” but video’s like this are mixed in  with more serious video’s like  interviews with Anna Faris and Ben Aflec and  style tutorials like How to tie a Scarf and How to fold a pocket square, part of the magazines core business which in comparision peform poorly in view count. 

Adding further confusion to DETAIL’s branding is its own website  which is very clean cut and serious.  Some may argue otherwise, but with competing  magazines such as Mens Health, Esquire and Mens Journal and an increasing on-line audience ( Ask Men) I feel DETAILS could instead  use You-tube as a strong medium to instead communicate with its core customer base ( as there are many guys like me who will look at a funny video , have their laughs and leave adding no value ). I also think as a company DETAILS  needs to  focus  their efforts on presenting them-self  as a serious contender rather than investing time in non core projects like posting  “funny you-tube videos” .  

Sales in  print media are dropping ( The New York Times having to mortgage its headquarters,that’s scary) and DETAIL’s along with other magazines in this segment will have a challenge ahead to keep the mind share of their target audience. Of course funny video’s will bring in the hits (Crazy Frog anyone?), but in the end DETAILS should be focusing on building value for its customers to continue its profitability.  

I’ve included the described videos. Admittedly they were a decent laugh and I plan to check out the original comedians:

Newer Entries →