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Big Orange Slide

Friday, September 3rd, 2010

Can you trust your friends?

At Large
February 19, 2010 by Dave Hamilton

Illustration by David Faris

A recent Edelman study indicates that our collective willingness to trust what our friends have to say about brands (and companies in general) is down.

Just as many marketers are getting comfortable with shifting dollars to social media, Edelman’s latest “Trust Barometer” presents something of a wrinkle in the plan: the number of people who view their friends and peers as credible sources of information about a company dropped by almost half since 2008, from 45% to 25%.

Reasons?

There are several we can speculate about: economic doom and gloom, a proliferation of empty “fan grab” programs on Facebook, the devolution (in many people’s minds) of FB, Twitter, etc. into mass media, or those suspiciously padded friend lists that number into the thousands.

But if consumers stop believing what their friends are saying about a product or company, the implications are significant for marketers. After all, the recent trend of shifting marketing dollars to social media has been built on the assumed endless availability of that very trust.

What to do? I’ve got my hunches:

Breakthrough: Enough with the fan pages already. Do something unique. Do it first. And don’t confine your efforts to Facebook.

Be multi-channel: Seeding your messages in at least five channels (a mix of online and offline) will give your target the opportunity to absorb your message in different ways and in different states of mind. Willingness to engage differs from channel to channel, and what you give up in reach you may just gain in a willingness to listen.

Converse: More than anything, people want to be listened to. And if your target is people, you’ll want to create avenues at retail and online, and through your PR channels for them to be heard so you can tweak and amplify your message as the relationship evolves. If they think you’re immovable, they just might be too.

In a nutshell, let’s put the mix back in marketing mix. Let’s stop looking for a silver bullet – where a full clip might be called for. Let’s strive to create dialogue and engagement that builds trust rather than erodes it.

Don’t be a “Desperate Marketer”

At Large
February 4, 2010 by Dave Hamilton

Illustration by Brian Ross

I was working on a “best practices” blog post I thought might be of interest to advertisers getting ready to dip their toes into social media . . .

(Grip has had a lot of success in this channel, thanks largely to learning we’ve gleaned from our Young Adult initiatives for brands such as Kokanee, Budweiser and Bud Light.)

. . . but no sooner had I begun to hone my list of “dos and don’ts” when Colin Craig, Associate Partner, Creative (and designer of this here blog), flipped me this: How to suck at Facebook.

Cartoonist Matthew Inman of The Oatmeal describes nine social media personality fails: people who make Facebook worse for everybody. He’s spot on – and I’m not just referring to his “Desperate Marketer” example.

Each of the social media behaviours Inman lampoons offers important lessons for advertisers and marketers venturing into social media.

How do I figure? Because in this new and powerful channel, brands are no longer sponsors underwriting the cost of programming. They are fellow citizens and they’re expected to behave and conduct themselves accordingly.

Why food service marketers should be versed in social media

At Large
January 6, 2010 by Dave Hamilton

Illustration by James Ayres

There’s no shortage of web-savvy business owners boasting unbridled success via promotions on Twitter, or garnering legions of fans on Facebook. But when I recently broached the subject with my brother-in-law, a restaurant operator in Guelph, Ontario, he was unconvinced that social-media tools were a tangible way to boost traffic and ultimately sales in the food service category.

Daunted by his skepticism, I decided to do some digging to bolster my case. The facts are sobering: Nearly one-third of Canadians use social-media websites and tools at least twice a week. That’s according to a 2009 study by Forrester, a digital marketing and advertising consultancy. Additionally, more than half of social-media users say they feel a stronger connection with the companies and brands they can interact with online – in real time.

“Today, digital engagement is about going to where your customers are, listening and then responding with genuine, earnest dialogue,” says Adam Luck, Director of Interactive at Grip.

“Gone are the days of ‘build it and they will come’ websites. Facebook ‘Fan pages,’ like the ones we built for Toronto’s Duke Pubs, are where we are beginning see more and more traction.”

The real opportunity for food service operators looking to connect with their audience lies in reaching consumers where they’re already interacting: microblogs (such as Twitter), social-networking sites (such as Facebook) and opinion- or review-sharing sites such as Yelp.com, CitySearch.com, or local favourites such as MartiniBoys.com and Dine.to.

Not only do these channels foster conversations between brands and consumers, but their low cost-to-use compared with traditional marketing vehicles such as print, television and radio make them an excellent fit for smaller chains or individual franchisees looking to connect with local markets.

“For a startup like us, it’s an easy and inexpensive way to reach current and potential customers,” says Matthew Corrin, Founder and CEO of Freshii, a fast-growing newcomer to the quick-service restaurant (QSR) category.

“Facebook and Twitter allow us to promote specials or announce new store openings, but it’s also been a great way for me to hear honest feedback and course correct our business to better serve our customers.” You can follow Matthew’s tweets here: @freshii.

Simply put, I believe social-media marketing can drive traffic and sales in addition to building brand awareness and loyalty. To that end, Adam Luck (our Director of Interactive) and I have put together some quick thoughts: 5 Tips for Socializing Your Restaurant. If nothing else, I hope my brother-in-law can park his skepticism long enough to read it.

Download The Grip Perspective

Thanks for a great year

At Large
December 24, 2009 by Ian Mackenzie

holiday

Brewing up controversy

At Large
December 23, 2009 by Dave Hamilton

Illustration by James Ayres

A Scottish brewery has launched what is possibly the world’s strongest beer – boasting 32% alcohol content. And the result has been a lot of buzz. PR buzz that is.

BrewDog of Fraserburgh, Scotland, last month unveiled “Tactical Nuclear Penguin.” The beer lays claim to being the world’s strongest. Ever. Whether or not that’s true (or even a good idea taste-wise) the BrewDog team deserves high marks for its creative approach to brand building.

A warning on the label states: “This is an extremely strong beer; it should be enjoyed in small servings and with an air of aristocratic nonchalance. In exactly the same manner that you would enjoy a fine whiskey, a Frank Zappa album or a visit from a friendly yet anxious ghost.”

It’s gotten them into hot water with responsible use groups in the UK and that, in turn, has gotten them a lot of press, which it turns out is nothing new for BrewDog. It would seem to be their master plan, in fact.

From their IPA, aged two months at sea on a voyage around the North Atlantic, to the launch of a “by special order only” 18.2% alcohol beer called “Tokyo” (which it then followed with a low-alcohol beer called “Nanny State” in response to media fuss surrounding the high-alcohol content of Tokyo), to their latest: announcing the world’s strongest beer in penguin suits . . . they know how to get people talking.

The brewery has garnered itself editorial coverage in UK papers: The Sunday Times, The Metro, The Financial Times, The Independent, The Guardian, The Sunday Herald, The Daily Mail, The Sun, plus many others. And that has led to distribution by Tesco, ASDA, Sainsbury’s and Oddbins in the UK, along with distribution in 13 other countries around the world.

Me? I heard about TNP from the drive-time host of Toronto’s Classic Rock station, Q107. “Tactical Nuclear PR Strategy,” if you ask me.

Five great books for lugheads

At Large
November 17, 2009 by Dave Hamilton

Image by James Ayres

I’ve been spoiled. In my (arguably) short career I’ve had the pleasure of writing a lot of advertising that helped sell cars: Acura and Mercedes at the luxury end of the spectrum, as well as mass targeted brands such as Honda, Pontiac and GMC Trucks.

Along the way, I’ve been handed books that shed great insight on the category and fuelled my passion for it. Here are five that anyone interested in the business of selling cars, or building brands, should read:

The Honda Myth: The Genius And His Wake – by Masaaki Sato
A reflection on the work ethic and influential flashes of creativity that have shaped a company that rose from the ashes for WWII to become the world’s eminent brand of not just cars but motorcycles, marine and power equipment.

Driven: Inside BMW, the Most Admired Car Company in the World – by David Kiley
Driven captures BMW at a pivotal time in its corporate evolution and answers some interesting questions: Why have the designs been shaken up so much? Why did they acquire Rolls Royce and Mini? It’s a fascinating peek inside one of the world’s most enduring and successful bands, period.

Lexus: The Relentless Pursuit – by Chester Dawson
A look at how Toyota conceived, developed and launched its own luxury brand: Lexus. This one chronicles how the Japanese giant went from zero to 25% share of the luxury segment in the space of just 10 years.

Where The Suckers Moon: The Life And Death Of An Advertising Campaign – by Randall Rothenberg
This one’s a roller coaster ride. Reads like fiction, but it’s actually a fly-on-the-wall account of the brief, turbulent marriage between a recession-plagued Subaru of America and one the world’s most admired ad agencies.

Six Men Who Built The Modern Auto Industry – by Richard A. Johnson
It’s the story of six men who reshaped the auto industry after World War II: Henry Ford II; Soichiro Honda; Eberhard von Kuenheim (founder of the modern BMW); Lee Iacocca; Ferdinand Piech (builder of Volkswagen Group), and GM executive Robert Lutz. It’s also the story of six personalities that influence the boardroom politics, as well as the products, of their respective companies.

That’s my top five. Did I miss any? Where do you look for inspiration when it’s time to pop the hood on your favourite brands?

When good brands go bad

At Large
November 9, 2009 by Dave Hamilton

KFC

Sometimes, someone in a marketing department gets it in their head that they’re going to lift their brand out of its comfort zone, make a big statement and put it on a pedestal. Sometimes that decision leads to brilliance. And sometimes it leads to a disconnect, or worse, a message that leaves the audience scoffing at misguided self-aggrandizement.

Two cases in point made their way into my living room via the television, as recently as last evening.

The first: KFC’s romantic/dramatic delusions about their new boneless chicken fillets. I’m a closet fan of the Colonel and expect it’s delicious. But, this commercial is trying to make the point that ‘special things come in a box’ with parallels that include an engagement ring, a birthday surprise, the landmark anniversary token, etc. The music is poignant. It’s shot all warm and fuzzy. It climaxes with a reveal of… chicken in box.

If they set out to be funny they missed by a furlong. If, on the other hand, they actually thought they were going to get me to connect “emotionally” with chicken because it comes in, well, a box, then frankly they should be sent to their room without any chicken in a box tonight.

The second: It’s no secret that youth markets are elusive. They often turn up as a gap in market share analysis, and I applaud any hard working marketer or agency partner who rolls up his or her sleeves to try to crack this nut. But have you witnessed the collection of platitudes Miracle Whip is using to try to connect with youth?

The tagline is “We are Miracle Whip. And we will not tone it down.” No, apparently not, because they’ve seemingly ambushed the set of a Canada’s Wonderland commercial, blown the dust off some late-80s Molson Canadian super treatments and bucketed a bunch of long tired advertising clichés like “don’t blend in,” “don’t go unnoticed,” and “don’t be so bland,” under the doozy of a catch phrase: “don’t be so mayo.”

Miracle-Whip

Here’s what one Youtuber had to say: “boycott miracle whip for patronizing their consumers. what kind of idiot would be more inclined to buy miracle whip because its now the ‘rebellious’ thing to do.”

All this to say, yes you should stretch your brand. Yes you should break out of your category expectations and stereotypes. But try not to let those fluorescents in the boardroom blind you to just who you (and your brand) can realistically be out there in the light of day.

A killer app-etizer: big pizza in ’09

At Large
October 29, 2009 by Mike Sutton

Picture 1 A report from Forrester’s Consumer Forum 2009 in Chicago, Illinois.

The theme at this year’s conference is “The Three Dimensional Consumer: Creating Breakthrough Multichannel Relationships.”

The three dimensions are Information, Transaction and Help. The challenge is that consumers are increasingly going online for all three, yet digital channels’ flat, one-dimensional experiences tend to leave consumers feeling empty and disconnected.

In his presentation “Advertising Without Ads: How Pizza Hut Approached the New Marketing Universe”, Pizza Hut’s VP Marketing, Bob Kraut outlined his organization’s approach to the challenge, and their commitment to digital strategy in 2009.

Loyalty is a big challenge in the pizza chain business, says Kraut. Consumers regularly switch between multiple brands, so large brands such as Pizza Hut have to pump out new offers and promotions every four to six weeks to stimulate the market and fight to be the pizza of choice.

The key insight for me in the presentation is that although consumers were not loyal to the restaurant, Pizza Hut found that consumers would be loyal to a particular channel of ordering pizza: their iPhones.

Pizza Hut’s solution? iHut – launched last summer.

Some results:

Tons of downloads. Over the past few months, they have had more than 600,000 downloads of the app and more than $1 million in sales since it launched. It’s now the #2 most downloaded app in the App Store’s “lifestyle” category.

A bigger piece of the online pie. Online ordering is something that they’ve offered for a while, but the iPhone app now accounts for 30% of all online orders and the number is growing every month.

More profitable transactions. They’ve found that the online customer is more profitable and spends on average $2.50 more than the offline customer.

Coupons still work. When they launched the app, they offered a 20% discount on certain menu items when you downloaded the app.

New customers. Kraut also talked about some research they’ve done that leads them to believe that the app has led to new customer acquisition.

Loving the haters. People who had been Pizza Hut rejectors in the past are now customers.

Win with better design. The app itself is very slick, easy to use and nicely designed. So much so, Apple featured the app in one of its TV spots. It’s part pizza ordering app, part game. The app leverages the abilities of the iPhone to allow you to create the exact pizza you want.

A new way to order pizza, pasta and wings. A new channel for Pizza Hut to deliver a fulfilling and convenient experience for their customer. A new way to treat consumers like real people.

Why we love Mad Men

At Large
October 26, 2009 by Dave Hamilton

madMen

Like many ad men, I resisted watching Mad Men, a TV show about a Madison Avenue advertising agency in the early 60s. I took a pass on the show during its first season, catching up with it on DVD when mounting peer pressure and feelings of alienation at dinner parties finally got the better of me.

Perhaps I imagined it was too close to home, or a bit of cliché, or that no self-respecting doctor watches Grey’s Anatomy. Or maybe I just feared it would be as shallow a depiction of what I do as so many Hollywood portrayals have opined in the past.

But by the time the season-three premiere aired last month, I too had created a virtual testament to my addiction to Mad Men in the form of an avatar, posted to my Facebook profile – depicting myself in a chic red dress, gloves, and cat’s-eye glasses.

Thank you madmenyourself.com!

Which is all to say, to my great relief, Mad Men has turned out to be a show that’s less about advertising than it is a show about people – specifically, the kind of people drawn into the world of advertising. The kind of people whose outer shell of confidence is often at odds with doubt, even loathing that lurks beneath the surface.

That’s not to say that other fields of endeavor aren’t equally filled with characters as flawed as us. But the veneers and avatars people fashion for themselves in life are that much more vulnerable for those of us toiling away at the Sterling Coopers of the world, I believe, precisely because we have so long been the manufacturers of veneer.

In the end, watching Mad Men is like looking into a mirror (albeit with better clothes and fewer cocktails). And who in the world of advertising can resist their own reflection?

Drumming up business

At Large
October 21, 2009 by Dave Hamilton

When Sweden’s IceHotel set about extending its brand with the opening of its IceBar concept in Denmark, they created an equally original launch tactic: A video of Robert Eriksson of Swedish garage band The Hellacopters playing a drum kit made of ice.

The Icehotel in Jukkasjärvi, Sweden is the biggest hotel of ice and snow in the world. The whole thing is made from scratch each year, out of snow and ice blocks taken from the Torne River, and exists only between December and April. The IceBar concept aims at bringing this unique experience to a broader (though perhaps less committed) audience.

Before the launch of the bar in April of this year, IceHotel released a viral featuring drummer Eriksson smashing a drum set made of ice. The video, along with its “making of’” companion, has amassed more than a million views on Youtube so far.

Safe to say the tactic is a smash hit.

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