Microsoft is putting an estimated $500 million into its marketing campaign for the Vista operating system, which launches today--trying to generate consumer enthusiasm for what will soon become the standard operating system for more than 90% of the world's PCs. The real motivation, says one analyst, is the long-term battle to win over consumers' brand loyalty for their digital lives. While reviews of Vista have been positive, they also have noted that the improvements and features are more evolutionary than revolutionary. Microsoft would like customers to think the opposite about Vista and also get them excited about the operating system in the first place. Operating systems are not an aspect of computers that typically wow consumers, if they register at all. That Microsoft is even clamoring for consumers to pay attention to Vista is noteworthy, said Michael Gartenberg, analyst with JupiterResearch. "Consumers don't care about operating systems--they care about features and functions and what Vista can enable for them," Gartenberg said, speaking from a Vista launch event in New York. "The challenge is that it's the only product on the market that has to appeal to the CIOs of Fortune 500 companies and my mother all at the same time." Microsoft is marketing Vista with a campaign that focuses on things that make you go "Wow." "The Wow starts now," which it developed with McCann Worldgroup, is the name for the online campaign to be accompanied by TV spots featuring moments in history that inspired a reaction of "Wow." These range from the fall of the Berlin Wall to ads featuring basketball star LeBron James. PC manufacturers and retailers have been rallying interest in Vista separately, via a combination of in-store promotions and discount coupons for upgrades to Vista, largely to compensate for the delay in the product's release from its original Nov. 30 launch date. "'Wow' is a great way to start off the campaign," Gartenberg said, "but Microsoft is going to have to get very concrete [about Vista] very quickly. Consumers care about digital pictures, safety when they're on the Internet, the user experience. They're not interested in how many lines of code are in a program. It's a challenge for Microsoft to get beyond the technology in terms of the lifestyle Vista enables." Combined with the recent launch of its Zune digital music player, Microsoft is encroaching on Apple's territory. It is expanding its products' capabilities to cater more to the needs of creatives. "The next couple of years are going to be all about whether Microsoft and Apple customers stay with their brands," Gartenberg said. "There's a battle on for the hearts and minds of customers and their digital lives. The launch of Vista is a big milestone in that battle." Both Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and CEO Steve Ballmer hit the road for personal appearances tied into the product launch.
Nationwide Financial Services unleashed another round of pre-game publicity yesterday with the official unveiling of its controversial Super Bowl advertisement starring aspiring rapper Kevin Federline as a fry cook dreaming of stardom. Steven Schreibman, Nationwide's vice president of advertising and brand marketing, hosted a day-long media tour in New York yesterday with a grey-suited Federline after the 30-second ad "officially" broke during a news segment on Good Morning America. It was then posted on the Nationwide Web site, where ancillary elements such as ring tones, a 60-second director's cut, and a 3-minute clip of Kevin's rap will be added through the week. Nationwide also launched advertising for the advertising--an online marketing campaign with banners on sites such as Yahoo and CNN targeting females visiting financial pages. Featuring so-called K-Fed, the estranged spouse of Britney Spears, the banners link to the campaign. The ad plays on the story line of Federline's marital woes, with the tagline: "Life comes at you fast." It's slated to run at the end of the third quarter on Sunday. Adding fat to the fire, as it were, was criticism from the National Restaurant Association, which complained the ad was demeaning to restaurant workers. "I don't think they've seen the ads yet," said Schreibman, who admitted "we did not see that coming." It added an extra week of publicity. A poll on the ABCNews.com Web site showed a 3-1 margin of voters saying the ads were tongue-in-cheek and not demeaning. The decision to advertise on the Super Bowl, where a 30-second spot is drawing as much as $2.6 million, was an easy one for Schreibman, who saw awareness, purchase intent and other important measurements increase "significantly" after last year's ad featuring romance novel cover stud Fabio. After last year's game, the Fabio ad was posted on iFilm and received 1.8 million downloads. "That's a cable show," Schreibman said. The campaign from TM Advertising, Dallas, promotes annuities, a product designed to provide a fixed income. Despite Federline's age, the appeal is intended to reach a broad demographic swath. "You'd have to have been living under a rock not to know the story. Everyone knows the story. My Mom knows the story," Schreibman said. "My research was going home at Thanksgiving and describing the idea and everyone at the table laughed." On a more serious note, Schreibman said, Nationwide wants to educate people that their products go way beyond insurance, for which Nationwide has been "on your side" since 1926. "Everyone's petrified and no one knows how to talk about it," Schreibman said of retirement planning. "Nobody but a select few know how to manage their finances." The campaign also incorporates direct mail, retail and agent marketing materials. Agents will receive a copy of the spot in the mail. A clip posted on YouTube last week was one of the most talked about Super Bowl spots measured. Federline, for one, is happy with the ripple effect on brand K-Fed. "This has been a great way to start the year," he said.
When it comes to this year's Oscar telecast, Procter & Gamble has two words: no deal. The decision to bypass the Academy Awards is part of the company's interest in a "media neutral" approach, which means de-emphasizing the primacy of the 30-second spot. After plugging its Olay Regenerist skin-care brand on last year's highly rated ABC telecast--often referred to as the Super Bowl for women--the marketer said a 2007 appearance isn't in the marketing plans for Olay--or any other brands in its portfolio. "We make decisions on a brand-by-brand basis, based on what makes sense for each individual brand," a P&G rep says, "regardless of the channel." With the frisson over Super Bowl advertising expected to wind down sometime early next week, a few days after the game, interest in Oscar advertisers should pick up steam. Pricing looks to be largely in line with a year ago--in the $1.7 million-per-spot range. Sources said ABC has indicated a willingness to settle for slightly less, perhaps in the $1.5 million area. Besides P&G, State Farm is also dropping out of the awards show, which is viewed by about one-quarter of American homes. The departure leaves open a category-exclusive spot in the insurance arena. Unilever plans to run a spot for its new Dove Cream Oil Body Wash based on a user-generated ad. With so many brands targeting females in its portfolio, P&G's decision to cede its spot on the Academy Awards is surprising. Marketers usually sign multi-year deals for placement in the show and usually renew. That trend should accelerate as advertisers increasingly warm to high-profile live events in an increasingly DVR-driven age. For example, per usual, a slew of marketers are returning for the Feb. 25 broadcast on ABC, including General Motors, AT&T, CareerBuilder.com, American Express, JC Penney, Kodak and Coca-Cola. Many buys include a run of spots such as Coca-Cola, which is expected to have up to six focusing on Diet Coke (an official sponsor), although the marketer may use the inventory for an ad to promote its flagship brand. (MasterCard declined to confirm an expected return.) Ratings for the event--which could be affected by the popularity of nominated films or actors--continue to be strong, although they have declined over the last three years. Household ratings in 2004 reached a 26.0, which dropped slightly to a 25.4 in 2005 and more significantly to 23.1 last year. In the key female 18-to-49 demo, ratings increased in 2005 to an 18.5 from an 18.0 a year before, but fell by 2.3 rating points to 16.2 last year. It's unclear what effect this year's nominees will have on viewership. Top draws Leonardo DiCaprio ("Blood Diamond"), Will Smith ("The Pursuit of Happyness") and Eddie Murphy ("Dreamgirls") are each up for individual awards. But the best-picture slate arguably includes films freighted with niche appeal, save "The Departed." Al Gore's sure-winner in the documentary category," "An Inconvenient Truth," could, however, attract some upscale viewers. Last month on a conference call, Susan Arnold, P&G's vice chair for beauty and health, said the country's largest advertiser is moving full speed ahead with a "media neutral" approach. (The strategy is not exclusive to P&G.) She said it contrasts with standard practice as recently as five years ago, when a 30-second spot would be at the core of a marketing plan and other media were "often just an afterthought." Now, in a holistic campaign, one looks at the end goals for a brand first. Then all media alternatives are evaluated equally as options. That could explain why, despite passing on the Oscar telecast this go-round, Olay Regenerist is advertising on Oscar.com, the site dedicated to the awards show also sold by ABC. Multiple Olay banner ads appear on the home page. Arnold said "interactive" initiatives are receiving increasing favor at P&G, since they promote a "two-way interaction with consumers."
Call it eponymous marketing. In preparation for Super Bowl Sunday, the maker of Stacy's pita chips, soy thin crisps and bagel chips is sending 133,000 party kits to people named Stacy. Kits are timed to coincide with the Thursday launch of a new Web site, CallingAllStacys.com. The URL will appear on packaging. "It's never been done before," said Steve Sears, Stacy's director of marketing, about the outreach to people all having a name Stacy. "There were no guidebooks on how to go about it. We just cast as light a net as possible using direct mail databases. It was a little bit art, a little bit science." The company, which boasts more than $30 million in sales per year, is hoping the strategy will raise its national penetration, from the current 35%-40% range to the 75%-80% range. "We're going at this very aggressively," said Sears. According to IRI, Stacy's market share of pita chips in 2006 was 42%. IRI also said that pita chips were the fastest-growing segment of the salty snacks category. Up to now, the 10-year-old company has relied on word of mouth and charitable giveaways to take it from a cart in Boston's financial district to where it is today. The epony-marketing campaign is the first time the company has paid for a marketing effort. "We hope this gets people talking about the brand," said Sears. The company will include a retailer request form in all the party kits it sends out. Stacy's is also launching its first national advertising campaign. Full-page ads depicting a photographed setting with an illustration of co-founder Stacy Madison will appear in a dozen magazines, Sears said, including the Feb. 19 issue of People. Ads will also appear online. The company's market research found the top 10 cities with the most Stacys are: Minneapolis/St. Paul; Oklahoma City, Okla.; Columbus, Ohio; Indianapolis, Ind.; Salt Lake City, Utah; Dallas/Ft. Worth; Jacksonville, Fla.; Denver, Colo.; Birmingham, Ala.; and Nashville, Tenn. While the direct mail campaign focuses only on men and women who spell their names as Madison does, the new Web site will allow others who use alternative spellings as well as "Stacy wanna-bes" to sign up for free products. "It's the ultimate grassroots campaign," Sears said.
There is no greater collectible than a coin, says Gwynne Gorr. The vice president of marketing and product development at the Franklin Mint this week oversees the issuance of its first coin series in more than five years. The series features the likenesses of 40 American presidents. It is the first new limited edition collectible to be marketed since the Aston, Pa.-based company, founded in 1964, was sold last fall to a group of private investors. Those investors include current chairman M. Moshe Malamud and CEO Steven Sisskind. The new owners hope to restore the company to its former market-leading status. The new series of Presidential art medals "embodies the spirit of collectibility," said Gorr, who has worked at the Franklin Mint for the last 20 years. A limited test of print ads in mass-circulated publications like Parade and FSIs in newspapers rolled out last weekend in an initial bid to sell the Presidential medals. First in the series, George Washington, will be available next week with two new presidential medals issued every other month until the series is complete after Bush leaves office. Limited now to only print, Gorr said the test of advertising is likely to run through the end of the first quarter. "It's a read-and-react test," Gorr said. "There is a planned media expenditure for 2007 that will be adjusted as results dictate. "Depending on the strength of the results, we'll roll out more aggressively" after the first quarter, Gorr said. A TV component featuring the Franklin Mint's recently minted chief numismatist Jay Johnson is also in the works. Johnson was a one-time newscaster, U.S. congressman from Wisconsin, director of the U.S. Mint, and advisor to the U.S. Treasury Department. The Presidential medals, created in conjunction with the White House Historical Society, are the first of what Gorr said would be many new collectible launches. The Franklin Mint has more than 12,000 products that in addition to coins include dolls, sculptures, jewelry, and die-cast models that commemorate some of the world's leading celebrities, companies, and institutions.