For the second time in two years, Volkswagen's advertising has landed the car company in hot water. First, it was a spot that apparently never aired but was widely circulated on the Internet. It showed a Middle Eastern man wearing a Palestinian scarf detonating a bomb inside a VW Polo at a crowded outdoor café. So strong is the car, the blast stays inside. VW distanced itself from that ad, saying it was only a test and never meant for public consumption. Stateside, VW has just pulled its four-day-old spot, called "Jumper," which shows a man despondent over car prices contemplating suicide on a bridge. Learning that VW has models that sell for less than $17,000, he changes his mind. The ad was created by Crispin Porter & Bogusky of Miami, which referred calls to VW. Yesterday morning, VW was steadfast in its response to suicide prevention and mental health groups who had called on the carmaker to stop showing the ad, saying that "controversy is not something VW has shied away from in its marketing." Hours later came the news that it had decided to pull the spot. "While our current advertising campaign is all about the optimism inherent to the Volkswagen brand, sensitivity is also key to who we are," said a spokesperson. "With that sensitivity in mind, we have withdrawn this television commercial." The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention lauded the move and thanked the company. VW joins General Motors, which pulled a similar ad under similar pressure. It showed a robot who commits suicide by jumping off a bridge because he made a mistake on the assembly line, but awakens to find it was just a dream. GM has said it will tweak the ending of the ad, created by Deutsch/L.A., which first ran during the Super Bowl. The new ad will run during the Academy Awards on Feb. 25. VW is running two other ads, neither of which are controversial, the company said. The time between protest and pull is getting shorter. Calls for GM to pull its robo-cide ad came several days before GM bowed to that pressure. It took VW less than a 24-hour news cycle to follow suit. Efforts to have the ads removed were coordinated by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, the American Psychiatric Association, Mental Health America and the National Alliance on Mental Illness. VW spent slightly less than $300 million on measured media in 2006, down nearly 15% from the previous year, per Nielsen Monitor-Plus. Crispin, Porter was awarded the business in late 2005 without a review.
Wal-Mart, which has been shaking up its marketing ranks for months, announced the latest changes yesterday. The company's most senior online executive, Carter Cast, was named to head U.S. business strategy. Raul Vazquez, who was CMO of Walmart.com, succeeds Cast as president and CEO of Walmart.com. Both Cast and Vazquez will report to Eduardo Castro-Wright, president and CEO of Wal-Mart Stores' U.S. division, the company said. The new appointments will "build upon our strength and ability to provide a comprehensive, multi-channel experience for our customers," the company said. Last month, Walmart.com was ranked No. 4 in terms of traffic among U.S. retailers, according to comScore Media Metrix. (It followed eBay, Amazon, and Apple.) Wal-Mart doesn't break out its online sales, but analysts estimate them to total between $1 billion and $3 billion. And while that's big, many don't believe it's big enough. "Even if their sales are $2 billion," said Sucharita Mulpuru, senior e-commerce analyst for Forrester Research. "Wal-Mart is such a behemoth. And for less than 1% of sales to come from online shoppers, you can see that it is struggling with what role the Web has in its business. While $2 billion is a significant portion of the total online pie, and certainly makes it among the top 10, it should be bigger, maybe even twice what it is." It doesn't help that the online unit isn't even at the company's Bentonville, Ark., headquarters, but in Brisbane, Calif. "It's kind of a Catch-22. Until you are a bigger part of the business, you don't get the resources you need. That's a big impediment to becoming a true multi-channel retailer," Mulpuru said. Last month, Wal-Mart shifted former CMO John Fleming into a top merchandising role. Stephen Quinn succeeded him as CMO. Former Target executive Fleming had hired Julie Roehm as senior vice president of advertising. Roehm and her associate, Sean Womack, were subsequently dismissed from the company in a scandal surrounding the selection of DraftFCB as the Wal-Mart advertising agency. That choice was rescinded and The Martin Agency won the assignment in a repitch. Roehm and Womack have formed a marketing consultancy centered on the concept of Marketing 2.x and are making public appearances to discuss it.
Shell Oil, back in Nascar for the first time in a decade, will rev up its recently signed sponsorship of Richard Childress Racing's driver, Kevin Harvick, with an integrated campaign launching at this weekend's Daytona 500 Nextel Cup kickoff race. Shell and its Pennzoil brand will grace Harvick's No. 29 car, the No. 31 car driven by Jeff Burton and the No. 07 car driven by Clint Bowyer. The retail element at Shell's 13,000 stores includes in-store branding and merchandising, including an interactive life-sized cutout of Harvick that includes a recording of his voice, special-edition apparel exclusive to Shell locations, collectibles, race schedules and a Shell Racing gift card. Beyond Shell stores, the company is launching an interactive road show called "Passionate Experts" that debuts today at Daytona and visits 15 cities this spring, including race venues. The program, really a pitch for Shell-branded gasoline versus the generic discount brands, includes interactive exhibits, games and interactive videos encasing a product pitch for Shell fuels offered through demonstrations. The demo uses an engine that has been bifurcated so one half runs on Shell gas and the other on discount gas. Then the engine is examined for build-up and sludge. Gerardo Amado, Shell gasoline brand manager said the effort furthers the "Top Tier" awareness campaign Shell launched last year to promote its three-year-old V-Power gasoline brand and the fact that its Regular, Plus and V-Power grades of gasoline meet the "Top Tier Detergent Gasoline" standard that GM, BMW, Honda and Toyota instituted last year. "What we are showing consumers is the distance between quality of Shell gasoline set by major automakers," he said. "This has been a continuation of our communications with consumers about the difference between Shell and others that do not meet top tier. We introduced 'Top Tier' to consumers, and this year we are building on that same message." The tour also has a PR pitch for clean energy, "Future of Energy," that examines alternative energy resources, and a display about bio-fuels. Later this year, the company will kick off a national network and cable TV advertising campaign with a 30-second spot via Shell's agency, JWT, Houston, depicting Harvick in a humorous on-the-road driving experience with two actors portraying Shell scientists. Shell will also have links and race information on its corporate Web site, Shell.com/us. This is a big year for Nascar, now the second-richest sport after the NFL, and No. 1 in Fortune 500 sponsorships. The sport, which brought in a reported $3 billion, including $650 million in sponsorship from marketers last year, begins an eight-year contract this year with ABC-ESPN. In November, Bank of America signed on, paying a reported $15-20 million a year to be the official bank of Nascar, and Tylenol became the official pain medication of Nascar, dethroning long-time sponsor Goody's Headache Powder. Also this year, in an effort to woo younger fans and update its image, Nascar launched a "Car of Tomorrow" program, featuring a Nascar concept vehicle that will participate in actual races and signed former "American Idol" Kelly Clarkson. Clarkson will do a concert at a Nascar track, a TV spot and appear at Nascar events. The relationship kicks off Sunday before the Daytona 500 Nextel Cup race, when Clarkson headlines the Nextel Tribute to America on Fox. If there's a blip on the Nascar screen, it is that TV ratings were down 10% toward the end of the season, with attendance down at most tracks.
If evidence were needed that a Super Bowl campaign consists of more than just an ad, consider the case of Emerald Nuts. Parent Diamond Foods reports Emerald Nuts January sales were up 68% over the same month in 2006, and that's before the commercial starring Robert Goulet even started to air. IRI reports Emerald dollar sales for the four-week January period of $4.6 million (excluding Wal-Mart), which also reflects a 25% increase over December sales. The nutty spot that drew strong reviews from critics and consumers broke during the Feb. 4 Super Bowl. The pre-Bowl marketing blitz included in-store displays, a nationally distributed newspaper insert with coupon and an online campaign driving people to the Web site. These marketing components and an extensive PR campaign generated awareness of Emerald's commercial from Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco. The campaign continues on the Web. Traffic to EmeraldNuts.com on the Monday after the game tripled compared to the same day last year, and views on YouTube of the 30-second ad featuring Goulet hit the 1 million mark in five days. Combining the brand's trademark offbeat sense of humor with the star power of Goulet, the campaign conveyed the message that nuts are an excellent source of natural energy during the time of day when people need it the most. The Web site features an ongoing campaign surrounding Goulet's office antics, which were popularized by the commercial in which he played tricks on low-energy snoozing workers.