Why settle for an embroidered logo when you can have a four-color, 14.5 x 16.75-inch print-quality ad on the shirts of employees in big box retailers, sports stadiums, theme parks, state fairs, supermarkets, gas stations and drugstores? Actually, that's pretty much what Solomon Emeth was thinking when he started Eye Level Marketing, the newest next in media. Emeth, who spent a few decades in men's clothing, found himself at the turn of the millennium in a business that was limited to embroidering shirts for the Professional Golf Association and theme parks. "It was not being as creative as you could be," he says, understatedly. Now, he and his partners have created a company that already has deals with Universal Studios, a Beverly Hills perfumery, the Indianapolis Colts and the 99¢ Only Stores in California. Eye Level Marketing (tag line: "Be Seen") is in talks with major corporations (many among the Top 100 leading national advertisers), ad agencies across the country and an unspecified racing sport, according to Eye Level's agency, MB2, which happens to be located in Indianapolis, Ind. John Miles, CEO of MB2 (also known as Miles Brinson Brown), says they are spending a lot of time now at trade shows and conventions, even as the new medium is gaining traction, "we're still learning." For example, he says, at a trade show in Las Vegas three weeks ago, "we realized that just showing the shirts wasn't enough. We have to make sure people realize the panels are interchangeable." Ah, the panels. That's where your ad goes. The panels are designed by a patented engineering process to attach to the front and/or back of camp and polo shirts, bibs, vests and aprons created by the company. Advertisements--such as your latest print ad--are sublimated on the clothing in the print process much like an inkjet printer. Miles says any graphic can be reproduced, and the clothing is washable. Details can be found at EyeLevelMarketing.com. Universal Studios employees have been wearing the product for 18 months, Emeth says, with advertisements for its rides and movies. Duty Free Perfumery in Beverly Hills signed on late last year and reports a 12% sales spike in January over January 2006. Store owner Avraham Zajac is blown away. "It is very, very helpful in this business," he says of the product. "We have thousands of types of fragrances. If people don't know what they want, it is difficult to finalize a sale." Zajac has interchangeable panels advertising perfume brands such as Dolce & Gabbana on the apron he wears in the shop. "We are selling brand name products. If people maybe saw an ad in a magazine and they want to try a newer fragrance, if they see one of the three they are testing on my apron, there is a real, palpable chance they are gonna buy it. "This is what any retailer would want. It's neat, easy, clear and a wonderful idea. I am sure it's going to go like wild." Eye Level is talking with pro football teams after a successful run with the Indianapolis Colts (there's that Indianapolis connection again), wherein the stadium staff wore vests with front and back panels advertising one of 10 corporate sponsors, including Motorola, Chevy, Charter One Bank and a construction union. Stadium advertising is costly, and space is often sold out. Emeth is particularly eager to bring stadium advertising to those who heretofore could not afford it. "It creates a whole new platform or inventory in which to sell traditional [big-ticket] products or local products and services," he says. "The construction union was now able to really sponsor the day on these vests, which will attract new advertisers to the platform, and that is what got the eye of the NFL officials." At a New York trade show, Emeth says, "we were approached by someone with P&G, who called his ad agency to come down and see this concept. We're really getting our feet under us." Eye Level Marketing is testing the concept in the U.S. as well as in Japan, Korea, Israel and South Africa. "We keep saying, let's move slow, do it correctly, go to trade shows and, down the road, we'll do trade advertising," says Miles. "They've only approached one side of this business--in-store, in-market people, arena people, grocery people, retailers. Once that's established, there's the agency side, where people can have inventory to sell. "This is so strong that instead of trying to sell the complete package, it'll come with time. We're approaching all potential uses, letting people use the product so they can see how nice it is. It's not silkscreen."
The pickup truck market will sizzle this year, thanks to Chevy's Silverado and Toyota's Tundra, both relaunched within the last few months. Toyota's Tundra, on sale for just shy of two months, is living up to the company's predictions that it would keep current owners and win converts, while consumer loyalty for domestic brands is still strong. According to J.D. Power and Associates' PIN (Power Information Network) study for the first two months of the year, 53% of owners of late-model Tundras shopping for a new pickup bought the new Tundra, over twice the return rate of its predecessor. Tundra is also luring buyers from other brands, per the consultancy--although consumers are paying more on average for the Tundra than for competitors. The national average transaction price for the truck in the first two months was $33,182, per JD Power--about $900 more than Ford's F-150, $1,450 more than Chevy Silverado, $7,618 more than Dodge's Ram pickup, and $5,518 more than Nissan's Titan. The consultancy predicts that Tundra's sales this year will be in the neighborhood of 210,000--nearly double last year's sales. Still, that's a far cry from the domestics, whose yearly truck sales last year were more than 1.64 million vehicles. Sales data from the PIN study suggests that Ford and GM owners are still highly loyal, with Silverado and F-150 loyalty number up 4% from January to February this year, per the consultancy. Owner loyalty for Chrysler Group's Dodge Ram is flat. The result of increased loyalty for Toyota and the domestic makes has boosted pickup-truck share of the US new-vehicle, from 12.4 in January to 14.4% last month. Tom Libby, senior director of industry analysis at the consultancy, says the news means a much better year for truck makers because competitive ads and incentives environment will stimulate the market. "We see, overall, this year trucks will be up 5%," he says. The consultancy is predicting automakers will sell 2.36 million new pickup trucks this year versus 2.25 million last year. "We have seen, in the first two months, the overall industry is down 2.4% while non-luxury pickups are up 1%," he says. Libby says Ford will certainly respond to the fact that, for the first time, Chevrolet's Silverado has outsold the Ford F-150--the top-selling vehicle in the U.S. for decades--for the past two months. "The Silverado will drive Ford sales because Ford has to respond," he says, adding that the last time Silverado edged out F-150 for the top pickup spot was in 2005, when GM rolled out its employee pricing incentive push. "Ford will accelerate incentives, because they won't relinquish that number-one spot," he says. "They will do what it takes. It will be a brutally competitive situation, and the winners will be consumers because the incentives will be huge."
Honda has begun a national integrated ad push that targets racing enthusiasts as well as the general market and coincides with the start of the Indy Racing League (IRL) season in Miami last weekend. The campaign, to promote Honda's tamer consumer vehicles, exploits Honda's status--for the second year running--as sole engine supplier for the IndyCar series. The effort, via long-time agency of record RPA, Santa Monica, Calif., features a 30-second TV spot, "Starting Up." It shows Honda race cars, motorcycles, and even boat engines as well as Honda consumer vehicles of all stripes gearing up for ignition, with the click of lights going on, magnetos activated, all leading up to the moment of ignition. Tag: "The Power of Dreams." The ad broke on ESPN SportsCenter's broadcast of the Homestead-Miami Speedway Indy race on Saturday, and a heavier presence is planned for the Indianapolis 500 period in May, per the agency. The spot will run on broadcasts of all 17 IRL races and on cable. The effort includes print ads thematically mirroring the TV spot that will appear in auto- and racing-enthusiast publications. The print ad will run in USA Today prior to races to urge consumers to tune in. Interactive elements launch in May on ESPN and Speed Channel Web sites and focus on the Indy 500 warm-up and race period. Online creative includes 15-second versions of the TV spot. In addition, search and site targeting will be used to maximize Honda's presence on Honda/IRL sites to help drive traffic to http://racing.honda.com/. Jim Real, associate creative director at RPA, says the message is that what Honda does on the track translates into the showroom. He says that, although it's not a new strategy for Honda, the company typically offers the pitch solely to race enthusiasts, but this time it's aimed more broadly to include the general market as well, with the ad running on cable and print ads. "The thought is that viewers will see that Honda's passion and enthusiasm about engines carries through on everything Honda does," says Real, who adds that the ads seek to avoid clichés around racing footage while building a sense of excitement. "You see and hear engines starting up, but you never actually see anything drive."
Chase Home Lending is targeting Chinese-Americans for the first time as potential residential loan customers. The Iselin, N.J. company is sponsoring the first in-language home-makeover program produced in the U.S. for that segment of the emerging market. The series, "Better Living in USA" by JLG Entertainment, is an informational TV series aimed at Chinese immigrants about home design and ownership. JLG also produced a Chase TV ad that will run during broadcasts of the show. The first episode of the program was broadcast Saturday in both Mandarin and Cantonese on Sinovision's three channels in New York and on Sky Link on the West Coast. The show begins airing in San Francisco in April. Each of the initial 12 episodes--only seven minutes long--discusses financing, energy conservation, insurance and other property-related topics. Chase will align with the show by launching an advertising campaign called "Better Living," featuring a 30-second commercial that plays off the Chinese concept of double happiness by promoting "Triple Happiness"--marriage, a new baby and a new home. The spot shows a young couple celebrating their wedding anniversary. The wife gives her husband a book for fathers, letting him know she is pregnant. He gives her a set of keys to their new home--financed with a mortgage from Chase. The ad, broadcast in Cantonese and Mandarin, is Chase's first television commercial created for Asian consumers. Chase Senior Vice President Thasunda Duckett says the effort was timed to follow the Lunar New Year, which is widely celebrated in the Asian community, and also to tie in with the consumer home-buying season, which traditionally heats up in the spring/early summer. But it also caps Chase's efforts to build a marketing presence in the Asian community. "We have continuously grown our diverse sales force. We now have a robust sales force in key Asian communities that can work with customers in their native language," she says--adding that while Chase has run ads directed at Asian Americans, "this is the first time that we've created a television commercial for Asian consumers in their language. In other words, we did not translate a standard corporate English-language ad, but instead created this advertisement specifically for this market and in Chinese dialects." She says that, per Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies, Asians are the second-fastest-growing minority population in the U.S., and in the next two decades Asians and Pacific Islanders will account for 13% of growth--or about 3.5 million--in new households. "And about two-thirds of these new households, approximately 2.3 million, will become homeowners," she says. In 2006, Chase Home Lending ran a print advertising campaign in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York called "Better Focus," which was meant to brand the Chase name in the Asian community. "Other Chase businesses, specifically Chase bank branches, have run print ads in Asian-language publications in select markets. According to U.S. Census bureau estimates for 2004, more than 5% of the population calls itself Asian, and about 25% of foreign-born Americans come from Asia. The median income reporting race as Asian was $57,518, versus $44,389 for the general population. The states with the greatest concentration of Chinese Americans are California, New York, Hawaii, Texas and New Jersey, constituting 80% of the Chinese American population, with California grabbing a 40% share.
While retailers know consumers are devoted to online product searches, a new survey from the Retail Advertising and Marketing Association (RAMA) finds that traditional advertising--especially in magazines--plays a big role in directing those searches. The poll found that 47.2% of shoppers are most likely to start an online search after viewing a magazine ad, while 43.7% said reading an article was most likely to send them surfing. TV ads (42.8%) came next, followed by newspaper ads (42.3%). There were also gender differences. Women were more likely than men to be motivated by both coupons (41.8% versus 29.0%) and in-store promotions (29.0% versus 24.5%). And word of mouth inspired more of men's searches: 36.1% of men's searches were inspired by a face-to-face conversation, compared to 29.5% of women. The poll, which included more than 15,200 shoppers, also turned up some insights about the way consumers share what they have learned online with others. "After searching, online consumers said they are most likely to communicate with others about their search through face-to-face discussion (68.9%), although e-mail (53.1%), telephone (50.9%), and cell phone (30%) communication were also popular choices," RAMA says. Young adults (18-24) also say they send IMs about what they've learned (37.5%), text message (23.7%), and use outlets like online communities like MySpace and Facebook (20.6%). While traditional media may spark searches, the poll also affirms that online communication is huge for retailers. According to the survey, 92.5 percent of adults "regularly or occasionally" go online before making a purchase. Electronics continue to be the most researched category (50.8%) followed by apparel (31.9%), and appliances (27.0%). "When it comes to advertising, retailers always need to be careful not to put all of their eggs in one basket," RAMA says in a release. "While search engine marketing continues to be a popular strategy, retailers should not lose sight of traditional advertising channels to promote products and services."
Procter & Gamble is running ads on TV and in print for its newest lines of Pringles, minis and select, which are packaged in bags and not in the iconic cans. Thirty-second spots, created by Grey, N.Y., are running on network and cable as well as online and in print--mostly women's magazines, says a P&G spokeswoman Jen Becker. Pringles Select are P&G's first foray into the premium chip market. With the tag line, "Pleasure. Every Single Pringle," "Pringles are moving beyond the can," she says. "It's a mega brand that is all about fun and great taste." Pringles Select are shaped differently than traditional canned Pringles, which are saddle-shaped and stacked in tubular cans. "We wanted a unique packaging that communicated the premium qualities of the product," which Becker calls "gourmet indulgent" and "adult focused." Minis are P&G's portion-control version of Pringles. They come in 5- and 16-count variety packs and contain 120 calories per bag. The company also is running a "Jingles for Pringles" contest whose winner will get a VIP trip for two to the "American Idol" finale. Participants write an original jingle, make a video and upload it to jinglesforpringles.com. A dozen finalists will win a digital video camera. Last Friday, the most-watched video had gotten more than 27,500 views. According to Nielsen Monitor-Plus, P&G spent $33.7 million on advertising for Pringles in 2006--up from $31 million the year before.