Frito-Lay's Doritos is back at the consumer-generated game once again. This time, it's partnering with Microsoft's Xbox 360 to let fans design an Xbox LIVE Arcade game embodying the spirit of the tortilla chip brand. In addition to a $6,000 prize package, five finalists will get to work with Xbox LIVE Arcade development teams to build playable versions of their game concept, which will be available at the Doritos development Web site www.snackstrongproductions.com. In late October and early November, visitors to the site will get to play the finalists' games and vote for the one concept they want to see developed for release. The winning concept will be developed by Xbox360 for free download in summer 2008. The "Unlock Xbox" promotion kicks off today with an online banner campaign on various sites of interest to the younger gaming demographic, a Frito-Lay spokesperson said. Ideas will be accepted through July 29 at the Doritos site. "Doritos fans continue to tell us how excited they are to be part of, and personalize, what is important to them," says Ann Mukherjee, vice president of marketing for Frito-Lay. Between Aug. 20 and Nov. 18, visitors to www.snackstrongproductions.com can instantly win Xbox 360 consoles, Xbox Live Gold subscriptions and more. "We are always looking for new ways to connect with fans and give them unique opportunities for expressing their creativity that only Xbox 360 and our partners can deliver," says Mike Fischer, general manager of U.S. marketing for Xbox 360. Frito-Lay has made consumer-generated content a cornerstone of its marketing strategy for the Doritos brand. Its "Crash the Super Bowl" campaign drew more than 1,070 videos, with the winner appearing as an ad on the Super Bowl. Next, the "Fight for the Flavor" campaign let consumers vote on which of two new flavors to put on store shelves, with Smokin' Cheddar Barbeque the winner. The latest "X-13D Flavor Experiment" invited consumers to name a new flavor, and more than 100,000 submissions have come in to date, according to Frito-Lay.
To heck with luxury marketing. In its latest move, Wal-Mart Stores is targeting the nation's poorest demographic. The company says it will have 1,000 Wal-Mart MoneyCenters in operation by the end of 2008. And it is rolling out a Wal-Mart MoneyCard, a reloadable prepaid debit card that doesn't require a bank account or a credit check, with national availability by year's end. The announcement is hardly a stunner. Wal-Mart, which leases space to local banks in many of its stores, has been toying with the idea of its own consumer bank for years. But consumer groups and politicians have always shot down its plans. In March, it withdrew its application with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to acquire a specialty bank in Utah. But the money centers--about 250 are already in place--aren't banks. They don't accept deposits or make loans, and as a result, don't need any banking charter, says an FDIC spokesperson. Instead, the centers target "the millions of unbanked and underserved customers who visit Wal-Mart each week for their basic money service needs," the company says. The FDIC estimates about 10 million U.S. households are too poor to have a bank account, and millions more are underserved. (In Wal-Mart-speak, these customers are "outside mainstream banking.") The money centers will provide such services as check cashing, money orders, bill payment and money transfers. The services will be provided at significantly lower rates than Mom-and-Pop check-cashing storefronts. (The centers also compete with larger money-transfer firms, such as Western Union.) Wal-Mart says it will offer savings of 25% to 50% or more over such providers, with a typical "unbanked" customer saving as much as $450 a year. Observers say the move has obvious advantages for Wal-Mart, which has been struggling for ways to increase sales even as it has had to scale back expansion plans. BDO Seidman recently issued a report rating the largest risk factors retailers face in expansion plans, and found that 84% of retailers worry that "adverse community reactions," exactly like the ones that have dogged many of Wal-Mart's growth efforts (including banking) will impede growth. "There is a real perception among consumer groups and tangential businesses that these large retailers are a threat as they continue to look for opportunities to expand," says Doug Hart, a partner in BDO Seidman's retail and consumer products practice. Wal-Mart's move, he says, demonstrates how willing retailers have to be to step outside objections in order to expand their reach. "This is an example of how retailers have had to adjust their plans in reaction to public and regulatory sentiments," Hart says. "It shows their flexibility, because they have come up with a way to provide more convenience to their customers and expand their business, while being politically sensitive."
With the childhood obesity issue and food marketing back in the headlines, McDonald's is launching a summer PR effort it says is in response to consumer rather than political pressure. Six moms will serve as embedded citizen reporters, covering the company from the inside. McDonald's cites a March survey by GfK Roper Custom Research showing that nearly 90% of moms believe it's important that fast-food restaurants provide more information about the food they serve. The six moms--of different ethnicities and from disparate parts of the country--will report to the outside world via blog and video on a McDonald's Web site for the next few months. They will be getting an insider's "Willy Wonka" view of the Oak Ridge, IL-based company, and how it chooses, prepares, and distributes food. Through the Moms' Quality Correspondents program, the women will meet McDonald's nutritionists, chefs, ingredient suppliers, executives and others. The scribes are also getting a look at McDonald's kitchens, menu items in development, and supplier facilities; they'll visit McDonald's beef and produce suppliers, and work a stint behind the counter. The effort runs through September. Reports via journals and downloadable videos start today at http://www.mcdonaldsmom.com. Robert Passikoff, founder and president of marketing consultancy Brand Keys, Inc. doubts the program will work because it isn't being delivered broadly, and because blogs aren't as strong a tool for engaging customers as, say, TV. "Certain media types better reinforce category and brand variables and values than other things," Passikoff says, citing Brand Keys data showing that blogs generate 2% of what he calls "engagement loyalty" versus 10% for cable "These loyalty and engagement metrics are predictive of how people are going to behave, with a strong correlation between behavior and sales," he says. "We shouldn't ignore everything we have learned in 60 years of advertising: people hear better if you yell it from the top of a hill than from the bottom of a well. "There is a certain degree of 'Field of Dreams' approach to this kind of campaign: 'if we get real people and the real people are telling the real story, all the bad misconceptions, all the bad PR won't go away but will be ameliorated.' That's the theory," Passikoff added. " 'Mothers trust mothers, and mothers know,' so let's get a bunch of mothers, and let them write about their experiences." This week, Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) sent letters urging companies to follow Kellogg's decision to curtail marketing of certain foods to kids. Tomorrow, Markey will chair a hearing on TV advertising and childhood obesity, and whether the legislature needs to step in to restrict food marketing to children on TV.
Pharma companies are outsourcing more R&D to free up cash for marketing, according to a new study from Cutting Edge Information. "Uniting R&D and Marketing for Integrated Early-Stage Market Preparation" is Cutting Edge Information's latest study. The report reveals that pharmaceutical companies are looking to the biotech sector to outsource development of new drugs. In doing so, the company can free up resources to market drugs currently in their pipelines. "I think there are two things driving this," says Elio Evangelista, research team leader at the North Carolina-based business intelligence firm. "The first is more spending and more overall focus on marketing. With fewer blockbuster products available in companies' portfolios, those brand teams are finding newer and more innovative ways to market their products." One of those methods is to work more closely with R&D to develop more competitive labels, Evangelista says. The more a company can accomplish in clinical testing during launch, the more competitive it can be on the market. So R&D begins to play a much larger role in product lifecycle management. "The second factor driving this increased communication is, in part, the external pressure for companies to reinvest their profits in more R&D," Evangelista tells Marketing Daily. "In doing so, R&D teams need to work with marketing teams more closely to begin developing products that the market will accept. It's no use spending hundreds of millions of dollars developing a drug that will never reach the market. Therefore, working more closely with marketing teams to develop viable products will go a long way to reducing the costs of health care." The report, available at http://www.UnitingResearchAndMarketing.com, includes strategies and tactics from 15 top pharma companies including Pfizer, Novartis, Merck, and Sanofi-Aventis. One profiled company is in favor of shrinking business unit departments and creating small internal teams to handle deals with small biotechs to outsource most of the early-stage pre-clinical work. The idea is based on the biotech industry's capability to develop innovative products more quickly than slow-moving, large pharmaceutical companies. The company invests almost as much in early-stage research as it would for an in-house compound, but it outsources the work to smaller, faster-moving biotechs, which assume some of the risk that the company would otherwise retain.
It's not exactly soap opera, but Procter & Gamble Productions is still producing it along with the New York Television Festival. The two are creating a comedy TV pilot. The project--a cross between "American Idol" and "SCTV"--launches with a search for funny talent via a nationwide contest to cast a new troupe of comedy performers named "The Procter & Gamble Productions Players." Actors, comedians, and improvisational performers can audition for the group by submitting short comedy sketches on video featuring their performances of original material. P&G and NY TV workshop will choose from among them a cast of six to 15 performers who will attend the NYTVF in New York in September. There they will help develop and star in a new comedy pilot, "The Procter & Gamble Productions Comedy Hour," recorded live for an online audiences on MSN Video. Production is managed by TeleVest Daytime Programs, Inc., which manages production of soap operas and other television and new media content for PGP. As part of the Talent Search, PGP and NYTVF will divide the United States into three regions, Eastern, Central, and Western. To enter, performers in all three regions must record their work on video and upload to the New York Television Festival Web site at nytvf.com/2007_contests_pgp. The cast, as chosen from user ratings on MSN Soapbox and by panel, will be flown to Manhattan to attend the New York Television Festival, running from September 5th through September 10th. Once the teams arrive, members will be shuffled from their original teams into three new groups and given 48 hours to create and rehearse three new comedy sketches. Footage of the work, performed live in front of industry types, and backstage interviews will comprise the TV pilot. The Procter & Gamble Productions Comedy Hour combines the movements of user-generated content, Web 2.0 interactivity, and independent television to create a unique sketch comedy format. Starring some of the most talented new performers in the country, the pilot episode will be showcased to all network partners of the NYTVF and will be available for viewing on MSN Video.
Scion, Toyota's division aimed at younger buyers, has expanded its presence in virtual reality through a partnership with 4-year-old Gaia Online, a Web-based virtual world for teens. Scion will offer Gaia members virtual versions of Scion cars, that they can "buy" with Gaia Gold, a virtual currency, and customize. As part of the program, Gaia members can go to a Scion Garage in the Gaia world, customize the cars with virtual wheels, decals, fog lights, and other after-market accessories, including things like wings and earrings, and then "buy" the cars with Gaia Gold, a virtual currency. They can then compete with their cars in race, shows, and other events. Gaia says it is the fastest-growing social networking site for teens, and claims 2 million visits per month. The San Jose-based company says people spend two hours on average at the site. Like Second Life, another virtual world online, members choose avatars and homes. Adrian Si, Scion interactive marketing manager, says Scion will roll out a multi-phased program with Gaia, with more programs for other Scion vehicles this year, and that Scion has a similar deal with another virtual world, though he wouldn't say which one. Scion began immersing its brand in virtual worlds last year--first in kids' site Whyville, and later in Second Life. "It isn't so much that we want to have virtual versions of the cars, but that we want to have influencers interact with the brand," he says. "Virtual communities are what's next in 3-D Internet. So it's great for us." When the company unveiled its redesigned xB car at the Chicago auto show this year, it ran a parallel press conference simulcast in Second Life, including an avatar version of Scion marketing chief Mark Templin. Si, who explains that Whyville members are 'tweens between 8 and 14, Gaians are in their late teens and 20's, and Second Lifers are in their 30's, said Scion's message isn't wasted on youth too young to drive. "Research shows that kids as young as young as 8 are already thinking about cars," Si says, noting that Scion does no explicit advertising within or without virtual online worlds. Rather, word is spread via billboards and email, or community announcements. A top-down view of Gaia shows the Scion Garage. He explains that the kinds of customized parts and accessories Scion offers in its garage reflects feedback from community members. ROI isn't measured in dealer referrals. "In the virtual community you have to think of engagement, not sales. If they buy a virtual car, they are engaging with the brand; the second thing is that, to a certain degree, you can track quantitative results: you can see how many people visited, how many people customized and bought vehicles, and you can track what people are saying about the brand." On Second Life, Scion ranked second out of 21 companies because of members' ability to trick out their digital cars, he said. A new study from Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions and Starcom MediaVest defined a 17- to-35-year-old "Ad Avoider" demographic and said the way to reach them is to create the space to make a brand "their own"--to shape it, own it, and personalize it. Scion is a client of Millions of Us, a media agency specializing in virtual worlds, which yesterday announced its own partnership with Gaia. Other Millions of Us clients who could show up in Gaia as a result, include Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox, Comcast, Electrolux and Microsoft.