1-800-Contacts, based in Draper, Utah, is teaming with corporate goliath Wal-Mart to offer consumers savings, improved convenience and better eye health. But it will still do its own ads. "It's interesting," says 1-800 corporate spokesperson Kevin McCallum. "Our corporate cultures are very similar, but we have our own creative staff. We create the storyboard, write and shoot our own commercials--and that won't change." According to McCallum, 1-800's marketing campaign includes TV, radio, direct mail, customer loyalty programs and what he calls "street fighting" (once known as guerrilla marketing), such as campus visits and grocery store placement near lens cleaning solutions, online, search engine, and affiliate and partnership portals. According to Nielsen Monitor-Plus, the company more than doubled its ad spend last year to $9.6 million through October, compared to $3.9 for all of 2006. But the company, which has 650 employees, will work with Wal-Mart's marketing group, he tells Marketing Daily. "It'll be a cross between the big stuff with the New York agencies and our entrepreneurial stuff." Clearly comfortable uniting with a company that annually hires 10,000 times the number of employees it has, McCallum says the deal is in its early stages and too new to have worked out the marketing details. The companies expect to integrate store, Web, and phone service this fall. "We are two different companies that complement our core competencies," he says. "They have [3,000] stores and we have a major online presence as well as a 24/7 call center." In a press release announcing the arrangement on Friday, the companies estimated it could save consumers $400 million on contact lenses over the next three years. "By offering greater accessibility and savings on contact lenses, the alliance also aims to make it easier to replace lenses according to a schedule doctors recommend--a practice that may result in better eye health," the companies said, citing a 2004 Federal Trade Commission report that showed some consumers "over-wearing" lenses in order to save money and because they found it inconvenient to get new ones. The study states that "57% of consumers ... would replace their lenses more frequently if the lenses cost less." 1-800 was founded in 1995 by entrepreneurs. Sales have grown from $4 million in 1996 to $249 million in 2006, the last year for which sales are posted on its Web site. It "stocks more than 20 million contact lenses (the world's largest inventory) and delivers over 150,000 every day directly to customers."
Nintendo hosted a launch party on Sunday to celebrate the release of "Advance Wars: Days of Ruin." Hundreds of video-game enthusiasts packed the Nintendo World store in New York's Rockefeller Plaza. Nintendo put on the event to thank hardcore, loyal followers. Recently, the company branched out promotional efforts toward casual gamers to reach into new markets. Passionate gamers with an appetite for virtual combat got a sneak peek at the latest "Advance Wars" title and a chance to win awesome prizes. The first 25 to line up outside the store received a free copy of the game. There also were trivia challenges and an opportunity to create colorful "Advance Wars" battle maps and compete in a live, multi-player tournament. New York-based media company UGO Networks has partnered with Nintendo to post live blogs and podcasts on its Web site, providing up-to-the-minute news on the store event, which delights independent online merchants and auction site eBay power sellers like Steve Grossberg. Nintendo's grandiose marketing efforts help retailers sell products, too, according to Grossberg, president of Budget Video Games and founder of the Internet Merchants Association, a non-profit trade group. "Nintendo is the best game marketer in the industry," he says. "Their marketing creates incredible awareness for the new games coming out." Grossberg typically sees a spike in sales at the time Nintendo markets specific products. "One day last week, 65% of my shipments for that day were for Nintendo console products," he says. "During Christmas, Nintendo heavily marketed games called 'Brain Age 2' and 'Flash Focus' for Nintendo DS, and these games just flew off the shelves." In 2007, Budget Video Games generated $3 million in sales--up 30% from the prior year, with assists from Nintendo's marketing efforts, Grossberg says. "Nintendo helps us double demand for games because they do an effective job in marketing products," he says. "Advance Wars: Days of Ruin" for Nintendo DS offers an updated combat series with a host of new characters, enhanced graphics and wireless features. In this sequel, players lead troops through a battle to save the planet, using their own strategy and the wireless function on the Nintendo DS. Nintendo's idea to offer something for everyone has the company introducing a scuba diving game for casual gamers called "Endless Ocean" today, too. Along with the 25 copies at the door, Nintendo plans to give away T-shirts throughout the event, says Eric Walter, Nintendo spokesman. "The world store in New York isn't just a tourist destination, but a venue to showcase our games. It has the space to pack in a lot of folks." Walter says Nintendo did similar events when launching "Zelda: Phantom Hourglass" and "Super Mario Galaxy." "Advance Wars: Days of Ruin" will retail for $34.99. Video-game retail sales reached $17.94 billion in 2007--up from $12.53 billion in the prior year, according to the NPD Group. Analyst Anita Frazier attributes the increase to demand for games like "Halo 3" and "PS2 Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock" along with next-generation consoles Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS, Microsoft Xbox 360, and Sony PlayStation 2. "Nintendo has certainly been the belle of the hardware ball this year, capturing the top two spots for hardware unit sales for the year with the DS followed by the Wii," Frazier tells Marketing Daily. "The DS has driven portable gaming to a new level, and for the second year in a row, the DS has been the top-selling hardware platform."
The American Legacy Foundation (ALF), an anti-smoking fund funded by tobacco companies following a late-1990s settlement agreement, is launching a new campaign in its eight-year-old "Truth" campaign aimed at keeping kids away from cigarettes. The effort, launching this week, comprises TV ads, an Interactive campaign and a summer tour. It is also the last "Truth" campaign in which both Arnold Worldwide and Crispin Porter + Bogusky (the latter is departing the campaign) participated. The campaign aims to alert teens and twenty-somethings to the dangers of smoking without sounding like their parents. The new push, "The Sunny Side of Truth," is a tongue-in-cheek effort that matches Broadway-style music and lyrics in ads--some of which are animated--with a satirical spotlight on marketing practices by tobacco companies. Actually, the musical-theater tone is not happenstance: the music is by David Yazbek, who wrote Broadway shows "The Full Monty" and "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels." The five TV spots initially follow a motif that "Truth" has used in documentary-style ads in the past, with young people gathering in places like the edifice of a tobacco-industry headquarters. But suddenly the group breaks into song and dance when they realize the "sunny side" of smoking and Big Tobacco tactics. In one, teenagers in front of a tobacco company HQ are unrolling a banner with "Tobacco-Related Deaths" written on it. One says: "Wait until we show tobacco executives the 5 million people around the world who died from their products last year." Another responds that he's being, perhaps, a bit negative, suggesting that the 5 million statistic is actually a typo. Then, animated typewriters and accessories accompany the teens in a song and dance about how the statistics are the result of a clerical error. In another spot, teen protesters are setting traps in a NYC park using cigarette packs as bait to demonstrate how Big Tobacco has manipulated levels of nicotine in cigarettes to keep people addicted, but not enough to make them sick. As he speaks to passersby through a megaphone, suddenly a unicorn and other fantastical creatures appear to launch into a musical number about "the magical amount," which explains in saccharine tones why it is so wonderful that the tobacco companies are so precisely regulating nicotine dosage. The TV elements will be supported by an interactive campaign comprising a Web site and a campaign on social-networking Web sites like MySpace, Facebook, Bebo, Hi-5 and Xanga. There will be Web-based games, like one modeled on "Guitar Hero," called "Key-Tar Slayer," where participants can jam to the music in the TV ads." Another element called "The Useful Cigarette" shows how ingredients in cigarettes and cigarette smoke are found in things like toilet bowl cleaner, nail polish remover and rocket fuel. Patricia McLaughlin, senior spokesperson at the ALF, says the music theme is central to the effort. "We are trying to use music as an asset across media." She says the campaign also marks the first time that ALF has used animation in ads. "It's designed to be over the top." She says the TV spots will air on cable channels like MTV, VH1, Fuse, and ABC family. She adds that the effort will include advertising in cinemas in April and September. The ads will be in 2,065 Screenvision theatres nationwide. Later in the summer, there will also be radio ads. "The target is 12 to 17 year olds," she says. "We are going for edgy kids--those likely to rebel with sensation-seeking behavior." The effort will also include a summer grassroots tour. The Truth Truck will have music-themed events at such venues as the Vans Warped Tour.
Custom-made clothing used to be reserved for the rich--think pretentious executives craving perfect shirts. Or the unfortunately shaped--picture your local tailor, gently letting out waistbands all around the neighborhood. Or else it is something pursued by slightly zany fashionistas, including all those nonconformist teens arduously gluing tiny crystals to their iPods, cell phones and sneakers. For the most part, however, every time a mass marketer has tried to reach out to these individualists, it hasn't exactly caught fire. Burger King may let customers have it their way, but most clothing marketers can't pull it off. Remember Levi Strauss & Co.'s ballyhooed customized jeans program a few years back? No? That's okay--no one else remembers either. There were so many denim possibilities on the market, the company says, including Levi's own expanding line, "there was no longer as great a demand for customized denim." Target, too, backed away from its effort to customize clothing. But increasingly, marketers are recognizing that Web-based personalization continues to be one of the true great advantages the Internet has over the brick-and-mortar world. Both Nike ID and Converse, for example, offer online shoppers the ability to customize their footwear. Lands' End, now owned by Sears and a pioneer and cult favorite for women seeking swimwear, continues to provide custom clothing to its devoted following. And at sites like mejeans.com or ujeans.com, consumers can order the perfect-fitting denim creations. One company that hopes to succeed in this space is myShape.com. It doesn't exactly customize clothing, but registration is a process that requires a tape measure and about 10 minutes. Based on the results a woman enters, myShape assigns her one of seven body types, and then directs her to her own "online boutique" in which everything matches her specific measurements, coloring and style preferences. Louise Wannier, CEO and founder, has tapped into the long-running Cold War between women and retailers: Mass retailers create clothes based on the rail-thin teens and young women who are the heaviest shoppers. So grown-up women--significantly beefier than the fit models used by designers--struggle to find clothes that don't ever seem to fit quite right. While the problem is an old one, it has grown worse as American women have gotten heavier, and as the American retail landscape has become more competitive. Sure, talking shape diversity sounds great--but to survive, buyers can't afford to always have something for everyone: They have to stock what sells the most and moves the fastest, leaving a lot of disgruntled women empty-handed. "Finding clothes that fit and flatter them is just a tremendous problem for most women," Wannier says. "And fit is only the beginning --women don't want to dress the same way as they get older. Their taste gets more sophisticated, they have different ideas about personal style and comfort." The company, launched in 2006, and has already registered more than 100,000 women. Taking measurements is tricky: For one thing, in these days of non-sewing households, most women don't even own a tape measure, and so myShape mails them out free to shoppers. (She estimates that 50% of visitors request one.) On one hand, just the introduction of the tape measure is a wonderfully upscale concept. Who doesn't love being measured by a kindly, competent sales person, whether it's at Victoria's Secret or Bergdorf Goodman? "And the upper class has always loved that kind of attention to fit detail," says Athol Martin Foden, publisher of the Silicon Valley Marketeer. "But doing it yourself isn't the same--it's confusing. Where exactly are my hips?" Still, fashion marketers expect companies that continue to try and find fit solutions to do well, even if bigger companies can't. "There is definitely a frustration among women that one size is not the same from brand to brand, and with sizing in general," says Ciri Fenzel, of Breathe Retail Consulting, based in Washington, D.C. "Manufacturers certainly recognize it and are trying to make shopping easier," she says--adding that while working in marketing at VF Corp., which markets Lee and Wrangler jeans, the company tried hard to communicate with women in advertising and signage. "But even things like 'relaxed fit' mean different things to different women," she says. "So companies like myShape have a tremendous opportunity." Besides, she says, women's fashion sense has been honed by stores like H&M and Target, which constantly introduce new merchandise, so the selection is always changing. "So even if fit is still an issue at those stores, at least women are rewarded with a good selection," she says. Who knows? Maybe 2008 will be the year marketers like myShape finally find a way to provide women with both.
Lending Club, a funds exchange and lending network, launched this fall ... on Facebook. As a social network, Facebook helps consumers build trust in the brand partners presented to them, says Lending Club COO John Donovan. Word-of-mouth--or rather word-of-mouse--marketing is a natural outcome of social networks. Consumers compile connections and further feather their nests with friends of friends. Lending Club's business model leverages these links, inspiring borrowers' responsibility by engaging investors from their communities or extended social groups. (Lender funds are aggregated before monies are distributed to borrowers, reducing lender risk further and adding anonymity to the borrower's side of the deal.) "Facebook extends an assumed or inferred endorsement across groups of people," Donovan says. "By pairing borrowers and lenders who share some level of connectedness, borrowers are more likely to receive funding on the one hand and are more likely to repay it on the other hand." Lending Club invested in more than just a profile. It integrated its application into Facebook, within the Facebook platform. The application had attracted $1 million in loans within two weeks of the service's launch. 'The Internet Is All Social Networks' Financial services, consumer packaged goods and cars all make sense to market through social networks such as Facebook, MySpace, Gather and more. Max Lenderman, executive creative director of GMR Marketing in Chicago, says it's imperative that these products and services use social networks to advertise their brands. "To a certain extent, the Internet going forward is all social networks--not just MySpace, Facebook and LinkedIn but a clear manifestation of the evolution of the Internet are mobile phone connectivity, gaming as a social experience and reputation networks," he says. One of Lenderman's clients--a leading male grooming brand--buys advertising on Facebook and MySpace for every new product introduction, "but it also tries to form a community around the product" with promotions, games and themed music. "Thousands and thousands of 'friends' sign up, fully aware that it's a marketing campaign," he says. Whether introduced by marketers or by consumers--those paid brand ambassadors or voluntary fans--marketers' presence on the sites is growing and is drawing consumers' free media time less than a year after brands took to the social network scene. The activity must continue, Lenderman reasons. "You have to homestead it," he says, adding that "the key to any social network campaign, the most paramount thing, is authenticity. Be upfront--be true to the brand." This recognizable sincerity comes from the right insight to consumer needs and interests, and a consistent presence in the virtual community. "Wells Fargo, a brand as old as the stagecoach, went into Second Life and created an island where people can do fun stuff, but they have to spend money. They go to the ATM, they take quizzes, they engage with the brand, and they go on," Lenderman says. The brand created an experience, established authenticity, and in time, it translated to a sleeker, tech-savvy reputation. Just Another Commercial? "A lot of brands are looking at this, but I don't think that's necessarily a good thing," says Robert Passikoff, president of Brand Keys consultancy in New York. It's cool, he concedes, and the most enticing consumer demographic checks in with connections at virtual communities. But their participation with brands represented at YouTube, MySpace or Facebook "is not endorsement whatsoever," he says. Consumers view marketing through social networks as just another commercial. "Signing on as friends of a brand is just part of the process," he says. That it is voluntary engagement with a brand, he says, is like saying consumers opt into advertising by watching the commercials interspersed with their chosen TV programming. "You're dealing with a different consumer base--the bionic consumer of the 21st century," he says. "Smart marketers are beginning to realize that they need to have some sort of predictive engagement metrics in place before they go out and do this. "A flick of the mouse is not loyalty; it's not engagement," he continues. "Ultimately, every brand has to write a reality check," and "a good deal of the sign-up you see is more habitual than interest-based. There is a certain degree of pride in being able to talk about how many friends you sign up."