AT&T has turned toward search advertising and marketing to connect consumers who love digital music to a series of blue room web casts planned this year. The carrier has offered live and recorded concerts through the Web site for three years, but now plans to set up efforts to connect with digital music lovers where they live, online. This year, AT&T turns the spotlight on its purchase of keyword terms related to artists and festivals, such as the 2008 Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival and the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. The strategy aims to attract consumers who listen to digital music and do the majority of their searching for entertainment online. Traditional banner ads will continue to run through 2008 to promote blue room concerts on music video sites like MTV, MySpace and Pandora, places where people go to watch music videos and listen to music clips. The fundamental strategy to connect with consumers though music emphasizes AT&T's ability to link one person to another through technology. "It's that simple," says Joey Schultz, VP of consumer marketing at AT&T. "It's about building tighter bonds with consumers who have a passion for music." Through the agreement with CBS Radio--the driving engine behind AT&T's blue room service--the carrier runs advertising on several radio stations in Los Angeles, New York, and other major markets. AT&T typically uses the first part of the 30- or 60-second spot to promote the festival and web cast, taking the back end for branding or talk about products and services. The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival becomes the next blue room web cast from the carrier's blue room May 3 and May 4. The festival, presented by Shell, features Al Green, Billy Joel, Stevie Wonder, Robert Plant, Jimmy Buffett, The Neville Brothers, Tim McGraw, Santana, and Sheryl Crow. The event, which also took place last weekend, will again take place next weekend. Sponsors of the festival include Acura, Borders, Capital One, Pepsi, Peoples Health, Miller Lite and the Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism. The blue room markets phones and wireless plans to consumers--such as upgrading paths to other phones, adding service lines or changing rate plans. Not only does the site provide consumers with information about services, it also gives AT&T the opportunity to demonstrate the advanced TV service U-verse, high-speed Internet access and wireless products such as phones, and lets consumers purchase ringtones and mobile video games. AT&T's MEdia Mall offers the option to purchase ringtones from Sheryl Crow, Robert Plant, Keyshia Cole, Stevie Wonder, and more. Mobile games also are available, such as "Tetris," "Bejewele," and "Guitar Hero." AT&T also webcast the 2008 Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in Indio, Calif. last weekend. In May the carrier plans to make the concert available on-demand across the three screens--online, AT&T U-verse TV offering, and Cellular Video on AT&T wireless devices to promote services. Future concerts include Bonnaroo Arts and Music Festival: Manchester, Tenn., June 13-15; Lollapalooza: Chicago, Aug. 1-3; and Austin City Limits Music Festival: Austin, Texas, Sept. 26-28.
According to Subaru of America, once you own one of its cars, you fall in love with it. And that insight drove the approach for the company's new marketing campaign. According to the Cherry Hill, N.J., company, research showed that while most auto consumers had heard of Subaru, very few of them had strong emotional connections with the brand. However, among Subaru owners there was an outspoken passion and love for the brand. The new marketing campaign is intended to target consumers in three different stages of car buying: the heart, the head and the wallet. The "heart" stage is meant to address the love Subaru owners have for their cars via emotional stories, such as the one about four men who travel to the easternmost tip of Maine every year to be the first ones in the country to welcome the New Year. Another depicts a man taking his old Forester to a salvage yard dedicated to old Subaru cars before climbing into his new model. The "head" stage ads are meant to be more rational approaches addressing specific Subaru models. One spot shows a married couple deciding that they'd rather sell their boat than their old Subaru when they bring a new Forester home. Another spot shows the connection Impreza owners have with each other as one man feeds an expiring meter to keep another Impreza owner from getting a parking ticket. The "wallet" ads will focus on the financial aspects of buying a Subaru, and will include local dealer offers and other retail approaches. The new effort, from Carmichael Lynch, adds the word "Love" before the tagline developed by the company's previous agency, DDB, "It's what makes a Subaru a Subaru." Subaru earlier this year began sponsoring flower shows in Seattle, San Francisco and Philadelphia. The company said gardening was a top hobby for owners of its Forester model. Carmichael Lynch, an Interpublic Group agency in Minneapolis, won Subaru's account last October without a review. The agency had worked with Subaru of America CMO Tim Mahoney when he was an executive with former Carmichael client Porsche Cars North America.
A 30-second spot created by a 25-year-old will be airing nationally throughout the spring and summer for Heinz Ketchup. Not only does Matt Cozza of Chicago win national acclaim, he also gets the $57,000 cash prize for winning the company's "Top This" TV Challenge Take Two consumer-generated ad contest--the second of its kind. Cozza's creation shows restaurant diners grabbing bottles of Heinz Ketchup off nearby carts and tables and hugging them close. When one couple sits down to eat, they appear to be puzzled by the lack of said product on their table, noting fellow diners pouring ketchup over fries and burgers. A wait-staff member strides by and places a bottle of Heinz Ketchup on the table, visibly relaxing the dining couple. Tagline: "Now we can eat." Cozza's entry was voted best of 10 semifinalists by visitors to a Web site hosting the challenge. A spokesperson for Heinz says the spot will air on the Food and Fine Living networks and on closed-circuit TV Six Flags amusement parks. Cozza, a graduate in film and video production at Northwestern University, edged out more than 2,000 qualified entrants. He got the idea for the video, Heinz says, when he went with friends to dine out and discovered no ketchup at their table. They swiped one off a nearby table and saw details about the contest printed on the bottle. The runners-up, whose ads also will air alongside Cozza's, each received $5,700. The cash prizes are modeled after the Pittsburgh-based company's "57 Varieties" slogan.
As the patents for well-known branded prescription drugs expire, the market for generics has grown into a $36 billion entity and is becoming a competitive threat for pharmaceutical companies in the process, according to new research from Kalorama Information. According to Kalorama Information, applications for generic drugs have more than tripled from 307 in 2002 to 973 in 2006. Another $60 billion worth of brand-name drugs will lose their patent protection in the next decade, increasing the market for generics. "With a stronger generic threat than ever, the strategy right now seems to be, 'If you can't beat them, join them,'" said Mary Anne Crandall, a Kalorama analyst, in a statement. "To defend their turf, companies such as Novartis, Pfizer and Boehringer Ingelheim are seeing the benefit of incorporating a generic unit." According to the Generic Pharmaceutical Association, the pharmaceutical industry spends about $30 billion promoting brand-name drugs. To counter that spending, the association has advocated measures that help consumers and doctors understand the availability of generics, primarily through physician education programs. "Certainly brand companies are spending a lot of money promoting their medicines," Andrea Hofelich, a representative of the association, tells Marketing Daily. "We don't do the advertising the companies do. We can pass those savings on to consumers. But it's important to let the doctors know that the generics do provide the same medicines as the brands at a much lower cost." However, there is some evidence that generics can receive a halo effect left over from their branded origins. A recent study by comScore Pharmaceutical Solutions found that Prozac, which has been available in generic form for years, was one of the top 15 most-searched prescription drugs during the month of February. Meanwhile, pharmaceutical companies are coming under increased scrutiny for allegedly being overly aggressive in their marketing to consumers. Earlier this year, the New England Journal of Medicine published an article saying the makers of branded antidepressants had misled consumers and physicians about their effectiveness in marketing materials.
The Federal Trade Commission, which last revisited its "Green Guides" back in 1998 before anyone ever heard of a carbon footprint, is holding workshops as part of its regulatory review, and some experts are predicting that could make life more difficult for marketers. The FTC's next workshop is Wednesday and is intended to "examine developments in green packaging claims and the consumer perception of such claims." Back in January, another workshop addressed the marketing of carbon offsets and renewable energy certificates. If these workshops lead to revised guidelines, which would make plenty of consumer groups happy, "it could have a chilling effect on an advertiser's ability to communicate important and valuable information to consumers," writes Ronald R. Urbach, a partner at Davis & Gilbert, and a leading legal expert on advertising and marketing, in a recent filing on behalf of the nation's largest and most influential advertising trade organizations (AAAA, AAF, and ANA). The FTC says consumers are grappling with a sharp increase in new terminology. "Since the Green Guides were last revised in 1998, there has been a significant increase in the use of environmental claims in product marketing, including "green" claims concerning product packaging. Sellers and marketers frequently use terms addressed in the Green Guides, such as "recyclable," "recycled content," "biodegradable," "degradable," "compostable," or "refillable," to claim that their packaging is green," the FTC says. "Sellers and marketers also are now using green claims that are not currently addressed in the Green Guides, including terms such as "sustainable" and "renewable." The FTC says that the sharp increase in environmental seals issued by third parties also raise issues of "perception and substantiation." And clearly, consumers are confused. A recent study from Cone LLC and the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship found that almost half (48%) think that "green" products are actually beneficial for the earth, while a distinctly smaller group--22%--understands that such purchases are simply less harmful than competing products. Some 76% in that survey think environmental claims should be regulated by the government. And in a study from Burt's Bees, 78% of people think that natural personal care products are regulated, and 97% of people think they should be. Urbach says he expects that over the next four months the FTC will find a number of cases of false or misleading packaging. "It's one way to remind companies that they are on guard," he says. But he's hoping there won't be new guidelines. Environmental terminology and claims are changing so rapidly that the FTC "might be shooting at a target that doesn't exist," he says. If they do issue new guidelines, "my concern is that they be very measured, so they don't squelch development among marketers," and instead rely on existing laws to police deceptive or misleading claims. One concern, he says, is that the perception of what's good or bad for the environment is becoming increasingly complex. And as consumers' interest in such claims grows, that won't change any time soon--a big difference in the green movement of the early 1990s, which faded fast. "There really has been a shift in consumer attitude and sensitivity," he says. "People understand that there is a significant problem with climate change, especially younger people." And unlike the green of the early 1990s, "in this round, environmental issues and economic issues are much more closely aligned," he says. The question has become less about whether people will pay more for a green product, and more about the green products that can save them money, such as CFL light bulbs or hybrid cars.
BrandIndex last week measured quick-service restaurant brands based on customer satisfaction. Here how they stand: 1 Subway 2 Wendy's 3 Burger King 4 Taco Bell 5 KFC 6 Arby's 7 Quizno's 8 McDonald's 9 Popeye's 10 ChipotleSource: YouGovPolimetrix (www.brandindex.com)