Subaru's new "Share the Love" campaign, running through Jan. 2, lets new-vehicle customers select one of five charities to receive a $250 donation from Subaru of America, following the purchase or lease of a new Subaru vehicle. The five charities that are participating in the program are: Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Habitat for Humanity International, Meals On Wheels Association of America, the National Wildlife Federation and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA). The Cherry Hill, N.J.-based company predicts that the program, extending Subaru's "Love. It's What Makes a Subaru, a Subaru" brand campaign (which launched in April to support the new Forrester crossover), will raise up to $5 million for the charities during its duration. "In looking for a way to stand out during the December selling period, one of the pieces of research we see is that our customers are socially involved, very involved with supporting their communities--we see that often," says Kevin Mayer, director of marketing communications for the company. Wes Brown, with L.A.-based marketing lab Iceology, agrees. "They are, in general, more altruistic; they don't like to broadcast it, but they are," he says. "They volunteer a lot and they give a lot." He adds that they are also less likely to respond to overt financing deals. "The Subaru buyer, in general, tends to be more financially savvy; they are not the kind of people who are personally affected by the mortgage crisis. And because a good percentage of them would rather not make payments, there are a lot of them who will walk into dealerships and buy outright. It's just their mindset." According to Tim Mahoney, Subaru's SVP/CMO, Subaru also indexes strongly among members of the five organizations partnering with the automaker for this program. "We have been working with them to activate, and dealers have been reaching to their local chapters as well, on an ad hoc basis," with programs that include having the ASPCA come to dealerships with adoptable pets. The company is offering a variety of monthly-payment deals on its vehicles, ranging from $179 per month for a 36-month lease on its Impreza entry-level sedan to $319 per month for a 42-month lease of its Tribeca SUV. The company says Subaru dealerships across the U.S. will also be participating in the program by hosting events and projects in their communities. In a tsunami year for the auto sector, Subaru--which has a small lineup of vehicles, and yearly sales of around 250,000 vehicles-- seems to be bobbing along like Thor Heyerdahl's log raft in "Kon Tiki." The company's year-to-date sales are up 2%, and October sales were "only" down 14%. This sounds like a lot until that number is lined up with other import brands like Honda (down 28%), Toyota (down 26%), Nissan (down 33%), and Hyundai (down 31%).
Online retailers know they're as vulnerable to consumer anxiety as regular stores, and a new poll from the National Retail Federation finds that an impressive 83% of them are pulling out all the stops, offering some kind of price promotion just in time for Cyber Monday. Just as the Friday after Thanksgiving, or Black Friday, is technically the start of the holiday season, the following Monday has come to be the kickoff of the online shopping marathon. And the NRF's eHoliday Survey reports that 83.7% of retailers will have some sort of special promotion for Cyber Monday--up from 72.2% last year. These will include specific deals (38.8%), email campaigns (32.7%), and one-day sales (24.5%). And 22.5% are offering free shipping on all purchases. Increasingly, consumers will track down these bargains from the office. The NRF says that 55.8% of workers with Internet access, or about 73 million people, plan to do their shopping from the comfort of their own cubicle. (In 2005, only 44.7% shopped online from work.) Younger people are more likely to shop on company time, with 70% of those between 18 and 34 shopping from the office, and men are more likely to do so than women (60.3% versus 51.5%). The survey also finds that many Web sites are also stepping up cross-channel promotions, with 28.6% of sites planning to increase online marketing of Black Friday promotions this year, including emails on stores' Black Friday deals (74.3%), trumpeting Black Friday deals on the retailer's home page (62.9%) and search marketing (54.3%). Shop.org, NRF's online division, maintains a site called cybermonday.com--with more than 600 retailers participating--which provides additional deals, coupons and discounts, including new deals unveiled on an hour-by-hour basis. This year, online retailers are likely to need every ounce of shopping enthusiasm they can generate. While the NRF has predicted that the majority of online retailers--56.1%--expect their sales to increase at least 15% compared to last year, comScore, a leading metrics firm, earlier this month came out with a much gloomier numbers. With the growth rate of online sales falling from 19% in the first quarter of the year to 13% in the second and just 9% in the third, it says some categories actually began to decline in the third quarter. Online music, movies and videos sales have fallen 29%, books and magazines have declined 17%, and apparel, shoes and accessories have dropped 3%. Meanwhile, Walmart.com has no intention of waiting until Monday, and wants people to start shopping before they have done the Thanksgiving dishes. The Bentonville, Ark.-based company, which just posted its Black Friday circular online, says it will offer online specials on Thanksgiving Day--including electronics, toys and video games, with free shipping through its Site to Store program. "While on the site Thursday, shoppers also can see Walmart's Black Friday specials available in stores the next day," it says in its release.
The Parkay "talking tub" is back for the first time in six years, just in time to celebrate the 35th anniversary of its first appearance on TV. A new commercial featuring the loquacious container began airing Monday and is scheduled to run nationally on both daytime and cable television, as well as online. In addition to its 1973 debut, the tub has previously been used in campaigns featuring Laurel and Hardy (1982), Deacon Jones (1983), William Daniels (1990-91), Crystal Bernard (1997) and Al Franken (1999). The campaign promotes a new formulation of the ConAgra brand that includes nonfat milk to enhance creaminess and texture. The new product is the only one in the margarine/table spread category that currently includes milk. Nonfat milk was used "specifically to avoid any fat in the finished product," although the marketing is more focused on milk as an ingredient than the fact that it's nonfat milk, according to ConAgra spokesperson Jeff Mochal. Parkay continues to play off of its longtime brand message: "The label says Parkay, the flavor says butter." The new 15-second commercial features a dairy farmer being startled by an unusual moo coming from the Parkay Talking Tub in one of the stalls of his barn. The tub tells the farmer that the new Parkay is "better." The farmer responds: "You mean 'butter,'" to which the tub responds: "Parkay." A voiceover explains that the new product contains milk "for a fresh and creamy taste." ConAgra VP, general manager Karl Sears described the talking tub as "iconic" and "the perfect ambassador" to tout the enhanced Parkay. The last talking tub campaign, in 2002, focused primarily on in-store promotions--which used technology that enabled the tub's voice to call out at shoppers as they passed the dairy case.
How do you top a holiday contest called "Festive Fanatics," where the "Most Festively Decorated Holiday Home" featured 45,000 lights synchronized to music? If you're KFC, you follow up a year later by seeking "America's Most Original Holiday Tradition." The winning entry probably won't consist merely of "hanging homemade ornaments on the tree, dressing the family in matching holiday sweaters or decorating the yard in festive colors," as listed in the lead paragraph of KFC's press release announcing the promotion on Monday. "At KFC we're all about families, and one of the Colonel's favorite occasions was gathering families 'round a good meal," says Javier Benito, executive vice president of marketing and food innovation. "This contest will celebrate the most original holiday family traditions and encourage families to start a few new ones with our new family meal option -- KFC's Two Originals Meal." Priced at $14.99, the Two Originals Meal includes five pieces of Original Recipe Chicken, four Original Recipe Strips, two large home-style sides and four buttermilk biscuits. In the new UGC-based promotion, consumers until Dec. 11 can go to http://www.kfc.com/traditions to either upload videos of their tradition to a special YouTube group or email photos and descriptions for posting on a Fickr group. Then, 12 finalists will be chosen by a "panel of qualified judges" based 75% on "Originality and Creativity" and 25% on "Appropriateness to KFC Image." For five days, starting Dec. 15, visitors to ww.KFC.com will be able to vote on their favorites, this time based only on originality and creativity. The winning entrant will receive $1,000 plus an additional $1,900 in KFC gift checks, which the company promises will buy a year's worth of the fast food fare. An additional 11 while 11 semi-finalists will receive $155 apiece in KFC gift checks -- or a month's worth of the chain's food. The first day of KFC's Traditions contest on Monday was also the last day for consumers to enter its "KFC Rocks" "KFC Rocks" (https://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=93735) contest, which will award $2,500 and a year's supply of KFC Original Recipe Fully Loaded Box Meals to a winning "Guitar Hero" aficionado. In last year's KFC holiday contest, 14,000 site visitors voted for the Holdman home in Pleasant Grove, Utah, with the winning family receiving payment for its December electric bill, and a year's supply of KFC's famous Kentucky Fried Chicken.
The Charmin Restrooms are back. For the third year, Procter & Gamble is promoting the toilet-tissue brand with a grassroots effort that offers what New York desperately needs, if only in Times Square and only for a brief period: clean public restrooms. The loos, in Times Square between 45th and 46th streets, were launched with an official first flush Monday by former N'Sync singer Joey Fatone, who serves as Charmin's "King of the Throne." The company's "Charmin Restrooms" will comprise facilities on two floors. The first floor is for taking care of business, and the second is for recharging digital devices and relaxing. Procter & Gamble says the 20 luxury bathroom stalls, served by attendants, have a winter wonderland forest theme. There are also baby-changing stations, flat-screen televisions, a Charmin retail boutique, and a "family photo area" with a printing station, assuming that tourists want that rare bathroom shot. Another P&G brand, Duracell, sponsors the second-floor Duracell Power Lodge, where one can recharge cell phones, BlackBerrys, iPods, MP3 players, digital cameras and the like. Visitors can also play with a Nintendo Wii and toys from Mattel. The restrooms are open every day, all day on Thanksgiving and until 6 p.m. on Christmas Eve, but are closed Christmas Day. The restrooms will also be open on New Year's Eve until the wee hours, so to speak. A company spokesperson said the project has brought in around 400,000 visitors in each of the previous two years, but garnered a far larger level of exposure through PR, media coverage and word of mouth. "A significant number of visitors are tourists, so obviously there's a lot of buzz. From a PR standpoint, it's been very successful." The "Charmin Restrooms" program, as well as a national road-show "Charmin's Plush Potties for the People," both evolved from a 28-city "Charmin Ultra Potty Palooza" plush porta potty trucks in 2003, which visited state fairs and the like in 28 markets. This year's "Potties for the People" program visited major markets including Los Angeles, Chicago and Boston, and had a social-activism element with a petition demanding better public facilities. Signatories were entered into a sweepstakes offering a year's worth of Charmin tissue.
The NFL will experiment by offering a game next month in 3D in theaters, but the technology may be eventually ticketed for in-home viewing. The Dec. 4 presentation will air a live feed of the Thursday night San Diego vs. Oakland game. Curiously, the 3D option will not be accessible to fans in either home-team city. Instead, it will be available to "invited guests" in single theaters in Boston, Hollywood and New York, respectively. Consumers are increasingly viewing sports events in HD, which is expected to accelerate after the digital transition next year. However, the 3D feed is touted as a considerably higher-quality option that will make its way into homes at some point . "The NFL has played an important role in the evolution of media and consumer acceptance of emerging technologies, and we're pleased to work with 3ality Digital and RealD (3D filmmakers) to glimpse into the future," said Howard Katz, the NFL senior vice president of broadcasting and media operations. "This broadcast will be an exciting test of how 3D could affect fans' experience in the future." "As boxing fans once gathered at local theaters to see heavyweight title matches in the era before pay-per-view and plasma televisions, RealD's new technology will give audiences another reason to head to the theater," said Michael Lewis, RealD CEO. Theater chains offering the productions are Clearview Cinemas, Mann Theatres and National Amusements.
Maybe this is the price we pay for mocking the Soda and Rock gods at once. A few months ago, I used this space to gently ridicule Dr Pepper for a promotional stunt in which it would give a free Dr Pepper to everyone in America if Guns N' Roses released its long-delayed album, "Chinese Democracy," this year (former GNR guitarists Slash and Buckethead were excepted from the deal). Safe bet, I thought, the album had been teased for so long -- around 15 years -- it was unlikely to ever see the light of day. But rebel that he is, Axl Rose (the only remaining original member of GNR anymore) defiantly showed the suits at Dr Pepper Snapple Group who was boss in his most inventive way yet: By actually releasing the album! Way to stick it to The Man, Axl. Stuck, Dr Pepper had to make good on its promise. But it wasn't going to make claiming your free soda easy. As part of an extensive process, consumers had to log on to the brand's Web site (drpepper.com) and register to have a coupon for a free soda sent to them via snail mail. (Way to use the immediacy of the Internet to your advantage, D.P.) And consumers could do this only on the day of the album's release. That day was Sunday, Nov. 23. We should know by now to never underestimate the American public's appetite for free stuff. How else can we explain old ladies pushing little children out of the way for a free sample at Costco? But someone at Dr Pepper didn't get the message. After several site problems on Sunday, the company extended the deadline by a day to accommodate for "greater than anticipated" response to the promotion. It said it added server capacity and even added a phone number to call (cleverly disguised as its general customer service line). But as the hours ticked down, the best I could get from the registration page was a "Service unavailable" response, and the phone line the company provided was busy. "I got a busy signal and the site does not load. What kind of marketing is this?!" wrote one commenter on Entertainment Weekly's PopWatch Blog. "Gee, thanks for the empty promise, Dr Pepper," wrote another. "At least Axl put out the album when he said he would -- thanx but no thanx, Dr Pepper," wrote a third. Man, it's got to hurt when Axl Rose is getting better press than you. And now, what once had been a frivolous (and seemingly failsafe - really, who expected the album to ever see the light of day, let alone this year?) promotion has become a headache for the company. It's probably too early to say whether the company has done itself any lasting brand damage. It's unlikely anyone is really, truly upset about not receiving a free soda (the true Dr Pepper die-hards were buying them anyway), but it's a reasonable assumption that anyone who was burned by this promotion will recall it the next time he or she is shopping for soda. And will think twice before reaching for a Dr Pepper. I know I will. There are several morals to this story. Don't bite off more than you can chew. Don't sip more than you can drink. But perhaps the one most marketers should take away is this: No bet is ever safe. Especially if it involves Axl Rose.