Pizza chain Papa John's is launching a social-media campaign at its Facebook site, called "Papa's Specialty Pizza Challenge," asking its fans to suggest a new pizza. And in an unusual twist, the company is offering the winner of the promotion a portion of the profits from sales of the top pie, which will join the menu list at restaurants, and $1,000 to help market the pie during the month when the finalists compete for sales volume. When people go to Facebook.com/PapaJohns, in addition to entering the toppings list they have devised, they also have to write a brief rumination of 250 words or less what makes their pizza unusual, special, or generally audacious for a chance to win. The company is judging the pies on appeal, taste, creativity of the name and the quality of the back story on how the contestant dreamed up the pie. While the company says all entries will be featured in a gallery on Papa John's Facebook page, the company's president, "Papa" John Schnatter, and associates will choose 10 semifinalists, whose recipes will be cooked and tasted-tested by Schnatter and other judges at Papa John's Louisville, Ky., headquarters. The top three recipes will be showcased on the chain's menu through August. The highest-selling pizza wins, and the winner gets free Papa John's pizza for life and an appearance in a "Papa's in the House" TV commercial. A Papa John's spokesperson explains that the contest winner gets 1% of sales, up to $10,000 for the 12 month period that his or her pizza is offered following the contest. The winner also gets free pizza for life (based on 50 years of pizza at $480 per year). "The winning pie will actually become a part of Papa John's specialty menu, but the start date is yet to be determined," says the spokesperson. As for the $1,000 that the finalists get to promote their pizzas during August, "They can use the cash to create viral videos in support of their pizza, buy advertising, rent a billboard and so on, or just keep the money and hope the popularity of their pizza catches on in other ways," says the spokesperson. This is the first time in company history that Papa John's has asked consumers to name and create a pizza and share the story of their pizza. Last May, the company launched the "Papa's In the House" campaign, whose central conceit is that Schnatter might actually show up to homes as the delivery person. The ads have him driving a replica of the Chevy Camaro he purportedly sold to fund his initial foray into pizza. The ads, via Z Group, use real customers and are shot around Louisville. The international chain is the third-largest pizza company globally, after Domino's and Pizza Hut.
Marketers are looking to music sponsorship at an increasing rate. According to IEG Sponsorship Report, North American companies will spend $1.09 billion on music sponsorship (including venues, festivals and tours) in 2010, up 4% from the amount spent in 2009. "Everyone loves music, and many people are very passionate about music," William Chipps, IEG Sponsorship Report's senior editor, tells Marketing Daily. "A corporate marketer can connect with consumers through that." The space has seen growth both from the diversification of marketers entering the space and the increasing opportunities available to them, particularly destination music festivals such as Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival (which includes corporate partners such as Canon USA, Budweiser, Ben & Jerry's, Ford, Jansport, Vitaminwater, Odwalla and Chase), Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival (Sony) and Lollapalooza (Budweiser, Sony, Citi and Toyota). "They're one-stop shops to reach a lot of consumers," Chipps says of such festivals, which attract not only locals, but also a significant amount of nationwide tourism. "It's almost like a national platform to some extent." And while many of the marketers involved have traditionally been those that appeal to a younger demographic (such as technology and telecommunications), other sectors such as autos and financial services are starting to approach music sponsorship as well, Chipps says. Music sponsorship is the third-largest sponsorship sector following not-for-profit causes (projected to grow 6.1%) and entertainment tours and attractions (5.7%), and it should only continue to grow. "I definitely see music continuing its upward momentum," Chipps says. "More and more advertisers are realizing that traditional [media] isn't working the way it used to."
Country Financial's "Road Trips and Guitar Picks" program includes concert sponsorship of singer-songwriter Jewel and rising country music star Jason Aldean along with other marketing activities including online and mobile apps. The program also combines elements of entertainment and education to enable consumers to make improvements to their own financial security using live concert experiences and gaming, sweepstakes, quizzes and other interactive elements to drive awareness of how smart financial decisions have a positive impact on families. The program microsite (www.tripsandpicks.com) serves as the hub of the integrated campaign. A tour blog, custom games, sweepstakes, quizzes and downloads engage consumers and drive opt-ins for more information from Bloomington, Ill.-based Country Financial. Included on the site are MP3s, fan discussion and interaction, "roadie" passes, photos and video from the road, behind-the-scenes news, wallpaper and avatar downloads. Concert-goers can text for seat upgrades and enter mobile sweepstakes and enter to win VIP backstage opportunities. "We have done a great deal of national and market-specific advertising and public relations to promote the 'Road Trips and Guitar Picks' concert series, and our microsite," Country Financial spokesperson Melinda Zehr tells Marketing Daily. "Road Trips and Guitar Picks" is representative of where the sponsorship marketing world is going, said Doyle Williams, chief marketing officer of Country Financial. "In the sponsorship arena, the two big success-drivers are an authentic connection between brands, artists and fans, and a clear roadmap as to how the investment engages consumers and propels the business forward," Williams said in a release. The program brings together creative, experience design, technology, online, mobile, database and centers it around the Country Financial business objectives and brand values, said Ian McGonnigal, executive director, program strategy at Auburn Hills, Mich.-based George P. Johnson, which created the program for the financial company. Country Financial, founded in 1925, serves one million households and businesses nationwide.
A new report from the Natural Marketing Institute (NMI) says that consumer spending on products related to health and sustainability reached $290 billion in 2008. The analysis found increases in many spending categories within lifestyles of health and sustainability, known as LOHAS. "The biggest growth has been in green building and alternate energy, which more than doubled from 2005 to 2008," Gwynne Rogers, NMI's LOHAS Business Director, tells Marketing Daily. Spending within the personal health category -- the biggest of five core categories -- was also up, at $117 billion. "Sales of organic food hit $23.6 billion in 2008, almost double what it was in 2005," she says. "And spending on personal care products rose from $4.9 billion to $8.4 billion. Those gains aren't surprising, when you think of the greater involvement of large companies, such as Clorox's acquisition of a company like Burt's Bees. With so many larger companies offering LOHAS products, the scale changes dramatically." Spending on supplements rose to $23.2 billion, from $19.6 billion. Green building, which includes things like certified homes and Energy Star appliances, came in at $100 billion; eco-tourism at $42 billion; alternative transportation (such as hybrids, diesel and electric vehicles) at $20 billion; natural lifestyles (comprised of apparel and home furnishings) $10 billion, and alternative energy, $1 billion. (While NMI does consider socially responsible investing part of LOHAS, those numbers are not included in the total.) The Harleysville, Pa.-based company collaborates with Georgetown University to track spending. Rogers says she expects to see that LOHAS spending will have continued to grow, right through the recession, with the biggest gains in products that relate most directly to health or energy savings. "Those benefits are much more tangible and immediate for consumers, so it's always easier for those types of products to grow faster."
China is where it's at, auto-wise. "The Middle Country" has surpassed the New World in auto sales, with some 13.6 million vehicles sold there last year, versus 10.4 million units in the U.S. This year, the trend will continue. That makes the Beijing International Automotive Exhibition, a/k/a "Auto China, 2010," a key promontory for automakers that want to show off current and future products and boost global sales. Ford and GM are paying out the rope at the show, which runs through May 2, to make sure their businesses have a strong foothold. Ford's exhibition there, its largest to date, touts its forthcoming lineup of global small cars. The automaker is showing the next-gen Focus, a new small engine, and a smaller-displacement version of the Ford Mondeo, which goes on sale there this year. The Focus is one of ten vehicles the automaker will build on its global small-car platform. It sold over 500,000 Focuses last month in China, and is projecting global sales of 2 million units per year in 120 markets when the cars are rolled out in 2012. Ford is also showing a concept called Start, intended as a diminutive car for mega cities choked with heavy traffic and crippled by limited parking. It also introduced the latest version of the Ford Edge at the show. Ford will start selling the vehicle there late this year. Joe Hinrichs, Ford Motor Company group vice president and president, Asia Pacific and Africa, says Asia Pacific and Africa will dominate global market growth for Ford over the next 7 to 10 years. He said Ford has invested more than $3 billion in the Asia Pacific and Africa region since 2006, including $490 million for an assembly plant for the next-generation Ford Focus in Chongqing, China. General Motors is showing some 37 production and concept vehicles in Beijing this week, with a focus on Chevrolet, Buick and Cadillac and Chinese partner brands. Several are global debuts. The automaker will unveil a Chevrolet electric-powered crossover concept called the Chevrolet Volt MPV5, as well as the Chevy Spark, which will come to the U.S. market next year as well. Buick is showcasing three models, and Cadillac is showing the XTS Platinum concept vehicle, and an electric-car concept car called Converj. The automaker is also showing of a new kind of electric-motor concept, EN-V, a two-wheel vehicle with parallel Segway-type wheel orientation and balance technology.
U.S. organic food and beverage sales grew 5.1% to $24.8 billion, last year, according to the Organic Trade Association (OTA). OTA's annual data are based on surveying manufacturers, distributors and retailers. OTA's "2010 Organic Industry Survey" shows organic fruits and vegetables realized the greatest growth last year: up 11.4%, to $9.47 billion. That means that organic produce not only represents 38% of all organic food sales, but 11.4% of all U.S. fruit and vegetable sales, according to the association. In comparison, in 2000, organic fruit/ vegetable sales totaled $2.55 billion, or just 3% of total fruit/ vegetable sales, OTA reports. Other organic categories' sales last year, according to OTA: dairy, $3.57 billion; packaged/prepared foods, $3.55 billion; beverages, $3.27 billion; breads/grains, $2.83 billion; snack foods, $1.14 billion; condiments $521 million; and meat/poultry/fish, $456 million. OTA estimates the total U.S. organics product market -- including food and beverages and non-food products such as supplements, personal care and clothing -- grew 5.3%, to $26.6 billion. OTA puts total non-foods organic product sales at $1.8 billion, representing 9.1% growth over 2008. OTA pointed out that total U.S. food sales saw growth of just 1.6% last year, and total non-food product sales declined by 1%. "These findings are indicative that even in tough times, consumers understand the benefits that organic products offer and will make other cuts before they give up products they value," said OTA Executive Director Christine Bushway. Still, last year's 5% organic F&B growth represented a definite softening compared to the robust, double-digit growth of recent years. Last year's OTA industry survey showed organic food sales growth of 15.8% in 2008. Nutrition Business Journal, a research/publishing/consulting group serving the nutrition, natural products and alternative health care industries, recently estimated that the total organic industry (including food and beverages and non-food products) grew 5.5% (to $24.4 billion) last year. In comparison, the total organic industry grew by 13% in 2008 and 19% in 2007, according to NBJ. "Some organic categories, including snack foods and beverages, could barely tread water last year, while organic dairy and packaged and prepared foods actually slipped into negative sales territory," noted these researchers. However, NBJ predicts a return to stronger organic growth levels as the economy improves. Last month, Mintel said that 21% of organic food buyers have reported reducing or eliminating organic purchasing due to budget tightening, and 20% have reported switching to cheaper organic options. (U.S. consumers are not alone: In the U.K., a very strong market for organic products, a just-released Organic Market Report shows overall organic product sales down 12.9%, and organic dairy, fruit/vegetables and fresh meat down 6.5%, 14.8% and 22.7%, respectively, according to The Guardian. However, Mintel also found that 48% of U.S. organic purchasers were buying as much or more organic food as before the recession and that 35% of Americans as a whole indicate willingness to pay more for "environmentally friendly" products. Mintel also reported that analysts are predicting that organic-plus-"natural" F&B (a considerably broader product universe than OTA's certified-organic data alone) will grow by nearly 20% between 2010 and 2012. Mintel put organic-plus-natural growth at 1.8% for 2009. OTA reports that more than half (54%) of all 2009 U.S. organic food sales were through mass-market grocers, club stores and retailers. Natural retailers were next, with 38% of total organic food sales. Although still representing a small percentage of sales, farmers' markets, co-ops and community-supported agriculture operations "gained a lot of interest as consumers increasingly look for locally and regionally produced organic foods," the association added. In the non-foods sector, supplements increased 12%, to $634 million, to represent 35% of total organic non-food sales, OTA reported. Organic fiber (linen and clothing) totaled $521 million (up 10.4%), and personal care products reached $459 million (up 3.7%).
Online banners are the potholes of the Internet. Website visitors might be cruising along on a webpage until they trip on a banner and are taken through a highly disruptive experience. It's no wonder that people have learned to ignore banners. Even when served in the most contextually relevant and targeted environments, most banners struggle to achieve click rates in excess of 0.10%. Even within the demographically information rich environs of Facebook, banner click rates are abysmal. At a recent SES Conference, Sarah Smith, online sales operations manager at Facebook said that the average campaign click-through rates on the social network were as low as 0.05%. However, there is light at the end of the tunnel and it's not that of the oncoming train. Ad spending on online display advertising is slated to grow. In his outlook for 2010, industry analyst Imran Khan predicts that spend on display banner advertising will increase by 10.5%. But this increase will be driven by a movement away from the plain-vanilla display ads. Instead, there will be a concerted effort at incorporating banner elements that will help the industry overcome the problem of banner blindness and make this format of online advertising a more relevant and meaningful experience for consumers. Khan identifies two important developments in this regard: greater creativity in banner ad formats and a better integration of mechanisms to capture real-time consumer intent data. It's already happening. The Apple takeover on the New York Times page is an excellent example of how a creative ad format along with an innovative media placement can come together to overcome banner blindness. By navigating the website real estate between the leaderboard and skyscraper banners, John Hodgman and the Mac guy were effectively able to communicate the Macintosh value proposition. There was no need for the user to click away from the message. There are several other examples of innovative creative formats; the Pointroll Fat Boy ads that expand to reveal deals from CVS pharmacy and the "Intel's History of Innovation" rollover banner come to mind. There's another important facet to banner innovation. In their current form, banners are ill-equipped to capture consumer intent data. Typical online banners direct users away from the content they are on to a landing page. There is a large drop off (as high as 99.99%) associated with this process. The ASPCA used a different approach to combat this drop off. To increase the number of its Facebook fans and Twitter followers, the ASPCA used a cost-per-lead banner. In such, the user fills in personal information within the banner. Upon hitting the submit button, the user information is sent from the publisher to the advertiser on the backend. The user continues to stay on the website. By using a banner that had a built-in mechanism to capture user information, the ASPCA was able to avoid drop off, and grow its Facebook and Twitter members quickly. There are many other examples of advertisers that are designing banners that are creative and allow users to communicate their intent. Now that's change we can believe in.