Erich Marx, who until now has had to do double-duty overseeing both traditional and digital efforts for the Franklin, Tenn.-based Nissan North America, recently caught a lucky break. The former director of marketing communications has made a parallel move that relieves him of the marketing equivalent of having to juggle a kitchen sink, six scimitars and a bowling ball. Marx, who is now Nissan's director of social media and interactive marketing, gets to focus on what he likes best. The 20-year Nissan veteran -- who has held management positions in marketing operations, brand management, market intelligence and marketing communications, and for the last three years has been director of marketing -- tells Marketing Daily that the move splits marketing operations at the company but also aligns with an industry trend toward creating a dedicated social media position. "In 2008, we had two directors of marketing and both left the company. So they rolled it into one and gave it all to me in February." Marx held the position for 37 months. "I think the straw that broke the camel's back in terms of having so much on one person's plate was the explosion in social media. We saw that we really needed to split the job into two and put a new focus on digital and social." Nissan uses Zocalo Group for word-of-mouth work to reach influencers and press at the brand level and Chiat, which is AOR for all things marketing, "and they are also helping at model level with social media engagement," he says. His goal -- in terms of measurable -- isn't merely to create a gigantic fan base. "It's trying to find a balance -- we want to grow the right way, authentically, with fans who are engaged. Everyone is focused on social, but [the new position] lets me dive deep into the Web site, which gets 37 million uniques per year and is a key tool for converting visitors into hand-raisers and lead generation." The new position also allows him to look at ways of integrating corporate communications with marketing. "Those are two chimneys without the degree of integration that we want. Now I'll report both to David Reuter (head of corporate communications) and Jon Brancheau (VP marketing) and manage social media across both departments." The company has identified several areas for social, including crowd sourcing marketing research to get early news back on product and product features after a launch; using the social space for CRM to keep in communication through service specials; and crowd sourcing new product ideas. "It could crowd source the colors for a new vehicle," he says, and use social media to engage consumers in lifestyle marketing. "A great example is our co-sponsorship of the Tour of California cycle race; we used social media to promote it, not formal advertising. We posted new content every day, with two- and three-minute videos including behind-the-scenes features. So we will use social to expand and grow and amplify lifestyle experience marketing. Our GT Academy is part of that; our sponsorship of the Heisman Trophy tour is part of it, where we go to 10 of the big games every year and set up a huge tent. That's something we wouldn't promote through traditional ads." As for Nissan's Web site, he concedes it almost seems passé to talk about Web site strategy, given the explosion of social media and -- especially for automakers -- third-party platforms. "Ten years ago we were having the exact same conversation about Web sites, and it's about social, which is still in its infancy," he says. "A lot of people say 'why worry about a Web site if you have Facebook?' But we control our Web site -- it's us. Facebook, quite frankly, is not in our control. It's really for conversation, and our own site is where we want to provide certain content and a really deep look into the brand in a way that just isn't appropriate in social spaces." The company is revamping the site from the bottom of the funnel up -- starting with new vehicle configuring, lead submission, and pricing elements, per Marx. "We have just released our brand new shopping tool suite. And we are also looking at improving and optimizing vehicle landing pages. When someone clicks on a banner ad for Altima, for instance, we want the vehicle landing page to be dynamic and engaging." Marx says Nissan is also working on geotargeting things like bonuses, events, to a visitor's local market. While Nissan has shifted more and more marketing budget into digital, Marx says balance is critical, and that nothing yet can replace traditional media for reach. "I'm happy with the [digital] investment levels as a percent of total. Having said that, the investment on traditional isn't going away. You can't match Sunday night football -- there's a place for NFL on Sunday afternoon in Nissan's marketing. "I don't think traditional media is going away -- the NFL [on TV] didn't go anywhere when the Internet came. And that's what makes it difficult. If it were substitution of new media for old, it would be easy. But it's additive."
It's not exactly chocolate and peanut butter. Shopper marketing is usually as low-tech as can be, dominated by endcaps and shelf signs. But last month, Wal-Mart spent $300 million to buy social media firm Kosmix; this week. Dunnhumby -- owned by Wal-Mart rival Tesco -- snapped up Bzzagent, a Boston-based social marketing firm. Dave Balter, CEO and founder of Boston-based Bzzagent, tells Marketing Daily what's driving the trend. Q: First Kosmix, now you. What's in for retailers?A: We see social media and social marketing continuing to grow dramatically. Every marketer in the world wants to get involved. Yet the metrics aren't there. We're still in the world of "likes" and clicks, but substantial budgets just don't come from that. Shopper marketing, on the other hand, is the ultimate measurement vehicle. It's a thousand percent about ROI. The gold for everybody is going to be taking the power of social and tying it into what is going on in the store. Q: Will it work? Some studies have suggested otherwise.A: Yes. Historically, we've measured all our campaigns with third-party metrics, and use regression analysis to analyze the ROI, and our clients are some of the top marketers in the world -- Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, and Starbucks, for example. So our programs are shopper tested. Now we'll be able to tie that in to what is happening in the store. What's clear is that social media drives sales in stores in a way that will make marketers start to spend significantly more in their social media programs. Q: Why acquire agencies?A: Right now, there just isn't a way to connect shopper marketing and social marketing very effectively. That's where our value comes in -- I think these acquisitions are going to change the landscape, and that you'll see more in the coming year. Take Walmart and Kosmix. Walmart is a big brand and understands that it is the consumer driving purchase decisions -- and now they have this amazing unit to begin to add tools. I think retailers are saying, 'Social can't be overlooked. Let's not dabble in this, let's own it." We've got 800,000 BzzAgents. Dunnhumby has access to over 200 million shoppers worldwide. That's quite a scale.
Celebrities are known for having their fair share of "baggage" (just ask the folks at TMZ). But JetBlue Airways is asking them to unload another kind of baggage -- carry-ons, party purses, briefcases, guitar cases and other bags -- for a celebrity auction. Through June 6, fans can bid on personal items donated by more than 50 actors, musicians and athletes at www.jetblue.com/celebritybaggage. All proceeds benefit DoSomething.org, which is also promoting the auction on its Web site. Fans can also enter for a chance to win a bag on JetBlue's Facebook page, where the airline will donate an additional $1 per sweepstakes entry to help raise money for America's youth, up to $25,000. The New York-based airline is playing up its "first bags fly free" incentive in promoting the auction. Three of the bags come from the family of actress Lindsay Lohan, who has had her share of "baggage" as of late. In addition to Lindsay's signed duffel bag (a modest LeSportsac with horses that would retail for less than $100), her younger brothers Michael C. and Cody, who are also actors, have items in the auction. The high bidder for Lindsay's bag (which at press time was up to $510) will also get an autographed copy of the Harper's Bazaar magazine featuring the actress on the cover, as well as a Lindsay Lohan "MyScene" doll and a signed movie poster from "Mean Girls." The item with the highest bid thus far is for one-time presidential candidate/real estate mogul/"Celebrity Apprentice" boss Donald Trump. Mr. "You're Fired" is offering up a signed attaché case from Zero Halliburton, two VIP tickets for the 2011 Miss USA Pageant in Las Vegas on June 19 and two tickets to the 2011 Miss USA Pageant after-party. (The high bid on the Trump offerings was $1,025 as of press time.) Other celebrities who have donated items include Amber Valetta, Blake Griffin, Brittany Snow, Busy Philipps, Chelsea Handler, Diane Von Furstenberg, Jessica Simpson, Jordin Sparks, Kellan Lutz, Kelly Osbourne, Matt Leinart, Molly Ringwald, Paul 'DJ Pauly D' DelVecchio, Rosario Dawson, Ryan Seacrest, Samantha Harris, Sara Evans, Stacy Keibler, Taylor Swift and Ted Nugent. The baggage is being auctioned on eBay during two seven-day auction periods: the first ending May 30 and the second running from May 31 to June 6. Each signed bag includes a custom JetBlue luggage tag and two round-trip JetBlue tickets. Some pieces are accompanied by personal items from the celebrity donor. To get up close and personal with the baggage, fans can head to Santa Monica Place in Santa Monica, Calif., where many of the items will be on display and visitors can bid on them directly from their smartphones.
Snack Factory, the Princeton, N.J.-based makers of Pretzel Crisps, may not be the country's largest snack company, but it's among the fastest-growing -- and savvy use of product development technology and social media are accelerating that momentum. The privately owned company saw sales grow 15% last year to more than $50 million, according to Perry Abbenante, VP of marketing for Pretzel Crisps. Further, SymphonyIRI shows its sales leaped 66% during the 52-week period ending April 17. Obviously, the products themselves are the primary growth-drivers. Warren and Sarah Wilson, the entrepreneurs behind the Funnel Cake Factory and New York Style Bagel Chips/New York Style Pita Chips brands (the former was eventually sold to J&J Snack Foods and the chips business to RJR Nabisco), went on to innovate the patented, flat pretzel cracker Pretzel Crisp product and incorporate Snack Factory in 2004. Consumers took to Pretzel Crisps because they offer "all of the crunchy essence of pretzels, without all the doughy filling," and because like more traditional crackers, they can be paired with other foods or used to dip, sums up Abbenante. (The brand drove massive exposure early on by making small packages for distribution on airlines.) The brand's tagline is "Rethink Your Pretzel," and a commitment to new approaches, expansion and honing existing products is ingrained in Snack Factory's entrepreneurially oriented culture, says Abbenante. For example, last year, Pretzel Crisps both redesigned its packaging (including an updated logo) and introduced a new Modern Classics line for natural foods aficionados (now distributed in Whole Foods and natural foods stores nationwide). Also last year, within the Deli Style line that represents the bulk of its business, the company added a sesame variety and boosted sales by reformulating another variety (parmesan was changed to garlic parmesan). At the same time, Snack Factory recognized an opportunity to expand on the success of its Deli Style Buffalo Wing variety, a leading seller since its launch in 2007, by introducing two new "bold and spicy" flavors. However, says Abbenante, the internal creative brainstorming process had generated more than 180 variations of possible flavors and looks of the snacks and their packaging -- and Snack Factory knew that the costs of using focus groups or other traditional market research methods would dramatically restrict the number of concepts and variations that could be consumer-tested. The solution eventually found, he reports, was Affinnova's IDDEA II technology, which enables testing and analyzing the results of theoretically limitless variations through statistically valid online surveying of large, representative consumer groups (representative of U.S. adults qualified as being within the brand/category's target audience, for example). The basics: The technology employs a proprietary algorithm that processes consumers' survey feedback on an ongoing basis, and presents a honed or "evolved" set of choices to the next group of consumers as the surveying process continues. According to Abbenante, the Pretzel Crisps process involved narrowing down the 180-plus variations to five by surveying and analyzing the results of one group of 400 consumers, then determining the two winning combinations by surveying a different group of 400 consumers. Boiling it down from the marketing perspective, the technology enabled Snack Factory to test all of its variations and determine the two optimal versions of flavor, product look and packaging design -- in terms of their purchase-intent performance -- within about six weeks, at an affordable cost, sums up Abbenante. The company was also able to see how the 'winners' compared to purchase-intent performance for competitive products. Snack Factory has now created those two new Pretzel Crisps flavors -- although Abbenante declines to reveal the specifics until the varieties are officially unveiled during the International Dairy-Deli-Bakery Association (IDDBA) show in Los Angeles, which starts June 5. The new Deli Style spicy flavors won't be Snack Factory's only 2011 product launches. Pretzel Crisps is also introducing a dark chocolate counterpart to its "wildly successful and highly addictive" holiday-season-only White Chocolate & Peppermint variety, reports Abbenante. Pretzel Crisps' growth is also being driven by newly created field sales/marketing teams in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston and New York -- and by expanding and evolving social media marketing efforts, the marketing executive says. Pretzel Crisps' Facebook page was not launched until last fall, but it has already pulled nearly 61,000 fans. The page offers access to recipes, product pairing suggestions, coupons and other offers, but Abbenante attributes its fan growth primarily to the brand "voice" conveyed. "We engage consumers with a fun brand personality," he says. "For instance, we posted humorous 'updates' and comments around the royal wedding, which generated large numbers of fan postings and new fans. We're not just constantly selling the products, which endears the brand to consumers." Probed further about how Facebook traffic is being driven, Abbenante notes that Pretzel Crisps not only prominently promotes its Facebook page on its site (see site banner graphic), but uses targeted Facebook advertising to drive consumers to coupon and other offers on its page. For example, around the Super Bowl, the brand used geographically targeted ads with team-specific messaging in the Pittsburgh and Green Bay, Wis. markets promoting Pretzel Crisps as great Super Bowl game snacks (along with the Facebook-based coupon offer). Then there's Twitter. Snack Factory's field team members are asked to spend part of each day identifying tweets that include keywords like pretzel, snacks and hungry, and they then contact prime tweeters and deliver samples of Pretzel Twists to those tweeters' houses or offices. "These tweeters of course then tweet about how cool it was that Pretzel Crisps just brought them free bags of our snacks, and how good they are, and those positive messages are reaching hundreds of thousands of their followers," Abbenante says. While Snack Factory continues to use media such as billboards in key markets, targeted online ads and buy-one-get-one-free offers made through email promotions to the opt-in email lists of partners with affinity, "dollar for dollar, we're finding that social media is the best investment, because once a consumer 'likes' us, we can continue to engage with and market to that person, at very small additional or incremental cost," says Abbenante. "We don't have the marketing budgets of the biggest brands, but we're producing extremely cost-effective results through strategic social media efforts. The whole marketing scenario is entirely different than it was five years ago."
Because of the Memorial Day holiday, Marketing Daily will not be posted/emailed on Monday. Have a safe and happy long weekend, everyone! We'll be back on Tuesday. --Nina Lentini, editor
That's the message some Toyota owners will be getting. From their cars! Toyota has teamed with Salesforce.com and Microsoft to create a social network called "Toyota Friend," where Toyota's electric cars and plug-in hybrids can become "friends" with their owners. By connecting the owners' smartphones via a dedicated app, the car will send a message to the vehicle's owner alerting him or her that the battery is low. Or that the car needs a tune-up. Or an inspection. Or that it's lonely. Okay -- not the last one, but the program is certainly more differentiating and engaging than a check-engine light, or a postcard from your dealer. The new social network will be built into the dashboard of new models and will feature full Facebook and Twitter integration. There will even be a private Web site that Toyota customers can use to view news feeds about their cars. Or share stories about their cars. And if it turns out that your car is more technologically advanced than your mobile phone, messages will be sent via SMS. Toyota -- which has been hit with recalls, shortages, more recalls, and factory shutdowns -- needs something to lift sales and repair its dented image. Toyota president Akio Toyoda, announcing the $5 million venture, said: "Social networking services are transforming human interaction and modes of communication. The automobile must evolve in step with that transformation." In a parallel lane, Ford had announced last year that it was adding a new feature to transform its in-car communication systems -- a "Do Not Disturb" button -- a proactive safety measure to block incoming calls and texts. Earlier this year, at the Geneva Motor Show, BMW introduced its "Connected Drive," a system that brings together more than 50 communication functions, including satellite navigation and self-drive technology. Anything that can make drivers' lives safer and more comfortable is bound to offer new opportunities for brand differentiation and engagement. And if they drive buying decisions, too, all we can say is XLNT!