Nissan has a new campaign for the Leaf electric car called "Gas Powered Everything" centering on a spot that contemplates a steam-punk (except gasoline instead of steam) world where innovation has begun and ended with the internal combustion engine. The creative forwards the idea that there is nothing inevitable or perpetual about the internal combustion. The effort, via AOR Chiat, makes that point by imagining a world where just about everything requires a gasoline-powered engine to operate. The ad begins with a couple waking up in the morning to their alarm clock, which is powered by a gasoline engine with a tiny Mack truck-style stack spewing a little plume of smoke over their bed. They head into the kitchen where the man pulls a lawn-mower style lanyard to start the coffeemaker while his wife blow dries her hair with a gasoline-powered hair drier. Cut to the street where a woman prepares to jog by starting the tiny smoke-spewing gasoline engine on her arm that powers her MP3 player. On the street, the guy passes the jogger, who has to waft the smoke away from her face with her hand as she jogs. The guy, meanwhile, takes out his cell phone, which is also powered by a little gasoline engine. Things get more absurd. At the office, the guy twists the ignition key on his desktop computer, and depresses the gas pedal on the floor to get the computer running. Meanwhile, a technician checks the oil level on the copy machine and a guy goes to a little gasoline pump next to the water cooler to fill up the gas tank on his laptop computer. The money scene is at the dentist's office, where our guy waits his turn. Once in the chair he opens wide and the dentist hefts a drill that looks like it's powered by a chainsaw motor. Finally, at the end, we see the guy filling his car. Voiceover: "What if everything ran on gas? Then again, what if it didn't?" He looks across the street at another guy removing the electric charging cord from his Nissan Leaf. The ads drive traffic to GasPoweredEverything.com. The effort includes four 15-second teasers and a 60-second ad. Says VP marketing Jon Brancheau: "This campaign was conceived to challenge the notion that cars can only run on gas. By using humor and asking the simple question, 'what if everything ran on gas,' we're able to rationally make the case that electric cars' time has arrived."
Start your roller coasters: Memorial Day weekend marks the traditional beginning of summer theme park season. Industry analysts are predicting that the improving economy, growing consumer confidence and a steady decline in gas prices will put more motorists on the road. And the parks are banking on it with new attractions and accompanying promotions, many aimed at families seeking value. "Although it is too early to have a clear picture of how the season will play out, we are encouraged by the initial, positive trends in season-pass and group-business sales at the parks," said Dick Kinzel, CEO of Sandusky, Ohio-based Cedar Fair, during a recent earnings report conference. "We are aggressively doing all that we can through traditional marketing methods, as well as online and through social media, to capture our guests' attention and bring them to our parks." Cedar Fair, one of the largest regional amusement-resort operators in the world, owns and operates 11 amusement parks, six outdoor water parks, one indoor water park and five hotels. Cedar Fair's Cedar Point amusement park is trying to attract park goers with unusual giveaways and promotions. The "Take Home A Thrill" contest runs through June 19 with the prize of a John Deere XUV 825i Gator, valued at more than $11,000. During the first weekend in June, the park will hold its 23rd annual CoasterMania which includes a film festival featuring homemade Cedar Point videos. The event features free food, prizes, special presentations and exclusive deals for guests staying at any Cedar Point Resort. Cedar Point also is unveiling a hot new ride, the WindSeeker, in June. The 301-foot-tall spinning ride features 32 swings carrying two people each. It will twirl around as the swings rise, increasing speeds as they spin higher and higher. Three other parks owned by Cedar Point's corporate owner Cedar Fair also are debuting WindSeekers -- Kings Island near Cincinnati, Canada's Wonderland near Toronto and Knott's Berry Farm in California. SeaWorld is opening "Cheetah Hunt," a nearly $40 million attraction that combines a rollercoaster and an animal habitat, at its Bush Gardens Tampa Bay location. It's one of 10 new attractions the company is opening around the country in 2011. Although adding new rides annually is the norm, this season visitors will see fewer new big-ticket rides and more deals pegged to multi-day visits, according to analysts.
As the summer boating season gets underway, the recreational marine industry wants to sell leisure-seekers on the experience of boating. In a digital and social campaign launching this summer, the National Marine Manufacturers Association, the trade association representing boat, marine engine and accessory manufacturers, takes a look at boating through the eyes of the sport's enthusiasts, hoping to turn them into evangelists. "Our job is to leverage the passion and experiences of current boaters to draw new boaters to the sport," Carl Blackwell, chief marketing officer at the National Marine Manufacturers Association (which manages the industry's "Discover Boating" marketing initiative), tells Marketing Daily. One aspect of the campaign from Minneapolis agency Olson, which carries the tag "Welcome to the Water," is a Facebook "invitation planner" through which boaters can invite non-boaters for an outing, providing tips and ideas about how to maximize the boating experience. Discover Boating will use prize incentives, such as coolers, gift certificates and other merchandise to encourage use of the Facebook application. A digital video shows the facial expressions of boaters -- ranging from serene to excited to overjoyed -- and performing a variety of activities, from waterskiing to fishing to simply relaxing. A voiceover explains that boating "washes away" whatever you are when you're not on the water. "Whatever you are on land, you take that step and become a part of something else," it says. "When you're on the land looking at a boat, that's a really different mindset than when you're on the water," Blackwell says. "We're promoting the lifestyle. We think that's a really strong draw." Selling boating as a lifestyle decision is a different tack for the group, which previously used its name, Discover Boating, as its tagline. "We didn't really have a theme beyond our brand," Blackwell says. "Our difference this year is we're leveraging our enthusiasts to be evangelists." The digital campaign will run on sites appealing to outdoor enthusiasts and places where people look to find weather information, which is a key component of reaching boaters, Blackwell says. "Weather [sites] tend to convert as much as search for us," he says.
Montreal's 11 summer festivals already draw some 3 million visitors (out of a total 6 million visiting the city during the summer). But Montreal is now building on these key tourism assets, with the goal of becoming North America's premiere festival destination by 2015. This year the festivals, held between mid July and mid August, are being collectively marketed for the first time as "Montreal Festimania," a concept inspired by Scotland's famed Edinburgh Festivals. The Festimania concept was a natural, given Montreal's reputation for offering "the best of Europe and North America" and the logic of pooling resources across its wealth of festivals, says Isabelle Hudon, chairman of the board of Le Collectif de Festivals Montréalais, the nonprofit collective organizing and marketing Festimania. The festivals span virtually every cultural activity imaginable, including film, comedy, theater, circuses, design, art and a wide variety of music. The first-year efforts for Festimania (a three-year pilot project) aim to build awareness of the city as festival destination, as well as boost ticket sales and of course tourism revenue throughout Montreal, by attracting visitors from four primary markets: Quebec, the rest of Canada, the U.S. and Europe. Tourism campaigns tend to be bigger on scenery than humor. But the Collective created a campaign of international scale on a small budget (about $1 million, nearly all spent on marketing, according to Hudon) by leveraging the impromptu musical humor and popularity of YouTube star Merton, social media and a contest. Why Merton? The musician has drawn millions of international fans by posting YouTube videos of himself interacting with people through Chatroulette and Omegle, sites that enable strangers around the world to have Webcam- and online-based chats. Merton (always sporting a green hoodie) spontaneously composes humorous songs on his piano about each person he "meets" in cyberspace, based on their images and comments. His first video in March 2010 went viral, to date generating nearly 8.8 million views, and his subsequent videos also have drawn millions or hundreds of thousands of viewers/participants. The Festimania campaign tapped into Merton's fan base with two efforts. In March, Merton took his piano act to the streets of Montreal and also performed in the city's Place Des Festivals hall. A video created from those performances was hosted on his PianoChatImprov YouTube area and embedded in Festimania's site. During the first week of May, Merton was in action again for combined virtual/physical events in New York, Paris, London and Toronto. For each event, multicolored installations that resemble the prism design of the Festimania logo were set up in areas within the city. Within each was an iPad linked to a computer being used by Merton in Montreal. Through Skype, Merton (seated in front of Festimania branding elements) engaged with the iPad users and then endeavored to persuade them, through song (bringing in the festivals' highlights), to attend Festimania. A screen outside the prism structures enabled onlookers to see what was happening inside. (No audio was provided, to preserve an element of surprise for those next in line for the experience.) In each city, the performer also chose two participants (friends or a couple), based on their social media influence and personalities, to receive free trips to Montreal for Festimania, including transportation, hotel, two all-access passes to the festivals (called "Golden Lanyards") and some spending money. These "ambassadors" will be videoed during their activities at the festivals, with the footage to be used in social media and on the Web. The ambassadors' own posting and tweeting about their experiences are, of course, also expected to generate substantial buzz, says Hudon. (Press, bloggers and artists also will be invited to the festivals as guests, to further drive buzz.) Tied into all of these efforts is a "Golden Lanyard" contest, offering the winner the same package of a trip to Montreal and festivals access for two. The contest/entry form is hosted on the Swakes.com Facebook platform, and can also be accessed through a Swakes app on Festimania's Facebook page, or through the news feeds or personal pages/walls of participants registered for the sweeps on the Facebook platform. To feed viral activity, entrants who "like" Festimania invite their friends to join via email invitations, or get friends to enter the contest through a posting of their entries on their Facebook walls, get additional chances to win. The contest was promoted during the Merton four-city events via the distribution of "regular" lanyards bearing the entry Web site's URL. How is all of this panning out? The March-posted "Merton Loves Montreal" video has so far drawn more than 332,000 views, and both that video and the early May "international stunt" have generated many millions of media impressions and posts/tweets. In just a few weeks since launching the contest, Festimania has added about 1,000 Facebook fans, and the contest has drawn 1,200 entrants. Festimania also has its own YouTube page, which is drawing views of videos that highlight the festivals' activities, as well as more views of Merton's March video and a new Merton video song message about Montreal recorded during the international promotion.
Looks like the staycation has officially jumped the shark. While it's not that travelers are not conscious of pain at the gas pump, travel experts say they're not about to let it keep them at home. A survey from TripAdvisor reports that 86% of people are planning some kind of a trip this summer, up from 83% last year. And 33% planned to travel Memorial Day weekend, up from 29% last year. (The Automobile Association of America was also predicting an increase, albeit a smaller one, projecting that 34.9 million Americans would travel 50 miles or more from home over Memorial Day holiday weekend -- an increase of 0.2%.) "There is definitely going to be a bump in the number of leisure trips compared to last year," TripAdvisor spokesperson Brooke Ferencsik tells Marketing Daily. "Most Americans only have two to three weeks a year, and not taking advantage of that precious time just isn't an option. Summer is when the kids are out of school, and they are not willing to forgo that holiday -- not for a bad economy, not for bad weather, not for high gas prices. They may make modifications -- stay in less expensive places, shorten the trip -- but they're not giving up the family vacation." Fuel prices are definitely shaping the itinerary, however, with 39% saying the cost of gas factored into their plans, 18% taking fewer trips, 12% scheduling shorter driving trips, and 5% determined to stay home. And 24% say they will not go any further than 200 miles from home. But they are a little tired of being frugal travelers, with 26% planning to spend more than they did last year, and 42% planning to spend about the same as they did last year. One change this year, he says, is a jump in the popularity of city vacations, with 50% of those polled planning to visit a metropolis. (New York, Boston and Washington, D.C. topped the list.) Just 40% plan to visit the ocean, 18% a national park, and 16% a lake. Hiking is the most popular activity, at 33%, and there is a small increase in happy campers -- 12% will camp, compared to 10% last year.
Florida's tourism marketing corporation, Visit Florida, is going social with a digital "Sunshine Moments" summer marketing campaign that focuses on geotargeted digital advertising buys on sites like Facebook, AOL, and Yahoo. The organization is counting on the $1.1 million, five-week campaign focused on boosting family vacations to the Sunshine State to generate 315 million online impressions. The bipartite effort comprises an exclusive Facebook buy to appeal to families in 16 of Florida's key drive markets. The effort centers on a sweepstakes promotion encouraging visitors to upload their favorite Florida vacation images. The consumer-contributed photo gallery will appear on Visit Florida's Facebook page, where followers can vote for their favorite photo, which determines a grand prize winner. The winner gets a Florida vacation, a Mazda CX-7 crossover and a Kodak PlayTouch video camera. The second part of the campaign is an ad buy across eight targeted Web sites, including Yahoo, AOL, iVillage and Parents.com, intended to reach family "decision makers" on parenting forums, and sites about family activities and travel. The effort is intended to drive traffic to visitFlorida.com, which the organization says is the top trafficked state destination marketing organization Web site in the country. The organization last year launched an "Insiders" rich content portion of the site where local experts offer tips, videos, blog posts, Twitter feeds, fishing reports, interactive maps and other travel planning content. Earlier this year, Visit Florida launched a public service announcement touting its Share a Little Sunshine program. The ad featured the state's governor Rick Scott, who talks up tourism as a job creator and encourages Floridians to go to ShareaLittleSunshine. org. The Share a Little Sunshine program is a social Web platform intended to allow Floridians to share recommendations, photographs and invitations to visit the state with friends and family. The site features things like digital postcards and videos that include special offers. Those who send the postcards are entered into a sweepstakes, giving them the chance to win their own Florida vacation and other prizes. The state says that in 2010, it got 82.6 million visitors, who spent over $60 billion. According to Visit Florida, in the first quarter of this year, 23.3 million people visited the state -- a 3.3% increase from the same period in 2010. The bureau says the statistics represent a 2% increase in domestic visitors, a 14.4% increase in visitors from overseas, and an 8.1% increase in Canadian visits. Domestic visits were 84.8% of the total. The state says tourism-related employment for the first quarter is up 5.5%. "Florida's tourism industry is rebounding well after several challenging years," said Ed Fouche, Chairman of the Visit Florida Board of Directors and SVP of travel industry sales for Disney Destinations, in a statement. This is the second year the state is running its "Your Florida Side Is Calling" campaign, which has included media placements in snowbird cities like New York. Visit Florida says year one of the push garnered 180,000 Florida trips. The organization's partners include AirTran Airways, American Express, Disney Destinations, Dollar Rent A Car, The Hertz Corporation, SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment and Universal Orlando.
It seems like we could all do with a bit more mojo these days -- something to get things kick-started and steaming forward again. The economy has certainly been lacking it for a while and the people who are still employed are so stretched that they would do anything for a little extra mojo to turbo boost their performance. When it comes to injecting brands with a bit of extra in market zip, mojo works pretty well there, too. So what is mojo in the context of a brand? It is the energy and drive that comes from within that allows a brand to keep growing and kick the competition in the butt. When a brand has mojo it has stature in the market and draws flocks of evangelists like bees to a honey pot. So how can a brand get a little extra mojo to do everything from revving up its success rate behind new product innovations to identifying a cause that it can really own and capitalize on? For those people in the marketing realm who don't like to be faced with just one option, there are actually eight different sources of mojo that a brand can tap into -- so basically, whatever a brand's weak spot at a particular point in time, there is a mojo source that will probably provide the answer. So let's take a look at a few of these sources. The first Mojo source comes from the brand experience and, no -- that doesn't mean the experience that comes from being around a long time. I mean the experience that it gives consumers who interact with it -- use it, eat it, touch it, wear it or however else it defines its purpose. Traditional marketing puts a lot of stock in positioning a brand for success, but that doesn't always translate into truckloads of consumers who can't wait to, well ... jump on the truck. Brand Experience is so much more than just brand positioning -- think the Mini, Starbucks, The Nook, Virgin -- defining how people are going to experience your brand and why that's different and yes, exciting is a lynchpin of creating brand mojo. It should also be noted that brand evangelists should be able to articulate what makes the experience of the brand so unique even if being asked to articulate a brand's positioning results in head scratching and quizzical looks. A second source of Mojo is called Personal Progress because -- let's face it -- we don't just expect a brand or product to clean our floors or get us from A to B these days, we expect it to make us better people. It's easier to see how certain types of brands can deliver this type of mojo -- Weight Watchers (our thinner selves), Hallmark Cards (our more loving, caring selves) -- but what about a can of soda or an airline? Well, for a start, not all the eight sources of mojo are going to be equally relevant to all types of brands, but a soda could probably offer a little personal progress by encouraging sharing and an airline by promoting its ability to stay kind in a harsh world -- personally, I am still waiting on the last one. A third source of Mojo is a brand's advocacy, and this doesn't just mean following the pink ribbon wherever it may lead. This comes from a willingness to stand for and promote deeply held values that lead to it supporting causes that are relevant to its core target consumer. Fundamentally, this source of mojo generates brand sales by letting the consumer know that it cares about more than just making sales and money -- a type of reverse psychology. So what types of causes and advocacy give a brand mojo? A program like Electrolux's "Vac from the Sea" initiative is a very powerful use of Advocacy mojo. The initiative, which features vacuums designed from plastic waste removed from the sea, shines a spotlight on the issue of excess plastic pollution that is contaminating seas around the world. So what are the other five sources of mojo? Everything from Ingenuity, Access and Life Role to Inspiration and the brand's Value Equation. Finding ways to tap into the sources that are right for your brand can be as good as giving it a shot of Red Bull -- should such a thing be possible.