Toys R Us has unfurled its holiday Hot List, which this year includes Sesame Street Let's Rock, Elmo from Hasbro, Air Hogs Hyper Actives from Spin Master, LEGO's Ninjago Lightning Dragon and Lalaloopsy Silly Hair dolls from MGA Entertainment. The Wayne, N.J.-based toy retailer says it is also working Facebook more prominently into its holiday marketing plans -- using its page as "the ultimate hub of hot toy information for gift-givers," continually showcasing the season's best in toys. In addition to photos and videos, fans can ask toy experts for help picking out the perfect gift, directing users to toys priced at $50 or less or $20 or less. Besides Elmo (he's got a microphone this time, as well as drum and a tambourine), other featured toys include are Poppin' Park Elefun Busy Ball Poppers from Playskool for babies. For preschoolers, there are Angry Birds 5-Inch Plush toys featuring sounds taken from the game, Cabbage Patch Kids Limited Vintage Edition, and Disney Rock Star Mickey from Fisher-Price. (He plays The Kinks' "You Really Got Me.") For the four and older crowd, recommendations include Lalaloopsy Silly Hair dolls from MGA Entertainment, Power Rangers Samurai Megazord, Power Wheels Dune Racer from Fisher-Price, and Disney-Pixar "Cars 2" The Real Lightning McQueen Interactive Air Hogs R/C Vehicle from Spin Master. Last year, total global toy sales reached $83.3 billion in U.S. dollars, according to NPD -- a gain of about 4.7% from the prior year. (The U.S. is the largest consumer of toys.) Earlier this year, the Port Washington, N.Y. market research company forecast continued growth in North American toy sales. Separately, Toys R Us says it plans to hire 40,000 seasonal employees this holiday season, which it says is in line with the 35,000 to 45,000 workers it has added in seasons past.
The food and beverage industry has renamed its new, voluntary front-of-package nutrition labeling system, from "Nutrition Keys" to "Facts Up Front." The Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) and the Food Marketing Institute (FMI) announced the new name, as well as the launch of a Web site, FactsUpFront.org. The site is a first effort in a $50 million consumer awareness/education campaign that will go into full throttle next year. The new name, also the theme for the consumer campaign, was selected because "it clearly communicates the program's objective, to move fact-based information from the Nutrition Facts panel on the back or side of the package to the front, so shoppers can more easily find the information they need to make more informed decisions when they shop," says GMA's Senior Communications Director Ginny Smith. The name/theme was created with the agencies chosen to develop the consumer campaign: BBDO New York (and sister companies), Edelman and FoodMinds, Smith confirms. The new site, FactsUpFront.org, explains what are now dubbed the Facts Up Front nutrition icons, includes various other research and resources, and prominently features positive quotes from Congressional representatives about the industry's labeling system. The associations report that the number of consumer products bearing the icons are expanding in line with makers' seasonality and production/distribution schedules, and that the consumer campaign will launch early next year, when the icons will be on a majority of products in the marketplace. Meanwhile, according to Christine Stencel of the press office for the Institute of Medicine, the IOM's Phase II report on front-of-pack labeling is now in the peer review stage. IOM "hopes" to release the report in October, and has set a "tentative" target release date of Oct. 19, she says. Congress directed IOM and Centers for Disease Control to conduct the labeling study. Once the Phase II report is released, the Food and Drug Administration plans to release guidance on FOP. FDA officials have said that any FOP labeling system would be voluntary, although participants would be required to comply with its specifics. In its Phase I report, released last October, IOM concluded that FOP labeling should disclose calories, serving size, saturated fats, trans fats and sodium content information, as these address "the most pressing diet-related health concerns and challenges" for consumer nutrition education and compliance purposes. It also concluded that including too much information, including beneficial nutrients such as protein, fiber, vitamins and minerals, could result in consumer confusion and encourage the addition of unnecessary nutrient fortifications in food/beverage products for marketing purposes. The industry's FOP system includes icons showing calories, saturated fat, sodium and sugar per serving, the daily value percentages for saturated fat and sodium, plus up to two icons showing "nutrients to be encouraged," such as fiber, protein, calcium and vitamins. It forgoes disclosure of trans fats. The second IOM report will provide recommendations on what format a voluntary FOP labeling system should take, based on consumers' use and understanding of various symbols and systems. In an article published in The New England Journal of Medicine in June, authors Kelly D. Brownell of Yale University and Jeffrey P. Koplan of Emory University argued that the U.S. food/beverage industry's FOP system "violates several key requirements for an effective approach," based on systems already in place in European countries (including a "traffic light" system used in Britain, wherein red signals that a food is deemed poor in nutritional quality). The authors said that their main objection to what is now called Facts Up Front is its "lack of a science-based, easily understood way to show consumers whether foods have a high, medium, or low amount of a particular nutrient." They called on the U.S. food/beverage industry to abandon what they termed a "unilateral, unscientific, preemptive approach" and "show good faith by awaiting the IOM [Phase II] report and endorsing the best evidence-based approach to front-of-package labeling." GMA issued a response stressing that its FOP system is fact-based, in full compliance with existing FDA regulations and in line with the federal government's 2010 Dietary Guidelines, was developed "in consultation with government stakeholders," and is marked by "simplicity" to which consumers have responded "very favorably" during extensive testing. "The private sector is well-positioned to move this initiative forward quickly and efficiently, and to get it into the marketplace as soon as possible, so that consumers can have access to an important and useful tool that testing shows will enjoy wide consumer acceptance," GMA stated. Bottom line: The release of the IOM's second report is bound to add fuel to an already highly charged issue.
Jason Bateman has a new boss. And drinking 18-year-old scotch at 8 a.m. is definitely not going to be part of the initiation. The actor is the new voice of Honda advertising. He appears in a new spot for Honda's Accord sedan that first aired Sept. 18 during the Patriots/Chargers game, according to the company. The star of "Horrible Bosses" (in which Kevin Spacey forces Bateman to drink a full tumbler of the above-mentioned spirits) will also be in upcoming spots for the Accord and the redesigned 2012 Pilot. The new spot shows successive images of Honda products through recent history, with Bateman doing a voiceover that says "What we created here...what we achieved here... what we learned here...and what we pioneered here...all goes here (shot of the new Accord.) Accord Tag: "The One." Mike Accavitti, VP marketing at American Honda, said he's the right guy because he has a "down-to-earth, tell-it-like-it-is honesty that lines up perfectly with Honda's leadership as the smarter choice." Automakers have, in recent years, been particularly fond of hiring A-listers to be their voices, leading to some interesting snaggles. Hyundai, which has Jeff Bridges on contract, comes immediately to mind. The automaker, as part of its media strategy that focuses on buy slots on tentpole broadcast events, had a big media buy on the Oscars this year and last. The company could not use Bridges because he was up for an award both years. So Hyundai made its own media event out of it by bringing in actors/friends of Bridges to fill in for him. Just to test my own memory, or maybe impress myself with how vapid I am, I have a list here of which actor has been the voice of which auto brand in recent years -- and, sorry, in no particular order, chronologically or in any other sense. I am excluding people who have actually physically appeared in ads. But you should tack this to your corkboard because you WILL be quizzed: Honda: Richard Dreyfus; Kevin Spacey; Garrison Keillor (who spoke the tag, "Isn't it nice when things just work?" in that amazing Cog ad in the U.K., and was the voice in Hondamentalism ads); Rob Paulsen ("Mr. Opportunity." This is a stretch since nobody knows who this guy is.) Acura: James Spader (drinks scotch, smokes cigars with William Shatner) Mazda: Patrick Dempsey Cadillac: Gary Sinise ("Break Through"); Laurence Fishburne ("Red Blooded Luxury") Buick: Kevin Bacon (he was in last year's ad for the Regal) Chevrolet: Tim Allen ("Chevy Runs Deep") (I'm not mentioning Howie Long because he appeared in Chevy ads, same with Mike Rowe at Ford for F-150) Pontiac: Matt Dillon (Pontiac is gone, not forgotten; Matt Dillon is...does anyone know where Matt Dillon is?) Chrysler: Adrien Brody ("Whatever Happened to Style" aired during the Golden Globes this year) Dodge Ram: Sam Elliot Dodge Durango: Michael C. Hall (he's the actor from "Dexter" and "Six Feet Under") Jeep: Jim Parsons, (from "Big Bang Theory") Ok, he's not actually in Jeep commercials but he will be the voice of an anthropomorphic Jeep in a December episode of SyFy's "Eureka." Lexus: James Remar (also from "Dexter" as well as "Sex and the City" Hyundai: Jeff Bridges Ford F-150: Denis Leary (former standup comic and star of "Rescue Me") Mercedes-Benz: Richard Thomas ("goodnight, John Boy"); Jon Hamm (of "Mad Men") Land Rover: Charles Shaughnessy (famous British actor who did soaps and other stuff) Volkswagen: Ray Winstone (was in "Sexy Beast" and "The Departed") Volvo: Donald Sutherland Extra credit to those who can think of others! Mentioning the ghost of Harley Earl will lower your score by 10 points.
This summer Ford brought racing, Millennials, and the Fiesta, Mustang and Ranger vehicles together via a marketing partnership with the X-Games around several racing categories. Nissan is doing a similar program, but the reward is different and the vehicle for getting there begins in the virtual world. The company's GT Academy USA program gave top players of Polyphony Digital's "Gran Turismo 5" console game a chance to be one of 16 finalists in a national challenge. The Ford effort spotlighted several X-Games Ford racers: Rally Cross Ford Fiesta racer Tanner Foust; Stage Rally racer and Ken Block, who also drives a Fiesta; Mustang drift-racer Vaughn Gittin, Jr., and off-road truck racer Brian Deegan, who drives a Ranger. It also introduced a social and experiential program, Octane Academy, which gives consumers a chance to learn the basics of racing by the pros. But to get that experience, one has to create a video on why he or she should get an opportunity to participate in the program. Those who are chosen from their submissions will do four four-day training programs that are also kind of an auto-racing version of "Survivor," where the best contestant wins. The effort has been getting digital and TV support, with creative featuring the four racers who will teach and run the camps, each of which will have eight contestants doing various challenges over one weekend. The overall winner of each camp will be awarded a new Ford vehicle of their choice. All of it will be on an eponymous reality television series on Fuel TV. The 13-episode show, the first such show on Fuel, will follow the Octane Academy contestants at each of the racing camps. The show, which launches early next year, will have three episodes for each of the camps. The Academy is staggered so that the first starts in November, with Brian Deegan overseeing an off-road truck-racing program. Ford says that since the July launch of the digital effort, some 6,000 people have applied and there have been 850 video submissions. The company says early interest has been greater than that of the Fiesta Movement, where people had to apply to become "Fiesta Agents." The company says the Octane Academy is the most applied-to Ford program to date. "We created Octane Academy to reach a younger, more diverse generation of action sports and race enthusiast," said Crystal Worthem, Ford Brand Content and Alliance manager. "The response rate, creative video submissions and passion to be part of Octane Academy have exceeded our expectations." Ford is not alone in bringing younger consumers into its brand through the kinds of activities Millennials are into. As in Ford's program, the Nissan reality show profiles the 16 finalists as they vie against each other at the Silverstone Circuit in the U.K. They did not compete for a car, however, but for a chance to become a real Nissan professional racer. Nissan racers Danny Sullivan, Tommy Kendall and Liz Halliday oversaw and judged. Nissan's reality show begins airing on Speed Channel this week. Said Jon Brancheau, VP marketing for Nissan North America, "GT Academy USA is a mesh of gaming, branded entertainment, and social media -- all designed to entertain, engage, and reward the audience across multiple platforms from gaming consoles to social networks and prime time." The company says some 54,000 people registered to compete and tried to make it to the National Finals in Orlando, Fla., where they raced on Gran Turismo 5 in March. The show follows the 16 players at the seven-day racing academy at Silverstone as they go through elimination rounds and are subjected to Navy SEAL-type mental and physical abuse. The winner will become a Nissan-sponsored professional race car driver and part of a four-person team that will race the 24-hour race in Dubai.
Time Warner Cable is looking to inject a little luxury into the television subscription space via a new ad campaign touting its nearly year-old SignatureHome packages. In TV spots that begin airing this week, the cable company shows off the company's digital cable, Internet and phone services (as well as its Whole House DVR, Remote DVR manager and 14-device wireless network products), via imagery that's more suited to upscale hotels than a telecommunications company. One commercial shows scenes from a luxury penthouse apartment. Against a piano-heavy, soft-jazz soundtrack, a woman's voiceover soothingly explains the SignatureHome product, as something "with a level of personal attention and professional expertise that is unmatched." The spot begins with a woman dropping her robe to reveal a black silk nightgown and getting into her bed with (presumably) her husband to watch some television, as onscreen text reads "Enhanced TV." Another scene shows the couple's children moving to the kitchen, clutching tablet computers, showing off the product's wireless capabilities. Other services offered include a "Personal Concierge," (described in the breathy voiceover as a "dedicated specialist who will tailor everything to be just right for you."), "Wideband" and an "Advanced DVR." "It's a class of service you might have thought disappeared from the world," the voiceover concludes before showing off the SignatureHome title. According to a release, the new campaign is meant to reflect the discerning tastes and lifestyles of Time Warner Customers. "We are very proud with the look and feel of this campaign as we continually work to evolve the ways we reach our customers," said Jeffrey Hirsch, executive vice president and chief marketing officer, residential services at Time Warner Cable, in the release. "This advertising campaign is fundamentally different from anything we've done in the past." A company representative did not return repeated calls or emails for further comment on the campaign, although the release suggested additional elements, including Spanish-language materials, would be forthcoming in the next month.
Financial institutions have been expanding their market penetration by reaching out to new partners and building affinity marketing practices. Working with numerous such institutions, we have identified best practices that can dramatically improve affinity marketing results, as well as simplify the sometimes overwhelming complexity of managing these partner programs. Using a pilot-and-rollout, test-and-learn methodology, financial institutions often phase new program enhancements -- beginning with marketing analytics and then building out other program efficiencies based on the expected value gains to their organizations. That's a plan that works, and here are five critical but often overlooked steps to guide that process to lift your affinity programs to the next level. 1) Fine-tune how you select your affinity partners. Not all affinity partners deliver the same value. Managing your affinity partner acquisition efforts based on their projected profitability is just as important as focusing on acquiring the most profitable end customers. Don't waste the opportunity to leverage customer intelligence from your existing customer base to quantify the opportunity from a new potential partner. Bringing existing customer data together with a national database of demographics can be used to create a revenue potential model to evaluate the new partners' customer file. Marketers can then develop a scoring approach for estimating the overall value of those prospective customers the affinity partner might bring to the table. 2) Use segmentation with your affinity partners. Thinking about your partners' potential in terms of segments can make acquisition more efficient. Start by segmenting the affinities into major categories: financial institutions, large corporations, associations, clubs, and alumni organizations. Analyze the attributes of each segment, including the potential scores. Some of the attributes you might consider are: the strength of the relationship between the affinity and its members, membership size, how exclusive its membership, and how closely do the members' profiles align with your ideal customer profile? 3) You don't need to market to every member of your partner's organizations. Not all the members of your affinity partner will fit your target audience. Your product can be offered to all members on their Web site or in their newsletters, but you don't need to spend money reaching out to unlikely customers. Your partner's database may contain only a small percentage of high-tier prospects. Develop a scoring model which can identify affinity prospects most likely to resemble your best customers. You'll need to act fast and be able to score your partner's new members on a regular basis in advance of each campaign. 4) Test and re-test. Fine-tuning your communications is critical to the long-term success of the affinity program and your partner relationships. Each campaign deployment is a chance to learn how to improve response and return on investment. Building a test-and-learn process should be a central component of your affinity program; it starts with understanding the response implications for important program elements and establishing control cells for each campaign. Even subtle design/copy/format changes can improve your response rates. Create a unique test matrix for each campaign. The test matrix clearly identifies each element being tested as well as control test cells for comparison. That way, as responses and results are collected, performance can be easily assessed. Creating compelling selling messages that create maximum conversion involves developing a repeatable, disciplined process. 5) Use collaboration portals with your partners. For high-functioning partner relationships, collaboration portals can greatly increase project efficiency. A principal benefit is to deliver consistent and timely information to both partners. Your partner portal informs your affinity partner of campaign timelines, approvals, future campaign plans and additional services that the company provides to the affinity partner. A portal supports the complex creative development and review process. It can include dashboards showing the progress of marketing campaigns and tracking historical metrics over time. The portal can be set up to provide campaign performance tracking information to all members of the marketing team. Ideally, the portal can provide differing levels of access to information based on whether it is intended for clients or affinity partners. The reporting portal should be easily understood and accessible, showing standard reports and marketing terms that are consistent and commonly used.