Sure, many college students more or less subsist on fast food…but given the marketing barrages from a plethora of QSRs, even McDonald’s has to work at getting their attention and dollars in cost-effective ways. Recently, McDonald’s has been employing CampusLIVE’s Surge Marketing, a college-audience-specific platform that engages students with games, challenges and content tied to chances to win prizes from brands. CampusLIVE, founded in 2008 by then-University of Massachusetts-Amherst student CEO Boris Revsin and fellow students, has more than 100,000 registered college students who regularly engage with the activities on its destination site through school-specific sites that enable geographic targeting. (Hundreds of these have been built, and the company aims eventually to build sites for nearly all of the approximately 4,300 colleges/universities in the U.S.) The company sends emails to students who match a brand’s desired targeting parameters to alert them to new challenges. It gets paid only for documented successful engagements, and each marketer specifies a maximum number of students who can participate in a given campaign. This, says Revsin, enables marketers to plan and adhere to a specific budget, and also provides an element of urgency for students to participate before the limit is reached. Students must use a Facebook ID to log in and participate. For McDonald’s, CampusLIVE worked with Media Planning Group’s Mobext mobile marketing/communications arm to create customized challenges for two promotions targeted to select New England markets. The first, for McDonald’s’ new McCafé Peppermint Mocha espresso drink, was dubbed the “Drizzle Draw” (referring to the chocolate drizzle topping the drink). It challenged students to use a graphics app to create their own drizzle designs on a virtual McDonald’s cup, and share them through Facebook and Twitter to get friends to vote for their entries (shown in a gallery on the CampusLIVE site). The entry drawing the most votes won free McDonald’s coffee for a year, and the 50 top “sharers” won $10 McDonald’s coffee gift certificates. During its nine-day participation window (Dec. 2-10), the campaign drew more than 25,000 unique votes, reports Revsin. A second -- the “McSmile” campaign now underway -- challenges students to visit their closest McDonald’s location, use a $1-any-size promotion to buy a cup of coffee, take a photo with it, upload it to CampusLIVE, and share it to drum up votes, or simply view the gallery and vote for their favorite photo. In this case, the Nov. 11-Dec. 31 contest offers a trip for two to Miami to the person whose photo garners the most votes, and $50 worth of free coffee to the top 10 sharers. Mobext Managing Director Phuc Truong says the CampusLIVE platform made sense for the two McDonald’s promotions because of its guaranteed reach and activation and the ability to geotarget schools that have a McDonald’s location within a specified proximity.
Looks like there’s a little more juice in those jingle bells this season, with the National Retail Federation upgrading its holiday forecast. And as the final Christmas countdown begins, both Walmart and Target are stepping up their game. The NRF, which called for a gain of about 2.8% in its initial forecast back in October, says it is now expecting final holiday sales figures to come in 3.8% higher than last year, at a record $469.1 billion. And while that is still substantially below the 5.2% gain realized last year, it’s better than the 10-year average of 2.6%. And earlier this week, comScore announced that online sales are also up, 15% from actual sales at this point last year. “After strong sales reports in October and November, along with a successful Black Friday weekend, retailers are cautiously optimistic that this season will turn out better than initially expected,” the NRF says in its release. The Washington-based trade group says it is making the adjustment based on stronger-than-expected sales in November, as well as polling showing that the average American has completed far less of their holiday shopping than in previous years, “an indication that many shoppers bought for themselves in November and have plenty of holiday shopping left to do.” Discounters clearly intend to make sure that they get their share of that spending, with both Walmart and Target announcing sweeping price cuts on in-demand items, including electronics and toys. Target, for instance, is lopping 40% off many items -- and in some cases, even more. For example, it has lowered the $199 Nikon L105 digital camera to $99, and the $43 Fisher-Price Imaginect Mega T-Rex to $21. In addition, shoppers who spend $75 or more in stores from 5 p.m. Dec. 16 until noon on Dec. 17 will receive a $10 Target GiftCard. Walmart’s promotional tactics are similar, and also include an extra day to shop by extending its shipping deadlines on walmart.com. Called the “BIG Christmas Event,” it’s promising shoppers the lowest prices of the season, including a 32-inch Vizio HDTV at $298; 3D Blu-ray Player with Built-in WiFi at $98, and select video games at $39.96.
Toyota last year tried something different with its year-end sales campaign. It tried incentives, but not the usual kind. Instead of -- or besides -- trying to lure people into dealerships with deals, it incentivized them to infuse their social media channels with their plan to buy a new Toyota. The Shareathon campaign dangled a $500 prepaid debit card for sharing the message via Twitter, redeemable after purchase. This year, the campaign, via Saatchi & Saatchi L.A., is a little different. As before, each day the first 140 people who register at www.toyota.com/shareathon, tweet a scripted Shareathon message, then actually purchase or lease a new Toyota vehicle on or before Jan. 3 get the prepaid $500 debit card. But they can also get up to $1,000 in $50 increments based on how often the initial message is re-tweeted within 48 hours. Also, people who participate in the program will be entered to win a new 2011 Prius. The company says the Shareathon site will also generate "interactive visualizations" that track the original tweets and retweets. The visualizations use circular graphs where each point represents a retweet, with color-coding to distinguish original retweets from second- and third-generation retweets. Kimberley Gardiner, national digital marketing and social media manager for Toyota, tells Marketing Daily that traffic to the site is robust. “In terms of initial traffic, we have seen a big increase of visitors to the site, tweets, redemption and registration for coupons," she says. The 140 coupons for the prepaid debit cards offered each day have been gone within two or three hours after going live at 8 a.m. "We were expecting that it would have been more like the afternoon or evening. Demand is outpacing supply." To be clear, this isn't free money for tweeting, but free money for tweeting after one has purchased a new Toyota vehicle within the year-end sale window. "Last time we had a big success with it; we got 22 million impressions," says Gardiner. "We saw really positive metrics come out of it and dealers really like the idea of adding a social element to something as routine as a sales event." She says the program also takes some of the onus off of dealers to drum traffic: "It's easy to tweet." Gardiner says Toyota may look at taking that social-incentive platform to other parts of the year, based on the success and momentum from last year. The key, she says, is the short time frame of the sale, ending Jan. 3. It creates a sense of urgency that drives redemptions. "The intent is targeting people seriously considering a vehicle now, so it's not broad in the sense that we want to reach an audience thinking about buying a car three to six months from now. We want to make sure we are giving them another reason to consider us. We did see that of those who requested coupons, a significant number followed through and bought a vehicle; and many were coming from a younger audience, and many were also new to Toyota."
Levels of financial optimism among senior executives are plummeting, according to an annual survey by Omnicom Group’s Doremus and the Financial Times. Six out of 10 respondents expect further decline in the global economy over the next six months. And nearly half of them do not believe the economy will recover until or after 2013. Respondents were only slightly more optimistic about the global and local economics than they were in 2008, and maintained the same level of optimism regarding their industries and companies. This year, there were 628 respondents to the ninth annual Decision Dynamics survey, representing a mix of company sizes and industries from North America, Europe and Asia. “As we see companies increase their spending, even at miniscule increments, we expect there will be a steady snail’s pace back to recovery,” said Hope Picker, the Doremus director of strategic research, in a statement. “Barring any further disasters, natural or otherwise, this show of modest spending is a sign of life, and gratefully not life support.” Only a quarter of the companies in the survey plan to hire this year while the same proportion expects their organization’s employment level to decrease. This is somewhat worse than the 2010 findings and very similar to the results from 2009. Low consumer confidence and U.S. and European debt issues will continue to impact more companies over the next six months or longer. Companies that operate globally are most likely to feel the fallout from some of the year’s global issues, namely: the European debt crisis, U.S. debt/budget, Arab spring, and Japan disasters. There are also geographic differences, with Asian respondents this year feeling the impact of European and U.S. economic issues. “Global business leaders have felt the repercussions of the European and U.S. debt crises, as well as global unemployment, battered consumer confidence, and a year filled with natural disasters,” said Daniel Rothman, director of research in the Americas for the Financial Times, in a statement. “As we enter 2012, the only sure fact for many companies is that visibility remains poor.”
EA Sports is no longer tethered to the virtual world. The brand, known for its celebrity-driven sports games like Madden and the Tiger Woods golf titles, is branching out into airports and cruise ships. “One of the overarching goals is to find a way to find unique ways to connect with consumers,” Chris Erb, senior director of marketing partnerships at EA, tells Marketing Daily. “The airport is a great way from a physical brick-and-mortar way to connect with consumers.” This week, the company is opening its third “EA Experience” airport venue in Salt Lake City (following Charlotte, N.C. and Oklahoma City), and the company recently inked a deal with Carnival Cruise Lines to put EA-branded bars on all of the company’s cruise ships. The goal of the locations is to link the EA brand with real-world sports, Erb says. The stores, created in partnership with The Paradise Shops, feature amenities such as chairs and recharging stations for digital devices, as well as a place to purchase gear from the local sports teams, and EA games and branded merchandise. Similarly, the bars on the boats provide a way for travelers to keep up with their favorite teams and sports while away. “Our goal is to create an experience in which we can let you come into our stores and catch you up on the latest sports,” Erb says. “If we can get good experiences at any time, that’s the upside for us.” Ultimately, Erb says, the goal is to find ways to deepen engagement with consumers, wherever they may be. “When you’re at our physical location, it’s about getting people to connect with our controllers,” he says. “When you’re on Facebook and Twitter it’s not about saying things. It’s about being engaged through the process.” Much of that engagement comes through outside partnerships, whether they be airport retail development companies, cruise lines or food brands such as Doritos (through which EA has offered exclusive content of its games through on-package promotions). “I think we do the connectivity through our partners," Erb says. “It’s really about finding partners that want to give consumers value or fund experiences for people.” Of course, it’s also about making those experiences meaningful and relevant, with partners that make sense. First and foremost, the partners EA chooses have some sort of sports connection (like a Nike, Gillette or even Lowe’s, which is an NCAA sponsor). “Sports consumers are bombarded with sports advertising and marketing,” Erb says. “To reach those people we need to partner with brands that are relevant in those spaces.” Moving forward, Erb says, the company will continue to evaluate its current initiatives (including the stores and bars) and create experiences that build positive associations with the brand, which, hopefully, will translate into sales. “[Next year] and beyond is about understanding what consumers think about what we’re bringing them and tweaking and expanding that,” Erb says. “It’s not about driving to the specific end goal of the sale. It’s about building the experience that will translate to the sales at some point.”
While Ford's eponymous division has been flying high under the leadership of former Boeing chief Allen Mulally, Ford's luxury brand Lincoln has been sitting on the tarmac spinning its turbines. That's about to change. Like an F4 Phantom on a pitching deck lining up to the catapult, the deck pitched up 10 degrees, the carrier turned into the wind, tanks full, stingers armed, Lincoln is preparing for takeoff in 2012. On deck is a major vehicle portfolio refresh and redesign, a forthcoming brand transformation, and -- here's the big one -- a nascent New York City-based Lincoln-dedicated advertising agency with 45 staffers comprising talent from its WPP shop Team Detroit, plus other people garnered from WPP agencies. This confluence of events has been in the works for a while. Max Wolff, chief designer for the brand, speaking at a Lincoln brand confab in New York on Thursday, said, for example, that a Lincoln Design Studio has also been quietly coalescing and will be airborne by January. Jim Farley, group VP global marketing at Ford, pointed to the seven "transformational" vehicles Lincoln will have over the next three years (the 2013 MKS car and MKT crossover will enter showrooms next year, boasting new powertrain technology, among other things) -- saying the vehicles reflect a dedicated engineering design team at work under the Lincoln banner. One big hint about the brand direction from a product perspective will be a concept version of the MKZ sedan to be unveiled in Detroit next month. "At the same time," said Farley, "we are developing unique Lincoln field and marketing teams focused on dealerships." He said part of the transformation will be retail redesigns. The New York-based agency will be directed by Cameron McNaughton, who will be the agency's president, reporting to Satish Korde, CEO of Team Detroit. Jon Pearce, formerly of BBH New York, where he handled Johnnie Walker and Westin Hotels, among other brands, will be COO. Sir Martin Sorrell, CEO of WPP, said New York was the ideal location for Lincoln's new agency because of the talent, culture, confluence of luxury brands, and demographic (the New York area is the top luxury market in the U.S.) The city, he said, "brings an enhanced perspective very naturally, because it is embedded among the core audience. It also gives us access to an enlarged talent pool." Said Farley, who came to Ford from Toyota Motor three years ago, "I spent couple of decades at Lexus and this is most exciting project I've worked on because it's rare when we have the honor to revitalize a brand." He said Lincoln has in its favor its relatively small size and dealership footprint. "Lincoln was never intended to be that big," he said, recalling the brand’s heyday when it was thought of as a "personal" brand. "Our intention is to bring that personalized brand back as a new choice." The automaker has also rethought its buyer profile, and it is eschewing the alpha male (and female) psychographic that luxury auto brands -- particularly performance brands -- tend to court implicitly. "The biggest decision we have made is to go after the 'magician,' not the 'ruler' archetype -- the type who wants to dominate," said Farley. "Ours is different, and the most important aspect of it is their immense interest in satisfaction and surprise." Matt VanDyke, director of Lincoln marketing communications, said the target audience will be much more progressive than the traditional buyer base, and thus social media will be an important component of marketing programs. "We have learned a lot about how our customers use social media. The content that we create has to be relevant to that audience, so we know we need social for Lincoln."
Much of my time over the past year has been invested in meeting with agencies and brands to understand their needs, and also their perception and mindset about digital place-based media. Early on in this process, it became clear that the digital place-based media industry needs to more clearly define itself to these important constituencies. Our industry’s tremendous revenue gains over the past couple of years notwithstanding, there is no question that our long-term growth hinges on clarifying what we are… and are not. What are we? First, think people watching programs, as they have been doing in their living rooms for decades. But in today’s world, they are watching in places while they are actively involved in their daily lives, on their paths to purchase, in malls, movie theatres, bars, gyms and doctors offices, office lobbies, elevators, restaurants, taxis, airports, planes, gas stations, sports arenas, and the list goes on. It’s anywhere where consumers have dwell time. And these screens present digitally-delivered video. Many are addressable and some are interactive. They are programmed with engaging content that is relevant to the setting; content that entertains or informs, or frequently, does both. It gives marketers the opportunity to target well beyond standard demographics, allowing them to get at lifestyles, at consumers mindset and at relevance. What are we not? Digital place-based media is not transit advertising or outdoor bulletins. Digital place-based media is not billboards where static images are digitally delivered. Somewhere along the line digital place-based was put into the digital out of home bucket, but that has clearly caused confusion. The truth is that digital place-based needs its own conceptual bucket, as long as the buckets are defined the way they are now. Either that or we need to redefine the buckets. For example, TV as it is defined now in planning systems, is limited to in-home viewing. But why, when much of the viewing isn’t necessarily done in the home, do we slavishly abide by the old definition? Shouldn’t the TV bucket include any full-motion content being viewed on a screen, regardless of where that screen is located? We understand the basis of the confusion. After all, digital place-based is a little bit out of home because, yes, we are away from home. But, we’re probably as much TV, given the content that we deliver with full motion images, and digital, given our ability to target by mindset. But we’re also becoming a little social and a little bit mobile. This really isn’t about what group buys at the agencies, or about what activation silo we belong in. Those are really good questions, but that’s for agencies to grapple with and decide. This really is a strategic issue for our industry to articulate, i.e., what role can digital place-based fulfill in a communications strategy? For example, we know that digital place-based can act as a reach extender for TV plans, enabling marketers to reach very active, on-the-go consumers, who are also light TV viewers. We know that TV viewing is concentrated among a very specific portion of the population. The lightest two viewing quintiles are 40% of the population, but that segment does only 11% of the viewing. Because digital place-based viewers are out in the market more than they are at home, it only makes sense that these people don’t watch very much TV at home. Because of that, digital place-based networks are able to complement a traditional TV plan by delivering light TV viewers. The net result is that, as an advertiser, you are able to reach these consumers throughout their day, rather than being confined to a few hours of prime time viewing each night. Digital place-based media is meeting them out in the marketplace, where they are making decisions. So the ball is in our court. We have a strong case to make for being a part of many brands’ communications plans, but to fully maximize our industry’s potential, we need to clearly convey what we are. That is job one for 2012.