Volkswagen is launching an iPad app called “Golf R Drivers Forever,” touting the most powerful out-of-the-box car it makes. The app's launch is timed with the arrival this month of the sixth-generation Golf R factory-revved performance car. The Herndon, Va.-based VW of America says the app (free at iTunes App Store), aimed at enthusiasts, serves up an interactive narrative on the nameplate's evolution starting from the Rabbit in the 1970s. It also ties into the Golf R virtual community and has video of engineers of Volkswagen R GmbH, delving into what makes an R an R. The company says the app has videos, photos, interviews and Golf footage, as well as a mini-documentary about the Wolfsburg, Germany world of Volkswagen, including the Autostadt industrial park, visitor center and recreational area. The content, via AWOL Films, also has an interview with designer Chip Foose discussing the VW brand and the Golf; testimonials and enthusiast stories; an interactive timeline; and a Golf R brochure with tech specs, photo gallery and 360-degree view of the car. Charlie Taylor, VW general manager for digital marketing, tells Marketing Daily that the app's initial target is enthusiasts, those who will devour any VW-centric information they can get their digital hands on and then share it. He says that although it has been about five years since the automaker rolled out its last spaetzle rocket, the R 32, the new app has a more recent antecedent in VW's 2009's campaign for the GTI car centered on a mobile game app called "Real Racing GTI." "We learned a lot from that, and were pretty inspired by what we found," says Taylor, who explains that tens of millions of people downloaded that game. But while the target download numbers for the new Golf R app are smaller, they are potentially huge because of the target: hardcore VW performance-car fans who like to talk up the brand via social media. "We took this approach because those 1.6 million enthusiasts could then use social to reach an estimated 6.4 million, first to fans of VW in general, then that same conversation could allow us to possibly conquest people who might not even be considering the Golf R, but maybe [Mitsubishi's] Evo or the Subaru WRX." Taylor says the Golf R Drivers Forever app, chock-a-block as it is with one-click buttons that allow users to "like" or "Tweet" or generally share content, makes sense as a platform touting VW's R cars because the buyer segment over-indexes for digital media habits. "What we found was a high propensity to use the mobile Web, and that the core buyer for Golf R indexed especially heavily for tablet use." The campaign has two phases, per Taylor, starting with the launch of the app itself, a presence for "R" on VW.com, and a partnership with the largest enthusiast blog in the U.S., VW Vortex, as well as on mobile WAP, Facebook and YouTube. Phase two starts in May with digital advertising and some print focused on telling Volkswagen's performance story. "Phase two will include the GTI and Jetta GLI cars, so brand, strategy, style, performance and fun-to-drive are how we are defined for a big part of the year," says Taylor, adding that the major objectives -- in addition to the obvious one of driving Golf R sales -- including boosting the prestige of the VW brand and reinforcing the affinity of the brand's fan base. This year the company will be using digital programs to support a range of vehicles, per Taylor, who says there are four specific models in the VW portfolio that are both the volume players and owners of the lions' share of offline media. VW has something like 11 models in the family that will not benefit offline media support, "So they will need lots of digital support -- and digital now has reach, and our ability to target is amazing, so we will use digital and mobile for all products and specifically heavy lifting for those not getting offline media," he says. And that works especially well for younger audiences, who skew toward mobile programs such as VW's flash sale of three Jettas for $5,995 in December on gilt.com. "We wouldn't do that for Passat; so it boils down to specific products and who the consumers are who index for them." AKQA, the agency behind the Real Racing GTI game and Jetta program on Gilt, handled the designed and created the app.
It’s hard to imagine any ad medium that’s been as dissed as often as the infomercial, whether it’s spoofing the “But wait -- there’s more” shtick, the Veg-O-Matic, or the bright red “As seen on TV” starburst. But with consumers increasingly receptive to all kinds of how-to videos and sales pitches, whether on TV, YouTube or their cell phone, direct-response TV is doing just fine: Kantar Media reports marketers spent $3.26 billion on direct-response advertising on TV in the first nine months of 2011. Doug Garnett, CEO of Atomic Direct, the company behind such products as Lowe’s bestselling Kobalt brand Multi-Drive Wrench, tells Marketing Daily why the format is still chugging along. Q: When DVR technology first came on the scene years ago, many predicted the death of TV advertising in general, but especially the death of the infomercial. How come you are still here?A: Yes, those were the predictions. And yet some studies have shown TV advertising has become more effective. I think it’s that there have been a group of people mentally skipping ads their whole lives, and DVR just gives them the automation to do it. But plenty of people are still watching ads. Q: So has the explosion of other video channels, like YouTube, helped?A: It’s true they lend themselves to infomercial content. But when you are used to the amount of power TV lends a campaign, online channels have maybe only a hundredth of that. The quandary is that yes, it’s really cool those channels are there. But they don’t drive businesses like TV. Q: What products do well in infomercials?A: It needs to be demonstrable, and it needs to be unique. That doesn’t mean never been done, just unique to the audience. Q: Do you have a favorite?A: Hmm. Maybe the George Foreman Grill. It was a product that had been such a shelf potato, sitting there not doing anything. After the infomercial, it’s sold bazillions. It’s a good example of why the format works so well: People needed to know why they should buy it. I like the Chuck Norris ads for the Total Gym. Another favorite is one we’ve done for Drill Doctor. Drill bits cost like 25 cents, and this tool is expensive, about $100. So we needed to explain to people why they should spend so much, when the conventional wisdom has always been, just go buy another bit. But for people who do lots of projects, that’s not the right answer. Having to run out to the hardware store for a new bit messes up their momentum. This product helps them get more done. Q: Since we’re talking about tools and stores like Lowe’s, want to comment on how the category is surviving this long, painful slump in housing?A: Well, retailers are all struggling because contractors have backed off purchases during this recession. But consumers are still buying DIY products. Maybe they’re now looking at spending $2,000 instead of $5,000 on a remodeling project, but they’re still investing in their homes. So from our standpoint, things are stable. I don’t know that brands we represent have seen a clear bump up, but we haven’t seen sales come down, either. A bigger financial pressure on us is due to the recovery. During the recession, it was easier to get longer spots on cable and TV. Now it’s tightening up. Q: Who responds best to infomercials?A: There is a small group of dedicated infomercial buyers. But it’s when the product is also sold in retail that it starts to take off. You’ll see nine or ten sold at retail for every one you sell through TV. And buyers tend to be early adopters. About 35% of the people who buy through our ads have never bought through the direct TV channel before, and I’m proud of that. Q: Mostly men?A: No. Gift-givers have a big impact. We found that with a Kobalt brand double-drive screwdriver for Lowe’s, for example, it sold really well during the Christmas period, as a gift. People were buying five or six at a time.
Hyundai Motor America (HMA) will be in the Super Bowl with three spots. Well -- one of them is actually airing seconds before kickoff, in that stealth position right after viewers have rushed to the bathroom, grabbed another handful of chips and a beer, and hunkered down for the first quarter. The best spot is, of course, the first slot in the first break during the game, but that is also much more expensive. And Hyundai's pre-kickoff ad certainly aims to stoke the fires of enthusiasm and strum the strings of anticipation rather than bogging things down with a vehicle pitch. How is Hyundai doing this? I can't say. The automaker has been in the Super Bowl for the past five years, but what's different this time is Hyundai's creative tone, which is more about entertainment than anthemic statements about history and corporate milestones, and salutary discourses on truth versus perception, product benefits, brand value propositions and the like. Part of that has to do with the vehicle getting the spotlight in the campaign: the turbocharged version of the fun-and-flexibility-focused Veloster three-door, which launched in the fourth quarter last year. As Hyundai has moved decidedly up market with vehicles like Genesis and the Equus luxury sedan, the Veloster represents the automaker's first offering since the discontinued Tiburon coupe intended as a brand entrance point for younger consumers looking for a do-everything car. "It's really a different approach this year," says Steve Shannon, HMA's VP of marketing. "In the past we looked at what cars we were launching, did the normal launch work and then decided which had earned its weight. This time we decided to do Super Bowl spots -- branded entertainment." It might seem at first blush an odd choice to use the Super Bowl for a higher-performance variant, since such vehicles tend to be maybe a fifth of total nameplate sales volume. However, Shannon tells Marketing Daily that the Turbo Veloster will probably constitute 50% of sales or more based on availability. He says the car's value proposition -- a little over $2,000 for 100 more horses, a slick body kit, and a minor sacrifice in mileage -- will make it a mainstream draw. The fact that the company is launching two performance variants -- the Veloster Turbo and the souped-up Genesis Spec-R coupe -- makes a performance pitch on a big stage a legitimate way to appeal to younger males, "who watch the Super Bowl and not a lot of other television," says Shannon. I have to be mum on ad creative, but will say that the 60-second pre-kickoff spot harkens back to an exhortation to corporate troops favored by the Korean automaker's ’60's-era chairman: "Have you tried?" The spot doesn't actually use that line, but viewers will instantly recognize the theme nonetheless. Actor Jeff Bridges is still the voiceover in the ads, but the voiceover is toned down. Shannon says the pre-game buy has the benefit of being less expensive than in-game buys. And he says Hyundai will release the spots online before game day.
Digital tax preparation software company 2nd Story Software, the maker of TaxACT software, is making its Super Bowl debut Feb. 5. The big buy is part of a multi-dimensional marketing campaign that includes a website featuring out-takes of the 30-second TV spot and a sweepstakes. The Cedar Rapids, Iowa-company introduced the first free federal tax preparation and filing solution during the 2005 tax season. It remains the only free product that includes forms and schedules necessary for many complex returns filed by millions of people each year. 2nd Story Software's marketing efforts have focused on online advertising with some TV. The company made the bold leap to the Super Bowl this year in order to “cut through the industry's loud advertising noise,” particularly in the case of free tax products, says Kris Peterson, 2nd Story Software marketing vice president. The Super Bowl’s timing and reach support those objectives. Taxpayers should have all their W-2s, 1099s and other forms needed to file their tax returns by the end of January. The commercial uses a “courageous and gutsy” story to put viewers in touch with the feeling of being totally free at emotional, physical and psychological levels. Although the plot will remain under wraps until the big game, 2nd Story Software is building up to it through a comprehensive marketing campaign spanning web, email and social media channels. A new TaxACT web site, free.taxact.com, was launched this week. The interactive web site builds excitement for its Super Bowl commercial and the football game while reinforcing its free message. The site features sneak peeks of the commercial, offers the opportunity to enter and engage with other participants in the Feel the Free Fridays Sweepstakes, and tests visitors' football knowledge. In addition, the “Feel the Free Fridays” Sweepstakes began on Jan. 5, the same day final versions of TaxACT were released. The sweepstakes introduces participants to TaxACT's "totally free feels good" message and engages them in a conversation about free with thousands of others. The campaign was created by J.W. Morton and Associates, Cedar Rapids.
Health care (and health insurance) has changed a lot over the past decade, with a bigger focus on prevention, healthy living and clarity when it comes to costs. With its last major makeover 10 years ago, Aetna is undertaking a major brand overhaul that includes a redesigned logo, and a new “brand promise.” “A lot has been changing in health care, especially as employers, providers and especially consumers take control of their health care,” Belinda Lang, head of brand advertising and consumer marketing for Aetna, tells Marketing Daily. “We felt our brand identity and strategy were not up-to-date enough.” In an online video, the company explained the repositioning as a “revelation” that “the more control you have over your healthcare, the more you can take charge of your health.” Over shots of people visiting their doctors, exercising and eating healthily, the video explains that the new brand promise is about “providing access to the care you need, with the convenience and dependability you desire.” The video discusses developing new tools (such as mobile and tablet apps) to monitor costs and developing new services for health care providers. The video concludes with a new logo and the line “The power of health is in your hands.” Beyond the online video, the first unveiling of the new brand promise is a redesigned logo. Leveraging the brand’s well-known 160-year-old name, the all-lower-case logo brings back the ligature (i.e., connected) “a” and “e,” which had been used previously but was “retired” in 2001. The ligature type is intended to highlight a truly connected health care experience, according to the company. Siegel + Gale advised Aetna on the design. The logo is also intended to work in many different media environments -- particularly mobile, where more and more people are accessing their health and wellness information, Lang says. “[Mobile] is becoming the tool for people to do basic information research, whether it’s checking your symptoms or finding your doctor,” she says. “It has to work in the smallest spaces. We also felt that we wanted an identity that was much more approachable and friendly.” In the next phase, the company will begin overhauling its consumer messaging, including developing mobile apps, deepening its information and resources for consumers as well as building stronger relationships with the health-care community. “Refreshing the brand is about everything we do, making sure everyone is focused on helping consumers and other end customers have healthier lives,” Lang says. “As we took an inventory of what Aetna offers, it’s clear we’re more than an insurance company -- we need to reframe what we talk about.” To that end, Aetna is also launching a regular consumer survey, the Empowered Health Index, that will assess and measure the needs, feelings and behaviors of health-care consumers. Results from these surveys will be used to create new programs, tools and resources for Aetna customers. “One of the things we’ve seen is that while people know they need to be in charge of their health care, that can take time,” Lang says. We’re hoping to inspire and motivate them.”
Some years ago, I hosted a blind tasting beer party where everyone voted for their favorite and least favorite beers from a collection of microbrews and mainstream brands. Although there was no clear winner, there was definitely an outright loser. I was thinking about that party when I read about Coke’s decision to kill its White Coke can before the scheduled end of its holiday season run. This was primarily a story about customer confusion -- there was not enough difference between the White Coke can and the Diet Coke can and people were getting confused and buying the wrong one. But there was a side-story that some people thought that the Coke from the white can did not taste the same/as good as the Coke from the red can. Ridiculous, you might say. Not that surprising, I thought, based on my own experience from that beer-tasting party. In fact, there is plenty of research that shows how the power of packaging influences taste perception. Brian Wansink carried out an experiment where restaurant diners were served a free glass of wine before a meal. All diners got the same wine, but half were told it was from California, and the other half were told that it was from North Dakota. The diners who thought the wine was from California enjoyed the wine more -- clearly influenced by their expectations. But it didn’t end there. They also rated the food higher, ate more of it and said they were more likely to return than the diners who thought they had been given wine from North Dakota. What the diners were told about the origin of the wine had a profound impact on their experience of the whole meal. What’s going on here is that our brains are trying to compensate for the fact that most of us don’t have a very refined palate, and can’t tell good from bad without additional clues. As Dan Ariely described in “Predictably Irrational,” fMRI tests have shown that the prefrontal context, responsible for higher-order brain functions, activates when it is given information (like a wine’s origin) and can override the part of the brain that is just reacting to the taste. Wine actually tastes different if you know (or think you know) where it comes from. This helps explain why Pepsi won the Pepsi Challenge (a blind taste test) but didn’t beat Coke in most branded taste tests. Coke was winning the battle of the prefrontal cortex with its brand. When I worked at Nestlé, we had a goal to be preferred 60/40 in blind taste tests vs. the competition. In light of this research, this looks like a noble but futile objective. Taste does matter, of course -- but what really counts is how people rate the whole package. Other research has shown similar effects from music, lighting, utensils and other aspects of the dining experience. Context is another important factor that impacts experience. This is good news for brand managers because it reaffirms the importance of branding. It’s not just about the product inside. The brand matters because it tells consumers what to expect and influences how they evaluate a product. A strong brand gets the prefrontal cortex on your side. It also reinforces the importance of considering your customer’s complete experience. The little details -- even ones that are not directly related to the product itself -- are important. Ignore them at your peril.