Lawry’s latest twist on helping moms get their kids to try new meals is an online “Dinnertising” platform. The tool allows moms to create custom, animated commercials about what they’re cooking for dinner and send them to their family. The brand is promoting the tool -- billed as an “advertising agency” for bringing new flavors to families --through paid integrations on “The Rachael Ray Show” throughout the summer. Moms can use Dinnertising.com to choose from among numerous recipes featuring Lawry’s seasonings, marinades and other products, pick an animated theme designed to appeal to kids, insert their own family photos if they desire, and send the creations to family members (and friends) via Facebook, Twitter or email. In each of the five show integrations, Ray introduces the Dinnertising concept and interacts by Webcam with a mom who has created one of the ads. The first installment (part of a live show) showed a mom and dad talking about their struggles with getting their kids to try new meals and flavors, followed by her demonstrating how she created her Dinnertisement, and her kids’ delighted reactions at seeing themselves featured in an animated video. Other, prerecorded vignettes featuring moms, their Dinnertisements and mealtime tips from Ray and Lawry’s will be integrated (one per month) during prerecorded shows that air during the summer hiatus months. Each will be featured for a time on the show’s home page. The show’s site also carries a large standing ad unit that clicks into a Dinnertisement area where users can view the latest Ray/mom video and click to connect with the tool. Ray tweeted about Dinnertising during the first video’s airing. Lawry’s also will be running an advertorial insert in Everyday With Rachael Ray magazine, and promoting the tool on its own Facebook and Twitter accounts and as part of its presence at this week’s Mom 2.0 blogger conference in Key Biscayne, Fla., reports Nurisha Rush, business director, Grillmates & Lawry’s for McCormick & Company. “Lawry’s and Rachael Ray are a great fit, because we’re both all about helping time-pressed moms create quick, delicious dinner solutions,” says Rush. “Dinnertising.com serves that mission, encourages moms to try our recipes, and at the same time lets Lawry’s reach out to consumers in a fun, new way.” The Dinnertising campaign was created by Lawry’s digital agency of record, RGA. Weber Shandwick is handling PR. Last year, Lawry’s introduced a Digital Dinner Bell (still available on its site). Through a free, downloadable Android app, moms can use their mobile phones to pick a Lawry’s recipe and send the family a “dinner’s ready” alert by SMS, Facebook or a personalized voice mail.
Someone pointed out to me recently that the glasses I was wearing had a silver "CTS" logo on the temple section. I looked at the inside-facing part and saw "Cadillac" in the brand's script, which was hard to read because I didn't have my glasses on. When this person -- a fellow IMPA (International Motor Press Association) member -- wondered aloud about the nature of licensed merchandise, I decided to get a 30,000-foot view of GM's licensing program from Gene Reamer, manager of licensing and merchandising at the automaker. I asked him whether the point of such a program is to build consideration by aligning GM brand names with cool products, or if it is intended to keep fans involved in their favorite GM vehicle or division. "The core is feeding our passionate consumers -- enthusiasts who have a great affinity for our products," he says, adding that GM's muscle cars, Corvette and Camaro, are an obvious focus for branded merchandise. But he adds that a lot of products -- from Chevy caps to Chevrolet vehicles as rideable toys -- address a group of enthusiasts who like the Chevrolet bow tie and have had Chevrolet vehicles going back for generations. "So there's a strong emotional attachment to the brand." Reamer says about 80% of GM's licensed-merchandise business is mass market -- with toys, apparel, video games the major categories driven by retail in places like Kmart and Walmart. Given that so much of the licensed gear is spun off from product integration in movie and entertainment platforms, it isn't surprising that the automaker moved its licensing program under branded entertainment three years ago. "Chevrolet, for example, had a huge role in all three 'Transformers' movies," he notes, "So you have a lot of kids growing up who love the Bumblebee character (a bright yellow Transformer/Camaro in the films); kids are activity-oriented, so that's the key, whether it's a simple plastic toy in primary colors, or friction-powered and radio-controlled toys." Reamer says that the work is also in virtual worlds, as the licensing practice at GM's branded entertainment section is also involved in getting vehicles and brands into console and mobile games, and social media games like CarTown. And, he says, the company doesn't base product placement in movies on the potential upside for merchandising. While the company looks for merchandising opportunities with product placement, "it doesn't mean it will always be there." Independent of entertainment properties and product placement tie-ins, the licensing group looks at non-automotive products and product categories for a non-traditional fit. To that end, Reamer and his team go to conventions like the Licensing International Expo and the Advanstar Fashion Group's Magic Show to try to find opportunities beyond die-cast and toys. He says that when it comes to supporting a divisional brand or specific model, the bottom line is equity. "The licensing business is equity driven," he says. "The strength, size and scope of a program is directly related to how much passion resides in the brand; without equity you have no licensing program."
For home improvement stores, spring fever usually drives one of the busiest sales periods of the year, as consumers flock to lawn care, garden projects, and the seasonal lure of sprucing up the homestead. This year, however, more DIY companies are going digital. The Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. is introducing its Ortho Problem Solver app, which turns the Problem Solver Book, a 1,000-page tome given to hardware and lawn and garden centers to help consumers, into a handy app that diagnoses lawn, garden and pests. And Lowe’s, which is pushing projects ranging from “done in an hour” to weekend-long efforts, is pushing new “Spring Into Action” projects in stores, and supporting them with its Lowe’s Creative Ideas iPad app. The Home Depot, which has been running its “More spring per dollar” effort for the last month, is turning spring projects into a fundraising effort, under the “Doing Nation” banner. Homeowners who complete one of six easy DIY spring projects, from building a raised garden bed to hanging an outdoor chandelier to constructing their own fire pit, can upload a photo to the company’s Facebook page, triggering a $100 gift to one of five charities supporting veterans. A new study from NPD Group reports that 70% of consumers are conducting some kind of home-improvement project, from landscaping to repainting, and they are often thinking about better tools to get it all done. Some 54% of the respondents in NPD’s survey own and use at least one power tool (drills are the most common, owned by 49%) or outdoor power equipment item (with walk-behind lawnmowers the most likely, owned by 43%); 32% own and use both. Brand decisions don’t always matter. The Port Washington, N.Y.-based market researcher says 55% of respondents say they own equipment that was purchased by someone else, and only 37% consider them to be gifts.
Automakers have been chasing the rabbit of youth for decades -- but have they been doing so at the expense of the demographic that actually buys most of the new cars and trucks sold in the U.S.? Sure -- Millennials are putatively the next big wave of car buyers just coming into their own as spenders. The data show, however, that people 50 years of age and older are the ones doing the most car buying. J.D. Power & Associates data from its Auto Offline Media Report find that last year almost two-thirds of all new vehicles -- about 5.6 million cars and trucks -- were bought by Boomers. Automotive sales increased by one million over the past year, but 54% of that growth came from buyers age 50 and over, who were also responsible for 67% of new domestic auto purchases, 59% of foreign models, 56% of European, and 60% of purchases with Asian nameplates. Boomers also over-index for hybrid vehicles, and the most fuel-efficient gas-fueled cars were bought by adults 50 and over: Sixty-four percent of Chevy Cruze buyers were Boomers, and 62% of buyers of Ford Focus were in that age group. Of the more than 286 automotive models measured in J.D. Powers' study, 8 in 10 get at least 50% of their sales from buyers old enough to join AARP. Chevrolet, in fact, is in the third year of its marketing program with the AARP. The program involves a $1,000 incentive to AARP's roughly 37 million members for the Chevy Impala and the Colorado mid-sized pickup. Mark Bradbury, director of insights and integrated marketing at AARP Media Sales, says that in their Boomer-focused ad creative both Chevrolet and -- in an earlier program -- Jeep feature active-lifestyle 50-somethings in bucolic settings. "For older consumers, it's about lifestyle. Boomers are less likely to be in urban areas. And while Millennials have been hit by unemployment, Boomers are more likely to be working. What you want to do in properties like AARP is design creative that connects with their life stage and their passions." Bradbury points out that the Jeep special offer with the organization featured a grandmother, but not of the stereotypical variety. "They aren't pretending to be 20," he says of 50-and-older Americans. "But they don't want to be defined by their age. They enjoy the life experiences that comes along with it. So marketers should focus more on [Boomers'] experience than their age." He says an example beyond the auto world is Pfizer's ad for Viagra that shows an older guy driving around in a muscle car getting things done. "The message is he's achieved the Boomer's ability to address problems, find solutions, and move on with the life they want to life." Bradbury adds that while probably not much more than 10% of marketing dollars go toward Boomers, automakers and other categories are paying more attention now. "The mean age of new car buyers has gone from 46 to 55 in a 10-year span. Boomers have a 21% higher median household income than Millennials. They have accumulated wealth and money coming in right now that enables them to buy. I've been [at AARP] for five years, and when I first started it was a struggle to get brands to pay attention; now we have so many advertisers who want to learn."
With more people using smartphones while shopping for homes, Trulia is launching a mobile ad platform to help real estate agents reach in-market home buyers on their devices. Trulia Mobile Ads will allow agents to buy display advertising within a particular Zip code -- even on an exclusive basis -- to generate leads through a click-to-call feature within ads. The ads will appear in Trulia’s iPhone and Android apps as well as its mobile site. The company says its mobile traffic has increased 250% in the last year, with about one-third of its overall online traffic coming from the mobile side. On weekends, when people are most likely to be out house-hunting, mobile traffic sometimes even surpasses desktop visits. In addition, Trulia has found that people using mobile phones to search for homes are 60% more likely to contact a real estate agent. Now the company is capitalizing on those trends with its new ad offering. “Because this consumer audience is at that stage where they’re out looking at homes, visiting listings, going to open houses, and driving through neighborhoods, it made sense to offer advertising to real estate agents who want to reach those consumers in the moment,” said Stephen Rossi, director of business services marketing at Trulia. The new mobile ad system essentially extends Trulia’s existing Local Ads product to phones. Agents are able to buy up to five blocks of impressions for a given ZIP code, with each block equal to 20% of the available impressions on map search results pages for that location. That would potentially allow an agent to buy up all the impressions for a ZIP code for up to a year. The ad units themselves take the form of drop-down banners that include an agent’s photo, name and number. Unless the agent had bought all the advertising for that ZIP code, the image and information for competing agents might also appear in that banner. The ads automatically minimize after five seconds. If someone clicks on the ad, however, it expands to full-screen, with the agent’s contact details and brokerage along with a “Call Now” button and lead form. Ads will appear after a certain number of touches on the map view, but are frequency-capped per each mobile session. Ad pricing will vary by location depending on factors such as demand for homes or property valuations in a given area. Rossi added that mobile ad slots are being offered on a first-come, first-serve basis, but that the platform would only be open to agents already advertising on Trulia for the first few weeks before being opened up more widely. He also noted that the mobile ad service doesn’t involve any bidding process. “We’ve thought about an auction process, but what we do as a service to our (real estate agent) customers is give them the opportunity to lock in rates for a certain period of time, and when we do adjust rates, we do it based on demand in the marketplace,” he said. Mobile ads will not initially be available for Trulia on tablets, but the company plans to add that capability. Trulia currently offers apps for the iPad and Amazon’s Kindle Fire.
The first American president to appear on television was Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Speaking at the opening of the 1939 World’s Fair in New York City, he declared the event “open to all mankind.” But for all Roosevelt’s TV-friendly oratory, it wasn’t until 1960 with the election of John F. Kennedy, historians argue, that television fully matured. Used with expert precision, Kennedy became our first “TV president.” The same technological evolution can be seen with former president Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. Clinton may have been the first president to send an email, but it is Barack Obama, with his social media-savvy Facebook, Twitter and YouTube accounts, that have allowed him to take top honors as the nation’s first “multimedia president.” Too Cool for School? Not This Prez It’s that media/tech-savvy distinction that allows Obama to connect with young voters –- better than even the saxophone-playing-Clinton once did. Obama’s presidential “cool” allows him license to use Kennedy’s favorite communications medium in new ways too. On April 24, Obama was the guest-in-chief on "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" -- where he joined the host in a bit called “Slow-Jam the News,” where current events are put to a relaxed R&B beat. But humor was only part of Obama’s continuing call to cool. His presence was a superb lesson in public relations. Obama took the opportunity to connect with Fallon’s college-aged and 20-something viewers to address an issue that is central to their futures -– student loans and mounting debt. The five-minute opener (with nearly 5 million YouTube views when I wrote this post) featured a smiling and hand-waving president who morphed into mocking seriousness. With a bluesy backbeat, the chief jammer began: “On July 1st of this year the interest rates on Stafford student loans -- the same loans that many of you use to help pay for college -- are set to double,” he said. …“What we said [to congress] is simple. Now is not the time to make school more expensive for our young people.” The camera returned to a smile-suppressing Fallon, where he delivered the follow-up line in a raspy, deep voice. “Ooooh yeah. You should listen to the president." Public Relations 101: Stay On Message With performances like that, who needs costly political ads or even stump speeches? Obama chose the student loan topic deliberately. Hours before the live taping, Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney began backpedaling when it came to his opinions on the “student loan crisis,” first tacitly endorsing the July 1 deadline and then breaking with Republican colleagues to support the president’s call to keep student loan interest rates in check. Perhaps the Romney campaign would like to blame it on the leap year. On February 29, at a campaign stop in Ohio, Romney answered a question from a law student that illuminated his position regarding student loans and the need for market forces -- not public handouts -- to determine the fair cost of financial aid. “The right course for America is for businesses and universities and colleges to compete, and for us to make sure that we provide loans to the extent we possibly can at an interest rate that doesn’t have the taxpayers having to subsidize people who want to go to school,” he said. That’s an opinion that speaks to the Republican base. But throw in his campaign advisor Eric Fehrnstrom’s Etch a Sketch comment about being able to rewrite political narratives once the general election gets underway and you’re left with a politician edging toward a John Kerry-style flip-flopper. We still have a long horse race ahead in the game of presidential politics. But Obama’s smooth, humorous and televised quasi-Romney dig will continue to serve him well. Not only does the president rely on a host of media outlets to disseminate his message, he’s skilled at shifting his tone throughout events. Obama understands that shifting tone is different than shifting message. We’ll have to wait and see if Romney has been properly schooled and if Obama can remember his own lessons come fall. But for now, I’ll still agree with the Roots rapper Black Thought, who at the end of President Obama’s slow jam session called him the “POTUS (President of the United States) with the mostest.” Indeed.