Add Macy’s to the growing list of retailers hoping for a merry mobile holiday. The store, which has already made significant investments in its mobile initiatives, is unwrapping a new Black Friday app for phones, available next week. Store-created holiday apps grew popular last year, as it became increasingly evident that smartphone shoppers were wielding their devices to “showroom” at retailers, often leaving stores empty-handed when they found a better price elsewhere. Macy’s, which has made a concerted push to win over smartphone-loving Millennials, is making its mobile experience more appealing. Created in partnership with eBay, the app will preview Black Friday specials, allow shoppers to write personal lists they can share, and get push notifications on specials. And once the chain opens its doors at midnight on Black Friday, the app steers shoppers toward specials within their local store. It also previews exclusive merchandise, such as a new collection from MAC Cosmetics. The company, meanwhile, just posted a 3.8% increase in third-quarter sales, totaling $6.08 billion, up 3.8% from $5.85 billion in the same period last year. (Same-store sales increased 3.7%.) “Throughout the holiday season, we will be offering our customers new and fresh merchandise assortments, great value and an engaging shopping environment at both Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s,” Terry J. Lundgren, CEO, says in its release, “in store, online and via mobile devices.” Separately, Macy’s unveiled its new holiday advertising, a TV spot that lets Kris Kringle, star of the 1947 “Miracle on 34th Street,” mix it up with Macy’s current spokespeople, including Justin Bieber, Carlos Santana, Martha Stewart, and Taylor Swift. The company, now five years into its “Believe” campaign at Christmas, says 30- and 60-second versions of the JWT-created spot will air throughout the holidays. And once again, the Cincinnati-based chain is asking believers to bring letters to Santa to its stores, with each letter generating a $1 contribution to Make-A-Wish, up to $1 million.
Given the evolution of digital, one can say the most recent year will always be the best for digital advertising and creative -- both in spend, engagement and scope. At Ad:Tech NY on Wednesday, agency digital chiefs took a look at the best of the best this year. One of them, Jeremiah Knight -- the group account director of digital at Team One who oversees digital ads for Lexus among other campaigns -- looks specifically at online video content, which today may almost seem old school. Knight offered the best of short- and long-form video that managed to engage and entertain and also drive viral perfusion. His filters: Does it push the industry forward, do we make conscious decisions in agencies and marketing to do it differently, and would one engage with the digital elements around the creative. "Today, we think more about would I share it, and is it easy to share." He also notes that the industry have grown away from custom full-episode players; there's a decline in the unique pod position in favor of standard :15's and :30's. "Short-form [any video content under 60 seconds] is increasingly an invitation to long-form shareable content. So we are no longer thinking of them as distinct, unique, separate experiences, but one as invitation to the other." So for Knight, the honorable mention goes to AT&T, whose 17-second, amateur-looking "blind" viral clip of an amazing football play where a player avoids a tackle by doing something like a double gainer over a defensive player. The amateur videographer responds with the exclamation "Hello!" The video directs people to a longer-form ad for AT&T 4G around that "hello" theme, where lots of people are watching the video on their smartphones. "I had thought this era of completely blind video leaked was completely done," said Knight. "But that short-form video garnered 800,000 views." The others: 1. Kia's five hours of Adriana Lima, an extension of its Super Bowl advertising, "Sandman," when a guy gets an overdose of sleep dust and has a racetrack dream complete with Mötley Crüe. Meanwhile, in social, there were literally five hours of slow-motion visuals of supermodel Lima waving a checkered flag. "You have an immediate instinct to share it," said Knight. 2. Triscuit Toppers Tantrum. "Here's a brand that when we think of them ,we don't think of them as funny." In fact, you don't think of them much at all. "They were trying to make it more human." The digital effort played on the notion that Triscuits taste great by themselves, with a link on Facebook where you could enter a complaint for a box of Triscuits. The company gave away 100,000 boxes. "And there was a huge uptick for the brand." 3. The third was Lexus Hybrid -- which was not done, in this case, by Team One, but by Saatchi in Italy, in which the excitement of a Lexus hybrid sedan was demonstrated with video measuring people’s heart rates before hot laps in the hybrid -- and after. Knight notes that this ad could not be aired in the U.S. -- at least not officially, but that it garnered huge engagement numbers. 4. Wieden + Kennedy's James Bond-esque video narrative of a cool guy who can do it all, most recently involving a tie-in with the new James Bond "SkyFall" film.
Dunkin’ Donuts is partnering with Universal Music Latin Entertainment to make Dunkin' Donuts coffee part of Latin music's big night. Dunkin' Donuts is the exclusive coffee provider of "Noche de Estrellas," the invite-only after-party celebration at The Bank, located in the Bellagio in Las Vegas, on Nov. 15. Artists and top personalities from the music, television and entertainment industries are expected to attend the festivities, where Dunkin' Donuts' Original Blend Coffee will help keep the stars running throughout the night. Cosmopolitan en Espanol will also be showcasing a cutting-edge fashion show to the star-studded audience, making this a night where the top contenders of coffee, music and fashion join forces. Dunkin' Donuts also is making it easy for people all over the world to enjoy songs from some of Latin music's most popular stars. The brand has launched a free, customized music shop tab on the Dunkin' Donuts Facebook page (http://umusic.ly/DDMusic), allowing fans a complimentary download while supplies last from among 10 pre-selected tracks from this year's hottest nominees of Latin music's big night. The Facebook application will be available to fans through Nov. 22 and will also feature exclusive photos and videos from "Noche de Estrellas." As part of the partnership, Universal Music Latin Entertainment will incorporate the Dunkin' Donuts brand in pre-event promotions including advertisements on social media sites, on the UMLE Web site and in newsletters. In recent years, Dunkin' Donuts has introduced both limited-time offerings and permanent menu items featuring bold and exotic flavors inspired by Latin culture in select markets, such as the Dulce de Leche Latte and Cafe Con Leche in South Florida, as well as its "La Merienda" pairing of Dunkin' coffee with a delicious croissant in New York. The brand is promoting the partnership at www.DunkinDonuts.com, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/DunkinDonuts and Twitter at www.twitter.com/DunkinDonuts.
At Ad:tech NY on Wednesday, Shiv Singh, global head of digital at PepsiCo, said the company faces a real challenge with doing real-time social at scale. "We are a massive business, with our products in 97% of American households, so for something to truly resonate it has to be very big," he said. The company has focused on Twitter to support its evolution and launch of new Pepsi global positioning around "living life for the now," establishing Twitter's largest brand partnership to date. "The brand relaunch is about how to live in the current of culture, how to maximize the moment," he said. "We saw Twitter as a key anchor point." He said the days of big campaigns aren't enough. "We also found that when you put conversation at the center of ads, you get big results. You can't have strong push messages on social. The brand has to be in the current of culture and conversation." As part of the effort, Pepsi got access to Twitter data on how music is being consumed. "We have a strong heritage with music, and the more we associate with music, the more products we sell." The company created a 60-second minivideo recap of what had happened for the prior week on Twitter around music and created weekly tweet-sized, 50-second video mashups. "We've been doing that for a year. The second piece was to take a rising song and give out downloads." Third, the company organized and ran four major Twitter live-stream concerts, which were also streamed on Pepsi.com. Not only could viewers stream the concert on the social network, they could also influence it. "So for the first time on a massive scale we were able to program without TV. Also, with advertising on Twitter, we were able to see interesting engagement rates with." He said that among music enthusiasts on Twitter, 30% of them talked about Pepsi in 2012, versus around 13% in 2011.
Overall frozen food sales have been more or less flat in recent years, with 2012’s estimated $44 billion in sales across U.S. retail channels representing a slim 0.4% gain over 2011, according to a new study from research publisher Packaged Facts. The category’s dollar sales grew by just 7.7% between 2008 and 2012, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 1.9%, according to the report, “Frozen Foods in the U.S.” SymphonyIRI food/mass/drug retail channels (excluding Walmart) data for the 52 weeks ended June 10, 2012 showed total-category dollar sales up just 0.3%, to $26.2 billion, with center-plate sales (the largest classification) down 0.6%, and other classifications showing modest gains ranging from 1.1% for vegetables, appetizers/snacks and sides to 4% for desserts. But all four classifications experienced unit/volume declines, and total-category volume declines 5.1% -- meaning that much of the dollar growth was driven by inflation and price increases, rather than unit growth, points out the report. Further, over the next five years, Package Facts projects total-category CAGR of just 2%. Numerous factors have been contributing to the stagnation, including slow economic recovery; changing consumer eating patterns, shopping patterns and demographics; lack of excitement in frozen foods categories and merchandising; retailers’ increased focus on the fresh-foods perimeter areas of their stores, to the detriment of frozen foods and other center-store categories; and competition from fresh foods (including prepared fresh foods), shelf-stable foods, and restaurants. Consumers’ growing preference for fresh foods is the core challenge. According to an August 2012 national online survey by Packaged Facts, a preference for fresh foods is the top reason (57%) shoppers cite for not buying frozen foods in the last three months, followed by a preference for home-cooked foods (35%). In contrast, fewer than one in five shoppers say that they have not bought frozen foods because they don’t like the taste, don’t have enough freezer space at home, are not confident in frozen foods’ nutrition, or are not confident in frozen foods’ quality. (The last concern is notably more prevalent among women, however.) Opportunities and Strategies In the face of these challenges, frozen food marketers are adapting their strategies to focus on areas of opportunity. Major frozen food makers including ConAgra, Heinz and Unilever are refocusing their brand portfolios – in some cases selling off units, while in others acquiring businesses/brands to either enter or strengthen their positions in faster-growing classifications, points out the report. In just one of many recent examples, ConAgra in August 2012 acquired the licenses for the Bertolli and P.F. Chang’s Home Menu frozen meals businesses from Unilever PLC – businesses that are leaders in the frozen multi-serve meals segment, with nearly $300 million in annual sales. At the same time, frozen food marketers are increasingly squaring off directly against fresh foods with “fresh” positioning – for example, citing research that demonstrates that frozen produce is as nutritious (in some cases even more nutritious) than fresh produce, notes Packaged Facts publisher David Sprinkle. Visible examples include Pinnacle Foods’ Birds Eye Steamfresh line of steamable vegetables and side dishes, and ConAgra’s Healthy Choice Steaming Entrées (packed in clear plastic trays to show off the colorful, “frozen-at-the-peak-of-freshness” vegetables, with “fresh taste,” inside). Makers are of course also offering a rapidly growing number of new product lines, sub-brands and varieties that meet consumer demand for lower fat, lower calories and other healthier profiles, as well as dietary needs or preferences such as gluten-free and vegetarian. In addition, “better-for-you” reformulations of existing products are increasingly common, points out the report. As supermarket and other retail chains aggressively expand their premium (as well as “value”) private-label offerings, frozen food brands, like other categories, will have to work even harder to focus their portfolios, differentiate themselves and woo new and growing customer segments, as well as those (like families with children) already more likely to buy frozen foods. Private label already accounts for about 20% of all frozen food sales, per SymphonyIRI. And although brands still heavily dominate sales of some classifications (notably, frozen single-serve dinners and entrées), a growing number of retailers are pushing their private-label programs beyond the more “generic” categories like frozen fruit and vegetables, where private-label penetration is currently highest, reports Packaged Facts.
Data breaches and information loss occur in myriad ways and result in nearly as many headaches and problems (including legal, financial and reputation crises). Beazley Breach Response, a company that insures against (and provides services in the wake of) data loss, asserts in a new advertising campaign that it has seen it all and can help in many different scenarios. The business-to-business print effort for Beazley Breach Response illustrates real examples of lost and stolen identifiable information. One ad shows a woman walking a dog on a windy day as papers swirl around her. “Charlestown, Massachusetts. Thousands of confidential patient documents found in a field six miles from hospital,” reads the headline. Further copy asserts: “When your data disappears, you want an insurer that’s seen it all.” “The campaign is based around the fact that data breaches occur in so many different ways, and a lot of people don’t realize that, and they’re not prepared when it does happen,” Mike Donovan, head of Beazley’s technology, media and business services team, tells Marketing Daily. “The message we’re providing is that we have a large amount of experience in handling a large amount of breaches and we’ve seen it all.” In addition to the print ads, which will appear in publications such as Modern Healthcare, The Chronicle of Higher Education, University Business and Chain Store Age, the company has created a microsite, www.everybreachisifferent.com, to show the risks that data breaches present to organizations (both financially and reputationally), and illustrating how the company addresses those challenges. “[Security breaches] are the subject of a lot more discussion and a lot more levels in a company,” Donovan says. “And I think concurrent with that, the breaches are a lot more complicated. There’s more things these companies have to take into account.” The services Beazley provides include expertise in how to respond following a breach, as well as legal advice and how to navigate the regulatory landscape after a security breach. With more companies considering the risks of handling identifiable information, the marketing campaign is meant to assure them that protection and solutions are available, Donovan says. “There is really an evolution in what we’ve seen in the marketplace [about security breaches] and making a purchase and trying to address those concerns,” he says. “Companies spend quite a bit of time thinking about this purchase and we definitely want to get the word out about our services.”