Honda is launching a social media program called the #HondaInnovator Series to offer people more content about the featured inventors in a recent TV spot. The effort, with a presence on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter and YouTube, is also intended to drive buzz around the 2013 Honda Civic. The program's hub, at www.hondainnovator.com, allows people to tweet questions to the stars of the spot, which connected Honda's innovative technology and design with inventions, ergonomics, and industrial design and some fairly treacherous activities for which a couple of the inventions were designed. As part of the social program, people can ask questions of some of the featured folks such as a wing-suiter -- a guy who leaps from cliffs, and mountain peaks with suits designed to allow a certain degree of forward motion -- videos of which are a huge hit on YouTube. A key component of the program happens this month, wherein Honda will run a series of hour-long tweet chats with the innovators from the TV spot. The events, staggered throughout February, allow people to talk to the wing-suit guy on Feb. 5; the maker of the 4moms Origami Stroller two days later; the pro surfer Shane Dorian -- maker of the Billabong wetsuit -- on the 12th; then the Civic engineers three days later. After that are the inventors of the Waterfall Swing, a swing set that drops a synchronized curtain of water for each rider; and the designer of the laser keyboard, by which a smartphone or other device can project its virtual keyboard onto any surface. The automaker says that it has also made an "Innovation Playlist" on its YouTube channel. The playlist features a deeper look at technology showcased in the Civic spot. Facebook posts will introduce fans to the “Innovator Series” and related album. Instagram will host behind-the-scenes photos from the Civic TV commercial and an assortment of Civic photos. And Pinterest will feature a “Things Can Be Better” board. Social news and visuals channel BuzzFeed will run sponsored posts about the creative theme of the broader theme of the Civic campaign around invention and engineering, and the “Innovator Series” program will be supported with promoted tweets, promoted posts on Facebook, YouTube ads and search. Alicia Jones, social media manager at Honda, tells Marketing Daily that the Civic social plan was being formulated when the Civic TV launched in early January. "Since the TV features cool innovators and inventors, we hoped the TV spots would pique the public’s interest. As anticipated, we received feedback from fans on many of our social channels." She adds that in addition to the three TV spots that launched the campaign in early January, there is integrated print throughout the first half of 2013 and several high-impact Civic media and digital placements planned surrounding the Grammys.
Editor's Note: This week, Marketing Daily brings you exclusive coverage of the Brand Keys 2013 Customer Loyalty Engagement Index. Each day, expect a full report on key product/services categories from among the 54 surveyed for this year’s study, including automotive, electronics, retail and technology. This installment focuses on highlights from retailers. For retailers, the path to consumer loyalty has never been as puzzling. As consumers increasingly pursue multichannel shopping, there are more platforms to delight them, but so many more ways to turn them off. And as the results of the new 2013 Brand Keys Customer Loyalty Engagement Index (CLEI), now in its 17th year, shows, it takes careful devotion to brand identity to keep people coming back -- whether it’s to shop online or in stores, whether they are surfing your site from Aisle 2 or shopping by tablet in the car. In clothing, J. Crew lands in the top spot. “Thank you, Mrs. Obama,” quips Robert Passikoff, Brand Keys’ founder and president. “This is a brand that knows how to stay stylish and affordable, and really means something to shoppers.” The same branding magic held true for the Gap, which moved into the fifth spot among all clothing stores. “The Gap was in a death spiral, and it had been forever. But in going back to its roots with denim, it’s managed to get some of the buzz back. It’s moved beyond chinos and black shirts, and up from the very bottom.” By contrast, he says, Gap’s Old Navy division does well on affordability and value, “but no one is talking about it. It’s cheap and it’s there, but the shopping experience is just average.” Kohl’s came in as the top-ranked department store, followed by Macy’s and Marshalls. Not so surprisingly, struggling JC Penney, which recently announced that it would go back to having regular sales, came in dead last. “What else can they do wrong? It’s a brand that has lost all resonance and viability,” he groans. “The reputation is terrible.” And while overall, digital experiences are increasingly important in cementing the bonds between store and shopper, “there is still the larger sense that the online experience is just our electronic cash register,” he says. “When you go to Macy’s flagship in Herald Square, you understand why it’s a tourist mecca. But online? You click on the site and just see … inventory. Merchandise.” Online retailers, on the other hand, “understand the psyche of the digital experience, in a way others don’t. And Amazon, ranked No. 1, is the juggernaut.” Among all categories, “it’s getting harder and harder to build loyalty,” he says. “But brand power is an important measure of competitive advantage. Companies that can leverage a brand always profit from long-lasting customer loyalty that drives sales.” For the first time, Brand Keys ranked sporting goods stores, with Dick’s coming in first, followed by Sports Authority and Cabela’s. “Dick’s won, even though its measure for shopping experience is a little flat,” he says. “But it wins in location. Its stores are convenient, the assortment is good and there is always something on sale. That’s important to people.” By an all-male ranking, Cabela’s scores much higher “It’s a guy’s store, and a great shopping experience, filled with bows and arrows and gunpowder. It’s the modern-day equivalent of Abercrombie & Fitch, back when it was an outfitter. Those shopping experiences stay with people.”
Nissan is launching the next chapter of its three-year-old, athlete-centric affinity marketing campaign, "Innovation for Endurance," with swimmer and five-time Olympic gold medalist Ryan Lochte. Nissan has used the ongoing “Innovation” campaign to align the idea of performance and prowess with its vehicle line, and as a channel to reach active-lifestyle consumers -- a group of people the automaker says complements the brand. The campaign has included ads, but really is about extending the brand's presence on social media, through Nissan-branded pull content centered on athlete advice: In online videos, housed principally on Facebook, the athletes give tips on how to perform better and stay healthy to fans and amateur athletes. The new chapter of the campaign includes a spot shot at Nissan headquarters in Franklin, Tenn. The set was the automaker's own office space. Indeed, a major theme was how to stay in shape at work, even in the restricting cubicle environment. Lochte, co-starring with his personal trainer, David Jacks, does such calisthenics and strength-building activities as curls, jumping jacks and a "prairie dog plunge," which is essentially a thigh burner whose name derives from the fact that the person doing them -- at least from the perspective of an observer standing above the sea of cubicles -- sees what looks like a human prairie dog poking his head out, up and down. The ongoing roster of athletes in the “Innovation for Endurance” platform includes Olympic distance runners Shalane Flanagan, Kara Goucher, and Ryan Hall. Originally called “Master the Shift,” the campaign began as a partnership with sports-media publisher Rodale, and has included a presence at amateur races and major professional events, such as the Amgen Tour of California bike race, and the New York Marathon. Other spokespeople who have appeared under the “Innovation” banner are Tara Stiles, author of Slim Calm Sexy and founder of Strala Yoga in New York City, and cyclist Levi Leipheimer, three-time winner of the Tour of California. Lance Armstrong was featured in the initial launch of Nissan’s electric car Leaf in 2010. The automaker says the “Innovation” Facebook page currently has more than 130,000 "likes" and 2,825 people actively discussing the site's content. Nissan Marketing Director Vinay Shahani remarked in a making-of video for the new ad that, in addition to extolling the virtues of exercise, the point is to reach an active audience. "He's genuine, dedicated, and lines up with what we are trying to do from a marketing perspective," said Shahani. Lochte said he drives a 370Z Roadster. The automaker says he also has a 2013 Nissan Pathfinder.
Forget flowers and chocolate; the way to a woman’s heart (or multiple women’s hearts) is through a surprise photograph of you on their printer, at least according to Epson. The company is touting its “Epson Connect” cloud-based printing technology through a social-media promotion (with the lengthy title of “Be Here, Print There” Remote Romeo Contest) that shows a young man impressing women with his ability to print photos from everywhere. A Web video depicts a young man taking pictures of himself with a smartphone at various scenic destinations (the beach, the Golden Gate Bridge, the “Welcome to Las Vegas” sign), holding signs indicating his love for different women. Using the Epson Connect app on his phone, he sends these photos to each of these women, all of whom are flattered to receive such a thoughtful, one-of-a-kind gift. The video ends with the young man sending a photo reading, “I [heart] Jane” to a woman named “Angela” and a prompt for viewers to tweet (using the hashtag #Epson Connect) what she should do next. Ten people who have the most original, creative and relevant (and family-friendly) responses will win new Epson printers with the Epson Connect technology. “The whole point of Epson Connect is that as you’re accessing your documents online; you can quickly print them,” Patrick Chen, product manager for Epson Connect, tells Marketing Daily. “And, while most of that is work-related, we wanted to show we could use it for fun too.” Using Twitter and other social media is also a way to connect with younger consumers, who aren’t as likely to be using traditional channels (or using them at the same times), Chen says. Ultimately, the promotion is designed to inject a little fun into the brand while expanding on its audience. “It’s to engage them from a humorous standpoint,” Chen says. “But it’s also to show that we’re not just appealing to the businessmen, but also to the people in college and high school.”
To celebrate having recently reached two million Facebook fans, and thank all of its fans, Arby’s has launched a “Fan of the Week” program. Consumers who use a dedicated app on Arby’s Facebook page to upload pictures of themselves eating at an Arby’s location will be entered in weekly random drawings that determine a designated Fan of the Week. Each weekly winner gets a $25 Arby’s gift card, and his or her photo will be posted that week on Arby’s Facebook page. To kick off the new initiative, Arby’s tracked down a woman who happened to be designated its two-millionth customer when she walked into her local Denver, Colo., Arby’s back in 1970. Arby’s recently video-ed Donelle Norblom (age 13 then, and still an Arby’s customer) as she “liked” the chain’s Facebook page, and designated her as its “original two-millionth fan” and its first Fan of the Week. (The video is featured on Arby’s’ YouTube channel.) In addition, Arby’s will reward all who can prove that they were friends with Norblom during 1970, by uploading photos of themselves with Norbloom taken during that year to the brand’s Facebook page, with a $25 Arby’s gift certificate. According to Bob Kraut, SVP of brand marketing and advertising for Arby’s Restaurant Group, Inc., Arby’s added more than 1 million Facebook fans in less than a year.
Sergeant's Pet Care Products and celebrity pet enthusiast Steve Dale are joining forces for a fourth year to find a dog with a superstar smile. Dale is the spokesperson for the Sentry Petrodex Superstar Smiles Photo Contest. The contest runs through the end of February, which is National Pet Dental Month. "The contest is a fun way for our company to show our dedication to helping pet parents find newer, better, more convenient ways to protect and promote their pets' dental health," said Caryn Stichler, vice president of marketing at Sergeant's, in a release. Consumers visit http://www.sentrypetcare.com or at Pet Health Central on Facebook to upload pictures of thier dog. Submitted photos will be available for other pet enthusiasts to view in the contest photo galleries. The Facebook page also allows for sharing the contest with friends. Dale is promoting the contest on his website and radio show. He will select the Grand Prize winner from a group of semifinalists. They will receive a Canon EOS Digital Rebel T3 Digital SLR Camera Kit and a variety of Sentry Petrodex pet dental care products. Those who have submitted photos will also be entered to win weekly prizes.
A Notre Dame fan recently visited ndnation.com to read up on the hard loss of the national title. Upon his visit, he was welcomed by banner ads displaying "Congrats Alabama State Champs." Upon clicking through the adchoices icon, it became clear that Google was behind the ad targeting. So why would Alabama ads be plastered all over a Notre Dame Web site? The answer is simply bad targeting. One often hears that the solution to too much detail is automation and computerization -- simply allow the machines to take over. And there's no doubt that without the massive amount of computational power available to us today, we wouldn't have real-time bidding and an abundance of other sexy advertising tools. But as some clever person once said: "A computer is only as smart as the person programming it." And any individual working in modern ad operations will tell you, not everything can be automated. Google is the most successful advertising company in history and one of the largest companies in the world. However, Google's current mantra is to automate everything. They simply don't have time to look over every ad campaign that's running throughout their systems. In this example, the page featuring the ad discussed football and Alabama -- which might lead to contextual targeting. The site visitor was also a football fan who had searched for information about Notre Dame specifically, which could have easily been a bad act of retargeting and behavioral advertising. After reviewing the data points, it’s clear that this site visitor did not want to view an Alabama ad after his team went down in a 44-7 defeat. But the only real way to safeguard against this would have been to manually create a blacklist of sites for the ad. As an industry, we tout better targeting, more precision and increased relevancy. Yet to do that, marketers need smart machines and a strong team behind them to determine how to accurately leverage the vast amount of data. Here are three ways to avoid bad targeting:
Nearly all CPG marketers have been faced with the same business challenge in recent years: How to plan for the evolving eCommerce landscape.