In the latest manifestation of the newly independent Kraft Food Group’s increased marketing investment and edgier campaigns for its classic brands, Velveeta cheese is targeting “traditional” moms with a new, tongue-in-cheek campaign tag-lined “Liquid gold diggers love liquid gold.” The campaign, from Wieden + Kennedy, takes a new twist on the “liquid gold” brand concept featured last year in a W+K campaign marketing Velveeta Shells & Cheese and Cheesy Skillets dinners to guys (“Eat like that guy you know”). The new campaign spotlights mac and cheese and other favorite recipes made with the classic Velveeta cheese “loaf,” as well as Velveeta Toppers cheese sauce pouches (launching this spring), by cautioning moms that some people in their lives may be “liquid gold diggers” looking to win their favor mainly to enjoy their Velveeta dishes. In one of three TV spots, “Friends” (15 seconds), one woman warns another that her significant other is a liquid gold digger, as he enters the kitchen requesting a batch of Velveeta cheese and broccoli soup (perfunctorily adding, “Oh, and you are so pretty”). In another, 30-second spot, “Jay,” a stranger, approaches an older woman at a pot luck dinner, flattering her about how young she looks in order to get a plate of her Velveeta mac and cheese. The last spot, also 30 seconds, features a teenage boy showing up at a friend’s house for a made-up sleepover (knowing full well that the friend’s at camp), just to get the friend’s mom to make him a hotdog with Velveeta Toppers on it. The campaign also includes in-store activations and flash banner ads that follow the stories of liquid gold diggers, driving viewers to Velveeta’s redesigned Web site for recipes. Social components include a quiz on the brand’s Facebook page to help fans identify and tag the liquid gold diggers in their own lives.
It’s no news that CMOs are among the most oft-booted execs. And a new survey from recruiter Korn/Ferry reports that most marketing insiders say when CMOs fail, the fault isn’t with the individual, but with companies that aren’t as open to change as they think they are. Some 60% of those responding to the recruiter’s questions say the primary reason a CMO gets bounced is that “the CMO is brought in to drive change, but the organization was not aligned behind the change agenda.” Only 24% chose the second-most popular answer: “The CMO is not in direct alignment with the CEO about what success looks like and in what time frame.” The respondents say the most common reasons for recruiting a CMO from outside an organization is to transform current marketing and business strategy (44%) and to infuse the company with new skills (36%.) “CMOs are hired to drive a change agenda, which is great, but they are not always fully supported. And one person is not enough to drive change,” says Caren Fleit, Korn/Ferry’s senior client partner and leader of its Marketing Center of Expertise. Finding the right CMO for a company, she tells Marketing Daily, requires a company with a clear business mandate. Without that clarity, CMOs hired from the outside often don’t fare any better than the CMOs they replace. But there are plenty of other reasons that CMO tenure tends to be short. “While jobs like CFO and CIO tend to be fairly straightforward in definition, there are more interpretations of a CMO’s role. Does it include responsibility for brand? Communications? Strategy? Analytics? Digital? We find it blurring more often, and companies aren’t always very clear on exactly what they expect.” Another challenge for CMOs is a growing “bifurcation of talent” says Fleit. “There’s an increasing need for specialists—mobile, social, SEO, data people. At the same time, companies need to cultivate generalists, the people who can lead and integrate all efforts.” She says that CMOs that are most effective are “learning agile,” the ones best equipped to transfer experiences from previous work into different industries and situations. "Fired Executive photo from Shutterstock"
General Motors is going to be the first automaker to put 4G LTE mobile broadband in cars and trucks worldwide. One might think of it as OnStar crossbred with an iPhone, or maybe an iPhone on wheels. The company says most 2015 model Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac models in the United States and Canada will get the service via AT&T, and that worldwide carrier and supplier relationships in coming months will put the service in brands like Opel and Vauxhall. As Wi-Fi hot spots, the vehicles will get new infotainment options like streaming video entertainment in the back seat, real-time updates and faster application downloads, per the company. Jesse Toprak, head of industry analysis at TrueCar.com, notes that it's a major detour from the established platform epitomized by telematics systems like Ford's Sync, where the in-car technology serves as a kind of landing strip for whatever mobile device a driver (or passenger) brings into the car: smartphone functions, apps and services. "GM was also moving in that direction on vehicles like Spark, where the interface was fueled by apps. So even for GM it's a bit of a departure," says Toprak. He adds that the benefit of smartphone-based technology is that it shifts the "heavy lifting" to the mobile device. "All of us live with smartphones, and that's probably sufficient as long as the experience is seamless to the end user. The advantage [of 4G LTE] is it will really increase bandwidth to allow things like streaming video for passengers. But I'm not sure how much of a market there is for that." Mary Chan, GM's VP of the automaker's global connected consumer division explained in a statement that the platform actually does make the car its own de facto smartphone on wheels. “In addition to allowing consumers to bring in and connect to personal mobile devices, the vehicle will also act as its own mobile device, enabling embedded vehicle capabilities.” She suggested that the collaboration with AT&T and developers will make the platform scalable. Paul Eisenstein, autos editor for NBC and president of TheDetroitBureau.com, tells Marketing Daily that for the new technology to get real consumer traction, it must be a whole lot more than just an on-board hotspot. "It's worth it if I'm looking to have advantages beyond just a Wi-Fi in my car. If all I'm going to be able to do is hook up a cell or tablet, it's just not that valuable. If it adds a lot of features -- if by this you have created a whole network of things I can do behind the wheel -- then it's worth it." The company said the 4G LTE connectivity will, in fact, offer an ever-growing ecosystem of features -- some that transcend the kind of benefits you get from portable smart devices. "The key is," says Eisenstein, "while it's a cool concept, will it really matter?"
Tablets and smartphones are becoming a go-to source for entertainment, with consumers in the U.S. and Western Europe using their devices to view content at least two to three times a week, at an average of 30 minutes a session. According to a survey by digital entertainment company Rovi, people in Italy, Spain and the U.S. had the highest streaming frequencies -- with 73%, 71% and 66% of consumers, respectively, streaming videos to their tablets two to three times a week or more. About one-third of users in the U.K. used their devices to watch TV shows, while users in the U.S. and Germany (35% and 30%) viewed more movies. In general, mobile phones were used to view more user-generated content, and nearly half of all the respondents have used their devices to watch live events such as concerts or sporting events. “We’ve known that intuitively, but this shows [consumers] are streaming just about everything,” Jeff Siegel, senior vice president of worldwide advertising sales, tells Marketing Daily. “It’s easier today, it’s on more devices, and the content’s getting better and better.” Two-thirds of U.K. tablet users spent an average of 30 minutes or more streaming media in a single session -- the most of any country (the U.S. ranked second with 62%) -- while mobile phone users in Italy had the shortest average streaming sessions at between 3 and 10 minutes. Many of these streamers are satisfied with their experiences, with 93% of U.S. tablet users saying the devices were a good way to view movies and TV shows. French and Italian viewers were the most dissatisfied with the video quality, with 10% of consumers rating their video quality as poor. About 80% of all tablet users consume their streaming video at home, while 15% watch video while commuting to work. Only about half of mobile phone users consume their streaming video at home, and 35% do so while commuting to work. The findings present consumer electronics companies, television and Internet service providers, and entertainment companies an opportunity to develop new strategies to attract and retain customers, Siegel says. “It’s a new world for them,” Siegel says. “They’re working with the retailers and working with the interfaces and they’re starting to educate consumers directly about the power of connected devices.”
Lexus and the Weinstein Company are producing five short films as part of a series, “Life is Amazing.” The short films -- three to six minutes long -- are by auteurs from the U.S., Europe, Asia-Pacific, China and Japan. Each were chosen by Harvey Weinstein and Weinstein Company COO David Glasser, in partnership with Lexus. Lexus and the Weinstein Company held a pre-Oscars preview party showing two of the Lexus Short Films: U.S. director Justin Tipping’s "Swimming in Air" and Spanish director Cristina Molino’s "Beyond Memories." The event was held at the Directors’ Guild of America in Los Angeles on Feb. 21. Brian Bolain, Lexus' national manager of marketing strategy, tells Marketing Daily that the program reflects a global effort both to speak to different cultures and add some emotion to the brand's traditional appeal. "We are in over 80 countries so we have been looking for ways to speak more globally," he says. "We have looking for ways to transcend cultural differences, and at the same time something that aligns Lexus more with the creative world." He says Lexus had already been working with Weinstein Company since last year when the company sponsored an episode of the producer's "Project Runway" and then became the Official Automaker for the Weinstein organization. "It was natural to connect the dots from there," says Bolain. Currently the hub for the campaign, www.LexusShortFilms.com, hosts making-of videos for some of the films, and director profiles. Bolain says the plan is to first show them in different venues around the world, and then put the films themselves on the site, and that the company is still drawing up the when-and-wheres of the film debuts. Lexus will definitely be in Cannes in May, "where we may submit the films for entry," he says. As for promoting the films, the automaker will focus on social media. "We have a big Twitter and Facebook fan base, but also we get about 20 million visitors per year on lexus.com and have the ability to rotate promotions there." Three was no mandate to put the vehicles in the films, just that the directors stick with the "Life is Amazing" theme. And, says Bolain, the films hint at the kinds of projects Lexus will probably pursue henceforth. "We see things that live in more creative space becoming more a part of our DNA."
Airlines can improve their conversion from clicks by as much as 25% by better matching landing pages to different types of trip profiles, according to a study.The study, from New York-based Intent Media, was conducted on behalf of multiple airline partners who advertise through Intent Media's Ads for Travel platform. The company declined to reveal the airlines. Several hypotheses on how to use existing landing pages to more effectively drive conversion were tested. Ads for travel, which allow airlines to advertise directly in online travel agency search results, always link to a landing page matching the customer’s original search. But during the study, different landing page options were tested based on projected trip profiles. “Landing page optimization is nothing new,” says Richard Harris, CEO of Intent Media, in a release. “But normally traffic for a given campaign gets the same set of landing pages. What we found is that varying the landing page based on a predictive model can greatly improve campaign results.” In one case, projected leisure trips were sent to a landing page that displayed flight options in a calendar format, allowing them to see fares both on and around their requested travel dates. This contrasted with the usual practice of serving a page that only displays itineraries for exact travel dates. Landing leisure travelers on the airlines’ calendar pages boosted conversion by 20% compared to a control group seeing the traditional results. “The beauty of this test is the airlines didn’t have to build a lot of new pages,” says Harris. “We used pages they already had. It was just a question of more intelligently deploying those pages." This is a good illustration of “de-averaging,” he says."Typically companies spend a lot of time and effort to tune their campaigns and especially their sites to produce the best answer for all of their traffic,” Harris says. “But as our research shows, there is no single best answer, but rather multiple answers depending on the type of trip being planned.”
If you want to know what’s going on in social media, watch “the Chew.” If you’re not familiar with it, it’s a new format talk show that blends together on-camera food demonstrations and celebrity dialogue with online conversations and connections. Just a few years ago, I would have only been able to view that show and possibly visit their Web site to download recipes. Today, their viewers are interacting directly with the featured chefs in real-time and providing instant feedback. That instant feedback is confirmation that the program IS listening to their viewers. Viewers matter. Social matters -- and it’s enabling deeper, richer relationships. That’s daunting if you think about it. Broadcast networks and programs cannot simply put out one-way programming anymore and expect success. Programming has become one element of an aligned, multichannel, multiplatform content stream. People are not compelled to just listen or watch anymore; they want to participate. They want a two-way dialogue. They want to be immersed. In a recent Hollywood Reporter study, 80 percent of survey respondents used social media as a new form of entertainment. This isn’t an isolated incident. Social will drive much of our economy in the next 5-10 years and how it will take shape will change your destiny. The rear-view mirror A decade ago, brands paid big bucks for exposure on mega portals like MSN, AOL and Yahoo to initiate awareness (Remember the AOL Start Page?). It was how we focused on "getting eyeballs" to our sites. Then came Google search ruling the Internet and YouTube videos we hoped would go viral. And now, we have volatile yet incredibly successful exchanges of ideas happening billions of times a day on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and other social networks. One day you have millions of new referral traffic to your site, and the next it’s taken away from you and you weren’t involved in the decision. Take it personally So how do you manage that? There’s an old cliché -- "don’t take it personally." Today, nothing could be further from the truth. We are in a new era that screams "personal." Relationships matter more today in business and beyond than ever before. Brands should be striving to create their own ultimate experience and think big on every platform: Web sites, mobile apps, second screens, even a times square billboard and not be beholden to a new Facebook tool, or a new algorithm change on Google. As more and more brands and publishers deliver innovative experiences on their own platforms, they’re striking a deeper, intimate chord with their customers -- one that can be monetized over that customer’s relationship. Social conversations, photos, and videos that fans are generating quickly become the real-time lifeblood of the brand, expressing a new sort of energy and pulse for the brand of tomorrow -- done Today. You can take it wth you Just 18 months ago, brands said only five to eight percent of their customers were using or requesting their mobile-connected apps. Today that number is north of 30 percent or more. That’s a huge jump -- and illustrative as to why brands need to deploy a full, end-to-end social strategy across all their platforms. Experiences should follow the user wherever they go. For example, if I deploy real-time comments, they should be visible on a Web site, tablet and other smart devices. Be a "super brand" to your "super fans" by offering anytime access on any platform -- deliver the "ultimate experience" to a fan, no matter if they are at home, at a ballgame, or 30,000 feet up in a plane. It’s as simple as that. What began as a simple promotional tool over a decade ago is growing into a powerful, interactive experience that is driving new streams of revenue. It’s encouraging to see brands like ABC, USA Network, and WWE harnessing the power of real-time Web solutions to scale their on-demand views and ratings. These examples deliver a huge payoff when it comes to driving new ad dollars. Social is open for business -- and it’s opening the doors for new revenue streams.
Big data is quickly becoming a bigger buzzword in 2013, and it clearly cannot be ignored by today's marketer. However, as with all new developments, that same marketer is probably left wondering exactly what big data is and how it can be used. We are collecting more data than ever before, but we have faced a real challenge in pulling that data out of storage and using it to drive action. This is where big data comes in -- and here are some common misconceptions that marketers should be aware of. Misconception #1: Big data is a new concept When Bill Gates made the famous comment, “640K ought to be enough for anybody,” the year was 1981. At that time, 640K (that's about what it takes to store 30 seconds of your favorite song these days) of customer records would have been considered by most to be "big data." Big data is really just what happens when the technology we use to capture, store, analyze, and use it begins to have trouble with the volume and types of data that define our new reality. We have adjusted before, and we will certainly need to adjust again. Right now, traditional technologies like relational databases and tools ranging from Excel to enterprise business intelligence that worked very well with yesterday's volume and types of data are no longer a perfect fit for the vast, unstructured data that is rolling in every second of every day. We are simply at a pivotal point where new types and sizes of data require new thinking and new solutions. Misconception #2: Big data is just technology We've had the pleasure of working with some very big, very complex data sets from some of the world's biggest brands, and what may surprise you is that we rarely see cases where a complete technology deployment and overhaul is needed to handle big data sets. Far more often, we will see opportunities for easy wins using new analysis concepts and tools to better analyze existing data. Tools such as Tableau Software allow a new type of flexibility in manipulating, analyzing and mining data sets, while a new realm of dashboarding tools like Klipfolio can connect to and help surface and visualize virtually any type of data, whether it is owned, on a laptop hard drive or in the cloud. Misconception #3: Big data is magical Investing in new technologies is useless without a skilled and experienced team to properly utilize these tools to support strategic planning and action. It's like buying a private jet and forgetting to secure a captain and crew: there is no magic button to push that makes your new jet fly itself. And more than that, big data is as much a mindset as a collection of technology, tools and techniques. Shifting an organization toward a data-driven culture requires a path to data maturity. Models, such as Stephane Hamel's OAMM, can help organizations understand where they sit with respect to management, technology and methodologies that can help structure a path to attaining organizational goals surrounding big data. Misconception #4: Big data doesn't apply to me Companies can be surprised at just how much data they are generating. When thinking about Web data, customer data, sales data, process data, resource data, etc., even the smallest organizations can find themselves reaching a point where big data analysis & techniques can offer some very tangible results. A small restaurant, for example, might be able to optimize its pricing, hours, coupon strategy, email marketing lists and even its menu, and larger organizations with richer data sets can achieve much more by taking advantage of big data techniques. Companies today have unprecedented access to ever growing amounts of data, but the challenge of big data is being able to leverage that access and use it to provide tangible value. Successful companies are not only deploying and integrating technical solutions -- they are putting in place the organizational infrastructure, skills, and teams necessary to activate that data. While defining and progressing down a path toward leveraging big data to inform marketing decisions offers a competitive advantage today, it will be nothing short of essential for survival tomorrow.