Chrysler Group's Dodge division hasn't put a lot of wax on Dart for a while, but now the chamois is on the hood to buff the model to a blinding gleam. Just don't touch it. A new campaign for the car features comedian/actors Craig Robinson, probably best known for "The Office," and Jake Johnson from "Let's Be Cops" with a theme: "Don't Touch My Dart” that launches this week. The effort, launching this week, comprises vignette ads in which Robinson owns a new Dart and Johnson, his neighbor, wishes he did. The launch spot sets the theme and successive ads go from there, with Robinson ever more obsessed with keeping the sheet metal absolutely pristine. The effort, via Portland, Ore.-based Wieden + Kennedy, also uses original music by Robinson in some of the spots. Olivier Francois, Chrysler Group CMO, said each chapter will focus on different Dart product attributes and features. "[The comedians] deliver that while maintaining the essence of the Dodge brand spirit, character and full-of-life attitude," he said in a statement. The company says it will have 24 variations of 5-second TV billboards and 15- and 30-second commercials both for digital and TV. The first three ads start this week on CBS’ “Mike and Molly” and “Under the Dome”; ABC’s “NY Med”; NBC’s “America’s Got Talent”; and the dedicated site, www.DontTouchMyDart.com. In one of the ads, Robinson does not subscribe to the idea that the first scratch on a new car is a rite of passage -- a necessary one. Another takes protectionism to an extreme with the idea that Robinson doesn't even want a car touched with his friend's voice, while touting Dart’s Uconnect touchscreen media center. The company says forthcoming spots will air on network and cable entertainment, sports and news programs. Also, Dodge is partnering with CollegeHumor.com for native, contextually relevant content around “Don’t Touch My Dart,” meaning that it is suitable for "a more mature audience," per the automaker. Then, later in the month comes an interactive element to the Web site, where, on a YouTube extension, people can get a humorous response when they try to "touch" Robinson's new Dart.
As part of a campaign to build awareness of its new recipe with more fruit filling, Pillsbury Toaster Strudel has partnered with Halfbrick, the makers of the popular video game app Fruit Ninja. The "More Fruit" campaign, designed to reach moms and Millennials, also includes an integration on the Food Network's "Rachael vs. Guy: Kids Cook-Off," a national TV spot, and digital and social media elements. With Fruit Ninja — a game in which the player tries to virtually slice fruit images thrown onto the screen — Toaster Strudel is sponsoring in-app challenges, and videos with flying fruit that will play after each completed mission. Players will also be rewarded with Toaster Strudel coupons and other Fruit Ninja incentives. The sponsored in-app experiences launch Aug. 7. In addition, the brand will host Fruit Ninja's first live "spectacle," at The Grove in Los Angeles, on Aug. 13. At the event, Guinness record-holding swordsman Isao Machii will slice fruit tossed his way by attendees, who will also be able to sample Toaster Strudel, play Fruit Ninja Kinect and pose for photos. Prior to the event, Fruit Ninja players will be offered a teaser video featuring Machii. To promote attendance, those in the L.A. area will see a teaser that includes details about the event. Toaster Strudel will also do outreach to L.A.-based bloggers. Post-event, game players will be offered a highlights video. Pillsbury Toaster Strudel, launched in 1985, "is constantly listening to consumers, and they told us that they wanted more fruit in the filling" without changing the product's taste, Polly Madsen, the brand's marketing manager, tells Marketing Daily. The partnership with Fruit Ninja, a favorite of both moms and Millennials, is an example of "engaging with our fans where they already live and play," Madsen says. She cites gaming industry research showing that 75% of moms play video games, and that gaming creates a bonding experience for families. According to stats cited by Fruit Ninja, the game is the second-most-downloaded app of all time (500 million downloads since its launch in 2010), and is played by 70 million monthly active users. The format for Toaster Strudel's integration on the Food Network's "Rachael vs. Guy: Kids Cook-Off," which is starting its second season this month, are short vignettes featuring teens being challenged to create recipes with Toaster Strudel and real fruit. The vignettes (which have both 60-second and 30-second versions) will first air during reruns of episodes from the show's first season on the Cooking Channel on Aug. 16, and during the Food Network's Season 1 marathon onAug. 17. Vignettes will then be integrated in the prim-etime Season 2 premiere on Aug. 17. They will receive additional exposure on the network during August and September, including during three encore airings of the Season 2 premiere. The vignettes will be promoted on Pillsbury and Toaster Strudel-specific social media, including the brand's Facebook page. The brand's Food Network partnership also includes an online sweepstakes with a grand prize of a trip to New York to visit the Food Network headquarters and get a cooking demo, and an insert in Food Network Magazine featuring breakfast recipes made with the pastries and fruit. The partnership will be promoted on digital and social media by Toaster Strudel, in addition to Food Network Channel promotions. Toaster Strudel's new "Made with More Fruit" 15-second television ad launched Aug. 4, and will air nationally across networks and cable through the beginning of November, reports Madsen. The "More Fruit" campaign will include paid digital advertising, primarily banner formats, running through the end of October. Olson is the lead creative agency on the Fruit Ninja partnership. The brand worked with Saatchi, Bromley and Zenith on the overall “More Fruit” campaign.
This fall, plenty of people will be reliving their college days vicariously through their alma mater’s football teams. Count Matt Leinart, Heath Shuler and Brian Bosworth are among them. In honor of the upcoming football season (and its expanded offerings, such as the SEC network, and live viewing via tablet from anywhere), Dish features the three college all-stars expressing their desire to relive their glory days. “We wanted to blow out that Dish is the top provider of live college football anywhere,” James Moorhead, chief marketing officer of Dish, tells Marketing Daily. “This will be the main push for us [this fall] because we really are the only ones to offer live viewing anywhere in the country.” In the first of a season-long series of television spots, Dish’s mascot, represented by an animated stuffed kangaroo (voiced by actress Rebel Wilson), and another man are watching a football game at a diner counter. As the kangaroo likens the experience to being back in college, two other diners (Matt Leinart and Heath Shuler) overhear. “I can go back to college?” Leinart asks, to which Shuler responds, “I’m in.” To end the commercial, Brian Bosworth appears and, upon hearing Leinart and Shuler are heading back to college, begs, “Take me with you.” “These guys together — as well as separately — talking about going back to college is pretty engaging content,” Moorhead says. Since introducing the kangaroo mascot in March, the company has seen a 35% increase in “ad performance score,” which measures a combination of attention, branding and motivation, over previous campaigns that featured a group of Boston-accented New Englanders, Moorhead says. The new effort has been a way for the satellite television company to advertise itself while showcasing its chief point of difference through its Hopper DVR service. “Anytime you have a primary brand and a sub-brand such as Hopper, you need to drive a connection between the two,” Moorhead says. “As consumers are seeing the campaign, we need to be sure they are associating the Hopper with Dish.” The college football campaign will run on sports-oriented networks and programming, and will also be promoted via social networks of both the company and the athletes featured in the commercials. (In addition to Leinart, Shuler and Bosworth, Jamarcus Russell is slated to appear in a later commercials, according to Moorhead.) On non-sports related programming, the company will continue to air previously created advertising featuring the animated kangaroo.
Huge changes are afoot for Guitar Center, the largest global music equipment multichannel retailer. Over the past year the company has begun to focus in a big way on expanding offerings within its stores beyond equipment, and expanding the retail footprint — the company is opening its first Times Square store in New York this week. The store is one of eight new stores this year, with the goal of adding 15 to 20 on average per year over next few years. But the company is going beyond bricks and mortar to experiences, content marketing, and media channel development -- all toward something called Vision 2020, whose broad goal is to grow revenue to $3 billion by 2020. One of the biggest gigs has been “Guitar Center Sessions,” and a new advertising program under the theme "All We Sell is the Greatest Feeling On Earth." In addition to just announcing its sponsorship of guitar hero Slash's concerts in three iconic LA venues, the company is launching new advertising, and partnerships with TuneCore and mobile digital media channel Quello, per Dustin Hinz, VP brand experience and entertainment marketing who oversees the DirecTV series "Guitar Center Sessions." He said Guitar Center will produce 33 shows for Quello, a live-music channel that has an installed base of over 100 million on platforms like AppleTV, PlayStation and Xbox. "DirecTV is a partner in all of it. These are extensions of content that can go from DTV to other outlets in markets like Australia, Japan, Canada and New Zealand," he says. The program with digital musicians publishing site TuneCore, of which Guitar Center is an investor, involves the company promoting artists. "We are becoming a marketing extension for artists to support their projects." The retailer, which has marketing partnerships with QuestLove as part of the new campaign launched this year, has also featured Metallica axe-man James Hetfield, and now electronic musician Steve Aoki, who will be in the next ad, which debuts soon. Hinz said after that, singer/songwriter Colbie Caillat will be featured. An extension of "Guitar Sessions" which launched in 2010, is the "Guitar Sessions at Guitar Center with Nic Harcourt," where the radio DJ interviews some six artists per season, all of which airs on DirectTV. "This is content that inspires people to make music. It's about capturing the Guitar Center experience? So 'Guitar Sessions' is about telling stories, not just showing live performances with quick cuts." The company is also now doing a weekly program with NPR called "Connections Made by Guitar Center," distributed to over 15 markets. And those are just a few of the many programs the company is doing. As for retail, many brick and mortar operations are struggling with physical stores, but Guitar Center CFO Tim Martin said this isn't an issue at the music chain. He said none of its stores are cash-flow negative and most of the new stores will be in secondary and tertiary markets going forward. "We want to be best retailer, period, so we think we'll take share, especially in small markets we are enabling purchases that didn't take place previously." The company, he said, is also mindful of the multichannel aspect of the music retail business. "So our retail footprint will be smaller. You can buy online, from phone, from tablet, from any store." The New York store will be unique in a few respects. The ROI won't be limited to showplace status. "It's not just a flagship, and will be nowhere near an economic loser for us. If the store delivers close to what we think, it will make a lot of money." The company has also hired Eddie Combs as SVP of marketing. The former Sears CMO for home appliances succeeds Frank Hamlin, who oversaw all aspects of consumer marketing at Guitar Center. Dennis Haffeman, EVP of human resources at the chain, said Combs will be focused solely on Guitar Center marketing, with Michael Weiss serving as VP marketing for the company's Musician's Friend division.
In its first-ever TV advertising outside the relatively nearby San Francisco DMA, the North Lake Tahoe Marketing Cooperative is targeting San Diego. The campaign was created by San Francisco-based School of Thought. It is important for destinations to diversify their market base, said Andy Chapman, chief marketing officer, North Lake Tahoe Marketing Cooperative. “The north California/Bay Area will always be an important part of our visitor mix, but San Diego and the entire Southern California marketplace is a primary destination market for our efforts,” Chapman says. The biggest challenge is the world-class outdoor recreation that San Diegans already have at their doorstep. “San Diego is a great market for North Lake Tahoe,” Chapman tells Marketing Daily. “San Diegans are very much into the outdoors and recreation is an important part of their daily lives.” Three understated 30-second TV spots let the scenery be the star. One commercial opens to close-up visuals of a sandy beach and stand-up paddleboards. Another shows mountain bikes zipping through a challenging off-road course. A third shows the simple joy of jumping off a dock. The spots quickly segue to what Lake Tahoe has that San Diego does not: Wide-open, uncrowded space. The tagline is “Another reason to make it a real summer.” The effort targets ages 25–55 “unplugged”-type adventure seekers. “One of the challenges we have when promoting North Lake Tahoe to San Diegans is the abundance of other vacation options available to them,” Chapman says. “From staycations on their local beaches to quick getaways up the coast. However, there is a great affinity between San Diegans and the Lake Tahoe region from both a summer and winter perspective.” The production schedule was difficult. As a public/private entity, the North Lake Tahoe Marketing Cooperative’s budgets are not determined until late June. Summer advertising needs to begin in July. The entire campaign was done in 7 days, from location scouting to three final spots, with the agency doubling as production company. The spots will run during prime time on 17 cable networks including Discovery, Travel Channel, CW, Food Network, Bravo, both as 30-second spots and as 15-second cut-downs. An additional radio spot will air on Top 40, classic rock, and variety format Clear Channel stations. (All San Diego DMA only.) The North Lake Tahoe Marketing Cooperative, based in Tahoe City, Calif., is a marketing partnership between the North Lake Tahoe Resort Association and the Incline Village Crystal Bay Visitors Bureau, designed to promote the entire North Lake Tahoe region, California and Nevada, under one advertising umbrella. gotahoenorth.com
As a meta-comment on TV itself, the phrase “jump the shark" is now the age of the average bare-chested contestant on “Survivor.” Could it be, therefore, that as an expression, “jump the shark “ has perhaps jumped the shark? Certainly, it’s such a knowing, insider-ish take on TV that by now it has become a reference to a reference. Even the writers on “Arrested Development” slyly recreated the action for Henry Winkler’s character in one episode, as have writers for “The Simpsons (The phrase was famously coined after Fonzie himself waterskied in his leather jacket on a special episode of “Happy Days.” Ay!) So, if jump the shark is indeed getting long in the tooth (or two sets of teeth), what could succeed it as a way of describing an outlandishly fake and grasping, attention-seeking gimmick? How about “toss the leg”? That’s as in “toss the prosthetic leg” -- the one with the hellaciously pricey Jimmy Choo shoe attached to the foot that "Real Housewife of New York City" amputee Aviva Drescher actually used as a projectile weapon on RHONY’s recent season closer. Apparently having the limb disengaged and at the ready, she hurled the latest designer accessory across the table at Le Cirque, in the direction of her fellow housewives, while announcing that it was the only “artificial” thing about her. (Changing the expression from “ladies who lunch” to “ladies who launch.”) Where to begin? With the fact that Bravo actually promoted the shot of the well-shod device lying on the floor, poignant and bereft like a sad orphan, all season, so it was no great surprise? (But it was still a shock in this, um, well-heeled context.) Or that the producers and casting execs apparently hired Aviva last year with the famous Chekhov line about the revolver in mind (If you see it in the first act, it has to go off by the third)? Otherwise, she hasn’t contributed much to the story line, except for all her various complaints and neuroses, and the fascinating revelation that asthma can be caused by reflux. (Her disgusting, sex-crazed, X-rated father and creepy, sex-crazed ex-husband are another story.) But you see, I’m already getting in too deep. I’m not proud that I know way too much about it, but by now watching has devolved into a guilty non-pleasure. And I swear I’m not going to continue. (Really, I mean it!) I got pissed at Aviva when she and Carole Radziwill (a respected journalist and TV producer, who probably made a big mistake agreeing to be on the show at all), sunk to new lows by engaging in an epic on-camera fight. That’s when the single-limbed one, who probably lied about not using a ghostwriter for her own book, “Leggy Blonde” accused Carole of having a ghost for her books. Aviva maintained that writing her memoir in one summer was "easy," just like "writing a long email." And Carole, a real writer (and no housewife), burned. A writers’ fight on RHONY? This was not only a “toss the leg” moment, it practically sunk the show and our entire civilization. Because as people have stopped reading books, celebrities are the only ones who get to write them. Since it started in 2006, the whole franchise has become a revolving door of narcissistic, ever-desperate, variously false-eyelashed, hair-extended, nipped-n-boosted contenders, all ready to put their crumbling marriages/ felonious or cheating spouses/embarrassed children on camera in exchange for the promise of possible book/fashion/liquor/music/underwear/handbag/microwave oven tie-in deals and the possibility of being worshipped. This makes watching the actual “reality” of the show rather tiresome. Also, they have learned from their predecessors that brawlers get more screen time. So if they are not monsters to begin with, these Housewives-come-lately all learn to play them on TV. The series was actually misnamed from the start, as these characters were neither real nor housewives. The gold standard is Bethenny Frankel, one of the original "Real Housewives of New York" -- a single workaholic entrepreneur, a chef by training who barely eats but had a rabid appetite for work, fame and fortune. After several seasons of filming, she was able to sell her SkinnyGirl Margaritas line of for $100 million. (It has since expanded considerably.) Also during that time, viewers got the pleasure of seeing her sitting, pants down, on the toilet waving a pregnancy wand, freshly out of her urine stream, to announce to the cameras that she was pregnant. This augured a special wedding program, (she married the father, Jason Hobby) and a new family series, “Bethenny Ever After.” But the show was cut short as the marriage turned into an epic divorce battle. You’d think that the reverse fairy tale of Bethenny’s life would dampen the ardor of some of the others, but it has not. Then again, “toss the leg” is an outgrowth of the scene that put the whole series on the map: “Toss the table” with Teresa Giudice, the New Jersey Housewife who overturned a table at a dinner with the force of ten men, while calling fellow Housewife Danielle a “prostitution/whore” in front of her children. Even Teresa, the mother of four daughters, would probably admit to not having a terrific grasp on the English language or grammar, but to the chagrin of writers everywhere, her books are on the bestseller lists of the The New York Times, and she constantly adds to her food empire. She needs to: she and her husband Joe have been indicted for tax fraud and other crimes in the off-season, and the pall of a possible prison term hangs over this season of the Jersey Housewives like a blingy sword of Damocles. A cautionary tale? Never. Indeed, Aviva understood that each episode has to have at least one table-tossing tentpole event -- and she, okay, went out on a limb. The promo material for her book says: “When Aviva was six years-old, she was in a farm accident when her left foot got severely hurt at a friend’s upstate New York dairy farm. A few months later her leg was amputated as a result of that accident. Aviva has never let this tragedy define who she is.” No, she hasn’t. Except for having scene after scene on RHONY in which she talks about removing her leg to swim, or falls. In another episode, she is sent to have a pedicure. Then, of course, she came up with the projectile stunt as a way to deal with her fellow sharks. But as Woody Allen said: “A relationship is like a shark. It has to keep moving. And what we have on our hands is, unfortunately, a dead shark.” Actually, with RHONY, what we have on our hands is a dead shark, with a Jimmy Choo shoe on it. Indeed, there are enough last-legs joke to go around. Whether she is a nightmare or just playing one on TV, Aviva is one cold fish. And the whole leg-toss has sunk the show, and the franchise. RIP, Real Housewives. You’ve got no more legs to stand on.