Kenneth Cole, which likes to describe its brand as offering “style with a purpose,” is aiming its new fall campaign at three separate causes, combining photojournalism with more traditional media. The new effort, called “Look good, for good,” is bolstering nonprofit projects in three key areas, including collective health, civil liberties, and artistic activism. The fashion company has hired three photographers to chronicle the recipients, which include St. Luke Foundation for Haiti, HELP USA, which works with assisting the homeless into transitional housing, and the Sundance Institute, promoting cause-related documentaries. The company is using a microsite to showcase the projects, which also include video. It also includes a timeline of the company’s 30-plus year history of issue-related ads, starting with its first, a mid-1980s print ad shot by Annie Leibovitz, which featured most of the world’s supermodels posing with their children in a barefooted effort to raise awareness about AIDS/HIV. This ad campaign itself, shot in New York City by photographer Gregory Harris, stars models Mirte Maas, Kai Newman, Baptiste Radufe, and Sung Jin Park, focusing on what the company calls “utilitarian looks,” shot in urban and industrial settings. (It also says that the cast and crew of the campaign all agreed to donate 5% of their earnings to one of the effort’s three causes.) And in a shift that it says it hopes will steer its fans from awareness to action, it’s pairing up with TakePart.com, which directs such actions as singing petitions, donating and social sharing into each article. The campaign breaks at a time when Millennial women, the world’s biggest shoe enthusiasts, care less about such branding efforts and more about style. A new report from NPD Group says 60% of women say “how shoes look” matters more than brand, and that they are “willing to try new or lesser-known footwear brands.” As a result, the Port Washington, N.Y.-based market research company says five newcomers made it to the list of the top 15 women’s brands. And NPD says 60% of the category’s growth has come from Gen Y shoe shoppers, aged 16-34.) Gen Y’s favorite athletic brands, it says, are Nike, Adidas, New Balance, Reebok, and Skechers, while top casual/dress brands are Toms, Vans, Nine West and American Eagle.
Starting today, Oreo is sending pint-sized parcels bearing Oreo Minis to all of the residents of one small town in each of the 50 states. In addition, each weekday now through Aug. 22, the brand is offering 500 fans — on a first-come, first served basis -- the ability to send a free Mini delivery to someone special, through OreoMiniDelivery.com. All of the 2-inch square parcels contain a single Oreo Mini cookie and a note. Consumers who manage to beat the online crowd (the 500 daily package opportunities are being snapped up fast) can send a customized message with the cookie. Oreo said the promotion is in part designed to celebrate unique, often-overlooked aspects of small towns. Examples include Marble, Colo. (estimated population 131), where the marble for the Lincoln Memorial was quarried, and Greigsville, N.Y. (estimated population 209), where there have been reports of Sasquatch sightings. "Oreo Mini Deliveries are our way of saying a little thanks to the people and places who help put a little bit of wonder into the big world every day," said Janda Lukin, senior director, Oreo at Mondelez International. The Mini deliveries promotion is part of a broader marketing campaign for Minis launched earlier this summer. The Mini packages are supposedly being mailed from Mel's Mini Mini Mart, a fictional store featured in a nearly two-minute video released by Oreo on June 23. The video, reminiscent of a Dr. Seuss story, has generated more than 1.3 million views on YouTube to date. In addition to online exposure, it's being shown in cinemas. The campaign also includes new TV creative ("Big Wonder") from the Martin Agency, with a brand song performed by Chromeo. Also posted on YouTube on June 23, that video is currently showing nearly 2.6 million views. The brand also introduced updated packaging and a new flavor, Oreo Mini Reese's Peanut Butter Creme.
The rapping Manning brothers are back again for DirecTV, this time to pitch a new fantasy-football channel offered by the satellite television service. As with last year’s music video (which touted watching football on your phone), Eli and Peyton Manning rap their way through amusing scenarios about a “Fantasy Football Fantasy.” The video begins with Peyton watching the new Fantasy Zone Channel, before Eli enters and they enter a reverie of their “Fantasy Football Fantasy.” “We caught lightning in a bottle last year,” Jon Gieselman, senior vice president of marketing at DirecTV, tells Marketing Daily. “We had a new product to promote [this year], and we considered a few ideas, but we kept coming back to this.” The music video and song features more repetition of the word “fantasy” than one person can count. (The refrain of the song is, “Fantasy, Fantasy, Football Fantasy.”) Imagery of both the song and video include catching a pass thrown by Peyton only to find the football is filled with nachos, a shower of mini footballs rather than water and floating through space with the brothers’ father, Archie Manning. (The video also features cameos from hall-of-fame quarterback Joe Namath making a romantic stew and New York Jets running back Chris Johnson giving a fan his signature coif.) “We knew the bar was high. The problem with a sequel is you might fall short of the original,” Gieselman says. “Last year’s concept was original. You always want to try and do something different.” The video is part of DirecTV’s larger promotion of its “Sunday Ticket” professional football package. In addition to more traditional television commercials and advertising, the Manning brothers video is meant, like last year, to spread across the Internet virally. “This is part of a much larger marketing plan that we’re executing behind Sunday Ticket,” Gieselman says. “[The Manning brothers] are always up for doing something zany, and they’re great sports about it.”
CVS/pharmacy will donate a portion of the proceeds from the sale of select school products to Boys & Girls Clubs of America's Great Futures Campaign. The retail division of CVS Caremark Corp. announced the cause marketing campaign Monday. From Aug. 10-23, CVS/pharmacy will donate 1% of purchases of school products, up to $125,000. Both organizations are publicizing the initiative on respective social media sites, as well as at www.greatfutures.org The new initiative aims to raise awareness about the critical role of what children do before and after school. When school ends at 3 p.m. each day, 15 million kids in America have nowhere to go. Without a structured schedule after school, kids are left unguided, unsupervised, and potentially unsafe. They are more prone to violence, childhood obesity, and dropping out of high school, according to the charitable organization. The Great Futures Campaign aims to open more doors for America's kids and encourage them to learn, inspire them to lead, and motivate them to be healthy. The partnership aligns with the mission of the CVS Caremark All Kids Can philanthropic program, which was created to help kids to be the best that they can be. Through All Kids Can, the company is committed to supporting nonprofit organizations like Boys & Girls Clubs of America that provide local communities with innovative programs and services focused on helping children succeed in life. CVS Caremark and the charitable group both share a commitment to helping all kids on their path to better health, said Eileen Howard Boone, senior vice president of corporate social responsibility & Philanthropy at CVS Caremark. "Through support of the Great Futures Campaign, CVS Caremark and our customers will help ensure that youth nationwide have a safe and nurturing environment where they can reach their full potential," Boone says in a release. The 100-year-old Boys & Girls Clubs of America has more than 4,100 Clubs serving nearly 4 million young people annually.
A new campaign for Dodge Dart, “Don’t Touch My Dart,” via Wieden+Kennedy, features comics Craig Robinson and Jake Johnson. Randy Ortiz, head of Dodge brand advertising, and Amy Peet, Dodge's senior manager, digital media, talk to Marketing Daily about the campaign, the comedians and the car. Q: Why did you go with Robinson and Johnson for this campaign, and was it a tough get?Ortiz: Craig Robinson and Jake Johnson had the exact chemistry we were looking for. Dodge has always been able to have more fun with its advertising than most other car brands because it has more attitude. Craig and Jake embodied those attributes perfectly, and they were able to take the material to a level that exceeded our expectations. We were fortunate that they were both available given their schedules. Q: In addition to YouTube experience and CollegeHumor.com, what does the digital landscape for this campaign look like? Peet: We have partnered with a video vendor (true[X]) that allows us to create experiences that incorporate several of the spots, full-screen viewing, social shares and a closer look at the Dart without leaving the environment in which the ad was served. We also have extensions with Fantasy football partners like CBS & NFL, RedBull + ESPN/Fox Broadcast extensions online. Q: Is Dodge going to support the campaign online with a broad digital ad buy funneling traffic to the YouTube site? Will the videos live on other sites with a propensity to attract large numbers of younger viewers.Peet: We have a robust ecosystem where we are hosting videos on YouTube, College Humor and our own Web site, plus our social platforms will be pushing as well. The media partners we picked absolutely target a younger, social, thrillseeker audience. This includes scaling to mobile -- since this partner allows us to play the videos within a banner unit, we will be sending them to Dodge.com to view more on the Dart. All College Humor banner units will be driving to our custom hub, and of course the buys within YouTube will send them to the Jake & Craig experience. Q: There are a lot of different video lengths here. I'm wondering where a 5-second cut would run. That's pretty short. Is it for mobile? Ortiz: We have developed almost two dozen spots plus a song performed by Craig himself (it will launch very soon). The :05 pieces will be used for animated billboards on broadcast, and the :15 and :30 spots will run both on broadcast and digitally. Q: What are other mobile-media components? Peet: The video networks we work with all have mobile components and experiences for us to target this younger, tech-savvy consumer. This allows us to serve ads across multiple platforms that represent music, social gaming, free WiFi and Video/Content sites. The publishers can range from Grooveshark, Vice, iHeart Radio, Maker, Fox Sports, AT&T, Zynga and even airport wifi hotspots. Q: Who has been buying Dart? Are they, in fact, the Gen Y buyers the campaign is aiming to attract? I think Millennials are now second to Boomers in car purchases?Ortiz: We discovered that people who own Darts are quite proud of their cars, and this type of prideful ownership is something you don't normally see in the compact car category, especially among younger owners. So it was interesting that the Dart actually had younger drivers feeling proud of their cars again.
Life is messy and now, Delta Faucet Company is encouraging consumers to live each day to its messiest through the multi-platform "HappiMess" campaign. "Somewhere along the way, mess got a bad reputation. But that's not really fair. Mess is the evidence of a life well lived and means we're out there making, creating, doing and playing," said Catherine Roper, Delta brand marketing director, "With our new campaign, we want to help consumers embrace 'HappiMess' with confidence, knowing our kitchen and bath innovations will be there to help with the cleanup." The HappiMess campaign is extensive. Creative agency of record Leo Burnett Chicago created the campaign's 30-second TV spots. Content agency of record McMURRY/TMG created the HappiMess social hub and #HappiMess sweepstakes on Facebook. And Spark is handling media strategy and investment. "This was a departure in that all agencies worked together from the beginning," says Bonnie Dombrowski, Media Supervisor, Spark. "From day one, we all were working on integrating all of the campaign's elements." This concept represents a shift for Delta. "We traditionally have advertised around technology and now we are focusing on the human aspect," says Steve Carlson, Media Director, Spark. The campaign message illustrates that messy moments require a good faucet, whether it is for backyard gardening or family meal clean-ups. All elements of the campaign are designed to engage consumers. Consumers will have the opportunity to share their own messy moments through a Delta #HappiMess social media sweepstakes, starting today. The user generated content will be aggregated and showcased at DeltaFaucet.com/Happimess. To help encourage this consumer interaction, Delta Faucet is partnering with several online content providers. The brand becomes the first and only brand in the plumbing and fixtures category to partner with Buzzfeed. "We want to be seen as leaders in the DIY and home improvement space," says Dombrowski, explaining that the site attracts a high number of readers interested in home and design. Launching in September, Buzzfeed will create eight custom posts around HappiMess content that will serve as a call-to-action, driving to the HappiMess Sweepstakes. They will be distributed across Buzzfeed and their affiliated partners. At the same time, Delta Faucet is teaming up for the second year with Mode (formerly Glam), which utilizes its bloggers and influencers. Delta will engage a network of influencers for a three-part HappiMess content series across their influencer network. The partnership will initially host a launch event exclusive for a select group of bloggers. This event will be filmed, and the footage will be turned into a digital video that then will be distributed across online websites. More broadly, Mode's influencers will post content introducing readers to the HappiMess campaign and encouraging them to share their own HappiMess moments with Delta. All thirty participating bloggers will host an In-Home HappiMess Party and will each receive a Delta Touch2O Technology faucet to aid in the cleanup. Bloggers will recap the party in their second post. The campaign will culminate in a third post that drives readers to a Mode Sweepstakes where readers will share their own HappiMess moments for the chance to win a Delta Temp2O Technology showerhead. Integrated cross-platform partnerships with several publishers are designed to ensure the campaign lives across print, digital and mobile. Delta and Southern Living's partnership includes an advertorial in which readers receive monthly cooking tips, and starting in September, they will be able to scan a digimarc in the advertorial to unlock recipes. Southern Living's website features a custom co-branded unit that displays the tips and additional video content from the Test Kitchen. Lastly, Delta Faucet and Southern Living serve as sponsors for the annual Taste of Charleston festival in September. The Southern Living Test Kitchen will conduct a live demonstration of one of Delta's messy recipes on their main stage with the help of Delta's Touch2O Technology. Delta Faucet will also run an advertorial in Real Simple magazine that encourages Real Simple readers to participate in the HappiMess sweepstakes. In addition to a print advertorial that features a homemade ravioli recipe, the program includes a how-to video featuring Real Simple blogger Pippa Lord creating the dish and more to make a complete meal, which readers can unlock using a digimarc. An accompanying digital and social plan drives to the campaign landing page on Delta's website that houses the complete blogger video and recipe. Delta is partnering with Outside magazine and its “Best Towns in America” series for the "Find Your HappiMess" advertorial that shares the best messy activities in the top best towns. To extend the content to the digital space, MCMURRY/TMG worked with Outside editors on a content piece for Delta's “Inspired Living” content hub - "7 Bath Essentials for Active People" that will also be featured on Delta's website. Lastly, Delta's partnership with HGTV includes an advertorial that features how-to instructions for readers to create their own in-kitchen herb garden. The advertorial runs in its print magazine as well as across HGTV's and Delta's social channels. As part of the media buy, traditional ads will air across network and cable TV, including late night and primetime cable programming on AMC and FX. This multi-faceted initiative is critical in reaching today's consumers, says Carlson. "We wanted to extend the campaign to more places and more experiences. It makes a stronger connection and brings the brand to life rather than just seeing an ad." Delta's parent company Masco declines to break ad spend by brand, but the company, which also owns Behr and Liberty Hardware, spent $17 million in 2013 and projects 2014 ad spend to be around $10 million, according to company financial filings.
While IT takes charge of the technology across companies, 51% of marketing leaders say they do not believe that IT has the knowledge about customer life cycles to make the correct decisions that accelerate their department's success, according to a Forrester Research survey that cites responses from 3,532 technology leaders. CIOs need to better understand marketing technology requirements to increase revenue and drive profits. And marketers need to teach them. This turns marketing into a profit center rather than an empty hole that bleeds red. CIOs must understand the key technology supporting the customer life cycle because investing in business technology has become central to a company's ability to win, serve and retain customers, per a Forrester Research report. They must also follow the customer life cycle. Businesses know this, but they don't think their CIO is positioned to help, according to Sharyn Leaver and Kyle NcNabb, lead writers on the report titled "Top Technologies For Your BT Agenda." Some 77% of business leaders surveyed for the report say that growing revenue for the company is likely to become the No. 1 initiative during the coming year. Some 74% cite improving the customer experience as No. 1, and 61% said the top initiative is reducing costs. Forrester analysts in the report advise CIOs to focus on winning, serving and retaining customers, as well as understanding the six phases of the customer life cycle -- from discovering the brand to keeping consumers satisfied long after purchase -- while helping to support search and other media marketers in satisfying consumers. Accomplishing the task means that CMOs help CIOs to create a business technology agenda or framework separate from the company's IT agenda. It keeps B2B and B2C customers in mind when making technology decisions and provides a shared vision for the entire organization. Forrester suggests talking with CIOs to help them understand technology requirements. Before deciding on specific technologies, it is crucial to help CIOs make sense of the different phases of the customer life cycle and the role that technology plays in each -- to discover, explore, buy, use, ask, and engage. Remind them that these technology investments such as marketing automation, analytics, online marketing, mobile, and data management do not focus on internal operations, but rather external. They are customer- or client-facing, depending on whether the company supports businesses or consumers. "Customers approving" photo from Shutterstock.