It's the most fun that affluent car enthusiasts can have with their Polos on. It is the high point of the summer for the Bugatti set. It's this weekend's Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance on California's Monterey Peninsula, where a few thousand very affluent people stroll the Pebble Beach golf course to ogle a couple hundred collector cars and motorcycles. It should be noted that there's a lot to see and do that doesn't cost a penny, such as Thursday's Tour d'Elegance where beautiful cars drive the roads of Pebble Beach and Carmel. But if you want a seat at the Quail Lodge and Golf Club, you’d better pony up. But it's not just about the Ruxton over there, or the the Ferrari Testa Rossa you're leaning on. It's also a stage for luxury brands who show up to tout their marque, their current lineup, special editions, concepts, and technical innovations. Infiniti, Lexus and Land Rover Jaguar are the biggies this year. Infiniti, in addition to returning as sponsor of the Media Center for the week leading up to Sunday’s show, will field an Infiniti Performance Pavilion. The brand’s hub for ride-and-drives, it also features an interactive experiential element via a partnership with The Enthusiast Network (TEN) and Microsoft. The effort, which touts Infiniti’s 560-hp concept sport sedan, and the Q50 Eau Rouge, has Xbox driving simulators running Microsoft’s “Forza 5” driving game, customized to feature the Eau Rouge, with the idea that visitors can test their skills on the world’s most famous racetracks without actually risking themselves or the car. The pavilion will also have Microsoft Surface tablets running a product video app and 360-degree views into Infiniti vehicle interiors and exteriors. Through Saturday this week, Infiniti's exhibition will let visitors take the Q50 sports sedan and QX60 Hybrid 7-passenger crossover for a spin. The Nissan Motor luxury division will also show the 2015 Q70L sedan and QX80 Limited full-size SUV. Via the TEN partnership, Infiniti will get traction on Motor Trend’s “Wide Open Throttle” YouTube channel, via live tapings at the pavilion featuring VIP guests. The episodes, starting Thursday, highlight the week’s automotive news both at Monterey and elsewhere, starting Thursday. Lexus is taking over Pete Hay Hill during the show to introduce a premium vehicle trim called The Crafted Line by Lexus, characterized by white and obsidian exterior mated to a black/red two-tone interior. People (of means) who buy the 2015 limited-edition trim, available in its Sport models, also get a two-piece duffel bag set form lifestyle, travel and business accessory brand TUMI, which created the custom bags to complement The Crafted Line. Jaguar Land Rover, which is a regular at Pebble Beach, is debuting new products and, by extension, the new Special Operations division that developed them. One, a global debut, is the 550hp Range Rover Sport SVR. The others are a U.S. production version of the Jaguar F-Type Project 7, and the prototype of of a Lightweight E-Type -- of which only six customer cars will be built, per the automaker. The vehicles will be unveiled at Jaguar Land Rover's Pebble Beach Concours kickoff party on Thursday at the Pebble Beach and Tennis Club. On Friday, at the famed "The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering" at the golf club, the automaker will show its Land Rover model line-up, focusing on the Range Rover Sport SVR, the Range Rover Long-wheelbase, and the Range Rover Evoque Autobiography. Jaguar will feature its full model line-up at Mazda Laguna Seca Raceway during the weekend.
Cheesecake Factory emerged as North Americans' favorite general-menu casual-dining chain in Market Force Information's newly released survey on this restaurant sector. More than 6,100 consumers were surveyed, in order to rank casual-dining chains in five categories: general menu, breakfast, steak, Italian and seafood. For the rankings, Market Force asked participants to rate their satisfaction with their most recent casual-dining experience and their likelihood to refer that restaurant to others. The results were averaged to calculate a composite loyalty score. Out of the largest restaurant chains that offer general menus, Cheesecake Factory scored highest with 61%; Cracker Barrel ranked second with 58%; Red Robin was third with 47%; Ruby Tuesday and Buffalo Wild Wings tied for fourth with 46%; and Chili’s Bar and Grill rounded out the top five with 44%. The survey also asked respondents to rate chains by key attributes, including service, food quality and value. Cheesecake Factory was the clear leader in the food quality category (63%), trailed by Cracker Barrel (44%) and Red Robin (42%). It also tied with Cracker Barrel on atmosphere (both 44%). In addition, Cheesecake Factory tied with Applebee’s and Ruby Tuesday for healthy food, although a relatively modest 23% of respondents ranked each of the chains highly on having healthy food. This result was no doubt particularly welcomed by Cheesecake Factory, which, despite having reformulated some dishes to reduce their calories, again this year dominated the "Xtreme Eating Awards" issued by the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Cracker Barrel dominated in the fast and friendly service categories, and performed consistently well across the other attributes studied. TGI Fridays ranked first on value, followed very closely by Cracker Barrel and Chili’s. Red Robin was ranked highest for accommodating children. The winners in other categories of casual-dining restaurant chains were: *Italian: Maggiano’s was ranked #1 (59%), followed closely by Carrabba’s Italian Grill (57%). Romano's Macaroni Grill (51%), Olive Garden (48%) and East Side Mario’s (32%) rounded out the top five. *Steakhouse: The Capital Grille was a clear winner (77%), versus 61% for #2-ranked Texas Roadhouse and 57% for The Keg. Longhorn Steakhouse (55%) and Outback Steakhouse (51%) ranked fourth and fifth, followed by Logan's Roadhouse (48%) and Lone Star Steakhouse & Saloon (37%). *Seafood: The top five were Pappadeaux (65%), Bonefish Grill (57%), Bahama Breeze (52%), Joe’s Crab Shack (48%) and Red Lobster (47%). *Breakfast: French-themed Mimi’s Café was the favorite (44%), followed by Waffle House and Bob Evans Restaurant (each at 43%), and Perkins in third place (38%). Village Inn and IHOP (each at 35%) and Denny’s (34%) were also high-up in the rankings. Casual dining spending and frequency Nearly half (46%) of respondents said that they patronize casual dining restaurants at least five times per month, and 57% said they plan to spend a minimum of $10 per person when they do. Asked about their dining habits this year compared to 2013, 12% said they have dined out more, 28% said they had dined out less, and 60% said their pattern stayed about the same. The survey was conducted in April 2014 across the U.S. and Canada. The 6,106 respondents reflected a broad spectrum of income levels, with nearly 62% reporting household incomes of more than $50,000 per year. Respondents’ ages ranged from 18 to over 65. Approximately 75% are women and 25% men. Approximately 70% are married, and 40% have children at home.
Newcastle Brown Ale is celebrating bartenders in a unique promotion enlisting the band Grouplove and the U.S. Bartender’s Guild. The beer brand created a video showing how the band recently surprised one lucky bartender by slinging beers in his place while he and his band opened for them in Los Angeles. Newcastle Brown Ale will be giving bartenders in select cities — Los Angeles, New York, San Diego, Minneapolis, San Francisco and Las Vegas — a similar opportunity as part of its Bartender Gigs concert series. Members of the headlining band who have worked as bartenders in the past will spend some time behind the rail slinging drinks before they take the stage. While they are serving, the venue’s bartenders will be performing their own songs on stage. The gigs will feature national acts such as Grouplove at select shows, as well as well-known local bands. Behind-the-scenes footage, performance videos, artist interviews and more will be posted at youtube.com/Newcastle. Consumers can redeem a month of unlimited music streaming from Rdio to enter for a chance to win a VIP trip to Los Angeles for the Bartender Gigs finale concert featuring a surprise guest through point-of-sale materials at select on-premise accounts. “There’s almost nothing better than getting together with your friends for some cold ones and a show by your favorite bands,” said Brett Steen, brand manager for Newcastle Brown Ale in a release. “Beyond featuring some great up-and-coming acts, Bartender Gigs gives us a perfect opportunity to promote Newcastle Brown Ale while shamelessly courting the favor of bartenders across the country.”
Coming off the hugely popular World Cup this summer, NBC Sports is hoping to grow football-fever into a new national pastime for its Barclays Premier League soccer broadcasts beginning this weekend. “It’s a very short off-season,” Bill Bergofin, senior vice president of marketing at NBC Sports, tells Marketing Daily. “We promoted it into the World Cup and through it and right into [the new] season.” First, NBC Sports has brought its soccer-clueless character Coach Ted Lasso back for a second go-around in an online video. The character (played by SNL alum Jason Sudeikis) continues to be confused by the sport, but is now working as a commentator for the network. Lasso, who last year was recruited and fired as coach of the Tottenham Spurs, still doesn’t understand the game, confused about the offsides rules and the details behind “relegation,” which calls for the bottom three teams to be ousted from the league. (The video also features a cameo by U.S. World Cup goalie Tim Howard.) “Year two was purposefully [set up] to put him back on American soil,” Bergofin says. “We want to create a buzz around the [BPL] and educate the audience about it.” The video is only one component of the buzz-building campaign. NBC Sports is also targeting more dedicated fans with co-branded Topps trading card packs, which feature the channel’s on-air talent (Rebecca Lowe, Arlo White and Kyle Martino) as well as a Ted Lasso card. Meanwhile, the network has partnered with Uber in New York City, through which the car service will offer free rides (with a promo code, BPLonNBC) in specially decorated Mini Cooper Countryman cars. The Speak Football app will also be available to non-Uber users as a way to help determine which team they should be supporting by providing answers to questions. It will also offer fans a crash-course in football lingo (and also send “translated” tweets in British football lingo) and teach new fans team chants and songs. “Uber is a hot company and a lot of our goal is to create buzz,” Bergofin says. “[Speak Football]” is another tool coming out of this that pokes fun at the lexicon of the announcers.”
It's a lot harder these days to name an automaker that isn't in kicking distance of a soccer pitch than those that are. Nissan's sports involvement in the U.S. tends to be focused on football, and its sponsorship of the Heisman Trophy with its "Heisman House" advertising and experiential campaigns. But it is also big on futbol. On Tuesday, the automaker launched a partnership with UEFA (Union of European Football Associations, which includes parts of Asia) Champions League at the 2014 UEFA Super Cup in Cardiff City Stadium, Wales, where Real Madrid is playing Savilla FC for the Cup. The automaker's sponsorship, which runs through 2018 — and includes yearly support of the UEFA Super Cup — kicks off with a global ad campaign featuring some new Nissan ambassadors: UEFA Champions League winners Andrés Iniesta and Paris Saint-Germain, and Brazil captain Thiago Silva. Television ads start in August, per the company. Bastien Schupp, VP marketing for Nissan's European operation, said in a statement that the UEFA Super Cup is Nissan's first official UEFA partnership experience. He said the partnership is meant to support Nissan's core brand attribute. "Innovation that Excites is what Nissan stands for, and our partnership with UEFA will see a collaborative effort which will push the boundaries to create real innovation and continued excitement for fans across the globe." Nissan's partnership makes the automaker official global automotive supplier of the UEFA Champions League. As such, Nissan this month had three Nissan Qashqai crossovers on a 12-day tour of Welsh towns and cities, as transports for the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League and UEFA Super Cup trophies. The trophies held court at a Nissan dealership in Wales. Nissan also has had an interactive Fan Zone in Cardiff's commercial area, The Hayes, featuring vehicles like the Leaf and the NISMO Leaf RC, and two GT Academy simulators. Nissan's other sports forays: the is sponsor of Rio 2016 Olympic & Paralympic Games; Olympic Team Brazil; Columbia and Mexico Olympic Teams; Team GB and ParalympicsGB; Africa Cup of Nations; Canadian Football League; and has Olympics Gold Medalists Usain Bolt and Sir Chris Hoy as ambassadors. Nissan in July signed a five-year deal to be offocial partner of the new City Football Group, owned by Abu Dhabi's Sheikh Mansour.
Clients who complain about a lack of talent and creativity in Adland have nobody to blame but themselves because too frequently they are not willing to pay for it. That was the gist of a commentary that 4As President Nancy Hill wrote in The Wall Street Journal’s CMO Today column Tuesday. She referenced a comment by Unilever’s Keith Weed at Cannes this year that he has “genuine concern because there’s never been such competition for creativity.” That was the starting point for Hill’s argument that Adland isn’t keeping pace with other industries in compensating top talent entering the workforce after college -- at least partly because clients aren’t willing to pay adequate fees. She noted that average student loan debt is nearly $30,000 while entry-level ad jobs pay between $25,000 and $28,000 in yearly salary. Meanwhile, tech companies like Google and Microsoft offer starting salaries in the $80,000 to $90,000 range, while consulting firms offer $70,000-$75,000. “If you were a recent grad with almost $30,000 in student loan debt, where would you go?” Hill asked. “I don’t mean to point a finger at Unilever or any other client. All clients demand the best talent on their business, but, generally speaking, aren’t willing to pay for it. Extended payment terms, unreasonable indemnification clauses, incentive plans that don’t incentivize, FTE negotiations on hours in a year all add up to a system that is broken. We’ve made it so complicated that, at best, it takes three extra staff members just to manage a contract.” Marketers often ignore guidance that the 4As and the Association of National Advertisers have offered on what constitutes fair agency compensation, Hill wrote. “All the guidance in the world won’t help if we don’t find a way to work together to create an economic environment in which we can pay reasonably well to attract, retain and provide ongoing learning for the very best and brightest that our clients and their brands deserve.”
Adults’ obsession with analyzing social media use is the exact thing that annoys my generation about social media. Often social media research misses the context of its use: an outlet for young adults to express themselves without being analyzed. There are broad reasons why each of us uses social media—personal image, authenticity, connection, recognition, communication—but analysis of digital media removes the enjoyment of using it. The only importance is that we all use it and can’t imagine a world without it. Many companies believe that advertising on social media is the greatest thing since sliced bread because it’s a way to appeal to younger, techy audiences. However, most advertisers don’t know that, if we aren’t looking for ads on social media, my generation doesn’t even pay attention and just scroll past. Instead of scanning an entire page, Millennials have a vision field like a central pinhole in which we get information from and cannot see outside of. We pay attention to information that seems real and applicable to our lives, and we ignore everything else. Current advertisements that pop up on Facebook or Twitter aren’t just annoying, they’re pointless—and they’re pointless because they’re annoying. My generation has become so attuned to finding authenticity in today’s world that we become irritated by scripted, fake ads. We are impatient with short-attention spans, so why would we look at fake ads on social media if we can scroll past them? The future of advertising is going to be to make ads short, funny, visual, authentic to attract Millennials. By definition: pictures. Why is Pinterest so popular among my age-group? Pictures. What about Instagram? Pictures. Snapchat? Pictures. I can already hear company executives arguing that plain pictures are not traditional advertising because there are no words or videos. Correct. Pictures don’t look like advertising, and for that reason, they are the most effective form of native advertising for this generation. They force us to notice ads without realizing it. For example, Nike’s Instagram page is solely pictures that showcase their products or their brand—and it has over five million followers. Pictures are persuasive because you cannot fake a picture—they’re authentic. Authenticity also comes from credibility. Generations since the beginning of advertising find credibility in celebrities, and Millennials are no different. Show an image of a celebrity wearing clothes from Target and you have convinced thousands of Millennials to go shop at Target. That image gave Target street cred and made their brand authentic. Pictures capture the visual, authentic moments that Millennials are looking for—and will get through our generation’s pinhole-vision. How can advertisers put this knowledge to use? First, make advertisements short, make advertisements visual, and make advertisements authentic. Appeal to the Millennial generation’s character with pictures. Most importantly, grab your audience’s attention so that they cannot scroll past the ad. In this case, impression is more important than message—make the first impression a good one. If advertisers can do that, we might pay attention.