The Legacy Foundation's Truth campaign advertised on the MTV Video Music Awards Sunday night as part of its new campaign, Finish It, is intended to get teens more involved in efforts to get peers to avoid cigarettes, and not promulgate the idea that smoking is cool by posting photos of people with cigarettes. The effort focuses on the fact that Big Tobacco gets free ads when people are photographed smoking, especially when they are celebrities. The campaign features two new TV spots that broke during the VMA’s. The ads -- with the message, "They're the new face of Big Tobacco, and they don't even know it" -- are a rapid montage of celebrities smoking, or with cigarettes dangling from their mouths. Truth also redesigned Thetruth.com to reflect the campaign: it has an optimistic empowerment message that youth smoking is decreasing rapidly, and offers tools that visitors can bring to their own social channels. One is called " X Your Profile," essentially a social profile badge that identifies a person as an anti-smoking advocate; sharable content that x's out cigarette imagery from photos on social media, and encourages people to replace cigarette-related images with other images. "What we realized that is that there is an opportunity not only to engage the 9% of teens who are smoking — and of course they are still a huge, important part of the target — but to influence the 91% who are their peers and bring them onboard, and empower them to use their creativity," says Robin Koval, president and CEO of Legacy. "When you go online and Google images of smoking you see entire Tumblr pages devoted to glamorized photos, people with great influence, smoking. And every time you put an image up here that glamorizes smoking, you become a spokesperson for tobacco." She tells Marketing Daily that while Truth has advertised on the VMA's before,"this is our largest participation in while." The organization says the media buy targets the 35 million or so 15 to 21 year olds in the U.S.. The campaign, via Legacy's agency 72andSunny, runs through the year with an extended buy for the TV spots, integrations with TV programming, online branded integrations with online youth networks and personalities, social networks, online radio, search, and video. There will also be in-cinema buys, and activation around the Truth tour, which travels with the Vans Warped Tour, and appears at several Vans events, such as Vans US Open of Surfing and Vans House Parties in Brooklyn. It also visits venues like Six Flags and Major League Gaming. Legacy claims there are 450,000 fewer smokers as a direct result of the Truth campaign and that teens who are aware of Truth are twice as likely to say they do not intend to smoke in the future. Kovals says that even though youth smoking rates have dropped from 23% to 9% since the campaign began in the early 2000s, exhorting teens not to pick up the habit is a constant challenge. "Big tobacco spends $9 billion every year, to find 1,200 replacement smokers every day. And they want these people to be young."
“Tough Season,” the program Lenovo and The Onion (and agency DigitasLBi) put together last year to promote fantasy football, is back. And as with many sequels, it’s bigger than before. Having attracted 13.5 million views last year, Season Two of the mockumentary has been expanded to 13 total episodes (five more than last year), bonus behind-the-scenes videos and a companion show on the Onion News Network. “It was a great program,” Kevin Berman, North American director of advertising and marketing services at Lenovo, tells Marketing Daily. “We saw lots of people get engaged, and saw our awareness go up.” This year’s Tough Season campaign will once again follow fantasy football coach Brad Blevins as he interacts with the real-life NFL stars on his fantasy team. This year, Blevins (going by the name B-Rad) has won his office’s fantasy football league, won a sponsorship with Lenovo (netting him “$750 — for the whole year”), and is on a quest to repeat. “I’m on top of the fantasy football mountain,” Blevins tells Bears running back Matt Forte. “And what goes up, stays there forever.” In addition, Lenovo and The Onion have produced four bonus videos that will be released throughout the season to provide additional opportunities to engage fans. The videos will not follow the show’s traditional narrative structure and will instead show content such as behind-the-scenes vignettes and a music video, “Cheeseburger in a Coconut,” which features NFL players (including Andrew Luck, AJ Green and Wes Welker) singing along with a decidedly cheesy song. “People really enjoy seeing the football players doing things outside of football,” Berman says. “I also think there’s a certain kind of content that’s watched episodically, and another kind of content that people share.” Lenovo and The Onion have also developed a fantasy football-themed show for its Onion News Network. The show will feature real-time NFL news and fantasy football advice, with a focus on Blevins and Tough Season. Also upping its game from last year, Lenovo is giving two fantasy football players the chance to become a part of this year’s Pro Bowl game, helping select the teams and spending the first quarter on the sideline of the game. The two coaches will also face-off in a fantasy challenge for the game for a chance to win a trip to the Super Bowl. “The fun thing about the Pro Bowl promotion is they’re at a table with the [NFL star coaches], and they’re kept turning to our winner to make picks,” Berman says. “The guy was out of this world about what he got to do.”
Toms Shoes, the brand built on “One for One” giving, has gone corporate, inking a new partnership with Bain Capital. In a deal said to be worth $625 million and including debt, founder Blake Mycoskie, whose official title is “Chief Shoe Giver,” retains 50% ownership, the company says in its release. And Toms is reportedly opening a boutique in New York, marking the first East Coast presence for its funky espadrilles-with-a-conscience. “This partnership will enable Toms to grow faster and give to more people in more ways than we could otherwise,” says Mycoskie in the announcement. “In eight short years, we've had incredible success, and now we need a strategic partner who shares our bold vision for the future and can help us realize it. We’re thrilled that Bain Capital is fully aligned with our commitment to One for One, and clearly they have the expertise to help us improve our business and further expand the scale of our mission.” The U.S. fashion footwear market is estimated at about $41.52 billion, according to the NPD Group. Besides their availability online and in other retailers, Toms are also sold at boutiques in Austin, Tex. and Venice, Calif. The company launched back in 2006, with the promise of giving away a par of shoes for every pair it sells; since then, it’s distributed 25 million pairs. It has since expanded to eyewear and coffee, each replicating the original “One for One” donation concept. (In the case of the coffee, the company gives one week of clean water to a person in need for every bag of coffee.) In doing so, it has become one of the most active brands in social media, with strong followings on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter. Mycoskie also says he plans to give away plans “at least half” of the profits from the deal to a fund for social entrepreneurship, and other causes.
Century 21 is promoting a series of videos featuring cleaning expert and best-selling author Jolie Kerr. The real estate company is providing the six-part video series, #C21ReadyToSell, to show home buyers and real estate professionals how to best clean and stage a home. Viewers who vote for their favorite video will be entered for the chance to win a $250 gift card. Century 21 created a custom page on Century21.com specifically for this video series and for the giveaway. The videos are also being shared on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, as well as on the company’s blog, @C21 Home Matters. The is the company’s first time working with Kerr, says Century 21 CMO Bev Thorne. “In her weekly column for Deadspin.com, Jolie answers the most difficult cleaning questions from homeowners,” Thorne tells Marketing Daily. “Who better to help Century 21 agents and sellers prep to a list a home than Jolie? Her arsenal of easy and inexpensive tips can really go a long way for a homeowner looking to stage to sell.” Videos and other social media are an important part of marketing for Century 21 because the way people buy and sell real estate has been changing, she says. “With the home buying and selling process becoming more social than ever before, we’re always on the hunt for relevant ways to connect and engage with this new generation of buyers and sellers -- and videos are a great way to do that,” Thorne says. “This particular series is short, visually appealing, and chock-full of tips -- a mixture of all the right ingredients to engage people looking for tips on staging their home.” Thorne would not rule out the intro of future videos “We’re focused on this video series for the moment, but based on the reaction we receive, we would certainly consider doing another series either with Jolie or with other experts,” she says.
Consumer packaged goods companies are at a tipping point. Those that implement effective digital game plans now are likely to establish a significant competitive edge for the years ahead, while those that don't will risk stagnation, loss of share and shrinking sales over the next several years, stresses a new report. The report, "The Digital Future: A Game Plan for Consumer Packaged Goods," was produced by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Google and Information Resources, Inc. (IRI) for the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA). It points out that digital's current 1% penetration of the overall U.S. CPG market will likely expand to 5% by 2018 (some categories could see penetration of 30% or more by 2018) and could grow to as much as 10% soon after — what the researchers call a "1-5-10" scenario. Digital penetration of 5% will account for nearly half of total CPG growth over the next five years, and early movers will have the opportunity to establish positions that will be hard to dislodge, the researchers emphasize. “Consumers are embracing technologies, devices and services that make everyday tasks such as shopping, cooking and even commuting quicker, easier, more fun and more efficient," observes Patrick Hadlock, partner at BCG and a coauthor of the report. "This is fragmenting the purchasing pathway as consumers regularly switch back and forth between digital and physical channels, and interact digitally both in and outside of stores.” According to the report, while many companies have established a digital presence — a Web site, some digital advertising, a presence in social media — most haven't fully integrated digital into their operating models, built a Big Data analytical capability, pursued a multichannel or omnichannel strategy, or tailored their product offerings to the digital or e-commerce marketplace. GMA commissioned the research to help its members prepare for the digital future. The report concludes that individual companies need to address digital from the top, building new capabilities and making difficult choices and investment trade-offs to defend their margins, share and brand equity. The researchers say that all companies can make a series of low-risk, "no regret" moves to position for digital success. These recommended steps include developing an integrated strategy for how far the company needs to go and how to get there; shifting investments to establish a digital brand presence; building the necessary capabilities and organization for a fast-moving digital world; and shaping the evolution to digital with channel partners. Manufacturers also need to recast existing capabilities like product placement, marketing content development and supply chain management for a digital world. While all of this may sound daunting, the report stresses that the critical key is top management's leadership in getting the entire organization to get on board with an adaptive investment strategy -- a big change for many companies. A traditional three- to five-year planning approach doesn't cut it in an environment in which consumer expectations are being set by technology companies that have deep pockets and thrive on rapid change. Instead, CPG companies need to experiment with various approaches, quickly measure results, drop approaches that aren't working, and focus resources on those that are working. A copy of the report can be read or downloaded at www.bcgperspectives.com.
Car ownership is still important to most Americans, and connectivity as a product feature is growing in importance as a purchase intent factor, according to a new study from agency MRY. But the study also indicated that no single car manufacturer leads the field when it comes to connectivity. According to the study, which surveyed 2,000 licensed adults, 91% said that owning a car is still an important part of their day-to-day activity. That number falls slightly for Millennials — to 87% — although the study reports that access to a car via car-sharing services (for that group in particular) is considered synonymous with ownership. In addition to a survey, the study monitored over 60 million social media conversations about connectivity in cars. No single automaker generated 50% or greater positive sentiment in conversations where they were mentioned. Jeep achieved a little more than 40% positive sentiment and Hyundai wasn’t far behind with just under 40%. Mercedes-Benz showed the lowest positive sentiment at about 7%, while Dodge fared just slightly better at 9%. “Automotive brands need to focus more of their brand messaging around their connectivity features,” the study concludes. A small shift in consumer perceptions about auto brands can have a multibillion-dollar impact on sales. “Because conversation around connected cars has increased by roughly 15% in 2013 versus 2012, this puts additional urgency on brands needing to spread their messaging and drive perception within the increasingly younger audience that their cars are more connected than their competitors.” In addition to improving car driving experiences, such as access to food and services, improved connectivity by auto makers “has the potential to solve some of the problems that have plagued drivers, such as traffic accidents, traffic and general safety on the road,” per the study. The survey portion of the study was conducted by Whitman Insight Strategies in January of this year and included 500 people aged 18-34 and 500 people ages 35-plus, split equally among men and women with regional quotas set to match the U.S. Census. The social listening portion of study evaluated full-year 2012 and 2013 conversations around automotive connectivity using a Boolean filtering framework in conjunction with Mashwork.