Naughty Vegetables

As I have already mentioned here several times, one of the most important aspects of our job in this uncertain new era of marketing is to determine what customers truly value. In the fast moving consumer goods segment, what passes for value can be very interesting.  

For example, Laura Rollins, a member of the crack account planning group at Digitas, sent this link my way (www.spraysinthecity.com). Apparently, someone at Unilever thinks their customers value an online cartoon sitcom about the social and sexual antics of assorted vegetables and condiments in the big city. I guess the thinking is that women love “Sex in the City”, so they’ll get a kick out of “Sprays in the City”.

Whether or not this is the case, you certainly have to give them credit for doing something different. And doing it up big. The webisodes chronicle the adventures of Spraychal (a cartoon representation of the “I can’t believe it’s not butter” spray) and Spritzy (her Wishbone Salad dressing gal pal).

Tim Gunn and Fabio have starring roles, although, in my opinion, Fabio’s agent should have protested mightily about his client’s strange appearance (he’s a VERY odd-looking ear of corn).

I’ve read that Unilever is going to drive to the experience with TV and print, in addition to an extensive online campaign, so you also have to give them kudos for putting their cross-chanel media money to work for their online investment.

What you may find a bit surprising is the raciness of the animated food’s, ummm, dialogue. “Most cobs pop a kernel just thinking about her” or “He’s a big star..butter babes spread for him all the time” are two lines among many of the same ilk. Mixing food and sex is not new, I guess, but it certainly conjures up distrubing images of what’s going on in my refrigerator at night.

As far as I can tell, “Sprays” does not appear to be getting a ton of traction, at least if you go by blog and search engine traffic. But only three of the five webisodes have launched, and, after all, Seinfeld was not built in a day.

Have to go now. I’m suddenly very hungry.

Bare-chested Men in Aisle 4: Coincidence or Trend?

Perhaps you recall this link that I posted way back when I started this blog nearly two weeks ago: www.seemoresideeffects.ca/. The judges at Cannes liked this work so much that they gave it a Gold Lion. The site, created by Canadian agency Taxi, is for an anti-aging cream called Reversa, and features buff, barely clad hommes du Canada (perhaps they are Mounties? HA!).

Well, you can imagine my surprise when my marketing partner at Digitas, Dan Beder, sent me this link yesterday. It is for Clairol Herbal Essence (www.blameitonthecolor.com/), and it too features studly men nearly au natural.

Now this may just be chance, like the time in 1975 when Bruce Springsteen was on the cover of both Time and Newsweek the exact same week. Still, I can’t help feel that there is something bigger happening here. And…. HEY, wait a minute! I remember ANOTHER hunky guy selling CPG stuff–cleaning products, to be specific–not too long ago. In fact, it was here: www.cleaninghunk.com  (Trust me–this you have to see)

Could this be a full-blown CPG/Internet trend? Should we prepare ourselves for an onslaught of nearly nude dudes selling paper towels and hand soap? Rest assured that I will keep you, gentle readers, informed of any further pectoral developments.

Are You Listening?

In an earlier post, I mentioned that for CPG companies to truly make meaningful connections with their consumers in the online space, they MUST offer something of value.

This, of course, is really no different than what all marketers SHOULD do in any other channel. But it is ESPECIALLY true online. That’s because people online are like the proverbial kid in a candy store. Only this kid has been given his dad’s Gold Amex card and the candy store covers several thousand acres with a selection that runs into the billions of treats (I remember growing up in rural Minnesota where Knutson’s Drug Store did not have nearly this kind of selection, but that is a metaphor and a lesson for another day).

Consumers online get whatever they want—whatever they value—right now.So how do we make sure we are providing them something of value? That’s easy (but it’s not something that most interactive agencies have a lot of experience doing): we need to listen to the consumer. Not just create cool sites. Or fab, Flashy, banners. No, we’ve got to do some hard work and just listen to what they want or need. And where they go online to get it.

I am fortunate to work in an agency, Digitas, that has an excellent account planning department. And as the head of this planning group, Jeff Flemings, says, “never in the history of advertising has it been more vital to listen more carefully to the consumer” (that actually isn’t an exact quote, but if you click on the link over there to the right, you’ll find a bunch of exact quotes from Jeff and other smart planning folks who write the blog “Digital Hive.” 

I try to remember that the most important part of any job, and certainly the most important START to any job, is to open up those ears. And I would enjoy listening to your comments on this or any other post.

The Games People Play, and Play and Play

We all know that, aside from not cleaning their rooms, playing online games is one of the favorite activities of teenage boys. But what you might not know is that their moms are even bigger game fiends, as evidenced by this quote I pulled from an article in the Washington Post:

“When it comes to online games, women over 40 play the most often and spend the greatest number of hours doing so, even beating out teenage boys, according to a study conducted by Digital Marketing Services.”

Which is why it’s no surprise that more and more CPG companies are trying to leverage the surging popularity of games to target the sweet spot of their target audience. Here is a charming game I stumbled upon today that is on the Sunsilk UK website (http://www.sunsilk.com/uk_game/Main_Game_Eusunsilk/0,,10-3-2,00.html)

Have you seen any cool games aimed at women lately? If you have, do me a favor and post the url in a comment. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to get back to level 5 of “Grand Theft Laundry.”

Sick of Clients Asking for Viral Campaigns?

Well, don’t expect them to stop any time soon. After all, when you can get millions of people to pass around your marketing messages for free, who needs a huge media buy? But of course, the problem is that it’s VERY difficult to create a campaign that goes viral. In a future post I will tell you about the most successful viral campaign I’ve ever been part of, why it was so successful, and why it is so hard to repeat that success. But for today, I thought I’d showcase new work some talented folks from the agency I work for, Digitas, did that has taken on a life of it’s own in blogs and chat rooms around the world. A viral success in the making, if you will. Its for a new razor, called Breeze, from Gillette. Check it out here (www.manquarium.com). Then, if you’re so inclined, go to Google Blogs or Technorati and see what other folks are saying about it.

Branded Entertainment vs. Branded Information (TM)

Recently I read an article in the fine publication, Brandweek. The theme of the article was branded entertainment and whether it was really working or not. What puzzled me a bit was one of the examples they used. It was the Pampers site (www.pampers.com). Because, as far as I am concerned, this site is NOT providing branded entertainment at all. It is providing BRANDED INFORMATION (as I have never heard this term before, I am laying claim to inventing it. I may even tm it if I have the time tonight).

If you look at the site you will notice that not a ton of the content is about Pampers products. Sure it’s there, but it is not at all the main focus of the site. Rather, pampers.com is all about helping new mothers deal with the myriad of questions that they have in their new lives.

Now, even though Pampers has increased its market share significantly in the past few years, and even though the site has received an average of well over one million visitors a month for the last 12 months, the author of the article wonders if the site is truly making a difference. Let’s see: millions of people see you as an authority on questions about babies. I would bet significant dough that this makes a difference when those same people are deciding what diapers to buy. The marketing folks at Pampers are offering their consumers something of value. They are not simply marketing at mothers; they are helping them become better mothers. Helping them connect with each other for support and advice. This is a fine example of branded information ™. This is good interactive marketing.

Soap in the South of France, Fin

Today, the Cannes advertising festival wraps up a very interesting week. I was planning to write about the Cyber Lion winners from the “Household Products” category, using them as examples of how the rest of the world is employing the Internet to market consumer packaged goods. The Cannes Cyber jury foiled my plan, however. Other than Dove’s “Evolution” film, which won the overall Grand Prix and shared the Cyber top prize with the ground-breaking Nike Plus site (http://nikeplus.nike.com/nikeplus/) and the kinky Diesel Underwear opus (http://www.farfar.se/awards/cannes2007/heidies/), there were precious few packaged goods clients gracing the podium and taking home hardware. I don’t think it’s a case of CPG companies not investing in the online space. It just may be that this year there were fewer standout packaged goods campaigns. Or, I should say, fewer executions that struck the international jury’s fickle fancy. In any event, the one high-profile execution that the judges did smile upon was Fallon’s “Brawny Academy” (http://brawny.iti.fallon.com/brawny_academy/brawnyacademy.html). This ambitious foray into branded entertainment had already won an Effie, but some said it didn’t attract nearly the number of eyeballs it might have (another day we will take up the discussion of trying to draw consumers to your site as opposed to distributing content to where they already are). In any case, the day after Fallon won their Lion, the client, Georgia Pacific, transferred the Brawny account to DDB. Well, they’ll always have Cannes.

The Beauty and Luxury category produced a few more winners. They included this gold-garnering execution from Taxi in Toronto for Renversa skin cream (http://www.seemoresideeffects.ca/). This confirms that Axe isn’t the only marketer that can leverage heavy-handed sexual innuendo and scantily clad hot models.  And finally, if you have not seen the latest in the Got Milk? campaign from Goodby and Silverstein, check it out (www.gettheglass.com). The story, animation, interactivity and overall artistry are simply amazing. Here’s to seeing more of this kind of work at Cannes next year. 

Soap in the South of France Part Deux

I know that our discussion here is supposed to be about the intersection of consumer packaged goods and online marketing, but something happened at Cannes today that is so significant I simply have to give it a mention. Saatchi, New York was just awarded the Gand Prix in the press advertising category for a beautiful campaign they created for Tide. Take a look at the Ad Age article: http://adage.com/cannes07/article?article_id=118649

I should say here and now that I am doubly excited because the agency I work for was recently awarded the interactive portion of the Tide business. And my agency was also recently acquired by the holding company (Publicis) that also happens to house the aforementioned Saatchi agency. I am proud and excited to be working with both agency professionals and clients who are responsible for such breakthrough work. The bar has suddenly been set a bit higher. That’s good.

Successful Online Marketing Guaranteed, or Your Money Back!

Today is your lucky day. Because I am going to bestow upon you the secret of successful online marketing–for free, no less.

All wildly successful online campaigns for CPG products share one similar trait. And if you create online campaigns for your products keeping this in mind, those campaigns stand an excellent chance of being wildly successful, too.

So here it is (drumroll and cymbal crash): offer your consumers something of VALUE.

Now that may seem ridiculously obvious. However, what is TRULY ridiculous is the number of online CPG campaigns that don’t offer consumers anything of value. Instead, their creators simply follow the rules learned through years and years of packaged goods marketing . They talk at people, not to or with them. They put their print ads online. Or some even post a 15-second version of their TV spot. Not surprisingly, consumers don’t find this to be be of value. Not when they are used to the internet giving them the things they value instantly.

So what is valuable to them?  Consumers value interesting information. They value entertainment. They value an emotional or intellectual connection. And they value promotional information about stuff they are interested in.

Of course, the trick–and the really hard part–is to understand what YOUR consumers value. And that is a secret for another day.

Soap in the South of France

As you may know, this week much of the marketing communications world makes it’s annual pilgrimage to Cannes, the Mecca of international back-slapping and award-giving. What makes this year particularly interesting for those of us who work on packaged goods is that one of the favorites for the Grand Prix is Dove. That’s right, the soap. But it isn’t a TV commercial that’s got the inside shot for major hardware. No, it’s a brilliant film that has been running exlusively on the internet. The viral film in question, “Evolution”, has received a ton of media attention. And for good reason. The idea is based on a strong, stunningly simple consumer insight and is executed to perfection. If you have not seen it yet, check it out here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYhCn0jf46U

Millions of people around the world have already watched the one-minute film from Ogilvy and Mather, Toronto. And I wouldn’t be surprised if a bunch of sunburned folks on the Riviera see it on screen this weekend during the Grand Prix ceremonies.

Online marketing for CPG the King of France? The times they are a changin’. And I like it.