ANA Marketing Maestros

Eight Companies That Didn’t Make It In 2009. What Will You Remember?

By Cara Brooke Schultz

It seems as if everyone is counting down the hours until they can wish adieu to the year 2009. Between the global economic collapse, the outbreak of the H1N1 virus, to the passing of numerous iconic people (Edward Kennedy, Tom O’Horgan, Farah Fawcett, John Updike, Paul Harvey, and Natasha Richardson)—2009 has certainly been eventful.   

What will you remember most of 2009? Will it be President Obama’s monumental inauguration? Or if you are a fan of pop-culture, Susan Boyle’s breakout rendition of “I dreamed a dream” on the TV show Britain’s Most Talented? Whatever stands out most in your mind, let’s not forget these eight companies who unfortunately did not weather the storm:

1. Circuit City

2. Saturn

3. Pontiac

4. Kodachrome

5. Home Depot Expo

6. Max Factor

7. Fortunoff

8. Gourmet magazine

To pay tribute, share a fond memory you have—whether it be a memory of driving down the open road in your favorite Pontiac or capturing a moment with Kodak’s Kodachrome film—these companies will be missed.

Vanity Fair: The New Recessionista?

By Cara Brooke Schultz

The recession is taking a hit on every industry, especially the media. With numbers down across the board—The Tribune Company filed for bankruptcy, Doubledown Media shut down, Condé Nast ceased production of Domino, Gourmet, Cookie, and Elegant Bride, and Hearst closed down the print version of COSMOGIRL  (just to name a few)—it seems like every company is doing whatever they can to stay afloat.

Perhaps we can call Vanity Fair the next “recessionista” for recycling a photo for the cover of their March 2009 issue. The original photograph (right image)—shot by Annie Leibovitz—was used for the cover in July 2007. Vanity Fair acknowledges the reuse in the following statement on their Website, “This portrait of Obama, then a senator, was originally taken for one of 20 covers on Vanity Fair’s Africa issue of July 2007.”

What do you think about the decision to reuse an image that is over two years old?

Magazine Bleed Charges - Why Do They STILL Exist?

By Bill Duggan

I’d like to share a letter I wrote to the editor of Ad Age, printed in the September 28th issue:

 

Publishers should cut ‘bleed’ fees

Regarding "Condé Nast Execs to make Big Cuts, Insiders Say" (AdAge.com, Sept. 14): It would be terrific if McKinsey's analysis went beyond cost controls and also included a review of Condé Nast's pricing policies to ensure those policies are in alignment with marketplace realities. One such policy under scrutiny from   advertisers is charging an incremental fee for bleed ads. Once upon a time, publishers may have had real costs associated with the production of bleed ads. But today's printing and production technologies no longer require the press stoppages and plate changes that resulted int hose real costs. Condé Nast is one of the few remaining major publishers (Hearst is another) that has not eliminated these obsolete bleed charges, and ANA strongly suggests that the time has come to do so (end of letter to the editor).

 

More on bleed charges in the one page white paper – Are Magazine Bleed Charges Legitimate? ANA and 4A’s have reached out to Condé Nast on this issue numerous times since we published this white paper in January and all those requests have been completely ignored. Not even the courtesy of any response or acknowledgment. Meanwhile, Hearst’s response has been, “At the advice of our counsel, we will not discuss pricing policies in a group setting. So, we will take a pass on this.” 

 

We encourage advertisers and their agencies to discuss bleed charges with these respective publishers (and any others that have such fees). Not only are bleed charges no longer justified, but they actually cost advertisers additional money as sometimes two versions of creative are prepared (bleed and non-bleed) and the agency time and resources spent developing that extra creative and negotiating reduction/elimination of the bleed fees leads to higher agency compensation costs to advertisers. Finally, if publishers have a legitimate reason to charge for bleed, let’s hear it—after all this is a blog and the dialogue would be appreciated.

Generate Exponential Revenue by Investing in the Booming Halal Market

By Irina Skaya

Today, Islam is the fastest growing religion on earth with the Muslim population estimated to reach two billion by 2010. The global Halal food market is estimated to be worth $632 billion a year.. A new study by JWT points out that the six million or so Muslims in America are, on average, richer and better educated than the general population. Two-thirds of Muslim households make more than $50,000 a year and a quarter earn over $100,000; the national average is $42,000. Two-thirds of American Muslims have a college degree, compared with less than half of the general population. Muslim families also tend to have more children. With these stats, businesses should indeed be tapping at this growing market segment.

An article in this week’s Time Magazine shows that even non-food companies like Nokia and LG are catering towards Muslim customers. For instance, Nokia provides free downloadable recitations from the Koran and maps showing major mosque locations in the Middle East. LG has an application that helps users find the direction of Mecca.  What’s really interesting is that hotels, banks, and other organizations that operate according to Shari’a law are doing well despite the global downturn. 

And the fast-food restaurants such as McDonald’s in Singapore have seen an influx of millions of patrons annually after obtaining Halal certifications. Since being certified, “Halal, KFC, Burger King and Taco Bell have all seen an increase of 20 percent in customers” (Hairalah, cited in Hazair, 2007a: 13). Nestle has become the biggest multi-national food manufacturer for Muslims, producing halal food in 75 of its 481 factories and earning over $3 billion in annual sales.

To read up on marketing to Muslims, visit:

http://bit.ly/8Mu4k

http://bit.ly/mcZzb

http://bit.ly/2lP1UC

Recession: Glimmer of Hope?

As a follow-up to my blog, "Is an economic recovery near?" I would like to share with you are new video snippets from the 2009 ANA Building in Tough Times Brand Conference where heavy-weight executives from Dunkin' Donuts, MillerCoors and Wal-Mart shared their insights and best practices in regards to overcoming tough economic times.

Thank you to AdAge for these valuable video highlights. If you have any best practices on coping with the recession, please share in our comments section on this blog, YouTube page, or email me at irina@ana.net. I'd love to hear from you!

The Psychological Boost of Coffee Marketing

Turning Beer Temperature Into Marketing Gold

Partnerships, Not Brand Renovation, Best Growth Strategy

The Twitter Revolution

By Irina Skaya

You know Twitter is powerful when the tiniest and the poorest country in Europe, Moldova, where I was born is tweeting to draw thousands of people to antigovernment demonstration in its capital, Chisinau following preliminary election results that show that the ruling Communist Party has won the majority in weekend parliamentary elections. Not only are the Moldovans are using Twitter to announce information about the organized protests, but are blogging and tweeting to spread the word to the West. In my opinion, that is their exact intent—if you did not know that Moldova was a country, now you certainly do.  If that wasn’t the case, they could have easily used Friendster and LiveJournal, which is still the number one choice of social networking sites for Eastern Europeans.  So how powerful is Twitter?

To illustrate just how powerful blogging is, one of the leaders of ThinkMoldova youth movement has posted a blog to spread the word about the demonstrations, and within hours, she was able to recruit 10,000 people to join the rally. That’s a staggering number period, but for someone who comes from a town of a population of 10,000, that is ‘ginormous’. 

This is not the first time the Internet has been used to gain support in political rallies, but this is the first Twitter revolution to date.  Why was Twitter so effective in organizing the demonstrations? One microblogger said, “When you follow somebody, you usually know this person, so you trust this person — it is coming from a real person, not an institution.”

In tough times, most companies do create new brands—they still to the well-known existing brands to avoid risk. My theory is as long as we create good products, consumers will use them and spread word about them via the Internet. But the Twitter revolution that took place in Moldova shows that social media and blogging is so powerful and is truly changing the way we communicate, marketing online, and do business. 

Social Media Predictions in 2009

By Irina Skaya

I love all things social media. I am always fascinated by how social media evolves each year. One of the best ways to look at the evolution of marketing is what businesses did in the past that they will do differently in the future? So what awaits us in 2009?

How will the economic downturn impact our decisions in social media marketing? How will measuring success of engagement change? How the Obama's 'social media presidency' influenced social media in general?

 

I stumbled upon this great, 'Social Media Predictions 2009' presentation on Slideshare.com that includes some fresh and forward-thinking ideas by well-respected thought leaders in the industry.

 

Feel free to let us know if your company is already implementing some of these changes.

View more presentations from Taly Weiss.

How Great Marketing Led Barack Obama to the White House

By: Irina Skaya

Today, Barack Obama will be sworn in as the 44^th president of the United States. Successful Internet marketing is the cornerstone of the 2009 historic inauguration. How did Obama connect with today’s diverse general market? How do we as marketers engage, inspire and motivate today’s consumers?

History was made when Barack Obama was elected President, but his win is beyond historic – his superb use of online marketing to promote awareness and create a loyal following has earned him AdAge’s Marketer of the Year award at the ANA Annual Masters of Marketing Conference. It also became be the template which all future presidential campaigns will draw inspiration from.  

Thomas Jefferson was the first President to use newspapers to promote his presidential campaign, Franklin D. Roosevelt was the first to use radio, John F. Kenny used television. Barack Obama is the first president to have the power to leverage Social Media in such a way as never seen before by our Presidency or Government as a whole.  

The secret behind any successful marketing campaign is to put yourselves in the shoes of the consumers. Sure, his multiracial and multicultural background represents today’s generation, but Obama has also appointed the best marketing staff that represents and knows its target market inside and out. That’s why his campaign has embraced social media. Youth vote had a major role to play in the landslide victory, and the role of the internet - the living space of the youth. His inspirational message of “change has come to America" has remained consistent throughout the presidential campaign. This message became even more important in the economic downturn.

On February 12^th, Jim Margolis, Senior Advisor to the Barack Obama presidential campaign will discuss the power of social media and share lessons from Obama's campaign at the TV & Everything Video Forum.

Don't Drink and Email: Google Prevents EWI

By: Irina Skaya

It’s Friday night, and what began as happy-hour sangrias at a local tapas bar turned to a few pitchers.  After a long night out with friends, you stumble home and plop down in front of the computer to find a not-so-nice email from your ex or boss.

While firing off at your ex or boss may sound like a good idea in the wee hours of the morning, “drunken dialing” may be mortifying the next day. Like a good friend who’d stop you from making a fool out of yourself, Google’s new Gmail service called Mail Goggles, active only on weekends and between midnight and 5 a.m., (when you’ll most likely need it) will now prevent EWI (emailing while intoxicated) offenders from sending remorseful and flamming late-night emails.  How? Mail Goggles will ask you a series of five elementary math questions that you must answer within 60 seconds—the questions may be easy to someone sober, but after the fifth drink, can become a bit of a challenge.

The program is simple and unique. Google establishes itself as a reliable friend to the consumer, and will become quite popular among bar regulars and party goers. I am looking forward to see how this new feature will play out among consumers.

If you're ever in need of EWI intervention, call Mail Goggles to the rescue! Simply go to the settings tab under Gmail, select lab, and then the Mail Goggle feature.

Innovation in Today's New Media World

by Barbara Bacci Mirque

In the Web 2.0 world we inhabit today, all of the paradigms are shifting.  Advertisers are becoming content providers.  Agency models are in flux. Media is the new creative.  There are hundreds of television channels, and microsites, webinars, social networking and podcasts are supplementing the traditional media channels I grew up with in my marketing career. 

In our Marketing Media Ecosystem 2010 study, conducted with the AAAA, IAB and Booz & Co.
across all of our respective  memberships, our research results demonstrated the need for all of the various constituencies to become more agile and flexible as they transform their business models.  This is because the landscape is at an inflection point - online is no longer experimental; there is massive audience fragmentation providing more choice for consumers but also for advertisers; search and ad networks are key growth drivers; media segments are blending. 

Thus, it is an exciting time to be a marketer but also a complex one.  Marketing accountability used to be the number one issue that kept up our senior marketers at night but that has been supplanted by the challenges posed in integrating new media with traditional media.  Recently I had a blast talking about this very topic with Gordon Hughes, CEO, American Business Media.  We were interviewed by Matthew Schwartz of Scribe Media in Scribe's very impressive studio. Not only are magazine publishers adapting to the digital age but they are now offering advertisers a variety of new tools and formats that were unheard of 10 years ago.  Through Gordon’s stewardship the ABM membership is living the results that we published from  MME 2010 – namely that media sellers must become consultants and demonstrate to marketers how to effectively navigate the choppy waters. 

To learn more about this topic, tune in to the videocast at: 
http://www.scribemedia.org/2008/07/29/from-print-to-digital-business-advertisers/

I hope you have as much fun watching as Gordon and I did participating!