ANA Marketing Maestros

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

Great Ideas Will Create Relevancy

By Barbara Bacci Mirque

A recent ANA survey highlighted that integrated marketing now tops the list as the issue that keeps senior marketers up at night. You have heard me say before that ANA members tell us that the best way to tackle this is to start with the idea and let the idea be the media channel integrator. That was emphasized at the recent 2007 ANA Advertising Financial Management Conference. Bob Lachky, EVP, Global Industry Development & Chief Creative Officer, Anheuser - Busch Inc., talked about how the “Wassup” campaign (here are few of the ads along with some interesting consumer generated versions) began online then spread virally, eventually running on television.

Jeff Hicks, President, CEO and Partner, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, told a similar story for Coke Zero and its very funny campaign with Coke attorneys (again, thanks YouTube). Great ideas will create relevancy so the media should be an outgrowth of the idea, not the other way around. Both of those campaigns were extended into television once they were picked up in the conversations occurring online and it was the consumers who said these campaigns should also run on television. So once again, advertisers should be aware of and participate in the conversations happening around and about their products and services. Start with a terrific brand idea and let that determine which media channels you use. This is great learning from some very smart advertisers.

Technorati tags: budweiser marketing coke creative

Reinvention of jetBlue

By Will Waugh

Flying out to Seattle yesterday reminded me of the true joys of air travel. I won't say which airline it was, but the comfort level was suspect. I will say, it wasn't jetBlue. Last week, at our Brand Innovation Forum, Andrea Spiegel, VP Sales & Marketing for jetBlue took us through their brand story. A story that, until recently, had evolved magnificently. We all know what happened in February with their first major "operational challenge." (Andrea mentioned several nicknames - The Valentine's Day massacre popping to the forefront) I direct you to a few posts from our marketing blog family about the debacle: Peter Kim, CK, Max, and Global Neighborhoods.

I personally love jetBlue. When I moved to New York seven years ago, I bought a one way ticket from Ft. Lauderdale to JFK on the, at that point, brand new airline. I still have the ticket stub. jetBlue is the one airline that could have suffered this setback and recovered so brilliantly. There are a couple reasons for this. One, which this audience will love, is they listen to the blogosphere regularly and actively track word of mouth. jetBlue's response to this crisis was heartfelt, sincere and personal:

• The Customer Bill of Rights - so far it's working and is another industry first
• The famous YouTube announcement from CEO David Neeleman - the first time a CEO of a major company had addressed customers via YouTube.
• Improved self service tools and call center resources
• The creation of a customer advisory council
• A promise to keep customers posted on progress in 30 days (a second YouTube video went up 30 days later and there was little discussion about it in the blog world)

In a world where brands keep taking away (I am at the W Seattle and I just found out a new W policy has taken coffeemakers out of hotel rooms. Well, I'm on East Coast time and a Starbucks doesn't open for 2 hours - not good!), it is encouraging to see companies do still care about their lifeblood. "Bringing humanity to flying" is JetBlue's brand promise and their hearfelt response - a direct expression of their brand - reminded people why they loved jetBlue in the first place.

Technorati tags: jetblue marketing customer

Brawny Academy: A Consumer Insight Success

By Barbara Bacci Mirque

For marketers- consumer insights are king. Understanding our consumer inside and out is integral to what we do as marketers and marketing organizations need to have a clearly defined, sustainable and repeatable process, to gather them. The 2006 ANA Marketing Accountability Task Force report lists this as a key to what constitutes a totally accountable organization. At the ANA we are frequently asked how to plan in today’s world of fragmented media options and emerging communication channels. At last year’s Integrated Marketing Conference we heard how over and over again from ANA members– start with a blank page and in the center list the differentiating consumer insight – that insight should lead the media channels that you choose, not the other way around. Using the insight as integrator leads you in a natural progression as to communication choices. Recently the ARF asked me to be a judge for the Ogilvy Awards. I was asked to judge one of my favorite categories – household cleaning products! I fell in love with the case study that could have been written about my household and which ended up being the category winner – "The Brawny Academy: Where Women Send Their Husbands to Clean up Their Acts"(here is the trailer) from Georgia Pacific. The Brawny paper towel brand artfully took what could be considered a commodity and made it resonate with consumers based on a compelling insight - and one that exists in my own household. Conducting ethnographic research they discovered that women were more likely to compare "husband cleaning efficacy" than paper towel cleaning efficacy. From the insight they updated the Brawny man icon, developed the Brawny Academy and used this transformative insight to pick the appropriate communication channels. Read more about this terrific case study.

Technorati tags: brawny marketing insights

Thought Leadership as a Marketing Concept

By Will Waugh

I spent some time reading and re-reading David Armano's post  at Logic+Emotion on how thought leadership has been reinvented.

It occured to me that you could take this from an individual level and apply it to companies that have positioned themselves as thought leaders. One company, ANA member SAS Institute has done this effectively in the B2B space. A website that they sponsor called Better Management hosts an array of intellectual capital and business solutions for executives. In this realm, they clearly utilize content as a killer app.

Points from the Logic+Emotion post which apply to SAS's thought leadership positioning:

• Thought leadership can now come from anywhere.
• If we can't schmooze at events -- we will schmooze virtually.
• Our relationships will be formed purely out of merit—from what we have to offer and what we are willing to share.

The third point is key. Companies that are willing to offer up a "peek inside" while at the same time sharing valuable information (in many cases, milllions of dollars in R&D) will rule the online arena of thought leadership.

Technorati tags: sas marketing thought leadership

Lincoln Financial's Online Video

By Will Waugh

I'd like to call people's attention to Lincoln Financial's online video series Hello Future Films which allows the user to choose their path towards retirement with subtle hints of product offerings. This is a clever execution that delivers on their messaging of 'owning the optimism of the future.' It is also consistent with the trend we are seeing with advertisers as content producers and distributors.

The big challenge: As a financial services firm in an industry that had veered towards commoditization, how could they break through the clutter of traditional media.

Key insight: Baby boomers approach the world optimistically and retirement is not a conclusion for them but rather a fresh start.

Behind Lincoln Financial Group’s new media play is an established brand positioning that fortifies both their consumer objectives and financial intermediary objectives - Retirement is being redefined. It’s not an end, but a series of transitions that requires smart products and solutions to help clients achieve continued success.

Technorati tags: lincoln financial video marketing