ANA Marketing Maestros

The Battle of the Bairds

Lisa Baird, SVP of Consumer Products and Marketing Integration at the NFL and Bob Baird, President and CEO of Philips Domestic Appliances and Personal Care came together on the final day of the ANA Annual Conference to debate the merits of traditional media vs. new media. Lisa will be discussing the value of traditional media, while Bob will talk about why he feels new/emerging media is more valuable today. With friendly quips going back and forth already, it will be the job of moderator, Bob Lauterborn, to keep this husband/wife debate a friendly discussion…

Lisa began by discussing that the NFL’s media mix proves that traditional media is still alive and well. The :30 second commercial and print is not dead. There is still a lot of power behind traditional media especially in NFL telecasts where their ratings are so strong. TV provides companies with a medium to tell a compelling story about your brand, as Ocean Spray just showed in their presentation with their new Straight from the Bog campaign.

When discussing the power of traditional media and the :30 second commercial Lisa talked about the NFL Take a Player to School sweepstakes, in which 6-13 year old kids can enter for a chance to take an NFL player to school with them. The NFL saw a significant amount of it’s website traffic to their kids website – www.NFLRUSH.com – and sign ups for the program immediately after each Take a Player to School spot ran on their broadcast partners.

Bob responded to by saying that in today’s changing media environment it is necessary to break out to find new and creative ways to engage your consumers. He discussed online user generated content that develops consumer relationships and enables them to become true consumer advocates.

Cammie Dunaway: Yahoo! CMO

Cammie Dunaway, the Chief Marketing Officer for Yahoo!, spoke to the group about Yahoo!’s marketing strategies in a changing media environment where consumers are constantly “connected” and user generated content is on the rise.

Cammie discussed the term Web 2.0 that Tim O’Reilly recently coined, “Web 2.0 is a second-generation of Internet-based services that let people collaborate and share information online in new ways.” Based on these new developments in online consumption Cammie described the Consumer 2.0 that Yahoo! is now targeting.

Yahoo! Consumer 2.0

• Infinite choices always available on-demand
• Ability to sort through info and customize content to their desires
• Consumers are becoming more empowered and gaining more influence than traditional media companies
• Overworked and overwhelmed
• Looking for community and ability to show off creativity
• The customer is King!

Yahoo! has a half-billion consumers and they all want something different, so Yahoo! must please a half-billion kings. They must develop their marketing strategy to target an empowered individual consumer.

The President, Global Marketing, Strategy and Innovation for the Burger King Corporation: Russ Klein

Russ Klein, President, Global Marketing, Strategy and Innovation at Burger King, spoke about the shifting media landscape and how Burger King is now emphasizing the empowerment of their consumers and building social currency. Russ’s overall message was that it’s all about the consumer.

The presentation opened with a video montage of recent Burger King advertising and media coverage that highlighted the bold marketing campaigns that they have launched in an effort to stand out in the competitive fast food industry. The video included The King, their 2004 Have It Your Way voter registration drive, their sports partnership with the NFL and NASCAR, Diddy TV and Burger King’s integration into video games and The Apprentice 3.

Burger King, which serves over 10 million Whoppers every day in 65 countries around the world, recently became a publicly traded company. As part of the IPO road show their theme was “Turning a Great Brand into a Great Business.”

Burger King’s goal has been to become a brand that people would love to know more about. Russ said that he’d like to see Burger King return to social relevancy and become “A brand that is on the move in pop culture. A brand that evokes curiosity and expectations of leadership.” Their goal is to be not just a good a brand, but a social brand.

Wal-Mart's SVP-Marketing, Stephen Quinn

Stephen, who was previously the CMO of Frito-Lay, became the SVP of Marketing at Wal-Mart a little over one year ago. He shared insights into the key strategic platforms that drive Wal-Mart’s marketing decisions.

Since joining Wal-Mart, Stephen has helped spearhead a significant re-invention of the Wal-Mart brand. “One of our agencies, Lippencott said the only brand project that would be bigger would be re-branding the United States.” Stephen’s statement was a little ironic after Linda Kaplan Thaler’s comedic video clip about Wal-Mart merging with the United States. He felt the need to respond to Linda’s video and said there was no truth to Linda’s video, but joked about Wal-Mart’s interest in expanding their efforts in China.

Stephen discussed how Sam Walton’s legacy and business model live on today. Walton’s dream of a neighborhood Wal-Mart giving back to the communities they serve is a foundation of the company’s strategy today.

As many people are well aware, Wal-Mart has been under intense media scrutiny in recent years and it is a serious concern for the company that they must pro-actively combat. In addition to their emphasis on reaching out to the communities they serve, Wal-Mart has increased their sustainability efforts. They are implementing a number of initiatives to eliminate waste and save energy and resources.

Stephen showed a chart of the top 10 retailers from 1970s vs. top 10 retailers today and pointed out that no retailers from the 1970s were on today’s list. In order for Wal-Mart to maintain their status as the #1 retailer they need to continue to pro-actively respond to the market and listen to their customer needs.

Wal-Mart has shown some fatigue in the past year:

• Stock price has been relatively flat despite strong topline growth over the past 6 years
• Overall growth has slowed as well
• Last year Wal-Mart had single digit growth of 9% for the first time in their history