5 Blogs Before Lunch

Starbucks is selling more beer, wine and savory snacks as they expand their afternoon menu.

Starbucks wants people come back for more, and more--all throughout the day. Over the last couple of years, they've been market testing an afternoon menu of alcohol (beer and wine) and savory snacks.

"As our customers transition from work to home, many are looking for a warm and inviting place to unwind and connect with the people they care about," Clarice Turner, Starbucks' senior vice president of U.S. operations, said in a news release.

Way back in July 2009, we posted a report that Starbucks was about to beging testing a new retail concept in Seattle that included the sale of alcohol on premise. The chain then started selling late afternoon savory snacks and alcohol at one shop in Seattle in October 2010. Now, five stores in the Seattle area and one in Portland, Oregon offer the extended menu.

Now comes word that they are expanding the concept, and will begin selling beer and wine in a small number of Starbucks in Southern California and Atlanta. Starbucks is also planning to add savory snacks, cheese plates and hot flatbreads to menus in four to six outlets in each market to see if they might entice people to start a different sort of habit--the Starbucks happy hour. We call it "Bucks-thirty."

Source: Los Angeles Times

Saab owners stay true to their loyal friend until its last breath

For decades, Saab owners have dealt with endless electrical problems, hose leaks and other mechanical defects that were just part of the Saab experience. Still, through all of the mechanical troubles Saab owners suffered through, they have always been some of the most loyal fanatically loyal fans.

Even now, with Saab in bankruptcy after being tossed to the curb by General Motors, and effectively no longer in operation, Saab enthusiasts are gathering this weekend across this counrty and around the world in rallies, caravans and other meet-ups designed to show their affection for the Swedish brand.

They're holding out hope--hanging on by the thinnest of threads, that all is not lost and that a white knight might come in and save Saab at the last minute.

The chances of that are slim, however.

From Brandchannel, here is a quote from former Saab CEO Victor Muller:

"Although I am not anymore Saab’s CEO — you all know that we did not manage to keep the company alive, unfortunately — I would like to thank all of you personally. Without people like you, Saab would have no reason for existence. Without people like you, we would have never bought Saab back in 2010. At that time there were convoys all over the world. Today and yesterday, some 110 events in 42 countries were organised. Which car brand would ever be able to touch that? That is something unique.

Saab is everything but over. I do not want to create any expectations based on nothing. There are some very interested parties who would like to take over Saab as a going concern. They do not want to buy some parts of Saab, but the whole enterprise. This is very encouraging. I cannot predict whether this will succeed. This is something I cannot exert an influence on. I am just helping — to the best of my abilities — the administrators make a deal."For adventurous shoppers seeking deep discounts, Saab dealers still have about 2,200 cars in their inventories that are still for sale.

Source: WSJ.com and Brandchannel

L.L. Bean kicks off its Centennial with a Giant Mobile Maine Hunting Boot--the Bootmobile

To mark the company's centennial, L.L. Bean has driving a giant hunting boot across the country.

Well, not a real hunting boot exactly, it is a truck designed to look like the brand's iconic hunting boot. You know, like the Oscar Meyer Wienermobile looks like a wiener.

L.L. Bean commissioned the Bootmobile, a 20-foot-long, 13-foot-high vehicle that is scheduled to travel throughout the country during the company's 100th year.

Wired magazine reports from Manhattan that "the Bootmobile appears to be cobbled together from a diesel Ford F-250 pickup. (It’s an automatic, so no heel-and-toe downshifts.) In true Yankee fashion, it’s wearing all-terrain tires, sports a Maine license plate and is missing a hubcap." In fact, the Bootmobile was built to scale by Echo Artz, a specialty fabrication shop in Kissimmee, Florida--a far cry from Bean headquarters in Freeport, Maine.

L.L. Bean founder Leon Leonwood Bean began the company in a single room selling the Maine Hunting Shoe, with a rubber sole and shell stitched to a leather upper. The Maine Hunting Shoe has become emblematic of the brand.

Additional sources: The New York Times

Axe body spray releases Anarchy, a crowdsourced digital graphic novel, and fragrance for both men and women.

Axe body spray has introduced an interactive graphic novel called Anarchy as a tie-in to the introduction of its new fragrance of the same name.

Axe's core audience are teen and tween boys who swoon over Unilever’s Axe body sprays, and grooming products. Now, they'll get another whiff of Axe with a crowdsourced digital graphic novel--developed via its social marketing channels. Fans on Facebook can contribute to the storylines which can be passively viewed on YouTube.

The company's new Anarchy fragrance is being introduced for both men and women (let's face it--boys and girls). Marketing to women is new for Axe which dominates the men’s body spray market with a 74 percent share in the U.S. (they're known as "Lynx" outside The States). They'll introduce Anarchy in limited quantities for women--test marketing to see if they can cross over. We're not sure why they've chosen such a male dominated segment as graphical novels for its first launch tie-in, but we'll trust that the brand experts at Unilever know what they are doing.

The graphic novel is being written by former DC Comics' Scott Lobdell and created by digital agency Razorfish along with Aspen Comics, and follows the adventures of the Anarchy Girls. The advertising campaign is by the London office of Bartle Bogle Hegarty.

Sources: The New York Times and brandchannel

A Whoopie Pie makeover from the Chococoa Baking Company

What comes of of the roadkill collateral damage of the financial crisis? A couple from Maine who lost their jobs at The Provident Bank and Sun Life Financial decided to take being laid-off in stride, and make Whoopie...pies.

Or as entrepreneur Julie Ganong tells it, "The world really needed a smaller whoopie pie, so we decided to do a whoopie pie makeover"

They opened a small business in Maine with the idea of creating the perfect mini-version of the whoopie pie--an old fashioned treat made from two dense cookies sandwiching a fluffy filling.

It all started with a focus group for a taste test, which led to opening the Chococoa Baking Company in 2009. Their bakery now has sales of around 4,000 pies a week, at a price of $1.68 apiece--far less than the $4 cupcake craze sweeping the country. They now have a distribution deal in the works with a regional grocery to expand their businesses. Whoopie!

Julie says "we want to take this as far as it goes...when people think of whoopie pies, they think of Chococoa Baking Company."

 Julie Ganong and Alan Mons are at the intersection of creativity and commerce, and we salute them.

A little pigtailed girl named Wendy's is taking over the world, one foie gras burger at a time.

Wendy's is about to pass Burger King in U.S. sales, trailing only McDonald's who sits high on the fast-food heap. And while a lot of credit for the shift in market share can be attributed to Burger King's failure in the marketplace, much can be said for Wendy's aggressive changes too.

There's a lot going on under that red pigtail right now. Wendy's recently changed the formula of its trademark square burgers--softening the edges a little bit and coming out with Dave's Hot 'N Juicy--a sandwich named after its founder (who had named Wendy's after his daughter). The company also spun off its Arby's brand, and is focusing more on the burger business, is thinking about adding a breakfast menu (again) and has just recently re-launched in Japan.

In Japan, Wendy's is introducing sixteen dollar foie gras hamburgers. Yep, that's a Wendy's burger with a slab of foie, and costs ¥1,280, or about US$16.43. Wendy's is also offering its Japanese patrons an Avocado Wasabi hamburger and a Truffle and Porcini Grilled Chicken sandwich.

This seems like a good strategy of testing some innovative novelty sandwich concepts akin to the gourmet burger joints proliferating urban strongholds in the U.S.--places like Five Guys, Super Duper Burger, Elevation Burger and Umami Burger.

We're rooting for the pigtail!

Sources: Daily Finance, Eater and MarketWatch

The Velvet Underground surfaces to fight for Andy Warhol's banana

Andy Warhol and The Velvet Underground have been tight since 1965.

The band, founded by Lou Reed and John Cale, have been inextricably linked to Warhol since they formed an artistic collaboration in 1965. A couple of years later Warhol who designed the banana illustration for their legendary “The Velvet Underground and Nico”  album. The group would perform at Warhol's New York studio, the Factory, and in his traveling light show, the Exploding Plastic Inevitable.

But now, the band members are suing The Andy Warhol Foundation, accusing it in a federal lawsuit of infringing the trademark for the banana design. The foundation has been licensing the banana to third parties such as a company who makes covers for the Apple iPad and iPhone.

The Warhol Foundation claims it has a copyright interest in the design, as it was created by Warhol. The band says that the design can’t be copyrighted because it’s in the public domain, as the banana image Warhol furnished for the illustration came from an advertisement that was in the public domain.

The situation is messy in that the banana appeared on the album cover without a copyright notice and over the years no one sought to copyright it.

“The banana design is a significant element of Velvet Underground’s ongoing licensed merchandising activity,” the group said. Use of the design as a trademark by the band “has been exclusive, continuous and uninterrupted for more than 25 years.”
Because the image is so closely associated with the band, the Velvet Underground claims in the suit that the foundation is trying to “decieve the public” into thinking the band gives their approval to products that carry the image.

The case is The Velvet Underground v. The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, 12-0201, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

Sources: Businessweek, Washington Post and WSJ.com

Goodbye AT&T

When I was a little kid, I remember my parents were given one option for telephone service—renting rotary dial telephones from the telephone company—the only telephone company—AT&T. Then in 1974 “Ma Bell” was deemed a monopoly, and divided up into Baby Bells by government order in 1984. Our service changed its name to Pacific Bell, but still there was little else that changed—including the lack of choice as to who supplied our telephone service.

Of course, times have changed. The Baby Bells are AT&T once again, and AT&T has become even bigger than it once was. The other change, of course, is that we have options of who to get our telephone service from. Cable companies now can supply phone service to my house, and a growing number of households are forgoing landlines all together—opting for a mobile service option.

So, after knowing no service other than AT&T, it was a big moment when I decided to untether myself from Ma Ball. My decision to use Verizon for my mobile devices had been easy. They had a reputation for better reception than AT&T, and I liked the idea that after 30 some odd years, I had an option to NOT go with AT&T. But I remember my hesitation as I called Comcast Cable recently to inquire about their home telephone service. The feeling was akin to moving out of my parent’s house to go away to college—I was excited by the opportunity for freedom, but afraid I might make wrong decisions, and be worse off than with Ma Bell.

Thankfully, two actions made my decision easy.

1). Comcast Cable is expert at customer service, and oozes a mission of “customer first” in its culture.

2). AT&T on the other hand, clearly plays lip service to customer service. They have a shallow, corporate tone and customer service system—only that only works well when you are a monopoly and your customers have no other choice than to take what you give them.

The folks at Comcast sent me emails while we talked on the phone, and followed up at every step of the way. My service guy, Michael, even pointed out several items that people sometimes miss in the contract—just so I wouldn’t be surprised later on. The service appointment was scheduled online, the tech arrived on-time (with an advance call to let me know he was nearby) and his supervisor called afterwards to make sure everything worked out as I expected.

As for AT&T, they required me to sit by my phone for 30 minutes to wait for a confirmation call so I might register online. To reach a phone representative I needed to set aside a minimum of an hour of my day as they transferred me from representative to representative, and being cut-off several times as they transferred calls (yes, they are a phone company so you’d think they’d know how to transfer a call). Then I received the ultimate insult after I switched my service. I received a letter from AT&T addressed to “Dear Customer” to thank me for my patronage.

“Dear Customer?” you’d think their system could find the name on my account---an account that I had faithfully kept up-to-date for over 30 years. In fact, over the years I’ve had over a dozen accounts with AT&T—business accounts, fax lines, phones at vacation houses, etc.

But to AT&T I was “Dear Customer.”

When you contact an operator at AT&T, they are trained to read from a script: “How may I provide you with excellent service today…”

I’m afraid there isn’t time enough in the day to list all the ways AT&T could improve their customer service. But the first item on the list would be to stop paying lip-service to the concept of “customer first” and start doing the work necessary to genuinely deliver quality service.

Companies like Comcast, and Apple have found a way to embed customer service into their mission. It is time AT&T does the same.

The Next Big Small Brand

The Next BIG Small Brand is a contest awarding small food businesses with branding, design, and marketing services. For the past two years, the contest has been focused on New York, but now it expands its focus to San Francisco, where local judges include, Sam Mogannam (Bi-Rite), Olga Katznelson (Postcard Communications), and Chad Robertson (Tartine). The past New York winners were Kombucha Brooklyn, and Sweet Loren’s, The winners received PR services, retail placement, event opportunities, and kitchen equipment.

You have until February 5th to enter

Odd Couple: P&G and Panda Express team up to create Tide Dry Cleaners

The folks behind Panda Express, the ubiquitous Chinese fast food chain, and Proctor & Gamble--P&G the company who defines consumer package goods, are teaming up in the franchised dry cleaning business.

Procter & Gamble launched its dry-cleaners franchising venture a year ago and now has six outlets in Ohio and Kansas. They feature drive-through concierge service and customer access to 24-hour lockers and drop boxes, with cleaning machines looking like large orange boxes of Tide.

But the connection to the folks at Panda Express takes the business to a whole new level, with a partner who knows a thing or two about taking a fractured brand marketplace and pulling together a successful chain. For their part, Panda Express Co-Chief Executives Andrew and Peggy Cherng see the opportunity to bring the same chain-venue principle to clothes.

"There isn't any consolidation in this particular industry," Andrew Cherng said to The Los Angeles Times. "There is no McDonald's of dry cleaners. We see this as an opportunity."

The first of the franchised shops, under the name Tide Dry Cleaners, opened this week in Henderson, Nevada--a Las Vegas suburb. The company plans to open as many as 200 shops nationwide in the next five years.

The Los Angeles Times reports that the $9.2-billion dry-cleaning industry is made up of nearly 39,000 establishments across the country, according to the research group IBISWorld. The market is highly fragmented, with the top four companies generating 2.5% of total revenue. More than 90% of dry cleaners have only one facility.

Now that's what I call a green-field opportunity.

No ad campaign can clean-up BP's soiled image

BP continues to try to shine up its soiled reputation through the use of the media.

After the Gulf oil disaster, BP trotted out PR disaster teams, and almost immediately began running feel-good ads to tout their heroic efforts in cleaning up the Gulf. The "Voices of BP" campaign featured employees promising Americans that the company would restore the Gulf Coast and rectify damage to the environment caused by the oil spill.

Then, BP produced the "Voices of the Gulf," campaign which looked like a tourism ad for the Gulf, but ended with a big BP logo..

Those campaigns didn't work then, and their latest campaign isn't going to work now.

BP is running a new campaign providing updates on their efforts in the Gulf. The latest ad was produced by Purple Strategies, which worked in tandem with Ogilvy on the digital ads, and Ogilvy PR in Washington, which is working on a social-media campaign.

Ad Age reports that the latest messaging is timed to coincide with the shifting of BP's efforts from cleanup into an environmental-restoration and -research phase. In a statement, Geoff Morrell, BP America's VP-communications said: "We made a commitment not only to restore the Gulf but also to keep the American people informed of that effort. We've made significant strides over the past year and believe it's a good time to provide a progress report to the nation."

The problem with all of these campaigns is that they act as a reminder of the devastation BP unfurled on the Gulf, rather than working to improve BP's image. These ads would have worked 15, 20 or 30 years ago with a less activist nation, but consumers are in control today, and they don't buy the blatant white washing of a company's image. A company's brand reputation is established by its actions, rather than its words. The tourism ads should have run without the BP logo, and should the most recent campaign. BP needs to lay low for quite a few years, and come out again only when or if it changes its policies around deep water drilling in the Gulf.

Convenient Luxury: 7-Eleven stores are selling Gucci products

"Honey, I'm headed down to the 7-Eleven for a Slurpee and a $4,500 aligator bag"

After a successful test of selling eight Gucci product lines, 7-Eleven stores in Korea will be offering luxury goods in an effort to capture a bit of the consistently strong demand for high-end goods in the Korean market. It is part of a growing trend in Korea of retailers not traditionally associated with luxury products jumping in to gain a slice of the profits.

“Having spotted a trend that the public are embracing more luxury goods than ever before, we wanted to make them more easily accessible,” said Cho Yun-jung, a spokeswoman for 7-Eleven.

The luxury goods market is one of the strongest sectors of the Korean economy. Sales grew at least 12% to an estimated $4.5 million last year, according to a report by McKinsey & Company in August.

7-Eleven sold 62 Gucci items during the September trial period, worth 58 million won or $50,000. According the 7-Eleven, discounts on Gucci bags were up to 24% off retail prices at brand stores.

Sweden is crowdsourcing their Twitter account to a new Swede every week

I am not a fan of having others (i.e. social media agencies or PR firms) take the reins (and the copy platform) of a brand's Twitter account. I believe if you want to deliver an authentic brand voice out in the market, it should be your own voice (far more authentic, huh?)

But the official Swedish Twitter account is not written by the Swedish Institute and VisitSweden--both part of the National Board for the promotion of Sweden, and the two most obvious brand voices for the country. They are crowdsourcing the country's brand voice to the citizens of Sweden--the most authentic of all Swedish voices.

At least for a week. In a fantastic social public engagement project, Curators of Sweden is handing over the official Swedish Twitter account to one of its citizens for a week.

“No one owns the brand of Sweden more than its people. With this initiative we let them show their Sweden to the world,” says Thomas Brühl, CEO of the country’s tourism agency, VisitSweden.

Hasan Ramic is one Swedish voice, representing the country's 8 million voices, and given access to Sweden's national Twitter account. Then there is Jack Werner, a writer and marketer based in Stockholm who took to Twitter another week.

The goal of the account is to promote Sweden on a global scale, so the Tweets are posted in English. The expectation is that the curators will paint a picture of Sweden, different to that usually obtained through traditional media.

We love this idea, and we hope @Sweden continues to use local voices.

Sources: The Local and Brandchannel

Axe gives teenage boys an extra Hot Merry Christmas gift

Axe knows who their audience is--post-pubescent teenage boys who have one thing on their mind.

So, what is more fitting than a nearly-soft core porn video of two scantily clad Santa's helpers riding a bucking bronco of a Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

It is Axe's way of showcasing AXE CELEBRATIONS, a program as a new way of celebrating the special dates of the year. AXE CELEBRATIONS is a Facebook application which allows you to send special messages to friends. The app is that users can choose to receive the message at any time, or send "hot" messages to their friends on the days that they want to celebrate throughout the year. The video of Rudolph and his helpers is interactive--asking users to pull the ribbon to see what's inside, and personalized with your name on the holiday card--as you need to give the app access to your Facebook profile.

In order to use the app, teenage boys must install the application on their Facebook profiles, and allow the app functionalities to be able to send a message to any of their friends.

Oh, and because of the adult-like content, the app asks that users be at least 16 years old--which, if their audience strictly adhered to, would slice off half of the targeted teenagers.

You can access the application, and launch the video here.

Will Ferrell connects to a local vibe with Old Milwaukee ads

Comedian Will Ferrell is the latest spokesperson for Old Milwaukee beer. Apparently, he approached the Pabst Brewing Company-owned company asking to do the ads because he is a fan of the beer.

The ads are designed to run locally in Davenport, Iowa and Terra Haute, Indiana with local references to the town. Seemingly bootleg copies have been posted to YouTube, so they're getting global attention.

Daren Metropoulos, co-owner of Pabst Brewing Company, is quoted as saying: "Will Ferrell approached Old Milwaukee about creating ads because he's a big fan of the brand. He was interested in developing something unique and we gave him the freedom to pursue his creative vision and produce these spots with a local vibe."

The ads feature Ferrell in what appear to be improvisational skits. Reportedly, Ferrell made about four of the ads in Terra Haute, Indiana, and as many as ten in Davenport.  Grainy, pparently viewer-recorded versions appear on YouTube.

The question is, is this all a guerilla social media project designed to get national attention, or is this a quirky Hollywood star just wanting to have a little fun? Ferell's from Orange County, California (in the shadow of Hollywood) so he's not exactly getting back to his roots with these ads.

Faux-local or not, the spots are good fun, and are getting good press for Old Milwaukee.

Sources: Adweek and Eater

Santa Paws is coming to a Kimpton Hotel near you...it's paw-tastic

Kimpton Hotels is known for their dog-friendly guest policy. And now, they've found a new way to get pets and their owners into a holiday mood (and to spread a little good cheer about Kimpton Hotels).

This weekend, Kimpton is offering dogs, cats and other pets the opportunity to sit on Santa's lap and pose for pictures.

The call it...Santa Paws.

"We welcome lots of dogs, but any creature (as long as it fits through the door) is welcome. And just a reminder to you proud 'parents': Please bring your own camera."

Not only is Santa Paws a totally jolly time, but it helps charity, too. During the event, the hotels are raising awareness for local animal organizations, ranging from The Animal Rescue League to Freedom Service Dogs to Chicago’s Anti-Cruelty Society.

Something to aspire to: White House Post creates the model for "about us" corporate videos.

Creating an informative, entertaining i.e. valuable, "about us" video is a formidable task for most companies. Over my 25 years in marketing and advertising, and in my work with over 100 emerging companies and established brands, I have seen my share of poorly or overly produced, dull or trite, too short or too long, amazingly irrelevant corporate videos.

Recently I was introduced to White House Post, a production house in London-Chicago-New York and Los Angeles with one of the most valuable "about us" videos I have seen in a long time. It is well written, edited, produced and narrated. And, it tells us what we need to know about White House Post in an interesting, compelling, entertaining...valuable way.

Something to think about when you are asked to put together your next corporate video.

Martha Stewart and J.C.Penney strike a deal, and hatch a plan for an Apple -esque retail concept

Over the years, Martha Stewart has danced with retailers KMart and Walmart (among others). Now, the company is hitching its wagon to J.C. Penney.

JCP, who has been looking to ways to shift its fortunes, and re-invent itself, is announcing that it will spend $38.5 million for a 16.6 percent stake in Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. The deal comes with The company also has asked for two seats on the Martha Stewart board.

As part of a 10-year partnership, J.C. Penney will introduce online and in-store areas dedicated to the Martha Stewart brand. And, most interestingly, the in-store areas will featured specially trained employees who will dole out tips and advice not un-similar to Apple's Genius Bar concept (according to NYT DealBook).

Of course, the Apple-esque concept is no surprise given that  J.C. Penney recently hired Ron Johnson as CEO--the man who helped create the mystique surrounding Apple's successful retail operations. Johnson also is a former Target executive.

J.C. Penney also recently hired Target's top marketing executive, Michael Francis, as its new president. In addition, the company announced last month that it hired two of Johnson's former Apple colleagues, Daniel Walker and Michael Kramer, to serve as chief talent officer and chief operating officer.

The partnership is no doubt good news for J.C. Penney and Martha Stewart who has seen losses in eight out 10 of its most recent quarterly sales. And for its part, J.C. Penney has not kept pace with its retail sector--with sales at stores open at least a year dropping 1.6 percent, while those at Macy’s and Kohl’s rose 4 percent and 2.1 percent, respectively.

DealBook reports that Martha Stewart expects to earn more than $200 million from the arrangement, including royalty payments, design fees and advertising commitments. The company will continue its existing partnerships with other retailers, like Macy’s and Home Depot.

Additional source: U.S.A. Today

Has the "Kodak Moment" come and gone?

The Kodak Brownie had its heyday. So did Kodachrome, and the Instamatic camera, but the Eastman Kodak company needs to find a way to disrupt itself in the marketplace, or it will surely die.

George Eastman founded Kodak in 1880, and the company has successfully stayed at the forefront of relevant value to consumers. Wall Street rewarded their success, and it has been considered a “Blue Chip” (i.e. reliable) stock for generations. And was once seen as an all-American institution, the likes of Coca-Cola and Chevrolet.

Then came digital photography. The company failed to re-invent itself to adjust for the new realities of how consumers interact with photography, despite having invented the digital camera in 1975. The company is now on the verge of bankruptcy. The company is losing $70 million per month.

Their strategy, so far, has been to shutter or sell unprofitable products or divisions—like Kodachrome and even its digital division—the Kodak Gallery. As for future revenue, it's counting on patent licensing and winning patent lawsuits against Apple and RIM, the maker of BlackBerry phones, and trying to re-invent itself into a printer company.

Wait, that’s another dying industry isn’t it?

A HMS case study points that in 1976, Kodak had 90% of the film market and 85% of camera sales in the U.S. But Kodak was blind to the changes in the industry, and essentially refused to believe that their market would evaporate. First, competitors like Fuji Photo came in, then digital camera rivals like Sony, then the market dried up with the ubiquity of cameras in smartphones and other devices.

Kodachrome became the horse-drawn carriage in an era of

The company last saw a profitable year in 2007.

There once was a time when Kodak was such an integral part of our lives that having a "Kodak moment," was common in our lexicon—the question is will this phrase die with the generation who knew Kodak for what it was, or will it re-invent itself to be meaning and vital to the current, and next generations? Bold management, and a self-disruptive strategy seems to be their only path to survival.

“Unexpected Babies:” Olla Condoms introduces you to your virtual son on Facebook:

We've all received Facebook friend invitations from people we don't think we know. But Olla Condoms is taking this activity to a new level with a Facebook campaign called “Unexpected Babies.”

The concept of the campaign is that you receive a friend request from your newborn baby that was conceived because you didn't wear Olla Condoms during sex. A promotional message just below the ad admonishes you to avoid surprises like this one.* Visiting the baby’s Facebook page will show you a complete set of Olla options. 

Brazilian agency AGE Isobar dreamed up the campaign. The agency targeted specific guys and created actual Facebook profiles for their unborn children (by tacking "Jr." on to their names), who then attempt to friend Daddy.

Source: Adverblog and Mashable

P&G brand Bonux tackles the biggest laundry advertising cliches

Procter & Gamble’s low cost laundry detergent, Bonux, is poking fun at high-priced advertising in order to highlight the "clean, fresh and affordable product."

Agency Leo Burnett Brussels is banking on the post-recession practicality of consumers as it presents Bonux as a low-cost rational buy with the most generic type of advertising...an all white set, with the product as the hero.

That ads tackle the biggest laundry advertising cliches to prove the point that gratuitous spending is well, gratuitous. In the ads, Bonux argues that waving palm trees and difficult scientific words do not make a detergent any better. And anything that does not improve the product, is unnecessary for the consumer who needs value for money.

The Bonux campaign does not feature expensive, young models or trustworthy scientists with grey temples. This campaign is only about the detergent and its characteristics. And that’s more than enough for Leo Burnett to create a campaign around that upgrades Bonux to the smartest choice in the category. After all, price conscious consumers making smart, rational choices in laundry detergents deserve attention and respect instead of guilt feelings. And that’s exactly what this new campaign aims for.

Bonux Mannequin English from LeoBurnettBrussels on Vimeo.

Bonux Music English from LeoBurnettBrussels on Vimeo.

Bonux Regular Voice English from LeoBurnettBrussels on Vimeo.

Bonux White Sheet English from LeoBurnettBrussels on Vimeo.

The faux-world of Dunder Mifflin shows up in the real-world of Staples office supply stores

Until recently, Dunder Mifflin was a fictional paper company created for the plotline of the NBC comedy “The Office.” The storyline had the company struggling to compete with real-life office supply chains like Staples, and OfficeMax.

But now, faux-life comedy TV has merged with real-life business with the introduction of the Dunder Mifflin brand of copy paper for the Staples online outlet Quill.com.

The Staples brand licensing deal with NBC will see real life branding of a copy paper line with advertising slogans taken from the show—lines  such as "Our motto is, 'Quabity First' " and "Get Your Scrant on,"

Of course, the Staples/NBC deal is not the first Hollywood-to-Main Street licensing deal. Nestle’s Willy Wonka Candy Company was created sin 1971 as a packaging and marketing gimmick using the popularity of the film adaptations of from Roald Dahl's Charlie & the Chocolate Factory

Think of it as the opposite of product placement—the process of real-world brands embedding their products in film and TV sets and scripts. In this case, it is a faux-world brand being embedded into the real-world.

See also: NBC’s website for the faux Dunder Mifflin brand, and Dunder Mifflin-branded clothing in the NBC store

Fab.com: A Black Friday Sale All The Time

Rocky McGredy takes a look at Fab.com, which started out as a social network for the gay community, then successfully transformed itself into a flash-sale online store that sells well-designed products such as furniture, jewelry and art. The brand recently announced it had signed up 1 million registered users, and was selling about $1million in merchandising every week. I’d say that was a successful pivot. Now, read what RockyMcG has to say...

For those of you who haven’t heard of Fab.com yet, I guess it’s not that surprising. It’s definitely not on that Amazon level yet, but what is? Either way, Fab isn’t really your average shopping site anyway. No search bar in the upper-right hand corner, no angle to why you should use that site over the many other options out there. It’s not really about that. Fab is about being cool. You know, being trendy and awesome and unique. It’s like the Sharper Image for hipsters– and, being pretty hip myself, I’m pretty stoked off of it.

Basically, logging on to Fab goes like this for me: I login with my account (which, I had to be invited to the site to get), I click through the various sections of intriguingly designed and colorful things, and I drool over the thought of owning such items. It’s a dangerous idea, having the limited inventory that fab does, because you tend to not need anything on the site. But that doesn’t mean you don’t want it all. I can’t quite tell how they do it. I think it’s a combination of things. Fab keeps a limited inventory of products with incredibly cool designs, discounts them majorly, and puts a time limit on how long you can keep things in your cart. If you don’t check out fast, there’s a possibility your cool and inexpensive things can disappear forever! 

It’s like a Black Friday sale, all the time.

The point is, this idea works. Fab is apparently reporting over one million in sales every week. This is huge considering they were originally built on a failing model. Though, they weren’t originally in the business of sales at all. Before Fab was in the business of selling well-designed products to the impulsive and trendy, they were a social networking-site geared toward gay audiences. It’s kind of broad to make the connection between the two iterations of the site, but both ideas are pretty “fab” in my book. 

I think it’s a pretty amazing story, though. Here’s a business that had one idea that they thought was really going to succeed, but after a year things didn’t quite pan out. So, instead of changing up their tactics for gaining members, they changed what they were doing entirely. The only social aspect of the original Fab that’s left is the fact that you can link it to your Facebook. Before their remodel Fab had only reached about 150,000 members, now they have over a million.

I guess it makes sense, though. Jason Goldberg, the CEO of Fab, seems like a pretty intuitive guy. He also founded Social Median, a news site that sold in a heartbeat to Xing. Not to mention that Ashton Kutcher, who has changed his hat quite a bit in his career as well, is on board as an investor. Considering he’s a young Steve Jobs look-alike, I’d say that this company has a bright future. Oh, I guess it’s that fact and that they convinced me to buy plastic watches like I’ve never bought plastic watches before. Oh wait, I never did buy plastic watches until now.

The Melt disrupts the concept of grilled-cheese-and-soup

Rocky McGredy discusses how The Melt, a new chain of grilled-cheese-and-soup fast-casual restaurants founded by Jonathan Kaplan--Flip video founder-turned restaurateur, measures up.

Recently, the staff of 5 Blogs Before Lunch took a field trip to investigate a new “comfort food” establishment in San Francisco called The Melt. I don’t feel right calling it a fast food establishment, but I also don’t feel right calling it a sit-down restaurant. The Melt is an entirely new breed of eatery. If it’s not their all-things-grilled-cheese-and-soup menu that gets you, it’s how incredibly cool they are that will.

The first thing you’ll notice about The Melt when you walk in is how familiar it feels. Now, I’ve only been to one location and I’m not sure if every other one is a cookie cutter, but I’m saying I’d be alright if each location was identical. The light friendly tones of maple-wood, and the white brick walls make me think of an ice cream parlor. Not to mention their logo is reminiscent of an era when businesses felt they had to prove themselves reliable, not to show how sleek and shiny they were.

Though the design choices may be a throwback, the way The Melt works is not a throwback at all. It’s sort of like Star Trek. I mean, not like Star Trek in the sense like I feel like I’m in outer space. That would be geeky. I mean, like Star Trek in the sense that the universe has been developed in a way that technology is an aide in every aspect of society. Making each external action easier and more instantaneous. Okay, the Star Trek reference is still geeky.

As soon as you order your meal and provide your initials, the progress of the preparation your meal is displayed on a digital board hanging in the store. You also have the ability to order online and scan a QR code in store to skip the line. The soda fountains are comically sized beer taps, allowing you to select a soda and then pull the lever to dispense.

As for the food, the soups are pureed together, giving them an interesting colorful look but they still manage to taste like what they’ve been labeled as. Every utensil you use has the ability to either be composted or recycled, and when you purchase your meal the cashier asks you to round up your tax to the next dollar and donate it to a cause. It’s truly a unique experience to visit this establishment. It’s very apparent that The Melt had a clear business strategy in mind when they opened their first shop. This is no mom-and-pop venture.

So, how does The Melt manage to do it? This was clearly the creative brain-child of someone trying to build a lasting business. The Melt is the new fast food. It’s the “disruptive technology” that’s going to put the McDonalds’ of the world to shame. It would only make sense for such an idea to come from Jonathan Kaplan, who also disrupted the HD camcorder market with Flip video. Which, in case you forgot, was a company that Cisco bought at one point for $590 million. Congratulations Jonathan.

Even better, I think that this is just the beginning. Remember how a million affordable HD camcorders sprouted up after the Flip? I think we might see some similar food establishments in the near future. Hell, Super Duper Burger feels a tiny bit like The Melt already. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I’d mind seeing Ronald grimace... or the Colonel fry.

Benetton introduces UNHATE project...imagining world leaders, and you and I, locked in a kiss

A new campaign from Benetton features world leaders with lips locked to launch the UNHATE project, a new Benetton foundation of the same name, launched by Alessandro Benetton, executive deputy chairman of the Benetton Group. The foundation "seeks to contribute to the creation of a new culture of tolerance, to combat hatred, building on Benetton’s underpinning values."

According to Benetton "These are symbolic images of reconciliation - with a touch of ironic hope and constructive provocation - to stimulate reflection on how politics, faith and ideas, even when they are divergent and mutually opposed, must still lead to dialogue and mediation."

World leaders locked in a kiss include North Korean's Kim Jong-Il and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, among others.

The website also includes a kissing wall, where visitors can upload images and write a sentence to let the world know what visitors most "unhate". The system will randomly match your image with other pictures.

A tweet could win you a new Citroën DS5

Twitter users get the chance to win a new Citroën DS5 by posting the most persuasive tweets in the first ever Twitter Race.

Starting on November 17 in Amersfoort, Netherlands, Citroen will sponsor a road rally being directed by Twitter followers. Tweets will navigate the car on the one-day user-led tour around the Netherlands. A co-pilot will instruct the driver through the course--as directed by Tweets. At the end of the race, which is timed and can be monitored on a Facebook page, the driver will stop, hold up a sign with the most recent Twitter message and the first person who sees it and tweets back wins the car.

“We wanted to bring the brand DNA of Citroën 'Creative Technology' alive in this unique project and stay close to our agency philosophy of digital at the core. In Perfect Fools we found a very special partner that showed us how human and entertaining an online experience can be,” stated Peter Hamelinck, creative director at Euro RSCG Amsterdam.

The company is planning a wider integrated campaign beginning in January to broadcast the DS5’s February launch.

Sources: brandchannel and Adrants

Bank of America has been brandhijacked on Google+: You will sit down and shut up, or we will foreclose on you.”

A Google+ brand page for Bank of America has been set up to mock and satirize the financial institution. The page includes unattractive photos of bank executives, and includes posts like this one:

“Starting tomorrow, all Occupy Wall Street protestors with Bank of America accounts around the country will have their assets seized as part of BofA’s new Counter-Financial-Terrorism policy,” reads a post on November 8, “You will sit down and shut up, or we will foreclose on you.”

Bank of America--you've been brandhijacked.

Of course, fake accounts are nothing new. Twitter has dealt with this for quite some time, opting for "verifying" of accounts when their legitimacy is questions. Apparently though, Google+ allows anyone to create a Plus Page for any business, so long as they link to that business’s official website.

Clearly, there is no question that this is an impostor-generated site.

Note: the site has since been removed from Google+

Source: Talking Points Memo

CrackBerry addicts have sobered up, and moved on. Will RIM and BlackBerry disrupt themselves, or brush off the signs of trouble?

Clearly, the BlackBerry is going the way of the PalmPilot, the Motorola FlipPhone, and the slide-rule and the abacus.

Two years ago, BlackBerry owned 43% of the U.S. smartphone market. That number has dropped to 19% (according to ComScore) and will no doubt continue to fall. The company's stock price has fallen 70% since the beginning of this year, making the company worth less than the net value of its property, patents and other assets.

There are four contributing factors to this decline:

1. Consumers who previously loved their BlackBerry's as a superior choice over regular phones now have options with other smartphone devices like the iPhone and Andorid devices.
2. Corporate IT is loosing up it's control over communication security, and letting employees choose the device they use for communication (a stranglehold that BlackBerry used to own)
3. Consumers have been beaten up by outages, and numerous product and software delays--all of which have contributed to a reputation of a not-cool, antiquated gadget. "I'm like that old lady driving an Oldsmobile in a parking lot when everyone else is driving BMWs," said Jesica Ryzenberg, 32, a BlackBerry owner in San Francisco.
4. And finally, and most importantly, Research-in-Motion (the company that makes BlackBerry) failed to disrupt itself. It clung on to old technology, and the belief that their fans, those people who were so zealous that they called themselves CrackBerries would stick with the brand no matter what. but, "Clearly the market has moved on," said Chris Jones, principal analyst at research firm Canalys. "From applications to multimedia to the quality of the cameras to the quality of the browsing experience, it's lacking in all of those areas, plus more."

Apple is a prime example of a company who knows how to disrupt itself and move its customers with them. They've move us from the desktop, to the laptop, to the iPhone, to the iPad. But RIM executives don't seem to understand the need for disruption, and appear to be brushing off signs of trouble. They say BlackBerry continues to have a loyal customer base of 70 million subscribers, many of them professionals and young tech users, and point to a marketplace that has yet to be fully tapped: In the U.S., only 37% of cellphone users have a smartphone, said Rick Costanzo, regional managing director of RIM's Americas division. "We are in the very early, early stages of a huge global transition, and we have everything to play for. This game is far from over," he said. "Our challenge is to educate the marketplace."

Don't count on it.

Source: The Los Angeles Times

Jenny Craig has a slimmed-down name (just call her "Jenny"), and a slimmed-down spokesperson (post-baby weight Mariah Carey)

Madonna. Cher. Tiger. Angelina. And now, Jenny.

Jenny Craig, the diet brand, is changing up its image with a new approach to dieting which they say is more holistic, and goes beyond simple dieting. To signal their change of approach, they've adopted a new name--just "Jenny." and hired a new spokesperson.

"'Jenny' has a greater vision," CEO Dana Fiser told brandchannel. "We can do good work. Overweight is, of course, a huge part of the population. And we're concerned about children. We really think with this new brand platform and the American Heart Association that we can help modify behaviors with mothers and also influence the behaviors of children."

In addition to the name change, they've signed-on a slimmed-down post baby weight Mariah Carey (who you could just call "Mariah") to serve as the first spokesperson under the "Jenny" moniker. In her first campaign, Mariah will not show off the standard "before and after" pictures (can you image he agreeing to that?) Rather, the new Jenny will only to show the "after" Carey.

"It was important to see her coming out looking absolutely incredible," Fiser said. "This is a huge strategic shift in our branding and advertising campaign. Not the process of the [weight-loss] journey, but bringing her out and having her messages be more about higher-minded causes." Jenny plans a new focus on community-boosting work at its 600 U.S. locations.

Starbucks to open new chain of Juice Bars, hoping to encourage a daily detox, as well as a daily caffeine fix

Starbucks is planning to launch a new brand with a health and wellness focus, in a head-on attack to Jamba Juice. The cornerstone of the new effort comes from the acquisition of Evolution Fresh, a small Southern California-based upscale fruit and vegetable juice maker, for $30 million. The new retail concept is set to launch in 2012 an will have a new name (yet to be announced).

Evolution Fresh juice is currently in grocery stores such as Safeway, Costco and Whole Foods on the West Coast. The company offers juices such as tangerine and organic ginger limeade. Starbucks plans to extend the distribution of the new brand to more retailers, including its own cafes. Starbucks also plans to open juice bars next year that will sell the Evolution Fresh brand as well as health foods.

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz said that acquiring Evolution Fresh is an important step toward entering the $1.6-billion premium juice business and the $50-billion health foods market. "Our intention is, over time, we would have a national footprint of juice stores positioned for health and wellness," Schultz said in a conference call.

The new chain will "redefine the super-premium juice category and experience" and offer a "wholesome portfolio" of food and beverages, Starbucks said. Starbucks will replace PepsiCo's Naked brand juices in their coffee shops with Evolution Fresh beverages.

Source: WSJ and the Los Angeles Times

Time for an upgrade: Ford offers a software fix on a flash drive for MyFord Touch users

The Ford Motor Company has been using a digital-dashboard-control system—called MyFord Touch in many of its models the last couple of years. And now, it is time for an upgrade.

Just like an upgrade to your PC's operating system, or new version of computer software, Ford can now upgrade dashboard controls in existing vehicles, without you having to buy a whole new car to get the latest gadgetry.

Of course, Ford doesn't want to upgrade your dashboard too often, or you'd never want to buy a new car. So, in the case of MyFord touch, they waited until there were enough complaints--and a drop in consumer confidence in the brand, before they offered the upgrade.

The MyFord Touch upgrade, contained on a flash drive, will be sent to customers early next year. The look and feel of the digital dashboard which controls functions like the radio and climate controls allows drivers to use a touch screen display, or voice commands to control the system. More than 1,000 screens in the system have been redesigned to be less cluttered and easier to use, with the screen's virtual buttons responding twice as quickly, and the voice-recognition system working more rapidly.

Speaking of rapid response, the new system can be upgrade by the car's owner (or by a dealer if you wish) in a matter of minutes, using a flash drive.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the software fix is in response to massive complaints by Ford owners. They report that consumer complaints about MyFord Touch have dragged down Ford's standing in some widely followed surveys of vehicle quality. Consumer Reports earlier this year withdrew its recommendations from the Ford Edge and Lincoln MKX, citing difficulties using MyFord Touch. The magazine in late October said Ford's overall reliability ranking fell to 20th place from 10th place, in part because of MyFord Touch.

If only they had listened to their customers earlier, or better yet, improved the system themselves without waiting for a barrage of complaints, Ford would be in better shape than it finds itself now--playing catch-up with a software fix.

Daylife: Simplifying the complexity of managing published content

The traditional role of marketing within organizations has been blown to smithereens with the advent of digital publishing and social media. We are now content publishers across multiple platforms. We must author and manage content across audiences and all sorts of media types and devices. Content can be images, it can be video, audio, and the written word--tweets, Facebook links, blogs, and television, radio, online, etc. 

Recently, I sat down with the folks at Daylife. They're tackling the huge problem of content publishing across multiple platforms with their Daylife Publisher Suite. They've got an easy-to-use platform for digital publishing, content management and sourcing of relevant content.

In their words, The Daylife Publisher Suite is a comprehensive solution, designed for traditional, emerging and brand publishers who want the freedom to focus on creating experiences audiences will love and freedom from technological friction at every step. It’s on-demand media and features from the cloud, and it’s changing the way publishers work with all their digital channels.

Here's how it works--Daylife takes an organization's content (regardless of source or format) and redeploys it into
beautifully pre-formatted media Apps that can be added to any Web destination via simple drag and-drop and a curatorial dashboard. At the Publisher Suite’s core is a patented engine for ingesting, analyzing, and processing media from the cloud.

Early clients have been in the publishing world--USA Today, ESPN, Forbes, Aljazeera, and Bloomberg (to mention a few), but more and more corporate brands--from Purina to General Electric, have been signing on as they understand the complexity of managing digital content, and the simplicity a solution like Daylife can provide.

Daylife Publisher Suite: Introduction from Daylife on Vimeo.

New Campari calendar takes on the end of the world in 2012

The folks at Campari--the spirits company, have unveiled a beautiful calendar with a tongue-in-cheek theme.

The 13th edition of the official Campari Calendar is entitled "It’s the end of the world, baby!" taking its inspiration from the hypothetical prediction that, according to ancient Mayan culture, the world as we know it will end on December 21st, 2012.

Various century-old prophecies have predicted the world may end on numerous occasions. However, all predictions have fortunately been abandoned as these dates have passed without incident.  In this year’s calendar, Campari takes these doomsday theories and juxtaposes them with a “Toast to Life!” as presented in a series of powerful, awe inspiring photos starring Hollywood actress and supermodel, Milla Jovovich.
 
The calendar showcases Campari’s latest female protagonist encountering hypothetical scenes on how many have predicted the world could end, including Global Warming, Drought and Ice Age. Instead of cowering in fear, she focuses on celebrating life by raising a toast of Campari’s magnificent red aperitif.

Previous Campari Calendars, have included celebrities Benicio Del Toro, Salma Hayek, Eva Mendes, and Jessica Alba.

Bank of America CEO "incensed” by public criticism

Bank of America has seen a lot of bad press lately.

Their reputation for greed has been amplified by their plans to charge some debit-card users (those with the lowest monthly balances) a $5 monthly fee. The charge is the company's attempt to recoup revenue lost by the governmental crackdown on fees targeting consumers. The fee was announced during the Occupy Wall Street protests designed to point out such anti-consumer practices. In response to BofA's fee hikes, there have been calls for customers to withdraw their deposits in protest.

Additionally, the bank ranked lowest in a 24-bank survey of small business customer satisfaction from J.D. Power and Associates this month.

In response to the bad press, Bank of Americas CEO Brian T. Moynihan is quoted as being “incensed” by public criticism of his company and is pushing back by reminding local leaders of its contributions to their economies.

He's told employees that the “place to win the battle” over the bank’s battered public image is at the state and municipal level.

“I, like you, get a little incensed when you think about how much good all of you do, whether it’s volunteer hours, charitable giving we do, serving clients and customers well,” Moynihan said during the Oct. 18 gathering. To the bank’s critics, he said, “You ought to think a little about that before you start yelling at us.”

As part of the campaign, executives are making phone calls and visits to local officials and community leaders, and sending lettes explaining how much the bank lends to area businesses and how many employees it has across the country (at the same time it announced a reduction of 30,000 employees from its workforce).

The company has bought print advertising in 27 markets and television ads in 15 markets as part of this campaign.

But the question remains, can Bank of America continue policies (such as the debit-card fees) that hurt their customer's pocket books, and expect to improve its reputation by approaching local government leaders instead of being focused on their customers? Few companies survive when they forget who their customers are.

Visa and MasterCard want to target advertising based on personal credit card transaction histories

I recently received a phone call from my bank. They suspected that my credit card was being used in a fraudulent fashion. The security question they asked? "In what county is 1552 Coastal Road." I was stymied. Then I remembered the address was of a college apartment I lived in over 25 years ago...before my mortgage, before I had credit cards, even before I used this bank. I was impressed by their sleuthing, but a little scared at the same time.

Financial intuitions have a very long arm into the personal details of our lives. And like any personal information, it can be used for good, or evil.

Here's a tale of the latter type.

Visa and MasterCard, the defacto credit card companies, want to use what they know about consumer credit card purchases to target you with online advertising. Going even deeper, The Wall Street Journal is reporting that a Visa patent application published this year describes incorporating information from DNA databanks, social network websites, and credit bureaus, among other personal details, including insurance claims and online search engines activity into profiles that could be used to target people online. 

How far is too far? For financial institutions who know their consumers have little say in what they do, and how they act due to their overwhelming monopoly on the transactional aspects of our lives--the answer is "as much as we can get away with." Considering that Visa processes 45 billion credit- and debit-card transactions a year, and MasterCard collects details about the 23 billion transactions, they have a lot of data to exploit.

While it is true that the concept of anonymity on the web is a fallacy, how the holders of personal data use information about us is left up, in large part, to financially-driven corporations. How far is too far when it comes to how companies use our personal information?

Visa and Mastercard seem to think it is more than fine to use our personal data to profit by selling access to the insights they gather about people with every credit-card transaction.

Imagine if you went into a grocery store and bought snacks and pre-packaged foods? What would a fast-food company pay for that information, and the ability to market their products to what appears to be a predispositioned target? How about if you bought condoms at a drugstore, or worse yet, paid for your anxiety medication at a pharmacy? Where do you draw the line once you start exploiting consumer's personal behavior patterns?

This long-arm of consumer data by Visa and MasterCard is the first step in pulling offline data, and using it to market online.

MasterCard earlier this year proposed an idea to ad executives to link Internet users to information about actual purchase behaviors for ad targeting, according to a MasterCard document and executives at some of the world's largest ad companies who were involved in the talks. "You are what you buy," the MasterCard document says. While this document was "put aside" because of restrictions over how financial-services companies can use customer data. In otherwords, the governmental consumer protections put in place have had a positive affect, and stopped some evil-doers in their tracks--or at least forced them to search for loopholes to achieve their goals.

Clearly the financial instutions are the new cigarette manufactuers--caring little about consumer protection, and focused soley on profits, and stopped only by the law.

MasterCard is reportedly pursuing a plan to sell marketers an analysis of anonymous, aggregated data sorted into marketing "segments," such as people with a high propensity to be interested in international travel. MasterCard said its plan is "completely new to the industry" and that it still is working through the details of how it will work.

Visa is also reportedly pitching the ability to use cardholders' anonymous buying histories, in aggregate, to tailor the ads people see online.

People can remove their information from MasterCard's analysis by providing their card number on the "Data Analytics Opt-Out" page at www.mastercard.us/privacy. A Visa spokeswoman said the company provides consumers with "notice and choice for products that use their personal information."

In that consumers are nearly required to carry a Visa or MasterCard in today's society (try renting a car or checking into a hotel without one) consumers need to be aware that these companies are doing everything they can to profit off of them, with the only apparent conscious being governmental regulation.

Stay safe, dear customer.

The Pivot Conference rose to the occasion

This year's Pivot Conference theme was "The rise of the social consumer" and they demonstrated, via an extremely well curated event by Brian Solis, that the social consumer has risen to a mature state, and is here to stay.

The 500-person conference in New York City was not about dropping names, and having the usual big-name speakers bounce around the stage. They brought in those who are doing the great work in social media, and know what they are doing.

A few standouts for me this year include 1). Shiv Singh, Global Head of Digital for PepsiCo who I have heard speak on several occasions, and am always impressed by his insight (and his ability to livestream Pepsi brand mentions throughout his talks <g>). 2). John Hayes (CMO of American Express) who demonstrated the sophistication of the AMEX company marketing organization, and their understanding of how to engage audiences, and to build a brand beyond its product offerings. 3). Kip Wetzel Senior Director of Social Media Service and Strategy at Comcast who showed us how customer service is the new marketing and 4). Jon Bond, CEO of Big Fuel (and legendary ad man who co-founded Kirshenbaum & Bond) who showed us that learning from our past experiences, while applying today's techniques keeps us old guys relevant, and valuable to the conversation.

I must give editorial director Brian Solis a big tip of my hat for a well curated event. Conversations, rather than moderated-panels and speakers at podiums ruled the day. It was nearly "PowerPoint Free" (yes, nearly), and those who used slides as crutches definitely stood out.

Nice work guys. I look forward to applying my learnings throughout the year, and attending next year's event.

The ultimate mobile billboard: Advertising on the exterior of a Spirit Airlines plane will cost you a cool $14 million

When it comes to airports and airlines, nothing is off limits when it comes to advertising. From sponsored tray tables and seat-backs, to Zappos' deal to plaster the bottom of the TSA trays with branded content, every inch of the travel experience is "brought to you by" someone. When I was traveling through JFK last week I must have seen several hundred branded billboards for HSBC alone.

So, it is with little surprise that Spirit Airlines decided to sell the exterior of every Spirit Airlines jet to the highest bidder.

The asking price? $14 million for a full year of round trip flights.

Clearly that's for those who can afford First Class.

If you're more inclined to purchase Coach, Spirit has a program $196,000 for three months of ads on the overhead bins in Spirit's planes, $119,000 for ads on the tray tables or $18,500 for ads on air-sickness bags.

Yes, it seems that everything does have its price.

But are the airlines going too far?

Marketing consultant (and friend of 5 Blogs Before Lunch) Bruce Silverman, a former creative director at three of the largest ad agencies, says many frequent fliers "regard their in-flight experience as their private time, when they can hold normal intrusions of the outside world at bay." The growth of in-flight advertising "is repellent to these passengers" — an "insult" to paying customers, he says.

"There is already too much advertising clutter in the world," Silverman says. "I truly believe advertisers who choose to intrude on airline passengers are likely to lose — not gain — customers."

Source: USA Today

Hulu pulls its "for sale" sign off the front lawn. Now what?

For anyone who's put their house on the market over the last couple of years, you know the feeling--the anticipation of multiple bids and an immediately sale, tempered by the reality of price slashes and no offers.

The owners of Hulu have had a similar experience.

Back in June, the online-video site put itself up for sale, only to see rifts between them and potential buyers on the value of future rights to stream television shows over the Internet squelch any possible deal.

Yesterday, they announced they are taking themselves off the open market.

Hulu is owned by News Corp., Walt Disney Company, and Comcast's NBCUniversal--along with a private equity partner and employee shareholders.

They, along with Netflix, seem the most likely to take over our broadcast television viewing habits and merge the three screens--television, computers, and mobile devices giving consumers the on-demand access they deserve.

Sadly, both Hulu and Netflix have not found the magic strategy that will propel them from minor market disruptor, to market leader. Netflix is struggling with business models as it is forced to pay for second-rate streaming deals and continues to anger its consumer base with seemingly careless pricing and packaging shifts. Hulu's fight is with the studios that own them--those flighty executives who sit in Hollywood pulling flower pedals ("I love Hulu, I love you not. I love Hulu, I love you not...) deciding whether streaming free content to consumers is a good idea. And the cable companies--well, they want NOTHING to do with the likes of Hulu and Netflix, and try to stop their advances at every corner.

Clearly, consumers want affordable choice, and the ability to view content on three screens. If a company can get the entertainment executives, and the cable companies out of the way, they might just have a chance at rabid consumer adoption, loyalty, and revenue.

In the meantime, Hulu needs to pull that for sale sign off the lawn, and go back to creating a great business.

"Since Hulu holds a unique and compelling strategic value to each of its owners, we have terminated the sales process and look forward to working together to continue mapping out its path to even greater success," the owners said in a joint statement Thursday evening. "Our focus no rests solely on ensuring that our efforts as owners contribute in a meaningful way to the exciting future that lies ahead for Hulu."

We wish them all of the luck in the world.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

PepsiCo turns to yogurt as it begins "snackifying'' beverages and "drinkifying'' snacks

PepsiCo has been trying to accelerate the growth of their nutrition portfolio, aiming to more than double its revenue from nutritious drinks and snacks to $30 billion by 2020.

Currently, most of PepsiCo's sales remain skewed toward less healthy products, and they still rely heavily on their beverage unit, which is under-performing rival Coca-Cola.

Part of the company's nutrition strategy involves "snackifying'' beverages and "drinkifying'' snacks. They're creating products combining fruit, grains and dairy, recently launching a fruit purée in the U.S. that's thick enough to be a snack, and an oatmeal-based drink in Latin America.

On the diary front, PepsiCo is turning to yogurt. They plan to create a joint venture with German dairy company Theo Müller Group, and launch a new brand in the U.S. The yogurt market in the U.S. has roughly doubled in the past decade.

The venture is expected to be unveiled in coming weeks.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Bank of America tries to white-wash its image while its customers "Occupy Wall Street"

During the Deepwater Horizon oil drilling disaster, BP ran feel-good ads trying to shine-up its image while oil was still spewing into the gulf. The campaign will go down in marketing history as a disastrous failure.

Consumers are far too wise to be swayed by false claims of brand sensitivity.

Now, in what appears to be a similar strategy, Bank of America--currently one of the poster-children for corporate greed and under-handed tactics that hurt consumers while lining corporate pockets, has launched an advertising campaign highlighting the bank's charitable donations and small business loans, as well as its efforts to ease loan terms for underwater mortgage borrowers, known as "loan modifications."

So, just as BofA is under fire for everything from improper foreclosures to hiking debit card fees, the bank is running TV, print and online ads through the end of the year in 12 larger markets, including Charlotte, Boston, Chicago, New York and Los Angeles, touting their supposed good deeds, rather than addressing the behaviors that consumers see as demonstrating corporate greed.

Clearly, the voices of Occupy Wall Street have not reached the offices of Bank of America, or their advertising agency.

The ads are "irrelevant," said Kathleen Day, spokeswoman for the Center for Responsible Lending, a Durham, North Carolina-based nonprofit that advocates for homeowners. "The only thing that matters is that they and other banks clean up their servicing operations so they can do more loan modifications and never do the same thing to the economy again."

In the first half of this year, Bank of America spent $1.1 billion on marketing. Perhaps they need to spend more time, and money, on a marketing strategy which will more accurately reflect an authentic, and believable image of the BofA brand.

Design flash site Fab.com: zero to 750,000 members in less than 6 months

I'm a big fan of Fab.com--the design flash sale site funded in part by Ashton Kutcher and curated with an eye to the creative-class of Generation Y. I can't tell you how many invites I've sent out to friends (it is an invite-only site).

The site which began life as a "gay social network mashed with a gay Groupon." has made a huge pivot and taken on the world of flash sales of "daily design for everyone."

And now, Fab.com has launched a suite of mobile apps for iPhone, iPad and Android.

You see, mobile devices are an important component to flash sites--items can sell out before you get home to your PC, and to this latest generation of consumers. The new apps will notify users when a new sale kicks off and when an item in their shopping cart is expiring.

VentureBeat reports that the company was profitable a few weeks after its launch.

After less than 6 months of being in business, the company has over 750,000 members, has processed more than 100,000 orders, and 200,000 items shipped.

“We never in our wildest dreams expected to grow this fast,” wrote CEO Jason Goldberg in a recent blog post. “This is fun.”

SWIMS uses bathroom humor to sell waterproof shoes

I clearly enjoy Norwegian humor. Take a look, and a laugh, at this ad for Norwegian waterproof shoe maker SWIMS' Fall/Winter 2011 collection for men. The clearly are effective at keeping water (and other liquids) from soaking Norwegian feet.

Howard Schultz of Starbucks: "It is not good enough for white collar executives to win at the expense of others."

Howard Schultz will go down in history as one of the great business leaders.

There. I said it.

Schultz, who through great vision and leadership built, and then saved Starbucks, is a once-in-a-lifetime leader.

We all know the story of Starbucks--a company that transformed coffee from a caffeine habit, to a social habit by selling a $5 community experience in a cup. We also know the story of how Schultz swooped back into the company when he saw it failing (he called it a "virus" which had infiltrated his business); then rekindled the company's core principles; and resurrected a business which could easily have fallen victim to the Great Recession.

It is these core principles, and the necessity of keeping "people" at the forefront, that Schultz recently spoke of at the Wolrd Business Forum this week.

"The only way to exceed expectations of your customers, is to exceed the expectations of your people" Schultz said.

Exceeding people's expectations for Schultz has involved being honest, and transparent, and "reminding and re-kindling the faith and  confidence in who we are as people." With 200,000 "people," and 17,000 stores serving 7 million customers a week, in 57 countries--demonstrating, and infiltrating the lives of its people with the core values must be a full-time job.

Schultz believes that the Starbucks brand must embody the values of being authentic and genuine--demonstrated by its people ding the right things, that help people.

An example is a recent decision by the company to take the profits of its stores in the lower-income areas of New York City's Harlem, and South Central Los Angeles' Crenshaw District and give them back to the community by funding after school and other education efforts, often ignored. Starbucks will also be greating a fund to deliver micro-loans to small businesses. As Schultz says, if banks aren't lending to small business, someone has to step in.

"I'm not naive enough to believe that businesses will make decisions strictly on doing good, but there are many things on the margins that can be done, that can create dual benefits for a company." he said.

"It is not good enough for white collar executives to win at the expense of others." he said, cementing his role, in my mind, as one of the great business leaders of our time.

The latest Rachel Zoe project: teaming up with LG Mobile to launch "Marquee"--a lifestyle-oriented phone targeted to young women

The Rachel Zoe brand has just endorsed a new phone for LG.

Zoe, who has been a well-known celebrity stylist for years, has seen her brand become ubiquitous since signing on to her own reality show on Bravo. A broad audience platform was clearly the draw that LG Mobile hopes will help launch its newest phone -- the "Marquee" to a desireable group of young female consumers. LG's latest campaign strategy is part of its overall strategy to become a more lifestyle-oriented brand.

The endorsement includes a web series titled "Style Rules" where Zoe will use a competition-style features to ask style bloggers to create looks tied to the Android smartphone's brand.

"We're targeting a younger female audience and we're calling it the stylish phone," said Erica Molina-Cortez, senior digital manager for LG Mobile. "Naturally, Rachel Zoe is almost a perfect plug-in for us. We wanted to leverage her style and social-media stature and that's also why we're doing it in a digital media environment."

Ashton Kutcher's promotion for his start-up ventures on "Two and a Half Men" quickly gets nixed

Ashton Kutcher is a former underwear model, television and movie actor, spouse to Demi Moore, replacement of Charlie Sheen, social good advocate, social media zealot and start-up investor.

It is the last descriptor which is causing a bit of controversy as he ever-so-subtly tried to promote his start-up investments on his new show CBS‘ Two and Half Men.

@aplusk as he is known on Twitter, slipped-in a little product placement for companies in which he has invested on his first appearance on the show. Logos of six companies including Foursquare, Hipmunk, GroupMe, Chegg and Flipboard appear as stickers on the back of his laptop in a scene. All six are companies in which Kutcher has a financial interest. (note: Chegg, is not owned in part by Kutcher, but his company Katalyst, handles social media for the brand).

The use of start-up company logos is apropos as Kutcher’s character Walden Schmidt is a dot-com billionaire who sold his company at the height of the market.

The use of start-up company logos without product-placement compensation paid to the the production company (Warner Brothers Television) or network (CBS) is what is causing the controversy.

Kutcher announced publicly at the Techcrunch Disrupt conference that he was forced to pull the logos from the filming of subsequent episodes, and have them replaced with stickers of fake start-up brands.

A CBS spokesperson confirmed they did not receive compensation for the appearance of the logos, but said that one of the companies plugged on the stickers, Foursquare, was disclosed in an end credit that accompanied the episode (as stipulated by the FCC). It is unclear why the other company logos did not receive the same treatment.

“This was not part of any advertising transaction with CBS,” he said. “Our policy is to disclose such financial interests in a credit at the end of the broadcast.”

PETA.XXX: Porn website to titillate, and promote animal rights and vegan diets

Arguably one of the most exploitative marketers in the not-for-profit space (sorry Greenpeace), the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has upped its own game with its latest promotion.

PETA is planning to launch a pornographic website to promote its animal rights and vegan diet message. They plan to launch it as peta.xxx. They are currently waiting for approval of the domain name.

The site is said to feature "tantalizing" videos and photographs, interspersed with animal rights and vegan diet messaging. The goal is to attract attention with nudity and sexually suggestive content, in order to direct people to the PETA message. Of course, using the "sex sells" marketing technique is nothing new for PETA--which has featured celebrities (including porn stars) with implied (suggestive) nudity for years.

But the XXX website is definitely a step up for the group.

Of course, the question with shock-value promotions, is where do you cross the line and risk the potential of alienating, rather than titillating your audience.

PETA says a pornographic site will allow the organization to reach a broader audience and that publicity about the site is just as important.

"I think the bottom line is we live a in a 24-hour news cycle where over the years we've found our racier actions are kind of a fast track way to get people to stand up and pay attention about the plight of animals," according to PETA spokeswoman Lindsay Rajt.

The New York Times says that critics say that by resorting to pornography, PETA is alienating itself from a large swath of the population that might otherwise be sympathetic to its cause.

Of course "critics" are often organizations seeking to draft off the attention being received by the "offending organization."

"I just don't want to understand why they want to offend people who would potentially support at least part of their cause. There have got to be other ways to draw attention to their cause," said Robert Peters, general counsel for the New York-based anti-pornography group Morality in Media. "Metaphorically speaking, they're getting in bed with hard core pornographers to prevent cruelty to animals. That borders on insanity."

Heinz used fake minivans to help design a better ketchup delivery system: Dip and Squeeze

For decades, consumers have struggled to rip open and squeeze ketchup from those tiny plastic packets--carefully aiming the red sticky substance onto their burgers and fries. The trick is--how to get the ketchup on the food, and off your hands, clothes, friends, and well--all over the place.

Some use their teeth to rip open the plastic container.

Others keep their fingernails sharp in order to expertly tear an opening.

And, of course, there are those who use the "squeeze from the bottom" or the "grab and spat" technique of ketchup removal.

But now, after decades of stagnant innovation in the ketchup package department, H. J. Heinz Co. says it has created a better ketchup packet.

The new "Dip and Squeeze" packets hold three times the ketchup as traditional packets, and allow the red gooey substance to be squeezed out through one end or the lid can be peeled back for dipping.

Dip, or squeeze.

While the new containers are more expensive than the old packets, they hold more ketchup, so consumers will use fewer packets--creating an overall cost savings to retailers, and decreasing wasteful packaging.

Burger chain Wendy's is the first major chain to adopt the new packets. You can also find the Dip and Squeeze packets at Chick-fil-A and Dairy Queen. McDonald's and Burger King are lagging these innovators as they test-market the new design.

So, how did Heinz create the idea of Dip and Squeeze?

The research and development process for the new packaging took an innovative twist. Apparently, Heinz used a juiced-up focus group environment, studying consumers in 20 fake minivan interiors putting ketchup on fries, burgers, and chicken nuggets. The vice president of global packaging innovation and execution, even bought a used minivan and took rides through burger-joint drive-throughs to order fries and apply ketchup in the confined space.

While I'm not sure why minivans were the preferred choice of testing environment, I can appreciate the attempt at innovative thinking.

Congratulations Heinz, for shaking up the ketchup packet after 40 years of stagnant innovation.

America--go forth and Dip and Squeeze.

Source: WSJ.com

Fizziology uses real-time social buzz to predict behavior

Imagine being able to track what drives your audience to act and to figure out what makes them to love or hate your product. Then, translate that data to future sales predictions.

A company called Fizziology is taking social buzz and using data analysis to accurately predict movie box office success and failure.

Here's how it works: They examine millions of conversations on Facebook, Twitter, and blogs via API search, using "human sentiment analysis" and trained analysts to find trends in the conversation. The results: insight and context for clients who depend on predicting audience behaviors to gauge marketplace success.

Here are a few examples of how effective Fizziology can help studios be more precise in their predictions:

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
Actual opening weekend: $90.15M
Industry estimates: $110M (22% from actual)
Fizziology estimates: $95M (5% from actual)
 
Super 8
Actual opening weekend: $36.5M
Industry estimates: $27-$38M (18% from actual)
Fizziology estimates: $37M (1% from actual)
 
Cowboys & Aliens
Actual opening weekend: $36.4M
Industry estimates: $45M (24% from actual)
Fizziology estimates: $34M (7% from actual)

The film industry relies more than most on word-of-mouth to understand what movies will be successful, and which ones will tank. Predicting success or failure means $millions to a movie studio as they decide how much money to spend on advertising, and how many theatres to distribute a film--and where.  With Fizziology, it’s now possible to track what people are saying about a movie, to whom, and when and where they’re saying it.

“Social media is the world’s biggest, fastest and most honest focus group,” adds Fizziology co-founder Jen Handley. “Access to all of those opinions and the data that comes from it will have a significant impact on the film industry. From more accurate predictions of how movies will perform to smarter, faster marketing changes to even faster recognition of breakout talent and potential movie subjects, it will impact nearly every part of the film industry.”

Unlike standard social media monitoring services, Fizziology doesn't just use standard social media monitor, and algorithms to predict behavior, they use actual people --who can understand sarcasm, slang or symbols like <3 – to provide sales predictions & other business insights based on conversations taking place in social media.

And, In addition to  box office earnings, Fizziology can help studios understand which trailers to use in their TV buys, and to examine marketing budget ROI. They can also help predict DVD & Blu-ray sales & refine those marketing campaigns based on social media buzz.

And why just limit this to the film industry? Imagine the possibilities.

Homogenizing humanity: How Urban Outfitters has successfully mass-branded being Indie

In his most recent Guest Post for 5 Blogs Before Lunch, Rocky McGredy takes a look at the marketing lure of hipster retailer Urban Outfitters.

Urban Outfitters is a store that I can’t seem to avoid. Not only do I work within close proximity to an Urban Outfitters in downtown San Francisco, but I’d say a large percentage of my immediate peers own at least one article of clothing from Urban Outfitters. There’s no doubt that the place is hip, but I can’t help but have a natural aversion to what Urban Outfitters is doing to culture.

How is it that Urban Outfitters has exploded into popular culture so prominently? I mean, hipster culture is exploding all over the place already. Everything is quite explosive at the moment. The whole thing’s... explodey.

It’s clear that the way Urban Outfitters approaches its customers is very appealing to a big audience of folks like me. I mean, look Mom and Dad! You can take me to one store to get all of my school clothes, but you can also take me here to get my personality! The whole thing is undeniably... trendy.

The biggest problem I have with this strategy is how it seems to strip away individuality for the sake of mass marketing. I mean, I used to really have to search for the things that I was interested in. I developed obsessions over different media in my life. I would spend hours crawling the depths of the ether to find new music to listen to. I mean, I’ve ordered my clothing from a variety of websites and shopped in so many different retail stores for years; and now what Urban Outfitters is saying is that it’s cool to be me?

I’VE WORKED THESE HANDS RAW. It takes hard work to be this current. Or, well, at least it should.

Maybe I don’t know what I’m talking about. Maybe I’m delirious. Either way, there is just something that sickens me so much about this store--the way that they mail out a catalog by season, each one full of waifish twenty-something models wearing bizarre clothing. They gaze at you in a way that distinctly says, “we’re better than you.” Urban Outfitters means it.

They are better than you.

Urban Outfitters generated 1.8 billion in revenue in 2009. They just seem to keep sprouting up in different places, and slowly but surely they’re winning over my demographic. Seriously, they’re even winning me over.

Maybe I’m beginning to move past trying so hard to be an individual, or maybe Urban Outfitters just truly gets my generation. Either way, it seems like a better idea to buy something each time I go into an Urban Outfitters. You enter the store, and you’re immediately greeted by the welcoming colors and unique clothing displays. It has a very rustic woodsy feel; brown tones, log decorations, and the like. The place just feels so cool, every single thing you look at seems to whisper: “Buy me. It’s okay, you can afford it.” It’s the de-personification of an attractive salesperson winking at you and turning your heart, and your wallet, to jelly.

So, what’s the method behind it? Why do I feel this way?

First things first, Urban Outfitters delivers a unique experience to their customers. They’re a nice, off-beat brand who sells literally everything you could buy at several different stores. No need to hunt eBay for that vintage Lomo camera you’ve been looking for, UO stocks them regularly. No need to find those quirky gen-y coffee table books on Amazon, you can find them right by the menswear section. There’s literally no need to hunt for anything unique any longer. It’s all under one roof.

I call this act: homogenizing humanity. Urban Outfitters has successfully branded being indie. I guess it’s cool that people know what I’m talking about when I say “Lomography” or “Nietzsche”. Though, it is somewhat disappointing that niche culture is now being mass-produced.

Oh yeah, and curse them for having high quality goods and decent customer service as well. CURSE THEM!!!!!!

If you need me this afternoon, I’ll be checking out a Nixon Rubber Re-Run watch on Floor 3.

@rockymcg

Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte faux-doc

Here's a great use of faux-videodocumentary style content produced by Starbucks and being spread around via their Facebook page and YouTube channel. Enjoy.