Skripper Time

Razorfish & Southwest: Marketing That Simply Works

As a marketer, I've always been a fan of simple, straight forward messaging.  I have been pitched ideas from agencies that have run the gamut from flat out brilliance to so cryptic that I couldn't figure out what the product was.  Whether it is my inherent pragmatism, or perhaps a small layer of risk aversion, I like smart marketing campaigns that drive home the message.  It's the KISS mentality (Keep It Simple Stupid!).

At the end of the day, the goal of marketing is to drive sales.  Awareness, brand recognition...yes, all good, but if you don't sell additional widgets, you haven't done your job. 

Here's a great example of a convergent Southwest Airlines marketing campaign from Razorfish that delivered all of the goods:  strong messaging, quirky and clever humour and (gasp!) measurable sales.  It was an extension of a television campaign that ran first - the online campaign was designed to further educate travellers around Southwest's key differentiator in the market place:  No Extra Fees. 

In the first month of the micro site, Southwest booked over $2 million in sales.  On the micro site.  Directly attributed to the online marketing campaign.  Not too shabby.

You can view the online creative here, the microsite here and the Television reel here.

Here's what I love about this campaign:

1) Clear, simple messaging:  Simple, clean design with lots of white space in all elements, including the micro site.  Big font driving home the key message.
2) Great branding:  Logos are visible but not overwhelming.  Colours repurposed on the site to drive brand home
3) The online campaign doesn't exactly mimic the television creative:  This is often a downfall of marketers who try to repurpose the TV creative and force fit it into the digital world.  Razorfish nailed this by bringing the fun and humour across platforms, but gave the online a distinct look and feel.

It's not to say that more clever, obtuse marketing doesn't work.  It certainly does, and has been proven time and time again. I'm just saying that sometimes smart marketing and advertising is powerful.  Razorfish was awarded an IAC award for this campaign - well deserved.

Tide T-Shirts for Hope - P&G One Day Test of Social Media

Procter & Gamble is testing social media that leverages the Tide brand to raise dollars for disaster relief in the US.  They're doing a four hour test, deploying a tactical social media strategy to see how quickly word gets out, and through which channels. The end goal is to drive traffic to their Loads of Hope page where people can buy vintage Tide t shirts, with all money going to Feeding America.

P&G has 4 digital (the digerati!) teams leveraging all the different channels with the goal to sell 15,000 t shirts in 4 hours, and raise $300,000.  They are using different tracking codes to see which team drives the most traffic and conversion, and where it comes from - www.tide1.com, www.tide2.com, etc.  If you want to follow along, @JasonFalls is leading one of the teams and tweeting up a storm.

I first caught wind of it on twitter, from @chrisbrogan who retweeted this:  Hey, Tide is doing something for charity - http://tide4.com (from @peterkim) Looks really cool !

I then checked out the link and started googling the initiative to see what was going on.  Using Twitter search was actually more effective (this is a huge point of discussion these days - Twitter's ability to have search-able information right away, and faster than Google).  A twitter search search.twitter.com showed that people were tweeting away...all about Tide and encouraging their friends to buy today.  You can check it out by searching "#pgdigital"

It's really interesting to follow - they are tweeting asking for free ad space (with the promise that P&G will evaluate the media space after for potential future buys).  Very curious to see how this turns out - will be following the story tomorrow!

Here's a YouTube video that explains more about the cause:

Razorfish's Digital Outlook Report for 2009

Razorfish is a digital agency with offices around the world (but not in Toronto...why not Toronto!) and they are really on the forefront of digital trends and technology in the marketing and branding space.  They recently published their Digital Outlook Report for 2009.

It's a 180 pages long, so I haven't gone through the whole thing yet (get ready for some exciting bedtime reading!)  Razorfish has identified some trends to watch, which include the continuing development and emergence of portable and 'beyond the browser' opportunities that will create new touch points for brand and content owners.  As a recent iPhone owner, I have to say that I absolutely agree with this.  My browsing experience at home and on the go is now almost indistinguishable. 

The second trend that caught my eye was "Social Influence Marketing" - they predict that 2009 is the year that social media marketing will go mainstream.  This is reflected in the gradual awareness that I've seen coming from the CPG world that they have to participate in social media, which is then again reflected in the number of jobs I've seen listed for Directors of Digital Media at agencies in Toronto.  Companies are finally beginning to realize that their customers are ready and willing to do their marketing for them - they just have to engage them in the right way.

Another really relevant must-read for all you marketers out there:  Digital Mom (which you can read about in this post)

Digital Moms - Marketing to Moms through Social Media

Razorfish and CafeMom recently published a report on moms in the digital age.  They surveyed moms 18-64 with at least 1 child under the age of 16, who were actively engaged with 2 or more web 2.0 technology channels (RSS, text messaging, social media sites, online video, etc). 

Full report is available here.

Some really interesting findings in the report, including:

•  More digital moms today interact with social networks (65%) and SMS (56%) than with news sites (51%),
• 52% can be found gaming online or viaa gaming console (52%)
• Digital moms under 35 are more likely to leverage newer communications platforms like social networks (72%), SMS (64%) and mobile browsing (13%)
• Moms 45+ are more likely to utilize deeper informational tools like news sites (61%), online consumer reviews (43%), and podcasting (12%).

They also surveyed the CafeMom population and broke down the "digital moms" into 5 buckets.   I've listed the buckets below, but the report goes into much more detail.  The report shows that not all digital moms are alike and they need to be approached and engaged in different ways. 

At the end of the day, it's about leveraging the benefits of her personal word of mouth and pass-along  through everyday social networking activities, which will in turn result in her passing along the brand message in a trusted fashion, which allow for a positive reception from others (which is what social influence marketing is really about!)

Self Expressor: 40% of sample.  She's very active online, have an above average number of friends in her network and constantly cultivates new friendships online.  Typically in her early 30's with one child, she's thinking about expanding her family.   Online opinion is her second source of advice (after friends and family) to help her make purchase decisions.  She's highly likely to use any tools or functionality that will help her design and organize her life online, and in the real world.  Marketers can also tap her creativity and leverage her input into product formulation.

Utility Mom:  25% of sample.  Typically in her mid-late thirties, she's raising a couple of school age tweens.  She spends more time with her online network than any of the other mom groups. She uses social networks to stay in touch with people, and to monitor her children's usage online.  She doesn't want to create a massive network, but is interested in the opinion of other moms like her. She uses widgets on her homepage and is interested in taking online polls, however she's not interested in creating any of her own.  Marketers can reach her through online games, quizzes and widgets, and can leverage content-creating moms of the same demographic whose opinion she values to deliver brand messages.

Groupster: 12% of sample.  Young moms in their early thirties, with school aged children. She leverages her mom social network to connect with others and express herself. While she doesn't actively acquire new friends into her network, she does readily accept invites. She actively joins groups, blogs often and asks and answers questions. She relies on her network when making a purchase decision.  Because she is open to brand messaging on social networks, marketers can reach her through incorporating messaging into this area.  She's also a strong brand advocate and is a great online representative for products that she believes in.

Infoseeker:  12% of sample.  Typically a young mother in her late twenties with her first baby, or a baby and a toddler in the house.  She's really hungry for parenting advice, and turns to her friends first with online resources a close second. Not very socially networked, this mom turns to online mainly for advice as opposed to staying in touch with friends.  Marketers can reach her through photo-sharing sites/applications (she loves to share photos of her baby) and through sites focused on advice (Q&A, info-sharing etc.)

Hyperconnector:  9% of sample.   Slightly older mothers, usually working, with teens in the home.  Not as interested in parenting advice, this mom is looking to chat online with others like her and get product recommendations on purchase decisions.  She uses social networks to stay in touch with friends, and keep an eye on her teen's online activities.  She values the opinions of her online friends more than expert reviews or online and print articles.  Highly engaged in social networks, this mom is a good target for marketers who are looking to engage consumers in conversation about their brands.

Doritos Social Media Case Study - Positive "Brand Hi-Jacking"

For all you brand marketers out there - my friend Sonia, from Passage Communications, just posted a really great case study on how Doritos leveraged social media to drive awareness - and sales!

Passage Communications: Doritos Social Media Case Study - Positive "Brand Hi-Jacking".

Best Google logo ever! Hats off to Dr. Seuss.

“Monday is the 105th anniversary of the birth of one Mr. Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known to the world as the incredible, indelible Dr. Seuss"

Social Media and Skittles

The social media world is abuzz this morning with the news that Skittles (www.skittles.com) has re-launched its homepage with its twitter stream, along with links to its Facebook, YouTube, wikipedia and flickr page.  The jury is out whether this is a PR stunt, or an actual attempt to embrace the social media platform, but at the end of the day it's pretty avant garde for a consumer packaged goods company. 

I worked in CPG for 3 years and what I can tell you is that they are interested in digital media, but fairly unaware of the deeper world beyond just the big name social media sites.  When I worked at General Mills, I did my best to build out internet components in my strategies.  Nothing is free however, and I would always get strong pushback when I would suggest dropping a week of TV in favour of internet/online spending.

The good news is that appears to be changing.  Kellogg's just announced that they are cutting  commercial filming up to 20 percent next year because, by its calculations, "digital media trounces television by a factor of 2."  http://tiny.cc/pB6QB  

A recent PRWeek survey revealed that marketers overwhelmingly agreed that they "would be 'most likely' to cut from many other disciplines before turning to digital if forced to scale back budgets as a result of poor economic conditions.

Last Year Procter and Gamble announced that it was going to focus on digital media and recently announced that it was going to host a meeting of the key online and social media juggernauts at their offices, including Google, Twitter, Facebook et al.  http://tinyurl.com/aujhk2.   They also have a program where employees at Google and P&G trade places for several weeks a year.

It seems that CPG folks are coming around to recognize that social media is an essential part of a marketing plan, and needs to be more than just an add on.  You can engage hundreds of thousand of new millenial moms with a corporate blog, monitor your brands through platforms like twitter and facebook and actually engage with your consumers.  All for the price of less than a couple weeks of TV.  I wonder what they are waiting for?