Leo Burnett - Cultural Fuel

Good news from P&G: their digital guy gets it. Well, in fact, even though they are the biggest marketer in the world, which could mean being slow and rigid, P&G actually already has made many forays into “new” media over the last couple of years already. Some were successful, some weren’, but failure is not the issue. Says Dave Knox, corporate marketing brand manager for digital business strategy:

“Take risks with unique ideas and see what happens. In this digital world, failing doesn’t mean defeat … but the key is being able to fail fast so you can get on to the next idea.”

and:

“If every idea is run through a committee and validated with consumer research, you will just end up with a watered down idea,” Knox said.

Kudos, we love that attitude. Now let’s hope the next 5 years are actually the next 5 years where marketing will finally be transformed. Because I’ve been saying this sentence for the last 15 years, and I hate sounding like a broken record.

Read the whole article on WARC

via Matthias Eylers FB Stream

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Here is a video blog by Leo Burnett for Procter & Gamble, of a guy waking up one morning to find he lost his guy parts. Pretty racey for P&G. Kudos!

See the whole blog here:

http://zack16.com/

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In what could be considered an unorthodox marketing strategy, toilet paper brand Charmin’ came out with a mobile application that shows you and let’s you review/rate toilets in your vicinity. Says Adage:

Charmin can’t be accused of just trying to sell toilet paper: Unlike major rivals, it doesn’t have a commercial-bathroom business. Rather, it’s just another effort at nontraditional branding, a la the Times Square restrooms the brand has provided the past three holiday seasons; the mobile Pottypalooza program it ran from 2003 to 2005; or the “Charminizing” program in which it cleaned up public restrooms at state fairs starting in 2000.

To be honest, at first, I thought this is a bit of a desperate attempt to insert any type of “innovative/mobil/usergen marketing” into a brand, that’s just, well, toilet paper. But then I remembered that a) people online review just about anything these days and b) I remembered all those moments where I was walking through city centers, frantically looking for relief and wondering if I was gonna make it. This mix of facts is probably the reason why, according to Adage, the application “logged more than 52,000 toilets since launch.” I for one got the thought stuck in my head how it would be picking up an Effie award for “logging toilets,” but why not? Times are a-changing.

The fact is, however: people appreciate any act a brand undertakes to make a qualitative difference in their lives (however big or small, no pun intended), even when it comes to toilets.

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Today, the Wall Street Journal reports about the latest efforts of the marketers to tailor ads to specific consumers in the store. The approach is mostly that the marketers install new digital screens that are appearing next to cash registers and in store aisles. Because cameras are embedded in many of these digital screens displaying the ads, marketers are hoping to serve up ads based on the consumer’s appearance. In detail WSJ describes two cases of Dunkin’ Donuts in USA and of Procter & Gamble in Germany:

Dunkin’ Donuts is among the first marketers in the U.S. to begin testing the technologies, at two locations in Buffalo, N.Y. People ordering a coffee in the morning can see ads at the cash register promoting the chain’s hash browns or breakfast sandwiches. At the pick-up counter, customers see ads prompting them to return for a coffee break in the afternoon and try an oven-toasted pizza.

In a separate test, Procter & Gamble is placing radio-frequency identification tags on products at a Metro Extra retail store in Germany so that when a customer pulls the product off the shelf, a digital screen at eye level changes its message. When a consumer picks out a shampoo for a particular type of hair, for instance, the screen recommends the most appropriate conditioner or other hair products, says John Paulson, president of G2 Interactive, a digital-marketing arm of WPP Group’s G2 Network.

Furthermore they write that all of these “instore targeted advertising” options are still in their infancy and much research still needs to be done to evaluate the best types of ads to display and the way consumers respond to messages.

“I’m a skeptic on technology in the shopping environment,” says Andy Murray, chief executive of Saatchi & Saatchi X, the Publicis Groupe agency that focuses on in-store marketing. “Screens need to be useful to get people to pay attention, and if stores are just using them to sell products, shoppers won’t be receptive,” he says.

Press article WSJ August 21, 2008

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