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Many New York institutions, from Times Square to the Statue of Liberty, are so well-known that brand awareness is never an issue: they seem to market themselves. Nonetheless, savvy marketing supports pretty much everything and New York icons are no exception. Recently, I traveled to New York to research the marketing strategies behind two of New York’s age-old institutions: Broadway shows and art museums. (Stay tuned for Marketing News' feature series, coming later this year, for our complete coverage).

MoMA and the Guggenheim's marketing teams gave me the inside scoop on how the museums attract and maintain enthusiasm among tourists and New Yorkers alike using a mix of press outreach, traditional print advertising, and, increasingly, social media and digital initiatives such as the Google Art Project, which showcases select exhibits from MoMA and other museums online in a partnership with Google. Guggenheim's digital initiatives include the BMW Guggenheim Lab, a traveling exhibit and online forum with a YouTube tie-in and multilingual Facebook app. Eighty percent of Guggenheim's visitors are tourists, and a large percentage of those are international tourists, according to Director of Marketing Laura Miller, who says that it's a "thrilling" time to be a marketer because social media allows visitors to experience the Guggenheim before and after their visit to the museum, allowing for more innovative campaigns.

It seems to be a thrilling time to be a Broadway marketer, too, as the two marketing agencies that I visited, SpotCo and Type A, are integrating more social media experiences into the promotion of every show. Beyond Facebook pages and YouTube channels (now de rigueur for every show), SpotCo, for instance, sponsored a YouTube "confessional" booth for Sister Act on Broadway, where audience members can share instant reactions to the show. SpotCo Marketing Director Nick Pramik said that in today's packed media landscape, social media helps SpotCo cut through the noise, particularly with limited budgets (a typical Broadway musical spends $85,000-$125,000 a week on ads, according to Pramik). To draw audiences, Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (a musical produced by songstress Bette Midler), includes interactive experiences, pulling audience members onstage to dance during the show and offering concierge services that include anything from on-stage engagements to post-show weddings. "There's no such thing as a ridiculous request," Pramik said.

(While in New York, I met with another New York institution: Joan Rivers. I attended the CLIO Awards, often dubbed "the Oscars of advertising," which honors the best TV, interactive and social media campaigns from agencies around the world each year. This year's show was hosted by Rivers, a former CLIO winner for her work in TV ads for B.F. Goodrich Tires in the 1970s, who soldiered through the show with a case of laryngitis. At the after-party, I was granted a photo opp with Rivers. As a fan of her work on E!'s Fashion Police, I was worried that she might criticize my outfit, but she was silent as we snapped the photo. Whether it was because of her laryngitis or because she actually liked my outfit, I'll never know. You be the judge, readers, with this photo below.)

Check out our coverage of the CLIO Awards in the next edition of our e-newsletter, Marketing News Exclusives, available at MarketingPower.com/newsletters, and our Broadway and museum marketing features later this year in Marketing News.
*Please pardon our blog format at this time. Our IT team is hard at work resolving our technical difficulties!

Posted by Christine Birkner at 9:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

WINNER:

Folks, General Motors has been getting a lot of flak for backing away from advertising on Facebook. GM became a symbol –at least last week—of a company going against the social media trend and thinking for itself. In other words, GM is asking the question, if Facebook doesn’t work for them, why should they use it? For some this was negative, but I think it shows great strength.

This is the new GM, leaner and stronger and very competitive. Leaving Facebook behind because GM couldn’t justify the ad dollars in terms of results was the best advertisement for the company as truly a world beater again. One other thing to consider: Facebook was never going to have a bigger news week as this past week with its historic IPO. GM basically rode those coattails to get the best publicity to show that its new global marketing approach is streamlined, smart and taking a hard look at how best to spend advertising dollars.
No surprise then that they have also decided that they will not be advertising during the Super Bowl this year. They are a brand actively looking for value and my guess is that they will be keep delivering it to their customers.

LOSER:

When a global giant makes the kind of mistake that Kraft just made, what can you say? I'm shaking my head in disbelief. I really am. Kraft has just decided to rename its global snack business Mondelez.

Continue reading "'Marketing Doctor' John Tantillo's Winner and Loser of the Week: GM and Kraft " »

Posted by Christine Birkner at 11:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

WINNER:

Folks, the worst thing a brand can do is refuse to apologize. Your target market will forgive many things but a persistent inability or unwillingness to say sorry can be fatal to a brand.
Spirit Airline's CEO, Ben Baldanza, was reminded of this after a week of refusing to apologize and refund money to a dying Vietnam War vet. Why is he the winner?

Because after a week, Baldanza did the right thing and not only that he apologized robustly --no half-hearted sorry for the Spirit CEO. His statement didn't pull any punches:
"Sometimes we make mistakes. In my statements regarding Mr. Meekins’ request for a refund, I failed to explain why our policy on refunds makes Spirit Airlines the only affordable choice for so many travelers, and I did not demonstrate the respect or the compassion that I should have, given his medical condition and his service to our country."

Read more.

The bottom line is that it is never too late to apologize and the bigger and bolder and more sincere your apology, the better. Don't only say sorry; really mean it and in meaning it, your brand will become better.

LOSER:

Everybody probably takes some liberties with their resumes, trying to cast their experience (or lack of it) in the best light. But folks, what Scott Thompson, CEO of Yahoo, seems to have done goes well beyond the pale: apparently he never received a degree his resume, SEC filings and official company bio have claimed that he did.

Continue reading "'Marketing Doctor' John Tantilo's Winner and Loser of the Week: Spirit Airlines and Yahoo" »

Posted by Christine Birkner at 3:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

WINNER:

Folks, sometimes a company needs to be the voice of reason when it comes to defending its brand. This is what happened last week to Coca Cola after a New Zealand woman's death was laid on its doorstep. The woman died of a heart attack at 30 and the news story that flew around the world was that drinking Coke killed her.

Not a great headline, especially when Coke has been battered through the years by the health brigade, implicating the soft drink in everything from stripping the paint off cars to obesity. But Coke did the right thing. They defended themselves without sounding defensive. You might not be able to retract the headline --and my guess is that "Coke Killed a Woman" is going to percolate down into urban myth-- but you can inject some common sense.
Turns out the woman was drinking up to 2.6 gallons of Coke a day (not to mention smoking 30 cigarettes). Coca-Cola pointed out that drinking too much water is fatal and supported the coroner's findings that that there were other factors too (like the woman not seeking proper medical attention long before the fatal heart attack). Some brands are lightning rods for certain kinds of media attention. Coke and McDonald's will probably always battle health claims. The key is knowing when to push back. After all, many devoted Coke drinkers have lived to a ripe old age!

LOSER:

I've talked about the cross-border branding problem before, but this week Oreo's botched breast feeding tie-in has underscored the issue like nothing before. Basically, a concept for a South Korean ad that had a nursing baby holding an Oreo cookie seems to have gone viral.

Continue reading "'Marketing Doctor' John Tantillo's Winner and Loser of the Week: Coke and Oreo" »

Posted by Christine Birkner at 2:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

WINNER:

Ford's our winner this week. Why? Their commitment to the Lincoln brand. Despite declining sales in recent years, the company understands that brands have deep value and if you can find a way of tapping that value, it is always better than throwing a brand away. So how are they planning on doing this? By getting fresh blood in the form of a major new designer Max Wolff who seems to understand the Lincoln brand.

Here's a bit of the story from The New York Times (and the link):

With just 5.5 percent of the luxury car market and an aging customer base (average age: 65), Lincoln needs to attract buyers from other brands. “This position is unique,” Mr. Wolff told me when I caught up with him and Ford’s global marketing vice president, Jim Farley, at this week’s New York International Auto Show, where a gleaming “ruby red” Lincoln MKZ was on display a few feet away. “I was hired to reinvent a storied brand,” Mr. Wolff said. “I had a blank canvas. Jim hired me to be a provocateur. A chance like this probably comes along only once in a lifetime.”Lincoln is indeed storied within design circles. When Ford recently acquired a rare Continental Mark II from 1956, Mr. Wolff had the car moved to the new Lincoln design studio in Dearborn, where it served as inspiration for a new generation of Lincoln designers. In 1956, Lincoln sold the Mark II for a then-exorbitant $10,000, about the same price as a Rolls-Royce and twice that of a Cadillac. Fewer than 3,000 were built. A model once owned by Elvis Presley sold at a charity auction in 1999 for $250,000.
The most iconic Lincoln design may be the 1961 model, considered the masterwork of the legendary designer Elwood Engel, which was seared into the American consciousness as the car in which John F. Kennedy was riding when he was shot in Dallas. It shared with the Mark II an elegant simplicity that was a sharp departure from Detroit’s recent taste for flamboyant tail fins. The 1961 Continental has attracted a cult following and has been featured in numerous films as well as the opening credits of the HBO series “Entourage."
"I look at the 1961 Continental and I see beautiful proportions, great details, elegant restraint, with just the right amount of chrome,” Mr. Wolff said. “In that sense, there are some similarities. If you look at the MKZ, you’ll see some of the same craftsmanship and detail, but it’s very simple. There’s not a bit of added surface language. It’s refined and elegant. But we’re not reimagining the past. It’s not a retro look. We wanted to break the mold. It’s provocative for Lincoln, and we believe it will change people’s perceptions.”

Well done, Ford! My fingers are crossed for the future of this great brand.

LOSER:

Many baseball ball parks are banning chewing (or smokeless) tobacco --probably not such a big leap (after all, remember those old-fashioned "No expectorating" signs meant to stop the spitting-inclined?).

But peanuts? Can this actually be happening in America?

Continue reading "'Marketing Doctor' John Tantillo's Winner and Loser of the Week: Ford and Ballparks" »

Posted by Christine Birkner at 9:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)