Promotion Marketers are constantly seeking the next big campaign idea to stand out above the rest. There are always new, completely out of the box trendsetters that continue to raise the bar through innovative uses of media and messaging. In 2012, the bar by which these trendsetters measure themselves rose that much higher.
2013 is a year that will certainly provide new opportunities through expanded social media, more sophisticated partner deals with reciprocal brand benefits and most of all the ability to measure. Trendsetting ideas come in all forms but all share one principal; they are based on a single idea executed seamlessly across a broad array of media channels.
Marden-Kane, well versed in all aspects of promotional marketing, is constantly watching promotion marketing trends in order to best advise their clients. We have provided you with a list of some innovative campaigns that we feel hold valuable information for marketers to consider when planning their next campaign.
Industry’s Best Foot Forward
The well-placed usage of humor in a campaign can amplify success. KFC partnered with Comedy Central’s ad sales division putting comedy at the forefront of their Original Recipe Bites campaign. The five-minute episodes entitled “Growing Up and Getting Out” reached their target audience of males ages 18 to 24 and as a testament to the reputability of the episodes, garnered their parent’s attention as well.
The viewers were then ushered to the website FreeRentContest.com where they submitted their own comical version of their life as part of the “Basement Generation”. Five winners were awarded $12,000 in cash and $600 in KFC gift certificates enabling them to move out and onward.
KFC ‘s social media buzz score sailed to 26.9 points after the airing of their third episode from their pre webisode airing of 4 points. This relevant change shows that the light branding reference, the protagonist’s friend eating KFC bites from the Carton, did not deter from the campaign’s success but actually might have assisted it, taking a back seat to the humor, which drove this campaign.
Engaging Multiple Platforms
The successful Developer 343 Industries is back on the scene with their new video game, Halo IV. Teaming with Doritos and Mountain Dew to enable purchasers to gather special purchase points for the Xbox 360 console was just the tip of the iceberg of their campaign.
They produced a prequel to Halo IV, consisting of 92 minutes of a live action version of the video game, entitled “Forward onto Dawn” and aired it on Machinima Prime Network, which exists within You Tube. The initial airing of the first webisode garnered an audience of 9.5 million, some of who were newbies, younger players being introduced to the game for the first time. This marketing strategy set the stage for a successful release of Halo IV.
Bringing Pages to Life
The future really is upon us with McCann-Erickson’s Ikea marketing strategy.
Building upon the fact that the Ikea catalog reaches 211 million households, they introduced a free smartphone app that can read images on the printed pages.
The content revealed is short films, 3D versions of furniture with further images expanding upon fabric choices and x ray views of interiors of cabinetry. So far there are 43 embedded Augmented Reality images but the intent is to embed video cooking demonstrations in their kitchen display photographs and live music in their living room display images.
Computers Share the Space with TV Viewing
Taking advantage of the fact that 60 percent of TV viewers would be tethered to their computers during the Super bowl XLVI, Weiden and Kennedy, 360i, Framestore, Animal Logic and Coke’s usage of iconic polar bears contributed to one of the most successful marketing strategies through the use of a website entitled Cokepolarbowl.com.
This real time display of two animated polar bears each dressed in the opposing teams colors, kept nine million viewers engaged for 28 minutes each, which was well over the anticipated 2.5 minutes per person.
Engaging Your Audience in Real Time
Twitter connected audiences and the “Pretty Little Liar” principal actors from backstage during the filming and during Monday night’s presentation of the show. This personal touch gave the audience, girls, in the 12 to 18-age bracket, the feeling of being part of the club, so to speak. The value of creating this kind of personal social buzz was represented with the 1.6 million tweets from 667,000 fans during the “PLL’s” catch up marathon. This takes the definition of Fan club to new heights.
Creating Interest Strategically
Dunkin’ Donuts has launched an initiative enabling their customers to pay for their purchases with their virtual Dunkin’ gift card. Included with this app is also the ability to send a gift card to a friend via email, Facebook or text.
Their contest encouraging customers to dress their cups for the holidays and post photos to twitter or Instagram didn’t generate a lot of numbers but did indicate the popularity of Instagram and it’s growing community providing fodder for future endeavors.
Creative Imagery Usage
Celairis wanted their customers to experience their new Shell Shock phone case. Utilizing social media and a typewriter icon, they created the “Tweet punisher”. By tweeting using the hashtag “#tweetpunisher” future customers are able to experience how the protector and the phone stand up to the typewriter’s keystrokes. Engaging Justin Beiber to send out the first tweet to his twitter following, eventually introduced this iPhone shell shock protector to over 30,000 potential customers.
Raising Hope, Raising Fans
Reality based on fiction was the theme when one of Raising Hope’s stars came up with Fox’s sweepstakes idea. The prize would be Martha Plimpton, cleaning their home as the maid character she plays while her TV husband mowed their lawn. Mission was accomplished. This fun sweepstakes drew the viewers to the show’s Facebook page and its official Twitter feed.
Selected Product Placement Yields Billions
How best to advertise “The Amazing Spider-Man’s” Blue Ray DVD release but through a blitz of well selected product placements. Teaming up with the well viewed “Wheel Of Fortune”(11 million viewers nightly), creating a sweepstakes to win a trip to Universal in Orlando, printing coupons on Skippy’s Peanut Butter Jars and advertising on cups and trick-or-treat bags from the 2900 Carl Jr. / Hardee’s restaurants exposed the release information to more than 2.75 billion consumers.
Unlikely Teaming Up at Live Events
Standing out in a crowd can be a good thing, especially if there is an untapped link to connect you to that particular crowd. The “do it yourself” and feel like a superhero theme provided the link to connect Craftsman’s Bolt on Modular Power Tool System with DC comic’s Justice League. An unexpected alliance can provide strong advertising for both brands.
Identifying Savings for Customers Creates Strong Bonds
The challenge of keeping up with the eighteen percent population growth in North Carolina and this population’s increasing energy usage motivated Duke Energy to encourage their customer’s awareness of their individual energy usage. In lieu of spending billions to build a new power plant, they opted for educating their customers by providing documentation that ultimately lowered overall usage. The trust that was built by this valuable communication enabled Duke Energy to introduce their other energy saving products and services to a receptive audience.
Getting in the Game
With the imminent presidential elections, JetBlue offered Protection Election, their attention getting campaign. By voting on their Facebook page, contestants were entered to win a free round-trip ticket out of the country if their candidate lost. This media coverage gave JetBlue positive exposure by using humor to allay the tense political climate.
Using Social Media to Gather Creative Input
The “Do Us a Flavor Campaign” was born from the PepsiCo. / Frito- Lay’s desire to understand how their potato chip was faring in people’s lives.
Drawing people to their Facebook site to create their own chip flavor brought their customer base into closer communication with them. The creator of winning chip with the most votes will receive the substantial sum of one million dollars or one percent of the flavor’s net sales.
Using Technology to Create Interactive Interest
When Clorox decided to place its green products in the place consumers were most likely to encounter them, Alice.com, a Facebook storefront became the likely option. To test its Green Works line of eco-friendly cleaners on Alice.com, they launched a limited time flash sale. Their cleaners completely sold out within 30 hours and hiked Green Works “likes” by one thousand percent, ultimately creating a favorable conversation around their brand.
Standing Out as a Sponsor
Samsung was the official wireless phone sponsor for the 2012 London Olympic Games and wanted to capitalize on the media coverage. They opted to create the free Samsung Take Part 2012 app for android users. The app provided Olympic themed games, 360-degree tours of the Olympic venues and daily Olympic sports news that brought them greater visibility as an Olympic Game sponsor.
Lessons learned watching the trendsetters can be applied to your next campaign when you partner with a professional, experienced leader in the industry. Among the nation’s foremost providers of Promotion Marketing services, we at Marden-Kane look forward to partnering with you to understand your promotion objectives.
We’ll apply our own brand of creative thinking so you can take full advantage of the most appropriate tactics based on your objectives.
Marden-Kane provides the strategic planning and legal expertise necessary to launch a creative and compliant promotion campaign in today’s complex environment. For more information on how you can benefit from our experience in 2013 please feel free to contact us or call us at (516) 365-3999.