teachthe4ps.com » Promotion

“Old Spice Campaign Smells Like a Sales Success, Too”

Joe Cannon — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 19:16:46 +0000

Here at Teach the 4 Ps we have reported a few times on Old Spice and the wildly successful viral video campaign for Old Spice – “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like.” See our previous posts “Old Spice Commercial Goes Viral…” (Teach the 4 Ps, March 15, 2010) and “Old Spice Revitalizes the Brand with Trendy Advertisements,” (Teach the 4 Ps, July 5, 2010).

Here is an update — the campaign seems to be working to sell more Old Spice. We knew the viral videos generated views and now we know that sales of Old Spice are going up as well, see “Old Spice Campaign Smells Like a Sales Success, Too” (Brandweek, July 25, 2010).

Now Old Spice and its star Isaiah Mustafa have stormed to the top of the Ad Age Viral Video chart hitting #1 with almost 3 million views in one week in July (and more than 11 million as of this post). The latest viral video is more of the same but different.

That could be a nice video to show the first day of class — at least the young women in your class will like it. You could show one of the Axe ads (search YouTube for ideas) to appeal to some of the young men in your classes.

“The 18 best commercials of 2009-10 as chosen by the Cannes ad festival”

Joe Cannon — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 14:06:00 +0000

Looking for some advertising examples to show on that first day of class? Here are last year’s best according to Cannes. “The 18 best commercials of 2009-10 as chosen by the Cannes ad festival” (courtesy of Adweek). We have featured several of these ads over the last year. I like to show award-winning ads in class and then ask students a series of questions: 1) Do you like the ad? 2) Why? 3) Is this a good ad? 4) What makes for a good ad?

Then I like to turn it around and make sure they realize that in the end, great advertising achieves the advertiser’s objectives. Just because an ad is entertaining, that does not make it a good ad. You can tie this into the AIDA model as well. Believe it or not — as I write this I get great support for that proposition. I just heard a story on Marketplace Morning and after googling it found this story, “Old Spice’s Viral Ads Got Attention, Not Sales” (Time, July 20 2010) — Old Spice won the Cannes Grand Prix Award — generating Attention and maybe Interest — but apparently not any Action. [UPDATE, July 27, 2010: Never mind this last comment. Time has also updated its article — sales of Old Spice are taking off see my more recent post “Old Spice Campaign Smells Like a Sales Success, Too.”

“Facebook Touts Selling Power of Friendship”

Joe Cannon — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 13:24:44 +0000

Here at Teach the 4 Ps we often highlight stories on the selling power of online reviews and personal recommendations. Last year’s Nielsen survey on trust showed that we really trust recommendations from people we know. But how can they leverage that at Facebook. If Facebook masters it, they will have the keys to a new direction for Promotion. This recent Wall Street Journal article “Facebook Touts Selling Power of Friendship” (Wall Street Journal, July 7, 2010 – subscription required click here for a back door link, follow the search results). The video is 6:52 long, but the most interesting stuff for class would be the first 3:30 or so. It could be assigned to students or shown in class. You could show it in class and natural discussion opportunities will follow — there are the effectiveness issues and the privacy issues as well.

We have just finished up the next edition of Basic Marketing which includes our take on this transformation and how it fits into teaching the introductory marketing class. Look for the book in October.

“Old Spice revitalizes brand with trendy advertisements”

Joe Cannon — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 21:35:48 +0000

A few months ago, we reported on this great Old Spice video climbing up the viral video charts. As a follow-up, you can read about the campaign’s success in this USA Today article, “Old Spice revitalizes brand with trendy advertisements” (June 30, 2010).

“New Ads Try to Shock Men Into Going to See the Doctor”

Joe Cannon — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 14:05:12 +0000

As regular readers of Teach the 4 Ps know, I like to bring non-traditional examples into the classroom. I think it helps when students realize the different types of problems that good marketing practice can help solve. This Wall Street Journal article “New Ads Try to Shock Men Into Going to See the Doctor,” (Wall Street Journal, June 15, 2010 – note, the link takes you to a search result that should allow non-subscribers to the Journal to access the article through a back door) and the video below discuss the issue and a new advertising campaign.

“Targeted Ads Will Let You Spy on Them for a Change”

Joe Cannon — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 13:52:54 +0000

Behavioral targeting is a controversial practice. Marketers want their online ads served up to customers who might genuinely be interested in their products. On the other hand, consumers find it a bit eery when websites seem to know their shopping habits. Privacy advocates have been pressuring for more transparency in this process. To hold off greater regulation from the FTC, the advertising industry figured out how to regulate itself. This article, “Targeted Ads Will Let You Spy on Them for a Change” (Wired, June 21, 2010) describes what is coming.

New Nike Soccer (football) spot, “among the best we’ve ever done”

Joe Cannon — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 13:00:24 +0000

[NOTE: This was originally published a couple weeks ago - but I added a new link and with the World Cup now in full swing, I moved it back to the top of the blog]

As you probably know, the biggest sporting event on the planet starts in just a couple weeks. And maybe the biggest sporting brand on the planet is not a sponsor (Adidas sponsor the World Cup). That certainly doesn’t mean that Nike is quietly standing by. Its new soccer (or should I say football for our non-American readers) ad is a three minute epic that was directed by Alehandro Iñárritu– who has also directed movies “Babel” and “21 Grams.” Trevor Edwards, Nike VP, earlier this month said the ad was “among the best we’ve ever done.” By the way, the ad, titled “Write the Future,” broke the AdAge viral video first week record with 7.8 million views. Check it out…

ADDED 6-15-10: Read Seth Stevens’ praise for this ad at Slate.com (June 7, 2010), “The Greatest Ad I’ve Ever Seen.”

“Customer Service as a Growth Engine”

Joe Cannon — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 22:46:04 +0000

Many companies are adding more customer service to their marketing mix — including Walgreens, American Express and — believe it or not — Comcast. This article, “Customer Service as a Growth Engine” (Wall Street Journal, June 7, 2010). My link should take you to a Google search result — click for the article. This is a back door for non-subscribers. To start a class discussion, you might ask students why these companies are increasing their emphasis on customer service? You could ask what each of these companies could do to improve customer service? I like to break students into small 3-4 person teams to answer these questions — giving them five minutes to answer the questions. I will then call on different groups to offer one answer — and have them turn in the paper with their team’s answers.

In our books we talk about customer service in chapter 2 and in the personal selling chapter.

“Best Loved Advertising Taglines”

Joe Cannon — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 21:11:21 +0000

Over at Forbes.com, they have put together a slide show of 25 “Best Loved Advertising Taglines” (May 29, 2010). Some great memorable taglines here from “Where’s the Beef?” (Wendy’s) to “Can you hear me now?” (Verizon Wireless) are shown – with brief background info. But these “slideshows” are so slow and annoying to page through — making it hard to justify showing them in class.

“Why Do Consumers Visit CPG Web Sites?”

Joe Cannon — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 20:59:24 +0000

Brandweek’s (June 2, 2010) article “Why Do Consumers Visit CPG Web Sites?” provides a brief summary of a recent Ipsos survey “Engaging CPG Consumers in the Digital Space.” Consumer package goods companies have been investing in websites, Facebook pages, and Twitter. This data will tell them which of these sites customers will visit for various reasons. I was also surprised to see how many consumers actually figured it was likely they would visit a CPG site. This ties consumer behavior and promotion objectives with social media. You might highlight the survey results in class and ask students what type of information they might put on a website, Facebook page, or Twitter for Coca Cola or Tide detergent. They should see that each will require different information to best meet customer needs.