Perroton, let run with your dog

Last ccm class we talked about how much money people spend in their pets, the eccentricities go from special water for dogs to spas and expensive accessories, actually according to Business Week “Americans spend an astonishing $41 billion a year on their furry friends,” isn’t crazy?

This topic helps me to remember one of the best experiential marketing events I have ever seen, the “Perroton” in Spanish, probably the best translation to English is the “Dogathon.”

Perroton is an annual event in Mexico City sponsored by Purina, especially DogChow, the idea is to run together with your dog races from 1k, 3k, 5k. This obviously is not a competitive race, instead, is an event to hang out with your family and dog in Mexican streets, a good amount of owners bring their dogs in costumes and at some point it was more a dog fashion show than a race.

From my perspective this is a perfect 360 marketing campaign because it includes advertising via different marketing vehicles (print, tv, radio, online and billboards), PR before and after the race, and demand generation since the registration required each competitor to buy at least two bags of DowChow.

The first Perroton dragged more than 2,000 runners plus their dog, and probably another 4,000 visitors; there were hundreds of runners in the waiting list. The registration included a free check up for each dog, a nice runner T-shirt for the owner and some merchandising. The success has been so big that every year the number of runners increases, and now the Perroton is held in two more cities in the Country.

The Perroton was a huge success in terms of PR, all newspapers, magazines and channels were interested about the event, it was covered by different section within the newspaper, from sports events, to business and show business, everyone was very interested about this, actually Purina managed to have “Celebrities” running the race with their dogs.

Other way to advertise the event was by the newspaper man, in Mexico the newspaper is still sold in the streets between stop lights, so many newspaper sellers were dressed up with the Perroton T-shirt during the week before the event, so you can imagine all the buzz it generates specially the first one in 2007.

During the race family members were able to see the race, then take a photo and expend the rest of the evening with their family and dog in a public park.

DogChow in Mexico is always targeting owners who want athletic dogs, rather than Beneful, which targets owners that want to spoil their dogs, so this type of efforts allow the brand to create a better connection to its target audience moving from superficial messaging to experiential attraction.

Advertising = Retail, the Microsoft Retail Stores experience

Early this month I went to Oakbrook Center, in Chicago to check out the new Microsoft Retail Store, it was a Sunday on a very chili day, and Oakbrook Center is an outdoor mall, so I didn’t see a lot of consumers inside or outside the stores, but a saw a few of them inside the new Microsoft store.

The store looks very similar to an apple store just with more color, just reflecting Microsoft’s logo look and feel, even if the company is following Apple’s store strategy I really like it, and from a consumer perspective I like when companies appreciate the good taste of other companies and improve their status quo, in my opinion Microsoft wins because now they can compete in the retail store arena, Apple also wins because consumers will remember the Apple’s store, and consumers win because we have more options.

The store I visited has a similar size of a regular Apple store but with more products, this because Microsoft rely on its business partners to assort the store, so end users actually can see the best computer from HP, Vaio, Toshiba, Dell, etc, which for my perspective is an excellent value added for consumers, because probably will be a good destination to get an objective information of which computer is the best for each consumer needs, actually the computers are divided by user needs, instead of price.

The store also include a small area where consumers can look windows mobile phones, this area is the less visited from consumers. It also has a software printing station where consumers can go and chose whatever software application they want and print it right away.

The Microsoft store will boost peripheral market share for Microsoft, since they can display mouse, web cams, and different well design accessories that other retails don’t assort because of size constrains.

In terms of gaming it is clear that Microsoft continues to build on the Xbox brand, the store displays 2 Xbox 360 for consumers who wants to play, and one more with Kinect. I guess Microsoft wants to start the bond with its consumers at soon as possible, so this is a good way to stay close to kids, with the hope that they will embrace the brand in the future.

I am convinced that the Microsoft store is a marketing expense, and Microsoft is not looking it as revenue or profit generation, this is one more marketing tactic. The stores will give Microsoft some control of the messaging and positioning of their products that in this era is very difficult to manage, it is a good space to evangelists current and potential costumers and get face-to-face contact with consumers and learn from them, get fresh and direct feedback.

The potential challenges I see with the Microsoft stores are, first the investment to maintain the newest and hottest computers will be difficult, Apple can do so because Apple has only 4 or 5 SKUs compare with the 4 or 5 models from each manufacturer (around 25) and with different launching times, then building on this who will decide which computers will be display, probably the decision will drive some conflicts with its business partners, and what about the big retails such as Best Buy, how Microsoft will manage the relationship with them.

Only time will tell if the Microsoft Retail Stores is the right move.

P.S. Look at the video where Microsoft employees breaks out into song to attract more employees, I guess.

NBA fans closer to All-Star players

One of the toughest jobs for technology companies is to educate end-users in how new technology works, especially if is a breakthrough technology, this explains why Best Buy invest a huge amount of money in its Geek Squad, and how valuable this squad is for its customers.

With this in mind Cisco introduced its TelePresence technology throughout an innovative marketing experience execution.

TelePresence technology allowed NBA athletes and fans to interact “face-to-face” using Cisco’s videoconferecing/telepresence technology. Fans were able to interact with current NBA players and legends, throughout the All-start weekend via the Cisco TelePresence, this helped to transform the fan experience.

Having said that, technology companies are developing new ways to let consumers interact with its new technologies, understating that the best way to learn how a new technology works is by using it and playing with it.

My only concern with this effort is that Cisco TelePresence is a technology service targeted to business users rather than individuals, so I’m wondering how many people who had the opportunity to use the technology during the All-start weekend actually will buy one of this or could influence someone in their companies to acquire this product and service, at the same time probably Cisco see this effort as a PR tactic and not a way to interact with their potential consumers.

Here is the video, I hope you like it.

Pop-Tarts World

In a world where brands are trying to connect with its consumers by emotions and experiential marketing, Pop-Tarts world is one of the best examples of a success story.

In the summer of 2010, the iconic brand Pop-Tarts from Kellogg opened its Pop-tarts world in Times Squares at New York City, with the objective to strengthen its bond with consumers.

The Pop-Tarts world, with more than 3,000 feet, brought the brand to life; the space featured four main attractions:

·      The “Varietizer” to build your own Pop-Tarts  

·      Pop-Tarts World Café a counter service restaurant

·      Make-your-own T-shirt station

·      Interactive media area, to log on facebook and tell everybody that you are in Pop-Tarts world.

The best part of the Pop-Tarts world was that it had so much impact on the press that covers the event, that this became a great vehicle to get free advertising on magazines, news channels and newspaper across the country, and helped the brand to build credibility around its messages.

The attraction most commented by the news was the original creation of “Pop-Tarts Sushi,” and actually I would like to try it.

Consumers that went to Pop-Tarts world will embrace the brand in the future and will remember it forever, this type of execution connects the brand emotionally to people, and captured people attention by creating a more experiential relationship with the brand.

Finally, for all of us that don’t live in NYC, the company also developed poptartsworld.com where visitors can buy appeal, kitchen & home appliances, and accessories portraying the pop-tart brand to strength the bond with its customers.

Your mom is gonna hate it

The other day, I wrote about how Axe with its sexiest ads attracts its target audience in a very direct way, and most of its consumers become “fans” of the brand and embrace it, while the ad also alienates a lot of consumers that find the ads of bad taste and even disrespectful.

While writing that post I kept remembering a Sony Playstation commercial, since the ad really impacted me, I surf the web to find it, the game is “Dead Space 2,” is a survival horror third-person shooter video game developed by Visceral Games and published by Electronics Arts for PlayStation, Xbox and Microsoft Windows. Although, I link the ad only with Playstation because it ends with a signature id from only this company, probably a good topic for my next blog.

But why the advertising campaign stands out? With the idea that mom’s disapproval as always been an accurate parameter of what is cool, over 200 middle-age conservative women were selected for a “focus group study,” during the focus group the women were exposed to the violent video game scenes, and their reactions, emotions and opinions were video recorded, as you can expect their reactions were from nervous and stressful to almost crying, some were disgusted, shocked, other couldn’t believe what they have seen, and every single mom hated it. 

Here the behind-the-scenes.

During the ad several reactions of the women are showed, while the voice-in-of states how violent the game is and the reasons why you will love it. The ad ends with “your mom is gonna hate it.” They even have a web page YourMomHatesThis.com where you can see the actual focus group of several “moms” each reacting in a very negatively way without editing. 

Here the ad.

The game is M rated and only 17+ can purchase it, and I’m sure its target audience goes above and below that age, I’m sure that most of them will like it and found it interesting, as oppose to their moms. I’m not sure if the sales of the game will increase with this specific advertising campaign, but I’m sure most people out of the target will find it interesting and will try to find more about it, in this sense the game is attracting to new potential consumers and leverages on a great insight that whatever mom approves is not for you.

Live in a State of Play

As we grow up our capacity to be amazed decrease through out the years, we become more rational, and different emotions impact less our behavior, we think carefully how to react for specific situations. In contrast babies react for even the smallest sounds, actions and sights, which could be describe as a status of living in a “state of play”

The state of play could be reached by playing playstation, according with the new playstation’s Latin America marketing campaign we can see how “Victor,” the baby, enjoys different states as joy, celebration and crying, he gets exited relatively easy during his day, and this is how we will get exited by playing video games.

Regularly Sony creates worldwide executions. It really caught my eye that this was not the case since it was a specific campaign for the region. I believe that latinamericans are more calid in general, so they can identify better with a baby and create an emotional tie with the brand.

Playstation connects to its consumers to this fantastic state, which is natural when we are born, this weird but yet amazing effective way to connect to its target audience make playstation stand out the crowd.

I hope you liked as much as I did.

Happy Valentine’s Night

The personal care category for young males, between 18 to 25 years old, is probably one of the most competitive categories in terms of marketing advertising, The two main competitors are Old spice (P&G) and Axe (Unilever).

Axe marketing strategy is to become an ally of young men by providing them with “magic powers” to attract the dreamed girl. This strategy is seen as sexiest and degrading by a massive part of the population, but at the same time it looks that the target market love it. This probably explains why P&G has expended significant marketing budget in rebranding its old spice brand in the past few years.

Below the Valentine’s print ad from Axe that matches perfectly with its strategy and that, as usual, the target audience will love and the other part of the market probably will critic or just don't get it.

Spanish is cool

Probably 10 – 15 years ago, words like salsa, guacamole, chipotle and taco were unknown for most Americans, but now most of Americans use them on a regular basis.

Hispanics are the fastest growing minority in the U.S, today there are around 40 millions Hispanics in America, with this in mind it is clear that the Hispanic heritage is penetrating the American culture and looks that some brands are taking advantage of this.

Kahlúa, a Mexican coffee-flavored liqueur, is featuring in its add a famous Mexican actress, Ana de la Reguera. Kahlúa knows that Spanish is cool in the American culture, and many Americans want to learn some words, so why no featuring an ad with a hot Latina talking in Spanish in a beautiful Mexican market. Kahlúa also knows that America loves Mexican food, so it’s a good idea to associate the Kahlúa brand with the Mexican cuisine, and leverage on it.

I’m not sure if Kahlúa will attract new consumers with this ad, or if it will help to increase its market share and revenue, but if the strategy is to associate the brand with the Hispanic culture and build from this tactic, in my opinion they are doing the right thing.

Probably next summer people will say DELICIOSO for things that they like to eat.

The power of advertising

I was quite impressed by this TV ad about Hervey the dog.

Thinkbox, the agency that made the ad, is the marketing body for TV commercials in the UK. The idea of the ad is to show advertisers the power of advertising.

While watching the ad I remembered the consumer bill of right that we covered during class:

1.The Right to Safety

2.The Right to be informed

3.The Right to Choose

4.The Right to be heard

5.The Right to Consumer Education

Hervey’s ad exemplifies the right to be informed, which is that consumers have the right to be protected against misleading information, and to be given the facts they need to make an informal choice.

In the ad, Hervey is probably the less attractive dog comparing the other two dogs, but after showing its own TV ad, Hervey become the most attractive one, showing how cool will be having him at home.

Thinkbox made this commercial to attract new advertisers, the ad shows the power of advertising, the question here is, if customers still believe in TV ads or if they prefer to be connected with their brands by new marketing vehicles, such as social media?

Please take a look, I promise you’ll like it.

Welcome to the new laptop era

By now few people remember the few colors options offered at the end of last century when buying a laptop, it was only black or gray. Now after a decade of innovation, we are probably in front of other revolutionary idea.

We all know that the new trend in marketing is to incorporate the five senses, if possible, when interacting with customers. Brands can connect in a more powerful way with customers if they stimulate all their senses.

As Sony did with its color laptops when introduced a few years ago, a strategy all competitors followed, now Asus is trying to stand out. The Taiwanese computer manufacturer launched one computer that is out of the ordinary.

The F6 laptop has four exclusive designs and smells! That’s right the laptops are infused with a scented smell, but don’t expect that the smell will last a lifetime, as Asus said, “the lifespan of fragrance depends on actual usage.” I don’t know how well Asus did with the model in Asia since it was introduced in 2008, and I’m not sure if Asus have plans to introduced it here now, I believe it could be successful, but unfortunately at that time Asus didn’t have a strong presence in the American market. I know the introduction made some noise in blogs, now I’m wondering if a more “trendy” brand in the consumer electronic market, such as Sony or Apple, would follow this initiative in the future.

http://event.asus.com/notebook/f6v/

York Peppermint Patty

When I started reading the book Brandjam by Marc Gobe I saw the York Peppermint Patty ad, and I couldn't stop thinking about it through out the first two chapters, probably because is the first time I hear about this chocolate (we don't have it in Latin America) or probably because it emphasizes the emotional side, the book's subject, actually the very first sentence in the book is "Brands today must shift from communications and commodities to emotions and design."

After watching it for several times I think that this ad is one of the best emotional commercials right now, all the add is about the five senses, and how the patty stimulate all of them, and for me it was enough to actually buy one. But before posting here I decided to look at some online discussion about the ad and I found that most people hate it. It looks that the girl had been in other ads or so, and the idea of "get the sensation" has been out side for a while (more than 10 years).

As a new customer I can say that the ad works and works well, so please if you have any comment specially if you hate it please share it.