Gum Brand Goes Pop

Hit songs have been used to promote products for as long as anyone can remember, which appears to be the case in the latest Doublemint Gum spot featuring R&B singing sensation Chris Brown and his latest chart topping hit “Forever”. However the music for “Forever” was actually created for the ad first as opposed to an ad capitalizing on a song that had become a hit. In the continuing battle to get consumers attention in new ways, what we’re witnessing here is part of the ongoing convergence of advertising and entertainment into new forms of branded entertainment.

For years, even dating back to the early days of television, we’ve seen deferent forms of branded entertainment, especially in the movies. Usually we see it in the form of very subtle product placements, with a product mention here or a logo there, the exception being Michael Bay’s The Island which went placement overboard to help fund the film.

The Doublemint example is different though, because the music for “Forever” was actually written for the new Doublemint spot first and then extended with new lyrics for the hit song while retaining the line “Double Your Pleasure, Double You Fun”. Not only was that line kept in the lyrics, but in the video’s opening scene shows Chris Brown popping a stick of Doublemint Gum into his mouth just before entering the dance club. The whole thing was a well planned out tactic to get Doublemint inserted into popular culture, and it worked.

This spot is part of a three spot campaign designed to inject energy into Wrigley’s three major gum brands, Doublemint, Big Red and Juicy Fruit by using popular recording artists in highly stylized, upbeat ads. But only the Doublemint campaign transcends advertising and directly influences pop culture, even if very few people actually realize that they’re dancing to a gum ad.

Credit the strategic minds at Translation Advertising who, according to The Wall Street Journal, produced the campaign as part of their idea to contract popular recording artists to help write and conceive songs that would promote products and receive airplay. Their first attempt to do this failed when a new McDonald’s “I’m Love’n It” jingle was recorded by Justin Timberlake, but the song was never added to his album or released to radio stations. With Brown they tried it again with original music and nailed it.

With the success of the Forever/Doublemint Gum experiment, will we see more efforts like this? Do we even want to see more of this? The answer to the first part is yes we most likely will; the answer to the second part is yes if it’s done as well as this, but we’ll most likely see plenty of botched efforts to go with the good ones. I’m willing to bet none as successful as this, in the mean time you hear Chris Brown and can’t resist breaking into a step or two, try not to swallow your gum.

Jake Crocker is a Partner and Brand Marketing Director at Martin Branding Worldwide, Inc.

I’m A PC, You’re a PC, Everyone’s A PC!

Well Microsoft has done it; right when I was ready to start criticizing their new marketing efforts, they completely turn it around with the new I’m a PC campaign for their Windows operating system. This campaign immediately follows the bewildering Microsoft corporate ads staring Jerry Seinfeld paling around with Bill Gates (proving Larry David was the real genius behind Seinfeld) and their poorly thought out ads for the Mohave, uh I mean Vista operating system (effectively reminding everyone that people think Vista sucks rather than otherwise).

I must admit the I’m a Mac campaign Apple has been running over the past couple years has been one of the more effective consumer product campaigns. This campaign contributed heavily to Apple’s rapid gain in market share against their Microsoft Windows operating PC competitors both in the US and Worldwide. The campaign painted PC as difficult, inferior and just not cool or with it, while at the same time portraying Mac as cool, calm and collective personality who is with it. The stereotypes were dead on and of course everyone wanted to be the Mac guy and not the nerdy PC guy. All the wile Microsoft sat back and absorbed the blows while Apple kept the campaign rolling.

So when it was announced several months ago that Microsoft hired hot Miami ad shop Crispin Porter + Bogusky, I was very interested to see how the firm that put some life into Burger King and the edge back in Volkswagen would handle the bland brand Microsoft’s Windows operating system had become. The solution, directly address the PC stereotype and then rebuild the Windows brand by clearly and compellingly demonstrating that PC is in fact the computer of and for everyone and force Mac back into the niche market box it lived in through most of the 90’s and early 2000’s.

This new approach works for one simple reason, it speaks the truth. Although I’m personally caught in between both brands by sitting here typing away on my MacBook that’s running a Windows XP operating system (yes, you can do that now), the truth is the vast majority of computer users are still using PC’s running Windows at home and at work. These are not all geeky computer guys, although those are the guys that usually fix them (see my blog on Geek Squad), these are people of all ages, sexes, interests, professions, political opinions, levels of creativity, styles of facial hair, celebrity status and apparently even those who express that creativity by “challenging” the law.

The PC and therefore the Windows operating system by Microsoft is truly the brand of everyone and this campaign absolutely nails that position. The position is clear and the execution is outstanding, not only just with the new series of TV spots, but with the matching internet ad campaign and the new windows.com website where PC users can upload pictures of themselves as a chance for everyone to tell the world that “I’m a PC”.

Jake Crocker is a Partner and Brand Marketing Director at Martin Branding Worldwide, Inc.

Don Draper on Branding



In anticipation of next week’s premier of the second season of the fantastic original series Mad Men on the AMC network, I wanted to share and discuss this scene from last season of the show’s main character Don Draper pitching Kodak’s Carousel slide projector.

This scene is set in the fictional 1960’s Madison Avenue advertising agency that is the primary setting of the show; a time that’s well before the term “branding” was in common use. This is back when ad agencies were hired to recommend the core positioning of their client’s product or service and communicate that position to the public on their behalf. This is what we call branding today -- connecting the core message of the product to the consumer and setting the expectation of performance. Unfortunately today most ad agencies skip positioning and just ask their clients what they want to say and are really just in business to find clever ways to say it. I should know, as earlier in my career it was my job to do the asking; now it’s to do the recommending.

In this clip Don Draper explains to the executives from Kodak that it is not the new technology of the slide projector wheel that will resonate with the costumer, but rather that customers need to “be engaged in a level beyond flash” and they must be able to have a “sentimental bond with the product”. Well said Don! This is exactly what branding is all about and what every product or service must have at the core of its brand - an emotional trigger that causes the customer to react and connect to what benefit that brand delivers.

At my firm we like to use Volvo as a great example of a brand that has the concept of Safety as the emotional trigger at the core of its brand – the one thing that their customers have been responding to – and Volvo has been delivering -- consistently for decades. Safety is great as there is not much stronger of an emotional motivator than self-preservation and protecting one’s family. In the clip, Draper taps into the emotional nostalgia and memories of one’s own childhood and family – which he demonstrates by showing slides of his own - and concludes by saying “it takes us to a place where we ache to go again…..it’s not called a wheel, it’s called a carousel”.

Whether this is an accurate depiction of how Kodak came up with the name Carousel for their rotating slide projector or not is anyone’s guess, but it’s definitely a product name that clearly and compellingly evokes the emotions of personal memories. More importantly though, this product actually delivers on that promise and that is what a good brand is all about.

Jake Crocker is a Partner and Brand Marketing Director at Martin Branding Worldwide, Inc.

Geek Squad vs. Firedog – Who You Gonna Call?

There is a battle royale brewing over who American’s trust the most to let into their homes to connect their modem or install their 52” hi-def, surround sound home theatre system. The battle is being waged between Best Buy’s Geek Squad home service and installation brand and Circuit City’s answer, Firedog.

Firedog, launched a little over a year ago is the brand Circuit City created to take on their arch rival Best Buy’s, Geek Squad. It is a brand that according to Circuit City CEO Philip J. Schoonove , “represents consumers' relationship with technology” and wants Firedog to be your “best friend.” That has a nice ring to it, it’s all about establishing relationships, and more specifically the trusting relationship one has with their best friend. Whether establishing a relationship with a human or canine, there is an emotional connection there, which is important to building any brand. But is that the type of relationship or emotion needed to get my internet service connected? Not exactly.

This is where Geek Squad nails it; they’ve built a brand around the concept of computer geeks that come to your rescue and gets your system working again. My best friend is great for getting together for a few drinks and discussing life, but when it comes to getting my stuff working right I’ll call the computer geek every time. Sure it’s a stereotype, but there’s something about a socially awkward, fashion challenged guy with taped glasses and an obsession with fantasy role playing that assures me that they know there way around my computer and entertainment system. Does that have an emotional connection though? You bet it does, confidence and security is a strong emotion and one that is crucial when it come to a customer’s big-ticket purchase and vital communications connections.

It’s not just the image the name conjures up though; Geek Squad’s holistic branding approach integrates their core brand throughout into their entire organization. Everything from their “agents” dressed in white shirts and black ties, driving the always offbeat Volkswagen Beetle to applying a whole fantasy secret spy organization themed hierarchy to their organizational structure. For example the head of Geek Squad is called “Chief Inspector”, managers of standalone stores are called “Precinct Chiefs” and even the call-in technical support guys are called “Covert Operators”. By doing this, Geek Squad is living and breathing their brand every day and the public is buying into it.

Pushing the Geek Squad brand to the market has been equally excellent as they nail it in their commercials featuring geeky stuff like jet packs and teleports. However where they really do a great job with pushing the geek brand into the public consciousness is with their unique non-traditional media tactics, like claiming their own category in an episode of Jeopardy.

So what is Firedog doing to live their “best friend” brand? They certainly look like nice clean cut suburbanites, dressed in their khakis and a lime green polo shirts with the Firedog logo on it. Someone that I would feel comfortable with letting in the house when they came to my door like they were one of my real friends. But they don’t exactly make you feel secure that they’re going to do a good job hooking my system up. However, I might ask them if they wanted to play a round of golf with the guys and me this weekend. After all, they’re already dressed the part.

Hey Geek Squad, my router is not routing anything right now, can you come over and fix it? Just make it tomorrow morning; I’ve got a noon tee-time with Firedog.

Jake Crocker is a Partner and Brand Marketing Director at Martin Branding Worldwide, Inc.

Obama’s VP Decision Should Be Based on Brand

Now that he has clinched the Democratic Party nomination for president, Barack Obama has a choice to make in a running mate. After fighting an epic and historic political battle to secure the nomination over Hillary Clinton, many are speculating -- and Clinton is hoping -- that she will now be selected to be his Vice Presidential running mate in the general election. This is being billed by some as the ultimate “dream ticket” Democrats need to regain the White House. However, this dream ticket would in fact be a nightmare for Obama as it would completely contradict the Obama brand that he has worked so hard to build and has carried him so far.

Senator Obama’s current run has been carried on the strength of his core brand: CHANGE. Change has been his message from the beginning and unlike the other candidates he not only speaks about change, but like any good brand, he is in every way the very embodiment of his core brand position. Like any great marketing campaign, while Clinton was constantly changing her message, Obama stayed consistent and continued to drive home his message of change clearly and compellingly throughout the entire primary process.

If he is to continue his successful run, Obama’s VP choice needs to be a decision based on what is best in-line with his brand position. Hillary Clinton is therefore not the right choice as she is in fact she is the very opposite of what he represents. The change message is not just a change from Bush message it’s about change from politics as usual in Washington and especially in the White House. Wouldn’t adding someone to the ticket that has actually lived in the White House and has now firmly established herself as a major player on Capital Hill represent the very opposite of change? Yes it would, and no matter how you spin it the American people won’t buy it.

Obama has not wavered one bit from his brand position of change, the position that has carried him to this point. With such a crucial decision to make in a race that is sure to come down to the wire, he only has to continue to practice what he has been preaching this whole time to guide him with making his choice in a running mate.

Jake Crocker is a Partner and Brand Marketing Director at Martin Branding Worldwide, Inc.

Big Brown Carrying the Brand

Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Big Brown takes aim at making history by capturing horse racing’s Triple Crown this weekend. But despite what happens at Belmont, this thoroughbred has already made history. Big Brown has become the first completely branded horse, threatening to significantly change the way this traditional sport does business.

Big Brown’s success could represent a sort of NASCARization of horse racing. Gambling is what has made this a profitable venture for the owners, but it takes plenty of money to purchase, train and care for a horse and more times than not this is a unprofitable or at best break even investment. Enter corporations like UPS and now, from its name to the UPS logo on the jockey’s leg to even what the horse itself represents – speedy delivery (in the form of a large brown vehicle) with Big Brown, UPS is using an avenue that has never been used before to advance a major brand.

Does this mean that other company’s will jump on the bandwagon and soon you’ll no longer see horses named Smarty Jones, War Emblem and Thunder Gulch, instead replaced by horses named after FedEx, Miller Light and Viagra? It’s not that far fetched, certainly product branded race teams is the reason why NASCAR went from southern dirt tracks to the multi-billion national sport that it is today. Win or lose, these teams make for a good investment because of what sponsors are wiling to pay for the exposure. So more horses nicknamed after their sponsor and jockey’s—or even the horses themselves—loaded with product logos could very well be on the horizon, especially after all the exposure Big Brown has received.

In today’s cluttered marketplace where brands have to compete more than ever for attention and advertising in traditional media gets less and less effective; company’s are going to continue to look for more and more opportunities such as this get their mark in front of a captive audience. It just so happens that a centuries old sport could be one of the latest ways to accomplish that.

Jake Crocker is a Partner and Brand Marketing Director at Martin Branding Worldwide, Inc.

The Starbucks Experience – To Go?

I’ve been watching with interest recently as Starbucks has been rolling out their new drive thru concepts nationally. With each new drive thru they open, I can’t help to think that the company is inflicting tremendous damage to the long term viability of the Starbucks brand itself in the name for a short term boast in profits.

The core of the Starbucks brand is not coffee, but on the overall experience (including coffee) that a Starbucks coffee shop provides its customers. From the moment you walk into the shop you are immersed into and environment that is welcoming and provides an escape; an environment built to create loyalty and kept caffeine craving customers coming back again and again.

For many their local Starbucks become their third place – that is the place where people could grab a cup of coffee, read the paper, fire up their laptops and stay for a few minutes or a few hours without any pressure to clear the space for the next customer. For most it was more than just a great cup of coffee, it was an escape to from the chaos of home and work.

So when you build a brand who’s very essence, and therefore success, is based on providing an certain experience, how do you justify altering your format so now your customer’s don’t have to come into the shop anymore? For short term profits, I have no doubt it will be a success, but success that will come at the cost of diluting the brand and sacrificing its long term value.

A new one just opened less than a mile from my house, making it very easy for me to zip in every morning to grab my Iced Caramel Macchiato to go. But you know what, I never go; instead I hit the Starbucks near my office where I can grab a cup and read the newspaper, because after all that is what Starbucks is all about.

Jake Crocker is a Partner and Brand Marketing Director at Martin Branding Worldwide, Inc.