One of our clients recently unveiled a new campaign that we're really proud of, and I though I'd share a bit of it with you.

Carpet town is a local retailer that may have started as a carpet store years ago, but today, they have one of the best selections of carpet, wood and vinyl flooring, and window treatments in the area. And yet, their name — Carpet Town — is so well known, they're hesitant to change it. Understandable. So we wanted to communicate to consumers that their trusted source for Carpet is also a great place to buy other home decorating products at similarly great prices with similarly great service. How'd we do that? Here's a couple examples:


A mirror graphic in the bathroom


We decorated the exposed elevator shaft in the lobby of this mall with curtains and a "rug" floor graphic.

This has been a fun project for us. In store media is one thing... In MALL media is another. It's been fun to work with the unique opportunities Mayfair mall has given us. More on this campaign later this week.

Here at Meyer & Wallis, we were just working on a presentation for one of our clients. They're an undergraduate university, targeting high school juniors and seniors with their new campaign. In our preparation, we cited a very well-known metrics provider whose published statistic had the average teen online for 11.5 hours a month. A MONTH. Several of us raised a red flag on that one, so we called the company, who said they've since revised that figure to about 25 hours a month. Really? Less than an hour a day? Are you seriously serious?

I suppose when the television came out, there were die-hard naysayers who swore it would never steal market share or significance from radio. They probably even settled into some serious denial about how popular TV was getting.

Let's be clear. Young adults entering college this fall were born in 1991, the same year America Online was launched for home computers. This generation has never known a world without the internet. And it has grown up along side them. They are as infinitely familiar with it as our great great grandparents were with typewriters or telegraphs, or as people always have been with the newest technology of their generation. To assume that teens will now suddenly conform their use of the media to that of us adults is just silly.

What am I saying? This generation is already starting to graduate from college and enter the workplace. As they gain more buying power, more advertising of traditional goods and services will be aimed at them. This will necessarily mean more interactive marketing, and probably less traditional marketing as we've known it. And yet it seems that there are still those big name companies who would have us believe that the standard media mix of the last 50 years isn't really going to change.

Well, change is coming:
$55 Billion Forecast for Interactive Marketing in 2014

With each passing year, there will be more and more consumers expecting marketers to meet them in the digital realm; not for the novelty of it, but because that's where they've lived all their lives.

I would think that statistic we cited should be about 400 hours a week. Not in terms of undivided attention, but in terms of availability and access. Think about it. Kids always have their cellphones on them, and many of these can access Facebook and Twitter, if not the whole internet. When they're home doing their homework, they're in front of their computers. And when they're done with their homework, they're still in front of their computers chatting with their friends. They shop/play/learn/socialize/create online. If teens are awake, they're plugged in.

So, are you ready for the digital realm? More and more, your customers are there. Meyer & Wallis is there. Are you?

The creative execution of this ad sucks you in, especially when it really counts. An ad you'll watch all the way through. Nice work!

 

Brand Autopsy reports on a second recent venture by Starbucks aimed at reclaiming much of what the brand has lost. While Starbucks' brand strategy was initially built on creating unique, intimate spaces in each of its locations, the demands of scaling up the company's operations required "homogenization," to put it kindly.

Now, Starbucks is looking for ways to get its soul back. How? By emulating the very "ma and pa" cafés it competes with to learn first hand what it is that draws customers to them.

It's quite a fascinating case of the shoe being on the other foot, or however that saying goes, and probably exactly what Starbucks needs to do. Good for them.

Ok. I am NOT easily offended. Or at least I don' think I am. Anyway, this recent Microsoft ad has been pulled in response to an inundation of complaints. And I have to say, with it's repeated depiction of vomiting and not-subtle-at-all suggestions of pornographic fetishes, I think it's safe to say that this spot crosses the line from provocative to poor taste.

Don't believe me?




So what's Microsoft's strategy, anyway? Do they have one consistent message they're trying to get across? What's the message of this spot in particular? "Use our browser to keep secrets from your spouse"? Incidentally, there are a handful of other browsers that already have this "private browsing" feature, so Microsoft isn't even making a unique claim here. Honestly, what were they thinking??

My best guess is that Microsoft sees Apple — its main competition — as elitist and expensive, and thinks that if they market to the less sophisticated Joe Normals of the world, they're getting to some customers that Apple hasn't gotten to yet. But you have to wonder if Microsoft considered all the people they might offend with this spot. What about them? Won't their negative impression of Microsoft somehow hurt the company?

Why do I feel like I'm thinking about this harder than Microsoft did?

A funny/clever/witty/edgy ad gets people's attention. But the point of good advertising is not just to engage consumers, but to engage them and then deliver a message. The idea for the set-up in this Microsoft spot took precedent over carefully considering what they had to say. The only point they sell about their browser is a weak one, so the payoff of the spot is weak. And instead of remembering it at the end of the spot, most people, it seems, just remember being offended.

Offensiveness. Nah... that's not a sound retail marketing strategy.

We've talked about Starbucks here before — the veritable icon of the personal luxury that characterized pre-recession America — and the trouble their brand is in. McDonalds billboards touting their cheaper line of coffee drinks with the simple headline "Less Bucks" hit Starbucks right in the beans. Stores have been closing across the globe.

Will Starbucks remain viable? Can they reinvent their brand in time?

It's funny. At least here in Milwaukee, several locally based coffee shops have popped up all over the place over the last decade, almost in response/defiance to Starbucks. They've sought ways to differentiate themselves, and have found quite a few — live music on the weekends, local pastries and produce... some have even taken to serving select wines and beers.

Well, it seems that Starbucks is now looking to the local coffeehouse scene it helped create for its own salvation.

in an experimental move, the company just dropped the Starbucks name from one of their Seattle-area stores, and the rebranded cafe is adding beer and wine to the menu.

Will this brand strategy be the future of Starbucks? Will the one-time hangout of yuppie teenagers become the future hangout of yuppie 20- and 30-somethings?

They sure seem to hope so.

Read the full article here.

Some of the language in this video is a little NSFW. Still, I just had to post it, because it is a 100% REAL commercial from Chicago. I have to assume it's only played on TV very late at night.

Type in the URL at the end of the video for more of this guy's commercials. Yes, the website is real, too.

 

UPDATE: For your convenience, here's the link to his website. Check it out. It'll make you laugh.

Have a great weekend!

Well, well, well... A couple weeks ago, I wrote about  KFC's new grilled chicken options. This, from the restaurant chain that has been systematically removing any hint of deep fryery from their branding for over a decade. Given other fast food chains' recent and similar moves, my hopes were not high for this one. Still, even a fried squirrel finds a grilled nut sometimes.

The launch of grilled chicken has been KFC's most successful product launch to date.

Well, I for one can't wait for the KFC Chicken Salad.

You know, advertising is an interesting thing. There aren't really any laws that determine who can buy ad space in a magazine, on television, on a billboard... anything. It's all fair game, as long as you have the money. Usually, that naturally limits advertisers to companies with a product to sell who might grow their business through an investment in advertising.

But I've often wondered, aside from the odd "Becky — will you marry me?" billboard, has an individual ever run an ad campaign just cause they had something to say and the money to make it happen? Well, the answer is yes.

This message has been brought to you by Mr. Keith Mills, a wealthy British investor, who reminds 
financial institutions everywhere not to piss off wealthy British investors.

So. Bing, Microsoft's answer to Google's search engine, has been out a month. Initial reviews were positive. Would this be the search engine — I'm sorry, "decision engine" — that would finally put a dent in Google?

In a word, no. (click)

While Microsoft's $100 million campaign had some clever spots in it, it just goes to show you that, at the end of the day, you can't sell something that people truly don't want, no matter how good the advertising is.

Whole Foods added its one millionth follower on Twitter. So what, you say? This makes them the first retail brand to do so. How did they build such a monstrous following? Buy tying in a promotion to following them on Twitter, of course. If you still have any doubts that Twitter can be a viable retail marketing tool, perhaps you should read the rest of the story here.

Disney has readily admitted that this video was staged, and intended to go viral. Still, doesn't it make you feel the "magic" of the Disney brand?

 

Almost 800,000 views so far. Clever, yes?

Now that our nation's Independence Day is out of the way, your thoughts have probably turned to upcoming events throughout the rest of the year. Like the rest of summer, for example. If you're real Type-A, maybe you're already planning your Labor Day celebration. Maybe.

Then again, Sears and Kmart would like you to know that now's the perfect time to get ready for Christmas.

That's right.

Yesterday, 372 Sears stores put out a limited selection of Christmas gear. Also, Sears.com and Kmart.com launched dedicated Christmas areas on their websites.

No need to check your calendar — Christmas still falls on the 25th of December this year. It's just that sales are slow right now, and retailers all over are losing money. Sears and Kmart know that holiday shopping is a relative sure thing, so they've decided to start letting people make holiday purchases now. They've also reintroduced the layaway program: start slowly paying for your Christmas stuff today, and take it home by December. Sears and Kmart supplement their summer sales, and you get that herd of festive sheep you've always wanted. Everybody wins!

Considering the flack retailers (and radio stations) seem to get each year with the competition to be the "first" to market with Christmas stuff, this is a bold move, indeed. I suppose desperate times call for desperate measures, but is this really the best way to increase revenue in a down economy? Aren't Sears and Kmart essentially stealing from their future revenues? It seems to me that the soundest retail marketing strategy would be to make the most of every retail season, not borrowing from future ones. That's robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Maybe what they really need is to call one of the most experienced retail advertising agencies around. And clearly, I'm not talking about Young and Rubicam.

Read more about this story here.

Just caught this tv spot for Barclays. I haven't seen an ad speak this frankly and creatively about the economic troubles we've been having. I don't know too much about Barclays, but they play up the stability and safety of their company like they've been saying it for 100 years. Not sure if that's a new brand strategy for them, but they do it very well.

A few weeks ago, I wrote on this blog about the growing number of "older" users on Facebook. All of a sudden, the fastest growing demographic on the site that used to be exclusively for college students had become adults in their 40s and above. Facebook has clearly been tweaking their feature set and user interface to be — how do I say this? — more approachable to the computer skill level of, say, my mother. Facebook probably thought this was great news; they've been trying to figure out how to make more money through advertising, and adding a new demographic certainly can't hurt.

Right?

Well, looky here:



Look at the growth broken down by "Current Enrollment," at the bottom of the chart. Turns out, kids of all ages dislike having their parents and grandparents commenting on photos of an evening spent bar hopping, or reading their "wall," or, God forbid, friending their friends. In it's effort to be all inclusive, Facebook might have alienated the demographic on which it built its business. And if the kids leave, will the parents stick around?

We've often worked with retail clients who are convinced the only way to grow their business is to please everybody they can possibly reach. But that's just not possible. If you try to be everything to everybody, you're going to wind up spread too thin and you risk losing any kind of discernable identity. Our favorite retail marketing strategy is to identify a client's key strengths, and directly target the consumers who'd be most interested in those strengths. Why direct your retail advertising toward consumers who, based on their needs and preferences, really wouldn't chose your store over the one they already prefer?

In their bid to appeal to everyone, Facebook may see a new startup do to them what they did to MySpace not long ago. Sometimes, it's best not to please everybody, as long as you can be okay with that.

Chart found via Read Write Web.

Can a static ad be "conversational?" How do you feel after the Pringles brand after clicking on this banner for a while?



If you think it's pretty clever, you're not alone. It won gold at Cannes last week. As online advertising strategies go, this one feels pretty unique. I can't think of the last time I paid more than half a second of attention to a banner ad. What do you think?

There's been a fresh wave of line extensions amid this recession (Kentucky GRILLED chicken, anyone?), but that still doesn't mean it's a good idea. While reason would seem to dictate that if your category's business is shrinking, you should expand your wares, sound retail marketing insight dictates otherwise, as this excellent article over at Ries' Pieces articulates. Check it out.

The first filmed advertisement aired in 1906, for Sunlight Soap (a Lever product).



Compelling, isn't it?

Talk about media buying! This is the top winner in the outdoor category at the recent Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival. Quite the provocative headline, eh? Read the unique campaign's full story here.

Sometimes being an internet ad agency isn't about flashy animated websites. Sometimes the most effective interactive media is the easiest to find, and that has more to do with playing by Google's rules than outside-the-box creative. Yes, sometimes the most important tweaks to your website can seem downright ho-hum. But they make a world of difference. There's a nice summary of the kind of things you need to think about in order to make your website "more than just a website," as we like to say. Check it out here.

It doesn't take a complete redesign to make your website work harder for you. Talk to Meyer & Wallis about ways we can help you improve your existing site today.