Donna's Promo Talk - Promotional Marketing that Creates Excitement and Gets Results

NBC Promotes Sunday Night Is Football Night

It's already Week 4 of the new NFL football season and I can't believe I haven't written about football once since it started. Last year I had this post written on opening day. We all start out with great hopes for our team and by now we're either still very optimistic or we're realizing that we're in for a very long season.

Well the Buffalo Bills are now 4-0! They haven't been in this spot in 16 years, since 1992 when they were the Super Bowl team that consisted of Jim Kelly, Thurman Thomas and Bruce Smith! We Bills fans are very, very ecstatic. However, we do realize that since they haven't made the playoffs in the past decade that they've been given a pretty easy schedule this year. Plus, their conference rivals, The New England Patriots have lost their star quarterback, Tom Brady, so that has helped their season outlook quite a bit as well.

NBC Sports is back, entering its third season, with their Sunday Night Football season this year and their main objective is still focused on making "Sunday Night Football Night". They started off the season this year with a September promotion in 7-Eleven stores aimed at targeting its core audience, 18-to- 34-year-old males who NBC sees as the hardcore fans for these Sunday night games.

The Big Match-Up Promotion features branded Big Gulp cups with full Sunday Night Football schedules and branded hot dog containers for that Super Big Bite at 7-Eleven. Banners bearing NBC Sports’ signature tagline, “Sunday night is football night,” are displayed in the windows of the 6,000 7-Eleven stores around the country. Theses banners are co-branded with Pepsi who is a sponsor of NBC’s Sunday night football franchise.

“We wanted to be the first sports franchise to be in 7-Eleven because it’s the best way to reach that hard-to-reach male demographic,” said Mike McCarley, vice president of marketing, promotions and communications for NBC Universal Sports & Olympics. “It’s a great destination to reach those young men who are the avid core football fans.”

7-Eleven found that Sunday Night Football tested off its focus research charts in appeal among those young males, compared to movies it’s promoted to that same demographic crowd, according to McCarley.

7-Eleven came up with the Big Match-Up concept to tie to its Big Gulp and Super Big Bite. Fans had the chance to enter all month in a sweepstakes for a chance to win a trip to a live taping at Football Night in America at NBC Studios in NYC. FreshWorks, who I previously wrote about here when they won this year's top  Reggie Award for another 7-Eleven promotion, are executing the campaign.

NBC Sports has also created the Sunday Night Cookbook which is being marketed through Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble outlets. The cookbook is part of a partnership with Time Warner Home Entertainment and features recipes from top chefs and players representing each NFL team, along with NBC’s announcing crew and singer Faith Hill. Sales proceeds are going to Taste of the NFL, which supports food banks around the country, and the book is expected to be a big holiday season hit.

Well this Sunday Night Football game just ended and the Chicago Bears beat the Philadelphia Eagles 24-2O. It was a great football game. The Bears!

Now we still have 13 more weeks left in this NFL season. Can the Bills hang in there for the long haul? I don't know, but it's gonna be fun watching them. At least we have a prayer. This is such as great game.

Taking Another Look at Mobile Marketing

Yesterday we had the formal announcement of the new G-phone by T-Mobile who unveiled their new G1 mobile phone which is powered by Google's Android operating system and is bundled with Google software including search, Gmail, Maps and YouTube. This announcement gave me the incentive today to get back to writing about PMA's Digital Marketing Summit that I attended about two weeks ago in downtown NYC. We spent much time discussing mobile marketing during this day, so here are some of the highlights.

One of the sessions at the summit was a panel discussion titled "The World is Changing in the Palm of Your Hand: Make Mobile Marketing and Digital Out of Home work for you". Out of the three people on the panel I was most impressed with what Anthony Iacovone, Chief Strategy Officer at Augme Mobile, had to say. His presentation was focused on how to integrate mobile into our traditional media plans.

This was the first time that I had heard the term 'Traditional Media" referred to as online display ads vs. non-online (TV, Print, Radio, Outdoor, etc). It made me realize that now, 2009, is the time to really start looking at mobile seriously. That coupled with the fact that I have two teenage daughters that show me everyday that their phone is the center of their universe, makes me even more clear that we need to start the integration.

And integration as Anthony said is the key. Just don't set out to "do a mobile marketing program" because the client wants to. The same as we just can't do a viral marketing program because that's the cool thing to do now. But instead look at our current plan and see how we can integrate a viral component, or in this case, a mobile component. We don't necessarily have to recreate the wheel and start from scratch to do this.

Anthony went on to say that mobile can be overlaid to help invigorate your "traditional" media plan. But you shouldn't look at it as just another place to display your banner ad. He called it a "Physical World Bookmark".

Today now with the announcement of the first G-phone we have a new member of the "touch screen" iPhone family. The phones are advancing and the networks are now ready to embrace the growth. However, there are still many barriers and complications, just as there are with serving up video and rich media online today. Anthony referred to this as the "mobile maze"....hundreds of devices with different systems, screen sizes, etc. and with four different major operators.

Here are some of the stats that he shared with us:

• 195 active SMS users in the U.S.
• 65 Million U.S. Mobile Internet users in 2008
• 97% of consumers carry their phone at retail
• It's not just kids who are using the advanced functions
• 100+ brands have used mobile in 2008 advertising plans
• $1.6 billion spent on mobile advertising in 2008 so far
• 34% of brand will use mobile in 2009

I sat in on a presentation earlier this year from Forrester on their Five Year Interactive Marketing Forecast. They predicted at that time that mobile was 18 months out. Now that presentation was back in early March, so second half of 2009 is where we should see mobile really start to trend upward quickly.  I think we better start putting mobile into the 2009 plans now.

Marketing to the Baby Boomers - 50+

I'm going to make this a quick post. I don't have much time, however I did want to write something here this morning because today's my birthday. And it's not just any birthday. It's the BIG one as the say with the BIG "F" word in it. Yes I'm now officially 50 years old as of 10am EST on this 20th day of September, 2008.

What that means, especially to us in the marketing and advertising industry, is I now have to check the box that puts me in that other demo. The "older adult" demo vs. the "middle-age adult" demo. At least I'm still not in the last box, the 65+ demo. My sister, Frances, had to rub it in and send me this "over the hill" ecard from AOL this morning. When you click on it you get the word "Fifty" of course.

I just wrote a couple of posts about marketing to millennials, those that were breed from us baby boomer parents. So what about us baby boomers?

I was sitting in a presentation the other day given by two fine young women who work for Platform A, the still fairly new conglomerate that is comprised of many smaller companies such as AOL and Advertising.com and who are all owned now by Time-Warner. They were presenting many facts about online usage and the trends we'll see over the next 5-7 years. Bridget joked about one of her first computer memories as a kid which was playing the famous "Oregon Trail". Now I recall playing that with my kids. It brought me back to the fact that when I started in this business there was no such thing as online, let alone a choice of computer games to play.

I was talking to another women that I work with this week, Tracy, and confessed to her that it was my 50th birthday this weekend. She's just a couple of years behind me and we both agreed that in our minds we don't feel 50. We're still the same person we've always been, just a little smarter and wiser from all our experiences. Yes, I need a little more sleep than I used to and I don't bend quite as easy, but I'm still the same person. I have my likes and dislikes, and I'm even more sure of them now then I was in my younger days.

So why market to me differently? Oh I know, there's plenty of research available that tells us marketers why, how and what we should say to the different demographic segments. Now we have this thing called "behavioral targeting" as well. So how are us 50 year-old women supposed to behave? I'm new to this, so I guess I have to learn.

So, Happy Birthday to me (and anniversary). Yes, I got married on my birthday, 22 years ago today on a rainy Saturday afternoon. Today it's a beautiful, sunny Saturday (I think it's the official last day of Summer as well). My hubby's taking me out to play some golf. Maybe I'll get lucky and get a par. We'll see.

Politics, Sexism and Marketing to Millennial Women

Hey I wanted to let you know that today was my day again to post as a Guest Blogger on Lipsticking.com.

I've written what I think is a pretty engaging post titled: "Politics, Sexism and Marketing to Millennial Women".

This all came together after reading this great article written by Bonnie Fuller that was published online earlier this week on Ad Age. Between the presidential election race and what's happening with our financial industry and overall economy it's not easy to not get involved in a heated discussions. As marketers and particular women marketers, it is great to have forums like blogs to exchange our thoughts. So, please visit lipsticking.com here, read my post and leave a comment.

Thanks. I'll be back here at the end of the week to conclude my posts of the PMA Digital Marketing Summit.

McDonald's Lost Ring is Big Idea at PMA's Digital Marketing Summit

Here's a continuation of my report on PMA's first annual Digital Marketing Summit which was held last week at the Bridgewaters at the South Street Seaport in downtown NYC. After Rob Master, North American Media Director for Unilever, got us started off we then heard from the McDonald's brand/agency team, Kim Lloyd, Sr. Director of McDonald's Global Marketing and Julie Channing, Sr. Account Director with AKQA, with a presentation titled "Going Global with a Big Idea".

The big idea was the Lost Ring which I first wrote about here back in April after I attended PMA's Annual Integrated Marketing Conference where I got to hear Neil Golden, CMO of McDonald’s USA, give us a first look at this innovative program. The ultimate goal of this marketing campaign was to celebrate the spirit of the Olympic Games. McDonald's gave their agency, AKQA, a very brief, brief which stated this goal as well as it should also tie-in with Beijing as well as build the McDonald's brand on a global level.

Unilever Digital Marketing Campaigns top PMA's Summit

Yesterday I attended PMA's first annual Digital Marketing Summit which was held at an interesting location, the Bridgewaters at the South Street Seaport. It was a beautiful day so it was great to have a location like this that allowed the sun to shine through the windows and skylights as well as having a wrap around terrace that enabled us to walk outside during the breaks. It was however a bit technology challenged with sun glares hitting the presentation screen, videos not running on queue and mics that left somewhat to be desired. But all in all it was worth the trade-off.

Rob Master, North American Media Director for Unilever kicked off the morning with a history of some of the most successful digital marketing campaigns that all came from Unilever brands. Rob shared with us that overall Unilever has shifted from digital being just a part of the media plan to this year it being the centerpiece of their strategy. They've made an organizational commitment to this strategy and have agreed not to plan online in isolation. Their key driver is consumer engagement and they have consistently reached this goal through rich storytelling that has helped to bring their brands to life.

Their journey first began with the Axe brand when they created some entertaining and engaging content specifically for online which ended up going viral. They first showed these short form films, "mini-stories" as they were calling them, to focus groups and tried to explain what these online programs were. This resulted in the term "webisode" first being put on the map.

Dove's Calming Nights products followed up next with a campaign which featured three original webisodes directed by Penny Marshall and starting Desperate Housewives actress Felicity Huffman. These webisodes which could be viewed on dovenight.com showed Felicity dreaming of visiting classic TV moms such as "Leave it to Beaver" mom June Cleaver, "The Munsters" mother Lily Munster and "The Brady Bunch" mom Carol Brady.

Next followed the birth of the "Viral Video" with the creation of Dove's now famous "Evolution". This video had legs way beyond their wildest estimates and proved that consumers are in control. 

Rob then shared with us an Evolution video parody that was posted here on YouTube.  Instead of a quick progression of a woman getting more beautiful, it was of a man getting fatter, older and uglier. Dove embraced this video instead of trying to shut it down.

Unilever’s I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter brand created an animated webisode series which turned its main character, Spraychel, into a star. Spraychel ’08 used political humor and asked the public to vote for her vs. butter and “demand 0 calories and great taste”.

Klondike Bar ran a consumer-generated video contest asking "What Would You Do for a Klondike Bar?". Some great videos have been submitted that can be viewed here which prove that there are some huge fans out there that love their Klondike Bars. Final winner should be announced this week.

“In The Motherhood” is a program developed by the Suave brand which started out by asking women bloggers to write about funny moments of being a mom. From these posts Suave has turned these stories into scripts and created a series of webisodes. They showed these at ABC’s upfront presentation this year since they will be moving them to primetime on the network this season. Here’s a great example of content starting online and moving to TV vs. TV shows going online.

So Rob wrapped up his review of the past and present digital marketing campaigns by giving us his recommendations on the top three ingredients that should be included:

1.    Provide a cross section of media that helps to bring the program to life

2.    Include relevant links to pop culture that provide opportunities for engagement and amplification

3.    Make sure you have rich and innovative storytelling at the center of the idea

Thanks Rob for sharing all this with us and kick-starting our day.

Stay tuned here to read more from some of the other great presenters PMA had lined up for us this day. I’ll be reviewing what we learned from McDonald’s, Borders.com, Digitas as well as those mobile experts who told us how to start implementing mobile into our online campaigns.

Looking Forward to PMA's Digital Marketing Summit

Next week I'll be heading down to New York City to attend PMA's first annual Digital Marketing Summit. I'm looking forward to it since I haven't been to any type of conference or workshop since last April when I attended PMA's Annual Integrated Marketing Conference in Chicago which I thought was great.

This conference titled, Digital Marketing Fully Integrated, brings together the country's leading digital marketers including Advertising Age's top 3 “Digital Marketers of the Year” that include Unilever, AKQA and Google, plus Promo's 2008 Agency of the Year, Digitas, which I wrote about here. It's being held at Bridgewaters at the South Street Seaport on Monday, September 8th.

Social Media &Traditional Media Mark This Labor Day

Labor Day weekend is coming to a close and it was such a beautiful one here that it's hard to relate to the storm, Hurricane Gustav, that has hit Southern Louisiana today. My husband, Kevin, and I had a chance to get out and play golf this morning and when we returned home we were eager to find out the latest on the storm since it was expected to hit land at midday.

Kevin checked online through Yahoo right away and we were relived to hear that it had not hit New Orleans directly as Katrina had. I then also got online and checked some of my social networks and blogs and saw that there was an amazing amount of chatter regarding the storm. Through Twitter I found a great deal of tweets on the subject. The social media site Mahalo has created a Hurricane Gustav Page. Here I got to see some YouTube videos of those recording from New Orleans as the storm was coming into the city. Every Dot Connects, an social media blog that I subscribe to had this post today with links to many Web 2.0 activity on the storm.

I felt it very ironic that mother nature decided to make a statement in New Orleans today... the same day that the Republican Convention was to get under way. It was the day that President Bush was to speak, which he smartly changed his plans and canceled his appearance. Not a good way to start a convention.

On top of that the media was interrupting coverage on the storm with the news that the just recently announced US Republican vice-presidential candidate Governor Sarah Palin's 17 year old daughter is pregnant. The question they're discussing is should the media make this news or leave it to the family?

One newscaster I saw on CNN, who I can't remember her name, said this is almost like a comedy. First off Sarah Palin looks quite a bit like Tina Fey, was a runner up for Miss America, works out of a building in a small town in Alaska that is no bigger than a corner store and now her teenage daughter is pregnant. This is gonna get interesting.

Since it was such a beautiful weekend here in Upstate New York (plus the end of the official summer season) besides grabbing updates on Gustav I did try and stay away from the computer. However, I did get a glimpse of a new announcement that came from Google today. They launched a new browser, called Chrome, which is really a pretty big thing. Why launch it on Labor Day? I don't know other than it's the first of the month. Mahalo also has a Google Chrome page on this that you can get some info on as well as the Google blog. I have to learn more about this soon.

On top of all this we survived our first full week without our daughter Kelsey at home and she survived her first full week at NYU learning how to get around Manhattan. Classes start tomorrow for her. My other daughter, Alex, will start her senior year of high school the day after, Wednesday, when the rest of the kids here all go back. Alex went to a Gossip Girl premiere party tonight at one of her girlfriend's. Now that's one of most important events of the day to them.

Whew, it has been quite a day! September has entered like a lion. Bye-bye summer!