Donna's Promo Talk

McDonald's Madagascar 2 Promo Helps Kids Move It

America has moved on with Election Day finally over and we're all now eagerly anticipating President-Elect Obama taking office. So it was a perfect weekend to launch a totally fun and highly anticipated animated movie sequel at the box office, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa.

My family are all huge Madagascar fans and we rank it as one of the best animated movies of all time, up there with Disney's The Lion King. I still laugh every time my daughter Alex (who happens to have the same name as the starring lion in the film) quotes one of the lines of the movie..."The penguins are psychotic!". Or when I hear that music..."You got to move it, move it".

Here's the Widget for Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa which is a DreamWorks film. According to early estimates it grossed a huge $63.5 mil from Friday through Sunday. That sum far exceeds the $47.2 mil that the first Madagascar flick grossed over Memorial Day weekend 2005, and it's the biggest for any movie since The Dark Knight's record-breaking $158.4 million back in July. It's also the second-best premiere ever for an animated movie that didn't open during the summer.

In conjunction with the release of "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa" McDonald's has launched their largest global Happy Meal event since its “Shrek 3” promotion in 2007. They have also launched One Minute to Move It -- a global children's well-being program designed to encourage kids to see what a difference a minute can make.

The goal of One Minute to Move It is to empower kids to take an active role in their own well-being by creating a minute of joyful self-expression. McDonald's is engaging kids and families around the world with major family events in key markets; an interactive digital community for kids; specially designed, motion-activated Happy Meal toys; and in-restaurant displays. Movie characters are featured on a variety of food choices including fruit, vegetables and milk products to reach kids in a fun and responsible way. The program began in North America on Friday with the release of the movie and will continue to roll out around the world through the first quarter of next year.

"One Minute to Move It encourages kids to take the first step -- one minute -- to do something they love like dancing, planting a flower, reading or writing, with the hope that it will provide inspiration for many more minutes to come," said Mary Dillon, Global Chief Marketing Officer, McDonald's. "This 'fun-with a-purpose' program represents a fresh new approach to our ongoing commitment to children's well-being."

McDonald's One Minute to Move It program is based on key findings from a first-ever global research study, reaching over 5,000 children ages 6 to 12 and parents across Europe, Asia, Latin America and the United States. Through an independent research company, Just Kid, Inc., McDonald's conducted the study to determine what motivates kids to be active, both physically and mentally, and what role McDonald's can play in helping kids lead a balanced lifestyle. The results were clear and consistent worldwide -- "joy of life" such as laughing, having fun and experiencing new things, and feeling "empowered" to make their own choices ranked the highest for both boys and girls across all ethnicities, ages and geographies.

To extend the fun and excitement of the program, kids can experience One Minute to Move It online at McDonald's digital kids' community, available at happymeal.com in North America. The site includes characters from Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa and offers one-minute, interactive games; activity suggestions to stimulate kids' "minutes;" and a "Minutes Played" collector to track minutes logged around the world. For the first time, "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa" Happy Meal toys in some countries will also feature codes that allow kids to unlock special content on the site.

For the first time in the United States, Nickelodeon is producing a 30-second feature about McDonald's One Minute to Move It with U.S. Olympic gymnast gold medalist Shawn Johnson. The feature is airing on Nickelodeon, Nicktoons networks and Nick.com. The Nickelodeon alliance expands in Australia with a One Minute to Move It event for kids and families at Dreamworld theme park in Australia's Gold Coast during the week of December 15th.

My daughter Alex is planning to go see the movie on Tuesday since they have the day off from school for Veteran's Day. I wish I also had the day off and could go with her. But, I'll have to wait. I hope it won't take me till it comes out on DVD, but if it does I'm sure it will be one of those that we purchase to own.

Election Day Gives Us Free Coffee, Donuts, Ice Cream and a New President

It's now just about 24 hours since the media officially announced that Barack Obama will be our next President of the United States. History was made last night and many of us are still walking around in awe today with a happy grin on our face and a very optimistic attitude. It also helped that it was November 5th and was sunny and hit 70 degrees in Western New York as well as a good portion of this country!

So, did you get your free Starbuck's yesterday? I didn't get a chance but my daughter Kelsey said she did. She was disappointed however that they ran out of "I voted" stickers because it was her first time voting. See the Starbuck's ad in my previous post.

Participating Krispy Kreme donut shops also had a free promotional offer and were giving customers a free star-shaped donut with red, white and blue sprinkles to those that showed their "I Voted" sticker (sorry Kelsey no donuts for you). Online they changed their traditional Krispy Kreme "hot light" sign signaling a new batch of donuts in stores "Hot Now" to instead read "Hot Vote Now".

If you didn't get free coffee or a donut, Ben & Jerry's was also "Celebrating Democracy" by offering a free scoop of ice cream between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. at participating scoop shops. Ben & Jerry's website has a link to a Facebook page that includes a special locator function that lists 24 colleges and universities around the country where company reps where scooping free Election Day ice cream in student unions and on campuses. Facebook profile pages have been created for each on-campus event with RSVP capability.

"We want to thank you for voting by giving you a free scoop of ice cream," reads the Ben & Jerry's college site Facebook copy. "If you did not vote, we'll give you a scoop anyway, but no complaining about the results"¦or the size of your scoop."

Besides theses promotions, online sites, especially social media, where all buzzing last night. I was tuned into Twitter's Election Day page that had so many tweets coming through it was hard to keep up with them. It was amazing to read the tweets that announced when a network proclaimed a state's winner. When Obama won Ohio I read about it on Twitter first before ABC news proclaimed it.

CNN.com reported today that they brought in 27 million unique visitors to their site on election day, a record. Comscore says they averaged just 5 million unique daily visitors in September, so this is more than 5x normal traffic. The site also generated an record 276 million page views.

So I don't think anything could top a day that gave us free coffee, red, white and blue sprinkled donuts, Ben & Jerry's ice cream, great warm weather, record-breaking online visitors and the democratic election of America's first black president!! Let's keep the momentum going!

Halloween Goes Political and Starbucks Launches Free Coffee Promo

Halloween in now over and Election Day is around the corner. The election played a big role in the choice of American's Halloween costumes with an estimated 574,000 adults dressing up to resemble a political figure. Along with the candidates Batman was also a very popular costumes due to this year's blockbuster hit The Dark Knight according to the National Retail Federation’s 2008 Halloween Consumer Intentions and Actions survey, conducted by BIGresearch. Batman came in at No. 6 for adults, No. 8 for children and No. 16 for pets.

The survey also estimated 2008 Halloween spending was to reach $5.77 billion, despite the economy. “Halloween is serving as a nice reprieve for many Americans this year,” said Phil Rist, Vice President of Strategy at BIGresearch. “Whether they hosted their own party or hit the streets trick-or-treating with their children, consumers want Halloween costumes to reflect their creativity.”

Sarah Palin costumes were very popular among females this year and Tina Fey of course takes the prize as the No.1 best impersonation of the VP Candidate. Here's the spoof she did on Saturday Night Live last night with John McCain. It's just too funny. You have to give McCain some credit for being such a good sport, even when the script has "Palin" going rouge and promoting a Palin in 2012 t-shirt for sale!

NBC developed this widget with the video which was very easy to find online this morning and it encourages viral marketing by providing several options to easily embed into your favorite social media sites. I put it on my Facebook profile as well.

Starbucks teamed up with NBC on this widget and used the SNL hype last night to launch their Election Day promotion which they will be giving away coffee on Nov. 4th.  Voters simply need to cast a vote, then tell the barista at their local Starbucks and they'll receive a tall cup of brewed coffee at no charge. Starbucks says "In the best tradition of democracy, we are using the honor system for proof of voting. "All consumers need to do is visit a participating Starbucks on Election Day and say that they voted. The Starbucks TV ad automatically runs at the end of the SNL skit.

So we have a bit of pop culture working into both our Halloween and our Election Day this year. Google also got in on the Halloween fun this year and sent us at the agency this Halloween greeting created by their new Ad Display Builder. I haven't tried it yet, but they claim they made this ad in two minutes.

Lastly, before Halloween '08 is a faint memory, you have up until Nov. 7th to enter your pet in the Better Homes and Gardens Halloween Pet Costume Photo Contest. Judges will vote on round 1 on Nov. 14th and select 20 finalists who will be posted online. The public can vote on their favorite up until Nov. 23rd. The winner will receive a Flip Video Mino Series Camcorder, a Philips 9-Inch Digital Picture Frame and a $200 VISA gift card. Four runners-up will each receive a $75 VISA gift card. So get those pet photos in now. As of today there are 246 photo uploaded. I'm a golden retriever lover, so this is my favorite.

Happy Belated Halloween. I hope you had a good one. And don't forget to vote on Tuesday!

Join The Cause to Help Violence Against Women

Since I launched this blog almost two years ago I've written several posts about Dove's Campaign For Real Beauty in an effort to help spread their positive self-esteem messages. One of the social media marketing firms that has helped Dove get this message out to us bloggers and into the social media word is RocketXL. I was recently honored when they contacted me about a totally new initiative that they're supporting that also involves empowering women.

So I couldn't help but utilize this blog as well as my guest blogging privileges on Lipsticking.com to help spread this message. Please visit my Lipsticking.com post to read about  The United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and their Say NO To Violence Against Women which is the new movement that RocketXL is now working with. You can join this movement by just simply adding your signature to the widget found below.

Steal a Base, Steal a Taco Gives up more Free Tacos in 2008 Promoiton

I just sat down to watch the beginning of the 4th game of the 2008 World Series. Pattie Labelle is singing the Star Spangled Banner who happens to be a Philadelphia native. Boy she's got some set of lungs!

Last night they we're going at it pretty late due to a 91-minute rain delay which left most of us this morning not knowing who won or if they even played. But they did play and the Phillies are now up two games to one against the Tampa Bay Rays. Even though I'm still getting over the fact that my team, the Boston Sox, aren't here, it still is the World Series.

Taco Bell is at it again this year utilizing its sponsorship of Major League Baseball with a promotion that will give everyone in the U.S. a free taco if a player in this year's World Series steals a base. Fans across the country again have the opportunity to be a part of the World Series experience through the "Steal a Base, Steal a Taco" promotion.

The rules of the promotion state that if the first stolen base occurs during Games 1, 2, 3 or 4, people can order a free Crunchy Seasoned Beef Taco on Oct. 28 from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. at all participating Taco Bell locations. If the first base is stolen in Games 5, 6 or 7, the tacos will be given away on Nov. 3 during the same time frames.

Well last night B.J. Upton stole three bases and Carl Crawford added another as the Rays collected four stolen bases vs. the Phillies in Game 3 of the World Series. Unfortunately even though the Rays tied the game with the steals, they sill lost the game. 

The supporting Web site now promotes the fact that a "stolen base never tasted so good" and "You watched. You waited. Now you get a free taste of Taco Bell".

This promotion has turned out to be a great way to get consumers to sample its products. It gave away millions of tacos last year after Boston Red Sox center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury stole second base in the bottom of the 4th inning of Game 2.

Fifteen-second TV spots supporting the promotion began airing last week and continue running during the series. I've seen the ad twice so far tonight and it's still the first inning. A full-page ad is running in USA Today and online media is also promote the effort.

Taco Bell is in its fifth year as the official quick service restaurant of Major League Baseball. The company also plans to donate $20,000 to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, the official charity of Major League Baseball as well as Taco Bell, in the name of the player who steals the base in the 2008 series.

“Last year we gave away millions of tacos to America, and based on the wild popularity with consumers, we’re bringing back the promotion,” said David Ovens, chief marketing officer, Taco Bell Corp., in a statement. “With consumer sentiment near all time lows, ‘Steal A Base, Steal A Taco’ is our way of extending the magic of the World Series to everybody by celebrating the game and rewarding fans, no matter which team you root for.”

So hop on over to your closest Taco Bell on Tuesday to get your free Taco. I just had this conversation with my daughter's boyfriend who's a high school senior and works at a local Taco Bell. It's reassuring that he still promotes eating at this fast food chain even though he's an employee. So, Taco Bell must be doing something right.

We just had bases loaded at the bottom on the first and they walked in their first run although they lost the opportunity to score more. Phillies up 1-0 now. Go Phillies!

October is Pink Promotions for the Cure

It's still October, a very busy month. I wrote this post about October being the greatest month of the year for sports...my Boston Red Sox team is now history for this season. I guess it was never meant to be, so congrats to the Tampa Bay Rays. But how about those Buffalo Bills! They're on an amazing start to this year's NFL season.

I also wrote this post about October being the start of the holiday shopping season. October kicks off the 4th quarter which is such a crucial time for many marketers who count on this time of year to make their sales goals.

But what I haven't posted about yet, and something that is so relevant to my personal life, is that October is breast cancer awareness month!

I've  written about my mom many times in this blog and the fact that she has breast cancer. She was first diagnosed early in 2007, underwent chemo treatments, went cancer free for a few months, and now it's back. I believe I haven't written about it being back. My parents traveled up to New York State this past June for their first visit in over two years since they moved to South Carolina. Mom didn't seem quite right though so they decided to cut their stay short to get home to see her doctor.  The tests showed that the cancer seemed to creep back in, but this time it jumped from her breast to her lungs!

Donna's New Marketing Role

Well it's now probably been the longest lapse I've had in writing on my blog since I started Donna's Promo Talk some 20 months ago. I feel like I'm missing a part of me and I apologize to my loyal readers. But honestly I've just been very busy. There's many excuses I can give you, but the main reason is something that I think I should now finally come clean with. When I actually stopped to think about it I realized that I haven't written about this yet , so this post is my coming out of the closet so to speak.

Over the summer I started working for another company. I have been running my own company, DDC Marketing Group, which has specialized in online promotions for over three years now. 2007 was a pretty good year, however, as the year ended and 2008 began I started to see a slow-down in business. The calm before the storm I guess now that I look back. Business with existing clients was still going fairly strong, but new business was not materializing. So, I started to consider some options. 

When an opportunity came up for me to work with this privately-owned company, Butler/Till Media Services I jumped at it. The company is owned and managed by two great women (Sue Butler and Tracy Till) who I worked with during my early years in this business some 20 years plus ago. They've been growing and have consistently made the Rochester Top 100 Companies list for the past few years. The company's services are specifically focused on media placement...the planning, buying and execution of where you see, hear, read the message, not what the message is. Which is a little different for me to get used to again, but my roots do go back to the media side of the business.

I'm part of the online team at Butler/Till as their Emerging Online Media Supervisor. My responsibilities include managing the search marketing initiatives for our clients which has been the first priority and one which I'm still getting up to speed on. Second is to introduce new media strategies to our clients such as mobile marketing, social media, blog marketing and promotions.

I had to first get fully comfortable with utilizing Google's AdWords tool for multiple clients as well as get my head around paid search strategies and executions. I have spent much time these past couple of months reviewing our existing client campaigns as well as Google's Learning Center. I recently took the Google test and passed which now makes me a Google Adwords Qualified Professional.

I am committed to continuing my blogging both here, being a guest blogger at Lipsticking.com and a reader and commenter on many other blogs. I still strongly believe that the best way to be knowledgeable in this area is to actually partake in it. The same I learned goes for paid search marketing. While I could learn some by taking practice quizzes, and reading articles, the best way is to actually build a campaign from scratch and then manage and optimize it.

We just launched a small local online media program that is the first for me at the agency to call my "own client". It's to help promote a new exhibit that the George Eastman House right here in Rochester is hosting which just started this past weekend. The exhibit is called TRAINS! and it is comprised of three different exhibits that all celebrate trains through photographs, video, films and lectures.

We have placed banner ads on various local websites throughout New York State and into Canada which include utilizing Google's Content Network. It also includes a paid search program on Google for those actively searching for this information. The campaign just started on Oct. 1st and so far is doing very well and on it's way to reaching it's goal which is to drive traffic to this microsite that we also developed.

So, it's now exciting for me to be part of a larger team again and see our efforts start to pay off for clients. At first it was a big change going back into an office everyday and I'm still learning many processes and who to go to for what. But I'm also learning many new, interesting things as well as teaching others a few things about what I know. So that's what keeps us all young. Right?

As far as DDC Marketing there are projects and programs that I have committed to and I am continuing to follow through on all of these. I still plan to offer my promotional marketing services under the DDC Marketing name and will incorporate them into Butler Till when and if appropriate.

Right now I'm very proud to be part of a company that was just named one of the 50 Fastest-Growing Women-Owned/Led Businesses in North America by the Women Presidents’ Organization (WPO) and Entrepreneur Magazine.

So, I plan to share with you here more of what we're doing for some of our clients and pass on part of what I'm learning. I hope you'll stick with me as I adjust to my new roles and learn how to keep the balancing act going. Thanks for listening.

Sharp Teams up with MLB with their Lights Out Challenge Sweepstakes

It's October, and besides the upcoming presidential election and the doom and gloom about Wall Street and our ecomony, let's not forget that it's the most exciting month of the year for sports. I finally got around last week to writing this post about my favorite sport, NFL Football, and the excitement us Buffalo Bills fans have been feeling. We were certainly brought back to a hard reality this past Sunday when our starting quarterback went down on the second play of the game and we lost BIG! But hey, we got a bye coming up this week and we're still 4-1. Much better than we're we've been in over 10 years!

So now I have to talk about those boys of October. Yes, this year's Major League Baseball season is coming to a close. Neither New York teams made it to the playoffs this year and the playoffs have already showed us that 2008 isn't quite the year for those Chicago Cubs either. However, my team, the Boston Red Sox are in there. I'm watching them during Game 4 against the LA Angels right now on TBS as I write this.  So if I get distracted at some point, please give me a break.

Now I'm hoping that the Red Sox will be playing the Tampa Bay Rays next week on October 14th during the fourth game of the American League Championship Series. That's when Sharp Electronics will be teaming up with TBS on a really innovative promotion that will give fans a chance to win a Sharp big-screen TV.

Sharp is promoting its “Lights Out Challenge” with a series of 45-second TV spots that debuted during last week's initial round of Major League Baseball playoff action on TBS. These spots not only highlight the promotion but also the the brand's energy-saving TVs.

The spots direct fans to this TBS micro-site, where they can enter the Sharp Lights Out Challenge Sweepstakes for a chance to win a 46-inch or 42-inch Sharp Aquos TV. They can also register to participate in the partial blackout by indicating how many lights they intend to turn off and logging in their zip code.

“The end goal is to increase awareness and ultimately increase sales,” said Sharp spokesman Chris Loncto. “It really fits perfectly for us.”

Sharp Aquos is MLB’s official HDTV. This interactive promotion is a unique way to integrate traditional TV media with an online promotion. TV viewers during the fourth game of the ALCS  are typically a pretty sizable audience  giving that the series is the best of seven games. This should give Sharp an effective platform to push its LCD TV products in prime time while still at the beginning of the NFL season, at the start the NHL season and just in time for the important 4th quarter holiday shopping season.

Loncto noted that the company also is intent to present its energy-saving perspective: “One of the core philosophies of Sharp is to present products that are energy-saving and energy-creating,” he said.

The micro-site will feature a U.S. Map that will track the states that have turned out the most lights. Announcers on TBS will report on how much energy was saved and which states saved the most during the post-game show.

So whether the Boston Red Sox make it our not, I'll still be tuning in and shutting off some lights. This should be interesting. BTW - there still is no score in the top of the 5th inning, but the Angels are pushing with two men on base. Gotta go now!

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.