Appearance can be everything in marketing and never more so than in the quick service restaurant category. You know, fast food. I’m sure hours and hours are spent ensuring that every burger looks moist, fresh and delicious; that every taco positively oozes warm, delectable flavour. But here’s what bothers me. Once all the beauty shots are done, all the key messaging is delivered, it’s time for the hero to take that big, satisfying bite. And what happens? The hero wimps out. He/she takes a delicate little nibble – or worse yet – a fake bite! Followed by something even worse…the fake chew!
I understand the client is nervous. After all, biting and chewing are not necessarily photogenic. But honestly, if a big drip of ketchup oozes down a cheek, I’m OK with that. It’s not only real, but I could argue delivers big-time on the delicious message. McDonalds did a spot once about how messy the Big Mac was to eat – showing real people eating real Macs – I’m “lovin it”. Wendy’s has a spot airing now that shows a woman “kissing” toppings from a man’s cheek. Nice. But these are exceptions to the unwritten QSR rule.
One of the hazards of being in the brand-building business is that you tend to be hyper-critical of even the smallest detail in other marketing efforts. This post could be accused of that, but I just had to share. I feel better now. What’s more, I feel a bit hungry.
These days, I’m less impressed with executional details of a campaign than I am with the strategy that lies behind it. So it is with this perspective that I watched a new commercial for the Liberal Party of Ontario, perfectly timed to debut during the NHL Stanley Cup Finals.
There’s a trend in marketing that I’ve noticed lately – and I must admit, find fascinating. It’s pride. The new spot from the Liberal Party has plenty of it. Ontario is the engine of Canada, producing more jobs, more GDP, more everything than any other province. But they constantly trash us. Well, enough is enough. The Liberals are talking proud (remember, Buffalo?) in a spot featuring strong, confident copywriting. It taps into the latent pride we all have in Ontario. No attack ad. No beauty shots of Premier McGuinty glad-handing. The spot is nicely executed, and oh, is that McGuinty himself doing the no- nonsense voiceover?
Look, I’m not suggesting that pumping the pride makes up for a multitude of sins. Chrysler is taking a similar tack in their campaign and Detroit never looked/sounded so good. Will it work? The jury’s still out. But give me the head-on, coming back confident strategy over the “invent a USP” message any day of the week.
Depending on where you fall on the scale with Facebook—whether you love it or hate it—yesterday’s announcement of a new Comments plugin will either please or bother you. One of the changes is that comments will be sorted based on social relevance; if a particular comment receives a lot of attention through likes or replies, it’ll move up the list. But what’s more intriguing (or possibly, annoying) is that your comments on a partner site can now be shared on your Facebook Wall.
A Broader Way of Sharing
What does this mean? Let’s say you post a comment in response to an article you’ve read at The Economist (one of Facebook’s partner sites). This action will now get posted to your Facebook Wall for all your friends to see. Now they’ll have an opportunity to either read the article—which they may never have seen—or even participate in the conversation. And here’s another feature: if they respond to your comment on Facebook, that can/will (?) appear on the partner site as well.
So Who Benefits?
Well for one, the partner sites, with increased traffic and potentially new, repeat visitors. Facebook, of course, will grow its sphere of influence across the web and integrate even more with sites beyond its own URL. And finally, if you’re into sharing your experiences with the internet, then you too could gain from this new model. But I must say, I hope Facebook puts some filters into place. I’m sure there’ll be times when you don’t want your comment to be shared with others. After all, everyone has a little something they like to hide, don’t they?
Playing Angry Birds on a Blackberry, courtesy of @tanlines
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I read an awesome article by Tracy Gold called What I learned About Social Media from Angry Birds. What made the piece so good was the different approach; I read social media-related articles every day and it’s all starting to blend together as more and more people chime in. What Ms Gold managed to do was broach the subject using a hook that everyone could understand.
Well, almost everyone.
When I suggested to my business partner that he should read the article, his first question was: “What are Angry Birds?”
“Seriously!?” I asked, befuddled. It turns out he’s never heard of the game. Despite it being the number one game on iTunes for months, despite it being available for iPhone, Android and even desktop computers, despite it even getting air time on television; he’d never heard of it. This whole conversation reminded of Mitch Joel’s Market of One blog post where he eloquently discusses the idea that you “can’t please all of the people all of the time.”
Indeed you can’t. And that’s something, we as marketers, are up against all the time. Do you sacrifice one market for another or do you lower the bar so far you alienate the others? Questions that will garner different answers depending on the client and the circumstance.
All I know is that my partner is in the market for a new mobile device and he’s been contemplating a smartphone. Now that he’s aware of Angry Birds he’s just a step away from late night battles against the pigs.
When Caribou Coffee wanted to introduce their new Hot ‘n Wholesome breakfast sandwiches, they turned to ad agency Colle + McVoy in Minneapolis. Not only were they able to transform local bus shelters to look like ovens, but they installed working elements to keep commuters warm! Now that’s a great idea that would have done well up here in the Great White North.
Tag this is another great idea I wished I’d thought of.
