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    Small Business Website Magic.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    I recently met with a couple of men building a company that helps small businesses update and maintain their websites. There are apparently 15 million small businesses websites and most use cousins or friends-of-friends for this sort of work.
     
    The company’s strategy is to replace this freelancer workforce with a branded, affordable solution. They believe every small business website contains more or less the same content components: contact info, about, product/pricing, email and maybe commerce. They’ve codified the assessment, evaluation and solution in a way that provides a quick and effective website upgrade and content management capability which they guarantee. Brilliant! 
     
    The business, however, needs to be mindful of one additional thing that is hard to codify. Not impossible, but hard. It’s called the magic. Every company large or small has a little magic that makes it different; it might be the people, an ingredient, attitude, location, or simply creative flair. It needs to be captured and presented in the website.     
     
    The good news for this company is that the product is not a software crawler. It’s people driven. And the people are not off-shore, they are here in the U.S. Capturing the “magic” is the last piece of the puzzle for this company. And when they figure out that piece, they will hit the Inc. 500.
     

    Is Burger King Targeting Future Fathers?

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    Crispin Porter Bogusky’s work for Burger King, love it or not, has contributed to the fast food giant’s resurgence. I believe it’s their strategic help, especially in targeting young men, that has turned the tide more than their creative, but let’s not quibble.
     
    A recent example of Crispin’s smarts can be found in its use of creative talent Seth MacFarlane to help sell burgers. Mr. MacFarlane, the creative force behind “Family Guy,” will be creating animated BK spots running as pre-roll for his new internet property called “Seth MacFarlane’s Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy” which will be distributed via Google.
     
    As a believer that content is king when it comes to creative, this is a brilliant move. So long as he isn’t spread too thin, Mr. MacFarlane who really knows how to talk to BK’s core audience should kill with this creative. Watch out Mickey Ds, Burger King is winning over future fathers who in a couple of years will be driving right by the Golden Arches with the kids.
     

    Geico Cavemen an ESPN Fantasy?

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    Is it just me or is anyone else starting to burn out on the Geico cavemen? (And the freakin’ gecko is starting to get on my nerves too. I can’t paint the house and listen to the radio without hearing that Cockney blather every 15 minutes.)  To add insult to injury  AdAge.com  announced http://adage.com/madisonandvine/article?article_id=130330
    the Cavemen are being used in a cross-promotional deal with ESPN’s Fantasy Football. OMG.
     
    I yakked when I heard the caveman was doing a TV show on ABC, but this is downright silly. What’s in it for ESPN? Will women buy more Geico insurance because they associate men who play fantasy football with cavemen?  And as for entertainment value, did anyone notice the Cavenman TV showed flamed out?
     
    Hope this stuff only runs in the summer during reruns. Peace!
     
    PS. I’m cranky because my car got towed in Brooklyn yesterday.
     

    Skechers on the Heelys of a Takeover

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    Skechers shoes is trying to buy Heelys.   It is another example of a billion dollar company trying to improve its lot by taking over a hundred million dollar specialty company and I hope the sale doesn’t go through.  Skechers is a nice brand that had some focus and momentum but lately has been trying to find its way; it is now less about the shoes and more about style, fashion and yesterday’s stars. The ads on the Skechers website are pathetic. I guess they can’t afford a good idea or good production, while paying all those celebrity endorsers. 
     
    Heelys on the other hand is focused. They have a sizable consumer target, unique product and though it appears things have slowed for them somewhat, a tight business idea.  If Heelys dilutes its core idea and tries to expand to older kids or allows Skechers to take them over and taint the product waters, they are finished. As in buh-bye finished!
     
     

    Branded Entertainment Finesse.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    Branded entertainment is a form of advertising that showcases products, in theory, in a less-intrusive way, but I have rarely seen it done so. Navistar International is sponsoring a documentary called “Drive and Deliver,” intended to help push the new Lonestar truck and according to Stuart Elliot in his New York Times column today the rough cut still has a few too many close-ups of the truck.  That said, with proper editing this film by Fathom Communications might just sell some serious trucks. It’s a unique enough subject to create a cult following, but more importantly the target of the effort, truck buyers, are crazy-passionate about their rigs and their craft. (Ever hear a trucker talk about his/her Peterbilt?) Anyway, the casting looks right, let’s just hope the story-telling is too.
     
    Those who have watched the reality show “Deadliest Catch” and not wondered what an Alaskan King Crab tastes like may not agree, but I’m betting this effort will demonstrate that the marketing industry is beginning to acquire more finesse when it comes to branded entertainment. Peace!
     

    R/GA Brand Design.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    R/GA is getting into the branding business. It’s about time. I’m sure they say “we’ve been doing branding for a while,” but now they can actually get paid for it.  
     
    At shops like R/GA, digital branding has basically meant riding herd on the branding idea and message planks as they pop out of the  creative department — an account planning function, if you will. But upon further thought, the efforts of R/GA’s new practice, R/GA Brand Design, should go way beyond that. Crucial brand insights are more likely to emerge in the digital space — especially though the use of branded social nets such as Nike Plus http://nikeplus.nike.com/nikeplus/. Branded social nets will be the next big thing because they provide living breathing research labs for brand geeks. 
     
    I’m guessing R/GA Brand Design will now have a seat at the “adult table” when it comes to large corporate planning meetings. They’ll have to remember to leave the tactical suitcase at home, though.
     

    Behavioral Targeting Pitfalls.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    One day I’m going to start an ad agency called Foster, Bias & Sales. Foster, Bias & Sales will succeed because it understands the following marketing truism:  In order to get to a sale, you must first foster awareness and positive feeling, then create bias toward your product.
     
    Behavioral targeting in online media is an emerging media tool moving in the right direction.  If marketers and media buyers use behavioral targeting as a way to jump right to sales, though, they will only have incremental success.  If they use behavioral targeting to foster preference and create bias first, then the selling will be easier – and will allow higher margins. (Markets like that.)  A consumer who strides briskly into Best Buy with a specific branded product in mind always walks out with a smile on his/her face. The consumer who meanders into the store looking for a salesperson to help them decide, typically walks out feigning a smile and staring at the bag a lot.
     
    As we move into the era of behavioral targeting, let us not forget Ms. Foster and Mr. Bias.
     

    “Hey, go get Arrington.”

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    Zude.com is a social computing platform that allows anyone – grandmas to geeks – to build and manage a website. Our tagline is “feel free” which implies Zude’s limitless web publishing promise. This grandmas to geeks idea was created by our PR agency Spector and Associates. The suit strategy was “the fastest, easiest way to build and manage a website.

    Our CEO and CTO were demoing Zude at Web 2.0 Expo in 2006 for Robert Scoble , who was broadcasting live over the Interent with some sort of hat-cam, when in the middle of the demo he yelled to a friend, “Hey, go get Arrington, he’s got to see this.” It was a validation of the Zude strategy. A “peak experience” in marketing as Maslow might say.
     
    I was just reading the back story about Piers Fawkes creative consultancy, PSFK (www.psfk.com), and realized his defining moment came when Anheuser Busch called for some advice.  These signal moments are what marketers live for. They are why we get up in the morning. They are proof, of has “an idea.”
     

    Bottle of pop? Or culture?

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    Okay, I’m reading about Coke today and get the sense that someone at the top is starting to pay attention. Here are some of the moves Coke is making: A new campaign out of the U.K., code-named Pemberton, that attempts to win back some water and tea drinkers by alerting the public that Coke has “no added preservatives or artificial flavors.” Research indicated consumer didn’t know this. Another campaign also begun in England called “Intrinsics” is all about taste. (Were you brought kicking and screaming to the table, Dan Wieden?)
    Mother has also gotten in to the act creating some :05 ditties called “blipverts,” which I don’t have to see to know I like. Their titles are: “Cap”, “Fizz,” “Ice,” and “Pour.” Were I to add the next one I’d call it “Bottle Sweat.”
    Here’s where Coke has gone wrong and it’s embodied by a quote from an Interbrand consultant in today’s NY Times: Coke is “taking a risk by deviating from its long history of very entertaining,aspirational advertising. People rely on Coke to produce commercials that influence pop culture.” Yeah, that’s what people are doing. Thirsty as hell…and looking for a bottle of pop culture.

    Politics and brew, common sense?

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    Miller High Life’s Common Sense Platform campaign will be interesting to follow. There are no inherent product qualities used in the work other than value. And if you go too heavy on the value message it can imply poor quality, which in the beer category means taste.
     
    The Common Sense campaign follows a Miller delivery guy around while he puts forth his views on what constitutes common sense: fair price, sensible product, no fru-fru. Though the work is entertaining, it lacks brand ballast. Leveraging politics in a campaign year seems like a sensible tactic but Miller High Life has been so underfunded and invisible, I’m not sure this is a sustainable adverting idea for them. Sales are up 1%, but that is more the economy than the idea.
     
    Were it my brand I’d create a uniquely today advertising idea that tied living the high life to the sharp, quenching taste of that amber brew seen through that beautiful, sweaty clear bottle and leave the politics to the politicians. 
     
    P.S. If you’d like to hear the world’s greatest beer campaign idea, for Miller Genuine Draft, shoot me an email at steve@whatstheidea.com.
     
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