Screw-you marketing

Wikipedia defines Ambush marketing as " Marketing strategy wherein the advertisers associate themselves with, and therefore capitalise on, a major sporting event without paying any sponsorship  ". I just like to call it screw-you marketing. This type of marketing is usually aimed at underminig the efforts of another sponsor in a really smart and creative manner, for a fraction of their costs.

Ambush Marketing first came into focus in the 1980's. When the Olympics were opened up to corporate sponsorship, because of turmoil in the previous few events, they became one of the biggest targets of the phenomenon with some people predicted that all sponsors would abandon the games if instances of Screw-You marketing were not controlled. As a result, the organisers of the London Olympics earlier this year took extra precautions to protect their official sponsors from the threat of ambush marketing, restraining other companies from mentioning the games in their Ads or campaigns (which earned them the ire of world media ). But no amount of  restrictions can hold back a smart marketer. Companies such as Google, Burger King, Pepsi etc used internet and social media effectively to give customers the impression that these companies were associated with the games somehow. You can find the top 5 stunts of this year's olympics here. The phenomenon is brilliantly depicted in this cartoon from Marketoonist about Beat headphones (promoted by American wrapper Dr Dre) which sent out free background-noise-blocking headphones to athletes embossed with their country's flag and became an instant hit among the athletes in London.

Nike completely blindsided, the official games sponsor Adidas with the brilliant "Find your greatness campaign" that features athletes in places around the world that share the name of the host city "London" (Yes, there seem to be plenty of Londons around the world).

Ofcourse, Nike has enough experience in this sort of stuff having already ambushed official sponsors Converse in the 1984 Olympic games and Reebok in 1992 and 1996 (called the ambush of all ambushes).

I dont think that there is much that can be done to restrict screw-you marketing more than what London did this year, but then again any steps on the part of the organisers will only make advertisers come up with even more innovative ways to ambush the official sponsors.

Dove beauty

We had a discussion about this campaign in class today. "Dove Campaign for Real Beauty" was launched in 2003 when Dove was expanding into beauty products. Rather than taking the traditional fair equals beauty approach the campaign aimed at making women comfortable with their own body and attempted to highlight how distorted our idea of beauty was.

The company subsequently created two videos for social media - "Daughters" and "Evolution" which were followed by two more - "Onslaught" and "Amy". I personally like Evolution more because (besides being well executed) it surprises you and kind of makes you think, unlike Daughters which just seems like another TVC for a beauty product.

The success of the videos inspired numerous parodies, one of which (Slob Evolution) went on to be nominated for the Daytime Emmy Awards.

In the 2008, the New Yorker revealed that the images used in the campaign were also digitally manipulated, which is ironic given the righteous tone of the ads. Though that does raise further questions about the ethics at Unilever (which already faces much criticism for its Axe/Lynx and Fair and Lovely marketing strategy), it dosent take away the fact that the campaign was brilliantly executed and succeeded in creating a lot of buzz around Dove's beauty care range.

The best job in the world

This is what the best job in the world has to offer - a salary of 150,000 Australian dollars (103,000 USD) for six months and rent-free accommodation in three bedroom villa complete with a pool in the picturesque islands of Queensland. Your job - to live there and maintain a blog about your experience. And there are no prerequesities (except for knowledge of sailing, diving, snorkling) Dont trust me - then refer to the newspaper clipping below-

Heres the reason why we are discussing this job (besides the fact that it sounds out-of-wordly kind of awesome)- This job ad is part of a promotional campaign run by tourism department of Queensland in 2009.  What works for the campaign(besides being amazingly creative) is the manner in which it was executed. The newspaper ad in big bold letters stands out from the rest of the text drawing the attention of the reader, which is obviously the idea behind the entire campaign. The customers are drawn in because of the shock value and as they read more about it and get more involved, it is going to stay at the back of their minds for a very long time, promoting the destination indirectly. The campaign clearly struck a chord, resulting in a total of 34,684 one-minute video applications on Youtube from 200 countries in addition to insane amount of buzz generated on social media, blogosphere and news networks all over the world.

Ben Southall, the guy who finally won the competition, is pretty amazing - he spent an entire year circumnavigating the continent of Africa in a Land Rover and in the process scaled the five highest mountains and ran five marathons-raising money for charity, prior to the competition. He was eventually retained as the tourism ambassador for Queensland after he finished his six months on the Best Job. Here's the link for the video resume he submitted for the competition- 

The campaign finally ended up providing media coverage of 400 million dollars including a special slot on Oprah Winfrey's show and a BBC program. The best part of the campaign is that, the "stunt promoted the product" (as the tourism department put it), which means more tourists and greater revenue for the island. This is something that most campaigns fail to do nowadays, in my opinion, i.e. to translate the interest into rupees for the brand. This marketing ploy definitely figures in the top 5 campaigns of all time for me.

-

Vespa

Last month, Piaggio launched the first ever TVC for the iconic Vespa in India. Vespa entered the Indian markets in the sixties through a JV with Bajaj Auto Ltd. The marriage lasted for close to a decade. Bajaj abandoned the partnership in the favor of the hugely successful Chetak. Piaggio made another attempt to tap the Indian market by getting into a similar agreement with LML but that didnt end well either with LML acquiring the entire Piaggio stake in late 90s and pushing out the company. Now Piaggio has decided to make another attempt on its own, especially since Bajaj closed down its scooter division in 2009 to focus on motorcycles. 

The first thing that strikes you about the ad is the fact that it does not talk about the functional aspects of the scooter. At all! which does come as a welcome change considering the monotonous scooter and bike ads that keep talking about Nitrox suspension, DTS-Si technology, alloy wheels etc etc. However, I am not completely convinced with the idea.  

According to the agency that has created the campaign, the Retro-themed TVC is aimed at positioning the Vespa in the premium segment in the scooter category (if such a thing exists!). Though most of the reviews that I have come across seem to praise the campaign for its out of the box thinking and fresh perspective I feel that hardly anyone would want to buy a Vespa right away, just after seeing the ad. The ad does break the mould but fails to go far enough to induce purchase. In addition, going with the idea that they have, I feel that Piaggio is limiting itself to the metros and major cities.

Nonethless I loved the  "Vespa. Fashion Unchanged. Since 1946" tagline at the end of the TVC which highlights the long association with Indian history. IMHO it is a big plus for the scooter company and it should try and leverage that in its ads. 

TATA Starbucks

I am sure most of you have seen pics of the first starbucks outlet in Mumbai(Elphinstone building in Horniman circle area) on facebook, but just in case you haven't (courtesy Vogue India).

They have opened another outlet at Taj mahal outlet and a third at the Oberoi Mall in Mumbai's western suburbs. A Cappuccino Cafe Latte, at any of these outlets, will cost between Rs 95 and Rs 135, depending on the size while iced coffee and blended beverages will cost you Rs. 115-200. The stores will offer free wi-fi and will remain open until 11p.m. on weekdays and 1 a.m. on weekends. I feel that the late closing time is going to be a major pull factor for customers, especially the large percentage of young professionals in metros, who often work will late and return home around that time or stay out till late night during the weekends. 

Many people feel that Starbucks's entry into India has been long overdue, perhaps the last major untapped market in the world for the company. Nonethless, the good news is that Starbucks plans to open 50 stores across the country by the end of the year. The interesting part is that Starbucks has chosen to enter India through a 50:50 joint venture with TATA Global Beverages even when there is no restriction on FDI in single brand retail.

Starbucks has always projected its stores as the third place for customers to go between work and home. It will be interesting to see what strategy they will follow in India especially when CEO Howard Schultz has himself accepted that "India's coffee market competition is ferocious".

In India Starbucks will face stiff competition from the hugely popular Cafe Coffee Day and slightly suave Barista, both of whom have established an extensive presence across the country.

BREGUET!

The pint ads for this brand were part of one of a question in the recently concluded Lattice business quiz held at the IIM Calcutta campus. Its been at the back of my mind for the entire week.

Breguet is a french brand of expensive luuxury watches. The cheapest watches available online are priced at $11,000and go upto $235,060 (on sale -$51,000 off).  Each Berguet watch has a "secret signature" and an individual number to guard against forgery. Ofcourse, it is also a way to create intangible value by associating exclusivity with each timepiece.

Breguet is credited with some of the major inventions in watches. They produced the first wrist watch in 1810. The brand is now owned by The Swatch Group. Their long list of customers includes names such as George Washington, Napoleon Bonaparte, Leo Tolstoy and Nicolas Sarkozy, a fact they have exploited adequately in their print ads. 

 Here we see Berguett trying to establish a connection between wealth and an appreciation for history or liking for a certain kind of literature. I feel that this is an amazing example of STP where the company is targeting affluent people by massaging their need for being recognised as being learned and well read with a good taste.