It’s estimated that as many as one million revelers gathered at Times Square in New York City to usher in the New Year. Nivea was once again the sponsor of this event. As one of that one million revelers, I wanted to comment on the impressive execution of Nivea’s effort.

Prior to New Year’s Eve, Nivea had set up photo booth at the American Eagle store. I didn’t realize how effective that could be, until I saw the line at the store of people waiting to get their photo taken! These pictures could then be sent to friends and family as a photo postcard of sort for people’s trip to NYC for New Year. That’s great viral marketing!

At Times Square itself, a very dedicated team of promoters blanketed the venue. There were blue balloons everywhere. Blue party hats, that came with a free sample and a BOGO coupon to a local drug store, were also passed out. As you may have saw on TV, it was a sea of blue. I know I wouldn’t forget that sea of blue any time soon. Nivea was also branded the countdown clock on the television broadcast on NBC. All together, I could only imagine the number of impression Nivea got. This hasn’t even taken into account all the photos that was taken by the revelers, and would now be share with friends and family all around the world. Those blue party hats went into the suitcase of many revelers and they would now be on display at homes around the globe.

But as with any great promotion, it was not a one time deal. Nivea is following up with a cause marketing campaign that encourages people to upload their kissing photo.

This was a great example of what a comprehensive marketing campaign could look like. Of course, I couldn’t truly evaluate how successful this campaign is because I don’t know how much it costed Nivea, and how much sale they got from it.

But, regardless, most businesses won’t have this kind of funding. However, something like this could easily be executed at a community level. But, take a lesson from Nivea and learn that sponsoring a major community event is only one element of an integrated marketing campaign. Find ways to involve your consumers before and after the event to make your message relevant and viral!

Up In The Air, staring George Clooney, opens nationwide on Christmas. I previewed the movie and enjoyed it. My friends gave it just okay reviews. See for yourself, and give your own ratings.

But, why am I writing about a movie on this blog? Because I thought it was great movie for product placement. Unlike James Bond movies where each product flashes in front of you for mere seconds, the products in this movie were an integral part of the movie. They really sold it. I think it was one of the best movies for product placement since the Italian Job.

What products were featured? American Airline, Hilton, Travelpro, and Hertz. Just to name a few.

Travelpro is a line of luggage. This movie showed again and again how great these luggage moves. They spin. They roll. They go everywhere with ease. All the cool jetsetters use them. Way better than the old clunky suitcases you may have at home (in fact, there is a scene dedicated to this point).

Hertz, it gets you in and out fast. If you’re a Hertz loyal customer, you can get in and out in seconds. No long lines. In fact, they will “move mountains” to get you the car you want.

Hilton hotels have plush soft beds, and comfy little robes and slippers. Hilton hotels offer all the comfort of home and then some, well, at least to a guy that travels for a living. Of course, don’t forget about the Hiltons HHonors program! It’s a great promotion (George Clooney said it, not me). Plus, you get to skip the lines and get the preferred VIP treatment! Loyalty pays.

Talking about Loyalty, let’s talk about the featured star: American Airline. American Airline can take you everywhere! It satisfies even the needs of someone who travels over 340 days and 300,000 miles a year! And once again, loyalty pays. If you’re a loyal customer, you get to use exclusive lounges, be greeted by a custom greeting, and even, if you’re really really really loyal, get your own dedicated customer service phone line. Ahh, I want to join AAdvantage now!

Ahh, product placement… when done well it’s integrated into the story line, while leaving you with a good impression of the brand.

Photo credit: American Airlines, originally uploaded by anneh632.

Related articles online

• Up in the Air: George Clooney becomes a frequent flyer (gadling.com)
• EXCLUSIVE: The Product Guy “Up in the Air” (tpgblog.com)

Black Friday is over. Or is it?

In this tough economy, retailers are doing everything they can to bring out as much holiday spirit as possible for as long as possible. By this, I mean they are doing everything they can to keep you spending as much as possible for as long as possible.

Sears and Target both are airing commercials highlighting that there are going to be deals all the time. Sears’ promo is particularly strong that Black Friday specials are available every Saturday from now till Christmas.

These commercials highlight how some retailers have adapted to the new normal. This does not apply only to retailers but to the business community in general. Over the last week, I was swamped at work for precisely this reason. I was working on a project that was something that we’d never considered in the golden days, but the golden days are history. The only thing that matters now is what we should be doing going forward.

Businesses are looking forward, not backward. They are no longer looking back thinking about the good old days, but aggressively getting their fair share, or more, in these much gloomier days.

Are you looking forward or looking backward?

Related articles online

• Quoted – This year, holiday trimmings are in spending – Denver Post (scotttesta.com)

Best Buy #281 – The Night Before ‘Black Friday’, originally uploaded by Croixboy.

This week I learned that the more money you have, the less time you have to spend on any particular tasks. You could hire someone to do it for you.

However, if you don’t have the money, you’d have to spend more time.

This is the equation that any marketer must understand. You don’t need to have a lot of money to have a successful campaign. However, the smaller your budget, the harder each dollar must work, the more creative you’d have to be, the more work you’d have to do yourself. The larger the budget, the more crazy stuffs you could try, the more you could have someone else do the work for you.

However, a small budget shouldn’t limit the success of your marketing campaign.

What’s sad is that this formula, that’s so obvious with small businesses, is sometimes forgotten by big companies.

This is the new economy. This is the new reality. This is a new year. This is the new budget. Everyone of us needs to learn to do more with less.

Photo Credit: funny money, originally uploaded by Material Boy.

Related articles online

• Marketing outside the box (thestar.com)

Today I took the Starbucks Via challenge… and I was disappointed.

First of all, I could tell the difference. I didn’t know which was which, but I could tell the difference… and I did not like Via. The regular brew had a cleaner taste. So, the challenge did not sway me to buy Via.

However, I learned something about Via… it could be instantly dissolved in cold water, or cold milk! Imagine the possibility in the summer! But, wait… it’s only 50 degrees out… I don’t need a cold coffee… So, that’s an irrelevant message to me. However, I believe that Starbucks would launch a cold Via campaign in the summer. But of course, the problem would be how to differentiate this against the Starbucks’ bottled Frappacino.

Toward the end of the demonstration, I learned something even more exciting about Via. I learned that Starbucks designed the most nifty travel mug for Via. It is a regular travel mug, with a twist off cap that allows easy storage of the Via packages. Now, why isn’t this the focus of the campaign?

I understand that Starbucks is about taste, but Via is about the on-the-go lifestyle Americans have. In addition, a quick survey online would reveal that many could taste the difference between Via and the fresh brew. I am not alone in this. So, by solely focusing on taste, Via’s campaign is missing the opportunity to truly address what the product brings to the consumers’ life. Via’s branding should not be built on taste, something people already expect from a Starbucks product. Of course, people would wonder if Via could deliver on taste, but it isn’t a problem, unless Via really couldn’t deliver… People would not buy Via because of taste. They buy Via because it’s convenient! They buy Via because they wouldn’t have to make a coffee stop. They buy Via because they wouldn’t have to wait in line for a coffee. They buy Via because they could save two minutes in the morning!

Now, let me also give you the context of how this demonstration went. The barista was very diligent in focusing on the taste message. However, being a coffee addict and a marketer, I was particularly interested about this product launch. So, I stuck around and chatted with the Barista a little. It was after I was given the coupon, and the other couple that was also at that particular demonstration had left, that I learned about the cold brewing and the travel mug. Now, imagine how many people never knew about those two really cool facts about Via. How much potential sale lost…

Photo credit: Starbucks Via travel mug, originally uploaded by mhaithaca.

Related articles online

• Starbucks Goes Instant (online.wsj.com)
• Starbucks Debuts Its Via Instant Coffee Product (shoppingblog.com)
• Starbucks’ VIA Instant Coffee: A Potential Hit? (businesspundit.com)
• Starbucks’s new Via instant coffee: Don’t believe the hype (dailyfinance.com)

Recently, I was interviewed by my local newspaper on my experience with Meetup.com for an article on their entertainment weekly insert. In addition to Meetup.com, over the years, I have joined various networking groups in an attempt to meet new friends or make new contacts.

Intellectually, I know that I would be marketed to at many of these events. These networking events provide some of the best marketing opportunities for local businesses. For example, a bar may create drink specials for these events. For event participants, they win because they got drink specials. The bar wins because they were able to work with event organizers to bring a group of people into their venue.

However, are all “sponsor” opportunities created equal?

Of course not.

Well, let’s start with looking at a different example of sponsorship opportunity. It’s been widely documented that American Idol as a program has allowed for great sponsorship opportunities. As a sponsor / advertiser for this program, you could run your 30 second commercials during a show with one of the highest ratings. You could get mentions from the hosts. You could have your products placed on the show. You could have a variety of links to the show.

It has also been widely documented that this worked for some sponsors, and did not work for others. Coca-Cola was fully integrated into the show. They ran commercials, they had their products on the judges’ tables, and they had chairs that were reminiscent of coke packaging. In short, they were part of the show. On the other hand, Ford was just in the background. All Ford did for their dollars was to run commercials. As a result, awareness for Coca-Cola rose, while awareness for Ford actually declined.

There are countless other examples of bad product placement. When the product is simply the background, it would not resonate with the audience.

Take that to a smaller scale, and you essentially have an example of a local business sponsoring an event.

If your business is sponsoring an event, your business needs to be fully integrated into the event. If your business was simply featured or act as the backdrop of the event, I do not believe you would get any return on your sponsorship investment.

The first step toward integrating yourself into the event is to make sure that there is a fit with the event.

For example, I have had wine tasting events for young professionals at fancy lofts. The fancy lofts were nice, and people talk about how cool they are. However, is there a real fit? Probably not. The lofts became the background. The wine, the appetizers, and the people were the focus of the event. In addition, if you really think about it, the event participants would not be in the position to purchase these lofts. It would be like promoting professional day trading software during American Idol! The sponsorship just wouldn’t work. Instead, day trading software should be promoted during a business show, perhaps on CNBC. Now, that would be an appropriate audience. Yet, at the same time, American Idol probably would not turn down a sponsor and the associated dollars. Likewise, the lofts really served as a great background for the wine tasting events. So, the events would want the lofts. It would be up to the lofts to say no. It’s not really a fit.

On the other hand, I have attended clubbing events at some of the hottest clubs in town. The clubs would waive the cover for the group, and the group would dance the night away. Now, this was a perfect fit. The club could be bringing in people who otherwise may not have tried the club. But club itself was the event. The event participants would have the opportunity to try the club, to have fun at the club, and to form good memories with the club. This highly increase the odd that this particular club would rise to the top of the consideration set when the event participants were to choose a place for a night out.

So, in conclusion, if you were to sponsor an event, make sure that you would be part of the event. Never settle for fading into the background only!

American Express OPEN posted an interview with Seth Godin yesterday. In case you didn’t know who Seth Godin is, he is a marketing guru with many successful books and writes one of the most widely read marketing blogs.

I’m not a small business owner, so I was not familiar with the OPEN forum till this article was brought to my attention. Upon playing around for a bit, I found this forum most interesting, and it isn’t just because it hosted a variety of interesting contents.

Credit, at the end of the day, is a commodity. American Express, Visa, MasterCard, etc., offer basically the same thing. So, how do you differentiate? You offer something more. In the case of American Express OPEN, they offer information small businesses can use, about finances and otherwise. In this case, marketing and running a business in this economy. This feeds right into their position of being the credit solution for small business owners.

Now, how valuable is this information to small business owners? Are they really reading it? Are they truly interacting with it?

Does it matter?

Maybe not.

It’s not the fact that they are providing the information to small business owners that’s helpful in their positioning. It’s the fact that they are establishing themselves to be dedicated to providing the information to small business owners that is truly differentiating. It doesn’t just position OPEN to be the expert in small businesses, it also positions OPEN to be a partner for small business owners.

This creates a positive feedback loop. The better their consumers do, in part because of the information OPEN provides, the more business they can afford to do with OPEN. The more relying they are to the information OPEN provides, the more loyal they are to OPEN. Then, more small business owners think and act this way, the bigger share OPEN has within this segment. With the bigger share, OPEN can more effectively serve this segment.

So, are you dedicated to go that extra mile, to help your consumers with their specific needs?

Photo credit: I Scream, originally uploaded by voteprime.

This weekend is Comic Con. While I did not venture inside convention grounds, I was in downtown San Diego amidst all the chaos.

It is interesting to see the crowd that appears for Comic Con. It is a diverse group of fans of arts of all kinds. I have met some interesting people who were more “pure” artist, and while they still sell their products, they feel that some comic artists have sold out by pushing their products at Comic Con. I have met some people who were just loyal fans of long lasting comics. I have met people who are in the industry and wanted to take this opportunity to network with others in the industry. I have met people who are fans of recent Hollywood films.

This made me think the value of these events. At what point is it a specialized event, and at what point is it simply a big crowd? How do you build buzz amongst all the noise?

Hollywood is a marketing powerhouse, and they seem to know the answer. They have celebrities hosting special events outside Comic Con at various downtown San Diego venues after the convention wraps every night. I wonder if this is the trick.

Comic Con at this point has so much noise that it’s becoming hard to differentiate yourself among the masses. People going around are simply overwhelmed by all that is offered. To make a real connection with your fans, you have to make them feel special. You have to take them out of the noisy convention and give them some real one-on-one time. Or, if it’s not one-on-one, at least something a little bit more intimate.

This applies not only to something as big as Comic Con, but to any events of this sort. Host a happy hour, an after party, or at least a hospitality room could really maximize your exposure at these events. If such initiatives are budget prohibiting to smaller operations, at least try to connect with those you have met at these events electronically. Invite your loyal fans to the event. Host a chat with them after the event. Tweet to your fans about where they may find you during / after the event (and have an impromptu unofficial unhosted party). Take that extra effort to make a connection, and you would get that much more out of your attendance to these events!

Photo Credit: Top – San Diego Comic Con 2009, originally uploaded by ToFuGuns. Bottom – 2009 san diego comic-con, originally uploaded by koadmunkee.

Okay, as a marketer today, you can’t help but to see the potential coming from Twitter. I first learned about Twitter from a friend many years ago. But I generally avoid these social networking services because 1) I could end up wasting too much time on them 2) Not all services are created equal and not all services have longevity, so why bother?

However, Twitter has proved that it is here to stay for now…

So, as a marketer, I found myself wanting to learn more about Twitter, many months after when I probably should have. I set up a Twitter account. I haven’t Tweet yet, because I am not sure what I want to say… How do I want to brand myself on Twitter? Professional? Personal? Fun? Serious? Am I Jeannie as the Marketer? Jeannie as the Travel Lover? Some combination of all of the above?

But even in this early stage, I have learned a couple valuable lessons about Twitter and social media in general. Perhaps these are lessons you have learned yourself as well after some trial and error.

1. People will find you. I haven’t made a single Tweet. I haven’t announced my Twitter account anywhere. I have no links to my Twitter account. Yet, I have followers! Some of these followers are people I know. Some of these followers I don’t recognize. These followers perplex me more. They could just be complete strangers. Or they could have found me, through just Googling or whatever, and have some vested interest in learning more about me. Possibly a potential future business partner, or potential future boss? I don’t know. While I don’t think that is likely, the fact that I could not rule it out makes me think twice before just posting on Twitter anything that could be potentially damaging to my personal brand.

2. If you’re not ahead of the curve, you’re behind. I did not jump on the Twitter train when I first learned about it. By the time I finally decided to get a Twitter account set up, I was already too late. My most desired handle has been taken, just mere months ago! Instead of @jeanniechan (which is the most popular format), I had to settle for @jeannie_chan. So, what I have learned is that if the investment is low, go ahead and jump on the latest bandwagon! You could always get off it if you are not getting the pay off that you were expecting. But if you wait, you just may miss out!

Photo Credit: Jump on the social media bandwagon, originally uploaded by Matt Hamm.

BUT, with that said, I do wish from time-to-time to just be able to be a fly on the wall in one of their strategic planning sessions.

I don’t know which comes first, but it appears to me that every AB product marries consumer insight with product features.

The latest and greatest example would definitely be Bud Light Lime. This product was launched last summer, in direct competition of Miller Chill, which was launched a year ago. However, in the one year’s time, you could see how advertising can make or break a product.

A year later, Miller Chill achieved less than a quarter of the sales that Bud Light Lime achieved, according to Brand Week. Why? Miller Chill could not get past being a summer beer.

Bud Light Lime, however, did. Because Bud Light Lime is not just a summer beer because of taste, but it is a summer beer because it brings with it a summer state of mind. It is apparent that AB thought this through before launching the product. The launch commercial in summer 08 already advertised summer state of mind, which is leveraged in winter month commercials in the winter.

But, of course, advertising is only one element of brand management. Could Miller Chill make a come-back? We’ll see.

Miller Chill’s commercial highlight how chilling the beer is in Summer 2008…

Now, Bud Light Lime’s launch commercial in Summer 2008. What a difference!

Versions of the Bud Light Lime launch commercials are being re-aired this summer. But knowing AB, new commercials are coming soon! (In fact, I think some of them are already online.)

But, in the end, it was the winter ads that showed the campaigns geniusness! (Yes, I know that’s not really a word.)

Link: Brand Week MillerCoors Tweaks Miller Chill