Hasta La Creative!

Sometimes the past is fulfilled with wonderful memories of friends, music, good times and lots of laughter. Or, the past should remain exactly where it is, especially when remembering how you dressed, your bodily piercings, and that mullet with the spiked top that would never go out of style. If you remember the mullet, do you recall these lyrics?

Buying bread from a man in Brussels He was six foot four and full of muscles I said, “Do you speak-a my language?” He just smiled and gave me a vegemite sandwich”
By: Men At Work, “A Land Down Under

What in the heck is Vegemite, anyway? Until writing this post, I didn’t know, nor care. Then I found out that Vegemite is actually produced by Kraft Foods, and that Kraft has developed a new Vegemite formula and has rolled it out in Australia…

My first thought: “Would this be the next huge marketing FAIL, akin to the New Coke Formula back in 1985?”
Knowing absolutely nothing about the product, I had to do some research. What is Vegemite?

Vegemite is similar to the British product Marmite, which is a tacky paste, brown in color, with a salty “beef broth” or “meaty-like taste.” Marmite is usually spread on toast or biscuits but can also be mixed with hot water to make a drink. Marmite is made out of yeast extract saved after the beer brewing process. During World War I, the flow of Marmite to Australia was interrupted and an Australian cheese company, Fred Walker & Co., commissioned an Aussie scientist to come up with similar replacement.

Vegemite was introduced with great fanfare (including a national naming contest) in 1923. The naming campaign was a big success; the product flopped. Despite various marketing efforts, Vegemite sales remained poor. Kraft purchased Walker & Co. in 1926 (forming the Kraft Walker Cheese Company) and in 1928, changed the name to Parmite, which killed Vegemite’s tiny though hard-won market share. Vegemite never recovered.

So, with plenty of Vegemite on-hand, the Kraft Walker Cheese Company started giving it away with Pontiac automobiles and cheese products. Sales responded positively; then, the British medical association proclaimed that Vegemite was a great source of Vitamin B. Sales increased more. By World War II, Vegemite was in 9 of 10 Australian homes, had become part of a soldier’s daily ration kit, and was even carried by Aussie’s traveling abroad due to lack of availability in other countries. Today, Vegemite is one of the most well-known global brands and outsells Marmite in Australia by huge margins.

Kraft tried to extend the brand with a cheese and Vegemite “single,” but failed. However, marketing contests, such as limerick and song competitions, boosted sales. Then, following the war, the baby boom hit and Kraft jumped on Vegemite’s Vitamin B content for infants;

“…baby care expert Sister Mc Donald, said in the Women’s Weekly that “Vegemite is most essential”, further cementing Vegemite’s reputation for nutrition and wholesomeness. Infant Welfare Centres were recommending babies have their quota of Vitamin B1, B2 and Niacin. Vegemite had them all!”

By the 1950’s, Vegemite was to Australia what apple pie is to America, aided in part by consumer-oriented campaigns initiated by J.Walter Thompson.

On July 7, 2009, Kraft released a ’second’ Vegemite. The new Vegemite is a mix of Vegemite and cream cheese, is less salty, spreads much easier, and supposedly tastes better. To coincide with the release of the new recipe, Kraft is running a competition to give the new flavor a name, hearkening back to the competitions that worked 50 years ago. Kraft recently launched a comprehensive marketing campaign to name the new Vegemite, drawing on the successes of past campaigns that involved the public.

In fact, the new campaign mixes both traditional and Social Media, including an interactive website that includes fun facts, the naming contests, and the history of Vegemite. The new Vegemite can be found on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. Below is the one of several commercials. This one has been extended to be 48-seconds long:

And, just as in the early days, J. Walter Thompson was chosen for creative expertise. While some wait to see if this brand extension will be a coup or a pile of crap, early research shows that Vegemite has more brand affinity than Coca-Cola, Starbucks, and Nike (globally);

The research analysed 1.5 billion posts across 38 languages within social networking sites, blogs, message boards, and online news. The results discovered 479,206 mentions for Vegemite, with brand affinity found more often than any other product globally.

If this was an election, the early results would show that the new Vegemite is a serious contender; however, all the votes haven’t been cast. Based on my research, I believe that the new Vegemite will most certainly take space in Australian kitchens.

Jeff Louis: Strategic Media Planner, Brand Project Manager, blogger and aspiring writer. To contact Jeff, leave a comment here, or find him on LinkedIn or Twitter.

Today somebody asked me why I love social media. There are so many reasons and it’s hard for me to choose only a few. So I did what any other social media savvy individual would do: I posted the question on Facebook, Twitter and other outlets. I was able to use social media to explain why I love social media and I think fellow blogger Jenna McWilliams says it best: “Social media is not a trend, but a fundamental human urge to communicate,” and now we have more ways to do so. So, my top five reasons:

1. 1-800 customer care number? Consider it a thing of the past. Remember the time when we had 1-800 numbers? We’d wait on hold for eternity to finally get connected to someone in another country who was so far from executives that we were sure our complaints or problems would never be heard. Social media has changed that. Now companies have to listen to their customers because unhappy ones can broadcast their displeasure through social media. Also, it’s no longer a one-way conversation. Some companies have jumped onto the social media bandwagon (as they should) and created accounts to ask consumers to help create and improve their brands.  Two most notable examples are Starbucks’ My Starbucks Idea and Burger King’s Whopper Sacrifice.

2. Efficiency of reaching consumers. Look at social media this way – imagine all of your customers coming together on a daily basis and talking about topics that pertain to you and your company, thereby spreading even more information about your company and gaining more recognition and consumers. One of my favorite quotes comes from my mentor and good friend, Griffin Farley of 22squared: “Don’t plan for the ones you reach, plan for the ones they reach.”

3. Being connected (this was the most popular answer I received after posting the question). When something happens to ourselves or to someone we know, we share it with others through pictures, comments and tweets.  More importantly, it’s a new way to get news, support, and advice on anything.What better way to educate yourself on advertising and marketing than by following an expert in a specific field? Who knows, it could even get you a job (Tweeter Neal Schafer had it happen to him after he started his blog and web site).

4. Creative campaigns. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – if I had a TiVo, all I would record are commercials. I like advertising, but not because I want to learn about the products. I like the  creativity used to showcase a product to consumers. And now with social media, they’re becoming even more creative. Viral videos, Twitter giveaways, Facebook fan pages, etc. I can’t get enough of them. Old school + new school = awesome, consumer-activity-inducing campaigns.

5. The best thing about social media? It is changing the way we think. And with the exponential growth of it, no social media professional can be sure of where these new media will lead. But I can tell you that it’s exciting to see the evolution.

Megan Green is a freelance propagation planner who has had her work published on PR News Wire, as well as many other outlets. Contact her on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, or at megankategreen@gmail.com.

Did you hear the one about the 15-year-old who decided to run his own study on the media consumption patterns of teenagers? It’s quite the research… er… story… lesson.

Ben Kellogg of Group SJR forwarded me the article after we had spoken about an entirely unrelated subject. To be quite honest, I didn’t jump right on it… my laptop had died, losing files, email contacts, and programs. I just kept resetting the email reminder. Until today.

Matthew Robson, a 15-year-old intern working for Morgan Stanley, conducted a media study called “How Teenagers Consume Media.” The conclusions caused a bit of an uproar, mainly because one teen does not represent all teens. Yet, it could also be said that the overall observations coincide with many teen media habits. The teens I know, for instance, would rather be online than in front of a television. Either that or doing both… watching TV and surfing the Web, interspersed with texting. Although there is absolutely no statistical backing for a survey of one, we can draw some general inferences from Robson’s writing.

General conclusions for the study include:

• Most teenagers are not regular listeners to radio, instead opting for online streaming services
• Most teens watch television, but frequency varies by season. Additionally, now that TV shows are webcasted as well, there’s less worry about missing an episode
• Teens do not read traditional papers because “they don’t have the time” (I am sure they have the time… it’s just that papers don’t rank highly on the priority list)
• Console gaming, interestingly, is not of interest to teenagers… and the main factor is cost. Costs for consoles and games are beyond most budgets; however, multi-player, interactive online games are popular
• The Internet is where teens interact socially, conduct research for school, create videos, IM, and otherwise connect to others… except for Twitter. Matthew states that teens do not use Twitter*
• Teens love music, but are not paying for it
• Viral marketing is enjoyed and supported by teens
• They do not use directories unless it’s online, etc.

*According to the graph below from Sysomos, teens comprise 30% of Twitter users:

This is directly in contrast with Robson’s assessment.

But hey, he is 15 years-old, and while he may be intelligent, his judgment is missing the crucial benefit of time. However, Morgan Stanley should not be lacking in the judgment column… or, in retrospect, maybe that’s exactly what they are missing…

Jeff Louis: Strategic Media Planner, Brand Project Manager, Writer & Blogger. Unlike the all the other blog writers for Talent Zoo, Jeff is cute and nice. Tweet him @jlo0312. Just kidding about the nice part.

Advertising and marketing have taken new directions with the recent integration of social media and consumer advocacy. Agencies have been forced to rethink their ideas and strategies to reach their consumers. One such agency, 22squared, has done just that with the help of its SVP Director of Brand Marketing, Brandon Murphy.

I had the opportunity to catch Mr. Murphy on the phone this past Friday and ask him about the company’s model, The Friendship Model: How to Build Brand Advocacy in a Consumer-Driven World.

“I think that basically it’s an approach for brands to build advocacy. When we first introduced this thing, it was mostly an internal thing, and actually still is. In essence it was an internal way to focus the agency on what marketing was about today, what a person does to make and maintain a friendship, earn enough respect, and I guess enough attractiveness for a consumer to advocate for them like a friend would advocate for a friend,” Murphy said.

Murphy says one of the hardest questions companies face when creating campaigns is the question, “How do we build advocacy?”

“A lot of times it comes down to not what you say but what you do,” he said. “How can we get the customer to interact with us. Your next customer could turn into your next 10 customers. It’s a pretty simple idea.”

Griffin Farley, senior brand planner from 22squared, has a great saying for this: “Don’t plan for the ones you reach, plan for the ones they reach.”

How can this model help an entire agency? I listed those questions and responses below:

Megan Green: For people now looking for work in progressive ad agencies, why is it important for them to know about advocacy, social media and word of mouth?

Brandon Murphy: The simple reason is because that is how brands are growing now. Brands aren’t growing by increased awareness, they are growing with people talking about them…that’s how people are choosing products and what brand to use.

MG: Media Planners are specialists at reach and frequency. Are those still important skills to know when advocacy is the end goal?

BM: I think there is always going to be a critical mass of people you have to reach to keep your brand afloat. You look at our agency, it’s not like we don’t do media plans, it’s just that we’ve changed how we do our media plans and how we engage the customer. For media planners, the one thing is that it is no longer about buying space and just calculating reach or frequency, it’s about getting opportunities for the customer to talk.  Media planning has gotten to get more strategic and inventive to get messages to customers.

MG: When you brief Creative Teams, does the Friendship Model help them get to a better creative deliverable?

BM: The Friendship Model does a few things. First, it gives a sense of direction in work and strategy. We always still do the right things in understanding a customer and how a brand can fit into a customer’s life. The key thing is to think entirely around a problem and all different ways to solve it. Sometimes it’s something really cool or something simple. We’ve looked back and told a client, “it’s not a TV campaign you need, but it’s an associate campaign,” like we told Buffalo Wild Wings and Lincoln Financial. Second, [the model is] something else that makes them work better, it forces you to figure out what the brand’s purpose is. If a brand has a purpose beyond just selling something, as a customer you’re more likely to invest in it.

MG: Has the Friendship Model helped your New Business Team win accounts or peak interest among search consultants? What feedback do you hear from them?

BM: Well the good thing about the Friendship Model is that it really does help filter out clients that are right for you and clients that aren’t right for you. The client typically hates it [the model] or loves it. It’s a nice screener for us and prospective clients. It really puts ourselves out there and we’re really passionate about building advocacy.  Also, search consultants really like it. Search consultants are tasked with bringing agencies that bring in business. With this model we can focus on the things that bring in sales. We can tell them how much they can expect to increase sales given an increase in advocacy or reach of other people. That’s really been super attractive to some consultants.

MG: Does the Friendship Model help Account Service strengthen the relationship with the clients? Do clients value the philosophy?

BM: In two ways. One, it’s kind of a gut check for us. The way we act and the people in our agency – it creates a pretty high road for us to walk in terms of being passionate and doing the right thing. You know, it’s interesting if you think about the relationship between friends, it’s not all nicey-nicey and how can I serve you. It’s real. It gives us a nice path to travel on how we build relationships with clients. Two, it most importantly gives our clients something to circle into. Clients always have business goals, but doing it through a filter of building relationships and advocacy gives the client a way to lead that they hadn’t had before. Most of the Friendship Model is based on what we currently do for our clients. It feeds the development on how to win over customers and act differently than other brands, like Publix Super Markets, Inc.

MG: Finally, as Director of Brand Planning, what skills do you look for when you hire Account Planners that want to work for 22squared?

BM: Planners have to be insatiably curious and really, really good at writing and getting ideas across to people. Those two things are core building blocks for planners. Something else we look at is planners who are always able to take a different look at things than most people. Whenever I hire a planner, I make sure they are not only smart, but smart strategically and creatively. Our planners are much more active in participating in the creative. We look for planners that understand how to engage a customer and not just about bringing a message but about where we engage, how we engage, and the content and value of the brand. Planners are provocateurs by nature. At least we want them to be. We want them to cause people to look at things differently. They need to be the glue that holds people together.

Want more information on The Friendship Model and what it means? Check out this video that 22squared put together, “I Love Blank”, or Brandon’s white papers.

Megan Green is an advertising and marketing professional published on PR News Wire, as well as many other outlets. She specializes in social media and is currently looking for a full-time advertising position. Contact her on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, or at megankategreen@gmail.com.

Whether you love it or hate Facebook and Twitter are here to stay–at least for a little while. There are great tools to see what social media is saying about your brand.

Icerocket – Searches a variety of online services, including Twitter, blogs, videos and MySpace.

HowSociable? – A simple way for you to begin measuring your brand’s visibility on the social web.

Tinker – Real-time conversations from social media sources such as Twitter and Facebook.

UberVU – Track and engage with user sentiment across the likes of, FriendFeed, Digg, Picasa, Twitter and Flickr. 

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Jinean Robinson is a CCIO (Chief Creative Infections Officer) who has been in the communications industry for over 8 years, specializing in creative strategy and implementation, 360 branding communications, and brand development. Join her at http://twitter.com/germllc or her firm’s website at http://germonline.com/

Like the Robinson’s robot from Lost In Space, someone has obviously been warning “The Suits” at MySpace “Danger! Danger! You are losing users!”  To MySpace’s credit, they listened, and have introduced new user features (Profile 2.0), revised their music section, and launched a “connect” feature. They also announced that they had ousted their CEO to bring in a former Facebook exec, Owen Van Natta. (No one is quite sure what happened to ever-friendly Tom…)  Additionally, MySpace is offering a beta version of MySpace Local which provides some of the functionality of Twitter, like; “Where can I get a great Tuna Sandwich in Kansas City?”

To be honest, other than the music search on MySpace, it’s been dead to me. And the music portion, until lately, wasn’t the simplest to use: if you sift through enough crap, you could find a among the shattered glass: One listen to A Fine Frenzy and you’ll know what I mean. However, the newly revamped music features on MySpace are far better than what they had, and leagues beyond anything Facebook has to offer.

Yet is it too little, too late? Should MySpace have made these changes mid-year 2008 when they knew Facebook was coming on hard? Facebook overtook MySpace as the largest Social Network in existence, and it’s not showing any sign of slowing down. (My mother, in her 60s, recently added a Facebook account to keep up with the “kids;” we are all over thirty.)  So, Facebook’s growth, in addition to the growth rate of Twitter (1300 percent from 2008 to 2009) leaves MySpace with difficult challenges to overcome. (See the graph, below, courtesy of Compete.)

Will MySpace Lose Their Space?

It’s doubtful in the near term, but it will depend on Van Natta’s leadership, innovation, and speed. MySpace will also need to rollout MySpace II carefully, not offending current users but also regaining previous members. The other huge benefit for MySpace: it’s owned by NewsCorp, the same company that owns Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Post. With that kind of breaking-news potential backing the site, it’s possible that MySpace may emerge as a combination between Digg and Facebook, with an awesome music application, online dating services, and the Twitter-like MySpace Local application.

Another hurdle for MySpace is to overcome its “ghetto” feel when compared to Facebook. Facebook is branded thoroughly on every page of the site whereas MySpace has multiple skins that can be utilized; some from third party vendors that cause the pages not to load correctly or even hang your browser. Additionally, MySpace is not positioned like Facebook in regard to the “employment” factor. Facebook is setup to “brand” yourself to potential employers…which means that tend to keep it clean of profanity in the headings, as well as use actual names rather than online IDs. But, then again, maybe that is part of its charm. Facebook has experienced their share of problems; they’ve disenchanted some of their members with sweeping changes to their privacy policies (although later rescinded), and have changed the user interface, much to the chagrin of many. In fact, many demand that the “old” Facebook be brought back. Finally, Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, seems to be a wild card that holds the future of the site in his hands, as evidenced by the mysterious departure of Chief Financial Officer, Gideon Yu. Yu’s departure was the latest change of several in the upper ranks at Facebook, “whose employees and investors are anxious about Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg’s plans for the social-networking site.”

MySpace’s biggest challenge is to implement their changes quickly; not only to maintain their 130 million current members, but to also reel in former users that broke rank. MySpace and Flixter were the only two Social Networking platforms to lose users from 2008 to 2009.

Jeff Louis is a Strategic Media Planner, Project Manager, and New Business Coordinator. His passion is writing, contributing to BMA as well as freelancing. He’d love to hear from you: linkedin.com/in/jefflouis or twitter.com/jlo0312.

Whether a casual user, raving addict, or total agnostic, you’ve come into contact with Social Media (SM) sites and are aware of their influence on our daily lives: We can be hired, fired, or even jailed as a result of Social Media use. We can find lost loves, ruin current relationships, and even fix relationships…all in the social media space. There are SM experts, gurus, and enthusiasts. And of course, there are even SM celebritites. Not to mention those few of us that use Social Media for business (imagine that!).

But, please realize this, oh SM narcissists: Even though you have 1500 Facebook “friends” and 40,000 followers on Twitter “being social ? having personality.” Luckily, for all of us, we can now rate your personality via HubSpot’s free Personality Grader, saving us the time of following you.

“People often forget that your personality itself is a powerful marketing tool. With our new free application, marketers can ask their personality, ‘How we doin’?’ and avoid devastating social interactions. A fully optimized personality is a key piece of any successful inbound marketing strategy.” -HubSpot

Want to see how you rate? Go to the Grader and enter your name or the name that you use as your alias…depending on which you use more, results may differ.

When you find your score, let me know if you exhibit personality or find yourself “…sorta social, demented and sad, but social.” (from the The Breakfast Club)

Jeff Louis is a Strategic Media Planner, Project Manager, and New Business Coordinator. His passion is writing, contributing to BMA as well as freelancing. He’d love to hear from you: www.linkedin.com/in/jefflouis or on twitter @jlo0312.

Have you ever had one of those days where everything seemed out of control, and you weren’t getting anything completed? Then, when you finally realized that you made some progress, an itch in your brain was nagging you, saying that you missed something important. You think, “If I could only remember…I just wish I knew wha…It hits you. 
Mine was that I had forgotten my “blogging time.” Maybe that’s why I’m in such a crappy mood. I dig writing…it’s my down time. However, just like of you, ideas are constantly spinning in my head, and when I see something that grabs me, I write it down, email it to myself, put it in my Blackberry, or write a note on my hand. It’s quite a remarkable system. (I wonder if I can direct-tweet myself?)

Twitter was everywhere today! Releasing new apps, getting press, products launches were being announced on Twitter…there were so many things happening, it was hard to keep up.

Is your company embracing Social Media? Are you an early-adopter? You had better be. Where do you stand?:

We  have it and use it daily

We  have an account set up, but no idea what to do with it

We  just don’t get it (it’s all these damn kids today)

To determine the who’s who, I follow businesses on Twitter to see how they engage consumers. And, if you’ve read anything regarding Social Media,this is considered a “good idea”…some do a fantastic job and have real conversations. Engagement.Shhh! Dunkin’ Donuts would be one, with “Dunkin’ Dave Tweetin for the mother ship.” DraftFcb is another, offering insights on their blog, the latest podcast, newest campaign, and HR news. Although not implemented yet, DiGiorno Pizza is planning to use influential tweeters to host tweetups (gatherings) and Kraft will deliver DiGiorno Pizza…but wait, it’s NOT delivery, it’s DiGiorno delivered? Either way, good idea. Unfortunately, Kraft is nowhere to be found. Allstate has a fantastic page and great rapport. Companies that have accounts with nothing going on?  Sear has two accounts, no followers. Krogers, Dominicks, Safeway, Publix–all grocery stores, not a single one on Twitter. Whole Foods? You betcha, with over 400,000 followers. Cleverly, I decided to check ad agencys, but received a measely 155 members using “advertising” as my search term. Then, I decided to enter agency names to see if they had accounts, and for the sake of future employment, I am not going to list them. However, names that I thought would be there, weren’t.

Some Twitter Nuggets
Over the last two months, according to Socialmediaatwork.com, Twitter has exploded. Twitter’s demographic skews  female (53%) and is mainly made up of 18-34 year olds. However, Worldwide, the highest indexing group for users is A45-54. Twitter surpassed the NY Times in unique visitors in April, became the top social network used by hospitals in March, and also recorded that 17% of UK businesses are on Twitter. It seems that Twitter is not only growing up, but expanding it’s reach into business.
Don’t Use Twitter if
As a business, there are certain things that will keep you from using Twitter effectively. The entire list is is on AdAge, but a couple of the funnier entries were, “You have to run your tweets by legal” and, “You think a ghost-tweeter for the president of your company is OK.” For more reasons your company should not use Twitter, check out AdAge.

Jeff Louis is a Strategic Media Planner & Buyer with over seven years of B2B & B2C experience. His interests are emerging media, schweet  ideas, and redefining the status quo (not necessarily in that order.)  He’s passionate about writing and digs great creative that is on-strategy. Follow him on twitter @jlo0312, or LinkedIn, www.LinkedIn.com/in/jefflouis

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Susan Bratton is CEO and co-founder of Personal Life Media.