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Number
61: July 14, 2004
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This week in Katydid:
Thirty
Seconds to Go
We've all had to deal with budget pressures. Let's face it; you only
have so much money to work with. You have to put your money where it
will get the most results. Put yourself, for example, in the shoes of
Chuck Fruit, CMO. He has only $2 billion this year, and he doesn't want
to waste a penny of it.
What wouldn't most of us do to have 0.1% of Chuck's problems?
Apparently, television ads. Coke,
the world's most recognized brand, sent a collective shiver down the
spines of network executives by announcing a reduced focus on the
30-second ad.
An article from the Atlanta Business Chronicle, quotes
Neville Isdell, CEO of Coke that
"In the last 50 years, the 30-second television spot has
defined our brands and, while it is still important, I think its
impact has diminished. … Marketing is clearly evolving and the
emergence of new media and the many competitive opportunities for
consumer stimuli mean that we need to find new, innovative ways of
addressing our consumers and ensuring the relevance of our
brands."
While Coke does not really intend to cut back on television ads in
the near-term, it does signal a long-range strategy to reduce emphasis
on television buys. More importantly, it shows their commitment to
integrated marketing strategies.
One clear signal is the promotion
of Chuck Fruit to CMO. Formerly, Fruit was the Senior VP of
Integrated Marketing and pioneered Coke's success in those efforts over
the past decade.
This move is as much an endorsement of integrated marketing as it is
a tolling of the bells for traditional advertising. From its inception,
Coke has been a pioneer and leader in marketing and advertising. One
could argue they created the modern concept of branding. Some
revisionists even declare that the
New Coke debacle was merely a ploy to encourage loyalty in
traditional Coke (which makes one wonder about C2).
New Coke reminded us never to underestimate the emotional loyalty
customers can make with a product. Coke had become in integral part of
the lives of its consumers. Integrated marketing is a strategy that
encourages this relationship by putting the product into contexts to
which the consumer relates.
So, it's not just product placement which yields more impressions;
it's Paula Abdul sipping Coke while soothing the bruised ego or praising
the efforts of a talent
show contestant. It's relationships with other brands such as ESPN
where online
videogames encourage consumption while associating the brand with
values of sportsmanship, leadership, competitiveness, and skill. It's
also more than just alternative
advertising.
Coke's latest ads for Diet Coke have celebrity actors such as Adrien
Brody and Kate Beckinsale and never mention their names. The ads are
more enigmatic to tease the audience, which is more likely to drive the
target segment to find out more for themselves. And, of course, the Diet
Coke web site is there to answer those questions.
The next generation of Coke consumers is online, and television will
be used increasingly as a device solely to drive them there. Games are a
big part of Coke's integrated strategy for younger consumers. Contests
are as well. Most of these are part of a permission-based marketing
strategy. Coke will then use this information to drive consumers to
events where they will become more involved in the Coke lifestyle.
Well, integrated marketing is nothing new, and we've all been
watching the demise of interruption-based marketing for awhile, so what
does this mean to those of us who have less than the most recognized
brand in the world? It means it's over. We can stop waiting for the
other shoe to drop. It just did and we're still coveting that 30-second
ad in prime time. We're still paying tens to hundreds of thousands of
dollars to an advertising agency to make the same identity package,
brochure, etc. that they give to everyone else.
The three-hundred-pound gorilla did not thump its chest and roar; it
quietly moved to another spot. In fact, it's been inching there for a
decade. If we hang around waiting for the leader to shout, "Time to
move," we'll miss the opportunity. The fact is they don't want you
crowding their shade.
You might feel you have to work your way up the marketing
evolutionary ladder from logo through flyer, brochure, magazine, radio,
and television, but you don't. It's hard to let go of because we've all
had that vision of what it would like when our first TV commercial airs.
It feels like you've arrived on the scene. After awhile though it just
feels like membership in a very expensive club.
Where we could focus on vision on is that first time you see your
logo hanging on somebody else's wall, or when you mention who you work
for and they say, "It must be great to work for such a cool
company." That is, we should strive to make our brand a part of the
lifestyle of our consumers. In the B2B world, their lifestyle at work
may look very different from the kids hanging out in the Coke world, but
for your consumers it's just as much the Real Thing®.
Next week Katydid will be on hiatus, so I offer you this wonderful
bit of news
on the power of anxiety. Don't let this happen to you.
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Kind regards,
Kevin Troy Darling
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