2010 January « Social Networking and New Markets

Pepsi rethinks Superbowl and Social Branding

January 18, 2010 Leave a comment

The social effort Pepsi Refresh has been launched with prizes of more than $1 million every month across dozens of ideas selected from site submissions and prizes would replace the budgeted spend on their Superbowl ad. Definitely a new healthy beginning, though the Superbowl may not be out of fashion for long.

This year, instead of spending $20 million on Superbowl ads, Pepsi decided to put the money into Pepsi Refresh, a social marketing campaign which solicits the best ideas from consumers and plans to dole out $20 million in grants to good causes and “great ideas” throughout the year. The site opened up about 10 hours ago to take ideas from people applying for grants. On February 1, voting will begin to decide the best ideas, which will receive grants ranging from $5,000 to $250,000 each.

It’s a bold experiment in social marketing, but it is also risky. Not helping matters is the Pepsi Refresh site isn’t working properly. An attempt to submit an idea resulted in a database error. But even worse, applicants’ personal information was compromised.

If you want to read about the security fracas, read nobosh.com and TC here
Social Marketing Gone Awry: Pepsi Refresh Needs To Refresh Its Security Settings.

Former Neighbours actress, Australian Erin McNaught

In 2005, they invited J Lo to its advert premieres, cutting down on Superbowl ROI, but launching the new campaign in Spain with a mafia theme from Hongkong. J Lo works with footballer and Barça opponent Real Madrid’s Beckham (also LA Galaxy) and Beyoncé

Let’s hope the Idea memes last and voting on them is Fun in the week leading to the Superbowl and thence till Pepsi withdraws the campaign. This year’s Hit Refresh campaign’s face is Aussie “Neighbours” actress Erin who pipped Ruby Rose from MTV for the same. (via Digital Spy

Filed under Marketing, Social Media, Sports Marketing Tagged with Aussie, Australia, Coke, Erin Mcnaught, Ideas, Lifestyle Infrastructure, MTV, Neighbours, Pepsi, retail lifestyle, Ruby Rose, Smile, Social Media

Draft: Kraft’s Marketing budgets under pressure

January 18, 2010 3 Comments

Draft: Also see Cadbury’s

More low calorie chocolate?

Easy Mac, Singles, Nabisco portfolio and Cheese

BW Crunchy Story

Kraft Foods Inc. (KFT ) sure has bulked up. In the past five years, the company has gobbled up 10 rivals, including Nabisco Holdings Corp. for $19 billion in late 2000. The result: the biggest packaged-food maker in the U.S., with expected 2004 sales of $32.3 billion and products in almost every aisle of the grocery store, from Kraft cheeses and Oreo cookies to Oscar Mayer meats, Post cereals, DiGiorno pizzas, and Maxwell House coffees.

Now Chief Executive Roger K. Deromedi has decided it’s time for Kraft to slim down. He began with the Nov. 15 sale of Kraft’s Life Savers and Altoids candies to Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co. (WWY ) for $1.5 billion in cash. And more will follow, he says, as Kraft divests itself of other laggard and peripheral product lines to concentrate on the blockbuster brands that can be tops in their categories worldwide. Says Deromedi: “We want the products that consumers and retailers are more excited about.”

Clearly, the pressure is on the 51-year-old Deromedi, who became Kraft’s sole CEO a year ago, when Co-Chief Executive Betsy Holden was demoted to global marketing president. Like other consumer-goods companies, Kraft is scrambling to give Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT ) and other retailing giants what they want. Bulking up to gain leverage with the retail behemoths fueled much of Kraft’s expansion in the first place, but that strategy hasn’t worked. With Wal-Mart and others increasingly interested only in the briskest-selling products, it turns out that suppliers are better off with a clutch of category killers than a cartful of so-so sellers.

But dealing with Wal-Mart isn’t Kraft’s only problem. Many are of its own making, from turmoil within its executive suite to oversaturating store shelves with too many variations of the same old product. How many different kinds of Oreos do consumers really want? At the same time, other consumer-products companies, notably Procter & Gamble Co. (PG ), have been far more skillful in navigating the retailing shoals with nifty new products. What’s more, management at Kraft’s parent, Altria Group Inc. (MO ), is putting the squeeze on Kraft to shape up in advance of a possible spin-off of its controlling stake next year.

Filed under Marketing, Sports Tagged with Cheese, China, Europe, India, Israel, Kraft, Marketing spend, Nabisco, Sports, US

The Draft: Cadbury’s Sponsorship budgets, Obesity and ANZ

January 18, 2010 1 Comment

Time Out, Cherry Ripe and Dairy Milk

placeholder
This post is draft

1. in the midst of the sale

at advantages.us

2. 2012 London Olympics

The Independent (After Lehman)

The confectionery giant Cadbury is to be one of the sponsors of the London 2012 Olympics.

The organising committee for the Games (Locog) said the firm would be a “Tier Two” partner by adding £20m to the £410m of private money already secured to finance the event.

The company, based in Bournville, Birmingham, will provide all the confectionery and ice creams sold at the Olympic Park in Stratford, east London. In recent years, it has sponsored the Sydney Olympics, in 2000, and the Commonwealth Games in Manchester, in 2002, and Melbourne, in 2006.

3. Coronation Street on ITV worth $18 bilion

Cadbury’s logged out in Nov. 2006 after 10 years with the 45 year old Granada mainstay
The independent

The on-air sponsorship ..start(ed) in September (1996) , to coincide with the introduction of a fourth episode of Coronation Street. The deal concludes months of negotiation by Cadbury for the right to be associated with the 35-year-old soap.

Cadbury’s longest Brand ‘Pillars’ (Singles since 1905)
10 out of 20 brands are leaders

The Chocolate Epic

Chocolate Hall of Fame
Many famous Cadbury brands have enjoyed considerable success. While Cadbury Dairy Milk® chocolate remains the most popular moulded chocolate bar in Australia, other rising stars are always joining the Cadbury Hall of Fame.
Cadbury Dairy Milk® (1905)
Cadbury Dairy Milk was launched in 1905 after more than four years of research and the introduction of new production processes. Cadbury had been determined to develop a new chocolate to challenge the competition from European manufacturers.
Its delicious new recipe using fresh milk, had a unique flavour and smooth, creamy texture. With its now famous glass and a half of full-cream milk in every 200gms, Cadbury Dairy Milk contained far more milk than any previously known chocolate.
By 1913, Cadbury Dairy Milk had become the company’s best selling line in Britain and in the mid-1920s became the brand market leader, a position it holds today. Cadbury Dairy Milk sales are valued at around $85 million per year.
Despite advertising and label changes and considerable strides in manufacturing techniques, the recipe for Cadbury Dairy Milk is still basically the same as when it was launched more than a century ago.
Cadbury Milk Tray™ (1915)
Cadbury Milk Tray has maintained its popularity in a changing world since the milk chocolate assortment made with Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate was first introduced in Australia in the early 1930’s.
The name ‘Tray’ is derived from the way in which the original assortment was delivered to the shops. Originally Milk Tray was packed in five and a half pound boxes, arranged on trays from which it was sold loose to customers.
The half-pound deep-lidded box with the traditional purple background and gold script was introduced in the late 1930s.
Milk Tray has been available in a various pack sizes from 125g-750g. In 1998, six new Milk Tray pack designs were introduced in all sizes – including a heart and stars – marketed as gifts for all occasions.
Cadbury Roses® (1938)
Designed to compete in the ‘twist-wrap’ chocolate market, Cadbury Roses is the current number one boxed chocolate brand in Australia.
Within a year of 1938 launch the Roses milk and plain chocolate assortment became one of the company’s most important confectionery lines.
With its eye catching blue packs and tins, distinctive red and yellow roses and range of twelve different attractively wrapped chocolates, Cadbury Roses continue to capture the imagination of chocolate lovers of all ages.

Chocolates fighting obesity

NZOC

Cadbury New Zealand today announced it has become the official treat provider of the New Zealand Olympic Teams for Vancouver 2010 and London 2012.

This sponsorship partnership will also provide financial support for our Olympic Teams and enable the New Zealand Olympic Committee to athletes by taking care of costs such as travel and training so they can focus on becoming the best they can be and put in sensational performances inprovide athletes with the resources they need at Games time to excel. 2010 and 2012.

Cadbury New Zealand Managing Director, Matthew Oldham, said Cadbury is incredibly excited and proud to be a Partner of the New Zealand Team for the upcoming Winter and Summer Olympic Games.

Filed under Marketing, Sports Tagged with Cadbury, Cadburys, Dealbook, Media, Sponsorships, Superbrands, TV

KFC Marketing Strategy: Carry the controversy down under

January 13, 2010 Leave a comment

A racist meme from America carried down under, lock stock and barrel, Australians openly accepting it and the Americans denouncing it..in fact only 27% denouncing it. “Fried Chicken” does get you into colored soup.

Pete Cashmore broke the story socially here

Ofcourse, more germaine to Asia is that game called Cricket! This KFC campaign was for the IP’s early ancestors that feature the Australian provinces fighting for the cup.

Filed under Marketing, Social Media, Superbowl Tagged with Branding, Controversy, Global Memes, KFC, Marketing, Meme, Sports, Sports Marketing

Spanking new brands get into the Superbowl

January 13, 2010 1 Comment

We’re still talking Superbowl ads

Sports are back in town

We’ve tweeted about CBS’ success with Superbowl before. It is this year and it has won in more ways than one. The Superbowl’s runaway success brings to us a changing avatar with new brands that are more familiar to the global marketplace. We global travelers definitely look a li’l more acquiescing to the ads even if it is likely to be drab and dull on the field. Go Charlie!

Superbowl ads have been a favorite for new brand launches and the global professional fraternity has indeed been screaming loud and clear to get more meaningful brands and this CBS Superbowl is welcome in getting Unilever Dove men’s care brands, Papa Johns and Diamond Foods’ Popcorn and nuts a wider audience and greater brand recognition. A revolution brought about by us, Twitter and those global viewers that are also looking forward to a more direct competition between NFL and IPL in this season. And even as the greater games of Football and Cricket are headed for a more direct marketing showdown.

That subject in more details at the motherlode Advantage Brands

“Last year, time was being sold entering into a recession,” Mr. McClintock said. “This year, it’s being sold apparently coming out of one.”

Another difference is that a year ago, many marketers that bought Super Bowl spots were playing down their participation, fearing that the sour national mood made the usual hoopla seem inappropriate. Now, though, the hyperbole machine is being cranked up by many sponsors as they seek attention for their ad plans.

Although Super Bowl ad mainstays like FedEx, General Motors and Pepsi-Cola have said they will skip this year’s game, several newcomers have signed on, along with advertisers that buy Super Bowl spots irregularly.

They include Boost Mobile; the Census Bureau; Dockers, sold by Levi Strauss; a line of men’s skin care products from Dove, part of Unilever; Electronic Arts; HomeAway, a vacation-rental listing service; Knowledge Generation Bureau, which offers a text-message information service under the KGB brand; Motorola; Pop-Secret popcorn, to be advertised with a sibling Emerald Nuts in a spot being bought by Diamond Foods; the truTV cable channel, owned by Time Warner; and Volkswagen.

“There comes a time to step out of your comfort zone,” said one first-timer, Chris Moss, creative chairman at KGB in New York. “We’re confident we can give viewers something entertaining to watch with a little more standout than the rest.”

via Advertising – Super Bowl Ads Sales as Economic Indicator – NYTimes.com.

Something for the new kids on the block

Of course we welcome the texting team from KGB on board. And their superior punch in 3 Q3 spots will definitely be their one and only chance to get yummy action. And we love the nuts even more. The KGB hotline is 542542.

However, CBS may not have won over the kingdom yet and the next Superbowl may be back with the old favorites GM, Pepsi and more Bud flowing..

Filed under Marketing, NFL, Sports, Sports Marketing, Superbowl Tagged with IPL, NFL, SMS, Social Media, Sports, Sports Marketing, Superbowl, Twitter

The new C’s of January

January 11, 2010 Leave a comment

The two new C’s beating the P and the G in Gillette or now called the ex-Folgers sanitary brand coy has failed to deploy the safety parachute as campaigns from Coke are likely soon flooding the market for this year’s numero uno position in Asia. Esp. with the Asian challenge fading for Coke as it is firmly established in China as well, In India it has further cemented the gold rush for the heat with a new mega celebrity , budgeted in Indian rupees campaign with cinekhiladi Akshay. Last seen in the Colors resurgence on the Indian terra firma, Akshay may still be the out-first export from Bollywood for non Indian audiences or diaspora with 2010 establishing a second decade for innovative, market-aware Coke-worthy marketing and most of it corresponding to the Indian desi heady rush without the Ramesh Chauhan fights early on.

Also, the second C that got the gall of the razor was Canon which beat doomsday prediction for the recession friendly retail industry with a 35% uptick in budgeted targets for cross RS 1000 crores or $238 million this year riding a new market aware Xerox and Photograhy products campaign. Here’s to the new Cs..there are enough jobless students out there to absorb a lot of additional Cs in the marketing software.

If you want more Financials and related stuff, double back to http://advantages.us. Adage has the revolution for now and we are on Ad age.

Filed under Marketing Tagged with Advertising, Akshay's rebellions, Asia, ATL, Canon, China, Coke, Colors, India, Marketing

The Pricing fracas

January 5, 2010 Leave a comment

Is the Business media losing relevance? Well, the N Y Times is holding the Top 100 as pricing models do not ban readers , while WSJ and Pear-son’s FT are falling fast!