Ghirardelli Chocolate is launching a traditional sweepstakes promotion with a twist: Consumers are being asked to visit a website and compose a 75-character message about the "sweet little moments" when they enjoy Ghirardelli. The comments will then be streamed live on a special website. Comments entered between now and the end of April may also appear on a special billboard in lights in New York City's Times Square.Continue reading...

Similar to how companies like Xerox became interchangeable lingo for their respective product, Blockbuster was once the synonymous with video rentals. Times, however, have changed.

This year the brand sustained a $435 million fourth quarter loss. Indeed, the digital age hasn’t been friendly to the former “Be Kind Rewind” mammoth – forcing it to close down most locations, cut its inventory, and even file for bankruptcy in some countries.

But how could Blockbuster possibly compete with Netflix, the flat-rate online service that allows users to rent movies or watch streaming videos on their computers? Even before Netflix, most cable providers offered on-demand channels that enabled users to choose from a variety of reasonably priced movies – and many free ones, too.Continue reading...

Domino’s might be in the business of delivering pizzas, but it has also been taking home the bacon recently. The pizza giant boasted its most lucrative fourth-quarter earnings – producing twice as many sales, better margins, and lower interest expenses.

With tough competition from Pizza Hut and Papa John’s, how did Domino’s pull off such a feat? Was it by offering more lunch options such as pasta, sandwiches, and salads? Or was it the brand’s decision to pump money into its advertising? Both could account for the surge on some level, but there’s another factor to consider: Domino’s admitting that their pizza was bad.Continue reading...

Over the last decade, Aflac has done an incredible job of gaining recognition for its brand. The supplemental-insurance company now has 93 percent brand awareness compared with only 13 percent when it launched its white “Aflac!”-quacking duck into TV advertisements in early 2000.

But that’s where the company’s branding success stops: All most Americans know bout the brand is that Aflac is represented by the partly annoying, partly endearing wing-flapping Aflac Duck, who’s always seeking attention in its television advertisements.

“We have to take the duck, and we’re beginning to take the Aflac name, in consumers’ minds and explain what we do,” Paul Amos, chief operating officer of Columbus, Ga.-based Aflac, told brandchannel. “We’re going from brand awareness to brand definition."Continue reading...

Whether it’s cutting down on emissions, offering “green” products, or using reusable materials, big companies have been pushing eco-friendliness like never before. And Wal-Mart is no different.

The mammoth retailer announced this week that the company would undergo a “green” overhaul – including its plan to cut more than 20 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions, offer more “green” products than ever before, and rethink how to package and transport products by using reusable materials.

Looks like someone is giving Al Gore a run for his Nobel Peace Prize, right? Well, sort of.Continue reading...

Are you a Burger King “super fan”? If you eat fast-food nine or 10 times per month – then you are. And we all thought it was all about males, ages 18-34 who liked ad campaigns like SpongeBob SquareButt or the Super Seven Incher.

But Burger King's same-store sales have been slipping – dropping 3.3 percent in the US and Canada for the second fiscal quarter ending Dec. 31 compared to a 1.9 percent increase the year before. So John Chidsey, BK CEO, recently redefined “super fans” for investors:

“To clarify, it’s not just 18-to-34-year-old males, it’s all ages and all household demographics, with over half of them having children. And interestingly, over 29 percent are 50 years of age or older.”  (February 8, 2010 Advertising Age)

So – all those BK marketing dollars and controversial ad campaigns were alienating their core customers including women who purchase meals for themselves, their spouses, boyfriends, girlfriends, children and – grandchildren.Continue reading...

What do you do when sales are down? Lighten up.

That, it seems is the latest approach of luxury brand Saks in an ad campaign that is intended to make the retailer "less intimidating and more accessible," says senior VP for marketing Kimberly Grabel.

The new ads all start with the phrase "Think about..." and then suggest ideas that range from the mundane to pure whimsy. One ad suggests practicality: "Think about... stopping by the Saks beauty counter for a touch-up before an evening out." Another is more tongue-in-cheek: "Think about... choosing a red trench coat to match the evening's Beaujolais."Continue reading...

As the March 5 premiere of “Alice in Wonderland” approaches, Disney is pursuing new ways to attract untapped audiences to the much-hyped film. Rather than focus on the corporation's usual target ages, Disney Consumer Products Chairman Andy Mooney says that themed products for “Alice” will be more appropriate for consumers aged “18 to 34 [rather] than our traditional 6 to 11.”

Disney is collaborating with mall-based Hot Topic Inc., of which there are 680 stores. The chain has a reputation for attracting a younger Gothic crowd with a penchant for black. Goth kids typically consider themselves as outsiders who operate outside of traditional high school environs and cliques, but Disney is welcoming them with a line of clothing and accessories aimed at their aesthetic.Continue reading...

Ever since the Big Ten conference added Penn State University in 1990, bringing its membership to 11 schools, the athletic-brand behemoth of the Upper Midwest has been sniffing around for a 12th member to even things out. Now, the Big Ten finally may have found a willing partner in – of all places – Austin, Texas.

The University of Texas and the Big Ten did a courtship dance about a decade ago, too. But there’s a difference this time. There’s a reason that the Longhorns finally could end up leaving the Big 12 conference to throw in with a league whose nearest fellow member would be the University of Iowa, nearly 900 miles away.

That reason is the Big Ten Network TV channel. This conference-focused ESPN wanna-be has become a money machine in just the three years since its launch. According to ESPN, the Big Ten Network made $242 million in television revenue last year, three times as much as the Big 12, largely because of the Big Ten Network.Continue reading...

Groupe Danone – which owns the Dannon brand popular in the US – seems to be leading the worldwide food industry in figuring out how to make its brands grow amidst a global recession. It also has consumers everywhere being more careful in how they spend their grocery dollars.

Danone’s strategy involves cutting some prices, providing more volume for the same price, and coming up with innovative extensions on successful brands.

“Everyone was saying that ‘brands are dead’ and the hard discounters are gaining share,” Franck Riboud, Danone’s CEO, said in announcing the company’s 2009 financial results earlier this week, according to Warc. “Brands are gaining market share.”Continue reading...

Toy Fair, kicking off in New York this weekend, is the big show for new toy introductions. When toy manufacturers display their wares this year, analysts expect them to be conservative as the recession subsides, pitching value more than price.

"You will see the manufacturers emphasize how much play time or value the kid gets out of the toy and then talk about the amazing price associated with that play value," says Anita Frazier, an analyst with market research firm NPD Group.

Toy makers will focus primarily on two areas – going green and leveraging technology – to boost sales in 2010. For the first time, Toy Fair will include a "green pavilion" to highlight environmentally friendly toys. It's a response to retail buyers who said last year they wanted more "eco-friendly" products to market to consumers.Continue reading...

Before the big game on Sunday, most people associated the Dove brand with the words “soap,” “beauty” and “deodorant.” However, a day after the Saints win, these associations changed to “Super Bowl,” “ad” and “men," at least according to Zeta Interactive, who studied consumer response to Sunday’s ads.

According to Unilever research, Dove’s parent company, three quarters of men over 30 believe that advertising does not reflect their real lives. The Dove ad is a conscious effort to address these concerns, the goal being to celebrate “real men, their lives and their journey to become comfortable in their own skin.”Continue reading...

Sometimes a big brand's family of products can be so overwhelming that consumers forget they're all made by the same company. That's why Hormel's new ad campaign is pitching "its whole Hormel-branded portfolio" – to educate consumers about the brand's various offerings and encourage them to buy more than just a few favorite products.

"We call it 'pulling the blanket off the brand,'" says Brian Kroening, executive creative director of Hormel's ad agency. He says the campaign is intended to show consumers "that there were more parts to the brand than they had in their homes."Continue reading...

Pharmaceutical brands are big business, and the competition is fierce. Pharma brands are exploring inventive and aggressive ways to reach existing and prospective consumers, which often means promoting them like many other mainstream products.

So it's no surprise that Prevacid 24HR, an over-the-counter competitor of Prilosec OTC (both drugs are designed to ease the symptoms associated with heartburn) is flooding retailers with in-store promotions that rival even the most aggressive consumer marketing tactics. Even before its November launch, Prevacid 24 HR was being touted by retail superstores Costco, Target, and Wal-Mart, grocery stores Kroger and Safeway, and drug chains CVS, Rite Aid, and Walgreens.Continue reading...

As most of the world knows, Google-owned YouTube is all about the little guy. It’s an online enterprise that’s made its fame breaking through the mainstream and giving the underdog (read: non-famous person) a chance – even if the result is 10 hours of videos featuring a marginally talented cat. So, it was no real surprise when YouTube announced its foray into the indie film market.

With streaming movies becoming the new frontier in movie watching, YouTube couldn’t help but jump in on the action. Recently, the online video giant partnered with five independent films from the Sundance Film Festival for its debut into the land of streaming movies. Ten days, 2,684 views and $3.99 per download later – YouTube had its first movie opening, netting $10,709.16. Not a terrible way to make cash in 10 days, but perhaps, for YouTube, not the best way to bring in revenue.Continue reading...