Xerox Rebrands, Brand Partners in Hand

It's one of those timeless brand names that define a category: Coke means cola drinks, FedEx means overnight delivery, Hoover evokes vacuuming, Kleenex means tissues, Xerox means copying. Only Xerox doesn't mean copying anymore — and that's a perception the company will try to change with its new ad campaign, which breaks on Tuesday.

In order to get the point across, Xerox is taking a risk by employing "borrowed-interest advertising" — using the brand images associated with other products — to dramatize the fact that Xerox helps well-known companies get their work done. That's borrowed interest in others' brands, not copied interest.

Previous ads from Xerox featured low-cost color printing. Its new ads, however, will feature such iconic figures as Procter & Gamble's Mr. Clean, "Bullseye," Target's trademark dog, and "Mr. Met," the mascot of Major League Baseball's New York Mets. Mr. Met, for example, finds himself hampered by the fact that his oversize hands make it difficult to present a readable report to his bosses. Xerox, the ad says, assists the Mets in document management.

Xerox CMO Christa Carone, VP Barbara Basney and Y&R's associate creative director Corey Rakowsky discuss the new ad campaign and the brands involved (also including Marriott and Ducati) in the video above. Xerox has used testimonial-style ads previously, but this is the first time the company is using client's brand icons — with permission, of course — and taking a gamble.

The gamble, of course, is that people who see the ads will remember Mr. Met, Bullseye, and Mr. Clean, but not the underlying Xerox message. The company believes, however, that because it's targeting business-to-business users and the campaign features consumer brands, the ads will still resonate.

Carone tells Forbes.com blogger Melanie Wells, "We've had our eyes wide open that that's one of the risks of a campaign like this. But we think because these clients are being seen in an unusual space that it will make people look twice. We think the risk is offset by the power of the creative and the relevance of the message to the marketplace."

The timing of the ads coincides with a recent Xerox acquisition. The company bought outsourcing vendor Affiliated Computer Services earlier this year, a purchase that literally changed the complexion of Xerox overnight.

ACS brought to Xerox a business-services capability which, according to the Wall Street Journal, now accounts for half of its revenue. Through ACS, Xerox can handle such back-office mundane tasks as data center outsourcing and claims processing -- a far cry from its copier and printer offerings.

During a conference call discussion of the company's second quarter results, Xerox CEO Ursula Burns said, "We are now a new Xerox, and I always like to remind customers, investors and our people of that."

Carone told the Wall Street Journal, "The whole [new advertising] campaign is geared around disrupting the legacy perceptions of Xerox. ... It's the notion of, get back to your business and let us take other things off your plate."

The US TV ads will be accompanied by print ads and a microsite, realbusiness.com, that goes live on September 7. Xerox anticipates rolling out the campaign to Europe in October and eventually on a global basis. It will continue through 2011 and, the company hopes, also continue to rely on client brands to pitch the "new" Xerox.