The Vitamin IMC blog will be on hand to live tweet the event (#innovateimc). We will also have a live feed of the event for people who aren’t able to make it to the event. Check @vitaminimc for more details.

The event will be held in the McCormick Tribune Center at 3 p.m. After the address, there will be a reception in the McCormick Tribune Center Lobby. The public is invited to the free event.

Here is Scott’s bio:

Scott Bergren is a seasoned innovator and growth driver in the foodservice industry. He is currently Chief Executive Officer, Pizza Hut U.S. and Yum Brands Chief Innovation Officer. In addition, Bergren is responsible for the Innovation agenda at Yum Restaurants International. Previously, Scott held many different roles across Yum since 2002, including President and Chief Concept Officer of Pizza Hut, Executive VP of Marketing for KFC and Yum Brands in Louisville, and Chief Concept Officer of Yum Restaurants International in Dallas.

Scott also served as President of Chevys, Inc., a full-service Mexican casual dining concept, from 1995 to March 2002, first as part of PepsiCo, and then as part of a management-led buyout of the company. Prior to 1995, he built and operated Pizza Hut and Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants in Mexico and Central America working for Tricon’s International Division. Mr. Bergren has also served as President/CEO of Round Table Pizza and Peter Piper Pizza.

Scott graduated from Medill and is a member of the Hall of Achievement. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in 1968 and his Master’s degree from Northwestern University in 1969.

Marketing for re-releases usually takes one of two approaches. First, promotional materials highlight some technical gimmick, like 3D, enhanced picture quality, or the addition of deleted scenes. Second, marketing can appeal to age cohorts who desire to see an important film for the first time on the big screen, sometimes invoking a sense of nostalgia for an old family movie. These approaches are smart because they appeal to a wide variety of motivations for seeing a film, but I still think they are decidedly uncreative.

When a studio “tricks out” an old film and then dumps it into theaters, most cinephiles feel a palpable sense of laziness permeating from the box office, and that is to be expected. Nothing is easier than regifting the same product to different groups of people. Thus, it is important to consider creative marketing alternatives that dial down the derision and appeal to the movie-going experience itself.

Here are three tips for marketing re-releases:

1. Highlight the nostalgia – Trailers should de-emphasize technical aspects that detract from the movie’s main appeal and should instead highlight scenes that recapture an audience member’s fondness for the original film. People like to see movies multiple times, and quality alone is a good enough draw.
2. Make it an event – Theaters should creatively orchestrate events surrounding re-releases that could be paid for by studios. Star Wars conventions are immensely popular, so it would make sense to turn a re-release into a quasi-event.
3. Build a complete viewing experience – Many popular films have vast universes of non-cinematic material, such as fan films, TV spin-offs, and character shorts, that have been released in the years following the original theatrical showing. Screening these supplementary materials along with the re-release will provide a relevant update that expands the cinematic experience.

Re-releases may be profitable no matter the marketing efforts, but adding a little creativity to the mix could go a long way toward enhancing the potential of this derivative business strategy. I don’t know about you, but I would love to see “The Godfather Trilogy” released in theaters. What movies would you want to see again on the big screen?

Either way, people seem to think the drama’s wide appeal comes from the loss of the way advertising and marketing communications operate. We’ve all heard it before: “Advertising is dead.” If you ask me, advertising isn’t dead. It’s evolving. It’s rewriting itself, and it has been for years. Sure, we don’t take naps on our couches after lunch. We don’t celebrate with afternoon office martinis. And we certainly don’t chain smoke through good and bad news.

So, if advertising really is alive, in one form or another, who at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce could survive the marcom revolution? Well, if I were opening an IMC agency, I would hire for three key positions in the IMC formula: the data man, the change agent and the storyteller.

Lane Pryce joined Sterling Cooper from England in Season 3 (circa 1963) after a dire need for expense efficiency. Although Lane has faced challenges adjusting to the American corporate culture, his strategic support in firing Don, Roger, and Burt (and getting himself fired) allowed the four to reinvent themselves and create the new agency. You can’t put a price on this data man.

Joan Harris first charmed audiences as the head secretary at the beginning of the show. She constantly serves as the go-to gal when internal turbulence occurs at Sterling Cooper. After getting married, Joan quits her job. How were Sterling, Cooper, Draper, and Pryce supposed to get all of the necessary materials and files to start the new agency? They couldn’t have done it without Joan. Meet the new office manager and invaluable change agent.

Ken Cosgrove might not have shined (or made our skin crawl) as much as Pete, his corporate equal, when we first met the Mad Men gang, but there is no doubt that Ken would be my number one hire. At the beginning of the show, we learn one of Ken’s stories was published in The Atlantic Monthly, and his writing passion continues throughout the series. Although he was not offered a spot at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce initially, he eventually joins the team, and what a relief that is. Even if Ken is writing science fiction on the side, his storytelling capabilities make him a great relationship manager, too.

Who knows what will happen with the Mad Men gang as we enter the counter-culture of the second half of the 1960s, but even if SCDP doesn’t survive, we know advertising and marketing communications will. As Don said when we first met him in 2007, “Advertising is based on one thing: happiness. And do you know what happiness is? Happiness is the smell of a new car. It’s freedom from fear. It’s a billboard on the side of a road that screams with reassurance that whatever you’re doing is OK. You are OK.”

And hey everyone, advertising is OK.

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU: Who would you recruit to your IMC firm?

I select Doritos for three points! That will be fun to draw—little orange triangles and the colorful silver bag. It’s all coming together in my right brain. But hold on just a minute! My left brain, my data-driven IMC brain, steps in to stop the creative genius dead in its tracks.

“I’m being marketed to by this game,” I say to myself. They must be making revenue off this creative way to place ads in front of consumers. Is this perhaps the latest example of marketers cutting through the digital clutter?

And what about audience. As of the beginning of April, the makers of “Draw Something” reported over 50 million downloads and six billion drawings. The game now averages over three drawings per second. I wonder how many of them were really ads. What monetization model is this? Is it all in my head?

A quick Google search reveals other players have noticed the crafty advertising, too. Even Mashable did a post on “The Hunger Game” characters being integrated into “Draw Something,” whose creator OMGPOP was recently purchased by zynga for a reported $210 million.

And there’s that word–integrated. Talk about breaking through the clutter and building brand engagement. What’s more engaging than having consumers literally put a finger on the brand by drawing the image of the product in their mind right on the screen?

Both my friends and I have noticed the timeliness of the ads is not coincidental. Doritos appeared near the launch of the Doritos taco at Taco Bell. Titanic coincided with the 3D rerelease of the classic film. Madonna and Bieber appeared near album releases and so on.

But IMCers must ask the question, “where’s the data?” I wonder if there is any correlation between the consumers–I mean artists–sketching products and actual product sales. A Doritos taco does sound delicious, but maybe I’ll just draw one instead; it’s healthier. What ads have you been asked to draw? Addicted to the game like me? Let us know in the comments below.

The video takes us on a journey from the perspective of the wearable device. Our subject begins his morning with a cup of coffee while holographic-like icons for his schedule, the weather, email and more appear in his line of sight. A friend chimes in and asks to meet up later. “Yeah! Um. Meet me in front of Strand Books at 2,” our subject says as the device types his words on the visual display and sends a text message to his friend.

The rest of his day is a series of events where he photographs, scans, views and talks his way through town wearing these technology-laced glasses, which serve as an accessory and a mobile device. A candid moment at the end of the video finds our consumer chatting with a lady friend while playing a melodic ditty on his new ukulele as he shows her a rooftop view of the city. The video ends as she smiles in amazement at his coy, clever antics. With Project Glass, it appears anything is possible.

Beneath the video post on YouTube, Google shared a small statement about the project:
“We believe technology should work for you – to be there when you need it and get out of your way when you don’t. A team within our Google[x] group started Project Glass to build this kind of technology, one that helps you explore and share your world putting you back in the moment.”

After watching the video, I’m sure any viewer would be equal parts perplexed and amazed at what “Project Glass” claims to be. Only time will tell if this innovation is launched after testing and prototyping is completed. The implications for marketers are quite grand. Could we insert ads into these tech glasses? Perhaps consumers could make purchases with the blink of an eye, a nod or a word. The most important question, though, is how do these glasses look on the subject? Will fashion and function work together, or will these techno-glasses be a ghastly sight to see? You be the judge.

In a starving economy, we have seen many stores go bankrupt, and others are on the brink of extinction like Kodak, Blockbuster, and now Best Buy. Brand enthusiasts would argue that it is because the world changed, and the brands didn’t know what business they were in. Kodak should have been in the memories business, not the film business when no one uses film anymore, and Blockbuster should have been in the entertainment business, not the VHS/DVD business when people now stream online. Does JC Penney’s business align with what customers want and need? It might now.

The rebrand is based on several simple human truths. Customers hate clipping coupons, but they have to in order to get deals. They hate standing in line while others present their coupons, but they understand why they are doing it, and they hate waking up at the crack of dawn to possibly get the best deals. JC Penney, seeking both customer satisfaction and efficiency, has done away with coupons and promotions. A new square logo seems very appropriate for the giant, as it reflects the new store motto of “fair and square” pricing.

Don’t worry, though, each and every item is still up to 40% off, the same price it would be if the customer presented her best coupon. Will mental accounting allow consumers the same satisfaction of getting the best deal without physically snipping the coupon? Will customers understand that they are getting the best promotion despite not having to wake up early to get them? We will see.

I would argue that JCP understands it is not a “high-end” department store; that is simply not a part of its brand DNA. JCP has transformed and sits at the crossroads of department store and discount retailer. Embracing its new space, JCP offers couponless “fair and square” pricing everyday, while still offering its consumers fashionable department store-like merchandise, for example with Liz Claiborne exclusively at JC Penney.

To educate consumers about the new pricing model, JCP has brought on America’s beloved Ellen DeGeneres as its spokeswoman to poke fun at the old way of pricing in its advertising. Playful, funny and informative, the ads, along with the JCP’s new strategy, may win over America after all. Only time will tell if JCP’s rebranding efforts will be worthwhile.

Every four years, India witnesses an intense wave of emotion during the ICC Cricket World Cup, an international championship for men’s cricket regarded as the most important tournament for the sport. It is the world’s fourth largest and fourth most viewed sporting event. This makes it a potential gold mine for advertisers, specifically in India, where the sport is followed religiously.

Ask any Indian, young or old, and they won’t let you go unless they talk about the championship for a few minutes (or hours!). The most recent World Cup was held in 2011 and was unique because the Indian cricket team made it to the final game and won! According to the Indian daily newspaper “Hindustan Times,” 67.6 million viewers watched the World Cup final. This gave advertisers the perfect opportunity to increase awareness about their products in one of the fastest developing countries, since the majority of the population was glued to their television sets.

Indian advertisers and sponsors generate a large chunk of revenue from the game. Hence, it wasn’t very surprising to see major companies, such as Pepsi Co, Lays, Coca-Cola and Reebok, trying to make the most of their ad spots (see some ads below). While some ads featured prominent cricketers in hilarious daily-life situations, the others were more focused on providing product information. Nonetheless, every ad tried to grab the customers’ attention.

As new and improved techniques for marketing are being developed, it will be interesting to see how the advertisers play their pitch in the World Cup of 2015. Stay tuned!

The joint efforts of the CMI team and RefugeeOne staff will culminate on April 27 with the gala dinner and silent auction, RefugeeOne’s largest fundraising event. This year is especially important because the Chicago-based nonprofit organization is celebrating its thirtieth anniversary. Click here for more details about the event.

Since our team does pro-bono marketing work for nonprofits, RefugeeOne initially approached us with specific goals to increase the support, namely education and job skills training, provided to refugees settling in the Chicago area. We drafted a plan and set out to help RefugeeOne on its mission.

During the past few months, we met many former refugees and collected their inspiring stories. Many of these stories tell of escaping a life where pain or death seemed imminent, and they illustrate the successful steps these grateful refugees have taken to build new lives.

We then crafted those stories into tailored press releases and videos, like the one below, and sent them to local media, church organizations and universities to drive support for the gala event. We also assisted with a social campaign, newsletter creative and cultivating partner lists.

This has been a really exciting project, and we are really looking forward to experiencing the final product in a few weeks. RefugeeOne really shares so many heartfelt success stories about refugees thanks to their great staff and generous donors.

We want to extend an event invitation to the VitaminIMC blog readers. Here are a few notes about the event:

The “Many Voices. One Vision.” event is your opportunity to dance the night away with some of the most humble and grateful people living in Chicago. Show your support by joining us at the after party at Chicago hotspot the Funky Buddha Lounge! Tickets are available and include an open bar and hors d’oeuvres. To purchase a ticket and find out more information visit http://www.refugeeone.org/thebenefit.

I am sure you have experienced the recent explosion of Titanic fever. There have been commemorative performances, TV programs, memorial gatherings, cruises following the fateful path, an auction of recovered items and, of course, the rerelease of the movie “Titanic.” The sinking of the Titanic may be one of the most commercially successful disasters in our history.

Try to imagine an auction of items recovered from the Challenger disaster or a pleasure cruise to the wreckage of the USS Arizona. I would like to think that these things wouldn’t happen, so why are we ok with it when it’s about the Titanic? Again, I say it’s all about century-old marketing.

Before the Titanic set sail, its owner, White Star Line, launched an aggressive advertising campaign about the world’s largest ship and its never-before-seen amenities, using the phrase “designed to be unsinkable.” This was really a misnomer, but it sure did make for great advertising puffery and a great advertising and public relations success.

People read about the ship in newspapers around the world, and society pages talked about elite of the day who were onboard. Who wouldn’t want to be on a ship that couldn’t sink?

Then the ship sank. Again the ship made headlines and then came the highly publicized inquiry into the sinking. There was a newspaper war for the first survivor stories, and reporters bribed crewmen on the rescue ship, so they could get first access to survivors. Commemorative items produced in 1912 included black mourning teddy bears and whiskey flasks.

Every generation for a century has had a dramatic interpretation of the sinking of the unsinkable, beginning with 1912’s “Saved from the Titanic” featuring actress Dorothy Gibson, who survived the sinking. Most notably, of course, is James Cameron’s “Titanic,” the highest grossing film at the time, which I can admit I saw 12 times in the theatre. There was also the highly publicized discovery of the ship’s wreckage in 1985.

All this fascination goes back to those early advertisements of the unsinkable Titanic and specifically to the use of “unsinkable.” My own fascination began when I checked out “A Night to Remember” from my elementary school library in 1991.

No other ship in history is celebrated like the Titanic. Other famous shipwrecks include the Lusitania, Titanic’s sister ship the Brittanic, the Andrea Doria and Titanic’s rescue ship the Carpathia. Each one made headlines in its day, and none have been engrained in our pop culture. Titanic survives, however, because in its own way, it really was unsinkable.

Shying away from their once lucrative target market of young males, Burger King has taken on a more wide-sweeping strategy using celebrity endorsement. Its new advertising campaign features Mary J. Blige, David Beckham, Jay Leno and Salma Hayek, each aimed at a specific demographic to introduce the restaurant’s new menu line-up.

The Whopper maker has already hit a snag, though, in its new marketing strategy. Only in the market for a few days, Mary J. Blige’s commercial went viral, spreading like wildfire across the Internet and prompting cries that the R&B artist had sold out. The ad features the singer belting out terms like “fresh lettuce” and “ranch dressing” to the tune of her hit song “Don’t Mind.”

The company pulled the ad from its TV rotation and YouTube, citing “licensing issues” and apologized to the singer and the public. However, examining the web-based backlash (complete with unpleasant memes), it is easy to see why the company quickly removed the ads, which some people felt played to an unattractive stereotype.

In its attempts to counter its competition and respond to the growing trend of casual fast dining, Burger King may have cast a net just a little too wide. Many of their efforts seem to directly copy successful ventures by competitors, like the made-to-order coffee drinks, snack wraps and salads added to their menu. Even their new marketing approach seems to target everyone making the company seem a bit desperate for business (same store sales have been down for 11 consecutive quarters).

Many articles this week suggested that Burger King is late to the game. However, only time will tell if these new efforts are successful with consumers, which is ultimately the end goal. What do you think of Burger Kings’ revamped branding efforts? Are you looking forward to trying a new menu item? What did you think of the pulled Mary J. Blige ad?