What Québec Wants

The curious case of Nutella fans

2010-02-07T14:26:39-05:00

Facebook Fan Pages are a telling sign of what’s popular. And the January 2010 statistic s reveal the expected and the unexpected.

Michael Jackson leads the top 30 with 10,551,163 fans. Vin Diesel, Barack Obama follow. On the branded front (not that Michael Jackson isn’t a brand), Starbucks still leads with 5,331,423 fans. Coca-Cola is next with 4,103,026. Then Skittles with 3,555,983 fans.

Ranked #25 is Nutella. The hazelnut spread is apparently causing millions of Facebook users to join in the conversation.

As buzz.io writes “it’s safe to assume that most of the fans are from Europe but the craziest thing about Nutella’s high ranking is that it doesn’t advertise. Well, that’s not true; they spent $300,000 on media last year, which is pretty much equivalent to nothing. Here’s the impressive part: their Facebook page was created by a fan, Nutella has 5 million Google search results, there are 5,000 videos on Youtube featuring Nutella, and there are 17,000 photos featuring Nutella on Flickr.”

Why?

As ThreeMinds suggests ‘nobody really knows’.

Possible Reasons

Social media buzz experts credit Nutella's Facebook popularity to these characteristics:

1. It's European and people think Nutella is cool.

2. It reminds people of memories/trips to Europe.

3. It has such a unique taste. And oh yeah, it's too good to be true.

Then there’s World Nutella Day. The disclaimer says “nutelladay.com does not represent official views or opinions of Ferrero, S.p.A.”.

It seems to me that this what social media is all about when it comes to creating true conversations about brands among its fans. It starts with its fans. And there are serious Nutella fans in Québec.

Quebeckers and Nutella

We do not have sales data for Nutella in Québec nor do we have data on Nutella Facebook fans in Québec. However, it’s clear Quebeckers are huge fans of the stuff.

According to PMB 2009, Quebeckers are significantly more likely to consume nut-based spreads. There are proportionally more heavy users of peanut butter in Québec. But the difference in reported consumption of hazelnut spread is striking. 8% of Canadians outside Québec used a hazelnut spread in the last month compared to a 21% of Quebeckers. So now you know where the Nutella fans are in Canada.

No excuses

2010-02-06T11:04:43-05:00

As I watched my youngest son learn to play hockey this morning with other Timbits 'future stars', I wondered if one of them would one day purposely hit another player on the head.

I have to admit that I don't play hockey or follow the sport so I don't have personal experience with this. But it seems to me that there just isn't any excuse for Patrice Cormier's behaviour last month.

The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League called the hit "dangerous and unacceptable”.

While I might not be qualified to comment on this, I am glad to see that a majority of Canadians believe that hits to the head are unnecessary and usually done on purpose in hockey. According to a recent Harris Decima survey, 2 in 3 Canadians believe hits to the head are targeted and done on purpose. 65% were of the view that hits to the head are unnecessary and usually done on purpose in hockey, while 26% felt head shots were unavoidable in a fast-paced game like hockey.

Quebeckers most likely to feel that hits to the head are something that can and should be avoided.

Residents of Quebec are particularly convinced that hits to the head are unnecessary and done on purpose (80%), fully 16 points higher than Ontario (64%), the region with the next highest belief that hits to the head are done on purpose.

Pepsi, Pecsi and now Pesi

2010-02-04T13:48:55-05:00

A follow-up to my previous post about a Pepsi (or Pecsi) campaign in Argentina.

According to Ad Age, a similar approach is now being used in Spain for 'Pesi'.

Pepsi-Cola's intriguing insight from Latin America that many Spanish speakers can pronounce the brand's name more easily and phonetically without that pesky second "P," has arrived in Spain. In a new commercial-within-a-commercial, hunky Spanish soccer star Fernando Torres gets fed up when the director keeps correcting the way he says "Pesi" on camera.

Advice to Dr. Rapaille as he begins his search for archetypes in Québec City

2010-02-02T13:44:13-05:00

A follow-up on my previous post about Québec City’s decision to hire Clotaire Rapaille to build its brand.

Québec City’s newspaper Le Soleil reports that Dr. Clotaire Rapaille arrives in town today to begin his branding initiative using his unique approach – which is well document in his book The Culture Code. According to the paper, he will receive $250,000 for this assignment lasting ten weeks – plus another $25,000 for incentives for 330 focus group participants, plus travel and accommodation.

It’s the talk of the town in Québec City. The mayor has had to defend his decision to hire this outsider from the moment it was announced. Le Soleil covers it all including the stormy debate among the city council and the mayor’s visible irritation. The mayor even brought his consultant’s book into the debate yesterday and implored his opponents to read it.

Unsolicited advice:

Dr. Rapaille, forget the formal research – it’s going to be biased anyway given the debate raging about your legitimacy as an expert who can guide Québec City’s destiny.

Here’s an archetype – free of charge: CHAUVINISM

Chauvinism is an exaggerated, bellicose patriotism and a blind belief in national superiority and glory. By extension it has come to include an extreme and unreasoning partisanship on behalf of any group to which one belongs, especially when the partisanship includes malice and hatred towards a rival group.

Try building a brand with that one. Good luck. Bonne chance.

On your knees

2010-02-01T07:12:39-05:00

Interesting findings from a reader survey conducted by MARIAGE Québec magazine, a St-Joseph Media publication. The survey was conducted between January and June 2009 among 508 readers who are engaged.

86% of engaged couples in Québec already live together (compared to 75% for the national average).
16% in Québec believe that it’s acceptable to give cash instead of a wedding gift (compared to 41% for the national average).
36% in Québec believe they should have a prenuptial agreement (compared to 22% for the national average).
70% in Québec say they’re even more passionate since their engagement (compared to 55% for the national average).
56% of men were on their knees when they proposed.
37% asked for permission from the future bride’s father.
87% of future brides were given a ring and 26% of future couples chose it together.
At the time of the engagement, the average age of the future bride was 29.7 years old. (It was 27 in 2008).
88% of the future grooms won’t see the dress until the big day.
19% admit that they haven’t completely forgotten past relationships.
The average cost of a wedding in Québec is $12,175, a 20% increase from last year, compared to a 1% increase nationally.

Playing games.

2010-01-31T15:54:32-05:00

Today's editorial in the New York Times titled 'Super Bowl Censorship' deals with the touchy issue of abortion. However, the debate over the censorship of a TV spot during the Super Bowl should be a non-issue.

Here's the editorial:

The commercials during the Super Bowl, a showcase for the best (or worst) in TV advertising, often generate buzz and sometimes outrage. This year, viewers will see one ad that has already triggered a heated debate about abortion and censorship.

The 30-second spot, financed by the conservative religious group Focus on the Family, is said to recount the pregnancy of Pam Tebow, mother of the college football star Tim Tebow. After falling ill during a mission to the Philippines, she ignored a recommendation by doctors to abort her fifth child, who became the 2007 Heisman Trophy winner.

The National Organization for Women, NARAL Pro-Choice America and other voices for protecting women’s reproductive freedom have called on CBS to yank it. Their protest is puzzling and dismaying.

A letter sent to CBS by the Women’s Media Center and other groups argues that the commercial “uses one family’s story to dictate morality to the American public, and encourages young women to disregard medical advice, putting their lives at risk” — a lame attempt to portray the ad as life-threatening. Others argue that even a mild discussion of such a divisive issue has no place in the marketing extravaganza known as the Super Bowl.

The would-be censors are on the wrong track. Instead of trying to silence an opponent, advocates for allowing women to make their own decisions about whether to have a child should be using the Super Bowl spotlight to convey what their movement is all about: protecting the right of women like Pam Tebow to make their private reproductive choices.

CBS was right to change its policy of rejecting paid advocacy commercials from groups other than political candidates. After the network screens ads for accuracy and taste, viewers can watch and judge for themselves. Or they can get up from the couch and get a sandwich.

Quebeckers and abortion

According to a Leger Marketing survey conducted in 2004, residents of Quebec and B.C. are most likely to say they are in favour of abortion.

Déjà vu all over again?

2010-01-31T06:00:00-05:00

Paul Hanley writes in the Saskatoon Star Phoenix that “consumer culture saturates kids’ lives” and quotes Susan Linn of the Campaign for Commercial-Free Childhood:

"The ability to play creatively is central to the human capacity to experiment, to act rather than react, and to differentiate oneself from the environment. It is how children wrestle with life and make it meaningful. Spirituality and advances in science and art are all rooted in play. Play promotes attributes essential to a democratic populace, such as curiosity, reasoning, empathy, sharing, co-operation, and a sense of competence -- a belief that the individual can make a difference in the world. Constructive problem-solving, divergent thinking, and the capacity for self-regulation are all developed through creative play.”

Hanley adds “this type of free play is being eroded in our commercialized, consumer culture. One international survey found that only 27 per cent of children currently engage in imaginative play, running around outside, playing dress-up, building forts. What do they do instead? Watch TV, play video games, surf the Net. Spending 40 hours a week in front of a screen is not unusual, it's typical.”

As is often the case in articles adopting this point of view, Québec is mentioned as having the most stringent rules in the world about marketing to children.

I’m personally in favour of ensuring kids get more free play and less screen time. But I’m less inclined to believe those who claim that new media is corrupting our children.

Here’s an historical look at what some have said about the corruptors of the past (from an article by Tom Standage entitled The Culture War published in the April 2006 issue of Wired Magazine)

Novels

"The free access which many young people have to romances, novels, and plays has poisoned the mind and corrupted the morals of many a promising youth; and prevented others from improving their minds in useful knowledge. Parents take care to feed their children with wholesome diet; and yet how unconcerned about the provision for the mind, whether they are furnished with salutary food, or with trash, chaff, or poison?" - Reverend Enos Hitchcock, Memoirs of the Bloomsgrove Family, 1790

The Waltz

"The indecent foreign dance called the Waltz was introduced ... at the English Court on Friday last ... It is quite sufficient to cast one's eyes on the voluptuous intertwining of the limbs, and close compressure of the bodies ... to see that it is far indeed removed from the modest reserve which has hitherto been considered distinctive of English females. So long as this obscene display was confined to prostitutes and adulteresses, we did not think it deserving of notice; but now that it is ... forced on the respectable classes of society by the evil example of their superiors, we feel it a duty to warn every parent against exposing his daughter to so fatal a contagion."  - The Times of London, 1816

Movies

"This new form of entertainment has gone far to blast maidenhood ... Depraved adults with candies and pennies beguile children with the inevitable result. The Society has prosecuted many for leading girls astray through these picture shows, but GOD alone knows how many are leading dissolute lives begun at the 'moving pictures.'"  - The Annual Report of the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, 1909

The Telephone

"Does the telephone make men more active or more lazy? Does [it] break up home life and the old practice of visiting friends?"  - Survey conducted by the Knights of Columbus Adult Education Committee, San Francisco Bay Area, 1926

Comic Books

"Many adults think that the crimes described in comic books are so far removed from the child's life that for children they are merely something imaginative or fantastic. But we have found this to be a great error. Comic books and life are connected. A bank robbery is easily translated into the rifling of a candy store. Delinquencies formerly restricted to adults are increasingly committed by young people and children ... All child drug addicts, and all children drawn into the narcotics traffic as messengers, with whom we have had contact, were inveterate comic-book readers This kind of thing is not good mental nourishment for children!"  - Fredric Wertham, Seduction of the Innocent, 1954

Rock and Roll

"The effect of rock and roll on young people, is to turn them into devil worshippers; to stimulate self-expression through sex; to provoke lawlessness; impair nervous stability and destroy the sanctity of marriage. It is an evil influence on the youth of our country."  - Minister Albert Carter, 1956

Videogames

"The disturbing material in Grand Theft Auto and other games like it is stealing the innocence of our children and it's making the difficult job of being a parent even harder ... I believe that the ability of our children to access pornographic and outrageously violent material on video games rated for adults is spiraling out of control." - US senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, 2005

Don't touch me.

2010-01-29T05:30:00-05:00

According to a recent survey by Harris Decima, most Canadians support the decision to use full body scanners at Canada’s airports. The study tends to demonstrate Canadians are comfortable with the decision and expect it will have a positive impact on the safety of air travel.

Interestingly, when asked whether they would opt for a full body scan or a physical pat down if selected for additional screening, Quebeckers are more likely than Canadians in the ROC to choose the full body scan.

Passengers selected for additional screening will have a choice between a full body scan using this technology and the physical search that is currently employed. If you were asked to take a secondary security scan, would you opt for the full body scan, or the physical pat down?

When you’ve got it, flaunt it.

Québec is the province with the highest proportion of its population within the acceptable body mass index range. This perhaps explains why those who’ve got it are more willing to flaunt it.

Love you more.

2010-01-27T11:53:01-05:00

French Quebeckers have a significantly higher opinion of English Canadians than English Canadians have of them.

You say you hate me, I just love you more. You don't want me, I just want you more. (From Eminem – Love You More)

Findings from a recent Léger Marketing poll for the Association of Canadian Studies published in yesterday’s Toronto Sun.

English Canadians view immigrants and Jews more favourably than they do French Quebeckers, according to a new poll.

In fact, the only group further down the list than French Quebeckers when it comes to who English Canadians view favourably are aboriginal Canadians.

French Quebeckers have a significantly higher opinion of English Canadians than English Canadians have of them. The poll found 75% of French Quebeckers have a favourable opinion of English Canadians, but only 60.1% of English Canadians have a favourable opinion of French Quebeckers.

In Québec, French Quebeckers are viewed the most favourably, followed by English Canadians, immigrants, aboriginal Canadians, and Jews.

Léger Marketing conducted the poll for the Association for Canadian Studies. It was released exclusively to QMI Agency.

Jack Jedwab, executive director of the association, said the finding he found the most surprising was the way English- and French-speaking respondents regarded each other.

“I didn’t think the English Canadians’ perspective on French Quebeckers would be as negative as it was,” Jedwab said.

Jedwab said the results of how immigrants, Jews and aboriginal Canadians are viewed are similar to those in previous polls.

The poll also found the more time a respondent had spent with Canadians from a different background, the more likely they were to view people from that background favourably.

“It is good news for people who are engaged in promoting exchanges between Canadians of different language backgrounds,” Jedwab said.

Favourable views also increased with the age of the respondent.

Across the country, English Canadians were regarded the most favourably by all respondents at 84% — well above immigrants at 70%, Jews at 69%, French Quebeckers at 65% and aboriginal Canadians at 56%.

Albertans have the least favourable attitude in the country when it comes to immigrants, French Canadians and aboriginal Canadians, and was narrowly above Québec when it came to their view of Jews. While 80% of Albertans viewed English Canadians favourably, that dropped to 60% for immigrants, 58% for Jews, 47% for French Canadians and 45% for aboriginal Canadians.

Ontarians had the most favourable views when it came to Jews (78%) and aboriginal Canadians (59%), second most favourable on immigrants (72%) and third most favourable on French Quebeckers (60%).

The Léger poll of 1,500 respondents, conducted via web panel the week of Nov. 30, has a margin if error of 2.5 percentage points 19 times out of 20.

Self-expression as a new form of entertainment

2010-01-27T09:50:24-05:00

I had the opportunity to listen to a talk by Arianna Huffington yesterday. The co-founder of the Huffington Post was in Toronto to give a speech to the communications industry as part of Advertising Week.

She had much to say in her speech and in interviews about ‘The Brave New World of the New Media” including about what she calls the ‘linked economy’. Here’s an excerpt from an item in the Toronto Star - ironically the lead sponsor of her talk:

The site has raised $30 million (U.S.) in two rounds of financing, the most recent by venture capital firm that valued the site at $100 million.

All this while many traditional U.S. newspapers are struggling with the challenge of new media made worse by an economic downturn that saw advertising dollars shrink.

At least some of that could also be due to sites like The Huffington Post, which freely borrows content from mainstream media sites to enhance their coverage. Huffington calls it the "linked economy. We link to others, they link to us and that's how we see the future."

Self-expression as a new form of entertainment

Huffington asserted that everything from user generated content, to citizen journalism, to blogging, and social networking has become a new form of entertainment.

I guess that's really why I’ve been blogging for the past two years. I just want to have fun.

Disconnect to recharge

She repeatedly encouraged her audience to turn wireless devices off at the end of the day to recharge and get some sleep in order to make the most of what technology enables us to achieve.

I’m going for a nap.