BackPocket from Prophet

Delivering Digital Marketing

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Friends, not cannibals.

eMarketer, July 1, 2009 — The two-day DDB conference in London, sponsored by Broadcast magazine, brought together representatives of the UK government, the BBC, BSkyB, ITV, Virgin Media and other broadcasters with executives from Hulu, NBC Universal and Google. Media agencies and consultancies also took part.

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Why America Is Addicted to Olive Garden

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Fast Company, July 1, 2009 — On a Tuesday morning in April, the presidents of three of the largest restaurant chains in the country slip into an unmarked white van in Orlando, Florida, and embark on an unprecedented mission — sharing their latest trade secrets.

You know their brands: $3 billion — plus Olive Garden, with its heaping bowls of pasta and all-you-can-eat breadsticks; $2 billion — plus Red Lobster, which introduced middle America to the wonders of fried shrimp; and nearly $1 billion LongHorn Steakhouse, whose variations on a theme include steak stuffed with fontina cheese and wild mushrooms.

You probably don't know they're part of the same company, Darden Restaurants. It's the country's largest full-service restaurant operation, the 29th-largest employer in the United States, and a pioneer of what's known as "casual dining," which accounts for 39% of all sit-down restaurant meals....

At the helm of this quiet giant is the 53-year-old son of a janitor from Watts, the Los Angeles neighborhood that made headlines for riots in 1965--CEO Clarence Otis. "On the continuum of intuitive restaurants versus systematized, analytic restaurants, we're very analytic," he says. "The direction of our business is based on understanding customers."

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Foes No More, Ad Agencies Unite With Internet Firms

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Analysts say Internet companies and ad agencies have no choice but to work together to develop ways to make money from digital media.

New York Times, June 30, 2009 — Advertising agencies and Internet companies once viewed each other as foes, but are now coming together to harness the potential for online advertising. Like many other segments, online ad spending has slowed from its previous breakneck pace during the deep recession, forcing companies to devise new ways to chase fewer dollars.

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Office Depot's Sunday Circular Goes Digital

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Adweek, June 30, 2009 — Office Depot is using part of the $100 million it spends annually on Sunday circulars to launch an online show touting weekly deals.

Dubbed Smart Specials with Matt and Matt, the show will supplement Office Depot's print product. Consumers can watch the show on TheSurvivaloftheSmartest.com and Hulu. The retailer will also send out e-mail links to its rewards members. WPP's Young & Rubicam in New York produced the Matt and Matt show.

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Six Rules for Brand Revitalization

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

McDonald's Did It, and You Can Too

Advertising Age, June 29, 2009 — Brands do not die natural deaths. However, brands can be murdered through mismanagement. Some brands are beyond hope — but others can be revitalized.

Of course, it's not easy. But it is well worth the effort.

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Unilever, Walmart, P&G Buck the Short-Term Trend

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

As Recession Forces Cuts, Leaders Build for Future With Marketing, R&D

Advertising Age, June 29, 2009 — It's been said over and over: There's no time like recession, when competitors are retreating, to ramp up innovation and marketing to grab share.

So far, the competitors have done their part. U.S. trademark applications through mid-June were down 17% from a year ago; patent application growth stalled last year after more than a decade of high single-digit annual growth; and ad spending plunged 14% last quarter, according to TNS Media Research.

The intrepid share-grabbers have been harder to find. Now, however, as the dust settles from the fourth-quarter financial collapse, a growing number of them appear to be sticking their heads out of the bunkers to lay the groundwork for long-term growth in a short-term-obsessed world.

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Using Design to Drive Innovation

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Designers must deliver the orchestration of the total experience with a brand, product, or service or face irrelevancy

BusinessWeek, June 29, 2009 — In a previous era, all the talk was of strategy, strategy, strategy. More recently, it's been innovation, innovation, innovation. As design thinking seems poised to sweep away some of today's celebrated innovation practices, we must be wondering what new provocation is on the horizon. Relax, I'm not planning to conjure one up.

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Bada-Bing: WPP Teams With Microsoft To Research How Search Builds Brands

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

MediaPost Publications, June 24, 2009 — WPP Group this morning unveiled plans for a research initiative with Microsoft to benchmark the "dynamics between search engine marketing and brand building." The effort, which is being spearheaded by WPP's Wunderman unit, will utilize proprietary research from Y&R's Brand Asset Valuator studies, as well as Wunderman's ZAAZ analytics and planning system.

"Marketers are spending billions on search engine marketing, primarily as a direct response mechanism," David Sable, vice chairman-COO of Wunderman, stated, adding, "We think it's time to better understand how search builds brands differently than traditional media.

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How to Kick Off an Innovation Project

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

To build consumer loyalty, Office Max launched a study of what women look for when they buy office supplies

BusinessWeek, June 24, 2009 — "Life is beautiful. Work can be, too." So ends a fantastical commercial for the office supplies company, OfficeMax (OMX), which aired in cinemas earlier this year.

More than just a new marketing campaign, the ad reflects a new direction for a company that had previously based its competitive strategy on price and location

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Ford's Mulally Sees a Taurus in His Future

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

CEO Hopes to Revive Sedan That Once Was Best-Seller; High Price, Large Size Are Obstacles

Wall Street Journal, June 23, 2009 — Ford Motor Co. is launching a revamped Taurus this summer, a big bet by Chief Executive Alan Mulally that he can revive an ailing model that once defined the American family sedan.

In late 2006, Mr. Mulally took Ford's helm in part because of his respect for the onetime success of the Taurus. But Mr. Mulally was shocked, he said, that the company had decided to pull the plug on the brand by the time he arrived, and he quickly reversed the move.

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Interpublic, Microsoft Team To 'Re-Invent' Media Planning, Buying: MOMS Is Not Your Father's Process

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

MediaPost Publications, June 23, 2009 — One of the hottest areas of the online advertising business - "ad ops," a short-hand for advertising operations, or the technology that is driving machine-based advertising and media-buying processing - could soon begin impacting the planning and buying process for all media. Interpublic, in partnership with Microsoft, this morning unveiled a new, tech-driven platform for managing the way media is planned, bought, measured and posted not just for online media, but for all forms of traditional and emerging media. The system, dubbed MOMS (Media Operations Management System), was unveiled this morning at the Cannes advertising festival in France, the companies boasted it would "re-invent" the way Interpublic agencies and clients plan and buy their media.

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Netflix Boss Plots Life After the DVD

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Wall Street Journal, June 23, 2009 — Netflix Inc. is a standout in the recession. The DVD-rental company added more subscribers than ever during the first three months of the year. Its stock has more than doubled since October.

But Netflix's chief executive officer, Reed Hastings, thinks his core business is doomed. As soon as four years from now, he predicts, the business that generates most of Netflix's revenue today will begin to decline, as DVDs delivered by mail steadily lose ground to movies sent straight over the Internet. So Mr. Hastings, who co-founded the company, is quickly trying to shift Netflix's business — seeking to make more videos available online and cutting deals with electronics makers so consumers can play those movies on television sets.

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