Create your own occasions and holidays

Greeting card companies have been creating nonsense holidays and occasions for years. Marketers have gotten into the action, too.

Most recently:
September 19th was “International Talk Like a Pirate Day.” — Who knew? I discovered it accidentally because Meebo enabled a secrete pirate speak function to translate instant message text into pirate gibberish.

July 15th was “World Firefox Day” – World Firefox Day gives everyone who uses and loves Firefox the chance to introduce Firefox to one other person they care about. If your friend starts using Firefox on or before September 15, 2006, both of you will be recognized on the Firefox Friends Wall, and in Firefox 2.

June was “Backup Awareness Month” (according to Seagate). Too bad, many people I’ve spoken too didn’t hear about it until July.

Point is, other marketers are taking liberties, so why shouldn’t you? Go ahead and create an occasion/event! But first:

• Make sure it has perceivable value.
• Make it shareable.
• Make it worth someone’s time to briefly engage with your brand.

Then spread it out over the Web. Make it hip! And use good old fashioned grass roots promotion all the way.

Have fun.
-Roland

My banana connected the dots

I found a sticker on my banana this morning. It wasn’t for Dole brand or a price code. What made me look twice was that it was the head of H.A. Rey’s Curious George.

It made me curious…

Was it for the recent Curious George movie about to be released on DVD?

Was it for the new Curious George TV series on PBS?

Was it a plot by the Global Board of Banana Growers United Liberation Front to tap into my inner child and stimulate me to subconsciously buy bananas?

It probably doesn’t matter since I’ve obviously been exposed to these things unconsciously. And all it took was a cheap, little sticker placed on my banana by some clever marketer to trigger brand recall and make me connect the dots. Ding! My banana is part of an integrated brand campaign!

-Roland

Image makeover for the Brawny Man

The new edition of Business Week features an interesting article about how to refresh a brand icon. The Brawny Man is now a pseudo-metrosexual who still chops down trees, but listens to progressive jazz and country music. It is unclear if he is single or married.

There are some great learnings in this article about how the brand team went about defining and refining the persona for this icon.

BUSINESS WEEK: Brawny Rolls out a New Guy
September 6, 2006

Excerpts…

Consumers have long recognized the paper towel brand by its lumberjack mascot. But to stay relevant, he needed an update.

… For 30 years the paper products company had only minimally tinkered with the visage of its successful spokeshunk. He had, after all, helped the paper towels reach an enviable 98% name-recognition rate in the U.S.

… The sandy-blond, sweeping hair and blue denim shirt … both looked out of step. Even the style in which he was drawn seemed to hark back to the glory days of Burt Reynolds and Tom Selleck.

The team set out to create a “character book” for the Brawny man. It includes adjectives to describe him: real, genuine, strong, the ideal next-door neighbor. It also notes he likes to drink beer—Labatts Canadian or a light domestic—and listens to progressive jazz and country music. The debate about his marital status heated up so much that his handlers decided to leave it an open question as to whether he’s single or not.

… Yearlong customer research led to a new, more clean-cut look.

… However he still loves the outdoors, knows a lot about chopping down trees, and is back to wearing the familiar red hunting shirt.

After the change, the company says, his 7% likability score with consumers rose to 74%.

“Brawny stands for strength,” says the executive. “The more he conveys strength, the better.”

… core customers, mothers 25 to 49 years old, are looking for some new things in a man these days. “Women’s expectations of men are very different than they were 30 years ago,” he says. “Eighty percent of our target women work. She’s multitasking. She seeks balance, and she seeks more organization in her life. Men are evolving to play a much bigger role in that area. That provides for a fairly significant emotional connection to our audience.”

Check out Business Week for the complete article and other great articles.

Be sure to checkout the Brawny Academy Web site, where the Brawny Man spurts “woodsy wisdom” while carrying a boulder, chopping wood or performing mouth-to-mouth on a raccoon. [I'm not kidding!]

Take a closer look around you

I’m continuing my theme of inspiration that can be found all around us with examples of some clever elements from various campaigns.

Have you seen the WANTED posters for the new season of Fox television’s “Prison Break?” Check out the promotion posters over at AdRants.com.

Two summers ago, bottles washed up on California shores with messages promoting the television series “Lost.”

Last year’s Mini Cooper campaign distributed Mini Cooper Counterfit kits so enthusiasts could disguise their non-Minis.

As part of the 2005 launch of the Audi A3, a job ad for “retrievers” appeared on Monster.com with secret codes that enthusiasts could use to participate in the nationwide “The Art of the Heist” contest.

So… keep a sharp eye out for what’s around you. You might be pleasantly suprised how clever someone else is.

Happy hunting.
-Roland

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