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In this post I will examine the growth of retail store sales.  Sales at brick-and-mortar retail stores constitute 90% of all retail sales in the United States.  And many major retailers have found that their digital consumer engagement and investments made toward boosting their online presence has actually resulted in increased in-store visits.  In fact, with the economy rebounding, some major retailers who were forced to close stores during the financial crisis are now implementing large-scale growth strategies and seeking hot real estate in key markets.  So, how are the retail stores remaining relevant and competitive in the age of e-commerce and online shopping?

The Way I See It

  • I see major fashion brands continuing to build brand loyalty among customers and encourage return in-store visits among frequent shoppers in an effort to boost sales and word-of-mouth marketing.
  • Shopping remains a social activity, with family and friends using trips to retail stores and/or shopping malls as a social outing, but also tying into social and online media: people will check-in at retail stores on FourSquare, post photos of themselves trying on a new spring outfit at a retail store on Instagram, or Tweet about their latest obsession or shopping trip.
  • I see physical retail stores starting to use new tools to collect digital data on in-store visitors in order to improve the competitive edge retailers have, and they’ll use their access to data to improve customer experience and target marketing.
  • I see retail stores meeting a critical need: they allow customers to try on items for fit and styling options.  Many retailers have seen that while customers may visit their websites or social media pages to explore new apparel or jewelry, they still visit stores in order to be able to make sure the particular item fits well and fits their personal style – and also to score sale or clearance items only available in certain stores.
  • While the fashion industry must continue to embrace social media engagement and a digital presence in order to build brand loyalty and presence among customers, I believe brands will also continue to develop retail growth strategies through marketing and advertising to boost in-store sales and visits.

The Way the Industry Sees It


I sat down with Seth Farbman, Global Chief Marketing Officer at Gap, to discuss brand strategy to maintain a competitive edge and continue retail growth.

Gap is well-known for having a strong brand presence traditionally, with advertising, in-store marketing, and retail offers, as well as online in social media through customer engagement, online promotions, and other tools.  In the spring, we see a lot of bright colors coming into play.  What advertising and marketing tactics compose a strong retail strategy to drive sales both in-store and online?

It all starts with keeping our brand relevant and connected to culture.  I’m very proud of our iconic marketing campaigns, because they’ve been strongly grounded in what Gap stands for— American optimism, democracy and the belief in the power of the individual.  However, a strong retail strategy must go beyond the traditional – it requires constant development of content and telling of stories that builds a lifestyle consistently across the brand.  Customers expect us to have personal, two-way relationships with them, so we’ve hired a team of digital experts and community managers to speak with them, instead of to them.  Our Styld.by social commerce program is an excellent example of how we deliver relevance that’s constantly fresh and exciting. It has been incredibly successful.

Are there certain in-store only promotions that retailers perceive as a factor in visits?  Do window displays remain important in this age to draw in potential customers, or is brand recognition and brand loyalty still the main factor to attract shoppers?

A brand that a customer feels is relevant to their life is the first step.  But windows and in-store marketing are a very important way we can share new styles and collections with customers.  We are fortunate to have amazing flagship stores in some of the largest cities around the world.  These are living billboards for us.  The store experience is a very effective way to turn casual shoppers into loyal customers.  Promotions are part of the excitement of shopping — everyone loves getting a great product at an excellent price – but simply being able to emotionally display new items in windows is still a great way to connect with people.

Continue Reading Spring Fashion Series: Retail Growth in the Digital Age

Consumer Electronics Show. South by Southwest. Auto shows. Comic-Con. E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo). Multiple industries rely on annual trade shows to unveil new products and interact with not just the trade, but with consumers. It’s something like a professional show-and-tell, with major brands and companies offering new product demonstrations and announcing their latest innovations that set them apart from industry competitors and attempt to attract consumers. With developments in digital, social media, and mobile, the importance of live, in-person displays and face-to-face consumer engagement has not faded for the industry and some may even argue, it’s become even more important. Brands can often rely on the hype surrounding conventions and trade shows to boost sales, brand recognition, and loyalty, and companies can also tap in to what consumers want at these shows to inform future research and development. Take Sony Computer Entertainment, for instance. A true innovator for decades and a company that bridges a variety of sectors to unveil new products, entertainment, and updated consumer favorites, Sony’s panels and booths at industry shows are often the most-anticipated and best-attended. So how important are trade shows for Sony Computer Entertainment and what can we learn from the popular tech brand’s trade show tactics?

The Way I See It

  • I see trade shows offering the industry a rare opportunity to market and advertise in a way that truly puts the features and capabilities of their products on display. Mainstream ads and commercials for products like gaming consoles are often more creative than product and feature-driven, so trade shows around the U.S. put the newest features on display.
  • I see trade shows for most industries filled with consumers who are “industry-junkies” of sorts, allowing brands and companies to get more technical and high-level in their displays and presentations.
  • I see trade shows playing an important role in building momentum, creating excitement and motivating industry players and consumers.
  • I see trade shows now reaching wider audiences, thanks to videos of product announcements and presentations being posted on YouTube and other social networks, or even live-streamed by brands. The Consumer Electronics Show in January is the most important stage for technology and entertainment, and many brands strategically connect live-presentations with social and digital media so that consumers who cannot attend in-person still feel that they’re a part of it.

The Way the Industry Sees It

I sat down with Guy Longworth, Senior Vice President, PlayStation Brand Marketing at Sony Computer Entertainment America, to discuss the gaming and tech giant’s recent memorable trade show performances and how important trade shows are to the company.

At CES in January, Sony came out hot and received a great amount of praise. Everyone was talking about Sony’s impressive booth and all of the goods on display, including the PlayStation 3 console and PlayStation Vita. How important is your physical presence at a trade show and, without giving away any secrets, how do you strategize about what to include and how to display the items?

Trade shows are an important component in our marketing mix. They provide an excellent venue for us to showcase products and to launch new initiatives. We benefit from considerable PR, which we would find it difficult to replace without the focus of a show. We spend considerable time determining clear objectives for each trade show with a focus on the future product pipeline which informs our decision making process in terms of what is included and how it is displayed.

In your opinion, is the real value of successful runs at trade shows, including E3 and CES, for building brand reputation and hype or for introducing new products to make consumers race to stores to buy? Obviously, brand reputation leads to sales in the long-run, but what’s the value, from a marketing perspective, of unveiling a product that customers won’t be able to purchase for a good amount of time?

The gaming industry is the largest segment of the entertainment industry, which thrives on “what’s next” and has a successful history of building excitement and momentum for new platforms, games, and services by announcing them early. Securing pre-orders and building purchase intention are critical elements of any marketing campaign and trade shows provide an excellent platform to launch new products.

Continue Reading Trade Shows in the Digital Age: A Discussion with Sony Computer Entertainment

On Tuesday night, I attended a fascinating event at The ADVERTISING Club called AD THINK, which is bridging the gap between tech startups and the advertising world.  As the event’s host, founder and partner of Evol8tion Joseph Jaffe, put it – we have seen a lack of creativity in digital advertising and with all of the creativity streaming from the high-tech startup boom, several stellar startups have emerged to bridge the gap between Madison Ave and Mountainview.  The event, which was standing-room only and will be the first in a series, brought five cutting-edge startup founders to deliver presentations on their products and attempt to woo a panel of experts who know a thing or two about successful startups, ad land, and how creativity and tech can work hand-in-hand.  The panel included: Brian Cohen, Chairman of New York Angels and the first investor in Pinterest; Andreas Dahlqvist, Deputy CCO of Global & Vice Chairman of NY for McCann Erickson; Nihal Mehta, Founder and CEO of Local Response (in 2001, he founded an agency dedicated solely to mobile – way ahead of his time); and Catherine Schenquerman, Digital Advertising Head of JetBlue Airways.

Even though I could talk about the all-star panel for a while, let’s talk about the startups – the true stars of the evening.  I was blown away by the creativity of each of these tech companies, and the potential that these startups have for the future of advertising and marketing.  The main theme among them was something we’ve talked about before: bringing data and creative together, as well as using data and analytics to improve and drive creative content for digital and mobile advertising.  I’m excited to see what’s next for each of these companies.

  • One of the founders of social intelligence company Bottlenose presented the analytics tools the platform offers brands, which, among other things, can correlate the volume of trending topics and conversations surrounding a brand on social media with key indicators (i.e., stock price, sales, website visits, Nielsen ratings, etc.) to uncover who and what on social media are driving important activities.
  • The founder of Customer.io started by saying, “E-mail is dead.”  We’ve heard it before, but his technology is actually using data gathered from e-mail marketing to help brands determine what to say and when to say it in order to achieve objectives from their e-mail marketing.  This could really bring e-mail back to life.

    • Continue Reading At the Intersection of Tech and Advertising

Surrounding a breakfast seminar, which was held at Davis & Gilbert today entitled, “Complying with the FTC’s Final Amendments to its COPPA Rule: What You Need to Know,” I thought a great post would be to examine that very topic.  In addition, I had the chance to speak to Wayne Keeley Director of the Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus and interview him as my Q&A guest this week.

Advertising to children has long been laden with complex issues.  Advertising promoting products that target children have long faced criticism from consumer advocates and regulators who raise safety, health, or inappropriate content concerns.  In the digital age filled with online privacy and data collection concerns at every corner and constantly evolving technologies that put individuals – especially children – at risk, the Federal Trade Commission has increased its regulation and enforcement.  With the increased use of mobile technology and apps by children under the age of 13, the FTC initiated its review of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA) in 2010 to allow children’s advocates, website and app developers, and advertising executives and coalitions to chime in on how the FTC should update the outdated rule to protect children from the new dangers of social media, location-based software, video chatting, photo sharing, and more.  With COPPA’s expanded scope, the FTC is making an effort to ensure its regulations cover new technology and innovation.

The Way I See It

  • I see the new COPPA rule expanding the types of companies that are required to obtain parental permission before collecting data and information from children to reflect the digital world we live in today.  COPPA clearly covers mobile and tablet apps, location technology tools, voice recognition tools, social sharing networks including Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, and online advertising networks, among others.
  • I see the FTC making strides in privacy and data protection regulation with the expanded COPPA provisions, and advertisers and marketers being forced to adapt to new rules for behavioral advertising in particular.
  • The advertising industry has long championed self-regulation for advertising to children, so while the new COPPA rules are broader, the industry may not have too many new practices to adapt.  Many have also begun taking stricter precautions in engaging with and advertising to children in anticipation of the expansion of COPPA.
  • I see that new restrictions on cookie-based and other identification systems could mean some websites targeting children may reduce or stop their use of advertising networks.

The Way the Industry Sees It


I sat down with Wayne Keeley, Director of the Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, to discuss the FTC’s recent amendments to COPPA and what it means for advertisers, tech innovation, and regulation.

Let’s start by discussing CARU’s response to the expansion of COPPA.  Does the regulation overlap areas of the CARU guidelines?  In what ways is the regulation new for the industry?

Rather than overlapping, I believe that the COPPA rule modifications have brought the COPPA Rule more in line with CARU’s Guidelines.  CARU’s Guidelines represent self-regulatory practices.  Self-Regulation can sometimes go beyond what is required in the law and/or regulatory standards.  For example, CARU’s guidelines went beyond the COPPA Rule in those instances where website operators had a reasonable expectation that a significant number of children will be visiting their websites.  In those instances, CARU said they should employ age screening mechanisms to determine whether verifiable parental consent or notice and opt-out is necessitated.  The old COPPA Rule had an actual knowledge standard.  Under the new Rule, however, the FTC has provided an option for websites with mixed audiences that is closer to our self-regulatory model by providing that sites that target children as a secondary audience can screen users via an age gate.  Accordingly, operators will be required to provide notice and obtain consent only for those who identify themselves as under 13. This is a great example of how the experience gained under self–regulation can make a positive contribution to fashioning workable regulatory approaches as well.  The regulation is also new for the industry in that definitions are added and expanded and the FTC’s oversight of safe harbor programs is enhanced and strengthened. The new definition brings the collection of information for behavioral advertising within the regulation for the first time and will require child-directed sites to obtain parental consent before allowing the collection of information for interest-based advertising on their sites even if that information does not identify a specific child.

What does CARU see as the biggest threat to child safety and protection (i.e., location-based technology, personal data collection, etc.)?  Are there certain trends in social media or mobile technology that are red flags for CARU?

CARU has always seen the collection of personal information from young children as an important issue and had adopted data collection guidelines even in advance of the COPPA legislation.  That aspect has not changed.  The modified COPPA Rule responds to technological innovation (e.g., geo-location based technology) and current technology use (e.g., increase in use of Smartphones by children).  Social media and mobile technology have always been on CARU’s radar from their inception.  Their importance to CARU has grown in direct proportion to the increasing number of young children accessing social media and mobile technology.  While young children are increasingly adopting mobile and social media technology, the basic concerns underlying the creation of CARU – that young children are a vulnerable audience and therefore need protection – remain the same.  We look forward to working with responsible industry members to assure that these concerns are addressed. This is particularly true in the expanding area of mobile apps which are developing rapidly and are subject to the new COPPA rule as well as CARU’s general guidelines if they are child-directed.

Continue Reading Understanding the FTC’s Expansion of COPPA: A Conversation with the Director of the Children’s Advertising Review Unit

A few weeks ago, Chester Cheetah, the beloved “spokescat” for Cheetos, joined Twitter as @ChesterCheetah with a campaign to reach 50K followers.  And when he does, “a family gets a kitten.”  Chester Cheetah is just the latest of many brand mascots that have taken social media by storm in recent years.  Furthermore, digital media is allowing brands to create more developed story lines and detailed backgrounds for their mascots, resulting in consumers becoming more drawn to the characters, and, of course, to the brand and product they represent.  The insurance industry has made quite a splash with its brand mascots, including the GEICO Gecko and Allstate’s “Mayhem,” launching YouTube channels and earning verified Twitter accounts (i.e., celebrity status).  Creating such humorous and quirky characters allows insurance companies to engage with consumers and help them better understand the complex insurance offerings, while also staking a claim in the competitive insurance landscape.

Take Progressive’s “Flo,” the now infamous female insurance broker who dominates the company’s commercials.  Known for her humor and larger-than-life personality, Flo is the same way on Twitter – posting witty one-liners and tips on insurance topics of interest, things making the news, and Progressive Insurance offerings and updates.  She has over 19K followers on Twitter and more than 5 million “likes” on Facebook; Progressive’s Facebook page only has 58,000 “likes”.  Flo is featured in many YouTube videos and has led social games and giveaways through Facebook and Twitter.

The Way I See It

  • I see online and social media allowing brands to further develop characters and brand mascots to be more than just the face of the brand, but standalone, likeable characters.  They have colored histories, interests, and well-defined traits.  Brands have found success in fully developing their mascots, as consumers are more likely to engage with and like more complex characters.
  • I see companies taking risks with brand mascots on social media, as it allows them to test how consumers respond to initiatives without making too much of an investment.  For instance, M&M’s sassy Ms. Brown held a live video chat with Facebook fans and even has her own Pandora music-streaming channel, both of which take the traditional social media campaign one step further.

    • Continue Reading Brand Mascots Come to Life on Social Media

On Friday the latest doomsday threat out of Washington became a reality as automatic federal budget cuts, known as sequestration, went into effect. What effect that will have, we can’t be sure. The latest round of debates between Congress and the White House was full of rhetoric and classic “we said, they said” as politicians “discussed” what across-the-board cuts to government agencies and defense spending would mean for the average American. But for most of us – including those of us in the advertising industry – it is a “wait and see” situation, since we likely will not know the true impact of the cuts for a while.

For the advertising industry specifically, sequestration brings with it many unknowns: whether or how the cuts will impact the industry, if the cuts will be reflected in the greater economy and negatively impact the recovery, or if regulation and innovation will stall. We will all be anticipating what the real impacts of sequestration may be on advertisers and marketers – and how cuts will shape critical public issues across the board.

The Way I See It

• I see the advertising industry only continuing to evolve with digital and mobile, interactions with consumers, and data, not to mention new technology being developed nearly every day. While industry self-regulation on major issues like advertising to children, online privacy, and data collection by apps is strong, government agencies including the FTC have only begun ramping up crucial regulatory and enforcement efforts of the advertising industry. It will be interesting to see whether this is impacted by sequestration – will other critical issues take precedence over issues impacting the advertising industry?

• We can safely predict government agencies will cut ad spending, but it is unclear whether large brands or advertisers will feel a pinch across the board. Advertising Age reported earlier this week that ad agencies that count government agencies – such as the U.S. Postal Service and the Army, the government’s top-two largest ad spenders – as clients will feel the pinch. And the agencies will see an impact in ROI from decreasing marketing. Take these budget cuts as opposed to the investment announced by NYC Mayor Bloomberg in a new initiative and marketing campaign dubbed “Made in NY” to support the booming startup scene. I see Silicon Alley and NYC on the whole seeing a great ROI from this initiative, with startups seeing more value in coming to NY thus supporting the local economy, growing tourism, and adding jobs.Continue Reading What Does Sequestration Mean for Ad Land?

Back in October, I talked here on Madison Ave Insights about the FTC’s just-released Green Guides and what they would mean for marketers moving forward. The FTC moved against unfounded and overused “environmentally friendly” and “green” claims in marketing for a range of products. The standards as established challenge the use of unqualified general environmental benefit claims and asks advertisers to scientifically prove specific green claims.

One industry with a focus on the environment that needs to adapt to both the demands of the marketplace and the restrictions of the regulators is the automotive industry. At the North American International Auto Show in Detroit in January, consumers saw the latest model introductions from the automobile industry – domestic and foreign – that presented consumers with each company’s take on the best options for price, performance, versatility, fuel economy and being green.

So what’s next for the auto industry in terms of the future – both the future of the environmental and continued explosion of digital?

The Way I See It

  • Automakers see a double edge sword – a marketing and sales benefit from better fuel economy, but at a higher cost to engineer and build vehicles that consumers will want and can afford. They are facing new regulations requiring them to increase fleet-wide average fuel use to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025.
  • I see the cycle of government pushing the industry and the industry reacting to the push to be a dangerous paradigm in the current political climate. I see the need for industry to move forward independent of government prodding by satisfying consumer demand with products that are innovative and revolutionary.
  • I see automakers, both current and new, pushing forward with battery-powered, electric cars and pushing the envelope with new retail standards and business strategy. I see electric cars as being a true “environmental” automobile.
  • I see the automotive industry continuing its comeback and becoming even more important as major advertisers.
  • I see the need for breathtaking creative, brilliant strategy and greater use of digital, social media and mobile.

The Way The Industry Sees It

I sat down with Joel Ewanick, President and Managing Director of Global Auto Systems. Currently Joel is involved in several projects most noteworthy is as Special Advisor to the CEO of Fisker. Until last summer, Joel was the Vice President and Global Chief Marketing Officer of General Motors and prior to that Joel was Vice President of Marketing for Hyundai Motor America. In addition, he is best known for being the guy behind Hyundai Assurance. I asked Joel to discuss what’s next for environmental marketing and how the auto industry is evolving with the times.

Why is having an environmental strategy to the automotive sector important?  How does an automotive company present a credible environmental position?

Having an “environmental strategy” cannot be skin deep, it needs to run through the organization like blood through your veins and become a part of the company DNA. It needs to be a total commitment. If a company does not embrace an environmental position, it will be seen as a marketing gimmick – the “sexy” subject of the day, it’s pandering to the consumers. Eventually the consumer sees through it and calls it what it is, “greenwashing.” If a company genuinely cares about the environment, it should demonstrate it in products, offerings, and actions. It starts in the board room, from the top! A commitment from the companies’ executive management, if not – the accounting for such a commitment will eventually derail the programs. It doesn’t happen overnight – it takes time, research, and constant development – from raw material sourcing, to manufacturing, through the sales process, ownership and full circle to the recycling of the automobile at the end of its life. It all needs to be taken into account. As in any industry, there are leaders and there are followers, those who embrace a true commitment to certain technologies no matter the time and cost because it’s the right thing to do. They will reap rewards in decades to come. Fuel Cell technology is a perfect case. Some companies are demonstrating a total commitment to the technology and are in it for the long haul; while others have started but then backed off because the return on investment may be a decade away. These companies are not dedicated or committed, they will be followers.

The auto industry has new fuel efficiency standards to meet.  Do you think this regulation will change the current “fuel economy” advertising strategies?  Will the fuel efficiency standards make the importance of fuel economy claims less powerful?

What will make the claims powerful is the cost of gasoline.  If we continue to experience significant increases in gas prices, like here in California, where gas is at $4.15 to $4.25, consumers will continue to flock to more fuel efficient brands, like Hyundai. If prices stabilize, it will still be important, but it will likely over time become another given, a commoditized feature in all automobiles, like safety.  Volvo and Mercedes Benz owned safety, but through legislation, all cars are basically safe.  It is now a given.  Eventually this could happen with MPG as new technologies emerge.  In the end consumers will look for value, and gasoline, for the foreseeable future, is part of that value equation.

Continue Reading The New Auto Industry: Friend of the Environment and Tech Star

February 1st was a big day for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Not only did the FTC release its report regarding mobile privacy disclosures, it also announced that it had reached a settlement with Path, a social networking app, which agreed to pay $800,000 to settle charges that it deceived users by collecting personal information from their mobile address books without their knowledge and consent, and that it collected personal information from children without their parents’ consent in violation of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

The FTC’s report entitled “Mobile Privacy Disclosures: Building Trust Through Transparency” provides specific recommendations on improving mobile privacy disclosures for mobile platforms, app developers, advertising networks, and other third parties. Most notably, the report recommends that mobile platforms provide “just-in-time” disclosures to consumers and obtain their affirmative consent before allowing apps to access sensitive content, such as geolocation data. The report also recommends that mobile platforms consider providing “just-in-time” disclosures and obtain affirmative consent for other sensitive content, such as contacts, photos, calendar entries and audio/video content. The report further recommends that mobile platforms consider developing a one-stop “dashboard” approach to allow consumers to review the types of content accessed by the apps they have downloaded as well as icons to depict the transmission of user data. The report recommends that mobile platforms consider offering a Do Not Track (DNT) mechanism for smartphone users and makes several other recommendations aimed at providing better disclosures to consumers regarding mobile privacy.

The report also makes a number of recommendations to app developers, including that they have a privacy policy that is easily accessible through the app stores, provide “just-in-time” disclosures and obtain affirmative consent before collecting and sharing sensitive information, improve coordination and communication with ad networks and other third parties and participate in self-regulatory programs and industry organizations. In addition, the report recommends that advertising networks and other third parties communicate with app developers so that those developers can provide truthful disclosures and work with platforms to ensure effective implementation of DNT. Finally, the report suggests that app developer trade associations, academics and experts develop short-form disclosures for app developers, promote standardized app developer privacy policies and educate app developers on privacy issues.Continue Reading FTC Announces Mobile Privacy Disclosure Guidelines

It’s finally here. Football fans everywhere have spent the last year counting down to Super Bowl Sunday, the main event for the NFL. But advertising and marketing executives have spent the last year actively planning for Super Bowl Sunday. And let’s face it, a lot of people who are not football fans watch the Super Bowl for one thing: the commercials. The ads typically dominate water cooler conversation the next day, and now take over social media and traditional media as well – for many, the final score doesn’t even matter.

In ad land, Super Bowl Sunday is a holiday. A lot of us are like little kids on Christmas – only we’re glued to the television instead of staring at the chimney waiting for Santa to slide down. Year after year, brands deliver. The ads are creative, hilarious, inspiring. We talk about them for a year after they air… until the next Super Bowl. Which brand do you think will have the most popular ad this year?

The Way I See It

  • For advertisers, Super Bowl Sunday is the biggest day of the year. I see brands paying millions of dollars for 30-second spots during the Super Bowl and investing in ads that they hope will draw lots of sales and big returns.
  • I see brands using Super Bowl commercials not just to entertain, but increasingly to engage the consumer offer by incorporating social media or mobile elements to their TV ads.
  • I see each brand that advertises trying to push the envelope with creative spots that will stand out to consumers – helping the brand to achieve a coveted spot as one of the top ads of the year, but also boosting sales for the brand.
  • I see advertising executives from all ends – creative, compliance, consumer, privacy, legal – coming together to create ads that define their brands, attracting consumers and creating buzz – and making sure that the buzz around an ad translates into buzz around a brand, which is often easier said than done.
  • What is the lesson for advertisers from the “blackout in New Orleans”? How do you protect yourself when there is a problem at a live event? I see advertisers thinking about integrated campaigns not just on the positive side – how they can all work together, but on the negative side – what happens if something goes wrong.

The Way the Industry Sees It

I sat down with Jeff Klein, Senior Director of Marketing at Frito-Lay to discuss advertising during the Super Bowl and the importance of the NFL’s biggest game for the advertising industry.

Doritos’ “Crash the Super Bowl” has become one of the most anticipated consumer contests of the year and is very successful, having won the USA Today ‘Ad Meter’ polling in three of the last four years. On a larger scale, consumer engagement through the use of contests, giveaways, and social media engagement, has become a huge trend for brands around the Super Bowl. Do you think consumers now have different expectations about the types of initiatives that brands will launch around the big game? How has consumer engagement with Super Bowl advertising evolved in recent years?

I think expectations of brand communication and activation have evolved considerably regardless of the communication medium, but they are certainly amplified at the Super Bowl. The days of talking at your consumer and expecting some sort of action are long gone. It’s more about consumer engagement – how can you continually engage your target in a conversation that goes well beyond the 30-second ad. How do brands achieve this on the world’s largest advertising stage? That depends largely on a brand’s narrative, but you can bet there will be innovative ways to extend their messaging beyond the game. Doritos literally invented the crowdsourcing model around the Super Bowl, and a few brands have been inspired to take similar approaches. It works for Doritos because it’s authentic. It’s not just a Super Bowl campaign, it’s part of our brand’s DNA.

90% of Super Bowl ad spots were sold by early September 2012 – just over five months before the game airs. What makes so many brands look to invest in this expensive space year after year? What is it about the Super Bowl and its viewership that holds such importance for brands?

For brands, it is absolutely a huge investment, but it also offers a unique communication opportunity in today’s fragmented media environment. From a pure eyeballs perspective, no program comes even close to the reach Super Bowl offers. There are few opportunities better in the year to drive awareness of a brand’s positioning, innovation, or programming – and the timing of the game allows you to set the tone for the year. Beyond this, it’s important to understand that not all Gross Rating Points (GRPs) are created equal. It’s very easy for consumers to avoid a brand’s messaging with technology. Not only is the Super Bowl virtually DVR proof, but people actually tune-in FOR the commercials.

Continue Reading Advertising’s Big Night: Super Bowl 47

Guess what? When it comes to the claims you make in your advertising, substantiation matters – a lot. The FTC’s recent Final Order against POM Wonderful (POM) in which it found nearly 40 claims made by POM about its pomegranate juice products to be false and misleading based on the absence of proper substantiation, should leave no doubt that the FTC takes the issue of claim support very seriously. And the fact that most of POM’s challenged claims – claims regarding potential health benefits of the products, including that consumption could help treat, prevent, or reduce the risk of heart disease, prostate cancer, or erectile dysfunction – were not actually express claims, but rather implied claims (from both the wording and imagery of the ad), should be a reminder to us all that the entire advertisement and the overall “net impression” it conveys must be carefully considered.

A little background: In September 2010, the FTC issued an administrative complaint alleging that POM had disseminated advertising materials claiming health and disease prevention benefits from consumption of its pomegranate juice products without having a reasonable basis to make those claims. We all remember those ads, a beautifully shot bottle of POM with a broken noose around its neck and the headline “Cheat Death.” In its defense, POM argued that consumers did not take many of its ads literally, so that any perceived health claims in those ads were not material to consumers, and that when it made express health claims in ads, POM had substantiation for the claims, in the form of surveys and of studies done on animals. The FTC’s position was that all the health benefit claims made by POM – whether express or implied – were material to consumers and therefore required a “reasonable basis” of support, which POM lacked. In addition, where POM claimed to have clinical proof of the claim, the FTC argued that POM had no such proof. The FTC’s position was that for the types of health and disease prevention claims POM was making, a “reasonable basis” of support required a well-designed, well-conducted, double-blind, randomized controlled clinical trial (RCT). In fact it required two RCTs. And for the establishment claims, the FTC’s believed clinical proof also meant RCTs.Continue Reading POM Wonderful