What Does Sprint Know About Marketing That You Don't?

I admit it. I may be the only one on the planet who actually reads legal copy.

Not all the time, mind you. Just occasionally. But this time, it was worth it.

Apparently the person in charge of writing the legal copy on a recent Sprint ad (yes, there are people who actually have to type that stuff) had the smarts to talk to me like a human being.

"Okay, take a deep breath," starts the copy, which then proceeds to have a little fun with the fact that all great promotional offers are followed by teeny-tiny legal copy.

In this particular case, the legal copy wasn't going to void the offer -- quite the opposite, it was going to support it. Better still, the copy rewarded me with a nice, talkative commentary on the nature of legal copy and the nature of Sprint.

Which brings up my key point -- when you're talking to your customers, talk to them like human beings. Your brand is reflected in everything you do -- in your logo, in your headlines and, yes, even in your legal copy.

Perhaps David Ogilvy summed it up best when he said, "The consumer isn't a moron. She's your wife."

David's wisdom is great advice for marketers of every generation.

Does The Coca-Cola Company Finally Have its Marketing Mojo Back?

Remember "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing"? Or how about "Mean Joe Green"? What about "Polar Bears"?

It's been a decade since The Coca-Cola Company created any marketing campaigns worth checking out. The Great Coca-Cola Drought of the Late 90s and early 21st Century brought us bad campaign after bad campaign.

Each effort lacked the creative flair of years past and, worse still, the campaigns had a fundamental misunderstanding of what the Coca-Cola brand means to the American consumer. (Remember the mean-spirited "Fighting Grandmother" campaign? I mean, c'mon.)

At long last, The Coca-Cola Company has regained its marketing mojo. The campaigns of the past few years have an innovative creative spark to them that has been missing for over a decade. Better still, the campaigns nail the Coca-Cola brand right on the head.

No surprise, some of the current campaigns were created by advertising powerhouse Wieden + Kennedy. To see the best Coca-Cola ads in over a decade, including the instant classics Grand Theft Auto and Happiness Factory, check out the Wieden + Kennedy website. Or see them on YouTube by clicking these links: Happiness Factory and Grand Theft Auto.

How to Build a Website for Seniors

If you're like most marketers, the seniors market is probably one of your fastest-growing segments. The bottom line is that we're all getting older (darn!) and as the American marketplace ages, marketers have to keep up
Since it's the job of The 60 Second Marketer to spot trends like these (who else would have figured out that Americans are getting older, right?), we've created a 60 Second Video called How to Build a Website for Seniors.

Check it out. It has some pretty obvious stuff (like making sure the type is easy to read), but it also has some pretty useful stuff, too. Better still, we've turned the volume way up so that those of us over 50 can hear what it's saying.

I'm kidding.

But you should still check it out. It's got a lot of good tidbits on how to make sure your site appeals to the seniors market.

30% of People Open E-mails Based on Subject Line

My kids tell me I'm a bit "odd." They keep repeating that over and over again and, as a result, I've generally accepted the fact that I'm slightly different from the average cookie.

Apparently, I'm also different from the 30% who, in a recent study, claimed to open e-mails based on the subject line.

For the record, I can't recall ever having read a subject line on an e-mail. I know, I know, that's a bit unusual, but remember what my kids tell me? It's the whole "odd" thing again.

In any case, as a marketer, it's important to know that at least 30% of the people in one research study actually do read the subject line and, if it's not of interest to them, refuse to open the e-mail.

So, here's the bottom line -- scientific research shows that subject lines in e-mails are important. And anecdotal research shows that I'm a bit "odd."

Surprised, anyone?

Only 28% of Respondents in Gallup Poll Have Gone Green.

A recent study conducted by Gallup indicates that fewer than one-third of the respondents (28%) claim to have made "major changes" in their own shopping and living habits over the past five years to help protect the environment.

Only 40% say they worry "a great deal" about "the quality of the environment," ranking far below the 60% who worry about the economy and the 58% who worry about the availability and affordability of health care.

Does this mean marketers should stop promoting the "green" aspects of their brands? Hell no. Almost 200 million Americans buy green products. And consumer recall of "green" advertising is very high, with more than 37% of consumers saying they frequently recall green messaging and an additional 33% recalling it occasionally according to Burst Media.

Green branding is a short-term differentiator right now. If you're a marketer, you should run with it while you can.

Levi's Jeans on YouTube

Levi Strauss has successfully executed what few companies haven managed to accomplish -- that is, to create a viral video that, as planned, gets viewed by millions of people.

Many companies have attempted to do this -- just check out YouTube for a graveyard of viral video victims. But few have succeeded to the extent that Levi Strauss has.

Their viral video, which can be seen by clicking Levi's Jeans YouTube Commercial, has been viewed more than 2.1 million times. The secret of their success? Nowhere in the YouTube episode is the Levi's brand pushed on the viewer. That's the secret. If you want to try viral video without becoming a viral video victim, you'll need to convince your CEO that spending tens of thousands of dollars (if not hundreds of thousands of dollars) on an unbranded video makes sense.

Live it. Learn it. Execute it.

Did the Bayer Brand Blunder?

Am I crazy? Or is it completely odd that Bayer AG, the parent company that is responsible for providing us Bayer aspirin, is also the parent company that provides us a Bayer brand of herbicides and pesticides?

Isn't there something wrong with that picture? Who, in their infinite branding wisdom, decided that a brand that Americans love and trust (Bayer aspirin), should be linked to something that would kill us if we ingested it?

That's a disconnect. And a big one. Branding 101 says that if you have a big, powerful, well-respected brand that is supposed to heal people, you don't also slap your logo on something that kills people (and bugs and weeds). It's just common sense.

I'm sure someone at corporate decided that the Bayer brand was all-powerful and could overcome common sense, but that's a boneheaded move if I've ever seen one.

This should be a case study in business school on how NOT to extend your brand.

(Note: For another take on this topic, please see our 60 Second article by Dr. Reshma Shah of Emory University entitled How to Unleash the Power of Your Brand.)

Super Bowl Ads to Cost $3 Million for a 30 Second Spot.

If you want to get into the Super Bowl game, NBC says it can get you in -- for $3 million.

The Wall Street Journal reports that NBC will announce that the entry price for a commercial in the 2009 Super Bowl will be three big ones. That's a 10% increase over last year, which is roughly double the usual annual rise.

In the previous Super Bowl, Fox received about $2.7 million for 30 seconds. NBC says it is confident advertisers will pay the higher prices because of the record ratings for this year's Super Bowl.

It's been about 25 years since the legendary Apple Computer spot playing off of George Orwell's book "1984" transformed Super Bowl advertising. That spot, incorrectly reported as having run only once (it actually ran twice), changed the Super Bowl ad game from a good idea to a Blockbuster Idea.

NBC is changing the game again by increasing prices to $3 million for a 30 second spot. Will advertisers object this time? Or will they ante up and pay the $3 million? What do you think?

What Are Web Analytics?

Have you ever wondered what web analytics are and why they're important? If so, then check out our latest 60 Second Video that answers the question, "What are web analytics and why should I care?"