Dr Pepper Uncovers Research Nugget and Builds New Ad Campaign Around It. Did They Strike Gold?

Did you know Dr Pepper is even older than Coca-Cola?

Not by much -- Dr Pepper first hit the market in 1885 and Coca-Cola followed the next year in 1886. But when you've been around for that long, it's very, very difficult to find something new to say about your soft drink.

But it looks as though Dr Pepper may have done just that. After mining through piles of new research, the marketing folks behind the soda think they may have struck gold. The research shows that people who drink Dr Pepper slowly enjoy the taste more than people who drink the soft drink at regular speed.

Now that may not seem like a nugget worth featuring, but as mentioned, in the world of soft drink marketing, you're always looking for some tiny little differentiator to build a campaign around.

(Quick aside -- The Coca-Cola Company once did research to find out if people were more comfortable when there's a Coke machine in the room. On the surface, that may seem like odd research, but when The Coca-Cola Company realized that people do, in fact, feel more comfortable when there was a Coke machine in the room, you can rest assured they leveraged the heck out of their findings in an effort to grow sales and market share.)

Anyway, back to my point -- that Dr Pepper has uncovered what seems to be a nice, little research nugget. The challenge, of course, is to turn that nugget into a memorable campaign that drives sales and revenue.

It sounds as though the L.A. office of Deutsch may have done just that with the new "Trust me, I'm a doctor" campaign. The spots, featuring fictional doctors including Kelsey Grammer and Julius Erving (Dr. J), talk about the research findings and, in a lighthearted way, help Dr Pepper prospects understand that drinking Dr Pepper slowly is what it's all about.

"Scientific tests have proven that when you drink Dr Pepper slowly, the 23 flavors taste even better," claims Dr. J. "I get it because half my life has been in slow motion." The next scene is of Dr. J making an amazing shot in slow motion: landing an ice cube in a glass.

It remains to be seen whether the campaign, which launches Monday, will increase sales or improve market share. But we'll be keeping an eye on it for you, so check back here (or, better yet, sign up for our weekly e-newsletter that comes out on Fridays) and we'll keep you posted on the results.

Extended Stay Hotels Tries to go Viral

Extended Stay Hotels has taken a risk with a new viral video campaign that can be seen on YouTube.

In the spot, a woman goes through an Extended Stay hotel room and licks the surfaces -- all of them. Yes, all of them. Even the toilet.

It's a risky spot for Extended Stay. Does it cross the line? I'm pretty sure it does, but I'd be interested in feedback or comments about this spot from The 60 Second Marketer community.

Nike Pulls Wieden+Kennedy "Dunk" Ads

In a previous post on this blog called "Does The Coca-Cola Company Finally Have its Marketing Mojo Back?" I mentioned the wonderful talent to be found at ad agency Wieden+Kennedy. Wieden is responsible for some of the more brilliant Coca-Cola work.

The agency, as you may know, made its initial splash with the Nike account in the mid- to late-1980s. Ever since then, they've done consistently good work for clients ranging from ESPN to Procter & Gamble.

Occasionally, any agency worth its salt will run a campaign that rubs people the wrong way. It's a law of physics -- if you're going to do innovative work, eventually, you're going to piss someone off.

That's what Wieden+Kennedy has done with a new campaign for Nike to promote a new line of basketball shoes called Hyperdunk. Personally, I don't know what all the fuss is about -- there are plenty of other ads to be offended by (see today's other 60 Second Marketer post on Extended Stay Hotels).

The controversy took off when a posting on media blog Gawker objected to the campaign.

Personally, I think Gawker is off-the-mark on this one. There are plenty of other ads, movies and TV shows to complain about. This is just plain hypersensitivity on Gawker's part.

Or -- and this is where I'll stir up a controversy of my own -- is Gawker part of a campaign by Wieden+Kennedy to get huge amounts of free media coverage by stirring things up about some ads that aren't all that offensive?

I don't know the folks at Gawker, so I'm not saying they're getting paid to do this. But I have known some of the folks at Wieden+Kennedy and, given their innovative approach to marketing, I wouldn't put it past them to stir things up a bit in order to get hundreds of thousands of dollars in free media coverage.

I'm not saying ... but I'm saying.

How to be Interviewed by the Press

I'm watching Richard Brock, Chairman and CEO of FirstWave Technologies be interviewed on a television show right now. (Quick aside -- The TV show won't air until tonight, but I'm getting a sneak peak on the internet.)

Mr. Brock is doing a terrific job -- he's smart, engaging and leaves the viewer hoping for more information. It's clear that he was either born with a gift for being interviewed, or he was taught how to be interviewed or both.

It reminds me that one of The 60 Second Marketer's most popular articles is called How to be Interviewed by the Press. It outlines several key insights on how to speak in short, easily-digestible sound bites; how to stay on message and how to avoid making the three big mistakes that most beginners make.

Mr. Brock isn't a beginner. I suspect they'll have the video posted on the FirstWave website in the future. And I'd encourage you to check it out -- but only after you've read How to be Interviewed by the Press, of course.

;-)

Does Steve Jobs Have Cancer?

Has Steve Jobs cancer flared up again? The short answer is "no," it looks as though he has not had a recurrence.

In an article posted on The New York Times, writer Joe Nocera reports on a phone call he received from Mr. Jobs that reportedly started with "This is Steve Jobs. You think I'm an arrogant (expletive) who thinks he's above the law, and I think you're a slime bucket who gets most of his facts wrong."

After that rather Jobsonian opening, Mr Nocera received some details on Mr. Jobs' recent health problems.

While the conversation was off-the-record, the article goes on to say that Mr. Jobs does not have a recurrence of cancer. That's great news on several fronts -- most importantly because Mr. Jobs is a family-man and would be missed by both his family and his massive fan base around the globe. But it's also good news because it gives Mr. Jobs time to begin sharing the spotlight with some of the other geniuses at Apple. That's something I suspect employees and shareholders alike would welcome.

I outlined this concern in a blog entry several months ago called "Why Steve Jobs is Both a Genius and a Knucklehead." The blog discusses the risk Mr. Jobs puts Apple in while he continues to promote himself as the exclusive face of Apple.

The danger of having Apple's health linked so closely to Steve Jobs' health is a scenario both Apple and Mr. Jobs should avoid.

What Panera Bread and Whole Foods Know About Consumer Behavior that You Should Know, Too.

Panera Bread and Whole Foods know something about consumer behavior that the rest of us should keep in mind. They understand that consumer loyalty is strengthened when a company makes an emotional connection with their customers.

Recent research indicates that when a consumer connects emotionally with a brand, their dorsolateral prefrontal cortex lights up and that, my friend, is a good thing.

When the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex gets stimulated, the brain makes an emotional connection. (For more on this topic, see our 60 Second Article entitled "Coke vs. Pepsi: The Taste Test They Don't Want You to Know About.") Once those emotional connections are made, then consumers become more loyal and go from being a "customer" to being a "returning customer."

So what does all this have to do with Panera and Whole Foods? Just stop by one of their locations and you'll see what I mean. Each location is a feast for the senses -- the smells, the sounds, the colors, the textures -- everything is set up to stimulate the emotional parts of your brain.

And that's what differentiates Panera and Whole Foods from other restaurants and grocery stores. They make emotional connections with their customers, not just logical ones.

In our opinion, emotional connections are what drive the business-to-consumer success stories. Just ask Panera and Whole Foods.

(Join the debate: Our 60 Second Video called "How Consumers Think" has stirred up quite a dialog with our visitors. Some people think it's overly-simplistic. Others think it's right on. What's your opinion? Click the link above and take our online poll.)

The 10 Forbidden Words in an E-mail Subject Line

As you know, email marketing will continue to grow at double-digit rates for the next several years. That said, consumers are beginning to grow weary of in-boxes stuffed with wanted and unwanted emails.

According to the Email Sender and Provider Coalition, 8 out of 10 email subscribers say they know exactly what they're doing when they hit the "Report Spam" button in their email clients.

Other results in their survey include these important findings:

• 83% used the "Report Spam" button in their email clients at least once
• 80% used it without opening the message
• 73% based their decision on the "from" line
• 69% based their decision on the subject line
• 20% used the spam button to unsubscribe from the mailing

If email is part of your marketing mix, you might be interested in checking out one of our 60 Second Videos called "The 10 Forbidden Words in an Email Subject Line." The video outlines several important things you should know about email subject lines that can help improve your delivery rate.

Growth of Blogs in U.S.

The new issue of Marketing News just came out and it includes their 2008 Marketing Factbook. If you haven't seen the Marketing Factbook in the past, it's worth checking out -- Marketing News does a great job of distilling down key pieces of information into bite-sized nuggets. And isn't that what the readers of The 60 Second Marketer want?

One interesting chart outlines the growth of the blogosphere over the past several years. In 2003, Marketing News and Technorati tracked 300,000 blogs. By 2005, it had tripled, to 900,000. But by 2006 it had exploded to 34.5 million.

That's a lot of growth in just one year.

Since 2006, the number of blogs jumped to 76 million (in 2007) and 112 million (in 2008).

Interestingly enough, the Wall Street Journal recently reported that "Most Blogs are Unimaginative Failures." If you're interested in finding out why most blogs fail, just check out our e-newsletter coming out this Friday (July 25th). Our newest 60 Second video is called "Why Most Blogs Fail" and it has lots of good information on how to make a corporate blog succeed.

Just visit the website (http://www.60SecondMarketer.com) and sign up for our e-newsletter. The new 60 Second video called "Why Most Blogs Fail" will be waiting in your e-mail box on Friday morning.

Mobile Marketing Statistics Point to Huge Growth

Just about every day there's new research on mobile marketing and text messaging. There's so much data it can be overwhelming at times.

That said, there is a great deal of fascinating research on mobile marketing and text messaging. Here are some statistics I've come across recently that are worth passing along:

• There are 255 mobile phone users in the U.S. About 138 million of them use SMS (text messaging)
• There are twice as many active users of SMS as there are active users of e-mail
• In the U.S. alone, roughly 300 billion text messages were sent in 2007
• While 65% of e-mail is spam, less than 10% of SMS is spam
• Don't assume SMS is just for your kids -- 50% of SMS users are aged 35 or older
• The fastest-growing medium in mobile marketing is WAP (mobile web), which has 69 million users, about half what SMS has

In an upcoming issue of The 60 Second Marketer (http://www.60SecondMarketer.com), we'll outline the 25 most important vocabulary words in mobile marketing. Be on the lookout!

(Sources: PunchKickInteractive.com; Mobile Marketing Association; MobileMarketingWatch.com)

Delta, Starbucks and Mobile Marketing.

People traveling on Delta will now be able to use their mobile device to check-in and will receive a boarding pass via their mobile phone. Domestic travelers checking in at LaGuardia may simply download their boarding pass off the company website and will be able to proceed directly to the airport security screening area.

Why am I writing about this? And what does it have to do with marketing? Well, as you know from our 60 Second video called "How to Launch a Mobile Marketing Campaign," mobile marketing will grow by 600% over the next four years.

600%!

Delta has now positioned itself at the forefront of that world by being an early adopter of mobile media.

Believe it or not, in just two years, you'll be strolling down the sidewalk with your GPS-enabled iPhone and it'll send you a discount coupon for the Starbucks you're walking by.

I'm not kidding about this. It's already happening in Asia and Europe. (Which, of course, begs the question -- why on earth are we FOLLOWING the lead of other countries? When did that happen? There is an answer to that question, but it'll have to wait for another day.)

So, anyway, I'd encourage you to get on board with the whole mobile marketing initiative. And, as mentioned, if you're interested in this subject, check out our video tutorial called "How to Launch a Mobile Marketing Campaign."

A Message to CNN, Fox News, NBC, CBS and ABC: Shut Up Already.

The economy is in the thank. We know that. But my understanding is that the official definition of a recession is a decline in the Gross Domestic Product for two consecutive quarters.

Well, that hasn't happened yet. But you'd never know it, given the doom and gloom the news media is spouting.

Look, I'm not saying things aren't bad -- they are bad. And I'm not even saying that the "official" definition of a recession accurately reflects what's going on in the marketplace. But things are only going to get worse if the news media continues to push their ratings by painting a gloomier picture than actually exists.

My two cents.

Internet advertising to grow. Surprised, anyone?

New data indicates that internet advertising in the U.S. will continue to grow despite the economic downturn.

According to market research firm IDC, overall internet advertising will double from $25.5 billion in 2007 to $51.1 billion in 2012.

In just five years, the internet will go from the fifth-ranked medium to the second ranked. This will make it bigger than newspapers, cable TV and broadcast TV. It will be second only to other forms of direct marketing, according to the IDC report.

This is not huge news, but it is news nonetheless. It's proof that everything is converging on the internet and that's something every marketer needs to be aware of.

How to Run a Rebate Program

Recent studies indicate that less than half of all rebates are successfully redeemed by consumers. According to Professor Richard McKenzie, author of Why Popcorn Costs So Much at the Movies, companies can do funny things to reduce the use of rebates. (By the way, I'm not advocating the use of these sneaky things, I'm just reporting on them.)

One of the techniques is to make the rebate window short, say 10 days. That way, consumers who mail in the rebate coupon outside the window miss the opportunity. Then there's slippage -- that's when customers who are mailed checks never get around to cashing them because the checks expire or people throw them out without realizing what they are.

I recently received a rebate from a well-known national brand. It was designed to look like a credit card application -- you know the kind, they have a fake credit card in them with your name printed on it. Fortunately, my wife pointed out to me that it was my rebate -- otherwise, I would've tossed it.

Lesson learned.

What Walmart Could Learn from Google and Starbucks.

The other night at a dinner attended by several business-owners and marketers, the subject of Walmart came up (see attached new logo). Right or wrong, the consensus by those at the dinner was that Walmart is a company that is unnecessarily tough on its suppliers. Many people around the table shared stories about suppliers who had worked with Walmart and were mistreated or had less-than-positive experiences.

There was one diner who disagree with the assessment. He said that the others were just taking pot-shots at Walmart simply because it was the big kahuna, the top dog, the #1 player.

That point-of-view -- that Americans will take pot-shots the top-dog in any industry -- has some validity. Americans do tend to build companies (and celebrities) up only to drag them down once they're at the top.

That said, how do you explain Google and Starbucks? Both of those companies are large quasi-monopolies that, somehow, have maintained a high "like-ability" factor among consumers.

Part of the reason -- and this is where Walmart could learn a thing or two -- is that they consistently communicate a genuine sense of goodness in everything they do. They don't just talk about being good citizens, they actually execute it from top to bottom.

Walmart, on the other hand, talks about being a good citizen, but then (according to my friends) mistreats their suppliers behind-the-scenes.

So there you have it. Once again, we learn a lesson about marketing from Google and Starbucks. And that lesson is that you can't just talk about being a good citizen, you have to execute it throughout your entire organization.

Walmart should take note of Google and Starbucks. Both those organizations have maintained a monopolistic hold on their respective industries but have not suffered the indignity of people around a dinner table trashing their brand. Why? Because they execute that concept both publicly and behind-the-scenes. And that's something we can all learn from.

What's Hot. And What's Not.

A good friend of mine named Nick Wreden, who is the CEO of FusionBrand and the author of a book called "ProfitBrand", just spoke at the ad:tech conference in Singapore. I read his blog on the conference and felt it had so many profound insights that I wanted to share it with you.

Here's what Nick wrote:

I just got back from speaking at and attending the ad:tech conference in Singapore last Thursday and Friday. Ad:tech is a digital marketing conference that attracts interactive agencies, clients, brand specialists and media planners. This is the 11th year of ad:tech conferences

Here are some random notes that were either sufficiently disturbing or interesting enough to merit being jotted down on the back of my speaker's badge. Also included are some hit-or-miss inspirations that occured to me during the event:

• Vast wasteland?: 10 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube each hour.

• Is there any room left?: Within 2 years, business cards will list social networks just like the list email addresses and mobile phone numbers today.

• Time to learn a new skill: Before long, 40-60% of all traffic on the internet will be video.

• Life lesson #258: There were technical glitches with my presentation on social networks and self-segmentation. Always check your presentation before showtime.

• New business idea?: PR, digital marketing, media planners, advertising agencies and other partners are generating lots of measurements to enable accountability. However, clients are having a difficult time both integrating that data and correlating it to their brand or corporate KPIs. There is an increasing need for a centralized "dashboard agency," which would provide the necessary integration among multiple sets of numbers and linkages to corporate goals.

• Not sleep?:18-25 year olds were asked what they would do with an extra 15 minutes a day. A healthy percentage said they would spend it on social networks.

• Harbinger title of the future: One of the keynote speakers was Brad Garlinghouse of Yahoo!. His title: Vice President of Communications and Communities.

• What's tired:

• "Positioning:" Amazingly, I did not hear this relic from the 1970s mentioned once.

• 360-degree marketing: The audience laughed when this term was heard.

• 1:1 marketing: Experts agreed that failures with 1:1 marketing were making it difficult to sell segmentation today.

• Viral marketing: Usually referred to in the sense of a prehistoric ancestor to social networking

What's wired:

• Engagment: Every speaker mentioned it at least five times. However, some speakers only mentioned in the sense that "we want customers to engage with us." Engagement must be a two-way street.

• Measurement: Once measurement was a dirty word among creative-driven executives and agencies. Now the entire marketing world seeks to be data-driven.

• Entertainment: The primary tool for engaging with consumers on the Internet.

• Mobile marketing: After a decade of hype, everyone kept promising that yes, really, I swear, this is the year that mobile marketing takes off.

• iPhone: Finally, a mobile on-ramp to the Internet and all it has to offer.

• Integration: Every offline campaign must have an online component.

• A lot of pokes: There are 530 million users on social networks worldwide.

• So that's why you need 15 minutes extra a day: 20% of all Internet users have visited a social network within the last 30 days.

• Three types of media: Owned (internal), bought (advertising, etc) and earned (WOM, etc.)

• Emperor-has-no-clothes speaker insight: Why do we have campaigns with a beginning and an end? It just requires so much energy and money to start a new campaign. With social networks, promotion never ends.

• New buzzword to learn: ROPO (Research Online, Purchase Offline).

• Best quote heard: "A lot of companies think social networking means, 'We want you the consumer to tell us how great our products are.' -- Josh Sklar, Global Chief Creative Agency, BLUE

• Best case history: Coke Zero in Australia. Coke tried to pave the way for a product introduction by mimicking an "underground" slackster/hipster movement. Of course, it was outed. Lesson: Always be authentic.

• Most overused case history: The UGM effort to promote Tahoe. It backfired when environmentalists used the UGM effort to blast the Chevy gas-guzzler. However, Chevrolet won brownie points by letting the critical videos remain online.

• Sign of times: Nestle in Philippines upped its digital marketing budget from 9% to 25% this year.

• Note to conference organizers: When interviewing keynote speakers, ensure that the questions are not longer than the answers. Attendees want to hear the keynoter, not the organizer.

• New boy toy: After the conference I bought the Creative Labs version of the hot-hot-hot Flip video camera. The New York Times called it "one of the most significant electronics products of the year." If this takes off like the iPod, pretty soon 80% of the traffic on the Internet will be video.