The Marketing Week – 26/4/2013
Welcome to The Marketing Week, your guide to the good, the bad and the ugly in the marketing industry over the last seven days.
CAMPAIGN OF THE WEEK
Given the swarms of #suarezhungry jokes doing the rounds on Twitter this week, it was only a matter time before a brand looked to capitalise on the Liverpool striker’s latest misdemeanour. Nando’s cooked up an online advert for its Peri-Peri chicken with the strapline “Suarez, still hungry? Uvanachick?” after the footballer admitted to biting an opponent during a football match. It may not endear the brand to Liverpool fans any time soon, but the restaurant chain’s latest tactical effort humorously mocks the absurdness of the situation. It goes on to read: “At Nando’s, there’s enough Peri-Peri flame-grilled chickens to go around for everyone. Basted in your choice of flavour. Rest assured, Suarez, you’ll never bite alone.”
A GOOD WEEK FOR…
Oil and gas brand Shell was named the most valuable British brand in the annual Brand Finance Top 50 this week. Its value increased 35 per cent to £19.5bn in 2012 and it knocked Vodafone off the top spot for the first time in three years. At the same time the brand has launched a new super premium fuel developed in partnership with Ferrari to further reinforce the premium position of its consumer facing brand.
A BAD WEEK FOR…
Hyundai is facing the mother of all backlashes after a video ad created by Innocean Worldwide has been condemned for using attempted suicide to promote its cars. The ad showed a man surviving an attempt to take his life by attaching a hose to the exhaust of his car thanks to Hyundai’s clean emissions technology. The brand apologised and removed the online ad, but not before a wave of angry criticism washed over social media attacking the brand for its “stupid”, “thoughtless” and “insensitive” error of judgement.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
The Brazilian Red Cross has taken an innovative approach to increasing donations in its latest campaign. Working in partnership with several major Brazilian new sites, the charity has developed a ‘help’ button to appear on news content that takes viewers to the charity’s website where they can make donations. The charity is hoping the initiative encourages viewers to make a donations when reading natural disaster stories rather than simply sharing them.
Video:
Red Cross Help Button
Mondelez has partnered with Twitter to launch what both claim is the first TV program to be produced from real-time trending topics on the micro-blogging site in the US. The show is being sponsored by the snack maker’s Trident gum brand and features top 10 trending music-related stories of the day. The company is looking to gain deeper insight into teenagers by using the data gleaned from the music conversations to develop tactical promotions throughout each show.
ONE TO WATCH
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RPxQaQhqAI
Coca-Cola unveiled what it claims is its first fully digital global marketing campaign this week. It features 60 websites all built around the brand’s new ‘Ahh Effect’ theme. Fans are able to access different content depending on how many ‘h’ they add to the URL. For example, one site lets visitors throw ice cubes into a glass while a counter shows them what temperature the drink is at. Another, emits ‘Ahh’ sounds as players move bubbles around the screen. Upcoming pages will also feature funny videos and short animations. Coke has yet to add all the pages, but is crowdsourcing suggestions from Facebook and Twitter for future updates.
The company is hailing the campaign as its first digital effort and is targeting teenagers who primarily consumer content on their mobile devices. It builds on the brand’s interactive Super Bowl earlier this year where viewers were asked to influence the outcome of the advert by completing a series of challenges.
TWEETS OF THE WEEK
Mark Borkowski, founder of Borkowski PR
Emma Scamell, marketing and digital communications manager at Mortgage & Finance Association of Australia
Bonin Bough, VP of global media and consumer engagement at Mondelez
Jennifer D.Burnham, director of social and content strategy at Salesforce
DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
April 27th to May 1st – TechCrunch Disrupt New York 2013 kicks off with a hackathon and then follows four days of panels, speakers and special guests talking about startups and tech entrepreneurs.
28th to 30th April – The Festival of Media Global in Montreux Music & Convention Centre Switzerland. Speakers include Luis Di Como SVP global media at Unilever, Frank Boulben, Blackberry CMO and Carolyn Everson VP global marketing solutions at Facebook.
29th April – GfK Consumer Confidence Index