January, 2008 | Virginia Miracle

Hydrox’s Fans Won’t Forget

By virginia.miracle | January 19, 2008

There is a fun story in today’s WSJ about brand fans of the Oreo also-ran, Hydrox. Kellogg killed off the cookie brand, which would have celebrated its 100th anniversary this year, in 2003 after failing to gain any ground against the Oreo even after reformulating and renaming the product “Droxie” to try to appeal to children. While I personally can not remember ever tasting one of these cookies, this brand had real fans and they are organizing to try to get Kellogg to reconsider.

There is a history of fans using the internet to rally for discontinued “brands” – but with limited success. Jericho fans bombarding the network with nuts to get a few more episodes. Similarly, Save Our Bluths sent banana baskets to Fox which may have contributed to the brilliant/low-rated Arrested Development getting another season, but at a reduced episode order and it was promptly canceled. Hopefully a similar fate is not in store for 30 Rock.
On the beverage front, Save Surge has been around for more than 5 years, but with no real response from Coca Cola, beyond the company trying to enlist these fans to support the launch of their very similar formulation, Vault.

So what holds these brand movements together? I think the Hydrox fans sum it up with their call to arms “Non-conformists don’t eat Oreos“. These challenger brands have an element of delicious discovery and make the users feel independent and in-the-know for supporting them and spreading the word. If the brands had mass popularity, they wouldn’t need movements in the first place! The challenge to marketers is to help all brands – not just those headed toward the dustbin – to instill customers with those same feelings of smart individuality or discovered knowledge that they will be inspired to pass along.

Sunsetting a Web Project

By virginia.miracle | January 16, 2008

No one ever wants to think about the end of a project before it begins, but many web projects do and should end. It is a good practice to put some thought into how that will be handled before you launch, but little consensus on what the best practice for are for “the end”. Take a gander at the following treatments and let me know which you think is best in class:

Option 1: Time warp – Subservient Chicken – This Burger King’s site originally launched as a way to promote their new chicken sandwich. It has not changed noticeably since the day it launched (copyright 2004). There is no dated material, just a quick, fun customer experience that could be considered “evergreen”. This is the Helen of Troy of viral marketing – the project that caused 1000 others to get greenlighted. Because of it’s significance, it is nice to be able to refer newcomers to online WOM to this site.

Option 2: Keep it live, but let it age – Clark and michael – This 10 episode series featuring man of the moment Michael Cera and friend Clark Duke ran from spring into summer of ’07, but received a surge of viewership months later when it made Time’s list of Top 10 Best Web Videos in December. While the episodes can still be viewed, Clark and Michael’s personal diary ended in July. For folks like me who only discovered the site in the last month, it feels like a broken window. (hat tip: Catchup Blog)

Option 3: Let the audience hijack your site – In the Motherhood – ITM was a Suave and Sprint “co-conception” that I discussed here was done around Mother’s Day 2007. While it doesn’t look like the brands involved have not done much updating since the end of the script contest, the users have hijacked that community and kept the forums alive. Option 4: Leave no footprints – Too many promotions to mention – Another option is to simply take your site down after its useful period is over. The downside is that you may break a lot of links to your brand all over the web.

Option 5: Set boundaries, honor what you accomplished – The Show with Ze Frank – ZeFrank grew a huge following of “Sportsracers” with his lightning-fast daily video podcast “show”. From the beginning, Ze set expectations that it was a 1 year gig and would end 1 year from its start date and so it did. Now, Ze has pulled together highlights of the show for those discovering it late, but refers to it in the appropriate (past) tense.

The one thing that I think can be taken away from these treatments is that how you sunset a web project makes a big difference in your future digital footprint. You can always change plans based on audience reaction, but it is important to plan not just for the next 6 months, but the artifacts that will exist in 18 or 24 months as well.

WGA Strike Ripples Extend

By virginia.miracle | January 14, 2008

The WGA strike has had an impact that goes beyond late night hosts growing beards and folks like me considering spending their hard earned free time watching American Gladiators. While it may be a mild annoyance for me, the WGA/AMPTP standoff is starting to have ripple effects on a number of other online and offline endeavors.

For example, the lack of the Golden Globes ceremony last night eliminated the platform for fashion designers to break into the public psyche. More importantly, what will the fashion pundits have to talk about? This dooms us to another week of Spears sisters news coverage instead of Best & Worst red carpet wrap-ups we so rightly deserve. Social media queens/fashion snarks “The Fug Girls” did a great job capturing this over in their NYMagazine column.

Once I started thinking about the strike, I began to wonder how Hey!Nielsen, a social networking site where users share opinions about TV shows with the company who provides feedback to the networks, would deal with the lack of new content. Steve Ciabatonni at the Hey!Nielsen blog shared some of their plans with me:

We are working on a few ideas to keep the interest high and we are hoping to spark more conversations around Video Games (our newest category which is drawing some activity), movies, and bands.

Leading up to the Super Bowl (the most watched show on the planet traditionally), we’re enlisting some key Hey! Nielsen members to rate the ads live on super sunday — I think we’ll have a lot of fun with that. Most people like the ads more than they like the game, so… I’m eager to chat with those folks during the game.

How true it is. While original content will start drying up, ad copywriters are most definitely not on strike and will keep the fodder for armchair critics coming. If nothing else, this is a creative distraction from the strike. Like so many of you out there, I am crossing my fingers and toes for a speedy resolution.

Costco Cont. – Why I’m a Fan

By virginia.miracle | January 13, 2008

Why am I a Costco fan? 1 word: Churro. Just kidding, although I do look forward to a Costco churro as a reward for pulling myself away from their deal sprinkled aisles with anything less than a $300 bill.

The truth is that I love Costco’s mixture of constancy and variety.

Constant features: accepting returns for things like unwanted wedding presents we received from other states, Costco’s giant & delicious premade spinach salads, cheap wine/diapers/gas, and money back with their higher end memberships. The constancy of their great deals on large TVs encourages me that we will be able to afford a sweet LCD in our next house.

Variety: The Greenville Costco launched with piles of deeply discounted Chip & Pepper and True Religion jeans. 2 weeks later? Totally gone, but Coach watches took their place. Every Costco I have visited has succeeded in their treasure hunt merchandising mission and kept me wanting to come back in a few weeks.

And so, dear Costco, should you deem it desirable to bring together the faithful to seek feedback on Costco’s future and what your core constituents want, I am ready for my invitation.

LOST Fans Fly Oceanic Air

By virginia.miracle | January 12, 2008

While watching some DVR’ed content from last night, I caught a TV commercial for Oceanic Air – the fictional airline that the Lost folks were on when their plane went down. There was a small note on the bottom of the ad that said something like “paid for by ABC” – subtle enough that only Lost insiders would notice. If you are into Lost or integrated marketing, visit flyoceanicair.com and enjoy the site that it “subliminally” links to which I amateurishly tried to capture here…

Good way to whet fan appetite for the new episodes – not that there’s much competition these days.