Whilst perusing Inc. Magazine’s nest of blogs, I came across a great example of innovative marketing environmentalism. Tom Szaky, CEO of Terra Cycle and author of the Eco-Capitalist blog, sold Newsweek magazine and Target on a unique promotion for their April Earth Day cover. The idea is something he calls “upcycling” - using waste materials to provide useful products. Target ran a fold out inside cover ad:
The ad invited you to fold the cover inside out, tape it into an envelope and fill it with your used Target plastic bags. Per the creative above, the used bags were then upcycled into reusable shopping bags. You are probably thinking what I am: who would go to this much trouble?
Evidently, the answer is “the Newsweek Earth Day issue reader” because 35,000 people sent in their bags to Target.
While I understand the hard core environmentalist concerns about Target and their offerings so affordable as to almost be disposable, this is undeniably a great example of marketing environmentalism. They invited an audience who wanted to be engaged to co-create a useful product at a time (earth day) when they would have such things top of mind. Beats a shotgun FSI any day of the week.
p.s. If you haven’t picked up Inc. Magazine’s June print version focuses on Innovation, do. In addition to a great cover story on Threadless, there are lots of great tips on making creativity and innovation part of the fabric of your workplace.
Vermont Teddy Bear picked up my rant in their Google alerts and reached out to me through Facebook to explain the situation (it was an affiliate, not them) and shared their desire to investigate.
I just posted the full scoop on the Ogilvy 360 Digital Influence blog here.
I never thought that a brand relationship BENEFIT from telling a customer in graphic detail that he/she is a fattie patattie.
On Friday, however, that very scenario took place when our hotly anticipated pre-ordered Wii Fit arrived. The first activity for all users of the Wii Fit is a “body test” that uses your ability to steady your center of balance and weight to calculate your BMI and Wii Fit age. My Mii was created by my husband and has been with me through months of golf, bowling, and tennis (I play Guitar Hero 3 as Slash, naturally).
When I stepped on the Wii Fit balance board and it measured my weight, however, my Mii expanded. Turns out my previous, un-weighed, Mii’s body type was a bit wishful and my fiends at Nintendo have rectified the situation. The only way to shrink my Mii? TO ACTUALLY LOSE REAL WEIGHT.
The surprise? I feel shockingly motivated by playing with my overweight Mii. Perhaps this is the brand equivalent of Mystery’s “Neg” technique where men use a subtle insult to make women want them more. Because Nintendo has unceremoniously judged me, I want to prove that they’re wrong about me. I am a Cindy Crawford Mii trapped inside the “VeeDub” Mii and I am going to show Nintendo. My motivation is certainly encouraged by the fact that the WiiFit’s activities are addictive fun.
When I began my own blog, I originally thought I would join in the Jason Calacanis’ “Fatblogging” meme. Now I think it makes more sense to Wii Fitblog. I am going to try to post every two weeks about my Mii’s progress and hope that anyone else who is motivated by shrinking their Mii’s virtual behind will do the same and tag as “wiifitblogging”.
There is an advantage in the tardiness to this wrap up post from WOMM-U in Miami: the following highlights have already stood the test of staying with me for a full week , these are observations that have at least held up through a full week of work, media consumption, deep thoughts and Twitter. As a tribute to WOMMA’s always-useful Daily Five newsletter, I thought I’d use that construct for the wrap up.
Highlights from WOMMA’s WOMM-University in Miami:
1. New Format: WOMMU was the trial run of a new event format that John Bell and I were part of hatching from previous event feedback. There were 3 types of sessions: Mainstage keynotes/case studies, 12-person working group sessions with experts, and large working groups tasked to complete a Word of Mouth Marketing plan for 1 of 3 charitable projects. Most of the feedback I heard was very positive (balanced with the fact that participating in discussions and workgroups is more tiring than being fed Powerpoint presentations), but I also had lively discussions with someone who vehemently disliked the new format. What I learned is that by enacting a radical change, we began a dialogue that no amount of theoretical “how can we improve?” questions could have elicited. Go ahead and build that strawman to get people talking.
2. Word of Mouth is “marketing’s butt crack”. Jeffrey Graham from the New York Times chose to use this particularly colorful metaphor as a tribute to the appearance of the sliver of WOMM spend as a part of the total marketing spend pie. Graham shared great data surrounding the increased return of WOMM as part of an integrated program - brands require both relationships and impressions to achieve communications goals.
3. Dell’s social media transformation story continues to grow and evolve very swiftly. An amazing 120 ideas from Ideastorm have already been put into production. Check out the very light touch of Regeneration.org. My favorite quote from Dell’s VP of Community was “Beware of Content Pushers“.
4. Carnival Cruise Lines has come a long way since Kathie Lee sang “Ain’t We Got Fun?”. The blog of Senior Cruise Director John Heald takes brand personality to the next level as does their enthusiast club named for an on-board drink specialty “The Monkey Head Wasters”. Carnival noticed that a group had formed and built them their own forum to keep in touch. Bringing customers together is powerful marketing.
5. OPI proves names contribute to WOMM. Technically, this wasn’t the point of their case study, but it was demonstrated by the women who asked questions afterwards – all of whom identified themselves by the fun OPI color they were wearing. The effort put into hatching names like “I’m Not Really a Waitress” certainly creates some brand preference.
If you missed it, check out the live blog for all the details. Hope to see you at the next WOMMA event in November!
DM 2.0: Comment Spam
When I began this blog, I thought that Direct Mail was the height of marketing clutter. It was the tail end of the holiday season, and even though I did end up purchasing a few items from the Hammacher Schlemmer catalog, I felt deeply annoyed by the sheer volume, poundage, and paper waste in the barrage of glossies that clogged our mailbox.
Almost 6 months later, I have a better sense of just how many electronic forms marketing clutter can come. For whatever reason, the comment spam on this blog has taken off at a hyperbolic rate in the last few weeks and I’m going to need to go to a new verification method.
My real question is, does this actually WORK for anyone? Is this an effective method of generating inbound links to their Viag*ra, p*rn, mortgages, insurance sites, and even Vermont Teddy Bears? I have included some of the worst below for your enjoyment sorted by apparent strategy. Please leave a real comment if you have insight into any sort of effective use of this type of spam.
Flattery
The Confusion Offense
The I’m-Not-Even-Going-To-Read-Your-Post
Motivational!