Quaker Oats Jumps on Health and Wellness Bandwagon

March 9, 2009
-By Elaine Wong

PepsiCo's Quaker Oats today fueled New Yorkers' morning commute as part of a breakfast giveaway, which is tied to a new campaign touting the company's whole grain oats.The event, which took place in New York’s Times Square, marks the first time the company will kick off an integrated campaign linking all of its oat products—including Life cereal and Chewy granola bars—under the health and wellness category.

The campaign is dubbed “Go Humans Go.”Former Oprah Winfrey chef Art Smith was on site in Times Square for the breakfast giveaway, which included hot oatmeal and energy smoothies. The promotion coincided with Quaker Oats' renewed emphasis on cause marketing, as the brand steps up its hunger awareness project with charitable partner Share Our Strength.

Today's event also featured an on-site food donation drive, hunger awareness bloggers and bicyclists using “pedal power” to blend their own smoothies.Outdoor elements of the campaign have started appearing on Quaker Oats’ Web site, and on bus and taxicab ads in the Big Apple and other major metropolitan cities. The bulk of the effort begins March 16, with television ads elaborating on the “oat as a nutritious fuel” theme. The ads were created by Quaker Oats’ new lead agency, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners.

Print ads will appear in April in consumer publications.In an interview with Brandweek, Quaker Oats CMO Annie Young-Scrivner said the company chose to focus on the oat because “it’s not just a grain. It’s a super grain that powers your day and helps you do amazing things.

It lifts you physically and emotionally and makes you feel good knowing you did something good for someone and yourself, and it’s one of the most nutritious grains.”Quaker Oats, which spent $50 million on advertising last year (not including online initiatives), per Nielsen Monitor-Plus, may be onto something, said Harry Balzer, vp at the NPD Group’s Chicago office.

Calling attention to oats' wholesome, filling properties is indicative of a larger consumer trend: The shift from meat-based to grain-based meals, Balzer said. “It’s a way of moderating food costs,” he added, noting that grain-based meals are usually cheaper.

only in Q8

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=30187&id=515222613&l=26c57

Clever advertising pays off

http://www.thetimes100.co.uk/

Businesses need to present a prominent face to the buying public if they want to sell their products. This means promotion including advertising in the right places in order to reach the right audience. Cost-effective advertising must be matched to the type of business, its market and its marketing mix. For example, Portakabin, supplier of modular and portable buildings, works in the 'Business-to-Business' market and does not sell directly to consumers. Portakabin mainly uses below-the-line methods to promote its products, with limited above-the-line promotion, such as articles in trade journals.

By contrast, Cadbury mainly uses above-the-line, multi-media advertising, particularly high-profile campaigns on TV to promote its products to the buying public. Cadbury needs to reach a mass audience as individual sales are small value in contrast to Portakabin with lower volume sales but of high value products. Clever advertising has played a big part in its chocolate sales and globally, Cadbury's worldwide sales rose by 5% last year (The Times Online, 6 March 2009).

Advertising which captures its target audience can have a great impact on sales. Cadbury's 2007 TV advertising campaign, featuring the drumming gorilla, resulted in an increased market share despite a 40% increase in the price of cocoa, the main ingredient in chocolate, which forced the company to raise prices last year (The Times Online, 6 March 2009).

Cadbury's 2009, £3.7million campaign, dubbed Eyebrows, in which two children move their eyebrows in tune to Freestyle's 'Don't Stop the Rock' was launched on 29 January 2009. The advert has been watched more than four million times online, prompted more than 50 video responses on YouTube and inspired a parody, featuring singer Lily Allen. The ultimate aim of these clever adverts is to capture consumers' attention so that there is a greater possibility they will buy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lm6oBPy9ceU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQPeVZmONK8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjG_Occs9Cs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34pgdFQWynQ


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WO1PdQnYqo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAkBOpx9bnM

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Promotional Marketing Trends 2009

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iv43DXj_Hlc

Extreme toilet experience

BRAND: Georgia Max Coffee
BRAND OWNER: Coca Cola
CATEGORY: Drinks (non-alcoholic)
REGION: Japan
DATE: Feb 2009 - Mar 2009

Japan’s toilet facilities are famous for their high-tech eccentricity, with gadgetry ranging from seat warmers and air deodorizers through to jet-washers. But energy coffee drink Georgia Max Coffee wanted to make the bathroom experience even more immersive and exhilarating in order to appeal to the extreme sports kids during winter, who like to drink caffeinated sweet drinks of this kind to help them stay on the ski slopes for longer.
Georgia Max Coffee decided to redesign the toilets of a number of key ski resorts in Japan. The cubicles were fully wrapped on all sides, so that the person caught short would have a ski jumper’s view when they were sitting on the loo. The person could look down at their skis (simply printed on the floor of the cubicle) and see the steep ski jump slope ahead of them. The toilet paper holder carried the only brand messaging in the cubicle, reading: “Seriously kick-ass intensely sweet for the real coffee super zinging unstoppable Max! Taste-explosion!” The message also featured the URL www.maxcoffee.jp, where visitors could view videos of extreme sports as well as sign up to the MAX community.

MissCOMuniCATION

The Most Memorable Advertisements Madison Avenue Ever Sold

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

The Most Memorable Advertisements Madison Avenue Ever Sold

View more presentations from Ayman Sarhan. (tags: newyork)

IAB Creative Showcase

Contagious spent last Thursday evening at the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Creative Showcase Awards, celebrating the best of British digital and online work from 2008.The award winners were dominated by AKQA, who claimed Agency of the Year, not to mention the Most Contagious Award for Fiat eco:Drive. Contagious editorial director, Paul Kemp-Robertson, explained that the work had been selected because ‘it has a practical application for the real world that can genuinely improve the lives of the people that use it, not to mention the environment’. AKQA completed its hat trick, also scooping Microsoft Advertising’s Most Innovative Campaign Award for Nike Bootcamp. Daniel Bonner, chief creative officer at AKQA told Contagious: ‘We relish the monthly challenge of the IAB creative showcase - it has us biting our nails twelve times a year. The expertise of the judges means that we can submit ground breaking work, confident they are able to understand creativity that goes beyond the browser or the banner.’ Poke claimed the Creative Showcase Grand Prix for its impressively original Balloonacy campaign for Orange and the IAB’s Unthink Your Brand Award went to Talk Talk and Treehouse for The Forever Story. Attendees were also treated to a talk from Alex Evans, founder of Media Molecule, developer behind of PlayStation 3’s LittleBigPlanet. Evans took us through the three years of the games’ development and why he sees gaming becoming increasingly social and creative, as well as the difficulties of promoting a highly complex game. (The Japanese take went down particularly well http://playstation.joystiq.com/2008/10/15/ad-japan-in-panic-over-littlebigplanet-release/)

Evans told Contagious ‘as someone from outside the internet marketing and advertising world (I guess I’m a client-of-a-client!), it was lovely to be able to find the overlap between our creative processes; my personal favourite was the Grand Prix winner, whose virtual ballooning campaign’s playfulness really chimed with the little kid in me. It’s so great (and rare!) to remember to be playful and actually enjoy the creative process. It seemed that Poke, and many of the other people I met, felt the same way.’ The evening was not only retrospective, challenging creatives to meet new problems that economic climate poses. David Pugh-Jones, brand strategist, creative solutions at Microsoft Advertising, wrapped up the night saying: ‘During difficult times the cream always rises to the top, so this is the best year for you to be creating the best possible creative work.’ Bonner echoes these sentiments, explaining ‘The UK digital industry is a great place to be right now - it challenges itself, as well as complacent advertising agencies, to innovate on different level. The next year is going to be about integration and proliferation of digital marketing into in the products we use in the real world. We will look to continue to invent new formats and ways to connect brands with the audience and transcend the divide between marketing and product whereby customers will see the benefit and not the format.’ http://creativeshowcase.net/

Premium, Pepsi and Pepé

Snow, wind and rain might have been lashing Contagious’ London HQ over the past week, but while we’ve been snowed in, we’ve been busing mining gems. This week, try not to get depressed by hideous potential merger between Ticketmaster (spit, spit) and Live Nation. The deal could see gig tickets going on sale with no flat fee, in a sort of legalised online scalping system where only the highest bidder (and the two entertainment monoliths) will win. http://blog.wired.com/business/2009/02/would-a-ticketm.html We’re not usually ones to rant, but seriously. The last thing the music industry needs right now, after years of decline followed by delicate equilibrium, is another finger in the eye to the people who actually want to enjoy their product. And while we’re on it, Ticketmaster’s TicketsNow site in which tickets go to the highest bidder (despite having been registered as sold out elsewhere) is an utter con. What an awful service. Move along, people. There are no redeeming features to see here. According to the article, Ticketmaster is currently under investigation for scamming paying customers out of Springsteen tickets for just not paying enough. A word to Senator Charles Schumer, leading the probe into this horrendous organisation’s dirty dealings: you have our full support. Warming our cockles is Nike’s demonstration of the potential of ‘Hotspot’ technology with an ad featuring perma-tanned Portuguese striker Ronaldo that allows users to click on and buy Nike products worn by the footballer on screen. View the spot here http://coull.com/labs/nike/manu_large/ and read more here http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article5598872.ece

For respite from the British weather, we popped over to Paris to see Citroen’s new 'affordable premium' DS3 concept. The first of three cars that Citroen promises will be in showrooms by 2012 is clearly taking on BMW's Mini. Project manager/awarding winning car designer Mark Lloyd told Contagious that the DS3 has 'the style and quality of a Mini at a lower price'. Read more here http://jalopnik.com/5148356/citron-ds-inside-concept-the-first-glimpse-of-a-new-citron Saturday Night Live has been crafting ads for Pepsi that look like sketches from the show but run during commercial breaks, not to mention the Super Bowl. Blurring editorial and advertising boundaries, debate continues to rage on Madison and Vine (http://adage.com/madisonandvine/article?article_id=134349). The irreverent spots can be seen here www.youtube.com/watch?v=636mA8KYkiI. Skype-type service JaJah has launched a service which turns the iPod touch into a functioning mobile handset. The service uses WiFi hotspots and VoIP meaning you need to be within range of a wireless network. Once the app’s been downloaded from the Apple Apps all that’s needed is a microphone headset. www.slashphone.com/jajah-turns-ipod-touch-into-an-iphone-064463 Sky’s new HD set comes with a programming guide claiming that watching TV helps combat depression (note ambiguous wording). Codswallop from the same school of unfounded wittering as ‘Doctor’ Gillian McKeith, and a risky claim to make in these litigious times. Time to rethink, Sky? www.techdigest.tv/2009/02/literally_insan.html Courtesy of @bengoldacre, the Guardian’s Bad Science columnist. Well worth a Twitter
And, talking of Twitter, we love love LOVE the random appearances of Mad Men characters throughout the site. This is the kind of hyper reality that would make Baudrillard take a moment. Just try writing tweets about the series and see who follows you. It's been happening for a while, but The Guardian tells all here: www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/feb/07/mad-men-twitter And in case Valentine’s Day is about to take you by surprise, what about some treats from 50 Cent’s new range of guy make up? Hmmmm. Via Trendhunter www.trendhunter.com/trends/male-makeup-50-cent-faces-up-to-fading-image And how could loved ones not be impressed with a Jamie Cullum Valentine Viral? http://valentines.jamiecullum.com. Or express your love with the help of lovable skunk Pepé Le Pew, via Atmosphere BBDO in the US for AT&T. http://pepe.att.com/.And if you’re having doubts, why not take Bjorn Bjorg’s branded utility option which offers a a break up test via a series of online videos? If you do decide to ditch your partner, the site also provides a selection of handy SMS ‘it’s over’ messages. www.bjornborg.com/en/Missions/Loveforall/BreakUp/ Check out this wonderful film on the Birth of the Internet… apparently one day, homes will have computers! www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/29/you-need-to-see-this-video/ via Duncan Dunlop at www.oodle.co.uk

Charities chuck out the clichés

Charity campaigns can often rely on imagery that’s meant to tug on heartstrings to persuade us to part with our pennies. But the following three have impressed us by moving away from clichés and embracing creative techniques, non-traditional media and shock tactics. Leo Burnett has created a new campaign to highlight the work done by UK housing charity Shelter. It depicts flimsy housing as a house of cards, while a voiceover reveals that 75,000 homes will be repossessed this year. Viewed as if from a train window to Videotape by Radiohead, the houses start to collapse (see picture, opposite). 500 posters on the London Underground, online and direct mail back up the TV spot, which can be viewed on Shelter’s website. http://england.shelter.org.uk/The children's charity NSPCC-funded helpline ChildLine is showing an understanding of Web 2.0 that puts shame in the game of many youth brands. The charity is teaming up with T4, the youth programming segment of UK terrestrial Channel 4, on an online show called Headspace. The collaboration invites ideas from under 18s about what really matters to them. It’s the latest creative concept from Idea, a virtual creative agency for ChildLine which encourages children to come up with creative solutions to their problems. First launched in early December, the website is going from strength to strength, with ‘offices’ on youth hang-out sites like Bebo, Habbo and Piczo. The NSPCC is working with digital agency iCrossing to monitor the effectiveness of the campaign on social networking sites and other online media. The site runs until the end of the school year. http://www.idea.me.uk/

Finally, are you feeling pasty? Then top up your tan without leaving your desk thanks to Computer Tan. Its revolutionary technology will have you bronzed and beach-ready in just five minutes! Users can access their first tanning session via www.computertan.com where they’re presented with the UV tubes on sun-beds. But instead of a dose of sunshine, they receive a harsh jolt of reality: stomach-turning pictures of skin cancers and the sobering fact that five people a day die from skin cancer. Users can then click through to the Karen Clifford Skin Cancer Charity, where they can learn more about the risks of exposure to the sun and how they can best protect themselves. Hats off to McCann Erickson for a spoof that’s eerily persuasive and spot-on for the young target it’s trying to hit. http://www.skcin.org/

100 Pieces

This March sees the return of Havana Club’s 100 Pieces initiative, which brings artists from around the globe together to create pieces inspired by the Cuban rum brand. However! in a neat live twist, this year Havana Club will join forces with the Secret War art crew for ‘100 Minutes of Havana’, in which two teams will go head to head a live, one-off art battle at East London’s Village Underground on March 4th.
Each team will have 100 minutes to create their very own interpretation of Cuba using only coloured acrylics on a 200ft white wall. The freestyle masterpiece will be created without the help of sketches or pencils, and must be completely improvised on the spot.
Then, the efforts of the 10 different artists will be judged by a Havana Club and Monorex (the crew behind Secret Wars) representative as well as the crowd vote, which will be decided using a decibel reader. The winning team will receive mixed cases of Havana Club and have their profiles displayed on the 100 Pieces online gallery together with the winning artwork.
Key pieces from the 100 Pieces of Havana initiative will be exhibited alongside the ‘100 Minutes of Havana’ mural. The exhibition including the winning mural, will be open to the public for four days. Entry is free and Contagious will be there, itching to get involved with a bucket of paint and a burnt sienna Crayola.
Art and alcohol have always enjoyed a close-knit relationship, and this seems like a fun way to harness some messy creativity in the name of a good, Cuban knees-up. There’s a website coming soon, so watch this space.
http://www.havana-club.com/