I was having lunch the other day with ERSP Program Analyst Bob Hilleman and our former ERSP colleague Tessa Barrera. Soon, the conversation turned to the subject of traditional television and print advertising and how these promotional vehicles (though still packing a powerful punch) will soon be considered the advertising models of the past. We discussed how new outlets such as Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Second Life and Twitter have arisen as new outlets for marketers to explore. Yes, marketers are realizing that as technology advances so must marketing, and these examples are just the tip of the iceberg. However, perhaps looking at why traditional marketing campaigns succeeded can help guide the jump into exploring the new media.

Think back to the advertising campaigns that you remember: M&M’s “Melts in your mouth, not in your hands”; Wendy’s “Where’s the Beef?” and Campbell Soup’s “Mmm…Mmm good.” All catchy taglines tied to successful advertising campaigns that appeal to the consumer’s feelings of trust, quality and security. By building a recognizable brand, the advertising worked to reinforce and create the connection with the consumers by appealing to their emotional sense of quality, fairness and connection. What makes a successful brand and a successful advertisement is that emotional connection. Consumers have to invest themselves into the subject, the character or the product.

More and more, new technology is on the rise. YouTube or Vimeo features short, digestible clips. Twitter issues one-sentence updates. Tumblr is built for short and quick blogging. The focus is on content, quick, constantly updating, but never in-depth. This speed, this bite-size focus is being heralded as the wave of the future, but it doesn’t allow for the building of a brand. It’s focused on tiny bits of information ready now, not to be stored away but to create a temporary quick fix for a need of information. It’s exciting, it’s constantly moving, it’s cutting edge. Yet, it is also, as of now, fairly impersonal. Consumers are there for the speed of changing content, not for the emotional ties to others. Tubmlr is attempting to incorporate those two aspects—building on the social connections of a Facebook, but still on the speed of a Twitter. Yet still, even with the social networking tie-in, the speed of the information has not yet been harnessed to achieve emotional connections. (more…)

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Things sure have changed a lot in the past 12 years. I can remember like it was yesterday standing at a pay phone near the field where I played little league baseball. I proudly dropped my quarter into the slot and dialed the 800 number I had written down on a little piece of crumpled up paper. I pressed the number corresponded to the color blue and the rest was history. It would soon be revealed that I had voted with the majority of Americans, 54 percent to be exact, in deciding the new M&M color. With over 10 million votes cast, blue won in a landslide over pink, purple or no change. Being just a kid, I couldn’t help but think that I had a huge impact on making the new M&M blue. That’s the brilliance of a successfully executed marketing campaign.

This is all somewhat ironic now, first and foremost because M&M’s don’t differ in taste depending on color, but also because of the way in which I interacted with the campaign. A recent L.A. Times report revealed that AT&T plans to phase out its pay phone business by the end of ’08. Additionally, a kid today would probably never fathom having to write down an 800 number on a piece of paper, but instead would be asked to text a quick code to vote for something or log onto a website. This all came to me when a current television commercial asked consumers to help create the next Mountain Dew. The “Dewmocracy” campaign asks consumers to join the movement, play games, and take a journey with fellow consumers as they develop teams eventually leading to a new flavor, color, name, logo, label, and tagline for the next Mountain Dew. This innovative campaign is a far cry from pressing 1 for blue. Only time will tell if it will be a success.

Dewmocracy Site

Do you think the Mountain Dew campaign will take off? Are there any recent interactive marketing campaigns that you’ve been impressed with?

Pat Cauley, eMedia editor, Electronic Retailer Magazine

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