Archive for the ‘Brand Building’ Category

Things We Love: Kickstarting Movies

Monday, March 18th, 2013

Veronica Mars is a cancelled TV Series with a rabid fan base and boastings of modest but not stellar ratings. Its star Kristen Bell has gone on to achieve some notoriety in the film world (Sarah Marshall!), but otherwise it’s synonymous with dozens of other long-gone shows. Until last week.

The show’s creator, Rob Thomas, worked out a unique deal with the studio (Warner Brothers) who owns the rights to the property. Basically: I raise enough money to make a film version of the show; you foot the bill for promotion and release. It was a low-risk option for the studio, so they signed on for the experiment. What no one (except maybe Thomas himself) expected was that a Kickstarter for the project would raise more than 3 MILLION dollars in under 48 hours. The fans have spoken, and we could be looking at a new dynamic in Hollywood’s landscape.

Sure there are logistical details to combat. The thousands upon thousands of t-shirts, DVD’s, signed memorabilia and special screenings are going to be a nightmare to organize and distribute. Also: super expensive. But if Thomas and co. can pull it off, he can add media innovator to his existing moniker of cult-classic show runner.

Ad folks can take a simple lesson from this. If a project isn’t working, take a few steps outside the box to find another way in. Also, be mindful of the new tools popping up on the internet and in the app store. The most inconspicuous product could just hold the key to the next innovative breakthrough for a client.

Sometimes a crazy idea turns out to be a fantastic one.

Category: Brand Building, Digital & Interactive, Lovemarks

KR on iTunes

Wednesday, March 6th, 2013

iTunes - int

If you didn’t know already, our World-wide CEO Kevin Roberts is a pretty prolific blogger. He’s been posting regularly for years over at KR Connect, and we thought it might be fun to occasionally bring some of that content to H/H.

Introducing: “KR on . . .” – a recurring feature where we bring you musings from Kevin on interesting things happening around the world. For our first installment, KR talks iTunes 25 billionth download. Enjoy!

Remember the Coca-Cola classic “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing.” Steve Jobs did this. Or at least listen. Earlier this month iTunes announced that they had had their 25th billion download. To celebrate this milestone, iTunes gave €10,000 (which translated into US$13,525) to a German user whose download marked this occasion.

Since its launch in 2003 Apple’s iTunes has changed the way we listen and purchase music, and the music industry. It has:

  • Pumped up the Now: We get music and movies when we want, where we want, for a price less than most things you can buy. Singles not albums.
  • Created a space for small: A low barrier to entry has helped grow independent labels and made it easier for niche bands to be discovered. “Whether you’re indie, major, whatever…iTunes doesn’t exclude any musician simply because they’re not yet established or popular,” said Wesley Schultz, guitarist and lead vocalist of The Lumineers.
  • Made entertainment mobile: After the decline of portable music in the early 90s (CDs didn’t allow you to pack light unless you wanted to hear albums on repeat), iTunes allowed us to listen to a lot of music – and on different devices.

So what was the 25th billion song? “Monkey Drums” (Goksel Vancin Remix) by Chase Buch!

Category: Brand Building, Digital & Interactive

Hidden Baby

Wednesday, January 18th, 2012

Who doesn’t like a nice accessory that does good for the world? Way back in the year two thousand and eleven, we featured the lovely Kelsey Montague in our Hidden Talents series; wherein her hidden talent involved making a line of handbags called Hidden Baby. The twist? Each bag that’s sold helps a child in need.

Following the post, we got such a strong response from readers that Kelsey, her sister and the Hidden Baby line of bags are coming to Saatchi NY this Thursday. Be sure to swing by thirsty Thursday in the atrium, where a pop-up min-store will be slinging the stylish bags all afternoon. Cheers!

Category: Brand Building, New York, Our People

Feeling the Love

Thursday, October 28th, 2010


Roberts Says Brands Must Make Emotional Connections
Uploaded by Bloomberg. – Up-to-the minute news videos.

Last evening, our CEO Worldwide Kevin Roberts gave a 15 minute interview with Bloomberg’s Pimm Fox on his show Taking Stock for a segment titled “Making Consumers feel the Love.” On the show, Kevin talked about Lovemarks, the “New New” & his work on the client-side of things before joining Saatchi & Saatchi in 1997.

Other notable topics discussed include the future of television (it’s sticking around), advertising in the participation economy (check out the T-Mobile ad out of Saatchi London) and the end of consumer’s obsession with all things new (it will be replaced by a demand for quality content across all mediums). You can watch the entire interview in the video at the top of the post.

Category: Brand Building, Film & Television, Our People

Saatchi & Saatchi MediaScan

Friday, September 17th, 2010

Highlights of this week’s coverage of Saatchi & Saatchi and Industry Trends.

Saatchi & Saatchi Thought Leadership

What Men Want from a Brand Relationship A project to uncover “the secret life of British families” has led Saatchi & Saatchi to conclude that men have become virtually “invisible” in advertising. The project saw agency planners move in temporarily with 30 families from all over the UK between February and September. MarketingWeek,16 September

Saatchi & Saatchi Awards

M&M Award Success for Kosovo ‘Young Europeans’ Campaign BBR Saatchi & Saatchi is delighted to report that the Kosovo ‘Young Europeans’ campaign has won the Best Nation and Place Branding category at the prestigious 2010 M&M Awards. Saatchi & Saatchi Press Release, 13 September

Saatchi & Saatchi Creative Work

The Best Viral Films of the Month – August 2010 This month a few guest stars, a French advertising (Voyages-SNCF), Google and of course, lots of sports. At number five is Cadbury’s ‘Ostritch (I Gotta Be Me)’ from Saatchi & Saatchi South Africa. Le Blog (blog), in French, 13 September

Little Buddha Little Buddha is the first yoga school in Slovenia that focuses on teaching yoga to very young children. Saatchi & Saatchi used diaper changing stations in public places and private indoor playgrounds as an advertising media – encouraging parents to “change your babies future”. Advert Norton (blog), 13 September

HP Launches Paparazzi Campaign With the worlds of fashion and technology meeting all the more frequently, HP has enlisted the help of veteran paparazzi photographer Dave Hogan, alongside Saatchi & Saatchi, to create a campaign that marries HP’s technical know-how to celebrity culture. My Fashion Life, 14 September

NASCAR Villain Busch Pretty in Pink for Nationwide Race Busch will trade in his proverbial black hat for a more enchanting shade – pink. He will drive a pink car adorned with kittens, puppies, butterflies, a unicorn and baby seal as part of Toyota’s “Sponsify Your Ride” contest. Toyota teamed with Saatchi & Saatchi to create the riotous incongruity that has race fans rolling in laughter. Richmond Times, 10 September

Continental Airlines Brings Live News Feeds to The Underground Starcom and CBS Outdoor have launched live Reuters newsfeeds for commuters at tube stations across central London in a digital outdoor campaign for Continental Airlines. The 20” news feeds will be incorporated into digital advertising created by Team Saatchi. UTalk Marketing, 9 September

Unravelling a Wooly Head A woman wakes up with a woolly head due to her allergy symptoms. The situation improves once she finds a pack of Aerius in her drawer at work. Her woolly head unravels, revealing her real symptom-free and happy self. New work from Saatchi & Saatchi, Sydney. Best Ads on TV (blog), 14 September

Toyota Talks Tiny Football In Corporate NFL Push Toyota is launching a corporate marketing program called TFL (Tiny Football League) as part of its sponsorship of Sunday Night Football and the series’ half-time show. The effort, by Saatchi & Saatchi and @thisMoment, highlights youth football teams. MediaPost, 11 September

Industry: Brand Management

Brands Bounce Back, With Some Casualties The value of the world’s top 100 brands rose by a collective 4% this year to $1.20 trillion. Coca-Cola Co. retained the No.1 spot it has held for the past 11 years. The Wall Street Journal, 15 September

Marketing to the Bottom of the Pyramid Seth Godin talks about the opportunities to provide goods and services to the world’s poor. He says that we should remember that most of the tools of the Western mass market are useless when engaging emerging markets. Seth Godin, 8 September

The Consumer Appeal of Underdog Branding Even top-dog companies can benefit by showing a little more humility and by playing on the public’s taste for tales of failure and redemption, argues Harvard Business School professor Anat Keinan. Harvard – Working Knowledge, 13 September

Industry: Shopper Marketing

Walmart’s Merchandising Shift Has Five Brands Dancing in Aisles Walmart’s much-talked-about Project Impact isn’t dead. The program to reinvigorate growth at Walmart always focused on 10 words. Subscription required - Advertising Age, 13 September

Whole Foods: Don’t Eat That, Eat This Color-coded seafood is about to hit store shelves – at least in Whole Foods, which is launching the first in-store color-coded sustainable seafood rating program this week. Fast Company, 14 September

Shopper Marketing: The Next Stage in Africa’s Retail Development? Multinationals like P&G are leading the way with their ‘Store back’ strategy, which obliges their brand teams and agencies to start their planning at the grocery shelf and work back from there. PSFK, 7 September

Industry: Understanding Consumers

Luxury Brands Turn Focus to Status-Conscious Parents Gucci, Burberry Group and other luxury brands are turning their attention to status-conscious parents by offering high-end products for children. Bloomberg, 14 September

Finding a Bargain Feels as Good as Sex Researchers have found that bargains make us so deliriously happy that the brain is turned on to the same level excitement that it gets from sex. Telegraph, 13 September

Subscriber, Fan or Follower: Who’s Most Likely to Buy? 32% of subscribers and followers and 49% of fans are no more likely to purchase from a brand after connecting with them through newsletters, Facebook and Twitter. MarketingVOX, 13 September

Industry: Media Mix Optimization

A New Way to Market Music on Spotify For the consumer group dubbed “Tipping Pointers” by Sony, Spotify has launched interactive audio novel. Each chapter of the novel has been published as a track on Spotify and is located by typing a code into Spotify’s search field. Subscription required – Advertising Age, 16 September

25% of European Consumers Want to Respond to Adverts via Their Mobile Phones On average, a quarter of consumers would be more likely to respond to advertising in any media if it allowed them to do so using their mobile device. Internet Retailing, 16 September

Facebook Begins Reporting on ‘Social Context’ in Ads Marketers using the Facebook ads platform can now learn the total number of ad impressions containing “social-context”, as well as the number of clicks, the click through rate, and the percentage of impressions represented by those ads. ClickZ, 9 September

Industry: Brand Strategy in Action

A Focus on Families (and Furniture) IKEA’s first significant promotional effort in three years depicts people using IKEA furniture and products to put their stamp on their living spaces. New York Times, 13 September

Smirnoff Plans Global Nightlife Campaign The campaign is designed as a call-to-action and invites consumer-generated ideas from 14 markets. These concepts will then be packaged in a shipping crate as event experiences. Marketing Week, 13 September

Nike Sportswear Presents ‘Sneak and Destroy’ Destroyer Burrito Nike Sportswear partnered with Portland’s Koi Fusion to celebrate Musicfest NW by surprising them with a free jacket packaged in the form of a burrito. Hypebeast, 8 September

Category: Brand Building, Creative, Media Scan

The Power of Social Media

Monday, August 30th, 2010


(Old Spice Man’s Response to Alyssa Milano)

Brianne Janacek is a Senior Strategic Planner at SaatchiNY. Below are some of her thoughts on lessons to be learned from the recent Old Spice social media blitz.

Unless you were hiding under a rock last month, you probably heard about, read about or saw the Old Spice videos that took YouTube by storm. In them, the protagonist “Old Spice Man” used YouTube to personally respond to questions and comments posted by real people in the social media community via Facebook, Yahoo, Twitter and a number of other sites.

For example:

Question: “Porknog asks on Reddit – “Dear Old Spice Man, How many times should I lather, rinse and repeat? My wife says I’m going to get a rash if I keep this up.”

Response: “Well, Porknog, you should count yourself lucky to have the loving companionship of a lady person. Please tell your wife the rashes are not a concern, but too much Old Spice body wash could result in her heart exploding . . .”

As you can see from that transcript and the above video, the results were hilariously entertaining. And the response to the videos was immediate – a massive blitz of sharing, re-posting, commenting and tweeting. If you weren’t already convinced of the power social media holds for engaging people with brands, this campaign makes it almost impossible to deny.

Here are a few reasons why it was so successful.

IT WAS PERSONALIZED
Let’s be honest, deep down everyone wants to be a little bit famous, even if only for a moment. And that’s what makes social media so appealing. It enables people to feel missed and followed, which gives them a sense of self-importance. Some of the brilliance of this idea was that it tapped into this underlying truth and gave people a moment of fame. Once they got it,  they were compelled to share.

PEOPLE SPREAD IT THEMSELVES
My guess is that it blew up more than anyone at Old Spice even imagined. Old Spice didn’t have to direct people to where the videos were or even create a micro site where they would live. They placed them in a context where people are already sharing on their own —YouTube.

The videos were so entertaining that people wanted to share them and participate themselves. The brand let the people do the heavy-lifting, and it worked brilliantly. Even celebrities and other brands got in on the action — Ellen DeGeneres, Christina Applegate, Alyssa Milano, Starbucks, and even Gillette. No doubt, their networks are much larger than the average social media user, so the virility was massive, taking participation to a whole new level. Total views on Old Spice’s YouTube Channel – over 135 million.

IT WORKED
All of those views are translating into sales. According to AdWeek, Old Spice Body Wash sales numbers went up 107% in the month after the video blitz. On a more personal note, I have firsthand experience with how the work affected two people in Old Spice’s target audience. The last time my boyfriend and I were in the store, he said, “Hey I’m out of soap. Where’s that new Old Spice stuff?” They also had a huge impact on his 14 year-old brother. He’s just beginning to try out personal grooming products, and after watching the videos with us . . . I’m pretty sure that the next time he heads to the store with his mom he’ll be requesting Old Spice products by name.

Category: Brand Building, Digital & Interactive, sisomo

A Refreshing Idea

Wednesday, August 11th, 2010

The Pepsi Refresh Project is a perfect example of how brands should interact with consumers. Pepsi is a Lovemark for a lot of people around the world, and Refresh embraces emotional advertising and the participation economy in an amazing way.

For those of you who haven’t seen the ads or visited the site, Pepsi created the Refresh Project as a crowd-sourced voting platform for handing out grants to people and/or non-profits with good ideas for “refreshing” the world. Based on voting on their website, Pepsi hands out grants that range anywhere from $5,000-$250,000.  

What’s notable to SaatchiNY is that our friends at the IAVA (Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America) have been selected as one of the finalists for the Project in the 25k category. It’s a great organization, and you probably remember reading about their partnership with Miller High Life for the Caps for Troops campaign last month.

If their idea wins, it will help 250,000 new veterans pursue college on the new GI Bill. It’s an easy good deed for the day. Go to the IAVA project page and cast your vote.  It only takes about 5 seconds.   

Nick Miartis is an Account Supervisor at SaatchiNY

Category: Brand Building, Clients, Lovemarks

Joy in Winning Gimmies

Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010

We are in this business for the joy that comes from realizing the unreasonable power of creativity, the joy of transforming clients’ brands and businesses, and the joy of doing it with the incredible people that we get to work with.

As Kevin has often said, “Joy Is In Winning.”

Last week, our General Mills Team redefined joy by winning six of nine awards given to agencies at General Mills’ Bi-Annual Gimmies Awards, including the Grand Prize – Chairman’s Award (Honey Nut Cheerios), and the Teddy Award for Outstanding Personal Contribution (Creative Director Pat Giles).

Please join me in congratulating everyone on the General Mills Team for this well deserved recognition.

Let’s relish in this joy and let its energy motivate all of us to accomplish even more, move forward, and move higher.

I can assure you that the view will be incredible!

Front page image from Joely Golightly ”The Pancake Girl”

Category: Awards, Brand Building, Clients