Mentos has an interesting opportunity:  it can own the kiss.  Not just any ordinary peck on the cheek  from grandma either.  We are talking about the first kiss.  The passionate kiss.  The exciting, toe tingling, flip you in the air, heart-a-fluttering, kiss.  Um, you get the idea.

Mentos has centered their edvertising and online efforts around the kiss.  Their commercials show people with a Mentos induced kiss spinning.   Their website picks up where the commercial left off with wallpaper, screen savers, and a game called Mentos Kiss Fight.  The game is sort of like a primitive form of Virtual Fighter with passionate kissing as the motivation (instead of pummeling, death and dismemberment).

There also is a Mentos Kiss Cam.   A bizarre, intriguing, interactive kiss experience (see demonstration).  The experience begins by popping a Mentos into an attractive model, then the user can make out virtually with the model, er, laptop. 

Although Mentos is still airing the ads, the majority of content was created about one year ago.  I am curious what Mentos’ next move is.  Are they going to continue to build the brand around the kiss?  Or was this just a one-time campaign with a few clever interactive experiences? 

I would hope Mentos continues to find new and interesting ways to own the kiss.  It seems like  an  unique positioning in a cluttered breath mint market, that should play long term dividends.

Many school children are days away from summer vacation.  And with summer vacation arrives the opportunity to go to camp.  Top on many kids lists are outdoor camps or sports camps.  Some look forward to band camp.  Then there is computer camps; notorious for coding, commaradarie and sunblock is unnecessary. 

For many computer camp is synonymous with geekdom, but Apple is trying to put a cool spin on a tired cliche.  Apple’s computer camp is less about coding, more about creativity (my apologies to programmers I have worked with in the past, who view their code as a work of art). 

The Apple Summer Camps are held at local retail stores.  The camps are designed for kids from 8 to 12 years old (sorry, big kids are not invited unless chaperoning a minor).  There are four, three-hour workshops at camp: film, photo, music, and presentation. 

You have to applaud Apple for (again) extending their brand in an interesting area.  The experience reinforces the brand in a smart way, while developing advocates at a young age.

This weekend while you and your neighbors are firing up your backyard grills for the obligatory Memorial Weekend BBQ, Johnsonville is celebrating Brat Fest in Madison, Wisconsin.  Based on the web site, there seems to be a large crowd, good time, and plenty of brats consumed. 

I received an email on Friday notifying me of Brat Fest.  Too bad I didn’t know a little earlier.  It is about a 428 mile hike from my backyard to theirs.  In reality, I wouldn’t make the trek, but this highlights a bit of a marketing conundrum:

• Do you broadcast the party across the country, knowing most people cannot come or don’t care?
• Or do you bring the party to them?

The former is kind of a tease, less effective, and could be misconstrued as brat-spam (for those who don’t care).  The latter is the preferred method, because a convenient local Brat Fest would increase participation.  However, a Brat Tour would be very expensive to activate.  So, what do you do?  Probably something in between - something more personal - something in everyone’s backyard.

One recommendation would be to build off Johnsonville’s current campaign (”Creat your own ______ville“).  The campaign is based on everyone has a Johnsonville, so what is your ____ville?  Building on this premise of the personal backyard BBQ, why wouldn’t Brat Fest extend across the country on Memorial Day weekend? 

By scheduling Brat Fest on Memorial Day, Johnsonville can begin to own the traditional Memorial Day BBQ , similar to Butterball, turkey and Thanksgiving.  Brat Fest campaign elements could include:

• A May promotion building up to Memorial Day weekend.
• Coupons or other promotion to increase the use of brats during the traditional Memorial Day BBQ.
• A counter on the site including all brats consumed across the country.
• An interactive map of brat sales or user contributed content celebrating Brat Fest.

This recommended approach would still treat Madison as Brat Fest headquarters, but would extend the celebration around the country.   So, even people who couldn’t travel 428 miles to the festival, could still travel to they backyard, fire up the grill, and be a part of the celebration.

Most Americans seem to be breathing a sigh of relief as the initial anxiety over the Swine Flu “pandemic” has subsided.  Although worldwide there are 8,829 cases in 40 countries confirmed to date, there is a noticeable decrease in new media coverage of the outbreak (the initial coverage was over the top — as documented by the Jon Stewart on the Daily Show).   

Following the media assault, I wondered if there would be a marketing assault to take advantage of the pandemic scare.  I figured someone wanted to own the Swine Flu.  Two marketers stepped up: Lysol and Kleenex.  Well, sort of.

Lysol’s message was simple: Influenza A (H1N1): Common Sense Steps to Help Keep Your Family Healthy.  I received the message via an email.  The email detailed steps to mitigate catching the swine flu.  The steps included washing your hands  for 20 seconds (the time it takes to sing the “Happy Birthday” song twice), regularly disinfect the frequently-touched surfaces in your home, and avoid people who are sick.

The other marketer, Kleenex, did not mentioned the swine flu directly.  Instead they are battling cold and flu bugs on a site called Battle the Bug.  The site contains product info on Kleenex Anti-Viral Tissue, flu factoids (e.g.  One sneeze can spray 100,000 infectious droplets into the air at more than 200 MPH), and a color-coded state map based on flu severity.   Kleenex also recommends steps to avoid the flu like washing your hands (no time limit or song required), getting a good nights sleep, and disposing tissues in a trash recepticle as soon as possible.

The question I wondered about is: Do you want to own the swine flu?

Fear marketing can be effective.  Think about GM’s OnStar campaign.  The campaign centers around real calls normally with an OnStar agents contacting 911 services as people are pinned within their vehicle.  Not appealing, but seemlingly effective for GM.  In 2009, OnStar reported 6 million subscribers, and is now negotiating to offer the service to non-GM auto-manufacturers. 

VW tried a similar tactic with their “Safe Happens” campaign.  The shocking ads culminated in a Jetta smashing into another vehicle.  An interesting way to advertise a Jetta’s crash test rating.   Although the campaign caused an intial influx of shopper attention, there is mixed signals on the campaign’s long term effect on Jetta sales.

Owning fear is a delicate marketing approach.  Taking advantage of a consumer’s primal fear can be effective — at least in the short term.  However, for marketers, like Lysol, owning the swine flu may have too much negative baggage.  This may explain why Lysol referenced the swine flu by it’s clinical title (Influenza A (H1N1)) and the message was sent via email, not in a broad reach media campaign.

Webisodes are not easy.

As I wrote many times on this blog, you have many factors working against a webisode’s success:  viewing convenience, relevance, and entertainment value to name a few.  This doesn’t mean one should stop trying.  Rather,  we need to be cognizant of the hurdles and have a plan to overcome them.

Enter the latest webisode (I have seen) in a long line of webisodes: Post Shredded Wheat’s The Palace of Light.  The online experience lives in multiple places: a core site, facebook, and YouTube.  I found the site through a banner on MSN Games.

The premise of the video is based on a Shredded Wheat product truth: the product is virtually unchanged over the last 100 years.  So, the videos main character, CEO Frand Druffel,  is on a mission to stop innovation.  This is reflective in his motto on his facebook page: “We put the word ‘no’ in innovation.”  You never know what to expect when you hit the play button, but I was pleasantly surprised.  The video is quite funny in an Office Space sort of way.  

The shredded webisode seems to have a lot working for it including entertainment value and relevance for a large audience.  I like how the product is a premise within the video but not forced.  I am curious if future episodes will carry the plot/humor forward, or is this a one episode wonder.

As far as viewing convenience, Post gives different methods to subscribe like facebook or YouTube.  I find it curious that they did not offer users an opportunity to sign up for email reminders. 

One last thought: I found the first episode entertaining and was willing to watch more.  However, there was no more episodes completed (there appears to be five total episodes).   This is an interesting webisodic conundrum — do you  post all episodes at the same time, or post the episodes over time, which is the standard approach for many marketers.  The positive to posting over time is (hopefully) getting people to come back to your brand site. 

The reality is: although I found it funny, I don’t think I will take time out of my day to go back.  With all the entertainment options afforded us, it may make more sense to provide all episodes at once to increase the time with the brand as oppose to hoping someone returns to the site.

If you are into “free”, Denny’s is giving more free food away tomorrow.

In February Denny’s served about 2 million people a free Grand Slam as a part of their Super Bowl promotion. As a follow-up, Denny’s is offering  free Slamwich when purchasing a Grand Slam. 

In this economic climate, “free” is big.  It’s the operating buzzword, which seems to motivate consumers to action.  Free can be more than just  freebies, it is more about saving money.

For example, per Ad Age, coupon usage is up 192% over the past year.  Most of the coupon usage gains are in CPG, however, saving money goes beyond coupons too.  Saving money can relate to special pricing (e.g. employee pricing for vehicles), free delivery,  0% financing, or “we pay your taxes”.

Free is easy to do.  Giving a product away is not a bad strategy, especially when you want to induce trial of a new product like a Slamwich.   Also, free or discounting is ripe for these economic times.  The only cautionary note is it is not right for every brand.  You will rarely (if ever) see a Bose Stereo,  Apple Computer, or Lexus Automobile discounted.  This fact makes discounting appropriate for a PC, not a Mac.  An advantage Microsoft is using in their latest PC/Mac strategy.  

So how well will “free” do for Denny’s tomorrow?  I doubt people will be waiting in lines out the door, but it should generate an increase in store traffic.  It is also a nice, timely follow-up to the Super Bowl promotion, which should maintain Denny’s cognitive ownership of “Free”.

April is one cheesy month.  There are many national observances worth noting including:

National Humor Month
National Card and Letter Writing Month
National Poetry Month
National Kite Month
National Straw Hat Month
National Grilled Cheese Month

Kraft Singles would like you to observe the month by going to their site, I Heart Grilled Cheese, and write why you love Kraft Singles in 50 words or less.   Kraft will draw 500 winners per week to receive a free package of Kraft Singles.

According to Ad Age (”Kraft Pays Homage to Grilled Cheese“), Kraft will also be hosting the largest grilled cheese cooking competition.   The event called the 1st 7th Annual Grilled Cheese Invitational, will be held on April 25th in Los Angeles. 

Okay, initially I thought grilled cheese would have as much enthusiasm as the straw hat.  However, the more I researched the grilled cheese, the more I found an enthusiastic undercurrent sandwich (or “sammich” per the grilled cheese enthusiast).  As you can see from the YouTube video (1st 6th Annual Competition on YouTube), attendees really get into the event.  A lot of the enthusiasm comes from the creativity of sandwich assembly.  For example, there are three categories in the competition:

The Missionary Position: Your standard grilled cheese: basic bread, butter and cheese.
The Kama Sutra:  A freestyle category where the only requirement is the sandwich is 60% cheese.
The Honey Pot:  Think grilled cheese for desert.

So is Kraft building on the passion?

Although Kraft believes they will be overwhelmed with responses (per Ad Age), I find their experience underwhelming.   The “I Heart Grilled Cheese” site is a one-page site where users can enter their 50 word love note to Kraft Singles—yet none of the entries are published, shared, or voted upon.  In fact Kraft isn’t sure what they will be doing with the notes.  They may “possibly” put them on the Kraft Singles site at a later date.

In my opinion Kraft should take the enthusiasm from the invitational and generate a month long experience online—Think UGGC (User Generated Grilled Cheese).  The site would be a true national celebration of the iconic sammich.  The UGGC would be entered (and awarded) by category (expanding on the invitational categories), and entrants would submit a photo/video of their creation along with a corresponding recipe.  The UGGC content would be wrapped in an online community (think UGGC site + facebook + youtube) where people can comment, vote, and share the recipes.

With all that said, if you are still not a fan of grilled cheese,  stay tuned, May is National Hamburger Month.  I wonder how Wendy, Ronald and the King will celebrate?

Weirdness stands out.

I was pumping gas the other night at a local Speedway.  As the fuel pump climbed to $36.32, I killed time by watching  the gas pump TV. 

Weather. 
Speedway ad.
Sports.
Ford Fusion commercial. 
Local News. 
Bizarre commercial about alternative gum uses. 

What’s that all about?

Stride Gum’s commercial uses the cheesy infomercial formula to entertain.  And forget about selling the gum.  The commercial centers around alternative uses for the long lasting gum like balancing a boomerang or replacement eyebrows.  Oh yeah, they need your help.  The commercial culminates in a call to action to go to StrideGum.com to help them name the new Nonstop Mint gum.

At the site users can participate in a contest to rename the gum and win $10,000.  In addition to the contest the site contains gum games, photos from the Stride college campus tour (think dodgeball coverage), and Dancing Matt.  BTW you may remember dancing Matt Harding .  He is the guy who does a silly jig around the globe, partly at the request of Stride.  The video did quite well with over 19.8 million views to date.

So back to the gum naming “winfomercial”.  Strides’ different commercial breaks through.  I liken it to recent ESPN 360 commercial using Billy Mays.   Spoofing the infomercial gains attention.  Add a call to action to a site mimicking the commercial, creates a fun memorable, brand experience.   

I am curious what is next for Stride.  First there was Dancing Matt.  Then the infomercial.  My guess is something with their college dodgeball tour.  We can only hope includes Pepper Brooks and Cotton McKnight on the Ocho.

Sixty-four teams.  Thousands and thousands of fans passionately rooting for a team victory and opportunity to move onto the next round of the tournament.  And a site hoping to capture it all.

Coke Zero is sponsoring the March Madness fan frenzy at TasteTheMadness.com.   The site, dubbing itself as “A Site by Fans for Fans”, encourages fans to upload fan photos and videos.  Site users can view, vote, comment, and share videos.  Potentially, contributors could have their content featured in the CBS Men’s Final Broadcast.

At the time of this post over 1,000 videos and photos have been uploaded to the site.  The content is bucketed by conference.  The Big Ten (er, plus one) has the most content with 374 photos/videos.  Sounds impressive until you look at the content and discover someone from the University of Illinois uploaded the majority of content.  Overall, a very small amount of content is from NCAA Basketball.  There is content from football games, general partying in the street, and my not so favorite photos of residence halls.

So, did Coke Zero miss the mark? 

The idea has potential.  Collegiate sports contain passionate fans, exciting games, and the zaniness of painted college students.  Seems ripe for good content.  The Pontiac Game Changing Perforamnce has been around for years, capitalizing on fans voting for their team’s great plays in both football and basketball. 

While Pontiac owns the exciting play, Coke Zero could own the passionate fan.  In my opinion the campaign is currently missing the mark, but can be strengthened.  First, Coke Zero should run the site throughout the entire year.  And like Pontiac, heavily promote the site during the college football through basketball finale.  This would give fans more of a chance to capture and contribute content.

Secondly, be more specific with the content.  I like the intro video on Coke Zero’s site, however, the user generated content is lacking when compared to the video.   Many users rummaged through their archive of content, and threw up anything they had available.  Which brings me to another option, the site should be administered to remove irrelevant content.

Another opportunity is to promote the contests at college campuses and games.  For example, promoting it at the stadium or arena provides an opportunity to remind the tens of thousands of attendees with camera phones to capture game festivities.

Finally, it may be worth coming up with more of an incentive than “a chance to be featured in a game”.  Not a lot of reward motivation for the effort.

There are NCAA Brackets everywhere. 

You have many brackets to choose from.  You can play for big prizes (the perfect bracket would get you $1 million).  You can play for fame against friends, co-workers or the nation. 

Either way, this is the time of year to play the brackets.  Also, it is the time of year some marketers latch onto the bracket to become relevant.   There are several different methods to get into the madness: Go with the Flow or Create Your Own Path.

The idea of Going with the Flow is to sponsor an existing bracket on a major sports site.  For example, Hooters has taken center stage on Fox Sports (Fox Sports Hooters Bracket Challenge).  The Hooters/Fox brackets participants can win cash prizes and wings. 

ESPN (ESPN Tournament Challenge), Yahoo! (Yahoo! Tourney Pick’em),  and CBS Sports (CBS Sports Bracket Manager) also have sponsorships from State Farm (ESPN), KFC (Yahoo!) and Enterprise Rent-a-Car (CBS).   As you can see by clicking on the links, the Hooters sponsorship is much more demonstrative than State Farm (logo), KFC (logo), and Enterprise (banner).

Creating Your Own Path means creating an autonomous bracket on your own site.  For example, Buffalo Wild Wings hosts their own bracket challenge (Buffalo Wild Wings Bracket Challenge).  The BWW contest is the same as last year with a character named Brandy teasing participants by claiming she will win, because “You know to much.”  BWW participants have an opportunity to win an HDTV with surround sound, camcorders, and gift cards.

Both strategies have pros and cons.  Positives for Going with the Flow are the natural traffic to the sports sites and low development costs.  The primary drawback is ownership.  Sponsoring will get a brand exposure, but do they really own the activity?  Hooters will benefit more than the other marketers due to integration and a closer brand/product synergy with the Tournament (I can watch the games at Hooters.  KFC, Enterprise and State Farm seem to be just borrowing consumer interest in the tournament).

Positives for Creating Your Own Path include exclusivity and brand building.  Like Hooters, BWW has a nice product synergy as a restaurant.  Also, they are not sharing the spotlight with ESPN, Fox or CBS Sports.  The primary drawback is BWW has to spend money to generate interest and traffic to the contest.  I found out about the Bracket Challenge through a BWW email. 

Although both strategies have merit, I think there is a bigger opportunity.  The opportunity to build on the natural behavior of filling out the bracket.  The opportunity to be part of the bracket conversation. 

In my opinion, the most interesting bracket site does not exist this year.  For several years Coke Zero offered an entertaining, bracket generating tool called the Bracket-o-matic.  I discussed the application in a blog last year (Let the Bracket-o-Matic Madness Begin).  

The advantage of the Bracket-o-Matic is it accentuated the process of filling out brackets.  It built upon the natural behavior of completing a bracket.  It aided the process of deciding which team will win.  For example, does North Dakota State have a shot at beating Kansas in the opening round?  Or will Purdue get to the Final Four?

With this said, you only have til tomorrow noon to complete your brackets.  Good Luck!