Co-Branding-Does it Work?

Co Branding Does it Work? Kelloggs recently came out with a new peanut butter cereal but ran into the wall when concluding their name alone was not going to be enough to sell their new cereal.

What do big brands do in a case like this?

Generate a deal with another complimentary brand!

 In Kellogg’s case, saving the peanut butter cereal by combining brand strength with Jiff was a logical choice. The happy-brand-couple receives dual exposure and the kids in the cereal isle become extra bouncy at the sight of the delicious complex.

 Licensing agreements are an old trick in the great book of marketing do’s and don’ts. This year especially, many big-box food production companies have been studying the co-branding marketing strategy page for ways to boost their product and break away from their competitors.

 The drawback when implementing this co-marketing is shared control as one relies equally on the other guy to be part of a brand empowering partnership. Yet, the positive facet to this situation, launching the product is much quicker because marketers aren’t building a brand from scratch.

 Here is where the mixed brands get interesting:

 Jelly Belly + Tabasco Dark Chocolate.

 These recognizable brands decided they would make a great food couple, a perfect pairing. I’m not quite sure all would agree with this combination, but I’m confident someone appreciates this.

Here are a few more examples of the duos I find are interesting.

Dial+Froyo Frozen Yogurt Cooling Body Wash: A hygiene product. Off the bat I’m thinking “delicious shower snack!” To some it might not be appealing, but then again many health forward beauty products use yogurt as a common ingredient. The idea has an appealing basis.

Taco Bell+Kraft Southwest Ranch: this combination sounds enticing. I have never tried it. Another point to consider would be that partnering up on this sauce, the brands equity, positive and negative, comes along with the creation of the duo product.

Smart Advertising or Exploitation?

It seems these days-literally the last few days-that the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge has been a frequent flyer aboard Facebook’s News Feeds with it’s great awareness building and fundraising tactics for ALS. This frigid challenge has recently surfaced and many have come forward with different opinions about this viral method of fundraising for ALS. 

A “different” kind of video has been posted in an area some might have seen coming. That’s right, the advertising world. Many large companies brought their executives to the scene to take part and raise money for ALS. But no one called out a branded product…until now. 

Samsung has jumped on board the speeding media train and used the Ice Bucket Challenge in a creative way to promote their new Galaxy 5s smart phone with it’s waterproof shell. In the ad, the Galaxy 5s gets the cubed, cold water dumped right on top of it's (head?) and proceeds to "say" how cold it is. The Galaxy 5s then calls upon it's competitors' top selling smart phone devices to take part in the challenge.

This is where things get tricky. Using a charity’s awareness building campaign to spin off your own profit-making ad could be seen as self-serving. From another angle, it shows the fast creativity and real-time marketing like Oreo’s Super Bowl tweet. But when do you cross the line between creative and crass? Siri, what do you think?

  

Check out Samsung’s spot:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6w4Gqt-ljb4 

Freaked-Out Photos

Remember the old adage, "A picture's worth a thousand words."? I've been a believer in the power of visual brand awareness since the days of Dr. Suess, Tom Terrific and The Captain & Bunny Rabbit entered my life. 

And how many of you are old enough to recall being concerned over Big Brother? No, not the awful guys on one of the most-amazed-it's-still-onTV shows, but the Big Brother concept that was kicked off by the novel, "1984". 

Now it looks like our social media pals are the "real" Big Brother. All those darling selfies and more are being mined for lots of data for advertisers. 

Every Nike swish is being tracked. The ad world will know what brand of beer is in your boyfriend's hand. And that you probably shop at Target since the bullseye is behind you in your profile picture…ever so slightly. Yep, this trend really is freaking out folks just a bit - even those guys who take their iPhones to bed with them. 

Once that data's all mashed up and spit back out, you'll be even more specifically targeted. Makes you think - do you really want to wear that Polo shirt anymore?

Check out this article:

http://mashable.com/2014/08/13/passive-hashtags/

Is Facebook Out Like the Plague?

Researchers at Princeton University have predicted the demise of Facebook by the year 2017 – a short three years from now and 13 years after the February 4, 2004 launch of the social media giant.

This bold statement was concocted by comparing the growth curb of epidemics like the bubonic plague to that of social media networks. In the beginning, ideas spread through communicative contact, similar to the spread of a virus. Soon, those original idea developers end up losing interest, therefore no longer manifesting the idea, ultimately developing an immunity to the idea.

While Facebook has thus far “outlived” several other networks (remember MySpace?) and stockholders aren’t yet running for the door, it can’t be overlooked that Facebook’s CFO admitted to seeing a decrease in daily users, specifically among younger teens.

I have to agree that the number of teenage users dropping is a red flag, however; I don’t see Facebook fading away just yet. Historically, Facebook hasn’t had a problem updating the platform to stay current with the new social media trends of the day, from the early expansion beyond just college students to the adding of hashtag searches. It has also established itself as a viable and user-friendly platform for businesses to keep up with their followers on a more regular basis than the traditional website.

Whatever happens with Facebook’s plague-like tendancies in the next three years, count on us to be keeping track of the epidemic-style growth curve, and more importantly, what new ideas will infect and spread through our population.
For more, check out the full article and study. 

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jan/22/facebook-princeton-researchers-infectious-disease

Bye-bye dropshadows, hello hero areas. Web trends, 2014

Enjoyable read on the web design trends to expect in 2014. Many that made the list are design elements we've seen steadily creeping in for a while. If you want the "down & dirty," here's the top 10!

1 - Non boring typography (sweet!)
2 - Flat design (sounds bad, it's not)
3 - Large hero areas ('I need a hero'... <insert that 80s song, here>)
4 - Mobile-centric (dare we say, "duh")
5 - Videos in place of text (yes)
6 - Long scrolling sites (love it!)
7 - Simple color schemes (segueing into Pantone 2014 color of the year...)
8 - Simplified content (sounds smart to us!)
9 - Dropping the sidebar (interesting concept)
10 - Manipulated imagery (thanks for the influence, Instagram!)

For the bonus, 11th trend, you totally have the check out the article!