Doritos Crowdsources It’s Advertising
Back in 2007, social media was become more and more pervasive in peoples’ lives. Doritos decided to hand over control of their Super Bowl TV ad creative to consumers who submitted 30-second spots. Doritos asked the world to rate those submitted ideas and then aired the winning entry.

Why Risky?
Super Bowl ad space runs between $3 and $4 million for a 30 second spot. Turning over creative control to consumers could have been a very costly social experiment.

Why Successful?
Doritos has developed a niche for itself in future Super Bowl ads and has since continued to tap into their consumers for funny, engaging TV spots.
http://adage.com/article/cmo-strategy/liodice-ten-big-marketing-risks-paid-brands/143873/

Dominos Says “We Stink”
In 2010, Dominos came out with a campaign telling the world that the old Dominos was dead and gone and there was a new Dominos in town. Instead of focusing only on the good, they admitted their past faults in specific ways, calling their old pizza crust “cardboard” and pizza sauce “ketchup”.

Why Risky?
You risk alienating your brand advocates by calling your past product faulty and you may dissuade future customers from trying your product.

Why Successful?
Sales soared nearly 15% after the new recipes debuted and the campaign started. Many people commended Dominos for their honesty and forthcoming communications.
http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/burns-on-business/2010/05/dominos-we-stink-strategy-pays-off.html

What outrageous, risky campaigns do you think paid off for the marketer?

                          

For some photos of this years winners, check out the Art Institute page:
http://www.artsmia.org/art-in-bloom-2013

                          

Personally, I don’t eat out a lot and try to avoid fast food restaurants when I can. A recent article on AdAge.com explains at length why this should worry many chain restaurants (including the heavyweight champion McDonalds). To the dismay of many restaurants it seems to be a trend with millennials. The article states that McDonalds “doesn’t even rank among the demographic’s top 10 restaurant chains.”

I’m one of the 59 million (give or take a few) millennials, and I have some advice for every restaurant. It’s not about whether you’re a chain or one of the best-kept secrets in the city. It’s about keeping it “fresh”.

The first thing we want to be fresh is our food. I recently went out to lunch with some colleagues, and we chose to eat at Chipotle. Once there we started talking about how Chipotle makes a strong effort to only sell the freshest ingredients possible while maintaining high ethical standards in regards to raising animals. We were ultimately happy with our decision, not only because it tasted great, but because it felt morally responsible.

We want another thing to be fresh and that’s the menu. More options will never be a bad thing. This will keep the menu from getting old and will keep us coming back for more. It would be a very demanding task for major companies like McDonalds and Burger King to change their menu but it’s worth looking into for the company’s future.

Don’t just give a more diverse menu though; give a customizable option for when we’re trying to eat a little healthier or when we want to build our own culinary masterpiece. A “Build-Your-Own” or “Á La Carte” option is something consumers crave for in almost everything in life, including meals.

Restaurants need to keep an eye on millennials. Remember that “fresh” can be more than a piece of copy in an ad. It can be a statement.

                          

Kickstarter is fundamentally shifting the way people invest in ideas, having funded tens of thousands of projects with over $500 million donated. This site shows that asking for funding on projects can be as simple as presenting a great idea that needs some cash to get started. Not only is Kickstarter a fresh trend that is shifting the way people invest in ideas; it’s also a great tool to see what fresh trends are in the works. Take the time and to browse some projects and maybe you’ll find something to help “kick-start.”

Food trucks have been around for over 100 years; so you may be wondering why they’re being talked about in an article on fresh trends. Take this into consideration though; they now offer great food, at reasonable prices, and can go basically anywhere. This cost-effective restaurant on wheels has put them in direct competition with other sit-down restaurants. It’s only a matter of time before we start seeing this trend become a staple for every (and I mean every) restaurant.

Green tech is still in its infancy as an industry but recently it’s been making leaps and bounds into larger markets that have been traditionally dominated by shiny plastic objects – bamboo keyboards and a bamboo mouse are just the beginning. Green tech is a niche market right now but I’ll bet in the next 6 months to a year this trend will bring a shift in attitudes. Check out the iBamboo Speaker (ibamboo.com) to see how you can amplify your iPhones sound without being near any power supply.

These three fresh ideas may soon turn into more than a trend. Stay tuned for more fresh ideas from d.trio in the coming months.

                          

This month we’ve focused upon and explored the word fresh for our marketing communications. We wrote about fresh campaigns, fresh marketing tools, fresh ways to solve a marketing problem, even old campaigns that are still fresh today. We’ve also posted a blog about the fresh snow that we in Minnesota saw way too much of this April.

But Fresh as an attitude…a sometimes-not-all-that-admirable type of attitude? This seemed worthy of further exploration, especially as it is seldom used today.

The official dictionary definition of fresh in this context is:
Fresh /freSH/: Bold and Saucy.

Kind of like the sound of that. Sounds like a marketing asset. Seems as though being fresh in this business might be a really good thing. (Full disclosure, it was also defined as impudent, but I’m going with Bold and Saucy because I’m sure that’s what my mother meant.) 

So here we are. All of us who work in marketing are continually challenged to develop fresh campaigns, ideas, designs, tag lines, tactics and strategies. There exists an endless need for the new, the next, the better…and that’s a really good thing.  We are the purveyors of the the new, the next, the better. We are the daredevils of the business world. We get to push limits. We get to be bold and saucy. 

                          

My time here at d.trio marketing group is sadly coming to an end. With this 6-month internship I had plenty of things that I learned and great moments that I had.
Here are my Top 10 #DtrioIntern Moments

10. Getting a call from Tina to let me know that I got the internship
9. Having a fake snowball fight with Megan and Beth in the office
8. Hearing Slim Shady on the radio in the office
7. Fred handing me a book titled “Direct Marketing For Dummies”
6. Getting the best parking spot in the garage (pays off to come in early)
5. Finishing my first project
4. All of the lunches and Happy Hours that the partners have paid for
3. Running my first meeting (These guys are a hard bunch to keep on track)
2. Getting my initials next to a company on the job board (Getting my first client)
1. Winning the Bowling Pin during Secret Santa!

This has been a fantastic and meaningful experience and I recommend d.trio to any one looking for an internship at a marketing agency.

                          

Things to think about:

A Better Blog
Instead of making your blog an audience-agnostic repository for all things Brand X, pick a unique audience and create a theme just for them. It’s an opportunity to utilize bloggers in a fresh way, targeting an untapped audience and getting them excited about participating in something. Sony’s DigiDads campaign was so successful that it’s been written up in AdvertisingAge.

Next-Gen Specials
How are you targeting the younger generation with discounts and deals? While you’ll never get them to clip a coupon, 8coupons partnered with Foursquare  to make limited-time offers to potential customers in New York. (Foursquare users received automatic discount notifications when they were within a 3-block radius of an 8coupon deal, making the offers highly actionable). As more phones become location-aware, the opportunity for location-based deals is endless. And this story proves that an old-fashioned concept can work for today’s audiences – it’s all in the delivery.

Back-End Your Way into the Conversation
Doing something extreme can be a great way to get people talking about you. As part of their efforts to promote an upcoming season of Shark Week to the media, The Discovery Channel launched the Frenzied Waters campaign, which involved sending a mysterious package with creepy contents and cryptic messaging that sent people online to dig out the details.

Tweety-Pie
Twitter’s here to stay, so you might as well get friendly with it – particularly if you’re in a business that stands to be directly and potentially negatively affected by what happens in the tweetosphere. Even if you don’t believe Twitter Sunk Bruno, you could hold a pre-party party for your next event, with tickets available only on Twitter, or employ tweeting spokespeople. You don’t have to start big, or go big, ever. But factoring Twitter into the next campaign for your products or services gives you an opportunity to have a voice, and be the first one heard.

Visual Stimulation
The success of Instagram and Pinterest proves a picture really is worth a thousand words, and indicates a trend toward more visuals in social media platforms. Content is still important, but there’s a growing emphasis on “watching,” as more and more attention-grabbing YouTube ads (like Oreo’s Superbowl Ad  go viral. These ads tend to be shared a lot on facebook, so think about how broadcasting yourself can benefit your business.

                          

1. Moving Upscale
Americans want to “savor” food and dining experiences. We are choosing better cuts of meat, exotic spices, and the freshest food possible.

2. Making it “Fresh”
Recent surveys found that 9 out of 10 Americans view fresh food as healthier. This has led to more requests for “house made” menu items and artisan foods. Free range and grass fed meats and specialized dairy and produce choices are at a three-year high.

3. Going Solo
As family dynamics continue to change, more of us are dining by ourselves than ever before. However, these solo dinners are becoming healthier as more freshly prepared meals are taking the place of frozen dinners.

4. Embracing Ethnic
American consumers love foreign dishes, but now we are getting even more specific and specialized. The fastest growing ethnic food flavors are: sriracha, chimichuri, aioli, yuzo, queso fresco and Thai chili.

5. Craving Finger Foods
“Craveable” finger foods are one of the fastest growing food categories. We are a nation on the go and 45% of people surveyed say they want high quality, “savory” snack foods to nibble on during commutes and errands. In addition, 67% of these food consumers want the condiments or dips that accompany finger foods, even though it is messier.

Food Technology Magazine, posted on mainstreet.com, April 2013

                          

1. Set aside time during the day to meditate.
An easy way to revitalize your mind is to turn it off. Step away from the computer and find complete (or semi-complete) peace for a short period of time.

2. Organize something.
Sometimes doing a mindless, auto-drive activity has a way of unleashing creative ideas. Set aside some time to do a straightforward activity like organizing your files or clearing out space in your office.

3. Find a change of scenery.
Ideas can crop up in the oddest places. When you’re stuck and can’t concentrate, try going to a new location for some much needed thinking time.

4. Doodle.
Ever notice that when you’re in the shower, that elusive idea crops up into your brain? That’s because you’re subconscious is making connections even when you’re not actively trying. That said, doodling gives you time to noodle (like that rhyme?) subconsciously and allows you to escape the pressure of coming up with an idea.

5. Brainstorm without filters.
An important part of brainstorming is not self-selecting ideas that crop up during a formal brainstorming period. Set your sights on the problem and let the ideas flow freely. Only after you’re done can you start to organize and filter ideas.

                          

It’s April 11th in Minnesota and we are in the grips of a very unfair Severe Winter Storm Warning. Most of the staff is unable to make it to the office and we are working from home looking out at some 5 or 6 inches of new fallen snow atop treacherous, ubiquitous ice.  Me, I’m trying hard to find what is good or fresh about all this.

So here goes. To our friends and colleagues who live outside of the snow belt…you may have beautiful 70 degree weather, even today. You may have sandy beaches, gentle waves and warm breezes.  You may be spared the wind chill warnings, the blizzards, the ice storms.  But you have not known the therapeutic value, the creative surge and pure joy that comes from the occasional Snow Day. It’s just like Christmas in April. Almost.

In preparation for the snow event, we took work home with us last night,  just in case we couldn’t make it in. The items we take usually consist of the things that we find hard to get to, the stuff at the bottom of our pile, the projects not driven by deadlines but those that require space and thought and time that can be elusive in the day-to-day office environment. In short, the things we put off.  It is at times like this that we are reminded that we are amongst the ‘non-essential’ workforce. We have no lives to save, no actual real fires to put out, no masses to feed, and no citizens to protect. We take our work very seriously and that’s a good thing, but it’s also good to remember that sometimes we may take things too seriously.

Tomorrow we will return to work refreshed. Working remotely we will have kept up with the essential details of all our projects and we will have also taken care of some nagging items on our to do list. We will have walked our dogs at lunchtime or finished our laundry or played in the snow with our kids. Some of us may have baked cookies and will bring them into the office to share. Just a thought.