Kicks from K-Mart: Protege Makes a Cheap Shoe Cool

Basketball shoes have a special place in my heart. I grew up wanting to be  a shoe designer for Nike, and even though I was never a great player,I amassed a large collection of basketball shoes that did nothing but sit on my shelf for years.

One thing about basketball shoes; they are expensive. This presents a problem, because their primary market is teenage boys who don’t have much disposable income.

Their have always been cheap shoes, but they were always dorky. Fake versions of Jordans, Garnetts, and Shox proliferated the shelves of K-Mart and Wal-Mart, bound to end up on some kids feet who just wasn’t fortunate enough to afford coolness.

Because of my long-engrained bias against cheap shoes, an advertisement for the new Protege brand caught my attention hard a few weeks ago. The ad was an appealing juxtaposition of gritty streetball scenes and futuristic CGI visually showing the values of the shoe. To top it all off, it was all being sold by Knicks’s big man Al Harrington. My attention was had, and then completely imprisoned by the end of the ad.

“Protege, available at K-Mart for 34.99″

Whoa. A good looking, pro-sponsored basketball shoe for the price of a pair of shorts? Was this the first cheap shoe that could be actually cool?

The Protege shoe is something that is an advertising dream; A beautiful product with a low price tag. DraftFCB could have simply had the shoe on a shelf with the price tag and it could have sold. Instead, they developed an ad that made the shoe even more appealing.

The aspect that makes this advertisement work is its ambition. It seems like many cheap alternative products are advertised cheaply; draped in cliche humor, stock video, and generally cheesy advertising message. Instead of take that obvious route, DraftFCB presents the Protege shoe as an extremely desirable product; something that is in the same league as the best of Nike. Everything from the pro athlete credibility to the extremely slick CGI to the well-written, subtle script creates a big-boy atmosphere for the upstart shoe. This is crucial, because basketball shoes are about 20% performance and 80% image.

They finish off this great ad with a pithy, hard hitting tagline; “You don’t need money to play this game, you need the shoe”

The tv spot is complemented by an interactive, multi-use website developed by interactive agency indelible. The website gives more information on the shoe design, shows the entire product line, and gives insight into Al Harrington’s vision for the new brand.

Its encouraging to see a company and an agency show that coolness isn’t all about how much you spend. It makes the idealistic part of my brain think that maybe all advertising isn’t just about fooling people to part with their money. Maybe advertising can actually connect people with something that will meet their needs. Maybe…

In any case, I want a pair.’s

Iconography: Pepsi campaigns on Change

Last fall, my daily perusal of adage.com led to an unbelievable story. Pepsi was unveiling a new logo. What made it unbelievable was the five months that went into designing the logo and the $1 million price tag (not including the huge costs in replacing logos on trucks, vending machines, etc).

The result?

I was underwhelmed. Sure, it was aesthetically pleasing and reflected millennial design more than there overtly 90′s inspired previous logo, but worth the huge costs? In my mind, hardly.

I, like the rest of the AdAge commenters, immediately wrote off the redesign as unnecessary and overpriced. Furthermore, I believed the logo change seemed to be another example of Pepsi’s inability to create a logo as iconic and long lasting as Coca-Colas. Coca- Cola ‘s logo, which has remained unchanged throughout the many design phases it has lived through, serves as a direct contrast to Pepsi, which has changed to reflect every design phase.

Pepsi - 1898-2008

Coca-Cola - Largely unchanged since 1895

I started to rethink my opinion on the Pepsi redesign on a road trip with one of my graphic design friends. “The new Pepsi logo is genius”, he blithely stated after a quick stop at a convenience store. I was incredulous, “really? I think its pointless. It cost way too much money, and they lose all the visual recognition capital they built with their old logo.”

Both of us realized that marketing is essentially the only point of differentiation in the soft-drink world. However, I believed that Pepsi should refresh their marketing efforts around a constant logo, whereas my friend believed that the logo change was essential for them to stay relevant.

I was still convinced I was right. However, the fact that my friend, who is an astute creative with a love for forward thinking design, noticed and liked the new Pepsi logo had to be worth something.

I more or less forgot about the Pepsi logo until New Years Eve. I went to New York City, and as I strolled down the advertising Mecca of Times Square, I saw it.

I was awed. In the midst of the advertising overload of Times Square, my eye was immediately drawn to the colorful, bold Pepsi display. The use of the Pepsi logo as an “o” is incredibly simple and memorable. Instead of reading “Pepsi” and immediately tuning out to an already heard message, I was reading random words that all have a lot of social meaning and pique my interest. By including the Pepsi logo within these words, I am not only being exposed to the logo over and over again, I am passively connecting the logo to the words I am reading. Pop is Pepsi. Love is Pepsi. 09 is Pepsi. The brand message was there without saying it or even stating the company name: Pepsi emphasizes everything.

The next few weeks, I saw many variations of the execution, Booyah on top of Taxis, OohLaLa on the Chicago El, Hola on a huge billboard. None of these renditions included the Pepsi name. They were simply permanently indenting the new logo into my mind, associating it with the most happy and colorful expressions of words.

I now believe the Pepsi logo change was a great move, but only because of its inventive presentation. In addition to the memorable outdoor advertising campaign, the logo has the benefit of all sorts of controversy. First, we have the conspiracy that the logo and advertising message was designed in concert with Barack Obama’s campaign logo.

Second, we have a 27 page document explaining the development of the logo, which includes such heady topics as Earth’s magnetism and grandiose proclamations like “Emotive forces shape the gestalt of the brand identity”.

Third, we have the sheer cost of rebrand in the midst of mass layoffs by Pepsi.

While these all raise some legitimate questions for Pepsi as a company, they do nothing but boost the publicity of the new logo for free.

Will the new logo pull Pepsi out of its recession slump? So far, no. However, with its mass publicity and exciting executiong, the rebranding of Pepsi could be just what the doctor ordered in the long run. (Soft drink mixed metaphors are the best)

Tul: Online Interactivity Done Right

Last night my roommate, who writes amean piano ballad but has very little interest in advertising, confessed to me a recent experience he had with online advertising.

He was attempting to catch up on a few episodes of The Office on nbc.com. As usual, he was subjected to mini advertisements during the streaming episode. He said that one advertiser, “some cell phone” company, was presenting their advertisement in the form of an online game. However, instead of being excited about the interactivity of the game during the interruption of his episode, he had the opposite reaction.

“I felt like I was being condescended to. There was a little progress bar, and I knew if I clicked around it would fill up or something, but I didn’t care about it at all. And it had nothing to do with cell phones. I almost wanted to say, ‘pitch me something here at least!’.”

I thought this was interesting. Here was a little campaign that obviously took some creativity and attempted to overcome the annoyance factor of online advertising. It was obviously marketed to people who enjoy The Office, a target market in which I imagine my roommate fits in rather nicely. However, instead of igniting the joy and excitement every viral campaign lusts for, it turned my roommate off. He, in his own words, would have preferred a more basic, more informational advertisement.

It seems the problem here is one that a lot of companies attempting to “go viral” with their advertising face. Some campaigns may have interactivity, may be witty, may even be well targeted, but simply aren’t effective in advertising the product. Its a tough line to draw, and producing good viral campaigns seems to require a lot of trial and error.

A look at some of the best interactive campaigns, Office Max’s “Elf Yourself”, Burger King’s “Subservient Chicken”, HBO’s “True Blood” are all examples that come to mind, reveals some consistent themes.

1. It is fun

2. It is easily connected to the company

3. It presents something uniquely valuable

It seems like it is fairly easy to achieve two of the three characteristics, but it is only when all three are met that the campaign can truly become viral.

In the case of of the interactive games by “some cell phone company”, it seems like 1 and 3 were both adequately met, but the lack of 2 made my roommate lose interest. After all, if he wanted a fun valuable experience, he could easily play a few rounds of Slayer on Halo 3, or for that matter, hit up addictinggames.com. Why play what he knew an advertisement? Shouldn’t he at least get a message if he was going to be subjected to advertising?

This is what your little advergame is competing against, agencies.

This experience just goes to prove what is known by anyone trying to develop a great interactive campaign: it is a minefield.

I recently had the pleasure to talk with marketing visionary Bob Thacker. Mr. Thacker is currently the senior VP of marketing at Officemax, and his experience includes heading up the Minneapolis BBDO office and serving as marketing VP of Target, where he led the incredibly effective turnaround of the company from a retailing also-ran to an ultra hip shopping destination. Talking with Mr. Thacker was an incredible experience, and was filled with enough marketing and life lessons to fill an entire post at another time. Anyway, during that meeting, Mr. Thacker told me to check out tul.com.

Tul is OfficeMax’s house brand of high quality pens and markers. I have used the pens, and they are incredible, enough for me to specifically go to Office Max to get more. In addition to making great pens, Tul has an interactive website that, I believe, does everything right.

The concept of the tul website, put together by forward thinking agency The Escape Pod, is that of a handwriting analysis. The site instructs you to handwrite the not-so-subtle sentence, “I Need a New Pen”, after which it asks you to answer several questions based on your handwriting. The test is quick, easy to navigate, and aesthetically pleasing.

It is after the test, however, that the real beauty comes out. A video analysis is played that is tailored to your answers. The plausible handwriting analysis is peppered with dry, off-kilter jokes. This approach has a lot of potential to be derivative or boring, but the actor portraying Gerard Ackerman gives the material all sorts of life. His snarky comments range from subtle put-downs to a surprising vow of love.

After the “analysis” is finished, Dr. Ackerman recommends to you an appropriate Tul pen for your style, which you can read more about, watch a video about, or order online.

I think the Tul site is a great example of an interactive campaign. It meets the three needs established above effectively.

1. It is fun Absolutely. A handwriting analysis is not something the average person has done, so physically writing and then answering the subsequent questions is an interesting, new experience for most. On top of this, the humor on the website is impeccable. It truly thrives in its subtlety, and seems to be designed for the customer who loves Arrested Development and Wes Anderson movies.

2. It is easily connected to the company. Yes. Unlike a seemingly random game for a cell phone provider, a writing analysis is something that gets the user to start thinking about pens. There are also seamless links from the interactive portion of the site to the product information section.

3. It presents something uniquely valuable. Again, absolutely. The handwriting assessment is a unique activity, and the humor is quirky and specialized enough to make the website a destination and something to forward to friends. Also, the variability in the answers and analysis makes repeat visits to the site irresistable.

The site was initially launched in conjunction with a print campaign as well as a direct mail campaign directing 2 million subscribers of thought-leading magazines such as Wired and Esquire to try out the analysis.

Final verdict? According to The Escape Pod’s website, “The pens flew off the shelves”.

By applying these three concepts to interactive advertising, agencies can transcend the attitude of jumping on the interactive bandwagon, and truly create something the will shape pop culture. In the mean time, see what the Doc has to say about your writing

www.tul.com

Burger Imperialism!: The Rise of Burger King

After decades of unstoppable growth, the fast food industry has taken a sharp nose dive in the opinions of many Americans. A business once associated with the happiness and innocence of Ronald McDonald has become a slow moving target for exposes such as Fast Food Nation and Supersize Me. Consumers are not only aware of the health issues of fast food, they are intensely flocking to healthier alternatives. They are giving up the cheeseburger lust of the hamburgler for the sensible drollness of Jared from Subway. They are scorning their coworkers for eating taco bell for lunch and carrying their Whole Foods recycled paper bags like trophies of health awareness.

It is a tough climate for the fast food titans to advertise in. Some change their advertising message and even their menus to cast themselves as self-aware health advocates. The cheerful spokeswoman for Wendy’s brags about the origin of their fish sandwiches. The ubiquitous Jared implies that eating Subway is equal to running 3 miles a day. Even Mcdonalds is joining the health game, littering their menu with parfaits, apple dippers, and salads like healthy camoflauge for Double Quarter Pounders and McGriddles.

Fast Food restaurants at least aspiring to be part of the health revolution in America is a sensible reaction to changing consumer opinions.

That’s why I love the advertising for Burger King.

When Crispin Porter + Bogusky took the reins of Burger King in 2003, they took a brand with weak differentiation from McDonalds and transformed it into a quirky, irreverent behemoth. Characters like the King, Subservient Chicken, and Coq Roq not only made for engaging, if disturbing, advertisements, but pushed their way into becoming popular culture memes.

A viral dream - From advertisement to message board meme

CP+B’s newest bit of advertising genius is the “controversial” Whopper Virgins. In the TV spots, which are actually teasers for the 8 minute long mini-documentary on http://www.whoppervirgins.com, we are introduced to an over-serious execution of a simple concept; give Whoppers to people who have never had them.

After the campaign’s announcement, the online world went absolutely insane. Cries of protest resounded, “They are stereotyping!”, “They are forcing American culture upon unwilling cultures!”, “They are exploiting the poor!”. When not lambasting the campaign as a fervent rejuvenation of imperialism, there were whispers questioning the validity of the taste-test “research” in the ad; “There are no official numbers!”, “Are these really the most qualified taste-testers?”. All in all, the educated were furious about the campaign.

This is why the campaign works. Burger King is a seller of cheap, delicious, unhealthy food. By its nature, it is not going to appeal to those with developed food taste, health awareness, or large enough budgets to frequent Whole Foods. Instead of attempting to broaden its target and appeal to these customers with a more healthy menu or “grown-up” marketing, it is going squarely for its solid customer base of young males.

While Burger King’s privately-held status prevents knowledge of how effective the campaign is financially, I know from personal experience that the Burger King has established itself as a leader in the mind of 20 something males. The people who even consider Burger King as a meal choice don’t care about statistical integrity in taste tests. They are aware that they aren’t exactly eating the most healthy choice but they don’t care. They watch the advertisements that make them laugh and they surely don’t forward emails attachments of Wendy’s ads to their friends. They are the ones that bought 3.2 million copies of Burger King’s Xbox 360 games.

While David Ogilvy would roll over in his grave at the thought of an agency producing advertising that focuses more on company image than product explanation and differentiation, CP+B have shown that that may be the best way to build a brand equity when their main product is as scorned as fast food.

And man..now I’m hungry for a Whopper. Maybe I’ll delete ten friends from facebook so I can get one.

Threadless: The Pinnacle in User Created Content

Here’s an exercise. Go to a college campus, talk to the entry level employees at your company, or go to any concert thats not in a stadium. Start a conversation about t-shirts.

T-shirts are perhaps the most definitive piece of clothing for the millenial generation. We grew up needing our t-shirts to say Nike or Abercrombie. Some of us communicated our cynicism through black t-shirts with distorted fonts declaring such idioms as “I hear voices and they don’t like you”, or “I see dumb people”. Others wore our t-shirts as a resume of our sports accomplishments; “CCHS Track Regionals 2000″ or a resume of our social accomplishments; “Hard Rock Cafe: Hawaii”, “Ozzfest 99″.

T-shirts quickly escalated from a piece of clothing to a personal status update medium in a pre-twitter, pre- facebook world. In the few years after the turn of the millenium, a myriad of online boutique retailers capitalized on this trend and developed their own t-shirts that were updated at a lightning pace to reflect pop culture happenings or popular memes. Sites like Busted Tees, Snorg Tees, and VintageVantage all provided a broad mix of shirt designs that shifted with the fickle consumer needs and saw great success as a result. With the options of t-shirt expression expanding at a breakneck pace, it seemed that anyone could find anything they wanted on a t-shirt.

Then came Threadless.

Threadless doesn’t just tag along on popular culture icons or design trends, it doesn’t gain insight from thought-leaders on its design lines. Threadless says, you design a shirt, and if enough people like it, we will pay you and produce and distribute the shirt.

This business model is not only focused on the consumer, it is made by the consumer. This is remarkable for several reasons.

First, Threadless is able to offer the most edgy, most relevant, most popular t-shirts at all times. By taking a chainsaw to the processes of market research, product development, and design time and providing a direct line from consumer preference to product offering, it is guaranteed that threadless t-shirts will always be directly in tune with consumer preference. Furthermore, by printing the t-shirts that receive the most votes from users, there is an automatic audience for those designs, and it is impossible that an unpopular shirt will be provided.

Second, Threadless ‘ user created model gains an enormous marketing reach without spending an advertising dollar. Threadless has over a thousand individual design submitters. Each one of these submitters wants their t-shirt to be seen and to be printed by threadless. Their best way of doing this, besides creating a killer design, is to send word to everyone they know and direct them to vote for their t-shirt on threadless.com. To have a customer tell everyone they know to visit their store is every company’s dream. Threadless has effectively developed this enormous word of mouth buzz with minimal spending.

Third, Threadless eliminates the time intensive, difficult process of idea generation and design while maintaining its status as a fashion leader. They are basically a distributor, nothing more than UPS.

Threadless is just one example of the enormous push towards user generated content. However, they have eclipsed the likes of Wikipedia and Amazon by not only allowing customers to have a voice, but to literally make money off of their voice.

Obviously not every company can rely as exclusively on user created content as Threadless, (The new Boeing Transatlantic Jet: Designed by your teenage neighbor!). However, in a world where the common consumer expects to have an influence, companies would do well to capitilize on Threadless success. Whether it be a user created bookstore like lulu.com or Google’s $10 million prize for a user idea, there are many avenues of connecting with consumers directly, increasing consumer opinion while making some good money.