Lite Service from Miller

Providing free rides is not exactly a new idea even in the alcoholic beverage arena–Captain Morgan’s has been helping out party goers for a couple of years in select markets. So MillerLite’s decision to support the Kentucky Derby with free rides is hardly big news:

Thank you for visiting the Miller Lite Free Rides™ web site. The Miller Lite Free Rides program is a collaborative effort between transit systems, community organizations, law enforcement agencies, civic organizations and others to help keep our streets safe and prevent drunk driving on major holidays and throughout the year.

Take advantage of a safe transportation alternative during your Derby Eve celebration on May 1st. Miller Lite Free Rides will provide evening service to many popular destinations, including the Derby Eve Jam concert on the waterfront, restaurants, bars, local family events and neighborhood celebrations.

So why then am I writing about it? Well, simply as a reminder that Marketing as Service requires just as much consistency, commitment and creativity as other marketing approaches in order to cut through.  A one-day free ride program is hardly a sincere commitment to public safety.  Because free rides have been done so often they can’t really expect much PR or points for creativity.  I’m not saying Miller is wrong for doing this just that they should be careful not to offer it up as a meaningful pro-social activity.  Now if this is the beginning of year-long program to offer free rides at major sporting events then let me know and I’ll buy a couple of six packs and toast to their health (at home, safe, far from a car!)

P&G Plunges Ahead

P&G keeps finding fresh ways to serve its customers. This one was spotted by a fellow Renegade (thanks Steph):

Procter & Gamble’s Charmin has partnered with SitOrSquat, a Web site that allows picky pottygoers to identify the cleanest (or dirtiest) toilets around. The application is available for download on most BlackBerrys and iPhones. Users enter their target city and state, and a host of available toilets—(some “sit” or “squat”)—pop up.

Since I’m on an airplane writing this, I can’t actually give this app a trial run but it seems like the Charmin team is definitely on a roll (keep in mind these are the same folks that brought you sparkling clean potties in Times Square.) They are certainly giving Scotts a run for their money. Some might say I’m piling it on just to make a point. Or that I’m trying to squeeze every last pun out of this meager offering. And of course, to them I say, plunge ahead, Marketing as Service in any form, is never number two in my book.

4 Tips for Brand Experiences that Stick

This article appeared on iMediaConnection on July 7, 2008.

Check out these simple ways to convert prospects into customers and then into card-carrying brand evangelists.

#1. Consider marketing as service

Brand experiences, whether physical or virtual, if done correctly can convert prospects into customers and then customers into card-carrying brand evangelists. These experiences are by definition interactive, encouraging dialogue and ideally an intimate and unforgettable dance between brand and consumer. Here are four thoughts on how to turn your brand experiences into dances of a lifetime.

When brands create experiences that provide a real service, magical things happen. Because “marketing as service” provides a real value, the brand pulls customers and prospects into it, rather than pushing a message at them. This natural engagement deepens relationships with existing customers, forms strong bonds with new ones and helps generate favorable word of mouth.

Charmin showed its get-up-and-go when it installed restrooms in Times Square, providing welcome relief for more than a half million holiday tourists. The service was unexpected, memorable, relevant and good clean fun. Samsung has electrified road warriors by installing mobile device charging stations in five major U.S. airports. Given the annoying paucity of outlets in terminals, this service is pumping up Samsung’s image as a friend indeed to the mobile world.

#2. It all starts with an insight — even chotchkes!

In order to cut through effectively, the experience must derive from a sound strategic insight relevant to the brand. While handing out fun premiums might drive traffic, it rarely builds brand loyalty unless it extends the conversation and reinforces what the brand stands for. When my company’s client, Panasonic, wanted to engage action sports enthusiasts, they needed an insight that gave them permission to “hang” with this otherwise skeptical crowd. The insight they found was that capturing and sharing tricks was an inherent part of the action sports lifestyle. Since Panasonic made the video and still cameras that captured the tricks, and the TVs to see them on, they had a legitimate reason to “Share the Air” with this community.

Panasonic’s Share the Air program featured a camera loaner program at each of the five stops of the AST Dew Tour. With the swipe of a driver’s license, attendees got their hands on a new video or digital still camera to record the cool tricks that they saw during the day’s competition. And to make the experience memorable, participants could take a Panasonic-branded SD card home containing all of their pictures. The Share the Air microsite kept the experience alive, allowing attendees to blog with their favorite athletes on a daily basis, and deliver incentives to purchase Panasonic products at local dealers. All of these elements combined to make Panasonic a brand of choice among action sports enthusiasts.

#3. Extend the experience seamlessly

Ideally, an event will accomplish a variety of goals beyond informing and engaging an audience and generating buzz/PR. One essential function of an event is to drive prospects and customers to a complimentary online experience. Not only will this help amortize the high cost-per-touch of an event, but also it will lead to a long-term customer relationship by extending the experience.

In a perfect world, a single agency should have the capabilities to execute these complimentary event and online experiences. This approach is the most cost effective and ensures consistency of look and tonality across all channels of communication.

#4. Measure, measure and measure again

The goal should always be to cut through the first time. To accomplish this, metrics for success must be established upfront. Marketers need to set benchmarks via pre-event research to compare with post-event data.

In addition to tracking event attendance; time with brand and perceptual changes and sell-in and sell-through, consider adding Net Promoter Score to your measurement arsenal. NPS is a simple and reliable way to measure the likelihood of someone recommending your brand to a friend (i.e., word of mouth). Since NPS can be measured online as well, it will also help you understand if your online experience is as strong as the offline one.

Additional online metrics, including unique visitors, time-on-site, pre/post NPS and online commerce data (if relevant), will help complete the tally, ensuring you know which elements should be cut and which cut through.

WiiFit Fits Good

WiiFitSedentary kids are a meaty social problem. Video games tends to exacerbate the situation, causing carpal tunnel and tooshie fatigue. Can WiiFit get these kids off the couch and help them burn a few calories? Dance Dance Revolution made some headway in this area and was even adopted by some school districts as a legitimate form of exercise (see previous post on DDR).

Here’s the blurb from Amazon about WiiFit:

Wii Fit features more than 40 activities and exercises, including strength training, aerobics, yoga, and balance games for play on Nintendo’s Wii. WiiFit will be released on May 19 and requires a Nintendo Wii game console to play.

Because the Wii itself has been such a phenomenal success on multiple levels, it should be a surprise that there is a huge buzz already building about WiiFit. Nintendo (at least I think it is Nintendo) has set up a very legit looking blog up called WiiFit.net that is even modestly self-critical:

The Wii Fit, meanwhile, sells the idea of the video game as a lifestyle solution. If, three years ago, a focus group had been asked whether they thought a video game could improve your memory or help you to lose weight, the answer would have probably been a rather bemused ‘no.’ Before Wii Fit, the idea of a fat-burning video game was an idea as outlandishly utopian as slimming beer or a carpet that reverses ageing.

But like it or not, Nintendo have pulled off an impressive marketing trick – they’ve convinced an entire untapped audience to buy their product, though it remains to be seen whether the nation’s waistlines will improve as a result.

Having worked up a sweat playing the regular Wii, I’m a big fan of this product and the lifestyle they are building around it. They have even created another support site called Wii Healthy that offers all sort of tips to eat and live a Wii bit better. This is quite a stretch for a gaming company but one that should embolden many other marketers.

Renegade Greensaver

Since we’ve been prescribing Marketing as Service (a subset of Marketing for Good) to our clients for some time now, I thought it was important to offer up an example of how we take our own medicine here at Renegade. Pardon the self-promotion but it is just too good an example of replacing messaging with a genuine service, in this case a screensaver that serves up “green” tips when your computer is at rest. Here’s what Sean Bartlett said about it on his blog

Letting your computer sit idle isn’t the most efficient thing to do
but throughout the day you are bound to step away for awhile. When
you do, the Greensaver from Renegade will
take over and serve up a variety of green tips for you to view
before getting back to work.

The Greensaver is connected to the Internet so you can look forward
to refreshed content and even submit your own tips.

Renegade Greensaver website.

The idea behind Marketing as Service is quite simple–deliver real value via your communications rather than attribute-focused messaging and your prospects will become customers and your customers evangelists. Hopefully the Greensaver will also encourage greener behavior along the way which will have a positive ROI for all of us.

As Sean noted, the Greensaver will also remain fresh as people like you add more tips. Give the Greensaver a try and let me know what you think. Happy New Year.