Zazou Marketing

Santa Monica, California just launched an example of an advertising campaign that does it right: It has good copy and good design. The campaign plays off the children’s game of “One of these things is not like the others” to remind/teach people about the city’s no-smoking laws.

According to the New York Times, the advertising campaign is extensive, including ad wraps on the beaches’ garbage cans and posters at bus stops and A.T.M.s.

The advertisements all have three or four images with the words “One of these doesn’t belong …” or “One of these doesn’t belong here.” The best part — the images change according to where the ad is placed.

So, advertisements for restaurants show wheat, asparagus, breadsticks and cigarettes — each tied together in a similar manner. The ad copy? “No smoking in Santa Monica’s outdoor dining areas.”

Ads at the beach show a palm tree, a surf board and a cigarette. The copy says, “No smoking on Santa Monica’s beaches.”

Ads at bus stops show a wheel, a sign for a bus line, a bus token and an ashtray with a cigarette. “Please keep Santa Monica’s bus stops smoke-free,” the copy says. “It’s for our environment. It’s for each other. It’s the law.”

Ads at A.T.M.s show an A.T.M. screen, an A.T.M. keypad, a bank card and a stack of cigarettes. “Please keep Santa Monica’s A.T.M. lines smoke-free,” the copy requests.

The creative copy and design in this campaign together make a point quickly and easily, while being memorable — all things we strive to do in a good ad campaign.

I tell clients over and over to get to the point: Cut needless words; cut pointless thoughts; and start out sharp (you only have a few seconds to grab people’s attention, after all). Which is why it was so embarrassing when my husband pointed out I hadn’t done the same for myself.

On my website I wrote, “With Zazou Marketing’s writing, editing or proofreading services, your words can be a powerful sales tool: We deliver the words that sell your products or services.” He read it recently and very tentatively asked, “Shouldn’t it start with, ‘Your words can be a powerful sales tool.’?” Well, yes, it should, I admitted.

The moral? Even people who write copy all day, every day can benefit from an outside set of eyes to look over their copy. Sometimes we’re just too close to our words to read it objectively. And sometimes we’re too close to our business to read it like we have never read it before. Either way, remember that your marketing copy will likely also benefit from another person’s editing and viewpoint.

(By the way, if you go to my website, you will see that I have changed my copy to start with, “Your words can be a powerful sales tool.”)

And, for more examples of how to keep your copy to the point and sharp, see my past posting, “Copywriting Secrets To Selling Your Doodad.”

Toyota’s marketing campaign for the 2010 Prius includes advertising on Gas Station TV — you know, those TV screens at the gas pump that show news and ads. I for one hate those TV screens and do everything I can to avoid going to gas stations that have them. I simply resent being forced to watch and listen to whatever is being blasted during the time that I pump my gas.

Assuming I am not the only one who feels that way, I might discourage Prius from using this marketing medium. However, a new study shows that this may just be the perfect venue for Prius to market to those unfortunate people who do have to watch ads while they are pumping.

Why? Because relevance is key. A generally known concept in marketing circles, there is new data to further back it up:

Ads on websites with content that related to those ads were 61 percent more likely to be recalled than those on websites with unrelated content, according to a study from CBS Vision, as reported by MediaPost’s Online Media Daily. Interestingly, social networks, shopping sites and food sites created the best recall rates (29 percent to 39 percent). And non-topic-specific search and portal sites had the lowest recall rates.

While this study is website specific, the results just back up what has already been proved by other studies. So, Prius may actually be smart to advertise to people who are pumping gas (and would rather not be). And you should definitely figure out who your target market is and where they are — and make sure to market to them there.

As the future of our country’s health care is debated, the health care insurance companies look like they are getting nervous — or at least preparing for the worst. What’s the indicator? Health insurance companies have increased direct mail offers by 18% in the past year, according to Mintel Comperemedia (as reported by MediaPost’s MarketingDaily).

The reason I mention it here is because I find it interesting how they are using their copy to differentiate themselves from one another. According to MarketingDaily:

United Healthcare advertises affordability and choice in its new UnitedHealthOne brand, while Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia’s SmartSense plan focuses on low costs for the unemployed. Taking a slightly different angle, Kaiser Permanente’s direct mail emphasizes general health and well being, claiming “we’ll help you live well, be well, and thrive.”

No matter what you think about healthcare reform, we could probably all learn a bit from their savvy marketing efforts and attempts to grab some of the market by setting themselves apart from each other.

This morning I got a newsletter in the mail from a company that I have hired in the past. I scanned it quickly and immediately threw it in the recycling. Such a waste — a waste of people’s time and a waste of resources. As you know, this is a very common experience. But then, once in a while, you get one that you actually read. Why? Because it’s interesting and relevant.

Yes, a newsletter that is actually relevant may take more time to create than just spitting out some words to keep on people’s radar. But wouldn’t you rather put your resources toward something that gets read, rather than toward something that is just discarded?

So, when you write your next newsletter, whether for snail mail or e-mail, make sure to do the following:

• Write about something relevant to your customers. Think about what problems your customers call you about and give advice to help solve those problems.
• Tell real stories. Even better, use real customers to illustrate your story — there’s usually no better way to sell your service or product .
• Minimize the sales-y copy. Yes, you want to give your company a plug, but keep it short and sweet. Instead, put the focus on good information — it will be much more effective than focusing on a sales pitch.

Yesterday I wrote about how Dunkin’ Donuts’ new ad campaign successfully differentiates the company from their competition. Today I am writing about a company’s ad campaign that fails to do just that. In fact, this ad campaign simply makes me wonder what they were thinking.

In this ad campaign, Microsoft accuses Google of causing global economic ruin as a narrator says: “While everyone was searching, there was bailing. . . . While everyone was lost in the links, there was collapsing.” The product? Microsoft’s new  search engine, Bing. All I can say to this is, “What?!”

I am not alone in this confusion. The LA Times ran a story about it today, titled “Microsoft’s Bing TV ad: Huh?”

This is my favorite part of the article:

I find many mysteries in this commercial. The first is how an ad firm with an estimated $100 million entrusted to it fails to notice the clumsy grammar (”there was bailing . . . there was collapsing” sounds as if the lines were translated from Zulu). While I’ve got my copy-editing hat on, I’d note that a long stretch of the ad’s narration — “Starting today we need the right information to make the right decisions, decisions that help us feel right, decisions that help us get to the right place at the right time, even if it’s right around the corner. . . . ” — is so vacuous it practically sucked my eyeballs out of their sockets.

Sucking eyeballs out of sockets is probably the last association that Microsoft wanted when they launched this marketing campaign. But I still do wonder what it is that they did want. Maybe the purspose of the campaign is just to turn heads? I suppose simply by getting attention some people will try the search engine. But I can’t help but think that if they gave people a good reason to switch from Google to Bing, many, many more people would give it a try — this is, after all, what any good marketing material should do.

Dunkin’ Donuts is rolling out an entertaining and fun new ad campaign. But that’s not what made it noteworthy enough for me to write about here. The reason that I’m mentioning it is because — as all marketing campaigns should — this campaign effectively differentiates the company from their competition.

Dunkin’ Donuts’ “Breakfast NOT Brokefest” advertising campaign introduces the company’s new 99-cent breakfast wrap, which is also in line with their current coffee pricing.

Dunkin' Donuts is rolling out a new "Breakfast NOT Brokefest" ad campaign.

The marketing campaign includes displays of legs that stick out of public fountains, which make it look like someone jumped into the fountain to gather coins. A sign next to the legs read: “Please do not remove change for 99-cent items at Dunkin’ Donuts.”

In a separate TV ad, a man tightens his belt, which prompts a colleague to point out that that won’t save him money.

The price-oriented advertising campaign sets the brand apart from the pricier McDonald’s and Starbucks (who are both trying to tackle the coffee and breakfast market right now).  Considering that people are feeling the need to scale back and let go of luxuries like a $4 latte, the Dunkin’ Donuts campaign may entice more than a few new customers.

By the way, if you want to read more about what Starbucks has been up to recently, read my past posts:

Starbucks vs. Stella: Two beverage companies warn against paying less

Copy Chatter: Starbucks Bucks the Short Copy Trend

Despite the title of this post, I am not going to cover all rules for commas here. Instead, I am going to review the rule about essential phrases and nonessential phrases. That’s because this is a rule I use all the time and, for some reason, I have to look it up every time.

In fact, I had to look it up again this morning when I was working on a client’s marketing one-sheet. For the marketing collateral, I needed to include the name of person and a descriptor before her name. The marketing material also had to include the name of a title of a show. In each case I had to decide when and if a comma was necessary.

So, which of the following is correct?:

The creator of Pole Superstar, Diane Passage, will be a judge.

The creator of Pole Superstar Diane Passage will be a judge.

Similarly, which of the following is correct?:

Her varied accomplishments include producing the off-Broadway play, “Artfuckers.”

Her varied accomplishments include producing the off-Broadway play “Artfuckers.”

Once again, I headed to my handy APA Style Book and looked it up. In short, it says that an essential phrase, one that is “critical to the reader’s understanding of what the author had in mind,” is not set off with commas. And a nonessential phrase, which “provides more information about something,” is set off by commas.

OK. Makes sense. But what about the above examples?

In the first one, her name is a nonessential clause (and needs commas) because only one person is the creator of Pole Superstar, so including her name is additional information. Even without her name, no one else could have been meant.

In the second one, “Artfuckers” is an essential clause (and does not need commas) because many plays are off-Broadway plays, and without the name the reader does not know which play is being referred to.

So, the final verdict is:

The creator of Pole Superstar, Diane Passage, will be a judge. Her varied accomplishments include producing the off-Broadway play “Artfuckers.”

By the way, if you want to read about a similar dilemma — Deciding Whether to Capitalize “How” in a Title — see my past post.

And the winner is…. Burger King!

No, it’s not the Academy Awards. It’s the Effies, which, if you’re in the advertising and marketing world, you already know is a big deal. The point of the Effie Awards? To honor marketing communications ideas that work.

So, the 2009 Grand prize was awarded last night to Burger King and Crispin Porter + Bogusky for the “Whopper Freakout” campaign.

The Grand Whopper Freakout campaign removed the Whopper from Burger King's menu and won the 2009 Grand Effie last night.

Here’s a summary of the campaign (go to the Effie Awards page for more details):

First, Burger King removed the Whopper from the menu without letting their customers know. Then, in phase two of the campaign, customers were given competitors’ burgers instead of the Whopper. Finally, Burger King TV ads to drove traffic to Whopperfreakout.com, where you can view an eight-minute documentary on the experiment (and, of course, you can upload it — see below). This part, of course is key, because the very entertaining and funny video focuses on the reactions of people who are being deprived of their beloved Whoppers. The result of the campaign was that Whopper quarterly sales increased by double-digits.

Double digit sales increase on the whopper? It just goes to show you that innovation and showing the value of your product or service can go a long way in your marketing campaign.

Recently I posted about how Starbucks was bucking the short-copy trend — opting for a page of copy rather than a one-line zinger. But it looks like they have been out-copied by a long shot!

As part of Cesar Sunrise’s launch of “the first-ever gourmet canine cuisine breakfast,” they have created an eight-page, make-believe humorous newspaper. Called The West Highland Herald, it is chock-full of stories written by dogs for dogs. Yes, you read that right: The stories are written by dogs with their dog peers in mind. (You can also view the paper on their Web site.)

To give you a sense of this newspaper, in the “fashion and lifestyle section” the headline reads, “Bold Shapes Dominate Milan Runways” and runs with the following photo:

This story includes the following excerpt:

First, let’s talk collars. Expect them to get tougher than leather, with several designers taking their cue from the junkyard and early 80s punk music. That’s right, studs and spikes are back! Goodbye bitch—hello butch!

And in the “Regional News” section a headline says, “Dog Saves Family from Vicious Vacuum,” with a story that starts with the following copy:

LOST GATOS—A very brave and fast-acting South Bay Pomeranian put an end to an upright vacuum bent on destruction this past Saturday. Teddy, 4, of La Serra Terrace, made a split-second decision that spared his family certain harm.

And there is a lot more where this came from.

You may ask, “Where is the Cesar ad in all of this?” That’s easy: On each page there is a labeled advertisement (definitely keeping things authentic here).  One says, “wake up to something special, cesar sunrise breakfast entrees.” Another says “new! cesar sunrise brand.” When you click through any of the ads, an extensive, multi-paged interactive Cesar ad pops up.

As for whether this humorous campaign will generate additional business, as always that remains to be seen. However, this ad campaign is entertaining and is certainly designed to go viral. If it does (with the help of a few people like me) it may very well increase sales.