Opinion
Assertions
11/3/08: IEG chairman
Lesa Ukman attended the
Assn. of National Advertisers annual conference last month and shares the following
observations and
takeaways:
Whether the topic was the power of measurement, online engagement or global tribes, speakers used their companies’
sponsorships to illustrate how marketing can drive
growth, the topic on everyone’s mind. While much of what was discussed has been at the
center of the
sponsorship dialogue for more than a
decade–being green is not just good marketing, it is good business; be customercentric not TV-centric; target by passion not just demographic–hearing it from
CMOs was proof sponsorship is no longer seen as
discretionary by those at the top of the food chain. This means many programs will
survive and thrive during the current economic downturn, a big difference from what happened during dark times during the ’80s and ’90s.
The Members Project from
American Express was created in response to research that said cardmembers were yearning for “more than more stuff,” said
Claire Bennett, AmEx senior vice president of global marketing. Results show significant
lifts in brand favorability and in the company’s Net Promoter Score, and the program
differentiated AmEx by facilitating a dynamic community of passionate customers. In addition, Bennett said, “while we’ve always known a lot
about our customers–when they vacation, where they sleep, what they buy–we’re now learning so much more about what
engages.”
The marriage of the new tidal wave of digital data and sponsorship also came to the fore in a talk by
Drew Slaven, general manager/marketing services,
Mercedes Benz USA. After “
data-driven analytics identified a possible affinity between the prestige of the Mercedes brand and a style-conscious, affluent American woman,” Mercedes took title to
Fashion Week. The
pay-off of engaging these “fashion-forward women”:
5,263 vehicles sold to first-time owners.
Joe Tripodi, chief marketing and commercial officer at
Coca-Cola, is big on sports, events and causes, but
not as
standalones. He believes they need to be turned into bigger platforms, because it takes Godzilla-sized footprints, not thousands of tiny little ones, to break through. That’s why Coke created the
Live Positively program, which the company uses to communicate its community works and partnerships worldwide, including
Coca-Cola Scholars and
Global Water Challenge. It also ties into
My Coke Rewards and Coke’s
sports partnerships. For example, a Coke recycling scheme in the U.K. was launched in partnership with 13 Football League clubs it sponsors and promoted under Live Positively.
The ultimate
mass marketer is going
niche. Coke is
rolling out Glaceau water not by country, state, or city, but by
zip code. The plan is similar to the company’s strategy for a new up-market beverage in Australia, where it used
targeted audience identification in six cities, with efforts concentrated in university and trendy areas. A “feet-on-the-street” model, it used celebrity endorsers speaking to a
narrow audience slice. “This kind of precision marketing shows the power of our
core-influencer strategy,” Tripodi explained. “For a brand like Coke, it’s really a
transformational opportunity. It’s a new approach to markets–something very different than just stacking it high and selling it cheap.”
Jim Andrews