Accelerator's truthSerum blog is a marketing professional's dream blog come true, where advertising and marketing professionals from client-side to agency-side discuss the issues that affect our marketing efforts everyday.
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After attending the 106th annual American International Toy Fair in New York City this past weekend, we at Accelerator Advertising are excited to see how well the toy industry is going to do this year. We were there to develop new strategies for packaging, designing children toys, and marketing the latest trends of going green and lead-free.
We explored every inch of the Jacob K. Javits Center and when talking with toy marketers they gave a general mood of optimism, given the current condition of the economy. They were also excited about the upcoming holiday season. The upbeat tone was obvious on the show floor as buyers and sellers were once again working deals for the forthcoming year. Several people said that in their first day they placed more orders than in the entire week of toy fair last year!
The newest and hottest trends were prevalent all over the fair with “green” materials used in the production and packaging of many newly launched products. We say products such as eco-friendly plush animals and biodegradable bags.
Another hot trend was being organically certified, which featured many more products than expected. Child safety is always a concern, and with the indecencies of lead poisoning in the past few years lead-free seems to be a number one selling point for retailers.
Another American International Toy Fair has come and gone and we can truly say that after what seemed like miles and miles of toy we’re sad it’s over and can’t wait for next year! Also, we’re eager for the upcoming year in the toy industry. It should be one for the record books!
The Super Bowl is always the time North America looks forward to great football, food, drink, friends, and for me… great advertising. This year, once again, offered lots of great creative and memorable ads. The Doritos spot in particular was interesting because it was not only funny and memorable, it also placed the product in a starring role which many commercials fail to do in an effort to entertain rather than sell.
The most interesting aspect of this particular commercial was the fact that it was the result of a contest that Frito-Lay established months ago to let ordinary consumers write and produce their own Super Bowl commercial. The winner being the one shown here.
The Doritos’ campaign not only generated lots of publicity but also helped build a relationship with its consumers. The successful campaign attracted 2 million clicks on the contest microsite and also attracted 750,000 unique users, and 2 million total video views. The contest ultimately racked up one BILLION impressions, equal to $36 million in paid media. Now that’s impressive viral marketing.
The final winners, brothers from Indiana, Dave and Joe Herbert not only had their winning idea produced into a commercial viewed by 98.73 million but also walked away with $1 million dollars! (Not to mention the millions of hits the ad received during the week after the Super Bowl.) Frito-Lay won by having tons of free publicity, free ad ideas, and a free commercial that the Herbert’s produced themselves for less than $2000. The cast and crew worked only for food. I hope the brothers shared some of their winnings with them!
Fun and effective, memorable and timeless, it demonstrates that sometimes the best way to market is to go directly to your demographic and see what resonates with them.
The day after the Super Bowl, Doritos was number one on USA Today’s Ad meter for all the Super Bowl ads.
Wake up marketers! It’s a world where the inmates run the asylum and you’d better learn how they do it! For decades now, marketers and brands have enjoyed the power to craft their messages and dictate how consumers should view their products. One need only to do a quick Google search for, “The Snuggie” to see how consumer driven content can benefit or damage your marketing efforts. Read more »
In this down economy advertisers are going to have change their messaging. And the more quickly they do, the better off their numbers will become.
Here are a few common sense guidelines for marketing in a recession:
1. Stress the VALUE PROPOSITION of your products or services, rather than features and benefits. Think about how your brand will make a significant difference to your audience in terms they will value and understand. Consider the success of Walmart’s Save Money. Live Better campaign. Talk about throwing a value proposition out there for everyone to see and grab hold of, huh? Read more »
Working in the advertising business, I get plenty of jeers from my friends and family around the holidays for my role in the commercialization of the holidays. I must admit, that even I at times wish the holidays weren’t so crass and commercial. That was until I watched the holiday classic, “It’s a Wonderful Life” with Jimmy Stewart. Read more »
You have no excuse not to with today’s dramatically informative market research methods, which encompass everything from old school surveys to secret-agent-caliber equipment. The market is changing, and market research methods are changing right along with it. They are evolving into increasingly shopper-focused, in-store-oriented techniques… because at-retail is the new mass medium. Read more »
You’d certainly expect to see some exciting sights in America’s playground, and the At-Retail Team here at Accelerator did just that in Las Vegas this past week. We couldn’t have been more enthralled by what we encountered at the 2008 In-store Marketing Expo: groundbreaking research, true innovation, and the chance to spend some quality time at the feet of the store honchos from Walmart and Kroger.
Over the next few weeks we’ll be paying out the jackpots of information we’ve won for our clients. We’ll share insights on merchandising trends, innovative materials, and substantive research that is changing the ways marketers develop products and the ways retailers will sell them.
These are the buzzwords in today’s society, words that convey a newly heightened environmental consciousness. Consumers everywhere are beginning to switch to re-usable tote bags and energy-efficient light bulbs, taking small steps to reduce their carbon footprints and protect the environment. The individual is now empowered.
Posted in Recent Posts by Accelerator
November 14, 2008
If you’re a marketer there’s possibly one time and one time only in your entire career when THE IDEA will come into your life.You know – THE IDEA that will put game-changing points on the board, move the needle, and make your career.
You know the kind of idea I’m talking about – the kind of fresh, share-stealing, eye-popping idea that makes everyone in your department, division, company and industry stand slack-jawed in AWE and enviously murmur in their minds, “I wish I would have thought of THAT.”
You may have noticed that Accelerator has a fresh new look! But before we
can tell you why, we have to tell you how we’ve gotten where we are today.
It’s been over six years since the Accelerator Companies launched out amidst
the devolution of the traditional ad agency models. Where big media once
dominated, new channels of reaching people opened. Clients split duties of
creative, planning, and media, causing the slow, dinosaur agencies to watch
their accounts vanish before their eyes. Suddenly, the new guys on the
block, like Accelerator, were capable of out-running, out-pacing, out-thinking,
and most of all, out-creating these advertising giants.
