Tag: Brands

REI stays true to brand despite Black Friday temptation

Tim Leon
President/Brand Strategist

REI stays true to brand despite Black Friday temptation

Branding

Last week, outdoor and camping retailer REI announced it would be closed for Black Friday, one of the biggest retail shopping days of the year. This gutsy move will pay off in spades over the long-term, increasing both customer and employee loyalty. CEO Jerry Stritzke has decided to buck the traditional retail mentality of being open on the biggest shopping day of the year and put the brand and his employees first.

If you go to the REI website, you’ll see a countdown page to Black Friday and an open letter from REI CEO Jerry Stritzke which is simple and to the point. Here it is:

“You read that correctly. On November 27, we’ll be closing all 143 of our stores and paying our employees to head outside. Here’s why we’re doing it. For 76 years, our co-op has been dedicated to one thing and one thing only: a life outdoors. We believe that being outside makes our lives better. And Black Friday is the perfect time to remind ourselves of this essential truth. We’re a different kind of company—and while the rest of the world is fighting it out in the aisles, we’ll be spending our day a little differently. We’re choosing to opt outside, and want you to come with us. “We’re closing on Black Friday and going outside. Since 1938 we’ve been bringing you great gear and services to get you out there too. That’s our story.”

This is a brand that is not tempted by short-term gain. REI is more focused on long-term growth and, most importantly, staying true to the brand promise of embracing the outdoors and supplying outdoor enthusiast with the advice and gear they require to enjoy their passion. My guess is the national PR attention this has and will garner over the coming weeks will be more powerful in engraining the REI brand into our culture and life than any amount of paid advertising. And to boot, REI is making Black Friday a paid holiday for its employees.

Bravo to REI for being fearless and staying true to their brand. I plan to partake in the outdoors as well on Black Friday…and I plan to buy a few Christmas gifts from your store this holiday season.

If you’re a brand focused on thinking about the big-picture and about long-term success, let us know. We love hearing stories like this.

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How G/L and Union Pacific are getting teens’ attention on rail safety

Tim Leon
President/Brand Strategist

How G/L and Union Pacific are getting teens’ attention on rail safety

Advertising

Most people underestimate the speed of a train and don’t realize it can take up to a mile for a train traveling 55 miles per hour to come to a complete stop.

The frightening truth is that deaths from walking on train tracks are up almost 10 percent this year, killing nearly 500 people in 2014.(source: Federal Railroad Administration). Many of these deaths are teens. This is, in part, due to the popularity of photos being taken on tracks by the teens themselves or by amateur and professional photographers. Believe it or not, train tracks are being used as a backdrop for senior photos.

The Union Pacific Crossing Accident Reduction Education and Safety (UP CARES) public safety initiative reminds both drivers and pedestrians to stop, look and listen when approaching railroad crossings and to always expect a train. As part of the initiative, G/L collaborated with Union Pacific Railroad to launch a campaign focused on raising awareness about the safety concerns and legal implications associated with taking high school senior photos on or near railroad tracks.

Playing on teens’ desire to look “cool” and not foolish in front of their peers, G/L created two videos that liken railroad tracks to busy thoroughfares (such as highways and busy downtown streets) and ask teens a simple question: “You wouldn’t get your senior photo taken here…so why would you do it on the tracks?” The videos, shared socially and digitally by Union Pacific, have been featured in articles on popular photography sites including SLR Lounge, Fstoppers, and PetaPixel, and were also included as part of a Nightline ABC story.

Changing behavior and perceptions through a campaign is no easy task. It needs to truly resonate with the viewer to make them think differently about what they’re doing. In this case the social media content and videos are connecting with both the teen and photographer audience thanks to the efforts of our client and G/L team.

Contact us using the form below if you have a public safety or internal safety program that we can help you strategize and implement.

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Does subtlety work in LinkedIn marketing?

Geile/Leon Marketing Communications

Does subtlety work in LinkedIn marketing?

Branding

Ask professionals for their opinion of LinkedIn and you’ll likely get a wide range of responses. Some see it as an invaluable tool for connecting with their peers. Others may simply not use it all that much. Some find it profoundly creepy (and with good reasons).

That being said, LinkedIn marketing presents an interesting challenge. The site already has a member of “freemium” offerings to begin with, such as paid memberships, online learning and a whole suite of other sales-based solutions. While posting regularly on the platform is a good strategy, the reach of specific posts varies wildly.

While the platform has some reasonably priced sponsored post options, many of the more enterprise advertising and recruiting solutions on LinkedIn can be incredibly pricey. They know they have a deep pool of profiles that others want to connect with and they leverage that data effectively. Their game, their rules.

Some marketers have tried to work around some of the advertising restrictions inherent in the LinkedIn platform. Men’s clothing company Bonobos created a personal profile for a shirt, which was positively received. It didn’t last long, however, as the profile went afoul of LinkedIn’s rules.

Another cool spin comes from well-regarded airline Virgin Atlantic. The company has always prided themselves on having an outgoing brand personality. They’ve taken that playfulness to LinkedIn to the form of a contest disguised as a job posting:

Virgin claims to be the first brand to leverage LinkedIn’s job search feature for promotional purposes. And its VP of marketing for the Americas, Simon Bradley, says the response has been quite positive to date, with nearly 200 applicants at the time of this posting. Bradley has bigger plans for the campaign; he tells AdFreak that the work is “very exciting for us, and we’ll be starting to seed it in our social campaigns very soon.”

Unlike the Bonobos campaign, this seems to have been approved in some fashion by LinkedIn. Which is good because it’d be a shame to work so hard on a campaign idea to have it shot down by the platform. And it looks like the prize of a round-trip to London has garnered some significant interest.

LinkedIn Marketing

Which is probably good news for LinkedIn, which is now in the middle of a slightly embarrassing class-action lawsuit.

We’re always looking for innovative ways to help brands cut through the clutter. Want to find out how yours can push the envelope? Let us know your thoughts.

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Trending from G/L – Snickers enters the personalized branding game

Luke Smith
Senior Account Executive

Trending from G/L – Snickers enters the personalized branding game

Branding

Thanks to Coca-Cola, the idea of personalized branding isn’t necessarily a new thing. Coca-Cola rolled out their personalized cans with heart-warming messages like “Mom”, “Friend, “Love”, and more. Coke even took it a step further by giving consumers the options to personalize your can of Coke through select specialty machines. With Coca-Cola’s success in creating a personalized consumer experience with product, other major brands are following suit.

When Snickers launched the “You’re not you when you’re hungry” campaign- it was met with resounding success. It featured opinionated celebrities with attitudes subbing in for regular people. Richard Lewis complaining about being a lumberjack, Betty White playing football, Danny Trejo playing Marsha on the Brady Bunch and slamming an axe on the table when she gets upset. Once they eat a Snickers though, they return their normal self.

The list of spots goes on, and they have all been hilariously executed. While Coca-Cola sticks with warm and fuzzy, Snickers is taking a different direction when it comes to personalization. Instead of endearing terms, they are replacing the Snickers brand logo on their packaging with 21 very specific symptoms of hunger.

personalized branding

Of the 21 customized packages, a large number of them are rather blunt. For example, you can give friends bars featuring the words Cranky, Grouchy, Confused, Irritable, Impatient, Complainer, Whiny, Curmudgeon, Ornery, Testy and Snippy. Those 11 are balanced out by 10 other bars that are slightly less offensive—Rebellious, Feisty, Sleepy, Loopy, Goofball, Forgetful, Drama Mama, Dramatic, Princess and Spacey.

Snickers also rolled out a new online spot starring a hotline operator advising and coaching callers on which bar to give their friends, dependent on the mood they are in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pT6PlWjuXw0

Snickers Brand Director Allison Miazga-Bedrick stated, “We believe the new bars will inspire people to not only quickly identify their own symptoms and satisfy their hunger, but give them a new, fun way to call-out friends and family on who they become when they’re hungry, too.”

With so many competing products, personalizing the experience just bridges a greater connection with consumers. Does a personalization strategy fit within your brand strategy? Contact us and we can explore opportunities for your brand.

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Trending from G/L: Parallel Parking made easy and the flying car of tomorrow

Geile/Leon Marketing Communications

Trending from G/L: Parallel Parking made easy and the flying car of tomorrow

Advertising

When we envision the future, there are certain things that seem to always come to mind. Teleportation. Time travel. Virtual-reality video games (maybe that’s just me so I can finally be good at playing soccer).

A big part of that futuristic vision is in the realm of transportation. Planes are different. Mass transit is different. Oh, and cars can fly. Have to have that one.

One thing many people will hope to see in the near future is parallel parking becoming easy. Not everyone can be raised in Chicago and be accustomed to street parking as well as yours truly, so this is something that causes problems for plenty of people.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGDFWl81nYE

So SmartCar in Portugal found an awesome way to tap into that frustration while showcasing their product and earning some much-deserved buzz. The company created normal-sized cars that contract in order to show the flexibility of driving one of their main vehicles. It’s a fantastic concept and we can see the facial expressions of those who see the exhibit as it’s happening. The campaign is probably more effective in Europe, where road space is so limited compared to the United States, but it would be interesting to see if something similar could work stateside.

But when we think of the future, that idea of the flying car is one that’s instilled into most kids’ imagination at a very young age. It’s something that we’ve imagined for so long. Unfortunately, it’s appeared to be nothing more of a fantasy in the short-term.

Terrafugia is trying to change that.

TF-X™ is Terrafugia’s vision for the future of personal transportation. A four-seat, plug-in hybrid electric flying car with fly-by-wire vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) capabilities, TF-X™ is designed to bring personal aviation to the world. The design will make use of the high power density and reliability of modern electric motors in combination with parallel power and control system architectures to achieve a higher level of safety than modern automobiles. TF-X™ will provide true door-to-door transportation combined with the freedom of vertical takeoff and landing — creating a new dimension of personal mobility.

Translation: O.M.G. FLYING CAR AHHHHH!!!

Flying Car

Before I get too carried away, there are certainly some obstacles to overcome. First, will it actually work as advertised? It’s going to take the better part of a decade before it will be ready for mass production. That’s a whole lot of time for something to go wrong that could potentially cause a massive delay.

The other major factor is aviation regulations. With the current debate on drone technology, there are already major questions about safety and security. It goes without saying this concept is much larger than a drone and the Federal Aviation Administration will likely have some questions before the product is rolled out for good.

Still, we can start dreaming right now, right?

Have any thoughts? Let us know and we’ll keep you posted as we move closer to the day when this technology is hopefully a reality.

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Trending from G/L: Why DraftKings and FanDuel are EVERYWHERE

Geile/Leon Marketing Communications

Trending from G/L: Why DraftKings and FanDuel are EVERYWHERE

Advertising

If you are living person in America who follows even the slightest bit of media, you’ve probably seen an advertisement for Draft Kings or Fan Duel. Well, “seen” is probably putting it lightly – more likely, you’ve probably been BOMBARDED with the chance to WIN LOTS OF MONEY RIGHT NOW AHHHHH LOUD NOISES!!!

FanDuel

Seriously though, oversaturation might be an understatement. Whether you’re watching ESPN, browsing through Twitter, checking your Instagram feed, DraftKings and FanDuel will be there, encouraging you to part ways with your money for the chance to win even more money. In fact, DraftKings spent a whopping $23.6 million on TV ads alone during the first week of September.

With football season here, don’t expect the ads to stop any time soon. Especially with the two companies bringing a combined $60 million in entry fees during the first week of the NFL season. And with a combined $800 million in investment funding, you’ll be seeing video testimonials of Average Joe’s striking it rich for the rest of the year, at the very least.


The problem is, the Average Joe’s aren’t actually the ones winning.

Saahil Sud is a fake-sports apex predator. He enters hundreds of daily contests in baseball and football under the name “maxdalury,” and he almost always trounces the field. He claims to risk an average of $140,000 per day with a return of about 8 percent. Sud studied math and economics at Amherst College and took a job in data science at a digital marketing firm before shifting to full-time fantasy. He’s now the top-ranked daily fantasy sports player, according to Rotogrinders, a stats site for daily fantasy players. He says he’s made more than $2 million so far this year. 

So many times a day does your every day *gambler* win? 13 times. Talk about unlucky.

The reason we put gambler in disclaimers is because fantasy sports isn’t technically gambling. While sports gambling is technically illegal in the United States (with the exception of certain areas), fantasy sports live in a grey area that will almost certainly be legally challenged at some point. None of this means anything to the NCAA, who is now saying that college athletes who use the sites would be committing a standards violation.

We’ve discussed the topic of ad viewability before when discussing the ad nauseum loop of Game of War ads last spring:

Really, we (marketers, advertisers, publishers) should be using targeting and tracking (since, let’s be honest, so much of our data usage is tracked anyways) and tailor to the right audience to provide more applicable ads. This seems obvious – don’t we all know this? Aren’t most people already doing this? Yes, yet we still see “Game of War” ads, well…EVERYWHERE!

The future for one-day fantasy is still up in the air, but the question is whether the actual product can continue to deliver revenue at the rate it’s currently going. Plus, any changes in the gambling industry could be a massive boon or blow to their market.

What do you think? Have you tried one-day fantasy yet? Or are you just waiting for ads to disappear already?

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Trending from G/L: Building a soccer brand from scratch with LAFC

Geile/Leon Marketing Communications

Trending from G/L: Building a soccer brand from scratch with LAFC

Advertising

Soccer is continuing to grow at a rapid pace in the United States. More than 25 million viewers saw the United States defeat Japan in the Women’s World Cup this past summer. There are more than four million registered players at all ages throughout the country. And Major League Soccer, the country’s biggest professional league, has expanded from 10 teams in 2004 to 20 this season.

That expansion will continue with Atlanta joining the league in 2017 and a new Los Angeles club joining the mix in 2018. Franchises in Miami and Minneapolis are also on the horizon. MLS Commissioner Don Garber even visited St. Louis earlier this year, although no expansion into the Gateway City is imminent.

Los Angeles is an interesting case, which is back in the spotlight this week. The new team officially announced that their name will be Los Angeles Football Club (LAFC), which was the placeholder name dating back to the team’s initial announcement last year. While many MLS clubs have American-style names such as the Chicago Fire, the Portland Timbers and the Los Angeles Galaxy, many of the expansion sides have opted for the more traditional soccer naming and branding, including Real Salt Lake, Toronto FC and New York City FC.

Interestingly enough, while the Galaxy was one of the ten founding MLS clubs when the league began in 1996, this is the first season LA has been back to one team. A previous LA-based team, Chivas USA, was formed in 2005 and ceased operations last year, paving the way for LAFC. Chivas USA, which was owned for a time by Chivas de Guadalajara in Mexico, failed primarily because it failed to attract a significant Hispanic audience, which was the club’s key target.

Now LAFC, despite being just under three years away from their first game, is hitting the ground running early on their marketing efforts.

Their key demographic: Millennials.

Already, the club is stating their intentions to distinguish the team from what’s already out there, according to Rich Orosco, the club’s head of marketing for culture and community:

“They don’t want to be talked at,” Orosco says of millennials who, studies show, are 16% more interested in soccer than any other U.S. demographic. “So from Day 1 that’s all we’re doing. We’re opening up a dialogue with this exact fan base: ‘Let’s talk about this.’

These insights are certainly important. And having a defined target audience is a critical part of any brand launch. However, there has already been some blowback on the organization for their approach. One Twitter feed is aimed directly at the club’s attempts to win over young fans.

The seed of this discontent probably comes from how terms like millennials (or hipsters for that matter) can be used to produce widespread misconceptions. Our Mary Sawyer looked closely at this disconnect in a post last month:

And as Mary says in that post:

“The key is to know your facts but to tailor your approach – no matter the age group – to accurately reflect opinions and behaviors to make your marketing relevant and meaningful.”

Whether LAFC will be a hit with the Angelino youths remains to be seen. Regardless, whether you’re discussing a soccer brand, a consumer product or a business-to-business message, having a targeted approach based on research and data is the best way to plan for success.

What are your thoughts on LAFC’s approach to building a soccer brand? Think they’re doing it the right way or are they casting too broad of a net? Let us know your thoughts!

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One Size Fits All Doesn’t Work For Millennials – Or Any Segment

Mary Sawyer
Vice President of Public Relations

One Size Fits All Doesn’t Work For Millennials – Or Any Segment

Advertising

Lest anyone wonder why millennials are the focus of countless news articles: This is the year that Millennials — defined as people ages 18-34 — will outnumber the Baby Boomers in this country, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

And, Millennials, who make up a quarter of the U.S. population, have surpassed Gen Xers (those with birth dates ranging from the early 1960s to the early 1980s) to become the largest share of the American workforce.

No wonder why every industry wants to market to Millennials.

Not a day goes by when someone is not issuing an opinion about a presumptive trend related to Millennial connectivity and digital experiences, and what approach to take to get the attention of Millennials.

But, some experts are issuing cautions about making assumptions about Millennial influencers and practices.

According to a story last week in AdAge, what you’ve been told about Millennials is (mostly) wrong. The article about a myth-busting Carat survey called “The Millennial Disconnect” found Millennials are not all hyper-connected optimistic digital extroverts.

The survey warns that brands shouldn’t just accept that that high digital numbers mean that Millennials are all “users” in the same way. Higher users can skew the data, and result in misunderstanding the population. Marketers must be dig deep into understanding insights of the demographic for a better marketing strategy.

The Millennial generation is the most diverse generation in history. There are more African Americans, Latinos, Asians and racially mixed Millennials than in GenX and the Baby Boomer groups combined. They are accustomed to rapidly changing technologies and life choices. They are going to have different perspectives and reactions to marketing approaches. What appeals to one Millennial may be completely out of touch with another’s interests.

This certainly isn’t different from what is required of successfully working with other demographic groups. No age group should be treated in absolutes. You have to understand the “why” and “how” of the audience. Don’t make assumptions.

The key is to know your facts but to tailor your approach – no matter the age group – to accurately reflect opinions and behaviors to make your marketing relevant and meaningful.

If you are looking for a way to give your target audience a personality to get better marketing results, check out our Persona White Paper. Click on this link to download it. Or just fill out this form and we will send it to you.

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Trending from G/L: Will You Be My Emoji Marketing Brand Bae?

Geile/Leon Marketing Communications

Trending from G/L: Will You Be My Emoji Marketing Brand Bae?

Advertising

In the advertising and marketing world, we speak constantly about our desire to connect with our target audience. We strive to create words, videos and experience that resonate with the people we’re trying to reach. We make every effort to make it mean something.

But in this quest to communicate with people, some brands end up missing the mark. The message comes off as forced. They use the wrong emoji (gasp!).

Ah yes, emojis. Our trusted friend and mortal enemy rolled into one crying sleeping smile…or something.

A recent article expresses some of the biggest concerns with emoji marketing:

But, you know what I see? Desperate brands.

Brands looking at the short-term game instead of the long-term play.

Brand that are so desperate to connect with younger audiences they’ll do virtually anything.

Like creating an entire news release out of emojis.

So yeah, like with any trend, some brands took it too far. But does that mean that the entire “trend” is dead? Nope.

The biggest issue with emoji marketing is how they’re used. If you’re a consumer-facing brand with a younger digitally savvy audience, then it might make sense. If you’re a more business-to-business brand communicating through traditional marketing channels, then there may be other options to consider.

Here’s a good overview of how emoji marketing works and some more in-depth insights:

We all want authentic communication from those we speak to both online and off.

Defining your social media voice and tone—then staying true to it no matter what communication changes come and go—can help keep that authenticity strong.

And, like with any kind of marketing, when it’s done well, it can make a splash. Domino’s tweet ordering is one example that definitely makes sense for their brand.

Emoji Marketing

What are some examples of emoji marketing that hit the mark? Or, in your opinion, what are some icons that fell flat? Feel free to send us a note with your thoughts!

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Trending from G/L: Are Craft Sodas about to pop?

Geile/Leon Marketing Communications

Trending from G/L: Are Craft Sodas about to pop?

Advertising

Because the world needs more snobs, Pepsi is planning to launch a line of craft sodas called “Stubborn Soda”—but wait there’s more—it will be dispensed from pub-reminiscent taps. Flavors include black cherry with tarragon, classic root beer, lemon berry acai, pineapple cream, agave vanilla cream, and orange hibiscus, which I’m pretty sure is a flower.

Craft Soda

Now, this is an obvious nod to the craft beer market, so let’s head down that road. Craft beer is sort of an arbitrary term, but generally speaking, it’s beer that’s been produced by a microbrewery in less than corporate-sized quantities. Microbreweries generally pride themselves on their ability to concoct personalized takes on established brew styles—like a pale ale or a stout.

So what makes craft sodas…craft?

I find it hard to believe that Pepsi won’t mass-produce these suckers, so the idea of a micro-soda-manufacturer is out of the question. Maybe quality? The Stubborn brand will boast “fair trade certified cane sugar and natural flavors,” so maybe it truly is a step up from the high fructose corn syrupy stuff we’ve been guzzling the past few decades. That being said, Pepsi’s throwback line of cans featured cane sugar, so Stubborn isn’t quite avant-garde enough to be dubbed an innovation in the soft drink industry.

It’s safe to assume Pepsi’s become self-aware of its flagship product’s decline in popularity—and it’s not just Pepsi—I’m talking soda in general. For a while, large soda manufacturers had the all-too-handy diet soda crutch to lean on in times of need. No longer. Diet beverage sales are down more than 20 percent since their peak in 2009 because of health concerns with the zero-calorie beverage’s sketchy chemical makeup.

Instead of launching a ritzier line of soft drinks like Pepsi, Coca-Cola is funding the Global Energy Balance Network—an organization that argues poor diet isn’t to be blamed for rampant obesity. Instead, they advocate the theory that inactivity alone is the main culprit of obesity in America. Really, Coke?

Coca-Cola’s approach may seem massively different than Pepsi’s, but at the end of the day, the soda giants are attempting to broadcast the same message: Soda is still a sensible consumable.

Okay, the soda giants are scrambling, so what? My main point is this:

Just as Pepsi and Coke are doing, mature brands need to make moves. Remaining stagnant and weathering the steady decline of a product in hopes of a chance revival at a later date isn’t sufficient for any sized company let alone the likes of Pepsi and Coca-Cola. Follow the lead of the big guys—they know what they’re doing. Except green-lighting that flower-flavored soda, maybe.

G/L deals with everything from new product launches to mature brand extensions. If you’re dealing with either or anything in between, give us a call. We’ll be happy to answer any questions you’ve got.

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