Top brass who play along with promotions bring fun to the corner office and credibility to the brand.
Ford India president Phil Spender wasn’t trying to win the race. But just by having him there, the Ford brand won.
Spender raced Ford owners in three cities last summer to help launch the brand’s Ikon mid-level sedan and introduce Formula One driver Narain Karthikeyan as spokesperson. His presence ended up generating more p.r. than Karthikeyan’s did.
Top executives who work not just in the trenches but in the street to promote personally can humanize a brand and make it more approachable.
There’s a long-standing tradition of chief executives and presidents in advertising – Lee Iacocca, Peter Coors, Dave Thomas, the August Busches. (Remember Victor Kiam of Remington? “I liked the razor so much I bought the company.”) But a ceo who’s game for promotion? Now that takes an extra dose of confidence and commitment.
It also takes charisma. Take Sir Richard Branson. The flamboyant chairman of Virgin has worn everything from a bridal gown to a bungee cord in p.r. stunts for Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Megastores, and other divisions of his $5 billion company. And he plays along with promotions as well. In November, Virgin Atlantic sponsored Miramax Films’ re-release of the Beatles classic A Hard Day’s Night with premiere parties in New York City and Los Angeles. The tie-in promoted an 18-month, $100 million revamp of Upper Class business class service which concluded that month. A sweeps running through Jan. 15 gave away a trip for two to London with a day trip to the Beatles’ birthplace, Liverpool. (One hundred limited-edition movie posters served as second place prizes.)
Branson attended the New York City premiere dressed as the fifth Beatle and sprayed the press corps with champagne. He cruised around Manhattan in a flatbed truck, reclining in an Upper Class seat while flight attendants showed off Virgin’s in-flight bar and massage services.
There was some serious marketing strategy behind the party. “A Hard Day’s Night is a British classic and [reflects] the same generation as our core consumer, hardcore business travelers,” says vp-sales and marketing John Riordan. Year-long talks with Miramax included a throwaway mention of the re-release, with no plans for a premiere. But a Virgin marketing exec “jumped up and said, `That would be a cool idea.’ It tied in with the concept of a comfortable flight after a hard day’s work, with the generation of Beatle fans, and with the Britishness of it all,” Riordan remembers. “It was perfect for us.”
Branson appears extensively in the U.K., but isn’t overexposed in the U.S., Riordan says. He did turn up in Sin City last summer to serve as best man for the winning couple in a sweepstakes supporting new air service to Las Vegas (October PROMO).
Ironically, the ceo’s popularity has become the biggest drawback to using him for promos, because he travels worldwide about 200 days each year. “Our days with him are limited as his empire gets bigger,” Riordan says. “The question becomes, `What will last, the brand or Branson?’ The brand, clearly, but it’s important to be clear that his appearances fit the brand’s strategy. It would be remiss of us to use him as our only p.r. or marketing tool. That would be a major long-term mistake.”
Rubbing Elbows Consumers like interacting with the boss. To introduce Ikon, Ford India invited current owners to a day at the races. The first 120 to respond got a chance to compete for a trip to London, with others allowed to come watch and party afterwards. The top six then raced against Spender and Karthikeyan. (The racer finished last in two of the three races.)
“People were in for a surprise. They did not expect the ceo to be present while go-carting,” says K. Subramaniam, senior manager for Ford India’s agency, Delhi-based Kidstuff. “Moreover, Phil Spender is the kind of person who gets along well with consumers and is very keen on getting feedback from them. He’s very down to earth and understands the minds of consumers, so working with him was fun.”
Sometimes, the boss’s participation is more subtle. Boise Cascade Office Products, Itasca, IL, made ceo C.C. Milliken the principal in its Boise High campaign, a PRO Award winner last year (November 2000 PROMO). Milliken didn’t have to do anything – not even pose for the photo that would appear in the company’s product catalog. “We found a stock black-and-white picture of him in a suit and a vest, and got his approval,” says spokesperson Matt Parsons. Other senior executives appeared as teachers and counselors throughout the catalog. (Parsons even made a cameo as the driving instructor.) Momentum, St. Louis, handled.
Boise Cascade brass often star in tongue-in-cheek internal communications. Last year, the chief operating officer appeared in a training video, dressed in safari gear with a monkey on her shoulder. Boise High was the first consumer effort to take the jokes public. Consumers took the campaign’s fictional characters, Steve and Judy, so seriously that Boise Cascade jettisoned a planned two-month campaign to stage a reunion of the high school sweethearts – cast, this time, as Boise Cascade employees.
You can guess who their boss was.
