WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH, tough marketers create opportunities to shine. Faced with natural disasters (tsunamis, hurricanes and earthquakes), a wobbly economy and ho-hum consumer confidence as a result, the 2005 Marketers of the Year nevertheless found ways to ignite passion in consumers. They leveraged technology, especially in small-screen formats (this was the year blogs, podcasts and viral mobile marketing came into their own), turned over the reins to consumers (to a point) and found ways to make brands better citizens. Read on, then, as we profile some of the newsmakers who moved the industry forward in 2005 and set the stage for more innovation in the year to come.

Task Master

Burger King’s RUSS KLEIN mixes fast food with entertainment

It was branded entertainment at its very best. Burger King Corp. took a gamble when it sponsored the opener of the third season of The Apprentice in January 2005. For Burger King, it turned out to be a risk worth taking.

Russ Klein

The day after the sponsorship, Burger King brought the burger made famous on
The Apprentice into 8,000 restaurants, serving 1.2 million in the two weeks following the episode. Burger King not only became the first QSR ever to sponsor an
Apprentice task, but also exceeded forecast sales of its promotional Western Angus Steak Burger from the show by 20%.

“We saw lots of power in this event,” says Burger King CMO Russ Klein. “We felt it would make a statement of pride in our restaurant management and our restaurant team. We challenged ourselves.”

It was no easy feat. Burger King worked with thousands of employees to keep the promotion confidential until its release date. Those same employees responded at a moment’s notice to roll-out the promotion hours after the episode debuted.

The Apprentice sponsorship was a linchpin in the QSR’s overall marketing strategy to build social currency for the brand. Nearly three years ago, the brand set out to reverse the perception of some that Burger King was “a bit inert,” Klein says. When Mark Burnett, co-producer of The Apprentice, approached the QSR, Burger King jumped at the opportunity, he recalls.

There were risks. Klein acknowledges that Burger King faced the chance of the sponsorship going sour or of competing teams turning out a mediocre product, but he believed his team at the QSR was up to the challenge.

“We view our willingness to take risks as a competitive advantage,” Klein says. “We make a lot of decisions here at BK. We run a very up-tempo decision-making process. We have a stomach for all that goes with taking risk.”

The Apprentice sponsorship far exceeded Burger King’s goals, and won PROMO’s top EMMA for entertainment marketing this past spring. However, the QSR’s 15 minutes of product placement fame are over — for now. Part of the brand’s strategy around social currency means “you shed your skin every so often,” Klein says.
— Amy Johannes

A Winning Hand

Canadian Club’s SUZY KILGORE plays an ace

Canadian Club was in trouble. The brand had been in decline for 30 years and had failed to recruit new customers for decades. Its core base was aging, averaging 55 years old, and the whisky held little relevance with younger male drinkers. It was time to do something, says Susie Kilgore, the marketing director for CC and Beefeater.

Susie Kilgore

She and her team tossed around plenty of ideas, including a tie to NASCAR, and then hit on the explosive popularity of the game of poker and its 60 million players, most of whom are young men.

CC kicked off its largest promotion to date last summer with a potent cocktail of events, sponsorships, sweepstakes, contests, sampling, a dedicated Web site and a chance at a $2.5 million prize. It earmarked $3 million for the effort that included hiring Chris Moneymaker, the World Series of Poker Champion, as spokesman. It took its message into 21 markets with tournaments that included more than 350 on-premise events. Ten tournament winners got the chance to play Moneymaker for the $2.5 million prize. The program ended in August, when 21-year-old, Chris Mitchell of Tampa, FL, was unable to win the big purse but took home $10,000.

The effort paid off. Research showed that CC reached the right target nine out of 10 times and the brand grew for a second year in a row.

“We’re very encouraged by the early signs,” Kilgore says. CC went back into some markets in September with on-premise events that drove traffic to casino tournaments, climaxing on Dec. 10 at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas. Online tournaments are planned for January and February.

“We anticipated [poker] would be a platform that we would be with for a couple of years,” Kilgore says. “Now, we’re in this for the long term.”
— Patricia Odell

TV Monitor

ELIZABETH LASCOUTX weathers CARU scrutiny

Elizabeth Lascoutx wound up in the center of this year’s biggest marketing debate: How should food companies market to kids?

Elizabeth Lascoutx

Lascoutx is the director of CARU — the Children’s Advertising Review Board, a division of the Better Business Bureau’s National Advertising Review Council (NARC). CARU came under scrutiny when some legislators proposed replacing food marketers’ self-regulation (under CARU) with formal government regulation (under the FTC). Food companies countered with suggestions to expand CARU’s bailiwick — monitoring ads in video, computer and online games; overseeing licensed characters in ads; guarding against product placement in kids’ programming (September PROMO).

Lascoutx maintained her grace under pressure during the FTC’s July “Perspectives on Marketing, Self-Regulation & Childhood Obesity Workshop,” where Sen. Tom Harkin called CARU “a poster child for how not to conduct self-regulation.”

By choice or not, Lascoutx has become a rallying force for food marketers — and an arbiter for consumer watchdogs, who’d like to see bans on marketing junk food to kids, and treat CARU as the most likely platform for that.

Lascoutx is careful to define CARU’s role: “We don’t dictate what is advertised to kids; we look at how it’s advertised to kids. Whatever it is — a product, a loyalty program — our role is to look at the marketing communications [to make sure] they comply with our guidelines.”

Two CARU task forces are wrapping up work on ads in interactive games, and the potential for product placement in kids’ shows.

“Product placement doesn’t exist now, but some people in the industry say that it might in the future, so we’re looking at it closely to see if it could, and if we’d allow it,” Lascoutx says.

A third task force will address licensed characters; all three groups should report to NARC by yearend, with NARC recommendations likely to come in early 2006.

CARU staff fast-forwards through hours of kids programming (Lascoutx calls it “reverse TiVo”) to watch the ads, pursuing spots (and print ads, and online ads) that don’t pass muster. CARU pursues about 100 ads a year, and boasts a 97.6% compliance rate: marketers have revised or withdrawn 247 of the 253 ads challenged by CARU since 2003. (Lascoutx has been director since 1995.)

“In the universe of ads, it’s not a huge amount, but most ads [already] comply with our guidelines,” she says. “People pretty much know what the guidelines are and try to comply with them.” Most ads are reviewed by marketers’ in-house or agency counsel before they air. “We get what slips through the cracks,” Lascoutx says.

CARU’s toughest task now is keeping up with the workload — and with consumer attitudes. “We’re sensitive to the changing lens through which we all perceive the world,” she says. “We’ve become sensitive to portion sizes, and snacks shown as substitutes for meals — things we wouldn’t have been attuned to four years ago.”
— Betsy Spethmann

Dream Maker

DreamWorks Animation’s ANNE GLOBE sets the stage for movie tie-ins

When it comes to pairing big brands with animated films, and then carrying those ties outside the theater, Anne Globe, head of worldwide consumer products and promotions for DreamWorks Animation, is in a league of her own.

Anne Globe

Take a look at two mega deals she just wrapped with McDonald’s and Kellogg. Each marketer brings longstanding equity, a like-minded target audience and the chance for DreamWorks Animation to extend itself globally to restaurants, stores and other venues, Globe says.

DreamWorks is on the verge of launching one of its biggest promotional partnerships with McDonald’s, perfect timing since McDonald’s 10-year agreement with competitor Walt Disney, set to end next year, locked DreamWorks Animation out of the running. The two-year deal starts in 2007 with the QSR for its Happy Meal promotions. Under the partnership, DreamWorks Animation will work solely with McDonald’s in the fast-food category.

“When we tie-in with McDonald’s or Kellogg, [we] reach our audiences in different ways,” Globe says. “[It] helps us expand our brand awareness. There is a real opportunity to go beyond the movies.”

For example, the popular Shrek character will play a role in McDonald’s Happy Meals when DreamWorks Animation’s third film in the series opens in 2007. A fourth film is planned for 2010, Globe says.

DreamWorks Animation’s multi-year deal in 2006 with Kellogg, its first worldwide agreement with the CPG, gives the marketer exclusive rights to back feature films and home video releases via cereal, toaster pastries and frozen food products. The deal starts with Flushed Away in November 2006. “It is a really good fit with [Kellogg’s] great family of brands and the movies and content we have to offer,” Globe says.

Inking long-term partnerships with brands gives marketers leverage to explore additional promotional opportunities to give each the chance at greater success, she says.

“Working together, we can try to build upon [a brand’s] successes and do more innovative promotions,” Globe says.
— Amy Johannes

Brand on the Run

By cutting clutter, KATHLEEN HALL helped Fidelity find relevance — and rock

Kathleen Hall readily admits that she resisted the idea of leaving the agency world and joining Fidelity Investments marketing group as EVP four years ago. “When the recruiter called me, I thought, ‘Are you kidding me? They know nothing about marketing. They have no sense of brand.’”

Kathleen Hall

At the same time, she jokes, financial services weren’t a hot commodity. “In focus groups, people get more excited talking about pantyhose than they do about investing,” she says. “It really kills you.” But she saw challenges at the company that intrigued her.

Unlike Hall’s earlier work with consumer packaged goods, Fidelity needed to take an intangible and turn it into a tangible. “If all you talk about are hopes and dreams and weddings and champagne toasts on the beach, nobody is buying it,” she says. The other challenge was clearing away confusion for the consumer. “For a while we always talked about 4,000 mutual funds and 85,000 choices. People don’t want all that choice.”

Under Hall, the marketing team at Fidelity began rebuilding its consumer engagement. Out was copy that began, “For over 50 years Fidelity has….” In were questions — and answers: “You need help? We can help you. Give us a call.”

“Instead of saying, ‘Put Fidelity funds in your IRA,’ we asked, “Why should you have an IRA? Because $3,000 today equals $300,000 thirty years from now. That’s why.”

The results began to show. In the past year, Fidelity has doubled its new household accounts while cutting in half its cost of acquisition.

Her latest coup: persuading Paul McCartney (yes, that Paul) to take the role of Fidelity front man across a new integrated marketing campaign touting its retirement planning options. Launched in September, the program is “huge,” Halls says.

“It’s sales promotion, it’s consumer promotion, it’s advertising. And it’s unusual for us. We’re inherently not cool.”

That’s where McCartney comes in. His entourage approached Fidelity about sponsoring the U.S. tour to promote his Chaos and Creation in the Backyard album, released in September.

“It was too obvious,” Hall says. “We wanted a much deeper and broader relationship.” Working with Boston-based agency Arnold Worldwide, Hall countered the tour proposal with something more akin to a marriage of brands. She and her team persuaded McCartney that he personified a retirement planning and financial security theme that “the best is yet to come.”

“[McCartney] liked the way we were celebrating his life and his reinvention. He loves our line, ‘Never stop doing what you love,’ because, if you think your retirement is going to be tough, this guy was a Beatle and went on from there!”

In addition to extensive media play and visibility via McCartney’s tour, the execution includes support of The Music Lives Foundation, a new non-profit that brings instruments and instruction in art and music to school kids. When clients open a $10,000 retirement account, Fidelity donates $40 on their behalf to the music program and sends a commemorative metal bracelet premium. “The donation for the bracelet equates to an instrument in a kid’s hands,” Hall says. Fidelity was also given rights to McCartney’s legacy catalog, and compiled a premium CD that goes to customers when they update an existing plan.

The program has reinvigorated Fidelity’s internal audience as well, Halls says. “When I first came to Fidelity, ‘brand’ was a bad word. It’s not anymore.”
— Kathleen M. Joyce

Gaining Traction

General Motors marketing chief MARK LANEVE balanced brilliant promos with thinly disguised rebates

Last year, General Motors tapped Mark LaNeve as its VP-marketing and gave him marching orders: Inject some marketing finesse into the vehicle manufacturer’s brands.

Mark Laneve

Little did he or his bosses at GM know then how tough those orders would be to carry out. Heavily reliant on its truck and SUV brand lines, the auto maker has taken body blows to its bottom line as fuel prices have sky-rocketed, especially due to supply disruptions stemming from the Iraq War and refinery stoppages in the wake of the Gulf Coast hurricanes. As gas hit $3 per gallon, the big vehicles that are GM’s pride were gathering dust in showrooms.

Nevertheless, LaNeve found creative ways to attract consumers to GM cars. This spring the new Pontiac Solstice roadster debuted in front of millions of viewers who tuned into an episode of The Apprentice. In less than an hour after the promotion appeared during the show, GM sold out the 1,000 special-edition Solstices and its 2005 production was depleted in 10 days.

For the Cadillac brand, a five-second film contest highlighted the car’s zero-to-60 ability and fueled the car manufacturer’s marketing engine. Site traffic jumped 358% and garnered 43,000 requests for dealership information. The campaign took PROMO’s 2005 PRO Award for Best Campaign (see p. 17 for details).

Bob Kurilko, VP of Edmunds.com, a source for automotive information, says LaNeve is on the right track in spicing up the marketing of GM’s brands.

“I think it’s wonderful that GM is trying to step out and be bold and cut through the clutter,” Kurilko says.

Cutting through the clutter is especially important since 30% of car shoppers are not loyal to any one brand, he adds, but shop on the basis of offers.

To rout the competition, GM unleashed its most innovative plan last summer to sway drivers its way. Consumers had the opportunity to purchase vehicles for the same price as GM employees.

“I applaud them for [the discount program],” Kurilko said. The slash in prices drew bargain hunters to GM dealerships across the country and helped the company clear out inventory.

“When we are on consumers’ shopping lists, we like our chances,” LaNeve said in a statement. “We are confident that our brands will get you more without paying more.”

Although the summer promotion moved a lot of tin, the company reported a 23% slide in sales for October; in the third quarter it posted a loss of $1.6 billion, compared to $88 million in the period in the prior year.

LaNeve’s marketing efforts, however, may be credited with staunching the flow of red ink.

“GM will be in a much better place in five years if they stick with it. I have confidence [LaNeve] will pull this together,” Kurilko says.
— Andrew Scott

Times Square Bride

KAREN DEGRACE weds on Marriott’s glass billboard

Karen DeGrace wasn’t making wedding plans. The Momentum Worldwide account director had been engaged for nearly a year when her colleague, Ben Olsen, called from New York. His client, Marriott, wanted to host a wedding atop its Times Square billboard as part of a four-day promo launching its redesigned rooms. Momentum built a glassed-in hotel room atop the billboard to host concerts, radio broadcasts — and a wedding.

“We didn’t want a big traditional wedding, and my husband is kind of a ham, so when the opportunity came up, we thought, ‘Why not?’” DeGrace says. (After all, her client, OfficeMax, wasn’t offering.)

Karen DeGrace

One Momentum staffer became DeGrace’s wedding planner. “I had an initial call with Marriott’s p.r. department and they asked my preferences on flowers and food. Then I just had to show up. I trusted that they knew what they were doing,” DeGrace says. “There was a lot of hype, but the Marriott folks were so focused on making this a real wedding, not a circus.”

DeGrace, husband Dan and a small entourage of family and friends flew in from Milwaukee for the long weekend. On her wedding day, DeGrace hit the glass room at 6 a.m. for an Elizabeth Arden makeup and hair session with her mom and maid of honor. “They had me sitting there in a bathrobe, with everyone watching. It was … different.”

The ceremony was held on top of the room; guests perched atop a double-decker bus parked beside the billboard. (Olsen wasn’t the best man — “that would just be going too far,” DeGrace says.) The reception was inside the nearby Marriott Marquis. “It was awesome. They just kept bringing us food. I felt bad because we didn’t have that many people there.”

Marriott will treat the couple to a weeklong honeymoon at any of its properties worldwide. “We have up to a year to use it,” DeGrace says. If she procrastinates, Momentum pals just may plan the trip for her.
— Betsy Spethmann

The Big Wheel

JOHN GALLOWAY takes action sports to new heights

It is all about a willingness to take calculated risks.

John Galloway, Pepsi-Cola North America’s VP-Sports and Media, says he works for a company that encourages its employees to be risk takers, to think outside of their respective boxes, to step out of sync. That freedom has paid off big time for the Mountain Dew brand, which has long tied itself to action sports (just don’t call them “fringe”). And lately the brand has upped the ante even more by headlining its first action sports tour and developing a documentary on some of snowboarding’s greatest athletes.

John Galloway

One of the major forces behind the brand, Galloway says, is the mantra to stay out in front of other brands. Such willingness to dare prompted the creation of The Dew Tour, which has solidified its place in the world of action sports. The tour, which began last May and ended in October, was the first season-long, nationally televised professional tour for skateboarding, BMX and freestyle motocross. It included the Dew Free Flow Tour, which was a separate 16-city amateur skateboarding event that began in 2002.

What makes Mountain Dew and action sports click? Common characteristics such as individuality, a slight irreverence and a playful rebelliousness, Galloway says. “There’s never a stretch to find ways to marry and emphasize the Mountain Dew brand through action sports,” he says.

That intertwining plays out this month in the brand’s first foray into filmmaking, when the documentary, First Descent, debuts in theaters on Dec. 2. It was financed by Mountain Dew Films, the brand’s new marketing arm to promote action sports through film. Brand reps have been talking it up with key influencers and athletes since January. Galloway says it is also the brand’s way to give back to the action sports community.

The story, set in the mountains of Alaska, spotlights some of snowboarding’s early pioneers and current superstars including Shawn Farmer, Nick Perata, Terje Haakonsen, Shaun White and Hannah Teter. The brand is positioned subtly in order to avoid the appearance of the film being one long advertisement for the beverage.

Galloway began working on the brand when he was an account manager at TracyLocke Partnership before being snatched away by Pepsi in 1996 to be the brand manager for Mountain Dew.

Galloway says the success of pairing with action sports can be seen at convenience and gas channels where it is the No. 1 selling 20-ounce soft drink.

“For us, this validates the brand and all the work that’s been put against it in terms of the platform of action sports,” he says.
— Patricia Odell

Snack Attack

BROCK LEACH pushes Pepsico to smarter spot

Brock Leach is the face of Pepsico’s health kick.

Brock Leach

Leach, Pepsico’s chief innovation officer and senior VP-new growth platforms, is the point person behind Pepsico’s R&D and health marketing, including its 16-month-old Smart Spot initiative, its month-old S.M.A.R.T. program and a “Perfect Storm” pilot program of health education for minorities.

“Our focus is offering great product choices and marketing them in ways that promote healthy lifestyles,” Leach said at the FTC’s “Perspectives on Marketing, Self-Regulation & Childhood Obesity Workshop” in July. “Our spin is to make it fun, easier and more convenient to be healthy.”

Pepsico plans to have 70% of the products it launches by 2008 meet internal better-for-you standards, marked by its green Smart Spot icon. Now, 250 Smart Spot products account for 41% of North American sales, growing 13% (compared to 4% sales growth for traditional snacks). Sixty percent of consumers say a symbol makes them more inclined to purchase a product; that skews even higher in ethnic communities, per Pepsico research.

“Moms in focus groups told us they want to send their family [shopping] to find the green dot,” Leach says. “Their message is, ‘Help me feel like I can start doing something productive.’”

Last month, Pepsico unveiled its S.M.A.R.T. lifestyle program and built the first Smart Spot playground (with non-profit KaBOOM) at a Washington, DC, community center, with plans to build at least 12 more playgrounds in 2006. (Moms nominate communities at www.smartspot.com.) A three-times-a-year mini-magazine, Everyday SMART Moves, carries nutrition and exercise tips.

In July, non-profit America on the Move Foundation and presenting sponsor Pepsico teamed with The National Urban League and the National Council of La Raza for “Perfect Storm,” a four-city grassroots education program of sporting events, community walks and health alerts for Hispanics and African-Americans. In April, America on the Move and Pepsico (with Discovery Education) sent Balance First classroom kits to 15,000 middle schools (grade schools got kits last year), touting exercise and healthy eating, part of Pepsico’s three-year, $6 million commitment to Balance First.

Leach has worked both ends of Pepsico’s portfolio. He was president-CEO of Pepsico’s Tropicana division before taking the role of chief innovation officer in 2003. He cut his teeth on innovation at Frito-Lay, where he was president of Frito-Lay Development (and earlier, president of Frito-Lay North America). He joined Frito-Lay in 1982 as assistant product manager and worked his way up.

Pepsico still has its own work cut out — Frito-Lay lays off 200 to 250 staffers this month — but proactive R&D and marketing that address obesity is an important step.

“We don’t like the idea of singling out specific categories of food and beverages to blame for obesity,” Leach told the FTC this summer. “Eighty percent of the solution is product choices: Offer good products, and help educate consumers.”
— Betsy Spethmann

PROMOTION PROS touched every aspect of marketing in 2004, from screen to shelf. Branded entertainment took over prime time as early deals like product placement in Queer Eye for the Straight Guy segued to full-blown marketing gigs for Crest and Pepsi on The Apprentice.

Packaged goods marketers caught “shopper marketing” fever, thanks mostly to two agency reviews at Procter & Gamble. Its holistic planning assignment (a reported $4 billion across all brands) made shoppers the focus, and bundled media buying and retail strategy — a watershed moment that makes the shelf set as important as the TV set. (Starcom MediaVest and Carat split the win in July.) A simultaneous integrated-marketing review gave 35 HBC brands one-stop shopping for below-the-line services, bundling promotions, in-store, direct marketing and account-specific work. (Arc, Saatchi & Saatchi X — with ThompsonMurray at its core — and The Integer Group divvied up the business, with first work expected this quarter.)

Text messaging evolved to catch consumers at the right time and place. “Mobile social software” — MoSoSo, for high-tech hipsters — lets people ping friends (and friends of friends) in the vicinity via cell phone. Absolut used eight-month-old Dodgeball.com to invite New Yorkers to nearby on-premise parties. Wavemarket launched Crunkie, with maps and location-based blogs, in November. We can’t wait to see how marketers experiment with this in 2005.

For now, we’re happy to profile some of the newsmakers who moved the industry forward in 2004 and set the stage for more innovation this year.

Rocket Man

Best Buy’s MIKE LINTON has music in store

Mike Linton has made some good friends for Best Buy — Elton John, The Rolling Stones, Ronald McDonald. Each has boosted store traffic and brand image, but two stand out. Best Buy got first dibs on The Stones’ Four Flicks DVD set (for holiday 2003) and Elton Johns’ Dream Ticket DVD set (holiday 2004). A four-month exclusive on John’s DVD runs through February; a four-month deal with The Stones ran through 2004, helping to take their DVD 19-times platinum.

“Entertainment and technology without each other aren’t much, but together, they’re magic,” says CMO Linton, who came to Best Buy in 1999 as senior VP-strategic marketing.

Best Buy set the stage with its 2000 Sting concert in Central Park, then took it in-store, cutting distribution and marketing deals directly with bands. “We take the exclusive on it, which lets us put our marketing money behind it,” Linton says. That means TV, Internet, circulars, extensive P-O-P (“It jazzes up the store.”) and a Golden Ticket in-pack sweeps awarding a trip to meet John at his Las Vegas concert.

McDonald’s came to Best Buy in 2002 for its October 2003 relaunch of Monopoly. “Best Buy Bucks” on fry boxes ($1 to $5,000) and distribution of game boards via 570 Best Buy stores spurred a brisk trade; McD ran out of game pieces and ended it early. Best Buy measured redemption (Linton won’t give figures) and liked the results enough to repeat Monopoly in 2004.

A good Best Buy partner provides brand exposure that the store can’t get on its own, and drives meaningful traffic to stores. “This does,” he says.

Other 2004 highlights: Loyalty program Reward Zone (new in August ‘03) hit four million members, and “Thousands of possibilities” ads won an Effie — extra sweet since Minneapolis-based Best Buy does marketing in-house. (2003 ad spending: $356 million.) Toughest part of his job? Using consumer data. “Our ability to talk to consumers is expanding like crazy. We’re constantly working on coordinating that.”

In 2005, “I want to make each [marketing] tool better, build new tools, integrate them better, improve our math and keep up with the marketplace — which can leave you behind in a flash.”
— Betsy Spethmann

On Air

COLLEEN BARRETT pilots Southwest’s leap of faith

Call it anti-product placement: Southwest Airlines gave A&E full access to film the series Airline — and put zero ad dollars behind it.

It was a gutsy documentary deal, premiering in January 2004 just as reality TV segued to branded entertainment. A&E can film all Southwest’s operations (except national security procedures). Southwest sees episodes before they air, but has no editorial control.

The gamble paid off: The day after Airline’s premiere, job applications at Southwest tripled. The show continues to be good (if gritty) p.r. for Southwest’s customer service. (The airline has topped the Dept. of Transportation’s customer satisfaction rankings for 13 years.) Southwest re-upped for a third season starting spring 2005, adding Houston Hobby Airport to filming at Los Angeles International (LAX), Chicago Midway and Baltimore/Washington International.

President Colleen Barrett green-lighted the show to get visibility, especially in the Northeast as Southwest added Philadelphia flights — and to preempt competitors, especially Jet Blue, from doing the show. “Plus my p.r. dept was begging because they knew we couldn’t afford the advertising to get that much coverage,” she laughs. (Southwest’s 2003 ad spend was $160 million.)

Her favorite episode showed an LAX counter agent helping a passenger with Alzheimer’s. “You can’t watch it and not cry. He handled the man with such dignity,” Barrett says. The episode that most troubled her? “The one where a flight was oversold by 32 passengers,” Barrett says. “I about died. I was sick about it,” especially because re-runs would amplify the error.

Southwest doesn’t advertise on Airline so viewers won’t think Southwest pays for the series. Paid product placement? Barrett would rather put the money into customer service. Southwest’s marketing strategy — act like a hometown airline in each city — plays out mostly via local campaigns and employee volunteerism (five times the average corporation).

“I’ve gotten letters from employees of other airlines that say, ‘Thank you for having enough faith in your people to let film crews go behind the scenes. Our management would never do that,’” Barrett says.
— Betsy Spethmann

NASCAR’s New Spirit

ZAK BROWN led the pack to overturn racing’s liquor ban

Zak Brown was just a baby 32 years ago when NASCAR officially decided to prohibit spirits brands from sponsoring any of its teams or events.

But Brown, a former racecar driver turned founder and CEO of Indianapolis-based Just Marketing, Inc., convinced NASCAR to change it ways (in fact, the sport had been spiritless for 56 years, since liquor sponsors had been frowned upon as far back as the 1940s). In November, NASCAR ended its prohibition, and spirits brands may come aboard beginning in the 2005 season.

Brown paved the way for Just Marketing client Diageo’s Crown Royal brand to become primary sponsorship of reigning NASCAR NEXTEL Cup champion Kurt Busch during the 2005 season, including the Brickyard 400. (Jack Daniels followed suit in December.)

Brown said NASCAR had many concerns, especially how its associates would view the inclusion of the spirits category.

“We began an intense lobbying effort some 18 months ago with NASCAR and its partners,” Brown said. “We concentrated on one simple premise — how inclusion of responsible spirit producers would be good for the sport.”

Brown cited positive examples from Major League Baseball and the Indy Racing League in his arguments.

It helped Brown’s case that Diagio’s Smirnoff Ice malt liquor brand was already a successful sponsor of Roush Racing’s No. 17 car, driven by Winston Cup champ Matt Kenseth, and had a year under its belt as title sponsor of the International Race of Champions series.

“Zak knew the people and the pitfalls, but he was not reluctant to pursue a quest at which others had failed, because he had the right answers,” said Geoff Smith, president of Roush Racing.
— Tim Parry

Apple’s Comeback Kid

STEVE JOBS rises again, this time via the small but mighty iPod

Call him the phoenix of high tech. Steve Jobs has reinvented at least twice the company he took public in December 1980 — and in the process, he has continually reinvented his role as a leader in electronics marketing.

Though he left the company for a period in the early 90s, Jobs returned with a vengeance in 1998, determined to repolish an Apple Computer that had lost its edge during his absence.

Now CEO and director of Cupertino, CA-based Apple, as well as CEO and chairman of Pixar Animation Studios (which is a marketing saga unto itself), 49-year old Jobs’ latest coup has been the introduction of the iPod digital music player.

Not only has the distinctive music device, with its slim candy-colored casing, earned cachet with everyone from club kids to corporate commuters, but the iPod’s capacity and ease of use have fostered fanatical loyalty that has left late-comers to MP3 manufacturing struggling to catch Apple’s momentum (Sony is a distant second).

In addition, iPod has become the premium du jour, with cross-branding partnerships that have encompassed Volkswagon (for the “Pods Unite” iPod-with-purchase Beetle campaign), Delta’s Song airlines (which gave iPods to travellers booking three or more round trips this past fall; those who booked one round trip got 100 songs from Apple’s iTunes), and the rock mega-group U2, which premiered its latest album, How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, via iPod. (The band also helped introduce iPod’s new black and red “U2” editions in exchange for a slice of the business.)
— Kathleen M. Joyce

Olympic Risk

Athens Mayor DORA BAKOYANNIS sold her city to sponsors and the world

The 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens may have been the riskiest investment in the history of sports marketing. The odds of the Games being interrupted by construction delays, terrorists or a decision by the U.S. not to compete were stacked against sponsors and networks that had paid millions to align themselves with world sports’ grandest event.

But in May and June, Athens Mayor Dora Bakoyannis went on a worldwide media tour to promote her city and the Olympic Games as they prepared to return to their birthplace.

“In an uncertain world, Athens will be the safest city [during the Games],” Bakoyannis said. “Athens will be ready on time and Greece will surprise the world.”

Beginning with the Aug. 13 opening ceremonies, it was and it did. Despite drug scandals involving a handful of athletes and lower-than-expected attendance, the Games went without a hitch. the International Olympic Committee declared the 2004 Games the greatest ever.

“Dear Greek friends, you have won!” IOC President Jacques Rogge said during the Games’ closing ceremonies Aug. 29. “You have magnificently achieved the difficult goal of hosting the Games.” At least some of those laurels go to Dora B.
— Tim Parry

Shop Keeper

P&G, Saatchi pick ANDY MURRAY’S brain

Andy Murray became the poster boy for shopper marketing in June when Saatchi & Saatchi bought his agency, ThompsonMurray, and made it the centerpiece of in-store marketing network Saatchi & Saatchi X.

CEO Murray and crew spearheaded Saatchi’s pitch in Procter & Gamble’s review parceling out all below-the-line work for its HBC brands. Saatchi X split the win with sister shop Arc Worldwide and The Integer Group. First work breaks this quarter; P&G’s approach has already made “shopper marketing” the latest craze.

“The store really is the battleground for the brand; it’s not just another consumer touchpoint,” Murray says. “You don’t switch brands in front of a billboard. You do it in the store.”

A longtime P&G shop, ThompsonMurray had to sell or slow its impressive 39% annual growth to about 10%. Murray talked to 10 CEOs of $1 billion businesses (half sold, half stayed private), then decided to sell — to Saatchi, another P&G shop.

Saatchi folded in its New York-based Collaborative Marketing division and shops in London and Paris, then opened a Cincinnati office.

The biggest challenge now is staffing up; Murray woos top-drawer talent with the promise of quick promotion and a cultivated agency culture. Candidates balk at moving to Arkansas, but 500 companies have relocated their top reps there to serve Wal-Mart, and CEOs are always coming into town. “To have access to the Fortune 500’s top people, you couldn’t get to a better location,” Murray says.

The P&G veteran (1984-93) sold his house and cashed his P&G stock to open Brandworks consultancy in 1997, then merged with ad shop Thompson Earnhart in 1999. The Springdale, AR-based shop grew via P&G, Wal-Mart, Smuckers, Perdue, and added Gerber Novartis in 2004.

“I thought I’d want to go to Fiji” after selling the agency, Murray says. “But I’m working just as hard and I feel more creative — and people say I seem to be smiling a lot more.”
— Betsy Spethmann

Search and Deliver

DOUG ROLLINS routed Coke’s Unexpected Summer

Doug Rollins was waiting for a phone call. The Coca-Cola brand manager and Coke’s Unexpected Summer Search Team spent several anxious days waiting for their first winner to push the red button on his Coke can, and set the prize delivery in motion.

Coke spent 11 months prepping for Unexpected Summer, then spent 12 weeks tracking 100 winners via GPS-enabled Coke cans. Five teams stationed across the U.S. tracked winners for four to 10 days, then swooped in to deliver 45 Chevy Equinox SUVs, home entertainment systems and cash. (Key retailers got about half the cans for their own overlays.)

Coke tested cans relentlessly, even running them through airport X-ray machines (though Coke advised winners not to fly — it’s hard to track GPS pings on a plane). Coke got clearance from the Federal Communications Commission and Transportation Security Administration, kept winning-can graphics off P-O-P so consumers couldn’t duplicate it, and layered in extra authentication measures.

“When it all comes down to it and the packaging is in market, you still wonder if it’s going to work. The best moment was when that first call came in,” Rollins says.

One New York City winner was shopping on Navy Pier when a barge delivered her SUV, a helicopter hovering overhead. Another family was swimming when their can rang: The search team needed someone to unlock the pool gate.

Most winners liked the dramatic delivery; a few didn’t want to be tracked. They got “a more typical, mundane prize fulfillment” through a local Chevy dealership.

This was Rollins’ first national promotion after eight years Coke (three on the brand team). Now back on Coke’s interactive team as Senior Interactive Brand Manager, Rollins oversees youth site www.cokemusic.com and ponders the marketing potential of cell phones. The regular kind.
— Betsy Spethmann

The Art of the Donald

TRUMP markets himself first, brands next

Love him or hate him, Donald Trump was ubiquitous last year, turning up everywhere from dusting himself off in a TV ad after retrieving a Visa card from a New York City dumpster to giving the peace sign while promoting his new namesake board game.

The Donald even has a new fragrance, named, what else, “Donald Trump, The Fragrance,” in a deal with Esteé Lauder.

His success with The Apprentice speaks for itself and he has spent plenty of time promoting spin-offs from the show.

Last summer, Hasbro Games introduced Trump the Game, a board game in which the winner can make millions of dollars. At the launch, fans crowded into Trump Tower in New York City where Trump selected five participants to step into a money machine to grab as much “Trump” money as they could in 15 seconds. The contestant who grabbed the most won a trip to Trump’s Taj Mahal Resort in Atlantic City, NJ, via private roundtrip limousine. Supporting the launch were retail displays embedded with motion-activated voice chips that called out “You’re Fired” when a shopper walked by.

Last fall, Trump took his reality TV show to his Taj Mahal Resort for a reality promotion where guests were called to the “boardroom” — a replica of the infamous boardroom on The Apprentice — for a one-on-one with Trump, who gave business tips and personal advice. After talking by speakerphone with each of eight contestants, seven heard those loathsome words “You’re Fired” while the last one standing walked away with $500. Periodically a contestant could win $5,000 playing “Survive the Boardroom” at The Donald’s request. The grand finale game was played on New Year’s Eve with Trump in person.

All this, and bankruptcy too!
— Patricia Odell

Civil Service

RUDERFER, COHN mix politics and history with marketing

The CNN Diner started as a hangout for Republican National Convention-goers, and ended up as part-time studio for CNN programming. The promotional pop-up slung hash for everyone from AOL Time Warner CEO Dick Parsons to former Mayor Ed Koch in the one week it was open.

“When I saw [senior White House advisor] David Gergen drinking coffee with Paula Zahn and Mario Cuomo into the night, I knew we did it,” says Stuart Ruderfer, co-CEO (with David Cohn) of Civic Entertainment Group, the New York City agency behind the CNN Diner.

Civic made over a neighborhood favorite, the Tick Tock Diner, into the CNN Diner — and broke it gently to the owners that the agency would replace their cook and wait staff for the duration. (Civic hired a catering firm.)

“Jerry Falwell came in to the diner and kept calling me ‘the most expensive waiter in America,’” Ruderfer recalls. “I don’t know what he meant by that, but he never did tip us.”

The promo shop specializes in public-spirited campaigns: It runs Save Our History for The History Channel, with a White House tie-in (a first), and last month negotiated a $19.5 million partnership between The History Channel and New York City to boost tourism.

Ruderfer and Cohn have built political and promotional acumen since founding the New York City’s Marketing & Special Events division in 1994 and opening Civic in 1999. Save Our History won a top PRO Award for Best Idea in 2004 (December PROMO).

“My proudest moment was at the awards dinner at the Smithsonian, watching a slide show of students working on restoration projects,” Ruderfer recalls. “We had been so buried in doing the work, but at that moment I saw the people and places we had affected.”

Is anyplace fair game for marketing? “It’s hard to know hypothetically,” Ruderfer says. “In public spaces, the rules are different because of the dignity of those places and because consumers don’t expect to see marketing messages there. The true test is whether there’s a legitimate purpose, a creative context, and a connection between the medium and the message that consumers will plainly see. Without that, it’s not worth the risk that consumers will reject it.”
— Betsy Spethmann

THROUGHOUT THE YEAR, the editors of PROMO get to see an amazing range of work from brand executives, promotion agencies and other marketers. In this issue we celebrate the 13 men and women (and one who is neither) who refused to hew to the same old same old in 2003. They grabbed our attention with creative approaches to marketing, attention to the consumer and savvy deal making. Sure, they made waves and took risks that would make other marketers uncomfortable, but they also enhanced their brands and pushed the sales needle. Looking for some inspiration as you set down your resolutions for 2004? Read on!

EBAY

Refining Retailing

Don Albert eases brands into online reality

It’s a store that has 100,000 new customers walking through the door each day, and during each day it moves $64 million in goods sold. By the end of 2003, it is expected to post $23 billion in sales. It’s eBay, and according to many marketers, it provides today a glimpse into the future of retailing.

From its inception, eBay has provided a home for small businesses (there are currently some 150,000 such enterprises operating within the site), but in the past two years, more CPGs and other major brands have realized the power of eBay’s marketing heft. After all, eBay has 86 million registered users worldwide. Since he came on board in 2001, Don Albert, eBay’s senior director-business development of strategic partnerships, has worked with them to invent promotions for this brave new world.

“Ours is a ‘marketing solutions’ medium. We’re helping to build stronger brands from the eBay platform,” Albert says.

Prior to his arrival, eBay offered little more than buttons and banners to companies that wanted to get in front of its growing audience. Now, Albert and his colleagues develop multi-level work for select partners. These include promotional auctions, incentive and reward programs for both consumer and trade partners, sponsorships and advertising, and direct and channel sales.

In 2002, for example, Albert worked with Dr Pepper/Seven Up Co. on building buzz for the launch of its dnL beverage. “We auctioned off the first cases for $400 each. Within days, we heard of average folks buying next-generation cases and auctioning them on our site because it had become a cool thing to do with the product.”

For the 10-year anniversary of the IBM ThinkPad, eBay auctioned off five celebrity-signed computers (by the likes of Sly Stallone and Mr. Rogers) over a two-week period. Traffic to IBM’s store within eBay increased by ninefold.

With the introduction earlier this year of eBay Anything Points, which allow users to redeem eBay merchandise, Albert’s team has developed a host of new partner tie-ins for such brands as American Airlines, Lending Tree, FTD, Sprint and Hilton Hotels. “With Anything Points, they can package loyalty deals while offering the world’s largest redemption catalog,” Albert explains.

Prior to joining eBay in August 2001, Albert was senior VP-marketing and sales for FusionOne, a wireless provider; he also held top marketing posts at PointCast, AOL’s Digital City and the WashingtonPost.com.
— Kathleen M. Joyce

HARLEY DAVIDSON

HOG HEAVEN

Joanne Bischmann took the party on the road

It was an 18-month long global carnival that was three years in the making. Harley-Davidson’s Centennial Celebration, which culminated in September, was a gala of road tours, parades, music, test rides, exhibits, exclusive parties and even the weddings of several couples.

Joanne Bischmann, Harley’s VP-marketing, lead the effort but is quick to point out that the success of the celebration rests in many hands. “It was a company-wide effort,” she says. “We started planning [for the centennial] the day after the 95th.”

The worldwide nine-city traveling festival, billed as “The World’s Largest Rolling Birthday Party,” hit Atlanta, Los Angeles, Toronto, Tokyo and other spots. A caravan motored through four different routes around the country before pulling into Harley’s Milwaukee headquarters for the grand finale bash 13 days later. An estimated 150,000 attended the three-day event.

The mantra? “Let’s bring the party to the people,” Bischmann says.

A supporting sweepstakes featured a special edition 100th Anniversary Harley-Davidson Sportster 1200 motorcycle as the top prize. Local dealers were encouraged to coordinate activities around the rides and hold anniversary celebrations throughout the year.

Plans for the 100th had three objectives: to celebrate with family and friends, to raise money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association and to reach out to a new audience.

Bischmann — a 13-year employee who started as an advertising manager — and her husband own two Harleys, a V-Road performance motorcycle, and a Road King Classic touring bike. And while she is licensed to operate one on her own, she prefers to enjoy the view from the back seat of her “hog.”

“It’s a chance for me to escape,” she says.
— Patricia Odell

DISNEY

MAKING PARTNER

Former attorney Val Cohen has found her creative niche as Disney’s deal maker

There is no hard and fast formula for crafting a partnership deal with Walt Disney Co., says Val Cohen, executive VP-corporate alliances. Despite appearances (the company has signed several big brands to astonishly long contracts in the past 24 months — 10-year terms are typical), “each of these relationships is unique to the brands involved,” she says.

In some instances, the brand woos Disney: QSR McDonald’s, for example, initiated its deal running from 1996 through 2006. It includes a full-service restaurant inside the California Adventure park adjacent to Disneyland in Anaheim, CA, as well as venues in Orlando’s Walt Disney World and Animal Kingdom, and Disneyland Paris. And of course, characters from Disney film releases feature prominently in McD’s Happy Meals.

In other cases, Disney does the pursuing. “In many ways, the HP deal exemplifies what we look for in a partnership,” Cohen says. Announced in October 2003, the 10-year strategic alliance calls for boosting consumer entertainment experiences through the collaborative development of new technology. Disney had sought out what was then Compaq in the late 1990s, with a proposal for a space technology exhibit in the theme parks. This discussion evolved and was joined by HP following the merger of Compaq and HP in 2002. The result, the Mission: SPACE attraction at DisneyWorld’s Epcot park, “crosses over many of our businesses and provides opportunities that neither partner would have without this arrangement,” Cohen says. The deal also encompasses a sponsorship role for HP in Disney’s online endeavors (including sites for the theme parks, the online Disney Store, the cable ESPN and Disney Channels, Movies.com, Oscar.com, and the site for the ABC TV network) and technological support to Disney’s corporate parent.

To manage the complexity of such partnership agreements, Cohen draws upon her extensive legal training. Following 10 years in the New Jersey court system, she joined Disney’s legal department in 1991. Then in 1999, she was “ready for a change” and moved to Disney’s marketing department. Before long, crafting partnership deals became a significant part of the daily work for her team. In addition to the McDonald’s and HP deals, Cohen’s division has worked on multi-year alliances with BankOne/Visa (commencing January 2003), Frito-Lay (October 2002), Coca-Cola/Dasani Water (September 2002), Kodak (May 2002) and Home Depot (May 2002).

There is at least one common thread running through all the Disney partnerships signs, Cohen admits. “These are premium brands in and of themselves,” Cohen says. “These are the companies Disney is interested in working with for our mutual benefit.” And because it’s Disney, it doesn’t take a lot of “imagineering” for brands to dream up powerful promotions.
— Kathleen M. Joyce

SCION TOYOTA

Making Waves Under the Radar

Brian Bolain has mastered guerilla tactics for Toyota launch

Call him the anti-advertiser. For the launch of Toyota’s new Scion sedans this past year, Brian Bolain ran no TV advertising, forbade sales reps to approach customers and virtually sneaked into regional markets under the radar screen of most consumers.

Most, but not all. Scion’s marketing team calculated that the key demographic for the car, male first-time buyers aged 18 to 24, would pounce on a vehicle they “discovered” on their own, and then viral marketing would propel the brand. “Word-of-mouth is more important to [this group] than an ad that is bought and paid for,” says Bolain, national sales promotion manager for Scion.

Hence the guerilla force behind Scion. In order to overcome the un-cool image saddling Toyota (the company’s average customer is 48 years old), Bolain and his team have ensured that souped up versions of the Scion xA have been parked outside trendy nightspots in Los Angeles since June. Curbs outside clubs in the Southwest, Southeast and East Coast will get the same treatment starting in February 2004. The brand hosted a breakdancing tour to 14 college campuses west of the Mississippi, coordinated by San Francisco-based Hadley Media. A national rollout is scheduled for June 2004.

While staged appearances are a key component of Scion’s marketing, 43-year-old Bolain says “authenticity” is its guiding force. “We just keep everything very real,” he says, in customization options, pricing and selling. “It’s just straight up.”

So far, Bolain’s promotional approach seems to be winning the younger crowd. The average buyer is 36 years old, lower than any of Toyota’s other brands. And loyalty among owners is fierce, with drivers’ club already popping up in southern California. Is this a Scion of things to come?
— Kathleen M. Joyce

MCDONALDS

WATCHDOG

Douglas Freeland secured McDonald’s winning time

It had to be a non-event. McDonald’s couldn’t afford a glitch with Winning Time, its first game since the 2001 Monopoly scandal. Big Mac appointed Douglas Freeland point person. “All eyes were on us,” says the national marketing director. “We had two goals: Drive sales, but also get back on our feet and pave the way for future games.”

McD didn’t risk Monopoly. “I felt very strongly that we should come back with a McDonald’s-branded game first,” he says. Traffic rose, and post-analysis showed diners liked Winning Time’s simplicity and prizes.

Freeland oversaw security measures approved by McDonald’s new Games Advisory Council (May 2003 PROMO). He also prompted McDonald’s first-ever bilingual game piece, to help Hispanic customers and crew. Cheeky “not a winner” messages played well in Spanish (“Lo siento, no era tu hora de ganar,” read one, which translated to “We’re sorry, it’s not your time to win.”)

“In a Chicago restaurant, I watched two Hispanic women peel back their game pieces and chuckle. It wouldn’t have had that impact in English,” Freeland says.

Freeland joined McDonald’s media planning group nine years ago, shifting to promotions in 1997. Stints at FCB and J. Walter Thompson led to five years at Quaker Oats Co. “I’ve gone from the number-crunching of media planning to the glamour of entertainment-based promotions,” Freeland laughs.

McDonald’s rotates staffers — Freeland didn’t work on October-November Best Chance Monopoly — to minimize individual control and keep vigilance high. “These are exhaustive. You really need a break,” says Freeland. “I like to work on a wide range of projects and bring together divergent points of view — consumers, operators, agencies.” Franchisee buy-in is the biggest challenge: “They’re smart and engaged in the process. It creates a lot of great dialog, but it’s challenging.”
— Betsy Spethmann

KRAFT

Fighting Trim

Lance Friedmann leads Kraft’s marketing work to cut obesity

Lance Friedmann is watching what you eat. As marketing point person for Kraft Foods’ global health and wellness efforts, senior VP Friedmann touches marketing (Kraft dropped in-school efforts this fall), R&D (look for new items in 2004) and meets with the doctors and nutritionists on the Worldwide Health & Wellness Advisory Council that Kraft formed in September.

“Obesity is one of the most important issues worldwide. Food is part of the solution, and we want to be a leader in that,” says Friedmann. “We also see this as a growth opportunity: As consumers switch to healthier foods, we want to offer choices people want.”

Since July, Kraft has been “quietly improving the nutrition profile while maintaining taste” on many products. To come: more low-cal and heart-healthy versions of current brands, and mainstreaming the Back to Nature organic brand Kraft bought this fall. This year, cereals added a “Healthy Classics” sub-brand (flagged to match specific health concerns), while cheese and Breyer’s yogurt hopped on the American Dairy Association’s 3-A-Day program.

The council and Kraft’s internal team start work in early 2004 on marketing guidelines. A four-city pilot of “Salsa, Sabor y Salud” (loosely, “food, flavor and health”) will put Hispanic families through eight-week nutrition and exercise training. “You can’t just give a 10-year-old a pamphlet on good nutrition and expect it to work,” says Friedmann, who’s also president of Kraft’s Mexico, Puerto Rico and Canada operations.

Friedmann managed brands for then-General Foods in the early 80s, then returned in 1990. His fave foods? Mac and cheese — “I used to manage the business, so I have a fondness for that” — and Bull’s Eye barbecue sauce (on veggies and edamame, no less).
— Betsy Spethmann

OPTS EVENTS

Professional Juggler

Lisa Holland savors Broadway fame

She is the woman who bought out all the tickets on Broadway last year. Washington Mutual’s Spotlight on Teachers gave 28,000 tickets to New York-area teachers and snagged PROMO’s top PRO Award this fall (November PROMO).

But Lisa Holland’s not resting on those laurels. The OPTS Events VP just wrapped up WaMu’s Teacherpalooza, an October barbecue, housing fair, talent show and concert for 30,000 in Chicago. There, WaMu’s trademarked Spotlight on Teachers brought educators on-stage; performers with big cheers won up to $15,000 for their schools.

Sausalito, CA-based OPTS got the nod in July. “We went from zero to 60 in three-and-a-half months” to host Teacherpalooza before cold weather moved in, Holland recalls. Pile on simultaneous WaMu events in New York, Chicago and Denver and it’s clear she and her crew juggle fast — and fastidiously.

“You plan for anything you can think of that could possibly go wrong. Then when something you couldn’t foresee does go wrong, you have the time and energy to fix it,” she says.

Take Spotlight: Since WaMu claimed to buy out Broadway, OPTS had to snag seats even if a show opened last-minute. “We were on the edge of our chairs the last two weeks during ticket distribution,” Holland recalls. “It was a dance we had to do with openings and closings.”

Holland and partner Michael Christman began 20 years ago with a restaurant, then segued to catering and event planning. Eight years ago they dropped the oven mitts to focus on event management, and this year opened a New York City office to serve media brands. “We excel at doing what hasn’t been done before. Our programs aren’t easy [to execute], and that’s what makes it satisfying,” Holland says. Her Broadway payoff? “Standing on 44th Street with Joel Grey singing ‘Welcome’ from Cabaret. I had chills. I’m really proud of that work.”
— Betsy Spethmann

NBA

GREAT EXPECTATIONS

LeBron James is the boy-as-brand

The kid can pass the ball and move the goods. LeBron James, the high school superstar turned NBA phenomenon, has positioned himself as a mega brand, ringing up millions in endorsements before ever stepping out on the court in his first regular season game last October.

The Cleveland Cavaliers superstar inked a $90 million, seven-year deal with Nike, who developed a line of shoes — called King James — after the No. 1 draft pick’s nickname.

In another slam dunk, the 18-year-old aligned with Coca-Cola as spokesperson for its Powerade brand and its Sprite “Obey Your Thirst” campaign. James will appear in ads, promotions and guest appearance in the six-year deal worth $12 million.

James tacked on another $6 million in a multi-year deal with Upper Deck, a maker of trading cards, collectibles and sports memorabilia, to represent the NBA line. Whatever he touches turns to gold. The company is selling LeBron memorabilia at superstar prices, like an autographed basketball for $649.99 and a signed high school jersey for $899.99.

Over the summer, Juice, a new brand of batteries, partnered with James and MTV in a 30-second spot “Who’s got juice?” as the new batteries rolled out nationwide and in Canada.

What’s his secret? “He’s got a great smile and great personality,” says Mary Ford, a spokesperson for Goodwin Sports Management, Seattle, WA. “He’s attractive for what he can do on the basketball court, yet fascinating for the person he is.”

Slam dunk!
— Patricia Odell

PEPSI

A STARIS BORN

A chimp with charisma shines in Pepsi sweeps

The chance of winning $1 billion dollars may have been the highlight of Pepsi’s Play for $1 Billion sweepstakes last summer, but Kendall the chimp stole the show. The primate drew the six winning numbers during a two-hour TV special that aired live on the WB network to ensure that the game wasn’t rigged.

The WB promoted the sweeps throughout the summer, and four-year-old Kendall grabbed media attention that pumped up interest in the sweepstakes. “He’s the Leo DiCaprio of chimps,” says Matti Leshem, the executive director of the show. “He became the hook for this program, the thing people focused on.”

The idea of using a chimp as a sweeps mascot came after rounds of futile brainstorming on a secure way to pick the number. In frustration, Leshem blurted out, “What do you want me to do, get a monkey to choose it?” A casting call went out and dozens of audition tapes poured in. Kendall had almost been shelved as a prospect until Leshem’s 10-year-old daughter Kaley watched some of the films. She told her dad he had overlooked some important qualities in Kendall: his good looks and sweet personality.

Next, the organizers set out to find a winner (ideally a human). More than 20 million registrations poured in after specially marked packages of Pepsi, Mountain Dew and Sierra Mist hit stores last May promoting the under-the-cap sweeps. As for the $1 billion? Richard Bay, a 42-year-old high school teacher from Princeton, WV, was off by two digits, but still went home with a $1 million.
— Patricia Odell

CLOROX

The Calculator

Peter Lund does the math at Clorox

This year added up for Peter Lund. Start with seven out of seven — the number of Clorox Co. divisions to hand off promotion planning to director of consumer promotions Lund as Clorox streamlines marketing (March PROMO). Wait, make that Number One, as in the laundry/home cleaning division, whose $2 billion in sales is about half of Clorox’s revenues. “We’ve had four years to staff up and take on the mother ship,” says Lund. “Our groundwork with the other divisions taught us a lot and got people excited to work with us.”

Now add in 100,000 — the number of demo days Lund and crew oversaw to launch ReadyMop, which earned 6% household penetration in six months and garnered top market share despite trailing Procter & Gamble’s Swiffer to market. “Our group was deeply involved in that launch. It’s a big source of pride,” says Lund.

Then came in-store demos to launch cleaning products with Teflon: “It was fun to figure out how to let consumers experience such an interesting, innovative product.”

The number that makes it all happen is 17 consumer promotions staffers (and counting), up from three in 1999. Their toughest challenges are integrated marketing and co-marketing — though Clorox’s new customer co-marketing group helps.

“Retailers expect us to bring consumers innovation. The balance of hitting consumers’ sweet spot and getting retailers excited is challenging,” he says.

Lund pegged himself as a promo pro in college with a thesis on couponing. “It was the only ‘A’ I ever got in college,” he laughs. He spent two years at Minneapolis ad agency Colle McVoy, then joined Nestle in Purchase, NY. Clorox recruited him 13 years ago.

Lund likes Clorox’s wide-ranging portfolio. “It’s hard to get bored here. You can be working on upscale Brita one day, then male-targeted STP, then a family brand like bleach, or an ethnic product like Pine-Sol. Plus, it’s San Francisco. What’s not to love?”
— Betsy Spethmann

WPP

WHITE KNIGHT

Sir Martin Sorrell as the ultimate bargain shopper

Sir Martin Sorrell spent about $430 million to buy a big chunk of debt this year. Call it bargain shopping: WPP got Cordiant Communications Group for GBP256 million, about half of Cordiant’s 2002 revenues of $852 million. Immediately divesting parts of Cordiant and WPP’s 25% stake in Zenith OptiMedia brought in about $256 million; figure in Cordiant’s balance sheet and WPP’s outlay was only about $243 million.

Or call it salvation: Sorrell rescued Cordiant from bankruptcy court and has kept 141 Worldwide intact — so far — despite dismantling sister ad shop Bates, whose offices and clients will be absorbed by WPP sibs by January 2004.

Some analysts criticized the purchase, fretting that WPP will stumble under the added debt if it has any trouble merging businesses. 2004 will tell the tale: With 141 aligned under Ogilvy & Mather, some insiders say the promo network won’t remain a global force.

Group chief executive Sorrell arm-wrestled rival Publicis Groupe in a dramatic bidding war that saw minority debt holder Active Value angling to increase its holdings to veto WPP’s bid and force Cordiant into bankruptcy. That would have let Publicis cherry-pick remnants of Cordiant.

141 Worldwide — whose 91 offices in 57 countries had 2002 net revenues of about $42 million — got caught in Cordiant’s tailspin, losing Allied Domecq when client defections from Bates caused AD to worry about Cordiant’s solvency. Since the buyout, North American offices have aligned with Ogilvy & Mather and report to O&M North America President Tro Piliguian.

Marketing services are about 55% of WPP’s revenues; the goal is to push that closer to 70%. 141 offices could be instrumental to Sorrell’s plan to build Europe and Asia so each region (with North America) accounts for 33% of revenues — once the chess pieces all line up.
— Betsy Spethmann

U.S. CONGRESS

Political Power

Billy Tauzin legislates marketing reform

Like it or not, Representative Billy Tauzin has had a big impact on marketers, especially those using the phone to find new customers.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman led the fight in Congress to provide funding for the Federal Trade Commission to implement the national do-not-call registry.

And when a federal ruling in September jeopardized the creation of the list, Tauzin, along with ranking member John Dingell (D-MI), introduced a bill that reaffirmed the FTC’s authority to create and enforce the list. The bill passed the house in less than 36 hours, and was signed into law by President Bush in September.

“This decision is great news for consumers and families,” he said in October. “Finally, a federal court has recognized that Americans have a right to say ‘goodbye’ to unwanted calls from pesky telemarketers.”

Tauzin, serving his 12th term in the House, is also taking a lead in eradicating e-mail spam.

Last May, the representative from Louisiana and two other representatives introduced the Rid Spam Act. The act prohibits sending fraudulent e-mails and allows consumers to opt out of any commercial e-mail. At deadline, the bill was still in committee, but Tauzin was hopeful that it would pass before the end of the year.

“It won’t be long before half of all e-mail is considered spam,” he said in a statement at the time. “I will not stand by and allow this to continue and I can assure you that folks throughout America won’t stand for it either.”
— Patricia Odell

TIMES SQUARE ALLIANCE

IMPRESARIO OF TIMES SQUARE

Tim Tompkins plays street theatre for a demanding audience

The caretaker of Times Square is a juggler of sorts. He is charged with showcasing the Big Apple’s most marketable piece of real estate as a knockout venue for brands to strut their stuff while at the same time appeasing neighborhood businesses and residents.

The man in the hot seat is Tim Tompkins, president of the Times Square Alliance, formerly the Times Square Business Improvement District, who says: “I’m a custodian of Times Square’s brand identity and a promoter of the neighborhood and its businesses.”

The city decides which events will be held and then Tompkins and his team take over to shape their nature and timing so neighborhood businesses and residents are not negatively impacted.

For example, in November 2002, Seattle-based Washington Mutual Bank bought out all the tickets on Broadway for a Saturday matinee; it then gave the seats away to teachers to recognize their efforts and to promote its entry into the city (November PROMO). To kick off the big day, WaMu wanted to close down all of the “in-center” of Times Square for a rally. It was a huge event for a worthy audience, but Tompkins found the outdoor portion of the event worked better on a side street.

In contrast, when the NFL took over Times Square for a huge pre-season party in 2002 with a street concert featuring Bon Jovi and other musicians, thousands of fans filled the streets and the party was broadcast to the entire country.

Tompkins takes each brand’s inquiry for a bite of Times Square on a case-by-case basis.

“As Times Square grows in popularity, we’re still working out what works and what doesn’t,” he says.
— Patricia Odell

DIAGEO

MIX MASTER

Mark Waller leads promotion of Diageo’s all-alcohol portfolio

For Mark Waller and his team at Diageo North America, it’s all a matter of the right mix: the right brands, the right market data, the right agency partners. Oh, and a willingness to challenge the accepted rules.

Over the past two years, the international conglomerate has shed huge chunks of its business — Pillsbury foods in 2001 and Burger King quick-service restaurants in 2003 — to focus exclusively on its brewed and distilled alcohol brands. Having streamlined both staff and brands, Diageo has begun to rebuild. Its portfolio now includes Seagrams, which Diageo acquired for $5.3 billion in 2001 through a partnership with Pernod Ricard, and a re-energized Smirnoff’s vodka line.

Waller, Diageo’s executive VP of consumer strategy and marketing, has rallied his troops around the company’s redefined portfolio, and is leading the charge with more consumer-driven promotion. He has initiated more direct marketing, more tailored promos for regional brands, more ethnic marketing and more consumer trial through 2004 (September PROMO).

While Diageo has undeniable heft in its market (it now dominates the industry with 10 of the top 20 spirits and 23% market share — nearly double the next closest competitor), Waller has emphasized the need for nimbleness when it comes to promoting per region and per brand. He and his team have developed rich data on customers per brand, by convincing distributors to invest more heavily in tracking sales data and by expanding the relationship management components of Diageo campaigns. “Direct dialog is a fundamental driver,” says Waller. As a result, the company has begun to build more direct-to-consumer work, including sampling, trial and on-premises, for such key brands as Crown Royal, Guinness and Bailey’s.

Whether marketing beer or spirits, Waller and his cohorts have bucked the rules. Last year Diageo tried to get NBC to depart from long-time voluntary restrictions on TV ads for spirits; negotiations fell through on a national level, but Diageo was able to recruit about 400 local TV stations to take its ads. The company is also pushing to reform laws that prohibit the sale of alcohol on Sunday, a revision that many cash-strapped states are considering.

“I don’t think we’re challenging [standards]; I think consumer trends are changing,” Waller says. “Many of the laws that exist were written in the 19th century and a lot has changed in how consumers shop, how they buy, how they view media. I don’t see it as our agenda, but a consumer agenda.”
— Kathleen M. Joyce with reporting by Matt Kinsman