Corporate Eye

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Media

Energizing Your Brand Through the Media: Act II Popcorn Finds a Way

Act II popcorn has been around for quite some time and perhaps even appears in a lot of our cabinets at home. Their popcorn (in my own opinion) is light, awfully good and buttery and is just perfect for a movie night at  home or with friends. It’s even good with a 52-hour movie stint, something Act 11 did a few years back that caused them to buzz the market and explode with their product.

Act II Popcorn, parent-owned by the Conagra Foods Company, held a movie fest/movie marathon that was used to introduce their newest product into the market. History begins with its predecessor—ACT I, an early microwave popcorn that had to be stored in the refrigerator. In 1984 ACT II, a shelf-stable microwave popcorn, hit the stage. It was the first mass-marketed microwave popcorn. ACT II has brought Americans many firsts since then, including the first flavored microwave popcorn, the first fat-free microwave popcorn, and the first kettle-corn-variety microwave popcorn.

To introduce this concept and product to the consumers, Act II held a movie fest which lasted for approximately 52 hours at the Heights Theatre in Columbia Heights, MN.

Con Agra foods was holding the ACT II popcorn “pop fest” at the Heights, which broke the (then) worlds record of continuous movie watching. The first movie started on Friday Morning at. 9:30AM, and the last movie did not end until 7:00PM on Sunday night.

The participants could have ALL of the popcorn they desired, with 15 minute incremental breaks at designated periods, but NONE of the participants at any time could fall asleep or leave the theatre. They were competing for a Guinness Book of World Records championship. The winners of the movie competition would receive a year’s worth of Act II popcorn free, their faces on specially marked packages and the chance to claim bragging rights in the Guinness Book. And all of this for doing something that really is fun: watching a movie and eating hot-buttered popcorn.

This clever act of advertising, media relations, branding and marketing helped to make Act II a popular popcorn with a hard-to-forget creative branding strategy. Their goal was to embed the image and thought of their product into their customers minds, and create a desire for their product for the next time they’re in the grocery store on the popcorn aisle. Has it happened to you yet? Are you an Act II popcorn eater? Does their marketing strategy work on you?

What was so clever about this campaign is that they involved, heavily involved, the participation of their customers and made it fun for them to interact. The marathon lasted for about three days or so, and was just enough time for the product to create a buzz and gain media attention. (YouTube News)

Conagra Foods actually ran this campaign over a year ago, but the residuals are still evident today. The company is still enjoying profitable increases in their stock with a growing and successful product line. Is is all or partly due to the Act II commercial? Not really of course, but it is branding strategies like this that can help a corporate entity establish themselves as a market leader and a competitive force. Kudos to whomever the advertising executive or committee was who thought of this type of marketing strategy. It did well for the brand!

What kind of creative things can you think of that would explode your brand? Would your company be willing to try anything that would bring them exposure? Is it worth it to them or is it something that is reserved only for the “creative brands?”

Consumer Sensitivity in Media Relations

Do you think large companies purposefully run ads that they know are offensive in vain attempts to get traffic or social communities humming their name? Do you think they know when they’ve made a no-no, or do they simply recoil in shock that they are 1. embarrassed or 2. busted?

Large companies have a social responsibility to the community to protect ideas and values, do they not? Are they just free to print, say, distribute anything that they want to all because they can? Don’t they have to be responsible, to answer to someone for their actions? Surely so.

Large (and small) companies do have a responsibility to consumers to protect ideas and values. Because they are in the forefront of marketing strategies, because they (often) have household names and because their products have mass appeal, they do have a social and business responsibility to answer to what they say, to whom they say it and how they say it.

Pepsi Max just recently came under fire for running a highly controversial ad depicting a lonely one calorie figure who was suicidal because he was so alone. The calorie held a gun to its head and shot himself, splattering blood everywhere as he stood poised within a noose ready to hang himself. I found the image to be quite graphic and rather offensive given that I am an avid diet Pepsi drinker and the one calorie drink is rather appealing to me. What offends me about is the implication that the one lone calorie is so miserable and so lonely that he’d rather take his “life” than be by himself.

The social communities are definitely humming Pepsi’s name from the article and comments on YumSugar, to John Hoffoss’s opinion blurb, to David Burn’s passionately written blog post on the matter and hosts of other opinion pieces on why Pepsi did not do such a good, warm-feeling outreach campaign with this ad.

While there are a lot of opinions on both sides of the discussion about the ad and its effect on consumer’s, it’s apparent and agreeable that this is a highly controversial subject. I for one think that Pepsi should not have circulated this ad at all. Having the ad run as its photo image depicted seemingly sends (to me) the message that suicide is a dark funny, perhaps light-hearted thing. Just my opinion.

But the one thing that I cannot deny is the press that this ad has gotten. People in chat rooms, forums and blogs are all talking about how “awful”, “disgusting”, or even how “funny looking” the ad was. You cannot deny, whether controversial or not, that Pepsi created a buzz about their product that could last anywhere from a few hours to a few months. Admittedly, the media package did its job in creating a buzz and talk about its product. But, I still object only to the way they did it.

Anyone else agree with me?

Words and How “Live Blogging” Can Affect Your Corporate Sales

Words are very powerful. The things we say can bring lots of joy…or not so much joy. Our words have the power to change nations, change the lives of people and carry the ability to shape the future, simply with the words that we speak.  Sounds poetic, doesn’t it? However lofty sounding it may be, it is true.

Basically, the things that we say and write, and the things that are said and written about us, make a difference. They can often make such a significant difference in our businesses world that it is well worth the effort to take the time to ensure that what’s being said is at least accurate. Although there is no way to completely control what the opinions of others are (and you shouldn’t want to), what you can do is to ensure that 1.) the facts are presented, 2.) there are no unanswered questions or ambiguous thoughts and 3.) you don’t actively contribute to the speculation pool of gossip with your actions.

Just how powerful are words? Imagine having your every word typed immediately onto a platform that allows the world to instantaneously know what you’re saying. Imagine that even your funny stories, uhm’s, ahh’s and bad jokes are all on display for others to edit, discuss and dismiss. Now imagine having all of that affect your bottom line.

Live Blogging

A while back, I blogged on the idea of corporate media live blogging and just recently did a search to see how popular this idea was/is. It is quite popular. Live blogging implies just what the name suggests – – Live Blogging. Blogging while you are right in the middle of an event, a speech, a workshop or seminar. A live blogger or a live blogging episode allows the writer to instantaneously relay information as it happens. The cool part about this type of blogging is that you get information right away. The not so cool part of this type of blogging is that you get information right away. I’ll explain why later. 

Corporate Blogging

Corporate blogging has an unfortunate reputation of being stale and sometimes boring. Numbers, statistics, dry news reads, etc. Although this is not the case in every type of corporate blog, it can take a lot to convince readers to participate in a corporate blog forum. The reason why is because they’re usually uneventful and contain information that often doesn’t pull the reader in. So, the challenge of a corporate blog is to get traffic to the site and to engage the readers so that they will want to read more and come back again and again.

Live Blogging + Corporate Blogging

Bringing together live blogging and corporate blogging in one setting can prove valuable for a company. Although this is my opinion, and quite relative, what I am referring to specifically is the recent live blogging event of Phil Schiller’s keynote speech from Apple. SF Gate had a live blogging platform going on from the MacWorld ’09 event. There has quite a buzz on the internet over the past few weeks about Schiller’s keynote, the absence of Steve Jobs and the effect of that, the speculation that Apple would unveil a new product, etc. etc. No one knew what to really expect from Apple or the leaders there. Since the brand is so popular and interesting, followers are quite interested in what happens at the events, especially if they are unable to attend. Enter – – live blogging.

When a company like Apple creates such a strong brand and an almost cult-like following as they have, everything they do will be magnified and criticized. There’s just no way around it. The same thing can happen with a corporate blog, minus the cult. If corporate companies entertain the idea of live blogging, how significant would their sales change? Even if the CEO is not a Steve Job’s, or even if the product the company manufacture’s doesn’t have a digital interface or touch screen and even if it isn’t quite clear what the brand is, corporations have the ability, the power with their words via their blogs to impact their consumers. Sure sales can NOT increase, but they can also decrease. It can all hinge on what’s going on or not going on at your event. And, it can hinge on the blogger and their take on the whole program.

Live blogging can be great for sales. It can create a buzz with customers concerning any new products. Customers like to be a part of the action, to feel that they are “in”. Once they feel connected, they will follow your product, your brand, your label and your stats. Whether your company is performing favorably or not so favorably, your resource to connect cannot ever be replaced nor should it be undervalued. What can you live blog about today that will make a change, even a small one in your business? What can you offer to your customers that will make them want to watch your company’s every move? What can you do to affect your company’s bottom line?

Going up a gear – Media (part 2)

I recently discussed what should be included in a competent media section. Today I want to look at what you need to step the Media section up a gear.

A good media section

The better Media sections contain a range of additional elements to make it easier for the visitor. This includes additional information that might be useful, easy to access and packaged in helpful bundles, and some tools to help them get their job done. These elements include:
[Read more…] about Going up a gear – Media (part 2)

Show the world where you are – and what you are doing there

No matter what size of company you are, details of your registered address should be available on your site. This is a legal requirement here in the UK (reminder) – but is good practice anyway. Larger companies often also provide further details of their various locations – sometimes in the About Us section or in the Careers section.

Tell potential recruits what it is really like

Providing details about your locations can help potential recruits make their decisions. Successful applicants will not only have to work in one of your locations, they will have to live there too. No-one wants to hire someone who decides they don’t like the area you work in and leave; providing information about the area can help avoid losing a recruit later.
[Read more…] about Show the world where you are – and what you are doing there

Annual Reports, PDFs and Printing

unbalanced scalesI was interested to see that Nexxar have been assessing the size of Annual Report PDFs from DAX-30 companies.

Marco Schueller is right to point out that bandwidth is still an issue – though I think this continues to affect desktop-internet to some extent, not just mobile-internet. In many areas here in the UK, at least, broadband is still only up to 2MB max, not the superfast 20MB version available in cities. And in a very few places, broadband is still not available at all.

The large file-sizes that he points out (10MB-11.6MB) would indeed take a while to download.

Of course, downloading the entire file isn’t always what visitors want to do. Many companies offer indexed versions, so that the desired parts of the document – such as the financial statements – can be selected for download. Some offer the option to add individual sections or pages to a print/download basket, or to be collated into a single PDF; usually this is from within the online annual report. BMW is an example of this service; I was intrigued to notice that BMW suggested additional sections of the report that might be of interest to me, along the lines of Amazon’s well-known cross-marketing software.

A few – very few – offer a printer-friendly version of the complete annual report (see Standard Life, for example), which seems like a good idea. After all, we don’t really need the decorative images, although they do help to convey the corporate brand and messaging. One option that Deutsche Post uses is a print-page facility, so without the background and purely decorative graphics, but with the additional option to print with/without images. (Of course, it would take a long time to print the whole report like this, so a print-whole-report facility like this would be great).

Does this mean a company should come up with three versions in addition to the online annual report? One for hard-copy glossy print, one lightweight for download and one for individuals to print out on their desktop printers? Or more: large-print, audio, braille…

Once the hard work of developing the annual report is done, I think a lightweight version and a printer-friendly version should be relatively straightforward. I’m excluding the online annual report here; I know that’s a significant piece of work. And I can see that versions in alternative formats are also a significant exercise. But I think that providing multiple options for the reports serves the needs of different visitors, such as those who want:

  • to download the full-on beautiful version with lots of images and graphics
  • to download quickly to browse off-line
  • to download and print the information (no images)
  • to download key sections only
  • an accessible version
  • and not forgetting those who want to order a hard copy.

And that, surely, is user-friendly.