Advertising Balloon Company

Allen Adamson, Managing Director of Landor’s New York office, has some thoughts to share on what brands need to succeed in 2012 and beyond.

Companies that once thought in terms of “built to last” must now think in terms of “built to change.” Creative thinking and an entrepreneurial spirit are the price of entry, and any company that doesn’t recognize change as the new normal will not have a fighting chance.

Companies that watch, ponder, and wait for conclusive evidence before launching into a new endeavor will be left in the dust. It’s time to get comfortable with calculated risk taking. Companies will need to read the playbook while on the field and feel confident enough with the knowledge they have to move forward with their plans.

In other words, Real-Time Marketing’s time is now.

I recently came across an excellent example of real-time one-to-one marketing made possible by listening on Twitter. After a long day of travel, Peter Shankman jokingly asked Morton’s to meet him at Newark (EWR) with a Porterhouse.

Because Shankman is a big fan of Morton’s and a regular customer at their locations across the U.S., the chain of high end steakhouses heard him on Twitter and decided to dispatch a tuxedo-clad waiter to EWR to meet Shankman on the curb with his requested steak.

Morton’s Hackensack is 23.5 miles away from EWR, according to Google Maps. That meant that in just under three hours, someone at Morton’s Corporate had to see my tweet, get authorization to do this stunt, get in touch with Morton’s Hackensack, and place the order. Then Morton’s Hackensack had to cook the order, get it boxed up, and get a server to get in his car, and drive to Newark Airport (never an easy task, no matter where you’re coming from) then, (and this is the part the continues to blow me away,) while all this was happening, track down my flight, where I was landing, and be there when I walked out of security!

Are you taking this all in? Because it happened to me, and I still can’t even fathom it.

Morton’s actions are a textbook case of “surprise and delight.” Morton’s created a brand experience that Shankman will never forget. And because he is an influencer, the story will be told over and over again.

I think it is time for a new category at Cannes–Best Customer Experience of the year.

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Here’s your chance to compete with Charles Barkley. The NBA legend has gained 100 pounds since his playing days, but he’s reversing that trend with the help of Weight Watchers.

I like this B-roll, as well:

According to Marketing Daily, men’s weight-loss efforts account for roughly 15% of the overall market, or $9.3 billion.

In related news, Nutrisystem has hired Terry Bradshaw as its celebrity spokesperson. The former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback has lost 32 pounds on the company’s new Success program so far.

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Public service advertising no longer belongs to the world of pro-bono work and free late-night media placements. With the opportunity presented by content marketing, brands are beginning to wear their values on their YouTube sleeve.

Take Coca-Cola, the soft drink empire found another way to spread happiness, and tie it to the emotion of Christmas. They achieved this by selecting three Overseas Filipino Workers, or OFWs (out of 11 million) and sending them home for the holidays.

The video is a tearjerker, and the tears were not fabricated in a script or on set. The tears and the joy at seeing family is real. But what about the sudden appearance of the 2-litre bottle of Coke near the end of the video? Is that also genuine? It feels forced to me.

But there is a larger question here than appropriate product placement. Does Coke’s effort to do good, and spread happiness — which is the brand’s overriding global strategy — cross a line here? Even when intentions are good, the danger is Coke may be accused of exploiting these OFWs for their own gain.

I have long held that a brand wishing to rub elbows with and open their checkbooks to good causes, ought to be encouraged to do so. I am happy to see Coca-Cola making a difference in peoples’ lives. I bring up the possible downside, because a delicate balance has to be realized here. We can’t let a few good deeds overshadow a company’s larger impact on society. And let’s not forget that the purpose here is to sell more Coke.

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