How to smell like a man

Posted on December 23, 2011 by ddeal

Hey, guys, how would you like to smell like “Wilderness, Open Air & Freedom”? All you need to do is introduce your underarm to Old Spice Denali deodorant, one of the many different brands available in the increasingly crowded category of men’s personal body care products. Clearly, times have changed since Right Guard was the only game in town. Nowadays Procter & Gamble and Unilever alone have made choosing deodorant feel like sampling different flavors of ice cream. For the discerning male trying to make sense of the myriad brands filling the air with pungent aromas, I’ve simplified your choices into five categories, ranging from the sickeningly sweet to in-your-face pure macho:

1. The Sweet Smell of Success

The Procter & Gamble Old Spice Fresh Collection has cornered the market on products for men who want to smell like women. Fiji promise to make you radiate a scent of “palm trees, sunshine & freedom.” Aqua Reef “gives your armpit that fresh Caribbean feeling it craves.” But Unilever isn’t going to go down easily. Its notoriously fruity AXE deodorant line features something called “Twist,” which relies on green colored lettering and a lime colored stick to give you a “fresh burst that evolves into a smooth, sexy scent” (according to the AXE website), as if to address head-on any fear on the buyer’s part that smelling fresh and sweet is going to turn you into a complete wuss. Want to get the girl? Smell like her.

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AXE: sexy and useful at Pitchfork 2011

Posted on July 17, 2011 by ddeal

Want to make your brand memorable? Be useful. AXE just showed me how at the 2011 Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago.

Most of us know about AXE, the provider of men’s body grooming products, from its slick and sexually provocative advertisements. AXE also uses music to build its brand (in a more thoughtful way), an example being as the AXE Mystery Concerts to promote its Music fragrance.

At the Pitchfork Music festival, AXE was not only a sponsor but provider of a playful yet highly practical AXE Excite Sky Lounge to promote the new AXE Excite line of body care products.

On the day I visited the tent (July 17), Pitchfork was a mass of sweaty bodies watching bands such as Odd Future on a scorching hot day. It didn’t take long before the water refill lines became unbearably long, and security guards took to cooling off the crowd by drenching people with water from the various Pitchfork stages.

The AXE tent was like a godsend.

Outside the tent, the so-called AXE girls handed out free samples of AXE Excite and invited passers-by into the tent to hang out. Whereas I find AXE advertisements usually juvenile and anything but sexy, the AXE girls at Pitchfork exuded plenty of good old-fashioned sex appeal that comes with simply being friendly and smiling – not quite Doris Day, mind you, but more engaging than in-your-face silly.

And the tent itself was a refreshing change of attitude for AXE, with a focus on, well, utility, as demonstrated by:

A cool misting as you walk into the small tent.

Free stations to charge your mobile phone (incredibly useful for those of us wearing down our phone batteries by tweeting, texting, etc., throughout the day).

Portable devices to relax with video games.

Shade. And plenty of it.

The tent was playful, too. You could have a photo taken of you with faux Angels Will Fall backdrops and download them later (or have the photo emailed to you).

Or you could just hang out and do nothing.

For all the money AXE must pour into its high-concept provocative ads, I am most impressed with the side of AXE I experienced at Pitchfork: useful.

Does Myspace have a future?

Posted on April 5, 2011 by ddeal

The future certainly looks bleak for MySpace. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that advertisers are wary of Myspace and cited companies such as PepsiCo, which has not run an ad on Myspace since 2009. And according to comScore, the volume of Myspace site visitors has dropped by 44 percent in a year.

With News Corp. attempting to sell the one-time social media darling, does Myspace even have a future? It might. Here are three ways Myspace can improve its chances of survival:

1. Clean up its site

The new owner of Myspace (whoever that adventurous soul turns out to be) needs to address a fundamental problem: the Myspace user experience sucks. It’s almost as if Myspace decision makers sat down and asked, “How can we design a site that alienates as many people as we can?”

Even after undergoing a redesign, the site is notoriously difficult to navigate, the layout is messy, and the personal accounts are hard to manage. MySpace would do well to hire an outsider like Forrester Research to do a basic site audit and quickly make itself more usable. Simply put, Myspace is going to have a hard time encouraging visitors if you can’t use the site.

2. Be the challenger brand to Facebook

What makes Facebook so formidable – its sheer scale – also makes it vulnerable. Myspace could improve its chances of survival by positioning itself as a friendlier, more approachable Facebook. For instance, MySpace could give itself a human face as Global 14 has done with producer Jermaine Dupri, who not only launched the site but is an active participant, personally responding to requests and comments.

And at a time when social media sites like Facebook offer zero user support, MySpace could differentiate with more personal customer experience (assuming MySpace cleans up its site).

3. Become useful

One of MySpace’s fundamental problems is that it no longer fulfills any particular use because Facebook long ago surpassed MySpace as a social network utility. MySpace can reclaim its role as a platform for connecting people with cool music, and certainly that’s what the site seems to be trying to do. One challenge: there are already plenty of site like Pitchforkmedia and the recently launched Noisey acting as a music connector. But Myspace does have brand visibility and 37.7 million unique U.S. visitors (and dropping). Myspace can be a worthwhile music and entertainment destination site, but it will need to launch a major partnership with another big brand to reinvigorate itself.

In fact, I can see morphing into the in-house music brand of a content-savvy company like AXE, Mountain Dew or Coca-Cola. As the lines between advertising, content, and entertainment have blurred, it’s no longer considered a sell-out for a corporation to act as music distributor.

What about you – do you think Myspace has a future?

How dead is the web?

Posted on September 22, 2010 by ddeal

With all the recent talk about the “death of the web,” you would think that consumers and marketers are abandoning the humble website like a jilted lover in favor of more attractive options like iPhone apps. And yet two recent examples indicate that leading brands take their websites quite seriously:

According to the Forbes CMO Network, Disney has revamped the Disney.com website to include the Create portal, a more interactive experience where children can create their own artwork and photo mash-ups using Disney characters and stories. Paul Yanover, executive vice president and managing director of Disney Online, tells Forbes that since last year, more than 2.5 million pieces of unique content have been created on Disney.com as part of a commitment to make the website more of a destination for consumers to create and collaborate with Disney.

Levi Strauss & Co. has worked with Duke/Razorfish (the French operations of my employer Razorfish) to launch Curve ID, an online fitting experience. Curve ID helps women configure Levi’s denimwear to their own body type. Duke/Razorfish designed Curve ID based on 60,000 women’s figures and launched the experience in 50 countries and 20 languages. Olivier Abel, managing director of Duke/Razorfish, tells me that with Curve ID is more than a website — but a “major product initiative changing the way women choose their jeans” and a shift in thinking from expecting women to find the right size to helping women configure the right fit. (For more information about Curve ID, these Brand Republic and Brand Channel articles are helpful.)

Too often the “web is dead” hype paints the story in black and white either/or terms. Either we’re visiting websites or using mobile devices. We’re making purchasing decisions online or in stores. In fact, consumers incorporate many touch points to learn about brands. They don’t choose one or the other. (Eight out of 10 consumers surveyed by Razorfish in 2009 still obtain news primarily from websites in addition to other platforms.)

Instead of making either/or choices, smart brands are figuring out how to connect these touch points, as Forrester Research has reported time and again. In the same article about Disney’s revamped Disney.com, Paul Yanover tells Forbes that Disney is figuring out how to extend its digital experience across mobile devices and social platforms like YouTube. Levi’s Curve ID offers visitors the option of configuring and purchasing denim online or in-store. And the Razorfish San Francisco office just launched the Polyvore Community Challenge, a contest in which consumers can win Levi’s Curve ID jeans by creating and nominating their own digital clothing ensembles on a community site. Consumers can post designs on their own social sites like Facebook.

As Rachel Lanham, Razorfish vice president and Levi’s client partner, tells me, “The Polyvore Community Challenge is similar to Disney Create because it’s all about getting the consumer involved and engaged in telling the brand story. Consumers make the brand theirs on their own platforms, sometimes on a brand website and in other cases on a social site.”

Another Razorfish client, Axe, recently worked with Razorfish to make its Axe Effect website a hub linking all the social properties where consumers interact with Axe.

But making a brand experience flourish across multiple platforms is just part of the story. Companies like Axe, Coors Light, Disney, Levi’s, and Mercedes-Benz are turning their websites into playful experiences by continuing to apply rich media and 3D technology. Consumers can get those rich experiences from games and movies now. It’s only natural that the website evolves, too.

Maybe a better way to describe what’s happening is not death but rebirth: websites evolving from disconnected islands of information to experiences connected across many platforms.

Amnesia Razorfish: sexy, social and successful

Posted on March 5, 2009 by ddeal

Recently Australia-based Amnesia Razorfish (part of the Razorfish global network) won the Adnews interactive agency of the year for the third consecutive year. As a Razorfish employee, I’m happy for my colleagues at Amnesia Razorfish (and of course for our clients, as the award is a reflection on them, too). But I’m equally interested in knowing what the award says about successful marketing in the digital age. What does it take for marketers and agencies working together to succeed year after year? After getting some input from Michael Buckley, Terry Carney, and Iain McDonald of Amnesia Razorfish, I see these ingredients for success emerging:

Make Social Influence Marketing part of your marketing game plan. Social Influence Marketing is a third dimension of marketing alongside direct response and branding. It is here to stay. You don’t need to make an about-face to succeed through social — but you do need employ it intelligently. Example: the Cancer Council Australia is working with Amnesia Razorfish to raise money for the treatment of male cancer. Amnesia Razorfish conceived of Daredallion, a week where people perform dares to raise donations. The effort includes various forms of Social Influence Marketing, including Twitter and a site where you can dare your friends to to perform stunts. Another example: Amnesia Razorfish helped Smirnoff employ Social Influence Marketing to build buzz for the Smirnoff Experience Party. The only way to get tickets to Australia’s biggest free party of 2008 was to go digital. Smirnoff conducted a treasure hunt to give away tickets. To find free tickets distributed across Australia, you had to find clues released through a blog and a Facebook group. The campaign attracted global attention and helped Smirnoff pull off a huge promotional coup. Amnesia Razorfish now employs a full-time Social Influence Marketing staff to help its clients figure out how to embed social into their digital experiences.

Daredallion

Get your hands dirty. An agency must be an active participant in the social world in order to help its clients succeed with Social Influence Marketing. Amnesia Razorfish certainly lives the social values. Its blog is a top-ranked agency blog in Australia, attracting hundreds of thousands of unique views in 2008. Amnesia staff have participated in the Daredallion project cited here and created experimental Twitter applications. Everyone on the senior staff can be found on Twitter. But Amnesia Razorfish is getting its hands dirty in other ways. Amnesia Razorfish wrote Australia’s first Surface application, which recognizes individual business cards when placed on a table and then streams personal social media information from Twitter, Flickr, and other digital properties directly on to the table to be exchanged with someone else (sounds like a new way to exchange phone numbers in a bar). Amnesia Razorfish also built its own in-house video wall purely for the fun of experimentation. Dual projectors stream social content on to the wall, which tracks one’s physical movements.

Be accountable. Amnesia Razorfish measures every single click that end users make. The company uses analytics to be fully accountable for every interaction a person has with a client online. Sometimes improving the consumer experience means more effectively optimizing the performance of a website, not designing a new one. Using optimization tools, Amnesia Razorfish has increased sales by as much as 300 percent for ecommerce clients and increased time spent on clients’ sites by as much as 450 percent. Amnesia Razorfish is also playing with a new tool developed by Razorfish U.S., the Generational Tag, to measure social influence.

Design experiences, not advertisements. What’s the difference? Ads are one-way messages — often great for the analog world, but not sufficient for digital. Experiences engage audiences through interaction. Example: Lynx, produced by Unilever, is a line of male personal care products such as body wash. (In the United States, Lynx is known as Axe.) Amnesia Razorfish won a Webby for helping Unilever build awareness for Lynx through The Lynx Effect. The target audience consists of young men, and the Axe/Lynx brand employs an in-your-face risque approach to connect with them. The Lynx Effect is no exception. Basically the message is this: guys, Lynx will make you more attractive to women. But in the digital world, we convey that message through the experience. To even navigate the site to learn about Lynx products, you select from a choice of provocative looking women. Once inside, you can play amusing games, participate in polls, and download content on to your desktop. (Now we know what “engagement” means Down Under.)

The Lynx Effect

Challenge your clients with ideas that build their businesses. Lipton wanted to build awareness for an amino acid ingredient in Lipton tea — theanine — that stimulates alpha brain waves. The proposition sounded like an educational campaign. But Amnesia Razorfish came up with the idea of imagining Lipton’s product and benefits as a game. Hence, the launch of Brain Train, a series of online games that test one’s mental alertness with subtle brand messaging from Lipton about the power of theanine. Amnesia Razorfish also conceived of an integrated roll-out with radio, print, and outdoor.

Innovation rooted in the big idea is what will spur an economic recovery from the global recession, not better analytics or user experiences (although those things are important, too). In April, leaders of Amnesia Razorfish will join executives from the Razorfish global network to discuss how we can more effectively take big ideas to our clients. We’ve been conducting these summits, which we dub “A Seat at the Table,” since 2007, and each meeting gets better as more participants from outside the United States attend. I can’t wait to see what we’ll learn from each other — better yet, I cannot wait to learn how our clients are benefiting.

Congratulations to Amnesia Razorfish for setting the gold standard.

Smirnoff, Nike, and Lynx embrace Social Influence Marketing

Posted on June 18, 2008 by ddeal

What do a liquor company, sports brand, and a body deodorant have in common?

Smirnoff, Nike, and Lynx are all examples of brands in Asia/Pacific that are working with my employer Avenue A | Razorfish to embrace Social Influence Marketing, or employing social media and social influencers to achieve one’s marketing and business objectives. I recently gathered these and more examples for some research here at Avenue A | Razorfish. The experience opened my eyes to the international phenomenon of Social Influence Marketing. I hope these examples help you think more globally about marketing:

Smirnoff

The Avenue A | Razorfish Sydney office — known in Australia as Amnesia Group — is helping Smirnoff employ social media to build buzz for the Smirnoff Experience Secret Party. According to the Amnesia Group blog, Smirnoff is conducting a “treasure hunt to give away tickets to the Smirnoff Experience Secret Party 2008. Clues are released on a blog to tickets hidden across Australia. There is also a Facebook group which gives help and exclusive clues to ticket hunters. If that’s not enough cyber-fun, there’s also a GPS ticket tracker, which his switched on from time to time.” Want to read more? Check it out here.

Nike

The Avenue A | Razorfish Hong Kong office — known in China as e-Crusade — worked with Nike to create a mobile game that promotes the Nike Air Force One. You can experience more of that here. Two things stand out for me on this one: 1) use of mobile devices and 2) integration with offline.

Nike Women “This Is Love” Facebook Premiere Show Ticket Application

e-Crusade built this application to promote the Nike Women movie, Find Love. Facebookers were encouraged to send Premiere Show Tickets to their friends and show their love for them. The effective use of social media brought more than 4,000 Facebookers to watch the movie online. More details here.

Lynx

Lynx is the name in Australia for the Axe brand of male personal care products manufactured by Unilever. The target audience is the Gen Y male. If you know anything about the Axe/Lynx brand, you know that Unilever employs an in-your-face risqué approach to build brand with young men. Lynx is no exception. Basically the message is this: guys, Lynx will make you more attractive to women. I think this comes through in the Lynx MySpace page.

This is an example of linking Social Influence Marketing to other forms of branding. In addition to creating the MySpace page, Amnesia Group also designed the Lynx Effect, which won a Webby award a few weeks ago. Together the Lynx MySpace page and Lynx Effect website show how a firm can take advantage of the engaging nature of digital (and win a Webby for content that, if created for your personal use, would probably prompt a visit from HR).

In both instances, Lynx sends the same message: our product is all about making you more attractive to women. But in the digital world, you can convey that message through an experience, as evidenced by the games, polls, videos, and other content on the site. What’s more, you can take the experience with you on your mobile phone and download content on to your desk top.

ninemsn

To build brand and usage for ninemsn, Amnesia Group launched the Prize Rush campaign, described again on the Amnesia Group blog: The approach: use a trivia game to generate Live Search queries. More than 4,000 Prize Rush members were recruited across MySpace, Facebook, and ninemsn spaces, creating more than 11,000 posts. More than 68 million search queries were generated in a time span of 8 weeks. I like this one because the campaign met objectives for both marketing (build buzz for ninemsn) and business (generate Live Search queries).

Down the road, I will post Social Influence Marketing examples from Europe. Meantime, I welcome your comments and questions.