Bringing to life an experience based on the iconic IP from the classic film “Grease” had to be authentic first and foremost. Event Marketer explores how Paramount+ and media partner POPSUGAR marketed the streamer’s original musical series, “Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies,” by expertly striking the balance between catering to superfans and newcomers to the iconic franchise.

The post How Paramount+ Recreated the Frosty Palace Diner From ‘Grease’ to Promote Its New Series appeared first on Chief Marketer.

Recently, we brought you a conversation with HBO Marketing VP Emily Giannusa on the network’s new apocalyptic series “The Last of Us,” whose two-year-long experiential strategy, among other things, helped garner an impressive number of eyeballs for the premiere. And that number is climbing as the show continues.

Here we explore a key stop along the series’ experiential journey—six screenings at New York City’s Angelika Film Center—where VIP influencers and fans entered an immersive, in-world experience resembling an outpost for the show’s revolutionary militia group, the Fireflies. Read up on all the creepy details here.

The post HBO’s ‘The Last of Us’ Screening and In-World Immersion for VIPs and Superfans appeared first on Chief Marketer.

Dubbed the Second Life Tour, the program created a series of sites where consumers could donate their used clothing, experience a demo of LG’s new artificial intelligence-powered WashTower units and participate in a clothing swap for rare vintage pieces from thrift store Round Two. At the tour’s last stop in Los Angeles, the brand set up a wash center with LG washers, dryers and LG Styler steam closets to assist with cleaning, sanitizing and sorting clothing ahead of donating it to families.

The activation is part of a multi-year initiative to inspire consumers to be responsible through fabric care and upcycling. The latter was on display during the tour as well: LG partnered with designer Nicole McLaughlin, who turned any unusable items into a capsule collection to be released this fall—effectively giving the donations a “second life.”

For more detail on the LG tour, read on in Event Marketer.

The post LG Mobile Tour Encourages Consumers to Minimize Their Fashion Footprints appeared first on Chief Marketer.

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When he wasn’t being held in his mother’s arms, Manasi Gangan’s second son refused to sleep. “Every time we would put him down he would wake up. He slept in our arms, but it was really difficult for us to sleep—for me, mainly—because I was the primary caregiver,” she says. So, she asked herself: What was it about being held that kept him asleep? Why would he wake up from his slumber as soon as that changed?

Perhaps because of her engineering background, Gangan was determined to find a solution. “Intuitively, I placed a beanie baby on his chest. That seemed to work.” And thus, the idea for a weighted swaddling blanket was born.

With 15 years’ experience building IT products for major corporations under her belt, Gangan founded Nested Bean in 2012, a company with the mission to help babies and toddlers up to two years old sleep better with the help of a weighted garments, blankets and onesies. Following is the brand’s unique marketing story and evolution—from retail to ecommerce to brand marketing and beyond.

Early Days

At the start of the brand’s marketing journey, a time when social media wasn’t quite the marketing channel that it is today, Gangan took Nested Bean’s patented design exclusively to retail giants with the goal of earning consumer trust. At that time, the brand did 95 percent of its business through retailers. “My initial thoughts were: It’s a new product. It’s a patented, differentiated design. Let’s go that route because at least it would be a chance to earn the consumer’s trust. People like to go to a certain retailer because they trust the products that are on their shelves,” she says. However, she soon realized that her products required more consumer education than they were getting from retailers.

“When we had handed the product to bloggers, our influencers at the time, they all swore by it. Their babies would not sleep without being held and were sleeping a lot more peacefully for more extended periods of time, which matched what we had tested. But we were leaving the retailers to tell our story. Our products were so differentiated that they required a consumer’s education,” Gangan says. Nested Bean’s products were not selling at the rate they’d hoped for, and the result didn’t match the feedback the brand was receiving directly from consumers. The message of the brand story: effectively shelved.

A Direct-to-Consumer Model

Come 2015, a decision was made to marketing directly to the consumer. The brand began with content marketing—specifically a video—and started using Facebook ads to tell the brand’s story, effectively removing the middleman from the equation. But that meant a sacrifice had to be made: retail efforts would have to be abandoned. “In order to focus on doing something really well, you have to choose to do something not well,” Gangan claims. Setting monthly retail targets went out of the window; funds spent on trade shows for exposure were directed towards digital marketing instead.

The next step was communicating the brand story online, which required understanding—and mapping—the customer journey. “It’s not just putting up some pretty pictures on your website. You have to really understand the customer’s online journey, which starts with awareness, then goes towards consideration, then research and then conversion. We were literally building those paths on our website,” Gangan says.

In addition to the website, the brand relied heavily on social media platforms. The brand’s target audience lived on Facebook, so it used the social platform to engage with consumers and build the brand story. And then, they caught a break from Google. Because of Nested Bean’s success with Google advertising, the tech giant gave them a call and offered up a videographer free of charge—as long as the brand committed to spending money on YouTube towards video marketing. The brand still runs that initial video on its channels today and has since developed a fruitful professional relationship with the videographer. Score.

Shift to Integrated Marketing

Nested Bean’s marketing model today is more diversified compared to the brand’s early years of direct-to-consumer marketing. “We are still performance-marketing driven, but we’ve reached a point where we use different marketing channels and platforms to facilitate the conversion,” she says. “So, we may create awareness using one platform, but the conversion might happen as a result of another platform. We have a more integrated marketing model than what we had initially started with.”

Back in 2016, the goal was customer acquisition. The brand used Facebook to introduce their products and convert, which resulted in strong ROI. “Because it’s such a need-based product, we found out very quickly that our message was resonating more with moms of a certain age bracket who had experienced the problem.” But the message of preventing sleeplessness did not resonate as well with expectant parents as did the immediate promise to alleviate sleep deprivation for both babies and the parents who care for them.

Fast forward a few years and by then the brand noticed a change in customer behavior. First touch would often occur on Facebook, but after a few days consumers would return to the brand’s website. “At that time, we did not want competitor websites, such as other retailers, to scoop up the last sale,” Gangan says. The solution: start competing at the bottom of the sales funnel through Google AdWords. “We wanted our site to be the first link when someone would make a branded search, either for our products or for our company name,” she says. The strategy ultimately led to higher sales on Amazon, Target and Buy Buy Baby retail sites, Gangan asserts.

The brand has also increased social media engagement on Instagram with influencer programs. “The first touch is happening on those channels,” Gangan says. “Then the conversion might happen as a result of the web search. We need to have presence in multiple places.” Instagram is particularly useful today for marketing and making connections with consumers. Through market research and focus groups, the brand learned that consumers perceive Instagram to be raw and truthful, whereas Facebook is seen as more polished and therefore less trustworthy. In light of this, Nested Bean uses Instagram for a softer, more personal touch and Facebook for broader brand awareness.

The brand also uses Facebook to foster a community of brand evangelists. It created an invitation-only Facebook group, the criteria being that members must have purchased one of the brand’s products. Parents discuss challenges they’ve been having with sleeplessness, receive feedback from members, celebrate baby milestones and more. The group is moderated by a Nested Bean “consumer champion” who helps nurture the community and ensures that content is not judgmental toward other members. Gangan says members treat the group like a family and feel safe to communicate freely with like-minded individuals. “It’s really wonderful to see that happen. The fact that we are in a position to do that makes me feel like I did this for a good reason,” she says.

From Sleep Products to Sleep Wellness

As Nested Bean continues to expand and grow—it reported $14 million in sales last year and has experienced 3X percent year-over-year growth since 2016—it has shifted to a brand marketing approach that includes a commitment to sleep and wellness within its community. It partners with sleep experts, co-authoring blogs with them on its website, and uses email marketing for nurturing and retention. “We are seeing that there is more and more of this need—and we are trying to fulfill that need through sleep education, not just educating on our products,” Gangan says. “We’re making a shift from being a sleep product company to a sleep wellness company.”

 

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5 things to think about before hiring a sleep consultant! Tip from @psychedmommy . Her new blog post is up on our Zen Blog, titled The Importance of Sleep for New Moms

A post shared by Nested Bean (@nestedbean) on Mar 10, 2020 at 1:07pm PDT

From a platform perspective, it’s leaning into YouTube as a way to communicate to the community using sleep experts and tips and tricks provided by real moms who’ve been through similar challenges. The result is new content marketing and education surrounding the brand that relates to its commitment to sleeping wellness. “We started with small circles of performance marketing and now we have concentric circles drawn around it that allow us to go wider and wider into our ecosystem,” Gangan says.

That expansion has unlocked many doors for the brand as it ventures into the wellness category. And it’s emphasized how the goal is to care for customers’ needs—not just to sell units. “We are recognizing that it’s not just handing her a product. It’s taking care of her sleep education, her need to be a part of a community. Because at the end of the day, that’s what they want. When everything else goes out the window and the baby’s still not sleeping, all she needs is just an empathetic ear.”

The post Marketers on Fire: Nested Bean Founder and President, Manasi Gangan appeared first on Chief Marketer.

Our monthly analysis of the world’s top brands and the marketing moves that are setting them apart.

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When fans of your brand create a Facebook group in which exclusive versions of your product are resold for up to 15 times their original value, you know you’re doing something right.

We’re talking about Rothy’s, the direct-to-consumer shoe brand known for its stylish, comfortable flats made from recycled bottles of plastic. Launched in 2016 by entrepreneurs Roth Martin and Stephen Hawthornthwaite in response to the consumer need for sustainable products that are both comfortable and fashionable, Rothy’s offers an eco-friendly brand promise, a wide variety of colors and patterns (up to 400, now) and a consumer engagement strategy that’s helped build a cult-like following.

Like most DTC brands, Rothy’s uses paid social media, specifically Instagram and Facebook, to increase brand awareness. But according to vp of marketing Elie Donahue, word of mouth continues to be the brand’s biggest driver by far. As the name of one of its largest Facebook groups suggests (“Rothy’s Addicts”), the brand has inspired the creation of a close-knit community of women who are fiercely loyal. One indication of the product’s tendency to spread through word-of-mouth: the fact that the product’s densest markets are where women commute and congregate together, such as Washington, D.C. There’s even a “head bob” that women do when they spot a fellow Rothy’s wearer, as if to acknowledge being part of a secret club.

 

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Our current spring favorites. Which styles are in your wardrobe rotation?

A post shared by Rothy’s (@rothys) on Feb 25, 2020 at 8:11am PST

The brand’s Facebook groups, run by volunteers rather than brand reps, certainly help with brand awareness. Shoes are bought and sold there, and some groups, like “Finding Bigfoot,” are themed by foot size. Group members post pics of “Rothy’s wheels,” where the shoes are arranged in a colorful ring (see example below), show how they’ve customized theirs with paint and crystals, and discuss up-and-coming or exclusive releases. A marketer’s dream, right?

Almost. Given that the groups were created organically, the brand isn’t able to control the conversation as much it would like. The challenge becomes harnessing the undeniable benefits of word-of-mouth marketing while exhibiting some control over the conversation. Rothy’s solution was to create a new ambassador program called “The Collective,” a group of 19 super fans within Rothy’s biggest markets who are invited to provide feedback about the brand in exchange for perks like free shoes, exclusive Rothy’s events and meetings with executives. The idea is to create communities of passionate, empowered, influential women willing to spread the word about the brand and welcome new people to the circle.

Full-Funnel Content Approach

What’s the secret to surpassing one million customers in less than four years? The brand’s exceptional growth can be attributed in part to a three-pronged strategy of connecting to its audience authentically across the full sales funnel, according to Matt Gehring, vice president of growth at Rothy’s. First, it’s about creating a personalized marketing experience that pays attention to what channel people are using in order to build trust. For instance, the brand might engage with consumers at the top of the funnel during the brand awareness phase with a visually-striking introduction to its brand story through posts featuring images of plastic water bottles or shoes in a washing machine. Did we mention that you can toss them in the washing machine? Talk about appealing to a woman on the go.

Secondly, Rothy’s took advantage of non-branded search terms, like “recycled plastic bottles,” “sustainability” and “machine washable,” to find demand and then cross-reference that with regional data to target specific markets. And third, Gehring warns brands to continue to market to its most loyal customers. Identifying customers with high lifetime value has helped grow the channel by 350 percent in less than six months.

Brick-and-Mortar Strategy

Though Rothy’s owes much of its explosive growth to digital, the brand does not exclude old-school tactics from its marketing mix. Last March, for instance, it launched a national TV ad campaign describing its sustainability mission and placed ads in radio and out-of-home. It’s creating more events for women who prefer to engage with the products in person. And, importantly, the brand is embracing a brick-and-mortar retail strategy. It began with a small shop in San Francisco that offered 300 square feet of selling space and now has retail shops in Boston and Washington D.C.—with several more shops planned in additional markets.

The store has been wildly successful as an experiment designed by the brand to get closer to its customers, listen to feedback and test new products. Product drops happen every few weeks and result in lines out the door. Staffers collects emails of customers within the shop in order to re-target them online. Buyers can personalize their just-purchased merch with embroidery available in the store. It’s also a place for consumers to delve deeper into Rothy’s sustainability mission through engaging with an interactive display. Simply put, the store is a complement to the brand’s digital business and a testing grounds for product innovation and improvement. Best of all, the crowd tends to be first-time consumers: 65 percent of people visiting the San Francisco store are new to the brand, according to Rothy’s president and COO Kerry Cooper.

 

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Updated Rothys wheel. All I need now are the new honeycomb points and I’ll be good… for this month #rothys #rothyswheel #shoes #shoesaddict #shoegoals #shoeaddiction #rothysaddiction

A post shared by Rothys Addict (@rothysandcoffees) on Feb 19, 2019 at 6:46am PST

Sustainable Brand Promise

Women tend to get hooked through the appeal of four different brand characteristics, Donahue says: style, comfort, made from recycled material and the fact that they’re machine-washable. But the importance of its sustainable brand story can’t be overstated. They’re made from discarded plastic bottles that are then hot-washed, sterilized and melted down into small beads. They are then fused into filament fiber to make yarn used to create the shoes through a 3D-knitting process that eliminates excess fabric, creating less waste. Rothy’s sport a vegan, recyclable, carbon-free sole as well, which can be washed alongside the fabric portion.

The product’s packaging is sustainable, too. Made from recycled and renewable materials, the boxes are resealable and used without tape, sealed with the brand’s signature blue recycled ribbon and are packed tight enough to prevent “box in a box” shipping. Rothy’s also offsets the fossil fuels used for every mile that its shoes travel. The credits benefit the Amazon Rainforest in Brazil as well as the reduction of pollution and conversion of biofuels in the U.S. According to the brand’s website, Rothy’s offset 2,522 tons of carbon in 2018.

What’s more, Rothy’s owns and operates its own production workshop in Dongguan, China, which allows it to bring a style to market in just six weeks and craft small batches that sell out quickly. Photos of the 250,000 square feet of factory space feature prominently in the brand’s communications, allowing consumers to learn about the product’s origins and story of going “from bottle to shoe.” For instance, consumers can learn from its website that the factory’s approximately 450 workers have access to health and wellness benefits just like its San Francisco-based employees. In an era where consumers demand transparency and are more and more willing to spend money on sustainable products, Rothy’s has staked a claim by capitalizing on these trends.

Social Media Engagement

From a marketing perspective, the brand’s commitment to sustainability, variety of colorways, comfort and cult-like following are communicated exceptionally well through the brand’s communication on social media and its website. On Twitter, for instance, the brand leans heavily on the shoe’s visual appeal by using strong imagery with sustainable materials as well as photos of the shoes themselves. Brand managers use “bright images and short copy that pops,” allowing the visuals to help that word-of-mouth strategy along.

On Instagram, the brand’s Stories Highlights section is organized by a variety of categories, including sustainability, how to properly wash your Rothy’s, a holiday mixtape with Spotfiy, video of the physical stores and a user-generated social media campaign, #RothysInTheWild. For the latter, the brand asked a select group of fans to share the names of five friends and family members who’d post photos of themselves wearing the brand’s new Chelsea boot on the day it launched.

Clever copy, like “Started from a bottle, now we’re here,” and lighthearted, animated visuals make the brand discovery process enjoyable. In the end, all the elements working together seamlessly might explain Rothy’s success. Digital marketing complements the in-store experience, which then breathes new life into fan groups, user-generated content and the brand’s eco-friendly mission. Fifty million plastic waters bottles and counting? Color us impressed.

 

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A few of our favorite things: a bouquet of blue and new shoes

A post shared by Rothy’s (@rothys) on Feb 12, 2020 at 8:21am PST

The post Brands on Fire: Rothy’s appeared first on Chief Marketer.

So, what is a brand relaunch? It’s the repositioning of who you are and what you stand for in the market, and often starts with changes to an organization’s goals, brand essence and corporate identity. It can vary from a simple refresh to a full-blown redesign. A relaunch provides great benefits for companies like a new/renewed interest from your target audience, aligning your brand elements with audience needs and presenting who you are more authentically. But, before you can reap the benefits of a successful rollout, you need to plan.

By following the six tips below, you can meet your long-term goals for a brand relaunch.

1. Determine Why

This is the time to take a step back and figure out why you want to relaunch. A few reasons that would spark a brand relaunch are mergers, acquisitions, outdated branding or business expansion.

While these are great catalysts to refresh your brand, the “why” is more about what you and your organization want to achieve. Are you hoping to gain larger market share, break away from the competition or release a new product successfully? By knowing what your “why” is, you’ll be able to measure—and celebrate—the final results because you know what success looks like.

2. Take a Look at the Big Picture

You and your team may view your brand in a specific light, but that may not coincide with the external perception of your brand. Be sure to connect with your employees, current and potential customers, and any other stakeholders that come in contact with your brand through interviews to capture a 360-picture of how your brand is perceived.

You can also gain the perspective of stakeholders through competitive research and surveys. How do people feel you stand out from competitors in look and feel? And how could you show what one thing your organization delivers that no one else can? Additionally, you should take a thoughtful look at your industry: Where is it now? Where is it headed? And how should your brand adapt in order to stay relevant in the minds of your audience as a result? By nailing down how your brand is perceived, you can better map out rollout goals that will achieve success.

Other articles you might enjoy:

• ADT Brand Transformation Brings Evolution and Innovation
• Five Ways to Use Data for Successful Product Launches
• CMO Roundtable: Visa, Personal Capital, AKT and Zoom Talk 2020 Marketing Trends

3. Get Internal Stakeholders on Board

It requires more than the support of your immediate team to execute a brand relaunch. Rollouts can get pricey and the scope can escalate quickly so it’s imperative that you have leadership on your side. In order to get them on board, you need to clearly communicate the reasons for and outcomes of a successful relaunch. This will help you save time, resources and talent throughout the rollout. Keeping everyone updated along with way will encourage excitement and manage expectations, too.

4. Embrace Emotions

Not all elements of your brand are physical. They’re emotional. To drive meaningful connections with your brand, you need to appeal to the emotions of your audience. Emotions drive purchasing decisions, build deeper relationships, and lead to brand loyalty.

Emotions are important to consider during the planning phase of your brand rollout, so be sure to test different versions of your brand messaging or content before sharing it with the world.

5. To Phase Out Or Flip the Switch?

You need to consider how you want to roll out your brand to the world, and that’s often dictated by the size of your relaunch. You can roll out a brand update in phases, which allows you to reveal new communications to the market quicker. It also means you’ll need to handle two brand presentations during the project. Or, you can wait until your brand update is final, then flip the switch and reveal. This could duplicate efforts while one brand is built and the other is maintained.

Most likely, this decision will be influenced by the resources you have available. Weigh the pros and cons of each rollout approach to find the one best for you. And be sure to communicate the plan to everyone involved to ensure they know what to expect.

6. Timing Is Everything

Change takes time. A rebrand shows that your organization is changing. You must set aside the time and resources to successfully pull off a rebrand and make sure that your audience notices. For example, a full rebrand—including visuals, values, messaging, guidelines and more—can take up to a year (and sometimes even longer!).

When you underestimate lead times for a project of this magnitude, you can miss out on other opportunities, overlook important brand details, burnout your team and yield poor results. That’s why you need to be realistic about timing, budget and executing your project in phases. This will keep things running smoothly for the greatest business results.

Brands are constantly evolving to keep up with change. Whether you’re looking to freshen your messaging or overhaul your entire brand this year, it’s essential you’re equipped with the best strategies for a successful relaunch.

Nina Brakel-Schutt is Director of Creative and Brand Strategy at Widen.

The post Brand Relaunch This Year? Here are Six Tips to Consider appeared first on Chief Marketer.

Our monthly analysis of the world’s top brands and the marketing moves that are setting them apart.

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The start of the year is a time for resolutions and refocus for many brands. For Mountain Dew, it’s time to get busy.

It’s not even February yet and the PepsiCo-owned brand has launched the no-sugar Mountain Dew Zero Sugar, the first zero-sugar flavors of its Mountain Dew Amp Fuel energy drink, a Super Bowl commercial and announced the forthcoming availability of Mountain Dew beverages in Regal Cinemas this Spring. To use the words of “Zoolander’s” evil fashion guru Mugatu, Dew is “so hot right now.”

It’s all part of a new “culture of doing” that touches everything the brand is developing. From product innovation to fan engagement to advancing new markets to tapping into cultural moments to embracing new advertising formats and activating live experiences, Mountain Dew is moving faster than ever before to stay relevant—and satisfy its thirsty fans.

Driving the brand’s marketplace saturating strategy are a pair of guiding principles. First, its goal is to be a “first-mover.” “The scale and scope of PepsiCo moving quickly on things is not a behavior that comes naturally to us,” says Nicole Portwood, vp of marketing for Mountain Dew. “But as we look at our need to stay within the cultural conversation and connect with consumers across generational cohorts, it’s important that we be able to respond to culture and react to opportunities quickly.” And that has required some rethinking in terms of how the brand operates, how budgets are moved around, how it engages with agencies and how it briefs. “All of those things have really had to change,” she says.

Here’s an example: For “Game of Thrones” eighth and final season, Dew created not-for-sale, limited-edition cans that were completely white—without even a logo—when room temperature. But when chilled, the cans revealed Aria Stark’s kill list. (For the unfamiliar, Aria’s training as an assassin for the purpose of avenging her family requires relinquishing her identity and becoming “no one.”) Mountain Dew called the product “A Can Has No Name,” cheekily sacrificing branding for the sake of cultural relevance. Though not for sale, some of the cans were given to fans who tweeted about what they’d sacrifice #ForTheThrone and other cans were discovered through scavenger hunts guided by the brand’s Twitter account (Motive, handled).

From start to finish, the process took about six weeks. “We moved quickly with supply chain, with our packaging partners, with content creation and social media, with our legal team, and got everyone behaving in a way that’s more nimble than the organization is accustomed to,” Portwood says. The most important part: being a part of the cultural conversation. “We recognized this as a real marketing moment, so we wanted to be sure we could take advantage of it. And that meant making the decision we were going to make only promotional cans and take advantage of this crossover moment for the fans.”

Dew’s second guiding principle is “fan-first” engagement. Tapping into the brand’s loyal fanbase, known as Dew Nation, provides a treasure trove of feedback. The brand has created one-offs, like a custom wedding cake topper for a woman who claimed on social media that her fiancé was never photographed without holding a bottle of Mountain Dew. (You can guess what was in his hand atop the cake). And then there was the Mountain Dew Body Wash, which fans demanded after a photoshopped version showed up on Reddit.

“There’s lots of listening, lots of learning from the people who love your brand, and lots of finding the right ways to reciprocate that love in a way that is on brand and honors the passion and the dollars that people are spending on your product out there in the market,” Portwood says.

Product Innovation

Dew this year has been moving quickly to launch new products that respond to consumer trends. Mountain Dew Zero Sugar, available in stores January 13, was developed in response to requests from Dew’s fans. It’s also an answer to the wellness trend that has brands creating products for more health-conscious consumers. “It took us a long time to develop this formula. In order for us to make it as good as the original, maybe even better than the original, it took a lot of R&D rigor, a lot of tasting, a lot of testing,” Portwood says.

The brand also introduced its first zero-sugar flavors of Mountain Dew Amp Fuel, watermelon and raspberry lemonade, to target the gaming demographic. Energy drinks are popular in the gaming community, but esports athletes are increasingly focused on proper training and dietary choices that lead to greater success within the sport. “What we heard from them was, we would love to have this in a zero variant, because health and wellness is something that’s important to gamers just as it is to the general population,” says Portwood. Dew is promoting the new product through a Super Bowl commercial that spoofs the film “The Shining,” which it teased last week ahead of the big game.

New Markets

Mountain Dew is known for its partnerships with action sports (Dew Tour) and the NBA (All-Star Weekend). But in the last couple of years it has gone all-in with the gaming demographic. The brand launched the Game Fuel Amp product in 2019 in partnership with two notable brands in the esports space, Call of Duty World League and OpTic Gaming. Right out of the gate, the can featured a “no-slip grip” to mirror the designs of gaming hardware and a resealable lid. And with the launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare last September, Dew created special COD-branded cans to celebrate the launch, let players unlock in-game rewards inside the game with the purchase of Game Fuel, Mountain Dew or Doritos products, and launched an esports exhibition event, the MTN DEW AMP GAME FUEL Celebrity PRO-AM.

In 2020, Dew is creating marketing activations in the space slightly differently. The brand will be announcing its partnerships for the year shortly, with retail and content creation at the forefront. “Last year when we launched the product we did a lot of the expected things. We had TV commercials and we did a lot of push video on digital,” Portwood says.

This year this brand is shifting from big TV buys to marketing to gamers where they live: online. “There’s a significantly increased investment with Twitch because of the platform’s importance and capability for immediate DTC commerce through its partnership with Amazon,” Portwood says. The brand will allocate about 40 percent of its marketing budget toward gamers, similar to last year. But the way it’s spending money is shifting dramatically. “Last year, we spent a portion of that on a relatively large TV campaign. You subtract that out of the equation and your dollars will go a whole lot farther,” she says.

Fan Engagement

Mountain Dew recently created a fan engagement team internally, which Portwood says is the only one of its kind within the PepsiCo structure. The sole purpose of the three-person operation embedded within the brand team is to listen and respond to fans. Actions range from simple, such as a response to a fan on social media, to more complex, like creating an actual product (read: the aforementioned cake topper) and sending limited-edition items to fans. In terms of tools, the trio uses good old-fashioned Internet trolling coupled with marketing technology. “There’s been a philosophy shift within the organization, within our agency partners, within our division structure, to always have your antenna up for these opportunities,” Portwood says.

Though the brand has always been listening to fans, the point with this new organization is to take action on what they hear. “In the past, we have seen these outpourings of fan love—people tattooing Baha Blast on their bodies and bathing in bathtubs full of Mountain Dew—but haven’t really done anything about it… We want to, as it were, ‘put our money where our mouth is’ and be a brand that does things. And that includes responding and reciprocating with our fans.”

Advertising Formats

One of the most buzzworthy topics at CES this year was digital advertising formats. For instance, subscription mobile content service Quibi made a splash with a presentation of its “Turnstyle feature” that allows consumers to toggle back and forth between landscape and portrait mode while viewing content—and advertisements. Mountain Dew is one of the brands signed on to advertise during Quibi’s first year. “Quibi has hit upon changing consumer behaviors when consuming entertainment content. They’re meeting that need with short-form content that has the same level of production value and episodic entertainment,” Portwood says. Part of the draw is the service’s mobility (naturally), its premium, diverse content selection and the interactive storytelling feature.

Live Experiences

From its Courtside Studios experience at NBA All-Star weekend to its extreme sports activations to its booth at streetwear convention ComplexCon, Mountain Dew shows up big with live experiences. Most recently at ComplexCon, the brand created a gamer’s paradise celebrating the past, present and future of gaming and esports. Attendees made their way through a wall of retro arcade games, like Space Invaders and Pac-Man. Then, to enjoy gaming’s present, eventgoers played Call of Duty: Modern Warfare tournaments and competed for a chance to play against Complex host DJ Akademiks. The future of gaming played out through immersive virtual reality treadmills, gaming vests and VR goggles that simulated explosions and doomsday scenarios (20FT BEAR, handled).

It’s part of the brand’s move toward promoting a “culture of doing,” according to Portwood. “People want in-real-life experiences, they want to have in-real-life friendships and connection, not only with people but with brands as well. We would be remiss if we didn’t listen to that consumer behavior and respond appropriately.”

Indeed, expect to see more brand announcements in the coming months as Dew continues to “do” more in the marketplace, from retail partnerships to new ad formats to who-knows-what product Dew Nation decided to ideate on social. We’ll be watching.

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1. Gen Z. Marketers remain curious about Gen Z. Topping the list of 2019 stories is a report on what Gen Z audiences are looking for from brands and how marketers should be engaging them. Proving to possess their own set of values that differ from Millennials’, this crop of digital natives are so over Instagram filters and museums. They also appreciate inclusivity, are open to co-creating content with brands and prefer Tik-Tok as a social platform.

2. TV Tie-ins. With 2019 being the culmination of “Game of Thrones’” eighth and final season, several brands capitalized on the hype with GOT-themed activations, from Mtn Dew’s scavenger hunt to AT&T’s augmented-reality experience to HBO’s own national blood drive inviting consumers to “Bleed for the Throne.”

3. Zero Waste. Marketers have increased their efforts to reduce waste at events, particularly created from food and beverage, with renewed vigor. Brands like Bacardi and Salesforce are reducing waste, composting and employing various sustainable practices.

4. Wellness Pop-ups. The wellness trend in experiential continues, with fitness-focused activations spotted at both B2C and B2B events. Guided group meditations, branded fitness festivals and wellness-inspired experiences popped up across the country.

5. Obstacle Courses. The experiential landscape is embracing play as a way to engage with attendees, particularly younger generations. Take wireless provider Visible’s “Phonetopia” pop-up, which invited consumers to step into different phone zones featuring a ropes course, a jungle gym and a slide.

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6. Neighborhood Takeovers. To promote and build buzz for its new organized crime film “The Irishman,” Netflix staged a takeover of New York City’s Little Italy with secret passwords, free food and beverages, and branded props integrated into local establishments.

7. Sober-Curious Experiences. While alcohol consumption continues to be a priority for attendees at many events, there’s a new crop of booze-free brand activations for those consumers seeking a more balanced lifestyle.

8. LGBTQ Activations. Absolut has incorporated sustainability into its mission. So, to celebrate its dedication to “people, planet and product,” it built a sustainable activation at Coachella this year with a nod toward the LGBTQ community—just in time for the 50^th anniversary of Pride.

9. Influencer Retreats. Taco Bell has been engaging its superfans with activations for years. Most recently, fans and influencers got a special treat with a Taco Bell Hotel & Resort experience in Palms Springs, CA. The three-day event featured group activities, food drops, performances and, of course, ubiquitous Taco Bell branding.

10. High-Tech, High-Touch. At last year’s CES, Google broke through the clutter by creating a playground worthy of Disney World. Through a detailed narrative, interactive technology and animatronic characters, “The Ride” illustrated how Google Assistant can help manage consumers’ busy lives—and how marketers can make a big splash in a crowded marketplace.

The post Experiential Marketing Trends of the Year: 10 Case Studies appeared first on Chief Marketer.

1. Champion an Underdog

Cheetos has a way of inserting itself into pop culture in a cheeky way. For instance, the brand once created a perfume called “Cheeteau,” named after its brand icon, Chester Cheetah. So, when it came to finding a way to associate itself with the Olympics in a way that caught the attention of Millennials, the brand used the underappreciated sport of curling as its promotional platform. Because if anyone knows about (cheese) curls, it’s Chester, right? The brand created a limited-edition product, Cheetos Curls, and concocted a curling victory dance performed by NFL stars in a fun music video. Sure enough, “doing the curl” caught fire as the cheer of choice for the sport, and in doing so raised an underdog sport—along with the brand—to social media viral status. Agency: The Marketing Arm

2. Hyper-Local Fan Engagement

Bud Light found a way to cultivate brand love with local Cleveland Browns football fans by offering them free beer—but only if, and when, the team actually won a game. The brand installed 37 “Victory Fridges” that opened when the Browns won their first game in nearly two seasons. Thanks to influencers and media coverage, the fridges—locked with actual chains (and digital locks)—became a subject of conversation each week. By unlocking this treasure trove for local fans at just the right moment, the brand tapped into a collective desire shared by a very specific group of locally-based consumers. Agency: Fusion Marketing.

3. Scarcity as a Buzz Builder

A sure-fire way to create demand for a product or service is to make it exclusive. Cheetos did just that with its Flamin’ Hot Spot restaurant, which featured 10 signature dishes inspired by its Flamin’ Hot Cheetos product and crafted by locally-based celebrity chef Roy Choi. The pop-up lasted just three days and, most importantly, its 500 online dining registrations sold out within an hour. (Not to mention, 9,755 others were waitlisted.) The attendance of dozens of influencers and celebrities added to the buzz as well. Agency: The Marketing Arm

4. Immersive Product Demos

For Uber’s urban aviation division to make its flying car concept a reality to stakeholders from a variety of industries, from aviation, government, investment and technology, the brand needed attendees to truly visualize the technology—one that’s essentially yet-to-be-created. The solution, employed by the Infinity Marketing Team at the 2018 Uber Elevate Summit, was a collection of hands-on, immersive experiences, including a “Model Garden” showcasing the first flying car reference models developed by partners across the industry. Most impressive: Attendees could take a virtual reality ride in a full-scale eVTOL (Electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing) vehicle by Bell Helicopter, which brought to life the feeling of flying above traffic.

5. Co-Created Content

To engage festival attendees at Coachella and Panorama in a fresh way, HP and Intel reimagined its long-standing footprints at the events by creating a “Digital Eden” in which festivalgoers could create their own shareable digital art pieces. Touchpoints included a “Hydration Art” station where attendees could design their own water bottle labels, create light painting that became a shareable GIF, and experiment with flower “bloom art” controlled by an HP digital stylus. Through interacting with HP’s products, festivalgoers became artists themselves—with takeaways to prove it. Agency: Infinity Marketing Team

6. Civic Engagement

Country Time Lemonade caught wind of something seriously sinister happening in cities across the nation: Kids’ lemonade stands were being shut down in some cities due to not having the proper permits. Realizing that this was not a positive development for the rite of passage that is the lemonade stand, nor likely to help Country Time to continue playing a part in this tradition, the brand set up a national “Legal-Ade” campaign to help play off fines and permitting fees for those young entrepreneurs. It even inspired real change in one local Denver market, where a bill was introduced to overturn the lemonade stand law altogether. Agency: Marketing Werks

7. Mini-Music Festivals

A new trend is popping up: the mini-music festival. Some younger consumers are forgoing large music festivals for more intimate, specialized events. W Hotels capitalized on the trend with its global hotel music festival to showcase the benefits of being a member of the Marriott Bonvoy loyalty program. For two days, W hotels in Hollywood, Barcelona and Bali offered performances that were then live-streamed on Marriott Rewards’ social channels. Adding to the festival vibe were VIP upgrades and experiences; food and beverage tie-ins like Shake Shack; and fitness opportunities. Agency: IMG Live

8. Macro + Micro-Influencer Approach

Micro-influencers are all the rage these days for their ability to produce and prioritize meaningful brand engagement that sometimes trumps the reach enjoyed by macro-influencers. But let’s face it: It’s hard to ignore that macro reach. Enter Sunny Delight, which utilized both micro- and macro-influencers in its SunnyD Boldly Original Campaign to drive awareness and household penetration. The macro-influencer portion used well-known personalities to share what makes them “boldly original,” while micro-influencers helped ramp up an Instagram contest among consumers to show why they, too, were boldly original.  Agency: Sunflower Group and 360PR+.

9. Multi-Sensory Experiences

More and more, experiential marketing is embracing the five senses. In the case of the Netflix film “Bird Box,” the promotional platform centered around a mobile activation in which attendees were blindfolded—mimicking the plight of the main character in the film, played by actress Sandra Bullock—while being pummeled with terrifying sounds, vibrations, special effects and voiceovers within a vehicle made to look like the set of the film. Across its 23-day tour, the activation’s visceral experience entertained 2,500 visitors without any publicity ahead of time. And the results speak for themselves: The film was viewed 45 million times in the first week alone. Agency: MC2

10. Craft Personalization

Experiences that are memorable for attendees often feature an element of personalization. To promote Universal Thread, a new women’s denim clothing collection launching at Target stores across the country, the retailer created an experience in 250 locations that allowed shoppers who purchased the brand’s products to have personal messages embroidered onto the articles of clothing by a team of on-site tailors. Cute, quirky iron-on patches in the shape of avocados or cacti were handed out, too. The personalization strategy paid off for the brand: Stores that participated enjoyed a 74 percent higher lift in sales, 145,000 patches were distributed and approximately 750 garments were custom-embroidered. Agency: Grow Marketing

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Created three years ago as a way to highlight the fast-growing agency community and to help marketers find the right partners for killer campaigns, the CM200 highlights agencies across the categories of experiential, sports and entertainment, promotion, retail, social media, B2B brand engagement, digital, design, B2B demand gen, B2B experiential and martech.

Chief Marketer editors fielded applications from around the country and chose winners based on insightful client testimonials; high caliber work; case study submissions; innovative and creative executions; and inspiring concepts that are propelling the industry forward.

The listing’s editorial profiles highlight the agencies’ core capabilities and specializations, examples of top-notch work, insights on company culture, consistent clients and RFP contact information. Those selected for this year’s program represent the crème de la crème of the marketing industry. Enjoy this year’s Chief Marketer 200.

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