Filed under: Oddities, branding, marketing | Tags: AARROW Advertising, advertising, sign spinners, sign spinning
While visiting the gorgeous High Line park in New York, I saw a guy twirling a cardboard advertisement. I don’t remember what the ad was for, but the antics of the guy holding the ad were pretty impressive. He was like the baton twirler for the Longhorn marching band (hook ‘em!), without the makeup and spangles.
It turns out the “sign spinner” (that’s his job title) works for AARROW Advertising, a promotions company that mixes signboards and extreme sports to create an interactive “advertising experience with each person that passes, delivering what no other form of advertising can: eye contact and a smile.”
This wasn’t the guy I saw, but it gives you an idea of what sign spinners do:
Each sign spinner is trained by AARROW, though many come into the job with a headstart from skateboarding, street dancing or some other acrobatic background in which there’s low regard for injury. The sign spinners are paid about $20 an hour — plus tips sometimes — and, if they’re really good, they get to compete in the AARROW sign spinning championships. No joke.
Sign spinning seems like a great way to build street cred for your brand. I just wish I could remember what that spinning sign was advertising.
Filed under: Media, marketing | Tags: back-to-school, Staples, TV commercial
For this year’s Back to School season, Staples reprised its Most Wonderful Time of the Year commercial, which first aired in 1994. The classic TV spot, which expresses the guilty, giddy joy many parents feel about the start of the school year, still seems current and relevant, despite being 15 years old.
Filed under: Leadership, marketing | Tags: Burson-Marsteller, corporate social responsibility, CSR, Landor
New research from WPP agencies Penn, Schoen & Berland, Landor Associates, and Burson-Marsteller shows that corporate social responsibility (CSR) pays off.
- Despite the tough economy, 75 percent of consumers are willing pay extra for products from socially responsible companies. More than half are ready to pay at least a 6 percent premium to support such companies.
- Employees are willing to accept lower compensation to work for a socially responsible company, particularly employees between the ages of 25 and 49 with higher incomes.
- Consumers also report that a company’s honesty and trustworthiness have more of an impact on purchase decisions than the quality or value of its products.
Consumers define CSR as treating employees well, engaging in environmentally sound business practices, and giving back to the community. Here are some companies that fared well in the CSR reputation survey:
CSR has come a long way. It used to be an investment avoidance tactic — not buying shares in tobacco companies, for instance — and now it’s a business strategy that delivers not only a price premium but also recruitment efficiencies and marketing differentiation. Clearly, CSR is the way to go.
Rohit Bhargava’s Influential Marketing Blog analyzed a report on Twitter usage from Sysomos, a social media analytics provider. These were some of Bhargava’s key takeaways:
- 5% of users account for 75% of all activity, and 10% of users account for 86%. “A steep curve of a small minority of actively engaged content creators generating most of the activity on a site is common among social networks,” notes Bhargava, “but it is steeper and more pronounced on Twitter.”
- 21% of Twitter’s registered users have never posted a single tweet. Bhargava speculates these dormant users are simply staking out a user name for later use or just never followed through after signing up.
- 50.4% of all Twitter users post infrequently (less than once a week).
- 94% of Twitter accounts have fewer than 100 followers.
- The reciprocation limit for followers is around 150. Bhargava wrote, “In a particularly interesting data point from the survey, Sysomos found that Twitter users tended to ‘follow back’ all their followers up until about 150 connections. Then the reciprocation rate fell off dramatically.”
- Tuesday tends to be the most popular day for tweets. The next most active days are Wednesday and Friday.
- As Twitter users attract more followers, they tend to Tweet more often. Someone with 1,000 followers will tweet six times per day, on average. Someone with more than 1,750 followers will tweet 10 times per day.
Filed under: Oddities, communication, marketing | Tags: bizarre advertisement
After writing about Sarah Palin’s death panels, we stumbled upon these two ads, which were too coincidental to ignore.
First, Seth Godin posted this picture of a billboard he found in Ontario(?):
Omega Cleaning is the company to call if you need to tidy up after a homicide, suicide, “unattended death” (?), or just some unexplained case of “human decomposition.”
In a similar vein, while catching up on Adrants, we found this video about a guy who removes road kill:
The video is an ad for Westwood College, which offers degree programs to get people out of dead end jobs. Maybe the employees of Omega Cleaning, who “handle all types of messy situations that can be dangerous, nauseating and emotionally draining,” should look into Westwood.
Filed under: Leadership, communication | Tags: Facebook, health care reform, health insurance, Sarah Palin
Sarah Palin ratcheted up the debate on health care reform (in volume more than quality) with her now-famous Facebook post on Friday:
The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s “death panel” so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their “level of productivity in society,” whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.
Sarah Palin’s single, alarming Facebook post instantly garnered more attention for health care reform than the Obama administration has been able to muster through months of public education programs and town hall meetings. The Obama administration now finds itself on the defensive. It has launched a new website to debunk the myths surrounding health care reform.
It’s interesting to note that the Obama administration has chosen to characterize the proposed changes as “health insurance” reform, which sounds less personal and more bureaucratic than reforming “health care.” Also, “health insurance reform” positions the insurance companies as the target for change, not the doctors and health care providers who hold the patient relationships.
Beyond the careful word choices, the administration’s communication posture is surprisingly defensive. The website features videos of various officials talking about the proposed health care program, but they spend more time trying to correct the “myths” being spread about health care reform than trying to sell the program on its merits. Also, President Obama doesn’t have his own video on the website, though he does appear in snippets of others’.
To win the health care debate, the Obama administration will obviously have to talk more about what the reforms are rather than what they’re not. The administration will need to convey a sense of urgency for reform without resorting to degenerative soundbites and scare tactics that would erode credibility. Right now, the program’s critics are controlling the dialogue, and they’ve made the issues ridiculously personal — euthanizing loved ones who aren’t economically productive, for instance. Their messages are largely based on FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt).
Perhaps more than any other political issue of the moment, the outcome of the health care debate hinges on the parties’ ability to frame the risks of change. The Obama administration will have to position systemic change as less risky than preserving the costly status quo. Opponents will have to position the proposed changes as too drastic, too expensive and too risky to entrust to government. It’ll be fascinating to watch the public persuasion programs unfold.
Through BrandFlakesforBreakfast, we stumbled upon a fascinating mini-history of how the rounded rectangle became an aesthetic hallmark of Apple’s products.
Yet another proof point for why Apple’s brand deserves its reputation for obsessively good, customer-oriented design.
Filed under: marketing, technology | Tags: Apple, Apple tablet, Microsoft, Microsoft Surface, Microsoft table computer, tablet computer
Apple’s fanboys are really worked up over the new tablet computer that Apple is rumored to be launching in time for the holiday shopping season. Some have uncovered a bit of code for an “iProd1,1,” in the newest beta of the iPhone operating system (OS 3.1 for those of you keeping track). They believe the inclusion of this mysterious device file is a sign that the launch of the mythical Apple tablet is near — very near.
Apple’s tablet computer will supposedly let you download books, watch videos and surf the web on a 10-inch touchscreen. I’m not convinced that the value proposition is fabulous enough to make me want to buy yet another device to go along with the two portable movie players, three smart phones and two laptops we already have. But maybe if it’s really glossy and sleek and has rounded metal edges in a sexy satin finish. …
Truth be told, I’m more intrigued by the Microsoft Surface, a tablet table computer made for the hospitality industry and for corporate execs craving newer, more expensive collaboration tools. The Surface reminds me of the computing interface Tom Cruise used in Minority Report (a great flick if you like sci-fi). Here’s a well-done parody of the Surface. (Thanks to Microsoft fanatic/apologist ptprussak for pointing it out.)
Filed under: Leadership, branding | Tags: employee productivity, employee relations, Olive Garden, Darden Restaurants, employee benefits
We were talking to a client, whose corporate parent is Finnish, about the wonderful ritual of the European summer sabbatical. (This is the uniquely Western European practice taking off work for most of July and August.) Our client, as an American subsidiary, doesn’t get the benefit of a summer sabbatical. Nevertheless, he seemed pleased that his Finnish and German colleagues did, and he spoke warmly of his company’s practice of treating employees like family.
In this current economic climate, in which media attention often focuses on layoffs, it’s refreshing to see examples of companies continuing to treat their people well. (For a regular dose of employer-employee happiness, check out Fortune’s recurring column about the 100 best companies to work for.)
Being good to employees isn’t just corporate benevolence; it’s good business. Happy employees are more productive and more loyal. Plus, they’re more likely to convey a positive brand experience to your customers.
Darden Restaurants, the company that owns the $3 billion-a-year Olive Garden franchise, sends chefs and other key employees to an authentic culinary school in Tuscany. Since 1999, more than 850 employees have attended the training, bringing back menu suggestions and other ideas for improving the customer dining experience.
The Olive Garden’s brand is built on the concept that guests are treated like family. (Think of their tagline: “When You’re Here, You’re Family.”) The company realizes that employees are more likely to treat customers nicely when they’re been treated nicely themselves. “It’s very difficult for the experience of the guests to exceed the experience of the staff,” said Olive Garden President David Pickens in this month’s Fast Company. “We put the two together.”
It just makes sense, doesn’t it?
Filed under: Leadership, branding | Tags: BusinessWeek, Recession, Texas Instruments
BusinessWeek posted a slide show of 18 multibillion-dollar companies that started during major economic downturns. It’s encouraging to see evidence of powerhouse brands thriving despite tough beginnings.
Here’s an interesting nugget I picked up: Texas Instruments, the chip maker, started life during the Great Depression as an oil exploration company.
Click on the image below to view BusinessWeek’s slide show:
