A “sip” to integrated marketing.
I raise a cup of coffee to Dunkin’ Donuts, for producing one truly innovating marketing campaign. It all started with a “Guess What” contest, then it led into a video, interactive website and customer interaction. What I am talking about is MissionFresh.com. DD launched a contest that asked people, “Something Fresh is coming. Guess what it is.” And boy was it FRESH! DD came up with an idea of producing a giant size graffiti mural in Times Square; it involved a team of 4 street artists that worked night and day for an entire 72-hour marathon session (while drinking lots of DD coffee, of course).
Using old school and new school art techniques, they came up with a design that really took their creativity to another level (60′ x 40′), literally. DD filmed the entire production of the mural, provided the video, and featured behind-the-scenes comments and bios of each of the artists on this site. After enjoying the video and reading more about the project, you can even take a stab at being a graffiti artist and create a mural of your own. How coolatta is that?
Wood and Metal Type Fonts
Yes, fonts used to be literally made out of wood and or metal. When you take your next trip to Italy, check out a museum called Tipoteca, which is located in a village about 40 miles north of Venice. It’s devoted to the history of letterpress printing and typefaces, or fonts. It not only displays vintage presses, but contains drawers upon drawers of true wood and metal fonts.
The closest I ever got to using metal letters is growing up with a typewriter, where the metal letter hit up against a black ribbon and transferred the ink onto a piece of paper. I thought that was amazing. The next time you look through libraries of fonts on your computer, just remember how it all started. Click here to read a little more about the museum.
Color News and Views from Pantone
I just recently received the premiere newsletter from Pantone, called TONES and it’s all about color news and views. Do you ever think about color, and how many different applications it is applied to…from paper through textiles? It’s very interesting to find out what views people have across different industries. Good example: in print, you want the whitest paper to help make your design pop but in fashion, “You never wear white after Labor Day.” Check out the newsletter; it gave me some great insights into areas that I never thought about. Wonderful world of colors, which ones do you see?
Creativity
It seems that American society has a bit of a love/hate relationship with creativity. It is frequently stifled in lower education systems, yet revered in adulthood when artists, fashion designers, and dancers are idolized for being ambassadors of all things hip; when “artsy” is cultivated and becomes synonymous with “cool,” rather than serving as a euphemism for “weird”.
Remember the outlandish girl you grew up with who wore bizarre outfits and brought audacious deviations of the peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch? How about that scrawny boy from gym class, the one with coke-bottle glasses who couldn’t swing a baseball bat to save his life but could doodle a perfect, albeit unflattering, caricature of the coach? How many of these school age “nerds” are now the creative directors and innovative brains behind some of the most popular marketing and advertising campaigns today? In a strange, Darwinian version of survival of the fittest, it seems that creatives who are able to overcome the discouraging trials of childhood and hang on to their left-brained propensities eventually rise to the top of the food chain.
In his humorous, yet thought-provoking speech at the 2008 TED convention, Ken Robinson identified a concerning pattern in the American education system, pointing out that from a young age, students are discouraged from their creative pursuits.
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Viral Gets Nestle … The Palm Oil “Incident”
Yes, it’s great when viral advertising takes hold, isn’t it? Nestle Amsterdam achieved “viral advertising icon status” with its fake Jesus commercial (see previous blog posting). Nestle corporate achieved “viral advertising wrath”, big-time, by attempting to remove a viral Greenpeace ad linking Kit Kat bars to climate change from YouTube . “This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Société des Produits Nestlé S.A.”
What chaos! What a backlash!
Activists, outraged consumers and digital geeks all united in the thrashing of Nestle throughout social media outlets. Many were incensed by Nestle’s use of palm oil, purchased through Sinar Mas—a company with one of the worst environmental records and linked to illegal deforestation. Others were angry that a corporation would violate the basic tenets of social media by banning someone else’s video.
Nestle’s rather benign and rarely visited Facebook page was barraged with comments ranging from generally to aggressively nasty comments and other creative expressions of the Kit Kat and Nestle logos. Nestle further dug themselves into a hole by threatening action against copyright violators.
As the online frenzy moved to the terrestrial world through protests and events, Nestle finally took it seriously and on May 17, issued a statement that Sinar Mas is no longer part of their supply chain. However, Nestle does still purchase palm oil from Cargill, which is supplied in part by Sinar Mas. So, the online discussion continues and the anti-Nestle throng continues to multiply.
I like to talk with our clients about emerging consumer demands for transparency … and provide a gentle warning that the days of the passive consumer are over. This trend has steadily grown over the past couple of years, as consumers started scrutinizing company practices in addition to the nutrition labels.
Sustainability is also a huge topic on the minds of consumers, increasing considerablyly as purchase criteria for both foods and supplements. And companies can’t disrespect this; consumers have ways of peeking behind the curtain and are not shy about voicing their findings loudly, clearly and globally.
For those who haven’t seen it, here’s a link to the Greenpeace video as well as info on Nestle’s announcement to discontinue with Sinar Mas.
