The sex appeal of red

SUNDAYTIMES.CO.UK: The actress Scarlett Johansson is the sizzling face of Bono’s new ethical brand — doing the right thing has never been so glamorous.

We don’t want your money — we want you” read the banner topping the huge stage for last summer’s Live 8 concert in Hyde Park. And they got us. More than three billion of us watched the concert in the end. That’s almost half the world’s population.

But just suppose you could harness the euphoria and commitment from that audience in the long term. What if you could reach their vote and their wallet, and give them daily opportunities to register their protest again? As Bono said on that day in July: “It’s an event that’s so much bigger than anyone involved in it.” And it made him hopeful, because a plan that he had hatched more than a year ago suddenly looked like it might work.

=> Read the full article in The Sunday Times here.
=> Read 'Shop With Bono' in The Sunday Times here.

VW's Quirky Campaign to Revive U.S. Sales

NYTIMES.COM: VOLKSWAGEN may have retired its unwieldy ''Fahrvergnügen'' slogan, but a quirky new ad campaign for the struggling carmaker is once again invoking its German heritage. Along with faux-German catch phrases (''Straight outta da Autobahn'' and ''Fast as schnell''), the campaign introduces Helga, a blonde in white go-go boots.

Indefinition as a spatial characteristic

Camper FoodBALL is a health food store. For lack of definition it is a restaurant, a bar, a fast food restaurant, a take-away, and possibly could be a point of encounter or a reference point in the context of a neighbourhood. In this case its indefinition makes it adaptable to situations that are not pre-established, and which thus are much more contemporary. Thus the space is used in different ways depending on who is using it, a clearly usable space that does not shun the space of representation.The space is divided into three basic parts: the entrance with the counter; the kitchen; and the area to consume the food, a series of wide steps laid out like a grandstand. These three spaces have the goal to be completely characteristic, lacking external references; they seek to be informal, for contemporary people. They allow individuals to act as if they were in the street though they are inside, as if the street were home and we were walking through a world conceived as mathematical coordinates, eating meta-territorial food. FoodBALL promotes street food and a way of casual eating.The interior vertical space is covered in its entirety by something like a stage set painted with figures in axonometric perspective, representing an idealization of a rural world that is at once naive and electronic, like with computer games. This set stretches out in its context as a medium for communication, to which information concerning themes related to health food could be added in controlled fashion. The mural refers to politically engaged painting as well as aerial perspectives like in SimCity, spaces of representation and action in a visual context. The graphic finishing has an important role, giving the space a friendly, non-conventional feel.FoodBALL is made with bio-construction. The entrance has a map of the full menu with all the products for sale and the illustrations of each product done digitally by hand. FoodBALL cooking is functionally anecdotal, since the basic gesture is the manual production of a stuffed rice ball. Thus there is no flexible culinary artefact that could be adapted to this action, consequentially causing continual friction between what could be offered by the artefacts of conventional cooking and the needs of contemporary cooking. It does not seek to be subject to tradition, but instead to explore out on the edge. The consumption area is a zone with a stand or series of wide steps whose function and use is non-determined, proposing an ambiguous situation in a radical way. It is space that could be exterior but ends up being protected, or could be read as an unprotected interior space, being like the "in between" spaces that are re-created in traditional Japanese architecture, where one can imagine the desired situation, where you can be inside or outside, or inside and outside at the same time. In the case of FoodBALL, the street is extended into the interior of the space, giving it the characteristics of a shopping mall or theme park, a space with the characteristics of a street though it is inside, or just as well a place where you feel like you are outside even though you are inside. This effect pushes the idea of take-away to the fore, thus concentrating the shop's functions at the entrance counter, where you can make decisions and acquire the available goods.As something that cannot be defined, the best way to define FoodBALL is as the Camper food shop. It is the place where Camper extends its spirit outwards with all the features that make it up.

FoodBALL Barcelona
FoodBALL Berlin

When the plot pushes product

LATIMES.COM: The nation's future was at stake and Jack Bauer, as usual, was racing against the clock on last month's season premiere of "24." Stuck in an airport crawl space, he could only watch helplessly as the enemy terrorized hostages and made demands of the president.

Fortunately, the writers made sure the maverick agent had a fully charged camera phone. The sponsors made sure it was a Sprint Treo 650.

Bauer even offered a testimonial to his colleagues at headquarters: "I'm going to send you photos of the hostages. They should be clear enough for you to identify them."

Welcome to the world of product integration. More subtle than product placement — the time-honored practice of having "American Idol" judges drinking from Coca-Cola cups, say — the rising alternative to commercials actually weaves products into plots and dialogue of some of television's top prime-time scripted shows.

According to Nielsen Media Research, which has been tracking product placements the last three years, the number of placements, including the new integration, jumped 30% to 108,261 last year. NBC ranked highest with 7,470 instances of a product being shown on its reality show "The Contender" alone and an additional 3,009 placement shots on "The Apprentice."

Product integration efforts can be as obvious as Eva Longoria taking work as a spokesmodel for Buick on "Desperate Housewives," or as subversive as the cast of "Arrested Development" making fun of Burger King at a Burger King.

Television, of course, has historically served as a vehicle for advertising. But knowing that sponsors are paying for the boss of "The Office" (Steve Carell) to frequent Chili's and order his "awesome blossom" "extra awesome" might shock some viewers who have grown used to believing scripted programs are pure creative efforts separated by 30-second commercials.

On one episode of "The Office," Carell's character broke into the restaurant's catchy "baby back ribs" jingle while entertaining a potential client there. Stars of "Veronica Mars" and "The O.C." are frequently shown using their T-Mobile Sidekicks to solve mysteries or thicken the plot."

We're living in a crazy new world," said Gary Newman, president of 20th Century Fox Television, which produces "24." "The old formulas don't necessarily work. We have to be smart and find new ways to monetize the value of our programs," he said.

Networks have joined companies and producers in the scramble to offset the anticipated decline of the 30-second commercial, threatened by the avalanche of technological novelties that allow consumers to control their entertainment on iPods, cellphones or the Internet.

There is no standard model for placements; in some cases, story lines involving a specific product are pitched to a relevant company that can then buy its product's way into the scene; in other cases, companies suggest their products for a show. One Los Angeles broker has set up a matchmaking website so potential partners can find one another. Another company has specialized in digitally inserting brands into films and shows, allowing entertainment companies to sell the same space several times: On one film, for instance, one advertiser appeared in theaters, another on network television, another on basic cable and still another on DVD.

Costs range "all over the map," depending on the number of episodes and what the production is asked to do with the product, said Tom Meyer, president of Davie-Brown Entertainment, whose clients have paid for more than 50 placements and integrations. "A car manufacturer might be willing to pay $100,000 to $150,000 to show the mirror turns upside down. Going in and completely crafting a whole segment from scratch where the brand is a key player could be a million bucks." As the level of control over the message goes down, so does the cost. "If it's subliminal, it's not worth quite as much," he said."

It really feels like a win-win," Newman said. "What we have to be careful about is not overdoing it." He said Toyota financed new scenes shot for a two-season DVD of "24" in which Jack and colleague Chloe each drove a Toyota. The villains tended to drive another type of car.

Producer Ben Silverman said "The Restaurant" accelerated the trend in 2003 by using advertisers, including American Express, Coors and Mitsubishi, to fully finance the show in return for playing a visible role in the televised day-to-day work of entrepreneur Rocco DiSpirito. Producers then sold the show to NBC. "It enabled us to make a show we couldn't get financed in a traditional way. NBC and NBC Universal Television chief Jeff Zucker were open to trying an alternative way to get a new kind of programming on the air," Silverman said. He has since produced four more shows fully financed by brands.

No quantitative studies have yet proven the effect of product integration.

Complaints by consumer and writers' groups that the practice is turning prime-time shows into infomercials have been largely ignored in the rush to keep pace with the rapidly evolving technology and younger viewers' resistance to being a passive, captive audience for commercials.

Those viewers, the 8-to-28 group known to marketers as "millennials," tend to be cynical about traditional commercials, which they regard as lectures, said Jack MacKenzie, a senior vice president at Frank N. Magid Associates, a media and entertainment research and consulting firm. On the other hand, MacKenzie said that millennials actually give credit to companies that come up with new and creative forms of selling to them.

Not only are they adept with the record, fast forward and pause buttons, he said, they also understand their role as valuable targets for companies who want them to buy things. "They understand that better than any other generation that has preceded them," MacKenzie said.
"They've been sold to by cable TV and custom magazines since they were 10 years old."

Rather than sending a subliminal message, the best integrations encourage their savvy young viewers to join them in the joke, he said.

One particularly creative approach appeared in an episode of "Arrested Development" in which a fictional product integration takes place within a real product integration. In the scene, set in a Burger King, actor Carl Weathers, playing a version of himself, told acting student Tobias (David Cross) that Burger King would underwrite his TV project if he set a scene in the restaurant. Catching on, Tobias replied, "As long as you don't draw attention to it." Weathers then pointedly mentioned that soft drink refills are free at Burger King, prompting Tobias to exclaim, "It's a wonderful restaurant!" The narrator chimed in: "It sure is."

"In terms of their image, Burger King is willing to have fun with themselves in a way they believe the consumer finds engaging. On the basis of sales, they've been proven right," said Peter Tortorici, who left his job as president of CBS Entertainment to head Group M, a media buying agency that represents Burger King among others.

He said the best integrations match "the sensibility of a program to brand sensibility. It has more to do with subtext than with seeing a product." As the sponsor of "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," Sears Roebuck & Co. delivers its products to a makeover site in clearly labeled Sears trucks. The company can say its products are about "quality-of-life experiences, generosity, can-do attitude and community. The program in its narrative embodies those things," Tortorici said.

Similarly, the show "7th Heaven" worked Campbell's soup into a story line in which Ruthie Camden collects labels for a school benefit.

"24" fans are obviously more interested in seeing Jack Bauer save the world than transmit photographs. Accordingly, later in the premiere episode, his Treo camera phone played a key role in vanquishing the enemy: A specialist back at headquarters "reconfigured" the device so that Jack could use it to detonate a vest explosive worn by a terrorist."

Not every tactic works equally," Tortorici said, "but the overall strategy is clearly successful."

Many marketers have predicted viewers would be seeing more product integration in scripted and reality shows, but that the technique will likely "self-regulate" before it compromises the creative process and turns off viewers with too many products, plugged too obviously.

In the end, some said, integration may be so time-consuming, and take so much effort and collaboration, it probably would not replace the 30-second spot. "The beauty of the 30-second spot is that it's portable, you can put it anywhere you want," said Davie-Brown's Meyers.

And perhaps significantly, the majority of millennials (54%) recently polled by Magid said they would be more likely to buy a video iPod and watch a 30-second advertisement in return for a free download of a favorite television program. The alternative, it was implied, would be to pay for downloads free of commercials.

Can MTV Stay Cool?

BUSINESSWEEK.COM: No piece of the network is under as much fire as the core MTV channels. Its younger audiences are the most easily lured away in this age of do-it-yourself music mixes, podcasting, and streaming video. MTV's ratings growth was just 5% over the past three years, according to research outfit Bernstein & Co., while VH1, with an older, more loyal audience, grew 17%. Comedy Central pulled in 10% gains, largely because of Stewart. Meanwhile, Nickelodeon's $1 billion in annual operating profits is fueled by sales of things like SpongeBob trinkets and Dora the Explorer dolls. "MTV turns 25 this year," says Peter Golder, an associate professor of marketing at New York University's Stern School of Business. "It's difficult to be a mature brand."

=> Read the full report in BusinessWeek here.

'Tastes Great, Less Filling, and Perfect with Cheese': Beer Tries to Brew Up a New Image

KNOWLEDGE AT WHARTON: Can an industry that has spent a fortune on TV ads featuring mud wrestlers and talking frogs suddenly change its stripes to appeal to the wine-and-cheese, single-malt Scotch crowd? The makers of Budweiser and other brands of beer hope so. Anheuser-Busch and its competitors are developing an industry-wide marketing campaign aimed at overhauling the image of the humble beer and staunching its declining share of the alcoholic beverage market. But Wharton faculty members say that such a radical makeover might be too tall an order, even though the effort could enhance the appeal of microbreweries and perhaps some mass-market beers, like Michelob, that have already carved out a higher-end image.

=> Read the full report here (registration required).
=> Download audio (MP3 file) here.

Delhi in Davos: How India Built its Brand at the World Economic Forum

KNOWLEDGE AT WHARTON: The emergence of China and India figured prominently at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos last month. In India's case, however, another factor also was at work. Determined not to be overshadowed, Indian business and government leaders spent some two years and $4 million planning an elaborate branding campaign to ensure that the "India story" got prominent play and did not get lost amid the chatter at Davos. How does a country go about building its brand though such PR campaigns? And how can outcomes be measured to see if the campaign worked? Wharton professors who were at Davos and Indian business and government leaders say that while India's campaign at the summit was impressive, the country will now have to walk the talk on infrastructure investments and policy reforms if it wants to retain its credibility.

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/1394.cfm