The city of Detroit once stood tall, a shinning beacon of American capitalism, culture and character. The legacy of Henry Ford and the assembly line, a thriving middle-class, and an automotive industry driving growth in the post WWII economy are reminiscent of better times for the country. Sadly, while the rest of the U.S. continued to move forward, the 1950s were the pinnacle years for Detroit. The economic and social decline that would ensue for decades later caused irreparable damage to the city's image and brands.Today, as the country slowly recovers from recession, Detroit seems to have emerged from it disparity — though perhaps this is an illusion. It appears as if the city hit bottom and is rising up into a hotbed of creativity, innovation, art, music, and (dare I say it) maybe even jobs. The brands most closely associated with the city's decline have experienced a resurgence. Chrysler and GM are back in the black after a bailout and bankruptcies, and the Ford namesake invokes national pride (if only because they managed to do the same without restructuring or government assistance). Together, they've displayed a resilience and perseverance that is fueling the inspiration of hardworking Americans in the Motor City.Chrysler's "Imported from Detroit" slogan has become a rallying cry for buying domestic and the American manufacturing base. The commercials have accumulated tens of millions of views and for awhile #importedfromdetroit was a top trending twitter hashtag driven by proud residents and consumers. In the technological age of tangled, overlapping and instantaneous feedback loops, companies can not afford to mismanage their social media efforts. Since dumping New Strategies at the beginning of this year over a tweeting mishap, Chrysler hired Ignite in an attempt to protect what has become both their, and the city of Detroit's, brand image. And good thing they did, because another slip-up occurred.It was an unfortunate oversight by both Chrysler and Wieden + Kennedy to introduce the Chrysler 300 into the campaign, because it's come to light that the vehicle is assembled in Canada. Only a few days ago a lawsuit was brought against Chrysler by the Made in USA Foundation on the merits that, “Chrysler’s false advertising is likely to cause substantial injury to consumers who seek to buy U.S.-made vehicles.” Ironic, considering that Fiat Group, an Italian automaker, owns 25% of Chrysler Group LLC. Making matters worse, it appears as though Chrysler and Ford have both been in the practice of removing country of origin labels from their car windows at auto shows.Is this only bad press for Chrysler or could the mantra “Imported from Detroit” and the city’s negative reputation have a harmful impact on Ford and GM, too? Does showcasing a personality like Eminem leave the city with a bad rap (pun intended)? If so who's left to fight for the image of the city of Detroit and the Big Three? In 2009, Kwame Kilpatrick and the city council came close to losing the North American International auto show (one of the largest annual revenue generating events for the city) because of their mismanagement of the city's dilapidated expo center, Cobo Hall, amongst other things.Second only to cars, Detroit’s pride rests in one place: sports.The Red Wings are always a great team, but hockey season is just getting underway. The Pistons may not even play this year because of the NBA lockout. In a game 6 breakdown the Tigers lost the ALCS; and after an unlikely winning streak, the Lions have fallen to a 5-1 record. They were 5-0 for the first time since (yes, you guessed it) 1956.So, here’s to hoping the sports teams, the city’s elected officials, and the automakers can hold on to the momentum they’re gaining. Henry Ford said it best, “You can’t build a reputation on what you’re going to do.” Now, we’ll wait and see.
For many of the world's men, the airtight equation for camaraderie consists of one or both of these addends: beer and sport. The summation quite often includes both in the case of a big game. THE big game. Such as the UEFA Champions League game between AC Milan and Real Madrid football teams.
In a brilliant activation strategy, Heineken Italy proposes that the "most sacred time men have left" is at risk, then devised a stunt to call out the increasing influence external factors have in pulling a fan away from his set (and his buddies, and, well, a profitable beer occasion). More narration will only act as a spoiler, so spend a few minutes with this excellent case study to see how, ultimately, Heineken went viral, celebrated the sanctity of male bonding and created authentic engagement with its brand.
Cheers to the weekend.
I love the Evian couture bottle program. With the proliferation of bottled water brands that span the market from packaged tap water to luxury designer water, there is a natural comparison between bottled water and fashion.
Fashion sells textiles at extreme markup through design. Doesn’t Voss, Bling2O, Antipodes and other ‘Fine Waters’ do the same thing? Evian is clearly keeping a foot in this trend.
Here are some of the Evian designs so far. The latest one by Paul Smith is definitely my favorite.
I’m inspired by my friend Mike’s new renegade promotional efforts to stir up some commotion over his client/friend Rachel Nasvik’s handbag line. Inspired by the book The Pirate’s Dilemma, Mike decided to subvert the New York City street stand piracy game by beating those vendors to the punch. Using Twitter, he alerted fans when a limited number of genuine Rachel Nasvik bags (normally sold at high end department stores) would be available at those ubiquitous street stands for a discounted amount – then sat back and let the excitement build. Fans were delighted to be let in on the deal, and Mike strengthened the Rachel Nasvik community by giving loyalists a reason to stay tuned in. Plus, by accessing an irreverent and fun new “channel,” the brand made a statement about its personality and, I’ll say it, joie de vivre. Sounds like a brand worth staying in touch with. More here.
Our Chicago office founder and MD recently turned 39 again, and in honor of his birthday, his loyal troops wanted to find a cool little t-shirt store and print up a customized tee ("39 4Eva"). It's not too hard in Chicago (or any big city) to find these niche type boutiques, and none really seemed to stand out until they found the T-Shirt Deli.
One thing that inspires us at Egg is finding brands that really pay attention to their story. In order to be able to do that, they have to be obsessive about the details. The T-Shirt Deli's story is about mimicking the best delis, offering t-shirt aficionados as many fonts as cheeses as well as the promise of something fresh and totally unique.
There are two elements of the story that they deliver so well. One virtual, one real world.
First their T-Shirts are served up wrapped sugmarine/hoagie/hero style in butcher's paper with the packaging held together with ironically contradictory stickers like "lean ham and kosher meat". Great little details that show they care. Second, on their website the navigation looks like an old plastic deli board complete with miscolored letters and their mailing list invitation is a deli "take a ticket" stub. Nice little touches like this make a difference and suggest that if they care enough about these details, then their product will be similarly high quality.
I am totally inspired by the groundbreaking force-to-be-reckoned-with of social media it what is proving to be pivotal in the historic events in Iran this week.
It has catapulted a technology that I was previously entirely cynical about into the realms of the truly revolutionary with average Iranian citizens able to get their personal experiences out to the world despite media blackouts and internet censorship with simple micro-blogging.
Hooray for a media coming of age and finding it’s worth. I am brimming with ideas to incorporate Twitter methodologies into our work!
Every day, these days, we are bombarded with bad news articles concerning the decline of the printed press industry. Today is no exception as it marks the final day of circulation for Denver’s own Rocky Mountain News whose print presses finally go silent after nearly 150 years of continuous publication. Amid this barrage of bad news a gleaming beacon of positivity appears to be flourishing. Draft Magazine celebrates beer’s role as a timeless, democratic american social glue – less dedicated foodie magazine, more beer lovers lifestyle magazine. Launched in 2006 the title boasts strong advertising revenue, an enviable 200,000 paid subscription base and an additional 70,000 newstand circulation. It is even doing the unimaginable – considering increasing its yearly output from six issues to ten. It would appear in these purse string tightening days that the old marketing adage of standing for something deeply, to an audience that cares, holds unassailable consumer sway. So before you blindly attempt to court consumer favor with your next marketing campaign… step back and ask yourself this simple, but time critical question. Who (think the 1 not the many) will truly respect a simple, more personally relevant message about my brand and reciprocate that considered thought with growing loyalty… back to basics anyone!
In its latest installment of viral goodness, Burger King offers you ‘Flame’, the IT-fragrence of 2008 and perfect holiday gift for the spicy-hot-man-who-has-everything on your holiday list. Check it out at the brilliantly named website: firemeetsdesire.com.
Reported to make your man smell like "the scent of seduction with a hint of flame-broiled meat."…..mmmmmm, sexy.
It is a bargain at its $3.99 price point and available at Ricky NYC or online.
Happy Holidays!
After 9-11 the President told Americans that the best way to defeat the terrorists was to go out and shop because shopping was the epitome of the American way. I just received an interesting email with a warning about buying gift cards this holiday season. The email mentioned that stores are still selling gift cards that may not be redeemable after the new year as many of these stores will be closing down. It mentioned Circuit City (filing for Chapter 11), Ann Taylor (closing 117 stores), the Gap (closing 85 stores) etc etc. Apparently the stores are legally allowed to keep selling gift certificates as it's part of their "bankruptcy planning", but are not obliged to honor them after January 1st. Seems to me like a way to seed in some fear over the holiday season and create a need to spend within a confined period rather than hold on to gift certificates and spend later. Recessionary behavior self perpetuates - it's about consumer confidence and demand and there's nothing like bad news (like, say, constant news telling us we're in a deep recession) to make us feel like we need to adopt "recessionary" and cautious spending habits. The holiday season spending habits of Americans is another barometer of global economic health - anything that can help boost those numbers is a good thing. Nothing like a bit of fear-mongering to get people to part with their dollars.
The new Bond movie, Quantum of Solace is out in a few weeks and I'm excited about it. I'm a big Bond fan - have been since graduating from super heroes in tights and capes to a man in a dinner jacket who kills for a living. As a character in books and movies, Bond has been inextricably linked to brands. It's been said that Ian Fleming used brands like Rolex to ground Bond's implausible adventures in something concrete, but it's been the movies, from Connery to Craig where brands have enjoyed significant benefits from association with Bond. Aston Martin has been voted the UK's coolest brand, undeniably because of its link to Bond and Omega continues to enjoy rugged and stylish epithets as Bond's watch of choice (although having said that, Rolex, Bond's original choice trumped Omega in the aforementioned CoolBrands list). While Omega and Aston Martin have obvious links to Bond through usage, this time around there's also sponsorship from Heineken, Bollinger, Smirnoff, Virgin Atlantic, Sony Ericsson, Sony Electronics and most interestingly from Coke Zero. All of the brands above have at least some possible link to 007 (Sony's perhaps a bit of a stretch and Smirnoff lost its luster in the vodka category years ago), but Coke Zero? The promo spot by Wieden and Kennedy in Amsterdam is great as it's evocative of the classic Bond title sequences. On a bigger strategic level, the intent is clear - make a zero sugar Coke seem more masculine. But really, it's a bit of a stretch. My benchmark for association is based on whether Bond would use it or not and I can't imagine the Daniel Craig version slugging back a can of "zero zero seven" as it's being promoted. Maybe Roger Moore or perhaps Pierce Brosnan would have been a better choice - he could have put it in the cup holder of his invisible car.
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