What's the BIG Idea?

In one of my earlier blog posts I discussed the genius advertising of the one and only Coca-Cola. Now I may be a little biased because my home, Atlanta, is the home of the Coca-Cola Company, but I believe Coke is one of the most successful and well loved brands in the world. They are known for producing some of the most famous advertising of all times. What’s the secret behind this creative power house company? The answer is simple, their success stems from the creation of an excellent big idea.

 
The big idea in advertising is crucial to developing a great campaign. A good big idea lives on for years and has multiple contexts among different mediums, but they all still send the same message. A advertising big idea is a strong central concept or image that has legs for different executions. They stimulate the mind and play on emotions. Big ideas are simple and easy to understand. They are not lists of benefits.

 So why do people drink Coca-Cola? Some people like the taste. For others, it's how well Coke quenches their thirst. And some just enjoy the unique combination of sugar and caffeine. How can Coke effectively advertise to all these different people who each had different reasons for drinking Coke? By creating a central big idea that connects with all types of consumers and links the concept to the message: happiness.


Coke’s big idea is happiness. The idea of “happiness” is something exportable to any culture and highly-customizable. It's hard to argue with happiness. It's hard to be against happiness. And it's hard to find anyone who doesn't like happiness. Coke linked its brand with happiness, and orients its product, packaging, and promotion in that direction. Happiness is an idea that has been rooted into Coke and animates their brand. Here are some different examples of executions Coke produced that all send the same message, happiness.

 

Big ideas are fresh and provoking ideas that hold a viewer’s attention. Coca-Cola has mastered the concept of a advertising big idea and this is why they have been at the forefront of global marketing.

Guest Speaker: Earl Cox

Throughout the semester we have been fortunate enough to have a handful of wonderful speakers. Each presentation had been very insightful and I have really enjoyed how different all the speaker’s messages have been. Tomorrow in class we will welcome out last guest speaker for the semester, Earl Cox. Cox is a Virginia Tech alumni and graduated with a degree in communications. He also received his MBA in marketing from University of Virginia. I wonder which school he pulls for when the two teams play each other every year?!

Earl Cox is the Chief Strategy Officer & Partner for The MartinAgency and his main task is to help clients position their strategic directions. The Martin Agency is an advertising agency that is headquartered in Richmond, Virginia and was founded in July 1965. The Martin Agency is one of the nation’s leading agencies; they have consistently been one of top five marketing agencies in the country. They represent many high profile clients such as UPS, Hanes, Comcast, Wal-Mart, GEICO, Pizza Hut and Discover. They are even responsible for creating the famous “Virginia is For Lover’s” campaign, which is still around today.

Most mainstream advertising agencies are located in the city that never sleeps, New York City. It’s commonly implied that if you have made it big and you are the best of the best, then your office is located in the heart of NYC. A strategic issue that I see with the Martin Agency is being able to continually compete as a big name player even though they are located in Richmond, Virginia. They need to make sure they maintain their strong reputation so they are not forgotten about.

Question:

1.       You have worked on many different campaigns, out of all of them, which one has been his favorite and why?

Home Depot's Social Media

Throughout the semester we have spent a lot of time examining the importance of social media advertising, which is a form of online advertising that focuses on social networking sites (such as Twitter, Facebook, Blogger, Bebo, etc.). Social media is the hottest topic in advertising right now and companies are starting to explore what all of the fuss is about. Advertising on social media sites provides companies with instant communication to consumers, but more importantly, it helps companies to target their ads appropriately. The key to advertising with social media is knowing how and what to communicate to your consumers. The Home Depot is a top home improvement retailer and is headquarters in the outskirts of the Atlanta perimeter. Home Depot has been one of the front runners of how to use social media to engage customers. In a Advertising Age article, they discuss how Home Depot is changing the way their business interacts with their online audience and customer base.

Home Depot has redefined the roles their employes play within the company. A group of floor employees from all different stores handle customer interaction on a face-to-face level, while also conducting interactions with customers on different social media sites. These hybrid employees live a double life, working as store associates three days a week and creating/managing social media the other two days a week. These employees specifically manage Home Depot's "how-to community" (such as: Home Depot’s How To Blog, Apron blog, serve as on-call experts in the Garden Club and on HomeDepot.com). Brad Shaw, the VP-corporate communications say this about these social media/store associates:

"They've become a center of gravity around content creation and customer interaction for the company." 

What better than to have a team of blog writers for your business that directly interacts with your audience on a personal level? These blended employees use information in their content that is a direct result of communication on the floor. They know best about the type of project they are working on, the supplies they need and the problems they are wanting to fix. Because they interact with customers on a daily basis, they know what kind of topics to blog, tweet, tag, and post about in order to successfully advertise to customers. Home Depot has found a way to incorporate a strong social media effort without breaking the bank.

One suggestion I thought could help Home Depot connect and advertise to there customers is sending a tweet reminding them to give their new bushes a little extra water because of the drought conditions, and offering them a new drought-resistant plant that was just introduced. It would be useful if Home Depot could channel their knowledge of their customers and demographics even more and further advertise to their specific needs.

 

Home Depot has found a way to successfully advertise with social media sites. These hybrid employees  create a content synergy between floor experience and online connection, that allows them to know they best possible way to connect to the customers.

Guest Speaker: Kelly Fisher, Got Milk?

Tomorrow in class we will be welcoming Kelley Fisher who has assisted in the production of the Got Milk campaign?  The campaign launched in October of 1993 and hasn’t looked back since. This advertising campaign was created by the advertising agency Goodby Silverstein & Partners for California Milk Processor Board. A few years later in 1995 the slogan was licensed to the National Milk Processor Board (MilkPEP). The purpose of the campaign was to encourage milk consumption and to help raise awareness about the nutrition milk provides.  

This “big idea” has been alive for decades and is still going strong. The campaign has been advertised all around the world and has hundreds of ads that are executed differently yet all have the same message.

“Ultimately a good strategy is inspiring. You can pull hundreds of rabbits out of the same hat, creating widely different execution that are all on strategy. The ‘milk deprivation’ strategy, for example called forth a long string of wonderful ‘Got milk?’ executions.” – Sullivan, 1998

The Got Milk? campaign is one of the most recognized and respected advertising campaigns of all time. As the campaign has matured, it’s become increasingly popular in recent years for the ads to depict famous actors, musicians and athletes sporting the “milk mustache" trademark.

Questions: 

      1. How did you begin working on the Got Milk? campaign?

      2. How is milk competing with the growing number of beverage choices available to consumers these days,  especially within the category of soft- drinks?

Guest Speaker: Julia Talbot, Burt's Bees

Some people are addicted to shopping, some are addicted to exercising and even some people are addicted to food. So what’s my addiction? The answer is Chap Stick, especially to Burt’s Bees Lip Balm. Everywhere I go I always have my Burt’s Bees with me, I can’t live without it. So I must admit I couldn’t have been more ecstatic to find out Julia Talbot, the Global Brand Manager for Burt’s Bees Lip Category, was coming to speak to our class!

Julia Talbot was Marketing major here at Virginia Tech, she graduated in 2003.Talbot also earned an MBA at Rutgers University. Before she started working for Burt’s Bees Talbot was an Associate Marketing Manager at Godiva Chocolates in NYC. She was responsible for leading development, implementation, and launch of Godiva’s seasonal collections. She loved her job at Godiva but wanted something more. In 2008 Talbot joined the Burt’s Bees team and in 2010 she was promoted to her current position as Global Brand Manager for lip products. Talbot responsibilities as the Global Brand Manager comprises of handling all aspects related to the product lifecycle, from idea generation all the way through product discontinuation. The Burt’s Bees Lip Category, which includes lip balms, glosses, and shimmers, is considered to be worth more than $100 million dollars.

Burt’s Bees is commonly described as a “natural personal care company” meaning they make products for personal care, health, beauty, and hygiene with all natural ingredients. They manufacture around 200 different types of personal care products, the most popular being lip balm. Consumers highly identify with the natural ingredients used in all of Burt’s Bees products and are willing to play high prices for these “green” products. People also identify Burt’s Bees as a company whom is committed to corporate social responsibility and environmental sustainability. They are recognized for their volunteer work and for giving back to the community.

I have been a loyal customer of Burt’s Bees for years now and I never realized, until I was doing research for this blog post, that Burt’s Bees produces many other products besides lip balms. I think a lot of Burt’s Bees products are forgotten about because consumers do not realize they make a variety of other products, not just lip balm. It’s a problem is that the Burt’s Bees brand is primarily recognized for only their lip balm. Burt’s Bees needs to raise awareness and get the word out about their other products.

Questions:

      1.  Burt’s Bees describes themselves as a “green” company, what kind of sustainable practices does Burt’s Bees have in place?

      2. What charities and non-profits is Burt’s Bees involved with? Is there any reason why you align yourself with these organizations?

Guest Speaker: Chip Shumaker,CMO, Publicis

Tomorrow Chris Shumaker from Publicis is coming to speak to my advertising class. Shumaker graduated from Virginia Tech in 1982 with a degree in marketing. Shumaker started his career in account management working for several agencies in Richmond, Virginia. Shumaker was able to learn about an agency’s perspective of marketing. He then became the head of a marketing communications department for Hamilton Beach. This position taught him how to understand the client’s side. Shumaker also founded his own consulting practice helping advertisers find the right agency partner. Shumaker has a wide range of career experiences over his 25 years in the industry, which has really helped him differentiate himself. 

Shumaker joined Publicis in 2007. He is the Chief Marketing Officer and is responsible for marketing the Publicis Worldwide brand through business development and public relations. Publicis is a French multinational advertising and public relations company. Publicis provides creative advertising services as well as campaign planning and other marketing services. Publicis is an expert in with many different types of media, from print to digital. It is one of the world's three largest advertising holding companies and had 200 offices around the world. 

Publicis  has a wonderful reputation and is acknowledged for having some top notch clients such as BMW, The Coca-Cola Company, Terminix, and Procter & Gamble. Because Publicis is such a huge global company, the possibilities are almost limitless. They have endless resources and a lot of man-power. But sometimes size can be a challenge. Publicis has to make sure they don’t let their clients feel unimportant. They have to continue to stay connected with their clients.

Question: What are the differences between clients that are located in the U.S.A. and ones that are located abroad? Has it been hard to adapt to the different type of clientele?