The Buzz Begins as we Start for the Summit

Brand Manager’s Summit 2008 is long behind us, but we are now looking forward to the Brand Manager’s Summit 2009.

The dates have been planned and announced. Save the date emails sent. Planning is in full swing. Lots of new and exciting ideas being discussed. Speakers being researched and contacted.

The Brand Manager’s Summit 2009 is about 8 months away and is set to take place in the beautiful and exciting Downtown Denver from Monday October 19 – Wednesday October 21, 2009. This year’s theme: New Media or Die. New media is a growing tactic in higher education, so much so, that using it to reach target audiences is a must. Not just use new media for the sake of using it, but also use it successfully.

The public announcement of the 2009 Summit was met with great enthusiasm and buzz on Monday. Within the first several hours of the save the date email being released, the website going live, and the announcement on EMG’s social network pages we had a new media guru from Proctor and Gamble write to us about possibly speaking this year. I will keep everyone posted on how that pans out.

So taking this buzz a bit further, if there are highly experienced new media experts who are great at speaking that would like to be in the same company as last year’s speakers (David Pogue – The New York Times, Kara Swisher – Wall Street Journal, and Risa Teksten – Google) and possibly P&G, give us an email at emgteam@emgonline.com.

You will be reviewed by EMG’s Speaker Review Committee. Be sure to let us know about your current and past web 2.0 and speaking experience.

Keep your eyes glued on the Brand Manager’s Notebook, the sites listed in the top right of this page, and/or the Summit website for more information. Also stay posted as you will have the opportunity to provide thoughts on different aspects of the coming Summit.

Give Them What They Want

Another great example of marketing from the Superbowl ads a couple weeks ago came in the form of a free meal (the first of course being the PepSuber ad). Denny’s aired a 30 second commercial telling the entire country that they could get a free breakfast the Tuesday following the Superbowl.

In the tough economic times, this ad was heard by many and taken advantage of by around 2 million. The news was filled with stories of long-stretching lines to get into the door. Vans of people were being shuttled to and from local shelters to get a free hot meal (and also spared the non-profit shelters hit hard by the economy a bit too – a double win).

Some people were probably thinking this was crazy of Denny’s, they would lose millions of dollars, aren’t they having economic problems too? As mentioned in the  CNN article “Denny’s slammed by breakfast giveaway“, the Grand Slam giveaway is a “way of reacquainting America with Denny’s real breakfast and with the Denny’s brand.” To give the millions of people around the U.S. an inexpensive way to come and see what Denny’s is really about – the service, the food, the restaurants, etc.

The article also claims that due to local restaurants failing, competition has grown in the restaurant industry. With this tactics, Denny’s is fighting hard to bring in the customers of its failed competition. As for the amount of money, Denny’s mentioned that a single Grand Slam breakfast was free, neither the drinks nor any other meal were free. Customers looking for a free meal, got the free meal, but still had to pay for coffee, orange juice, a la carte items, etc.

The turnout for the free food was a great success, but can the same be said for their bottom line?  Time will only tell in this matter.

In a time when millions of people are having a tough time with money issues, it is nice to know there are still some things that are for free. If it is announced by Denny’s that this tactic was a success, it is highly possible other restaurants and possibly other stores and services in many different industries will start to give something away for free in order to get people back in their doors.

Higher Ed Wins Big in Stimulating Free-for-all

Did you hear it? That sigh of contentment that welled up from campuses across the country and spread throughout the land?

It’s all because of the particulars contained in the $787.2 billion federal spending (sometimes referred to as a stimulus) bill that President Obama will sign on Tuesday in Denver, just a hop and a skip from EMG’s offices.

After a seesaw political melee, during which educational administrators roller-coaster’d again and again, early estimates (from InsideHigherEd.com) now indicate that higher education will be the ultimate beneficiary of somewhere between $53 billion and $75 billion over the next several years.

The biggest single chunk will be in the $39.5 billion allocated to states to “backfill” education budget cuts that have been necessary recently. The fund includes public schools, but colleges and universities are likely to receive the largest share. Is that a particularly loud sigh coming from California?

Another $8.8 billion will be distributed to state governors to use for “high-priority” discretionary needs. Again, these may include educational arenas.

Increasing the potentially enormous windfall for colleges and universities is $17 billion earmarked to increase the maximum Pell Grant by at least $500 and to provide a tax credit of $2,500 for four years of college tuition. Oh, and $200 million for work-study programs.

That’s a heck of a sundae, but you have to have whipped cream, right? As in nearly $16.2 billion for NSF, NIH, and Energy Dept. research and new construction. Again, the lion’s share headed for university researchers.

There’s more, but now we’re into mere millions.

All in all, not a bad day for higher ed – at least public higher ed. Although private institutions will benefit from tax breaks and Pell grant increases, they didn’t fare as well as large publics and will likely continue to struggle mightily, especially small, non-research-oriented colleges.

But it just makes you grateful the good investment that employees of colleges and universities made by donating $51.3 million to political candidates last election cycle, according to OpenSecrets.org.

Three guesses where most contributions went? No surprise: 82% of all listed donations from education-based employees (not including teacher’s unions) went to Democratic candidates – something like $42 million. The Obama campaign was the leading beneficiary, of course, receiving nearly $20 million. So the Democrat-led spending package looks to be a pretty sweet return on investment.

To be Loved is to be Imitated, Flashmob Style

In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, I will talk about love and how being loved is to be emulated. T-Mobile aired a commercial around mid January 2009 in the United Kingdom that caught a lot of attention.  The original commercial is below.

After seeing the commercial, a UK citizen came up with the idea to imitate the T-Mobil commercial with a flashmob. A flashmob is a group of people meeting in a public place to do the same thing and are typically organized through the use social networking sites, email, and mobile devices. Here is a video of the February 6, 2009 flashmob (warning – even though it was supposed to be a silent flashmob, this video is fairly loud. Also, I am fairly sure I got a video without the stripper guy in it – I hope!). The  CNN article, Facebook flashmob shuts down station talks about the event too.

As the CNN article states, there are several more flashmobs in the works that were inspired by the commercial.

More controversial is the commercial created for the X-box 360, called Bang!. This commercial was considered to controversial to be aired on TV. However, this ad has been released on the internet and now has received a strong response. Here is the commercial for X-box.

Here is a video of the flashmob of Bang!

There have been several other examples of commercial inspired flashmobs, but the ones above gave you an example of the good and an example of the controversial. You can probably tell what some of the issues surrounding flashmobs are by watching the videos. Not only does this affect us higher education marketers and it is a good example of a new trend regarding marketing, but some flashmobs are done on campuses (see examples below) or flashmobs are done by college students. So, if there is someone trying to setup or trying to inspire a flashmob, please use common sense regarding safety. And if you happen to find that a commercial or your branding concepts end up as a flashmob, you know that the idea is loved and that your audience truly has connected with the brand.

Here are a few more fun examples of flashmobs (non-commercial inspired). Again a warning – while these videos have been screened, some of them are loud and there may be some bad language or odd things in the background that I may not have caught during a screening..

Paris Freeze Flashmob

Where’s Waldo Flashmob

Zombie Flashmob

We’re Not Worthy Flashmob

Walkman Dance Flashmob

Also, here is a fun commercial for Mobile 1 in Singapore that is inspired by flashmobs. This commercial is proof that not only do people love flashmobs, but that marketers love flashmobs too.

Depression Chic

An interesting – and hot – trend in advertising, fashion, and society itself today is “Depression Chic.” The fashion aspect of it reminds me of Mugatu’s Derelicte campaign from Zoolander (Great snow day rental, if you haven’t seen it. May be an extreme comparison, but it’s the first thing we thought of.)

In terms of advertising, Depression Chic centers on reviving the simplicity and frugality of the Great Depression era. Adweek’s fantastic article on this touches on everything from Amazon’s 15% increase of sales in Depression-related items to fashion choices to AllState’s current TV campaign utilizing the same tactic. People relate.

This is all well and good, but how on earth do you connect this trend to college marketing? It’d be tough to pull off the Allstate example, and probably wouldn’t be right considering the audience.

Maybe the biggest take away is to make sure you and your institution reflect the “back to basics” ethos. Recall public disgust when AIG planned their retreat at a plush spa? Remember the fury when the auto giants flew to D.C. in corporate jets? Clueless moves in the face of the current public psyche.

It’s about expressing values: simplicity, frugality, honesty, integrity, durability, home, and family. The ideals of the Great Depression are potent themes today, and they are naturals in higher education. Reflecting these values subtly in public presentation, alumni and donor events, activities planning, feature story pitches, and overall communications approach is the first step to Depression Chic.

But frugality and simplicity ought to extend to marketing tactics, too. That means evaluating every idea that comes into the office for the possibilities for repurposing across multiple mediums and platforms. Can you do a video or Flash for the website and double up on YouTube? Is a story idea bloggable? Can you Twitter alums on it? Can you use it as centerpiece of a push-pull email? Can it help drive donor giving?

This implies that low-level ideas without much meat on their bones in terms of furthering marketing goals or return on investment shouldn’t consume time and resources. While that may not sit well in some quarters, expertise that helps deans hone in on the truly big-time ideas will blunt dissatisfaction.

An important caution: Scaling down doesn’t mean losing touch with your brand. While you should look for ways to demonstrate the fundamental value of education in these lean times, you should NOT reposition your product willy nilly as being affordable just because that’s what you think audiences want to hear – unless you want to own a market position as the low-cost leader, which inevitably means low-quality leader, too.

Look to the broader marketplace for examples of how other brands handle this. BMW gets a good value message out even while the brand maintains its position as the “ultimate driving machine.” If you sacrifice the long-term vision of what your institution stands for, it will surely come back to haunt. After all, Depression Chic could be a relatively short term trend in the scheme of things…we all hope!

- Ineke Caycedo and Stephen Biernacki

$102 Million In Influence? It’s How the Game Is Played.

Universities and other educational organizations anted up a record amount last year – $102 million – to influence the budget gatekeepers in the federal government, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. This puts education in 7th place for the extent of its lobbying effort, behind pharmaceuticals, electric utilities, insurance, oil and gas, business associations, and computer/Internet companies.

The annual amount of educational lobbying, which was only about $30 million ten years ago, had been in the $90-million range for the three years prior to 2008 but took a hefty $10 million spike last year. The biggest players increased their ante, but more institutions than ever also entered the fray, too.
Literally, several thousand institutions of higher education reported investing in lobbyists, from modest amounts by Oakland University School of Nursing ($5,000), Alverno College, ($5,844) and a host of institutions in the $20 – $100K range, all the way to serious lobbying programs of half-million or more. Among the big spenders were (We combined amounts from multiple campuses of some large state systems):

• State University of New York campuses   $1.90 million
• University of California campuses – $1.84 million
• California State University campuses – $1.66 million
• Corinthian Colleges – $1.30 million
• Johns Hopkins University – $1.21 million
• University of Texas campuses – $1.16 million
• Boston University – $0.96 million
• University of Pittsburgh – $0.81 million
• Northwestern University – $0.74 million
• Harvard University – $0.72 million
• Northeastern University – $0.63 million
• Purdue University – $0.60 million
• University of Washington – $0.60 million
• University of Utah – $0.59 million
• University of Michigan – $0.58 million
• Yale University – $0.57 million
• Texas Tech University – $0.54 million
• Florida State University – $0.52 million
• Penn State University – $0.52 million
• Ohio State University – $0.51 million
• Wake Forest University – $0.50 million

While a small part of university lobbying focuses on pending legislative issues, the biggest investments are driven by the never-ending hunt for research funding. The investment levels above – all from research powerhouses – reflect the big-business nature of federal R&D.
Despite the fact the federal grants and contracts have been flat or declining (in static dollars) for the past six years or so, the feds still support something like 1,250 colleges and universities every year with nearly $30 billion in research grants and contracts.
So, just as in fundraising and recruiting the best and brightest, the game of federal R&D has become seriously competitive. And just like in any competitive sport, if you want to get in the game, best to know the rulebook, and also understand how the game is really played.

Marketing Lessons from PepSuber

So we all watched the Steelers win the Superbowl on Sunday and we all watched the commercials. But did we all watch Saturday Night Live from the night before. You may have noticed one of my favorite commercials, PepSuber, played during both the Superbowl and SNL.

SNL has a great running skit playing off of MacGyver called MacGruber. On the night before the Superbowl, SNL ran three MacGruber skits with the second clip being the one that ran during the Superbowl. These clips also had the original MacGyver appear in the skits. Here are all three.

PepSuber is now a great example of product placement, so much so it was actually turned into a commercial. While higher education probably couldn’t pull off a similar PepSuber type placement, university and college names have been known to pop up elsewhere.

For those of you who watched Gilmore Girls, Yale University played a big part in at least the last five years of the show. Rory had Yale shirts, hats, and posters, had to go through the application process, and eventually went to Yale.

In 2002, MTV’s Road Rules season 11 travelled to various universities and colleges as backdrops for their challenges. Cast members went running through campuses asking students for help or used the campus gym to complete their assigned task.

Jeopardy has a week long tournament for college students. The new CW show, Privileged, is loosely based on getting the two high school  girls into Duke University. College and university names are even mentioned during the Superbowl by the players during the introduction of the offense and defense (swagger ring a bell – just checking to see if you really watched the Superbowl). Numerous colleges and universities are mentioned sporadically in many reality and game shows.

Use caution, just because your school is mentioned doesn’t always mean it is a good thing. If possible, know the context of how your institutions name and brand are playing into the show’s storyline. It would probably be best to keep your institution’s name and paraphernalia out of scenes where there is going to be a connection to sex, drinking, drugs, violence, etc.

The guys a fricken genius… MacGruber!

Who’s on First? Strategy! Naturally!

I made a presentation to a marketing committee in LA several weeks ago, and was reminded of two things: Just how nasty the air can get in and around Tinseltown, and just how far we haven’t come on some college campuses.

The school that requested the presentation, like lots of taxpayer-supported organizations, is looking for money in all the wrong places. And while California’s Governator jockeys for position in the federal bailout sweepstakes, campus administrators everywhere are leaning hard on fundraisers to save them from having to figure out how to operate more efficiently and entrepreneurially (Now there’s a hardscrabble road that’s not likely to get explored anytime soon!).

So they asked me to campus to discuss how to create a powerful identity for their upcoming capital campaign. “Great,” I tell them, “it’s something everyone’s interested in, and we have a track record for doing it pretty well.” Then I ask them to talk about their brand strategy.

“No, no, no,” says the committee chair (the university’s senior communications officer) with a condescending smile, “we wanted you to discuss how you’d go about creating a campaign branding theme and attention-grabbing campaign creative.”

“Excellent, that’s why I’m here,” I say, wondering if I stumbled into a higher ed version of the”Who’s on First?” routine (See the video below). “What does your organization stand for? What is the brand promise?” I ask. Blank faces. What differentiates you? I try. Nothing.

“We want creative ideas that are really edgy,” a committee member offers helpfully. “Tell us how you would go about that.” Now it’s my turn for a blank stare, since there was nothing, and I do mean nothing, about this campus that I would describe as edgy.

“Our time is limited,” says the chair icily after a painful silence, “so it would be helpful to stay focused on describing your creative process and capabilities, shall we?” It became clear in short order that the committee was interested only in pretty pictures and “edgy,” if vacuous, design. No one really cared much what any of it actually said about them or what it meant to audiences. None of them would understand, I decided, why creative-driven branding is the weakest possible approach.

I decided to get out of Dodge – and the meeting – as fast as I could manage.

Now contrast that lack of understanding about what a strong brand can do for capital campaigns with the its opposite: the Campaign for Virginia Tech, which has raised $762 million (as of the end of 2008 ) in their quest for $1 billion. Way ahead of schedule. Way effective. Way cool!

Betsy Flanagan, VP of Institutional Advancement at Tech and a skilled strategist, has purposefully leveraged the strength and equity of the Virginia Tech brand by artfully combining the institutional creative approach with the capital campaign identity. With the close collaboration of the central marketing team, she has integrated both messaging and tactics. We consultants would call it a closely-related, endorsed brand.

As a result, VT has become a national model for online giving and for building a strategic, participatory capital campaign brand that is reaching alumni, corporate, and individual donors with exceptional effectiveness. By unifying the brand strategy and the campaign strategy, both have gained immense power.

Oh, and the creative? It’s pretty good, too. Go figure.