The Sound of Music

I'm a big music fan. The fact that The Who's Peter Townsend graces my blog's banner makes that evident. However, every advertiser should be a big music fan and have the ability to really analyze the feel of a piece of music.

Why?

Because music can make or break an ad. On a little larger scale, let's look at Star Wars. When George Lucas first pitched his "space opera," he was lacking in one critical area: the music. The music that he had in the first edit of the movie did nothing to set the scene. In fact, it was reportedly very simply lame, almost cliched and lacking. Enter John Williams, now one of the world's foremost soundtrack scorers. When Lucas combined his film with Williams' score...then the studio execs got excited.

Now think about music in advertisements. We'll look at a couple examples: the good the bad. First, let's look at the good -- Gatorade and their "That's G" campaign. The G campaign essentially reinforced the athletic focus that Gatorade puts on its product. However, the ad also made efforts to associate Gatorade with not just professional or organized sports, but instead with all levels of athlete -- from a pickup soccer game on the streets to the NBA playoffs. The song, "Lock It Up" by Kenna featuring a variety of guests, is a perfect musical choice. The song itself features what sounds almost like a group war chant, and that's exactly the type of mood that Gatorade wants to continue to be a part of. Here as in Star Wars, the music set the mood for an epic presentation. That "epic' feeling perfectly captures the essence of sports at this point in time and makes Gatorade's ads all the more exemplary. "That's G" is below...



Now for the bad. The most recent ad for the Kia Sorento features "How You Like Me Now?" by The Heavy. Let me say this right off the bat: I love this song. I put the volume all the way up and rock out. Watch these guys, they're gonna be big. That being said, Kia's agency didn't make the right choice here. The ad's theme is essentially aimed at getting across that you don't expect to have a push-button start in a car from a brand not historically considered luxury. The song sets a tone that makes Kia look like it's saying, "what now?!" to companies like Mercedes Benz and BMW. The problem is that this tone is completely incongruous with the demographic that would purchase a luxury car. Targeting a luxury audience is about conveying that air of elegance, not metaphorically sticking your tongue out at the competition. It's a level of near-childishness that is a major turnoff in the luxury demographic. Additionally, The Heavy's rock vibe (again, I love 'em) is also incongruous with this demographic. The short version is this: the lyrics are acceptable, if not somewhat childish, but the mood it sets isn't in keeping with the target segment. The Sorento ad is below. Below that is a live version of "How You Like Me Now" From Letterman. Yeah, they're that awesome.

World Cup 2010 -- Fitting Into A Brand Part II

The 2010 FIFA World Cup kicks off in South Africa in June. Advertisements for ESPN's coverage began running as early as 2008 in conjunction with UEFA's confederation championship tournament. More recently, advertising and hyping for the event have reached enormous levels in the United States, with ESPN's advertisements running many times daily on their family of networks.

ESPN's partnership with the band U2, perhaps the group with the biggest global presence today, has given us another example of the attention to detail that advertisers are giving to an individual event's already-existing brand. The 2010 World Cup is being billed as Africa's "coming out party," the continent having never before hosted the world's largest event. The atmosphere that has surrounded SA2010 has been very elegantly conceived, with organizers paying special attention to Africa's long tribal history and very rich cultural base. With respect to South Africa in particular, the "coming out party" theme has been used to the fullest extent. Ads have centered around Africa's departure from apartheid and the power that the World Cup has to united nations. In fact, the latest ad that ESPN rolled out featured U2's Bono doing a voiced-over manifesto for the World Cup over the lead-in pickups to one of the band's newer tracks (Magnificent, from the "No Line on the Horizon" album). The ad is embedded below.



Other major brands have also undertaken major efforts in order to harness the World Cup's power. To an advertiser, the World Cup represents two things; a captivated audience number in the billions and an opportunity for cause-based advertising. The correlation between the two is rather obvious, so let's address just how an advertiser can harness both of these characteristics to derive excellent return on advertising investment. We can begin by looking at Pepsi, a company that has had a long-running interest in soccer (or football, depending on your nationality). Pepsi's ads have been well received in the soccer community, especially their World Cup-centric efforts. Recently, they began running ads featuring some of the top players from around the globe (Thierry Henry, Lionel Messi, Didier Drogba, Andrei Arshavin, etc.).



They were very astute in the particular pieces that they emphasized in the video. Using Didier Drogba, a native of Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), and the music of Akon, himself Senegalese, shows a very intelligent yet subtle theme; harnessing the power of the family and kinship hallmarks of African culture. By showing these heroic figures in Africa soccer and music, the ad speaks to many demographics while still fitting into the umbrella theme that the South African World Cup Committee has created. And the best part? Pepsi isn't even one of the title sponsors of the World Cup. Coca-Cola is.

This also brings up an interesting choice that many major companies face with regards to such major sporting events; do we advertise at the event or during the broadcast? Coca-Cola has for several World Cup cycles had their familiar script-and-bottle logo on their red background seen just to either side of the halfway line. It is so engrained in a soccer fan's mind that it has almost become synonymous with the Cup. Because of this synonymity, Pepsi has had to shell out enormous amounts of money just to even think of competing with the recognition Coke gets. Getting eleven of the world's top players plus Akon together for an advertisement costs a fortune and will only be seen in 30 second intervals. Coke's choice (tactically brilliant from a branding perspective) several World Cups ago equates to their brand and their logo being seen every time the ball crosses midfield. A conservative estimate for the amount of time that logo is in front of the billion or so TV viewers puts the figure at 40 minutes.

Per game.

Every game.

The World Cup format has a total of 64 games. Doing the simple math, that means that Coke gets over 42 hours of face-time without having to spend the money that Pepsi does to create the ad. And Coke doesn't really even have to try anymore to fit into a particular World Cup's brand -- it is already seen as a staple in every World Cup.

Advertising at Target Field -- Fitting Into A Brand

Let's get a couple things straight, right off the bat. First, the terrible pun in the previous sentence was intended. Second, Target Field is absolutely gorgeous and I am deeply in love with the place. The field is glorious, the food incredible, the views spectacular...

But that's all beside the point.

Target Field's identity as a true cathedral to Minnesota baseball has been create impeccably. Yankee Stadium and the Xcel Energy Center are two of the very few other sports facilities that so seamlessly link the venue and the club to the community. The Yankees have their Champion's Park, the X has a ring of Minnesota high school hockey jerseys...and "The Bullseye" has just about everything else. The stadium's facade, made of Kasota Limestone, evokes images of Minnesota's bluff country. The trees in center field remind everyone at the field of time spent up north. The statues and memorabilia all throughout the venue remind Twins fans of teams and times past. Even the food establishes the Target Field brand -- the comforting wild rice soup from Lunds and Byerly's, the wild rice chili from the Loon Cafe, burgers from Vincent's, sandwiches from Murray's, the original hot dogs from the old Met Stadium, and of course State Fair selections including walleye-on-a-stick.

Clearly, the Target Field brand and identity screams "MINNESOTA" as loudly as the entire crowd could. I haven't even mentioned the commanding view of downtown Minneapolis seen through right field.

So what does this mean for someone looking to advertise with the Twins? A lot. First and foremost, it means finding a way to fit in with the ballpark's brand while finding a way to stand out. The ballpark, in addition to being Minnesota-centric, is also very clearly an urban facility. Situated at the edge of downtown in the Minneapolis Warehouse District, the field is expected to anchor a renaissance in the neighborhood similar to the impact Coors Field had on the LoDo district in Denver. As LoDo grew again, new landmarks and recognizeable features began to emerge. So too has it happened in the Warehouse District. Just a few games into The Bullseye's life, Minneapolis-based ad agency Carmichael Lynch partnered with the Minneapolis College of Art and Design to create a piece of motion/animated art that is projected onto the old water tower located on the roof of their headquarters (the water tower can be seen in the image below). While this isn't a piece of advertising, it shows an impressive attention to trying to fit into the neighborhood's flavor. The colorful images and blinking, almost-creepy eyes perfectly fit into the brand inherent to an urban ballpark.



But others have struggled somewhat. Specifically, the Twins themselves and their signage in right-center field blocking the views from the Ramp B parking structure has left something to be desired. In fact, it even sticks out a little bit from the field's otherwise flawless facade. As can be seen in the picture above, the big blue baggy (reminiscent of the right field baggy in the Metrodome) has the logos of several of the Twins' title sponsors, including Delta Airlines and Target. It sticks out in that it just doesn't look like it belongs. It's not lighted, as are all other advertisements in the ballpark. The negative (or just simply unused) space on the baggy makes the entire piece seem like it was designed haphazardly. Even Target Center's checkered earth-tone exterior seen through the right field terrace fits in better with the Target Field theme - and Target Center has been around since 1990. This is an example of a less than successful attempt to fit into the Target Field brand.

The fix to this is obvious enough: just redesign the baggy so that it looks a little more in-touch with the stadium's brand. Perhaps instead of a dark blue baggy, brushed metal or perforated steel might look more attractive and on-brand, fitting in nicely with the stadium's other metal accents. Another option would be to change the baggy's color to the forest-green also seen around the stadium.

This example clearly illustrates the unique challenge facing advertisers now interested in accessing the Warehouse District. They have to both fit in with another entity's brand (Target Field) and they also have to find some way to be distinctive. This is the kind of challenge that Carmichael Lynch has risen to with its water tower animated art, and they are an example for how advertising strategy should be tailored in the future; unobtrusive, but interesting enough to be noticeable.

(Please Note: Images are courtesy of the Minneapolis Star Tribune)

Welcome. Who Are You?

Who are you?

That's the most essential question that is asked in the marketing community. The constant need for definition and differentiation has left many companies wondering what their identity is, both internally and externally.

How is my company seen? What does that mean for my brand? Do I have to change my brand? How do I make this fit into my brand? All of these questions contribute to what is perhaps the most important art in the business community today -- keeping a brand on point.

This blog is designed to explore all of these topics and more. I will opine about professional pieces I see and discuss the merits and drawbacks to these efforts. After all, it is the consumer base who will determine how a brand is perceived, and what better way to understand the consumer than to have him or her writing about their opinions?

Thanks,

Matthew Bick