Brand Noise

Haagen-Dazs Promotes HoneyBee Buzz

Haagen-Dazs demonstrates some interesting and relevant green marketing with with their "Help the Honeybees" campaign.  Haagen-Dazs uses the campaign to warn that decline of the honeybee could become a big problem for the premium ice cream maker's business. According to Haagen-Dazs, one-third of the U.S. food supply - including a variety of fruits, vegetables and even nuts - depends on pollination from bees.

The campaign works well in promoting a real environmental cause, while also emphasizing the premium and natural positioning of the brand.  It is tied well to the value of the brand and plugs the consumer into what goes into quality ice cream.  Pretty basic.  Real flavors need real fruits - and that needs honeybees.  The campaign includes a new flavor launch called "Vanilla Honeybee" to further promote the cause.

Consumers Crave Real Mobile Empowerment

The Wall Street Journal reports that American Express Co. is discontinuing its "Express Pay" fob that was touted as a convenience for consumers who didn't want to dig into their wallets for a credit card.

Let's face it. It's still a card. And you still have to dig in your wallet for it. And often if your charge is over $25, you still have to sign for it. So truly what changes about the behavior?

By now most early adopters are so past the concept of these fobs, that it's just plain gimmicky. The trouble is what they really need are cohesive mobile payment services, but we're only seeing a glimmer of that in the US. And where we think mobility is sublime, like in Japan, it's actually a rather pricey proposition and not so in step as we'd hope for.

That said, there are some steadfast mobile shopping services bubbling out there. Here are three: GoMobo, ShopText and S'lifter.

Earlier this year, we sent out video journalists in London, NYC and Tokyo to talk with our friends and colleagues who were using some aspect of m-commerce. These interviews appear in a 3-part mCommerce series produced by Tellabs. The series debuted at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Interactive Personal Care

Biotechnology firm Beacon Sciences has created a business unit that will specialize in technologies that change the color of personal care products. The new company Reveal Sciences has developed biomaterials that may be added to formulations to use color change as a means of indicating when or how consumers should use their beauty products. Such interactive personal care products may sound futuristic but they are already beginning to make their way onto the market.

Dial Corporation has just launched a soap called ColorClean which contains an active ingredient that causes the foam to change color after a specified washing time.

Read more.

The Kids are Alright

In fact they're so alright, they're the key to grown-up marketing.

Early reports on the ill health of the kids upfront have been greatly exaggerated, according to network ad sales executives, who hope to swap out Chicken Little projections of a flat to down market in favor of a more blustery Foghorn Leghorn outlook.

"Synergies between TV and digital are very strong," says Brad Davis, vp, ad sales for Disney Online. "The buyer culture is really starting to change from a planning perspective. And at the client level, most decisions are now being made from a 360-degree standpoint."

Like Disney Channel, Nickelodeon has aggressively gone after clients looking to reach parents who watch along with their kids. Since 2006, when Nick did some $50 million in nonendemic business, categories like insurance, automotive, travel, financial services, consumer electronics and wireless have become a sizable part of the network's business model. Who knew?

Read the whole story.

Essence of a Fridge: What is it?

Last week, my daughter came home from kindergarten. In her science class, they are learning about magnets. The teacher asked all the kids to raise their hands if magnets stuck to their refrigerator. Our kid did not. Instead, she came home for a lesson in stainless steel.

I realize that a clean Sub-Zero fridge was a ‘90s status symbol. And that things that are stainless coated will hold magnets. But has anyone asked lately—what is the modern essence of a refrigerator? Is its essence a defacto gallery for family artwork and magnetics?

The first refrigerator magnet patent was obtained by William Zimmerman of St. Louis, Missouri, in the early 1970s.

There’s been some talk about parents coming to term with their modern homes in the wake of young children. But that’s not what I’m talking about. Is my fridge any less a fridge because it has no magnets? Am I a lesser parent because there’s no artwork on my fridge? Does magnetic steel really solve the problem? What will we carry forward?

Should Fashion Divest from Seasons?

The Wall Street Journal recently posted an interview addressing how designers and retailers are responding to warmer global temperatures.

The video revealed that there are other factors at play. And we agree.

Fashion has historically thrived on an obsolescence factor built into changing seasons. The advent of air conditioning, cars and textile technology have made the seasons passe.

There used to be a nicely nestled Cruise/Resort Collection, but most American women are globally motivated to travel throughout the year. Sunbelt travel is accessible to everyone now.

There's also a polarity of prices at play that transcends seasons. You can invest in one fabulous piece, but buy less expensive items on a weekly basis. No one is shy about mixing and matching anymore.

So the fashion issue is less a question of global warming than it is global advancement and an empowered consumer.

(Image: GalaDarling.)

Toy Companies Phasing Out Nickel-Cadmium Batteries

Two of the largest U.S. toy companies, Toys "R" Us Inc. and Mattel Inc., said they will phase out nickel-cadmium batteries, a technology associated with widespread environmental contamination and health problems in China.

The move comes as toy makers are scrambling to rid their products of toxins, after a wave of recalls last year triggered panic about the safety of Chinese-made toys. The bans on cadmium batteries are a sign the industry's safety concerns are beginning to extend to workers in China, where the vast majority of the world's toys are made.

Read more.

College Students Demand Organic--Whatever That Means

College kids serve as a beautiful microcosm for the rest of the world demonstrating the importance of food education.

This from AdAge: College students, increasingly concerned about the source and quality of food they're eating, are demanding that schools purchase regional produce. The catch, though, is while students are demanding organic and local fare, they aren't always sure what that means -- or how it tastes.

Some think local means within 10 miles or inside the city, while others think it means within 150 miles. Many of these students, she said, also like to have bananas and strawberries for breakfast -- all year long.

Read the whole story.

Customer Feedback Needs to Step It Up

Last week, a Google Android prototype was unveiled at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, giving the industry its first peek at the software that aims to bring the power of desktop computing to handsets.

Android may finally offer portable rich-media capabilities, allowing brands to integrate online, text and e-mail marketing into a lower-cost smart phone that fits into consumers' pockets. Android has its competitors, but marketers, already familiar with Google's ad-revenue model, are drooling over the software's possibilities for fostering trackable, one-on-one relationships with customers.

Most say they've bought into the idea that consumers increasingly control the conversations surrounding their brands. But how well are they listening to and shaping those discussions, in light of the technological advances that are making that form of communication ever more dominant?

"Most brands do a pathetic job listening to consumers vis-a-vis existing tools, whether it's through 800 numbers, call centers, 'contact us' feedback forms," says Pete Blackshaw, chief marketing officer of Nielsen BuzzMetrics (owned by Adweek parent the Nielsen Co.). "The reason I say 'pathetic' is those listening tools aren't terribly assimilated into the new Web 2.0 culture, where people talk with audios, photos, videos. Most companies assume consumers speak in one language and that language is text, when consumers actually speak in a much more robust language."

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Swedish Vodka Shift Is Absolute-ly Right

After trading in its print-based campaign tied to the shape of its bottle for a global multimedia approach last year themed, "It's an Absolut world," the Swedish vodka brand saw its sales spike.

When Absolut entered the U.S. market in 1979, it essentially created the superpremium vodka category, and its ads -- which merged its iconic bottle with equally iconic art-world figures -- were ideal for the brand's upmarket image.

Even so, the marketer was reluctant to end one of the most celebrated campaigns in the history of alcohol marketing, no matter how irrelevant it had become.

Veteran spirits-industry consultant Arthur Shapiro, a former Seagram executive, said Absolut has succeeded in reconnecting with consumers who may have dabbled in upstart brands. "America has had this love affair with high-priced vodka for a few years, but Absolut is the brand a lot of people grew up on," he said. "Those consumers are coming back to their senses."

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