Experience Manifesto

Moving Companies

When did moving companies become nothing more then liars and cheats? When did they start having so many restrictions on what and how they moved? I've moved my office recently and today I'm moving my apartment and I am appalled on how these companies operate! They give you a quote and then show up and tell you it will be double. Oh, electronics (a regular TV, I might add). That's all extra. Sure, we told you that the job would be 4 - 5 hour, but didn't we tell you that there was a 6 hour minimum + 1 hour travel time? Thanks to Joey and his team at the Moving Connection for being masters at the crappy movers. They were rude, arrogant and complete liars. Thanks for making this day so much more difficult then was necessary! Even their on-site super told me that all moving companies lie. Why do we put up with this? I hope that the universe will one day bring Joey and all of the fine folks and The Moving Connection their just rewards.

MediaPost Publications Home of MediaDailyNews, MEDIA and OMMA Magazines

In almost every large presentation that we do, we ask how many people like commercials before the movies. Not previews, mind you, but commercials. Especially when it's the same commercial that is usually played on TV. We've never gotten more then 10% who said that they actually like commercials.

The key here is that there's a huge difference between capturing the audience and captivating them. But in-cinema people always say something like "How cool would it be for someone to walk into your living room, sit down and watch a large-screen version of your commercial, and know that there is nowhere else for them to go?" There's always a much greater focus on the fact that there's no way to escape rather then creating something that people really want.

Your thoughts?

IT'S STILL MINISCULE BY THE scale of the most established media, but cinema advertising is gaining traction with major advertisers--and their ad budgets. In fact, U.S. advertisers invested $438 million on cinema ads--TV-like commercials that run on screens in theaters before movies--during 2004, an increase of 23 percent over 2003, according to estimates being released today by the Cinema Advertising Council (CAC).

That makes cinema one of the fastest-growing major ad media, yet not as fast as online ad spending, which rose 33 percent in 2004. But cinema's growth is being driven for the very same reasons: a shift of advertising budgets from traditional television ads.

"How cool would it be for someone to walk into your living room, sit down and watch a large-screen version of your commercial, and know that there is nowhere else for them to go?" asks Cliff Marks, president of sales and chief marketing officer for National CineMedia, the advertising and marketing sales division of Regal Entertainment Group and AMC Entertainment, the nation's two largest movie theater owners. Some of the nation's biggest advertisers are joining that consensus. Already popular among sports apparel companies like Adidas and Nike, and soft-drink marketers like Coca-Cola and Pepsi, the medium has been embraced by financial services marketers like American Express and Visa, and even by packaged goods marketers including Procter & Gamble and Unilever, all of whom have vowed to shift money from TV into other media.

"There is a very classic profile for our industry: Some advertiser--an innovative one--will seek out new ways of getting their message out to a consumer audience. They discover cinema works, and come back and buy more. Meanwhile, their competitor notices what they are doing and asks their agency why they're not involved," says Matthew Kearney, president and chairman of the CAC.

The market has also accelerated as a result of better research on cinema advertising exposure, including a syndicated report from Nielsen Media Research that merges box office attendance data with cinema ad exposure data.

Big cinema chains like Regal and AMC, meanwhile, have formed what amounts to the equivalent of national television networks with thousands of affiliates, giving advertisers and agencies the ability to achieve national reach delivery with a single ad placement. Interestingly, the ad growth is coming equally from CAC members like Regal and AMC, as well as from unaffiliated theater chains. For non-CAC members, on-screen and off-screen revenues grew to an estimated $33 and $15.3 million, respectively--up from $28 million for on-screen and $13 million for off-screen revenues in 2003, according to the CAC report.

Even with that growth, however, U.S. cinema advertising remains only about 0.4 percent of total U.S. ad spending, but the CAC's Kearney said the United States is still playing catch-up, noting that in more established markets like France and Australia, cinema advertising accounts for "1.5 percent to 2.0 percent of total ad spending."

Link: MediaPost Publications Home of MediaDailyNews, MEDIA and OMMA Magazines.

USATODAY.com - Advertisers forced to think way outside the box

Advertisers forced to think way outside the box

Link: USATODAY.com - Advertisers forced to think way outside the box.

On Vacation!

Yep, taking some time off to be with my family down in Florida. So, I'll be taking some time off from the writing until I get back on the 23rd! I'll make sure to post some pics of our visit to Universal Studios when I get back! I hope that all your experiences are great ones!

David

June 14, 2005: EXPERIENTIAL MARKETING: New Consumer Research

Live event marketing experiences where consumers interact with products, brands or "brand ambassadors" face-to-face are among the most effective ways to influence coveted consumer audiences, according to results of an extensive new survey by Jack Morton Worldwide. Comprising an online survey of 2,574 consumers, ages 13-65, in the top 25 US markets, the results confirm that this increasingly important marketing medium resonates strongly across demographic and product categories, with especially high influence among key groups such as women, young people and Hispanics.

"Marketing methods need to be innovative and inventive to keep current with the new realities of the landscape our clients compete in," says Josh McCall, CEO of Jack Morton. "Experiential marketing offers a valuable strategy to brands that need new ways to reach their targets. Our research shows that experiential marketing is completely effective at influencing brand perception and purchasing decisions, and yet is still underutilized in reaching consumers."

A white paper on the survey results is available online at jackmorton.com.

Overall, more than two-thirds of all consumers say experiential marketing would be extremely or very influential on their overall opinion of brands and products. Seventy percent say that participating in a live event marketing experience would increase their purchase consideration, and 57% say it would result in quicker purchase. However, 73% of all respondents had never before participated in a live event marketing experience, indicating an opportunity for marketers to differentiate.

While the influence of experiential marketing is strong across all groups, it is strongest among often-targeted youth and female consumers:

Nearly 80% of teens say experiential marketing would increase purchase consideration, while 65% say it would lead to quicker purchase

72% of 18- to 23-year old consumers say experiential marketing would make them more receptive to the brand/product advertising; 59% say it would lead to quicker purchase

60% of women say experiential marketing would be more likely to lead to actual purchase of a product/brand, vs. TV advertising (26%) and Internet advertising (14%)

84% of women say they'd bring family or friends to a live marketing experience, and 75% say they'd tell others about the experience -- giving marketers a terrific opportunity to expand their reach and impact

74% of Hispanic women and 66% of Hispanic men would be more likely to consider purchasing a product after participating in an experiential marketing event

81% of Hispanic females indicated participating in a live marketing event would make them more receptive to future advertising

However, Hispanics are also the ethnic group most underexposed to event marketing; 78% of all Hispanics surveyed had never before participated in a live marketing event.

The effectiveness of experiential marketing was also tested against 14 product/service categories. In 11 out of 14, consumers said their preferred means of learning about new products/services was by experiencing it for themselves or by hearing about it from someone they know, as opposed to TV, radio, print, mail or the Internet. (Emphasis mine)

Live marketing experiences were also shown to be a valuable way to increase marketing ROI:

75% of consumers say that participating in a live marketing experience would make them more receptive to the product/brand's advertising

75% of consumers said they would be extremely or very likely to tell others after participating in a live marketing event , extending impact through word-of-mouth

8 out of 10 consumers who had actually participated in experiential marketing in the past said that they had told others about their experience

The research supports the value that experiential marketing brings to many companies. Spending on experiential marketing has grown to an estimated $166 billion in 2004, a 9% increase over 2003, according to an influential industry trade publication. (Emphasis mine)

Liz Bigham is VP, Director of US Brand Marketing, and can be reached at [email protected] or 212-401-7212.

Link: June 14, 2005: EXPERIENTIAL MARKETING: New Consumer Research .

CNN.com - New graffiti bridges worlds for cell user - Jun 14, 2005

Next time you're walking down a city sidewalk, look out for the Internet.

It's all around you -- and not just in the phone lines and cables running under the streets or in the airborne Wi-Fi streams. In recent months, several services have sprung up to allow a communion of the real world with the Internet, with cell phones acting as the medium.

If you send a text message to an e-mail address scrawled in paint on a subway advertisement or on a sidewalk, for example, you could get some digital pop art on your phone in return.An adhesive arrow on a telephone pole could hold the key to the history of a nearby building.

One of the most popular of the new projects, Grafedia, translates seemingly ordinary urban graffiti into works of art. A piece of grafedia (multimedia graffiti) is either written as an e-mail address ending in "(at)grafedia.net," or in blue underlined text, mimicking the look of a hyperlink on a Web page.

Read the full article: CNN.com - New graffiti bridges worlds for cell user - Jun 14, 2005.

Chicago Tribune news : Business

Some great information here about the new Hershey's store and the American Girl Place in Chicago. It's amazing to think that American Girl Place does about 1 million guest visits a year! If I'm not mistaken, the Hershey's Store was done by Brian Collin's group at Ogilvy!

Stuff the cupcakes. The Hersheyizer has a show to do.

A girl named Megan from Florida has just arrived -- naturally enough, from American Girl Place. It's her birthday. And at Hershey's new "experience" on Chicago's Magnificent Mile, that means that the singing baker has to pull down his headset mike, cue the loud electronic music, turn on the grin, and sell the sticky lyric like it's pure cocoa butter.

"Hey, Here We Go Now," warbles a young, happy, gainfully employed actor called Pierre Sanders, as he careens through the store surrounded by an open-mouthed lunchtime crowd. "It's Time for a Chocolate Show Now," he sings, his tenor rising.

There's another new entertainment venue on Michigan Avenue -- officially opening Wednesday. And it isn't the Lookingglass Theatre or the new Drury Lane, and it sure ain't the performance space at the Museum of Contemporary Art. It's Hershey's Chocolate World, the new candy-pushing emporium that's not so much a retail store as an interactive theater where the theme is easy to grasp and the sweet point of the show never changes.

Both the Hershey Store, which has been opening on a sporadic, test basis for the last week or two, and American Girl Place are part of a revolution in retail -- as well as dining -- that is eliminating many of the traditional boundaries between selling and entertainment. Corporate America -- most of it, at least -- has got the message. But by and large, the traditional arts establishment -- which still generally requires large commitments of time and money from its customers -- has yet to wake up the new realities of stores with actors.

" 'Cause We Love Our Hershey's Chocolate," sings Sanders (he's one of three gainfully employed Hersheyizers and the company is auditioning for a fourth), "`Cause We Love Our Hershey's Chocolate/Just for You."

And we're not just talking Las Vegas or Orlando anymore. "Michigan Avenue," says marketing guru Joe Pine, "is becoming an experiential hub."

"Cultural institutions used to have cultural experiences to themselves," says Pine. "That's not true anymore. A parent or a grandparent can have the best possible time with their daughter at American Girl, because she's so engaged there. They don't then necessarily feel compelled to go to a museum or a theater." (Emphahsis ours)

Meaningful interactions

The trend toward experiential retailing has been well documented. In their influential 1999 book, "The Experience Economy," Pine and James H. Gilmore argued that companies had to learn to "script and stage compelling experiences" to make money in a marketplace where the public now craves meaningful interactions far more than mere stuff. (Emphahsis ours)

In this manifesto, candy or food (or anything else one might be selling) are merely "props" that allow the proprietor to put on a show.

For a lot of visitors to Chicago, experiential theater is probably the only cultural event they'll pursue.

"I came because I wanted my daughter to experience this place," says Rhonda Bandes, another Hershey visitor from Florida. "If I wanted to buy a candy bar, I'd go to the grocery." (Emphahsis ours)

Chocolate World -- which has another, much-smaller location just off Times Square in New York City -- is not a shrinking violet. The waving Hershey's Kiss hanging around on the sidewalk this week and posing for photographs is just one giveaway. Located in the site of the prosaic old Loyola University Bookstore at 820 N. Michigan Ave, Chocolate World sports a massive theatrical marquee lit with scores of bulbs. It couldn't be any more different from the Lookingglass Theatre (right across Michigan Avenue), which barely advertises its presence to people walking just a few feet from its door.

And the Chocolate World is in the right part of town. Just around the corner, at 111 E. Chicago Ave., is American Girl Place, one of only two such places in the nation that markets its potent brand of history-themed dolls and clothing with the help of a 153-seat theater in the basement.

Themed to the hilt and immensely popular, this poly-cultural emporium now has two different shows (the new one, "Bitty Bear's Matinee" is for younger children), offering at least 25 performances a week. "We're always looking for new ways to tell the story of our brands," says Scott Davidson, American Girl's director of theater.

By the time American Girl's "Circle of Friends" closes at the end of the summer (to be replaced by a reprise version of "American Girl Revue," taking advantage of how fast the child audience regenerates itself), this high-quality show will have played a whopping 2,500 performances. "Wicked" should be so lucky.

Since American Girl Place opened in Chicago in 1998, an astounding eight million people have been through its doors. As the plethora of red bags and up-market dolls on trains and planes reveals, a 10-year-old girl coming specially to Chicago is probably coming for American Girl -- not one of the city's traditional museums or theaters. (Emphahsis ours)

Read the full article: Chicago Tribune news : Business
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CBS News | Costco to Sell Health Insurance in Calif.

Tires, toilet paper, health insurance? Costco Wholesale Corp. is starting a pilot program in California to offer individual health insurance policies to members who pay $100 a year for the store chain's "executive" membership.

The program will begin next month at 34 stores in Los Angeles and Orange counties, although it could expand statewide by year's end, said Dellanie Fragnoli, Costco's assistant vice president for insurance services.

Costco has 3.4 million executive members, with about 1.5 million in California. The pilot program is geared to people who cannot get group insurance, such as the jobless and the owners of mom-and-pop businesses.

There are no plans to offer the insurance to all 18 million Costco members, and it may prove unfeasible to offer it nationwide, Fragnoli said.

"It's a challenge because of all the regulations surrounding insurance and because they differ by state," she said. "Everything we do has to be a state-by-state initiative," and some states may lack the customer base to be worth the hassle, she said.

Costco's move to sell health plans through its membership stores probably won't have much effect on the nation's estimated 45 million uninsured. But if other big-box discounters jump in, it could do to brokers what Wal-Mart did to small retailers, analysts said Friday.

Costco will offer two types of policies from PacifiCare Health Systems Inc. of Cypress, Calif., through which Costco already sells group health plans to small businesses.

Costco, based in Issaquah, Wash., declined to disclose its premiums, which would vary depending on the participant's age, medical condition, number of dependents and other factors routinely taken into account when buying health coverage.

But she estimated customers could save as much as 20 percent on coverage. The discounting is due, in part, to Costco's lower commission and to lower administrative costs.

"We only have to manage two plans. We don't have to manage 20 plans, like some other agencies," Fragnoli said.

PacifiCare benefits from working with a chain that, through its members, has a proven marketing base.

Read the full article: CBS News | Costco to Sell Health Insurance in Calif.

MediaPost Publications Home of MediaDailyNews, MEDIA and OMMA Magazines

IN ANOTHER MIXED SIGNAL FOR the 2005-06 upfront advertising marketplace, Procter & Gamble is slashing its TV ad spending by as much as 25 percent for cable networks and by as much as 5 percent for broadcast networks, reports The Wall Street Journal. The newspaper, citing unnamed sources, said P&G, the world's largest advertiser, stems from doubts over the effectiveness of traditional TV advertising. Last year, as part of an ambitious shift toward communications planning, P&G indicated it planned to reduce its reliance on conventional TV advertising and to develop new methods and communications channels. The Journal said news of P&G's cutbacks was first reported by the Myers Report. -- J.M.

Link: MediaPost Publications Home of MediaDailyNews, MEDIA and OMMA Magazines.

Best Buy opening small-biz centers - 2005-06-13

More news on Besy Buy and their push to "customer centric" stores.

Best Buy Co. Inc. is rolling out 38 business centers this week in its first attempt to convert more small-business owners into customers. The move is part of the electronics retailer's "customer centricity" initiative, which tailors stores to serve specific customer segments.

Dubbed Best Buy for Business, the centers fit within selected Best Buy stores, but offer highly personalized service. The company posts "business professionals" at each center and encourages them to form long-term relationships with customers.

Three of the centers are in the Twin Cities -- Maple Grove, Coon Rapids and Minnetonka. There are now 68 nationwide, including about 30 initial test sites. The company plans to continue expanding the concept.

Small-business owner Michael Stonecipher is a believer, although he admits that having a "relationship" with Best Buy sounds strange.

The 34-year-old manages his family-owned floor-covering business, Buffalo, Minn.-based Kjellberg Carpet One, and talks about Trent Hassett like he's a new best friend.

Hassett is a "business professional" at Best Buy's Maple Grove store. He met Stonecipher and his wife during the Maple Grove business center's soft opening last week.

Hassett knows electronics and knows what kind of toner Stonecipher needs for his printer. Stonecipher thinks he'll call the 23-year-old at Best Buy a few times each month when his company needs to ramp up its computer network, or when it simply needs to restock office supplies.

"Trent, when you talk to him, you know he knows what he's talking about," said Stonecipher.

Previously, customers would meet "a different blue shirt" each time they came into the store, said Eric Fetzer, the Best Buy for Business manager in Maple Grove, referring to Best Buy employees' traditional uniform. Now, small-business owners can have the phone number and e-mail of a "business professional."

Best Buy for Business employees are trained to work with small-business owners who have between zero and 20 employees, Fetzer said. Business owners can saddle up to a curved desk inside a big-box Best Buy store and learn how, for example, a server or point-of-sale system can boost their business. (Sounds like they took a page from the Apple Genius Bar! DBP)

The in-store advice is free, though there's a flat fee for dispatching "cadets" from the company's high-tech services unit, the Geek Squad, to install a computer network or server at an office or home.

Read the full article here: Best Buy opening small-biz centers - 2005-06-13.