I am not alone in my observation. According to Andrew Hampp, writing in a recent edition of Advertising Age, “brands and ad agencies are rediscovering the power of original tunes in advertising campaigns. Over the last decade the trend was to license famous pop songs from the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, instead of creating an original branded melody. Now marketers want original music for their messages.”

This makes perfect sense to me, as I’m a custom jingle lover from way back. With a custom jingle crafted solely to sing the praises of a brand, you have the opportunity to ingrain your brand attributes and identity into the minds’ of the masses–in a way that can be both pleasing and entertaining.

Think about it. Who can forget the undeniable charm and sing-along-fun of such jingle gems as Oscar Meyer’s “My Bologna Has a First Name,” or Alka Seltzer’s “Plop Plop Fizz Fizz,” or Folgers “The Best Part of Waking Up?”  These pleasant little ditties are now a part of our collective conscience, instantly remembered and still fun to sing out loud.

Talk about brand recall!

That type of brand-centric popularity is far more of a premium for a brand than simply an association with a well-known song or recording artist.  When you allow the right melody and lyrics to showcase your brand, something very special can happen.

Just ask Oscar Meyer.

Outdoor has always been a favorite media of mine, due to it’s challenging creative canvas: you basically have room for 7 words or less to make an impression that lasts mere seconds as your audience zooms by on the way to work, shop, or play.  (Unfortunately, many creatives routinely break this 7 word rule,  thinking their message or design is better than some “arcane,” old-fashioned rule. Here’s my message to them: it’s not.  Your type’s too small, your idea’s too weak and your board will fail – period.)  But I digress…

My point today is that outdoor media, when executed properly, is hot for all shapes and sizes of brands. Whether playing a supporting role to a larger media vehicle like television or radio, or as the sole media driver for a brand’s effort, outdoor is still a larger-than-life premium canvas capable of informing, entertaining and persuading tens of thousands potential customers everyday.

Take our salad dressing client BRIANNAS, for example.  Sales were lackluster in the Miami market and they needed a fast, cost-effective boost.  Outdoor to the rescue! We crafted a special outdoor-centric campaign exclusively for the Miami audience and began scoring almost immediate recognition. Why? Because the boards followed all the creative rules of premium outdoor: they were succinct, clever, entertaining and memorable.  All for pennies on the dollar compared to a broadcast effort in a major market.

What’s more, new technology has entered the outdoor arena with the advent of bright, full-color digital display boards. These incredibly vivid billboards deliver maximum “pop” and are almost impossible to ignore.  What’s more, they’re highly cost effective because there’s no paper or vinyl to produce.

So the next time your brand is feeling the heat from new competition, shrinking share or stagnant sales, consider taking your message outside with some outdoor.   For many brands, it can be a hot pick to deliver even hotter results.  Just make sure your agency or production resource is capable of delivering the right creative message for this very tricky medium!

But, what about the other side of the promotional coin? What about old-fashioned, old-school forms of sale promotions in today’s super-savvy web age?  Well, according to ad agencies like ours and other industry experts, they are starting to make a comeback – and in some cases, they’ve never left.

Lauren Comiteau writes in a recent edition of ADWEEK that “brands are discovering that low tech (and no-tech) marketing still turns heads.”  She goes on to report of the success of promotional gimmicks like chicken suits and bounce houses.  They’re decidedly low tech but, when deployed properly in the right settings, are still highly effective.
Factor in the relatively low cost of such efforts, and the benefits become even greater.

We’ve experienced success first-hand with old school promotional tactics here at Warren Douglas.  One of our clients, a leading manufacturer of eyewear, accepted our recommendation for creating lifesize eyeballs to roam around a large amusement park (see below).  The results were amazing. Hundreds of children (and adults, it seems) eagerly engaged with the characters, resulting in parents collecting pertinent materials which drove them to a website for more information.  (Read the resulting case study.)

So the next time your brand or client is interested in running a sales promotion,  consider taking an old school approach.  Sure, someone in your organization might have to don a chicken suit.  But that’s a small price to pay if you lay the elusive premium gold egg of effectiveness.

The other day, Mr. Bossy Boss told me a tale about this Facebook friend calling him and reiterating an interesting conversation he had with “Mr. Boss Man” on Facebook chat. Evidently, “Mr. Boss” had told this friend that he needed money for his cousin but he had been mugged while in the UK. FBfriend replies, “Are you a Nigerian Prince?” The profile hijacker immediately shuts down the chat and unfriends the witty little guy.

Needless to say, Bossy changes his password, and his status to tell everyone about the potential scammer on the loose. Later that night, his wife goes to check his Fbook, and lo and behold … he is not there.

No friends. No profile. No Farmville Animals. Mr. Bossy Boss was Facebook murdered.

Shocking tales like these are occurring more and more within the Facebook realm. Due to its international popularity, Fbook has become the #1 target for spreading viruses, hijacking information and all-around chaotic malarkey! It is an alarming powerhouse in our world today—it has the ability to connect you to anything, but also disconnect you from the world, your fans, and even worse, your consumers—all in the blink of an eye.

Premium brands that don’t engage with newer types of interactive media are like Mr. Bossy Boss and his imposter—someone out there is representing their brand, whether they like or not, and they are taking control. However, if you play the game right, those imposters won’t matter, because, like real-life friends, once you build your relationships, brand advocates will know that you’re not a “Nigerian Prince.” They’ll recognize your brand’s true voice and learn to trust it.

The bottom line to consider is this: Life is scary. And social media is just life happening online. So, learn how to interact effectively with the real world, and you’ll see that being a “victim” online isn’t as easy as it first sounded. Your brand will be able to handle it. Your brand will be better for it.

The video below illustrates just one key component of why it is so hard to do business these days. Basically, the lighter the color of the U.S. of A., the better off we are, the darker, the worse.

Although the “end” date of this downward spiral is a moving target, and one of great debate, if history is any teacher this is a cycle that will turn around. When it does, a generation of Americans who have been forced out of the market for all sorts of creature comforts, or forced to trade down from their preferred brand due to budget constraints, will be ready to spend again.

What should you be doing to build/preserve your premium brand?

• Fish where the fish are today. – Sell where people can buy. Don’t sell where people can’t buy.
• Don’t ignore your legacy customers. – When things turn around, they will be the first to spend again. Do NOT make them feel like you only care about them for their money. Doesn’t work for most relationships, and this is no different.
• Don’t stop promoting. – You have competitors that have cut marketing budgets to preserve margins. This is especially true in public companies that are under intense pressure to hit earnings targets. Take advantage of that to build the perception of your brand as premium in the absence of competition for share of voice.
• Don’t sacrifice your brand quality. – Just because the competition is going down to the 10 oz. box, doesn’t mean you have to. Unless, of course, you REALLY have to. Continue to provide as high a quality product as you can for as long as possible. And when things pick up, you’ll have a reputation of premium quality even through the tough times to fall back on.

Take these principles, apply them, and see what a difference it makes to customer loyalty, brand perception and overall brand equity. Though right now, those valuable assets may seem useless to turn a profit, your brand will be the outlier in the category. These moments of heat are the ones that define your brand’s legacy. Be the bold brand. Be the rebel. Be the premium brand that thrives in tough times, instead of struggling to merely survive.

Last night, while watching my recording of Wednesday’s So You Think You Can Dance (yes, I’m one of those people), the show’s host introduced me to a group called “The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers.” While this seems like a fun name, I was hardly going to believe what a TV show produced by American Idol aficionado Nigel Lythgoe told me. Like any consumer, I had to consider the source.

But as the music began and I saw the opening moments of the performance, there was an immediate sense of pride in making the right decision to stick with the program. The time and effort put into each execution. The attention to detail! They were fantastic. Beyond excellent. They were extraordinary. And I proceeded to go online and watch the YouTube version of the performance below 5 more times that night. And then a few more today.

There were other performers on the show who were great. It’s a dance competition, for heaven’s sake! But these performers stood out because they have created this product, this “brand,” with creativity, something distinguishable, something unique, and, hopefully not to be too trite, something premium. And not every brand can play at this level, but when articulated and executed well, the consumer is hooked. And living up to your claims defines consumer retention.

So, brand managers, before settling with any creative or strategic execution, ask yourself a few things—what is it about your brand that is truly extraordinary? What is it that your product does within its category that is beyond normal? And how can you tell that story in a like fashion? Articulate and demonstrate these assets, and your customers will develop a sense of pride and belief in your brand, as well. And though it may seem basic, it works. Trust us. We at WD create such extraordinary every day.

As I culled through my morning emails, I noticed that of the many emails in my Inbox, 45 were from retailers! And what surprises me the most is there were repeat offenders—3 from Gap, 2 from Overstock.com, 2 from Godiva, etc. How in the world does Gap have enough relevant material to contact me three times in one 24-hour period? And why would I care three different times? Needless to say, I didn’t even open them. And others feel the same way apparently. According to a new poll from the Chief Marketing Officer Council, 64% of consumers say promotional offers dominate both the email and traditional mail they receive, and only 41% view these as must-read communications.

Knowing your customers, especially those who have enough positive disposition towards your brand to give you permission to contact them directly, is essential in building a premium brand. If you can’t be relevant, then why bother? The numbers don’t lie.

Liz Miller, Vice President, Programs and Operations, CMO Council, said “Irrelevant, impersonal communications… (do) not engage a receptive recipient… customers will disconnect and stop doing business with brands who continue to send messages that demonstrate a lack of intimacy, customer insight and individual understanding.”

In the end, there has to be some sort of strategic plan and knowledge of the individual consumer in place. If the powerhouse of social marketing hasn’t proven this already, each consumer wants to have a unique voice, and needs to be marketed to independently.

So, the question a premium brand manager should ask themselves is this: do you manage your information to keep things personal for your consumers? Or, are you just creating opportunities for them to opt-out of engaging with your brand?

I’m definitely not getting a holiday season job at a Microsoft store …

To read more about why brands should be themselves and not fail at pretending to be others, read this blog blast from the past.

Mr. Nese is the perfect example of the fact that just because an opportunity comes along that others have taken and seen success, that doesn’t mean it is the path for every brand out there. His greatest line is that each brand should “set yourself apart and provide your customer with something no one else has.” He did that by offering over 500 premium brands of soda pop rarely found any other place. And from the video, you can tell he’s had fun counting his success as he continues to stick to the ultimate goal of creating something with worth to his customer and not being enticed by every shiny opportunity that comes along.

Just from reviewing and trying to get the social search features activated on my personal Google and Bing searches, it seems to be a lot more complicated than most are letting on. Not only do you have to have an account for each respective engine, but on Google, you also have to submit profile information, links to your social networks, and then be logged in at the time of search. After doing all that, even searching a familiar term like “facebook” yielded no results from my networks. And before you ask, yes, the account was signed up in the Google Lab, the testing section for the feature.

As explained above, these searches only pull up information from the user’s “circle of friends.” So, the doom and gloom of getting any and every negative comment about a brand seems highly unlikely. And although it can be said that a negative comment made within a customer’s social network may be more damaging than one outside, the likelihood of its occurrence diminishes quite a bit when all the filters are in place.

So, brand managers, take heart. The only thing this social search means for your brand is you had better pay attention to what’s being said about your brand online. And I know you’ve heard that one before.