Why Your CPG Brand Isn’t Remarkable and What You Can Do About It

Posted by Jon Thomas, 13 Aug 2013

This post originally appeared in our August '13 issue of “Live Report from the Future of Marketing,” our monthly Post-Advertising newsletter. Subscribe for free here.

Marketing CPG products is hard. Marketing Apple products is easy. Well, not really (on both accounts), but let me explain. 

Apple products—computers, phones, music players, tablets and other digital devices—are some of the most expensive products on the market. But devoted fans come out in droves to purchase the latest editions, seeming not to mind that they’re paying a premium for the mass-produced technologies. I’m not faulting them. I’m a fanboy myself, writing this article on my MacBook Pro, which is connected to Wi-Fi with Apple Airport, with my iPhone and iPad close by. 

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4 Brands Winning Big in Social Media with Surprise and Delight

Posted by Jon Thomas, 09 Jan 2013

This past weekend I had the joy of throwing a surprise birthday party for my wife. And by joy I mean massive amounts of stress and that sick feeling in my stomach I get when I have to withhold the truth from my wife (which is infrequent, I swear!).

After I took her out for lunch and a spa treatment, we returned to the house, where the guests were huddling in the rear hallway. When we pulled into the driveway, my wife noticed that one of the trash barrels had been moved to the side porch (to make it easier to clean up after the party). Even though I begged her to take care of it later, she had to put the barrel back in its place. This would mean we’d enter from the side door, not the front door, as had been intended.

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There’s No Business Like Bieber Business

Posted by Sun McElderry, 23 Feb 2011
We’ve had some time to get acquainted with Web 2.0 and its progeny. Slowly but surely it’s all starting to make sense. Digital tools are immersing consumers in deeper and more meaningful brand experiences. We’re rolling with the shifting platforms. We’re getting glimpses of how technology enables products to respond rapidly to market movements, especially when that product is content. This being said, no one could have predicted that a teenager — albeit an extremely charismatic one —  and a handful of social media accounts would add up to the next ROI-rich media revolution.
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The Old Spice Guy is Back

The Old Spice Guy is Back, but Do We Still Care?

Posted by Jon Thomas, 03 Feb 2011
After a six-month hiatus, our favorite shirtless alpha-male with striking brown eyes and bulging pecs is back for Round 3, and just in time for the Super Bowl. The newest Old Spice campaign will tout their Fresh Collection (a line of deodorant, body spray and body wash). The commercial will be debuted on one lucky Superfan's social network feed before the Super Bowl. While the title character, portrayed by the dreamy Isaiah Mustafa, promises that these advertisements are as entertaining as the hilarious previous batches, I wonder - do we still care about the Old Spice Guy?
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Paid, Earned, Owned Media: Defining Your Brand Online

Posted by Ryan Saghir, 25 Oct 2010
If you've been involved with interactive marketing in the past year, you've undoubtedly heard the terms "paid, earned and owned" media. Breaking down an online brand presence into these three categories can help define your marketing efforts, but how should you prioritize them?
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Shoot this Bear. Or Dance with this Bear. Whatever.

Posted by Anna DeSilva, 08 Sep 2010
What do office supplies, chicken sandwiches, and body wash have in common? They’ve all jumped on the interactive ad platform, of course! Bic, being the newest member of the engaged set, now holds hands with the likes of Old Spice and Burger King after producing a knock-out video series in the latest tradition of interactive storytelling. For the groundbreaking page, they chose — drumroll, please — Tipp-Ex® Whiteout to be the star of the show!  ...Uh, what?
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We Dare You to Sit Through Cisco’s Old Spice Rip-offs

Posted by Luke Dringoli, 10 Aug 2010
Lordy, this is a rough one. Like an embarrassing mother misusing the latest hip catch phrase, tech giant Cisco and their note-for-note Old Spice imitation (…minus the laughs and wit, that is) could’ve been a meme-killer — if anyone had bothered to pay attention to it.
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KFC’s Viral Effort Degrades All of Humanity

Posted by Luke Dringoli, 20 Jul 2010
KFC's latest viral video attempt offers us a glorious "teachable moment." This effort is so bad it's...bad. It's the antithesis of Old Spice's masterful video response meme—the hottest thing on the web right now, advertising or otherwise. We are all worse people for this video. Bask in the glorious #fail after the jump.
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Old School Marketing Execs Figure Out This Whole ‘Engagement’ Thing

Posted by Luke Dringoli, 16 Jul 2010
Let’s face it: marketing's impact in traditional channels is a lot slimmer than it used to be. Too many brands are desperate for consumers with ever-shrinking attention spans and the power to tune out all the noise they don't care about. The best way to make them care is, well, to actually talk to them. Engagement, people! Forbes Insights recently put this idea to the test when they surveyed a slew of marketing's top dogs and published their findings. The results? You’d never guess...
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Old Spice’s Shirtless Isaiah Mustafa is Talking to You, and Only You

Posted by Luke Dringoli, 13 Jul 2010
For anyone who thought deodorant and body-wash marketing was nothing but lather, rinse, and repeat, Old Spice is proving, yet again, that there's much more to it with the shining genius that is the Old Spice Man—a soaped up slice of comical manliness that went viral and has now evolved into a masterful multi-channel juggernaut of success. For all the single ladies who were convinced that the Old Spice Guy's "tickets to that thing you like"-cum-diamonds were just for them, well, now they are. The viral ad is now personalized!
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