How to spoil a great branding effort

I like the Telus brand. I also like the cute animals they use to push their "Future is Friendly" messaging.

As a frequent movie-goer, I also love that Telus has partnered up with Cineplex to bring us Telus Tuesdays, where guests receive admission, regular popcorn and regular drink for about half price.

To help promote the Telus brand in association with this great offer, a microsite was launched with all of the info including a cast of characters and branded popcorn bags. At first glance, I was pretty impressed with this campaign, both from a consumer's perspective and in terms of the strategic partnership created between Telus and Cineplex...

...then I grabbed my seat inside the theatre.

Before your movie starts, Cineplex typically shows 5 or 6 ads (before the trailers) and I've noticed that they often coincide with the expected demographic for the film about to be screened. This is a great revenue stream for Cineplex and a great way for advertisers to reach a captive audience within their demographic.

As I sat there watching the screen, anxious for my film to start I saw ads for WIND Mobile, Rogers Wireless AND Bell Mobility!

I have no idea what Telus is spending in order to present the Telus Tuesday combo, but someone really dropped the ball when not one, but THREE major competitors all had ads displayed in the theatre prior to the start of the film.

Sure, Telus had the last ad before the trailers hit the screen, but it blows my mind that they didn't arrange some sort of exclusivity agreement to prohibit competitor's ads from being shown on Tuesday nights.

One sure-fire way to spoil a great branding campaign is to fail to protect your efforts from the competition. I congratulate Telus for a fantastic promotion but they lose points for overlooking some pretty important details.

10 Worst Ads of 2009

BNET has posted it's top 10 worst ads of 2009. This year's selections range from a cheating Mrs. Claus to a cell phone customer gabbing about her STD.

My personal fave is #10 - the furniture store that offers goods for both black and white people! Glad to see that race relations are at an all time high in North Carolina!

CLICK HERE to check them out!

Viral success...but has it built a brand?

Once again, OfficeMax has released the ElfYourself greeting card builder and the social networking sites are flooding with everyone's hilarious creations.

ElfYourself is a simple, yet brilliant tool that lets you upload the faces of up to five friends into an interface. The photos become the faces of a bunch of elves. It then spits out a "greeting card" where your elves dance around the screen to a disco version of a holiday song - complete with disco dance floor, funky moves and camera angles. The ElfYourself is sure to get a chuckle from anyone who sees it. At the end of the sequence, you are given the opportunity to click and purchase holiday gifts (mugs, shirts, etc.) with your elf's face on i t from Office Max.

The ElfYourself site was launched back in 2006 by OfficeMax and reappears every holiday season with much anticipation and exponential usage - as a recurring "viral" website, it is probably one of, if not the most successful (in my opinion).

After a drop off in popularity last year, the added integration into Facebook and Twitter has caused a resurgence. OfficeMax's agency, Tribal DDB, also organized a flash mob of elves in New York to generate additional hype.

My question of course is - has it helped to build the OfficeMax brand; and more importantly, does it generate sales?

OfficeMax does provide a call to action to buy swag after watching the greeting card. The creator can also purchase a copy of the card for $4.99 to keep beyond the holidays.

I've searched the 'net trying to find out, but a Google search returns articles with lots of stats on views / hits but nothing about sales or monetization.

OfficeMax has hit a homerun with their fun take on the traditional e-card but I am dying to know what it cost them to launch/promote and if it has had any real impact on business... and more importantly, does it really matter in this case? Maybe OfficeMax just wants to spread some holiday cheer!

You know you need PR when...

If you've been reading the Toronto Star lately, then you;re probably aware of the ongoing pouring-in of stories from readers experiencing billing issues with the foreign-owned Toll Highway.

Originally planned as a bypass route through Toronto, the 407 was leased by the province to a private group in 1999 for $3.1 billion over a 99 year term. The highway currently has an estimated value of over $10 billion.

As much as I would love to rant about the government's very poor decision to sell the 407, I'll do my best to stay on topic.

According to the 407 ETR website, a motorist enters a contract with 407 ETR as soon as they get on the highway. Terms and conditions are automatically accepted even though the only way to read them is either on their website before your trip or on the back of an invoice.

The Star began an investigation of the 407's billing practices after a number of readers wrote to complain about receiving unexpected bills or bills with a great deal of interest attached to them. The 407 has so far been uncooperative in responding to complaints.

In this morning's paper, the 407's owners sent out a message to consumers who questioned their billing practices: Don't drive on our highway.

I am not a Public Relations expert, but I think that perhaps the 407 needs to reconsider their statement.

I drive on the 407. There are times when I find it faster and more convenient and under those circumstances, I don't mind paying a few dollars for the convenience.

That said, there is always an alternate route, and many people will put a priority on pride over a shorter commute.

The problems with the 407 are largely a direct result of the province's decision to sell and will likely get worse should the parent company not consider a more friendly approach (or failing that, some form of government intervention).

I've been fortunate not to have any billing issues with the 407 (other than my issues with the cost in general) but based on their recent comments, I am strongly considering using alternative routes.

In the interim, the 407 needs to address these billing issues and start working on a plan to regain consumer confidence. If anyone over there wants to give me a call, I can recommend a few great PR agencies.

Social Media and the Law... again!

Tween pop sensation Justin Bieber caused a riot at Roosevelt Field Mall in Long Island, NY this past week when he was scheduled to appear for an autograph signing.

While you probably don't care, the story does get interesting since the use (or lack thereof) of his Twitter account lead to the arrest of James Roppo, a representative from Bieber's record Label.

According to the Associated Press, a huge crowd had formed to catch a glimpse of the mini-star and crowding/shoving was becoming a safety issue.

Police asked Roppo to help disburse the crowd by sending out a Twitter message notifying fans that Bieber would not be allowed into the mall until things calmed down. When Roppo refused, he was arrested on several misdemeanor charges, including "failure to cooperate with police".

Despite this strange request, two Tweets were seen on Bieber's Twitter account at 4:30pm and 4:33pm first asking the crowd to calm down and leave, then stating that one of his people had been arrested.

I really don't care for Bieber or this article, but the fact that refusing to send a Tweet contributed to a man's arrest is something worth discussing. Just recently, I posted a blog about how a man's Facebook status saved him from jail. Now we're seeing the other side of the spectrum.

There is no doubt that Social Media is becoming more and more important in our lives but I really struggle with this particular incident. Even if Roppo had agreed to send out the Tweet, the police were going on the assumption that a large majority of the existing crowd would see it instantly and just pack up and go.

Twitter is a great way for an artist to keep in touch with his or her fans by letting them have some insight into their life or by notifying them of upcoming events. It is not a method of crowd control.

It will be interesting to see how this - and future cases - progress when Social Media comes into play.

Interactive Trailers... Stepping it up!

Online trailers for games and movies are nothing new. Apple has owned the movie trailer space for ages. Now YouTube is a major player. Afficionados flock to trailer sites to get whatever sneak peeks they can into upcoming titles. A well produced trailer can generate lots of hype and even go viral, giving the release a significant marketing advantage long-before the release date.

Until recently, the trailer has always been a short clip (usually 3 minutes or less) showing some of the title's best material from action shots to funny moments to scary scenes. The one thing every trailer had in common was that it was just a video.

This all changed last year, when Nintendo put out an interactive trailer for Warioland Shake It. What made this trailer awesome is how the YouTube page started to shake and crumble as Wario did damage in the actual game trailer.

I was recently refered to GameTrailers.com to check out a new trailer for the latest chapter in the Resident Evil series... Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles. The result was far more enticing than anything I could have imagined and something anyone interested in the Interactive space NEEDS to see.

This is the perfect example of what a trailer can be. I can tell you that after seeing the trailer, my excitement level for this game is way higher than it would have been with a normal trailer.

I can't wait to watch as designers battle for the next awesome trailer and look forward to watching the trailer evolve into a truly exciting and interactive marketing tool.

Check out the two trailers here:
Warioland Shake It
Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles

Facebook Status Used as Alibi

On Saturday, October 17, 2009 at 11:49am, 19 year old Rodney Bradford updated his Facebook status from his father's apartment in Harlem to say: "Where's my pancakes?"

In a recent court case, those three words were accepted by the judge as an alibi and got Rodney off of alleged armed robbery charges that took place moments later.

This is a unique first and, from my perspective, a very dangerous precendent.

After being arrested for alleged participation in a mugging at gun-point that took place around the sane time, Bradford's lawyer, Robert Reuland used the Facebook status (along with testimony from Bradford's father) as an alibi proving that Bradford was, in fact, in the apartment at the time of the robbery.

Facebook provided evidence (using IP tracking) that the posting did, in fact come from the apartment at that time.

With Social Media playing an increasing role in our lives, I expect we will be seeing more of this in future legal cases. On one hand, I'm glad to see Bradford's name cleared. On the other, this creates a scary precedence.

Anyone can update your status if they have a username and password. What is stopping someone from now planning to commit a crime and having a friend login to their account from their home right before the crime is committed and type in a status update?

Social media sites have been used in court cases before. They have been used to demonstrate infidelity in divorce cases or to check in on sick employees.

Social media brings a lot of good into our lives, but the Bradford case just proved that technology can also add a whole other layer of complexity to our lives. I look forward to reading about future cases where Facebook and other social media sites play an active part in court cases.

You can read the full article on the Bradford case by clicking here.