May 22, 2008

By Mike Beirne

Mars Snackfood USA just got even more personal with its customized candy business by allowing consumers to print faces on M&M's.

The move marks the launch of M&M's Faces. Starting next month, consumers can visit MyMMs.com, upload a photo and order a batch of M&M's with a face and personal message printed on the candy shell. The leading chocolate brand announced the news at the National Confectioners Association All Candy Expo this week. TV, print and digital will support.

"I think this is the biggest idea at this show," said Jim Cass, vp and gm of Mars Direct, which manages My M&M's and My Dove brands. "There's nothing more personal that you could put on anything than your face."

Where other marketers may be reticent to let go of the reins of a top brand, Mars has a heritage of allowing consumers to define M&M's. In a 1995 promotion, consumers voted blue to be the next M&M color. Last year, Mars launched the My Inner M&M effort that directed consumers to create their own animated M&M's character on BecomeAnMM.com.

"The consumers aren't recreating the brand, they enhance it," said Cass. "The brand essence is fun, and they simply redefine that."

My M&M's brand initially handled messages for birthdays, holidays and special events such as weddings and graduations. Since its inception, the customized candy business has sold 1 million bags of personalized candy, which costs about $9 a pound, not including the cost of packaging that the customer selects.

Consumer orders is still the biggest source of revenue for Mars Direct, but businesses have became the division's fastest growing source of orders since the division began printing company logos last year, said Cass. The unit also began printing the logos of Major League Baseball teams.

Printing personalized messages on M&M's started as a small R&D project during late 2004. The pieces caught the eye of a senior executive who urged testing whether the printed product would sell online. After six months of selling about eight bags of personalized candy a week, orders eventually grew to a point where the Hackettstown, N.J.-based company decided to add more manufacturing capacity dedicated to making M&M's for the personalized candy business.

'Idol' Ratings Drop, But Fox Up About Its Prospects

by David Goetzl, Friday, May 16, 2008 7:45 AM ET

Fox officials attribute "American Idol's" ratings drops this year--including an all-time low May 6--to a range of factors. But that hasn't stopped top executives from saying they are committed to revivifying it next year.

 
Peter Liguori, Fox's entertainment chairman, said Thursday that a creative analysis needs to take place, but "both the network and the producers really want to ... see what we can do to inject it with new levels of energy and new unpredictable twists and turns, and greater levels of storytelling."

Liguori's dissatisfaction marks the second season in a row in which executives have found themselves missing the lightning rods that powered the show over its first five seasons. Last year, Rupert Murdoch, the head of Fox parent News Corp., said the show suffered from a lack of charismatic, magnetic "characters" it entertained in the past.

(One area Liguori said was not a ratings factor this season was offbeat behavior from judge Paula Abdul, although no change would be made. "We love Paula; she's coming back," he said.)
But Liguori said on a call to announce Fox's schedule for next season that "Idol"--as with most reality shows--allows for flexibility to "re-set the table" with format and other executions. "We do constantly want to make the show the most relevant zeitgeisty show on TV," he said.

ALthough serialized dramas seem to have suffered the most, due to viewer defections post-writers' strike, Liguori said "Idol" may also be impacted. "I do think the show has somewhat suffered by the post-strike malaise of folks watching broadcast TV," he said.
Executives also allowed that shows naturally go through a wax-wane experience; as seasons go forward, viewer interest lessens.
In the 18-to-49 demo, "Idol" ratings for the Tuesday edition this season are down nearly a rating point, from a 12.2 in 2007 to an 11.3. (The numbers include DVR viewing.) Wednesday ratings have suffered more dramatically, falling from a 12.4 to a 10.7.
Both shows last year averaged more than 30 million total viewers--an inflection point in network TV. This year, however, they are below the threshold. On Tuesday, May 6, the show suffered its worst rating since season one (2002), with an 8.4 in 18-to-49 "live plus same day" numbers.

Fox's contract with "Idol" producers gives it the option to continue airing the show through 2011--likely a no-brainer. The network pays a per-episode license fee to producers 19 Entertainment and FremantleMedia, which increases each season. There are also provisions in the contract in which Fox pays bonus fees, based on ratings performances and the number of episodes produced.
Fox pays the contracts of the show's host and three judges.

Raised On The Radio
by Steve Smith , Tuesday, May 6, 2008

ANYONE ELSE REMEMBER A TIME when radio DJs were not all super-caffeinated -- but nicely anesthetized? The need to fill air time with fast-paced chatter is so profound now that drive-time shows seem to require a trio in the studio and "Wayne, Our Eye Guy in the Sky" playing the straight man. Maybe I was spoiled by '70s FM rock. Even NPR seems a bit too chipper for me. Back in the day, I remember when we kept our DJs well stoned and searching minutes for the next word. "That was.....Leon Russell...Lavender.......................Blue." Personally, nowadays, I wouldn't mind if Fresh Air's Terry Gross took a couple of hits before air time.
And so I am not the best guy to judge radio or radio audiences, but I am intrigued by some of the ways that stations are embracing SMS -- both as a promotional tool and as a way to build community. A Portland, Maine station, Citadel's WJBQ had its second annual "Q Baby Idol" contest, which had people email in their cutest baby pictures and asked listeners to vote by email and SMS on the winner. According to promotions director Tim Moore, "last year we had over 400,000 emails and 231,000 text votes. This year we had 904,000 texts and 250,000 emails." Not only are the volumes of text votes enormous (i.e. potential ad space in the response text messages) but the supplanting of email with SMS is noteworthy.
Moore says that for his younger listeners, email is passé. "I have an email database of about 12,000, and response to it is fantastic, but it is all in the upper demos, not teens." He expects the text database soon to outpace his email community.
"One station spent 12 years building an email list to 25,000. We were at 50% of that community in six months," says Martin Kristiseter, founder and executive vice president, mSnap, which powers text programs at WJBQ and hundreds of other stations around the U.S. MSnap provides a platform to radio stations for free and retains the right to the traffic for in-text ads and cross-promoting to mobile content. It shares learnings and templates across the network.
Contests like free concert tickets and private concerts for a winning high school can generate phenomenal SMS volumes. Whether through double opt-in or through an over-air disclaimer when they are prompted to text in, the users are converted into SMS community members.
For an Atlanta country station, the offer of a private concert by Kellie Pickler led to a war among high schools and over 2 million texts in about nine days of promotion. Because so many SMS users are voting serially, the actual number of community sign-ups resulting from these campaigns is a fraction of the SMS volume. But still, Kristiseter says that only about 20% drop out of a radio SMS community when an on-air disclaimer is used, and less than 10% drop out when they sign up via a double opt-in. In essence the promotion kick starts the community, which then can be leveraged in many ways.
The SMS database is a lot more flexible for certain things. For instance, a radio station can use it for a kind of "stealth marketing" when a DJ is broadcasting from a local merchant. Moore says that the over-air prompts to "come on down" to an auto dealership may not work very well all the time. But if the DJ brings along 50 CDs and then hits only your list of opted-in SMS club members with an offer of free CDs to the first 50 visitors, suddenly a crowd shows up. "It is a great marketing tool for the station and it glides under the radar," he says.
During ratings periods, Moore can hit his club on the Thursday survey day with a contest offer to tune in and win when they hear a secret word mentioned on air. Instant audience.
Radio has a unique hold on the people who are loyal to it, and so the medium offers a special kind of fit with SMS response. It is a lot cheaper than TV for running a prompt, and the text-in message can run throughout the day. Kristiseter says that in comparisons of the effectiveness of various media acting as triggers for SMS response, outdoor advertising and radio were among the most successful, but they work at different rates. Outdoor promotions take several months to achieve the same response rate as a single week of radio mentions. TV and radio both perform well, but TV is much more expensive.
Of course, being a trusted correspondent in a consumer's SMS ring is an invitation for abuse. As brands get closer to users, the need for restraint becomes greater. Two to four SMS messages a month from a text "club" seems to be the accepted norm lately, unless the subscription is to text alerts that you expect with greater frequency. I have always said that mobile media is going to press some of our own rhetoric about wanting "relationships" with consumers. Are brands really ready to trade value for attention?
As for me, I am not sure SMS would fit any of my favorite laconic DJs of yesteryear. This clearly is a medium made for the radio of 2008, not 1974. The potheads at WNEW-FM in New York would space out on the shortcode before they even got to the end of the prompt. "That was Foghat before that three hour set of King Crimson. Just remember...to get your free Emerson Lake...and Palmer tickets for...the Garden show...just text in 'Hoedown' to...to.......well, wherever you texted to last time for the Yes shows."

Marti Barletta: How to Market to Moms
Step out of the 'Mommy' Mentality and Find Out Who They Really Are
By Marti Barletta 

Published: May 07, 2008
Mother's Day is a wonderful time for marketers to talk to moms. After all, mothers are the chief purchasing officers, or CPOs, of their households, making almost all of the spending decisions. From computers to cars, from airlines to appliances, from home improvement to high-definition TVs, women -- the majority of whom are moms -- make 85% of all household purchase decisions in the U.S. Smart marketers can't afford to ignore the power of mom's purse. New media is all the rage these days, and there are several vehicles that are doing a great job of leveraging the power of marketing to moms. Here are some examples:

The TrendSight Group, a think tank specializing in marketing to women, and a founding member of the distinguished Women Gurus Network.

Marti Barletta helps companies get smart about women. She is the recognized thought leader on marketing to women and author of the new and highly acclaimed "PrimeTime Women: How to Win the Hearts, Minds and Business of Boomer Big Spenders," (January 2007). Her trendsetting book, "Marketing to Women," is in its second edition and has been published in more than 15 languages. She is CEO of

Motherproof.com is a fabulous site that, in its own words, "is on a never-ending quest for your quintessential mom-mobile. ... We want a car that's easy to load kids into and has seats that hide baby vomit, but will also make us feel sexy and modern while driving it. Oh yeah, if it could also bring about world peace and end hunger, that would be a bonus." In terms of marketing presence, there is obviously car advertising, but also a great "seal of approval" section listing products that help "nourish, inform, organize, clean and keep safe" all mothers and families on the road.

CafeMom.com is the largest and fastest-growing social-networking site for moms on the web, with 1 million members. Moms have created more than 35,000 groups on CafeMom.com for everything from cooking to autism to working at home to raising boys to getting tattoos. CafeMom also prides itself on providing added-value sponsorship programs that allow brands to realistically join the conversation, and blue chip brands such as P&G, Walmart, Kraft and Sony have heeded CafeMom's call.

Alaska mom Michelle Mitchell has created a custom search engine, scribbit.blogspot.com, powered by Google, for perusing parenting related blogs. It can search over 1,500 blogs for everything from "kids birthday party ideas" at alphamom.com to "spring cleaning" tips from momadvice.com. What a time saver and great way to get up-to-the-minute advice from all "the girls." I didn't see much advertising or marketing on this site, but I guarantee it will be there soon.

I've also run across a couple of interesting Mother's Day new-media marketing initiatives: JVC is sponsoring a "Here's Looking at Me" Mother's Day video contest where participants can create their own "Thanks, mom" video, upload it to the JVC contest website, and e-mail a link to share the love with mom. Participants will also be entered to win a new video camera. JVC not only is tapping into Mother's Day as a way to reach the CPOs of the family, but they are also leveraging the younger generation's propensity to "do" new media.

BlogHer.com, a guide to blogs by women, recently challenged its members by asking "How many lives can we save with donations from the BlogHer community between now and Mother's Day, May 11, 2008?" It encourages members to download a Global Giving widget that drives other readers to donate to the cause of improving maternal health by supplying health care, birthing kits, education, meals and much more to women in need.

Marketing to moms makes sense, but beware these common mistakes: Don't assume "mom" is the only aspect of their lives that women with children can relate to. In fact, moms are multidimensional, and when they are in work mode, exercise mode or planning a girlfriends' getaway, the "mom" mind-set is not where their heads are.

Don't assume moms have all the money. In a way, they do; 84% of women over 40 have kids -- ergo, they are mothers. But the real driver of women's spending power kicks in when they are less involved with their kids, not throwing all their dough into diapers and formula. Don't assume moms all have toddlers in the home. Most marketers are thinking in terms of babies and younger kids but only 3.5% of women bear children each year, so that's a pretty limited target audience. And the fact is, most of the household's major baby spending is concentrated around the birth of the first child, making the niche even smaller.

One thing that surprises me is the dearth of content, info, forums, social networking and blogs oriented around the needs and concerns of moms of teens. The difficulties of adolescents are at least as bad as the tantrums of toddlers, and often with far more dire consequences. Yet no one is making it their business to reach out to this under-served and over-stressed segment.

All that said, Happy Mother's Day. If you are going after moms, make the most of the many ways to connect with them. But don't make the mistake of using stereotypical "mommy marketing."

by Adi Sideman, Wednesday, May 7, 2008 7:45 AM ET
There are no guarantees when it comes to planning a viral marketing campaign, but that doesn't mean there's nothing you can do to improve your chances of success.

Here are 10 things to keep in mind when it's time to begin your next project.

1) It's all about the creative idea. Just like Hollywood movies and video games, which live or die based on consumer affinities, the success of an online viral campaign hinges on an intangible "secret sauce": the ability to entertain, inspire, and engage a mass audience. When embarking on a viral campaign, run your concepts by your professional colleagues and your non-industry friends. Make sure it's easy to communicate, entertaining, and captures their imagination. Is it high concept enough to attain mass appeal?

2) Viral outbreaks don't happen by following a formula. Viral campaigns need to capture users' attention in an innovative, often unorthodox, way.

3) Personalization is key. It has been repeatedly proven that online, one-to-one communication is more effective than one-to-many. The value of a personal message (with my picture, voice, or text) is much higher than that of a generic communication. The most successful online viral campaigns, and literally every engineered viral outbreak since the dancing baby in 1996, are driven by an application that allows users to personalize and share their message. Simply put, the applications at the center of successful viral campaigns are first and foremost a means to facilitate user communication.

4) Keep it simple: Simple to understand, simple to personalize, and simple to share Don't ask the users to do too much. Good, streamlined UI goes a long way. Let your parents test the application during beta; if they can't figure it out, it's time to simplify. A clear call to action helps. Encapsulate this simplicity and the call to action with a good name.

5) Leverage existing brand equity. If you have a popular brand asset, take advantage of it. A different agency or corporate division often controls the asset, mascot, or spokesperson you want to leverage, but it's worth getting higher-ups involved in securing them. Consumer recognition and affinity can only help when you're trying to get users involved. You're also looking after the best interests of the brand as a whole: consistent, integrated marketing across platforms.

6) Nobody wants to be marketed to. Consumer perception is one of value, not of blatant brand advertising. While open rates on corporate communications to end-users average only 15%, user-generated viral campaigns average over 65%. It's communication from a friend, and most recipients will open it. Let the users market for you and don't flaunt the brand. Keep it authentic and keep it useful.

7) Users don't want to work hard. The best applications require very little creative input (or talent, for that matter). Users can "create" a well-produced piece of media by making a simple choice, inputting a word, or uploading a file. If the beginning and the end are properly produced, and the rules by which the users contribute are well-planned, very little user talent is required to create an effective piece of personalized media.

8) Get all your people involved. Brainstorm openly with your marketing and advertising folks and think outside the box. No idea is too crazy. Have your smart technology folks participate in the brainstorm so they can introduce new dimensions to the concept: it is, after all, an interactive/media technology campaign you're planning. Get your boss(es) involved so they're inspired to take creative risks and don't shoot down your crazy idea.

9) Execute with love. A strong concept has a way of inspiring everyone on the team. There is additional magic to be created by those who "merely" execute, so spend time with the execution team and listen to them. If there are holes in your concept, they'll be the first to know and it is they who can do something about it. Inspire the execution team and allow them some room to improve and innovate during execution. Surprise users with aesthetics: texture, movement, and detail that go the extra mile.

10) Deliver ROI. There are two main things to watch. First, make sure the goal of the campaign--whether brand exposure, conversion, or lead generation--is clear from day one. From concept to execution, and reflected in the UI, make sure you're setting the stage for achieving your goal. Second, seed the campaign with good traffic. If you build it, they will not necessarily come. Give your app the best chance for success by crafting a strategy for how users will initially hear about it. Even the best Hollywood movie needs to get the initial word out. Plan to do so for your viral campaign.

The most effective tactics include providing access to it from the brand's home page (there's no better group to spread the word for you), including it in your newsletters, having the top brass at the brand, agency and even vendor(s) proudly send it to all their employees and contacts, and doing basic PR. Note that these four methods are all grassroots and do not need to include huge media buys. It's also best to do them for a period of time, not just on launch.

Sideman is the CEO of Oddcast. Oddcast is the developer and distributor of speaking avatar products for enterprise (www.oddcast.com) and small and medium businesses (www.sitepal.com) as well as the consumer (www.voki.com) marketplace.