Captivating Connections.

it's a small (branded) world after all.

"Sylvania is sponsoring the 'It's a small world' attraction at Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, Calif. The deal, which includes the attraction's first-ever illuminated marquee, is part of a 12-year agreement between The Walt Disney Company and Siemens.

The agreement includes marketing and promotional rights, attraction sponsorships and a promotional presence that features Siemens products and services at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida and Disneyland Resort in California. Siemens also is the sponsor of the Epcot icon, SpaceShip Earth.

'The deal between Disney and Sylvania's parent company, Siemens, brings together the world's leading family entertainment company with a premiere global technology and infrastructure company,' Mike Colotti, vice president of brand management and marketing communications for Sylvania, tells Marketing Daily. 'In addition to marketing and promotional campaigns, our companies work together to develop and integrate Sylvania lighting technologies into Disney attractions and throughout its resorts.'

facebook still in the minds (and clicks) of college students.

Many people think that Facebook has become unpopular among college students, especially now that it's open to people of all ages. However, this isn't the case.

According to the “American College Students Survey,” "not only do the vast majority of US college student Internet users find Facebook cool, more than one-quarter of them rate it their favorite Website of all. That was nearly a 12-point increase over last year, and put Facebook more than 20 points ahead of second-most-popular Google.

How students use social networks is just important to marketers as they face that they do visit the sites, and the outlook is positive. Nearly six in 10 female college students learn about products on social networks, along with 44% of males. In addition, 80% of females and 76% of males get product information from Websites they visit regularly."

zappos goes real world.

"Zappos.com, the online seller of shoes and other merchandise that was recently acquired by Amazon, is mailing 750,000 copies of a printed catalog to consumers. The catalog, timed for holiday shopping, bears the title Zappos Life and has a fashion and designer focus, offering products like handbags, jewelry, clothing and fragrances in addition to the Zappos.com mainstay, footwear.

Among the brands featured in the fashion catalog are Cole Haan, Guess, Calvin Klein, Lucky, Stila, True Religion and Stuart Weitzman. They can be bought on the Zappos.com Web site or by calling a toll-free telephone number. (The catalog can also be read at zapposlife.com.)

'Different people respond to different media,' said Aaron Magness, director for brand marketing and business development at Zappos.com in Henderson, Nev.

The catalog is the third from Zappos this year; Mr. Magness described the first two as tests. The company is looking at everything from page counts for each issue (48 for this one) to the paper weight.

One lesson is that 'our lapsed customers have responded very well' to the catalogs, Mr. Magness said, referring to shoppers who have not bought much lately on Zappos.com."

rihanna redo.

Coming off of a personally dramatic year, Rihanna did something incredibly interesting. "Unlike other celebrity brands with image issues, the singer turned to Madison Avenue for some much-needed brand rehab.

When the singer approached Steve Stoute, founder-CEO of music marketing agency Translation, to help her relaunch her image and musical career this summer, there was a lot more at stake than adding another hit single to her repertoire. Mr. Stoute, who has connected celebs like Beyoncé, Jay-Z and Chris Brown with brands in the past, saw a dual challenge in Rihanna's re-entry into the public eye. His first goal was to cement her status as a 'global pop diva' with restored brand equity, and then cast her as a role model for young girls despite her initial silence about her violent breakup."

Some background, in case you live under a rock:

"In case you happened to miss one of the year's bigger media stories: Heading into 2009, Rihanna was on her way to becoming the most successful female pop singer of the decade, tying Beyoncé's record for five No. 1 Billboard singles with hits such as 'Umbrella,' 'Disturbia' and 'Take a Bow'; selling more than 12 million copies of her first three albums; and racking up nine Grammy nominations from her most recent album, 'Good Girl Gone Bad.'

A few endorsement deals came her way, too, including a long-term contract with Procter & Gamble's Cover Girl and her own line of umbrellas with Totes-Isotoner as a cheeky reference to her hit single about the rain protector."

Fast forward to now:

"'She has the opportunity, because of her personal issues, to epitomize and work with all people around the world who have personal issues,' Mr. Stoute said. 'While the spotlight was on her and we watched how she got through it, I think she helped a legion of young girls who look up to her and showed them her strength and fortitude to go through this and move forward with life.'

Mr. Stoute said his teaming up with Rihanna is 'brand work' rather than standard record-label marketing.'With brand work you gotta run a marathon. You can't just put out a single, sweep an issue under the rug and get out of it through popularity.'"

It's going to be interesting as her album gets the full launch treatment what happens next.

the ultimate iphone brand apps.

According to AdWeek, at least! As they explain:

"Like any new channel, efforts have been a hit-and-miss affair. The mantra, however, has remained the same: 'utility.' In the mobile space, brands, it's believed, must provide something of value. Lancome and its mobile shop, Publicis Groupe's Phonevalley, use the iPhone to help women in the aisle choose makeup. Last month, it rolled out an app that lets users mix and match makeup from its Aaron de Mey collection. Zippo scored one of the first iPhone hits with a dead simple application that offers utility through entertainment. The Virtual Lighter simply gave users a digital representation of a lighter, marking a new way to signal for an encore at concerts. The app is still one of the platform's most popular selections.

Brands face an uphill battle getting noticed in the iTunes App Store, which now boasts over 100,000 applications. It's similar to their challenge on Facebook, only worse because brands do not have a beachhead like they do with their Facebook pages. That's meant few non-digital brands have cracked the most popular apps (ranked by number of downloads). These include Target, Disney and Walmart, which rank in the top 50 free apps.

One mistake brands make is thinking they can, in essence, create their own media properties, said Eric Litman, CEO of Medialets, an iPhone analytics and mobile ad platform. It sees the average brand app get between one and 2.5 uses, with engagement times between 2.5 and 5 minutes. "There will be a group of apps that sit at the top, a fair number in the middle and most will be in the tail," said Litman. "It's hard to build a business in the media industry."

That's meant some brands have chosen to go to mobile app networks. MasterCard released a new app this month, but it's also running a miniature version of it as a banner ad on The New York Times' application. And REI partnered with mobile media company Zumobi to create the REI Snow and Ski Report. Unlike most brand apps, REI does not own the intellectual property for the app, which reports conditions on the slopes and now includes Tweets. Instead, it sponsors the application that Zumobi built. The payoff: Zumobi can promote it through its other popular apps for MSNBC and the Today show."

Check out their list of best, as well as missed opportunities, apps here.

the power of brand engagement.

"The power of online brand interaction is not to be denied: A solid majority of connected consumers have had their opinion of a brand swayed, either positively or negatively, by an online experience. And more than 97% said that experience influenced whether they purchased a product or service from that brand.

Razorfish’s '2009 FEED' survey polled US broadband users who had visited a community site, consumed or created digital media, and spent at least $150 online in the past six months.

These connected consumers were also connected to brands. About one-quarter had produced content to participate in a contest held by a brand, and close to the same amount had followed a brand on Twitter. Two-fifths had friended a brand on Facebook or MySpace.

The main reason to follow or friend a brand was to get exclusive deals or offers, followed by general fandom—because the user was a current customer, or because of interesting or entertaining content.

An impressive 64% of connected consumers told Razorfish they had made their first purchase from a brand because of a digital experience—be it a Website, microsite, mobile coupon or e-mail. And friending, following and content creation spurred upticks across the marketing funnel—from raising awareness to consideration, purchase and recommendations to friends."

 

the hottest brands around.

According to AdAge, "consumer spending may have gone cold in 2009, but that didn't stop these marketers from turning up the temperature. Here Ad Age chooses the upstarts and established brands that are setting the pace for innovation -- and getting results -- right now."

Brands include....

5 Hour Energy (really??)

Beatle's 'Rock Band'

Five Guys

Pabst Blue Ribbon

And more. Check out the list and let me know if you think anything was left off!

has mickey gone corperate?

"Concerned that Mickey has become more of a corporate symbol than a beloved character for recent generations of young people, Disney is taking the risky step of re-imagining him for the future.

The first glimmer of this will be the introduction next year of a new video game, Epic Mickey, in which the formerly squeaky clean character can be cantankerous and cunning, as well as heroic, as he traverses a forbidding wasteland.

And at the same time, in a parallel but separate effort, Disney has quietly embarked on an even larger project to rethink the character’s personality, from the way Mickey walks and talks to the way he appears on the Disney Channel and how children interact with him on the Web — even what his house looks like at Disney World."

This makes me nervous! Don't mess with Mickey!!!

give me tide or give me death.

"Fascinating, counterintuitive data coming out of a year-long consumer behavior study finds that Kraft, Coca-Cola and Tide are the three brands least likely to be traded for store brands. The study should worry name brand owners, since 'only 37% of consumers say name brands are more reliable, and 39% believe name brands are better quality products.'

The data are edifying. Age breakdowns show consumers growing less brand loyal (and more price-conscious) as they get older. The huge numbers who are turning to private labels find Wal-Mart, Kroger, and Target to be the stores with the best selections.

An executive for the Integer Group, the conductor of the study, summarized the dilemma for many nationally advertised brands: 'With this many shoppers doing price-comparison, name brands need to act now in order to keep consumers - and beyond the recession, entice consumers to return.'

Of three strongest brands, Coke has long been seen as a brand consumers would be unwilling to trade on, despite the numerous cheaper alternatives. Coke drinkers can immediately discern a taste difference.

Kraft may share some of Coke's loyalty characteristics, based on product as well as brand identity, though it was unclear whether the study included Kraft sub-brands as drawing the most loyalty, or just Kraft-branded products (a stable that may expand soon if Kraft acquires Cadbury and adds its brand.)

Tide is certainly a head-scratcher. Given the bevy of private label laundry detergents on offer from almost every large retailer (including Wal-Mart, Kroger, and Target), and the difficulty of distinguishing Tide's cleaning properties from that of a private label (like a Pepsi 'taste test'), the brand's string performance should leave brand owners scrambling to break down Tide's brand characteristics and aspriational qualities in a quest to adopt them as their own."

what we want (from our brands).

Wondering what consumers REALLY want from you?

"The top characteristic US consumers want from brands they like is to improve their knowledge—and the least desirable one is for a brand to 'only be visible in store'according to the “Global Web Index” from Lightspeed Research.

Helping consumers keep up to date on topics that were important to them was also key, followed by being entertaining, becoming part of a daily routine, and informing consumers about the product and the company. Consumers were relatively uninterested in brands that tried to act like their friends."

So what can you do in this current economic state?

"Unsurprisingly in a difficult economy, consumers said the most relevant thing a brand could do for them was offer discounts. That topped various social and creative efforts such as online communities and brand-created video or TV programs.

Word-of-mouth was the No. 1 purchase driver according to the surveyed consumers. Face-to-face recommendations had significantly more weight with respondents than TV ads, advice from online friends, e-mails or Websites."