Sing for your Shipping

Levi's is offering a fair incentive to get you to share your personalized Levi's ad: if three friends view the commercial, they automatically send you a coupon for free shipping for on your next online purchase of $75 of more. Regardless of additional orders, this offer is a great way to keep the conversation going.

BizReport: Levi Adds Buzz to Buttocks, 2006-Sep-26, by Angelique van Engelen

The campaign, which has been created by Personiva, is a try out in offering consumers direct incentives for participating in advertising campaigns.

Do Something for your Readers

Canadian firm Ariad Custom Communicaitons helps independent financial consultants market to their customers, usually with newsletters. So they believe their own newsletter has to be a role model. The first decision they made was to avoid using articles to tell their audience what to do. Instead they show and assist their audience in four sections of the bimonthly newsletter. I highly recommend the whole Sherpa article which includes tips about headlines and graphic design.

1. Tools
2. Research
3. Examples
4. Action items

MarketingSherpa: How an Email Newsletter to Ultra-Busy Execs Gets up to 73% Clickthroughs (Hint: No Articles), 2006-Sep-22 ($9 after Oct 2)

"Our mantra is no long and boring articles. They don't need theory. They need tools." ...

• Tools might be pre-written sales letters (in word) for specific situations, or a pre-created survey to use with clients.
• Research ...[is not a white paper but] a pie chart highlighting a single useful factoid of immediate impact on their business....
• Real-life examples [show] what works in marketing from their own peers
• Action items [will spotlight an industry trend and recommend how to use it or handle it.]

"Depending on the issue, our unique opens range between 50%-70%. Over the last four issues, unique clicks have bounced around depending on topic, from 25%-73%." [says Senior VP Mark Michaud.]

New Participatory Marketing Model

Researching their market, pre-launch, the new CW Network found that everyone expected them to push the envelope. And so they decided to become the most participatory network, encouraging involvement of both viewers and advertisers. Advertisers like P&G's Herbal Essence can submit 2-minute content wraps. Herbal Essence is talking about Fashion Week and hot hairstyles. Viewers can go online to the web site or the MySpace page and compete in contests to make TV spots, appear in TV spots and appear in the TV shows.

Washington Post: New Marketing Model for New CW Network, 2006-Sep-18, by Lynn Elber (Associated Press)

While established broadcasters maneuver to exploit the Internet, iPod and other technology, CW is building them into its carefully designed model, its executives said. "The words we use to describe CW, besides the young demographic, are innovation, participation, connection and community," said [CW Entertainment President Denise] Ostroff, ... She cited market research that showed its target audience, found at the 60-million-strong intersection of Generations X and Y, "is a 'we' generation, not a 'me' generation."

T-Shirt Marketing

Two non-competitive marketers who share an audience have made a neat flip on the sponsorship concept. California-based surf/skate equipment supplier Split is supplying hip t-shirts to casual restaurants based in Hawaii called Wahoo's. A wide variety of trendy shirts are supplied free of charge to the restaurant with the clothing supplier's name writ large and the restaurant's name in small type on the sleeve. Split also hangs banners around the restaurant and the two companies may collaborate on some events soon.

Honolulu Star Bulletin: Uniform Decision, 2006-Aug-27, by Allison Schaefers (via Extra Texture)

Angela Malo said customers regularly ask where she buys her trendy T-shirts. "Customers always want to know where I shop and my niece begged me to send her my uniform -- I finally had to tell her that I couldn't give away my work clothes," Malo said. The pride Morales and Malo express in their uniforms is a two-for-one advertising win for Wahoo's Fish Taco and for Irvine, Calif.-based Split USA, both of whom reap equal benefits from a guerrilla marketing tactic that has reversed traditional sponsorship patterns.

Sony Offers Buttons on Commercial

So far as I know, Sony is the first to add interactive "alternate endings" to a major broadcast commercial. Of course, only DVR users who are replaying the commercial can access extra footage. Sony is supposedly putting $12 million of media behind this commercial spot, so we should get a chance to see how it works!

WSJ.com: Sony Tries to Lure DVR Ad-Skippers, 2006-Sep-20, by Suzanne Vranica

Sony hopes that ad-zappers, who usually have to pay close attention to what's on screen to avoid overshooting when the program resumes, will be intrigued enough by the buttons appearing on the screen to stop.

More Films for Marketing

InterContinental wanted to market their hotels based on their attractive settings, but they could never have afforded to create 140 short films about the locale of each hotel. So they recruited filmmakers from TurnHere, which already posts short films about exciting places to visit and hopes to match all their artists with sponsors. InterContinental is having custom films made that feature the concierge of each hotel, and they hope to have the first 40 done by the end of October. TurnHere will host the films which will also appear on InterContinental's web site and in its newsletters.

ClickZ: InterContinental Hotels Books TurnHere for Branded Web Films, 2006-Sep-14, by Kate Kaye

"The main objective of this is that we want to provide our guests with authentic and local knowledge of each destination," said Jennifer Ploszaj, global director of brand communications for InterContinental Hotels and Resorts. "[TurnHere's] business model allows us to scale this across the world," she stressed. "We'd never be able to do this on our own."

Okay, Not THAT Close

To break through the clutter, Adidas has the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team demonstrating their fan commitment by donating their blood which is then added to the ink used for printing the posters and team shirts. The limited edition runs are almost all gone before the season starts.

WSJ.com: Adidas Draws Blood for Rugby Fans, 2006-Sep-15, by Geoffrey A. Fowler

"A signature is personal. But these guys do sign a lot of autographs," says Craig Waugh, the marketing manager for Adidas in New Zealand. "The DNA of the team is making it extremely personal."