Category Archives: advertising

Why Apple has to make inroads in the autonomous self-driving car space, and fast.

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Autonomous vehicles; not wearables will be the new mobile platform.

Autonomous self-driving vehicles (AVs) will be the new mobile platform, on top of which a host of new products and experiences will be developed. Like Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android mobile operating systems, on top of which multi-billion dollar iTunes and mobile advertising businesses have been built, connected autonomous vehicles will enable a multitude of new products and experiences that the consumer will be purchase and/or consume during the ride.

Ride-monetization opportunities are valuable competitive advantages to a robot taxi platform.

As we have learned first-hand in the ride-hailing business, any ability a ride-hailing platform possesses to keep ride fare prices low is a strong competitive advantage. The reason for this is simple. Consumer demand for a given platform’s rides is highly sensitive to ride prices/fares it charges. That is, the platform that offers the lowest prices and wait-times will enjoy the most demand. The ability to generate revenues on AV rides — on top of the ride fare — provides extra margin and room for the robot taxi service provider to lower ride fare prices and still be profitable.

Waymo, Apple, Amazon and Uber possess the best ride-monetization opportunities.

Google’s Waymo is the AV team arguably best positioned to create in-car ride-monetization experiences. Nest, Google Express, Youtube, and of course the digital ad business provide a multitude of opportunities for Waymo and its parent. Perhaps the next best-positioned providers of ride-monetization experiences are Apple and Amazon.

Apple needs to move fast in the autonomous vehicle space.

The smartphone will continue being a key tool in our lives, but Apple must play a role in this future mobile platform otherwise it risks massive declines in its enterprise value. Apple may be late to AV game, but there is hope for Apple to win. With its suite of entertainment, content, and home-system products, Apple is one of the best positioned to create ride-monetization solutions. Seamless cross-product integrations and experiences are what Apple does best. The autonomous vehicle will be just another one of the products with which Apple products will need to integrate. If Apple doesn’t win a major stake in the AV future, Google’s Android — through its integrations into the autonomous vehicle ride experience — could create a better-integrated mobile OS and capture not only Apple’s share of that market but also share of adjacent markets in hardware and content.

As it stands now, Apple has made its AV strategy clear, and it will partner with car manufacturers to provide the autonomous hardware/software technology needed to make a car drive from point A to point B. The challenge will be for it to get the technology working fast enough and to set up the manufacturing partnerships before other teams beat them to it, and there aren’t many car manufacturers left who haven’t already partnered with an autonomous vehicle technology team.

Very strong network effects will be at the core of the autonomous vehicle revolution, which will hinge largely on robot taxi platforms instead of direct-to-consumer vehicle sales. The first teams to get a working product to market will have significant advantage over late bloomers, who will struggle to profitably create a product that offers value in excess of the significant switching costs that the would-be customers would incur to leave its existing AV tech provider.

 

Great stories are…

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I recently attended a presentation by Jeff Gomez, who is the creative mind behind many well-known Transmedia fiction stories, and he gave some interesting insights into what great stories are. I have translated them a bit to be more relevant to the business focus of this blog:

  1. Storyline has to be something worthy of devotion. A good story simply has to be compelling and grappling enough that it moves us emotionally. Ideally, so much so that we share it with others.
  2. Story has to create a world with a past, present, and future.  This is more mechanical, but great stories set the context that helps us understand why the vision is relevant.
  3. Creative visionary & but align to the brand.  It is great think outside the box, but make sure everything aligns to the brand strategy.

Give a Coke campaign: A powerful example of digital marketing

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Google and Coca-Cola teamed up to deliver this awesome global campaign, which was a re-invigoration of classic hilltop commercial.   Of course, the messaging was incredibly well aligned to the brand, but I also liked how the power of our modern digital technologies were highlighted.  Watch the video here:  http://youtu.be/45Z-GevoYB8

This campaign, like one of my other favorites (Coca-Cola’s interactive vending machine on the India-Pakistan border), utilized technologies to create consumer/brand experiences that would not have been otherwise possible.

Target’s “The Everyday Collection” campaign

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Last week, Target introduced “The Everyday Collection” campaign, where groceries and everyday items are highlighted in unique, funny, and attention-grabbing ways. There were four TV broadcast spots that premiered during the Golden Globes.  A cowgirl dominated diaper duty, while one model took changing a light bulb to whole new heights—both award-winning fetes in our opinion.

But this isn’t where the story ends.  The smart marketing team at Target is hosting a Tweet-to-Runway show—the first-ever online runway show inspired by everyday tweets.   Consumers can tweet about items sold at Target, and Target marketers mine these tweets looking for inspiration for an online show.  Pretty clever and fun way to engage your customer with the brand, I say.

The Tweet-to-Runway show is at 1 p.m. EST on Jan. 24.  Check it out here: http://www.everydayshow.com.

Dodge Dart television commercials

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Quick-witted, energetic and amusingly excessive, Wieden + Kennedy’s TV campaign for the Dodge Dart has quietly become one of the most entertaining on the air. Now, agency and client are bringing some of that fresh perspective to the social space with the Dodge Dart Registry, an online program that lets friends and family buy bits and pieces of the vehicle for you—much like a wedding registry allows them to buy you housewares.

–AdWeek article posted January 23, 2013

 

The Dodge Dart television spots are great.  They are memorable, believable, and entertaining, but the online registry part of this campaign is what is really clever and smart because it:

  • will lead to viral marketing via social media,
  • reinforces the Dart brand image of innovation (all the Dart broadcost spots, the Dart product design, the way it was promoted, and now the way you can buy the car, are all innovative)
  • will lead to greater market education of product features (consumers who create and buy from the registry look at the car in terms of it’s individual parts)
  • will maybe even lead to people buying cars in this way.

Pretty darn clever!

Government Solutions Group gives consumer brands an alternative marketing medium

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Government Solutions Group (GSG) helps cash-strapped state parks hook up corporate brands to sponsor public park improvement projects, providing brands with the opportunity to demonstrate the brand’s values to its target consumers.  Below are my takeaway’s from the AdAge article that reported on the GSG and its recent partnerships with Coca-Cola, Odwall, and Juicy Juice.

Odwalla’s and Juicy Juice’s campaigns were smart and good, but Coca Cola’s achieved something even greater in terms of brand engagement.  Coca Cola’s campaign actively involved the consumer as a partner in the brand’s effort.  Such “playing on the same team” I think results in the consumer developing a deeper connection to the brand.

These campaigns make the most sense I think because they are obviously reinforcing the brand’s values, which are shared by their target audience, but the also make sense from a numbers perspective.    In sponsoring these environmental projects, the brands affect a physical space that will be visited by their target consumer for years.  Eventually the same number of eyeballs will see the work of the brand in these environmental projects as are seen in a superbowl ad, but the dollar cost will be far less as well.  For $350,000, these brands are spending far less than they would on a 30-second superbowl commercial.

Bottomline for me though is that the brand is communicating more effectively with their target market that the brand’s values are the same as those of their target consumer.

 

“Baileys Cream with Spirit” advert

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Bailey’s television commercial, as opposed to all the other alcohol commercials that are indistinguishably about young partying, is memorable and distinguishing.  I think the shorter, 15-second version is equally, if not more, effective.  The commercial captures the attention with beautiful visuals that inspire the lush, creamy, warmth and while the song inspires a “party mystique”, all of which reflect the brand image.

Nike’s “Find Your Greatness” campaign and “Jogger” commercial

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Nike’s Find Your Greatness. — Jogger commercial  is a great ad.  It is one ad in a series for the “Find Your Greatness” campaign, which tells us that greatness is about the spirit within and pushing ourselves to our own individual limits.  Greatness in athletic pursuits is not about being faster or better than someone else; it is about being better than you were yesterday.   Endurance athletes generally know this well.  When we practice and compete, we are battling ourselves, our own will, and our own endurance more than we are that of someone else.  We must conquer what is happening in our own bodies and minds if we wish to compete against someone else.

Nike is a great brand, and there is nothing wrong with their supporting the Olympic gold medalists; but with this ad campaign, Nike wonderfully reminds us that sport and exercise is for everyone; and that we all compete against ourselves; and that we are our most important competitor.

Samuel Adams

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The new Samuel Adams commercials brilliantly reflect the company’s passion for their product. They manage to inspire us to imagine how a brewery run by passionate brewers leads to great products.   With this effective advertising, we consumers are more likely to entrust our consumption decisions to the brand, rather the people behind the brand who we believe takes great care in the creation of their products.