Mind Noggling
EastWest Creative found that the old adage about putting yourself in theconsumer’s shoes holds true – even if they are only a sizethree-and-a-half, with orange Velcro laces and flashing lights!
When Kraft Kids Brands sought incremental volume for Kool-Aid Bursts softdrinks at back-to-school time in 1997, it leveraged an existingrelationship with the No. 1 children’s TV network, Nickelodeon. Kool-Aidwanted to integrate its package designs with Nickelodeon’s Nogglevisionon-air event, in which certain shows could be viewed in 3-D.
Incorporating punch-out 3-D glasses into all SKUs, we created a fun on-packpremium that was cost-effective and moved mega-volume. Having featuredcharacters from hit Nick shows alongside the Kool Aid Man was an added plusin terms of brand equity.
The real creative challenge was to motivate kids to participate in theprogram both on-air and off. To provide the all-important “immediategratification” play value through the on-pack premium, the 3-D fun of theon-air event had to be recreated on the packaging itself for kids whodidn’t get Nickelodeon. Adding the “Nogglegoggles” and activities into thelimited print area without detracting from the principal display panel’sbrand equities was no easy task.
One clever and interactive solution was entitled “Hypno Eye – you aregetting very silly.” The back panel invited children to don their gogglesand view a large 3-D “Kool Aid Bursts” logo and hypno eyeball. Rather thangetting sleepy, it offered to make them sillier.
The collaboration was hugely successful. More than 33 percent of kids agedsix to 11 participated. On-air support increased awareness and actuallyexhausted many stores’ product inventories. One surprise was finding peoplereselling the Nogglevision packages on the Internet as a Nickelodeoncollectible. O
Kevin Carrol, illustrator
Howard Klein, copywriter
Leave it to Virgin Atlantic to forgo frequent flier miles.
The London-based airline has made loyalty marketing one of its toppriorities this year, but don’t look for its frequent flyers in U.S.airports. Instead, Virgin is sending them shopping with American Expresscards.
Virgin began a card promotion in March to court business travelers for itsfrequent flyer program, Virgin Freeway. The program has 200,000 members inthe U.S., a fraction of American Airlines’ 32 million members worldwide.Flights between eight U.S. cities and London don’t give Virgin enoughdestinations to make U.S. passengers want to collect miles. Still, if itcould get travelers to “sample” the airline once, Virgin execs feel sureits superior service would win converts.
“We want to get people to try Virgin, then push them through the loyaltycycle until they become evangelists for us,” says director of marketingSarah Buxton. “Virgin loyalists become almost like a sales force for us -they rave to their friends.”
Enter the shopping spree card. Passengers who buy round-trip tickets andthen enroll in Virgin Freeway get AmEx stored-value Persona Select cardsworth $50 (for coach passengers) or $500 (for the “upper class”). Cards aregood at 150 merchants, mostly high-end retail and travel services “with ahigh level of remembrance,” says Darryl Hutson, ceo of American ExpressIncentive Services, Fenton, MO. “We want people to feel special about whatthey buy, so we stay away from staple items.”
Cards have more cachet than cash. Virgin considered cash rebates – agrowing trend among foreign airlines – but “it wasn’t very Virgin,” Buxtonsays. The appeal of techno-goodies like Palm Pilots was too narrow. But thecard has wide appeal, and “we can market it as a shopping spree, instead ofjust bribing people with cash,” Buxton says. (Virgin Freeway members alsoearn travel rewards and “activity rewards” like tandem skydiving, hot-airballooning, and off-road driving as well as miles.)
Response to the Persona card offer was so strong Virgin extended the promoanother three months through July. When Buxton travels for business, shequeries seat mates. “Lots chose Virgin for the card, and are impressed bythe flight,”
