Fizz attended CES this year in support of several clients. We were there for three days and walked the entire show at least once. Here are a couple of 30,000 ft observations we had.

TV is coming back.
As a talkable experience, the act of watching television is coming back with the commercial application of 3D television. How long it stays will depend entirely on the content created to support this tech, but no-glasses 3D is here now and will only get cheaper over time. I can tell you that from start to finish of everyday at CES, the longest lines to “see” things were the lines to see the no-glasses 3D televisions. It’s here. Get ready for appointment TV again as DVRs of all stripes will have a tough time recreating live 3D viewing—at least through their next product cycle.

Photo Credit: CES International

The cord is leaving.
An upshot about the desire for mobility is that the cord, in all its manifestations, has become a PITA that companies are overcoming. Whether it’s the palm-sized Optomo PKA31 cordless projector with 28M of internal memory and 50 lumens projecting power (we are now huge fans) or Verizon promulgating products like cell phones that can be wirelessly recharged, the end of the cord is coming. This revolution will not only affect how much road warriors carry with them, but will have far reaching implications to everything from furniture design (think recharging tech built into your hotel room nightstand) to speed through TSA lines.

Fulton Innovation Booth Demonstrating the Wireless Kitchen

That’s it from here. By way of reminder and disclosure, Fizz clients at CES included Intuit, Intel, Fulton Innovation, Qi, WPC and Mophie.

Learn more about Hugh: http://gapingvoid.com/about/

Yesterday I was a Bissell’s HQ in Grand Rapids Michigan for a day of meetings and to give a talk on WOMM to their marketing staff. As you can tell from the picture below, yesterday was not my first rodeo.

What struck me enough to write about my experience was how well thought out Bissell was when it came to my interaction with them. My nametag tells the story.

Bissell is known as a company that provides cleaning tools and products. At it’s core however, they are an engineering and design company and have been since the late 1800′s.

Let’s explore my nametag. Essentially a ‘throw away” product for most companies, Bissell went out and found something that communicates values their consumers prize namely being modern, sleek and functional.

Note how this attaches to my suit, not a pin or heavy clip that is going to leave a mark but a strong magnet. Communicating your values in unexpected places, like visitors name tags, gets people’s attention because you are out there being thoughtful in a place that very few others give thought to.

The point to remember is that everything communicates. If you are a firm with core strengths in design and engineering then everything you do should reflect those traits and the attention to detail that makes those traits come alive.

I go to plenty of corporate HQ’s that have forgotten this lesson. I thought I’d point out one that has not.

Client side CMO – Bev alch, leader in their category. Chairman of the company has asked us if we know any “incredibly capable, non conventional, disciplined but out of the box people we would recommend.” If you are reading this than you probably fit that description or know someone who does. Contact Ted Wright directly if you want to know more.

Fizz LA – Looking for two field people. Contract position. 12 month gigs.

Fizz Seattle – Looking for a field person. Contract position. 12 month gig.

Fizz various West Coast locations – Looking for up to four field people. Contract position. 12 month gig.

Fizz West Coast – WOMM hire. Employee. Regional field manager.

Fizz Atlanta – WOMM hire. Employee. Strategy and creative focus.

Fizz Atlanta – WOMM hire. Employee. Sales and client management focus.

Field people need to have between two and five years experience. Experience in beverage, tobacco, automotive, gaming and national tours all pluses.

WOMM applicants get extra points for previous WOMM experience, ability to quote from the WOMM cannon, existing client side contacts and biz dev skills.

As a company, we are impressed by smart and an ability to get things done. We have a very tight team that trusts each other.  We think we have some of the best jobs in American marketing today. We’ll get 2,000 resumes sent to jobs@fizzcorp.com after we post this and probably call 15 people back. If you’re one of those fifteen then thanks in advance for making our day.

Director of Digital

You were blogging in college or high school. You think in 140 characters chunks. You can code if you have to. You have a passion for participating in digital communities as well as creating/ sharing multimedia. Where some merely dabble in social media, you are immersed in it, super-connected and show creativity in everything you do.   You’d like to work for a company that thinks meetings suck and sock puppets rock. You are hip enough to get a Monty Python elderberry reference and can talk intelligently about Nudge, Meatball Sundaes, David Weinberger’s latest thoughts and if it matters that Guy Kawasaki actually writes all of those Tweets or pays someone to do it for him. You know the future and you want to work somewhere that has clients that want to go there with you.

What You’ll Do: 

• Create and manage content for all web/social media channels
• Act on behalf of Fizz and Fizz clients within all channels of social media
• Make sure content has been proofed and approved before it’s posted
• Monitor social media channels and develop regular reports for clients
• Identify opportunities/threats in user generated content
• Participate in and mediate conversations taking place within social media
• Stay current on emerging new technologies

Skills & Qualifications You Should Have:

• A passion and understanding of the entire social media universe.
• Excellent writing and communication skills
• Familiarity with best brands in social media
• Ability to juggle multiple projects in a fast paced environment
• Attention to detail
• Ability to work within tight deadlines
• Basic knowledge of photoshop, iMovie, iPhone and iCarley. 
• Basic html skills
• Audio/video skills a plus
• BA or BS in something that is relevant or cool
• Creativity
• Sense of humor
• Enjoy working for a great company

HOW TO APPLY 

Send resume and cover letter to womjob@yahoo.com if you think you’ve got what we are looking for. We are hiring now.

In November of 2009, Fizz was honored to win the Humanitarian/Environmental WOMMIE. Fizz would like thank the good folks at PepsiCo for their support of this vital area as well as their embracing of WOMM as the most effective means of commercial communication. Fizz would also like to thank Jef Wallace, CEO of PureRay, and the rest of his team for being great clients to work with. Finally, all of us at Fizz would love you to stop by the PureRay website, www.pureray.com, and see for yourselves how to get involved.

PureRay Case Study

CATAGORY: MOMENTUM – Word of mouth program to juice existing products/services.

TITLE: REFUEL WITH CHOCOLATE MILK

WINNER - BRONZE WOMMIE

The American Dairy Association (ADA) of Ohio wanted to sell more milk. AcrossAmerica, milk consumption had dropped by half since the 1970s and Ohio was no exception. Milk simply had become less and less a part of peoples’ daily lives. It was old-fashioned. There were newer, flashier alternatives. The ADA decided to make a change. Study after study has shown that today’sconsumers are cynical; they just don’t trust commercial messages like they used to. Whatever was to be said had to be “real.” Instead of relying on broadcast media, the ADA turned to word-of-mouth marketing and asked Fizz to help them sell more chocolate milk. So what could be done to revitalize the milk sales? 

The first step for Fizz was to immerse itself in the client’s business. Nine boxes full of almost everything imaginable–posters, T-shirts, presentation materials–arrived at Fizz from the ADA. Within one of the nine boxes wasa study by the University of Indiana. Researchers and nutritionists at Indianafound that chocolate milk, the drink of little kids, was the perfect beverage to drink after strenuous activity. It was, in reality, a better for you, high tech sports drink.

Next, Fizz traveled to Ohio for ethnographic field research. Fizz knew going in that over 65% of Ohioans live in cities under 50,000 people; 22% live in towns under 10,000. During its research process, Fizz discovered that in addition to being the local sports guru, high school football coaches are the de facto source for nutritional and performance information across Ohio. This knowledge dovetailed perfectly with the Indiana research. Few garner such esteem and respect by young adults as “coach.” These men are Influencers across Ohio from small towns to large metro communities. As such, coaches are one of the few groups addressed according to their honorifics (“Coach Smith says…”) by even the most skeptical high school teenagers. The strategy became obvious: Win over the support of the high school football coaches and the rest will follow. 

Fizz and the ADA decided to have conversations with coaches wherethey naturally convene–football clinics. Every year, high school footballcoaches attend intensive training clinics to gain a competitive edge on the field throughout the season. During these sessions, coaches learn and share valuable information to improve their team’s performance. Fizz and the ADA positioned themselves at these clinics to facilitate conversations about chocolate milk. Fizz mailed high school football coaches throughout Ohio with the valuable information they’d found, as well as an invitation to discuss it and to find out more. How does direct mail relate to word of mouth marketing? Coaches are accustomed to receiving poorly executed and cheaply printed marketing material, so Fizz designed interesting luxurious high-end mailers. They were not only cool, they were packed with information about chocolate milk’s benefits. It worked. The coaches were so delighted by these mailers (some brochures “mooed” as they were opened, others used luxe printing techniques)that after reading the information inside, they shared it with their whole staff.  The mailers were so successful at generating conversation among coaches that they brought these mailers with them to the clinics with yellow Post-it note questions attached.

 To drive the message home, Fizz found NFL and MLB alumni and state championship athletes (who we called the “We Won a Ring” gang) who read, digested, and believed in the chocolate milk story. The gang, armed with this remarkable information, attended football clinics across the state interactingwith coaches at all levels. They sent a strong nonverbal message; the bright gold rings these former athletes wear needed no explanation, they tacitly convey that the wearer knows what it takes to win the championships. Some of the noted athletes included Mark Inkrott, 3-year NFL veteran, Pete Shier, former MLB player with the Orioles and the Phillies, and Tyson Yirak, Ohio State basketball champion. Their presence supported the verbal message that chocolate milk is the drink to drink after strenuous physical activity. In fact, many coaches shared their own chocolate milk story (see ADA video)with other coaches.

The message these champions conveyed to the highschool coaches was simple: Chocolate milk is a terrific beverage for their playersto drink after practice and weight training. It is the equal to higher pricednutritional supplements. And, best of all, it can already be found in the highschool cafeteria. The best sports drink has been there all along: it’s chocolatemilk.

Soon after the clinics ended, Fizz followed up by sending members of the “We Won a Ring” gang to the high schools loaded with chocolate milk and a story. The coaches got the message and they passed it along. Chocolate milk sales skyrocketed. Kroger’s chocolate milk sales in the Cincinnati region increased an incredible 475%. That is a Kroger system-wide record for increase in milk sales; Kroger management could not believe so much milk was being sold. In markets across Ohio, milk consumption increased 12-28% YTD as verified by IRI Scandata. This was 10 times the rate of the rest of the country. The sales rise was so dramatic that concerned convenience store owners even contacted the agency staff about chocolate milk’s possible illicit use because of the unprecedented sales to teenage boys (remember “Whipits?”). Of course, they were quickly reassured that that was not the case. 

Even Big Ten colleges got in on the act as their strength and training coaches heard of the power of chocolate milk. They researched it themselves, agreed with our conclusions and started not only using chocolate milk in their own programs, but began spreading the gospel of chocolate milk too! Players at the University of Minnesota, the University of Michigan and the University of Iowa were drinking chocolate milk after workouts. It has become a sports drink phenomenon. ESPN caught wind of this and produced a four-and-a-half minute feature story on the once unassuming beverage for its “College Gameday”program. It sent a camera crew to the University of Washington for the story. Chocolate milk had, tongue-in-cheek, become the football team’s secretweapon. At the end of the feature, Lou Holtz, the famous college coach andcommentator, turned to camera and said, “Had I known this, my kids would have drank chocolate milk.” 

Throughout the entire campaign, the message stayed interesting, relevant, andauthentic. And the results show. Chocolate milk, once the drink of children isnow the refuel source for athletes at every level.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

Media contact: Ted Wright, Managing Partner, Fizz.  m) 773-301-8514   o) 404-638-1066    

Love the Fans’ Underlines WOMMA Keynote Message 

Should Pepsi Pull Its Amp App?

Experts split on significance of the energy drink’s online marketing stunt

Oct 14, 2009

- Kenneth Hein

NEW YORK PepsiCo has found itself at a crossroads regarding its now infamous “Amp Up Before You Score” iPhone app.

The NC-17 rated application offers pick-up lines, strategies for picking up married women, a scorecard for sexual conquests and other edgy content.

After PepsiCo received complaints that the app reinforced stereotypes about women, the company tweeted an apology as well as posted an explanation on Amp’s Facebook page. Still, the app remains available much to the disdain of some. (See also: “Does Anyone Not Dislike Amp’s iPhone App?”)
 
“The app hasn’t been pulled so the apology is disingenuous, is it not?” said Lynne Johnson, svp, social media for the Advertising Research Foundation. “It’s time to pull it and go back to the drawing board.”

Amp is currently the No. 4 selling energy drink in terms of volume. At a 9 percent share of the category for the first half of the year in major retail channels, per Beverage Digest, it is far behind Monster, Red Bull and Rockstar. Still, unlike most carbonated beverages, it is actually growing. Its volume was up 4 percent for the first half.

The brand has long relied on male humor to establish itself. A Super Bowl ad, for example, showed a man with jumper cables attached to his nipples.

“The bottom line is this is just another edgy way to advertise Amp,” said Bill Sipper, senior partner at Cascadia Consulting. “Kudos to them for having the Associated Press and everyone talking about it. It’s a good way to break out of a cluttered category. After all, we’re talking about a soft drink, not nuclear waste.”

John Sicher, editor, Beverage Digest said, “Amp is a product that skews to young males. This is a very edgy promotion, but it’s supposed to be fun and funny. In no way is PepsiCo a company that is disrespectful to anyone.”

Said Pepsi in a statement: “The application is only available to iPhone users 17 years and older who choose to opt in to the experience. It was designed to be entertaining and appeal to AMP’s target. We’ll continue to listen to the feedback and act accordingly.” The company’s earlier Twitter apology read: “Our app tried 2 show the humorous lengths guys go 2 pick up women. We apologize & appreciate your feedback. #pepsifail.””

Pepsi is learning a valuable lesson in social media marketing the hard way, said Seth Godin, blogger and author of Tribes. “For too long advertisers and marketers thought it was okay to treat women as objects to sell something. The difference between now and then is [the general public] now has a platform to complain about it. This is a symptom of platform shifting. Pepsi’s not the only brand that’s going to have to learn the lesson.”

It’s not uncommon for brands within the same company to have vastly different personalities. One need look no further than Unilever, which owns the raunchy Axe body spray and Dove. The difference for Unilever is there is a clear distinction between its brands, unlike at Pepsi, which often markets its products together, said Ted Wright, owner, Fizz, a word-of-mouth marketing company that specializes in beverages.

“Here is a fundamental strategic conflict between Amp and the rest of the portfolio,” he said. “If you’re going to be part of a conglomerate, it makes it very difficult for brands to talk in an authentic voice to niche audiences because it affects the other brands.”

Johnson also notes that the campaign carries greater weight because “they put it out there in a public forum. It’s not like they just sent it to males. . . . The public has spoken. Pepsi needs to rethink this.”

Beer Business Daily

September 1, 2009

A Sane Lone Voice Amongst the Chaos

Dear Client: 

In a sea of over-the-top articles last week bemoaning the brewers’ routine and modest Fall price increase, some with a pinch of demagoguery added, it was good to see that at least one in the mainstream press took the BBD view that prices are still lagging costs in the beer industry.  The piece written by David Niclaus of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch points out that the brewers have actually “smoothed out the effect on beer drinkers” since “g rain prices rose sharply between 2005 and 2008, and the brewers didn’t pass on the whole increase.”  Indeed, beer prices have “lagged the CPI for years at a time when the economy was doing well — from 1995 to 1999, for example, and from 2005 until early last year.”  This increase is much less than in year’s past (with several promo letters dealing back to last year’s deal prices) and is more about fixing the price gap between premiums and sub-premiums.    

WORD-OF-MOUTH VERSUS MASS MEDIA:  AN INTERESTING VIEW 

“But it is true that Heineken needs a killer ad campaign to at least get people talking about the brand again.” This is what I wrote last week regarding Heineken USA’s quarterly results.  I got one heated response from one word-of-mouth marketing expert, Ted Wright of Fizz .  He writes: 

“Harry, you knew I was going to jump off the top rope when you penned that line didn’t you. Ad campaigns sell beer? Really? We read how Heineken’s doing. How about Bud? Corona? Yes, every once in a while a broadcast campaign will give a brand a temporary bump (“Most interesting man in the world”) but add total the number of broadcast campaigns per year and divide that number by those that significantly raise volume over time and you’ll see that playing the Texas State Lottery makes more financial sense than broadcast beer marketing.

However, word of mouth marketing works like a charm every time and scales nationally. Just ask the folks behind Dogfish Head, PBR, Blue Moon or a variety of other brands.  Those brands that build on conversation between consumers and have authentic stories to share and grow year after year. BBD is constantly reporting on their impressive volume growth. Word of mouth marketing is where the American consumer is today. Those brands that take advantage of this fact will prosper.” 

Interesting take.  

MILLERCOORS MAKES EXEC CHANGES 

As reported last week, MillerCoors has hired ex-Diageo exec Alison Potts as vice president, revenue management and sales development-designate, effective September 1. She will initially report to Brad Schwartz, who will remain as vice president of revenue management and sales development through the end of 2009. After that date, she will report directly to Tom Long.   

Meanwhile, Brad will move to a job “implementing the critical MillerCoors Market Investment Model and 2011 pricing model design. These two projects require full-time focus that Brad is uniquely suited to deliver, given his strong leadership in these areas over the last five years,” writes Tom Long in a memo.  Brad’s work on freight and fuel and marketing funding earned “the trust and confidence of our system,” adds Tom.  Now he’ll turn his focus toward pricing.  ”Brad will lead this 2010 and 2011 transformation project design full-time as he transitions day-to-day responsibility for revenue management to Alison.”

REGULATION WORKS, SAYS REPORT   

A white paper prepared by Public Action Management, PLC, a company that provides expertise in alcohol public policy, makes the case that U.S.-style regulation is crucial in preventing the problems that the UK is experiencing.  ”Deregulation of alcohol has many dangerous and unintended consequences for society at large,” says the report, including “very high rates of youth intoxication; large increases in alcohol induced diseases including liver cirrhosis; and frequent public disorder and violence around pubs and nightclubs.”  The UK “has a cyclical history with alcohol problems….. Today’s epidemic in the U.K. follows the path of gradual deregulation to a point where society treats alcohol the same as any other product. All forms of alcohol–beer, wine and spirits–are sold almost everywhere and can be purchased 24 hours a day.”  

From 1980 to 2007, alcohol became at least 70% more affordable. “This was particularly true in grocery stores where four large supermarket chains gained 75% of the market and became locked in a price war driving alcohol prices ever lower.”  

The report says that the current regulatory structure (three-tier and state regulations) “prevents price wars, eliminates tainted alcohol and collects taxes. Drunk driving has declined, although too many people still die on American highways from alcohol-induced crashes. Enforcement has curbed illegal sales to underage buyers.  It is critical that Americans take the lesson from the United Kingdom with great seriousness. Unbridled and unrestrained free market forces, once unleashed, are very hard to control.”  

BEER BRIEFS: 

BRICK BREWING of Ontario says it is being taken to court by ABI, claiming its Red Baron Lime violates the trademarks and copyrights for Bud Light Lime.  ABI seeking an injunction and compensation from Brick from the Federal Court of Canada.   

TIM SCHOEN, 50, is leaving Anheuser-Busch to pursue other interests.  Tim served as vice president of global sports and entertainment marketing.   

TOYOTA SAID Monday it was developing anti-drunk driving equipment that would lock the ignition of a vehicle if high levels of alcohol are detected in the driver. The system features a hand-held breathalyser, equipped with a digital camera, that detects alcohol consumption and photographs the driver’s face for identification, and can send a message to fleet administrators.  The device is intended for fleet vehicles of government and companies. 

YOUR EDITOR will be speaking at the NBWA Convention this year in a talk titled “Behind the Headlines” on Thursday, September 24 from 7:30 to 9am.  Hope to see you there. 

JUST ONE month left to get the early-bird discount on the Beer Industry Summit, to be held February 28 to March 1, 2010 near Phoenix at the Wildhorse Resort.  Registrations are already way ahead of last year, so get your seat now.  More information here:  http://www.beernet.com/about_beersummit.php

Until tomorrow,  Harry