Branding Around a Vice

The crew from the transformation design firm, Two West, took at look at branding around a vice this week. We know that there are brands that are synonymous with a vice – alcohol, tobacco and gambling, to name a few. Advertisers and their agencies are required to make many difficult moral choices and its not always easy to make these decisions.

Gary Gonder of the Missouri Lottery was on the show discussing some of those tough decisions they have to make with responsible gaming messages and how the government affects their advertising budgets.

There was a lot that we didn’t get to with this show. While most NASCAR fans are accustomed to seeing driver Jamie McMurray in the cockpit of a fully loaded Ford Fusion, a new television campaign being launched by Crown Royal puts McMurray behind the wheel of a taxicab. The program is to reinforce the importance of getting home safe after drinking. The campaign’s funny, but will consumers listen to the message? Let us know what you think.



In the Brand Rant Two West discussed Disneyland’s decision to replace anonymous children’s faces with Disney characters in The Small World ride. Here’s the Web site that has been established to try to keep the iconic look and feel of the ride, http://www.savethesmallworld.com. Should the ride change or stay the same? Let us know what you think.

In the Brand Spotlight we spoke about Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection’s “We” campaign. Check out the commercial or go to www.wecansolveit.org and check out their site. Let us know what you think.

Faith-Based Branding

The crew from Two West found this week’s topic very interesting. We took a look at how faith-based entertainment is marketing themselves and how places of worship are becoming marketing-savvy with blogs, videos and the Internet.

We spoke with Pastor Adam Hamilton from The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas. They are utilizing blogs, videos, e-mail newsletters and much more to engage their members and potential members. Check out their Web site, www.cor.org.

Here’s one of Pator Hamilton’s videos from You Tube to promote and upcoming series.



Check out this video of the remake on Sir Mix-A-Lot’s “Baby Got Back” with a Christian version of “Baby Got Book.”



We also updated listeners on Pedigree’s “Dogs Rule” adoption campaign and how that equates to big business because consumers have become loyal to the brand. Pedigree has updated Echo’s story – one of the dogs that was up for adoption. The spot is endearing and shows how they are bringing awareness to dogs being adopted. Check it out and let us know what you think.



All dogs that they featured in the spots have been adopted and they have been able to raise $750,000 for the non-profit foundation that has been established by Pedigree.

Political Branding

With the presidential races heating up, Two West decided to delve into the world of political branding. Check out the podcast to listen to our interview with Joe Erwin, president and co-founder of Erwin-Penland and former chairman of the South Carolina Democratic Party. Joe discusses how politicians are building a brand and how “user generated” politics is playing a part in this brand.

In the Brand Spotlight, Two West celebrated television commercials that won Effies. Here are the links to those videos. Check them out and let us know what you think.

• Vaseline’s “Keeping Skin Amazing”
• Dove’s “Pro-Age”

There was a lot that we didn’t get to with this show. We briefly touched on an article that was in Ad Week discussing how media contributes to political campaigns in hopes that their candidate will win and remember them when legislation comes around that can help or hinder them. Check out the top companies within different mediums that have contributed to campaigns this year:

Top contributors among Book/magazine/newspaper publishers include:
News Corp. - $113,350
Reed Elsevier - $66,850
Paisano Publications - $54,300
Provincetown Banner - $43,350
Newsweb Corp. - $43,000

Top Internet/Computer Contributors include:
Microsoft Corp. - $741,751
Cisco Systems - $523,943
Google, Inc. - $283,328
Hewlett Packard - $239,328
EDS Corp. - $195,085

Top TV/Radio Contributors include:
National Association of Broadcasters - $317,915
Clear Channel Communications - $299,150
Chartwell Partners - $134,600

Top Cable and Satellite TV Contributors include:
Comcast - $1 million
National Cable & Telecommunications Association - $486,873
Cablevision Systems Corp. - $228,363
Echostar Communications - $205,118
Time Warner Cable - $192,735

Two West also touched on a politician, Steve Novick, which is using differentiation to his advantage for his Senate race in Oregon. We love these spots and if he were running for Senate in our state, we’d vote for him. He even has his own lager now. How can you not love that? Check out the logo, the lager and spots and let us know what you think.

Animal Branding Pt. 2

Because there is so much going on in the world of animal branding, the crew from Two West decided to have a second show on the topic. Check out the show to listen to Lynn Parman on from the KC Animal Health Corridor. Her job is to recruit animal health companies to Kansas City.

So we know that Americans are becoming fat, we are making our children fat and now we are making our pets fat. So, Hills has teamed up with the American Veterinary Medical Association to bring awareness to how fat you are making your pet. Check out this video.

We love the “Dogs Rule” campaign by Pedigree that was crated by Chiat Day. We spoke about how they developed this campaign and some of the newest elements of this campaign with their Times Square store. Check out their print ad and let us know what you think.

Animal Branding Pt. 1

According to the 2007-2008 National Pet Owners Survey, 63% of U.S. households own a pet, which equates to 71.1 million homes. It is estimated that households spent $40.8 billion dollars on food, vet care, supplies and services. That means big business for brands in this category.

Two West took a look at some different brands and what they are doing to brand themselves in that category. One of the brands that we looked at is PetsHotels, a sub-brand of PetSmart. This was voted one of the best brand extensions by BrandWeek. Check out their television commercial.

We discussed some of the products for animals. Check out this sequined top and nail polish from Juicy Crittoure for your pampered pup.

Best & Worst of 2007 & 2008

Two West commended Old Navy for their makeover in the Brand Spotlight. Check out their new logo and look. Let us know what you think.



Every year Landor Associates publishes their Newsmaker Brands Survey. This survey examines Americans’ perceptions of high-profile brands that made headlines in 2007 and are expected to make headlines in 2008.

On the Brand Show, Two West was excited to have Landor as a guest on the show once again to discuss the winning and losing brands of 2007 and their predicted winning and losing brands of 2008. Russ Meyer, Landor’s Chief Strategy Officer, explained how Americans continue their obsession with online brands and the indications of an upcoming recession have consumers searching for brands that will help them stretch their dollar.

Here’s the top 5 predicted winners & losers of 2008 according to Landor. Let us know if you agree with this list.

Winners
Google
Amazon
Wal-Mart
eBay
Target

Losers
United Airlines
Delta Airlines
Blockbuster
Countrywide
Gap

Restaurant Brands

On the Brand Show this week, the Two West crew took a look at restaurant brands. A restaurant brand is a lot of different things, but above all the brand should be about food and customer service. We take a look at different examples of how restaurants do a good and not so good job of this such as, Red Robin, Planet Hollywood and Applebee’s. Believe me, there is a lot going on. So much so, we didn’t even get to all of our topics.

In our Brand Rant, we spoke about Equinox Fitness. They’ve chosen Fallon as their agency of record and their new campaign is getting all kinds of buzz. But is it all positive? Check out these ads and you be the judge. Would you know that this is an ad for a gym?























Jen Gulvik, director of marketing for Houlihan’s came on the show to discuss the payoff of re-branding themselves five years ago. Jen also gave us a teaser for their new promotion coming up in partnership with Skyy Vodka and the new Sex and the City movie. Check out the podcast to hear the interview in its entirety.

We touched on a little bit Applebee’s new branding campaign. They have changed everything – from their logo, uniforms, restaurant motif and of course, a new advertising campaign. Can all of this turn the Applebee’s brand around? We think it’s going to take more than comedian Wanda Sykes, who plays the voice of the talking apple, to bring their brand back to cool. Check out the article to find out more of what they are doing.

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Something that we didn’t get to on the show, but thought it was worth mentioning was that O’Charley’s is coming out with a new branding campaign. They needed a way to stand out from a competitive field of casual dining. They did some research and you know what they found out? Customer’s love the roll experience! It’s like we always say at Two West, you need to get to the heart of what customers think about your brand through some in-depth research. That’s what they have decided to focus their campaign on. Check out the link to the article and see their new spot.

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