Communicate Your Success

Jonathan Richardson February 21st, 2007

Pizza Hut is jumping on the word-of-mouth bandwagon with a new contest that looks to “hire” an Honorary Vice President of Pizza. You can check out the details on their site, but the basics are submit a two-minute video of your love for Pizza Hut pies and hope you win $25k and pizza for a year.

I’m sure this effort will clear its ROI, but it seems like these types of promotions are already reaching saturation. With Cingular, McDonalds, NBC, Career Builder, Disney, etc. recently touting contests on You Tube, standout marketing in this arena is getting harder by the upload. I can’t fault people for wanting to replicate success, but as a wise professor once told me, “if you can’t be the first to do something, move on and be first at something else.”

Instead of spending time on contests like this, why not come up with a way for me (18-34 male demo) to order a large pepperoni directly from my Xbox. Now there’s a tasty way to market.

• Consumer Generated Content , Marketing , Advertising
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Jonathan Richardson February 18th, 2007

The American Cancer Society has launched a fund raising effort that will give at least a dozen unsigned bands some quality time with major label representatives while raising money for a good cause.

The effort, dubbed “Download for a Cure,” is asking unsigned bands to submit an application and two songs to showcasing their talent. Bands selected for the effort will be featured in a virtual album available for purchase from iTunes and get some valuable face-time with A&R folks from labels including Interscope and Atlantic.  Proceeds from albumn sales on iTunes will benefit the American Cancer Society.

 If you are a musician looking to leave your play-for-booze gig and hit the mainstage, you have until May 15 to visit www.downloadforacure.org and rock out.

• Misc. , Marketing
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Jonathan Richardson February 16th, 2007

ConAgra Foods announced this week that it is voluntarily recalling Peter Pan and Great Value peanut butter produced by the company with product code 2111 imprinted on the lid. The recall stems from CDC information suggesting the yummy spread contains salmonella. A quick check of my pantry reveals I’m one of the consumers that should discard the product.

So now that I can’t eat the peanut butter I purchased, I need more PB for my J. As a consumer, do I give ConAgra another shot at my business or make like choosy moms (or dads) and choose Jif? As I don’t consider peanut butter an emotional purchase, I’ll probably just bring the label from my old jar back in and replace it. No harm, no foul.

I was initially concerned as a ConAgra press release stated I would have to “return the Peter Pan Peanut Butter or Great Value Peanut Butter product lid along with (my) name and mailing address to ConAgra Foods, P.O. Box 3768, Omaha, NE 68103.”

Translated, this means:

• Find box for lid
• Travel to post office to mail said box and lid
• Pay to ship box to ConAgra
• Wait for refund check
• Take refund check to bank and deposit so I can purchase more peanut butter
• Return to initial place of purchase to replace previous peanut butter

Instead of a peanut butter to-do list, ConAgra wised up and, as of 2/16/07, is now allowing consumers to return the product to the place of purchase for a full refund.

By not making consumers jump through hoops to resolve the issue, ConAgra has saved face and prevented adding insult to an already injured consumer trust.

• Consumer , Business , Marketing
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