Old Spice - The Man Your Man could smell like has left the Stage

It's true. Isaiah Mustafa is off to his next gig. The iconic hunk synonymous with Old Spice has left the brand. In his wake is a case study of how a partnership between a traditional CPG company (P&G), a brilliant creative team (W&K) and a talented actor (Isaiah Mustafa) revitalized a 71 year old brand.

Overnight the brand became a viral hit, making it the darling of the media and a commercial success. Previously known as "the deodorant my grandfather used", the relaunching of the brand was achieved by an overhaul of the brand strategy and the courage to break new ground. The team kept true to the brand’s core values - genuine, honest, sincere, authentic and masculine but re-staged them in a way that was relevant to a much younger audience.

They ditched the whistling sailor and girl in every port but kept the rugged, sexy guy and the jingle. What was brilliant about the new campaign was the way it appealed to women as much as it did to men (I want my man to look and smell like Mustafa). And with the clever use of humour, the character was aspirational and accessible to a target group looking for heroes and ways to build self-confidence.

A well executed marketing strategy was also key to the brand’s success – from the launch of the “The man your man could smell like” ad at Superbowl to the real time social media tactics that kept the brand top of mind and engaged with a wide consumer and media base.

So who will replace Mustafa? A familiar face from the big hair and diso days – Fabio. The casting for Mustafa’s successor must have been a nightmare – the same nightmare the producers of the James Bond movies must have gone through in replacing the iconic Sean Connery. Yet the Bond franchise, through some trial and error, has successfully built its fan base and stayed relevant.

It will be interesting to see if Fabio will resonate (or not) with the Old Spice fan base.
What do you think?

How brands are using tracking to build trust

According to an article in USA Today, the new American obsession is to track everything from packages to pizza delivery, to tracking how taxpayer money is being spent. To give you an indication of the interest in tracking, in 1995, UPS had a total of 100,000 online requests for the month of December. In 2008, UPS received an average of 27.3 million requests per day for December.

Does this need for tracking address a human desire for control in a chaotic world? Whatever the psychological need, it definitely is a way that brands can engage longer with customers long after the purchase button has been pressed. It’s also a way brands can deepen their relationship with customers by building excitement and trust.

Here are a couple of examples:

Dominos Pizza
Domino's rolled out Pizza Tracker last year which gives consumers a window into the status of their pizzas as well as Domino's a window into the online world of its customers. The Pizza Tracker is used by 75% of Domino's online customers. Besides connecting consumers to their pizzas, the tracker gives the first names of workers who make and deliver their order.

Fed-Ex
FedEx.com gets 6 million package-tracking requests daily, and according to Mark Colombo, senior vice president of digital access marketing, "tracking is one of our top drivers for customer satisfaction," "People are obsessed with it." FedEx has 14 tracking "events" for the average package, from pickup to when it gets on the plane to when it's on a local truck to delivery. Consumers can choose to be notified of any of these handoffs.

Flights
Some folks are big trackers of flights. That's why Daniel Baker started FlightAware in 2005. It's a free service that receives FAA information and converts it into maps that track almost all non-military flights in the USA and Canada. That's about 50,000 flights a day. The service receives 100 million flight-tracking requests a month. You can also check out Flightstats.com, yet another flight tracking service.

Government Spending
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who made millions tracking data, is giving New Yorkers the chance to track city agency performance. The website includes 550 data points that residents can track — from the response time of the local fire department to how quickly potholes are filled.

Newborns

There is also a cottage industry being created through tracking. For example, through Trixietracker.com you can track the habits of your newborn. The software converts daily data (sleeping, pooping, feeding) into formatted charts. Not sure if those trends help sleep-deprived parents better cope, but for the track-a-holic, this makes for interesting reading.

The Opportunity
Tracking feels like a way to reassure the consumer that their individual purchase or request is important. People don’t have to call a number, be put on hold or get lost in complex phone trees. And while it is an automated feature, is feels personal, allowing you to feel just a bit more in control.

What services do you offer that might benefit the consumer? Here are a couple ideas:

Grocery or Specialty shops – when the truffles are arriving, the Copper River Salmon shipment, Fiddleheads……etc

Fashion Retailer – which shows your buyers are attending or a countdown to a truck show or sale

Photographer/Musician – where are you performing or doing a photoshoot

The possibilities seem endless. Have you seen some cool applications that you can share?

State Farm Insurance and the tale of the moonwalking crazy pink bunny

Last week I wrote about smartphones. Since one out of seven minutes of media consumption today is through mobile devices, this is an important communications platform for brands. With mobile usage expected to grow by 60 percent over the next two years, marketers should be thinking about how they can leverage these devices to build the brand and drive the business.

Mobile advertising is certainly one avenue marketers can pursue. According to new research from IPG's Universal McCann and AOL, mobile users are surprisingly accepting of advertising. Amongst 1800 respondents polled, 38 percent said they had taken action based on mobile ads. Almost 30 percent said mobile ads had led them to share information, while 22 percent said mobile ads had influenced a purchase decision.."

However, Forrester Research isn’t as bullish as the AOL folks who commissioned the study referenced above, citing hurdles such as complexity around metrics, carrier relationships and limited consumer mobile data use as stifling mainstream mobile marketing today. The firm doesn't expect mobile spending to pick up until mid-2011 as brands continue to rely on more established avenues for marketing products and services.

Advertising complexities aside, what I continue to find promising for brands are mobile apps; where you are building something of value that your target actually wants to download. Mobile apps are a great example of permission based or “inbound” marketing, something that does not buy you immediate eyeballs but builds more meaningful relationship with your users. All sorts of brands are experimenting with mobile apps as it's an area rich in possibilities for building loyalty and driving sales.

Recently the savvy (e)retailer Best Buy introduced Best Buy Weekly Deals, a mobile app designed for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Once the app is downloaded, users can view weekly deals and mobile-only specials and find the nearest Best Buy store. A mobile app can offer a richer, faster customer experience than a mobile commerce web site because many of the features and design elements are stored on the smartphone. This means that these elements do not have to be regularly downloaded from servers, and because an app can integrate with smartphone features such as an address book or GPS navigation, it can greatly enhance functionality.

And then there is State Farm and the tale of the moonwalking crazy bunny. State Farm has recently introduced an iPhone app that acts as a "pocket insurance agent" allowing you to submit a claim directly, with pictures and details, the moment you're in an accident. Now, I don’t personally expect to have an accident happen frequently enough to have an insurance app taking up valuable storage space on my iPhone, but perhaps some do and will covet this app.



However, it’s not the app that I have an issue with – it’s the ad campaign. State Farm is attempting to offer convenience and build trust by “being there” with this app, however, their advertising is totally out of brand character. The ad features a pink bunny that goes berserk and dismantles a guy's car in a parking lot. While this is happening, the car owner is sitting in the car using the app to send in the damage report.

I don’t know about you, but I'm scared

Who’s in charge of brand strategy over there?

Social Media Bullseye

It’s exciting to see how companies are leveraging new channels and new technology to build their brands. Facebook is a platform where marketers are eagerly trying to crack the code on how to leverage the high number of users that visit every day. Currently there are over 200 million active users and Facebook will only increase in importance as a community connection point as their user base grows.

One brand that has been doing a great job leveraging Facebook is Target. They had a great promo interacting with college kids in the Fall called “Dorm Survival Guide” and now they are back on Facebook, this time with a two week giving campaign called “Bullseye Gives”. The premise is that you can vote for your favorite charity amongst a choice of ten groups that Target supports: Breast Cancer Research Foundation, Feeding America, HandsOn Network/Points of Light Institute, Kids In Need, Parent Teacher Association, National Park Foundation, Operation Gratitude, Red Cross, The Salvation Army, and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital®. The “prize” is $3 million which will be split amongst the charities based on the percentage of votes they receive.



This wonderful brand and goodwill building campaign is a brilliant use of crowdsourcing with viral marketing upside for both Target and the charities. Because it’s on Facebook, it will drive huge cachet for the brand as a hip way to get involved. You can post your vote on your profile and encourage others to participate getting more people to join Target's fan base. Savvy charities are also posting links on their website homepages and are reaching out to their followers to join Facebook and vote. The competition is starting to heat up - two days into the campaign, there are 34,000 votes and twelve more days of activity to go until it wraps up on May 25.




So Target isn’t just doing good, but through an innovative use of using social media, they are growing and strengthening their online community whilst building their brand.

note: thanks to Mashable and MyTechOnline for research/info

Attention small business owners - this book is for you.

All You Need is A Good Idea, a new book written by Jay H. Heyman. Reviewed by Karin Koonings of The Essential Orange as part of the Post2Post Book Tour


How many times have you thought…..how can I build my business more effectively? Should I advertise on the radio? Should I do a direct-mail campaign? Or is an email campaign more cost effective? Have you often hired an ad agency or “marketing guy” and wondered….is this ad going to do it for me? How do you evaluate if it’s a really good piece of communication? Or are you guilty of telling your agency to add yet another key message to the perfect ad they’ve presented...?

To create marketing messages that actually get results, all you need is a good idea - and that truly is the key takeaway of Jay Heyman’s book. Entrepreneurs often have good product ideas – but a good idea without an effective marketing message or strategy is dead in the water.

What I love about this book is that it is written in a very conversational style, yet, the thinking is grounded in classical marketing strategy. The author gives real-life examples and tips that are very practical and don’t require large budgets. It’s an easy and entertaining read and unlike many business books, the ideas actually stick.

One of my favourite examples in the book of a good idea is of a New York sightseeing company that uses double-decker buses. Instead of the traditional red, the buses are painted yellow and black to resemble a New York taxi. A simple yet creative idea that made this tour company stand out from their competition.

Heyman’s whole mission is to give business owners the confidence to create or evaluate good ideas so they get sales results. Good ideas are fresh, often taking something familiar and giving it a new twist, something unexpected yet relevant. Good ideas differentiate and build a brand and also have the strength to carry a campaign. They have the power to make you smile and they are single-minded.

If there’s one thing I missed in the book, it was examples or tips on how small business can leverage the digital or social media channel. The success story of Blendtec comes to mind as a great example of a powerful idea well communicated. Nonetheless, this book is a great guide for small business and to prove this out, I thought it would be a good idea to test drive some of Heyman’s suggestions to see how they worked.

Test Driving the Book, Part I - Mythic Paint




I used the print ad evaluation exercise on p 78 and expanded it to create a “creative check-list” incorporating many of the concepts found in the book. I’ve applied the check-list below to the first print ad I found in my October 2008 issue of Dwell magazine which so happened to be for Mythic Paint. Here are my findings:

Could I understand the strategy in the headline?
• Not really unless it was that Mythic Paint was brought to earth by aliens

Was the idea unexpected yet relevant?
• Unexpected yes, relevant to me, not so much

Did it have the power to make me smile?
• It had to power to make me go “huh?” and flip the page

Was the ad single-minded? No
• Mythic Paint = aliens
• Highly durable
• Zero VOCs and zero toxins
• Uncanny combination of beauty and safety
• The world’s only high performance, non-toxic paint
• The legend (what legend?) goes on
• Dumbstruck/frowning woman a definite turn-off

Does the ad help differentiate the brand from competitors? Yes
• It is certainly different, but I’m not convinced that it’s memorable

Is the idea brand building & campaignable?
• Not in my opinion
• The ad does not build credibility or trust to support product claims
• Painting is hard work and there does not seem to be any payoff in the imagery

Test Driving the Book Part II - Safecoat Paint

Let’s look at another paint ad (perhaps it’s a tough category). In the same magazine I found an ad for Safecoat Paint that used one third of a page.

Could I understand the strategy in the headline? Yes
• Breathe easy (no fumes, non toxic)

Was the idea unexpected yet relevant? Yes
• The use of canary (think: coal mine) metaphor was very relevant

Did it have the power to make me smile? Yes
• It recognized my intelligence and gave a twist to the familiar

Was the ad single-minded? Yes
• It’s a safe paint – for you and for the environment
• The certification allows me to trust the product claims
• And hats off to whoever came up with the name and the packaging – it reinforces the message of safe and eco-friendly

Does the ad help differentiate the brand from competitors?
• yes, although I believe there is more opportunity to bring more emotion and energy into the ads


Is the idea brand building and campaignable?
Yes – it definitely has legs.

This exercise shows how “All you need is a Good Idea” can help the small business owner recognize, create and evaluate effective marketing messages.

It's a great book. Well done, Mr. Heyman!

Visit Jay's blog here
Check out more book reviews hosted by Idea Sandbox here

And the Sign Says....

A curious event happened today as the scaffolding around the corner of Pike and 1st Avenue in Seattle came down and a new Starbucks store was unveiled. (Another Starbucks in Seattle you may ask…..how is this possible??)

The store opens tomorrow but already it is a show stopper. The first thing you notice is the logo. It’s the old mermaid who is making her reappearance. We saw her last Fall with the launch of Pike Place Blend – she was on the coffee packaging and on all the paper cups. She’s also the beacon for the original Starbucks store in Pike Place Market.



I had a chance to speak to one of the Starbucks designers and this is the first store launched under a new concept called “Heritage”. As I recall from my days at Starbucks, this concept has been in the works for quite some time and draws it’s inspiration from…. guess what? You got it - the heritage of Starbucks and the traditional coffeehouse.

It’s a beautiful store. From the outside there’s lots of glass (notice the glass overhang to protect patrons from the famous Seattle rain), wooded blinds frame the windows and there is a Parisian café style patio with marble top tables and wicker chairs. Inside the colours are warm – dark browns and large chalk boards instead of the usual “QSR” style menu boards. It’s also a Leeds certified building.



This place is probably about 3000’ feet and including the patio could seat maybe 50 people. Given it’s prominence to the entrance of Pike Place Market, Seattle’s #1 tourist draw, this store will easily be a $2.5 to $3 million dollar store for Starbucks.

This is a good sign for Starbucks. They know that their success resides in creating the “Third Place” but over the last couple of years we’ve seen stores built with cheap seats and horrible acoustics. We’ve been terrorized by blenders and loud music from tinny speakers. Business meetings become shouting matches. No fun.

So here’s my question……what about the other 8000 or so stores that need TLC??? When will you fix “My Starbucks”?

OK - perhaps I’ll walk the 3 extra blocks to this new one.

Creating emotional connections

Strong and enduring brands create an emotional connection with their core customer. For example, tapping into personal values such as freedom, creativity and independence are at the core of Apple’s success, whereas brands like BMW tap into values of excellence, speed, and competition.

In brand communication, there’s always been a debate between the effectiveness of the purely functional/rational hard sell (think Tide gets clothes clean) and the emotional (think Sunlight – modern, caring, gentle). In "Brand Immortality" a book published by two Brits, Hamish Pringle and Peter Field, these former ad agency execs demonstrate that there’s a quantitative link between the effectiveness of emotional advertising and business results. In fact, they posit that emotional campaigns are almost twice as likely to generate large profit gains as rational ones, with campaigns that use facts as well as emotions in equal measure falling somewhere in between the two.

With trust at an all time low in today’s economic and corporate climate, this is a timely book. The current environment gives brands the opportunity to deepen the emotional connection by addressing consumers’ needs for stability, honesty and simplicity.

Brands that “get” this will win. In the case of Tropicana, we’ve seen how a change in packaging has sparked a huge negative emotional reaction. On the other hand, General Mills is using consumer sentiment to its advantage and is leveraging nostalgia to drive sales. They’ve gone into their archives and have re-introduced box designs for some of their best-selling cereals - Cheerios, Honey Nut Cheerios, Lucky Charms, Cocoa Puffs and Trix.




Do you have an example of a brand that has leveraged current consumer sentiment effectively to create an emotional connection?

Orange Equity

As “The Essential Orange”, I watched the groundswell around the Tropicana packaging controversy with great interest. There are over 5000 blog entries, not to mention hundreds of tweets and a Facebook group all whinging about the package change. My conclusion – I wouldn’t want to be the Tropicana brand manager right now. Run!!! Change your profile on Linkedin!!

Kidding aside, here are my thoughts:

• Don’t be arrogant - – when you have an iconic brand, your customers’ “own” it. You have to involve them in a more meaningful way. You ignore them at your own peril.

• Baby boomers wear glasses – you have to help them find you on the shelf. Don’t confuse and frustrate them. The big orange on the old packaging stood out and the caps helped you differentiate between varieties quickly and easily

• Baby boomers have discovered blogging – be creative in getting consumer insights. Look at what Eight O’Clock Coffee and Nestle are doing to involve their customers.

• Be relevant – the package design project probably started over 18 months ago. Consumer sentiment has changed. The consumer in 2009 is …. “seeking comfort and security rather than status. Brands that hearken back to simpler, better times will do well. Nostalgic branding that speaks to old-world sensibilities will encourage consumers to do more with less”. Richard Brandt, Executive Creative Director, Landor New York.

• Don’t mess with the orange – they did well here. The product and the carton sizing remain the same.

Curiously, no one gave Tropicana any credit for supporting "Save the Rainforest" or their efforts on reducing their environmental footprint, both of which are featured on their website with the new packaging.

Here’s an idea they could have pursued to involve loyal fans and receive recognition for doing good - let folks comment/vote on the new/old packaging and for their involvement, reward them by buying a piece of the rainforest in their name.

Sales Sour - update on impact of packaging change - update 4/3/09

After its package redesign, sales of the Tropicana Pure Premium line plummeted 20% between Jan. 1 and Feb. 22, costing the brand tens of millions of dollars. Now that the numbers are out, it's clear why PepsiCo's Tropicana moved as fast as it did. According to Information Resources Inc., unit sales dropped 20%, while dollar sales decreased 19%, or roughly $33 million, to $137 million between Jan. 1 and Feb. 22.

Several of Tropicana's competitors appear to have benefited from the misstep, notably Minute Maid, Florida's Natural and Tree Ripe. Varieties within each of those brands posted double-digit unit sales increases during the period. Private-label products also saw an increase during the period, in keeping with broader trends in the food and beverage space.

For posterity, I'm including a link to the interview with Peter Arnell, the head of the design firm that came up with the new look, with their rationale.

tropicana

Great brands deserve great leaders

I want to thank everyone for their comments and emails to my last post, “Instant Controversy” - the introduction of Starbucks instant coffee.

I agree with most of the points raised, but perhaps we’ve all missed something important. Sometimes when a team is down, what you need is a win to build momentum. Starbucks has been battered by a string of losses. Jobs have been slashed and close to a 1000 stores closed. For those who remain, trust has been broken. Morale is at a historic low.

I’m not saying that the introduction of an instant coffee will bring back the magic, but it could serve as a rallying point for the people who make up Starbucks.

What Schultz needs to do is believe in his people once again, because it’s their creativity and hard work that’s given Starbucks the success it’s enjoyed. Howard Behar, one of Starbucks’ original thought leaders, often shared the belief that a great leader creates an environment where people can bring their “souls to work”. Just as a sports team can’t rely upon a single point or guard to carry the game, it’s the core and the motivation of the entire team that matters.

"The goal of many leaders is to get people to think more highly of the leader. The goal of a great leader is to help people to think more highly of themselves." - J. Carla Northcott

So when Schultz talks about getting back to the core, he should remember that the core is the people. And the people are the team.

Or as Howard Behar, also said…..It’s not about the coffee.

Great brands deserve great leaders.

Instant Controversy

Starbucks has launched an instant coffee - Via. Brand pundits are saying this is another signal of the brand’s demise. Many reminisce to the days when Starbucks brewed each cup by hand using the La Marzocco. Yet, Starbucks has been using “push button” technology now for years. Why? To improve product and service quality. The La Marzoccos were tricky to calibrate resulting in an inconsistent brew and in more down time that slowed customer service. The push-button machines, while not flawless, were more consistent and faster.

Most people, no offense, make a lousy cup of coffee at home. How many coffee drinkers do you know that actually grind their beans and stick the grounds in a coffee press every morning? And how many coffee drinkers know what the correct portion or grind are, store their coffee in an airtight container and ensure their beans are no longer than seven days old?? (My parents love Starbucks coffee but I shudder when I read the date stamps – of OPEN coffee bags still in use)

People love convenience. Via will finally provide all the coffee lovers out there who don’t want to fuss with coffee brewing or who don’t feel like getting dressed in the morning to grab a Starbucks, a pretty decent cup of coffee. And as long as it does not distract management from their immediate priority - fixing the retail business - a great innovation in a very "stale" category.

Brands - the sticky factor

In my last post on t-Mobile's “Liverpool Station Dance” (aka flash-mob), one of the questions I asked was around the stickiness of the t-Mobile ad. Would viewers notice and, more importantly remember that it was a t-Mobile ad? Since then, I came across an interesting snippet from Martin Lindstrom who reports on brands for Ad Age. He did a piece on what works (or not), in large-scale advertising campaigns and presented some of the conclusions from a research project using “neuro-marketing” – a type of brain scan where participants are exposed to marketing and communications stimuli.

According to the results of this study in which 2000 people participated, it seems that most product placement and sponsorships do not work. For a brand to be effective, Lindstrom suggests, you need an integrated approach to storytelling. You also need to be relevant and consistent in your message in order to help consumers store brands in their long term memory.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1370868150/bctid9433620001

To summarize, his key findings are as follows:

1. Logos alone don’t create any consumer awareness and in fact can create consumer suspicion. This is bad news for the billboard industry or sponsorships that basically sell you ad space where your logo is a dominant part of the medium. (It seems the Pepsi folks aren’t aware of this research as they are relying heavily on outdoor to launch their updated “smile logo” with words like “Change”, “Hope” and “Yes you Can”)

In the t-Mobile spot, the logo is the last thing you see, almost like production credits with t-Mobile’s distinguishing jingle/sign-off. Very subtle but perhaps also very effective. It begs the question at the end of the Liverpool Station Dance video – who made this cool thing?? Thus allowing the viewer to discover the advertiser vs being bombarded with logos.

Guess who else is using this strategy? Hint: it starts with a G.

2. Brands need to be put into a relevant context and you need to be consistent. The key, however, is that the storyline needs be told in an indirect way and the story needs to be incorporated into all you do – live what you say versus “all hat no cattle” as they say in Texas.

t-Mobile has created a powerful platform for “Life is for Sharing”. Isn’t it wonderful that you can capture a spontaneous moment and share it with your friends and family through the phone? And think about the cool ways they can build on this idea in an integrated and fun fashion.

3. In-direct signals like colour, shapes and sound are more powerful memory triggers than logos. Ten out of ten for t-Mobile.

What about Pepsi?? (Not that I wanted this post to be a t-Mobile vs Pepsi discussion – Pepsi deserves it’s own post). Let it suffice to say that Pepsi has spent a ton of $$ launching the new logo as part of their “Refresh” campaign. I’m not sure that using words like “Hope” and “Change”, (words also heralded by the Obama campaign) are inspiring when juxtaposed besides a revamped Pepsi logo. And while the music track of the now infamous Super Bowl Pepsi ad is catchy, seeing a Dylan selling his once youthful and rebellious soul to a soft drink company feels a little like Joan Baez being the spokesperson for Sleep Number beds - incongruent in a "doesn’t sit right kind of way".

What do you think?

Yes........Life is For Sharing

Today I received an email from my 82 year old dad. He sent a link to a video on YouTube which his good friend Hans (also in his 80’s) had forwarded to him. I clicked on the video, and it was the t-Mobile UK’s Dance (Life is For Sharing) at Liverpool Train station that has been a viral sensation since it aired on January 16^th .

If you haven't seen the video: here it is!

Let’s look at some of the stats

• there have been over 2.9 million impressions on YouTube and some 6500+ viewers cared enough to leave a comment
• the video has ranked amongst the top 10 videos seen – on Feb 3 it was #3 – and this for an ad
• the video has also been mentioned on over 26,900 blogs around the world

And the commentary has been incredibly positive, using words like “heartwarming”, “Restores your spirit” and “OPA! Meu primmeiro post”

All this for an ad by a phone company. Brilliant.

The ad broke through the clutter, taking “flash-mobbing” from guerilla to mainstream. Flash-mobs are not new (see history below), but t-Mobile is the first big brand to use the medium effectively. Interestingly, Home Depot and Best Buy have been flash-mobbed by “Improv Everywhere” (http://improveverywhere.com) back in 2006 in their stores, but the videos did not generate the viral impact that t-Mobile’s Dance has. And the brand & marketing folks from those big box stores did not see the potential to take the idea into the social and viral media the way t-Mobile's agency did.

The campaign is about getting people to engage in conversations and share stories by encouraging viewers to post camera videos on a YouTub website accompanying the ad. It hit the brand's bull'eye, "life is for sharing" spot-on.

When I asked my Dad why he liked the ad, he said “it makes you feel good and lets you still enjoy a moment where you can forget about the misery and chaos in the world today”. And it wasn’t just one person enjoying a moment, but it was the spontaneous combustion of joy that erupted over music and dance. The medium was viral so friends are sharing with friends.

No animals were used to create the dance – it was cruelty free and organic.

And finally, the ad is engaging – it lifts the spirit, it is both modern and nostalgic, appealing to universal youth – (80 year olds are in reality 20 year olds trapped in older bodies - or at least my parents are!). It has managed to connect with a variety of audiences in a fragmented media market.

It is refreshing to see how T-Mobile is tapping into the culture of today not by rehashing the Depression (like Allstate – and yah, I know it’s all about the values) but by bringing us a pure moment of joy. While brilliantly choreographed, it was the implied simplicity of song and dance, all very human and inspirational, that touched us.

So like any effective ad, it will be interesting to see how this campaign translates into additional users/sales for T-Mobile. With all the millions of impressions, did the brand name stick or was it purely “advertainment? (My Dad, for example, did not know it was a t-Mobile ad).

And what's next? It looks like there is huge upside for the brand to use spontaneity and video sharing as a viral platform to build phone usage (especially upsell to new/better/faster/richer media models).

Who knows - perhaps t-Mobile's "Dance" will inspire people to create their own flashmobs or random acts of joyful spontaneity.

Yes……life is for sharing.

Pure potential!

Background notes:

From Wikipedia:

A flash mob is a group of people who organize on the Internet and then quickly assemble in a public place, do something bizarre, and disperse

Notable flash mobs:

Worldwide Pillow Fight Day

Worldwide Pillow Fight Day (or International Pillow Fight Day) was a pillow fight flash mob that took place on March 22, 2008. Over 25 cities around the globe participated in the first "international flash mob", which was the world's largest flash mob to date.^[13] According to The Wall Street Journal, over 5,000 participated in New York City, Word spread via social networking sites, including Facebook, Myspace, private blogs, public forums, personal websites, as well as by word of mouth, text messaging, and email. Participating cities included Basel, Beirut, Boston, Budapest, Chicago, Copenhagen, Dublin, Houston, Innsbruck, London, Los Angeles, Melbourne, Monterrey, New York City, Paris, Pécs, Shanghai, San Francisco, Stockholm, Sydney, Vancouver, Washington, D.C., Zurich.

Silent disco

Another example of a well known flash mob was the April 2006 silent disco in London. At various underground stations around London, people gathered with their portable music devices and at a set time all started dancing to their music. At the time this was by far the largest flash mob gathering by a considerable amount. It was reported at Victoria Station more than 4,000 people were in attendance. This impacted the regular service of the London underground system enough for the city's police to begin crowd control and slowly clear people. Though no one was arrested it was reported that the City of London pledged to counter future disruption of the underground system. Since 2006, there have been several flash mobs including subsequent silent discos, comparable in size, in the London underground.

t-Mobile “Dance” info

- Secretly filmed at Liverpool Street commuter Station at 11am

- 350 dancers

- Celeb Choreographer Ashley Wallen took the dancers through an intensive 80 hour rehearsal to ensure they nailed the performance as they could only film a single take.

- Commuters stand and watch in amazement as the routine gets going and many can be seen taking pictures on their phones still unaware of what is happening around them.

- The stunt happened at 11am and the crew had 36 hours to film, edit and get the piece to air which was premiered as a full ad break during Celeb Big Brother.

- Music played: LuLu's 1965 hit Shout, 'The Only Way Is Up' by Yazz, 'Don't Cha', Pussycat Dolls, 'The Blue Danube Waltz' by Strauss, Kool & The Gang's 'Get Down On It' , 'Since You've Been Gone' by Rainbow, 'My Boy Lollipop', Millie Small and 'Do You Love Me' by The Contours.