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Brands

Where's the beef?

February 15, 2007

Posted by leah.jones

Open Letter to Wendy's,

Where's the beef? What I mean when I ask that is really,"Where are your new ads?" You know, the ones with Violent Femmes music in the background? Cause, um, I blogged it on my personal blog and now I'm one of the top Google results.

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the extra traffic, but I think people are really disappointed they can't find the video anywhere. By choosing Violent Femmes, you are really tapping into the memories of a certain set of people. Namely me and people I was friends with in 9th grade.

We used to sit in the back of the bus and belt out Blister in the Sun from memory. Yes, before iPod, without Walkmans, we sang our Violent Femmes and maybe, just maybe, we did it while we ate french fries dipped in Frosties.

Now you have turned a beloved high school moment into a commercial, but you didn't go the extra mile. You haven't put the ad on the internet. Now... on your site you have ads, but not the ads people are looking for today.

Short and sweet, I should not be the person people come to looking for information about your company. You should. Hey Marketing Guy, go down to the Web Guy's office and beg for him to upload the flash videos of your ads. Do it now.

I'm waiting.

Still waiting.

So are your fans and instead of coming to your site or evangelizing your brand on YouTube, they are coming to my blog. I guess what I'm really saying is thank you for the extra traffic.

Sincerely,

Blogger in Chicago

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posted by leah.jones

Brands

FedEx Kinkos - the next Kryptonite?

March 3, 2006

Posted by mike.krempasky

Anyone with even a hint of understanding about the danger inherent in a speedy, consumer generated medium like the blogosphere knows the story of Kryptonite bike locks. If not - click here. It's a scary episode that pretty well crippled a company.

Now it looks like FedExKinkos is the next on the blogosphere chopping block. In short - a small security company releases a video of a hack showing the easy defeat of the security system designed to protect the integrity of the FedExKinkos ExpressPay cards. Put a dollar on the card - whip out your trusty laptop and off-the-shelf card reader and start adding dollars to the card.

Unfortunately, FedEx started their PR response by denying the problem. But now that they've come to accept the deficiency - what's next? Unlike the Kryptonite problem - on its face this doesn't appear to affect consumers, so at least the short term effects seem to be more focused on the internal bottom line of retooling all their security procedures.

The better question is this: the card system is manufacturered by a company called enTracTech that specializes in "automating access and transaction control of self-serve business equipment and revenue generating solutions." The real problems lie ahead for enTrac. Do they have consumer products? You betcha.

UPDATE: Note that UPS is an Edelman client. Neither Mike Krempasky nor the host is assigned to that account. /Ed.

Technorati Tags:
brands, fedex, security

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posted by mike.krempasky

Brands

Remembering Tab

February 8, 2006

Posted by Phil.Gomes

Flash back to 1985. "We Are The World" was the Grammy-winning song of the year. Kids packed video arcades that smelled of stale sweat in order to pump quarters into the 8-bit entertainment marvels of the day. Mark Knopler and Dire Straits decried a world where rockstars got "money for nuthin' and chicks for free."

And we drank Tab.

In Back To The Future, one of the year's most popular movies, there was an exchange that would clearly be lost on most people watching it today:

Soda Fountain Owner: You gonna order something, kid?

Marty McFly: Ah, yeah... Give me a Tab.

Soda Fountain Owner: Tab? I can't give you a tab unless you order something.

Listening to the Bill Handel Show on the way to work today, I heard that Tab is back. Well... Actually, Tab hadn't really died. Contrary to what I was led to believe, the original Tab has been in limited production and has enjoyed an almost cultish following. Now, the Tab brand is being applied to an energy drink, iconic pink can and all.

Today's Tab drinkers are a few but passionate bunch, evoking memories of another relatively small group of brand devotees.

Steve Isaacs, a self-described "Tab nut" and former Washington Post editor who teaches at the Columbia Journalism School, has been told by several doctors not to drink it. "I tell them to go to hell," he said recently.

My master's instructor at Annenberg asked me what brand I'm "loyal to without reason."* To be the answer to that question is every marketer's goal.

*: In case you were wondering.

Technorati Tags:
brands, branding, tab

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posted by Phil.Gomes

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