Wendy’s Gives W Cheeseburger an F, Pulls Plug on Promotion

Wendy’s is no longer going to promote its W cheeseburger nationally.

The W, introduced late last year, was intended to be a midtier burger (originally $2.99 and later raised to $3.19) that would boost profit and sales, priced between the 99-cent menu and the more premium Dave’s Hot ‘N Juicy burger. Stephen Hare, Wendy’s chief financial officer, said during its first-quarter conference call Tuesday that the W burger had not achieved the desired results.

The W was meant to get customers who use the 99-cent menu to trade up, but Wendy’s saw the opposite effect, with customers who typically bought the more expensive burgers trading down.

Wendy’s is no longer going to promote its W cheeseburger nationally.

The W, introduced late last year, was intended to be a midtier burger (originally $2.99 and later raised to $3.19) that would boost profit and sales, priced between the 99-cent menu and the more premium Dave’s Hot ‘N Juicy burger. Stephen Hare, Wendy’s chief financial officer, said during its first-quarter conference call Tuesday that the W burger had not achieved the desired results.

The W was meant to get customers who use the 99-cent menu to trade up, but Wendy’s saw the opposite effect, with customers who typically bought the more expensive burgers trading down. (www.adage.com)

The travel site’s new anthem urges you to actually take those vacation days already

Don’t worry gents: Orbitz thinks you look great in that skirt.

Along with its website redesign, the online travel agency is out with a new campaign encouraging all Americans to “Take vacation back”—by actually using all those days off you’ve earned grinding away at your jobs with single-minded puritanical devotion. Created by BBDO New York, the central spot marks a new positioning for the brand, shedding the old, fast-talking, slapstick sales pitch pushing its intimate knowledge of hotels for an rallying anthem urging more time in the sun—by the pool, on the golf course—or shacked up with your sweetheart in your luxe suite.

Flipping from one vacation-scape to the next, the ad features a demographic range of travelers offering zippy quips to make the brand’s case: “We the people will take our vacation days. All of them,” says the collective voiceover. “We will wear sarongs, and look so right,” says the paunchy middle-aged guy, standing, hands mock-defiantly on hips, against a tropical backdrop. “We will honeymoon like rabbits,” a grinning newlywed assures the camera, from under the covers. And so forth.

It’s a fun approach for the brand, rooted in a smart insight—only 57 percent of U.S. workers actually use all their vacation time, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll—that’s likely to resonate with the people who do need to get away more. The brand also manages to work in its mobile app (roughly 9 percent of the brands hotel transactions in Q1 were on mobile devices) without making the cameo too awkward. Another notable detail: The logo on the golfer’s cap is for the Human Rights Campaign—a reference, passing as it is, in keeping with the brand’s history of support for LGBT rights. (www.adweek.com)

Disney Gets Boost From Cable

Walt Disney Co. posted a 21% rise in its fiscal second-quarter profit thanks to strong performances at its theme parks and cable-television channels, and said it would make a sequel to superhero action film “The Avengers” as it looks to dig out from the costly flop “John Carter.”

Net income for the three months ending March 31 rose to $1.14 billion, or 63 cents a share, from $942 million, or 49 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue increased 6.1% to $9.63 billion. (www.wsj.com)

Clear Hair Products Enter a Cluttered Market

WHITE RAIN. Halo. Breck. Drene. Prell. Agree. Hälsa. Lustre-Creme. Gee, Your Hair Smells Terrific. Vidal Sassoon. Flex. There are enough discontinued, forgotten, moribund or also-ran hair-care brands to make marketers want to, well, pull out their hair.

But that is not deterring Unilever, the consumer products giant. Unilever, which sells hair-care products under names like Dove, Finesse, Nexxus, Suave, TRESemmé and VO5, is introducing another hair-care brand in the United States.

The brand, called Clear Scalp & Hair Beauty Therapy, is already sold in 42 countries. Unilever plans to spend $250 million in the next two years to advertise, market and promote to American consumers 21 varieties of Clear shampoos and conditioners in three lines, aimed at women, men and African-American women.

The campaign, which starts this month, includes elements like online video clips and social media. There are three Facebook fan pages, one for each line, and a Twitter feed. There will also be television, print and online ads, as well as events in stores, samplings and a public relations effort. (www.nytimes.com)

Amazon Leaps Into High End of the Fashion Pool

Amazon is so serious about its next big thing that it hired three women to do nothing but try on size 8 shoes for its Web reviews. Full time.

The online retailer is shooting 3,000 fashion images a day in a photo studio using patent-pending technology.

And it is happily losing hundreds of millions of dollars a year on free shipping — and, on apparel, even free returns — to keep its shoppers coming back.

Having wounded the publishing industry, slashed pricing in electronics and made the toy industry quiver, Amazon is taking on the high-end clothing business in its typical way: go big and spare no expense. (www.nytimes.com)

MLL All-Star game seals Moe’s as presenting partner

‘Fast-casual’ restaurant chain Moe’s Southwest Grill has signed a deal with Major League Lacrosse (MLL) that will see it become the presenting sponsor of the 2012 MLL All-Star game.

The game, to be held in FAU Stadium in Florida, will be held on 30th June this year.

As presenting sponsor, Moe’s will be entitled to logo placement on team uniforms, field signage boards, video board advertisements and in-stadium banners.

Moe’s is planning to activate the deal with in-store promotions in its local Florida franchises and at the MLL Fan Zone on the day of the game.

“We are excited to partner with Moe’s Southwest Grill for the 2012 MLL All-Star game,” said MLL commissioner David Gross. “Moe’s is getting behind the sport of lacrosse and lacrosse fans have always been supportive of those brands that are helping to grow the game.”

“As lacrosse continues to build momentum across the nation, we at Moe’s want to be there to support the passionate, hardworking community that is making that happen,” said Paul Macaluso, vice president of marketing for Moe’s Southwest Grill. “We can’t wait to be a part of the fun and excitement of the All-Star game.” (www.sportspromedia.com)

Audi Focuses On Digital For Halo Vehicles

Audi of America this year is focusing marketing efforts less on high-volume cars like A4 and A5 and more on lower-volume vehicles like the Allroad, which the automaker brought back to the U.S. this year after a long hiatus.

In this second segment of a two-part interview, Scott Keogh, VP of marketing at the Herndon, Va.-based U.S. division of Audi, says high profitability and high demand for its vehicles means the company can focus more on the premium end of the spectrum and on lower volume “halo” vehicles that build the brand. That works fine because dealers are doing some of the marketing on volume cars and Audi can leverage targeted digital and events to focus on the more rarefied vehicles like Allroad, and R8, and the S performance sub brand.

Q: Is social media important for Audi, especially with halo vehicles?

A: Even with what we’ve done already, I think we can do even more with social media. The truth of the matter is we are a small brand and social media allows us to act like a giant, which we love. It’s not about getting your checkbook out and spending $400 million. It’s about can you be faster and smarter and engage people in a way they care about.

Q: What are some examples of what has worked for you on social?

A: We did this cool thing with the R8 (roadster), which is a classic example. The social media team literally came into the office one day explaining that a woman with the hashtag “I want an R8″ had been tweeting various things about the car. She seemed to have a decent Klout score, and a decent following. We checked it out a bit and said, “okay, let’s bring her a car.” We showed up at her house with a product specialist and an R8, and we filmed it. We gave her the R8 for the weekend. And that led to a campaign where other people could request an R8. And it crossed over into the celebrity world: Serena Williams tweeted about it; so did Miles Austin, wide receiver for the Redskins, where our headquarters are. (www.mediapost.com)
7UP Courts Hispanics With Soccer

7UP has formed a deal with Alianza de Futbol, the premier Hispanic U.S. soccer-scouting program. A major component of the deal is 7UP’s launch of the Sueño Alianza soccer tryout series designed to give up-and-coming soccer players the chance to fulfill their dreams of playing collegiate or professional soccer. (www.mediapost.com)
McDonald’s Launches Healthy Fizz In UK

McDonald’s is stepping up efforts to dispel perceptions that it sells unhealthy food and drink with the introduction of a fizzy fruit drink in the UK that it will promote as containing one of a child’s five fruit and vegetable portions a day. Fruitizz is a 60%-fruit juice drink that the fast-food chain claims “delivers nutritional benefit as well as an exciting taste.” It combines raspberry, grape and apple juice with natural sparkling water and contains no added sugar or artificial colorings or flavorings. (www.mediapost.com)
Vitamin Shoppe Profit Surges

Vitamin Shoppe reported Tuesday that net income for the quarter ended March 31 rose to $18.3 million, from $11.6 million in the same period last year. Sales rose 14.4% to $248.1 million, boosted by a strong 9.6% rise in same-store sales. E-commerce sales rose 15.5% in the quarter. The vitamin retailer said it plans to open 52 new stores in fiscal 2012. (www.mediapost.com)
HP Refreshes Pavilion Line

HP has launched six new Ultrabooks. And in the works are notebooks Hewlett-Packard will launch for college kids during back-to-school season. The company has redesigned its Pavilion DV series, as well as its entry-level G laptops. New is the Pavilion M6, a 15-inch computer for the thin-and-light market. (www.mediapost.com)
Mike’s Launches Multimillion-Dollar Effort

Mike’s Hard Lemonade is launching a multimillion-dollar campaign May 9 including a unique partnership with LivingSocial.

The effort, themed “Do Summer Different,” includes TV, digital, mobile and social media, as well as promotional and point-of-sale materials. TV spots continue the tagline: “Always Different, Always Refreshing.”

The “breakthrough experiential partnership” with LivingSocial gives the company “a great retail platform to excite consumers at the point of purchase and places Mike’s at events,” said Andy Horrow, chief marketing officer of Chicago-based Mike’s Hard Lemonade.

“What I love about this partnership with LivingSocial is that it combines real life and social media in a very meaningful way for Mike’s consumers,” Horrow tells Marketing Daily.” (www.mediapost.com)