Reassessing Elsewhere, General Motors Buys Into BET Awards

General Motors has been re-evaluating its advertising strategy, pulling out of Facebook and the Super Bowl while seeking deep discounts in TV’s annual upfront negotiations. But the automobile giant is finding value in new places, with its luxury Cadillac brand sponsoring the BET Awards for the first time this summer.

The sponsorship includes naming rights for one of the show’s annual awards: Maze featuring Frankie Beverly will receive the rechristened Cadillac Lifetime Achievement Award this year. The show’s other branded awards include the State Farm Humanitarian Award and the Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year Awards presented by Subway.

“This is more than a media buy,” said Molly Peck, director of advertising at Cadillac. “BET has really been a great partner in allowing us to become integrated with the show, which provides enormous value.

“The BET Awards is the best TV property for reaching a luxury African-American audience,” Ms. Peck added. (www.adage.com)

Chasing Your Active Consumers: Catch Them on the Run

If you have a product aimed at active consumers, the best way to capture their attention is to speak to them when they are out and pursuing their passion. The positive associations between their hobby and your brand will start immediately. But choosing how and where to connect is another matter. Choose strategically.

I’ve worked with brand managers in this arena who go on auto-pilot with their media plans: health clubs! Big marathons! That’s where our customers are, they say. But those obvious choices aren’t necessarily the best ones for active brands.

Not all active consumers are active in the same way, at the same places or with the same mindset. They may not be listening to you when you think they are, and you may not be talking to them in just the right way. Out-of-home and venue-based marketing offer opportunities to create an authentic connection between brand and athlete that is more long-lasting than many other types of media.

Think about it this way: the more you know about your customers, the easier it is to target marketing that speaks to them and encourages them to take action. That’s the beauty of social-media marketing: we know a lot about who our customers are. With active consumers doing what they love to do, marketers have almost the same kind of information. We are much better at predicting what active consumers are thinking, doing and feeling when they’re in yoga class, at the driving range, out for a training run or running a marathon. And we know where they are. (www.adage.com)

Hawaiian Airlines Woos New Yorkers

The smell of tuberose leis overwhelmed the JetBlue terminal at JFK last week as Hawaiian Airlines made the inaugural flight from its headquarters in Honolulu to New York City.

The lei — given as a sign of affection when arriving in or leaving the islands — embodies the aloha spirit for which Hawaii is so famous. Avi Mannis, VP-marketing at Hawaiian Airlines, brought boxes of the fragrant garlands on the flight to give out at the bevy of events the airline was hosting to promote the airline’s new route. “One customer told me that it was the best that JFK had ever smelled,” Mr. Mannis said.

The reduction of service to Hawaii by many U.S. carriers and the closure of Aloha Airlines has put Hawaiian Airlines in a good position to grow, said Mr. Mannis.

So its marketing plan is to emphasize the culture and traditions of Hawaii. The airline introduced itself and its brand to New Yorkers with a lunchtime event, led by its PR agency Burson-Marsteller, including live traditional music and hula a week ago. The scene, set across from Grand Central Station, caused quite a stir as passersby stopped to receive leis from airline staff. The airline also gave a traditional Hawaiian send-off to its first flight leaving New York for Honolulu last week. While the ceremony, complete with a blessing by a Hawaiian priest, or kahu, isn’t out of the ordinary on the islands, it was completely foreign at JFK.

“Unlike network airlines we don’t have to be every destination to every person,” Mr. Mannis explained. “We can focus on Hawaii and be a brand that really stands for something.”

The airline is also running a print and digital push locally to play up Hawaiian culture, with ad copy including lines like “Mahalo for flying with the airline that knows what mahalo means” and “Please prepare your flip flops for landing.” Anthology, an ad agency in Honolulu, worked on the campaign. (www.adage.com)

Tommy Hilfiger Announces Sponsorship Of The Golf Club At Chelasea Piers

The Tommy Hilfiger Group, which is wholly owned by PVH Corp., is pleased to announce itssponsorship of the Golf Club at Chelsea Piers. The sponsorship marks a continued push into the golf market for the brand since re-launching the Tommy Hilfiger golf collection in North America in 2011. In February, Tommy Hilfiger announced Keegan Bradley, the 2011 PGA Championship winner and PGA Tour Rookie of the Year, as global ambassador for the Tommy Hilfiger Golf men’s collection and, in March, British golfer Melissa Reid was named the ambassador for the Tommy Hilfiger Golf women’s collection.

“This partnership with Chelsea Piers is an exciting new opportunity for the brand,” said Tommy Hilfiger. “The Golf Club at Chelsea Piers is an iconic spot for New York golfers and a great location to showcase the golf collection.”

The two-year Golf Club sponsorship deal includes prime advertising placement for the Spring 2012 golf campaign featuring Keegan Bradley. Eye-catching Tommy Hilfiger branding runs from the West Side Highway to the tip of the 200-yard fairway, including entrance signage, parking garage banners, tee divider patches, tower banners, point of sale graphics, and elevator door wraps. Golf Club staff, including 12 golf professionals, will be outfitted in Tommy Hilfiger Golf men’s and women’s apparel.Select merchandise from the collections will be sold in the New York Golf Center pro shop at Chelsea Piers. (www.sponsorship.com)

Mobile Game Fight Goes Global

A turf war is breaking out in the videogame industry and, for once, it has nothing to do with Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony.

This fight is taking place on smartphones with names like Gree Inc. and DeNA Co.—a pair of Japanese firms little known in the rest of the world despite being the two most profitable companies in mobile games—taking on Zynga Inc. and potentially Apple Inc. and Google Inc.

Zynga has a massive base of people familiar with its games, like “Farmville” and “Words with Friends,” on Facebook. But it is still relatively new to mobile games.

Gree and DeNA have convinced millions of people in Japan to play free games on their phones and make in-game purchases. The companies offer hundreds of games, but the best-known ones are card-battle games or more casual titles such as a virtual fishing game. (www.wsj.com)

Powerade’s Olympics Campaign Puts Its Trust in ‘Nameonics’

A popular ploy in consumer marketing is using a mnemonic device in the theme, slogan or jingle of an advertising campaign, hoping to build brand awareness through repetition and being memorable.

The practice of tying a brand to a product benefit or quality even has a moniker, “nameonics,” associated with a New York adman, James J. Jordan Jr., whose agencies came up with lines like “Zestfully clean” for Zest soap, “Renuzit doozit” for Renuzit air freshener and “Aetna, I’m glad I met ya” for Aetna insurance.

Now, the Powerade sports drink sold by the Coca-Cola Company is embracing nameonics with an effort that will be introduced as part of the brand’s first worldwide Olympic campaign. The ads are to appear in more than 35 markets.

The campaign, by the Amsterdam office of Wieden & Kennedy, carries the theme “Power through,” and features Olympic athletes from four countries: Australia, Britain, Canada and the United States. Their presence reflects the brand’s status as the official sports drink of the 2012 Olympic Games in London, just as its sibling, Coca-Cola, is the official soft drink. (www.nytimes.com)

A Web Series for G.E. Tests a Refrigerator and Freshness

IN a telephone prank passed down by generations of children, the caller asks, “Is your refrigerator running?” and, after an affirmative response, the caller says, “Then you better go catch it.”

Consumers might be reminded of that chestnut when they see a new campaign from General Electric that features a refrigerator that is, in fact, on the move.

For a new online video series, “Freshpedition” in late April, G.E. hoisted one of its new French door refrigerators from its factory floor in Louisville, Ky., onto the bed of a pickup truck, where it was attached to a generator. Then the company sent Ben Sargent, the chef who is the host of “Hook, Line & Dinner” on the Cooking Channel, and Justin Berger, a G.E. refrigerator engineer, on their way.

The series, captured by a film crew and shot in the style of a reality show, follows the two as they drive about 2,000 miles to Texas to reach Ron Thompson, a wildlife biologist who studies mountain lions and other species. Because Mr. Thompson spends months at a time conducting field research with no access to fresh food, the mission was for the chef to surprise him with a freshly prepared meal. (www.nytimes.com)

New deal sees Eagles turn to Angry Birds

The Philadelphia Eagles National Football League (NFL) franchise has signed a new marketing partnership with Rovio Entertainment, creators of the popular smartphone game Angry Birds.

The partnership will see an Eagles-themed version of the smash-hit game launched this autumn, while a marketing campaign will include social media initiatives and displays at the Eagles’ Lincoln Financial Field that will run when one of the team’s players sacks an opposing player.

The agreement marks Rovio’s first team sports partnership globally; however it is not the first involvement in sport for the Finnish company. In Formula One, Rovio sponsored the Lotus F1 team during this year’s Monaco Grand Prix, while Caterham driver Heikki Kovalainen wears an Angry Birds-inspired helmet. (www.sportspromedia.com)

JetBlue, Alaska Airlines Top Airlines

JetBlue Airways and Alaska Airlines lead their respective segments in customer satisfaction for a seventh and fifth consecutive year, respectively, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2012 North America Airline Satisfaction Study.

As low-cost airlines continue to improve passenger satisfaction, traditional carriers are struggling to meet travelers’ expectations, according to the study’s authors. They are caught in a Catch 22 — trying to satisfy customers who demand low prices, high-quality service and comfort, but also contending with the economic challenges of profitably operating an airline, said Stuart Greif, vice president and general manager of the global travel and hospitality practice at J.D. Power and Associates, Westlake Village, Calif.

“Passengers want it all, but they are not necessarily willing to pay for it all,” Greif says. “Carriers often must make decisions for financial reasons that they know will negatively impact passenger satisfaction, and therein lies the conundrum.”

The study finds that after two years of consecutive industry improvements, overall passenger satisfaction has declined slightly to 681 index points on a 1,000-point scale, down from 683 in 2011. (www.mediapost.com)
Kia Back At Vans Warped Tour

Kia is back for year five as “Official Vehicle of the 2012 Vans Warped Tour.” The automaker first used the tour five years ago as a way to tease the U.S. market with the concept version of the Soul vehicle before the on-sale date in 2009.

Kia will bring Soul and the newly redesigned Rio — Kia’s smallest car — to the 40 cities where the tour stops. This time around, Kia will also be official sponsor of the tour’s two main stages, which will be called the Kia Soul Stage and Kia Rio Stage. The stages will physically bookend an airborne rigging display showing the Soul.

Over the years, the division of Hyundai Motor has shifted toward a definite Millennial positioning — especially with the debut of the Soul three years ago, Kia’s answer to the protean urban-centric cars from Scion, intended to be hip and multi-utilitarian. While Soul ad creative (DavidAndGoliath in Santa Monica, Calif. has handled the brand for over 10 years) features the anthropomorphic hamsters as hipsters, the company has applied that kind of rakish quality to other more traditional cars like the 2013 Optima. That car was supported with a Super Bowl commercial featuring a mash-up of supermodel, UFC fighter, and Mötley Crüe playing “Kickstart My Heart.”

Said Michael Sprague, VP of marketing: “Going back out on the road again with the Vans Warped Tour was an obvious fit as a way to maintain our status as a young, current and engaging brand.” (www.mediapost.com)