The Fourth of July Specials: Hot dogs and the Wienermobile
Over holiday weekend American’s will consume 150,000,000 hot dogs according to the Oscar Mayer division of Kraft Foods, sponsors of the iconic Oscar Mayer Wienermobile. It’s an American tradition. Another part of the hot dog tradition is the Wienermobile from Oscar Mayer. The vehicle, which was among the first, if not the first ‘logomobile or brandmobile” in 1936 attracts millions of kids and parents as visitors and special passengers every year to supermarket parking lots and other venues. All to promote hot dogs.
- For a virtual tour of the Wienermobile click here.
- And to install an ear-worm and to hear the famous jingle click here.
In addition to the big machine, Oscar Mayer, added to its Wienermobile fleet when it commissioned a new, smaller vehicle last year. The result is this vehicle built on a Mini.
Seven of the Wienermobiles are on the road every summer criss-crossing America, driven by 14 recent college graduates, selected from over 1,000 applicants.
A very strong supporter and proponent of the program is Steve Kopcha, formerly executive creative director at DMB&B and McCann in Detroit, now associate professor of advertising at the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism, who has two of his students now driving a Wienermobile. He became involved in a serendipitous way when representatives of Oscar Mayer asked it they could speak to one of his graduating classes to let them know they were recruiting for the next year’s drivers.
As good as a hot dog.
“I glommed on to this right away,” he said. “If I were about to graduate from college this would be the absolute perfect phase from graduation from school to the real world. Take a year, drive all over the country with another pal, drive to all these places, meet people, be the center of attention and, by the way, be able to bank their entire salary since Oscar Mayer pays all living expenses.”
Additionally the drivers, Kopcha said, “Get a great start in marketing and advertising. They learn about events and event planning, about meeting and greeting people, about representing and being the public face of a major company, acting responsibly and gaining business maturity through media access.”
There’s an interesting event going on if you are interested in having a Wienermobile parked in front of your house on Labor Day this year, complete with hot dogs. There’s a special contest. Oscar Mayer is looking for America’s “Best Dressed Dog.” You enter by “dressing” your dog, snapping a pic and uploading it to the Hotdogger Blog site plus submitting a 100-word essay. Click here for details.
Volkswagen Advertising Wins Prestigious Cannes Lions Award
At the conclusion of the 56th International Advertising Festival — “Cannes Lions 2009” — Volkswagen was presented with its first Lion in the “Advertiser of the year” discipline, one of the highest accolades of recognition in the advertising industry.
The coveted Advertiser of the Year trophy (pic of VW trophy) was presented to Volkswagen by Terry Savage, the Cannes festival chairman, who said, “By honoring Volkswagen today we are honoring a company that has been a symbol of creative and innovative marketing in the automobile industry for decades.”
Since the early sixties Volkswagen advertising has been awarded over 150 “advertising Oscars” of advertising.
The Advertiser of Year award was accepted by Hartmut Seeger, VW’s International Advertising Director on behalf of the company and its network of worldwide advertising agencies.
In America, starting in 1959, the first VW’s advertising, created by Doyle Dane Bernbach has established the benchmark for automotive advertising and led the way for many other product categories.
VW’s first print ads are now identified by Advertising Age as the #1 ad campaign of all time.
Click on ad to enlarge.
Here’s one.
For early television advertisements click here and here and yet again here. This year’s award festival had 22,652 advertising entries from 86 countries in a huge variety of creative categories including 11 disciplines: film, direct, radio, design, press, media, promo, p.r., outdoor, cyber, titanium and integrated.
Each category had a team of peer judges who determine Grand Prix, Gold, Silver and Bronze awards that are presented to the winners.
Among the automotive advertising product category winners this year were Fiat, Daimler, Honda and Audi. A complete list with actual commercials, ads, outdoor boards, web ads and other mediums can be found at the official website. Good chance to see what advertisers around the world are doing.
Energy Driven Commercials
As the government’s environmental and emission programs begin ramping-up, a few automotive advertisers have begun airing commercials to authenticate their initiatives, educate the public about diesel-fueled vehicles and of course the ubiquitous hybrid commercials.
Soon to come to America, Fiat has begun running this extended length commercial throughout EU nations promoting its Eco Drive program. They have taken very simplistic graphics to detail a program that monitors a person’s driving in real time, then through various algorithms produces a custom program to help the person improve gas mileage based on driving skills improvements. Distinctive and dramatic. Click here.
Audi has a new ad campaign promoting its clean diesel vehicles using the theme, “diesel isn’t a dirty word.” It captures the viewers attention with this engaging and compelling commercial that uses the infamous ‘oil barrel’ visual to graphically demonstrate how clean diesel vehicles can save 1.5 billion barrels every day. Sensational computer-generated graphics, spare but effective voiceover and nice music. An ambitious program to change perceptions and a winning commercial Click here.
There’s a negative perception of the Cadillac Escalade as an expensive gas guzzling behemoth, money, right? To change this perception GM’s halo brand has run this commercial of the Escalade Hybrid. The Escalade Hybrid? Howz that for an asinine, absurd, arcane engineering oxymoronic concept. Ah, but it was used to produce this commercial. Click here.
And finally here’s an environmental almost X-rated commercial spoof from a couple years ago.
Land Rover Co-presenter of Annual ESPY Awards Show
"We're not holding our brand hostage to the economy."
I was rather surprised and intrigued last Sunday during the U.S. versus Brazil FIFA Championship Game in South Africa, when a promo, “Watch the “ESPY awards sponsored by Land Rover” or something like was announced. Curious, I contacted the public relations department of Land Rover this past Monday to get more information: this had to be a major media buy for a relatively small auto advertiser.
The response was immediate and very helpful, “would you like to interview Finbar McFall the vice president of marketing to get your information?” And thus began the fact finding mode. At a time when most major automotive advertisers have eviscerated their advertising budgets, I asked Finbar McFall, Land Rovers vice president of marketing, “Why, given the state of the auto business generally and Land Rover’s business specifically (down 27% for the year to date) have you made this major media investment?”
His answer was short and meaningful, My first responsibility is the critical mass of media presence and to increase consideration of the brand. Not to invest now would be disproportionally ill-advised and would be the definition of a false economy.”
For those not familiar with the ESPY awards program, every year since 1993 the televised program brings top celebrities from sports and entertainment together to commemorate the past year in sports by recognizing major sports achievements, reliving unforgettable moments and saluting the leading performers and performances.
I questioned McFall on the relevance of an ESPN buy because of the network’s perceived orientation toward a younger audience. I was both incorrect and chagrined. “”We’ve had a long standing relationship with ESPN and its sister properties (ESPN2, ESPN Radio and ESPN.com),” he commented nicely, “As they strongly deliver our target especially with their live broadcasts” And the split in viewers is 60% male and 40% female, the same relationship as buyers of Land Rovers.
The ESPY’s also honor the sports cable network’s commitment to The V Foundation for Cancer Research, a partnership with the late NC State basketball Coach Jim Valvano, Since the inaugural show in 1993, The Foundation has raised more than $80 million to fund cancer research grants nationwide.
On-air co-presenter sponsorship is staggering. Here’s the package Land Rover has negotiated for the initial airing on July 19 and includes re-runs on July 20, 24 and 25. This includes the following on most ESPN networks: o ESPN: 45 x 30s TV spots.
- ESPN2: 19 x 30s TV spots.
- ESPN Deportes: 89 x 30s TV spots.
- ESPN Radio: 75 x 30s spots
- ESPN The Magazine: 1 single page & 1 double page spread in 7/13 issue.
- Co-branded (with Under Armor) promo / tune-in ads running throughout the ESPN networks (on-line, on-air and in radio).
- Program and commercial break promos.
Land Rover’s involvement as a co-presenter additionally includes a veritable treasure chest of advertising and promotional goodies:
- Participation in the ESPNRadio.com Charity Auction benefiting The V Foundation for Cancer Research. Land Rover has donated a 2010 Range Rover Autobiography.
- Presence at the 9th Annual ESPYS Celebrity Golf Classic,. Land Rover is hosting a Hole-In-One competition where VIPs will have an opportunity to win a 2010 Range Rover Sport and a Land Rover LR4. In addition, there will be several Range Rovers on display for attendees to experience.
- Vehicle placements at the official ESPYS hotel (The Standard Hotel Los Angeles) and on the Red Carpet at the Nokia Theatre.
- In-theatre recognition of Land Rover’s co-partnership with the ESPYS.
- On-air presentation of the Land Rover Icon award given to the athlete who best represents the brand’s Humanitarian Spirit.
This large package of advertising, promotion and displays is targeted to a combination of the celebrities, athletes and VIPs who attend the ESPYS, as well as the viewers. There is a nice component for Land Rover retailers and their customers who will attend the various functions and, commented McFall, “Get tickets for the show’s taping on the 19th.
Reacting to my “wow” at the total package, McFall said, “This was primarily a media buy. The event element adds to it as well. But we looked at it first from a media perspective.” And then using a wonderful Brit expression he added, “Its value for money!”
Nominees include Tiger Woods, Payton Manning, Kobe Bryant, Serena Williams, Michael Phelps, the Pittsburg Steelers and LA Lakers along with many, many other nominees in 37 different categories. To vote click here. Voting ends on July 11, 2009. The ESPY’s will be taped on July 15 at the Nokia Theatre at Live LA and aired on Sunday, July 19 at 10;00 P.M. EDT with Samuel L. Jackson, again the host and slew of celebrity presenters. The 2008 ESPYs garnered a 2.3 HH Rating (+13% vs 2007) and delivered 2.2mm households.
Land Rover is part of Jaguar Land Rover North America LLC and is owned by Tata Motors of India.