In keeping with the theme of our recent post about the unexpected, a construction site near our office has deployed some unconventional branding tactics that are worth reviewing.

Our office, proudly located in “Live Free or Die” New Hampshire, sits across from a hotel and restaurant that have changed ownership several times. Everyone around town knows this property has been less than stable, so when the latest developer took over, they decided to embrace the existing perception and turn it into a positive.

The hotel is in a high-traffic area adjacent to The Amoskeag Fishways, better known around town as ‘the falls.’ When the new developer started working on the property they posted a large sign, and a number of smaller signs, that read ‘WhatsUpAtTheFalls.com.’ This is certainly unexpected and unique for a construction site. Yet it makes perfect sense given the history of the property and the number of cars that pass by each day.

‘WhatsUpAtTheFalls.com‘ includes a project overview, status, photos, press coverage, contact info and a live camera view of the construction site.

Congratulations to the Roedel Companies and Alta Properties for this creative approach to generating buzz for this project.

Regardless of the industry, what are the unexpected tactics you use to intrigue and educate consumers?

Brady Sadler is the VP of Business Development & Marketing at GY&K. Connect with him on Twitter @BradySadler

For soccer fans around the world, whether new to the game or devoted enthusiasts, this past Sunday marked the end of the most anticipated global event second to the Olympics. The quadrennial World Cup, hosted this year by South Africa, contained an abundance of firsts; most apparent was its setting on African soil for the first time. Almost more noticeable, however unfortunate, were the attributes of old (at least for me).

FIFA, the governing body of the World Cup, is an organization that holds an immense amount of power in the sport. Similar to the IOC in regards to the Olympics, FIFA represents the primary planner and representative of the Cup. It has exclusive rights over what corporations can (or cannot) do during the month of their biggest tournament. FIFA’s governance has remained surprisingly consistent since its inception in 1930, especially considering how much today’s consumer market and audience has changed. Like the June 25^th blog post published below notes, the 2010 World Cup is one of the first major sporting events since the boom of social media. Sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and others seem to be taking precedence over more traditional avenues in order to reach consumers. Nonetheless, FIFA’s regulations and bylaws have not changed to accommodate these new outlets.

•  FIFA is the owner of all rights – like media, marketing, licensing, ticketing, etc. – of the 2010 World Cup. As a privately funded event, FIFA dictates that only handpicked partners have the capability of direct affiliation to the tournament due to significant financial contributions made by the selected parties. Varying degrees of promotional packages will be given to a small number of corporations.
• FIFA holds their selection in incredibly high esteem and priority. Only the selected partners, sponsors, and national supporters have recognized campaigns. There are restrictive buffer zones around stadiums and fan zones disallowing outside companies access and affiliation. These regulations are set in place by the FIFA Rights Protection Programme.

What this year’s World Cup has shown, however, is that ‘outsider’ corporations have successfully branded themselves alongside the event without overstepping boundary lines. Social media has allowed for a more bottom up approach to consumerism with fans keeping track of the tournament through notifications on Facebook and Twitter, and commercials and videos on YouTube. Thus, being an official partner or affiliate of FIFA is no longer a necessity. Yes, those corporations get special attention, but that attention is no longer the most encompassing or accessible channel to reach consumers. As our own Pat Griffin discussed with Karen Rubin and Mike Volpe in a recent episode of HubSpot TV, outsiders like Nike and Pepsi held their own against FIFA partner’s Adidas and Coca-Cola respectively. If corporations realize that they can reach their audience without being an official partner, and save loads of money in the process, FIFA will lack the necessary funding for the privately held Cup.

The question now is a difficult one for FIFA, and other organizers like the IOC included. Finding a way to garner loyalty from affiliates must progress. The leadership provided by FIFA has become somewhat stagnant to a point of being outdated. Evidence of other companies taking advantage of loopholes or other strategies to garner attention for their brands is illustrative of this. Proof that this is no new phenomenon can be taken from the last World Cup held in Germany. Puma, an ‘unofficial sponsor,’ welcomed the attention it received for its sponsorship of the Cameroon team. With tactical placement of the recognizable leaping cat logo, Puma’s sponsorship of 12 countries in 2010 – more than any other team and twice the number of official partner, Adidas – will most likely stimulate its brand, for a portion of the price. FIFA’s penalty for Bavaria (June 25^th blog post) gave that company more recognition by calling more attention to the ambush marketing ploy, rather than quickly sweeping it under the rug.

As the saying goes, fight fire with fire – embrace social media or whatever new advancements are available, and above all, know your consumers and where your consumers are congregating. Because in the long run, you don’t have to play by FIFA’s rules or even penetrate the walls of FIFA’s stadiums to reach your target audience. For its own future and particularly for the sake of the World Cup, FIFA must recognize the new environment in which it exists. Whatever you think of the sport, it is a game of strategy and collaboration. It’s about time FIFA followed suit.

Which brands do you think were most recognizable during the World Cup?

As we wait to get our hands on the new Apple iPad, it’s interesting to see how some of the existing players in the tablet space are marketing themselves. 

Recently I came across a very cool magazine ad for the Amazon Kindle.  I was reading an article in Forbes that started on one page and actually ended on a Kindle.  Well, not a real Kindle but an ad for one.  This was really clever and I have to thank Sanjay Parekh for posting a picture of it here. 

It’s ironic that one of the most innovative magazine ads I’ve seen in a while promotes a device that many feel will eventually kill the traditional print platform.

In today’s installment of “Two Minutes with the Real GY&K” Rebecca tells us how a childhood lesson brought her down an unexpected path and into the world of marketing – and she’s here to stay! Click here to visit YouTube to hear Rebecca’s story.

If you have ever called or visited GY&K, chances are you’ve met Deb. We asked her about her favorite movie and she reveals how it has helped make her the wonderful person she is today! Click here to watch her video.

In my lifetime the sports drink category has expanded tenfold. Growing up, I remember one choice; Gatorade, the ultimate thirst quencher. It was its own category; nowhere ever before has sports science been placed in a bottle but then other companies started to take notice. In 1998, Powerade was introduced by the Coca-Cola Company. Powerade was a solid competitor. It tasted like Gatorade, it looked like Gatorade, its name ended the same as Gatorade, plus it had the power of the Coca-Cola distribution channel to promote it. Still, Gatorade held its ground.

The next challenge for Gatorade was All Sport, Pepsi-Co’s answer to Powerade. Who remembers All Sport? If you tried it, trust me, you remember it. It was one of the worst ideas for a drink ever. All Sport was a sports drink that tasted similar to Gatorade and Powerade expect it had that one special something. It was carbonated like soda. Wow, Pepsi must have done their research because there has to be tons of evidence out there to suggest that athletes love to drink soda immediately upon the completion of a run. You see it all the time especially from marathons; they just love the taste of soda around mile 24. To make it even worse All Sport was not slightly carbonated, it was borderline combustible. Remember the scene in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory when Grandpa and Charlie drank Soda bubbles and started to fly? All Sport was just slightly less carbonated than that. Obviously, Pepsi’s super soda failed and the company purchased Gatorade in 2001 to enter into the sports drink category.

Then a couple of years ago, a sudden outburst of sports drinks occurred. Vitamin Water, Sobe Life Water, Powerade, Gatorade, 35 different types of water with added vitamins popped up. People started to count calories and everyone in the category created a low cal version to appeal to consumers basically doubling the amount of choices. Overnight energy drinks exploded on the market and people went nuts from all the sugar and caffeine. Today, the beverage sports/energy category is ultra competitive and Gatorade is paying the price. Since the beginning of the year, Gatorade’s sales volume has fallen 17.5%. The company has rebranded itself with their “That’s G” campaign but the campaign has not driven sales leading Gatorade to bring back his Airness.

Gatorade has decided to release a new limited edition series titled “Jordan”. Michael Jordan, the greatest basketball player who ever lived, the ultimate sponsor known for his flying dunks as well as his patented sneakers, is back promoting Gatorade. Jordan, who began his relationship with Gatorade back in 1991, is Gatorade’s hope that consumers will once again connect with the brand.

The commercial for Gatorade’s Jordan series is one of the coolest commercials to come out in awhile. Gatorade at 6:17 am in the Southside of Chicago decided to create a giant light up billboard of Jordan using only Gatorade bottles. They filmed the construction of the billboard and after 16 hours and 14,461 bottles they finally had their tribute to Jordan assembled. You can view the latest spot of Gatorade here on YouTube. Now it is not clear that this commercial is going to help Gatorade deal with their 17.5% sales drop but its message is classic Gatorade. Not enough brands know how to stay true to themselves. Gatorade was built by Michael Jordan drinking it, now maybe it can rebuild by consumers drinking Jordan.

The effectiveness of television advertising has been placed under scrutiny lately as clients demand their agencies deliver more concrete results in order to help justify advertising budgets.  Over the years, the television viewing audience has become more fragmented; there are over 500 cable channels and more than 30 million households have DVRs with the ability to skip advertisements.  Clients want to make sure that the consumers they want to reach are actually watching the ads they paid to place.  This week, a number of cable companies joined together to announce plans to launch a new interactive television advertising platform.  The new platform, referred to as “addressable” advertising, allows advertisers new and exciting targeting opportunities while producing more measureable results. 

Comcast Corp., Cox Communications Inc, Time Warner Cable Inc, Charter Communications Inc, Cablevision Systems Corp. and Bright House Networks have joined together to form Canoe Ventures.  According to Canoe, the cable companies are going to give advertisers the ability to target certain consumers based on demographics including age, income and community profile.  So households in affluent markets might see advertisements for the new Mercedes SUV.  Currently advertisers are only allowed to target an entire metropolitan area or town.  The shrinking of segments based on demographics will allow advertisers to develop a more targeted media approach, but that is just the start.

The second part of Canoe’s plans involves the development of interactive-TV advertising.  Interactive-TV advertising allows consumers the ability to click a commercial for more information.  The technology has already been developed and improved upon over the past couple of years.  In August of 2007, Nike teamed up with Dish Network to launch an interactive-TV campaign targeted to Dish Networks 13 million DVR subscribers.  If consumers clicked a button on their remote while the ad was playing, they were taken to a video-on-demand channel where they could view exclusive Nike content.  The technology already exists to produce interactive-TV advertisements; now it is not just a matter of working with all the cable companies to produce a standard advertising system.

One big advantage of interactive-TV commercials is the ability to click on the advertisement.  Advertisers who produce interactive-TV ads will be able to see exactly who is clicking on their commercials.  They can view the average response rate.  They will know the geographic regions where their ads resonated, the income level of people clicking on their ads and more.  Finally, the medium will be able to produce stronger, more tangible evidence as to effectiveness of the medium.  There are still even bigger plans.

The company hopes to one day actually target by specific ZIP code and then move to targeting the actual individual households.  When this will take place is yet to be determined as the technology is yet to be developed, however, let’s imagine what you could do with this technology.  Let’s say this weekend you are watching the Masters tournament (golf).  While you are watching Tiger Woods strive to become the champion again, imagine seeing a commercial during the broadcast saying, click here to purchase Tiger’s Masters clothing.  Upon a click with your remote you would be transported to a screen where you are able to select you size and click purchase.  As technology improves expect your television to behave more and more like your computer and eventually battle each other over who’s more effective.