The organization, funded largely through a 3% marketing levy on hotel rooms, will market Lord of the Rings outside the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). A print campaign began midMay across Canada and in the border states. "Over the next 18 months, we're going to build that further and further out," says MacMillan.Meanwhile, Air Canada's $3-million sponsorship will include online marketing programs targeting its toptier fliers, selling theatre packages to international markets through its global sales network and promoting the production in enRoiite magazine and in-flight entertainment.
Lord of the Rings is an opportunity to show case Toronto, "not just to Toronto but tiffany jewelry the world," says Duncan Dee, senior vice-president, corporate affairs at Air Canada. Given the dramatic increase in New Zealand tourism after the films came out, "we're hoping for the same level of excitement with this production," he says.Although hobbits won't inhabit the theatre for another eight months, consumer enthusiasm is clearly building. Iu the first week of sales in mid-May, theatre-goers from around the world bought $7 million in tickets. Sales from an exclusive Internet offering in the first 24 hours alone hit $1 million. Buyers were largely from the GTA, but "there was still a very interesting buy that wasn't restricted to the border states," says Mirvish. They also had a spatter of purchases from Ireland, Mexico, Japan and London.
It's notable considering how little advertising was done. Lord of the Rings marketing strategy is driven largely by an ambitious PR campaign, smart sponsorships and connecting with 'Iblkien's fan base online."I see the campaign as a political campaign, (where) a politician has to go out Tiffany bangle represent his or her ideas to the marketplace," says Wallace. That means the writers, producers, director and composer will take every opportunity they can get to talk about the production.
Like a politician, Wallace is on a mission to get the word out. In May he took a bus trip to Rochester, Buffalo, Detroit and Cleveland to promote Lord of the Rings to tour operators. Meanwhile, Mirvish s PR reps-Adrian Bryan-Brown in New York and Peter Thompson in London-arc working to get opinion makers and the media on side with the production. In Toronto, PR is handled in-house by Sue Toth, john Tiffany Bracelet and Randy Alldread."I believe by the time we're finished (the official opening night gala) on the 23rd of March, it should be as potent as an event like the Oscars or the Olympics," he says. "It's that big a global event." His goal is to have the entertainment sections of newspapers from South Africa to Tokyo to Hamburg, lead with the Lord of the Rings opening in lbronto.
The upside of the brand is that it's "recognized globally and loved by millions and millions of people" through the Tiffany Earring and films, says Wallace, noting that 200 million copies of the books-first published 51 years ago-are in circulation and 47 million have been sold in the last few years. While they benefit from the strength of the brand, the producers are keenly aware of the risks of launching such an epic-and expensive-work. "Everyone's got their careers on the line here," says Mirvish. "And I saw that this was a bigger risk than we normally ever take."One challenge is that fans of the books have "a very intimate relationship with the characters and an intense and personal idea of what Tolkien's Middle Earth looks like," says Wallace. Meanwhile, filmgoers are influenced by director Peter Jackson's version of Middle Earth.First, "you have to Tiffany CuffLink the people who love the books that you understand the books and you have an appreciation of them and you're going to be respectful of the books," says Wallace. "And to the people who only know the brand through the films, you have to move through the perception that it is impossible to put those films on stage." The message is, "we're not putting Ae films on stage, we're putting the books on stage."
If the conference (sponsored by G4, Razor magazine, CarDomain, Major League Soccer and Snippies) had one dominant message, it was that men desperately want the brands they choose to protect their reps. "Men's biggest fear," Taylor said, "is looking stupid."David Mirvish first read the Lord of the Rings trilogy on his honeymoon in 1967, and jokes that he "did find time to preserve my marriage." rniirty-eight years later, he's set to transform the 2,000-seat Princess of Wales theatre into J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Karth. Lord of the Rings (don't eall it "the musical") makes its world premiere in Toronto early next year.
"If yon think of this as twice the size of Lion King, then you'll get a sense of the magnitude of what we're attempting to do in the theatre," says Mirvish, owner of Toronto-based Mirvish Productions, along with his father, Ed. He's talking about logistics alone: It will take 22 weeks to build the set, complete with 17 elevators that go 10 feet up or down. The front of the existing stage, made of reinforced concrete and steel, will be torn ont and rebuilt, otherwise audience tiffany engagement rings on sale will be too high up to see the epic fantasy in action.
Construction aside, the $27-million production is Mirvish's most Paloma Picasso on sale project yet. But don't expect dancing hobbits and ores singing show tunes in the three-and-a-half-hour show. "We're drawing on music, we're drawing on spoken word, we're drawing on spectacle," says renowned British producer Kevin Wallace, who spent the last four years working on a stage adaptation of the trilogy by Shaun McKenna. "We're drawing on all the invention and ingenuity of theatre that we can harness to bring the books onto the stage... Therefore, what we say is, it isn't a musical, it isn't a play, it isn't a spectacle, it's Return To Tiffany on sale of those things. It's the Lord of the Rings."
It's also a big draw expected to attract theatre-goers from around the world. While big-ticket productions like Mamma Mia and Hairspray typically find success in London or New York before moving here, Toronto is the first stop for Lord of the Rings. The production has also hcen called the most expensive in the history of theatre. "We haven't ever had the opportunity to participate on this level," says Mirvish. "We've taken the city to a whole new height."
Mirvish Productions is also launching its biggest-ever subscnption season (2005-06), including the return of Les Misérables; ju lie Andrews directing The Boy Friend, which launched her career in 1954; and Movin' Oui, a Billy Joel/Twyla Tharp Tiffany Somerset.Given the city's flagging tourism scene since SARS hit in 200?, the Mirvish theatre scnson, led by The Lord Rings, aims to put Toronto on centre stage and back on the theatrical map. "We're at a point where the city needs this type of activity. Wc can't stay where we were," says Mirvish.
Richard Ouzounian, theatre critic at the Toronfo Star, agrees: "From a theatrical point of view, if we are perceived as the creative start of the next big hit in the world, men we'll regain that edge we held during the 1990s, but have since lost."For Mirvish, the journey toward Middle Earth began with an invitation from Wallace to see a presentation in London. Mirvish sent two staffers and told them, "Be polite because I have a lot of respect for the people who are doing it," but he couldn't imagine how the London organizers could pull it off. After an enthusiastic response from his team, Mirvish saw it for himself last fall and convinced Wallace to debut Tiffany 1837 on sale of the Rings in Toronto instead of London.
"(David) said to me, 'If Toronto had the opportunity of the Lord of the Rings opening here, it was something the city, the province and the commercial community would get behind,' " recalls Wallace. Indeed, after hearing convincing arguments from the Mirvish team, the province of Ontario announced a SB-million loan and Tourism Toronto will make a SB-million marketing investment. Air Canada also came on board as the major corporate sponsor. Mirvish Productions will spend $2.5 million on marketing prior to the show's debut, and $7.8 million each following year."Toronto is one of the top three theatre destinations in the world and to have something exclusive that nobody else will have just reinforces our need to be a catalyst to make that happen," says Bruce MacMillan, president and CEO of Tourism Toronto.
In Method's online campaign, users type in a "sin" they've committed, which appears on a hand and gets washed away with Method soap. While it was a creative success, it also helped demonstrate some of the limitations of online advertising for package-goods players.Though Method advertised Comeclean.com on The Onion and a handful of other Web sites, more of the traffic may have come from a viral email started with 5,000 friends and acquaintances of company and Crispin employees. Though the site invited people to buy holiday gift packs of hand soap, those sales proved disappointing, he acknowledged. "But it was Tiffany Accessories on sale successful in building brand awareness and getting people talking," he said. "And we're sure it helped sales in [offline] stores."
LAS VEGAS-The key to marketing to 18- to 34-year-old males is consistency and credibility. And, not surprisingly, sex.That was the message at the What Men Want: Marketing to Men 18-34 Using Media, Sports & Entertainment conference, held June 15-16 at the Green Valley Ranch Resort & Spa. Billboard presented the event with sister VNU properties Adweek, Brandweek, MediaWeek, The Hollywood Reporter, Sporting Goods Business and Nielsen Entertainment.
CLEAR MESSAGEBy the time a male turns 18, he has seen 1 million commercials, according to Dr. Jim Taylor, vice chairman of the Harrison Group. Therefore, brands have to find a way to cut through the clutter, which they do most effectively by staying on message.
In the case of the Palms hotel, that message was "to create the ultimate party hotel for guys who wanted to come to Vegas and hook up," co-owner George MaIoof said. In a session with Billboard co-executive editor Tamara Conniff, Atlas jewelry on sale detailed how the popular hotel and casino promotes itself as the ultimate playground for twentysomething males.Similarly, body spray Axe's campaign is based on selling the concept that the guy who smells good will get the girl. Or, as Cindy Gallopchairman of BBH New York, Axe's advertising agency-put it: "Wear Axe, get laid."
Of course, not all selling is sex-based. In some cases, promoting the brand via a celebrity endorser is effective, particularly when the spokesman is someone whom the 18- to 34-year-old male relates to or wants to be.The marketing should be "plausibly aspirational," said Kurt Schneider, executive VP of marketing at World Wrestling Entertainment. "Men need to believe they can attain what is being pitched," he said, noting the popularity of 5-foot-4-inch wrestler Rey Cushion jewelry on sale as a pitchman. Fans see him winning in the ring, Schneider noted, and because of his small stature, "think, 'I could do that.' "
However, marketers warned that celebrity usage needs to ring true. For example, FHM fashion magazine targets middle-class, 18- to 34-year-old men. It produced an advertorial for client Dockers, which was eager to show that it was not just a khaki manufacturer. Associate Frank Gehry on sale Amie Deutch said FHM developed a print campaign that utilized the cast of "The Apprentice" and tied in with an online contest to win a trip to New York for the show's season finale. "If we had dressed a rock band in Dockers, it would have failed miserably," Deutch said. "You can connect with pop culture, but you have to represent your brand."
For males in this demo, especially on the younger end, celebrity endorsement does not carry any negative stigma, MTV2 GM David Cohn said. In fact, they see brand sponsorship of an event or an artist endorsement as a sign of credibility."It's cool for a rocker or rapper to sell themselves like any other product," Cohn said. "The idea of 'selling out' is dead and buried."However, the brand needs to be clear what message it wants to send before choosing a celebrity endorser. Funkmaster Flex, DJ at R&B/ hip-hop WQHT (hot 97) New York and host of Spike TV's "Ride With Funkmaster Flex," recalled that Chrysler wooed him Elsa Peretti on sale the same time it was courting Celine Dion. "I sensed some confusion there," he said. Flex eventually signed a deal with Ford instead.
TNS data, the spokesman added, doesn't accurately reflect interactive activity for CPG companies such as P&G, he said, though he dedined to provide an overall interactive spending level. Suffice it to say, with estimates of Web-site maintenance of around $1 million per site and with P&G operating dozens of highly active relationship-oriented sites in the U.S. alone, that its unmeasured spending easily tops the $12.2 million in measured outlays.
What you don't hear from package-goods marketers is much talk of the Internet being a reach medium. But that's what it will take to get major financial commitments, and some people see signs it's about to happen.Package-goods brands have, since their earliest Tiffany Key Rings on sale, been built around media strategies based on reach. "You need to reach large amounts of people inexpensively because of the economics of the business," Mr. Tobaccowala said.Online's reputation as a medium best suited to targeting and direct response, combined with its lack of streaming-video capability for most users, limited its reach potential in the past, he said. But with the rapidly growing penetration of broadband and widespread acceptance of online media in the everyday lives of consumers, Mr. Tobaccowala expects package-goods players will start seeing the medium in a new light.
Norm Lehoullier, managing director of WPP Group's Grey Interactive, agrees. "Two years ago, the big marketers would say the Internet is a very good relationship-marketing tool but it's not a mass medium," he said. "And increasingly when I talk to them they're saying it's evolving into a mass medium."At least for male-oriented-product launches, some package-goods marketers have made online advertising an important part of the reach equation. L'Oreal, long a heavy print and TV advertiser, has advertised extensively on sports Web sites behind this year's launch of L'Oreal Men's Expert-a big change for a Tiffany Money Clips on sale that spent a mere $3.3 million on online ads last year on all its brands, according to TNS.
The trouble, according to Mr. Schar, is that online publishers aren't quite willing to accept their role Tiffany Rings on sale the mass-media universe, either-at least not the role some package-goods marketers see for it as an alternative to print."It looks like the Internet is turning out to be an online magazine," he said, "and it will price and look a lot more like print media than anything else.... Of course there's great customization and experimentation in rich media. But it's still nowhere near the kind of motion and persuasiveness that television has."
Another hindrance to package-goods players using online ads may also be dose to disappearing, Mr. Lehoullier said.Product launches drive most of the industry's ad spending, and few products get launched without simulated consumer testing using such tools as VNU's ACNielsen BASES. Before brand managers can get clearance on launches, they generally need a BASES volume forecast indicating it will hit the necessary hurdles. And Tiffany Necklaces on sale key factors that have gone into those forecasts are TV gross ratings points.
"Many of the tools used within the industry haven't evolved fast enough to accommodate the fragmented media universe," Mr. Lehoullier said. "That is changing rapidly, but it hasn't changed yet."Even if package goods still aren't making a big impact economically in interactive advertising, it has started making an impact creatively. Ironically, when the Cyber jury handed out two Grand Prix awards for the first time at this year's International Advertising Festival, both went to package-goods brands, including Henkel Adhesives in Brazil and fledgling design-focused U.S. home-care brand Method.
Method VF-Marketing Ritch Viola doesn't recall online advertising being much of a factor Tiffany Pendants on sale he was at Clorox. "Online has to be a bigger part of our budget," Mr. Viola said. "If we tried to do print or TV, we'd get nowhere." With a far smaller budget than its big competitors, Method, using Crispin Porter & Bogusky, Miami, has also used such low-budget, high-buzz vehicles as popup retail stores in San Francisco and a "People Against Dirty" catalog inserted into magazines.
According to Susan Matthew, group director at Strateco/Blitz in Toronto, such sampling programs work because they "bring a brand to life for consumers. Especially when we are launching a new product or there's a new formulation or new flavours, it really gives us a chance to have the consumer interacting with the brand directly that you just don't get from other forms."Now that London's bid for the 2012 Olympics has succeeded, the marketing of the Games can start. And the newly formed London Olympic Games Organising Committee (LOGOC) has laid a £415m bill at the door of marketers.This target for domestic sponsorship tiffany money clips on sale for the Games is a realistic assessment of the value of such deals, according to figures issued by Lord Coe's bid team and ratified by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
At first glance, this sum looks pretty steep. It seems even steeper when you consider that it does not include revenue derived from the IOC's TOP programme - the top-tier global Olympic sponsors, currently numbering 11, which have rolling four-year contracts with the body and are expected to generate close to £500m for the IOC by 2008.The consensus is that the UK sponsorship market is worth £700m-£800m a year. This would mean that, at the current rate of spend, the target for official domestic sponsorship of the 2012 Games would account for more than half of the sponsorship revenue laid out across all properties that year.London's tiffany rings on sale for its domestic sponsorship return outstrips anything that has come before it. Sydney attracted £332m from such contracts in 2000, while Athens 2004 brought in just £ 139m from its national partner deals.High expectations
It is unfair to compare Greece with the UK, given the vast difference in sophistication of the two sponsorship markets, but London's target is still nearly £100m more than that gleaned by the Australian Games, which offers a more reasonable point of reference. Even allowing for inflation and an evolution of sponsorship's status in the marketing mix over the 12 years between the two events, it is still a significant leap.Comparisons with the other bidding cities' tiffany necklaces on sale highlight the costly nature of London's marketing plan. Of the five, only New York had a higher figure, with £471 m to be raised from domestic sponsorships. The US sponsorship market is well ahead of the UK in terms of spend, making New York's projection much less of a stretch than London's in comparative terms.
The Olympic sponsorship structure does little to help LOGOC's cause. The exclusive nature of the TOP categories ensures that the host city cannot sell domestic packages to brands that compete against the top-tier partners. For example, categories such as non-alcoholic beverages and electronics are off limits, given Coca-Cola and Samsung's status as TOP sponsors.Further difficulties are presented by the make-up of the domestic packages. The IOC is committed to making the Olympics a relatively clean event visually when it comes to branding. Whatever promotional opportunities are afforded are handed to the TOP sponsors, so tiffany pendants on sale deals provide very few chances for exposure at the Games.
Brands thinking of signing up early in the hope of creating a good head of steam prior to the event may be disappointed. IOC regulations state that domestic sponsors cannot start to leverage their associations with the 2012 Games until contracts for the 2008 Beijing Olympics have run their course, meaning promotional activity by 2012 sponsors cannot start before 1 January 2009.
'The London bid team has set the bar very high with the £415m figure," comments Aidan Day, managing director of Octagon Marketing. 'It's certainly challenging, especially when you consider the limitations of the packages available and who they can sell to.'On the face of it, LOGOC's task in selling domestic sponsorship seems nigh-on impossible. However, there are a number of reasons why this target is achievable and why the organising committee is tiffany accessories on sale that revenue may even surpass the minimum figure required to meet budget.First, a number of domestic sponsorship agreements at the Olympics have traditionally tended to be 'value in kind' supplier deals. Such deals are easier for host cities to sell, given their logistical focus. At both Athens and Sydney, close to half the organising committees' domestic sponsorship revenue came from value in kind supplier deals. Sponsorship categories such as airlines, automotive and telecommunications tend to take this form of contract.
You've seen them at events. Young people who stand out at concerts, or at the mall, or on a street corner with a new toothpaste or a new soft drink flavour they'd like you to try out. Ever wonder if it works?David Nichols, the Vancouver-based vice-president of Marketing at Inventa Sales and Promotions calls this type of sampling an "interactive brand experience." While intuitively he's always believed that if you get the product or service into the hands of the client's target market in a comfortable environment the cash registers will ring, he couldn't prove it. "One of the flaws in our industry was there wasn't a commonly accepted tiffany bracelets on sale tool-there's no gross ratings point or anything like that," he says. "We needed to start doing things to justify our existence."
That's why Nichols hired Toronto-based market research firm IMI International to track results of a program Inventa ran last year for Nestles Coffee-Mate Liquid. Nestlé was trying to overcome a perception that Coffee-Mate is a cheap substitute for milk, rather than a great-tasting enhancer that comes in several flavours.Working with Nestlé's advertising team and promotional agencies, Inventa developed a "taste, tease and reveal," national sampling program that hit commuters on their way to work. "The great thing about this campaign was that we were able to guarantee the target market (of) coffee drinkers tiffany cufflinks on sale to sweeteners," he says. "If they said no to our coffee, they weren't our target market anyway."
Inventa sampled 325,000 people and estimated that 98% of those fell into the target market-25- to 45-year-olds (with a female skew). Inventa took the names of close to 1,000 people willing to be tested by IMI. Don Mayo, managing director of IMI, says his company created two "cells" of 100 people each: a test cell of those exposed to the Inventa sampling program; and a control cell of those exposed to all other marketing initiatives except the sampling program.Nichols says results showed an increase in incremental awareness of 42% for those who had sampled the product compared to those who had only been exposed to print ads.
The groups were tested for unaided awareness of milk, cream, creamer and coffee whitener brands by tiffany key rings on sale a list of names that included Coffee-Mate and competitors (such as Parmalat, Beatrice and Carnation) and being asked which brand first came to mind. Nichols says 23% of those who had sampled Coffee-Mate mentioned it compared to only 12% of the control group.
Not surprising, aided awareness was significantly high-er. Asked if they were aware that Coffee-Mate Liquid came in several flavours, 25% of the control group knew of these flavours compared to 69% who had sampled the product. "So this is a great way of reaching people and making sure they remember what (product) you've interacted (on) with them," says Nichols.In terms of convincing people to buy, IMI found that 22% of the control group said they tiffany earrings on sale definitely, very, or somewhat likely to purchase it compared to 64% of those people who had already interacted with the brand, "This is where the big bang came for us, the predisposition to purchase the product. It wasn't just the sample, it was the experience they were having around this cool campaign," says Nichols.
IMI then asked "Are you using Coffee-Mate Liquid now more often, less often or the same as yon were three months ago?" Two per cent of the control group said they had increased usage compared to 16% of the people who had interacted with the product. And when IMI asked if they would be likely to recommend Coffee-Mate-very or somewhat likely-10% of the control group said they would, but 56% of the brand interaction group said Coffee-Mate would be return to tiffany sale they'd recommend.Nichols says his company has since tested two more campaigns, with similar results. One was for Campbell's Ignite line of meals; the other was a mall-based campaign for Telus Internet products.