Ok, I don’t mean to be so harsh, but the fact is many businesses have drifted away from testing new things over the last few years because of budget cuts a fewer dollars to allocate to new programs and fewer people to manage new initiatives. And this is happening at a time when there are so many new trends to test and participate in.
Well companies like Southwest Airlines have still found a way to test the waters. Check out SouthwestWannaGetAway.com their video promotion site (a collaboration between RD2 and GSD&M). Southwest has seen a great response from their news breaking blog that RD2 launched for them almost a year ago (www.blogsouthwest.com). So, they decided to test the YouTube phenomenon by launching a promotion – produce your own :20 sec TV spot following their successful Wanna Get Away TV campaign and you could be on TV. Besides driving thousands of visitors to the promotion site to enter, view and vote on video entries, the YouTube side has also seen some huge exposure (over 44,000 viewings of the example commercial)
Plus, the entries, site visits and viewings are seeing “hockey stick growth” recently. Will all of this lead to new ways of extending the Brand? I’m guessing yes.
So the point is, try something new. Participate in the conversation. Try some new tools and tap into some new audiences and see how the business benefits.
chris ronan said:
tell about the frito lay example, kurt. it sets up the story well.
:: 18 Feb 2007 at 2:24 am ::
Kurt Fisher said:
The Frito-Lay example is a fairly obvious one regarding product development – but it illustrates the discipline one company takes to ensure there will be a new element of value available in the future.
I’m not sure how Frito does it today, but when I worked there, we set a goal for how many new products needed to be “in development� now in order to have one new blockbuster product 3-5 years from now. At the time the number was 25 – if we weren’t working on 25 new concepts today, chances are we would not have enough products going into test market next year; to then have a few be proven enough to expand outside their test market; to then have one popular enough to expand to national distribution and possibly grow to be a “Core Brand�.
So the concept is the same when it comes to testing marketing approaches – if you are not testing a few new approaches today, you won’t have anything new to augment your marketing next year or the year after. Some companies allocate 10% of their marketing budget to testing – and they are constantly finding new ways to connect with target audiences cost effectively.
:: 19 Feb 2007 at 10:43 am ::
chris ronan said:
thanks for clarifying. i thought it was a good point and worth sharing.
:: 19 Feb 2007 at 1:40 pm ::