Not one sentence into this post and you’re already finishing the lyrics to the catchy and, admittedly, sometimes annoying song from Disney’s animated movie Frozen. Less than a year old, the phenomenon is already Disney’s highest-grossing animated film of all time.
The longevity of movie’s popularity registered with me recently while I was shopping at Target and a young girl carrying a Frozen toy a few aisles over had the sound effect on repeat. As the phrase “Let it go, let it go” played continuously for at least five minutes, I could hear her sing along.
Is it the music, unique storyline, or endless marketing that has kept the movie a cultural phenomenon? Considering ABC fairytale show Once Upon a Time features Frozen’s Queen Elsa in the new Fall 2014 season, the movie is likely to garner even more attention.
What do you think has been Disney’s secret to success in not only maintaining, but growing a “Frozen” brand following?
Recently, I had the pleasure of attending a Milwaukee Brewers game at Miller Park. I was thrilled to be back and a little sad that it could possibly be my last game of the season. (I only made it to two games this year, but grad classes will do that!) As I finished up the tailgate and headed for the stadium, I noticed a white furry creature had joined the parade of Famous Racing Sausages headed through the parking lot. I was surprised to see Hank, The Ballpark Pup, marching alongside Chorizo through a field of tailgaters.
The Ballpark Pup
In case you’ve missed it, the Milwaukee Brewers have added another mascot to their mix. Hank, The Ballpark Pup, first entered the lives of the Milwaukee Brewers at Spring Training this past year. Hank was a stray dog who wandered onto the field and befriended the team while they were in Arizona. Now Hank is a fully signed member of the Milwaukee Brewers, complete with the first Majestic Athletic authentic canine jersey.
There is no question that fans and Wisconsinites love Hank. He has overwhelmingly won hearts all over Milwaukee including the Milwaukee Brewers players and coaching staff. He does live with a family, but “belongs to the city of Milwaukee.”
Mixing It Up
The Milwaukee Brewers have no shortage of mascots running around Miller Park. There are five racing sausages (occasionally mini-sausages as well), Bernie the Brewer (his lady-friend stops by from time-to-time), and now Hank. The marketing and PR challenge of managing that can be exhausting. Not only do you manage the appearance schedules for the players, you have to add seven mascots to the mix as well. Merchandising and appearances have been very lucrative for the Milwaukee Brewers, but is it possible to do too much? Marketing and PR professionals for sports teams need to be concerned with players lives on and off the field (The NFL has learned that the hard way this week), the storyline of the team and mascots, and the overall fan experience.
There are not many organizations that can say their loyal customers tattoo logos and team symbols on their bodies. With that loyalty comes great responsibility to the fan base. Adding a new mascot to a mix that has been with the Milwaukee Brewers since the early 90’s has advantages and disadvantages. While a shiny new mascot brings in a new crowd (especially animal lovers) and freshens up the stadium experience, it can leave die-hard fans feeling like adding another mascot is a cheap trick to increase attendance.
Why Hank Works
I believe the benefits of sharing the Hank story outweigh the disadvantages. The story of Hank has resonated with people all over the country and the Brewers are doing great things with that attention.
Hank now has his own bobble-head, promotional products, mascot suit, children’s book, t-shirts, and more. Twenty percent of these sales benefit the Wisconsin Humane Society. In a pre-game ceremony on Sept. 13, the Wisconsin Humane Society was presented a check for $130,000 from the Brewers Community Foundation from merchandise sales and other donations. Yes, it’s advantageous for the Brewers because in only the first three months of the baseball season the team sold more than 12,500 K-9 jerseys. (How do you think baseball stars Ryan Braun and Johnathan Lucroy feel about being outsold by a pup?) But, this partnership is also great because it raises awareness for homeless animals in addition to the Wisconsin Humane Society.
The Milwaukee Brewers have paid close attention to Hank’s endorsements and appearances. They want to focus his engagements on events that benefit a charitable cause or the fans. The Brewers executives want to make sure he’s not exploited and put his health and well-being before appearances. While some could argue that having a dog endorse anything involving baseball could be exploitation, this amazing story happened to the Brewers and Hank’s life is better because of it. Sure, he won’t be around forever and they may eventually retire his mascot suit, but it will forever go down in Brewers history as a significant and life-changing event for all parties involved.
What are your thoughts? How many is too many mascots? Have the Brewers added one too many?
Earlier this summer, in my cubicle over 1,000 miles away from the Orlando, FL stage, I watched the Social Fresh East Conference live stream. As the event unfolded on Twitter, one handle, @iSocialFanz, specifically caught my attention with the volume and breadth of visually engaging live tweets. The man behind the handle was Brian Fanzo, Chief Digital Strategist and Partner at BroadSuite | Leading Digital & Social Business Change @iSocialFanz.
The Economist Intelligence Unit @TheEIU along with @IBM included Brian on their list of 25 Social Business Leaders thanks to his direction and leadership in the social media field.
Brian grabs industry attention because he believes “We as a social community create conversations, that create ripples that will change the world!” The hashtag he uses to exemplify his mantra is #ShowUcare.
As Integrated Marketing Communications graduate students, we must remember to create content that shows we care. Brian was gracious enough to create a video that answers the following questions:
Can you describe your role as Technology Community Evangelist at iSocialFanz?
#ShowUcare is your professional philosophy. What examples can you provide that best exemplify your approach?
How do you approach curating content?
You are very well connected on social media! How many platforms do you utilize to produce your content?
What best practices can you offer for hosting and participating in Twitter chats?
If you could only follow ten thought leaders on Twitter who would make your list?
Which conferences do you view as being the ones every practitioner should attend?
How has content marketing and storytelling changed the social media field?
For students starting to build their professional social media presence, what advice can you offer?
What change do you want to see happen for businesses currently utilizing social media?
I can’t help it. Every time I wait in the checkout line, my eyes scan the nearest cooler or “Shake a Coke” display for a drink featuring my name. I still haven’t found it on a Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, or Coke Zero- all of which are part of the “Share a Coke” campaign.
Luckily, however, the company allows you to add your name to a virtual bottle and share it through social media, suggesting that the act of sharing is more important than the drink itself. I have to admit, it’s pretty satisfying seeing my name on the virtual bottle, even if that’s all it is- virtual.
Of course I wanted to share a Coke with all of you as well! Unfortunately, this is the response I received when I typed WVU IMC:
Sorry, everyone…
Another interesting component of the campaign involves its tour stops where you can personalize a mini Coke and immediately have the label printed on your drink.
What do you think about the “Share a Coke” campaign and how it fits with the brand’s identity? Have you visited a tour stop to personalize a drink?
In my last post I talked about a few changes we’ve made to our IMC plans in order to help with staff buy-in and evaluation. One of the things we’ve recently finalized was an infograph showing the results of our marketing plans. As I mentioned in that post, we stopped calling the goals “marketing goals” because we wanted to reinforce that this was a combined effort between the departments and the marketing department. We learned that “marketing” was the responsibility of the marketing department, and we wanted a way to better illustrate how these are business goals that marketing helps accomplish.
We used the infograph below as a tool to showcase everything we achieved as an organization. It was a great way to quickly and visually show the hard work that went into creating, maintaining, and finalizing our integrated marketing communications plans. The finalization of these plans was a result of a combined effort of students and professional staff. You’ll notice that, again, we tried to take the emphasis off of marketing, but still have people understand and realize that these goals were achieved as a result of marketing.
The staff appreciated seeing the goals illustrated. Often, we are so focused internally in our department that we forget the importance of looking at what other departments are doing. After viewing the infograph, the staff had a much greater understanding of all of the different areas that were were focusing on within our organization. Again, it was a great way for everyone to easily see all we had accomplished and get departments excited to implement their new plans.
As we continue or efforts this fiscal year we will look at how we can use this as a tool and expand upon it for future use. Have you tried a similar approach? What has worked well and what suggestions or recommendations do you have? Care to share an infograph you created?
This is a guest blog post by IMC graduate, Angie McCrone.
After graduating from the IMC master’s program at WVU in December 2013, I was determined to embark on a new adventure. I had spent five years running a nonprofit that helps artists with developmental disabilities sell their work, and although my work was rewarding, I was ready to pursue something on a global scale. I wanted to make a difference in the world of global health.
My reasons for being passionate about global health are pretty intuitive; I grew up in Johannesburg, South Africa and have several family members in the medical field there. My whole life, I heard people refer to my home as the lost cause of Africa, a place they refer to like it is a county, not a continent. They would explain that there were too many problems, and pouring US dollars into it wouldn’t help.
So it is obvious why I have a vested interest in global health, but I would argue that allmarketing and communications professionals should care deeply about global health efforts. Communications professionals have the talent and know-how to change the world! More than any other profession, marketers have an incredible ability to change behavior. This is such an incredible skill that the global health field desperately needs. Think of your impact if your communications expertise were used to change risky sexual behavior or drug use in areas with a high HIV prevalence. These actions can be linked directly to lives saved.
Not sure you believe me? Consider the opportunity from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation that offers marketers an opportunity to make a difference each year at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. Their Cannes Chimera Initiative asks marketing and communications agencies (see the video below) to design campaigns that solve global problems.
After realizing my strong desire to be a change-maker, I applied for a Global Health Corps (GHC) fellowship. In April, I was offered an opportunity and adventure of a lifetime, working as a Global Health Corps fellow and Marketing and Development Associate at the Global Health Delivery Project at Harvard University.
GHC pairs young professionals with global health organizations that are looking for innovative solutions for solving some of the world’s most difficult health challenges. Our class of 128 fellows is placed in Burundi, Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda, Zambia and the United States.
GHC fellows come from varied backgrounds and are placed in a wide range of positions and organizations. To help them navigate the new landscape, GHC partners local fellows with an international fellow. As communications professionals, we know how important having a local perspective is to developing genuine communications plans.
Global Health Corps fellows have an incredible opportunity to get valuable experience working in international markets. Since most of the organizations have limited resources, fellows also have a chance to take on large projects that they may not be able to do otherwise. It would be extremely difficult to get this level of real world training at most entry to mid-level positions.
Also, there is no need to have training or global health education to apply to GHC. The paid fellowship includes a two week global health training institute at Yale University, quarterly professional and personal development retreats, and a closing retreat in East Africa. Fellows can also opt-in to have an advisor in their field of choice, and the GHC alumni and staff are dedicated to our current and future success.
My Nepalese co-fellow, Sudip Bhandari (right) and me at a cocktail party for GHC supporters at Chelsea Piers in NYC
Do you want to contribute to a better world? Are you thinking of joining the movement toward global health equity? Consider applying for a Global Health Corps fellowship, or working for a global health organization. Even if you’re not willing to dedicate your career to global health, communications volunteers are always needed at nonprofits, and pro-bono work from a marketing firm on a single communications campaign can save millions.
So go on, marketers! Go change the world. Isn’t it great to know you can?
About the author:
Angie McCrone is the Marketing and Development Associate for the Global Health Delivery Project at Harvard University and a 2014-2015 Global Health Corps fellow. Previously, she managed the marketing and sales of a nonprofit that promotes the creative work of artists with developmental disabilities. She completed her undergraduate degree at the University of California: Santa Cruz, majoring in studio art and minoring in literature and received her master’s degree in integrated marketing communications at West Virginia University.
Global Health Corps is building a community of change-makers who share the common belief that health is a human right. Their mission is to mobilize a global community of emerging leaders to build the movement for health equity.
The Global Health Delivery Project at Harvard University is an interdisciplinary collaboration between Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Business School. Launched in 2007 under the guidance of Dr. Jim Y. Kim, Dr. Paul Farmer, and Professor Michael Porter, GHD is a response to the knowledge gap that occurs between medical discovery and clinical application in low resource settings. Their mission is to build a network of professionals dedicated to improving the delivery of value-based health care globally. To join one of their professional virtual communities visit: ghdonline.org
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