Viva La Revolución

StrawberryFrog Unveils New Campaign for Frito-Lay's True North Brand

True North nut snacks is searching to find a story about your life's passion that will be filmed and broadcast during next year’s Academy Awards.

 

The TrueNorth brand has struck a partnership with Oscar-winning actress Helen Hunt, who will direct the 60-second spot. Consumers are being invited to submit essays on www.truenorthsnacks.com now through Dec. 31 for a chance to have the story of their most compelling passion told in the spot to air during the 81st Annual Academy Awards broadcast on Feb. 22, 2009.

 

This is the first time a major consumer brand is reaching out to Baby Boomers in a massive social media campaign using the internet.

 

TrueNorth will be the exclusive snack category advertiser during the annual film awards show. The spot will be one of several that TrueNorth will run during the pre-show and the awards show itself.

 

“We want to find people who have found their “True North” and put a spotlight on their powerful stories,” said Regan Ebert, vice president and GM, warehouse direct business for Frito-Lay North America, in a release.

 

The personal passion spot will be the starter for a multimedia campaign on national TV, in print and online that will include three inspirational stories the brand has already discovered. The campaign will include profiles of Gary Greff, whose sculptures adorn his hometown of Regent, ND, Majora Carter, an ecology activist in the Bronx, NY, and Teddy Gross, who is empowering children with the power of a penny.

 

StrawberryFrog is the creative agency for Frito Lay True North, working in close partnership OMD media and Ketchum PR.

 

Link to the story: http://promomagazine.com/contests/news/fritolay-seeks-stories-1119/

STRAWBERRYFROG BRAZIL SECURES HENKEL

Some very good news out of our Brazilian agency today. StrawberryFrog Brazil has secured part of the Henkel account. The agency will be responsible for the Consumer Product unit, for brands Pritt and Loctite Superbonder. StrawberryFrog Brazil won the pitch launched by Henkel – a global leader in adhesives, seals and surface treatments – for its Consumer Product unit, which includes the brands Pritt and Loctite Superbonder.

"We do have strong and challenging targets specially in Latin America where Henkel Businessesare still on a positive trend and we do count with this new partnership to start a new era for our consumer brands."

--Joel Amorim, from Henkel Marketing & Trade AB/AC Latin America South.

The selection process started in July. Previously, the account had been served by DM9DDB. In addition to the accounts of the leading brands in gluesticks and superglues in Brazil, StrawberryFrog will also be in charge of managing the company’s media investment. The first media action signed by StrawberryFrog will start running next January, a little before the start of school year, for Pritt.

"We want to be a strong ally to Henkel’s team, led by Joel Amorim in Latin America, on its way through differentiation and innovation in its marketing efforts, broadening the meaning of the brand to consumers and the way they relate to each of the company’s products." 

--Alexandre Peralta, CEO and Chief Creative Officer from StrawberryFrog Brazil.

BEATING THE RECESSION

Think bigger, not smaller, for healthier brands.

By Scott Goodson and Chip Walker

You can stare down the recession. It's a time of opportunity, not fear. Everything is changing. Greed is out and communities are in. And in our community of marketers -- both advertisers and agencies alike -- we need to stand behind one idea: That marketing will get businesses going in this terrible mess. 

The new economy is the great equalizer. Under the weight of panicked emotion all brands feel vulnerable -- kind of out of place and out of sync with how people are feeling after the meltdown.

We need to change the conversation and look upon idea generation and strategic and creative excellence as the true productivity tools. We need to look at marketing as the true growth indicator. It's the viable option, the last investment to make before you shut off the lights and evacuate the building.

Who says you can't use your marketing to provide consumers with a greater sense of value? Or, go one step further: By realigning your marketing priorities you can maximize efficiencies and maximize a "wow" factor. So less can also be a lot more.

And though it may seem counterintuitive, the way to do this is not by thinking smaller. It's by thinking bigger.

The first thing marketers need in this environment is a harder-working idea, one that operates in culture rather than in a product category, and lets consumers rethink your competitive frame of reference, defining it more broadly.

For example, premium-priced food brands may suffer in this environment due to consumers trading down to cheaper store brands. But if you position these high-priced foods items as a way to make a basic night in as inspiring as a luxurious night out, they start to seem like a bargain. In this instance, a premium food brand becomes home entertainment, not just a packaged good.

Similarly, cosmetics and laundry detergents can become the self-enhancement aides we need as we put our best foot forward in a competitive job market. And in an environment where we're all working more, convenience purchases like casual dining can be sold as giving you back valuable time to spend with family. Marketing house paint? Rather than think about price or quality versus competition, market it as a smart alternative to remodeling.

The second thing marketers need in this environment is a harder-working communication plan. By that we mean a better approach to interacting with consumers throughout the brand experience.

Competitive USPs and product positionings lead to expensive, interruptive messaging, usually in environments that are cluttered with competitive messages. Once you have an idea that competes in culture, it's much easier (not to mention more cost-effective) to have your message show up in a place where it's actually welcomed by consumers and doesn't have to fight to be heard.

For example: If you want your premium-priced food brand to be part of an elegant evening in instead of an expensive evening out, tell consumers how to put on a party at point-of-sale -- during radio drive time on the way home from work.

In coming months, there will be growth for those brands that understand marketing from a cultural perspective, and who connect their brands to ideas on the rise. Consumers will be trading up and trading down, placing virtually all purchases into one of two categories: things they care about (and are thus willing to pay more for), and things they don't, which they treat as commodities. The key to growth and productivity? To go bigger, to be important in their world, versus different in the category.

The question for marketers is: Are you fearless enough in this recessionary environment to step out of your category and into culture, out of the comfort zone and into a truly game-changing idea?

Scott Goodson and Chip Walker are founder/CEO and head of strategy, respectively, at StrawberryFrog. Goodson can be reached at scott@strawberryfrog.com; Walker can be reached at chip@strawberryfrog.com. 

DIGITAL GENERATION IS HARDWIRED DIFFERENTLY

StrawberryFrog Group Strategy Director George Nguyen writes...

The nature versus nurture debate has developed a new wrinkle... the Internet. A recent Newsweek article examines UCLA neuroscientist, Gary Small’s recent study on how growing up in the digital era impacts the development of the human brain.

There has long been evidence that different parts of the human brain are impacted by different skill sets.

“The impact of technology on our circuitry should not come as a surprise. The brain's plasticity—it's ability to change in response to different stimuli—is well known. Professional musicians have more gray matter in brain regions responsible for planning finger movements. And athletes' brains are bulkier in areas that control hand-eye coordination. That's because the more time you devote to a specific activity, the stronger the neural pathways responsible for executing that activity become. So it makes sense that people who process a constant stream of digital information would have more neurons dedicated to filtering that information.”

Small and colleagues monitored the brains of 24 adults as they performed a simulated Web search and found that the people who have grown up in the digital era are much more adept at juggling multiple sensory inputs while those that have adopted the web at a later point in life still take in and process information in a much more linear fashion.

This only reinforces how vital web design and information architecture are as we try and capture the attention of those that are web savvy. How often and how varied will refreshes have to come? What level of interaction is required? What depth of information?

Is the idea of repeatedly exposing our audience to messaging outdated? Does it now serve to turn off our audiences rather than ensure that the message sticks? How exciting and visually stimulating do we have to ensure our digital presence is? Food for thought…

Scott Goodson Interview

This is a recent interview with Scott Goodson during Advertising Week 2008.

ASK AN EXPERT - DIGITAL UK vs. DIGITAL US

From Agency Spy...

David Bryant is currently the ECD of Interactive over at StrawberryFrog, but he's also spent time as the EVP, Executive Creative Director at DraftFCB; VP, Creative Director at Digitas (London and New York), Tribal DDB, Modem and Bartle Bogle Hegarty (just for good measure).

He once said in Creativity Magazine that: "The only downside of the interactive medium is us - the people. We're not being clever enough. I love the creativity of online. Its potential has been hardly tapped."
Now, who doesn't love the hell out of that? Since David spent years in both the UK and US machines, we thought it'd be fun to ask him about the creative difference that may be present. Other than reading the Scamp blog and having a crush on Jack Davenport, we don't know so much about what lies across the pond. David fills us in on the inhibition of the US and how the web has become a "super-socialite."

Are there any differences in the "creative culture" when it comes to the U.S. vs the U.K.?
"No difference really. The real cultural difference is between good and bad creative. Good creative shops are similar all over the globe. But bad creative places are infinitely variable in form.
The real difference is that in the UK is that you work long hours then drink heavily. In the US, you work long hours, then work more long hours. Neither are particularly good for creativity.
If you look at the most great creative shops, they do great creative work for any brief - banner campaigns, anything. Lean Mean Fighting Machine are a great example of this. The guys there could take a Google search term campaign for a staple supply shop and win an Oscar for best director. Or Your Majesty in NY - who I worked with on a recent Starbucks site. It's about perfectionism and standards no matter how small the job."

Can you tell us the differences in the way that interactive work is produced and executed? Are there different powers at play?
"The differences in the way interactive work is produced in the US vs the UK is really driven by the business differences and cultural differences between the countries. And the differences are enormous.
A) The budgets are smaller in the UK, so paradoxically there is generally less fear about doing challenging work. If you screw up an interactive campaign in the UK as a client you'll probably get a dressing down. In the US, you'll get fired.
B) It's much more difficult to offend people in the UK. For example for the launch of the Ali G film in the UK, a poster campaign ran showing him with both his middle fingers up the bottoms of two women. That got banned. Anything else and you're probably OK. And the reasons for this are the litigious nature of the US society. In the US You can sue somebody for upsetting you. And there's 300 million people here, so you're bound to upset somebody. In the UK, they’d tell you to cheer up and stop whining and offer you a cup of tea. So the culture of treading lightly is always present in the US. And that inhibits.
C) Big business culture. Despite the recent humbling of big business on Wall Street, the prevailing culture is one of growth at any cost. If you're a boutique agency, and you want to sell to a large network, you have to demonstrate non-linear growth. If you're a big agency you want to continue to service "big clients" to take advantage of your economies of scale and cover your cost base. Which means growing vertically as well as horizontally. Which means owning backend production, front end, design, strategy, metrics, media - everything. Having all these offerings in an interactive shop can mean that the creative objective (make the work as great as it can be) get pulled out of wack by the other objectives from all the other departments (make it easy to media plan, easy to measure, easy to sell etc)."

Da Frog is not known for its digital work. What are you goals for the digital business of StrawberryFrog?
Actually "Da Frog" has been doing very good digital work for years which I wish I could take credit for - (Scionspeak, Heineken, IKEA, P&G, Microsoft, Smart car, Asics Tiger from Amsterdam, work from our Brasil office etc). But it doesn't position itself as a "digital" agency so it doesn't often get compared with them.
To us, saying you're a "digital" agency is rather like saying "we're a paper based agency" if you do print work. Or "we're a cathode ray" agency if you do TV. SF's positioning is clear: we create cultural movements for brands, businesses and digital is just another way of doing this.

My personal goals start from the assumption that great interactive creative work is a combination of a great brief from a great planner, a great creative team and a great producer. I'm hugely generalizing here, but boutiques tend to have everything except the planner and the brief, and large digital shops tend to have everything except the great creative teams. We want to continue to build SF's ability to have everything.

What's most exciting about digital right now? Any favorite accounts right now?
There's never been a better time to be involved in "digital." In the last 10 years the web has gone from librarian to super-socialite. Gaming has gone mainstream with 100% penetration of youth market. Digital has effectively stopped being a "new" media. In a little while, TV will be digital and nobody will even notice.
Add to that the huge creative opportunity with new mobile platforms, and the increasing number of big established people like P&G who want to create content rather than make ads or websites, and you'd be hard pressed to find a boring one."

Kerry Stranman to StrawberryFrog

StrawberryFrog's strategic group led by Ilana Bryant and Chip Walker continue to add experienced talent to the team. StrawberryFrog is pleased to announce the appointment of Kerry Stranman as Group Strategy Director. Kerry joins the New York office with 12 years experience as a planner with a focus on cultural observation. She is a leader in innovating new methods of digital observation and is focused on uncovering new strategies for creating cultural movements in the Web 2.0 participation culture. She most recently served as a SVP Planning Director at Leo Burnett USA where she oversaw consumer insights and strategy on Nintendo across Leo Burnett, Starcom and Arc. Kerry’s experience in digital cultures thinking started as the first Chief Strategist of brand consultancy MotiveQuest. There she led social trends forecasting through quantitative analysis of consumer generated content in message board and blogs for companies like Citibank , British Petroleum and DuPont. "We continue to build out our strategic capability with one eye on the present and one eye on the near future, to help our clients leap ahead." says Chip Walker, StrawberryFrog's Head of Strategy.

BELINDA LOPEZ IS EVERYWHERE

Frog Sr. Art Buyer Belinda Lopez seems to be everywhere today.

This morning, her featured interview from Photoshelter's Shoot! The Day event in NYC hit the web and iTunes.

Then Agency Spy couldn't resist covering it, naming her Hot Ad (Wo)Man of the Day!

Wednesday September 3rd 2008 will live forever synonymously with Belinda Lopez.

ALTERED STATES

Shana Ting Lipton of The Huffington Post writes...

For today's geo-quiz, as NPR has been known to phrase it, we're looking for a country that is fast adopting the four-day work week. Gas prices are high, so people are buying smaller cars, even as petite as the SMART car and the Austin Mini. Though this nation is still one of the leading economies in the world, they're starting to look like a sloppy second or third compared to other growing nations. And soon they'll all be drinking Belgian beer.

Where are we? All evidence would seem to point to Western Europe, yet oddly enough the above describes the state of a millennial era United States. It seems as though, the U.S. has inadvertently received a European makeover. Presidential hopeful Barack Obama has even made the long overdue suggestion that maybe Americans should bother learning another language or two so that when they travel abroad they're able to say a few respectful phrases in native tongue. Lucky for those lazy linguists among us, few Americans can afford to go to Europe these days. They'll just have to settle for imitation as the sincerest and most ersatz form of flattery: the faux Eiffel Tower at Paris Vegas.

It's a pity that John Kerry isn't running for president in '08 because maybe in the wake of this Euro-tinted era, his alleged "Frenchness" would resonate with voters.

The latest news of Anheuser-Busch being purchased by Belgian brewer InBev has a lot of red-blooded (and red-faced, ahem Lou Dobbs) countrymen up in arms. The King of Beers might as well already be dubbed, Le Roi de Bières. InBev is buying the company for about €32 billion Euros. That's $52 billion dollars for anyone who cares to know what that is in chump change, or what I like to call the U.S. Peso. For God's sake, even rap artist Jay-Z's hip to that--he flashes Euros NOT Dollars in his video "Blue Magic."

And of course THEY are flashing those Euros all over town, buying up hot property like New York's Flatiron building--while we Americans, especially Californians, suffer in the wake of a real estate meltdown. At least we can be proud of our 'country within a country'--Google--which continues to keep us relevant. Silicon Valley may in fact be all we've got. The rising price of doing business in the Irish "Valley" has even forced I.T. giants like Dell to make large cutbacks on European operations.

Essentially Europe and just about every country that's NOT the U.S. has become increasingly culturally and economically relevant. One need not read the tome-du-jour The Post-American World by Fareed Zakaria to notice that all things non-American are it.

 

Just a few months ago, the New York Times proclaimed Indian contemporary art a hot commodity on the heels of Chinese art's years-long boom. The Japanese can boast that Toyota is the world's largest auto maker thanks to their foresight with the Prius (a brand name practically synonymous with 'hybrid'). Reva, a company in Bangalore, that's Bangalore India, folks, is the leading global producer of electric vehicles. But just wait until 2009 when Norway introduces the Th!nk EV to the U.S. Sure, we've got the Silicon Valley-birthed Tesla Roadster--but typical of our 'no bling left behind' nation--it's a flashy sports car few regular working Joe's could afford (at 100k per vehicle).

As a sort of bridge between East and West, Europe in particular is experiencing a new financial AND cultural Golden Age. When some ECO-nomists sing the praises of hydrogen to solve our energy problems, they're singing an old tune that the French and Icelandic have been playing for years--making them time-tested experts on fertile ground. Even Amsterdam is enjoying a renaissance. The petite North Sea city is the advertising industry's little darling hot spot. Dutch boutique agencies like 180 and Strawberry Frog have already opened up offices in New York and L.A.

Don't get me wrong. American has also recently influenced Europe. Let's not forget the smoking ban. That sure squelched some indigenous culture in the City of Lights, yeah!

I recently took a trip back to Amsterdam (where I had lived for four years). I was looking to reconnect with old friends and to drum up business that could actually earn me pay in a currency of value. Were it not for the kindness and generosity of my local acquaintances, I might have been traumatized by large expenditures--like buying a sandwich. I will never forget the pitying look on their faces as they offered to pick up bill after bill--breakfast, lunch and dinner. I felt like a gypsy pauper who had just asked them if they could spare some change. Yet, there was something right about this 'oh so wrong' feeling. It was addressing the imbalance that had been in play for decades with America cast as the 'popular kid' and all other nations just lowly geeks attempting to catch a smile or a wave from the big man on campus.

Years ago, I was in Hong Kong for my cousin's wedding and this very topic came up--America's slippage to second or third place. A successful New York businessman chimed in that it wouldn't be the end of the world--we'd get used to not always being #1 and maybe it would even make us a happier nation. His prescient words ring truer today than ever for me.

As a dual European/American citizen--who was born in London, grew up in L.A., went to French school, American university and Dutch grad school--it's not that I want Europe to make mince meat of the U.S. That would be as stupid as fighting myself. I'm just suggesting that we take this opportunity--this coffee break (and we love those)--to reframe and get a little perspective. When you don't have to be #1 there is a lot of freedom: freedom to enjoy one-month vacations, and freedom to sit back in a café for hours, drinking Belgian beer, chatting with strangers, (NOT smoking your Gitanes)...taking it all in and living a slow-paced, well-balanced, healthy life.

STRAWBERRYFROG LOOKS FOR LILY PAD IN INDIA

Savia Jane Pinto | afaqs! | Mumbai, July 15, 2008

India seems to be on everyone’s radar these days. StrawberryFrog, the independent full service agency that is best known for its global work on Heineken, plans to start operations in Mumbai in 2009.

This isn’t StrawberryFrog’s maiden venture on Indian terrain. The agency was responsible for the launch of the Mahindra & Mahindra vehicles, including the Scorpio, in the US market. It has also done some work for the NGO, Nanhi Kali.

StrawberryFrog is now known to be in talks with marketing professionals from top Indian agencies. It is looking at various structures in order to start operations in the country, including individuals who will build the business from scratch and partnerships.

In an email interview with afaqs!, founder and chief executive officer Scott Goodson revealed the recent happenings at StrawberryFrog.

Scott Goodson

Why is StrawberryFrog looking at India now? Goodson says, “We just don’t think that the systems of traditional holding company agencies are the systems for the future. They are outdated and were developed for a very different era. That era has changed dramatically in most parts of the world and it is changing in India too, especially for GenY.”

Goodson wants to tap the talent in India for the agency’s global clients. He is looking at engaging Indian talent for StrawberryFrog in the US and other markets. He says, “We want to work together on fantastic briefs for the US, Europe and India. StrawberryFrog Mumbai will mean connecting with a totally new amazing group of driven thinkers, who think big and fresh.”

Another reason that StrawberryFrog is setting up shop in India now is because it is focusing on helping Indian companies launch their brands and build their market in the US, Europe and South America and also bringing European and Brazilian brands into the Indian and Asian markets.

Speaking about competition in the form of BBH and Naked Communications, which will also be coming to India soon, Goodson says, “We don’t really compete with them. India is a big market. There is room for all sorts of brands. It will depend on what the clients are looking for.”

He says that unlike BBH and Naked, which are owned by holding companies that are far away, StrawberryFrog is independent and StrawberryFrog Mumbai will be part owned by its Indian partners. So, the decisions for StrawberryFrog Mumbai will be taken in Mumbai, where people on the ground have a much better sense of what’s going on.

The team hasn’t been put in place as yet. “It will be an entirely Indian team, which will be educated and trained in the processes and systems of StrawberryFrog,” says Goodson. He says he is looking for someone who wants to be free from shackles to think really big.

StrawberryFrog will differentiate itself from other agencies with its Cultural Movements process. Cultural Movement is a strategy designed for clients, where, instead of developing a brand idea, then communication, then taking it outside to the consumer, you first identify or look outside for a big social change and use that to develop an idea. With a Cultural Movement set in place, “you can do anything in this age of Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Orkut,” says Goodson.

Another aspect that will set StrawberryFrog apart from the other agencies, says Goodson, is the system of the legacy agencies. He says. “The talent inside the traditional corporate network dinosaurs is very good, but the systems of the legacy agencies hold them back. StrawberryFrog will give strategic and creative thinkers the freedom to do business building work.” The age old structure of the legacy agencies is devised to weed out people who think too freely. StrawberryFrog intends to tackle its competition by out-thinking them versus outspending them.

StrawberryFrog has a presence in New York. Recently, it also entered the Brazilian market with an office in Sao Paolo. “The market in Brazil is not very different from that in India,” says Goodson. Important accounts that StrawberryFrog has worked on are PepsiCo, P&G, Morgan Stanley, Wal-Mart and Microsoft.