An orbital 1,967,514 views,
and counting

Good. Clean. Fun.

For a good clean feeling, no matter what, we offer up this serial Wrigley’s Orbit® gum spot. Smacking wads of Orbit, this threesome pushes nearly every FCC boundary, yet never broaches one.

Add the signature Orbit brand sign-off: hand-held, frame-centered package; Vanessa, the onlooking, ever-white-bright and über-perky narrator with package-matching scarf; a tagline reinforcement finish; and this one’s a wrap.

Viral. Free. Fun.

At last count Orbit has enjoyed 1,967,514 brand impression-delivered views of this video on YouTube alone—part of what’s propelled Orbit to a top five chewing gum brand. Now that’s meteoric viral distribution. And for brand agents, that’s just good clean fun—key word, fun.

White Castle’s conversation-inspiring promotion.

Dining on Slyders®
by candlelight

What’s Wrong with this Picture?

This street sign isn’t advertising a 4-star restaurant, it’s a 24-hour White Castle that serves miniature hamburgers called Slyders®. A regional player, they consistently rank among the Top 100 U.S. foodservice companies, serving over 500 million burgers a year.

White Castle is running a serious business, but not too serious.

Love is in the Ambiance

A kitsch castle motif and hamburger joint ambiance doesn’t register as a romantic destination for most couples. Nor does dining on steamy Slyders® in a stainless-steel and plastic-laminate setting on candlelit, linen-draped tables. Which is exactly why White Castle’s charming Valentine’s Day promotion works.

Not your typical White Castle experience: waiters, flowers, candlelight and tablecloths.

Embrace Yourself

From a strategic marketing standpoint, White Castle understands and embraces their market space and brand persona—and are willing to leverage it by poking fun at themselves. This promotion transcends a one-way communication, inviting consumers to interact with the brand—sharing a little levity with others at White Castle’s expense.

Instigating Viral-ability

The promotion’s self-effacing humor became an opportunity for consumer-generated online viral buzz. The Brainstorm employee who took the picture emailed it to 3 people; two within Brainstorm and one in Oregon. Several weeks later she received the image back in an email from a former co-worker, unrelated in any tangible way to the original recipients with the subject ‘Valentine’s Day dinner plans?’ Who knows how far it traveled or how many people saw it?

Share the Love

Socially shared experiences both on and offline begin with transparency, relevance, and often wit. Inspiring people to talk positively about your brand requires involvement and reaching out to engage.

[Restaurant interior photo: Girlieleep]

Joseph Jaffe’s Join the Conversation

If you’re a brand marketer
or have a brand, or a market to reach,
read this book.

A Marketing Dialog

The foundation of Join the Conversation, How to Engage Marketing-Weary Consumers with the Power of Community, Dialogue, and Partnership is author Joseph Jaffe’s distinction between communication and conversation. He describes communication as one-way and carefully controlled in its implementation, while conversation is organic, non-linear, unpredictable, and not initiated by any one person or organization.

Key Moments

As collective online conversations begin to spill into conversations offline, the book addresses the opportunities presented to brand marketers engaged in conversation with groups Jaffe identifies as producers, prosumers and consumers.

He presents many examples of what we here at Brainstorm refer to as key social media moments—moments when companies have either seized an opportunity or been seized by it.

If you’re not present at a key moment,
you can’t exploit that moment,
but it may exploit you.

Helpful Advice

The book provides a number of guidelines to consider when adopting conversational engagement over mere communication: The need to embrace consumer-generated content, the importance of honesty, an emphasis on product quality and service excellence—coupled with a balanced sense of transparency, as well as the benefits of partnering with today’s consumer, paired with cautionary advice.

About the Author

Joseph Jaffe, author of Join the Conversation and Life After the 30-Second Spot, is president and chief interrupter at new marketing company, Crayon. He’s a noted consultant and blogger and hosts Coffee with Crayon Thursdays at 9am EST on Crayonville Island in Second Life. This review is part of his UNM2PNM project.

Join In

Although it may take purists a while to get used to the conversational writing style, regardless of whether or not you’re already engaged in conversation, Join the Conversation is a read worth talking about.

Meet the target audience of the GendeX™ Mutual Fund from Thrasher Funds

GendeX™ Not your father’s mutual fund.

A Changing Financial Market

The GendeX™ Mutual Fund (Ticker: GENDX) from Thrasher Funds targets the estimated 60 million people born between the mid 1960s and mid 1990s—a demographic largely ignored by the financial community according to Thrasher.

In the Pink: Access and Appeal

The Thrasher Funds brand identity breaks from traditional financial motifs by dipping their logo—a staid engraved “T”—in shocking pink (right), and reflecting their target customer in imagery (above). The Thrasher GendeX products bring real value to this unique investment brand. A $100 beginning balance and minimum monthly contribution of $50 makes an automatic investment plan feasible for young professionals. GendeX holdings also feature companies relevant to their target market such as Apple, Adidas, Coca-Cola, Lulu Lemon and Nike.

Thrasher Funds shocking pink logo

As markets and demographics change are you reflecting that change in both form and function across all brand touchpoints? Engage your customers in ongoing dialog to discern their short and long-term needs and desires.

Our latest top 20 list of inane musings from the Brainstorm office white board: Top 20 New Wireless Projects

(at right)