Super Tuesday for Super Bowl Advertisers
We now know who will be playing in the Super Bowl on February 1. It should be a good game. We don’t know much about the more interesting part of the event: the advertising. The Super Bowl advertising hype is just beginning. To date, only a few advertisers have rolled out their pre-game campaigns. Skittles released a […]
Carnival Corporation and Brand Portfolio Strategy
Carnival will be advertising on the 2015 Super Bowl. The move makes sense; Carnival Corporation is by far the world’s largest cruise company and wants to get people in the U.S. excited about taking a trip. This a good time for such a message; the economy is getting better and people have money to spend. […]
Five Brands to Watch in 2015
This will be a challenging year for many brands. Competition is intense, growth can be hard to find and the growth of digital communication is shifting the marketing landscape. Here are five notable brands to watch in the year ahead. Lufthansa Lufthansa is one of the world’s great airlines. It is also under attack. Lufthansa […]
The Marketer’s December Task: Look Back
We are close to the end of the year. This is an important time for marketers to take a look at the business and reflect on how things have gone. Business leaders don’t devote much time to looking back. There is constant pressure to update the plan and execute, so people tend to work on the […]
GoDaddy, Great Brands and Risk
GoDaddy announced last week that it will be advertising on the Super Bowl again in 2015. The announcement was not a surprise; GoDaddy has used the Super Bowl effectively to build its brand over the past decade. This will be its 11th appearance. GoDaddy also announced that its Super Bowl ad will feature a cute […]
Kicking off the Super Bowl Advertising Season
The Super Bowl is just over two months away. Once again, Derek Rucker and I will be leading the Kellogg Super Bowl Advertising Review. I’ll be posting about Super Bowl ads in the weeks leading up to the game. Last year Derek and I had a dedicated blog for the event. This year, I’ll post our thoughts here. […]
Wallenda, Chicago and Branding
Chicago built its brand this week by hosting Nik Wallenda’s high-wire walk across the city. The event attracted attention around the world. It was a terrific moment for Chicago; the event highlighted Chicago’s remarkable urban center. While people were watching Wallenda they were also watching Chicago. This is how great brands are built in the […]
Four Scary Spots
It is Halloween, a day for frights and spooky scenes. So here are four exceptionally scary ads to consider. Dale Carnegie This is truly a frightening ad. The setting is all too familiar: someone with a gun and a mask. While the setting is a bank robbery, it feels like a school shooting. This is any […]
Pharmaceutical Pricing, Markets and Ebola
People love to attack pharmaceutical companies for setting high prices. Dr. Sharon Levine, for example, an executive from Kaiser, recently criticized the $84,000 price of Solvadi, Gilead’s new hepatitis C drug, noting, “It’s an outrageous price.” The problem is that the reason firms invest in developing new drugs is that there is an opportunity to set a […]
Rebranding India
India Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently wrapped up a triumphant visit to the United States He joined Barack Obama for dinner at the While House. More than 18,000 people filled Madison Square Garden to see him speak. He appeared with Jay Z, Beyonce and No Doubt at the Global Citizen Festival. Top executives form PepsiCo, […]
Defending Air France
Air France, one of the world’s great airlines, is under attack. The recent two-week pilot strike was a financial and customer service disaster. The bigger problem is that Air France appears to be unable to defend its business; new competitors are stealing customers at an alarming pace. The financial results for Air France – KLM […]
The NFL Stumbles
The NFL is dealing with a significant brand crisis. How is the league doing at managing it? To evaluate the situation, I turned to Daniel Diermeier, dean of the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago and until recently a colleague of mine at the Kellogg School of Management. Daniel studies how companies […]