Wednesday, October 06, 2010

WHAT IT TAKES TO STAND OUT?

In the scramble to stand out from the crowd, companies including Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. and Estée Lauder are turning to an unlikely tactic to promote their brands: setting Guinness World Records. (More after the break)

Known for chronicling wacky feats, Guinness World Records opened a division this year to help companies figure out what records to set to highlight their products and brands. The business, owned by Jim Pattison Group, a Vancouver, Canada-based company with holdings in media, packaging, cars and entertainment, also opened a PR division to help marketers get media attention. Starwood's Sheraton turned to the division to promote a $120 million upgrade of the hotel fitness programs at the hotel chain. On Thursday, 270 people gathered in the rain at a Sheraton in midtown Manhattan to participate in the largest-ever resistance-band strength-training class. Last Friday, cosmetics giant Estée Lauder set a record for having the "most landmarks illuminated for a cause in 24 hours." Thirty-eight landmarks, including the Empire State Building, were lit up in pink to promote breast-cancer awareness. The Guinness brand helps create "buzz, and we benefit from the novelty and association," said Hoyt Harper, global brand leader for Sheraton. As event marketing has become more widespread as a promotional tool—ranging from from rock concerts to walk-a-thons—marketers have been casting around for new ways to help their events get noticed. Advertisers spent $8.9 billion on event marketing in 2009, according to PQ Media, a research firm in Stamford, Conn. For marketers, getting Guinness's stamp of approval is relatively cheap. It charges companies about £3,000 ($4,739) for its services, which include having a judge verify the feat and brainstorming the types of records that remain unbroken. Guinness says it has seen the number of record-breaking requests increase 250% over the past three years, with the majority coming from corporations. But as with other forms of event marketing, the risk is that consumers will become savvy to the tactic and tune out. "If too many companies jump into the Guinness pint glass, there will be a danger of it being overused," said Dean Crutchfield, chief engagement officer of brand agency Method. If that happens, he said, "the programs won't give companies a lift; they will be washed out by everyone playing the same game." Advertising executives and marketers say figuring out just how much these marketing gimmicks affect sales is difficult because companies often have several marketing efforts running at the same time. Still, Natural Balance Pet Foods Inc. says it saw its sales jump 15% in the months following its tie-up with Guinness. The company, which was founded by actor Dick Van Patten, created the world's longest float at the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, Calif. The 114-foot float featured a giant ramp that several bulldogs snowboarded down. "The Guinness name is so recognizable, and its brand gets a lot of press," said Joey Herrick, president of the pet food company. Cricket Communications Inc., a wireless provider owned by Leap Wireless International Inc., says it received a noticeable jump in publicity and brand awareness after teaming up with Samsung Electronics Co. to produce the world's largest cellphone. The fully functioning replica of the Samsung Messenger—15 feet long, 11 feet high and three feet wide—was created to promote Cricket's entry into new markets such as Chicago. Cricket says the event generated 38 million media impressions (the number of people who may have seen an article, heard something on the radio, watched something on TV, or read something on the Web). Samsung has since hooked up with Guinness on two other occasions, the most recent setting the record for the "fastest text message on a touchscreen mobile phone." Guinness World Records Ltd., which started in 1955 as a division of the company that makes Guinness beer, gets about 80% of its profit from its yearly publication of "Guinness World Records." The book is published in more than 100 countries and 25 languages and is the highest-selling book under copyright of all time.
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