May 9, 2006

Going Overboard with Lifestyle Touchpoint Marketing

We're big fans of Lifestyle Touchpoint Marketing...communicating with people at multiple touchpoints in their lives, whether it's an ad on a pizza box or a display at the doctor's office.

But hotels.nl, an online reservations service in Holland, may have gone too far when they placed waterproof blankets (with the company's logo) on the backs of grazing sheep. The mayor of Skarsterlan, a small Dutch town, certainly thought so. He fined the company 1,000 Euros (about $1,300)/day.

Meanwhile....

A new, small European rental car company can lease cars for as low as $230/month, because the vehicles are covered with advertising and include a GPS tracking device that help provide estimates of how many eyeballs each car reaches.

Marketing the Stars

The Hollywood star system used to package and protect the stars so that their image would be precisely that which the studios sought. A great example of this system is an essay about Natalie Wood by John Gregory Dunne in the recently published book of his non-fiction writing. It's called "Regards," and it's one of the most enjoyable books I've read in a long time.

The Hollywood studios wanted to be sure that the off-screen image of their stars was consistent with their on-screen image. And they managed everything from what the stars said to where they went and even whom they married. They were, in fact, "protecting the brand" of each star.

That's become more challenging these days, as the studios no longer control the talent...and too many stars won't admit that their off-screen persona will most certainly affect their on-screen success. (Think Woody Allen.)

Recently, Tom Cruise's off-screen activities have garnered a lot of press, not all of it positive. Some critics speculated that it colored the way they felt about his latest movie: "Mission Impossible: III." Indeed, opening weekend grosses for the movie were much less than hoped for. Perhaps audiences agreed.