This month is hosted by Colgate-Palmolive, a leading global consumer products company that focuses on oral care, personal care and home care. Under brand names such as Colgate, Palmolive, Mennen, Irish Spring, Elmex, Ajax and Tom’s of Maine, the company sells its products worldwide. On the occasion of its oral health month, Colgate-Palmolive is now hosting an educational health campaign for Hispanics ages 18 to 49 in the United States to remind them that (1) prevention is less costly than treatment, and (2) strong oral health habits at home are extremely important.

“Latino population shows greater deficiencies in overall oral healthcare”

Part of the campaign, called “El Mes de la Salud Bucal: Un Mundo de Sonrisas Saludables” (“Oral Health Month: A World of Healthy Smiles”), involves Colgate’s partnership with the Hispanic Dental Association (HDA) to communicate the purpose of good oral health care and encourage Hispanic consumers to get dental screenings.

“Due to language barriers and lack of familiarity accessing oral healthcare services, among other factors, our Latino population shows greater deficiencies in overall oral healthcare,” says Carla Kelly, General Manager of Multicultural Marketing for Colgate, in PRWeek and on prnewswire.com. “Colgate has a long tradition of serving Hispanics in their native countries; that strong alliance has been carried over to the U.S. Hispanic market. Hispanics count on Colgate to be their trusted partner; and we are proud to launch this global educational program for the very first time in the United States to specifically address our consumers’ needs.”

A Colgate van helps visitors experience oral health care

Siboney USA, one of Colgate’s multicultural advertising and PR partners, hosts the campaign that includes several local events in Miami, Los Angeles, Houston, and New Jersey as well as Colgate’s “Bright Smiles, Bright Futures” van. According to Kelly, the van gives visitors an opportunity to experience oral health care. In particular, families with kids are called upon to improve their oral health by educating themselves, getting regular check-ups, and maintaining healthy oral habits. To start, children have the chance to receive free dental screenings from professionals associated with the HDA when they visit Colgate events.

Colgate focuses on in-person events as major communication channel

From a PR perspective, it is interesting to see how Colgate is targeting local media in the four communities mentioned above, including radio and Spanish-language outlets. Univision, which calls itself “the leading Spanish-language media company in the United States”, will air PSAs (Public Service Announcements) in which well-known Spanish spokespersons such as dentists, professors and journalists talk about oral health.

Another way for Spanish-speaking consumers to find out more about the campaign is the Spanish Colgate Web site that provides news, relevant background information and video files. The campaign also includes bilingual brochures for kids and adults that are distributed at the Colgate events. These in-person events are at the heart of the Colgate educational campaign that hopefully reaches its target audience and raises awareness for oral health issues.

I am excited to see the results of this campaign and whether there will be further efforts in other countries. It’s a pity that the campaign Web site only exists in Spanish as it hinders non-Spanish-speaking audiences from obtaining more information about the initiative. As a result, we will have to wait for the media coverage during April to see if events and a van are actually enough to raise awareness and long-term interest in the topic of oral health care.

]]> http://crosscountry09.wordpress.com/2009/04/14/colgate/feed/ 0 Fanny Colgate Oral Health Month Spanish Clgate Web site http://crosscountry09.wordpress.com/2009/04/06/nato/ http://crosscountry09.wordpress.com/2009/04/06/nato/#comments Mon, 06 Apr 2009 13:08:01 +0000 Fanny http://crosscountry09.wordpress.com/?p=318 ]]> Honestly, writing this article gave me the creeps. Not necessarily in a negative way, but in an awe-inspiring one. To begin, the topics of war, defense and protection by themselves scare me because I connect them with nothing good, only death and destruction. In addition, I think nowadays, it is part of the German mentality to behave inconspicuosly and to bow and acquiesce to a certain degree when it comes to this topic. At least in my case, based on German history, I neither want my country to start a war nor be involved in it as a defender or even a peacekeeper. From my point of view, this is not political ignorance, but insecurity, caution, and anxiety.

NATO, the biggest military alliance in the Western world

The reason I write about this topic is based on an article I read on prreport.de about NATO starting its first online campaign to raise awareness about its work. According to its Web site, NATO, short for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, is “an alliance of 26 countries from North America and Europe committed to fulfilling the goals of the North Atlantic Treaty since 1949.” NATO divides its activities into four fields such as “consultation with member countries”, “defense of the member countries”, “crisis management in conflict situations worldwide” and “building partnerships and dialogue with members and non-members.” With its work, NATO wants to extend security and stability “well beyond NATO borders.”

 NATO goes online with a non-traditional video spot campaign

Now, marking the occasion of the 60th anniversary of NATO’s founding, PR agency network Scholz & Friends (S&F ) stood up to several international combatants and designed an online video campaign to raise awareness about the organization’s work and its status as a key enabler of peace, security and stability. The non-traditional campaign was created “to reach younger mass audiences via their preferred information channels – along with a supporting micro-site,” NATO announced. This Web platform can be found on http://www.60yearsnato.info/ and will be promoted on Web banners worldwide. The central elements of the campaign are “the three Internet-distributed short films promoting awareness of NATO’s enduring commitment to peace and security”, Scholz & Friends explains on its Web site.

 “You want a life of freedom and stability. So do we.”

The three 45-second TV spots have different themes such as “Basement”, “Run”, and “Staircase” and no doubt, all of them are tough! Indefinable acoustical and visual shreds at the beginning of the videos give the impression people scream and try to escape from a dangerous situation such as war. After 20 seconds, it clears up and becomes an innocuos setting like people dancing in a club or a family watching fireworks. Every spot ends positively and closes with a slogan emphasizing the peace and security provided by NATO such as “People often take freedom and stability for granted. We don’t. – Peace and Security. That’s our mission.” The spots will be aired in social media as well as on news and governmental Web sites of all 26 NATO-member countries.

Basement

Run

Staircase

PR professionals in Germany are skeptical about the campaign

As written on blogs like Kosmopolito.org or on professional PR Web sites such as prreport.de, the opinion of PR practitioners in Germany about the NATO online campaign is not very supportive. For them, the video spots are too abstract to become viral by being implemented on Facebook profiles of 20 to 30 year olds. PR professionals fear a part of the target audience does not understand the message NATO wants to transfer because there is neither a personal connection to past wars in Western Europe nor a current danger to the freedom of all member countries and so no need to defend it. I partially agree with this statement because I do not have any memories or experiences of a war I witnessed. Furthermore, I feel safe and free in my country and do not see a reason for focusing on a topic that is not relevant for me. Finally, I do not want to put the spotlight on it to avoid speculation and provocation in my country and beyond its borders.

Needless to say, on the other hand, global peace and stability can just exist when countries respect each other and are willing to cooperate. In this way, it is necessary to have an organization that defends the principles of living together internally and externally and that takes care of interrelated countries. That means, I appreciate the idea of raising awareness for NATO and using non-traditional channels to reach its target audience.

In my opinion, the NATO video spots will definitely get attention in Germany because it is not common to see this kind of advertisement of the army or a military organizations on TV. As I said earlier, it is not a topic we like to be confronted with.  In addition of getting attention, the spots will meet the mentality of its target audience and make people think. By connecting the TV spots with a very interactive and user-friendly Web platform, NATO developed a great communication strategy that is going to educate the public and engage even more sympathy for the organization’s activities. The only thing I am not sure about is the issue of becoming viral. Would you put a link to NATO videos or its Web page on your Facebook profile?

 After “Running Man” Saatchi & Saatchi created “Bill”

The campaign, “Life flows better with Visa” created by Saatchi & Saatchi UK, begun in 2008 with the “Running Man” TV commercial where Visa Europe really stirred the pot. 

The new spot called “Bill”, started running on March 1, and can be seen on TV for the next eight weeks. A 30- and 60-second version of the commercial is being broadcast on more than 200 channels in the United Kingdom, Finland, Germany, Greece, Poland and Turkey. It shows Bill Shannon performing a seamless dance on crutches through the streets of a city, illustrating how a shopping trip can flow better when using a Visa card.

Visa takes up the idea of the music video “Work it Out”

­The current spot “Bill”, has it seeds in Joey Garfield‘s music video “Work it Out” which he produced for RJD2 in 2008. In the streets of New York, director Joey Garfield captured one continuous shot of Shannon, injecting RJD2 into random scenes throughout the video. For the TV commercial of the 2009 Visa Europe campaign, Shannon was once again directed by Joey Garfield with the music of Don Thomas’ “Come on Train”.

While some people on the Internet criticize Visa Europe for stealing the movie idea of “Work it Out” to save costs, I can see the reason why the company took up the theme and engaged the same main character as the front man for its campaign. It is the attitude and the style Bill Shannon transfers. Let me try to explain that to you.

Bill Shannon - neither dancer nor choreographer?!

Bill is an American dancer, director, and choreographer who holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He was born with a bilateral hip deformity that affects one in 1,200 children, which means it’s sometimes difficult for him to support his own body weight. On the Visa Web site he says, “As a kid I wouldn’t have called it dancing,” but it was then that he began to develop what is now known as the ‘Shannon technique’ in order to stop the unwanted stares. Today, Bill is especially famous because for his “technique” that is more sophisticated and artistic than ever before.

Nevertheless, and surprisingly for me, after all the years or improvement and professionalism, Bill still does not see himself as a dancer or choreographer. He announces on his Web site: “The reality is that I lack the specialized focus of the choreographer or the training of the dancer. The way I see it, I currently function as an outsider artist of an interdisciplinary nature within the field of dance.”

“The dance I perform is pretty much my own invention”

Bill does not want to be pigeonholed, and honestly, after watching his videos, you do not want to be either. “The dance I perform is pretty much my own invention,” he explains on his homepage. “Through dancing I have created an entire classification of movement that is technically specific while culturally a hybrid and unique unto me. [...] I have invented a new form, profoundly different from anything you may have seen… this invention is rooted in the hiphop/skateboard tradition of street improvisation yet has a formal timeless quality beyond the boundaries of its roots… I dance in the street when I walk in the street.” It is the combination of two main character features that makes Bill Shannon a great representative for the new Visa campaign. Despite his physical limitation, he indulges his passion for dance in a creative and innovative way that brings him independence and flexibility.

Visa Europe – Bill Shannon’s biggest fan

Although Visa Europe’s statement about Bill Shannon almost sounds like a declaration of love, it shows how good the product, communication strategy and actor match one another. “The beauty of Bill’s movement is as inspirational as it is mesmerizing. The fluidity of his dance moves meant that it didn’t take us long to realize that he was the perfect embodiment of Visa’s ‘flow’ campaign. In the TV ad not only does Bill’s choreography represent life flowing effortlessly but his flow and movement throughout the ad turns an average shopping trip into something easy thanks to his Visa card.”

The next step of the “Flow” campaign is a Visa promotion which will also run for six weeks starting April 6. You can find more information in the media&press center on the Visa Web site. Although this campaign is primarily for Europe, I would love to hear the impressions of readers from other countries and continents, too. So, where are you from and can you get with Visa “Flow”?

Become a member of the H&M community

It is interesting to see how H&M enthusiasts feel about being involved in the decision process of opening new H&M stores worldwide, and it also gives the impression that H&M became not only a brand but a lifestyle. To set the record straight, I am not addicted to H&M fashion, but visiting H&M in other countries makes me feel a little bit like I’m entering familiar territory.  In addition to shopping, the connection between customers and H&M grows even more when there is another way for exchanging opinions and news.

Join the H&M Facebook group

In realizing the need to integrate the H&M brand into customers’ lives and connect them all over the world, the company started using social media. Since June 2007, when H&M promoted its ”H&M Loves Kylie” swimwear line on Facebook for the first time, more and more customers joined the H&M community and in return got access to seasonal fashion ideas, special offers, a style guide, photos and video podcasts. Users can find the podcasts on the H&M Youtube account that provides not only H&M TV commercials from all over the world, but also material from “behind the scenes.” Today, more than one million enthusiasts have already joined the H&M Facebook presence.

As part of the discussion about where to open new H&M stores, the fan page also provides an overview of available jobs at H&M worldwide  as well as a list with job descriptions. In this way the Facebook page not only targets customers, but is also a platform for potential employees. To encourage current and future workers, H&M promotes itself by saying, “The greatest thing about H&M is the people we hire.”

Follow H&M on Twitter

To broaden the interactivity with its customers, H&M communicates news on Twitter. Users can access  coupons and other price specials, observe celebrities wearing H&M fashion, get informed about upcoming events or just discuss “What are you wearing out tonight?” As is the case with Facebook, many of H&M’s followers are from different countries such as Canada, China, Poland, England, and Germany. 

While the Facebook page is dialog-oriented, the Twitter account works more as a tool to encourage customers to buy H&M clothes. Nevertheless, both ways are important for H&M communications because people can be reached all over the world at the same time. Additionally, social networking, as the name promises, strengthens community building and the relationship between consumers and their brand.

Get a message with H&M coupons

In addition to its online presence on Twitter, Youtube, and Facebook, H&M started a new mobile marketing campaign in 27 of its 33 markets worldwide. ”The campaign includes SMS coupons, mobile banner ads placed on major carrier portals and media sites including Tele2, Telenor and TV4, and a mobile site with click-through slideshows and animated GIF images of the retailer’s latest garments,”  mobilemarketer.com announced. 

It is not the first mobile campaign H&M has launched. In 2006, the clothing company became one of the first major brands that ventured to do serious mobile marketing.  Essentially these campaigns focus on mobile couponing and the interaction between consumers and the H&M brand. By using this channel, H&M wants to illustrate and promote its latest seasonal collection of apparel as well as increase the membership of H&M Club, its loyalty reward program. 

Sign up and save money

 To participate in this campaign, H&M customers sign up online with their mobile number so they receive SMS alerts and mobile coupons with special offers that drive them into retail locations. For example, I could get a text message saying “Show this coupon in store to get 20 percent off your purchase”, and within a specific timeframe, I can go to a H&M store of my choice and shop. In my opinion, this is a very good idea to drive consumers to H&M stores. Since consumers have to sign up to receive the messages, it is not seen as spam or unwanted advertisements but as an invitation.

Altogether, H&M’s dialog with its customers is very multifaceted and encouraging. The Facebook profile, the videos on Youtube and the quick chat on Twitter, support the fact that H&M is seen not only as a brand but as a global lifestyle. What I could not find during my research was an H&M blog hosted by the company itself. Does anyone have some information about that? Maybe a blog would be a good way to combine the dialog element of Facebook with the multimedia element of Youtube. Just an idea!

The media announced it as the “biggest PR pitch of the year!” Starting July 1, 2009, the Dutch company Philips Electronics will get a whole new package of global communications support called “One Voice” – a recently formed multi-agency team consisting of numerous Omnicom units such Fleishman-Hillard, Ketchum, CPR Worldwide and Kreab&Gavin Anderson. This team of PR agencies and consultants for healthcare, financial and issue management, and corporate and public affairs will provide international support for Philips’ different business sectors.  Although the contract negotiations are still underway with Omnicom, insiders talk about an account in the range of $10 to 20 million.

Healthcare, Lighting, and Consumer Lifestyle

On its homepage, Philips Electronics calls itself “a diversified health and well-being company, focused on improving people’s lives through timely innovations.” Within this vision, Philips allocates its products to three business sectors: Healthcare, lighting, and consumer lifestyle. In the line of healthcare, Philips markets professional diagnostic equipment such as Magnetic Resonance Imaging Machines or consumer devices such as the Children’s Asthma Care Kit. In the lifestyle field, it sells products ranging from TVs and shavers to cameras as well as PC and phone accessories. In the lighting sector, the company offers both professional and consumer lighting products.

About Philips Electronics

Royal Philips Electronics (also known as Philips Electronics), one of the largest electronics companies in the world, was founded in 1891 in Eindhoven in the Netherlands by Anton and Gerard Philips to manufacture incandescent lamps and other electrical products.

Global Spirit

According to its homepage, Philips Electronics seems to be a global leader across the market of healthcare, lighting and lifestyle products. Philips is…

To sell its products close to customers and provide the best support worldwide, Philips Electronics spanned a global network of 100 sales and service outlets, 155 production  sites as well as seven research laboratories.

Today the company itself employs 121,000 people in more than 60 countries worldwide focusing on the three business sectors mentioned above. To strengthen and expand its global performance in the near future, Philips Electronics is now ramping up its communications support. “Philips’ ambition is to be the leading health and well-being company in the world,” a Philips executive explained in an interview with Advertising Age. “To accomplish that, we need strong media, stakeholder and government communications. In addition to speaking with consumers we’re also interested in business influencers and the people who make key healthcare decisions.”

Time for a Change

For the past five years, Philips employed MS&L and Text 100 for its communications support but decided during a  global review in February 2009 to finish this partnership. Both agencies, as well as several others mentioned above, were invited to pitch. “We are not doing this review with a specific purpose of paring down agencies, but rather to thoroughly measure performance and capability against our current and future needs” explains David Wolf, director of corporate communications at Philips in PRWeek. At the end it was a decison against MS&L and Text 100, and Philips handed its communications function over to One Voice. “We have made this decision based on their demonstrated ability to meet the challenges of Philips and its three business sectors,” Wolf commented in AdvertisingAge.

Future Plans

Now, after teaming up with Omnicom, Philips Electronics gets a whole network of firms that will provide communications support in the United States, Australia, Mexico, China, India, Germany and other countries the company reaches. Well, that is what the electronics conglomerate expects from the change to One Voice.  ”Philips strongly believes in a periodic re-selection process to maintain a healthy and market-focused approach to our communications,” the company announced in PRWeek.  Personally, I am not sure about this decision. MS&L and Text 100 are long-term partners and know the brand Philips very well. It could be innovative or dangerous to start with a total new network of communications and consulting agencies that first of all have to dig deeper in the brand itself. On the other hand, with these four huge partners Philips can reach almost every part of the global market  and in this way implement and strengthen its brand. Wow, that is impressive!

Another thing I was wondering about during my research is why Philips does not announce this change on its homepage although it is “such a big PR deal?” Is is because people would be skeptic about an image change? Or is Philips concerned about the public feedback when talking about an account amount of $10 to 20 million and where it comes from? I am very curious to see how things develop and this new global partnership works out!

McDonald’s Worldwide

The McDonald’s Corporation is the world’s largest quick service restaurant chain. The history of McDonald’s is impressive. Beginning with one restaurant established in Des Plaines, Illinois in 1955, it became a corporation with more than 30,000 restaurants in more than 100 countries worldwide serving an average of 50 million people daily.

Case study Singapore

In line with the global branding campaign of i’m lovin’ it back in 2003 but still on everybody’s mind, a face-lift to the existing Singapore web site was needed. Because it didn’t represent McDonald’s current brand image, Ad.WRIGHT! was engaged to revamp the internet presence. Ad.WRIGHT! is a Singapore-based full service interactive and ideas agency encompassing branding, advertising, marketing, communications and web 2.0.

The challenge

On the homepage of Ad.WRIGHT! you can read about the challenges of the McDonald’s Singapore web site. The agency found out that a strong brand identity was already firmly established with the main McDonald’s headquarters in the USA managing the main global web site. Inspired by McDonald’s UK and Hong Kong web sites that were already upholding and following the McDonald’s brand guidelines, Ad.WRIGHT! started analyze what had succeeded in the various sites which meant looking at both useability and search engine success. The agency summarized, “following this, the site had to be updateable and easy to manage, taking in to consideration that it was likely that every page would end up with a different flash banner and content layout.”

What to do?

To cover the interactivity that was needed to support the brand messages Ad.WRIGHT! decided on a hybrid of flash and CMS (content management system). HTML for the main content and site links made it easier for search engines to index the web site. The design was patterned after the McDonald’s UK and Hong Kong web sites, and a feature set was developed to assist with the easy updating of the site’s key areas such as the “restaurant locator’”.

Recapitulatory the agency declared, “with a mixture of flash and html the site was able to uphold and promote the brand values from headquarters while still running local week to week promotions and value added service such as their new McCafe and McDonald’s reward system.” You can find more details about why the SEO (search engine optimisation) was also a priority of the web site in the case study published on the Ad.WRIGHT! homepage.

The result

Ad.WRIGHT!’s anounced the success of the relaunch on its homepage, “the web site was delivered on time within 2 months and [...] we managed to produce over 200 pages and 120 plus flash banners including additional copywriting. [...] The McDonald’s web site ranks around number 3 (at Googles discretion) when searching for ‘McDonalds’ within Singapore, top 2 sites are always the main USA brand site.”

Furthermore, the agency proudly talked about a traffic and stickiness doubling, “while repeat visits also grew from the activity of the island wide McDelivery service, now easily accessible in the new web site” and a feedback system that “was also a success giving McDonald’s customers a valuable channel of communication.”

The official and final launch of www.mcdonalds.com.sg happened on April 30 in 2006. Now, the site looks as follows:

McDonald’s launches Singapore brand campaign – again?

On February 16, 2009 www.brandrepublic.asia announced that McDonald’s had launched a brand campaign in Singapore to intensify its relationship with customers. In these tough economic times, Mc Donald’s aims “to blend value, innovation and brand experience, while creating an emotional connection with all Singaporeans through its products.” The vice president of marketing and communications of McDonald’s Singapore, Shirley Foenander, is proud of the history that has been built with Singaporeans over the past, “while being part and parcel of Singaporeans’ lifestyle for 30 years the company wants to focus on some unique McDonald’s moments that Singapore customers love.”

This campaign focussing on moments of optimism in celebrating life’s little pleasures. The first phase of the year long promotion featuring print and four out of nine TV spots, was launched in early February 2009. Since then, Singapore’s people can see the ”Lovin’ McDonald’s Moments” series of nine commercials on TV that capture insightful “love” moments of Singaporeans’ association with the American fast food chain. To get an idea of the “Lovin’ McDonald’s Moments” mentioned above, check this out:

Love 12:01

Love loooong dates

Love being in 2 minds

Love our secret recipe

Other media channels in further phases of the campaign that are working in tandem with its message are planned throughout the rest of the year. I am excited to see other TV spots of  “Lovin’  Moments” at McDonald’s – why not from Germany or the United States next time? Or don’t we have lovin’ moments at McDonald’s?

International public relations has always been one of my passions. Reading and learning about PR in Russia, the United States, or France is exciting for me and very different from my previous experience as a  PR student in Germany.

I was on the wrong track

Honestly, until I started my studies at Kent State University I thought international public relations was a collective term for country-specific PR activities, so that I continually sought out the differences and variance in the practice of PR  in these countries.

Now, after six months of study abroad and having obtained better access to specialized English literature, my perspective has changed. While I did research for papers and presentations about global PR, I realized that this topic is more broad than I thought and definitely not easy to define. Of course, it includes PR work in one specific country and how that work is influenced by the country’s infrastructure, the political and legal system, the economic status, as well as by its cultural and media environment. Additionally, it includes the links between these PR activities across  single countries and even across their geographical and cultural borders. What an enlightenment! At least for me.

A good example of what not to do

Now, I see what Neil Payne means by, “PR practitioners are aware of how best to carry this out when dealing with their own nations and cultures; however, when dealing with a foreign audience, it is critical that cross-cultural differences are recognized.” He illustrates the importance of cross-cultural awareness for the success of PR by giving the example of Pepsodent, a brand of toothpaste that is now owned by Church & Dwight, Inc.

The company tried to sell its toothpaste in Southeast Asia while using the slogan “You’ll wonder where the yellow went, when you brush your teeth with Pepsodent.” The campaign failed because the PR firm didn’t analyze the cross-cultural distinctions related to Pepsodent’s product. It turned out that the local natives chew betel nuts to blacken their teeth. Not white but black teeth were more attractive to them.

It is a good example to think about the impact cultural, political, and media variables have on a country and how important it is to be aware of these characteristics. Global companies, such as Wal-Mart Stores, BP or General Motors Corp. have clients all over the world and that therefore come from multiple cultural backgrounds. Their communications network consists of headquarters and offices which span the globe. In this way, company’s products may still be sold under the umbrella of an overall corporate communication strategy but at the same time can make their strategies country-specific. Other companies approach international PR agencies to implement or represent their products on the global market. An overview of these firms was published on www.geocities.com wherein the reader can find international and US agencies, such as APCO Worldwide, Edelman, Fleishman-Hillard, Ketchum, Hoffman & Hoffman Worldwide or Hill & Knowlton, Inc.

Global PR agencies are especially interesting to me because of the diversity of their clients. PR for a global company still requires identifying with its products and presenting them all over the world within the corporate communication strategy. In contrast, work for a global PR agency lends itself to client variety and  the resulting diversity of communication strategies and tools. I am excited to delve more deeply into this topic and the field of international PR as a whole. Global PR is everywhere and the opportunities to get more deeply involved with it are unlimited.  Which  aspect shall I choose for my next posting? Any suggestions?