Advertising

Affluent, well-educated Americans who should have been subscribing to The Economist misunderstood it. While it is a lively newsweekly – livelier and more iconoclastic than Time, Newsweek, Forbes and BusinessWeek – Americans thought it was a dull monthly magazine about economics. So we positioned The Economist as Worldly. Weekly. And our ads – with the dry, Brit wit of the magazine – told potential subscribers it would help them understand the world. Subscriptions increased dramatically.

Many Americans thought Swissair flew only to Switzerland. So when their final destination was elsewhere in Europe, they were more likely to fly Lufthansa and transfer in Frankfurt. But Swissair’s hubs of Zurich and Geneva were more efficient: better connections, like Swiss clockwork. Our campaign dramatized Swissair’s convenience and reach: Some ads focused on the ease of changing planes; other ads showed the Swissair timetable – on its cover 107 cities, 67 countries. Swissair bookings rose.

While experts knew and prized wines from the Rioja region of Spain, few Americans did. So our campaign looked purely educational and editorial, with no “Rioja” in the headline and no Rioja logo. This approach – a primer in how to judge wines – got attention and gave Rioja legitimacy. It presented Rioja wines that “can elevate you to cognoscente status.” Today Rioja has robust sales in America.

Most re-insurance companies say they “partner” with their clients, are “responsive” to their clients and “design solutions to meet the unique needs” of their clients. So they look and sound alike. To help Am-Re Managers stand out as problem-solvers, each ad in our campaign was a brain-teaser: a problem with (in small type) the solution. And our headlines challenged group-think. For example: Before we try to find the answer, we ask; “Is this the right question?” Am-Re has done very well.

Miami Subs needed to distinguish itself from Subway and Quiznos. Making the most of its existing pink-and-blue tropical motif, we emphasized the upbeat feeling of the restaurants with the positioning Happiness is good food. Playing on the Subs in its name, we said Miami Subs offered Food, from the SUBStantial to the sublime. and urged Accept no SUBStitutes. From its base in Florida, the chain quickly expanded nationwide, and now is as far afield as Romania and Turkey.

Most American women 35-plus, who might benefit from collagen treatments, have simply accepted the lines that age begins to put in their faces. Our campaign got under their skin (you might say) by prompting discontent with this situation. Then it explained the cause: loss of collagen. And the remedy: fast, simple, hassle-free and inexpensive replacement of collagen. Inquiries to plastic surgeons about collagen treatments increased.

Great White Paper told us that its paper was less likely to jam in printers and copiers. Because Great White had no proof of this, our campaign talked about paper jams with humor. One ad mimicked a poster demonstrating the Heimlich maneuver. Another ad gave readers something to use if they didn’t use Great White: a prayer to put over their printer or copier, a prayer for it not to jam. The campaign helped Great White print money.

Unlike some cooking schools, the French Culinary Institute (FCI) has no academic courses; all it does is teach cooking, hands-on. This is very appealing to many high school students who want a career, are willing to study something after high school but don’t want to endure any more “book learning.” Our posters in high schools in the New York City area presented this advantage in a delicious way. More students in these schools enrolled in FCI.

Advertising for medicines to treat or prevent osteoporosis in post-menopausal women said things like “Know your T-score. Know how you measure up against osteoporosis.” This lost sight of why these women needed such medicine: to stay active as they got older. So our campaign for Fosamax showed real women 70-plus who did martial arts, skiied, surfed, etc. – with the headline What do you want to look like when you grow up? Flattering and encouraging these women helped Fosamax gain market share.

In the booming business of insuring municipal bonds, Ambac was well-respected – the Rolls Royce of the industry – but always ran number two behind MBIA. And its sedate advertising followed MBIA’s lead. Our campaign changed that, with an aggressive, assertive stance. By creating the word AMBACKED, we implied that this was now the standard. If a municipal bond isn’t AMBACKED...well, be careful. So Ambac closed much of the gap between itself and MBIA.

The Drake was a very proper but old-fashioned hotel in Manhattan midtown east – with too many vacant rooms every night. When the Drake undertook a total renovation, our campaign built interest by doing a countdown to its reopening. And many of our ads featured the new executive chef of the hotel’s Restaurant Lafayette: Jean-Georges Vongerichten, who had just received four stars from The New York Times at age 29. The reopening was a huge success; room bookings increased.

Baker was a well-regarded but slightly stodgy brand of furniture. To raise its perceived value, our campaign repositioned it as a family heirloom – with the tagline Bridging Generations. And amid competitive furniture ads that showed room settings, our ads stood out by showing a single piece of furniture and members of very affluent families who own it. Baker sales climbed; to meet demand, the company opened another factory.

Compared to other leading global investment banks, UBS covered many fewer industries. Our positioning turned this weakness into an advantage: Where global vision gets focused. And each ad proved UBS’s knowledge of a particular industry. (The ad above said Women’s drive to take more control of their bodies is giving health-care companies headaches. And opportunities.) The result: more C-suite executives and major money managers turned to UBS for expertise.

Ernst & Young told us that many prospects had negative views of management consultants. Our campaign (example, the ad above) told prospects we understand how you feel: “I don’t want a consulting firm that sends over a bunch of robots who all tell me how smart they are and, by implication, how dumb I am.” And “I don’t want a consultant who turns in a big, fat document and then pulls disappearing act.” Etc. The campaign opened doors for Ernst & Young.

Hertz and we saw an opportunity to increase car rentals for reasons other than business. So our campaign showed what Americans miss by flying somewhere for a vacation and not having their own wheels. And we localized this campaign. For example, one ad showed a tour-bus driver-guide talking into a mic, wearing a lei. The headline: “Will you see the islands of Hawaii through his eyes, or through your own?” Hertz saw its vacation rentals grow.

To better compete with Columbia and NYU, our campaign for the MBA program of St. John’s appealed, frankly, to monetary ambition. For example, a photo of Henry Ford at the wheel of his Model-T with the headline: As old tycoons retire, new ones are needed. And the campaign included ads that said monetary ambition and Catholic values could be compatible: How to rise to the top in business and still look yourself in the eye. Applications from top college seniors increased.

Marketers are faced today with two major advertising obstacles.

The first is fragmentation. Audiences are now split by hundreds of cable channels, thousands of publications, and millions of web sites. Not to mention Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

Your second obstacle is your audience's limited attention span. This is compounded by a resistance to advertising in general.

We know what it takes to create successful advertising despite these challenges. You' re going to need attention-getting, engaging and motivating ways to communicate.

Let us show you how.

PEREGRINE

HOECHST MARION ROUSSEL

NEC

ENERGY ONE

We help companies communicate by engaging their audience and delivering persuasive messages. In this example, we helped a business software company communicate the benefits of its technology by visualizing the concept of frictionless business.

A very progressive electric utility out of the Midwest (EnergyOne) wanted to convey its commitment to new technology to investors and customers. Here's how we brought that idea to life for them.

At Catalystics, we help companies develop successful strategies for reaching their business goals. For this global pharmaceutical company, it was important to position them as a leader not just in drug development but in patient outcomes as well. Today they're known as Aventis. This commercial helped them get there.

We have worked with large and small companies to help them achieve their business goals. As a global technology leader, it is important for NEC to support their corporate image with advertising that positions them among the world’s technology elite. This is just one example of how we have helped them do that.

THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF PLASTIC SURG