Love it or hate it, you can't ignore Glee. The American singing comedy sensation has proved a massive success around the world with bands of 'gleeks' devoted to the show and even creating their own tributes to the show across social networks.
But outside of the adventures of Will Scheuster's team of outcast vocalists, there are some great lessons to be learnt about branding and marketing from the show, the idea and the cast themselves.
Well, first, a few things the Clem7 tunnel did right from a marketing point of view:
1. They let everyone walk through it. Nice touch and from an experiential marketing point of view, a great way to engage in a new engineering structure. Tunnel nerds and the like, loved it. The 'run' bit was a bit worse. People almost died in it because they couldn't get water etc.
2. The name - Clem7 tunnel - is catchy. It feels a bit superheroy. If that's a word. Which its not.
Charles is creepy. Really creepy. That's probably the first and most important reason I'm not falling for the ING adverts. He's got the sort of voice and look that makes him look like he should be on some sort of register somewhere.
But there are other reaons we should ignore him.
I thought I'd talk about this as this has cropped up three or four times in the last few weeks whilst I was talking about Social Media Marketing.
Rebranding has become something of a fad in the last decade, with many global companies opting for a facelift. A companies brand is ultimately the public’s perception of a product or service, so it is natural for a brand to have to evolve over time to keep in touch with consumers. For many companies, especially well established brands, the makeover of their brand can be a delicate process, with careful consideration taken to avoid loss of markets. So what is involved in a Rebrand?
If you want to take a look at a pop act who is also an expert in marketing, then you don't need to look much further than Lady Gaga.
In the history of music, there have been some great self-marketing acts - Madonna, Michael Jackson, Sex Pistols, Beatles, Eminem - groups and artists that have their very marketing built into who they are, and their image and route to market is as important as their music.
This could equally apply to Facebook as well as Twitter, and its actually from Facebook that I picked up this example.
Business news posted on August 11th reported Australian music store JB Hi-Fi having a 45% profit jump in 2009.
Now, lets just look at that statement in context. 45% profit jump in just nine months. And not just ANY nine months, but the nine most horrifying months in recent Australian and global economics. The nine months that have seen every other retailer issue profit warnings, make substantial losses, or in the case of major competitor, Strathfield, collapse into administration back in January 2009.
