We’re going back to school. Keep an eye out in 2020 for fresh new work.
The “Around here, We Honda” campaign keeps cruising.
In our latest work for New England Honda, the “Around here, we Honda” campaign takes us on a tour through the streets of Boston, and up to “the top of Mount Washington”.
ANOTHER REASON WHY WE LOVE THE HOLIDAYS
Happy (New England) Honda Days, everyone.
The New England Honda Dealers asked us to deliver a SUV-load of holiday cheer to the good men and women who live around here. So, to support their annual Happy Honda Days Sales Event, we looked to the classic things New Englanders experience this time of year. You know – unwieldly trees, awe-struck dolls, unexpected wildlife… and of course, cars that are a perfect match for all the above.
Have a look:
What We Found: Holiday Shoppers Turn to Mobile, The Wellness Wish List, and How Facebook is Helping Advertisers
Credit: CrailsheimStudio/iStock
With the amount of online data being collected, social media platforms are anticipating how and what holiday shoppers will be buying this year. We pulled together some of the most interesting predictions and new marketing tactics being talked about this season.
What We Found: Streetwear Fever and the New Retail Experience
Credit: Cindy Ord/Getty Images
Streetwear is the new subculture of fashion we should be paying attention to. Brands like Supreme and Vetements create limited-edition clothing lines, mostly for men, and have people waiting in lines for hours or even days just to get their hands on a new piece of clothing. Knowing the millennial consumer and the value of scarcity has catapulted brands like these to success. Now we’re left wondering what this means for the rest of retail.
Meet the 2018 Full Contact Summer Interns
Learn more about the three interns who joined the Full Contact team this summer.
Caitlin Dinn- Office Coordinator
University of Ireland, Galway ’17
Major: Marketing
Our former intern Caitlin Dinn has returned to the Full Contact team as our new Office Coordinator. Caitlin brings with her her world renowned Irish Dance skills, which we’re hoping make an appearance at the next office party. She didn’t stop there with embracing her Irish heritage, and recently graduated from the University of Ireland, Galway in 2017. Her current obsession? Finding thrift shop treasures.
Why Full Contact? “Full Contact caught my eye because it was a smaller agency doing big things in advertising. I thought it would be a great place for me to learn all aspects of the advertising world (and I have). I love making a project come alive, and Full Contact has helped me figure out that I want to go into the production realm of advertising.”
Isabella Kornitsky- Strategic Planning & New Business
Wake Forest University ’20
Major: Business & Enterprise Management, Concentration: Marketing; Journalism Minor
Isabella is a wing eating champion. Going vegan has complicated that a bit, but luckily she’s got the culinary skills to veganize all of her old favorite comfort foods– she even has a vegan food Instagram to capture her eating adventures. Her favorite pastime? Traveling, finding new restaurants, and traveling to find new restaurants.
Why Full Contact? “I’ve had my eye on Full Contact since I worked on a marketing research project with them three summers ago. I love the idea of seeing a project come together from beginning to end, and knew Full Contact’s expertise in strategic planning was something I wanted to be a part of. I have a love for learning, and working at Full Contact allows me to be constantly exploring new industries and ideas.”
Katie Hooker- Account Management
Elon University ’20
Major: Strategic Communications; Interreligious Studies Minor
Katie is dying for a British accent. So much so she’s saying goodbye to Elon University to study abroad in London this fall. Her next destination? Haiti, where she will conduct independent research on interreligious encounters next summer.
Why Full Contact? “I wanted to intern at Full Contact because it’s a small enough agency that you can learn everyone’s names (and vice versa) but you can still take part in big projects for impressive clients. I was drawn to advertising because of its lively, imaginative, and spontaneous people. Even though I’m not the most artistically creative person, I love being around people who are. I’m drawn to the position of account manager because it would allow me to combine the skills I’m learning through my communications major with my love for innovation and creativity.”
Escape Alzheimer’s
To promote Alzheimer’s Awareness month, the Alzheimer’s Association worked with Full Contact to host a free escape room in the center of Boston’s City Hall Plaza. Learning the signs of Alzheimer’s was the key to getting out of the escape room. Participants learned common behaviors of those struggling with the disease, in an effort to raise awareness about the disease and educate users on what to look for in their own loved ones.
Boston’s Mayor, Marty Walsh, whose grandmother was affected, visited the event in City Hall Plaza to show his support for the cause. His participation helped to draw hundreds of Bostonians – some waiting upwards of an hour just to participate.
The experiential event put a positive spin on an otherwise heavy topic, while bringing awareness to a younger generation – the ones who will carry the burden of caretaking. The escape room aspect created a puzzle-like, gamified experience, while also teaching what it’s like to deal with Alzheimer’s. And just like the disease, it required people to work together to overcome it.
Please watch the video to learn more. https://vimeo.com/277488363
Challenger Brand 101
Businessman is fighting against someone bigger
Surrounded by category giants, a smaller company makes a huge leap forward.
No matter the industry, there is always a pecking order. At the very top are the Goliaths, those brands that have led their respective categories for years and spent millions if not billions in marketing to stay on top.
Below the Goliaths are everyone else, the small to mid-size brands that fight for market share and relevance while being overshadowed and significantly outspent by the big guys.
If you’re responsible for marketing one of these challenger brands, no one knows better than you what you’re up against. But perhaps you also know that having the right kind of fresh and aggressive “challenger” mentality can go a long way in setting you apart from everyone else in your category.
One challenger brand we helped do just that is Atlantic Broadband. They are a telecommunications company providing internet, TV and phone to customers in five regions along the East coast and have been a client of Full Contact for six years.
When we began working with them they had three distinct challenges:
- Very limited brand awareness as the company could not cost effectively leverage traditional mass media.
- A complicated story to tell due to the different services and value propositions they were trying to communicate.
- Stiff regional competition from some of the biggest names and deepest marketing budgets in telecommunications: AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and DirecTV.
Given their challenges, the first thing we wanted to do was create a value proposition for Atlantic Broadband that strategically separated this nimble and innovative company from the pack. Some challenger brands feel they need to match all that the category leaders have to offer, but just don’t have the resources to keep up. We convinced Atlantic Broadband tosimplify and unify their value proposition behind the three pillars that really did set them apart:
- *Crazy fast internet speeds
- *Hyper local service
- *More entertainment choices
We selected these pillars because knew they had the fastest internet speeds in most markets. We also knew none of the national carriers could compete with this regional brand for responsive “boots on the ground” customer service. Finally, Atlantic Broadband was way ahead of the innovation curve in providing more of the entertainment consumers were looking for by being the first provider in the US to integrate Netflix into their offering (even adding TiVo a few years later).
We summarized our three-pronged strategic focus into the simple outcome that it actually delivered for customers: instant gratification from both an internet, entertainment and local service standpoint. It’s what led us to create a brand platform that is still as compelling and relevant for Atlantic Broadband today: “What you want. Instantly.”
This brand platform became the cornerstone for all of our creative efforts moving forward, including a fully integrated campaign that leveraged the all-important digital channels as well as the traditional (TV, radio, OOH, print, DM). The campaign zeroed in on the clear advantages of having the fastest speeds, the most entertainment choices, and customer service right in your neighborhood. The worked looked and felt different from that of the category leaders simply because it had to be different to stand out.This is one of the real keys to success of having a challenger brand mentality: don’t try to be like the other guy, instead succeed at being like no one else but you.
And succeed they have. Atlantic Broadband has enjoyed phenomenal results since we began working with them six years ago:
- They more than doubled their revenue from $350 million to $720 million
- With revenue growth over 6% for each of the past 3 years, they have been recognized as one of the fastest growing operators of any size in the U.S.
- They have, in a few short years, grown to become America’s 9thlargest cable operator.
Sure, it’s great to be the leader in the category. But at Full Contact, we feel it’s even greater to always have the challenger mentality, no matter how successful your brand becomes or how big it gets. That way you’re always hungrier, nimbler and thinking more differently than the rest of the pack. Oh, and it’s never boring.
