CEO of Dynamic Logic discusses Brand Ideals, Personal Branding & Social Media Marketing (Via M Cause Blog with Ryan Jones) August 13, 2008
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentNick Nyhan, the CEO of Dynamic Logic, A Millward Brown Company, gave an inspirational presentation at P&G a few weeks ago. Recently, I asked him if he could provide a few of his thoughts to m-cause readers. In the interview below, we discuss a range of topics (Brand Ideals, Personal Branding, & Social Media Marketing). Some good nuggets in this one. Enjoy!
Can you tell us about Dynamic Logic and the services you offer customers?
[Nick Nyhan (DLNYC CEO)] Dynamic Logic is a research company that serves as an independent evaluator of marketing effectiveness. Basically, clients use us to measure the performance of their messaging activities in both digital and traditional platforms and its impact on their brand. Brand metrics serve as a good ruler to measure across different media platforms and we think that is where the big questions are. Our vision is to teach people how to be “tradigital” brand builders globally. We collect own data but can also work with other data sets for linkage.
Today there is a lot of buzz around branding from the “inside-out”. You believe that by putting brand ideals first, everything else (product innovation, brand messaging, etc.) will flow from there.
[Nick Nyhan (DLNYC CEO)] The main idea is that while product, packaging, marketing strategy are all important, great brands – or great companies for that matter – stand for something more than what they sell. They can articulate an ideal, and more to the point, their customers can articulate that ideal as well. Sometimes ideals are used in taglines (Apple: Think Different), but generally they are part of an assumed personality of the company. For example, there aren’t many people who can articulate a Google tagline, but many people would feel they could personify Google and guess what they would do or not do. A simple test would be if you were to ask a CEO what matters beyond profits, what would they say? And then, if you were to compare what was said to how the company or brand comes across – is it consistent?
What are the Dynamic Logic Brand Ideals and how did you build these from the ground up?
[Nick Nyhan (DLNYC CEO)] For my own experience, I didn’t know I would create a research company. But I knew I what situation I wanted: to be part of a group of smart, diverse, hard-working people who were able to “see around the corner” and build accordingly. Those were the characteristics of a company that were important to me and the DL business fit those concepts (but could have been a lot of things) . Our brand challenge was to build credibility so people would believe in our research. We chose a focused path that was limited but also made us experts quickly. Our first ideal was “to save the free internet”… sort of goofy but also true because our research was showing value in unclicked-ads at a time when the whole industry was under-fire. It also made the research seem more noble and I actually heard staff members saying it to other people. [After 9/11, when what we did seemed really insignificant, this helped a lot.] Along the way, our ideals evolved: 1) respect ideas more than titles (this was important internally and instead of using the term we called them “coaches” in that they should support (coach) staff to perform well, not the other way around); 2) challenge and grow again (more internal give junior people opportunities above their title and promote from within); 3) Do the right thing even if harder both internal and external: not looking for easy shortcut and sticking true to vision). 4) Today, I think an emerging ideal for us is about teaching – teach our clients, but also people on our team. I like it also because teaching is implicitly caring about the knowledge and well-being of others, versus trying to hog all the expertise for yourself.
You believe that we should “Tap into our own personal ideals” by pushing ourselves, pushing our company & taking inspired risks. By doing this, we will make ourselves interesting to others. How have you seen this play out in your own career?
[Nick Nyhan (DLNYC CEO)] Tapping into what makes life interesting to you and then weaving that into work will, I believe, make work more interesting to you. This is not ground-breaking thinking, but it is so simple that it is easily over-looked. For myself, I was working in research and marketing after being an English major and then working in politics. What did I like in those pursuits that I could also find in market research? A lot, it turns out. English was about seeing, writing, expression of ideas. Writing and expression is important in any field (especially when you are trying to raise money for a new company!). And story-telling is a huge part of research (what is story the numbers tell). One year I hired a professional story-teller to come into our DL All Staff retreat to teach the elements of story-telling. And on the political front, for me that was always about trying to get something done that is big. What we were doing in our own little world of online advertising, was big. And it took a lot to get people to buy into a new company, an unproven methodology, to get publishers, adserver and agencies to work together for a common good – those are same things I dealt with in Washington DC for a few years.
Were there also some difficult times along the way?
[Nick Nyhan (DLNYC CEO)] There were many times, where I went home frustrated, thinking I was wasting my time on something that wasn’t very important. And honestly, it wasn’t. But what was important was the skills I was learning – and teaching – to others. Learning HOW to take risks and be comfortable with it. Pushing myself and motivating others. Breaking the mold a bit and finding creativity in the day to day of business (it can be there). There were times when we we wold go through a re-org or when we were re-shaping our budget – and when you push yourself and others – it becomes exciting. But on the days when I would get down on what I was doing, I would tell myself that this is practice for something bigger. One bigger thing is children – being a parent is really big and some of these same skills apply (but kids care less than staff). But in another way, because of the risks we took and bets we made, I am now able to work for Obama campaign for a few months, so maybe some of this can be put to the test.
As Dynamic Logic measures digital marketing effectiveness, you must find it very challenging to deal with the current social media marketing explosion. How will social media measurement evolve from your perspective?
[Nick Nyhan (DLNYC CEO)] Social media is really cool phenomenon, not just the great success of a bunch of web sites. It is unique in that the consumers of the content are also the producers. A funnier side is how it automates the processes of maintaining many friendships in a time-compressed world (aka take the name “friendster” for example). Imagine, software that helps you keep in touch with a lot more people but with less effort – big idea. (Now I can have so many more shallow relationships!) Kidding aside, I hear from people under 25 that if they are not on a good social network, they have no social life. The impact is two sided: on one hand, I like how empowering it is so regular people can be heard and be influential just based on the strength of their ideas. On the other hand, it generates more blather that is not of high quality. I wonder if truly caring editors will get drowned out – or just more people linking to them. As it increases, it may cause a resurgence in the importance of a good idea and creative (versus the algorithms and targeting phase marketing is in now) – when everyone is a publisher and there is so much content/
clutter – only stellar ideas will stand out or get passed along. From a measurement perspective. You have to measure it in comparable ways to traditional marketing just so you can compare on some apples to apples way (reach, brand, behavior). But then there is an added element of the very simple but super powerful “pass-along from a friend” element which is the greatest marketing in the world. Someone you (probably trust and like) telling you to check out something. To measure that requires a way of quantifying not just the impact of a message/creative/campaign but also the contribution of the source. That is something we are working on. I think it is doable, but not simple. Yet, we don’t need to overcomplicate things everytime a new approach emerges. Sometimes in digital there is a tendency to declare “new rules” and want to re-invent. Sometimes, the most revolutionary thing is not throwing everything out and starting over with new metrics and methods, but simply tweaking what you have to incorporate the new platforms.
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P&G Global Marketing Chief Stengel Steps Down July 15, 2008
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentBATAVIA, Ohio (AdAge.com) — Procter & Gamble Co. Global Marketing Officer Jim Stengel is stepping down, the company announced, to be replaced by Marc Pritchard, 48, former head of P&G’s cosmetics business and who most recently oversaw a stepped-up global restructuring effort for the company.
Mr. Stengel, 53, has been P&G’s global marketing officer since 2001 and oversees the company’s $5.3 billion marketing budget. He will retire Oct. 31 after 25 years at the company. Until that time, effective Aug. 1, Mr. Stengel will work on special projects, continuing to report to Chief Operating Officer Robert McDonald.
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P&G Results Disappoint Wall Street October 31, 2007
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentMarketer’s 5% Organic Sales Growth Lags That of Rivals
Published: October 30, 2007
BATAVIA, Ohio (AdAge.com) — Procter & Gamble Co. may have hit its own expectations and those of many analysts, but it disappointed Wall Street broadly by reporting fiscal first-quarter organic sales growth of 5% today, below that of key competitors who’ve reported so far.
P&G shares were off as much as 5% to $68.23 in early-morning trading, though that was a drop from a strong run-up of more than 14% since early August.
P&G’s beauty business had organic sales growth of 4%, dragging down overall company results. The unit, in fact, lagged Pringles and Folgers — the subject of considerable divestiture speculation — which both outperformed P&G’s high-priority beauty unit on the top line last quarter. (P&G executives wouldn’t confirm or deny the sale speculation.)
Struggles for Olay
Olay, long a major driver of P&G’s skin-care growth, slowed to mid-single digits last quarter, though Chairman-CEO A.G. Lafley promised new product initiatives for the Regenerist and Definity lineups by early next year.
P&G marketing spending, which has been a subject of some scrutiny as the company’s organic sales growth has slowed the past two years and the company redefined it, was up as a percent of sales last quarter, Mr. Lafley said on a conference call with analysts, though he didn’t say by how much. “If we had it to do over again,” he said, “it would have been up a bit more in beauty.”
Beauty’s organic growth last quarter matched that of P&G’s snacks, coffee and pet business, even though the latter’s results were pulled down by the continued impact of the March pet-food recall on Iams and Eukanuba.
P&G Treasurer Jon Moeller indicated the coffee and snacks businesses had organic sales growth of double digits behind product launches that included Dunkin Donuts supermarket coffee in the U.S. and Pringles Rice Infusion in Europe.
Sales up 7.5%
Overall, P&G posted sales up 7.5% to $20.2 billion, with three percentage points of growth coming from currency exchange. Earnings per share rose 16% to 92 cents, meeting analyst expectations even without a 2-cent benefit from tax reductions.
The fabric and home-care business and baby and family care (tissue and towels) groups led organic growth with 7% each.
Despite the relatively soft results in beauty and health care, which also had 4% organic growth, Chief Financial Officer Clayton Daley said P&G had actually picked up market share across all of those businesses, including in the U.S.
This despite P&G’s chief beauty rival, L’Oreal, last week reporting global organic sales rose 7.7% last quarter — roughly twice the rate of P&G beauty. Much smaller beauty rival Alberto-Culver Co. yesterday reported last quarter’s organic sales up more than 10%. And Colgate-Palmolive Co. today reported last quarter’s organic sales rose 6.5%.
P&G executives, however, joined L’Oreal’s in noting some softness in the U.S. market, though Mr. Lafley said private-label shares were at historic lows. And he doesn’t believe the U.S. consumer has lost the desire to trade up to better products.
Nor does he anticipate problems with consumers accepting a slew of P&G price increases, mostly driven by higher commodity costs, including a 5%-12% hike on Olay and Ivory cleansing products and a 5%-8% increase on Pampers diapers — the latter of which has been matched by private-label brands and rival Kimberly-Clark Corp.
Marketing Chief: Reach Out to People July 17, 2007
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentMarketing Chief: Reach Out to People
By DAN SEWELL 07.15.07, 5:14 PM ET
CINCINNATI –
Jim Stengel wants to get to know you better.
The marketing chief for Procter & Gamble Co., the nation’s leading advertiser, says it’s crucial in today’s marketing to understand people’s daily lives and how products figure into them.
At an advertising trade conference this year, Stengel called for a “mind-set shift that will make us relevant to today’s consumers; a mind-set shift from ‘telling and selling’ to building relationships.”
Stengel has focused on increased consumer research, including “immersion” in which marketers spend hours at a time visiting, shopping, and talking with people for the Cincinnati-based consumer products company that spends nearly $7 billion a year on global advertising.
“We need to think beyond consuming … and to really directly understand the role and the meaning the brand has in their lives,” Stengel told The Associated Press in an interview. “If you’re always asking that question, ‘How can I be more relevant, how can I have a deeper meaning, how can I build this relationship between brand and consumer to a higher level’ your marketing gets better, you innovate.
“With the amount of information we have at our fingertips today, it makes it even more important to stay in touch, to get out there and talk to real people about real issues,” Stengel said.
In an era where consumers have so much information and so many entertainment choices, other companies are also focusing on relating to real lives over advertising glitz.
“Considering that women are getting thousands of media messages a day, it’s just smart marketing,” said Delia Passi, a consultant and author who specializes in marketing to women. “They’re thinking about a woman’s life.”
She sees results of that thinking in such consumer products as Kimberly-Clark Corp.’s Kleenex, which has been adding decorative boxes and such features as nose-soothing aloe vera.
“Suddenly, the tissue is not just a tissue,” Passi said.
Passi also points to the Tide “to Go” stain-removal stick from P&G as a product appealing to women who can recall dropping a piece of pizza or other food on their clothes while dining out, or Swiffer dusters’ line of products aimed at making house cleaning quicker and easier.
P&G also just launched Mr. Clean wipes that are easy to pull out one at a time, like tissues.
“Somebody watched women and said: ‘Why aren’t we just giving women what they want?’” Passi said.
Stengel cites Tide, the detergent dating to 1946, as a brand that keeps responding to consumer interests, adding fragrances, fabric softener, and even offering energy savings and environmental appeal with a cold-water version and plans for a concentrated form in smaller containers.
The resurgence of bunco, a centuries-old dice game, among American women has led to tie-ins with P&G’s heartburn medicine Prilosec OTC that include sponsorship of a world championship in Las Vegas.
“None of us may have come to that conclusion sitting up here, but if you’re talking with your consumers, you’re asking them what they’re interested in, where they go for information, what do they do for entertainment … bunco popped up and gave them a way to be more relevant,” Stengel said.
P&G insights into marketing to men got a major boost from the 2005 acquisition of shaver-maker Gillette Co., he added.
P&G and other consumer companies have also been focusing on advertising with daily-life themes that offer advice and useful information aside from product promotion. The Home Depot Corp., for example, has a “True Stories” campaign in which customers share sometimes-poignant tales recounting their home improvement projects.
The latest Swiffer promotion is about what consumers say are the signs of a clean home, with online cleaning and entertaining tips from author and cable TV host Jane Buckingham and a contest for funding home parties. Such interactive promotions, along with online forums, add to companies’ consumer research.
“Marketers are rightfully very interested in engaging consumers and creating a dialogue,” said Edward Landry, a vice president at the management consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, which helped produce a book released this month on leading marketing executives, such as Stengel.
“In a lot of these practices, P&G seems to be a little ahead of the curve,” Landry said.
While many marketers talk about consumer relationships and the need to be “consumer-centric,” P&G’s leadership – which makes “the Consumer is Boss” its mantra – clearly has it as top priority in research, training and measuring results, Landry said.
“There is a world of difference between knowing and doing,” Landry said. “The company does what it talks.”
Can CBS Put the Net Into Network? May 14, 2007
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentCan CBS Put the Net Into Network?
Syndicating Shows on Web,
Admits Old Strategy Failed
May 14, 2007; Page B1
A year ago, CBS Corp. announced the creation of Innertube, an entertainment channel on CBS.com designed to make the company a player in online video. It streams video of sporting events, news reports and reruns of shows such as the hit comedy “How I Met Your Mother.”
CBS’s new chief Internet strategist now jokes that the Web address for Innertube should be “CBS.com/nobodycomeshere.”
![[Photo]](http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/MK-AJ904_CBS_20070513154131.jpg) |
| A version of what the hit CBS show ‘CSI’ would look like on a variety of Internet video players. Clockwise from top: Joost, AOL, TV.com and Bebo. |
CBS, after a year of experimenting with various Web initiatives, says that forcing consumers to come to one site — its own — to view video hasn’t worked. Instead, the company plans to pursue a drastically revised strategy that involves syndicating its entertainment, news and sports video to as much of the Web as possible. It represents a stark departure for the TV industry. Most of CBS’s major competitors, including Walt Disney Co.’s ABC, General Electric Co.’s NBC Universal and News Corp.’s Fox, are to some degree all betting that they can build their own Internet video portals.
Starting this week, an expanded menu of CBS’s video content will be available for free to consumers on as many as 10 different Web sites ranging from Time Warner Inc.’s AOL to Joost Inc., a buzzy online video service that is just rolling out. The company calls its new venture the CBS Interactive Audience Network.
Because CBS plans to sell the advertising that will appear on the digital network, the launch is timed to coincide with the industry’s high-stakes “upfront” ad-selling season, which kicks off today. It is the time of the year when the big networks unveil their fall schedules to advertisers and start negotiations to place some $9 billion in ads for the 2007-2008 television season, which starts in September.
CBS Chief Executive Leslie Moonves plans in coming days to announce a flurry of other deals aimed at giving consumers new ways to use CBS content online. For instance, CBS is working on agreements with social-networking sites such as Facebook Inc. and Last.fm Ltd. to allow users to post CBS video clips to their profiles, according to people familiar with the matter. A deal is also imminent with Slide Inc., which allows users of social networks such as MySpace to personalize photos and video for their pages.
![[Net Nets]](http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/MK-AJ922_CBSjp_20070513160501.gif)
All the big networks will aggressively shop advertising space on their sites to media buyers this week, but most of the networks are pursuing a homegrown approach to Internet video. ABC, for instance, has focused on streaming all of its prime-time programming through its own ABC.com player. NBC Universal and Fox in March said they are creating a new Internet video portal to compete with Google Inc.’s popular video-sharing site YouTube. In addition to launching the new portal — which the two companies plan to support with a $100 million marketing campaign — the venture will syndicate the content to big Web sites. Those sites include AOL, Microsoft Corp.’s MSN, TV.com, News Corp.’s MySpace and Yahoo Inc.
In contrast, CBS has abandoned attempts to build its own blockbuster portal and is instead signing pacts with a raft of smaller — and often-untested — Web companies, from Joost to Veoh Networks Inc., a video-sharing service. Unlike other big media companies, CBS’s holdings in cable networks are limited, which gives it more freedom to distribute its content widely over the Internet without hurting a cable revenue stream. CBS is essentially placing bets on which video sites will matter in the coming months and years, both in the U.S. and around the world. With any luck, the smaller sites will grow in popularity, boosting the exposure of CBS shows — and lifting the network’s haul of online ad dollars. CBS will give advertisers the freedom to tweak their ads to fit the different sites. The internal code name for CBS’s new strategy: “Rolling Thunder.”
“We can’t expect consumers to come to us,” says Quincy Smith, the president of CBS Interactive. “It’s arrogant for any media company to assume that.”
CBS faces a particularly difficult challenge luring its viewers to the Web. The network, home to franchises such as “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” and “60 Minutes,” attracts an older average viewer than ABC, NBC or Fox. As a result, media buyers and analysts say, CBS’s audience is less Web-savvy and the company has a harder time funneling viewers to its Web site with on-air promos.
The likes of Yahoo and MSN see the networks as trying to leverage their relationships with TV ad buyers to siphon off online ad dollars. So while the Web companies want to offer their users access to portions of studio movies and TV hits — which explains why they are signing deals with all the networks — they argue that they should be selling the advertising that accompanies it. The company that sells the ads gets to keep the lion’s share of the revenue; in CBS’s case, it gets 90%, while the Web partners get a 10% cut.
Joanne Bradford, chief media officer of MSN, says advertisers would be served better by buying online ads directly from Web sites rather than buying Internet packages offered alongside their upfront TV deals with the networks. “I’m a little irritated that the networks have put together a digital package that lets a marketer check a box and isn’t as robust or deep,” she said at a conference last week for advertisers in Seattle.
Advertisers will ultimately decide if CBS’s new strategy is the right one. So far, media buyers are positive about the move, although they note that CBS has had troubles implementing some heavily promoted digital efforts in the past. CBS has already signed up major advertisers for
its digital network such as Procter & Gamble Co., General Motors Co. and AT&T Corp.’s Cingular Wireless.
“I’m really impressed, especially regarding the ability for us to make one buy but tailor the ad message differently to each of the sites,” says Tracey Scheppach, corporate vice president and video-innovations director at Publicis Groupe’s Starcom USA.
– Kevin J. Delaney contributed to this article
