You might be wondering what an ad agency could possibly know about car reliability. Actually, a lot, thanks to our friends at Consumer Reports.

About this time every year, CR publishes a reliability study, in which they survey drivers to find out which car brands, makes and models they consider the most – or least – reliable. MBB got to wondering if we could leverage that content via social media and create greater interaction and more sharing.

What we came up with was a Facebook-based Moto Quiz, where people could test their auto IQ by picking which cars they thought ranked most reliable in CR’s study.

The Moto Quiz lives on CR’s Facebook page, so sharing the quiz with friends is easy. A leaderboard keeps track of top scores and offers viewers a chance to compete with friends.

It’s actually just one of the many ways we’ve been helping CR refresh their brand image and chip away the old perception that Consumer Report is “my dad’s magazine.” By making CR “more fun” to interact with, we’re exposing their core value to a younger audience and adding new relevancy to CR’s content.

By the way, the quiz is still up and running, so if you think you’ve got the car smarts to tell a peach from a lemon, head on over to CR’s Facebook page.

Check it out here. 1 2

Proctor & Gamble has launched a new packaging, advertising and social media around one of America’s oldest and most classic brands, Ivory Soap. This is another great example of brand renovation – taking what already exists and is fundamentally true about a brand, and renewing it to be more appealing in today’s world. With existing equity in the brand, renovation is often more cost efficient and effective in building sales. As soaps have become more specialized and targeted to specific audiences and genders, Ivory has posed the following question in its advertising, “At what point does soap stop being soap?” Good point! But of course the big question here is…does Ivory Soap still float?

With new systemwide brand standards rolling out nationally, YMCAs all over the country are retooling their marketing materials. As a result, we’ve been helping YMCA of Greater Kansas City redesign a variety of elements to be in compliance with the new standards.

The largest of those projects was a complete redesign of their website. With 19 different locations in several Kansas City area communities – each offering different classes and services… it was kind of a monster. YMCA asked us to help reel it in and improve both the look and feel and the user experience.

We also helped redesign their email templates to bring them into compliance with the new brand standards and match the new website design.

If you visit their website, be sure to check out their classes, too. They’ve got some great ways to stay in shape this fall and winter.

Check it out here. 1 2 3

You all know the feeling. There’s a room (or in most cases more than one) in your house that needs some renovation. You think about it every time you walk into that room. Something just isn’t right. It could just need a different color of paint. Maybe the fix could be as simple as rearranging some of the furniture. Or, it could be to the point where it’s time to call in the pros and do a complete overhaul. Whatever the case, the room feels old and out-of-date, and if it’s a more public room like a kitchen or living area, you may even avoid having guests in your home.

OK, so you know there’s a need. Now it’s a matter of getting started. Often times, other priorities just get in the way. Things like “I don’t have the time,” and “I don’t have the money right now,” and “it’s just a huge hassle,” get in the way. But the sooner you can get started, the better it will all be, and you’ll find yourself saying, “why didn’t we update this earlier?” I know I’ve said those exact words after every home project I’ve ever done.

And here’s the fun part – whether you do it yourself, or call in the pros, even the most basic renovations will make a huge difference. You’ll be excited. It will feel right. And you’ll want to tell everyone you know about the work. You’ll want to show it off.

This feeling is true for your house. But it’s also true for most brands. You have a foundation. You have lots of good things to build upon. Talk to your customers. Do some research. Look around. Ask questions. And find out what you can do to renovate your brand.

Ever have a bad day of travel? Our Creative Director Shan Neely has had a few…but the latest may top them all. After wrapping up a client meeting on the east coast Wednesday afternoon, Shan was to fly to Peoria for a client presentation Thursday morning. He just had to make a quick stop in Detroit to change planes…so he thought.

Once he boarded the plane in Detroit, Shan buckled up and waited for take-off…for three hours…on the tarmac. Then the flight got canceled. Oh, and the airline lost his bag.

The ticket rep rebooked him on a flight that would arrive in Peoria seven hours after his presentation, so Shan decided to rent a car and drive through the night. Having never met a stranger in his life, Shan found a couple other guys who needed to be in Peoria in the morning, as well.

Wearing the clothes on his back, and with a couple new friends, Shan hit the road at 11 p.m. and drove through the night. He arrived in Peoria with enough time to shower and head out to the client presentation…wearing shorts…to the CEO of OSF HealthCare.

All in all, the presentation went well. Many thanks to Shan for his unwavering commitment to our clients. He’s one helluva guy and we’re lucky to have him at MBB/hippo. Shan – we’ll find a way to show our appreciation when you get home…just as soon as your name is called from the standby fly list at the Peoria airport.

Oh and the bag? It will be waiting for him in Peoria when he returns in a few days…

I just read a good article in the Washington Post titled “Business finds they can’t grow without branding.” That struck me as a very obvious, “duh, no kidding” title, but then it got me thinking. We all talk about the changing marketing landscape and how things are evolving so quickly, but are we really slowing down long enough to honestly determine if our branding is still relevant?

I like the tagline change for Honest Tea. As the article states, they changed the line from “Be Real. Be Honest.” to “Nature Got it Right. We Put It in a Bottle.” The old tagline feels forced and more old school – we’re just going to tell you who we are and pound it into you. The new line sounds more like a conversation which certainly fits better in today’s social media world. This is just one example, but I like the change and I like the fact the brand seems nimble enough to stay relevant with the times.

So, if you haven’t done so already, take the time to ask yourself if your brand is staying authentic with consumers. Are you old school? Or, are you a brand people want to have a conversation with? A small makeover may be all that’s needed. Or, you may find you need a more complete renovation. Either way, stay current and your customers will stay current with you.

For more than two decades we’ve been helping Hallmark Hall of Fame promote their original TV movies. More recently, we’ve been steering them into new ways to engage viewers via online promotions and social media outreach.

Our latest project was to promote Beyond the Blackboard, a true story about a young teacher who turned a makeshift homeless shelter classroom into a profound learning experience for her students.

It got us thinking about all the great teachers we’d had growing up … and how it’d be great to honor them in celebration of the movie. So we created a microsite where folks could honor their favorite teachers – by posting their name on our “Blackboard Wall of Fame” – and learn more about the movie.

In just a few days, more than 10,600 teachers had been honored on the site – an average of 710 a day. Even cooler, 27 percent of users shared a teacher’s name via Facebook … and more than 8,000 people “Liked” the promotion on FB. All together, it triggered 1.4 million social impressions and a 14.5 percent click-through rate to Hallmark online properties.

Check it out here. 1 2

So what’s up BlackBerry users?  Still hanging on? The Wall Street Journal reports “Research in Motion Ltd. lost another marketing manager, the latest in a series of defections as the BlackBerry maker struggles to refresh its product line.”  Is this a case of too little too late? Reports indicate next-generation BlackBerrys and PlayBooks are coming soon, but will it be enough to save this brand?

It’s certainly not a huge surprise, but this example once again illustrates how quickly the brand life cycle can be in the world of technology and communications. It wasn’t that long ago that having a BlackBerry was the rage. The company I worked for at the time supplied all employees with the gadgets – a great business tool, especially for e-mail! Enter the iphone. The thing flat out works. I made the switch from BlackBerry to the iphone and so did the company I mentioned above.

Assuming BlackBerry moves quickly, I personally think they have a good chance of surviving. They have a good base of “business” users. Hopefully, they are talking with those users and listening to what they want and can renovate their offerings to meet those needs.

Yes, I’m a hypocrite as an iphone user, but I still love healthy competition and want to see this once healthy, almost dominant brand, keep the “crackberry” culture alive. What are your thoughts? Will BlackBerry survive? What would you do if you were their CEO?

renovation room blog

I love the fact that I work in a professional industry where I can wear jeans to work. In fact, to be one of the cool kids, there’s almost an expectation that I “have to” wear jeans to work. I can think of worse problems. Anyway, as we all know, it’s hard to beat putting on your favorite pair of jeans and for many years, my favorite choice was a well-worn pair of Levi’s 501 button-up jeans. Ah, yes.

But somewhere along the way, Levi’s started to fade out of fashion in favor of more trendy brands. Levi’s, founded in 1869, always known for their classic look and feel started to chase this high-fashion trend. Like a lot of consumers, I too moved away from Levi’s because they just didn’t fit (sorry, bad pun) for me when they started to lose the essence of what they were all about. They had a great history, solid products and incredible brand equity, but they were losing all of that fairly quickly.

Fortunately, they were able to renovate their brand and make it fresh, authentic and believable again. Rolling out the “Go Forth” campaign positioned them well with a new audience and returned the brand to it’s roots. Images of hard-working people and a strong sense of Americana reflected the brand essence and resonated with people, especially in a time of economic uncertainty.

Often times, we are lured into chasing current trends in whatever category we’re in and adapt our brands to fit that trend. But all too often, these brands begin to lose relevancy and don’t fit the brand perception that was built over many years. When that happens, consumers don’t quite know what to believe and begin to lose interest and trust in those brands. Maybe we just get antsy as marketers and feel compelled to change. And certainly today’s performance expectations demand constant growth. But in cases like Levi’s, what consumers want and need is right in front of our face. It was there all along. The challenge is to keep what’s good and true about the brand, and tell that story in a new, exciting and relevant way.

Thanks, Levi’s. Still loving those 501s.

renovation room blog

You’ve probably seen the news that Borders, which employs about 10,700 people, will be closing all of their stores for good. As consumers turn more and more to online book sellers and e-books, I suppose this doesn’t come as a huge surprise. But, could a brand renovation strategy have saved this brand? Major shifts in technology can leave brands in the dust…see Polaroid. Yet other brands seem to be able to anticipate these major changes and adapt their brands in credible ways to meet changing consumer behavior.

Barnes & Noble, while probably still at risk with brick and mortar locations, has at least been aggressive in their e-commerce offerings and the marketing of their branded e-reader, the Nook. They are in a better position to survive given this ongoing sense of brand renovation.

It certainly can’t be an easy thing, but sometimes major, ginourmous brand renovation is required. Technology obviously changes quickly, but major innovations and consumer adaptation is very real and fairly long-lasting. Similar to Borders, Blockbuster got caught with an outdated, bricks and mortar concept.

Keep an eye on the horizon and fully understand changing trends, and be prepared to renovate – sometimes in a small way and sometimes in a big way. Now, let’s hope at least the small, independent neighborhood bookstores will survive. As much as I love the Kindle, I plan to honor the hardcover by stopping by a local bookstore and picking up a good summer read.



renovation room blog