Duck, Duck, Canada Goose!

Canada Goose’s wild ride into luxury retailing is in its next phase, as the brand plans to open its own stores in select cities.

“We’re a global brand,” said [company president Dani] Reiss, in The Globe and Mail. “When we have these gathering places for Canada Goose fans, it builds and adds to the global halo of the brand. We’re not looking to go to 150 stores tomorrow. We’re not becoming a retailer, specifically. It will be important to open stores in places where there are large concentrations of Canada Goose fans…there are lots of potential markets for that.”

The opening of retail stores follows on the successful launch of a video last year aimed at telling the adventure stories of people who have worn the brand.

Are these savvy moves for a brand just starting to stretch its (soft feather-covered) wings, or a push to expansion that may over-expose a brand whose appeal may have been, in part, that it had to be noticed by someone who recognized the patch rather than someone who saw a commercial?

http://www.brandchannel.com/2016/05/27/canada-goose-052716/?utm_campaign=160527-canada-goose&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email

 

A country with its own phone #

In an age of blocked caller IDs, privacy regulations, and concerns about refugees entering Europe in record numbers, Sweden’s latest edgy tourism campaign (launched April, 2016) is certainly disruptive: it got a phone number.

Call the number and a random (participating) Swede picks up, connecting you to the country faster than an IKEA meatball. Importantly, AdWeek notes that this volunteer ambassadors have “received no training whatsoever, and have been given no instructions about what to say (or perhaps more to the point, what not to say).”

What do you think – authentic nationalism, or stunt that could go horribly wrong?*

http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/sweden-just-got-its-own-phone-number-heres-what-happened-when-we-called-170659

*it has been subject to trolls…do the good interactions outweigh the bad?

http://www.news.com.au/finance/business/other-industries/dialaswede-tourism-campaign-trolled/news-story/968df13ee5024eabb732239158869c8e

 

 

When you care enough to send the very best…

I cannot believe I missed this promotion in February, but it’s never too late in Brandland!

Doritos Canada offered bouquets of ketchup-flavoured roses,  including delivery in major Canadian cities. They were only available for a limited time and sold out in hours, but the company put instructions on the website explaining how to DIY.

One important catch? They’re not for eating – the chips are glued in place. Tell that to the dudes who received these bundles of romance!

Does this campaign deliver the 1970s retro vibe it was going for? Does it add value to the brand? It what way?

If you could still order a bouquet, would you? Who would you give it to?

http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/ketchup-doritos-roses-tart-crunchy-way-say-i-love-you-valentines-day-169553

http://doritosketchuproses.ca/

This Beer Was Made For You and Me…

Even if Donald Trump ruins it, there will be an America. Beer, that is.

Not content to have Bud Light represent the Bud Light Party until the November elections in the U.S. Budweiser has renamed its flagship beer: America.

Lest you get too high and mighty about those egotistical Americans who think their country’s brand important enough to cover bottles, Molson has been using the tagline “Made from Canada.”

But back to Bud. What do you think of this grand gesture? Is it patriotic? Consumerist? Is there a United States of America any more…or do you have to drink a quantity of beer to buy into that myth?

While you mull it over, take a look at the original article, which explains the many details that went into the temporary brand re-design.

http://www.fastcodesign.com/3059681/budweiser-renames-its-beer-america/1

 

Finger Lickin’…huh?

KFC Hong Kong is getting literal about its famous slogan, “It’s finger-lickin’ good!”

The BBC reports that the chain’s agency, Ogilvy and Mather Hong Kong came up with a promotional edible nail polish that tastes (or is intended to taste) like two flavours of the famous fried chicken: original and hot & spicy. The polish is not available commercially; for now, it is only being distributed to media outlets to generate attention.

Is this an effective promotion? Among the considerations the restaurant chain and its agency need to take into account:

• consumers can’t participate, it was distributed to media only
• what impact does (or doesn’t) extensive press have? Can the results of this promotion be measured?
• does it make sense to make a non-edible category temporarily edible? What is the result?
• what cultural assumptions are taken for granted by the promotion?
• who is missed in this promotion?

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-36220142

…and what do you make of the video released to Youtube?