Tarah's Digital Voice

I'm extremely proud to announce the launch of the site, Choices in Recovery, and documentary, Living with Schizophrenia: A Call for Hope and Recovery, both of which we produced for Janssen Pharmaceuticals here at Anthem. I commend our creative team on their fine work, creating a robust, well-designed resource for support and information on Schizophrenia, Schizoaffective and Bipolar Disorder.

I was most heavily involved with the development and production of the documentary, which was directed by the talented Emily Abt (IMDB; site). It was an honor and an inspiration to have the opportunity to tell the stories of three people that are living with schizophrenia. Aside from facing this mental health challenge with courage and strength, they were all impressively accomplished and genuinely pleasant people. Pair that with the expertise of our experts and it wasn't too difficult to make an important, engaging film.

Once in a while, a project comes along that feels truly meaningful and helpful to a community; this is one that I will cherish and hold in high esteem for a long time. Special thanks to our clients at Janssen, Emily, the team here at Anthem and NBTV Studios - this was truly a team effort.

Please take the time to check out the site and watch the documentary. These stories deserve to be heard.

I love having clients that truly value digital and are willing to explore and play with new technologies, apps and platforms when it's relevant to their goals. We (Real Branding) didn't put together the Instagram/Brisk partnership that Jamal Henderson discusses below, but we played a big part in building PepsiCo's first Foursquare campaign last year (more here). Check out Brisk's Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/brisk) to see how well Brisk is engaging their audience. 

We're also currently helping Lipton Iced Tea to integrate some pretty innovative digital tactics and techniques for consumer engagement. Check out their Facebook page (http://on.fb.me/LIT100natural), which has attracted more than 60,000 likes in the last month, since we launched it! 

Enjoy!

If you want to read more, here's a Mashable post about the partnership.

The great post, below, from GigaOM is spot on. As branded and social gaming have grown exponentially over the last few years (solid infographic here), the creation of custom branded games and integration into popular social games, as a tactic, have become one of the new shiny objects for companies looking to spice up their marketing. However, a brand is doomed to fail if they just slap some game mechanics onto their latest product offering or marketing campaign without considering why their audience would want to "play" with them in that context.As with all content and brand experiences, relevance is absolutely key.

People are flocking to games because they're fun, they offer social interactions, or the games otherwise benefit them in their lives. There are plenty of games out there, so there's absolutely no reason for people to choose a branded game unless it offers a uniquely engaging experience or incentive. 

It's not an easy challenge to merge a brand with a game, but it's possible. We, at Real Branding, have been exploring this arena heavily, recently, using the tactic only when we fully believe it's relevant. Our branded game endeavors include:

• Lipton Brisk: The Way of the Brisk
  • Solution: We unleashed “The Way of the Brisk,” which sought to tell the untold story of the story that was never told. Hmmm. Part Kung Fu movie, part mockumentary, part journey of flavorful discovery, the video series starred Chuck Liddell and his dream-destroying claymation counterpart, Tiny Chuck. Next, we launched a multi-level online fighting game that pulled consumers even further into “The Way of the Brisk” legend, while simultaneously highlighting the six flavors of Brisk. Finally, rich media banners, a Facebook page and featured placements on Funny or Die and Brisk’s own website helped rally MMA fans and drive them to all corners of the Brisk world.
  • Brand Microsite (click the bottom tab to play the game)
  • Case Study

• Michelob ULTRA: Challenge de ULTRA
  • Solution: Create an online brand experience that enabled people to “play along” with Lance Armstrong’s quest for an 8th Tour de France win – the “Challenge de ULTRA”. The Challenge was a Facebook application consisting of 20 daily challenges, one for each stage of the Tour de France. By designing a 20-point return engagement strategy, consumers came back each day to complete the current day’s challenge and get additional sweepstakes entries.
  • Case Study

• Lipton Brisk & Hess Express: Foursquare Integration
  • Solution: Tips & other organic content, point of sale deals and a sweepstakes drive Foursquare users to engage with the brands in PepsiCo's first location-based social gaming effort.
  • Check out my recent post about it

How do you think brands can be most effective in the gaming space? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

At the end of the summer, our Brisk clients at PepsiCo gave us the honor of architecting the strategy for their first location-based social networking campaign, testing the Foursquare platform's effectiveness for their retail partnership between Brisk and Hess Express convenience stores. We also designed the creative for the effort.

I, of course, had a great time geeking out on this, helping to develop the strategy for this fall's initiative, which we hope to expand in 2011. The main components:

• Brisk & Frito-Lay "2 for 2" combo deal
• People are entered into a sweepstakes to win a year of free gas whenever they check-in at Hess
• Tips promoting the offers, as well as more organic content

We are looking forward to the learnings that we will gain about a brand's place in location-based services and where the community's appetite to interact with brands in these environments is the strongest.

Check out Bonin Bough, Global Director of Digital and Social Media for PepsiCo, discussing the campaign at ad:tech SF on April 13, 2011. Below the video, find some of the press coverage, read about the campaign elements, hear from Pepsi execs and see an example of our in-store creative that we designed.

AdvertisingAge Coverage

Check-in Apps' Next Stop: Your Supermarket Aisles

PepsiCo, Tyson, Among Those Teaming Up With Gowalla, Foursquare, Checkpoints to Offer Rewards for Purchase

by Natalie Zmuda
Published: November 15, 2010

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- The next hot place to check in might just be your grocery freezer aisle.

Consumer foods players are following in the footsteps of retailers like Gap and starting to acknowledge the potential location-based apps have for them. PepsiCo, Tyson and Seventh Generation are among the major companies teaming up with the likes of Foursquare, Gowalla and CheckPoints, promoting programs that reward consumers for picking up products and giving them added incentives to put that product in their cart.

CHECKING IN WHILE CHECKING OUT: Consumers have been rewarded with recipes, sweepstakes and gift cards.

--> The potential for location-based marketing for consumer packaged-goods brands is "massive," said Bonin Bough, Pepsico's global director-digital and social media. PepsiCo, which owns billion-dollar brands like Gatorade, Mountain Dew, Doritos, Tropicana and Quaker, has been closely monitoring the area. Pepsi, for example, did a charity check-in program with Foursquare last December. That experiment served as a precursor to its first check-in programs with retail partners, launched in the last few weeks.

Through the end of the year, customers earn virtual Tazo bottles for checking in at any Whole Foods, as well as the chance to win a gift card. A week into the Whole Foods program, more than 1,000 virtual Tazo bottles had been collected, according to a spokeswoman. Meanwhile, through Dec. 29, consumers can check in at one of 643 Hess gas stations via Foursquare to get a Brisk and Frito-Lay product combo for $1.99. Via the program, consumers are also entered into a sweepstakes to win free gas and free Brisk iced tea for a year.

Tristan Walker, director-business development at Foursquare, said the PepsiCo-Hess promotion is one of the first cases of a CPG company working directly with a retailer to drive in-store purchases. And he expects there will be many more programs like it. Asked whether Foursquare would be doing more such deals, Mr. Walker said, "Yes. Stay tuned. We have big plans for CPG."

Mark DiPaola, CEO and co-founder of CheckPoints, which counts Tyson and Seventh Generation as clients, believes location-based technology will be a "game changer" for brands. "I think mobile will be bigger for brands than the internet was, because mobile goes with you to the store," he said. "We drive feet to the product, wherever it's sold in the store, even if it's all the way in the back on the bottom shelf."

Once a consumer locates and scans the product for points, CheckPoints' advertisers also have the ability to serve up everything from a coupon to a recipe to a sweepstakes. In the case of Tyson, consumers are treated to a comical game where a chicken is flicked over a goalpost and splashes into a tub of sauce. The game promotes Tyson's Any'tizers Dippin Twists as a good snack choice during football season.

"The goal here is to deliver targeted messaging at that precise moment a purchase decision is made," said Mr. DiPaola. "They're holding the [Tyson's chicken] in their hand, and they're either going to put it back on the shelf or in their cart. At that moment, we deliver messaging that the advertisers help us develop."

Shiv Singh, director-digital engagement and social media for PepsiCo Beverages Americas, also talked about the potential for "check-in-ographics." In addition to gathering demographic and psychographic data on its customers, Pepsi expects it will eventually be able to learn about its customers by studying where they check in and how often.

But, Mr. Singh said, the company is well aware that it's still early days for the technology, especially in the CPG space. Because of that, the program at Hess will be promoted in store with signage. Eventually, he said, offline promotion won't be necessary as consumers become conditioned to check in and look for deals.

On these first two programs, with Hess and Whole Foods, Mr. Singh said PepsiCo is looking to measure how many people check in and how many take advantage of offers. Secondly, the company is trying to understand what type of reward inspires behavior.

"We're extremely excited about mobile. We feel that it's different, as we enter 2011," he said. "For the first time digital is not at arm's length from the consumer when they're at the point of purchase. And that's incredibly valuable to us."

Here's coverage from AboutFoursquare.com. The rap lyric tips mentioned here were not part of our strategy, but they are another way to test the use of the tips feature of this platform, without pushing product. It will be interesting to see how the Foursquare community reacts.

Lipton Brisk and Hess partner for a foursquare special and some very unique tips

If you visit your local Hess station, you can now get a Brisk Iced Tea and Frito Lay Combo for $1.99 just by checking in on foursquare. You’ll also be entered into a sweepstakes to win free gas and Brisk for a year. The deal has been added to select Hess stations, which are located up and down the East Coast of the US.

Brisk has also brought a unique set of tips to foursquare. They point out places mentioned in rap lyrics — both popular and obscure — like this one at Osborn High School in Detroit:

“At Osborn handing out some flyers, he was doin some talent shows” – Eminem “Yellow Brick Road” Sourced from rapgenius.com.

All the tips have been derived from the Rap Map at rapgenius.com. Highlighting rap venues is certainly a unique use of foursquare’s location-based platform, although I’m not sure what relevance it has to the Brisk brand.

Mention in ClickZ's "Holiday 'Check-In' Report"

I am immensely proud of this documentary, which I helped to concept and oversaw the creative effort, from start to finish, for Eisai Pharmaceuticals. Eisai came to us, at Real Branding, with an unbranded, advocacy effort, aimed at raising awareness and support for Lennox-Gastaut syndrome (LGS), a rare and severe form of epilepsy. It's not common, but its impact is deep and devastating, often resulting in hundreds of seizures in a single day. This condition can cause developmental, physical and other disorders, as well, usually requiring a nearly full time commitment from parents of children that are affected.

However, despite these hardships and challenges, the stories of small victories and hope are astounding. Therefore, our approach was to capture several such stories from real people; families that have been living with LGS, for some time, that have managed to gain a level of control over the seizures, allowing them to find joy in the type of everyday accomplishments that most of us take for granted.

This was an intense, but incredibly rewarding project, during which I had the benefit of meeting wonderful people that granted us access to their homes, experiences and expertise. By doing so, they furnished us with the content we needed to create a film that we hope will help to spread the awareness and support that is deeply needed for this condition. 

I encourage you to take a half hour and watch this film. It is tough, at times, but it is also energizing and inspiring. I only wish I could have used all of the great footage that we got, as this could easily have made a feature film. If you happen to work at a TV network or would otherwise like to broadcast this film, please contact me; I would be more than happy to help make that happen. 

I commend Eisai for supporting this endeavor. It is unlike anything they, or most pharmaceutical companies, have done before and we are proud to be their partner. Let's hope it helps the people and families living with LGS to live better lives, even if just a little bit.

I also have to deeply thank our production partner, NBTV Studios, who, as always, went far above and beyond to help us turn an ambitious idea into a beautiful reality.

For more information about LGS, please visit LivingWithLGS.com and LGSFoundation.org

CREDITS

Featuring

Mother
Denae Ayers

Daughter
Heather Ayers

Father
Jim Nigro

Son
James Nigro

Neurologists
Tracy A. Glauser, M.D.
John M. Pellock, M.D.

Social Worker
Patricia Gibson

President of LGS Foundation
Christina SanInocencio

Also Appearing

Heather’s Father
Robert Ayers

Heather’s Sister
Victoria Ayers

Heather’s Sister
Brittany Carlton

Heather’s Sister
Sarah Carlton

Occupational Therapist
Candace Anderson

Jim Nigro’s Fiancée
Mandy Ayars

James’s Sister
Rebecca Nigro

Patient #1’s Mother
Deborah Pryor

Patient #1
Heather Pryor

Patient #2's Mother
Kathy Rosel

Patient #2
Candace Rosel

Certified Pediatric Nurse Practitioner
Cornelia Gonsalves

PRODUCTION

Director
Jeff Kennedy

Creative Director & Story Producer
Tarah Feinberg

Produced by Real Branding LLC

Managing Director, NY
Alan Feldenkris

Executive Creative Director
Brian Brown

Account Manager
Thomas Padula

Production Services Provided by NBTV Studios

Executive Producer
Brant Kantor

Executive Producer
Nick Buzzell

Production Supervisor
Nicole Schoonover

Travel Coordinator
Eirene Mirones

Director of Photography
Jeff Kim

1st Assistant Camera
Kenny Thompson

Gaffer
Yusuke Naito

Sound
Mike Silvestri

Hair/Makeup
Christina Turino

Technical Supervisor & Post
Mike Buzzell

Editor
Josh Miller

Additional Editor
Dave Gutt

Assistant Editors
Logan Seaman
Chase Finn

Composer
John Plenge

Production Assistants
Alex Blakenev
Ryan Evans
Logan Seaman

Special Thanks to Caring Hands Pediatric Therapy, Winston-Salem, NC

Developed by Eisai Inc. in cooperation with the LGS Foundation