24 February 2010 ~ 1 Comment

big ideas

Bob Liodice, the articulate leader of the ANA, recently wrote an article for Ad Age’s CMO Strategy section  - – A Look Back at 10 Ideas That Changed The Marketing World… http://adage.com/cmostrategy/article?article_id=142090….

Some of his selections are better than others, of course.  But that’s not the point.  It got me thinking about the big ideas I’ve seen and admired.  Here’s my list:

- Bud Bowl: really, the first true integrated marketing effort that made use of retail in a big way (P&G’s “shelf out” approach would applaud Bud Bowl, for sure)

- AFLAC duck: how the CEO of this insurance company, Dan Amos, had the courage to buy a quacking duck in this industry, I’ll never understand.  He tells a bit of the story here: http://www.terry.uga.edu/news/releases/2002/dan_amos_2.html

- Lee Iacocca, CEO that revived Chrysler with his personal pitchman approach… the first time the CEO became a celeb… now we get a bunch of them, like Sprint’s Dan Hesse and Papa John’s John Schnatter

- P&G’s Brand Management System:  Neil McElroy wrote the famous memo about how to build a brand (interestingly, it was mainly about listening to the sales force about what’s working and what’s not)…

There’s a million other great ideas that have made a huge impact on marketing and on our culture…  which ones have made an impact on you?

One Response to “big ideas”

  1. Tom Kasperski 26 February 2010 at 8:45 am Permalink

    McDonald’s Monopoly has to rank up there. A case study in successful integrated marketing during the pre-digital era and arguable the longest running promotion of all time (23 years!).