Preview Wieden+Kennedy's Ken Smith views on Promoting Coraline and Branding

Wieden+Kennedy's Ken Smith recently worked on the campaign to promote Coraline, the first stop-motion animated feature filmed entirely in 3D, produced by Portland's LAIKA Studios.
He is currently the Account Director on Nike Golf, LAIKA and Oregon Tourism. Taste a preview before he speaks about reinventing movie marketing and how Wieden+Kennedy used new media to sell Coraline.

Describe the difference between advertising, marketing & branding?
At it's simplest advertising is paying to communicate a message about your product or service. It differs from PR and consumer driven content in that you, the advertiser, control the message. Marketing, to go back to the text book definition, employees the four P's: Price, Place, Product and Promotion. When you are marketing a product or service you need to make sure this mix is correct. You need to have a product people want in a place they can easily buy it for the right price and you need to tell them about it or promote it. Some people say there are five P's the fifth being people. The people you employ and your customer service is an important part of the marketing mix. Branding goes beyond marketing to give your product or service a personality. The goal is for people to have an emotional connection to your product, or even become fans.

In the words of former Coke-a-Cola Marketing Director Sergio Zyman, "Everything you do communicates about your brand." So going back to the five P's, if your product costs more than its competitors you better be selling it in more high end places or like Apple controls the retail environment and create the Mac Store. You also better consider where you promote your product. I always find it strange when local jewelers advertise Rolex watches on bus sides.

Why do people spend so much time and money building brands?
One reason that is painfully obvious to us all right now, is that a strong brand helps sustain you through hard times. When the economy is bad and people are watching their money they tend to stick to the brands they know and respect. Over the years Nike has seen sales decline much less in economic hard times than other competitors. A strong brand can make it easier to move into new markets and expand. ESPN is a great example. As a "sports authority," they were easily able to expand beyond one basic cable channel to ESPN news, ESPN Deportes, ESPN the Magazine, ESPN Radio and ESPN.com. If people like your brand and think you do something better, you can charge premium prices, even for commodities, such as the $4 cup of joe at Starbucks. The benefits of a strong brand can go beyond consumers. A strong brand can help you recruit and retain staff. Wouldn't you rather work for Pixar than Disney?

Speaking of movie studios, W+K recently did the marketing for LAIKA's first full length feature film Coraline.
One of the great things about this campaign is that everything we did not only got people excited to see the movie, it also helped to build the LAIKA brand. Every chance we got we played up the hand made craftsmanship and the skills that went into making this great movie. For example, we sent out 50 hand made boxes filled with movie relics that were stamped Made in Oregon. We looked for new and interesting ways to do things, but the look and feel was always consistently hand made and true to LAIKA's values. We were not afraid to say we are Hollywood outsiders. In fact we embraced it. I think if you were paying attention you'll hopefully have an idea of who LAIKA is now and what to expect from LAIKA when the next feature comes along. Of course an Academy Award would be great way to define your brand too.

How is branding changing in this world of new media?
I think all the common sense rules still apply. You have to think of all the new media as an opportunity not as a threat. So, you ask yourself, given all these new ways to talk to consumers and to have them talk back to us, how do we fit in given our brand personality. If we really think of our brand as a person, would we have a Facebook page? Would we Twitter? How would we interact with consumers and what are we open to hearing about ourselves? How much control are we willing to give up? I recently read a great post called Top Ten Reasons Your Company Probably Shouldn't Tweet, number two was, "Every tweet has to be approved by legal." Our Oregon Tourism client decided that is was a better overall consumer experience if they allowed posts from consumers about their visits to Oregon on their site even if some didn't have a great experience. If you are really smart, you're monitoring that feedback and look at negative posts as an opportunity to improve and possibly get a consumer back. Another big mistake is to think of digital marketing and social networking as a cheap alternative to traditional media. If anything it is going to take more of your time and effort to break through and do a good job. Finally you should remember that all these new media vehicles are tools, not strategies.

Is advertising dead?
No, but sometimes it seems like it's trying to commit suicide. We know it's not dead because millions of people go out of their way to download the things we post on YouTube, and I get sent links by friends every day of some ad they loved. That said, most advertising is really bad and there is way too much of it. It might be a good idea to begin regulating it a little more. Many countries have restrictions on the where and when you can advertise. If you are out there trying to figure out how to sell ad space in some unexploited medium, please stop. Let's spend our time and effort trying to make what we already have a little better.