CAMPAIGNS

Milk it

After a tumultuous few years, Bobbie officially hit (virtual) shelves at the start of 2021—and is debuting its first national campaign this week.

What’s Bobbie, you ask? It's a “European style” DTC infant formula brand cofounded by Laura Modi, who’s also its CEO. The brand *technically* started selling its formula in 2019 to a small group of pilot customers, but it wasn’t long until the FDA came knocking—and ultimately recalled the product.

• Infant formula is subject to pretty strict standards in the US, and Bobbie’s initial product, specifically its labeling, wasn’t meeting them.
• The brand has since made changes to its product to meet FDA requirements. A New York Times article from March pointed out that Bobbie is the “only infant formula on the US market that sources its milk from cows who meet both organic and pasture-raised criteria.”

Bobbie’s campaign features influencers who, for various reasons, can’t or have decided not to breastfeed their babies. One is Tan France, expectant father and star of Netflix’s Queer Eye; the others include DJ Hannah Bronfman, mom of four Kelly Stafford, and travel blogger (+ former Bachelor contestant) Lesley Anne Murphy, who had a double mastectomy in 2017.

“There is no shame in not being able or choosing not to breastfeed,” Kim Chappell, VP of marketing for Bobbie, told Marketing Brew. “For us, this campaign is a bit of our coming out moment as a brand.”

Testing waters

The campaign kicked off with a full-page New York Times ad on Sunday, + is airing across streaming platforms like Hulu and Pluto TV throughout the month.

• “We’re doing our first jump into streaming TV, which we’re excited about,” Chappell told us, adding that she’s “hoping to get some good learnings about how this resonates with folks and hopefully with our target audience.” 
• Bobbie is also putting its “largest social media spend to date” on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

According to Chappell, Bobbie isn’t doing a big influencer push for the campaign; instead, the brand is hoping its customers and fans will organically share the message. “Paying influencers has not been a big part of who we are as a company,” she said. Plus, Modi told Marketing Brew she thinks the campaign has a “level of virality” to it. “We’ve developed a campaign that is inherently thought-provoking and personal,” she said. 

Hotcakes: Bobbie depleted 10 months of inventory within the first two weeks of its launch, Modi told us. “We landed one million in revenue within the first quarter, and we are climbing at an extraordinarily fast rate today,” she shared.

Zoom out: While brands like Frida Mom and Tommee Tippee have recently rolled out ads that depict the realities and stress that can come with breastfeeding, Bobbie’s campaign seeks to strip away stigmas associated with formula feeding.—MS

SPORTS

Botched

Pulling off the 2021 Olympic broadcast is like competing in Olympic water polo with weights around your ankles. Okay, maybe it’s just like Olympic water polo. So far, the Tokyo Olympics have dealt with Covid-19 delays, zero fans in the stands, and less Simone Biles—and ratings have looked dismal:

• Over the first four nights of the Games, viewership was down 43% compared to 2016’s Games in Rio de Janeiro, according to Sportico.

“We have had some bad luck,” said NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell during Comcast’s Q2 earnings call, noting that, despite the negativity, the Games would still be profitable. 

But, but, but: Ratings are down everywhere. Just look at the Super Bowl. According to NBC, the first five nights of the Games delivered “five of the top 17 prime time audiences of the year” on traditional TV.

A media buyer with whom Marketing Brew spoke on background, citing sensitive discussions between buyers and networks, said even though Olympics ratings are worse than expected, the Games are still attracting the most . “We were expecting to see a 25%–30% decline in audiences. The [declines] have been significantly higher than that,” they said. “The reality is, NBC still dominates the share of viewing. It may be lower, but in the context of everything, the Olympics are still the number one programming on television.”

Stream it

Viewers rooting for Katie Ledecky might’ve had a hard time finding her. One of the problems emerging during the Games (besides playing in a pandemic) is that NBC’s streaming platforms have been...confusing to navigate. 

Outside of NBC’s linear broadcast, this was supposed to be a big month for the network’s Peacock streaming service and NBC Sports app, each broadcasting the live competitions. But because of time-zone difficulties, most of the events aren’t live, and some that are live are hidden behind a paywall.

• If you want to watch the US men’s basketball team (the team with the famous people), for instance, you have to upgrade to Peacock Premium ($4.99/month), per Slate.

“NBC has botched the ease of navigation. The discovery part of the Olympics, it’s very clunky,” the media buyer said. “It’s very confusing for viewers to find what they want. They botched it.”—RB

SPONSORED BY ATTENTIVE

Introducing: The Super Smart Six

Who are these SMS superheroes?  They are the smarties featured in Attentive’s new SMS case study guide, showcasing results from 6 top brands.

With 56.7% of consumers primarily shopping on their phones, these brands—Supergoop!, Pura Vida Bracelets, Rainbow, and more—have used the insights from Attentive to seamlessly connect with shoppers on mobile.

You’ll learn a lot in this guide, but here are some highlights:

• How to use SMS to create owned marketing channels
• How to build awareness on mobile
• How to automate personalized customer experiences with triggered messaging

And since the guide features The Super Smart Six, you’ll get real-world examples of how to achieve all of it.

Get Attentive’s guide here and explore how to drive super sensational results using text messaging.

SOCIAL MEDIA

#Takemeback

TikTok recently put a 2021 spin on three ads that came out before the app was even a thing. Old Spice, Skittles, and Snickers collaborated with the app to “reimagine iconic ad campaigns” as TikTok ads. The campaigns in question: 

• “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like,” which Old Spice released in 2010. The TikTok versions star creators like comedian Munya Chawawa as the leading man, who was originally played by Isaiah Mustafa. 
• “Touch,” a 2007 Skittles ad that introduces us to a man whose party trick—turning everything he touches into Skittles—makes his life pretty miserable. TikTokers took the concept and ran with it, turning everyday objects like makeup and Post-its into Skittles.
• “You’re Not You When You’re Hungry,” the Snickers commercial with Betty White that debuted during the Super Bowl 11 years ago. For TikTok, Ross Smith, who has more than 18 million followers on the app, recreated the ad with his grandma. 

Why now? It’s part of the app’s “Don’t Make Ads, Make TikToks” mantra that it’s been pushing since last year. It doesn’t want advertisers simply pressing copy + paste on TV ads and shoehorning them onto the platform. “Hyper-polished, aspirational content has been losing its shine. In its place: authenticity,” TikTok shared in a post last week. “Making TikToks means making content that fits the unique style and tone of the platform.”—MS

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• ​​P&G celebrated a 7% YoY sales increase as its outgoing CEO defended the company's hefty marketing spend.
• Corona partnered with Duolingo on a vending machine that will only give you a drink if you order it correctly in Spanish (Una cerveza, por favor?).
• Disney’s “Jungle Cruise” movie ticket sales exemplify the profitability problem with co-release (as in, a movie’s simultaneous premiere in theaters and on a streaming service). 
• The New York Times explained how federal and local governments are using influencer marketing to convince Americans to get vaccinated.
• Reddit is hiring Timo Pelz, formerly of Instagram, as its new VP of business marketing.

SPONSORED BY TINYPULSE

When it comes to employee engagement, these peeps mean business. Literally. TINYpulse takes employee engagement and looks at it as a business initiative, not an HR one. They leverage data and analytics from their surveys to gain insights on cultural challenges in an organization; then, they tell you how to make employees a part of the solution. To start building culture, get started with TINYpulse.

FRENCH PRESS

There are a lot of bad marketing tips out there. These aren't those.

Reporting: Here’s why jazzing up your client reports with storytelling might help your business win favor with clients.

Small biz: If you don’t know where to start homing in on a few marketing channels for your small business, then start with these nine tried and tested options. 

Sosh meeds: Planning social media content takes f-o-r-e-v-e-r—so why not look into a few time hacks to streamline the process.  

AD ANTIQUES

Vintage Ad Browser

Two absolute icons on a different type of milk ad campaign from 2004.

ICYMI

Catch up on a few Marketing Brew stories you might have missed.

• Deals on wheels: Rideshare cars sport OOH ads
• Facebook: Q2 earnings, changes for the 18-and-under-crowd, and the “metaverse”
• Will we start seeing more masks in ads?