Friskies’ Marketing Cat-alyst

You know why Apple never marketed the iPad to cats? There just weren’t enough apps for them. Cat food maker, Friskies, has changed all that with a line of tablet games for the underserved feline segment.

Capitalizing on the Internet’s insatiable appetite for cat videos, Friskies released an ad on YouTube that was quickly imitated by pet owners who rushed to film Fluffy playing with the most expensive toy ever.

The value of technology like the iPad lies in how you use it to serve real human needs and passions. For Friskies, the formula was: 1 open-ended tech medium + 1 community of cat lovers = cheap exposure/good will from consumers.

Sprint aimed for the same market with its Android 4G cat commercial, but Friskies actually integrated itself into the online cat phenomenon by giving people a product to use and share.

How can technology benefit and entertain your consumers? Zippo has an app featuring virtual lighters for concert-goers; Pedigree created a facial recognition program called “Doggelganger” that matches users to their shelter dog counterparts.

As our personal gadgets become more sophisticated, what’s imaginable is often doable. And the impact of marketers spending dollars not on a 30 second TV blip but on an app that interacts with consumers, furry or not, is a welcome development.

But then again, we're also easily distracted by balls of yarn.

Click image for video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaif2uq_0Vc
http://technabob.com/blog/2011/05/20/friskies-ipad-games-for-cats/

Name That Logo!

If a picture is worth a thousand words, a good logo is worth even more. A good logo is likable and persuasive (think Obama’s 2008 campaign design); a bad one is...well, the briefly lived Gap fiasco.

A well-designed logo is the literal face of the brand-- an ambassador that conveys corporate identity, personality, a promise. It does all of this instantaneously and has the potential to linger in the public memory far beyond words and slogans.

Need proof that effective logos really settle into the public consciousness? You can test your own recall skills with Sporcle.com’s Corporate Logos quiz. You have 6 minutes to name 36 common brands. It’s a little trickier than it looks, there’s always that one at the end driving you nuts...

Does your logo say what you want it to? Would investing in identity work reinvigorate the brand or will consumers pounce if they feel like you’re changing something beloved and familiar? Ponder these questions as you take the quiz.

It’s a great time waster if nothing else. There’s even a Corporate Logos 2 and 3 for 200% more brand action.

http://www.sporcle.com/games/corplogos.php

Trick or Tweet

Twitter user @oldmansearch is apparently an 81-year old man who was told by his son that Twitter is how you search on Google.

You can imagine, peeking into an old man’s “searches” provides endless amusement: “Diane sawyer swimsuit pictures” -- “Is alex trebek really smart?” --  “Doorbell volume.”  

Though @oldmansearch has racked up over 100,000 followers in a month, it’s probably fake. Hard to believe even a computer-illiterate senior citizen would continue searching without any actual results.

Most likely, this is someone hoping to capitalize on the success and subsequent TV deal around the ‘Sh** My Dad Says’ Twitter feed made popular years back.

Nonetheless, the account is a great example of how Twitter is leveraged for different purposes.  Companies like Dell effectively use it for customer service, TV networks use hashtags to connect with viewers, and others obviously use it for pure amusement.  Or to communicate live during turbulent times across the globe.

Twitter has become a viable people mover.   And from offers to awareness, it’s worth considering how your business objectives could be met by a tweak of these tweets.  

Just use under 140 characters.  Or one really old character.

http://twitter.com/#!/oldmansearch