Marina Maher Communications

Secret’s “Mean Stinks” campaign for Secret deodorant  is boosting consumer engagement as well as sales, reports an article in today’s AdAge.  The campaign is an integrated effort supported by several Procter & Gamble agencies, including MMC for public relations, Leo Burnett Co. for advertising, IMC2 for Digital, UEG for entertainment and iProspect for search.

Mean Stinks, a program that combats bullying launched in January, has garnered 222,000 fans on its Facebook page.  And according to the AdAge article sales are up 9% for the 26 weeks ended June 26.

The article also notes Secret’s fan base is growing faster than male brands in deodorant, including the P&G sibling Old Spice “Old Spice Guy” campaign, (currently pitting incumbent Isaiah Mustafa against Fabio) despite competing in only deodorants, not body wash (like Old Spice).

AdAge quotes P&G spokeswoman Laura Brinker explaining the rationale for the campaign:  “Secret as a brand inspires women to be more fearless. … Bullying is one area that we know is of great concern to our target consumer (both young women and mothers), so understanding how to identify these behaviors and stand up for yourself and your friends is one way to express your fearlessness. On a more simple articulation, Secret stands against things that stink, whether it’s body odor or mean behavior like girl-to-girl bullying.”

MMC and Client Kimberly Clark, P&G and Novo Nordisk Take Home PRSA Big Apple Awards

MMC, Procter & Gamble, Novo Nordisk and Kimberly Clark were big winners last night at the PRSA Big Apple Awards honoring their work for U by Kotex, the Novo Nordisk Insulin franchise and Head & Shoulders.  

U by Kotex won a Big Apple Award for a program that showed millennials that U by Kotex is not your mother’s menstrual protection by being culturally disruptive and consistently innovative. The Declaration of Real Talk campaign inspired millennials to drop the code, metaphors and girly language about vaginal health and promoted social change.  The program generated major traditional and social media coverage and drove women to action in purchase decisions and on the website.

Head & Shoulders was awarded Honorable Mention in the Integrated Communications: Consumer Products & Services category or its “Polamalooza” program that showed how to get men to embrace a product they only know as a dandruff shampoo and transform it into a pop culture hero, while driving trial and a billion plus media impressions. Working with NFL All-Pro Safety Troy Polamalu, Head & Shoulders and MMC created an integrated extravaganza, which grew market share by 5%. Head & Shoulders’ status as a pop culture phenomenon was solidified when Troy’s hair, courtesy of H&S, became one of 2010’s top Halloween costumes and Guinness World Records recognized Troy’s hair and H&S as the “highest insured hair” ever.

Novo Nordisk (NNI) was awarded Honorable Mention in the Marketing Consumer Products: Healthcare category for its “Race with Insulin” program, which raised awareness of the NNI insulin portfolio, (specifically, Levemir^® and NovoLog^®), and the prefilled insulin pen FlexPen^®. Working with Charlie Kimball, the first licensed driver with type 1 diabetes to ever race in the IndyCar Series, NNI and MMC were able to promote Charlie’s inspiring story while integrating branded NNI product mentions into his discussion of race preparation. Through traditional and social media (Charlie’s Twitter page, Race with Insulin™ was the first pharmaceutical branded Twitter page) Charlie drove awareness of NNI products and proved that diabetes doesn’t have to “slow you down.”

On today’s fantastic Ellen Show integration coordinated by the COVERGIRL team, Ellen brings through the scientific benefits of COVERGIRL Simply Ageless Foundation, with a sense of humor only she can deliver.

During the episode, she weaved elements of her Simply Ageless commercial script into the banter, by demonstrating to her viewers how COVERGIRL Simply Ageless Foundation “floats above lines and wrinkles and makes you look younger” by “suspending” her producer Andy, above a vat full of prunes. Why prunes? “Well prunes are delicious and full of vitamin A, but they are also wrinkly and no one wants to look like a prune!” Ellen declares.

After a bit more comedic commentary, followed by Ellen actually applying the foundation to another producer who was hiding in the vat of prunes, she closed the segment by sharing that everyone in the audience can “now go and see how young COVERGIRL makes them look young with their $100 Rite Aid gift cards.” A partnership executed through the COVERGIRL customer teams.

In addition to the on-air segment, both COVERGIRL and RiteAid posted a status update on their Facebook fan pages to drive excitement for the integration and product and link to purchase.

Last week, MMC’s client Secret Deodorant hosted 25 online influencers at an interactive event to announce one of Secret’s biggest launches:  Secret Natural Mineral, the first antiperspirant/deodorant to offer naturally-derived odor protection. In support of the holistic platform “Odor Dies of Natural Causes,” attendees were asked to solve the mystery of Odor’s death through an interactive trivia game. The buzz about Secret Natural Mineral started when the engaged attendees tweeted live from the event. To date there have been 51 tweets, reaching 61,247 followers, we are looking forward to more great results!

Oscar host Anne Hathaway expresses mock horror as her mom admonishes her to stand up straight.

Amidst all the post-Oscar talk today about the couture, Kirk Douglas’ schtick, and whether Anne Hathaway and James Franco were successful in appealing to a “younger demographic,” there was an underlying theme at last night’s event designed to appeal to everyone:  moms.

Moms’ pride was evident during the Oscar pre-show on Sunday as moms of nominees shared stories about their children on the Red Carpet.  The show’s producers enlisted “mominees” — nine moms of such nominees as James Franco, Jeremy Renner, Mark Wahlberg, and Mark Ruffalo and one grandmom (Franco’s) to tweet during the telecast.

Moms were evoked throughout the show, starting with Oscar host Anne Hathaway’s staged shout-out to her mother, who admonished her to stand up straight.  The most heartfelt thanks to a mom came from Tom Hooper, director of “The King’s Speech,” whose mother recommended a script that ultimately became the movie that walked off with awards for best screenplay, best actor, best director and best picture.

Why all the focus on moms this year?  Perhaps the producers were inspired by Procter & Gamble’s (client) “Thanks Mom” campaign during last year’s winter Olympics, which featured commercials highlighting the role of  mothers of athletes on the US team and offered them financial help for travel to Vancouver.  The campaign not only drove high awareness of P&G and its products, it strengthened the company’s connection with its core consumer and put mom love at the forefront of pop culture.

Let’s hope some of that mom-spiration helps out the Oscars.  Because I don’t think the show really won over that elusive “younger demographic.”

Photo credit:  Kevin Winter / Getty Images

MMC worked with head & shoulders last week in Dallas to perpetuate the “Hair Bowl,” an event USA Today dubbed the first NFL championship where the topic of hair wars was a major subplot to the big game.  head & shoulders, which has been working with Pittsburgh Steelers safety Troy Polamalu, known for his long, curly hair, for the last two years, created the Super Bowl Mane Match-Up, pitting Polamalu against other hairy players in NFL history.  While the Steelers didn’t take home the trophy Sunday night, Troy Polamalu certainly lead the conversation throughout the build-up to the game – and won the people’s vote for the “Best Super Bowl Hair of All Time.”

The h&s team was also on site at the Super Bowl Media Center in Dallas to give complimentary haircuts and styles to sports reporters leading up to the game.  The event created a lot of good-natured joking among both teams, which spurred constant media coverage in the week before the game.  Imagine:

• Steelers wide receiver Hines Ward, NFL Legend Jerry Rice and many other  players from both teams (including Clay Matthews who represents a competing hair care line) donning a Polamalu wig during media day
• All-pro Brett Keisel admitting he maintains his beard with head & shoulders

The head & shoulders brand team noted in Cincinnati.com over the weekend that “the buzz [the program has] generated through traditional and Social Media is worth more than a single national advertising spot during the Super Bowl,”   which cost advertisers who did participate up to $3 million for a 30-second commercial.

Nothing like a wash and cut to jump start the NFL’s media morning.

NFL Legend Jerry Rice just stopped by the Head & Shoulders space and modeled the “it” hair of Super Bowl week when he put on a Troy wig.  That’s one good looking mane!