October 06, 2014

Shaping the Future of DR

In my Secret Color review, I highlighted a project and several producers that I believe are helping to shape the future of DR. More of this type of work is popping up every day, so I'm starting a new feature to highlight it. In this post, I have two:

1. The new Perfect Bacon Bowl spot. Speaking of Hutton-Miller genius, the new creative and jingle for Allstar's Bacon Bowl is, to quote the anthem, "brilliant and astounding." It also demonstrates that Allstar learned from its experience with Snuggie and is applying some of those techniques to create buzz and encourage cult-like obsessions with its products. Of course, the approach is only effective as part of a retail/brand-support strategy and wouldn't work for most DR products -- but for this one? It's, well, perfect!

2. Brett Favre for Micro Touch & Copper Fit. I can only guess what it cost IdeaVillage to sign a football legend like Brett Favre, and the number I'm imagining would make no sense for a typical DRTV campaign. But this case is different. MicroTouch is a decade-old brand that has proved its staying power. I'm not sure how I feel about a clean-shaven Brett Favre, though. On the one hand, it's an interesting novelty since he is known for his scruffy look. On the other hand, he is known for his scruffy look.

Adding Mr. Favre to IdeaVillage's Copper Fit campaign is also a smart move since that category has become highly competitive and any point of difference could mean the difference between success or failure. It wouldn't make sense as a stand-alone strategy, but as a package with MicroTouch I like it. In any case, upgrading from the C- and B-level personalities that have been traditionally used in DR to A-level personalities may also prove to be an important part of the evolution of DR.