Marcom this week: From A to zinc – 1/7/11 edition

From Oprah Winfrey’s successful cable network launch to cash inflows and employee outflows at top social networking companies, here’s a look at what made headlines this week in the integrated marketing communications industry.

OWN Debuts with Strong Numbers
Early results show Oprah Winfrey’s new cable network – OWN – enjoyed a successful launch on New Year’s Day. For its Saturday premiere, OWN was the No. 3 cable network among women ages 25 to 54 during the 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. hours, averaging 1.2 million viewers per time slot. Sunday proved tougher, with the network attracting 968,000 viewers for the launch of “Ask Oprah’s All Stars” and only 602,000 viewers for “Master Class.” Although Oprah has a solid track record and loyal following, extending her personal brand to include a cable network isn’t without risk. However, backed by the world’s leading tastemaker, along with the many stars she has helped make famous, we don’t think the network is in bad shape. With the launch complete, we’re anxious to see the full programming schedule – and what product integration opportunities it will afford marketers.

Social Networking Site Shakeups
2011 is ushering in big changes at top social networking companies, including Facebook, Myspace and LinkedIn.

In an effort to stay private longer, Facebook struck a deal with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Digital Sky Technologies, among others, to raise $500 million. The agreement values Facebook at $50 billion. The deal also puts Facebook over the critical 500-shareholder limit set by the Securities and Exchange Commission, meaning it will be forced to begin disclosing financial information or host an initial public offering by April 2012.

In other IPO news, LinkedIn plans to go public this year, according to sources close to the matter. In fact, the social network is expected to deliver a prospectus as soon as this quarter. The company’s estimated value is $2.2 billion.

Unfortunately for Myspace, its future doesn’t look as bright. It’s rumored the social network will soon announce massive layoffs, which could lead to reductions in staff by as much as 50 percent. This news follows the company’s 30 percent reduction in staff that occurred last summer. Myspace recently redesigned its site, but it continues to lose market share, dropping to 4.75 percent after losing nearly 7 percent over the past year.

LEGO® Makes it “Click”
Thanks to this latest film short from LEGO, this week we enjoyed a momentary return to the innocent and imaginative days of childhood. Entitled “Brick Thief,” the video promotes LEGO’s idea hive, Click, which provides an online forum for sharing stories, videos and photos that depict moments of inspiration. “Brick Thief” is a sequel to “Cl!ck” and features the same oddly spectacled and mustachioed Imagineer hard at work in his lab on his latest LEGO creation. We bet you’ll be scrambling to dig out your LEGO Pirate’s Fort set before it's over.

Marcom This Week: From A to Zinc is compiled by the Vitamin IMC editorial team. They can be reached at vitaminimc@gmail.com. Miss your vitamins last week? View Jan. 1's “Marcom This Week."

And They’re Off….and on Oprah

This week was a pretty busy marketing week for Yum! Brands, the umbrella company of KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Long John Silver’s and A&W All-American Foods.  Just with two very key media placements, the Kentucky Derby and The Oprah Winfrey Show, Yum! was seen by approximately 20+ million Americans* – and that’s just through live television!   

However, that figure doesn’t take into account millions of additional consumer touchpoints:  the thousands of spectators at Churchill Downs surrounded by Yum!’s red speak bubble logo on signage and the numbered blankets each horse was wearing, and the 2,000 coupons for Kentucky Grilled Chicken downloaded from Oprah.com each minute since the announcement.  Even Twitter lists the KFC promotion as the third most tweeted topic as of this past Wednesday. 

However, Yum!’s high profile sponsorship of the Kentucky Derby and its Kentucky Grilled Chicken promotion on Oprah may have some scratching their heads.  First, many consumers may not have been aware that Yum! owns KFC, and for those who did, they may be questioning Yum!’s strategy: Why sponsor “the two greatest minutes in sports”?  Why promote on Oprah?  What are they selling?  Who’s their target? 

Jonathan Blum, senior vice president and chief public affairs office for Yum! Brands, told vitaminIMC that both campaigns make sense and “the introduction [of Kentucky Grilled Chicken] wasn’t timed to coincide with the Derby – that was a coincidence.”   

Nowadays, any product featured on Oprah is going to get great traction.  As Blum said, “[the Kentucky Grilled Chicken promotion] was a homerun!”   Plus, Yum! has been sponsoring the Kentucky Derby since 2006 and uses the event to “reach high-net-worth individual investors” at a price that costs less than half the price of a 30-second Super Bowl commercial. Yum! also uses the Kentucky Derby as a corporate event to entertain franchisees, investors and hardworking general managers right in its own Louisville, KY backyard. 

But, while Yum!’s goal is to sell as many drumsticks, personal pan pizzas and chalupas as they can, this week should make large multinational and multidivisional corporations wonder if they could have done more with opportunities such as these.  Sure, Yum! couldn’t ask for anything more by getting Oprah to promote one of their products.  But, should a company like Yum! look into how they communicate across divisions and see if leveraging its assets can sell more product and strengthen the overall brand?   

--Lauren McCabe 

*Note: Total audience measurement compiled from Nielsen’s estimates of 14 million viewers of the live broadcast of the 2009 Kentucky Derby on NBC and the average 6 million viewer The Oprah Winfrey Show receives each week with Live + SD ratings measurement.