Christian’s Top 5: Ideas of the Moment
Posted on August 15, 2007 - Filed Under ideaDRUNK's ideas
1. Canadian Tire Money Tree
Canadian Tire has a rewards MasterCard where you can earn Canadian Tire money whenever you use it shopping. The problem is that nobody knows that you can earn money when you use the card outside of a Canadian Tire.
My solution? Canadian Tire Money trees placed in shopping malls across Canada. These “trees” would be adorned with Canadian Tire money. Customers can “pick” the money off of the trees and use it themselves! Who says money doesn’t grow on trees?
2. Product ( RED )
The challenge is that all of the celebrity status and mass media campaigns have lost a grass roots feel for the charity campaign. And if I want to support a campaign, I want to feel as though I’ve discovered it organically myself. I don’t want it to be shoved down my throat as “cool” by miscellaneous celebs and the anti-cool brand that is The Gap.
My solution? Encourage engaged consumers to become ( RED ) ambassadors and spread the word in their community. Create street team kits and reward volunteers for spreading the message about the ( RED ) campaign! Of course, you could always help kick start things with a couple of paid/staged street teams working to recruit people.
3. Car Companies
Stop dumping millions of dollars into multi-branded car ads. Your target soccer mom isn’t going to pay attention to the 2.5 second minivan spiel you throw into 30 second spot littered with other brands with different targets. There are so many messages flying around during these ads that I’d be surprised if 15% of consumers could name the actual car brand that you’re advertising by the time the commercial break is over.
And let’s not forget that buying a car is a high involvement decision. You aren’t going to break into a consideration set for a $20,000 vehicle from a confusing 3-second exposure in the middle of a 2-minute commercial break. Instead, throw those millions of dollars into non-traditional media. Things like promotions, activated sponsorships and street activities. Things that will give you quality talk time with the consumers that you are actually targeting.
4. Wal-Mart
In Canada, Wal-Mart has a problem breaking into the urban centres. Their mass merchandising store models are probably not the most cost-effective and profitable when supplanted into the central business districts of major Canadian cities. So the challenge, therefore, is getting people from the urban centres to venture out to the suburbs to where the Wal-Marts are located.
My solution? Create boutique pop-up stores in malls in major urban centres. The pop-up stores would contain a very narrow selection of merchandise at typical Wal-Mart low prices. It would interrupt consumers typical shopping experience and remind them of the benefits of trekking to the suburbs to shop at a Wal-Mart.
5. Shopping Bags
Bring my own canvas bags when I go grocery shopping, so I’m not using plastic bags. It’s a small change that could potentially have a big impact if we all do it. It’s not like the $1 to purchase one of those permanent bags at Sobey’s or Loblaw’s is a huge price to pay. It’s more like an investment into our future. Ironically, I foresee a problem: what happens when I run out of garbage bags to use at home?
- Christian
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