Welcome back to another episode of The Barber’s Brief. A segment where we cover news that caught our eye, a marketing moment where we highlight a case study, and our ad of the week.

We hope you enjoy the show!

Our Hosts:

Marc Binkley - ⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcbinkley/

Vassilis Douros - ⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/vassilisdouros/⁠

Follow our updates here: ⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/sleeping-barber/⁠⁠

In The News

Red Lobster Filing bankruptcy because of shrimp

https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/20/business/what-went-wrong-at-red-lobster/index.html

Netflix is Launching Its Own Adtech

https://www.adexchanger.com/tv/netflix-is-launching-its-own-ad-tech/

Creatively awarded ads have average effectiveness

https://www.thedrum.com/opinion/2024/05/21/creatively-awarded-ads-once-effective-are-now-officially-average

Marketing Week - Tighter budgets and effective choices

https://www.marketingweek.com/tighter-budgets-effective-choices-your-marketing-week/

The Marketing Moment

Effectiveness of Tourism Australia's award-winning 'Dundee' ad - Mark Ritson

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHgfp83k-10

Background

• Big Insight - Strategy Before Tactics
• 2007 - 2017 Tourists visiting Australia was up 11% BUT

• The increase of Americans visiting was much smaller - up 1.3%
• The big challenge was the barriers to travel relative to the competition

• Australia has high levels of awareness & a desire to visit

• But the big problem was intention

• Relative to the UK, France, and Italy Americans had ½ of the intention to visit down under

Barriers include

• High travel costs
• Length of flight
• Not enough time to travel

Campaign Strategy

• Communication Objective: Increase traveller intention
• Business Objective: Grow US Spend from $3.7B to $6b by 2020
• Target: High Value Traveller (higher spend & frequency)
• Positioning - A beautiful place to meet refreshingly irreverent people

Campaign

• Looked like a paid parntership for a new movie Son of Dundee movie trailer release in 2018 with Danny McBride
• Superbowl release trailer #2 with Danny & Chris Hemsworth
• Started promotions characters & partners like Quantas Airline videos addressing many of the questions preventing Americans from travelling

Results

• Most viewed ad in the Superbowl
• Won a gold Effie
• Intention increased by 83%
• 13% increase in bookings from American tourists 1 year in

Ad of the Week

Samsung swipes at Apple over controversial ‘Crush!’ ad for iPad Prohttps://www.marketingdive.com/news/samsung-apple-controversy-crush-ad-ipad-pro/716431/Samsung Video: https://youtu.be/v1YuCMHTGd4 Original Apple Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntjkwIXWtrc

Samsung’s Response: Samsung released an ad titled “Creativity Cannot be Crushed” as a rebuttal to Apple’s controversial “Crush!” ad for the iPad Pro.

Ad Details: The Samsung ad features a musician finding a battered guitar in the aftermath of the Apple ad and playing music with the help of a Galaxy Tab S9.

Apple’s Apology: Apple apologized for the “Crush!” ad, which was criticized for being hostile to creativity, and halted its TV run.

Industry Reaction: The quick execution of Samsung’s ad highlights the need for marketers to respond swiftly to social media trends and conversations.

Noteworthy: Following this story’s publication, a spokesperson for BBH USA confirmed Samsung’s “Creativity Cannot be Crushed” ad is running on social channels and does not have paid media support.

Ever wondered about the companies leading global markets from behind the scenes? Our latest podcast episode features Dr. Hermann Simon, who unveils the mystery behind his book 'Hidden Champions.'

These mid-sized, niche companies are more influential than you think. Tune in to learn the strategies that make them successful and how they contribute to the global economy in ways you never imagined.

We hope you enjoy the show!

Our Guest:

Founder and Chairman of Simon-Kucher & Partners: world's leading pricing advisor with offices in 27 countries

https://www.simon-kucher.com/en

Inducted into the Thinkers50 Hall of fame

Visiting professor at Harvard, Stanford, Tokyo Business School, INSEAD etc

Co-Author of multiple books including Confessions of a pricing Man, Beating Inflation and Hidden Champions

Our Hosts:

Follow our updates here: ⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/sleeping-barber/⁠⁠

Get in touch with our hosts:

Marc Binkley: ⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcbinkley/

Vassilis Douros: ⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/vassilisdouros/⁠

Timestamps

0:00 - Intro to Hermann Simon

2:40 - Why Germany is so successful in exports?

4:18 - The growth of Hidden Champion research

5:20 - Defining hidden champion companies

7:17 - Apple’s value chain of “deep tech”

9:22 - Niche businesses aren’t always tiny

10:28 - 3 pillars of Hidden Champions strategy

11:25 - Customer proximity is one of their biggest strengths

12:32 - Hidden Champion’s innovation advantage vs. enterprise orgs

16:01 - How niche focus leads to technological advantages

20:49 - Profitability vs. Market Leadership motives of Hidden Champions

21:45 - Pricing strategy of Hidden Champions

22:48 - Niche companies are not without competitors

24:18 - Why Germany produces so many Hidden Champions

29:12 - Competitive advantages - a 22 year overnight success

31:59 - Government’s role in developing supporting eco-systems

34:12 - Talent development & Leadership style of Hidden Champions

37:00 - The role of M&A

39:35 - Innovation processes inside Hidden Champion orgs

42:10 - Take-aways from Hidden Champions

46:55 - Post-pod with V and Marc

Background Research & Literature:

Simon, H. (1992). Lessons from Germany’s midsize giants. Harvard Business Review, 70, 115–123.

Simon, H. (1996). Hidden champions–Lessons from 500 of the world’s best unknown companies, Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

M&A has an 50-90% failure rate https://finance.yahoo.com/news/why-90-mergers-acquisitions-fail-155000525.html

Profit or Growth - You lie in the bed you make https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/10422587211059991

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cp/worlds-exports-by-country-one-chart/

Welcome back to another episode of The Barber’s Brief. A segment where we cover news that caught our eye, a marketing moment where we highlight a case study, and our ad of the week.

We hope you enjoy the show!

Our Hosts: Follow our updates here: ⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/sleeping-barber/⁠⁠ Get in touch with our hosts: Marc Binkley: ⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcbinkley/ Vassilis Douros: ⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/vassilisdouros/⁠ In the News

In the News

Meteoric Rise & Fall of Prime:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/meteoric-rise-stunning-fall-prime-130900275.html

Adweek: Google Delays Cookie Deprication a Third Time

https://www.adweek.com/programmatic/google-delays-cookie-deprecation-for-the-third-time/

Why most launches fail to grow your brand?

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-do-most-launches-fail-grow-your-brand-prof-dr-koen-pauwels-wwsfe/

lobal social media ad spend to approach £200bn in 2024

https://www.marketingweek.com/social-media-spend-200bn/

Marketing Moment: McDonald’s: A 15-Year Brand-Building Triumph

Background

In the early 2000s, McDonald’s faced significant challenges in the UK. Cultural outrage and negative perceptions threatened its very existence. However, the brand’s resilience and innovative approach helped them turn the tide.

The Crisis

Context: McDonald’s was once a beloved part of British life but had lost its luster.

Crisis: A series of events damaged brand perception, putting the business at risk.

Abuse claims - https://www.bbc.com/news/business-66231131

McDonald's runs out of milkshakes in England, Scotland and Wales - https://www.bbc.com/news/business-58315152

The Unique Approach

Emotional Brand-Building: McDonald’s focused on emotional connections rather than just transactions.

Target Audience: Instead of narrow segmentation, they aimed to reach the entire nation.

TV Advertising: TV remained their primary medium, allowing broad reach and emotional storytelling.

Results

Commercial Growth: Despite PR crises, market fragmentation, and Covid-19 disruption, McDonald’s thrived.

£4.7 Billion Net Revenue: Their brand-building efforts contributed significantly.

Case Study Gold: Recognized as the most effective restaurant brand case study by IPA.

References:

Mcdonald’s Marketing Strategy 2024: A Case Study: https://thebigmarketing.com/mcdonalds-marketing-strategy/

McDonald’s: Keeping customers Lovin It for 15 year
https://www.thinkbox.tv/case-studies/brand-films/mcdonalds-keeping-customers-lovin-it-for-15-years

Ad of the Week

Trucker Napp VW Meteor

Link: https://youtu.be/5RBayTVBUlQ?si=CxGSUuaH9nyJmErN

• 42% of auto accidents are related to lack of sleep
• In Brazil, truck drivers suffer the highest # of fatal accidents while on the job
• Pressure to get deliveries to a location often forces them to not sleep
• VW & Livelo (Brazil's largest reward program) created the Trucker Napp app
• Connect smartwatch to the Trucker Napp app
• Earn points for sleeping
• Better sleep quality = more points
• The more points a company fleet earns, the more discount the company gets from VW

Timestamps

0:00 - Introduction

0:45 - In The News

0:50 - Prime Energy (The Rise and Fall)

5:40 - Google's Cookie Deprication Delayed. Again.

9:04 - Why Most Launches Fail to Grow Your Business

14:00 - Social Media Has Now Overtaken All Media Channels in Spend

17:00 - The Marketing Moment - McDonald’s: A 15-Year Brand-Building Triumph

23:00 - Audience Q/A

27:00 - Ad of the week