The King scores in Spanish soccer league

Just saw this over at the Partnership Activation blog and wanted to share it here. Burger King has signed a 1 year, $1.8 million dollar deal with Spanish soccer club Getafe in La Liga. That's not necessarily the interesting news as sports sponsorships are sold every day. What's interesting is the implementation of the sponsorship on Getafe jerseys.

Burger King has taken the extra step of printing pictures of The King on the inside of player jerseys so that when players celebrate a goal by pulling their shirt over their head as many soccer players are prone to do, it will appear as if The King is participating in the celebration. Love him or hate him, this use of The King in this way is genius and Burger King deserves big kudos for it's unique implementation.

The King still freaks me out - especially in those ads where we he's in bed with customers as they wake up - but you can't discount his value to the Burger King brand. The fast food company has done a fantastic job of making him the official spokesperson, even though he doesn't speak, and as a result he's now a recognized icon across the world.

A new take on an old scam

I received this email this morning to my Watercooler address:


Evidently I have the exclusive opportunity to collect 40% of $45Million that these guys found in Iraq. What are the odds that they would think of me to help them move the cash? It must be my lucky day.

In times like this, I try to use the WWCHFDD philosophy - What would Chris Hanson from Dateline do? I think I'll screw with them a little to see if I can waste some of their time. Stay tuned.

Brand Fail 101 - Suing your evangelists

All consumer brands strive for a common goal, and that is to make your best customers your most ardent supporters. There's nothing better than watching free word-of-mouth marketing take hold and rival that of any paid programs. That's the reason you see so much effort these days placed on social media, affinity programs, etc. So when your customers respond by creating businesses and hobbies solely devoted to promoting your product, for free, most brands chalk that up as a major success. Evidently Pez Candy Inc, makers of the small candy since the 20s doesn't subscribe to that traditional school of thought.

According to multiple media reports, the company is suing the owners of the Burlingame Museum of PEZ Memorabilia of Burlingame, CA for copyright infringement. Why you ask? Well Gary and Nancy Doss have run afoul of the candy company by creating an 8-foot, 85 pound Pez dispenser that got the pair into the Guinness Book of World Records. And evidently they did so without the appropriate licensing agreement from Pez Candy Inc.

Hey Pez Candy Inc, here are a few marketing tips free of charge:

1. Rein in your lawyers. Before your crack legal team brings suit against a copyright infringer, you may want to do some homework first. The Doss's have built an entire business promoting your product and claim to have one of every Pez dispenser ever made. They love you and make it their daily objective of furthering your brand. Why would you sue first and ask questions later?

2. Support your supporters. Again, these guys promote you all day. Rather than suing them over the unlicensed giant dispenser, why not reach out to them and get them to sign an agreement after the fact to make the lawyers happy. They built a giant replica of your product at their own expense and the thanks they get is a lawsuit.

3. Create a program to embrace your evangelists. PEZ collectors are one of those niche groups that are either all in or all out. When you find two people that have gone the extra step to opening a business to further their passion, why wouldn't you create a program to connect them to others like them. This would have been a prime opportunity for the powers that be at Pez to sieze the opportunity to create some sort of official program to rally support around these types of muesums, clubs, and collectors.

All said and done, this is a huge missed opportunity from a brand perspective. Not only that, but it could turn into a PR headache based on the number of articles and blog posts I've already seen about the issue. Epic brand fail.

A long overdue post

It has been a whirlwind couple of weeks and as a result I haven't even had the chance to think about writing anything here. In fact, I've also been falling down on my blogging responsibilities at work. Writing takes time and sometimes it's just not in the cards.

But enough excuses, I'm happy to present the reason for my time crunch these days. Introducing Zane Henry Aziz Bennett, born June 19, 2009. He came about 4.5 weeks early, but he has handled it like a champ so far. He's only a little nugget of guy at roughly 6lbs, but he has a pretty healthy appetite and is starting to bulk up.

I'm sure this will be the first of many blog posts about my boy, but I'll try to keep it to a minimum. I've already become "that guy" on Facebook so I'll try to refrain from slipping into the same trap here. But suffice to say, I'm stoked to be a dad and can't get enough of this little guy. Life is good.