NOT EVERYTHING IN BLACK AND WHITE MAKES SENSE CAMPAIGN

Background
In 1996 Guinness initiated a new advertising campaign for its famous stout beer. With a history dating back to 18th-century Ireland, the brand had a venerable image. Not only was the black-colored beer the bestselling stout in the United Kingdom and Ireland but it was also exported to 150 different countries. Abroad, Guinness was able to capitalize on its association with all things Irish to drive sales. But at home in the British Isles, Guinness found that newer Irish stout beers such as Bass and Murphy’s were threatening to encroach on Guinness’s domination of the declining stout category. Most importantly, Guinness had not captured the younger generation of 18 to 34 year olds. For the most part these younger drinkers considered the dark brew to be more their parents’ beer of choice than their own. The ‘‘Not Everything in Black and White Makes Sense’’ campaign was conceived to reposition the Guinness brand to appeal to younger drinkers. The surrealistic-style commercials created by advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather attempted to make people reconsider Guinness. The campaign set out to do so in two ways. Not only were the commercials creative, humorous, and eye-catching but they also presented implausible situations that encouraged viewers to form their own opinions—about the spots and about Guinness itself. The intent was to enable viewers to drop their preconceptions about Guinness, including common notions that the beer was too bitter, fattening, or not chic enough. ‘‘We decided we had to more or less revamp the brand and everything it stood for—re-invent it as it had re-invented itself many times already, and reconnect it to the new Ireland,’’ Guinness marketing director Tim Kelly told the Sunday Business Post.
The launch spots of the campaign—‘‘Bicycle’’ and ‘‘Old Man’’—were both directed by Tony Kaye and encouraged viewers to take a new look at Guinness. ‘‘Bicycle,’’ which was filmed in a style reminiscent of 1940s movies, depicts a world without men. Against a backdrop of the song ‘‘I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Out of My Hair,’’ the commercial portrays women in jobs traditionally held by blue-collar men. After these women drink beer, arm wrestle, and shoot pool, the commercial moves to a scene of a starkly empty maternity ward. Gloria Steinem’s famous quote, ‘‘A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle,’’ flashes on the screen. What follows is the image of a fish riding a bicycle and the campaign’s tag line, ‘‘Not everything in black and white makes sense.’’ ‘‘Old Man’’ similarly set out to shock the viewer with its surprising ending. The commercial sets out with the sad scene of an old man dressing alone in his apartment. Singer Pete Townshend’s quote appears on screen: ‘‘I hope I die before I grow old.’’ It turns out, though, that the old man is donning his formal wear to marry a heavily pregnant buxom blonde.
While Guinness’s sales rose over the life of the campaign, the company was not entirely pleased with Ogilvy & Mather’s efforts. Two spots in particular sparked firestorms of controversy, which were not the sort of notoriety Guinness was hoping to achieve with its advertising. One, involving sadomasochistic practices, was decried as a reference to the death by hanging of a conservative member of Parliament that was rumored to have had sexual undertones. The other, which never actually ran, featured two gay men enjoying a tranquil breakfast. Tabloid newspapers, which got wind of the proposed commercial, chastised Guinness for condoning homosexual behavior. When the company responded by denying that it ever intended to do so and that it never would in the future, the gay community was outraged. Ultimately, Guinness fired Ogilvy & Mather and shifted its advertising business to Abbott Mead Vickers. That agency’s first campaign for the stout giant featured more traditional advertising focusing on the quality of the beer.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT
Guinness beer was founded under near-mythic circumstances in 1759, when Arthur Guinness took over an abandoned brewery at St. James Gate in Dublin, Ireland, and began producing a dark beer called porter. In later years the company named one of its strongest brews Guinness Extra Stout Porter. The porter appellation was in time dropped, and thus the stout category of beer was born. Guinness’s distinctive black color derived from the fact that some of the barley used in the production was roasted, rather like coffee beans. The darkness of the beer contrasted with the ‘‘blonde’’ foam that resulted from the beer being poured or ‘‘pulled’’ from the tap. The company also had a venerable history of advertising. Beginning in the 1930s the SH Benson ad agency coined the slogan ‘‘Guinness is good for you.’’ At the same time the ‘‘My Goodness, My Guinness’’ poster ads, which featured a balding zookeeper whose Guinness was perpetually stolen by larcenous animals, received critical and popular acclaim. Even as early as the 1930s, however, the company used advertising to reposition the brand. The Guardian newspaper has explained that, for example, the ‘‘Guinness for Strength’’ campaign of that decade, which portrayed an archetypal workman in the midst of his labor, was designed to give the beer ‘‘a more masculine, macho image.’’ Nearly 40 years later the company sought to again reposition itself. In order to appeal to women and to soften the brand’s primary association with working-class men, Guinness designed glossy, stylish ads that appeared in British fashion magazines.
In the 1980s Guinness again shifted its image through its advertising campaign. The seven commercials of the ‘‘Guinnless’’ campaign targeted 24- to 34-year-old men by depicting humorous scenarios of Guinness drinkers who were deprived of their coveted brew. In the late 1980s Guinness signed on with ad agency Ogilvy & Mather and released the ‘‘Man with the Guinness’’ campaign, which once more deliberately tried to reposition the brand—this time ‘‘as a drink for strong, confident individuals,’’ according to The Guardian. Yet by the mid-1990s the cultural world of which Guinness was a part had again shifted. Not only had other Irish stout beers entered the market with their own distinctive advertising campaigns, but stout beers as a whole were losing British drinkers. Guinness became convinced that viewers had become too comfortable with the overwhelmingly popular seven-year ‘‘Man with the Guinness’’ campaign. To reinvigorate its marketing, the company went back to the drawing board with Ogilvy & Mather and nearly two years later released the first two ‘‘Black and White’’ commercials.

TARGET MARKET
The target of Guinness’s new campaign revealed once more a strategic repositioning of the brand. As of 1996 the stout sector of the beer market was in decline. Although 79 percent of British drinkers over the age of 55 drank stout, only 35 percent of young adults consumed it. Thus, while Guinness held more than 80 percent of the draught stout market, the company’s growth could not be fueled by gaining more within the segment. Instead Guinness had to focus on winning over younger drinkers to its distinctive stout beer. As a result, the brewing titan targeted its new campaign to 18- to 34-year old males. ‘‘Guinness need[ed] . . . consumers to rethink their choice of beers,’’ reported Advertising Age International. The goal, in short, was to appeal to the target market to ‘‘rethink stubbornness when making up one’s mind.’’
In order to reach out to its target, the campaign sought to reflect the values of young adults in the 1990s. In an era dominated by postmodern philosophy that posited the ultimate relativity of all things including truth, the campaign resonated perfectly with the abundant insecurity and introspection of the times. ‘‘Research shows people today are more inwardly focused,’’ said the Independent-London. ‘‘The current message is: think again about life, your inner self, Guinness. All is not how it appears at first glance.’’ Each of the commercials opened with a statement that appeared to be categorical, but as the commercial progressed the assertion became more tenuous and open to debate.
Moreover, the look of the campaign was crafted to reach out to its target audience. It was stylish enough to appeal to a segment of the population that was raised with television and advertising. And it did not resort to the exclusivity that was the hallmark of other beer advertising. ‘‘Bicycle’’ was decidedly non-sexist and attempted to challenge the viewer with issues of gender. Ogilvy & Mather even produced a commercial that featured two gay men together at the breakfast table engaging in a decidedly normal kiss. The spot was leaked to tabloid newspapers before its release, however, and in the ensuing ruckus Guinness chose not to release the commercial.

COMPETITION
While other stout beer producers were not challenging social mores in quite the same way, Guinness did begin to feel pressure from stout brands that challenged Guinness’s hegemony. Irish brands, including Murphy’s Irish Stout, Caffrey’s, Beamish, and Bass Ale, were expanding their market share at Guinness’s expense. Many of these brands laid claim to an Irish heritage through their advertising. These Gaelic ties were significant because, as the largest minority group in Britain, the Irish wielded considerable spending power. More importantly, however, was the fact that both in Britain and abroad (especially in the United States), the love of Irish culture had exploded in the 1990s to the point that all things of Ireland were trendy. Murphy’s sought to capitalize on this dynamic with the ‘‘Vincent Murphy’’ campaign. In one spot the quintessentially Irish Vincent Murphy sips his beer while he observes a ranting old man at the pub. As the man complains, Murphy quips, ‘‘Unlike the Murphy’s, he’s very bitter.’’ This underhanded dig at Guinness’s supposed bitter taste also subtly conveyed Murphy’s ‘‘genuine’’ Irish heritage. Caffrey’s ads, on the other hand, focused on the ‘‘New Ireland.’’ ‘‘There’s warmth and lyricism mixed with cosmopolitan and contemporary appeal,’’ a spokesperson for the company told the Independent-London. Beamish trumpeted its status as the ‘‘only brand that brews only in Ireland.’’
According to The Guardian, the ‘‘Black and White’’ campaign served to reassert ‘‘Guinness’s superiority in a marketplace that had suddenly become saturated with Irish stouts.’’ On the one hand, the explicit premise of the campaign—that not everything was as it appeared or claimed to be—addressed Guinness’s rival’s claims of cultural integrity as well as the competitors’ snipes at Guinness itself. The campaign also sought to reflect Guinness’s clout in the market. Controlling nearly 80 percent of the stout sector and 4.4 percent of total beer consumption in Great Britain, Guinness was, without question, the dominant beer in its category. The creativity and quality of the ‘‘Black and White’’ commercials sought to highlight the status of the beer itself.

MARKETING STRATEGY
As the definitive leader in its category, Guinness could not count on converting drinkers of rival stout brands as a means of continuing to expanding the brand. Instead, it had to win the loyalty of those who did not drink stout beer or had never tasted the black ale. In short, the campaign had to convince consumers to reevaluate their choice of beers. According to the Sunday Business Post, the goal of the ‘‘Black and White’’ campaign ‘‘was three-fold: to bring non-draught Guinness drinkers into the brand, to make Guinness a regular choice for occasional drinkers, and to dissuade regular drinkers from switching to competitive stouts.’’ Part of this agenda involved ‘‘updating’’ the brand’s image among younger British consumers. The campaign set out to accomplish this goal through daring commercials that clearly reached beyond Guinness’s solid, middle-age base. One of the more infamous spots of the ‘‘Black and White’’ campaign portrayed a sadomasochistic man hanging by chains from the ceiling (in a leather straightjacket) beneath a picture of British Prime Minister John Major. Other commercials in the campaign displayed similar moxie. A series of print ads featuring a satanic priest and an overweight nudist appealed to a more youthful audience. The company not only used mainstream publications to display the campaign’s ads but also selected smaller magazines that directly reached the campaign’s target. The sadomasochistic ad, for instance, ran solely in FHM, a publication with a circulation of only about 500,000 readers, most of whom, however, were young men drawn to the magazine’s glossy coverage of ‘‘fashion, football, and women,’’ according to the London Sunday Telegraph.
Guinness strove to reposition itself outside the realm of television and print also. The company sponsored the Cheltenham festival in Britain as well as the Fleadh Irish Music Festival in New York. By aligning the brand with international rock stars such as Sinead O’Connor, Van Morrison, and Shane MacGowan, Guinness sought to increase its allure with a younger and more cosmopolitan segment of the British population.

OUTCOME
The Guinness ‘‘Black and White’’ campaign was deemed a success from the outset. According to the company’s marketing department, the brand achieved its highestever share of the beer market—5.2 percent—after the campaign broke. The November 1997 Adwatch survey revealed a 56 percent recall among consumers across socioeconomic and gender lines. The survey also emphasized that the commercials performed especially well among the target audience. The campaign garnered industry accolades as well. Bob Garfield acknowledged the spots in Advertising Age International. In March 1998, however, Guinness indicated in a bold fashion that it was not entirely pleased with the high-profile ‘‘Black and White’’ campaign when it left Ogilvy & Mather and placed its advertising account with Abbott Mead Vickers instead. Officially the company stated to the Times of London that ‘‘part of the Guinness ethos has always been to move on before we have to’’ and that ‘‘Ogilvy & Mather’s work cannot be delivered any further.’’ Yet the rift between Guinness and Ogilvy & Mather ran deeper. The spot featuring the two gay men (which never ran) unleashed a storm of protest from conservative viewers and shareholders. After Guinness furiously backpedaled in response, claiming that ‘‘at no time, did we set out to make a so-called ‘gay’ ad, nor will we be screening one,’’ the gay community became outraged. Later the spot picturing the hanging sadomasochistic man drew another round of criticism, especially from Tory politicians who insisted the ad was a reference to the death by hanging of Tory Member of Parliament Stephen Milligan.
Furthermore, Guinness hinted that the ‘‘Black and White’’ campaign was ‘‘elitist’’ and inaccessible to younger consumers. Analysts speculated that the commercials had not touted the brand’s essential ‘‘Irishness’’ enough or that they had cultivated too serious an image for the beer. Guinness followed ‘‘Black and White’’ with Abbot Mead Vickers’s ‘‘Good Things Come to Those Who Wait.’’ These new commercials were decidedly non-surreal and lacked the ‘‘artistic’’ feel of the grainy ‘‘Black and White’’ spots. One spot portrays an elderly swimmer attempting to cross the village bay before his pint of Guinness, poured by his bartender brother, has settled. The old-fashioned style of the commercial contrasted with ‘‘Black and White’s’’ postmodern style.

KEEP WALKING CAMPAIGN

OVERVIEW
Diageo plc’s Johnnie Walker was one of the world’s top scotch brands in the late 1990s and early 2000s, but blended scotch as a category was in long-term decline. Among distilled spirits, meanwhile, vodka was booming, largely as a result of effective youth-oriented marketing. Trying to shed a perception that scotch drinkers were stodgy, suit-wearing business types, JohnnieWalker in 1999 unveiled a global branding campaign called ‘‘Keep Walking’’ that continued to associate scotch drinking with success while widening the definition of success to appeal to young drinkers. The U.S. version of this campaign, which began in 2001, celebrated themaverick entrepreneurial ideas of the 1990s, but its message fell prey to changing perceptions of exactly such entrepreneurs following the dot-com crash and successive corporate scandals. In 2003 Johnnie Walker’s U.S. agency, Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH) of New York, set out to update ‘‘Keep Walking’’ to accommodate yet another definition of success.
The new installment of ‘‘Keep Walking,’’ which had a budget of approximately $15 million, focused on life as a journey and offered Johnnie Walker as a product that helped people navigate the uncertainties of that journey. The Striding Man logo, an image of an aristocratically dressed man in midstride, had been used in the campaign’s prior incarnations to represent the idea of personal progress; now the logo was used to suggest the determination required to weather the many obstacles and strange turns one encountered in life. The campaign’s print ads paired the Striding Man and the ‘‘Keep Walking’’ tagline with stories of individual career paths that had taken unpredictable turns, while outdoor executions featured the Striding Man as their central character, who was shown having emerged from difficulties represented by simple visual symbols, such as walls, rainclouds, and stock-market graphs.
BBH exceeded its goals of drawing attention to the Johnnie Walker brand and to the Striding Man as a brand icon. The update of ‘‘Keep Walking’’ won a Silver EFFIE Award in 2005. The concept behind the outdoor component of the campaign was extended in a subsequent series of print and outdoor ads launched in late 2004.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT
Blended scotch whiskey fell drastically out of favor among American consumers during the 1980s and 1990s, losing more than 20 percent of its sales volume as young people in particular turned to clear liquors. While vodka brands such as Absolut and, later, Grey Goose built up-to-date, premium product images that appealed to people in their twenties and thirties—high-volume consumers essential to the long-term health of any alcohol brand—scotch advertising on the whole did not keep pace with the times. Predictable appeals, such as using stereotypical Scottish imagery or connecting traditional ideas of business success with scotch drinking, were ineffective in communicating with young people.
Diageo’s Johnnie Walker attempted to remedy this image problem by turning, in 1999, to a global branding platform called ‘‘Keep Walking,’’ crafted by Bartle Bogle Hegarty of London. Featuring the Striding Man logo—an image of a walking man decked out in a top hat, boots, and cane, which made its first appearance on the Johnnie Walker bottle in 1909—‘‘Keep Walking’’ was meant to suggest the idea of personal progress; the perpetually walking figure signified the determination necessary to realize one’s dreams and goals. In print ads as well as TV spots such figures as Abraham Lincoln and the actor Harvey Keitel, as well as artists and philosophers, were employed to stress the long-established connection between success and scotch-drinking, but the campaign effectively broadened the definition of success to encapsulate worlds beyond the country clubs and private libraries of macho businessmen.
A U.S.-specific campaign running under the ‘‘Keep Walking’’ umbrella was launched in early 2001, at the height of enthusiasm regarding the so-called ‘‘new economy.’’ Print ads assuring consumers that ‘‘A simple idea can change the world’’ depicted napkins on which the big entrepreneurial ideas of the 1990s—like selling coffee for $4.95 or opening an online bookstore—were shown in embryonic form, sketched on cocktail napkins, matchbooks, and other scraps of paper. A corresponding online promotion offered entrepreneurs a shot at $500,000 in grant money to realize their own business dreams. In the wake of the dot-com crash, the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and a wave of corporate scandals, however, the limitations of this inspirational, shoot-forthe-moon message became clear. Diageo enlisted its U.S. agency, the New York office of Bartle Bogle Hegarty, to further recast the ‘‘Keep Walking’’ idea in 2003.

TARGET MARKET
Urban men aged 25 to 34 were Johnnie Walker’s primary target, but the 2003 update of the ‘‘KeepWalking’’ concept marked a key shift in the brand’s approach to this group. Previous installments of the campaign had been aimed at stimulating demand among the target group regardless of whether they already drank Johnnie Walker or, for that matter, scotch in general. The new version of ‘‘KeepWalking,’’ by contrast, was aimed at scotch drinkers who were already familiar with the brand. BBH New York sought to take advantage of the fact that most people chose their alcohol brands based on social factors; the agency felt that if those who occasionally drank Johnnie Walker could be encouraged to drink it regularly, then they would serve, ultimately, as brand representatives among their friends and acquaintances. By strategically narrowing the target market in this way, moreover, BBH was able to make better use of a limited advertising budget.
BBH believed that in a scandal-ridden, recession-era business world, it did not make sense to emphasize material riches exclusively. The agency found poll numbers suggesting that a large majority of young men would, if given the choice, prefer two extra weeks of vacation to a 10 percent raise in pay. The new installment of ‘‘Keep Walking,’’ then, emphasized life as a journey and offered models of success that were much more down-to-earth than those presented in the prerecession campaign of 2001. Gone were references to simple, world-altering ideas; in their place there appeared profiles of accomplished men, complete with references to the setbacks, humiliations, and unpredictable turns that characterized their paths to success. The Striding Man logo was transformed into a symbol of endurance rather than of simple inspiration.

COMPETITION
‘‘Keep Walking’’ supported Johnnie Walker’s two blended scotches, its Red Label and Black Label products. Johnnie Walker Red was the more affordable and more popular of the two and was America’s second-leading scotch brand, behind Dewar’s. Johnnie Walker Black, the fourth-bestselling scotch in the United States at the time of the campaign’s launch, was a rival to premium brand Chivas Regal, then the country’s number five scotch. Dewar’s, like Johnnie Walker, was at this time attempting to update its image and appeal to a younger audience. In 2000 the brand changed its approach to print marketing, entering into advertising partnerships with a few strategically selected publications, rather than continuing to run ads in as many as 20 magazines at a time. One prominent Dewar’s partnership, with Men’s Journal, resulted in a 2003 project called ‘‘Conquer the Highlands,’’ an adventure story of two young men on an ‘‘extreme’’ tour of Scotland, which ran as a print insert described as an ‘‘advertorial,’’ meaning it was intentionally similar to the magazine’s content. This blurring of the boundaries between editorial and advertising content tested magazine-publishing conventions of the time. The theme was also adapted into a cable-television program, a one-hour adventure show that likewise mixed the two young men’s adventures with product placement. Rather than continuing to compete with vodka and other clear spirits for the youth market, Chivas Regal in 2003 instead began repositioning itself to appeal to an older male market. In a global ad campaign called ‘‘The Chivas Life,’’ the brand made no apologies for its luxury roots, celebrating bold life choices such as going ice fishing in Alaska, ‘‘crossing the room like you own it,’’ and embarking on a sailing trip, the destination of which was decided by throwing a dart.
Vodka, meanwhile, was the distilled-spirits industry’s fastest-growing market segment and one in which consumers’ purchasing choices, according to many observers, were almost exclusively tied to marketing and brand image. In the 1980s and 1990s Absolut vodka had risen from obscurity to become one of the hippest brands in the world and, ultimately, the number three distilled spirits brand in America, thanks to a long-running advertising campaign that turned the product’s bottle into an iconic, fashionable emblem. In the first few years of the new millennium, however, Absolut’s yearly sales growth could not keep pace with the vodka market at large, which was growing rapidly because of new designer brands such as Grey Goose. Using a taste-test platform whose findings were called into question from the start, together with aggressive marketing to bar owners, the Grey Goose brand grew faster, between 2000 and 2004, than any alcohol product in recent memory, becoming the vodka of choice for urban consumers of pricey specialty cocktails.

MARKETING STRATEGY
The new ‘‘Keep Walking’’ campaign had an estimated budget of $15 million and involved distinct print and outdoor components meant to accomplish different tasks. The ‘‘Journeys’’ print series, which featured profiles of men who had achieved success in unconventional ways, was meant to connect with consumers by making them evaluate their own conceptions of personal progress and by showing them that Johnnie Walker understood their lives. The outdoor portion of the campaign, called ‘‘Icons,’’ was less personal and more overt in its branding, showing the Striding Man continuing to move forward despite difficulties, which were represented by simple but suggestive graphics against a black background. The ‘‘Journeys’’ ads included ‘‘Bar,’’ which showed a young man standing behind the bar of his own cuttingedge drinking establishment. A horizontal yellow timeline cut across the image, with copy reading, chronologically across the page, ‘‘First Business Loan,’’ ‘‘Second Mortgage,’’ ‘‘Third Migraine,’’ and ‘‘Fourth Location.’’ Similarly, ‘‘Cave’’ summarized an unconventional career path, showing a rear view of a man who was standing at the mouth of a cave that opened on to the ocean. The copy keyed to the various stages of the timeline graphic read, ‘‘Discover Caving,’’ ‘‘Discover Perfect Cave,’’ ‘‘Discover Others Will Pay to Be Guided There,’’ and ‘‘Discover Perfect Job.’’ ‘‘Producer’’ depicted a preoccupied man sitting in front of an enormous audiomastering console. The story of his career path, as told via the accompanying timeline, was, ‘‘Terrible Guitarist,’’ ‘‘Incompetent Drummer,’’ ‘‘Laughable Lead Singer,’’ and ‘‘Double-Platinum Producer.’’ In each ad the Striding Man logo appeared above the ‘‘Keep Walking’’ tag at the far right end of the time line, suggesting the pictured individual’s determination.
The ‘‘Icons’’ ads sent similar messages, but through symbolic images rather than via individual profiles. For instance, the Striding Man was shown emerging from the precipitous valley of a stock market graph and climbing a slope indicating an upswing, a clear reference to the recent economic woes that had affected many among the Johnnie Walker target market. ‘‘Wall’’ depicted the Striding Man on the other side of a wall he had just walked through, and ‘‘Cloud’’ showed him continuing to walk after having weathered a rainstorm. In addition to point-of-service promotions, which linked imagery from the national campaign to retail displays of the product, the campaign included a less traditional element called a ‘‘Mentorship’’ program. The program involved sending E-mail invitations that directed Johnnie Walker drinkers to a website where they could register for social gatherings staged by the brand. These gatherings put the ‘‘mentors’’ in a position to spread their brand enthusiasm to Johnnie Walker neophytes.

OUTCOME
BBH exceeded many of its goals for attracting attention to the Johnnie Walker brand. The agency met its goal of increasing awareness of the Striding Man as brand logo. Whereas only 22 percent of consumers were aware of the logo’s connection to Johnnie Walker before the campaign ran, 50 percent made the connection after the ads had been running for three months. While BBH had not staked the value of its campaign, which was more concerned with building brand equity and identity, on its capacity to generate immediate sales increases, a comparison of sales figures from the same three-month period the previous year showed a dollar-sales increase of 3.7 percent and a volume-sales increase of 3 percent. The campaign was awarded a Silver EFFIE Award in 2005. The concept behind the ‘‘Icons’’ outdoor ads was extended in a print and outdoor campaign thatwas launched in late 2004, in which the Striding Man was shown, as before, against a black background, having successfully endured an obstacle represented by symbolic graphics. More than 50 such adswere generated, and each was tailored to its medium, the timing of its appearance, or (in the case of outdoor placements) its physical location. The ‘‘Keep Walking’’ tagline and the Striding Man logo remained Johnnie Walker’s controlling umbrella concepts in subsequent advertising both globally and in the United States.

COMPETITION. BAD FOR THEM. GREAT FOR YOU. CAMPAIGN

OVERVIEW
In June 2004 Plantation, Florida–based DHL Holdings (USA), Inc., a subsidiary of DHL, which was headquartered in Belgium and was itself a subsidiary of the privately owned German postal service Deutsche Post World Net, ended a more-than-20-year absence from the U.S. television advertising market with a three-spot campaign that announced increased competition in the U.S. express and ground parcel market. The company, which had gone through a number of changes in the years just prior to the campaign, hired Ogilvy & Mather of New York to produce the campaign. The campaign sported the tagline ‘‘Competition. Bad for them. Great for you.’’ It consisted of television spots as well as print and online advertising and outdoor signage. In addition to the campaign proper, Ogilvy PR Worldwide conducted a public-relations campaign to assist in reintroducing the brand. The cost of the campaign was approximately $150 million.
The ‘‘Competition’’ campaign not only reintroduced DHL to United States customers but also introduced new colors for the company and made consumers aware of a fourth option (after UPS, FedEx, and the United States Postal Service) in the U.S. express shipping market. The campaign ended in February 2005, but DHL’s two subsequent U.S. advertising campaigns followed up on what ‘‘Competition’’ had achieved and further cemented the company’s presence in the U.S. market. B to B named it the best integrated campaign of 2004.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT
Founded in 1969 by Adrian Dalsey, Larry Hillblom, and Robert Lynn (whose surname initials gave the company its name), DHL was originally an express-courier service that carried documents such as bills of lading between San Francisco and Honolulu. During the next two decades DHL focused on international express delivery. In the 1970s DHL first initiated service to Pacific Rim countries (except China) and followed this up with service to Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa. In the 1980s the company began air-express service to Eastern Europe and the People’s Republic of China. A television ad campaign of the early 1980s was memorable for its visuals of flying company vans. During this period DHL was content to relinquish the U.S. express market to rivals United Parcel Service (UPS) and Federal Express (now FedEx). That attitude changed in the early years of the twenty-first century. The new approach toward the U.S. express-shipping market came with a new owner. In 2002 the German company Deutsche Post World Net completed its acquisition of DHL (the process had begun in 1998). The following year DHL, in an effort to expand its ground-delivery capabilities, made a $1.1 billion offer to buy the ground-delivery service of Seattle-based Airborne Express. Airborne, initially an air-delivery company, had only recently begun its ground-package service in 2001. The deal was held up for five months while the U.S. Department of Transportation examined it closely. The department’s two concerns were reduced competition and—because of the climate of heightened security following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001—foreign ownership. Ultimately the acquisition went through: the Airborne ground service was merged with DHL Americas, while Airborne’s air operations became part of a new independent company called ABX Air, which was owned by Airborne stockholders. In this way the issues of foreign ownership and reduced competition were bypassed.

TARGET MARKET
The target market for the ‘‘Competition’’ campaign was the combined group of owners of small- and mediumsized U.S. businesses. Theresa Howard wrote in USA Today, ‘‘Historically both DHL and Airborne courted larger companies, overlooking the smaller businesses that generate 75 percent of new jobs and 52 percent of the gross domestic product, according to Inc. magazine.’’ It was by tapping into this overlooked market that DHL in 2004 hoped to expand upon its meager share of the U.S. ground-express market while not overlooking its core customer base of larger companies.
In addition the humor of the spots was designed to grab the attention of customers under age 40, whether or not they were business owners. In this way DHL laid the groundwork for its future customer base. Finally, as at least one media critic, Barbara Lippert of Adweek, recognized, the spots were also intended to boost morale among DHL employees and solidify the company’s effort to expand its share of the express- and ground-delivery market.

COMPETITION
While the United States Postal Service (USPS) competed with DHL, there was never any doubt about who the company was really focused on overtaking. UPS and FedEx held such larger percentages of the U.S. expressand ground-delivery market that DHL Americas CEO John Fellows referred to them as duopolists. In an article in South Florida CEO, Rochelle Broder-Singer quoted Fellows, who saw some advantage for the smaller DHL Americas. ‘‘Within the U.S., our competitors are very inflexible [because of their size] and often arrogant. We’ll ensure that our brand is flexible.’’ Flexible or not, UPS had effectively rebranded itself with its ‘‘What Can Brown Do for You?’’ campaign, which cost some $45 million. The campaign broke in February 2002, during the Winter Olympics. For its part FedEx responded in October 2003 with its $90 million, award-winning ‘‘Relax, it’s FedEx’’ campaign.
That FedEx and UPS saw DHL as a potential threat was obvious from the roadblocks that they threw up when the company sought to take over Airborne Express. Still, compared to them DHL was a very small player in the U.S. market. According to SJ Consulting, a Pennsylvania-based transportation-industry consulting firm, in 2004 UPS held 51 percent of the U.S. parcel market, FedEx had a 27 percent share, and the USPS captured 13 percent of the market. DHL trailed with 7 to 8 percent.

MARKETING STRATEGY
The strategy for the advertising campaign was twofold: to reintroduce the brand to customers and to position DHL as a serious alternative to UPS and FedEx in the United States. DHL executives felt that increasing the company’s share of the U.S. market was crucial to the company’s global positioning. In her USA Today article, Howard quoted Richard Metzler, then executive vice president of marketing for DHL Americas, who said, ‘‘There can’t be a strong DHL globally without a strong DHL in the U.S.’’ The campaign was DHL’s first U.S. advertising in two decades, and it used simple humor to get the point across, never leaving any doubt that the company was taking on the giants in the U.S. express market. In one television spot UPS and FedEx trucks waited on opposite sides of a railroad crossing while a long line of flatcars passed, each carrying DHL trucks. Another spot showed a FedEx truck and a DHL truck racing through a city trying to arrive first at the same destination. The race ended in a two-way tie for second place: a DHL driver was walking out of the building just as they arrived. The spots featured the tagline ‘‘Competition. Bad for them. Great for you.’’ The passing-train spot particularly reinforced the new DHL colors, red and yellow. Previously DHL trucks had been painted white. The spots aired early in the morning, on prime-time broadcast and cable programs, and during late-night talk shows. Metzler, who had worked in FedEx’s marketing department prior to coming to DHL, also discussed the spots in a B to B article by Mary Ellen Podmolik. ‘‘We had to nail it on creative, and we did,’’ he said. Podmolik noted that because of the lengthy gap between DHL’s ad campaigns, ‘‘Metzler considered it critical to refer to FedEx and UPS by name so as to define [DHL’s] own abilities in the express delivery market to U.S. customers.’’ In addition to the television commercials, print ads were run in leading business publications, ads were placed online, and billboards were installed in strategic locations around the United States. One of DHL’s most prominent, and telling, billboard ads was located at the Memphis, Tennessee, airport, across from the FedEx hub. (FedEx was headquartered in Memphis.) As further proof that the ‘‘Competition’’ campaign was the first salvo in DHL’s plan to become a major shipper in the U.S. market, the company announced in September 2004 that it had leased space in Memphis for a new sorting center, the third of a planned seven new hubs. The Commercial Appeal, a Memphis daily, quoted two DHL officials on the subject. Steve White, at the time the head of DHL’s hub and gateway operations, explained, ‘‘Memphis will allow us to expand our overnight delivery to parts of Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Kentucky.’’ Dan McDonald, then head of DHL network planning, had a more competitive take on the expansion into Memphis: ‘‘Memphis is geographically in the center of the country. FedEx found it works for them, and that we’re in FedEx’s backyard is just icing on the cake.’’
Ogilvy PR Worldwide complemented the ad campaign with a public-relations campaign that aimed, according to a June 2004 press release published in Business Wire, ‘‘to reintroduce the global express and logistics leader to core constituents and opinion leaders.’’ In that same press release Metzler said, ‘‘Using a full 360-degree arsenal of marketing channels, we are showcasing the DHL brand’s value message to current and potential customers across all points of contact.’’
DHL enhanced its ad campaign by signing a deal that made it the ‘‘Official Express Deliver and Logistics Provider’’ of the U.S. Olympic team for the 2004 Olympic Games, which were held in Athens. As such DHL also signed an exclusive U.S. broadcast agreement with NBC, the network that aired the Athens Olympics. The agreement locked out UPS and FedEx from national television advertising during the Olympics broadcast. This was not DHL’s first sponsorships of a high-profile sporting event; in 2002 the company was one of the official sponsors of the British soccer team during the World Cup tournament.

OUTCOME
There was no doubt that the reintroduction of the DHL brand was successful, though, as expected, gaining a larger share of the market was less so. Nevertheless, in the USA Today weekly poll Ad Track, 23 percent of those familiar with the spots liked them ‘‘a lot.’’ This was a slight increase over the Ad Track average of 21 percent. Among those polled in the 30-to-39 age group, 33 percent liked the spots ‘‘a lot,’’ while 27 percent considered them ‘‘very effective.’’ The Ad Track average for the latter was also 21 percent. Furthermore, as Howard noted in her November 2004 USA Today article, ‘‘tests of DHL’s unaided consumer brand awareness show a 40-point climb.’’ Because of the Airborne Express acquisition and the $1.2 billion expansion project, DHL’s U.S. operations lost money in 2004 and 2005, though parent Deutsche Post World Net boasted that the company would reach the break-even point by 2006. Being more or less the groundbreaker in the United States for the new DHL, the ‘‘Competition’’ campaign was bound to influence the company’s subsequent campaigns. In early 2005 DHL launched a baseball-themed campaign as part of a sponsorship deal with Major League Baseball. DHL became the official delivery service for the league, the National Baseball Hall of Fame, the website MLB.com, and individual teams. One of the baseball spots featured Johnny Damon, who at the time was a star outfielder for the 2004 World Series champion team the Boston Red Sox. By associating the company with one of the touchstones of American culture, the baseball connection demonstrated DHL’s commitment to increasing its share of the U.S. market. In September 2005 DHL introduced a new integrated campaign that emphasized customer service. ‘‘Last year we wanted people to understand that we were here and that we were a choice in . . . shipping,’’ said Karen Jones, DHL vice president of brand, advertising, and promotions, in an Adweek article by Kenneth Hein. ‘‘Then the task was coming up with a unique and different message to tell the world why they should choose DHL.’’

THE PASSENGER’S AIRLINE CAMPAIGN

OVERVIEW
Delta Air Lines was the number three air-passenger carrier in 1999, behind number one American Airlines and number two United Airlines. Delta’s goal was to move up in the rankings to number one, at least in the eyes of its customers. But as consumer dissatisfaction with the airline industry overall continued to increase, Delta’s main challenge was to convince people that air travel did not have to be a negative experience. To reverse the negative perception consumers had of air travel, and to win over customers, Delta in 1999 replaced its longtime ad agency BBDO with the Leo Burnett Company. Leo Burnett created a branding and advertising campaign for Delta that began in March 2000. Titled ‘‘The Passenger’s Airline,’’ the campaign was unique in that it had no specific tagline, theme song, or celebrity spokesperson. Rather, the television spots, radio spots, and print ads focused on passengers, their needs, and how Delta was working to meet those needs. The campaign reached its target audience, and in 2001 it received a Silver EFFIE Award for achieving its goal of mending the damaged relationship between Delta and its customers, particularly frequent business fliers. Following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States that included the hijacking and crashing of four commercial airliners, consumers fled from air travel. Because Delta’s ‘‘The Passenger’s Airline’’ campaign had resonated so well with the airline’s customers, the Leo Burnett Company’s team revamped it for the circumstances. With the title ‘‘Person to Person,’’ the modified campaign remained passenger-focused and was designed to show how Delta could help bring people together.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT
In 1924 Huff Daland Dusters was founded as the world’s first aerial crop-dusting company. The company quickly evolved to offer passenger service under the name Delta Air Service. Delta’s first passenger flights began in 1929, carrying passengers from Dallas, Texas, to Shreveport, Louisiana, and from Monroe, Louisiana, to Jackson, Mississippi. In 1930 service was expanded to include Atlanta, Georgia, followed in 1934 with a name change to Delta Air Lines. In 1946 Delta’s millionth passenger climbed on board. Delta Air Lines merged with Northwest Airlines in 1972, becoming a key carrier in the New York/Boston market. Delta continued to grow, merging with Western Airlines in 1987 and purchasing Pan Am’s transatlantic routes in 1991 to become a global carrier. Air Transport World magazine named Delta the global airline of 1998.
To promote its flights between Chicago and Miami, Delta in 1945 hired the Montclair, New Jersey–based advertising agency Burke Dowling Adams (BDA) to create a marketing campaign. The $150,000 campaign had the tagline ‘‘Trunkline to Sunshine.’’ BDA merged with another agency, BBDO of Atlanta, in 1964. In 1968 BBDO launched the campaign ‘‘Delta Is Ready When You Are,’’ which was used by Delta for 16 years. The ‘‘We Love to Fly and It Shows’’ campaign followed in 1987. In 1994 BBDO repositioned Delta’s marketing to focus on the airline’s customer service and introduced the slogan ‘‘You’ll love the way we fly.’’ But in 1997, after 51 years of serving as Delta’s creative agency, BBDO resigned the airline’s account when Delta opened the door to other ad agencies. According to a report in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Delta’s decision to pursue other agencies was based on the failure of BBDO’s 1996 campaign, ‘‘Delta Marathon,’’ which was designed to promote the Atlanta Olympics. At the time BBDO stated that it preferred not to compete with the three other agencies vying for Delta’s account: Ogilvy & Mather, Ammirati Puris, and Saatchi & Saatchi. BBDO stated further that during the review process it came to believe that Delta had already removed the agency from consideration.
When the dust settled, Saatchi & Saatchi, an agency based in New York, was selected to handle Delta’s $100 million advertising account. In September 1997 ‘‘You’ll love the way we fly’’ was pulled, and Saatchi’s new campaign for Delta, ‘‘On Top of the World,’’ was launched. The agency’s relationship with Delta did not have the staying power that BBDO’s did, however. In 1999, amidst management upheaval at the airlines and complaints that the theme ‘‘On Top of the World’’ was obtuse and unsuccessful, Delta again looked for a new agency to handle its account. Besides Saatchi & Saatchi, in the running were the Leo Burnett Company, TBWA Worldwide, and Grey Advertising. Leo Burnett won the $100 million account and in March 2000 launched Delta’s global campaign, ‘‘The Passenger’s Airline.’’

TARGET MARKET
In 1999 Delta conducted a study of its customers, and the results revealed that, although the airline typically reported high ratings for customer satisfaction, it was experiencing the effects of a negative perception of the airline industry. Many business travelers had become distrustful of airlines and their broken promises of better service, shorter check-in and boarding lines, on-time departures and arrivals, and no lost luggage. Delta considered such travelers to be one of its key market demographics. According to a report submitted for consideration by the EFFIE Awards, the airline’s primary target audience was ‘‘Road Warriors,’’ that is, 25- to 54-year-old men who flew on more than six trips annually. Steve Crawford, executive vice president of client services at Leo Burnett, told Adweek that the ‘‘Passenger’s Airline’’ campaign was designed to address a split between the airline and its customers. ‘‘There’s a relationship between the business traveler and the airlines that’s really important,’’ Crawford said. Recognizing the importance of that relationship, Lisa Bennett, executive creative director at Leo Burnett, added that the two-phase campaign would focus on the passenger’s experience of flying Delta Air Lines and on addressing customer concerns.

COMPETITION
As the skies became more crowded and passenger numbers inched up, reaching more than 700 million travelers boarding 9 million flights in 2000, complaints about airline service were also on the rise. A report by the National Institute for Aviation Research at Wichita State University found that, despite promises by airlines to improve their services in 2000, overall they had not. The U.S. Transportation Department reported that from 1999 to 2000 the number of complaints had risen 20 percent, to nearly 3 complaints for every 100,000 passengers. The number one airline, American Airlines, a subsidiary of AMR Corp., and low-fare upstart Southwest Airlines Company, were among the companies reviewing methods to attract passengers and to respond to complaints of everything from long lines in the terminals to cramped quarters on the planes. American Airlines focused on making passengers more comfortable once they were on board. In 2000 American expanded the free space inside its planes by removing two rows of coach seats in each of its 700 jets. The project cost an estimated $70 million. To support the effort American launched what it described as an amusing advertising campaign themed ‘‘More Room throughout Coach.’’ Developed by ad agency TLPDallas, it was specifically aimed at business travelers, those who fly most. The campaign was twofold: it promoted the additional legroom on the planes, and it responded to the question of what had happened to all the seats that had been removed. The ‘‘Great American Seat Take-Off’’ portion of the campaign gave people a chance to win two of the removed seats and two roundtrip coach tickets to any American Airlines destination. Ads for the promotion ran in major daily newspapers across the United States. ‘‘More Roomobile,’’ part two of the campaign, was a traveling trailer set up like the inside of a remodeled American jet. It toured to 27 cities and gave people along the route the opportunity to play games and win prizes such as American Airlines golf tees, baggage tags, and T-shirts.
Southwest Airlines targeted business travelers, typically men between 25- and 54-years-old. In 2000 the airline signed a four-year sponsorship deal with the National Hockey League that was designed to reach hockey fans who also fell into Southwest’s target demographic. The agreement included a deal with ABC television that included broadcast commercials, sponsorship during hockey-game intermissions, and showing Southwest’s logo on goal replays. Also in 2000 Southwest worked with its Austin, Texas–based agency GSD&M to launch a marketing campaign to promote its website. The campaign’s tagline, ‘‘A symbol of e-freedom,’’ was a variation on Southwest’s familiar ‘‘A symbol of freedom’’ slogan. TV spots portrayed people in unpleasant daily situations adjacent to images of them enjoying pleasant vacations. The message was: ‘‘When the going gets tough, get going to southwest.com to book a quick getaway.’’

MARKETING STRATEGY
The Leo Burnett Company, which had created the successful ‘‘Fly the Friendly Skies’’ theme for United Airlines, was hired by Delta Air Lines in 1999 to develop a new global branding and advertising campaign for the air carrier. A report in the Cincinnati Post stated that, prior to developing the campaign, Leo Burnett’s team interviewed thousands of the airline’s passengers and employees. The interviews considered every aspect of a traveler’s experience with the airline, from making phone reservations to gate announcements in the terminals and employee uniforms. Based on the information it gathered, Leo Burnett created Delta’s ‘‘The Passenger’s Airline’’ campaign. The $100 million worldwide campaign did not sing Delta’s praises with catchy taglines or songs, and there was not a celebrity spokesperson in sight. Rather, the campaign focused on strengthening Delta’s business relationship with its passengers by promoting what Delta had to offer from the perspective of passengers. Included was a redesigned delta.com website, more casual uniforms for employees, and advertising with television and radio spots and print ads. Lisa Bennett, executive creative director for Leo Burnett, told Adweek, ‘‘We didn’t want this campaign to come across as corporate in nature. Rather than Delta saying, ‘This is who we are,’ we wanted to sign off with the passenger point of view.’’ Kick-off television spots aired on CBS during the 2000 NCAA basketball tournament. The commercials featured a variety of air travelers, from backpackers looking for a bargain to a businessman dressed in a suit. In each spot a text bubble appeared over the passenger’s head with thoughts such as ‘‘Wants a window seat’’ and ‘‘Nap’’ followed by a voice-over asking, ‘‘How do you want to fly?’’ Other spots entailed airport vignettes that focused on passengers’ needs. One portrayed a passenger stopping in an airport terminal ice-cream shop and lingering over a cone. The message was that the passenger had time to enjoy the ice cream because he had used Delta’s E-ticketing and avoided long lines at the airline’s terminal counter. It concluded with the statement, ‘‘Check in at the curb and go straight to the plane.’’ Some spots closed with shots of personalized luggage tags on which passengers wrote their desires. In one spot a group of passengers were shown waiting at a baggage carousel, and the tag read, ‘‘Fly . . . understood.’’ Print ads, which appeared in major magazines, were similar to the TV spots. In one promoting Delta’s BusinessElite international service, the baggage tag read ‘‘Fly . . . like an ‘80s bond trader.’’

OUTCOME
Despite the lack of a catchy tagline or theme song to resonate with consumers, ‘‘The Passenger’s Airline’’ campaign achieved it goals. The campaign was presented a Silver EFFIE Award in 2001 for its success in reconnecting the airline with business travelers, for joining the company’s complete roster of product offerings under one umbrella, and for increasing brand regard at a time when consumers had a deep distrust of airlines. But by the end of the year Delta was embroiled in disputes with its employee unions. In November 2000 the airline was forced to cancel 375 flights because of a pilot shortage, affecting thousands of its customers. Under threats of delayed or canceled flights, Delta was struggling to maintain the consumer confidence the campaign had helped build. The terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001—in which four commercial airliners were hijacked and crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania—further eroded consumer confidence in air travel and in airlines as a whole. Delta was forced to take another look at its successful marketing campaign. Rather than abandon the campaign, however, the Leo Burnett agency modified it for the circumstances. Maintaining the same focus on customers that ‘‘The Passenger’s Airline’’ had used, the revamped campaign introduced a new series of advertisements, themed ‘‘Person to Person,’’ designed to reinforce the importance of people being together in person.

ON TOP OF THE WORLD CAMPAIGN

OVERVIEW
‘‘Millions of reasons to fly today; only one that matters to you’’ was the central message of the ‘‘On Top of the World’’ campaign for Delta Air Lines, Inc. The campaign acknowledged that customers had individual reasons for flying, and it assured them that the airline would strive to meet their needs. To the accompaniment of ethereal music, some of the television commercials focused on individual passengers dreaming that they were being pampered by airline employees and then awakening to discover that the reality of a Delta flight was almost as pleasant as the dream. One woman was gently fanned by attendants as she slept on a bed of feathers. In another spot a man danced while an orchestra played just for him. Later spots showed people writing down their reasons for flying on Delta, attaching the pieces of paper to balloons, and watching them float into the air. Delta employees gathered the papers and placed them on airplane seats to indicate that they had assumed responsibility for ensuring that each customer’s needs were met. The fantasy advertisements were intended to change the company’s image and to portray the comfortable conditions in Delta’s new transatlantic business-class seats. The ‘‘On Top of the World’’ campaign, which was created by Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising, began in May 1997 and was scheduled to run through the fall of 1999 in various media.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT
Delta Air Lines was founded in 1924 as Huff Daland Dusters, the first business to offer aerial crop dusting. C.E. Woolman, B.R. Coad, and George Post were instrumental in the formation of the enterprise. A division of Huff Daland Manufacturing, a New York firm that made airplanes, the dusting company began operations in Macon, Georgia, and then moved to Monroe, Louisiana. In 1928 the enterprise was sold to a group of Louisiana businessmen, and its name was changed to Delta Air Service in honor of the Mississippi delta region where it operated. During the 1940s the company moved its headquarters to Atlanta, and its name was changed to Delta Air Lines, Inc. The company offered crop-dusting services in the United States until 1966. Meanwhile, the firm began transporting passengers and mail among cities throughout the South. Mergers with Chicago and Southern Air Lines (C&S) in 1953, Northeast Airlines in 1972, and Western Air Lines in 1987 expanded Delta’s operations nationwide. By 1998 the airline was making more than 5,000 daily flights to 318 destinations in 41 countries. Over the years Delta’s advertising slogans included ‘‘Trunkline to sunshine,’’ introduced in 1945; ‘‘Delta is ready when you are,’’ used from 1968 to 1984; ‘‘We love to fly and it shows,’’ introduced in 1987; and ‘‘You’ll love the way we fly,’’ introduced in 1994. The airline often emphasized passenger comfort and personal service in its marketing efforts. ‘‘We take the time and effort to make you feel comfortable and relaxed on each Delta flight. Because we care,’’ said an advertisement in Sunset magazine in 1986. In 1996 the $20 million ‘‘Delta Marathon’’ campaign during the Olympic Games showed the worldwide travels of British actor Nigel Havers, who had appeared in the film ‘‘Chariots of Fire.’’ The commercials were intended to enhance Delta’s status as an international carrier by appealing to the general public but also to frequent business travelers, who were becoming increasingly important to airlines.
Before 1978, when the U.S. airline industry was deregulated, advertising campaigns for Delta and other carriers were typically designed to promote a brand image. During the chaotic competition of the 1980s and 1990s the emphasis shifted to affordable prices as airlines launched fare wars and incentives such as frequent-flier programs to build customer loyalty. The industry lost enormous amounts of money, and many new carriers went out of business. After surviving economic difficulties during the early 1990s, Delta embarked on a dramatic cost-cutting program called Leadership 7.5, which streamlined its operations and increased passenger traffic but lowered employee morale and customer service. By 1997 the company was moving away from Leadership 7.5 and adopting a bold new marketing strategy that would change the airline’s image and strengthen the Delta brand.

TARGET MARKET
The ‘‘On Top of the World’’ campaign was aimed primarily at business travelers flying on expense accounts. Because corporate travelers tended to fly frequently, they valued comfort and service during their trips. Since their fares were being charged to a business, these passengers tended to be less concerned about price. Nevertheless, they often traveled in the moderately priced businessclass section because their employers were not willing to pay for the more costly first class. Some customers paid for less expensive seats and then used their frequent-flier credits to move into first class, reducing the airline’s profits from the first-class section. During 1997 Delta’s business-class market increased four times as fast as its first-class market, and the airline adjusted to the changing times by introducing a new transatlantic business class. (International operations, particularly transatlantic flights, accounted for about 20 percent of the company’s revenues.) In 1998 Delta reconfigured its first-class and business-class sections into one group of luxury seats known as BusinessElite, which offered passengers greater legroomand space to recline. One newspaper advertisement in the ‘‘On Top of the World’’ campaign called attention to the more spacious seating arrangement by stating, ‘‘Delta presents the last news today’s hardened business executives would expect to hear from a company. ‘We’re upsizing.’’’ The campaign also emphasized the sincere, courteous service for which Delta had always been noted.

COMPETITION
In 1998 Delta transported 105 million passengers, more than any other airline in the world. According to Aviation Week & Space Technology, United Airlines, Inc., was in first place in the United States, with American Airlines second, Delta third, Continental Airlines, Inc., fourth, Northwest Airlines Corporation, fifth, and US Airways Group, Inc., sixth. During 1998 Delta considered a marketing and code-sharing alliance with United Airlines, since the two carriers served more than 200 destinations but competed in only 34 of them. The virtual merger, which would have given the two firms nearly 39 percent of all U.S. traffic, was opposed by government officials on antitrust grounds, and it was abandoned when Delta’s pilots withdrew their support. In the same year Northwest and Continental began planning a similar alliance, which would control about 16 percent of U.S. traffic, but the partnership was delayed as the two companies awaited antitrust clearance from the U.S. Department of Justice. Meanwhile, American and US Airways considered a cooperative arrangement, which would control 25 percent of the market, but they ultimately converted the proposal into little more than a reciprocal frequent-flier plan. Because the three alliances would have created three gigantic airline blocs controlling 82 percent of the market, they were opposed by government regulators, consumer groups, and smaller airlines.
Like Delta, other airlines were using new advertising slogans in 1998. United, a subsidiary of UAL Corp., had abandoned its familiar ‘‘Come fly our friendly skies’’ tag line and in 1997 launched a candid campaign called ‘‘Rising,’’ which admitted that air travel was not always pleasant. The campaign promised that United would rise to the challenge and improve its performance. One magazine advertisement said, ‘‘We figure by the time you reach the gate agent, you’ve had enough red tape.’’ The text explained that the company had given its gate agents the power to resolve problems for customers without consulting a supervisor or asking the customer to wait. In one television commercial the narrator promised, ‘‘Air travel needs to be easier, more professional, especially for people who do it most. Now it will be, because, compared to the rest of the industry, United Airlines is headed in a different direction.’’
Continental Airlines, a subsidiary of Continental Air Holdings, also had a new marketing slogan, ‘‘Work hard. Fly right.’’ Like Delta, Continental advertised a businessclass fare (known as BusinessFirst) that offered first-class perks to attract international fliers. The 1990s were a time of flux for Continental, which operated at a loss early in the decade and filed for bankruptcy protection, from which it emerged in 1993. By 1997 Continental was generating $7.2 billion in annual revenues and was growing faster than any other major U.S. carrier, but because one of its primary investors was attempting to withdraw from the company, Continental was viewed as a possible takeover target. Delta considered merging with Continental during 1997, and in January 1998 Continental received takeover proposals from both Delta and Northwest, but no agreement was reached during the year.
Northwest lost $224 million during the third quarter of 1998 because of a pilot strike that lasted from June to September. The company had revenues of $10.2 billion in 1997, and in 1998 it reported a profit of $71 million during the first quarter and $49 million during the second quarter. Northwest’s marketing efforts in 1998 included a notable advertising campaign for the company’s E-Ticket service, which allowed customers to purchase tickets electronically via the Internet. Northwest was also known for its popular ‘‘What in the World’’ advertisements in USA Today, which was based on interesting facts, for example, the number of glasses of milk a cow produced in its lifetime tied to the line ‘‘Milk your vacation for all it’s worth.’’
Another top competitor, American Airlines, emphasized the familiarity of its brand during 1998. In its advertisements international travelers felt as if they were almost home when they saw the company’s red, white, and blue emblem. American, a subsidiary of AMR Corporation, had led the U.S. airline industry in 1992, with a market share of 20.3 percent, compared to 19.3 percent for United and 16.8 percent for Delta. By the late 1990s American held the second largest market share in the United States but was generating more revenue than any other carrier in the world.

MARKETING STRATEGY
By 1997 Delta was ready to move away from the straightforward themes and simple melodies of its earlier advertisements and to try a daring new strategy to change its image. It hired a new agency, Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising, to design a consistent, multimedia ad campaign that would build the Delta brand. The campaign revolved around the message that Delta was a global carrier that treated customers as individuals and made them feel as if they were ‘‘on top of the world.’’ Gayle Bock, vice president for consumer marketing at Delta, explained, ‘‘We all know the rational reasons for choosing an airline: schedule, convenience, frequent flier miles, and cost. However, to connect an airline brand with its customers, it is essential that we also understand their emotional needs. In this regard, Delta already has a long history of commitment to personal customer service. No courtesy is too small to extend to any customer, anywhere in the world. The new branding campaign demonstrates that Delta professionals recognize customers individually. It is who we are, and it is our competitive advantage.’’ The surreal quality of the ‘‘On Top of the World’’ campaign was underscored by its chantlike theme music, a New Age song called ‘‘Adiemus.’’ The first five television commercials in the U.S. campaign, launched in the spring of 1997, looked a great deal alike and had the same overall tone. They showed passengers dreaming that airline chefs, flight attendants, and other personnel were catering to them as if there were no other travelers on the plane. When the passengers awoke, they discovered that Delta’s transatlantic business class was almost as pleasant as their dreams. A second series of television commercials began airing in the fall of 1997 and ran through 1998. Like the first spots in the campaign, they featured the song ‘‘Adiemus’’ and voice-over narration by actress Christine Lahti, star of the television series Chicago Hope. In the spots that aired during 1998 Lahti said, ‘‘There are millions of reasons to fly today. Only one that matters to you. At Delta Air Lines, it is our pleasure to get you to the place you want to be.’’ The fantasy television commercials depicted a wide range of passengers who wrote their reasons for flying on Delta Air Lines (using words such as ‘‘success,’’ ‘‘fun,’’ ‘‘home,’’ ‘‘the deal,’’ and ‘‘the thrill’’) on pieces of paper, attached them to balloons, and watched as the messages floated into the sky. Delta employees collected the pieces of paper and assumed responsibility for meeting the customer needs written on them.
The ‘‘On Top of the World’’ campaign was a global promotion initially launched in the United States and Europe. It included print and billboard advertisements, radio spots, and network television commercials aired during programs such as ER, Good Morning America, 20/20, and sportscasts. The campaign received a large percentage of Delta’s estimated $100 million annual advertising budget. According to Competitive Media Reporting, Delta spent $30.8 million on all advertising during the first half of 1997, compared to $31.9 million for United Airlines and $28.6 million for American Airlines. In the previous year Delta had spent $70.2 million for advertising, United $71.2 million, and American $61.3 million.

OUTCOME
The ‘‘On Top of the World’’ campaign was acclaimed for its style and creativity. One of the television commercials in the European campaign, ‘‘Synchronized Flying,’’ which starred dolphins swimming together as if in a water ballet, won a Golden Kompass Award in 1995, and the public frequently called to learn when it would air so that they could tape it. ‘‘Adiemus’’ won a gold Clio in 1998 for original music.
Delta’s research indicated that most consumers understood the central message of the promotion, but some people were mystified by the surreal advertisements. A new multimedia campaign promoting the airline’s intercontinental BusinessElite service was launched in April 1999 with the tag line ‘‘Delta BusinessElite, outclassing business class.’’
In January 1999 Air Transport World named Delta the global airline of the year. In May 1999 Aviation Week & Space Technology named Delta the industry’s best-managed major airline, citing the company’s organizational strength and ability to compete in the global marketplace.

LET YOURSELF FLY CAMPAIGN

OVERVIEW
Although Delta Air Lines, Inc., was the number three airpassenger carrier in the early 1990s, by 1996 it was feeling the pressures of low-cost carriers such as Southwest Airlines. Budget-conscious air travelers were embracing cheap tickets and willingly giving up first-class seating, onboard meals, and other frills offered by older carriers such as Delta, United Airlines, and American Airlines. When Southwest expanded service into the lucrative Florida leisure-traveler market in 1996, Delta realized that its customers were abandoning it for that airline. To compete with Southwest, in 1996 Delta unveiled a low-cost carrier called Delta Express. Although Delta Express was initially a success, discount fare wars and consumers’ brand confusion, among other problems, caused the carrier to falter. In 2002 Delta announced plans to close Delta Express and introduce a new lowcost carrier, Song Airlines, in its place.
To assure that Song’s launch was a success and to send the message that low cost did not have to mean low quality, Delta planned a major branding campaign with a budget estimated at $10 to $12 million. Working with its advertising agency, Kirshenbaum Bond þ Partners, as well as the agency’s units Media Kitchen (media strategy) and Lime (public relations), Delta developed a unique marketing strategy that included print ads, television spots, and outdoor efforts. Also part of the creative team were Andy Spade, who had served as creative director of various ad agencies, and Spade’s wife, fashion designer Kate Spade, who was responsible for creating new uniforms for Song’s customer-service staff and flight attendants.
Song’s branding strategy was a resounding success. The company reported that, within five months of the ‘‘Let Yourself Fly’’ campaign’s launch, brand awareness had jumped from zero to as much as 44 percent in key target markets. In early 2005 the original campaign was replaced with a new one, ‘‘Fly Your Own Song,’’ created by Shepardson Stern & Kaminsky, New York. Later that year Song, along with its parent, Delta Air Lines, filed for bankruptcy. Delta reported that Song Airlines would be discontinued in 2006.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT
After starting as a crop-duster service in 1924, Delta Air Lines’ first passenger-carrying flight took off in 1929. The fledgling airline served customers traveling between Dallas, Texas, and Shreveport, Louisiana. Within one year Atlanta was among the destinations, along with Monroe, Louisiana, and Jackson, Mississippi. Through a series of mergers with other airlines—Northwest in 1972, Western in 1987, and Pan Am in 1991—Delta grew and expanded its routes to become a global carrier. By the mid-1990s Delta was the number three air-passenger carrier, ranking behind number one American Airlines and number two United Airlines. By the mid-1990s customers were abandoning the carrier for discounters such as Southwest Airlines, especially in the popular Florida leisure-travel market. To try and win back passengers, in 1996 Delta launched its own no-frills, low-cost airline, Delta Express. It was initially successful, but as other low-cost airlines—including JetBlue Airways—started up, Delta Express’s business began slipping. In 2002 Delta announced plans to disband Delta Express and launch a new low-cost airline, Song. The new airline was planned to compete directly against other low-cost airlines that continued to win Delta’s customers. Song’s first target markets were those dominated by JetBlue’s service: Orlando and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and cities in the Northeast, including Boston and New York.

TARGET MARKET
According to the Travel Industry Association of America, in 2003 the core customers of most airlines were business travelers, although they accounted for just 28 percent of all air travel. The rest of air travel was leisure (59 percent) and combined business/leisure travel (13 percent). As Delta Air Lines prepared for the launch of its low-cost subsidiary, Song, the company had its eyes on a nontraditional target market: women. Tim Mapes, the new air carrier’s managing director of marketing, told Adweek that, while most airlines targeted male business travelers, Song was the only airline ‘‘targeting female leisure and business travelers.’’ The women that Song was trying to reach were described as sophisticated people with discerning taste who loved bargains and hated typical airline food. More specifically, Song’s target market was any frequent traveler in the airline’s primary markets, New York and Boston. Also targeted were those leisure travelers in Florida who had used Song’s key competitor, JetBlue Airways.

COMPETITION
JetBlue Airways Corporation, based at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, was launched in February 2000 and set the standard for a new breed of low-cost air-passenger carriers. The airline offered only coach service, but it included first-class amenities such as additional legroom and wider leather seats, free snacks during flights, and video entertainment, including DirecTV, in every seat. More importantly, JetBlue’s focus was on customer service. It offered the convenience of e-ticketing, toys in airport terminals to occupy children waiting for flights, and blue-corn tortilla chips onboard. The strategy seemed to work; the airline reported boarding its 500,000th passenger within eight months of its first flight. To promote its services and build brand identity, in September 2000 JetBlue released its first marketing campaign. Created by the Boston office of Arnold Communications, the $1 million campaign’s initial advertisements were billboards that emphasized the frustration that air travelers felt as a result of high prices and poor service. Television spots followed in October. By 2003 JetBlue was serving customers, especially those traveling for leisure, in 20 cities in Florida, in the Northeast, and on the West Coast. Also in 2003 JetBlue introduced flights between Long Beach, California, and Atlanta, home of Delta Air Lines. The flights between Atlanta and Long Beach seemed to be a direct response to Delta’s plans to introduce its low-cost carrier, Song, with flights between New York and Florida, JetBlue’s primary market.
United Airlines took on JetBlue and Delta’s Song in November 2003 with the introduction of its own lowcost carrier, Ted. It made its first flight in February 2004. Described as an airline-within-an-airline, Ted—its name was derived from the last three letters of ‘‘United’’—was based in Chicago and operated within the United brand. It offered passengers opportunities not typically provided by discount carriers, such as the ability to earn United’s Mileage Plus miles and to upgrade from economy to economy plus (with more legroom at each seat). Ted also targeted leisure travelers, who accounted for 59 percent of all air travel, rather that the smaller business-traveler market. Once Ted was established, United planned to drop United service from its Denver hub to cities likely to be visited by leisure travelers—such as Las Vegas; New Orleans; Phoenix, Arizona; and Orlando, Florida—leaving those destinations to be covered by Ted. Passengers on Ted were served snacks (pretzels and biscotti) on morning flights and could buy more substantial snacks or light meals on longer flights. To support the launch of its new airline, United worked with agencies Fallon Worldwide, Minneapolis; Frankel, Chicago; and Pentagram, New York, to create a branding program, which Adweek said was ‘‘lighthearted’’ and ‘‘comfortable.’’ But Ted’s purpose was twofold. It took the place of United’s original discount carrier, Shuttle by United, which operated for seven years until it was disbanded in 2001; and it was hoped the new low-cost carrier would attract customers, build business, and help the struggling United emerge from bankruptcy, for which it filed in 2002.

MARKETING STRATEGY
To guarantee that its spin-off airline, Song, would stand out from the crowd of discount airlines, Delta embarked on a major branding campaign for the new carrier that was intended to convince consumers it was offering more than just low-cost tickets. The effort involved every aspect of the new airline, from the uniforms of the customer-service agents and flight attendants to the food and entertainment provided on board. Marketing for the new airline supported the message that Song was unique and would provide customers an experience equal to air travel in the 1960s, when flying was an adventure in glamour and sophistication rather than simply a way to arrive at destination B from point A. In addition to the work of Delta’s advertising agency, New York–based Kirshenbaum Bond þ Partners, work on the project was provided by Andy Spade, former creative director at ad agency TBWA\Chiat\Day and husband of fashion designer Kate Spade, who developed Song’s new uniforms. Kirshenbaum Bond þ Partners divisions Media Kitchen and Lime worked on Song’s media and public relations/promotions accounts.
Kirshenbaum Bond þ Partners and Andy Spade partnered on Song’s marketing campaign, with the agency handling outdoor advertising and Spade creating print ads. Television spots were also a part of the campaign. Print ads, which ran in publications such as InStyle, Travel & Leisure, Food & Wine, and the New York Times Magazine, were two- or three-page spreads, each depicting a Song customer who matched the specific publication’s readers. The InStyle spread portrayed a 20-something woman dressed in jeans and a striped shirt, her red hair flying out behind her as she held onto a tree. The copy read: ‘‘Kate isn’t afraid of flying, she’s afraid of conformity.’’ A spread that appeared in the New York Times Magazine featured an older woman with coiffed white hair. She was posed in front of rosebushes with her hands on her hips, and the copy read:
‘‘Magdalena could fly in first, but she’d rather save $600 and not meet another CEO.’’ The ads visually alluded to flying; for instance, the redhead’s hair was flying behind her, and the older woman’s arms on her hips hinted at the shape of wings. Ads also included the slogan, ‘‘Founded by optimists, built by believers,’’ the tagline ‘‘Let Yourself Fly,’’ and a list of Song’s variety of product offerings.
Television spots for the campaign followed a format similar to the print ads, using imagery that evoked flight. The spots also used the theme and tagline of the campaign, ‘‘Let Yourself Fly.’’ During an interview on PBS television’s Frontline, Spade described the spots as ‘‘kind of a morph between a music video and a commercial.’’ One commercial featured a small group of people laughing and running across a meadow while flying a kite in a crystal-blue sky. Text on the screen stated, ‘‘Now boarding happy people,’’ followed by a list of Song’s benefits (such as organic food and low fares) and the tagline ‘‘Song. Let yourself fly.’’
In addition to print ads and television spots, Song’s marketing strategy included outdoor work by Kirshenbaum Bond + Partners’ media-strategy division, Media Kitchen. One of the projects entailed hiring skywriters to fly over beaches on the East Coast, such as those on the Jersey shore, Martha’s Vineyard, and Florida, writing in the sky the message ‘‘Wish you were here. Fly Song.com.’’ The outdoor effort also featured signage that read, ‘‘Fifth Avenue style at Lower East Side prices,’’ and that was placed in fashionable locations in New York City, such as the corner of Broadway and Houston Street. The agency’s public-relations unit, Lime, opened a Song retail store in New York’s SoHo neighborhood. The shop gave consumers an opportunity to try out Song’s leather seats, sample its food, view the onboard entertainment options, and book a flight.

OUTCOME
With its initial ‘‘Let Yourself Fly’’ campaign, which created a brand identity for Song that established it as a stylish and fun way to travel and set it apart from other low-cost air carriers, Song emerged as one of the fastestgrowing travel brands. In an interview with Adweek, Tim Mapes, the airline’s managing director of marketing, noted that, five months after its launch, Song had established a brand awareness of 44 percent among consumers in target markets such as New York and Boston. After a three-year run, in May 2005 Song replaced its ‘‘Let Yourself Fly’’ campaign with a new campaign titled ‘‘Fly Your Own Song.’’ The effort was created by New York agency Shepardson Stern & Kaminsky and featured a series of print ads supported by outdoor and online advertising. The ads focused on Song’s options that allowed passengers to personalize their travel experience. The campaign was released in select markets, including New York, Boston, and Los Angeles, before being expanded to other areas served by the airline. Despite the success of its multimillion-dollar branding effort and of the follow-up campaign, in September 2005 Song Airlines filed for bankruptcy protection along with its parent Delta Air Lines. At the time Delta reported that Song would continue operation until 2006 and then would be absorbed back into its parent, Delta Air Lines. Gerald Grinstein, Delta’s chief executive officer, told the Los Angeles Times that many of the best aspects of Song, such as additional legroom for passengers and high-tech entertainment options, would be incorporated into Delta as the airline continued to evolve as a more passenger-oriented carrier.

DUDE, YOU’RE GETTING A DELL CAMPAIGN

OVERVIEW
In 2002 Dell Inc. experienced its first-ever yearly decline in net revenue. In 2001 sales hit $31.9 billion, but the next year they fell to $31.2 billion. The drop in sales coincided with an overall decline in computer sales worldwide, and the mail-in computer giant was far from doomed. Still, it was at this time that Dell shifted its advertising approach, introducing its ‘‘Dude, You’re Getting a Dell’’ campaign in 2001. The advertisements starred Steven, a ‘‘surfer dude’’ teen, and were intended to attract high school and college students and their parents.
The Chicago office of ad agency DDB created the campaign, which consisted of approximately 20 television commercials that placed Steven in various scenarios in which he could promote the computer, using the ubiquitous tagline ‘‘Dude, you’re getting a Dell.’’ Such instances occurred during a high school graduation speech, in a college classroom, and during a computerstore sales pitch. Throughout the campaign Steven persistently promoted Dells in a way that appealed to teens and both charmed and annoyed adults. The ‘‘dude’’ became incredibly popular with TV viewers, prompting Dell, from 2000 through 2002, to spend a large portion of its $200 million annual advertising budget on the campaign.
Steven became an instant pop-culture icon. But sales, which had begun to decline in 2001, did not rebound in 2002, and some people at Dell wondered if the popular character was overshadowing the product. Dell and DDB therefore began preparations to move away from the ‘‘Dude’’ campaign by phasing Steven out in late 2002, replacing him with a group of fictional interns. ‘‘Dude’’ fans were outraged, but sales did not suffer. In fact Dell shipments increased by 25 percent in the quarter following the introduction of the intern ads. Sales continued to grow, and Dell more than rebounded from the losses it had experienced in 2002. By the end of 2003 annual revenue had grown past $40 billion, and it increased to nearly $50 billion the following year. Regardless of the effectiveness of the ‘‘Dude, You’re Getting a Dell’’ campaign, however, the ‘‘dude’’ was regarded as one of the most memorable figures in the history of advertising.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT
Michael Dell began working with computers at age 15, when he took apart a brand-new Apple computer to see if he could rebuild it. He could. In the 1980s Dell began rebuilding and selling computers from his University of Texas at Austin dorm room, naming his company PCs Limited. In 1985 the company developed its own computer, the Turbo PC, which was advertised for direct sale in national computer magazines. Consumers were attracted by the low prices, so much so that the company grossed $6 million in its first year of business. In 1987 PCs Limited changed its name to Dell Computer Corporation, and in 1992 Fortune magazine listed Dell as one of the world’s 500 largest companies. Sales climbed dramatically, giving even the century-old IBM something to worry about. Within a decade Dell had become the largest seller of personal computers in the United States. It lost that spot to Hewlett-Packard in 2002 but regained it within a year. In subsequent years the two continued to battle for the number one spot. Dell’s concentration remained on direct sales even as it moved away from relying solely on its mail-order catalog to reach customers. During the shift Dell used larger and larger advertising campaigns to promote its products and its direct sales approach. Its $70 million ‘‘Be Direct’’ worldwide campaign of 1998 emphasized the advantages of Dell’s direct-to-customer business philosophy. But the customer-service team that was then operating Dell’s direct sales was often criticized by consumers. Complaints about unknowledgeable and rude sales representatives were made public. There were also accusations about cheap and undependable parts. In response Dell launched ‘‘Dell4me,’’ a $30 million ad campaign that was accompanied by the theme ‘‘Your thoughts exactly.’’ This campaign shifted the focus from Dell’s technical specifications to the company’s ability to help consumers get the most out of that technology. Although ‘‘Dell4me’’ represented an attempt to appeal more directly to individual consumers, it was not altogether personable in its approach. To improve Dell’s image, a more upbeat advertising campaign was deemed necessary. Thus ‘‘Dude, You’re Getting a Dell’’ was introduced in 2001.

TARGET MARKET
Prior to the ‘‘Dude’’ commercials, Dell had been known as a company that primarily targeted business accounts, a fact reflected in its advertising campaigns. The Steven character was intended to broaden the company’s appeal to individual consumers. In particular Dell wished to target first-time computer buyers (and their parents). The company reasoned that these customers might be especially intimidated by the task of purchasing a computer that was not available in stores. Steven helped to make Dells seem far less daunting, thus bridging the gap between the computer company and customers. According to Newsweek, in 1990 about 15 percent of U.S. households owned a computer. Within a decade the number jumped to 50 percent. Further a large percentage of homes with computers were occupied by teenagers. In 2001, when ‘‘Dude, You’re Getting a Dell’’ was launched, an incredible 78 percent of American teens had computers and Internet access in their homes. Because many of these computers were purchased by parents, Dell’s campaign had to simultaneously target teens and parents. Steven, played by actor Benjamin Curtis, who was 21 in 2001, was himself a representative of the lucrative young-adult demographic. In the ‘‘Dude, You’re Getting a Dell’’ television commercials, Steven spoke most directly to parents who were purchasing computers for their high school and college-age kids. The character became a phenomenon among consumers in the 13-to-24 age bracket.

COMPETITION
Dell Inc. was not the only computer company experiencing rapid growth at the end of the twentieth century. Hewlett-Packard (HP), in particular, offered fierce competition for Dell. Since 1999 the two companies had been vying for the spot of number one seller of PCs in the United States and subsequently in the world. The rivalry was amplified by the two companies’ battle for Compaq (in 1999 Dell took over Compaq; in 2002 Hewlett-Packard acquired the company). In 2002 Hewlett-Packard launched its ‘‘Everything Is Possible’’ campaign, which, inspired by HP customers’ success stories, focused on the company’s positive relationship with its customers. HP followed it with the ‘‘You + HP’’ campaign in 2003. ‘‘You + HP’’ won accolades, including being named Campaign of the Year by Adweek. With a wide range of products, including PCs, printers, and servers, as well as high sales (in 2004 sales approached $80 billion) and a soaring net income (in 2004 it was $3.5 billion, representing a one-year net income growth of 37.7 percent), the company gave Dell stiff competition. Another computer giant, IBM, had long competed with Dell in the field of computer products. In 2004 its sales exceeded $96 billion, with a net income nearing $8.5 billion. The latter reflected an 11.2 percent growth since 2003. But while Dell was finding success with its ‘‘Dude’’ advertising, IBM was met with disdain for its 2001 ‘‘Peace, Love and Linux’’ campaign, which promoted the Linux operating system. For the campaign IBM hired ad agencies to spray-paint stenciled side-byside images of a peace symbol, a heart, and a penguin (the Linux mascot) on sidewalks in Chicago and San Francisco. Local officials and business owners demanded that the images, which they considered vandalism, be removed.
Following the lead of its rival Dell, Gateway in 2004 closed down all of its computer stores but continued selling its merchandise by phone and through its website. Prior to the shift Gateway had been experiencing major financial difficulties. Its chain of stores was far from profitable, and from 2001 to 2003 the California-based company had lost money during most quarters. From 2002 to 2003 Gateway’s revenue plunged from $4.2 billion to $3.4 billion. Even its long-standing and popular spotted-cow advertisements could not help. Closing the stores had some immediate positive results: by 2004 sales had improved nearly $2.5 billion.
In the field of network computing—including corporate networks and websites as well as workstation computers—Sun Microsystems offered challenging competition for Dell. Its sales and net income, though nowhere near Dell’s, were admirable. In 2004 its sales exceeded $11 billion, and it had a net income nearing $400 million.

MARKETING STRATEGY
Dell had used the character of Steven prior to the ‘‘Dude’’ campaign. Two agencies, DDB New York and Lowe Lintas, created the character in earlier concepts. In the first Steven ad, which aired during the 2000 holiday season, actor Curtis played a teenage boy asking his parents for a Dell computer for Christmas. When DDB’s Chicago office took over the campaign in 2001, it decided to play up the Steven character and gave him the ‘‘Dude’’ tagline.
The goal of the new campaign was to move away from the technology-focused ads that mostly appealed to businesses and the particularly computer-savvy individual. With Steven, Dell could better identify itself with consumers across the board in a personable and familiar way. The company spent a significant amount of money to promote Steven and his ‘‘Dude, You’re Getting a Dell’’ slogan. For each year between 2000 and 2002, Dell spent approximately $200 million on advertising. A large chunk of this was used for the ‘‘Dude’’ TV commercials, which began airing in the spring of 2001. In two years Curtis made approximately 20 commercials with Dell. The spots ran during both daytime and primetime TV shows and appeared on all major networks. The ‘‘Dude’’ commercials did not vary much from one to another. In each ad Steven, an annoying but somewhat lovable young guy, was seen relentlessly and enthusiastically pushing Dell computers at every opportunity. In one series of three commercials Steven, playing Santa’s helper in an elf suit, told kids they wanted a Dell for Christmas. In another spot Steven was with a date in his father’s car (trying to pass the car off as his own) when he advised a computer-seeking neighbor, Mr. Foster, to buy a Dell. Steven was also seen giving a speech at a high school graduation, throwing his sales pitch at the end; at a computer store, announcing his Dell pitch on the loudspeaker; and writing his tagline on a blackboard in a college classroom. During the two years that the ‘‘Dude’’ commercials ran, Steven’s task seemed to be to connect with teens and annoy adults (such as a high school principal, a store manager, and a college professor). The spots, although not changing in theme, progressed with Steven’s fictional life: he was depicted first in his messy bedroom in his parents’ home and subsequently graduating from high school, working part-time jobs, and attending college.

OUTCOME
‘‘I would choose a Dell over a Gateway because Steven is cuter than Gateway’s cow,’’ claimed one teen, referring to Gateway’s long use of the cow in its advertisements. Steven became a cult figure in advertising akin to Clara Peller, star of Wendy’s famous ‘‘Where’s the Beef ?’’ campaign of the 1980s. Steven fan sites popped up on the Internet, Steven fan mail was sent to Dell, and Curtis was recognized everywhere he went. The campaign’s effectiveness in selling Dell products, however, was less clear.
From the third to the fourth quarter of 2000—after the holiday-season introduction of Steven—Dell sales rose 38 percent. But while some credited the ‘‘Dude’’ character for this, others linked the sales to the fact that Dell had lowered its prices. In 2001, when the first 10 or so ‘‘Dude’’ commercials were aired, net revenue actually declined slightly. Dell did not fare much better in 2002; even at $35.5 billion, revenue was down from 2001. By this time Dell was preparing to shift away from ads featuring the Steven character. In the fall of 2002, with plans to fade Steven out, the company introduced a new campaign involving a fictional group of young interns. One of the first three intern commercials ended with an appearance by Steven repeating his familiar tagline. In the other two the phrase ‘‘Dude, You’re Getting a Dell’’ was spoken by a voice-over announcer who was not Steven. Steven fans felt betrayed by Dell. Replacing the character, however, turned out to be perfect timing for the company. Soon after the change Curtis was arrested for possession of marijuana, a situation that would have presented Dell with a PR nightmare. The shift may have also resulted in significant monetary benefits. Dell shipments increased by 25 percent in the quarter following the launch of the intern commercials; the same period after the start of the ‘‘Dude’’ campaign had produced an increase of just 16 percent. The intern commercials were nowhere near as popular as the ‘‘Dude’’ spots. But as Dell’s CEO and founder, Michael Dell, put it, ‘‘We’re not running the Steven TV show.’’ Still, regardless of whether the Steven character took attention away from the computers themselves and whether the ‘‘Dude’’ campaign was in fact responsible for an immediate skyrocket of sales, the campaign did significantly raise awareness of the brand.