Eco-Friendly Charity Campaign

Vodka's "Green" Effort

When you have a name like the Earth Friendly Distilling Company (EFDC), you'd better back it up.

To promote its 360 Vodka, the distiller believes it has done just that. Not only does EFDC donate $1 to environmental charities when a 360 Vodka swing-top closure is returned for recycling, but each of its 1.75 liter bottles comes with a reusable metal handle. The handle helps create a steady pour that reduces spillage and breakage. What's more, the vodka is produced using machines that run on bio-diesel fuel, and recycled materials are used for its glass bottle and paper label.

To hammer its sustainability message home, EFDC shipped 10,000 cases of 360 Vodka with logoed, reusable recycling bins sized to hold 12 bottles each. The company hopes that the blue bins will be used again and again for recycling efforts. It views them as a superior alternative to the boxes that wholesalers often provide to their customers for carrying home their bottles.

"As the world's only eco-friendly, luxury vodka, it's essential that our marketing efforts promote sustainability and, whenever possible, give consumers reusable and recyclable solutions that encourage positive environmental changes, such as our recycling bin shipping containers," says Vic Morrison, vice president at McCormick Distilling, of which Earth Friendly Distilling is a division. "We are also proud that 360 Vodka listens to the feedback of our mixologists, consumers and accounts, and provides them with eco-friendly solutions such as the reusable bottle handle."

Earth Friendly believes it has not only lived up to its name, but it has also set a higher standard for sustainability in the spirits industry.

Who's Watching the Watchmen Swag?

The movie Watchmen, which opened in early March, is based on a popular Alan Moore graphic novel by the same name. It has easily been the most heavily hyped and promoted film of the 2009 movie season so far. For much of February the ads were nearly impossible to miss, as was the buzz generated by the press. And, there was a plethora of logoed, collectible swag to feed the movie’s frenzied fan base.

The film’s iconic blood-covered smiley face appeared on T-shirts, hats and jackets. At New York’s Toy Fair there was no shortage of prototypes of items based on the movie’s characters. There were Dr. Manhattan lunchboxes, Rorschach ski masks and “The End is Nigh” hats.

The promotional items also went to a whole other level when Clay Enos, one of the unit photographers on the set of the Warner Bros. film, launched his own line of Watchmenbranded coffee. The Organic Coffee Cartel (OCC) began selling collectible cans of Night Owl Dark Roast Coffee, which was named for a brand served in the film. Only 10,000 cans were produced for $19.99 a pop. All proceeds for the sales went to charity. OCC also ran a sweepstakes that allowed winners the chance to attend the film’s premiere.

“I did the coffee because I thought it would appeal to Watchmen fans and specialty coffee fans alike,” Enos says. “There’s a moment in the film where coffee is served, and it occurred to me that we could create a real coffee that

would leap from the fictional world of Watchmen into reality. As far as I know it’s the first-ever movie tie-in coffee.”

Snickers Invents its Own Language

Are you fluent in Snacklish? Probably not. The nonsense language was invented by Mars Snackfood U.S. in support of its Snickers brand of candy bars. Snacklish turns every word or name into something that reminds people of a Snickers bar.

For example, ads tell people to visit the "Peanutarium" instead of the Planetarium. And in New York, ads tout "Patrick Chewing" instead of the beloved Knicks center Patrick Ewing.

In this vein, the brand hit 100 influential reporters with branded T-shirts that showed their names translated into Snacklish. For example, someone named John Kara became John Karamel, and so on.

"By taking Snickers' core equities like its unique ingredients and satisfaction, we are reminding our consumers why they love Snickers so much," says Carole Walker, vice president of integrated marketing communications for Mars. The company notes that there are 5,000 different languages spoken in the world today, each with its own unique set of words, phrases and expressions. "Now 'Snickers speak' can be added to the list, allowing Americans to have a whole new dialect for satisfaction that they can drop into their daily conversations."

These new expressions are being featured in TV ads, billboards, print executions and online. Taxi-top ads say "Snaxi" and "Satisflying" when at airports (the signs are GPS-enabled so the sign knows when to flash the nonsense word). Five-second ads before wrestling programming say "Put your hunger in a Nougaplex." In financial districts, out-of-home ads say "Get a degree in Snackanomics."

By Melinda Ligos, Editor in Chief of Successful Promotions Trend Report, a trade publication for the Advertising Specialty Industry.