What Taco Bell
Learned From Red Bull
Ten years of
innovation, lesson No. 5: Every company is a media company.
This is the fifth essay in our
series of 10 Lessons From 10 Years
Of The World's Most Innovative Companies.
For most of the past 10 years,
our World's 50 Most
Innovative Companiesincluded at least one ad agency, and sometimes as many as three—leaders
like Weiden & Kennedy, Droga5, and 72andSunny. Yet for the past two years,
nothing. Not a single ad agency has been included.
Why? Because two parallel forces of
innovation have exerted themselves, in undeniable ways, shifting the focus of
power in the advertising world away from agencies. The first comes courtesy
of Facebook and,
to a lesser but deepening extent, Snapchat.
As consumers’ media tastes have become increasingly mobile and social, these
new platforms have been commanding more attention—and more ad dollars. To tell
the innovation story of the past two years and ignore Facebook and Snapchat
would be foolhardy; the impact of ad agencies on the marketing landscape has
been pallid in comparison. It’s just not where the leadership has been.
The second wave, which has been
steadily gaining momentum over a long period, comes courtesy of the client:
Brands have begun to create their own content in new ways. Some have done so
independently of ad agencies; others have worked with agency partners. But
regardless, it is the brand itself that has commanded the spotlight. From
Coca-Cola to GE, the best marketers have
demonstrated a new assurance, asserting more control over their messages and
how and where they are disseminated.
GE has filmed sensors being installed inside a Nicaraguan volcano
and created a road show around the chemistry of barbecue, turning its
scientific nerdiness into a virtue (which it then reinforced with traditional
television ads). It has partnered with virtual reality filmmakers and embraced
what it dubbed "emoji science." Just as the company has remade
itself, divesting less technological parts of the business, GE’s brand has
become both more focused and more adventurous.
We have seen some of this before:
The rise of Red Bull as a cultural presence was reinforced by in-house media
activities, which earned it a spot on our 2012 World's Most Innovative Companies list. Yet
the phenomenon has expanded throughout the business landscape, to activities
that go beyond sponsorships and stunts. Fashion houses always produced
spectacles with their runway shows, but now those events are constructed to
generate real-time content that is shared and disseminated globally. From
upstarts like Honest Company and Glossier to established companies in finance
and pharmaceuticals, brands are presenting their own content, online and via
social, that may never touch traditional media platforms. Some newer companies
have even built marketing into their core—outfits like Warby Parker and
mattress-purveyor Casper. The cool, friendly user
experience of their e-commerce operations (and increasingly, their brick-and-mortar
outlets) attracted an enviable customer cohort well in advance of any
traditional advertiser spending.
Then there’s Taco Bell. Its aesthetic couldn’t be more
different than Warby Parker’s or GE’s, but it has found a brand-appropriate way
to inspire its customers: rolling out new, limited-time products every few
weeks. This creates incentive for return visits, and if a new menu item gets
rave reviews, it can become permanent. The product itself is the marketing, and
the marketing becomes the product.
The ad agency business is hardly
drying up, but the pressures are more intense than ever. Models are evolving,
and there’s no clear new winner. Challenges are coming from places like BuzzFeed,
which has been creating its own ad formats and content for brands, targeted to
its customer base and fueled by data that agencies can’t access. The
traditional ad giants have been put into a position where they are forced to
react—whether to the BuzzFeeds of the world, the Facebooks and Snapchats, or
their own brand clients. It’s a tough environment, and regaining control of the
storyline will require creativity that lasts beyond 30 seconds.
ROBERT SAFIAN
https://www.fastcompany.com/3068300/most-innovative-companies/what-taco-bell-learned-from-red-bull?utm_source=mailchimp&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=fast-company-daily-newsletter&position=6&partner=newsletter&campaign_date=02262017
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