What do you get when you combine 6,000 women, Oprah Winfrey and a 3-day celebration in New York City?  Some surreal, jaw-dropping, crack-up moments along with a whole lot of chaos and estrogen-fuelled drama.  Oh… and a city-wide jump in shoe sales.

A one woman show, media maven and brand, Oprah Winfrey is quite possibly the most influential woman on the planet.  And like so many, seeing her live was on my bucket-list.  So when O Magazine’s Live Your Best Life Weekend in New York came across my radar, I jumped at it and so did some of my friends. 

So there we were in the city that never sleeps and neither did we really, squeezing sight-seeing, shopping and signature cocktails in with a very full event schedule. From a champagne welcome reception and an inspiring line of “Lifeshop” headliners (Dr. Oz, Suze Orman, etc.) to a gala at Radio City Music Hall and a Sunday charity walk, it was non-stop fun.

Highlights

• Oprah live.  Mind-blowingly brilliant.  And after following her for years, it was like watching a girlfriend on stage.
• Eat Pray Love author Elizabeth Gilbert’s opener.  So real, so cool… that woman oozes how to live in the present.
• A great welcome kit, spectacular collateral materials and sponsors like L’Oreal that rocked the gift bags.

Lowlights

• There was one glaring gap in this Oprah brand experience – the logistics at Jacob K. Javits Convention Center were beyond bad.  From mismanaged line-ups and event coordination to banana battles in the food lines and near-riots over a lack of bathrooms forcing urinal usage by some angry sisters (yes you read that right), that facility was ill-prepared for 6,000 women (and 10 men).  My friend’s and I laugh about it now, but it was truly like an all-day episode of Survivor.

The weekend also marked the 10-year anniversary of O Magazine which continues to set the bar on  page-turning layouts and visual platforms along with compelling content, life stories and a just-right balance of tasteful advertising. 

But that’s just one piece of Oprah’s media empire. 

There’s Oprah & Friends satellite radio, Oprah’s Book Club, the multi-layered Oprah.com, a new reality show and with September 2011 marking 25 years and the last for the Oprah Winfrey Show, she’s launching OWN Network.

Whether relaxing in my living room or as a proud, live participant in magical NYC it’s been a wild ride to be part of the Oprah brand experience.  And it’s not over yet.

MY SOAPBOX:   When you’re #1, you’re an easy target. 

News this week talked about how the Oprah Winfrey Show has had a 7% decline in viewership – which on 9 million is hardly a crisis. 

But rather than focus on how her O-Factor has changed lives, saved lives, got millions reading, and raised over $80 million to fund 200+ charity grants in the US and 30 other countries, let’s focus on a dip/blip in ratings on a show that’s winding down (??).   

And for the record, it’s winding down to make way for a ground-breaking, new network that’s poised to make what the Oprah Winfrey Show did to daytime television look like training-wheels.

Maybe the real story is how we’ve only scratched the surface on Oprah’s enduring influence.

brand experience, Eat Pray Love, Elizabeth Gilbert, Live Your Best Life Weekend, O Magazine, Oprah & Friends, Oprah Winfrey, Oprah.com, OWN Network, smd marketing, smdmarketing, susan dore

Stop the madness.  How did I go from not having time to read a fiction book in years to being sucked down a vampire vortex so deep and suffocatingly sexy, I spend the non-existent free time I have Twilighting my life away?  

Well… it started with a girlfriend of mine telling me how she was “enjoying” reading the Twilight Saga book series.  She suggested I might enjoy it too.  I laughed.  (a) I can’t stand the sight let alone reading about blood; (b) I left my teenage angst behind years ago; and (c) seriously, who has time?  I could be reading Gladwell’s latest or my Google Reader blog back-up I SOOO need to get through… right?

But with a knowing smile, that friend loaned me the first book – I cracked it on Easter weekend. 

(Crack being the operative word.)

Pouring through the first book in record time, I was away on a business trip and found myself in an unfamiliar, neighbourhood book store… large sunglasses… head down… looking for Eclipse (book #3) BECAUSE I’d finished New Moon (book #2) at 2:30 in the morning.  Not seeing Twilight books anywhere, I adjust my sunglasses and quietly ask the shop-keeper for help.  He basically yells, “Twilight…sure!  Kids’ section.”  All heads in the quiet, serene book store turn.  I quickly follow him to the back of the store with the same flood of emotions I recalled from grade 9 when the guy at the drug-store bellowed, “Tampons?  Ya… aisle 4!”

Humbled, I ask myself… um… how did I get here? 

First published in 2005, I was a late adopter on this brand.  Was it the resulting teenage frenzied line-ups at the box office that suddenly intrigued me?  The cult-like, breathless anticipation I’d witnessed around each book release?  Or am I now just a cougar looking for a fantasy escape.  (And I don’t use the ‘c-word’ lightly.)

Turns out the books were just the beginning… the cross-over media since then boggles the mind. 

Movies – not as good as the books but who cares.  They’ve given us a face for Edward and a body for Jacob. 

DVD’s – almost 10 million original Twilight movies have been sold to date; the 2^nd New Moon movie sold 4 million copies in its launch weekend alone.

Soundtracks – hardly toe-tappers, but from vampire lullabies to Clair de Lune, soundtracks for both movies have broken download records.

Merchandise – clothing, jewelery, random gear… don’t get me started.

Make-up – I’m at the drug-store the other day, low on health and beauty essentials (because I’ve been reading!!) and there’s a Twilight make-up display.  I’m there for toothpaste and next thing you know I’m trying on Twilight branded lipstick, suddenly desperate because they’re out of the shade of blood red I HAD to have.  It wasn’t pretty.  And my (inside) voice was screaming, “Take down the [blank’ing] display if you don’t have the [blank’ing] product to back it up!!”  

Realizing how pathetic I was, it started to really sink in… just how powerful is this brand (?)

As a woman, I and every soccer-mom I talk to is in (secret) love with Edward (help).  As a marketer, I’m beyond spellbound by this phenomenon.

I’ll probably finish Breaking Dawn… the last book in the series… tonight.  I understand there are more spin-off books coming and the 3rd movie Eclipse is being released in June. 

(Sigh.)

MY SOAPBOX:  While J.K. Rowling’s enchanting Harry Potter series spoke to tweens/teens and took the literary world and Hollywood by storm, its ride was pre-social marketing.  Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight Saga – also targeting tweens/teens - has truly captured the hearts, minds and texting thumbs of this most influential demographic voice of our web 2.0 times.  

Beyond that, this gothic vampire love tale has transcended age and bridged every demographic, shattering records and hearts… surprising even its author.  But who could have predicted this epic literary/2.0 combination that’s fuelled an entirely new category of (hungry) consumers?

brand experiences, brand strategy, branding, smd marketing, smdmarketing, stephanie meyer, susan dore, Twilight, Twilight saga, Twilight series

How to describe the buzz around Julia Child… a resurgence?  A resurrection?  Not trying to be clever with the “r words” but those are the questions I asked myself when contemplating an attempt to capture the marketing story around the Julia phenomenon. 

I landed on renaissance because long before The Food network and media-moguls like Martha Stewart, there was Julia Child. 

A cooking legend for over 40 years, Julia personified the enjoyment of cooking and eating, forever changing the way we think about food. 

Fast-forward and the brand called Julia Child has “renaissanced” (not really a word but it is now)… from pioneering trail-blazer to mainstream fuelled the 2009 hit Julie & Julia.  Depicting true events in the life of Chef Julia Child in the early years in her culinary career, the movie contrasts her life with Julie Powell, the New York blogger who cooked her way through all 524 recipes from Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking in one year.

Sending box office, book and spin-off media sales through the roof, Julia Child is a fun case study in the drivers that make any brand “cool”: 

1. originality
2. uniqueness
3. timelessness
4. innovation

Originality/Uniqueness

• Delightfully candid with self descriptors like “enthusiastic carnivore”, she was as refreshing as she was adorable.  (Definitely an original.)
• And as the proud new owner of a box set of DVD’s capturing 36 episodes of Julia’s cooking show The French Chef, I can add that I had forgotten what a culinary comedian she was!  You can’t help but crack up watching her truss a goose and cry out “You just whack it off!” as she raises then slams a large knife down on a wing joint.  Then you think you’re watching an old Saturday Night Live episode when she lines up a long row of chickens on the counter to explain the difference between a roaster, fryer and every bird in between… they look like they’re going to break into a head-less song and dance. 
• And don’t even get me started on the whimsical, nasal lilt in her voice when she passionately and breathlessly exclaims things like, “And NOW it’s time to add the RED wyyyyyyyn”.  (You just gotta love her.)

Timelessness/Innovation

First published almost 50 years ago, Mastering the Art of French Cooking demystified the daunting, classic cuisine with easy-to-follow tips and techniques in plain English.  From bouillabaisse to her famous Boeuf Bourguignon, this French cooking bible/cookbook continues to show beginners and seasoned chefs the way.

You don’t have to be a foodie to be drawn into the joie de vivre around the Julia Child story.  It’s fantastically fun and charming… add that she lived 92, animated years savouring French food, butter and more butter?  Bon appétit! 

MY SOAPBOX:  While Hollywood certainly paid homage to the culinary icon and breathed new life into the enduring Julia Child legacy, the fact that she never allowed her name to promote a commercial product makes it even more of a marketing masterpiece in personal branding. 

Developing a personal brand is an imperative component of today’s on and offline world.  What’s your story?

brand experiences, brand strategy, branding, julia child, julie & julia, julie powell, mastering the art of french cooking, personal brand, Personal Branding, smd marketing, smdmarketing, susan dore, the french chef

Brands make promises…do they deliver?  With that question in mind, I thought I would launch this blog with a couple of random but tried-tested-and-true brand experiences that I know make it happen.

About to place a refill order from Clearly Contacts.  Looking forward to a repeat of a historically outstanding brand experience that promises:  “To deliver the highest quality eye care products at the guaranteed lowest prices anywhere on the globe.”  Here’s the beauty of it… I order, they show up the next day… period.  Perfect, prescription, made-to-order…as always.  Stay tuned on how that plays out.

But first, a brand experience much closer to home. Here’s a small business that doesn’t even have a website as of yet.  It’s called My Favourite Drycleaner and here’s why.  They have the only 24/7 pick-up service in my hood and beyond.  It’s called a “Magic Wardrobe”… you plug-in your credit card and the little roundy-roundy machine spits your crisp, clean drycleaning out of a trap door.  Same thing with a random DVD dispenser with all the latest-and-greatest movies.  I was at My Favourite Drycleaner the other night along with a small line-up of button-down, urban, professionals that were chatting while efficiently accessing both services.  Obviously, there was nobody working after hours, but as the customers all said…“It works perfectly.”  “It’s never failed me.” “I’ve never seen anything like it.”  “Why would I go anywhere else when this is so easy and convenient?”

But here’s the part that put me over the top.  I dropped off a skirt on Thursday that I needed for an event that Saturday night and  was assured they could have it ready by end of day Saturday.  Turned out, it was an extra-busy Saturday for me… I was running late… my cell rang late Saturday afternoon and it was Seann from My Favourite Drycleaner.  He said, “My wife asked me to call and remind you to pick up your skirt for your party.”  I forgot I’d even mentioned the party.

It was that experience that inspired this blog.

When does that ever happen anymore?  When do we as consumers get to be surprised and delighted by an intimate encounter with a brand that makes us feel like a customer vs. underwhelmed with pedantic excuses as to why brands can’t live up to simple promises like “next business-day delivery” (aka Staples… future rant/blog).

Bottom line?  Join me on this journey to applaud, reveal and revel in brand experiences.  I look forward to your feedback.

brand buy-in, brand efficiency, brand experiences, brand performance, brand promise, branding, clearly contacts, my favourite drycleaner, smd marketing, smdmarketing, susan dore