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Post by mannmade on Aug 29, 2014 21:35:15 GMT -5
I just wonder how many of you marketing geniuses have ever marketed any product let alone a new conceptual medical device. Having marketed consumer type health products before, I can tell you it will take (and Sanofi should spend) many mllions of dollars to get this product launched. I am sure Sanofi and it's advertising experts know how to do this. I guess some people on this board have nothing better to do then hash out some futuristic marketing plan. I say, who cares. It doesn't really add to the discussion of the Mannkind investment. If Sanofi had released the marketing plan, that would be fertile grounds for comment. That being said, I think the SuperBowl, with its huge viewing audience would be one of the best advertising vehicles to start to educate America and the world about our revolutionary product, the money spent will be small compared to the huge bump in the market cap of Mannkind that will result from the buzz generated by the ad. Trend This marketing genius spent 25 years in advertising and marketing and has worked on hundreds of campaigns for Claritin, Pepsi, General Motors, Pizza Hut, Con Agra, Disneyland, Taco Bell, ATT, Pain Relievers, Drugs for frequent urination, and too many to actually recount offhand like this. I built an ad agency from scratch with my business partner and we won over 140 awards, including an Emmy before we sold it to a Fortune 100 Company, called NBCU after 18 years. And btw, I have actually done a Super Bowl spot for Lays Potato Chips along with numerous Summer and Winter Olympic Campaigns including the first mobile Olympic Series for Sprint, featuring Jonny Mosely. Campaigns that I have lead have been written up in The WSJ and the NY Times among other pubs as examples of why you would tie into an event like the Olympics (Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines featuring Michele Kwan and Greg Louganis in an on-board Decathlon featuring fun things to do on board) which aired during the summer Olympics, actually two Summer Olympics in a row, as the client was so pleased with it. I don't mean to sound defensive and I do respect everyone's opinion but if you want to ask as you did... then yes this "marketing genius" has been there and done that... including pharma campaigns... |
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Post by zieg on Aug 29, 2014 21:36:24 GMT -5
Trend,
No harm no foul. I didn't take anything personally. I don't think anyone on this board did.
To your point, the SB does have the #1 audience viewership on a yearly basis. It's also the most expensive air time (as mentioned).
My brother and sister in law are big in the ad world. She's a VP of Leo Burnett Chicago and he's done many Super Bowl commercial both freelance and w/DDB (mostly for Mc Donald's and Budweiser).
They shared w/me (to mannmade's point) that the rating and free publicity that goes with the S.B. usually has to have a "cute remembrance factor" ie "Budweiser frogs", "I love you man" campaign, "Puppy love" w/Clydesdales etc. Of course we want to be remembered, and seen, but usually "cute" wins on that day.
I have great confidence in the pro's at Sanofi. I'm sure they will know what to do to get the greatest number of "eyes", (even if it's not above urinals), LOL
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Post by trenddiver on Aug 29, 2014 22:42:30 GMT -5
I just wonder how many of you marketing geniuses have ever marketed any product let alone a new conceptual medical device. Having marketed consumer type health products before, I can tell you it will take (and Sanofi should spend) many mllions of dollars to get this product launched. I am sure Sanofi and it's advertising experts know how to do this. I guess some people on this board have nothing better to do then hash out some futuristic marketing plan. I say, who cares. It doesn't really add to the discussion of the Mannkind investment. If Sanofi had released the marketing plan, that would be fertile grounds for comment. That being said, I think the SuperBowl, with its huge viewing audience would be one of the best advertising vehicles to start to educate America and the world about our revolutionary product, the money spent will be small compared to the huge bump in the market cap of Mannkind that will result from the buzz generated by the ad. Trend This marketing genius spent 25 years in advertising and marketing and has worked on hundreds of campaigns for Claritin, Pepsi, General Motors, Pizza Hut, Con Agra, Disneyland, Taco Bell, ATT, Pain Relievers, Drugs for frequent urination, and too many to actually recount offhand like this. I built an ad agency from scratch with my business partner and we won over 140 awards, including an Emmy before we sold it to a Fortune 100 Company, called NBCU after 18 years. And btw, I have actually done a Super Bowl spot for Lays Potato Chips along with numerous Summer and Winter Olympic Campaigns including the first mobile Olympic Series for Sprint, featuring Jonny Mosely. Campaigns that I have lead have been written up in The WSJ and the NY Times among other pubs as examples of why you would tie into an event like the Olympics (Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines featuring Michele Kwan and Greg Louganis in an on-board Decathlon featuring fun things to do on board) which aired during the summer Olympics, actually two Summer Olympics in a row, as the client was so pleased with it. I don't mean to sound defensive and I do respect everyone's opinion but if you want to ask as you did... then yes this "marketing genius" has been there and done that... including pharma campaigns... |
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Post by trenddiver on Aug 29, 2014 23:02:27 GMT -5
Mannmade - thank you for your expertise - so let me pose a couple of questions to you. If Mannkind/Sanofi asked you to come up with a Super Bowl ad, what ideas do you have for such an ad? If Sanofi spent $15mm for 3 - 30 spots on Super Bowl Ads and as a result the PPS of MNKD increased by $1 per share ($400MM increase in MNKD market cap) would you consider this to be a worthwhile expenditure?
Trend
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Post by jpg on Aug 30, 2014 0:49:41 GMT -5
Mannmade - thank you for your expertise - so let me pose a couple of questions to you. If Mannkind/Sanofi asked you to come up with a Super Bowl ad, what ideas do you have for such an ad? If Sanofi spent $15mm for 3 - 30 spots on Super Bowl Ads and as a result the PPS of MNKD increased by $1 per share ($400MM increase in MNKD market cap) would you consider this to be a worthwhile expenditure? Trend I doubt Sanofi would spend a few thousand, let alone a few million to increase Mannkind share price. I know Sanofi is smart enough to focus on selling product and therefore making profits. Happily Sanofi isn't as concerned as many retail investors about day to day share price (especially of another company...). Fortunately Mannkind isn't as concerned about day to day share price mouvements of their own stock as many retail investors are. Management obsession with day to day or even quarter to quarter share price has sunk more companies then any shorts ever will. Spending a few million just to transitorily increase Mannkind share price is to me a bad investment. Spending the same money to drive sales of Afrezza is what needs to happen. Rising sales and profit will take care of the share price but rising share price will not increase sales. I know little about advertising but I do know paying more doesn't always translate into better sales. I for one would be turned off by a cancer drug, dementia drug, anti diabetic drug etc. being advertised at a Stanley Cup, World cup or Super Bowl. Bad taste as far as I am concerned. JPG |
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Post by mannmade on Aug 30, 2014 1:34:20 GMT -5
Mannmade - thank you for your expertise - so let me pose a couple of questions to you. If Mannkind/Sanofi asked you to come up with a Super Bowl ad, what ideas do you have for such an ad? If Sanofi spent $15mm for 3 - 30 spots on Super Bowl Ads and as a result the PPS of MNKD increased by $1 per share ($400MM increase in MNKD market cap) would you consider this to be a worthwhile expenditure? Trend trenddiver, you are welcome... In answer to your questions, first I don't think the creative necessary to launch Afrezza would be appropriate nor effective for the SB platform as the majority of the spots are designed for humor and extreme production value. So I would not develop or create a spot for the SB to launch Afrezza. Second, you are assuming that by spending the 3 x :30 for 15m the pps will go up $1.00. Doubt by doing 3 x :30 in SB alone this would happen... Even if it did, then who is the commercial for? Wall Street? Shareholders? We are talking about a product that is for diabetics... Also along with the 15m to air the 3 x :30's most SB spots have budgets that are about 1.5 to 2m in production costs. So you are really speaking about 16.5m or so.The need is in educating the target audiences on a product that can fulfill a major need for diabetics. For Afrezza to sell, diabetics of the world will have to ask their docs/endos and their primary care doctors about it, they are the primary target audience for launch imho... So Sanofi will need to get them to embrace the product and that is who the initial campaign should target along with diabetics and families of diabetics. Sales will drive revenue which will result in real pps appreciation and that is the real long term value of this investment, not using a gimmick to bolster share price. You do that when you are looking to get a company ready for a a sale/merger or have some other agenda. Using SB ads to drive share value will not work in the long run if there are no sales. It's a gimmick or vanity play for a product like Afrezza and imho opinion a waste of money for all the reasons mentioned in other posts. I agree media can help drive a stocks price by creating awareness and in fact many ad campaigns are designed to do just that with companies looking to get noticed. We actually did several campaigns that were not intended for retails consumers but for specific strategic audiences such as with Northrop Grumman's previous CEO Dr. Ronald Sugar, who wanted a campaign to influence politicians and show the viewers the good they do for the world, not so much to drive share price or sales, but to establish brand value... So instead of creating an SB ad we recommended they sponsor Sunday morning news shows including the title sponsorship of "Meet the Press." This was a resounding success for them in reaching the people they wanted to influence and the campaign lasted for three years. As I tried to explain in previous posts, SB ads typically are used to sell commodities b/c there is no real value proposition to distinguish the product from their competitors hence the reliance on entertaining the consumer/viewer and establishing brand loyalty with humor, likable characters etc... That's why you see beer companies, snack food, cars (yes cars are generally regarded a commodity in this day and age) and consumer/retail products like electronics (flat screens, mobile phones, etc) advertise in the SB. Afrezza is not a commoditized produce and has real advantages/value that can be articulated and will make a difference to the targeted consumer once they have been educated and understand enough to ask their docs about it. The 16.5m you would spend on 3 x:30 SB ads can buy weeks/months of heavily concentrated ad campaigns in targeted markets with targeted programming that have a high concentration of viewers which fit the demographics for Afrezza patients.
As you can tell, I do not consider 3 x:30 in the SB to be a good investment and would not see this as a positive sign from Sanofi. Rather, I would see it as a decision made by a senior executive who was either very vain or ignorant of media planning and strategy; or a sign that they hired the wrong ad agency to develop this media plan/strategy and make their media buys. An agency more interested in making a name for themselves than their client as this is not the right product for a SB ad campaign.Also it is important to understand that even with a big company like Sanofi, resources are still very limited and all eyes are on the budget and the bottom line. There are caps on spending in this deal to be sure, so why waste a large percentage of your resources on a one time event when it is proven that to educate people via on-air media they must see a spot at least 3 to 5+ times or so on average to have real recall of the content. Also let's not forget Sanofi is going to be launching Trojeo (U300) sometime next year as well and will have to spend to advertise that launch as well among other products they may advertise. in your question you make an assumption that is nothing more than a bet that the stock will rise because the company advertises in the SB. A better bet is to find the right programming and distribution channels that can allow for a consistent messaging across multiple platforms with sufficient/sustainable repetition that the brand can be built and the consumers/target audience will more than likely be reminded of the product and be educated on it's benefits. What will make the stock rise in the long run are sales and not 3 x 30 in the SB. The SB is a waste of money in my opinion that can be better and more effectively be invested in other opportunities to promote the product, educate the consumer and build the brand; all of which will drive sales... I respectfully disagree with your premise... |
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Post by trenddiver on Aug 30, 2014 16:49:33 GMT -5
Mannmade - You artfully avoided answering any of the two questions. Maybe if presented differently you'll put on your creative hat and show us the true marketing genius you are. For discussion sake lets say Mannmade Advertising receives an email that goes like this: Mr. Mannmade, we have decided to go forward with a Super Bowl ad. We have heard all of your reasons why not, but we have decided to do it anyhow and Mr. Mann thinks it a great idea. We'd like to let the viewing public know in a 30 second spot about our revolutionary Afrezza product which will be available soon that will change the lives of millions of people around the world, who currently have diabetes or will become inflicted with diabetes in their lifetime. Can you come up with two good ideas for us? A lot of agencies are contacting us who want this piece of business. We have a long term relationship with your company and don't want to change to another agency. Also, don't give us any more reasons why not to do it, the decision has been made. I know time is short, so can you get back to me by tomorrow. Looking forward to your ideas Best regards Sr. V.P. Marketing Afrezza Read more: mnkd.proboards.com/thread/1231/super-bowl-ad?page=3&scrollTo=9490#ixzz3Bukr3Gjd |
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Post by mannmade on Aug 30, 2014 17:11:27 GMT -5
Hello trend, actually I did not avoid answering your questions, artfully or otherwise... I thought I was about as direct as I could be... I have given you very clear and logical answers to your questions with reasons why imho I think doing a SB commercial is not in the best interests of the Company, shareholders, nor the diabetics Afrezza is to serve. Now they may not be the answers you want to hear, that's another discussion.
And for the record to put my answers in context with my beliefs, I would (and actually did do twice in our companies history in agreement w/ my business partner) tell the client to seek another firm who believed differently about the matter, (and we refunded the retainer one client paid us, the other was on spec)
Instead of just asking me to come up with creative for something I do not feel is the right decision and for which I have supported with my reasons several times now, why don't you answer a couple of questions for me as follows:
1.) List the number of companies by name that you know aired 3 x :30 in the SB this past year
2.) Give me an estimate of their annual advertising and marketing budgets
I doubt that any responsible executive at Sanofi would try and compete with the group on the above list...
At any rate I am not here to get into an on-going debate with you about the plus/delta's of a SB Campaign. I have said my peace and supported it with my reasons why. In addition I have given what I believe, off the top of my head without knowing all the details, are the strategies I would employ... You may disagree and that is fine... Have a good day...
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Post by trenddiver on Aug 30, 2014 19:15:07 GMT -5
Trend gives up. Unfortunately our resident marketing guru just won't engage the Thread Topic which is Super Bowl Ad. Maybe someone else can be more successful. It's a great idea not only for the launch, but I also think it will have a positive effect on the PPS.
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Post by liane on Aug 30, 2014 19:35:50 GMT -5
trend,
mannmade has been more than gracious in his answers to your snide remarks. There is no need for the attitude on this board. I'm locking this thread.
liane
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