World Wide Papas (WWP) is the exclusive area developer of Papa John’s restaurants in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region of Russia. Founders, Darrin Stock (left) and Gary Hamilton (right), created this company on the basis that history is bound to repeat itself. This history being the idea that Russian markets are experiencing a boom in the quick-casual dining market, similar to the boom the US experienced in this industry in the ‘70s. Their idea is to provide the highest-quality pizza product and dining experience to consumers in one of the largest European markets. This concept could not have taken flight without the work of dedicated Brand Champions. Brand Champions are people who live for their brand, set their company up for success, and set good examples for brand ambassadors. In the case of this effort to bring progression to a non-westernized marketplace, Darrin Stock and Gary Hamilton have emerged as clear champions for the World Wide Papa’s brand.
Hamilton and Stock realized during the inception of WWP that having a strong parent brand of Papa John’s in the states was not necessarily going to translate into having a strong brand in Russia. Realizing this was key to the success of WWP, Hamilton and Stock worked with Brand Iron to create a unified brand that could be identified and communicated throughout the US and foreign markets. Brand Iron worked with WWP on corporate design to develop a logo (shown left) that would resonate with the parent brand while still introducing a visual image unique to WWP.
Extending this brand was critical in developing everything from the investor presentation to the PR pieces to promote the Initial Public Offering. Hamilton and Stock worked with Brand Iron to develop a strategy to communicate a compelling brand story to attract the bridge funding to strengthen all aspects of the Company and prepare for a listing of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. WWP embraced the concept that branding is more than a snappy logo, and can actually affect your ability to attract customers, generate profit, and expand your presence in the marketplace.
With this Branding and Investor Communications campaign, Brand Iron was able to assist Hamilton and Stock in reaching the right investor audience to attract more than €14 million EURO in capital – a critical component to preparing the Company for the listing on the FSE and fueling expansion plans to grow to 40+ restaurants in the Russian region. Throughout the process of bringing Papa John’s to Russia, Stock and Hamilton encountered numerous hardships. First, they had to overcome the hurdle of being headquartered in the US while having business operations in Russia. Also, they continue to work in the Russian market, which is vastly behind the US market in terms of fast-food. Additionally, having very low brand recognition for the parent brand in Russia compared to the US was an obstacle Stock and Hamilton wrangled. Overcoming these hurdles, is another contributing factor to what has made Hamilton and Stock stand out as supreme Brand Champions for their company.
We hope that Gary Hamilton and Darrin Stock can serve as strong examples of Brand Champions.The top companies in every industry have people that truly RIDE for their brand. Brand Champions stop their company from running in the middle of the herd and take charge, leading their company to differentiate itself from the rest of the saturated market. Brand Champions are individuals within an organization who lead the charge to separate their brand from the competitor. These two men have taken an idea to a foreign market and transformed it into a hugely sucessful company by living for their brand. They have obtained real results from developing a brand promise that people could get their arms around, and they consistently deliver on that promise by creating a great brand experience.
Minus the long hair and leather pants, today seems a little too much like the 80’s if you ask me. It was the time where being rebellious was “cool” along with listening to “the devil’s music” and smoking cigarettes after school. Today’s cigarettes and devil’s music are still around; they’ve just changed a little. Today its racy television shows and gory video games that are making parents cringe. And the more the parents seem to cringe, the more the kids seem to watch, buy, and play.
Advertisers are using this to the fullest extent. The popular video game DeadSpace2 has built its entire advertising platform on the slogan “your mom will hate this”. And television shows are using movie like ratings PG-13 and R as a bragging right instead of a warning. So why the big move towards “rebellious” advertisements? It seems the more outrages the ad or promotion, the more controversy. And controversy means people are talking about your product, service, goods, etc. and that’s exactly what advertisers want.
Check out this Redbull ad which blatantly advertises one-night stands and “hook-ups” with multiple people. Do you think it’s appropriate? Does it make you want to drink a Redbull?
Another TV spot getting some major attention is the MTV show Skins, based off of a British teen show, the new hit is causing quite a stir among parents as it depicts “the life of real American teenagers.” The controversy might have something to do with the fact that these “real” teenagers are drug addicts, alcoholics, party-animals, and law breakers. So would you let your kids watch this? And if you told them they couldn’t do you think they’d find a way to watch it anyways?
The bottom line is it works – this is nothing new, we saw it in the 80’s with rock and roll, we saw it in the 90’s with sex and today is no different. If you tell kids their parents will hate it, or don’t want them to see it, it makes them want it more.
Have a comment? We’d love to hear from you! Let us know what you think about these new ad’s and the impact on kids.
It was the beginning of my sophomore year and the entire student body at USC had just gained access to the newbie social networking site. We learned that Facebook originated at Harvard, spread to the other Ivy’s and finally made the 3,000 miles journey west to Stanford, UCLA, and USC. My friends and I carefully crafted our retrospectively primitive profiles by adding birthdays, classes and other basic information. We agonized over the perfect profile picture because if you recall, users were only offered one pixilated representation.
Recently Facebook has undergone scrutiny regarding their privacy settings. It seems that people are suddenly feeling violated by the somewhat complicated privacy options. In fact, recently I have found myself defending Facebook’s honor whenever a disloyal user casually threatens to un-friend the online sphere. I stand by my conviction that social networking will only further infiltrate our society; there is no sense in fighting an inevitable. I’m sure there was much controversy over e-mail in its infantile stage; how impersonal! Can you imagine not using it now?
Honestly, having been a Facebook user for six harmonious years has afforded me the luxury of growing with the network. Mark Zuckerberg and his team have introduced countless changes and tweaks every year, which has made understanding what Facebook is today fairly seamless for long-time members, such as myself.
However, every one of those new additions was met with resistance from users, because people don’t like change. Some people might remember the controversy over the introduction of the news feed about three years ago. The modification took some adjusting, but right on its heels followed its cousin, Twitter.
But back to the privacy uproar of present. Yes, more information is available online; your information to be exact. However, skeptics tend to overlook that users are in full control of how much information is given. The only real requirements are your full name and email, which is a heck of a lot less incriminating than ordering a pair of shoes online.
While the sharing of personal information is admittedly a scary subject, it’s the future. I suppose I just don’t find our future to be bleak. The world wide transmission of information has led to so many wonderful reunions and created an easy way to connect. I personally keep in touch with literally hundreds of people I would have otherwise let fall to the wayside of my life. Aside from personal connections, I feel more connected to the world in general, and I don’t even mind being shown targeted advertisements every three seconds.
Bottom line: Next time you get frustrated/upset because you keep getting Farmville invitations or you just saw that your Ex is engaged…rethink pressing the delete button. The truth is you’ll only end up signing up again once you get bored/curious/over your Ex.
The rumors are true, the famous Disney star and teen idol, Miley Cyrus, has deleted her twitter account leaving thousands of followers/fans feeling “neglected” according to an MTV.com article. It seems they will have to go on with their lives without knowing what Miley ate for breakfast, what song she’s listening to on her iPod, or what her dog just did. Stating that the site had begun to “blur the lines between her private and public life” she chose to terminate the account when she realized how much time she was wasting on the site.
So when do our tweets start to defeat the purpose of Twitter? And what even is the real purpose of twitter? I guess I’m not sure what its original intention was but it has become a mix of micro-blogging, instant messaging, and status updates built around different emerging social trends. For some Twitter users, it is a business tool, for others it’s simply a way to keep in touch with friends, and for many it has become a way to keep up on what celebrities are doing on a daily basis.
Many think that Twitter is just a way to talk about the mindless stuff people do all day and to stalk their favorite celebrities. My rebuttal to those people is that the glory of Twitter is you can make it what you want it to be. You don’t have to follow any celebrities, you don’t have to follow politicians, and you don’t even have to follow anyone you know. You can keep it to just your friends, just people in your industry, or just news sources. And if someone starts to tweet about mundane things that are boring to you, you can ‘un-follow’ them, never to receive a boring tweet from them again.
On the other hand, you can tweet about whatever you want. If you want to tell people what you did in your morning workout, what you are doing this weekend, or if you found a cool restaurant you want to recommend, it’s all up to you. I choose to tweet mostly to my friends, but I follow many news sources, travel experts, and all things Colorado. I constantly follow new people, and delete old people I am not getting any value from following. My advice to skeptics – don’t knock it till you try it. It may take time to find the perfect balance of tweeting and following but once you do, it can be both useful and entertaining.
- Kaitlyn Anderson, Marketing Trailblazer
When in a service industry of any kind, the state of the economy can take a large toll on a company’s profitability.Lately, the economic downturn has forced many companies to cut budgets, freeze spending, initiate layoffs, or worse – close their doors.When speaking to many of our clients, partners and friends, it seems that many people are either suffering or prospering – there truly is a balance of good and bad right now.
However, it is difficult to ignore all of the negative media coverage regarding the current economic state.The media’s redundant message of “doom and gloom” eventually convinces us all that we must surrender and give in to the recession that is upon us.
Brand Iron disagrees.
As a company, we’re opting to not participate in the recession this year.Yes, you heard it here first.Brand Iron is not giving in to the “doom and gloom.”We challenge you to do the same.
Many companies are focusing on the positives and the new opportunities that this changing business landscape has opened up.For example, in an industry (luxury travel) where economic woes can take a gigantic toll on profitability Carnival Cruise Lines is saying “we will not go quietly into the night” and await the inevitable.Carnival continues to make strides towards out-of-the-box, interactive advertising.
I’m sure we have all seen the commercial with the large beach ball floating around downtown Dallas.That commercial was an extremely effective way for Carnival to catch the attention of the business-class professional on their lunch break.Throw a gigantic beach ball onto a bustling street full of unhappy professionals and see what happens – attention, positive feedback and enjoyment, that’s what.
Today, I came across an article about Carnival’s latest attempt at interactive advertising.They’ve managed to take advantage of the empty street-level office spaces in the Houston, Baltimore, Los Angeles, New York and D.C. areas by installing “virtual aquariums” for all to interact with.
Picture this, you’re walking down a cold city sidewalk on your lunch break when you look to your right – no longer is there an empty office space with a broker’s contact information in the window.No, you now see a 12-foot digital aquarium.Not only is this virtual aquarium engaging, it’s interactive.In five easy steps, you can use your cell phone to design a personalized fish to appear instantly in that very same window.This is an example of a company seeing an opportunity that may not have presented itself before the downturn in the economy. This is brand evolution and adaptation at its best.If there are three pearls of wisdom that we should all recognize after this economic downturn, they would be: never stay static, always engage new ways of marketing, and consistently separate yourselves from the competition.
Blogging is a trend on the rise. It was just a few years ago that people started to post their opinions on the web about anything and everything by writing a personal blog. Now, more and more companies and their CEO’s are posting blogs, exciting consumers about new products, services, events, or just getting them caught up on industry related news.
Here at Brand Iron, we too keep a weekly blog, written by everyone from the president to the interns to help keep our customers informed. Recently, we came across this story on NBC Nightly News-hear what the “experts” say about blogging and how you can utilize blogging to help promote your company.
World Wide Papas (WWP) is the exclusive area developer of Papa John’s restaurants in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region of Russia. Founders, Darrin Stock (left) and Gary Hamilton (right), created this company on the basis that history is bound to repeat itself. This history being the idea that Russian markets are experiencing a boom in the quick-casual dining market, similar to the boom the US experienced in this industry in the ‘70s. Their idea is to provide the highest-quality pizza product and dining experience to consumers in one of the largest European markets. This concept could not have taken flight without the
work of dedicated Brand Champions. Brand Champions are people who live for their brand, set their company up for success, and set good examples for brand ambassadors. In the case of this effort to bring progression to a non-westernized marketplace, Darrin Stock and Gary Hamilton have emerged as clear champions for the World Wide Papa’s brand.
to the success of WWP, Hamilton and Stock worked with Brand Iron to create a unified brand that could be identified and communicated throughout the US and foreign markets. Brand Iron worked with WWP on corporate design to develop a logo (shown left) that would resonate with the parent brand while still introducing a visual image unique to WWP.
attract the bridge funding to strengthen all aspects of the Company and prepare for a listing of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. WWP embraced the concept that branding is more than a snappy logo, and can actually affect your ability to attract customers, generate profit, and expand your presence in the marketplace.
