Good afternoon,
This week we will be discussing the importance of food advertising. In addition, the focus will be placed on big businesses trying to capitalize on a market’s desire to eat. The main forms of advertising to customers are still used with great success, but marketing to millennials introduces new challenges. To combat this change, companies are capitalizing on new ways to advertise through social media in addition to their standard advertising strategies.
One company that has adapted to the changing advertising channels is Wendy’s. In their Pretzel-bun return campaign, Wendy’s is attempting to keep millennials interested and aware of this revival. They are implementing direct involvement from this target audience by taking tweets and Facebook comments and combining them to make a musical parody of once popular songs. These songs are sung by various singers and songwriters.
You can follow along and get involved by tweeting and commenting using the hashtag: (#pretzellovesongs).
The millennial generation is one market that advertisers and businesses are striving to understand. With different lifestyles, habits, and needs, the millennial generation has proven its uniqueness in posing new challenges for marketing campaigns. Wendy’s utilization of digital advertising while simultaneously speaking the millennial’s language of hashtags, tweets, and Facebook posts has created a strong brand-consumer relationship that doesn’t seem to be fading anytime soon. Growing up in a digital, participatory culture, this generation is driven by interaction. By Wendy’s allowing their younger consumers to interact, create, and view their ideas to share with millions of people, it seems as though they have tapped into and figured out the perfect formula for marketing to millennials.
Wendy’s isn’t just your ordinary fast food chain anymore. In fact, Wendy’s according to Technomic, a very prominent research firm, became the number 2 burger joint in America, passing Burger King who had been number 2 for several decades. Through their new star girl, Morgan Goodwin, Wendy’s has cultivated this red-headed woman as the backbone in Wendy’s advertising. According to George Gerbner’s Cultivation Theory, a main factor in his theory is resonance. What is meant by resonance is that the more someone watches something through television, the more likely they are to believe and portray what they saw on television, as reality in everyday life. Whenever we see the Wendy’s girl on billboards, internet ad’s, or television, we already know the commercial will be about Wendy’s, even if there is no food in the displayed content.
Go check out Wendy’s hilariously genius digital advertisements. There a perfect blend of ridiculousness and brilliance that will make you want to share with your friends. Stay tuned for further blog post’s this week about food advertising.
-Colby Cummings, Connor Gold, Chase Seymour
IMC Hawks Blog 