Aggregating fame, feeling and fluency out of doors

If you live in New York, have ever visited New York, or simply watched the ball drop on New Year’s Eve on television, you know that this one place is probably the epicenter of branding for awareness - much of it having nothing to do with Broadway entertainment.

So why do brands from Walgreens to Ricoh to Guess Jeans to HSBC choose Times Square as a key media buy and branding opportunity?

Ultimately consumers tend to be less the loyalists that marketing science has had us believe for decades. Rather, they make “good enough” choices, instinctive choices...choices made often with their unconscious System-1 brain. Because of this, brands looking for growth are faced with the following questions:

• Does my brand come easily to mind?
• Do people feel good about my brand?
• Is my brand recognizable?

The number of pedestrians who pass through Times Square is estimated at 300,000 (as much as 480,000 on heavy traffic days). The Times Square Alliance estimates that a sign in Times Square receives an estimated 1.5 million impressions per day, and that there are over 200 banners, over 150 Recept-a-signs, and 54 Big Belly Recycling Bins in the district available to advertise businesses, products and services.

But add to that the multiple of those impressions who see the ad in the backgrounds of selfies taken at Times Square posted on Trip Advisor, Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube (which claims to host over 1,520,000 videos tagged as Times Square.)

Perhaps the exposure to brands in Times Square is subliminal. Perhaps it is too far away from the actual moment of purchase truth.

One exception is the Times Square M&M’S World, a 3-story, 25,000 square feet (2,322 square meter) retail space selling M&M’s in a variety of flavors & colours, plus toys & related merchandise, seven days a week from 9:00AM to midnight. It includes a 50-foot (15 m)-wide, two-story-high, "wall of chocolate", made up of 72 continuous candy-filled tubes. The Times Square location of M&M’s World is one of 5 including the original site in Las Vegas, Orlando, London and Shanghai.

One can argue that the retail presence in Times Square is a theme park to the iconic candy that, let’s face it, was great when we were six or when we are binge watching the entire of Game of Thrones Season 4. We talk about M&M’s (do the red ones really taste different), belly laughs at the ads featuring lascivious characters who flirt with the very humans about to gobble them up, and even seek combinations to support our sports teams or corporate colors. But it is no Leonidas!

Why would MARS operate brick and mortar retail shops, paying some of the highest real estate fees globally, for a product sold in just about every grocer worldwide at far lower prices (a pound of M&Ms at the Times Square location is estimated at $12.99)?  

FAME
Because doing so makes M&M’s come to mind – you can’t miss the brand in Times Square!
FEELING
This out-of-doors advertising reminds us of how the brand makes us feel…happy. Poll any family of young kids braving those 300.000 pedestrians for a trip to Times Square…M&M’S World is the highlight.
FLUENCY
People immediately recognize the M&M’s logo. There are other hard shell candy covered bits of chocolate, but the monograms are instantly recognized - particularly when they dance, sing and can be cuddled in plush toys.
Mars’ strategy seems to have seized the formula Fame, Feeling & Fluency. These are at the core of their path to profitable business growth and it’s all part of a bigger plan; Times Square is just one tactic. There is a world of candy lovers to conquer.

Read more from Susan Griffin and Brainjuicer here.