The year 2016 will go down as one of the most interesting for brand
marketing, thanks in large part to the extraordinary and intense
presidential primaries and general election, the Summer Olympics and
assorted controversies and scandals that rocked major blue chip brands.
The Brand Super Bowl
The year started promisingly enough, with a respectable crop of ads for
Super Bowl 50. My favorite (though many may disagree) is still the Audi
R8 "Commander" spot.
In 60 seconds, we see the spirits of an aging former astronaut uplifted
by getting behind the wheel of this amazing rocket ship of a sports car
with intercuts from his NASA glory days.
The cinematography and editing, along with David Bowie's "Starman"
still gives me chills. Some thought the spot was ill conceived, playing
on those suffering from dementia or Alzheimer's in order to sell
$100,000 cars — a particularly cynical take on an inspiring piece of
advertising.
The Brand Election
In politics, the big winner for 2016 was the Trump brand. However,
numerous articles and interviews have speculated on the viability of a
global brand personified by such an often outrageous and controversial
figure.
Throughout this past year, just when we thought he had self-imploded,
he came roaring back. Billions in free media publicity, relentless NRA
campaigns and negative publicity for rival Hillary Clinton kept Trump in
the game.
How will a Trump presidency impact the value of Trump branded
properties and products in the coming year? This will largely depend on
how Trump separates himself from his holdings and how well his children
run the family business.
Another big brand winner was the NRA, thanks to an effective
multi-million dollar ad campaign that became the rallying point for
conservatives and Second Amendment voters to push Trump over the finish
line.
Not only did the NRA provide cover for Trump, it honed its own brand in
the process with a highly targeted and lethal message to the other
side.
The big political brand losers were the Democratic Party, Hillary
Clinton and Jeb Bush. Of all the primary candidates dispatched by Trump
in the 2016 primaries, Jeb's fall was the most crushing. Like the
Titanic, Bush's brush with the Trump iceberg in South Carolina took his
campaign swiftly to the bottom before the last polls closed and with
$100 million on board.
The Brand Losers
The year wasn't kind to other brands, either. Self-inflicted, costly
and sometimes mortal wounds occurred several times throughout the year.
Consider these:
— Volkswagen shocked us all by outright deception regarding the
efficiency of its diesel engines. It's costing the world's largest
automaker hundreds of millions.
— Wells Fargo "solutions" sales pressure on bank associates to sell
more of its products became a scandal, eventually costing the CEO his
job and firing thousands.
— Years of over-promising and under delivering careers finally caught
up with ITT Tech. The national and leading tech school brand was forced
into bankruptcy.
— The state brand of North Carolina, with its highly publicized and
controversial stand on transgender bathroom rights, was devastating. The
state lost coveted convention and sports event commitments and revenues
in 2016.
— The much-anticipated 2016 Summer Olympics was a disappointment for
NBC, and U.S. team swimmer Ryan Lochte became an embarrassing news story
that cost him millions in sponsorships.
— Brands that caught fire with consumers were not exactly a good thing
in 2016. Ask Samsung about the Galaxy Note 7 phones, or any number of
hoverboard makers and the retailers who sold them.
The Brand Controversies
Early in 2016, the world's most valuable brand got into a confrontation
with the world's most revered law enforcement agency in a bizarre test
of wills.
It was Apple vs. the FBI over unlocking a dead terrorist's iPhone to
gather intelligence. Apple stood its ground and refused, for fear of
compromising its encryption software and the trust of its customers.
The FBI eventually figured out how to break the code without breaking the phone and dropped its case against Apple.
In 2016, Starbucks jumped into the political arena and asked for calm
and rational discourse in full-page ads that ran in prominent
newspapers. Nothing was mentioned about limiting one's caffeine to calm
down, of course.
The Belgian-Brazilian conglomerate that owns the Budweiser brand
surprised everyone by launching a renaming campaign for its flagship
beer to "America" in honor of the Summer Olympics. No gold medals here.
And at Delta, it was all hands on deck when a systems failure at its
Atlanta headquarters for a few hours sent air travel into a tailspin for
a few days. The airline gave us all a lesson in crisis management in
2016, even as it got mixed reviews.
The Brand New Year
If 2017 is anything like 2016, fasten your seat belts. See you on Feb. 5 when the next crop of Super Bowl spots come in!
Paul Friederichsen is a partner in The Blake Project www.theblakeproject.com brand consultancy and is a contributing writer to the New York Daily News.
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