Case Study: M&M's

First off, check out this list above from AdAge's Book of Tens from Dec '04. It's great to give recognition to these gutsy ideas, although I think a few aren't that cool. Are these the only great marketing ideas for all of 2004? I've always thought the Target Wake-up call deserved more recognition so I'm glad it's in this list. Still waiting to see what Mother/NY will come up with next. Some buzzwords from the article worth noting: Reverse product placement: Gatorade, Reintroduction: M&M's

Since we've posted about the M&M's cross-promotion/PR event with Star Wars (link to post),

and the "Great Color Quest" promotion (below is the TV spot),
Watch the spot.

why not include their latest print campaign, found in the March '05 issue of Creativity.

Originally, I intended this post to show how one brand was advertised through three ways: from a cross-promotion, from an innovative promotion that changed the product itself, and from print. I wanted to compare the three and ask which one did you think sold the most M&M's. If you were a client, which one would you buy? Does the print work? Does a cross-promotion with Star Wars work? I compared the three because I wanted to show how innovation does work better over print. The "Great Color Quest" promotion really shook up the brand and I think made the whole country notice (ie. the AdAge list). It's a great way of creating disruption and going 180.

But then, after looking at the M&M's website, I found out that there's a bigger story to be told. The "Great Color Quest" promotion was actually the first phrase of a much bigger campaign. The bigger campaign was a complete retransformation/reintroduction of the brand. The new M&M's would have more vibrant colors and the M's would be printed larger (the first logo change in 60 years). So instead of just advertising a make-over, the marketers took the colors away so that the consumers would notice the new colors.

"By involving consumers in the process of reclaiming color through a nationwide contest, we've made the brand transformation into a fun and interactive process, and by taking color away from M&M'S®, we've demonstrated just how important it is to have it back." press release.

After the "Great Color Quest" promotion ended, they introduced a new tag: Chocolate is Better in Color

Here are two spots from that tag.
Watch the spot.

Watch the spot.

Ok, so now after they did something they didn't do in 60 years, what's next?

1. Custom-printed M&M's where you can have your own words printed on the candies. link.

2. Special-edition M&M's that celebrate the NYC SUBWAY CENTENNIAL (from Nov '04). The M&M's are labeled as NYC subway routes and their matching colors. Pretty neat. press release.

All this makes me wonder if they can make M&M's glow in the dark for Halloween.

P.S. After seeing all this, how would you create a campaign for another candy? Snickers? Hershey's?
P.P.S. For the Star Wars cross-promotion, M&M's took it a step further by changing the chocolate inside to be dark chocolate instead of the regular milk chocolate. The dark relates to the introduction of Darth Vader in Episode III.