Brilliant Branding: How 60's Ad Legend Mary Wells Launched Braniff and Changed the Airline Industry

Move over Mad Men. During the 60's (and for decades more) Mary Wells Lawrence was Madison Avenue's leading lady - famous for big ideas that got people talking and buying. She and other luminaries of her day, like Bill Bernbach, David Ogilvy, and Leo Burnett, were masters at commercial storytelling and it's worth rediscovering their work.

Case in point: Look at what Ms. Wells Lawrence did for the 1968 launch of Braniff International, then an unknown airline in an industry of bland carriers. 

First she teamed up with famed architect Alexander Girard; together they convinced Braniff's brass to paint each plane a bright acid hue. 

She then brought in Italian couturier Emilio Pucci to design ultra-mod uniforms for the crew, and used edgy decorators to produce chic space-age passenger terminals and aircraft cabins. 

From all of this (and more) she went on to spin advertising and publicity gold. 

Braniff debuted with a stunning ad campaign that heralded 'The End of the Plain Plane,' and indeed it was. Other carriers raced to slick themselves up, but Braniff did it first - and best. 

Braniff's launch was wrapped around a mammoth brand story - and it was integrated marketing way ahead of its time.

To get a sense of what Madison Avenue was really like back in the 60's, check out Mary Wells Lawrence's 2002 memoir, 'A Big Life in Advertising'. Also, check out Braniff's mind-blowing "End of the Plain Plane" TV spots.

Now that U.S. airlines are profitable again and with passenger satisfaction at an all-time low, perhaps it's time for airline marketers to study Braniff's playbook - or better yet, give Mary a call. 

Ralph Lauren's amazing 4D augmented reality light show in New York and London

Ralph Lauren's flagship store in New York

This week Ralph Lauren boldly pushed the publicity and merchandising envelope with an extraordinary 4D light show, billed as “The Ultimate Collision Of Fashion, Art, & Technology,”  that superimposed lush cinematic effects on the company's storefronts in New York and London.

The roughly seven-minute light show celebrating Ralph Lauren's 10-year old online business was an eye-popping, multi-sensory happening powered by the latest in augmented reality and "architectural mapping." 

In one sequence the illusion of a grand staircase unfolding from inside the building's belly set the stage for 3D models who descended catwalk-style while towering chandeliers lowered from the night sky. Fade to black and seconds later a row of silk ties appeared, almost Dali-like, flapping gently in the virtual breeze. 

Next, a lizard skin belt stretched the building's width and cinched its glamorous waist. Again, momentary darkness until a giant crocodile handbag popped up and revolved 360-degrees. Fade once more and ... boom! Like a wild band of ghosts the brand’s signature polo players thundered across the store's facade, dashing in and out of sight.  

The big 4D moment arrived when four Big Pony fragrance bottles appeared and on cue one bottle spritzed the crowd below.

 RL's old-line image belies the fact that it is one of only a few luxury brands with a significant digital footprint. In addition to cross-channel advertising and an array of online catalogs, the company maintains a video-centric lifestyle website called RLTV, offers iPhone apps, and boasts more than one million friends on Facebook. Indeed, video of the 4D light show, now posted all over the social landscape, is neatly integrated across the Ralph Lauren's own digital network. 

"Digi-novelist" Anthony Zuiker erects "cyber-bridge” to mesh story across publishing, film and social networking.

What is a digi-novel? Digi-novelist Anthony Zuiker, who is also the creator of the hit TV show “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” described it to J.D. Biersdorfer, tech reporter at The New York Times, as “the best of publishing, motion picture and social communities all kind of meshed into one experience.”

Zuiker just published, “Dark Prophecy,” the second in his "Level 26″ crime thriller series, that is being marketed both as a printed novel and an e-book for iPad with Web links to a 52 minute-long film edited into 11 segments. There is free content on Level 26’s YouTube channel as well.

To promote “‘Dark Prophecy” Zuiker wrote a serial killer from the book into his Oct. 14 episode of CSI – the book’s release date. That’s a hefty publicity score considering CSI reaches nearly 15 million TV viewers each week.

Zuiker told Bloomberg’s Ronald Glover that disappointing sales of his first crime novel, “Level 26: Dark Origins,”  prompted his to engage “CSI” fans by creating a cyber-bridge” to link the story across publishing, film and social networking.  He said, “If I can just get 1 percent of the 15 million people who watch ‘CSI’ to buy this book I’ll have a bestseller on my hands.”  

Why well-integrated talent/teams produce well-integrated media campaigns

In pre-digital days many ad agencies operated like talent fiefdoms. Agencies where often branded “creative,” "media," or “account-driven,” depending on who was in power.

Today everyone on an account team, whether creative or analytic, has skin in the digital game, requiring agencies to do a better job aligning their talent pools.

Collaboration may be the new reality, but that doesn’t mean it’s easily achieved. As Steve Kerho, SVP, Analytics, Media and Marketing Optimization at Organic, Inc., recently posted on Fast Company's blog, seamless teamwork demands strong leadership from senior managers who foster cross-pollination by making it clear that everyone succeeds or fails together.

The fact is, no agency working in the digital space nowadays can afford the old creative vs. analytics mentality.  Technology, properly used and shared, will unify talent, make agencies stronger, and empower innovation.