Lessons From The Simpsons

COVER STORY

Lessons From The

SIMPSONS If there’s one thing the creators of America’s favorite dysfunctional family know, it’s how to develop powerful relationships with the show’s marketing and licensing partners. Here’s what you can learn from Homer and Marge. (BY KENNETH HEIN)

o doubt, sex sells. Just ask Marge Simpson. ✽ Never in the

N

20-year history of The Simpsons has momma Simpson been

more popular than now. Why? She bares all in the November 2009 issue of Playboy. She is drawn in all her blue-haired glory

within the pages of the men’s skin mag for all to see. She even

answers the famed Playboy questionnaire, responding to questions about, well, why she and Homer get along so perfectly in the bedroom. “Homer and I have one rule that has worked incredibly well,” Marge says in the magazine. “Never go to bed hungry.” The Marge pictorial and Q&A are all in honor of the show’s recent 20 th anniversary. Not only is it revealing for Marge and her family, but it’s also a coup on Playboy’s part. Just goes to 38

show how willing companies and licensees that partner with the 20-year-old Simpsons franchise are to embrace their slightly subversive side. Over the years The Simpsons has partnered with Vans Shoes, Ben & Jerry’s, JetBlue and even Microsoft. Bart has been the spokesperson for Butterfinger.

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Homer has done the honors for Intel. And since 1992, Burger King has done at least 10 cobranded promotions, and as of September, Fox’s franchise boasted more than 600 licensees and promotional partners around the world. So what is it about this yellow animated family from Springfield?

According to Pace University marketing professor Paul Kurnit, it’s part psychological. “They are an archetypal American family with wildly funny over-the-top dysfunctionality,” he says. “We recognize ourselves and our family members in them.” Chris Thilk, editor of Movie Marketing Madness, says it’s soci-

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ological. “The Simpsons works so well for marketers, because for people my age (I’m 35), this is a major cultural touchstone. Everyone remembers those first five seasons and how they had to sneak their Bart Simpson shirt past their parents.” Cindy Syracuse, Burger King’s senior director of cultural marketing, agrees. “The Simpsons is such a natural partner for Burger King Corp. and one we always trust will go over well with our Super Fans. The subversive, iconic humor of the property fits nicely with Burger King Corp.’s irreverent brand personality. It’s not hard to imagine Homer Simpson chomping on a WHOPPER sandwich, and in fact, he did just that in a Burger King commercial in 2007 as part of our promotion for The Simpsons Movie.”

IN ON THE ACTION Indeed, fans of The Simpsons are so passionate, they want to touch and feel the brand, which has opened the window wide for promotional products. One of Burger King’s more recent Kids Meal tie-ins, for example, played off of the family’s pink sofa that they jump on during the opening of each episode. It featured toys that snapped together using a “Hang Out With The Simpsons” theme. 7-Eleven took it to a whole other level. Comfortable with the fact that it had been spoofed on The Simpsons for decades, it decided to get in on the joke. This

meant changing the facade of 12 of its stores to that of the show’s Kwik-E-Mart. The revamped stores even had spray-painted graffiti reading “Skinner stinks!” signed by “El Barto.” The treatment was so well done that Sandi Means, COO of FreshWorks, the marketing agency that produced the tie-in with 7-Eleven, had to stop employees from cleaning it off the side of the building. 7-Eleven also outfitted the stores’ employees in uniforms like those worn by the Kwik-EMart staff (each of the participating stores received 20 uniforms). And in an impressive example of reverse product placement, 7-Eleven even stocked the store shelves with formerly fictional favorites like Duff Beer, Buzz

Burger King enjoyed a successful promotional tie-in with The Simpsons Movie.

Cola and Frosted KrustyO’s. People drove miles to see the transformed stores and buy these limited-time-only products in bulk. Even The Simpsons’ creator Matt Groening stood in line to

buy things at one of the stores. Groening told TV personality Jon Stewart during an interview about the smiles he saw on people’s faces. “They were really enjoying themselves,” says Bobbi Merkel,

HOW TO MAKE ENTERTAINMENT TIE-INS WORK very month a major entertainment property launches a big promotion with a crowd of marketing partners. More often than not, campaigns come and go, leaving little impression once they have concluded. Successful Promotions s asked the experts, “How do you pick the right property to create a promotion that will resonate?” Here’s what they had to say: ■ Make sure it’s a fit. “You have to ask yourself, is this appropriate content for your brand?” says Kelly O’Keefe, managing director of the Virginia Commonwealth University Brandcenter. “If you get involved with something like a South Parkk, you might get push back.” ■ Evaluate the risks. Hannah Montana may seem like a good fit, but what happens when Miley Cyrus ends up in trouble? “Stars fall from grace,” says O’Keefe. “At one point Michael Vick looked good. The Simpsons s are good because they aren’t real. And MetLife has Snoopy, who isn’t going to end up in jail.” ■ Make it unique. FreshWorks’ COO Sandi

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Means says her agency “picks properties that customers are going to identify with, can’t get enough of and are totally into. You want to give them an experience, information or an item they can’t get anywhere else at that time.” ■ Understand that maybe the hottest property isn’t the best. People loved The Twilight Saga: New Moon, but were they paying attention to the stars or their brand partners? Does anyone really remember AT&T and Volvo had tied in with the film? Pace University Marketing Professor Paul Kurnit warns: “The risk is always that larger-than-life characters can overwhelm the brand. But when the fit is right, the characters have been able to add visibility and added interest to their brand associations.” ■ Look for flexible partners. “The question is, how creative can I be?” says Michael Stone, president and CEO of the licensing firm The s is a very creBeanstalk Group. “The Simpsons ative brand. They keep renewing themselves. And ask yourself, can I take advantage of the equities of the brand?” If not, look elsewhere.

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Lessons From The

SIMPSONS senior vice president of convergence at FreshWorks. “That’s what we heard from so many people through our customer service line.”

BUILDING ON BRAND AWARENESS One of the key strengths of The Simpsons is that people know the characters, the settings and the products intimately. So it gives marketers a lot of room to play, says Kelly O’Keefe, managing director of the Virginia Commonwealth Universit y Brandcenter. “We know the show and the subject matter. We know

items and say, ‘Oh, you’re into The Simpsons too?’ It’s like a club. A very big club.” Perhaps one of the most unique collector’s items is Marge’s randy pictorial and frank Q&A session with Playboy magazine. “It’s so rare in today’s digital age that you have an opportunity to send people to the newsstand to pick something up,” says Playboy editorial director Jimmy Jellinek. “This was a call to action for our readers.” The adult magazine saw the Marge issue as a chance to appeal to the 20-something crowd. The show’s popularity across a large demographic is perhaps the biggest draw for marketers, says Dr. Scott Testa, a professor at Cabrini College. “The pop culture appeal is multigenerational. It crosses a lot of demographics.”

A LASTING APPEAL

Marge Simpson “posed” for a recent Playboyy magazine and even discussed her sex life.

the characters and the storylines. We see Duff Beer at 7-Eleven and we get the joke.” O’Keefe says the countless collectibles that have popped up over the years are “fantastic. They resonate with fans. They are a badge of honor. People see the 40

There are enormous merchandising opportunities for The Simpsons, says Michael Stone, president and CEO of the licensing agency The Beanstalk Group. “The fact is, you can produce licensed products for kids and a shot glass with Homer on it and both are desirable. That shows you how far this brand can stretch.” Plus, the Fox franchise has proved it’s no flash in the pan. That can’t be said for many other entertainment properties. “Twenty years is a testament to how good the show is,” says Testa. “Who wouldn’t want to partner with a show that has that kind of timeline?”

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For FreshWorks’ Means and Merkel, the 7-Eleven promotion became a part of them, much like the show. Each has her favorite stories. Merkel says she was hugged by one fan who was crying when she saw the Kwik-EMart brought to life before her eyes. “It took us 18 months to put together. It was very much a part of our lives,” she says. The store standees and other items were donated to charity, and many (about 180 on August 27, 2007 according to The New York Times) ended up on eBay; some products can still be found there today. Merkel kept her Kwik-E-Mart name badge as a memento, while Means kept a “complete set of everything” – the uniform smock, T-shirt and baseball hat that were made for the store employees. “Employees were getting offered outrageous amounts of money for their smocks. I can’t believe how many photos I posed for in the

An enthusiastic 7-Eleven employee stands with props from the Kwik-EMart campaign.

uniform,” Means says. She also has two Styrofoam coolers out of the 1,000 that were produced. In the end, “It was one of the most organic and natural-fitting properties I’d ever seen,” says Means. In many ways, it overachieved. “It won so many awards, it got embarrassing,” she says. Not bad for a family of underachievers. Kenneth Hein is a contributing writer for Successful Promotions.

SOME TOP SIMPSONS S LICENSED PRODUCTS FROM ACROSS THE GLOBE ■ United States: TomTom navigational devices that allow users to have the original voice of Homer tell them where to go. But would you trust him? ■ United Kingdom: The Spiderpig money bank. Does whatever a Spiderpig bank does … ■ Italy: Segora is creating a Simpsons s line of perfume. Does it smell like donuts? Mmmm … donuts. ■ Latin America: A drink line including Loncoleche flavored milk and Yogu Yogu drinkable yogurt. What, no Squishee? ■ Australia: To celebrate the show’s 21st season this year, News Limited is creating a special-edition newspaper with collectible stickers and albums. No word yet on whether the lead story will be about “Bart getting a boot to the buttocks” (see the episode “Bart Versus Australia,” season six).

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