Noticed a couple of new Glade spots in rotation, featuring the enigmatic Dori Kelly. I mention this for a couple of reasons – first, the product they are pushing – an air freshener with a motion detector that prevents wasting a lot of scent when nobody is there to appreciate it – is pretty cool. Second, I’ve been keeping an eye on my blog stats, and they are waaaaaay up, in no small part due to people hitting my site looking for information on the afore-mentioned Ms. Kelly. I’m not too proud to pander, in order to boost readership. Third (and more germane to this blog) I’m curious as to why SC Johnson (owners of the Glade brand) are not attempting to parlay interest in Dori Kelly into more publicity for their product.

The web (still) represents a Brave New World for marketing, where many of the traditional rules go out the window, while a host of new opportunities present themselves. For instance, in the pre-Web days, companies would never know they had a hit on their hands, excepting some kind of spike in sales. Today, all you have to do is to Google “glade lady” and you’ll see what looks like a disproportionately large number of articles, speculating on Dori’s background, the wisdom of ads that feature a spokesmodel who seems to be an inveterate liar and somewhat ashamed of their product, and why Glade isn’t using her image on their website, et cetera.

On that last point, I’m really curious as to why 1) SCJ hasn’t picked up on this trend – after all, they are renowned as a marketer’s marketing company, 2) why they aren’t using their P.R. chops to generate some grassroots interest in Kelly (who, presumably, would then push their products in the stories generated by her interviews), and 3) why Glade isn’t using her on the web, and perhaps trying to come up with ways to parlay interest in Kelly into interest in Glade products.

I’m not suggesting they do what the GEICO folks did with their Caveman property – that spin-off TV show was major lame – but certainly they could do something online that would boost their traffic and sales. Maybe webisodes, or longer-form spots, where they could give her character a backstory, and show how her foibles have gotten her friends to buy Glade.

As a marketer, I’m always concerned when I see somebody missing an opportunity, and this is no exception. So…I guess I’m going to have to call SCJ and do a little phone sleuthing to find out why they are ignoring what could be a marketing gold mine in regards to Ms. Kelly. Stay tuned…

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 29th, 2009 at 9:46 am and is filed under advertising, marketing.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.