Happy Babies....Happy Moms

That seemed to be the theme of our Applied Learning on Friday with Kimberly-Clark. Deb Bauer, Huggies Global Director of Brand Development (very serious title, I know), took us through KC's new strategy for Huggies Supreme Natural Fit. This was very interesting when you consider that she runs the Huggies Brand Team that was recently named Brandweek's 2008 Marketers of the Year. She gave us the opportunity to divide up into small teams and debate the same questions to Huggies faced earlier this year.

Five out of six team adpoted the "Happy Babies=Happy Moms" message, but came up with different tactical approaches to delivering the message. KC chose to incorporate humor in their message, which Deb said was a huge break from KC's traditional approach to diaper marketing. Check out the "Brick Baby" spot on Youtube. I also recommend the Inside the Diaper. This was a viral video Huggies put together to uncover the "real story" behind their Geyser ad. Brian Ward almost died he was laughing so hard at the video.

Key takeway: Don't be afraid to challenge convention. The Huggies team took a big risk breaking away from its traditional advertising and 1) putting Moms in the ads and 2) using humor to talk about a sensitive issue. If they had not done this, Pampers would have continued to take share in the Super Premium category.

Changing topics: So I was walking home after the Applied Learning (it was Halloween mind you) and I heard this guy yelling "You will never catch me." Naturally, I turned around as this is not something you hear every day and saw a guy dressed as the Joker (Heath Ledger style) on a scooter coming down the street. I chuckled to myself and kept walking.

Thirty seconds later, I hear a guy yelling "Come back. You will never get away." Another guy was yelling, "Bam. Zah. Crash. Boom." Who was it? The Caped Crusaders. Two guys dressed as Batman and Robin were chasing the Joker on their scooters. Maybe I am the only one that thought this was funny, but it definitely made what was a beautiful Friday that much better. Try to picture it and you will laugh to yourself.