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Starcom’s Taylor Sees Clients Embrace New Media

Oct 31, 2007  •  Post A Comment

When packaged-goods companies are embracing digital media, you know there have been big changes in the advertising industry.
So says Ken Taylor, executive VP and group client leader at Starcom USA, who is responsible for running the agency’s Kellogg and Lego accounts.
With the combination of Kellogg and Lego, most people think his job is about marketing to kids. And that is one area he focuses on. Indeed, the kids marketplace is becoming a digital space at an accelerating pace as younger and younger kids go online, Mr. Taylor said.
But Kellogg is a major marketer to adults as well, and it is strongly embracing digital to reach grownups.
“When you start to see CPG [consumer packaged goods] companies like a Kellogg’s start investing truly appreciable percentages of their overall marketing mix into new emerging and digital spaces, you start to know you’re getting a watershed level of adoption within the marketplace,” Mr. Taylor said.
For Kellogg, the Pop Tarts brand has been a trendsetter in using digital media, including video-on-demand, broadband, instant messaging and mobile.
A couple of years ago, Pop Tarts ran a campaign called the Great Fruit Escape, featuring a “Survivor”-style competition among various flavors of the toaster pastry trying to get off an island and avoid being eaten.
“Consumers were able to vote on who they thought should survive and help pick the wining flavor at the end of it,” Mr. Taylor said. “It was activated across a multitude of touch points.”
More recently, Kellogg’s Special K brand worked with Yahoo to create a digital hub called MyK.com that provides information and community for the weight-managing woman.
“It’s been quite successful in terms of ROI and other brand metrics. We’ve seen some very favorable results on it,” Mr. Taylor said. Indeed, that’s a key advantage of digital media programs.
“The fact that I can put an ROI against it, as well as the fact that I can say it’s moved certain brand-equity measures, that champions TV right out of the gate, doesn’t it?” he said.
And clients like Kellogg are no longer merely dabbling in the digital space.
“If you go back a couple of years, it was, ‘Well, television is doing scale, and this other stuff will provide me with a deeper level of engagement.’ We’re getting to a level of scale with Yahoo and Google where all of a sudden we can provide both,” he said.
Growing up in the Chicago suburbs, Mr. Taylor wasn’t one of those people who knew exactly what he wanted to be when he grew up. At Bradley University, he had four majors: He tried math, fine arts photography and commercial design before choosing marketing communications.
After graduation, with the help of his sister who knew a secretary at the agency, Mr. Taylor got a job as an estimator in the media department at Leo Burnett, which later became Starcom.
Since then, he’s been professionally monogamous, but has had plenty of changes of scenery over the course of his 19-year career, moving from Chicago to Hong Kong to Los Angeles and Detroit before returning to Chicago after the birth of his daughter.
Working on different accounts has been refreshing as well. His other clients have included Reebok, Procter & Gamble, McDonald’s and General Motors.
“I’ve had the ability to move accounts and move cities, and in fact move countries, and get a really diversified perspective on the business, and it’s kind of nice because you have the safety net of working for one company,” he said. “You’re applying your skill base in a whole new manner based on that particular client’s business and the category they operate in.”
Mr. Taylor and wife Ellie have two children, Matt, 7, and Anna, 5. Besides spending time with his family, he likes to cook.
“I’m the weekend or dinner-party cook. I love to put on a good show.”
He also likes to make furniture. He works in a variety of styles: Shaker, mission, classical, modern. He made nothing for his office yet, and probably won’t for a while, because he lost his workshop. His father, with whom he shared a garage workshop on the south side of Chicago, retired. At the same time his mother got tired of brushing snow off her car and decided to reclaim the garage. He’s hoping to be able to put his tools in the basement and get back to woodworking.
Mr. Taylor also puts his building skills to work for Habitat for Humanity. He recently spent a week of his vacation time with other members of his church constructing homes in Waveland, Miss., which was devastated by Hurricane Katrina.
Who knew: Mr. Taylor’s wife recently became a yoga instructor, teaching at a health club and at a yoga studio. Has she got him on the mat doing yoga? “She’s trying her best, man,” he said. “I’m making every effort to be open to it.”

31 Comments

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  2. I saw a pop-up ad for kellogg cereal during last season’s Lingo on the Game Show Network. Suffice to say I no longer watch Lingo or buy Kellogg products. Same thing goes for other products on other channels i.e. Simpsons Movie pop-up during Family Guy on Fox;20 years of funny writing gone down the drain b/c of in your face advertising! Sci-fi channels best new show of 06′ EUREKA!, I was hooked from the very first episode,couldn’t wait for season 2 & then the pop-upads began during Star Trek enterprise, well guess what, I refuse to watch EUREKA! season 1 or 2 & I refuse to buy the DVD b/c of in your face advertising pop-up ads, & who pays the price?the actors, writers & sponsors who air legit commercials.

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