Cotton's New Cast of Characters
Say
the word ‘cotton’ to most anyone in America and you’ll get
the response, “The Fabric of Our Lives.
I just love those commercials.” This highly popular television advertising
campaign has been running since 1989 and is now airing its fourth generation
of commercials. The marketing executives at Cotton Incorporated say that
the campaign continues to be as effective today in building loyalty for
cotton as it was a decade ago.
So it was quite a surprise to many professionals in the textile industry
that Cotton Incorporated recently introduced a totally new print campaign
aimed at textile
decision-makers (manufacturers, designers, retailers,
importers). The new work features a delightful cast of 14-inch high ‘characters’
who were created to convey succinct selling messages about cotton and
Cotton Incorporated.  Says J. Berrye Worsham, Cotton Incorporated president and CEO, “Over
the years, Cotton Incorporated has always found innovative, arresting
and breakthrough ways of communicating our message about cotton to the
consumer and the trade. Our new campaign continues this tradition. We
remain committed to ensuring the trade knows the products made of cotton
are superior and are desired by the consumer more than any other fiber.”
Cotton’s long time advertising agency, Ogilvy & Mather, conceived
the campaign. The characters themselves were designed and produced by
MTV Commercials in the same New York City studios where Celebrity Death
Match and Daria are taped for MTV.
The first wave of ads began to run in key trade publications including
WWD (Women’s Wear Daily), DNR, HFN and HTT in mid-January.
Most of Cotton’s trade ads appear on the back covers of these publications,
so the campaign is highly visible. Ads call attention to cotton’s comfort, versatility, sales popularity
and its suitability for new office standards of casual dress. Cotton Incorporated’s
well-known trademark, the Seal of Cotton, appears as the first part of
each headline. Future ads will support company series and promotions and
continue to focus on cotton’s many attributes. Ira Livingston, Cotton Incorporated senior vice president of consumer
marketing, explains, “The messages delivered by Cotton’s new
cast of characters are guaranteed to get the attention of industry leaders.
How can anyone flipping through an industry trade publication possibly
ignore them?” Communicating with the textile trade is highly important to cotton’s
long-term success. Few manufacturers or retailers have any specific interest
in or loyalty to any fiber: instead they focus on producing products that
they feel they can sell at a profit. Therefore it becomes a part of Cotton
Incorporat-ed’s mission to keep them informed of cotton’s benefits
and popularity with consumers.  “Let’s face it. Readers of the textile trades are not particularly
interested in looking at the ads. They’re not reading the trades
for fun, it is part of their job,” explains Ric Hendee, vice president,
marketing services. “For our advertising to get noticed and remembered,
we have to jump off the page. That’s why we invented the characters.
They really do jump.”
Each year Cotton Incorporated places more than 250 full-page trade ads
in 10 publications in the U.S. in order to maintain a high level of awareness
of cotton’s popularity with consumers and to call attention to the
many services and activities the company provides for those who work with
cotton. The company’s annual budget for U.S. textile trade publications
exceeds $1 million.  "The messages delivered by Cotton's new
cast of caracters are guaranteed to get the attention of industry leaders.
How can anyone flipping through an industry trade publication possibly
ignore them?" IRA LIVINGSTON
Vice
President Consumer Marketing, Cotton Incorporated
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