Road Lizards & Black Rubies Suddenly Appear in the Top 25
Chart Watch (Week 51)
As we come to the end of the media year, a few surprise campaigns have popped into the top 25. On Friday, I wrote about Alien Tape’s holiday offer suddenly appearing at No. 6. (Last week, it was No. 5.) Because there isn’t much else to talk about, below are two other sudden chart-toppers. But first…
I’ve written before about “left-digit bias,” the tendency of consumers to read prices ending in “99” as the leftmost digit rather than the closer, rounded-up digit (e.g. $9.99 is $9-something rather than $10). Now a University of Chicago business school professor has estimated the value of that bias: about 22 cents. In a new paper analyzing retail scanner data on 3,500 products sold by 25 US chains, Professor Avner Strulov-Shlain argues “retailers forgo 1 to 4 percent of potential gross profit due to…[a] coarse response to left-digit bias.” Check it out. It’s quite interesting!
Campaign: Lizard Flare
Marketer: BulbHead (Telebrands)
This is a rebranding of Flare Police (tested in May 2021) under the Lizard name. Other brand entries include Lizard Lite and Lizard Head Light. Prior to last week, this campaign had not appeared in the top 100. Right now, it’s No. 4.1
A “high tech safety flare with no flame” would seem to be a classic prevention item. It makes sense for people who might use a road flare, but that isn’t the mass market. There are some handy secondary uses for the product (e.g. hanging it under a car hood), but the primary messaging is clearly aimed at roadside emergencies. To be honest, I’m not sure why people are responding to that. It’s odd to buy something on impulse that you’ll then put in your trunk “just in case.” If this campaign persists into the new year, I’ll have to do a deeper dive to understand the consumer motivation here.
Campaign: Ruby Space Triangles
Marketer: BulbHead (Telebrands)
Ruby Sliders has been a bona-fide hit this year and will definitely make my 2022 True Top 50, so attempting to turn it into a flagship and extend the Ruby brand makes a lot of sense. But does this closet space-saving device fit the brand? Come to think of it, what would a “Ruby” brand even be about? At the most basic level, it could be about a distinctive ruby color. But this item is black, not red. It also doesn’t go on furniture or slide on the floor. I guess for now the brand is about small household problem solvers.
Otherwise, the campaign makes sense. Limited closet space is a persistent problem for which people are forever in search of a solution. In fact, Telebrands was one of the first (if not the first) to discover this with the monster success of Magic Hangers.2 A decade or so later, Hampton Direct dug up that Old Gold and had another great run with Wonder Hanger (2009-2010). No one has really cracked the code since then, so perhaps another success is due.
For a limited time, you can take advantage of my holiday special and get full access to The SciMark Report for half off the regular price. But hurry: Offer ends January 1.
If you really, really want to see the spot from 1998, you’ll have to endure this odd version on YouTube.