iHome
When SDI Technologies, a fifty-year-old consumer products company, decided to enter the crowded iPod accessory market, it retained Noel Frankel to brand and launch a line of new products. (As a media consultant, Frankel created and produced the ads and marketing initiatives on this site.)
The results for iHome beat expectations. In its first year, iHome became the #1 brand in the iPod electronics market, and its iPod Clock Radio became and continues to be the #1 selling iPod speaker system in North America. Moreover, iHome's products can now be found worldwide through virtually every distribution network in over 70 countries.
Frankel’s tagline, "iHome is home base," positioned the product as the indispensable accessory for iPod and iPhone aficionados. The launch campaign consisted of ads targeting specific demographics and unique user applications.
These same images were included in Frankel’s iHome package design to reinforce retention and recall at point of purchase.
Frankel’s slick consumer magazine feel upgraded typical trade show leave-behinds.
Steinway
Could a product as legendary as Steinway pianos ever have an image problem?
While Steinway has remained the choice of nine out of ten concert artists for over 200 years, its reputation has left many would-be owners questioning whether they were accomplished enough to actually play one.
So Noel Frankel went to work and made Steinway ownership less formidable, without denigrating the brand. His campaign featured a humorous look at average players enjoying the instrument. The approach, together with regional sales events, resulted in an unprecedented spike in Steinway ownership.
In fact, Frankel's advertising was credited with the greatest increase in store traffic in Steinway's long, illustrious history.
EAST HAMPTON, NEW YORK
Founded in 1648 by Puritan farmers, East Hampton had been Republican since its incorporation in 1920.
The campaign Frankel created and illustrated led to the first Democratic Town Board at a time when Republicans were selling off the last public land to the highest bidders. Frankel’s tagline, “Democrats for East Hampton. It’s about time,” empathized the urgency of the vote.
Subsequently, the Democrats passed landmark open space legislation, which became the model for public land use throughout the country.
iHome now offers full lines of alarm clocks, portable speakers, Bluetooth vanity mirrors, sleep therapy wellness products and a line of smartphone home products.
LINCOLN BANK
German Agricultural Marketing Board
Created by German federal law to promote German food and beverages at home and abroad, CMA, the German Agricultural Marketing Board, retained Frankel as its creative director of record.
To overcome the perception that German-style meals are boring and heavy, Frankel developed the tagline, "German foods and beverages. The old world in a new light."
A series of nationwide focus groups established that the concept would prove efficacious with both Foodies and Traditionalists (with a self-deprecating sense of humor).
As a result, CMA has seen a significant spike at retail through a print, online and radio campaign that targets "Foodies" (cooks with a penchant for international foods), without alienating the "Traditionalists" — mainly men and women aged 55+ who like the old-fashioned German culture.
Soon CMA’s Shelf Talk became a Fancy Food Show must-keeper.
The campaign encouraged consumers to log on to the CMA website, which listed local retailers and offered downloadable content, such as recipes, cookbooks and brochures. The overall effort drove distribution at retail, and significantly increased consumer acceptance and sales in selected markets.
MTV NETWORKS
MTV’s cable TV network Nick at Nite had a problem, and Noel Frankel was hired to solve it.
The Nick at Nite ad sales team didn’t have an answer for agencies that questioned why their clients should pay as much for old black-and-white shows as for newer color ones.
So Frankel created ads for the Mr. Ed's After-Shave, among many others. His campaign not only invented a voice for Nick at Nite, but it wasn't dependent on footage from the episodes. There was a slick, color feel that belied the show's black and whiteness, and when the ads ran in TV Guide, Entertainment Weekly and media trade publications, it was a blast of fresh air.
As a result, advertisers loved the Nick at Nite ratings (it was one of the top three primetime cable networks), and no network ever had such great fun with its own shows.
Frankel went on to write and direct (he is a DGA commercial director) a TV spot that won a Gold Medal at the New York Film Festival, featuring a typical American family eating dinner. Dad was shocked to see his dog, children and wife magically transformed into Nick at Nite sitcom stars whenever he took his glasses on and off. The sheepdog became Mr. Ed; his wife Donna Reed and his boys, My Three Sons. Rubbing his eyes in disbelief, dad placed his glasses on the dining room table, ending the commercial with the tagline, "Hello Out There From TV Land"— a tagline that launched TV Land, a new network for Viacom.
HELMSLEY PROPERTIES
For the Helmsley Palace, Frankel created the image of Leona Helmsley as a hotel proprietress who wanted nothing but the best for her guests, with his line, “The Helmsley Place. It’s the only Palace in the world where the Queen stands guard.”
With the success of the Palace, Frankel was assigned all Helmsley holdings, including the Empire State Building Observatory. The assignment led to a considerable spike in hotel occupancy, from 25 percent to 87 percent, while, at the same time, the campaign created international celebrity for Mrs. Helmsley.
Court TV
When Court TV announced its launch in the trade press, some of New York’s hottest ad agencies and media consultancy firms vied for the account. Noel Frankel’s award-winning work for MTV Networks led the courtroom network to award him the business, including the creation and production of on-air interstitial material, and the trade and consumer campaigns.
