Ten Big Risks Brands Have Taken

Bob Liodice

This paper looks at key examples of brands taking a risk over the past century. These include the first time an advertiser fully sponsored a radio show (The National Carbon Company's "The Eveready Hour" in the 1920s), DDB's iconic VW Beetle ads of the 1960s and Doritos' $1m Super Bowl crowdsourcing experiment of 2009.

Ten Big Risks Brands Have Taken

Bob Liodice

Marketers consistently push the envelope, hoping that novel ideas will yield stellar results for their brands. Companies attempt to break through boundaries previously set by competitors, or sometimes themselves. It is exciting and fear-inducing to take risks. Deciding which lines to cross is never an exact science. The risk versus reward question looms over every decision, but without the former, brands never achieve the best of the latter. Below are 10 examples of brands that took risks in their marketing practices and campaigns, and proudly survived to tell the tale.

1 EVEREADY...

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