Never get out of the boat

Thursday, February 24, 2011

keynote day round-up #circusfest part 2

So after an action packed first session where would it go from here?

Enter Marvin Chow from Google.
The bulk of his hour was rather predictably a creds/pitch for Google Chrome.

Why did Google make Chrome?
According to their research people didn't recognize the difference between browser and search engine, and despite the rapid changes in the type of content being delivered down the pipe, browsers were essentially unchanged in 10 years.
You had to feel for him when all his technology went tits-up in mid pitch (laptop not plugged in, Chrome crashed)

He did have a few good soundbites.
- Ideas can come from anywhere - check.
- Focus on the problem you are trying to solve - check.
- Iterate, test, fail, launch fast, repeat - check.
- Get to market fast then iterate on the fly and react fast - check.

Next up Erik Vervroegen.
The worlds most awarded Creative Director, currently at Goodby, Silverstein and Partners in San Francisco.

Another creds pitch, really.

While his examples were all beautifully crafted ads, after the early sessions forward looking focus this really seemed like a step back in time.

In almost total opposite extreme, was token social media brat, Josh Spear.

An opening half hour consisting of Cat videos, LOLcats, Rick-rolling and the economy of virtual facebook goods and Farmville was not a great start.

I started to come around when he dropped a Henry Jenkins-ism on why we share.
The old holy trinity of Bond + identity + status.

Always goes down well.

He pulled it together in the end with the thought around 'what if' everyone who is mobilised and motivated to share pointless, if amusing, shite online could be mobilised to share stuff with value and meaning.

Wikileaks is just the same as 4chan but with purpose? - agreed.

Next up, Charles Wigley, Chairman of BBH Asia, but a planner by trade.
His pres, titled Anti-wind tunnel marketing summised that much of the insdustry talk differentiation but produce sameness.

In the trifecta of True + Relevant + Different - he argued that as an industry are we only doing relevant - hence the sameness.

Question number one should be 'Is it different?'.

He also had some good soundbites..

Brand leadership rather than followship - [me - yep, like it]
Look for brand, product, category as well as 'c*nsumer' insights - [me - for sure]
Take ownership of a point of view - [me - most important]
Look at the customers - there's leaders, followers and the rest. Focus on the leaders.

By this part of the day there were some tired eyes and ears, so it was probably the ideal time to wheel out the indefatigable, Rob Campbell.

I've already forgiven him for dissing a bit of our work in almost his first sentence.
If he bothers to look a bit deeper he'll realise this was both rash and WRONG ;)

In between pimping of WK, the nuggets were sprayed round the room scattergun style, all of them repeatworthy.
Here's the one's I managed to collect

- Our job is to attract people to brands
- Not everything about digital is positive
- Make products not just communication
- You can't solve business problems if you just do ads
- Dream bigger than campaigns
- Create culture not category
- Focus on prize not the medium
- Be culturally provocative
- Collaborate
- Take responsiblity for stuff
- It's not just about awareness
- Be brilliant
- Aim for the highest common denominator.
- People know what they want they just don't know how to say sometimes.
- Create fate not ads.

That was it for me. I missed most of Jose Cabaco of Nike who finished the day.

The key takeaways for me were around this notion of the middle way that seems to be emerging.
New media is not replacing old media, they are all transforming.
There's a place for all types of media in the advertising future, as long as each does what it does best.
By media I mean film, pictures, words.

On the question of ROI, it was a commercial creativity conference after all, I'll leave it to Agnello Dias, from Taproot to explain.

Did The Times of India sell more newspapers because they took a stand for something that mattered?

Maybe, maybe not.

But...

Doing what they did gave them the credibility to ensure they always would be the first invited into the room when something of importance needed reporting.

That's worth something.

keynote day round-up #circusfest part 1

Billed as the Festival of Commercial Creativity, Circus kicked off yesterday in Sydney, day one of a 3 day extravaganza culminating in the AWARD Awards on Friday evening.

There's a fair amount to cover so I'll cut to the chase.
Firstly, the lack of Australian voices (ie none) on keynote day was surprising.
I wonder if that was accident or design?

First up was Jeffrey Cole, from the Centre of Digital Future USC.
Jeffrey described how the lack of behavior tracking in the early days of TV has left big holes in our understanding of how big that disruption was.
His work with USC began around 1998 (correct?) to ensure the same mistake wouldn't happened when the next big communication revolution that came along, the internet, and to spot those trends and transformations early.
Jeffrey's research confirms the likely end of landline phones, newspapers and the current model of pay cable/satellite tv in the very near future, when internet penetration in any territory gets above 30% newspaper circulation declines.

And readers that die do not get replaced.
[Note: I remember the same conundrum may years ago when I worked on the Football Pools...]

Nothing new there but he had some other interesting observations around the things youth think then rethink as they get a bit older.

- They think they are not affected by brands and advertising (but try giving a kid a generic mp3 player vs Apple)
- They think unknown peers are trustworthy.
- They think email is for old people (vs Twitter FB SMS etc).
- They think UGC is better than professionaly produced content.
- They think they will stick with communities (but what ever happened to Friendster?)
- They think there is no more privacy so we should get over it.

[Note: Perhaps there's some social media experts well out of their teens (20's/30's/40's...) who still think this way?]

Over time he reports that these views are reappraised and some abandoned
Some stick forever.

- They do exercise total control over their media
- They don't see news coming from a newspaper
- They will never wear a watch
- They watch TV in places other than the living room
- They take gaming very seriously
- Mobile WILL SOON BE everything (smartphones are already outselling PC, tablets will soon follow)
- They are demanding real vs perceived empowerment

[Note: This is the convergence idea, in principle. New media doesn't simply replace old media, but transforms it]

All good stuff.

Next up was Agnello Dias the ex JWT Mumbai CD now running his own operation Taproot.

This was the highlight of the day for me.
I had honestly never heard of the work he did with The Times of India newspaper.
But hearing him tell the story of how a last minute pre-holiday brief for a minor press ad literally DEVELOPED into a mass movement for social change, that's still rolling was AWE INSPIRING.

If I'm going to be picky then there were one or two layers of cheese on top that could have been left off, but overall it was dynamite.
Won the Grand Prix at Cannes in 08 to boot.

Talk about stand for something your customers care about, this is it personified.

Jess Greenwood from Contagious was great as always.
Lots of examples that back up the convergence/crossmedia notion and the idea of continuous momentum, getting outside of the 'campaign' mindset.

Ina nutshell her pitch was:
Broadcast + internet + location + realworld = bingo
And think about projects not campaigns.

Exaples included Mini Getaway from Sweden (see below) plus Levi’s Braddock workshops, a great example of purpose-driven marketing.

All looking good up to the first coffee break of the day.
But what would follow?..

More in part 2, including a geezer from Google, Rob Campbell and some other stuff.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

bumpy johnson

'This is the problem. This is what's wrong with [America]. It's gotten so big, you just can't find your way. The grocery store on the corner is now a supermarket. The candy store is a MacDonald's. And this place, a super fucking discount store. Where's the pride of ownership? Where's the personal service?'

Bumpy Johnson, from American Gangster 2007

Monday, February 21, 2011

the customers are revolting : part 2 junior edition

...and as if by magic, this video nasty from PHD appeared on Charlie's blog, this morning, and is duly reproduced here.

I also offered that these 'children' would be far better off engaged in sensible teen pursuits, such as smashing windows and sniffing glue, than participating in this waffle.

They missed out the part about us wearing clothes made of bacofoil.

the customers are revolting

That's right. They stink.

For some time there's been the question around what the value of a facebook 'like' is for a brand.
Some would argue the case for zero, it takes pretty much zero effort or commitment for a person to click 'like'.

Tell that to the revolting customer though.

The notion in VRM circles around 'everyone is making money off consumer data except the consumer' may be coming up to bite sooner than you think.

And it's not just a theory rattling round academic corridors.

Take this comment from a brand 'fan' page.

'Your Fan page really sucks! you giving nothing & no reason why l will or others will want to click the [BRAND X] like button, just like any relationship eg. man meets girl, he would offer her may be a invitation for a free meal at a restaurant, in Your case [BRAND X] you should offer something like for eg. a % discount on your [PRODUCT A] or [PRODUCT B] that you cant get else where other than clicking your like button it dont have to be a big discount it just needs to be something to give reason for me and others to want to build any type of relationship with you..'

Marry that to this tweet nugget:
"Facebook is rapidly becoming the new Second Life for brands, a wasteland of shattered hopes and dreams"

But who killed Bambi?
Who made these revolting customers?

With facebook promotions and giveaways, bribery and coertion.
marketing took the view that we could buy fans and buy loyalty.

But it was never sustainable, and now, inconveniently, the revolting customers are demanding it.

The question now is; what is a 'like' worth to THEM.

That's right. They stink.
And now so does Facebook, as any kind of viable marketing opportunity.

Next.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

picking a fight: the NAB breakup

Know which side of the bed you are lying on.
Decide what you are FOR and AGAINST.
Stand for something your customers care about.
Find out who's IN and who's OUT.
Have a philosophy first, strategy second.
Have a mission not a proposition
Use each piece of media to do what it does best.
Make media slippy not sticky.
Be informal, entertaining but still serious.
Agitate.
Create situations.
Pick a fight with someone.

NAB have done all of the above as they call out the other Aussie Banks
with a multi-platform, cross media onslaught.

While not a social media campaign per se - in fact in terms of media executions it could be described as traditional - it's disruptive, provocative nature was designed to be a highly social experience.

Especially on Twitter, where we were number 1 and 2 trending topics simultaneously, for @nab and #breakup.

If somethings interesting it will get talked about. End of story.

Sample tweet..
@nab its childish, its immature, and I LOVE IT. this is why i bank with NAB #breakup

Like channeling Malcolm almost...

And my favourite bit of commentary so far, from Laurel Papworth:

'The challenge is, I don’t think even NAB understand how deep this campaign will go [me - yes, they do], it could change the face of marketing for some time to come. Viral ads, leaked tweets, developing story lines, we’ve seen before. But siding with the customer against their own industry was the smartest move they made. Let’s see what they do with it.'

See the rest of the stuff - piano players, helicopters, chalk drawings, spoof videos, public break-ups etc at the breakup.

For fact fans, Mumbrella did a decent roundup of the nuts and bolts.

Photo credits Nick Johnson and Aki Kimono via Monty Hamilton.

Monday, February 14, 2011

in praise of *suits (more on the future of advertising)

For the purposes of this musing, let’s just take it as read that everyone in the agency is a ‘suit*’ (we all talk to clients and represent the agency in some shape or form) to a greater or lesser degree.

As the future-of-advertising debate continues amid much huffing and puffing of hot air the odd flash of sensible thinking pops up here and there.

In Amelia Torode's recent article 'future of advertising" is utterly depressing' (don't be put off by the title, it's a reasonably positive assesment), she identifies 5 key pointers to a better way.

1. Smaller units
2. Madder people
3. People who don't know (or dare I say, care) about Snow Plough or Saatchi & Saatchi in the 80s
4. People who can find stories in numbers
5. People who don't work in the office

2 and 5 I could take or leave but 3 and 4 are the nuggets.
Also point 1 'smaller units' is probably open to misinterpretation.

One could summise that the traditional two person creative team is a small unit, however smaller units means bigger units in this case.
I'm a believer in the everything-happens-at-once method.
As in planning, data, technology, creative, production are all working from the get-go.

Each of the 5 points describes the attributes of people rather than of an organisation.
It matters not whether we talk about the ad agency/social media agency/digital agency.
All of the above, and other incarnations, are simply groups of people of various disciplines banded together to get things done in the realm of communications of one form or another (or many forms).

So, each of us ‘*suits’ has a some of the traits , as described in the 3 circles of the venn diagram below, which appeared to me in a dream the other night...

The sweet spot is right in the middle.
That intersection of creative (the ability to understand or make a creative idea, something of value) combined with the ability to understand why it matters (strategist) and then how it is made (geek).
The ‘geek’ part is loosely formed to include all aspects of production of a thing (be that film, code, origami whatever)

The other intersections are also good
a geek-strategist is valuable, they understand how and why.
the creative-geek knows what and how.
The creative-strategist has got the why and what down.
All good.

What’s not good is when people are one dimensional.
The one dimentional strategist gets lost in verbs.
A hermit geek gets lost in the mechanics, counting pixels or whatever.
The silo’d creative ends up sending biscuits into space or suchlike.

A place to start in disrupting ourselves may be to look at those intersections and see who lives there - and who lives in their own silo.

It's only interesting or useful when everything is connected to everything else.

What do you reckon?

Thursday, February 03, 2011

eTech magazine comes to the ipad #eTechApp

eTEch have been publishing an free online 'magazine' that rounds-up technology news, principally for the design engineer/tech community, for a wee while now, but have kicked up a gear with their, also free, ipad edition just released last week.

Makes much more sense to deliver this kind of content in a more interactive way, especially for non-geeky types like myself for whom getting my geek on is an occupational requirement yet not the thing I wake up in the morning champing at the bit about.

Get the app here, but for the content, at 200mb a pop it's a hefty download so 3Ging it is probably not advisable ;)

Good effort.

Tuesday, February 01, 2011

the sum total of all interactions part 325 #metlink

In another case of syncronicity, I firstly read this short sharp post from Doddsy on Making Things Better...

'Making good stuff from scratch is really difficult.
Removing bad stuff is relatively simple.
The former is to be encouraged, the latter is compulsory.'

Then shortly after, in an unrelated incident, the Metro breaks down in Melbourne leaving families with young kids stranded on Moorabin Station in 40 degrees with no staff on hand, no info, no replacement transport or taxis for more than an hour and no human beings to answer the phone on their 'service' line.

And here's what you get when you submit a customer service enquiry to their website.

'You will recieve a response within 7 business days, as each case IS CATEGORISED AND PRIORITISED'

Then this, 7 has turned into 10.

Useless.

They can, however, produce a fancy-dan iphone app.

the great cut'n'paste swindle - thx @zeroinfluencer

'Banksy’s work now reportedly changes hands for millions.
But he puts up his street art for free. Have you ever wondered
what would happen if you got your hands on one of these?
Does it mean you’ve found a winning lottery ticket or just
scraped some worthless crap off a wall?

Going up against the Art Establishment, Critics, Auction Houses,
Gallery Owners and Authentication Boards in a quest for the
elusive meal ticket, two filmmakers unwittingly gatecrash the
murky and protective world of Banksy.

“HOW TO SELL A BANKSY” raises questions of ownership,
authentication and the true value of art itself. Through all the
chaos and incompetence comes a modern-day, true-story,
crime-theft, comedy-caper.'

howtosellabanksy.com/

I'm a sucker for a bit of detournement, or at least gratuitous mischief making.

Thanks to @zeroinfluencer for the tip, and the post title.

Friday, January 28, 2011

when community produced content becomes part of the brand story itself

Every brand or company is effectively a living, breathing #transmedia social narrative, whether they like it or not.

And better for them if they like it.

This means you BMW Motorcycles.

So while the innovation department at BMW claim to '..turn spectators into astonished fans' by finding new fangled complex ways to burn their logo onto the eyeballs of unsuspecting strangers in the name of 'engagement' some of the greatest brand-building content development and storytelling is going on right under their nose, created by fans.

A key tenet of any transmedia narrative being community produced content that becomes part of the brand story itself.

This video was compiled by the son of a BMW motorcycle owner, telling his story of how he decided to restore an old 1958 BMW R-50 in tribute to his father.

Here's his description:

This is a photo story of my father's 1958 BMW R50:
Boy meets girl, gets married, buys motorcycle. Rides it for 60,000 miles and has accident when wife is pregnant with 3rd child. (me) Wife orders motorcycle to be taken off road until all her children are grown and on their own. One day when bike is moved to a different storage location, son sits on bike and dreams of being a Jedi Master like his father. Couple grows old together and bike is not ridden for 40 years. Husband is now a grandfather of 7 and married for 50 years, when he dies of a stroke at age 71.
Son looks over the old rotting machine and finds note attached to it from his father to him. Son decides to restore the old 1958 BMW R-50 as a tribute to his father. With the help of many friends, especially Peter Nettesheim, world renowned BMW collector, bike is restored to look even better than it did when it was built in Germany.

He even paid $1000 dollars to Pearl Jam's publishing company in order to use the Eddie Vedder track as his soundtrack.

If BMW have any sense they will be all over this, supporting and amplifying as soon as possible, and Eddie Vedder will be personally handing back a grand to it's creator, and playing guitar for him in his living room.

Thanks to Tommy for pointing to this brandchannel article.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

what the shit is and what the shit isn't part 2

Following last weeks Keith Richards quote around what the shit is and what the shit isn't I've been asked to qualify the statement.

As fortune would have it, a fine contrasting example has arisen which demonstrates.

Like Keith and 60's pop, I also can appreciate the shit even when outside of my genre.

Despite being the digital (sic) guy I can still love traditional brand advertising. If it's the shit, of course.

This new spot for PG Tips, kindly shared by Charlie and Rob is clearly the shit.

Character hooks, repeatable catchphrases (aaah, ta-daah), deep cultural resonance, ritual, authenticity, a thing/behaviour to copy!
Brand marketing 101 as the NEW brand marketing!

Contrast that with this grandiose piece of overblown spectacle wolf in 'viral' sheeps clothing from Heineken.

Jonathan Salem rightly points out on his blog 'Branding intended to prompt conversations about branding isn't much of a strategy'.

So, while one can easily see the advertising creative awards tumbling through the door of the agency, the question begs to be asked...what is this actually about?

Jonathan also points out, and I'm in full agreement, there is nothing Heineken about this film. It could be for any brand. A car, perfume or posh chocolate, you name it.

At the end of a minute and a half we are still none the wiser about what this means or what part of the Heineken story it tells.

Other than they have a lot of money to blow on talking to themselves about their imaginary self.

This simply isn't the shit, although ironically it probably thinks it is.

So there you go.

Monday, January 24, 2011

monday basics #2

As a serial under-earner, albeit in remission, this resonated with me and its inherent uncommon sense makes it this Monday's nugget(s).

The characteristics of the typical underearner, as outlined by The 99percent, channeling Barbara Stanny

Underearners have a high tolerance for low pay.
Underearners consistently accept low-paying jobs or jobs that pay less than they need, usually for the “freedom” it gives them.
…
Underearners are willing to work for free.
Underearners regularly give away their time, knowledge, and skills for nothing. They’ll work at no charge without thinking twice. Most of the time, it’s so ingrained, they aren’t even conscious they’re doing it.
…
Underearners are lousy negotiators.
Underearners are reluctant to ask for more, whether it’s to increase their fees or to request a raise. For some, it actually never crosses their minds to ask.
…
Underearners practice reverse snobbery.
Most of us harbor all kinds of distorted perceptions about money. Underearners, however, tend to have a particularly negative attitude, particularly toward people who have it. Many will tell you they don’t like the rich.
…
Underearners believe in the nobility of poverty.
At the same time underearners are spurning the wealthy, they are singing their own praises for surviving on so little. Many of them take great pride in barely eking out a living, as if it’s more noble and respectable to be one of the poor. Not only are people with money bad, they think, but so is money itself.
…
Underearners are subtle self-saboteurs.
Underearners unwittingly throw banana peels in their own path in all sorts of ways, like applying for work they’re not qualified for, creating problems with coworkers, procrastinating or leaving projects unfinished, hopping from one job to another, always stopping just short of reaching their goals.
…
Underearners are unequivocally codependent.
Underearners will sacrifice personal security and private dreams by putting other people’s needs before their own. Their kids, spouse, job, church, and friends all take precedence over their own needs and priorities.
…
Underearners live in financial chaos.
They are more likely to be in debt, have smaller savings, fewer (if any) investments, and little idea where their money goes. Underearners often go from crisis to crisis, constantly moving money from one account to another, borrowing from Peter to pay Paul, careening hopelessly toward financial disaster.

Friday, January 21, 2011

bird is the word

The Angry Birds phenomenon continues to unfold in Thomas the Tank Engine proportions.

Equal parts transmedia-ification, testament to freeconomics and nail-it-then-scale-it.

From a free (lite) app download, then a pay version - 50, million and counting - to soft toys, board game and now tv show.

For a succinct round up of the story so far and some speculation on what-happens-next see this article on Simon Pullman's blog Transmythology.

Mikael Hed, CEO of creators Rovio Mobile, told Variety.

"When you create brand equity, to do that again would be a difficult task. [Better to] nurture and build around what you have."

Sound advice.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

where does the bone go afterwards?

There was some interest the other day over this Facebook app from Greek chocolate brand Lacta.

The app allows people customise a Lacta chocolate wrapper with a name, boy/girlfriend etc, and posting using the wall to wall feature.

While it's reasonably cute, simple to do and shareable and gained Lacta hundreds of thousands of Facebook 'fans' very quickly, I still come back to the same question around Facebook campaigning.

Where does the bone go afterwards?

Campaigns are just campaigns. Unless it leads to something else it's old school straight line thinking. I don't know where the Lacta thing is going to go after this, we'll see.

But many marketers looking at this will be getting excited about the wrong thing.
An addiction to accumulating 'fans' for the sake of it is simply the new churn and burn.
Getting temporary attention and the message out is easy.
Getting people to care is the hard bit.

Yes, it will no doubt result in a short term sales spike, but how is that different from any traditional sales promotion? Fireworks then it all goes dark.

Here's a proper insight for you.

Humans are wired to to take as much interest in others as they believe others are taking in them.

So Lacta have got some people to repeat their campaign line.
It remains to be seen how they will return the goodwill.
Hopefully they will prove me wrong.

Lets see what happens after the campaign viagra wears off.
For the moment this is filed under gimmix.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

one simple metric

In his book, Life, Keith Richards describes how he and Mick initially clicked, in the early days before the Stones even existed as a thing.
He notes that they had almost identical tastes in music (blues, r'n'b) and an almost telepathic understanding, and agreement on which music was right and wrong.

Here he goes..

'...We'd hear a record and go, That's wrong, That's faking, THAT'S real.

It was either that's the shit or that isn't the shit.

No matter what kind of music you were talking about. I really liked some pop music if it was the shit. But there was a definite line of what the shit was and what wasn't the shit. Very strict.'

In the advertising business the whole channel debate is getting so tired now, to the point of being completely boring.

It's not the internet that's killing advertising, it's crappy advertising that's killing itself.

As for the web, well 90% of what passes for social media marketing is the same old crappy digital marketing from 5 or more years ago.

Is it the shit? Or is it not the shit?
Keef is right, there's a definite line.

The question is, can you see where the line is?
That's the skill.

Monday, January 10, 2011

monday basics #1

In which, each Monday of 2011 we will post a nugget of uncommon sense.

Starting with this one...

“Obsessing about your competitors, trying to match or best their offerings, spending time each day wanting to know what they are doing, and/or measuring your company against them—these activities have no great or winning outcome.

Instead you are simply prohibiting your company from finding its own way to be truly meaningful to its Clients, staff and prospects. You block your company from finding its own identity and engaging with the people who pay the bills...
Your competitors have never paid your bills and they never will.”

Howard Mann, Your Business Brickyard: Getting Back to the Basics to Make Your Business More Fun to Run

Thursday, January 06, 2011

london adland

via Charles and George.

can't be done

The late great Peter Ustinov was always there with a neat one-liner.
This one is no exception.

I'm always wary of 'experts', anyway.

File under 'it works in practice, but does it work in theory?'

Wednesday, January 05, 2011

do something

‘The Path of a Doer’, from The Do Book Co is their pocket do-ing guide, chock full of inspirational nuggets to help you to get meaningful stuff done.

'...helping you to achieve more. To help you understand the ebb and flow of making something happen.'

It's an ideal bookshelf partner to the 37 Signals tome 'Rework', in fact.

They offer a free pdf sample which includes timeless advice like;

TELL THE WORLD WHY YOU ARE DOING IT (even if they don’t get it, tell them anyway).

At a mere 3.50GBP the full book has got to be worth a look.

The brainchild of ex-Howies fella David Hieatt and illustrator Andy Smith, a portion of the proceeds are going towards the further development of their other project - the Do lectures, a TED-esque forum for people who do things to share their story and experience.

'The one thing the Doers of the world Do, apart from Do amazing things, is to inspire the rest of us to go and Do amazing things.'

And any book that credits Dick Dastardly as an inspiration gets my vote.