The hint of what was to come in the ending was summed up in this very short exchange in the episode before the finale. Don is asked to fix the coke machine
His response: “Don’t they do that”
Coca-Cola is one of the top brands of all time, and they, for the most part, outsource the “fixing” of their brand to guys like Don. They make the Coke- but, the few, the proud, the brave, come up with the ideas to sell it, which Don proceeds to do in the last scene of Mad Men, sitting on a hilltop, meditating, Ommmmmmm…… ding!
Clients often their ad agenices “to give me a new one” when what they really need is a new way to connect emotionally with their customers.
We have a favorite quote from Guy Kawasaki that fits: “advertising is the plastic surgery of business,: a procedure to make ugly and old products look good” from his book Selling the Dream, and that’s what Don does.
How the big ideas come, is still the magical part of advertising. The really big ideas, almost always fit on a cocktail napkin.
Anyone in the business of advertising in the decade from 2000 to 2010 should have been keeping a close eye on Crispin Porter + Bogusky, the darlings of the industry. Adweek even made up a new award- Creative Director of the Decade to give to Alex Bogusky at the end of 2009. So when The Next Wave Chief Creative Officer David Esrati had seen Alex introducing B-cycle, a joint venture between CP+B, Trek Bicycles and Humana Health Care, he reached out to Alex and asked what it would take to bring B-cycle to Dayton Ohio.
Through one-on-one selling to university presidents, economic development gurus, the director of metroparks, and bringing a prototype of the early bike to the first Miami Valley bike summit, Esrati built the case for bike share. His blog posts built awareness, and his constant lobbying for the program brought the system to town, 6 years after he started talking about it.
Alex Bogusky and David Esrati in Boulder
Alex Bogusky left the industry, and Trek is the only remaining partner, but David and Alex stay in touch about other things, looking for opportunities to collaborate.
UPS is an old brand. FedEx was the upstart. FedEx marketed like crazy, to sell its speed and reliability- “when it absolutely has to be there overnight.” UPS was dragged kicking and screaming into consumer advertising, and had a CEO that didn’t believe marketing was the answer. Maybe that’s why “We run the tightest ship in the shipping business” and “What can brown do for you” and finally “We [heart] Logisitics” all didn’t really talk to the consumer- but- about UPS.
First thing to understand about great advertising- it’s not about you, it’s about what you can do for your customer.
Finally, Ogilvy hit the nail on the head with the new UPS campaign “United Problem Solvers”- telling consumers exactly what they want to hear- UPS solves my problems.
“It does signal a way to look differently at UPS and what we can offer, instead of just thinking of our capabilities of making shipments from point A to point B,” said Maureen Healy, vice president of customer communications.
The ad campaign highlights offerings including temperature sensitive health-care solutions, its ability to help grow small businesses and its e-commerce expertise for retailers.
The company has tried to convey a broader message before. Indeed, the new campaign replaces the company’s previous campaign, “We [Heart] Logistics,” which had been in place for nearly five years and targeted companies aiming to sell their wares globally.
“It’s very hard to break through to have people think differently about UPS, because they think they know what they need to know about UPS,” said Alda Abbracciamento, world-wide managing director at advertising firm Ogilvy & Mather, who worked with UPS on the campaign. “While very well-known, we’ve got to provide additional meaning to that.”
Pivoting the United Parcel Service UPS brand to “United Problem Solvers” may not have been the easiest sell to a company that’s been in business since 1907, but since they’d abbreviated the name to UPS so long ago- they’d lost the essence already. And while those in the business may still use the word “parcel”- we’re in a much less formal era when companies will say “ship my pants” - for shock value. UPS needed a refresh from stodgy- and if you think parcel is an antiquated name- let’s get real- we all thought you were lying when you said you loved logistics.
Good campaigns can change the way consumers view your brand almost overnight. Wendy’s found it out with “Where’s the beef” which hammered home the unique product differentiation that had Wendy’s burgers hanging out past the edges of the bun. Nike found their groove with “Just do it” and now, we may be see UPS finally finding their mantra.
