by Next Wave Team | Apr 1, 2007 | Advertising, Apple Advertising, BMW Advertising, Brand Relevancy, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Differentiating Your Brand, Everything You Want to Know About Advertising, Great Ad Agencies, Practical Marketing 101, Secrets of Great Advertising, VW advertising
I’m finally getting around to reading “Juicing the Orange” by Pat Fallon and Fred Senn. (btw- the site sucks if you are blind- or Google, or even a reader looking for the material they reference). I’m withholding my opinion till I finish, but I did note something- Fallon convinced Timex to go back to “Takes a licking and keeps on ticking” with some new executions.
So, before Crispin Porter + Bogusky brought back “Have it your way” for Burger King- other agencies have done the same thing. Which leads me to the question: Why didn’t Crispin bring back “Tastes Great- Less Filling” for Miller Lite? Especially once they were in trouble with “Man Laws?”
Is it because in taste tests Miller doesn’t beat Bud (I’m not a beer drinker)? That would make the strategy fundamentally flawed- and then the ads will actually hurt the brand.
When the VW marketing chief asked for a return to an umbrella theme- shouldn’t Crispin look back at “Drivers Wanted” and see if the connection can be made?
BMW hasn’t abandoned “The ultimate driving machine” through several agencies (although the motorcycle division isn’t smart enough to use “The ultimate riding machine”)- and the concept still resonates.
A well known brand is shorthand for a set of emotions and conditioned responses from the consumer. The tagline, if it is closely identified and well known with your brand- is equity that shouldn’t be thrown away just because you are tired of it. The real creativity comes from being able to keep creating interesting executions that connect to the brand.
Apple has stood for ease of use in the consumers minds for years- but until the “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC” campaign came, they had a hard time getting people to look at them as serious business computers (granted, being able to run Windows has also helped). Nike has “Just do it”- a tagline that could live forever and never be topped. (And to the person who called me on the phone and asked me who wrote it- and I drew a blank- it’s Jim Riswold).
The book “The Brand Gap” by Marty Neumeier covers branding better than any book I’ve read. The hand test and the swap test are probably two of the simplest, most obvious tools a marketer should pass.
The hand test asks if you cover the logo- can you tell who did the ad? And the swap test is equally cool- could your logo and someone elses swap and work better- he shows Polaroid and Nationwide Insurance (I should grab a scan and put it in here).
So- does your tagline instantly identify your brand- and no one elses? If it does, consider yourself lucky- and be really careful about changing it unless you have a really good reason and know it will work.
If you know of other resurected taglines- feel free to add them to the comments.
by Next Wave Team | Mar 27, 2007 | Creativity, Design, Differentiating Your Brand, The Craft Of Advertising
There is a printing craft that has taking a beating from Laserprinters, digital presses, direct to plate and inkjet imaging-it’s the old school, hot type letterpress studio.
When I was in Paris a few years ago- I stumbled into an old shop that still was composing type by hand- and it was a joy to look at ink pressed into paper.
I just found a site that is a guide to letterpress shops- and thought I would share:
D*S Letterpress Guide
Welcome- what you’ll find here is a working guide to some of the best letterpress studios in the country (as well as a few abroad).
The guide is meant to be searched by the following categories: State, City, E-commerce Enabled, Custom Work and Pre-Made work. You’re more than welcome to read down the center column as you would with a blog but the list is much more useful when organized by search results.
If you know of any letterpress printers around Dayton OH- please add them to the letterpress guide- and drop a comment on this site.
Unbelievably, the Letterpress guide makes no reference to Hatch Show Print, the coolest place for band posters this side of Mars.
by Next Wave Team | Mar 27, 2007 | Advertising, Brand Relevancy, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Differentiating Your Brand, Everything You Want to Know About Advertising, Great Ad Agencies, How To Select An Ad Agency, Practical Marketing 101, Secrets of Great Advertising
Uber cool agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky fired Miller beer as a client after the client started thinking they could do a better job themselves.
Well, when it comes to selling beer, consumers are a mighty fickle group, and the one thing that brewers need to understand is your advertising programs need to be more strategic than tactical- where is the “Just do it” of beer advertising? Why did Miller ever veer from “Taste’s Great- Less Filling” campaign for Lite that got them to the top? In the article on Ad Age, Crispin makes it clear that too many chiefs were killing the creative- a common problem in many marketing programs. If you hire pros- make sure you understand the strategy- and establish what your performance goals are.
Advertising Age - Man Flaws: Why Miller and Crispin Couldn’t Stop Lite From Stumbling
Crispin was a different story. “We just have fundamental differences over creative and strategy” said Chief Creative Officer Alex Bogusky in a statement. “Although we made every attempt to find common ground, the process of multilayered approvals of creative and strategy has made doing work we can be proud of increasingly difficult.”
Those “multilayered approvals” are said to refer to Mr. Long, who was chief marketing officer before being promoted last year; Mr. Ransom; Deb Boyda, VP-brand management; and Erv Frederick, VP-brand strategy for Miller Lite. And it’s been said that Mr. Adami, the SABMiller president, has been taking a more active interest in marketing, although it’s unclear to what extent.
‘Contradictory points of view’
“You’ve got three or four different top-tier people with contradictory points of view,” said one person familiar with the matter, expressing a viewpoint that was shared by two other executives. “There’s a constant shifting of strategy, and a lack of a common vision.”
Miller is now stuck at the height of “beer season” without a mug to present to the public. While there will be many agencies running to Miller with ideas, maybe the guys in charge of marketing at Miller should put their asses on the line and do the campaigns themselves for a whole year- and risk their paychecks on the results?
Crispin proved they knew how to add value to beer with the Twin Label Technology they developed for Molson. Miller has had a string of failures. Remember “Dick.”
The lesson to learn from this debacle is that before you roll out a campaign like “Man Laws”- make sure you understand what the intended results will be- and what you are measuring? Hits on a website are nice- but sales are more important.
Crispin will have a new beer account within 6 months. Miller will have a new agency in 6 months, but this “beer season” will be a bust for Lite- thanks to Miller making the wrong call.
