Big ad campaigns are great- for clients with big budgets. But, sometimes it’s the little things that make all the difference. Seth Godin talks a lot about that “something extra” in his book, Free Prize Inside.
For Jason Liff, film festival organizer extraordinaire, there was no budget, no time and no real plan for how to present himself at the Toronto Jewish Film Festival as a consultant for other film festivals.
And, while you would think that a visionary would have these things all planned out- it’s often not the case. He just called us and said, “I need something to hand out, and I’m leaving tomorrow at 6am.”
Nothing like a deadline to get the creative juices flowing- and nothing like a rush to get clients to step outside their comfort zone and approve something that they would normally give the boot.
Business cards can be phenomenal selling tools- and having a great card is something we always stress for our clients. It’s often your first meeting- and first impressions can be game changing. So for a guy going to meet with a bunch of Jewish film festival types- only one solution seemed right- we hope you agree.
Would a title under his name said as much? And in your card file- would this one stand out? (note to SH, while a 2 sided business card would have been cleaner- if you’ve seen a business card case, with all the card contacts in it- this works a bit better- and saved the client some extra cash on the rush job).
Good, Fast and Cheap- doesn’t happen in advertising very often- but here it is.
The next person who says branding doesn’t count in business to business advertising should be shot. (Not that there are many nay-sayers when it comes to branding- but there are a few).
There are thousands of ad agencies in this country- and all of them would love to be able to take a stab at work for the premier consumer brands- like Nike, Apple, Burger King, Dominos, BMW, Ford etc…
But, when it comes to choosing an ad agency- Chief Marketing Officers seem to have tunnel vision. The list usually looks like this:
Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Wieden + Kennedy, TBWA Chiat/Day, Fallon, Arnold, Martin, Deutch, Goodby + Silverstein, GSD&M - you get the point. Maybe 50 agencies make the list- the rest, fight for the scraps.
Considering it can take at least a year before an agency can (or should) be comfortable enough to take a client in a new category (ad people don’t know everything there is to know about the shoe business- unless they’ve worked in it before) to a new place, with an on target strategy, changes like the following one, make me wonder:
Advertising Age - Nike Moves Running-Shoe Account to Crispin
Nike has officially transferred the creative work for its running-shoe business, as well as the Nike Plus and its Nike ID Web site accounts, to Miami-based Crispin Porter & Bogusky, a Nike spokesman said.
Nike’s running-shoe business was the first account expected to move from Wieden. ‘Proven track record’
“Crispin Porter & Bogusky has a proven track record for delivering creative, breakthrough ideas and we are excited to begin working with them to support these areas of business,” said Dean Stoyer, Nike’s U.S. director of media relations.
Mr. Stoyer said Nike will “continue working with our longtime creative partner Wieden & Kennedy to support the majority of our Nike business.”
Nike has been talking with Crispin for several months, and finally confirmed last month that it planned on moving pieces of its business to agencies other than Portland, Ore.-based Wieden. The running-shoe business was the first account expected to move.
While Crispin Porter + Bogusky is great at making noise, they have yet to take a brand the full course from a nobody like Nike was when Wieden + Kennedy started with them- to the power house they are now.
To abandon the date that brought you is a mistake of major proportions for Nike. If Wieden could afford it- telling Nike to take a walk on the whole shooting match would be the right move. Kudo’s to Roy Spence for rejecting WalMart’s invite to rebid the account after the Draft debacle. Loyalty and longevity in a client/agency relationship are valuable business assets, a part of the “goodwill” number on a balance sheet that shouldn’t be ignored.
The thing that baffles me is that both W+K can have the pick of ad talent (hiring)- if anything has stopped Nike from getting the work they think they are going to get from Crispin- it’s been on their side- not on the W+K side. However, if W+K had moved into a bunker mentality- worrying about losing the account (since it is a major part of their business) and the relationship changed from one of trust- to one of uncertainty, and stopped presenting the riskier, more volatile ideas because they thought that Nike wouldn’t be happy? Nike should look internally for their answer here- because from my perspective- they are trading down for an agency.
This before and after ad example will never win any awards, but, it could make the difference between being looked at- and being ignored.
The call came at 6pm tonight: Can you take this ad and make it better? In an hour?
This isn’t how to run a business, or how to get the best possible work, but it’s often the reality in advertising: you can have good, fast or cheap- pick any two.
The original isn’t really an ad at all. It’s an announcement. There isn’t really any type of call to action, or anything that would speak to the consumer emotionally. In fact, it’s mostly about the client- “the first place Dayton Bombers.” The ad was done by the ad department for a previous paid placement- you buy the space- we’ll have a flunky design something.
This is what we had to work with- plus the Kelly Cup logo. Some information could be stripped out- it wasn’t important to the customer: AA Hockey- well, there isn’t another team in Dayton, 1st place- doesn’t really matter in the minors as much as the majors, and the flow of white space is just all over the place.
So- take the elements that they have used all season- and try to make them work. The visiting team logo is only important to the hardcore fans- no one is coming to see the visiting team play so we can make that smaller. The McDonalds promo isn’t happening- so we loose that too. We’ve looked at the audience- and know that this is a NASCAR, WWF, Tough Man crowd- that loves to see fights- and to taunt the other team- so making the word “Fighting” a key part of the ad- may get some attention.
In less than an hour- this is the result. Not an award winner- but, at least bold, clean and making some sort of appeal to the emotional side of the fans.
What do you think?
We also threw together a low-budget TV spot to promote the game. Since we had no existing game footage to use (and couldn’t count on any great stuff in one game) we had to construct a concept that we could control. We were told the leading scorer spoke Romanian (not true) and thought we could have fun with a Borat style low budget spoof. The idea was to do something that would cut through the clutter of local ads (none have ever aired in Romanian in Dayton OH) and get people to look to their sets to see what’s going on. We also posted it on YouTube- where it has received over 600 views in 24 hours. The translator obviously knows less Romanian than we did.
One of the first design and advertising books that really spoke to me was Pentagram’s Living by Design (long out of print). Its basic premise was that design extended to more than graphics, architecture, advertising- but was the entire consumer/brand experience- long before people were talking about experiential marketing.
I was lent the book by a former employer, who had been given it as a gift by one of his professors. After I read it, I tried to talk to him about it, his response: “I don’t read books.” I didn’t stay at that job very long (probably because I did read).
I went to Pentagram’s London office to find a copy, several years later. They were nice enough to give me a copy- that had a section removed- and she copied the missing pages. I later got a complete copy from an art book store in Santa Monica- it’s one of my most prized books.
So, when I stumbled onto Pentagram’s blog- and saw this logo- I was instantly reminded of why I believe design does make a difference.
Take a look at this elegant logo- then read their description:
The identity is a hieroglyph, designed to be universally understood, that utilizes the icons of the OLPC laptop interface, also developed by Pentagram. The website design employs these symbols as the basis for navigation. Each icon leads to a corresponding section of information: the laptop to a section about hardware and software, the arrow to a section about participation, and so on. The site launched in English but is currently being translated into many languages.
For all the companies that don’t think they can afford to do a proper logo on start-up, just remember, you can pay now, or pay later. A well designed brand mark can make the difference between having a corporate identity- and becoming a lifestyle brand, ala Nike, Apple, BMW, Mini etc.
And, by the way, if you aren’t familiar with the One Laptop Per Child initiative, you need to read more about it- it’s truly something that could change the world.
APRIL 1, 2007: Ad Age: In a strange turn of events, former Crispin Porter + Bogusky LA Office Managing Director, Sally Hogshead landed the Miller Lite and Miller High Life accounts, previously at Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Miami. When asked if putting a $100 million dollar plus account in the hands of a SWAT CD, instead of a traditional agency, Miller CMO Randy Ransom replied, “we tried Man Laws, it seemed to make perfect sense to go with a woman to lay down the new laws. We believe Ms. Hogshead has a unique and radical brand positioning strategy to make Miller Lite and Miller High Life the number one choice of the serious beer drinker.”
Ad Age has learned that the brief centered around new packaging for Miller products- instead of trying to compete with the traditional 12 oz, 20 oz or 40 oz sizes, Miller has decided to adopt the hogshead as the new unit of popular measure. A hogshead is a barrel that holds 62 gallons. Miller declined to comment, but in the secret brief that was leaked to Ad Age, Miller realized that if they sell one hogshead per beer drinking household, there isn’t room in the refrigerator for any competing brands. Miller has yet to confirm the account move on their beer blog- although they did confirm the split with CP+B.
Package design will be handled by IDEO, and in a radical move, Miller will only be sold online, delivered same day by new FedEx Buzz Delivery.
Said Ransom, “We don’t know why we didn’t think of this earlier, Super sizing has done wonders for the soft-drink business.” Budweiser refuses to comment, but is now introducing the 10 gallon jug in selected test markets.
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.
