What makes the people at Crispin Porter + Bogusky do what they do? A handbook of course. How many jobs have you had where the orientation was: here’s your desk, get to work?
In his book “The Great Game of Business” Jack Stack makes a case that work is like a sport- only most companies never do a very good job of telling their employees how to win, how the score is kept and how to avoid penalties. It’s a very good book and on our booklist.
This might not be a best seller, but, if you are in the ad business, these are the people who are selling the best right now- from Volkswagens to Burger King Whoppers, Crispin Porter + Bogusky is the agency at the top of every agency search consultants list. Here is their playbook for new employees and some insight on how they do what they do.
My first experience with the power of suggestion came from a boss when I sold stereo equipment in Atlanta. Larry Sarner had been a sales superstar for “Crazy Eddy’s” in NYC before starting “Stereo Village” (yeah, we used to call them “stereo’s” back then). As people left the store, Larry would call out to them “Bye Now” as they headed out the door, some would leave, but I was amazed at how many would get out to their car, turn around, and come back in and say “I’d like to buy that now.” As if he had implanted the idea to “buy now” with some sort of super sale ray gun. It worked, and it’s part of the reason this new campaign for VW works.
If you are searching for the secrets of great advertising, take notes from this campaign for Volkswagen by Crispin Porter+ Bogusky: Vdubrocks.com
Just as politicians and magicians use distraction to move the conversation and attention away from their obvious short comings, Crispin uses the technique of “Cool by association” to make you think differently about Volkswagen- instead of being a poorly made German car with obvious shortcomings- it is now the only car you can plug a guitar into and become a rock star- that’s right, don’t buy the car because it’s a reliable form of transportation- buy it because you will be able to jump out of your car in a traffic jam and jam like Slash. What? You don’t play guitar? Don’t need a guitar? Who cares? Think of it as a $599 rebate- without costing VW a dime- or turning them into another price competing car company- just throw in a guitar that no self respecting pro would play- with some special VW touches on the knobs and the fret inlays- and then stamp them with a matching VIN code- and you’ve differentiated your brand and made it one step cooler than the run of the mill iPod integration that everyone else is so “hip” with.
Guess what- any car with an iPod in jack could be a “rock car” with the pre-amp included First Act guitar that VW is partnered with- but only their über agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky made the leap. To explain it to the people in Detroit- it’s not about playing guitar anymore than it’s about a “Hemi”- it’s about people thinking- “He drives a VW- therefore he could be a rockstar- like Slash in the tv spot.”
Cars are a product that are sold on many levels. The rationale for buying varies for every buyer- but it comes down to how the driver sees themselves once they own the car. At one time VW stood for practical, fuel efficient, reliable and un-pretentious (remember, Beetle body styling didn’t change much from year to year for 35 year). Now, VW is trying to find a new position, one that distracts consumers from the poor quality and low resale values, and cool is a good place to hang out until the other problems can be resolved.
What’s even more impressive is that Crispin is probably getting the guitars for next to nothing in exchange for giving First Act a chance to get high dollar media exposure on VW’s ad budget. While Crispin probably doesn’t make more money by suggesting this, they create a win-win for VW, First Act and the guitar stars that appear in the campaign. This is the thinking that sets them apart from most agencies. First Act - About First Act - In The News - 10/1/2006
In a groundbreaking new collaboration, First Act has teamed up with Volkswagen of America, Inc. to present the First Act GarageMaster guitar, an innovative guitar that plays through the audio system of select VW models. As of October 3, each new Jetta, GLI, GTI, Rabbit, New Beetle, and New Beetle Convertible will come with the custom-designed First Act GarageMaster guitar.
Owners of new VW models can transform their cars into mobile amps, with a newfound freedom to rock in the driveway, play at outdoor parties, or shred in the beach parking lot. New rockers will hit the road with a First Act GarageMaster guitar in the trunk, ready to stop and dispense riffs wherever the mood strikes.
While other car companies keep talking about the cars- CP+B keep the conversation focused on the buyers. And even if I don’t play, it really doesn’t matter- because my new Vdub rocks. Yeah, that’s what I want people thinking, even if it has nothing to do with music.
Dieter Rams was a designer for Braun. Braun made stuff cool before Apple was in existence. Take a look at Apple’s products- and then read this list- and all of a sudden, you understand why the brand is iconic, the positioning is differentiated and that when hardware becomes irrelevant, Apple will still be a force to be reckoned with (at least as long as they can keep a Steve Jobs like visionary in charge). Dieter Rams / Design Museum Collection : Industrial Designer (1932-) - Design/Designer Information
Good design is innovative.
Good design makes a product useful.
Good design is aesthetic.
Good design helps us to understand a product.
Good design is unobtrusive.
Good design is honest.
Good design is durable.
Good design is consequent to the last detail.
Good design is concerned with the environment.
Good design is as little design as possible.
Back to purity, back to simplicity.
ABC gets it, CBS gets it, NBC doesn’t.
I admit it, I didn’t put my season pass on my TiVo for Studio 60 on the Sunset strip in until after the premier. That means I’ve got shows 2 and 3 sitting on my TiVo- but no number 1. No problem, I’ll spend $2 and download it from iTunes. Can’t. NBC doesn’t have their shows on iTunes.
So I’ll go to NBC.com and watch streaming video, no problem. Wrong again. No “Viiv technology”- not only am I on a Mac- but, my PC’s aren’t new and fast enough. Way to go NBC (and Microsoft) I’ll just run out and spend $800 on a new PC to watch your pilot, with the advertising- Not.
Which makes you wonder- is NBC even trying to deliver the largest audience for their advertisers, or are they trying to sell new PC’s and Microsofts DRM software that I had to install only to be told my hardware isn’t up to speed.
And the networks wonder why people are turning to file sharing technology like bit-torrent? If I was an advertiser in Studio 60 I’d be fuming at NBC for this gaff. However, the NBC site has such a bad interface that the advertisers probably wouldn’t know where to click in the first place.
If you wonder why NBC is slipping in the ratings pool, this is only one of the reasons. If you don’t allow your community to build around a show, and give your audience a chance to steer their friends to your new programming, you are only hurting yourself.
The future of television will be on demand, over IP and the content is most likely going to come straight from the producers- for this very reason- the networks aren’t doing their job of distribution adequately.
Too bad, ‘cause Studio 60 looks like a winner.
Not to say we told you so- but, we’ve been taking heat on this subject lately per the opening of “Brew, a creative collaborative” and the need for agencies to set the tone for the kind of connections they want with their clients via a site.
Hill Holliday in Boston ditched their Flash site for a WordPress blog- and we’ve seen a few other agencies- like Wieden + Kennedy start blogs on the side. We integrated a Blog into this site back in January of 2005- late in the game for us- and saw such good results- we started a seminar on how to “blog for business” first as “Blogosopher” and then after a strategic adjustment for MidWest minds- “Websitetology.”
If we weren’t so busy working on client work- we’d change this whole site into a blog- but it’s that tale of the cobbler’s kids shoes.
Ad Age has finally caught on- that most agency sites don’t have any real content- they produce what we like to call “chest beater sites” that talk about themselves as much as Howard Stern or Paris Hilton talk about themselves. Agencies should know: It’s not about you- it’s never about you- and this is where we try to be different: it’s about what we give our customer. Yes, we try to create the ideas that change the game- the ones that set our clients apart from their competition- making them a category of one. Most agency’s mission statements are interchangeable- as are their websites. In fact- take the brand off the big agencies- and you couldn’t tell the difference.
We’ve included a brief excerpt from the Ad Age article- but, while you can check out Edelman.com- you’ve already found an agency that is different- so check us out too.
Studying agency websites
Take a spin around a few agency websites and you’ll soon see what I mean. They’ve come a long way in a few years in that most are actually professional-looking and have some depth to them…
But taken together the content of the majority of these sites says: “We don’t have a clue how to differentiate ourselves, so we’re going to fall back on some fluffy concepts and jargon.” The number of iterations of “we’re the idea agency” is particularly depressing. Variously they declare their ability to deliver: “ideas,” “big ideas,” “catalytic ideas,” “return on ideas,” “brand ideas,” “leading brand ideas,” “ideas and ideas” and “ideas, ideas, ideas.”
OK, fair enough. So the business is about ideas. Maybe the sites differentiate the shops by actually showing those ideas? No such luck. I found no more than half a dozen examples of ideas worthy of the name. Several sites linked straight from the “idea” slug to ads. Ads aren’t ideas. A couple did try to illustrate the nature of an idea they’d had for a marketer, but that led to embarrassments too — such as the notion that telling consumers of a candy bar to “be great” somehow constituted a big brand idea.
Edelman.com
So what to do? Well, one big idea for a website ad agencies could do worse than emulate can be seen at Edelman.com. The independent global PR shop has turned its site into a blog and podcast landing page full of content. All the content is produced by employees and the 17 hosted blogs run the gamut from CEO Richard Edelman’s 6am to Micropersuasion musings from Steve Rubel (who also writes for Ad Age Digital), from the interesting PR Catalyst from Hoh Kim in Korea to a video blog shot with a cellphone.
The site, according to traffic research from Alexa.com, is attracting more than 250,000 visitors a month. That’s more than any of the ad agencies’ sites and is even beating up on some trade publications’ online offerings.
First a disclaimer: The Next Wave will not work on alcohol, tobacco or paid political client. Alcohol can sell itself without our help.
Brands have life cycles- some can just keep growing with proper care and feeding, like Nike, or have ups and downs like Apple, but in general, brands do better when they don’t try to morph constantly. It’s called a consistent brand voice- and it’s an ad agencies job to help a client focus that voice and keep it above the noise of the crowd.
Wieden & Kennedy has been a star at this with Nike, and has more than it’s share of awards to back up it’s work. So what happened with Miller? After ten years of focusing that voice with the “High Life Man”- someone decided that the brand needed a sex change operation- and to toss the man- for the “girl in the moon”- which of course- lost the guys- and didn’t win over the girls. So, because the client made a bad decision, the agency has paid the price- much like VW blaming the agency for sagging sales- when the problems were tied to stale cars with low quality builds.
Once again- the winner is the agency of the millenium- Crispin Porter & Bogusky, who had revived interest in Miller Lite after Miller had left the “less filling- tastes great” campaign by the wayside.
Miller Parts With Wieden
Ends Decade-Long Relationship That Created ‘High Life Man’By Jeremy Mullman
Published: September 22, 2006
CHICAGO (AdAge.com) — Miller Brewing Co. is splitting with Wieden & Kennedy, ending a decade-long relationship that created one of beer advertising’s enduring characters.
Ads replacing the ‘High Life Man’ with the ‘Girl in the Moon’ couldn’t help turn the brand’s sales around.
Ads replacing the ‘High Life Man’ with the ‘Girl in the Moon’ couldn’t help turn the brand’s sales around.
Girl in the Moon
The independent agency had most recently been agency of record for Miller High Life, creating the deep-voiced High Life Man who helped boost the brand’s slumping sales from 1998 through 2003, but then saw results trail off. Late last year, Miller asked Wieden to give the beer a more feminine positioning in line with its long-held “Champagne of Beers” boast, but ads tied to the “Girl in the Moon” didn’t help sales and were quickly canned. The brand has been off of TV for months.
A Miller spokesman said the company had been pleased with Wieden’s work and wished it luck going forward. Work on Miller High Life will go to Crispin Porter & Bogusky, Miami, which is currently Miller Lite’s agency of record.
I’m not a drinker, so I can’t comment on the taste or quality proposition that Miller High Life offers, but I can suggest that beer advertising is a lifestyle brand- one that should reinforce the drinkers identity and image. There are psychographics to beer drinkers- where you can classify consumers by their brand choices: Import drinkers, Malt liquor drinkers, domestic drinkers, draft vs. bottle etc. For any beer brand to be successful, the advertising and brand voice has to speak clearly to one segment of the market and stay true to that voice. There is no switching teams, there is no one beer for everyone- and if that is your goal, your name is probably Budweiser.
To all the people at Wieden who probably knew that the “girl in the moon” was a mistake- cheers! May you get to work on a beer client who believes in their strategy enough to stick to it.
What makes the people at Crispin Porter + Bogusky do what they do? A handbook of course. How many jobs have you had where the orientation was: here’s your desk, get to work?