by Next Wave Team | Sep 11, 2006 | Advertising, Change the world, Creativity, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Everything You Want to Know About Advertising, Future of advertising, Great Ad Agencies, How To Select An Ad Agency
Those Miami based builders of buzz are adding yet another tool to their marketing array- a monograph from Warren Berger called “Hoopla”
They aren’t the first agency to do this, or will they be the last. I can look at our agency bookshelves and see quite a few of these types of books- some more useful than others.
My first experience with these types of books came at my second job in the business- working for Visual Marketing Associates (a very short lived gig). One of the partners had a copy of “Living by Design”- one of Pentagram‘s first of many books they have produced about their work and processes. It was engaging, intelligent and changed my view of how a creative company should approach a clients challenges- from the narrow- solve the problem, to the how do we create the complete WOW factor that Tom Peters later wrote about (Pursuit of Wow! 1994).
I read about wagering fees on results for a campaign for a racetrack in “Chiat/Day, the first 20 years” (now very hard to find)- and Wieden and Kennedy’s pursuit of their first car account in “Where the sucker’s moon” - and realized that even the best agencies still have to stretch to win the big accounts.
Crispin is turning clients away these days, so the question will be, how much of their secret sauce will be revealed, and even if other agencies gain the recipe- will they be able to re-create the phenom that defines Crispin Porter + Bogusky in today’s advertising battlefield?
by Next Wave Team | Aug 29, 2006 | Advertising, Brand Relevancy, Everything You Want to Know About Advertising, Future of advertising, Low Budget Advertising, Procter & Gamble Advertising
A client forwarded me an e-mail, suggesting that the high and mighty brand managers at P&G now think “aspiring copywriters, commercial artists, videographers” working in the food service industry are their new best hope to sell their soap.
Maybe P&G should award paychecks to brand managers based on a “if we like you- we may pay you” basis too.
For the worlds largest advertiser to turn to this is bad enough, but to make the top prize a measly grand, is an insult.
Never mind the instructions (facts, guidelines, tips) read like a “See Spot run” book- instead of a creative brief.
If P&G is really this desperate for ideas, maybe they should reevaluate their crazy bureaucracy that makes doing business with them so difficult.
Here is the text to the invite followed by a link to their site with an excerpt from the intro:
Procter & Gamble Professional looking for a few good ads
Aspiring copywriters, commercial artists, videographers and others working in the foodservice industry now have the opportunity to cash in on an exciting new initiative from Procter & Gamble Professional, the away from home division of the nation’s largest advertiser.
The “Create Our Ad” contest challenges foodservice professionals to develop print or video advertisements focusing on the back-of-house cleaning and sanitation needs of their industry. The winner will receive $1,000, and his or her ad will become part of the company’s advertising campaign. Procter & Gamble Professional will award $500 and $250 to the second and third place winners, respectively. Winners also will receive an introductory case of each product in the Dawn Grease Fighting Arsenal.
Procter & Gamble Professional is accepting print and video ads in any format. Visit www.pgbrands.com/createourad for contest details, general guidelines and suggestions to help non-advertising professionals create ads. Contestants will also be asked to recommend the publication or Web site where their entry should run.
Procter & Gamble Professional will accept entries through October 16.
Winners will be announced on October 31, with the winning ad appearing in print and online later this year.
Create Our Ad
CREATE OUR AD CONTEST: INTRODUCTION So, you think you have what it takes to create advertising for Procter & Gamble? We’re counting on it! After all, as someone who works in the foodservice industry - the industry we cater to - you’re the expert. Put that expertise to work, and the $1,000 first prize and bragging rights might be yours when your winning entry starts showing up in magazines or Web sites later this year.
Yeah, we all work for “bragging rights”- instead of providing valuable expertise in marketing, promoting, advertising and selling products.
Remind me not to buy P&G products anymore. If they can’t respect our profession- how can we respect their products?
by Next Wave Team | Aug 29, 2006 | Advertising, Brand Relevancy, Everything You Want to Know About Advertising, Future of advertising, Low Budget Advertising, Procter & Gamble Advertising
A client forwarded me an e-mail, suggesting that the high and mighty brand managers at P&G now think “aspiring copywriters, commercial artists, videographers” working in the food service industry are their new best hope to sell their soap.
Maybe P&G should award paychecks to brand managers based on a “if we like you- we may pay you” basis too.
For the worlds largest advertiser to turn to this is bad enough, but to make the top prize a measly grand, is an insult.
Never mind the instructions (facts, guidelines, tips) read like a “See Spot run” book- instead of a creative brief.
If P&G is really this desperate for ideas, maybe they should reevaluate their crazy bureaucracy that makes doing business with them so difficult.
Here is the text to the invite followed by a link to their site with an excerpt from the intro:
Procter & Gamble Professional looking for a few good ads
Aspiring copywriters, commercial artists, videographers and others working in the foodservice industry now have the opportunity to cash in on an exciting new initiative from Procter & Gamble Professional, the away from home division of the nation’s largest advertiser.
The “Create Our Ad” contest challenges foodservice professionals to develop print or video advertisements focusing on the back-of-house cleaning and sanitation needs of their industry. The winner will receive $1,000, and his or her ad will become part of the company’s advertising campaign. Procter & Gamble Professional will award $500 and $250 to the second and third place winners, respectively. Winners also will receive an introductory case of each product in the Dawn Grease Fighting Arsenal.
Procter & Gamble Professional is accepting print and video ads in any format. Visit www.pgbrands.com/createourad for contest details, general guidelines and suggestions to help non-advertising professionals create ads. Contestants will also be asked to recommend the publication or Web site where their entry should run.
Procter & Gamble Professional will accept entries through October 16.
Winners will be announced on October 31, with the winning ad appearing in print and online later this year.
Create Our Ad
CREATE OUR AD CONTEST: INTRODUCTION So, you think you have what it takes to create advertising for Procter & Gamble? We’re counting on it! After all, as someone who works in the foodservice industry - the industry we cater to - you’re the expert. Put that expertise to work, and the $1,000 first prize and bragging rights might be yours when your winning entry starts showing up in magazines or Web sites later this year.
Yeah, we all work for “bragging rights”- instead of providing valuable expertise in marketing, promoting, advertising and selling products.
Remind me not to buy P&G products anymore. If they can’t respect our profession- how can we respect their products?
by Next Wave Team | Aug 27, 2006 | Advertising, Brand Relevancy, Change the world, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Everything You Want to Know About Advertising, Future of advertising, Great Ad Agencies, Marketing & the Web, Search and Business, Web strategy
Google is perhaps one of the greatest market research tools ever. Want to find out when someone or something peaks the interest of the market- go to Google labs and look at Google trends. Find out when searches peak for what term.
The two major areas where search engines still aren’t very useful are by location and by time, but Google trends is one of the early tools to be able to show us time and place.
Imagine being able to track buzz by market when launching a new campaign- without having to do expensive research- look at the search for Crispin Porter + Bogusky- and see that winning a major account and winning major awards- create a bump in search.
Google Trends: crispin porter bogusky
Want to see if a new campaign started an increase in interest?
Here is the link to Google trends for the word “Pontiac”- remember they ran a campaign asking customers to google them? Well, it seems labor issues and plant closings are more likely to push search than ads asking people to Google you:
Google Trends: Pontiac
This only works for terms with huge search numbers- trying it on my name results in an error message saying not enough search volume to display graphs- and search Chiat Day- gives a graph- with no data points- but does give location stats.
Tools like this will become increasingly relevant to agency compensation structures- if your campaign doesn’t increase search, or site traffic- it’s not doing its job.
What do you think?
by Next Wave Team | Aug 19, 2006 | Advertising, Creativity, Design, Everything You Want to Know About Advertising, Future of advertising, Low Budget Advertising, Marketing & the Web, Practical Marketing 101, Viral Marketing
If you are involved in advertising, more than ever, there are two mediums that you shouldn’t ignore- the web and outdoor.
We’re here trying to educate clients (and other ad agencies) about not making “brochure-ware” websites and “Chest-beater” sites.
Definition of a chest-beater website:
a ego-centric site all about the site owner, and how great they are, without any real, useful information, typically built in Flash, so it’s guaranteed not to index or be W3C compliant (accessible to blind people).
Example copy: We’re the best advertising agency in the world- and that’s why you should hire us. We’ve won every major ad award, and throw amazing parties at Cannes. We work with all “A” level directors, and allow our creative departments to spend all your budget on very expensive TV spots, while ignoring your website, operational opportunities for marketing and anything we can’t win an award for.
Outdoor advertising on the other hand, is often the budgetary afterthought. After all, agencies don’t make as much money on cost effective media- due to the stupid idea of paying agencies with a discount on media billings. (more…)
by Next Wave Team | Aug 15, 2006 | Advertising, Brand Relevancy, Creativity, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Everything You Want to Know About Advertising, Future of advertising, Great Ad Agencies, How To Select An Ad Agency, Low Budget Advertising, Practical Marketing 101
When we first wrote about the Chiat/Day produced Apple “get a mac” ads- I was comparing them to the Burger King Manthem- and viewing them from an efficiency standpoint.
Reading this article in the LA Times, we find out that Apple has at least 25 of these in the can- and I can guarantee they all cost less than the one BK Manthem spot produced by Crispin Porter & Bogusky.
Not strictly commercial - Los Angeles Times
There have been seven spots so far with Long playing the slacker-hip Mac guy to John Hodgman’s nerdy PC guy and there are almost 20 more in the can, guaranteeing that what is currently the hottest campaign on TV can last as long as the heat does.
So- in the day of one off ideas, fire for effect TV spots- with huge budgets- and very little actual selling going on- this Apple campaign is a standout- every spot hammers home a message of why Apple is cool, hip and reliable- while the PC isn’t.
The simple production values have caused a slew of spoofs- as a quick search of YouTube will show- but, if nothing else- that validates the concept as buzzworthy.
The question remains for other marketers- if two guys, in front of a white background- joshing each other for :30 can build sales- why have you spent so much with special effects, crazy stunts, exotic locales, etc?
If you had to sell your products or services with two guys in front of a white screen- what would they say?
