Last night, watching TV, I saw 2 new campaigns- by two of the best advertising agencies in the business: Chiat/Day and Crispin Porter Bogusky.
The clients: Apple and Burger King respectively.
Both clients spend more to run a spot than any of our clients spend in a year- but, that’s beside the point- the point is; who gets the most out of their advertising budget; who maximizes the value of every dollar, and how can you get the best advertising for less money?
Apple’s new campaign is a simple production- 2 actors (the button down guy, John Hodgman, is the PC and the young hipster, Justin Long, - is the Mac) talking on camera, white background, - with a logo at the end on an iMac screen. Six different spots- Viruses, Restarting, Better, iLife, Network, WSJ. Each covers a different reason a Mac beats a PC. Entertaining yes- but where is the call to action? Sounds really trite- but, no where in the spot is any indication that if you go to Apple.com you can find out more.
Luckily- most people can figure that out on their own- and if they do- right on the front page of a fast loading site- Apple has the spots running- and links to why you should get a mac.
The cost of production and editing these 6 spots in Dayton OH would be under $30,000, shot in HD (not including talent rate). On the web- all the spots are downloadable in different sizes, and easy to link to. This is how viral campaigns take off- easy to point to, easy to send. On the other hand- we have the BK “Manthem”- a very expensively produced spot- with scenes of men marching through streets with their new Burger King Texas Double Whoppers. Yes I am a man- hear me roar- but after CP&B got done with the musical score- the multiple scenes, the huge cast- the dumping of a mini-van over a bridge into a dump truck- to be pulled by a circus strongman- we have a :30 spot with a budget that some independent film makers make a feature film with.
Now, even if the spot was amazing, fantastic, one that I wanted to watch over and over- I can’t- at least not easily.
The Burger site at bk.com is made in Flash [note: the site was built by VML]- with no way to bookmark a page, send a link or even download the spot. If I’d like- I can send the spot to a friend- which I tried to do- so I could send you an easy link- but the link that it generates- fails. So much for a multi-million dollar budget (including creative, production and media). You will just have to go to BK.com, find the cinema link, then click on the Manthem reel (note- all the other spots have download links). NOTE: Feb 2007, I’ve added the Manthem Burger King spot with a link from YouTube at the bottom of this post- since BK still doesn’t understand how to maximize their ad dollars online. This post still generates a lot of search results- all for BK, almost none for Apple.
As more people time shift TV programming- can you afford not to have your spots as easy to get to as possible? Why hide behind menus, locked content, and long downloads? Do you have the script in a searchable format- so someone searching for “I’m am man, hear me roar” or “Texas Double Whopper” or “Eat this meat” etc- so that people looking to see what you spent so much money on- can find it- instead of this post.
Crispin Porter + Bogusky is where Chiat/Day was around 35 years ago- having the pick of clients and talent. But comparing these two campaigns, shows that the steady old hand of Chiat understands it’s about delivering a message instead of showing off. The Apple campaign isn’t going to set the world on fire- but at least it’s accessible and supported online. Instead of spending huge on production- they bought more media- instead of posing- they deliver.
At one point Jay Chiat asked “How big can we get before we get bad?” and many would argue that Chiat/Day on a bad day was better than many agencies on their best- but, if you really want to know how to get the best bang for your ad dollar- make sure your agency checks it’s ego at the door- instead of out of your ad budget.
What do you think?
Here are the complete words (Lyrics) to the Burger King “Manthem” tv spot for the Texas Double Whopper:
I am man, hear me roar,
In numbers too big to ignore,
And I’m way too hungry to settle for chick food!
‘Cause my stomach’s starting to growl,
And I’m going on the prowl,
For a Texas Double Whopper!
“Man that’s good!”
Oh, yes, I’m a guy!
I’ll admit I’ve been fed quiche!
Wave tofu bye-bye!
Now it’s for Whopper beef I reach.
I will eat this meat
Chorus (Eat this meat)
‘Till my innie turns into an outie!
I am starved!
I am incorrigible!
And I need to scarf a burger beef bacon jalapeno good thing down!
(Yeah!)
I am hungry!
(I am hungry)
I am incorrigible!
I AM MAN!
The Texas Double Whopper: Eat like a man. Man.
By the number of hits we’re getting for people searching for this- it’s even more proof that CP&B isn’t managing the BK site properly-
We’re not getting any searches on the Apple spots- meaning people are finding the PC/Mac spots easily on Apple’s site.
Note: This post is generating an incredible number of search hits- all for the BK spot. According to Ad Age- this was a spot that was unveiled at the BK franchisee annual convention. After complaints about the spooky king- and the focus on the 18-24 yr old male customer- and almost everything else Crispin has done for BK- the franchisees looked at their sales figures- and this overblown production- and cheered.
Maybe the difference between BK and Apple has more to do with the client- Steve Jobs is a visionary king- BK is a horde of franchisees who like to think they are all kings. The big question will be if the franchisees will be able to let Crispin let go and keep making new, fresh ads- or will they try to force this into eternity. Ugoff was brilliant- but it would be old and annoying if it had run much longer.
You can see the spot and read comments on YouTube - the quality isn’t as good as the BK site- but they still don’t have it available to share. There may even be a directors cut out there somewhere- CP+B has been known to float some viral versions. It may have been on MySpace for a minute- but it’s gone now.
Well- at least one big agency is getting the internet these days.
Hill Holliday in Boston gave up the flash driven, glam site of the mega agency for an entire site in WordPress.
That’s what we’ve been talking about for the last 13 months.
That’s why we started the Blogosopher seminar- and why we stoped wasting our clients money with sites that don’t deliver what Word Press can- faster and cheaper.
How many times have you heard “it’s not rocket science, it’s only ____________” (and it’s ok to substitute “brain surgery” for “rocket science”) and thought I should be able to do that? It’s one of the things those of us in advertising hear all the time- as if creating this great stuff is so easy.
How long did it take Wieden + Kennedy working on Nike before “Just do it” came along and changed everything? Do you think “Where’s the beef” was a happy accident on the set? Hopefully not. The fact is- some very talented and smart people worked a lot of hours to come up with those famous three word combinations. Three words- and they propel sales and awareness through the roof.
So- is there a secret to coming up with this stuff? I ran across a site that has eight strategies to “thinking like a genius”- and wouldn’t you know it- they all apply to coming up with great advertising.
If you want to have genius advertising- I can add one more thing strategy to the list: hire an agency and work together at learning each other’s business. It’s often said that clients get the advertising they deserve- and most of the time this comes from an arrogance – often founded on the premise that they don’t believe that advertising is actually creative rocket science. So before you hire or fire your agency- look at how you handled the relationship- was it one of mutual respect? Did you work as hard at educating the agency as the agency worked at educating the client? If the equation wasn’t 50/50- you probably didn’t get what you could have.
As far as I can see there are only two TV campaigns out there that I want to watch over and over.
I’ve talked about both of them in previous posts.
Two of the best agencies- according to Ad Age- and according to me: Wieden + Kennedy and Crispin Porter Bogusky, and two very different clients.
When you say “Nike” – you are really saying “Wieden + Kennedy”- the agency has been there almost from the start. All the emotions, all the brand karma – come from this long, sacred relationship between marketer and agency. The latest spots for the “Jumpman” brand- are beautiful. They’ve taken Michael Jordan and made him fresh- they’ve also introduced another classic tagline- “Let your game speak” which may not be “Just do it”- but it’s what Adidas, Reebok and others should have come up with long ago.
It’s also what good advertising should do- let the product speak by itself- without that announcer voice telling you what to think about what you are looking at.
The fact that this “2nd generation” spot has no spoken words in it- yet works- moves it to the top of my list. That they can just take a scene from it- and run it with the logo as a 5 second break- says even more. Granted- we had at least a dozen years of watching Michael Jordan do things on a basketball court that made highlight reels over and over.
In :30 seconds, W+K evokes my emotion- it makes me feel, it moves me, and I’m not even a huge basketball fan. I’ll never buy basketball shoes- just like I’ll never palm a basketball, but, if I did- I’d think that there was some bit of magic in those soles that would move me the way Jordan could.
VW is another story. I grew up loving VW’s – I learned to drive in a ’72 Beetle. This was the brand that helped launch modern advertising- with Bernbach and his “lemon” ad. Then the eighties came- and VW ignored everything that made them what they were- and lost their market share and their brand position- that of inexpensive, reliable and not being a slave to fashion. They also started going through ad agencies like babies go through diapers. Then they landed with a smaller agency out of Boston called “Arnold.” Their “Drivers wanted” started to reconnect the idea of a car as something fun to drive- instead of being about displaying your ___________ (insert ego, machismo, status etc.). The campaigns were simple, they didn’t have the VO saying “with it’s 2.4 liter, double overhead cam drive blah, blah, blah” (Detroit, take note), and they created positive emotional ties between you and your VW- be it driving around town picking up old furniture or taking a drive with friends with the top down on a star lit night.
The campaign did the job- VW didn’t. The cars quality wasn’t there, and these aren’t tennis shoes with a 6 month shelf life- it’s a car- the second largest purchase people make. After years of screwing their customers, they hired a new marketing chief- and said screw you to the agency that bought them a second chance.
Now we have Crispin Porter + Bogusky telling us to “Unpimp your auto.”
From an entertainment standpoint- I love these spots- I laugh at tuner cars all the time. For as much as these kids put into a Subaru WRX, Honda Civic, Dodge Neon, etc- they could have a lot more car. I’d take a used Boxter over a hopped up Civic any day- and I imagine most women would rather say “My boyfriend drives a Porsche” than “my boyfriend has an Eclipse” or- a “Mark V GTI from VW- pretuned by German engineers.”
These spots stick in my head like a bad song on your clock radio that wakes you up from a deep sleep- and then doesn’t go away all day- think “My Sharona” by “The Knack” and then some. That says to me they are good advertising- they cut through the clutter- especially car ads- which as a category are more formulaic than a Big Mac (two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickle, onion on a sesame seed bun- and yes- that tagline has stuck with me for over 30 years).
But, while the Jordan Next gen ads leave me with a feeling of love and awe- the UnPimp spots leave me feeling – well, entertained and that’s it. Yes, people will talk about the spots, and some may now think about VW again- and may go out and look at one- but, in the grand land of automobile choices- I’m not sure I want to own a car that is unPimped- or even associated with that entire genre of transportation.
Granted, I’m not in the tuner car demo- but the VW base price is at least $5K more than the cars they are making fun of. Not only that- the ads local dealers are running in the papers don’t connect at all with this new “campaign.” While this kind of entertainment may work for something like Burger King- where franchises don’t run their own ads- and proudly display anything that is sent down from corporate- the dealers have to be part of the entire buyer experience. Are we going to see lab coats on the sales floor next?
So- as much as it makes me chuckle, and that I enjoy watching it- CP+B need to go back to the drawing board- “Drivers Wanted” beats doing what ever it is with your “fast” any day. And W+K deserves a second shot (they has Subaru for 2 years) at a car account.
My question is to CP+B- can you let your VW speak?
The brand had a voice once- understated, honest, cool- bring it back. Please.
On the other hand- we have the BK “Manthem”- a very expensively produced spot- with scenes of men marching through streets with their new Burger King Texas Double Whoppers. Yes I am a man- hear me roar- but after CP&B got done with the musical score- the multiple scenes, the huge cast- the dumping of a mini-van over a bridge into a dump truck- to be pulled by a circus strongman- we have a :30 spot with a budget that some independent film makers make a feature film with.