The breakfast speakers at the AAF National Convention today were inspiring- not so much in what they’ve achieved- but in how things have changed and that the size of your ideas is the new currency.
Andy Berndt, co-president of Ogilvy NY, and Jonathan Mildenhall, the VP Global Creative and Communications Development for the Coca-Cola Company sat on the dais- and basically looked at each other and traded barbs- how does a guy who worked at a bunch of small creative agencies get to be the Co-President of Ogilvy? And, how does a guy who worked at a bunch of boutique UK firms like BBH and Mother- end up as a VP at Coke?
And the answer is: having the vision, understanding the new equation, and lastly, being really nice, down to earth guys. Neither of these two were close to gray hair (although Jonathan doesn’t have any- so it’s hard to judge) - but this is far from the gray haired, old school oligarchy that used to rule in Corporate America.
What was even cooler, they let a junior creative- Tristan Kincaid moderate and showcase the work for Fanta. A new campaign that screamed “refreshing” in a way- that wasn’t screaming- a great example of making ads that people would want to watch.
In their discussion about how Ogilvy and Coke WORKED TOGETHER on this new creative it became clear that the middle man account exec is being stripped out of the process by smart marketers- who want direct interaction with the creative team. And, along with this new way of working- they also skipped the client dictated creative brief- and just said- “Solve the problem.”
Andy gave this fantastic quote, to which I can’t attribute yet- “Give us the problem to solve- not the solution to decorate.” More insight on how one of the worlds premier brands is solving their marketing problems.
These guys realized we are in the day where both of the following statements are true:
Everything is an ad
Nothing is an ad
They are looking for a cultural platform- not an ad campaign, and are willing to look anywhere- and to anyone for inspiration.
Volkswagen was a dying brand in the US. The culprit was poor quality. Customers had been fooled into buying a Jetta or Passat on the idea that they were getting “Precision German Engineering” at a bargain beerhaul price. When the cars didn’t deliver quality- they moved on to more reliable brands.
Enter Kerri Martin, the marketing exec that built BMW Mini’s success in the US with über hot agency, Crispin Porter +Bogusky.
All of a sudden, people are ignoring the fact that VW is still at the bottom of quality- at least their ads are interesting- showroom traffic picks up- and so do sales. But, alas, not enough for the big boss: Adrian Hallmark. He doesn’t understand the Crispin “Factory” approach to advertising- where’s the unifying tagline he asks- and fires Martin. All of a sudden, VW ads are once again boring.
Price and Product boring. Like a frickin laundry list- “Three V-dubs for under $17,000.”
And quickly- we’re back to talking about the wrong thing: price.
Once again, Mr. Hallmark is changing directions- now, hoping a feel good campaign with a tagline “When you get into a Volkswagen, it gets into you.”
Hmmm…. like under your skin, when you are taking it back to the dealer for the tenth time to get the same thing fixed (a former employee was constantly having problems with his Jetta).
Mr. Hallmark said the carmaker decided to “save our gunpowder” for national ads until the second part of the year.
VW spent just $19 million in measured U.S. media in the first two months of 2007 and $241 million in calendar 2006, according to TNS Media Intelligence. Volkswagen follows a winding ad road
February 2006: Introduces “Fast” doll online and in ads featuring lab-coated German “engineer” and the line “Unpimp mein auto.”
April 2006: Introduces jarring “Safety Happens” push, showing Jettas getting slammed into by other vehicles.
May 2006: “Low-ego emissions” for Passat shows drivers in other German cars shouting arrogantly into megaphones.
May 2006: TV spots feature a lederhosen-wearing spokesman next to a white Jetta, saying, “Stereotyping is stupid.”
June 2006: Rabbit spots show two cars — one white and one black — multiplying like bunnies.
October 2006: Free-guitar incentive for buyers of Jettas, Rabbits, GTIs and Beetles; TV spots feature Slash and John Mayer.
February-May 2007: “Three V-dubs for under $17,000” touts versions of Beetle, Jetta & Rabbit.
One thing is for sure: Crispin is being patient, but a $300 Million dollar client can do that to you. The only thing VW could do to guarantee an improvement in it’s marketing is take Hallmark out of the drivers seat and bring back Martin.
At least she has a track record of delivering sales.
note: we’ve written about almost every one of the above campaigns- except the Price and Product idiocy in past posts.
McCann trademarked this phrase in 1926, and it’s as important today as then: Truth Well Told ® and it should be a cornerstone of any ad, not just the great ones.
This TV spot from Element 79 Partners in Chicago, is actually one of a series called “Origins” and it will serve us well for an example of what makes great advertising.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=vpfzBMj8T58
Gatorade is a category leader, and may as well have invented the sports drink market. From a leadership position they understand they need to make a connection with their target market- but not beat their chests. This is a key ingredient that car companies would do well to learn. Nobody likes a braggart- and this applies to your advertising as well. They have taken the story of their products beginnings and turned it into a near mythological tale- if you have history, if you have a story, take it and use it.
Up until watching these spots, the connection between Gatorade and the Florida Gators wasn’t obvious to me, it was just a trade name that spurred a whole bunch of other ‘ades- with the exception of the original one- Kool Aid® which totally missed this market segment. (Right now, anything with the word “Gator” in it might hit a sore spot in our home state of Ohio- thanks to two national championship losses to Florida this year). Element 79 has managed to do several versions of this same story- and still keep them different. Unfortunately, I can’t find the other treatments to share with you.
But, the key to realize is that it tells the story, solidifying the category leading position, and can be done several different ways. Both good ingredients.
Another key ingredient is to play with the familiar. This spot uses both familiar music- and familiar sports stars, stories and even the announcer (sorry I don’t have his name).
While hit music, star athletes and well known personalities are all great to have in a campaign, this one does it without making them upstage the product. Although I love Michael Jordan in so many of the ads he did- they often ended up being more about him than the product.
Which brings up the next trick to making a great tv spot: cool by association. In and by itself, Gatorade is just a drink. Once you connect it to the mythos of sport, and particularly championships, you’ve planted a brand statement that speaks to the innermost desires in all of us: the dream of greatness. If you can make someone believe that your product will make them great, better looking, smarter, richer, sexier etc. you have done your job.
Telling your story in :30 or :60 seconds is a major accomplishment. Most TV commercials can’t do a fraction of what this spot does- typically a spot is good if it hammers home one salient point- this one is coup de grace for the category of sports drinks. If you can’t tell your story in your spot- can you at least get their attention and make them curious enough to go to your website?
Budget also plays a part in your formula for a great tv spot. Some of this was archival footage, other parts were shot to look that way- but, always remember, if you don’t have a big budget, go for a big concept (I’ve been told that this is a mantra at Crispin Porter + Bogusky).
The last secret to getting the best results for your TV commercial- put it on your site, put it on YouTube, let as many people have access to it as possible. Let your customers talk about it- discuss it- analyze it (just like what we’re doing here) the days of “controlling” your message are over- your customers are now at the helm. When you post it- remember to add a lot of descriptive text, since search engines have no idea what a video file contains. For this spot we would suggest: The history of Gatorade, Gatorade tv commercial, origins of gatorade, the story of gatorade and how gatorade was part of the Florida Gators sports success - get the idea?
If you have more questions about how to make great tv spots on a big or little budget, or on how to get them seen by the most people- ask us. We’ve got plenty of good ideas on how to make your brand stand out and your message heard.
I own a TiVo- and I’ve used a Time Warner DVR- and that was all it took-instant understanding of why the TiVo experience is better- but, a Pepsi Challenge type campaign isn’t enough to change TiVo’s fortunes- TiVo has to do a lot more to gain market share- and the new ad campaign from Kaplan Thaler Group isn’t the answer.
From an article in the New York Times- TiVo is going to spend $15 million to try to change their fortune- and, unfortunately, they aren’t going to get it right (more on that following the excerpt)…
Avoiding Ads With TiVo? TiVo Strikes Back - New York Times
But how do you make a TiVo-proof commercial for TiVo? Executives at TiVo hope the answer is to hire an agency known for broad humor, talking animals and chirpy jingles, then approve a campaign centered on a silly (though eye-catching) visual device, meant to symbolize how much TiVo differs from generic DVRs.
The campaign, now under way, carries the theme “My TiVo gets me.” The effort, created by the Kaplan Thaler Group in New York, includes commercials on television and radio and in movie theaters, a pair of Web sites at whogetsme.com and mytivogetsme.com, (Next Wave: note- both link to the same site- and it’s all FLASH) contests, blog postings and promotional events in large markets like Boston, New York and San Francisco.
The device at the heart of the campaign is to bring to life the antenna atop the head of the “TiVo man,” the character shaped like a TV set that has personified the brand. The ads feature TiVo customers who sport antennas on their heads, which — thanks to the Stan Winston visual effects studio — seem as much a part of them as the remote controls they use to navigate the entertainment superhighway.
The campaign, with a budget estimated at more than $15 million, arrives as TiVo recorders and other DVRs loom larger than ever on the advertising landscape. Nielsen Media Research estimates that 17.2 percent of American households own DVRs and, according to an analysis by MediaPost Communications, penetration in television markets across the country ranges from 5.7 percent in Marquette, Mich., to 26.5 percent in Dallas-Fort Worth.
The proliferation of DVRs means that viewers are increasingly watching TV programs on a delayed basis rather than live. That in turn is leading Nielsen to rework its longtime methods for measuring viewership to count people who play back a program within one, three or seven days after it ran.
And because so many DVR owners fast-forward through spots rather than watch them, Nielsen plans to start providing by the end of May ratings for commercials in addition to its traditional program ratings. (TiVo has started supplying its own data to advertising agencies, showing second-by-second viewing patterns among its subscribers.)
TiVo, as the brand of DVR that has become synonymous with the category, is benefiting from the growing popularity of digital recording in the same way that brands like Band-Aid, Coke, Kleenex, Post-it, Q-tips and Xerox took advantage of similar synonym status in their markets.
But TiVo’s gains in subscribers have slowed significantly as more operators of cable TV systems sell their own — usually unbranded — DVR services.
As of Jan. 31, TiVo reported 4.4 million subscribers, 1.73 million who owned TiVo brand recorders and 2.7 million who had TiVo service through their DirecTV satellite service. The total was only 1.8 percent higher than the 4.36 million subscribers that TiVo had on the same day in 2006.
By contrast, subscriptions grew 130.8 percent from 2004 to 2005, and grew 45.3 percent from 2005 to 2006. (Subscribers who own TiVos pay $19.95 a month for one-year subscriptions, or $8.31 a month if they subscribe for three years.)
“We have spent the better part of the last year coming up with a list of significant differentiated features,” said Thomas S. Rogers, president and chief executive at TiVo in Alviso, Calif.
“This is a way to reintroduce TiVo the brand” in a way that will persuade consumers “to say: ‘I’m not interested in the generic DVR. I want the TiVo experience,’ ” he added.
Among the TiVo features described in the campaign are movie downloads through a partnership with Amazon.com, KidZone parental controls, the ability to share video clips with other TiVo subscribers and the ability of TiVo to “learn” which shows subscribers want
So- how should TiVo solve their problems?
Well, first, hire an agency that really understands new media- back in November I went to a diversity trade fair and KTG was there- they had 52 pages indexed in Google- we had 260. Today those numbers are: KTG 47 and 447 for The Next Wave. To still have the idea that large geographical markets are the answer is missing the point of the Long Tail.
TiVo has experimented with funny ads before- to disastrous results. There was one about jock itch with Joe Montana and Ronnie Lott on the golf course. They’ve also been through a ton of agencies- including some of the best. Here is an example of early work attributed to Goodby Silverstein - a truly great ad agency:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZl2Y5wX_zk
And the sad thing is- this spot still works- no need to run new, different- or more entertaining ads- the problem comes down to a few things:
TiVo really should be partnered with Apple computer. The combination of the Apple brand which stands for ease of use- with TiVo which is the leader in ease of use would be magical. It would also be the right combination for recording and downloading- something Apple TV is sorely missing.
The market for TiVo is the early adopters- opinion leaders. TiVo blew it with their late intro of a HD TiVo- and then insulted it’s user base by charging exorbitant prices. It should be an advantage to be a current loyal customer- not a reason to be taken advantage of. I’ve almost switched to Time Warner just to get a HD box without having to take out a second mortgage.
TiVo’s true value hasn’t really been tapped- one of IPTV style direct delivery of targeted ads. Because they haven’t been able to get critical mass- and haven’t worked their customer relationships well enough- they may have missed this boat as well. A partnership with Nielsen to supply a TiVo to every metered home on a trial basis would have done more for better numbers- and sampling- than any campaign ever would.
TiVo hasn’t got a chance of surviving solo at this point. When they lost their partnership with DirectTV- and failed to work with the cable companies- they sealed their fate. TiVo can offer all kinds of new services- but, the reality is- they are a one trick pony- without a chance of winning the IPTV race- unless they partner with the calvary- be it Apple, Amazon, Nielsen, Cable companies, Telcos, or someone with the horses to get market penetration by taking the box as a loss leader- and the subscription fees as well - and focus on the community building relationship that TiVo has the sole rights to own in the DVR/IPTV competition.
Remember- it’s never about the technology, it’s about the content and the community- and that’s what TiVo should be placing all their effort behind.
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.
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.
