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.
Next time you look at a campaign being presented by your agency, step back and pretend you are your biggest competitor. If you are selling HD video cameras and your name is Sony, pretend to be Canon, or Panasonic. If you are Dell, pretend to be HP, if you are Honda, think like Toyota- or if you are Miami Valley Hospital, pretend to be Kettering Medical Center.
On first glance- does the ad look like everything else they’ve done? If yes, then do I need to worry about any groundbreaking challenges to my position? If yes, what would I need to do to counter this ad? And all of a sudden you are looking at your own advertising and evaluating it in a whole new way. Proud of yourself, huh?
Problem is- your competitor isn’t your problem.
I’m not suggesting you work in a vacuum, but this is how you produce safe, boring ads that keep you in the status quo section of the market- and that is where you are most vulnerable to losing market share- even if you are the leader in your field.
Here is a secret- there is no such thing as “Market share.” While Procter & Gamble is comfortable with the idea of market share, and Coke and Pepsi slug it out over fractions of a percent shifts, consumers are not part of group, they are individuals making decisions as single entities. The moment you start lumping them into percentages or demographics, you loose sight of the part of marketing that is magical- what should be the goal of every creative toiling away on your account- and what makes a product into a brand- and that is making a connection one-on-one with that customer- where they identify themselves with you, not as your target.
Think of archery- we can shoot arrows at the target from far away, but if you really want to hit the bullseye- the heart- the easiest way is to be a part of that target and impale the arrow in yourself. Sounds gruesome- but that’s when your ads hit pay dirt.
So, instead of talking about yourself- try to give the consumer the tools to talk about their life with your product- in a way they don’t feel that they are owned by you- but that they own your brand. Nike accomplished this with “Just do it” – probably better than anyone, the question is- when you are looking at that next ad you are going to run- “Is is about us” or “Is it about our customer plus us.”
Makes all the difference in the world.
Of late there has been a lot of major account changes noted in the advertising press. Every move by Crispin Porter + Bogusky in Miami is documented in the same style as paparazzi chasing movie stars. What was once a relatively small agency, with small clients, who got bought by a small “network” is now becoming a BIG AGENCY with BIG CLIENTS still owned by a small network. How well agencies scale should not be measured by CP+B because it is an anomaly: it’s reputation is so huge, they are able to get the pick of talent, steam roll over clients (since they have been crowned by the media as having the Midas touch) and have adopted a “media agnostic” throw as many ideas on the wall and see what sticks approach.
In case you aren’t aware of their storied life in the fast lane, they made their first appearance on the hot shop radar with their “Truth” campaign for Florida’s anti-smoking campaign. They won a Cannes Gold Lion for their spot for IKEA where a desk lamp gets kicked to the curb- but IKEA seems to be unable to stick with an agency having parted ways with the successor agency as well (IKEA should call us), then came the dream account (only because the car is so damn cute and already branded) the new BMW Mini account. Here CP+P showed off how to get the maximum muscle out of the minimal moola to an exponential effect. Putting Mini’s on top of Ford Expeditions, putting the whole car on a billboard in a Slingshot, even the tagline “Let’s Motor” was so fitting, you couldn’t help but be enchanted with the idea of “driving satisfaction” without having it screamed at you. It was the ultimate in talking with the customer- not at the customer- and it worked. BMW sold cars, CP+B made their client manager look so good, she got hired away from BMW to fix VW- that’s making your client more money than they pay you if I ever saw it. Her reward to her friends who got her there- the VW account, a prize beyond their wildest dreams when they were working on bike helmet campaigns and local business.
So impressive was the mini campaign that success breeds success and on comes Burger King- a traditionally “difficult” client who had been through agencies and “campaigns” faster than they sell whoppers. Along came CP+B throwing new stuff at the masses faster than they could say “Yes” to the “would you like fries with that” question. The first execution was a takeoff on the British TV show “The Office” and the return of the “have it your way tag line.”
For such creative geniuses to settle on someone else’s tagline is typically unheard of- typically agencies want to make their own mark- but that takes time. CP+B was smart enough to realize that a brand in trouble needs help now, not when their creativity kicks in. The campaign was outside the norm for the industry- with double-entendre’s and un-pretty people. But, it was easier to fly the old tagline back through the barriers of corporate CYA and it bought them time- time for an agency to find a brand voice. Great campaigns don’t happen overnight. “Think Small” wasn’t the first thing Bernbach did for VW, nor was “Just do it” the first shot by Wieden + Kennedy for Nike.
Next came Dr. Angus and his big burger diet, and my personal favorite- Ugoff- the fashion designer creating a “pouch” for hot chicken and shrimp” for BK’s new salads. All of these had Internet components- something many “big” agencies still do as an afterthought. Then came the viral “Subservient Chicken” which every fast feeder now wants to copy and then the King mask- of which I won’t comment. But, this huge out burst of creative work has all been in a span of less than 2 years- totally unheard of in the ad world- and…
This is NOT how most clients get the most out of their marketing budget.
Most clients don’t have 300 million to spend. They depend on consistency of message on target. This is why an Apple ad today for the most part looks like an Apple ad of yesterday (please don’t remind me that they only have 2% of the PC market- and that if it wasn’t for the iPod the stock would still be hurting) or that Wal-Mart ads look like Wal-Mart ads. The idea is that if you can’t get enough frequency at least get repetition working for you. With small budgets like BMW motorcycles, the idea of staying on brand message is considered key. If you only have so much money, keep it consistent. This is why brands are so careful about staying in voice, on target with the right trade dress (look and feel). It is also why when you have a great tagline like “have it your way” or “the ultimate driving machine” or “just do it” it never goes out of style.
So- the question we posed at the beginning is do you have the right agency? No matter what you spend, your agency will tell you it’s not enough (except our agency) because their compensation is probably tied back to media billings – the stupidest way to pay an agency ever devised. The second question is, does your brand voice do what it’s supposed to (differentiate you from your competition and connect you like no other to your market)? Lastly, is your agency looking at every avenue they can to make you highly visible to your target market through every channel possible- including the Internet, guerrilla advertising, PR and your trade dress down to the way your stores look, your salespeople communicate and your company ethics? If not, you aren’t using the right agency- or getting the right return on your dollar. There is more to this- but it could be a whole book. You can call us to discuss how you can build your business using these ideas. One of the first things we’ll do is ask to look at your website statistics- and analyze where your customers are coming from. When was the last time your agency did that?
My father bought one of the first Saturns. Four doors, A/C, 5 speed manual, FM radio- no haggle cheap transportation. He still has his plastic car and it runs like a champ. When Hal Riney and Partners started with that “A different kind of car, a different kind of car company” people just thought it was another tagline.
Well all these years later, I read a story my dad sent me from Business Week and get this- they really are a different kind of car company:
Recently, a man called Saturn’s customer-service number with a big problem: His daughter’s car had broken down in Arizona, and she was stranded. He reported her location, her license plate number — and the fact that her car was a Honda (HMC).
DIRECT ACTION. When the Saturn representative pointed this out to the upset father, he said “You’re the company that cares about people, and that’s why I called you.” What would your company do? Saturn sent out a truck to pick her up, towed her Honda, and let her father know that she was safe.
Think about it: competitive brand, no warranty card, absolutely no reason to help. Except that there’s no substitute for this kind of concrete action when it comes to creating a brand with real meaning.
How many times do you not go back to a restaurant because of one bad experience? Or not shop at a store again because someone was rude to you? It’s always been said that do something wrong and someone tells 10 people, do it right, and they may tell 1, or possibly none.
Sure, Saturn may take this story and turn it into one of those warm and fuzzy commercials (or they may not- since they can’t afford to tow every car that breaks down) but it comes back to no matter what your ads say- your company has to over deliver.
Bad ads may kill a company slowly, but great ones will kill a bad company faster. All business is one-to-one, even in the days of the Internet- your user experience governs how likely you are to do business with that company again.
The BW story continues:
It’s the sum total of all your actions. Yes, positioning messages and advertising imagery play a supporting role in developing your brand identity, but what really matters is what you do and how that makes people feel.
And everything matters. If you want to make a great brand, you need to pay attention to all the ways it gets expressed in the world. How is the user manual written? How does the off/on switch sound? How do you hire people? How does the receptionist answer the phone? All of these things are as important as expressions of your brand as an ad campaign.
So when building your brand story, don’t forget to teach your employees how to live it as well.
Sometimes things happen beyond your control. Sometimes they are good things, and sometimes, they are not so good. We have done award winning posters for the 2nd Street Public market for the last few years. People want to steal the posters. One woman told me her boss decorated his living room based on our color scheme for a poster- and had it framed on the wall. We’ve talked about selling copies of the poster, that’s the difference between good and great.
As Howard Luck Gossage said “people don’t read ads, they read what interests them- and sometimes it’s an ad.” These posters are interesting, people read them- well, we’ll let you pick-
this year, before we were scheduled to be done with the poster, another publication was going to press and a page was donated- as was the labor, there is a saying, you get what you pay for… so compare:
The “Free” poster or:
The Next Wave poster. (click on image to enlarge)
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.
