Another 50% off day

The biggest difference between Europe and the US?
Holidays in the US are marketing events.
European holidays are family events.

I guess the patriotic duty during holidays is to buy. And then to buy more. 25% off, 0% APR, etc. My favorite deal currently is the Lasik deal: 2 eyes for the price of one. And I thought eyes always come in pairs. I need to meet the marketing manager who came up with that idea. Much more brilliant are those fake pupils above that let you sleep at work or in class while others think you are wide awake. Too wide awake for my taste...

Well, let's move away from marketing today, honor Washington and Lincoln on this special day and remember Lincoln's quote:

""Determine that the thing can and shall be done, and then we shall find the way."

Faux One-to-one marketing gone horribly wrong

The only time we ever receive handwritten letters is around Christmas or birthdays. When I checked the family mail yesterday, I found a handwritten letter addressed to my wife. No return address, the handwriting from an older person. Intrigued, I exclaimed: "You have a personal letter." Even more intrigued, my wife opened the letter immediately to find above abomination:
A fake cutout from a newspaper (stock quotes in the back to communicate the business-savvy part of the offer) talking about a lame offer from a Ford Dealership in Glendale, California. A Post-It Note was attached: "This deal is awesome. G."

Pathetic is not the right word to describe this idea from an unknown marketing virtuoso. I leave the right word to your curse vocabulary. I guess some companies think people are really stupid. I mean, really, really stupid. Really, really, really stupid. I would like to meet the person that fell for this stunt and bought a Ford. I will make sure he'll win the Darwin Awards. And I buy him a drink.

Or, shall I worry? I mean the Post-It Note was signed with 'G'. What does 'G' stand for? Genius Marketer? Gangster? Maybe it was a threat by G-Man that there's more to come.

G-Man, I'll be ready. I fight your pathetic marketing strategy with all the might of my 1,000+ spam emails daily. G-Man, I'm waiting for you!

Mobile Marketing that works

That's what you see when you drive through Los Angeles during the day.(And, yes, these are clouds and there was even rain afterwards...imagine!)
Marketing the sleeper Juno, this truck features the bedroom of Juno MacGuff. You can't see the details but this bedroom was as close to a teenager's bedroom as you've ever seen.

Al Gore wouldn't this kind of promotion but it makes you look again. And risk your life to take a picture with your iPhone (maybe the worst integrated phone in the market) while driving.

Yo, Nordstrom, respect

A company that gets it and doesn't participate in the rat race they call Black Friday. For some companies brand equity and long-term business goals are more important than short-term profits. Refreshing.

Via Zeus Jones

I must be in the wrong business

Tim Vanderhook writes in his latest MediaPost column about the aftermath of acquisitions (DoubleClick, aQuantive, etc.) and his predictions for the future of portals.

The last paragraph reads:

The biggest winners in this year of acquisitions will be consumers — receiving more relevant ads, at more appropriate times. Experience shows consumers don’t necessarily like advertising but are willing to endure it for free content. If the ads they see are relevant to who they are, what they are interested in, and where they are located, it becomes a win-win for all parties in the chain.

How do we motivate young people to join our industry when our lofty goals are for consumers endure our work? When I started in advertising, I wanted to entertain, inspire and engage people. Question is, if you compare your work to a root canal or an IRS audit, how can you expect to connect with people and, ultimately, sell a product?

The Facebook (R)evolution

Connie Bensen writes about the newly introduced advertising opportunities on Facebook and she's very skeptical about the overall user experience.
And Seth Godin compares Hotmail to Facebook. Not a flattering comparison.

My take? Something reaks. Rather awful.

It's almost feels like Facebook was the pot dealer in the school yard, giving away free joints and, after we all got hooked and shared our personal information, they are trying to sell the real drugs to us. Needles in the arm, baby. And the advertisers are waiting around the corner to provide the dealers with more stuff to support the addiction and reap the benefits.

Now, the big questions is: Can Facebook turn their new advertising model into Google's AdSense? My answer: No way. I smell a bit of desperation here. Facebook was developed with the user in mind and they never thought about a real advertising model, a model that could make Mark Zuckerberg a real billionaire, instead of a paper billionaire.

Nick Carr says it best:

"Facebook, which distinguished itself by being the anti-MySpace, is now determined to out-MySpace MySpace. It's a nifty system: First you get your users to entrust their personal data to you, and then you not only sell that data to advertisers but you get the users to be the vector for the ads. And what do the users get in return? An animated Sprite Sips character to interact with."

Is it time to write off Facebook? Not quite yet. But they are one of those boxers that win decisively the first round, already pronounced the winner until the opening bell of the second round rings and they get hit hard in the head.
Again.
And again.
And again.
Can they come back? I wouldn't bet on it. There are many young fighters out there, waiting for their chance. They are hungrier, will learn from this mistake and don't get sucked in by reading and believing their own clippings.

Integration

I remember that feeling in my teenager stomach when my father came to me and said: "Let's have a conversation." This 'conversation' was a long monologue, interrupted by a few rhetoric or unanswerable questions: 'Why did you do it?' 'Don't you think I have to work for my money?'
And then there were these innocent talks that traansported me to a different place. They opened up feelings, allowed to form a closer bond with my father: When he talked about his upbringing in the 30's, being a refugee in his own country, having to work 6 days a week for 12 hours in a job none of us would survive for 2 hours.

Conversational Marketing is about opening up. It's not about formulating a response to what a person is saying while that person is speaking to us. Brands are still to attached to their thinking, their positioning and their organizational thinking to really listen to people.

Organizations have to change fundamentally to succeed. Demolish the old separation of church (emotion) and state (thinking): The company produces the product and surrounds it with content and experiences. The thinking is done by the brand and the emotion is attached by an agency.

Instead, we need to integrate emotion during the product development process. This will allow to communicate authentic feelings during the marketing process. It becomes a more organic development and conversational. Conversational Marketing is not a tactic or another channel. It's a mindset.

Conversations happen with or without you

Humans are communicative, generous and lonely. That hasn't changed in 4,000,000 years, since our brains were wired.

Many people have conversations about your brand. You can be involved. Or stay on the sidelines.

Conversations are at the heart of marketing. How can you get to know your customers if you don't have conversations? This can be done in person, on social networks, through sophisticated email campaigns.

Imagine launching a new car. The old way of marketing to people would mean mass reach for 3 months and then hoping for the best. Creative wouldn't change because you made the decision to launch the car in a certain way more than 6 months ago.
Now, imagine launching a car, listening to the conversation for a few weeks and then completely adjusting your campaign, based on these conversations?

Customers will understand, appreciate your reaction and this could be the start of a beautiful relationship. What are you waiting for?

Dance, Bear, Dance

Some of you might have seen it: the bear with the nosering and when you gave his handler a few pennies, the bear danced for a few seconds just to be transformed into an abused animal again.

A good piece by the LA Times titled "Agencies pulling stunts to win clients" reminded of this sad image.

One of my favorite quotes:

What changed? For the advertising industry, most everything. There's been a steady shift away from time-honored ad channels -- TV and radio, print publications and billboards -- to digital media. And there's a growing pack of fresh-faced agencies with unconventional attitudes and approaches that are giving established shops a run for their money.

The field is so crowded that the big agencies are going after accounts they used to scorn, and spending a lot to win them. These days, "clients' demands require more expenditure," said Don Just, a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University's Adcenter in Richmond, Va.

And more gimmicks. Jos Anshell, chief executive of Moses Anshell agency in Phoenix, bought dozens of summer sausages with the idea of sending them to potential clients with cards saying, "This is the last baloney you'll ever receive from us," but the meat went bad before he could dispatch them."

And an agency that seemed to stale for a youth marketing account had this idea:

"…rented a three-story house on Hermosa Beach, equipped it with funky furniture and video games, commissioned a graffiti-esque wall painting and staffed the place with employees in their 20s. Come pitch time, a chauffeur in a Hummer drove Boost Mobile executives to the beach house and they were given a tour of what {the agency} promised would be its new Boost Mobile marketing headquarters, devoted to selling the younger generation on the wireless companies’ products."

Sure, sometimes this works and you get the account. (In this case it didn't.)

Gimmicks might work initially but they portray an agency image: The image of someone who's willing to do anything for you, no matter what. Just like the teenage boys who do anything for the cheerleader, just to be pushed aside by the quarterback.

These might be desperate times but do they really call for desperate measures? Agencies and clients need mature working relationships, not dancing bears.

Placebo Effect

There are two types of people: The optimists and the pessimists. Some might call them the naive and the sceptics. Depends on your point of view.

A new study shows how to market to the optimist group: Describe in detail the product experience people will have. Go in detail about your store, your product, the ingredients, give them a taste of what they are going to experience when they purchase your product. These positive enhancers can be found in the group that reacts to a placebo pill and they are also more interested in taking chances to win money. Actually, chances were 50/50 to win or lose money. But the positive enhancers were just excited about the possibility to win money.
The basic rule for this happy audience: Make sure not to contradict their expected experience: If you market the solitude of First Class flying, don't bother them with filled lounges or rowdy bars on-board. If you market a performance vehicle, make sure the product experience is not that of a lame duck.

The big questions remains: How to market to the sceptics? Just through facts and information? Does this ever work in marketing? Don't think so.

I believe things are much more complicated than the study indicates. Each of us is a pessimist and optimist, depending on your day, your mood, your perception of a brand, your perception of the world that day. Generally, I would put myself in the skeptics group. But not always: When I got my iPhone, I didn't have any pessimistic/skeptical feelings about this purchase. It didnt' even cross my mind that the iPhone would not live up to the hype.
I checked out Bacardi's Mojito site a few days days ago and immediately imagined myself on a hot summer day drinking this refreshening cocktail. Images of South Beach, hammocks and sunsets floated through my mind. I completely forgot that my homemade mojitos never taste that great and they will never be as good as the ones in the Delano. Ok, I didnt' buy Bacardi this weekend but I'm still thinking about it.

In the end, marketing only works when you are in this open/positive mood. Certain brands stimulate positiveness: Apple, Virgin, Nike. Most of the other brands have to work harder: They have to build experiences that allow people to become open to new ideas, new products, new ideas. This can be done through a delighting site, a surprising product experience, a heart-warming encounter with a company rep. It's about opening hearts. And minds.

Kudos

One of the most admired brands, Harley-Davidson, gains more admirers: Today's NY Times article discusses Harley's ongoing marketing campaign to attract women to their brand. No, not the trophy girl behind you: Real female buyers intrigued by the open road and Harley's brand image. Currently, women buy 100,000 motorcycles yearly and they are the fastest growing segment.

The elusive 18-34 male crowd gets less and less important. And great marketers finally wake up that marketing doesn't end at the 35th birthday and when you've reached every male in the world. Or as Jerry G. Wilke, Harley Davidson's VP for Customer Relationships and Product Planning and Customer Relationships says: "The opportunities are endless, and we will continue to do more."

Ride forever.

Involuntary Contextual Advertising

Some hilarious examples of bad media placements.







This may happen when you place your ads on advertising networks.

You wish there was some kind of QA or Contextual Check for OOH.

Is second life close to death?

How times have changed: The last few months Second Life was grabbing headlines in the traditional press and blogosphere. Apparently, many first lifers believe that things are not going that well in Second Life: Empty stores, brands mostly going instead of coming and advertisers feeling disappointed about the ROI of their investment.

I'm not surprised.

Second Life was envisoned as an alternative to real life. The residents wanted to escape their daily routine, communicate with friends and strangers on a different life, experiment with a virtual world and see where it would take them. And then came the brands. Billboards, showrooms, commercial displays. Second Life turned into Time Square because marketers didn't understand the premise of Second Life. Instead of working with the community, becoming a valued participant, they decided to disrupt and be annoying. The good news is: the disrupters are bailing. Nobody visits their islands. Nobody cares about their brands.

Instead of lamenting the demise of Second Life, we should be celebrating the opportunities for a real second life. Community-centric, a place where brands can experiment and discover how they can build relevant connections to their customers. It was always meant to be that way.

A billboard that rocks

Not user interactivity but sun interactivity.

Kwik-E-Mart update

My friend Fabian and I decided to head out to Kwik-E-Mart on Venice/Sepulveda. From the distance we could see searchlights and, once we got closer, a line wrapped around the block to enter the convenience store. Except during emergencies, when was the last time you saw lines in front of a convenience store? (Needless to say, we didn't bother standing in line...)
Marketing works. Innovative Marketing works even better.

Are we getting lazy?

Marketers face the same challenge than consumers: Too many choices, too many options, not enough time.
We still tend to throw our brand efforts on any platform imaginable and hope something will stick.
Instead of engaging with the Flickr audience, we upload a few product pictures and pray for a good outcome. The same thing is happening on YouTube, mobile applications and emerging media.

Mass reach is not that easy anymore: TV is still the weapon of choice but consumers don't receive all their messages on the couch anymore: They get them in bed, in the subway, at work, in the restroom (yes, that happens, too...) and wherever they find time to be distracted.

Broadcast companies no longer have the privilege of conveying messages to people sitting 10 feet away from the screen. They must now meet the marketplace on cell phones, online, and via other forms of mobile content.

Sure, passive consumers will be around. But the number of active consumers are increasing daily.

So, what to do?

Think about the platforms you want to utilize. It's not enough to get people there. You have to get them engaged. Be relevant. Immerse them into an experience. Experiential Marketing is not an option. It's the only way to go.

A good start

A new browser, SpaceTime, just launched. It's free, presents pages and search results as floating slabs you can flip through, organize and navigate in 3-D.

It's a bit slow (Still in beta) but I enjoyed the experience. Will be interesting to see if this will take off.

BMW - Defining Innovation

So, I used to create commercials. And, I'm proud of my work. But, after watching this commercial, I had to go back to this blog and confess my sins:
This BMW ad is beautiful, amazing visuals, a great story. It must have been fascinating to meet Theo Jansen, to be part of this experience. A great project I would have loved to be part of.

But, it doesn't make me run to the next BMW dealership. BMW stands for performance. Period. And that's what BMW should talk about.

And that's what too many advertising people do: It's all about the cool commercial, never about the brand. The product. Sales.
These agencies and mindsets will be wiped out in a few years. And we'll be left with beautiful pictures. And a more productive future.

Future of ad agencies

In this video, digital leaders look into the crystal ball:

Nick Law – Chief Creative Officer, North America, R/GASteven Marrs – Vice Chairman & Global Head of Digital & Branded Content, Nitro
Clark Kokich – Worldwide President, Avenue A/Razorfish
Torrence Boone – President Boston, Digitas

A great quote from the R/GA Nike Running case study.

"A completely new category where the product, the online experience and the marketing are inseparable"

Amen

The 'N' word

Every parents experiences it: We have the tendency to say 'No' to our kids too many times. Instead of deflecting their attention, we tend to use the 'No' words: Don't, Not, Never, etc.

This behavior takes roots very quickly: One of the first words kids learn is 'No'. It's never yes.

In marketing, it's almost impossible to change a 'no' into a 'yes'.
Seth Godin writes about in one of his latest musings.
He recommends abandoning the 'No' crowd and focus on the 'Yes' crowd. In many ways, basic psychology. We all enjoy being with people who agree with us more often than none. But, beware, being with kindred spirits can end up in a boring experience. It's all about the mix.