25Nov / 2009

This year’s thoughts on marketing next year: The prelude

There’s been a lot percolating in my head over the last and it’s about time I got it out in a series of posts relating to marketing as I’ve seen it this year. Hopefully you’ll find it mildly helpful and interesting…and not too rambly.

Correct me if I’m wrong but I think anyone who works in a digital agency probably spent most of last year trying to demonstrate how modern marketing needs a distinctive and somewhat evolved approach to work in digital I daren’t say different because that merely feeds the binary decision making and black or white thinking that hinders many organisations. But as Eric Schmidt highlights, we do need to stop making a distinction between media.

That’s not to say that brands aren’t doing good things, it’s probably the most exciting time to be doing what we do. However things are still broken on a vast scale and the problems lie in systems, business models, metrics and marketers being outpaced by how people are using technology.

To use a Mark Zuckerberg quote: “A lot of this (change) is just social norms catching up with what technology is capable of.” The problem is of course, social norms are way ahead of most brands thanks to said technology.

My esteemed colleague Iain McDonald likes to use this little thought experiment to highlight how ridiculous some of our thinking actually is when you look at life through a digital lens.

First of all imagine if the Internet, as it is today, came before TV. Then someone said to you we are going to put a big box in the corner of your living room. You can only watch certain programmes when we say you can and then every 15 minutes we are going to show you half a dozen ads that are 9 times out of ten, irrelevant and uninteresting. We will then repeat many programmes that you have already seen throughout the year. You would obviously tell them to get stuffed.

Online behaviour and the use of technology is changing people’s expectations of brands and how they actually behave in the real world. I will cover a few things before the year is out that will hopefully help you for the next – a fresh start and all that guff.

Things like the re-calibrating of businesses, forgetting what you know, the great digital realisation that people don’t care about brands, marketing to networks, convergence of media, media slices rather than chunks, the system of objects, innovative research and measurement. Next post to come shortly…I hope.

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20Aug / 2009

It’s not about the destination, it’s the journey – The growing distance between an ad and a sale

I like it when there is a bit of distance between advertising (I use the term arbitrarily) and the actual purchasing of a product. What I mean is we generally focus on getting people from an execution to a sale in as few moves as possible. This is mostly because a) it costs less money and b) conventional wisdom suggests that is what people want.

I’m not a one strategy for every problem kind of guy, but in many instances these points aren’t actually that correct an in many ways a bit of a hinderance. Whilst a bit subjective, some of the best things I have seen have distance between the ask and the sale – some extra value, an experience, an interaction, a story, a puzzle, a film, some technology…the list is endless and that’s the beauty. Some examples include, Why So Serious, Fiat E:CO Drive, and even these awesome banners from EA.

We spend too much time trying to fight the way people behave instead of embracing it. To end with some cheese

“Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it.”

Greg Anderson

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12Mar / 2009

Thoughts on Adtech – Sydney 2009

I was on a panel at Ad:tech on Tuesday talking about ‘The Importance of Digital Strategy’. A pretty broad question I know, almost like the importance of digging foundations for a massive skyscraper. But with the help of Kate Tee (Diageo), Stephan Gervois (NRMA) and panel leader Ben Cooper (The Population) I like to think we managed to put together something that was of interest. Thank you guys, it was a pleasure.

One of the things I wasn’t quite ready for was the sheer vulnerability you now have as a speaker these days. Not only do they rate you with a little black box, you have to sit there thinking, ‘shit am I going to get in the neck from the Twitterati just because I said if you have thousands of followers it doesn’t mean you are engaging’. That aside I thought it did enhance the experience overall, even if 90% of people were in the classroom and 10% were behind the bike sheds saying that Sharon from class C5 had big ears.
Anyway with it all still fresh in my mind here are my thoughts.

Keynotes
Nick Brien from Mediabrands was excellent and probably the best presentation of the whole two days. I particularly like his view on the R word. Not recession but reset. This is the opportunity for brands to start doing things how they should be done.

The Social Media Debate wasn’t much of a debate, but Jenny Williams did a very good job of leading the discussion. Very interesting to see how they plan on engaging brands now and in the near future. I particularly liked the idea of approaching them for their capability around the whole package rather than just as another ad channel. I think that was the guy from Bebo.

The other ones from Kodak and BBC were a bit disappointing, the former the evolution of Kodak, the latter a bit too much of a sales pitch.

Panels

Integrating social media into your marketing plan
Well articulated although I was a bit disappointed with the case study used. IMHO it didn’t really demonstrate a good use of social media. It was essentially a Facebook app, a voucher and some banners. It also felt like a bit of a sell from McCann who couldn’t help but tell the audience that no one else in the room has done such a great Facebook app like them.

Specialist vs. Generalist: Uncovering The Best Of Both Agency Relationships
Probably one of the only panels I saw that really started to disagree with each other. There was never going to be an answer on this but I enjoyed Mike Zeederberg from Profero and Fionn Hyndman from DGM duke it out.

Fionn: “You wouldn’t go to a GP if you had something severe that needed treating would you”
Mike: “You would if you wanted a long life, good health and well being”

Effects Of Transparency: Cash For Comment And The Dark Marketing Debate
An entertaining show put on by Julian Cole and some good case studies of failures. Probably didn’t really get going until the audience questions but full marks for bringing the 50mins to life a bit. I was flagging a bit by this stage of the day.

The Relevance of Twitter
Gavin Heaton and Mike Hickinbothan from Telstra/Bigpond were both very good and were the only ones that took it out of the ‘what is Twitter’ territory into the ‘why it’s relevant’. Jye Smith did a good job leading the panel and getting amongst the audience.

How to engage consumers online?
I really liked the case studies particularly from Clemenger and Edelman, although it was too much like a presentation of work than a discussion. It was however one of only a handful of sessions to actually show digital creatively and the effects of it living outside of the web.

In fact thinking about this, if you rounded everyone up who attended, took their brains out and put them all into one person with a massive head, it would walk anti-clockwise all day long. The first questions from the audience in almost every session were ‘How much did it cost?’ and ‘How many sales did it generate?’

Online Metrics: What, How And Who Should Care
A good panel, that gave a good insight into what is important to their businesses and very well moderated. I did feel leaving like it was all about just measuring sales, reach and frequency. If everyone measures the same things don’t we all just say the same thing, to the same people in the same places?
I would have liked a rogue in here to push a few buttons. Brian Fine of STW Insights did briefly ask the panel what was the difference between their metrics and KPIs although it wasn’t quite picked up.

Measuring social media
This had a very good panel broaching a very difficult subject. Very different from the session prior in that people like Stephen Collins emphasised the need to be people focused and consider quality objectives and qualitative methods, not just the numbers. Iain McDonald led the panel well, although I would say that I sit next to him.

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17Dec / 2008

Do recessions make agencies lazy?

Image via

When budgets are cut during tough times it’s always a bit disappointing. You can’t do exactly what you’d like, but in my opinion – it sorts out the men from the boys. What frustrates me even more however, is that smaller budgets breeds laziness. In meetings with other agencies over the last month I’ve heard people complaining about only having a couple of mill to spend. Yeah, it’s not the biggest but I’m pretty sure if you gave that to an entrepreneur they would wet their pants and make it work as hard as humanly possible.

According to the people in said meeting, you have to go for ‘maximum reach with such a tiny budget’ and ‘not get too cutesy as consumers won’t understand and miss the call to action’. Whilst I don’t think this is reflective of most agency attitudes these days, it does worry me that people are reacting this way as times get tougher. Agencies have a responsibility during this period to prove their worth and substantiate why they exist in the first place, not just save energy because we aren’t getting paid what we were. As society gets, err, well, more social. If we aren’t careful advertising spend could become an operating cost to clients who appoint community managers, conversation designers, or even Twitter Salesman to market its business. Case in example is Dell who has reportedly made $1m from Twitter alone to date.

Perhaps it’s not laziness, maybe it’s size? Complacency? Even a form of survival panic. Whatever it is I feel we need to push clients to become more relevant and more distinctive and not waste what budget you do have on buying as many eyeballs as possible and hoping a supposed ‘USP’ sticks. Come on people, a bit of optimism and hard work will get you through.

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29Oct / 2008

80 things you actually really need to know about advertising?

Adnews’ attractive publication with the evocative title has been sat on my desk for a few days now but I’ve only just found the time to flick through it, and flick through it I did. I know this is to celebrate 80 years of Adnews, so I can’t be too hard and I may be being unfair, but to call it ‘80 things you need to know about advertising’ is somewhat misleading. It is essentially a chance for people to pat each other on the back and talk up how great traditional advertising is and whilst look back on the golden era. Which is fine, but I don’t really, really, really need to know this.

I also got a small feeling that there was a distinct lack of ‘things you needed to know’ relating to digital?

Out of the 80 things only 3 mentioned digital and none of them were remotely helpful, or productive. Here they are…

‘Who created the first Internet viral ad in Australia and what was it for?’ An Internet Viral ad?? An interesting concept in itself but it roughly translates as a TV ad that was popular on Youtube. Now I like the Carlton Draft Big ad mentioned, but surely there is a better example of viral content on the web?

‘Will mobile ever overtake online spend?’ Who cares, it’s what people are doing that counts and technically more and more people are online on their mobile.

‘Is digital marketing resource intensive?’ The question was so confrontational and unproductive I didn’t read the article

Out of the 80 things these were the lowlights…

‘What is so fascinating about advertising?’ Arguably answered by this other question ‘Does advertising have its fairs share of wankers?’

‘Are consumers really more ad savvy these days?’ They are more everything savvy

‘Can advertising ever be art?’ Yes, it can be anything it needs to be. A film, a blog, a book, an adventure, even a 10 pound note.

‘Which ad agencies have the best offices?’ Who cares

‘Why is there no innovation in the ad game?’ First of all there is, everywhere I look there is innovation just not ‘in the ad game’.

Now it wasn’t all bad. Out of the 80, I really only needed to know the following four

1 # Should advertising reflect society?
2 # How do you connect with new Australia?
3 # Can you build a globally successful brand without ads?
4 # How do clients develop strong communications for global brands in local markets?

I feel bad binning this as it’s a very valid celebration of Adnews so I thought I would help them out and see if we can compile a new list of ‘80 things you actually really need to know about advertising’ and I will do this for free. Hopefully with your help. So I’ll get things rolling by adding the fifth which is

5 # As more and more people ignore, switch off and close down, how can the industry advertise without advertising?

To show there are no hard feelings, you can order a copy of the Adnews book by calling: 02 9213 8325. And if you are interested in the history of Australian advertising then it is highly recommended.

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25Aug / 2008

Tenuous Olympic Links

Despite bucket loads of marketing cash having been spent during the games, I still found myself getting quite bored of brands creating some very tenuous links to their products. But now the torch is on its merry way to London, it’s time for the fallout and the usual debate regarding whether or not brands should a) jump on the Games bandwagon or b) spend money actually becoming an official partner.

Over the last few weeks, it felt like every brand in the world was bombarding me with Games related campaigns. A couple of my favourites were Holden, who had Aussie athletes warming up and stretching on the bonnets of its latest range of vehicles. Then there was Lenovo who found the connection between a top swimmer, their coach, and a splash proof feature on a laptop. But the Gold medal has to go to Visa for this spot which features Derek Redmond and his Dad. It’s a nice message but the never say die spirit has little to do with a credit card. I also love the fact that they are actually proud of making it impossible for people at the Games to use anything other than a Visa card.

Then there is the stomach churning stuff coming from Coles. I am probably being cynical and English but there is only so much top and tailing of a commercial break one man can take. I honestly think I have seen this 100 times in the last couple of week. Every time I see it I believe/feel it less and less.

And just to prove my point according to this must read report, ‘The Commercial Games – How Commercialism is overrunning the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games’ there is an official dumpling partner to the games. What were your favourites from the Olympic Games

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07Aug / 2008

The Hollowmen

I like to post things on a Friday that you can just sit back and enjoy and this one is a good if you give it a chance. The Hollowmen started on ABC this week at it is a bit like The Office but based around Australian politics. It’s essentially the same gag all the way through it but there are some surprising similarities to our industry and agency life in general. Admit it, we all have worked with people like this. You can watch the full episode here, but start on 10mins if you don’t have much time.

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05Aug / 2008

Paul Feldwick on the ‘Myth of the Message’

Anything written by Paul Feldwick is well worth reading, he certainly has a way with words. So thanks to Faris for flagging this essay up and please do read all of it. It’s a great piece and not just a flippant blog post (like this one is). It really is useful and well worth forwarding on to clients (unlike this one). Just make sure they don’t misinterpret the digital vs analogue part!

For me ‘associations and relationships’ is probably the most distilled down and helpful description of how to approach communications at the moment. It’s like this deck from Joe Crump on Digital Darwinism and John Grant’s Brand Molecules but it is related more specifically the the construction of an ‘advertising message’. Forward it on to all those people you who live and die by the USP.

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30Jul / 2008

Blurred Vision

I feel more and more that that the time is here where old and new media has not just collided, but agencies are admitting to the fact that it has actually happened. In a post 2.0 age it will be impossible to specify what ‘kind of agency’ created this or who created that. The gloves will thankfully be well and truly off and only the strongest will survive.

Anyone from a production house, an ad agency, a media agency, even a social justice, public affairs agency could have come up with the idea for the Pet Shop Boys Integral campaign. However, they do all need to understand digital. And whilst I do think it will be easier for a digital agency to grow out than it will a ‘traditional’ agency to grow in, this post isn’t about who is best to do it. People can fight about that somewhere else for all I care.

It is more about the blurring of the lines becoming normal, new media being seen as just media. I honestly don’t think there is a more exciting time to be working in digital…yes, even in Australia where Telstra are pushing things like QR codes hard. But again this isn’t about QR codes potentially arriving from Japan three years later. Shit, interactive billboards were being done in Belgium in 2005. It’s about digital really manifesting in people’s lives, not just on a screen.

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Tag Archives: Advertising

This year’s thoughts on marketing next year: The prelude

It’s not about the destination, it’s the journey – The growing distance between an ad and a sale

Thoughts on Adtech – Sydney 2009

Do recessions make agencies lazy?

80 things you actually really need to know about advertising?

Tenuous Olympic Links

The Hollowmen

Paul Feldwick on the ‘Myth of the Message’

Blurred Vision

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