Maybe your small business can’t run an ad campaign during the Super Bowl. But you can take lessons from a couple of big brands that did – and in doing so, offended the environmental community, all of Brazil, a huge chunk of the black community and anyone who is sympathetic to the Dali Lama. Continue reading
Maybe your small business can’t create a huge, beloved hit TV and social media campaign like Old Spice’s “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” and “The Response Campaign.” But you take some valuable lessons from it.
In Creativity Online’s case study (below), the client/agency team learned that women control half the purchase decisions for men’s body wash. So their strategy: Unlike competitors such as Axe, find ways to appeal to men and women at the same time. This applies to media choices, and even more important, message development.
(For smoother video, use this link to bypass YouTube and view direct from Creativity Online.)
Lesson: Study the buying habits of your customers/brand community. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a tiny business or Procter & Gamble. You’ll discover valuable clues about how to engage and connect.
How has a particular insight helped your campaign?
Post a comment below. Or email me directly.
Best ebook ever. Best free ebook ever. Click image to download.
The Cluetrain Manifesto first slapped me in the face in 2002. I ran across this quote again just yesterday. It still stings:
The question is whether, as a company, you can afford to have more than an advertising-jingle persona. Can you put yourself out there: say what you think in your own voice, present who you really are, show what your really care about? Do you have any genuine passion to share? Can you deal with such honesty? Such exposure? Human beings are often magnificent in this regard, while companies, frankly, tend to suck. For most large corporations, even considering these questions – and they’re being forced to do so by both Internet and intranet – is about as exciting as the offer of an experimental brain transplant.”
Christopher Locke, The Cluetrain Manifesto, December 2000
It still rings true, doesn’t it – especially so soon after watching and re-watching so many Super Bowl commercials. Replace the bit about “intranet” with “social media,” and you can see how timely Locke’s message still is today.
If you catch yourself thinking or writing in the conventions of traditional marketing, I highly recommend you read or re-read it. (Oh go on, it’s free!)
Did the Manifesto affect the way you looked at marketing?
Please comment at the end of this post.
The Manifesto had been picking up steam for a couple years…
For some great insight into Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne’s decision to go with the Wieden + Kennedy concept for the Super Bowl ad, check out this great post by Forbes auto industry blogger Joann Muller.
There’s a brand that’s in trouble. It’s been making shoddy products for years. It was (and maybe still is) at the brink of failure. It needs not just a Hail Mary, but a succession of them.
Wieden + Kennedy may have answered at least one of those prayers with its work for Chrysler, the first-ever 2-minute Super Bowl commercial.
A Super Bowl commercial must work much like any other marketing communication. It has to speak to the right people, on a matter that’s relevant, in terms they understand, and be compelling. It has to address a need in the client’s sales process, or sales funnel.
Do you think another Super Bowl spot worked better than Chrysler’s?
Please comment at the end of this post. Or email me directly.
But the Super Bowl comes with extra burdens: It creates more pressure to make impact than any other venue in the world of advertising. Everyone’s watching. Even if they’re not watching the game, they’re watching online. They’re FB’ing, Tweeting and emailing. They’re even blogging. You mess up, you’ve done more than waste time, money and opportunity. You can embarrass your brand.
An interesting column in at ForeignPolicy.com says this of the Egyptian uprising:
Harder than ever to control the message
“It underscores the new reality facing Arab regimes: They no long control the message.” Competing messages gets out via satellite and digital technologies. The days command and control dwindle. (see: The Al Jazeera Revolution)
Comments welcome at the end of this post. Or email me directly.
If even ruthless dictators can’t control the message, how can you as a marketer control yours? Continue reading
Tip of the hat to Peter Shankman for finding this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_k6NRGAT7ZI&feature=player_embedded
So, you think your audience is too old for social media? AARP is a pretty sharp marketing organization (whatever you think of their politics). They don’t think their audience is too old. You wanna rethink what you thought you knew?
Over the years, one of my favorite marketing tools has been the vision statement. As I was explaining my definition of a vision statement to marketing strategist David Camp, he tells me, “Well, that’s great. But it’s not what most people call a vision statement.”
Look into the future for your customers
He’s right. What I call vision, David calls “market insight.” It focuses on the future of the customer – what problems they’ll face and what heroic solutions the market will provide. For me, it’s a useful tool because it helps the client look into the future, and project how the customer will need to be served. It demonstrates the client’s industry expertise, understanding of customer needs, and understanding of trends and forces that, for all intents and purposes, are unstoppable. All our marketing efforts ought to have this kind of customer focus.
Comments welcome at the end of this post. Or email me directly.
From 25 years ago, the words of David Kennedy, co-founder of Wieden + Kennedy: “We’re really not in the business of making ads. Our job is to make a connection.” Today you could add websites, Facebook pages, YouTube channels, email and much more to his list of stuff we’re not really in the business of making. It’s always about the connection.
Sometimes you can tell right away if the marketing effort connects. It hits you in the gut.
Other times, you can only tell something about the quality of the design and writing.
And yet well-written, well-designed work often misses the mark. Sometimes terribly. (Just look at two-thirds of Super Bowl commercials, and four-fifths of all websites.) So for each of these samples from my portfolio, I’ve given some context. To view the work, click the images above or the links on the left.
As always, Dan Wieden is eminently quotable. “If you told me six or seven years ago that some of the best work this agency would do would be for Procter & Gamble, I’d think you have a drug problem.” (See Ad Age article.)
2010 Ad Age Agency of the Year: W+K
Meet Ad Age’s 2010 Agency of the Year, Wieden + Kennedy. You remember them, right? Edited to add: W+K was also named Creativity Agency of the Year.
The nicest part of the story: It wasn’t so much their work for new clients that sparked their great year – though they’ve done notable work for Delta Airlines and Chrysler. Rather, most of their growth and notable work came from existing clients, as they’ve strengthened relationships, built trust and did some kick-ass work. (And created the most remarkable social media campaign of all time. Take that, digerati.)
Comments welcome at the end of this post. Or email me directly.
Congratulations Dan Wieden, Susan Hoffman and your cast of hundreds.
