I then followed up with an (obvious) point: “Brands don’t talk; people talk.”

This, in turn, triggered a few comments and questions, such as: “Brands dont talk? So why do we catalyse ‘brand conversations’? Why do we have a ‘brand language’? If a brand is built around a relationship, doesnt silence make that relationship flat and one dimensional if not a monologue?…. Discuss….”

Now, that comment alone most certainly sent the man pictured above out on a mission, but I took the opportunity to elaborate on my rather blunt statement:

“We definitely rely on metaphor a lot to describe how comms promoting brands should look, feel and behave, as we say. Too much sometimes, I think. (You can often hear Bullshit Man hovering just below the ceiling in meeting rooms) But what people working for companies say about companies/brands (on social media) is not the same as saying that this is the ‘brand’s voice’. Rather, it’s the voice of people working for companies promoting brands, answering questions about brands in a call center-esque manner. And that’s why I said that ‘brands don’t talk; people talk’.”

When call centre businesses realize there’s money to be made from answer questions on Facebook on behalf of businesses (and not just over the phone) they’re going to get many a social media agency a good run for their money.

The John Lewis Christmas ad 2011 is the most wonderful piece of film I have seen in a long time.

Magical.

Enough said.

In the Digital Life 2011 survey from TNS released recently, we learn that almost two thirds of Britons don’t want to interact with brands on social networks. The survey states that mountains of digital waste, from friendless Facebook accounts to microsites that no one visits are polluting the digital space. No surprises there.

Most brands, it seems, are getting the fundamentals wrong. Especially in social media.

Supposedly blinded by the lure of glittering technology and visions of future earnings, many appear to have lost sight of how this wonderful digital stuff now available to us is actually being used by real people. Huge amounts of wishful thinking is (still) driving the creation of social campaigns. And the waste mountains just keep on growing.

People in Adland shouldn’t be surprised that “people don’t want to interact with brands in social media”. It would seem a rather odd expectation to believe that people actually would. The word ‘social’ provides a decent clue as to why. Sure, people including myself will respond to content from brands in this space, but to talk about interaction? Let’s not delude ourselves with jargon.

What people want from brands in simple terms are utility and entertainment. In a social context, one such utility is, of course, a brand’s role as a means for self-expression. Forgive me for using the tired term ‘social currency’ here. Embracing this reality is the condition of entry for any brand in the social space.

It’s about looking at brand content as a means for social interaction, rather than as a destination in itself.

Here’s the thing: People don’t really want to interact with brands if we’re being strict about it; people want to interact with people, which is precisely what people want out of social media. We don’t socialise with brands; we socialise with people. Hence, the thing brands should focus on in social media is to help conversations between the people there become better, richer, deeper and funnier. The conclusion that “Britons want brands to stay off social networks”, would suggest that their experiences in this space thus far haven’t added much value to their social interactions, but have presumably been perceived as interruptive, broadcastesque visual noise, irritating their eyeballs.

Brands should broadcast to people when people want to be broadcast to – in front of the telly – and they should help people be, well, more social in places where this is what they’ve come for.

Marketers need to understand that approaching social media with a broadcast mentality is utterly futile. What they need, ironically, is nothing different from what great brand building and advertising have always been based on: a profound understanding of people and what motivates us. The obvious addition being that brands now also need an understanding of human behaviour and interaction in the digital space, as well as creativity and the right digital capabilities to exploit it.

For a majority of organisations, it’s safe to say that this requires ‘unlearning’ of old habits to varying degrees in order to create space for a new, social approach to brand building to move in. Technologists are an absolutely critical part of this equation. But as they move in, it is paramount that their skills can effectively marry advertising’s cornerstone: a profound understanding of human nature. Because in silo, digital know-how offers little or no value.

Whilst the industry is ostensibly grappling with this ‘new’ reality, I can’t help but feel that the more things change the more they stay the same. Because at a fundamental level, the hallmark of great brand thinking hasn’t changed in the slightest: it remains rooted in an understanding of people. And more often than not it is this understanding that unlocks the Big Idea  -  substance for people to talk about and be social around. Irrespective of channel.

As posted on campaignasia.com on December 8th, 2011

Lately, it feels there’s been a resurgence of people in Adland talking about the importance of storytelling. We’re going back to basics, literally. I have no issues with this, I think this is great. What irritates me is people talking about it as if it’s groundbreaking stuff. It’s what it’s always been about, isn’t it? This is echoing the sentiment in Rob’s post from a couple of days ago. Ironically, I do think that the importance of storytelling may actually sound like groundbreaking thinking to a lot of brand managers and agency people, which is rather alarming. But it may help explain why so much of the advertising out there is so utterly bland and uninteresting.

Storytelling is the backbone of culture, any culture. It’s a necessity for people to feel a sense of belonging to any group or context, including brand. We simply need stories as human beings to create meaning. And great stories need great ideas. A really bad analogy (- I can’t think of a better one right now -) would be to think about an idea as a book cover; what holds the chapters that tell the story.

Now, I realize I run the risk of sounding like one of those people who annoy me when I say that storytelling is important.  But I don’t pretend there is anything new in what I’m saying here. All I’m saying is that a great story is as relevant as ever. I’ve posted on this topic a couple of years ago and you can read it here.

Whilst on the topic of storytelling, I thought I’d share this fairly recent RSA animation of Sir Ken Robinson’s story. It tells a great story. And because of how it’s told: the words, the pace, the timing, the analogies, the visualization, it is both persuasive and engaging. Not to mention how fundamentally important it is for all of us.

The best stories are the ones people want to share, the ones people want to hear over and over again, the ones people want to believe in. These are the stories that live on.

My sharing this clip is hopefully proof that Sir Ken’s story is one that will spread and live on.

For those of you who don’t speak Swedish, my apologies in advance. Heinz Sweden and CP+B Europe have created this app which translates your status update or any (Swedish) message you would like to send to a friend into traditional, “old Swedish” – spelling and grammar from 1869. This was the year the Heinz Company was founded. Now, I guess most of you will have to take my word for it, but the messages in old Swedish are quite entertaining to say the least…just as they would be in English from 1869.

If you’re lacking inspiration as to what to say there are also a number of pre-written messages to choose from on the topics of “Party Invitation”, “I love you”, “Relationship Breakup”, “I am pregnant”, “I’ve lost my cat”, “Need a flat”, etc.

What I like about this idea and the underlying thinking is that it uses social media for what it’s mean to be: social media. Not as yet another media channel to stick a logo in (or set up a fan page on that about 17 people read). This idea finds a way for Heinz to be a part of the conversations people are already having, making them better and more entertaining.

Utility, not distraction.

From Droga5 Sydney comes this brilliant idea: “The VB Drinking Chip”.

It’s a snack developed to compliment a chilled VB beer, making you drink more of it. It’s allegedly the “The best hot chip made for the best cold beer”. Anyone who buys a case of VB stubbies will receive a bag of the chips.

Unashamedly and utterly analogue, this idea shows that even with all the new and exciting technologies available to us, what’s at the heart of our industry hasn’t changed: it’s still about motivating human behaviour to a commercial end. And sometimes the solution may just be composed by potatoes, oil, chili, salt and a healthy dose of MSG rather than an iPhone app.

I haven’t posted for a while, not since April to be specific. Mostly because I’ve been too busy. But also because I haven’t felt like it. And forcing myself  would seem to defeat the object of why I started writing a blog in the first place. But today I felt like posting again. The reason being that the idea we pitched and won Pernod Ricard’s Martell business with earlier in the year over at TBWA officially launched today. Considering the conservative nature of Pernod Ricard as an organisation, getting this idea through feels like a proper accomplishment.

In a nutshell, the pitch brief was about bringing relevant meaning to the brand’s “challenge yourself” territory in a new campaign. The brief also included breathing new life into Martell’s annual awards event, The Rising Personalities Award.

In short, we told Martell that in order to be relevant to their core audience, they ought to stop celebrating the already successful people – the usual category bollocks – and start focusing on actively helping people get there by encouraging them to challenge themselves purposefully. (I’ll get to the how in a minute.)  By doing so their core drinkers would be able to relate to the brand and would want to engage with it.

Whilst their big annual event was called Rising Personality, it actually celebrated people who’d already made it. It was in actual fact The RISEN Personalities Award and we wanted to set this straight. This was a big opportunity for the Martell brand.

We needed an idea that could work hard at the on-premise POS, where the battle of the throat in the Asian volume market is decided. In this market, people order their spirit by bottle rather than drink by drink. And our research showed that the choice of brand is heavily influenced by brand-sponsored promotion girls. We decided to use these girls differently (don’t jump to the wrong conclusion) to actively seed the brand into our audience’s conversations as they were drinking and chatting.

We suggested we do this by turning the Martell promotion girls (traditionally wearing scarlet evening gowns) into attractive secretaries. These girls would be trained to deliver a little “speech” to present “the business opportunity of a lifetime” as they were promoting Martell VSOP at the tables.  The girls would be equipped with entry forms to our competition:

Click for website here: http://www.ultimatestartupspace.com.sg/

We would secure the actual start up space well in advance of the competition so that during the call for entries period, the actual “start up space” would become our advertising. During this period, a rotation of business themes, or rather projections of a set of diverse business spaces would be displayed onto the empty white walls, putting the challenge to by-passers in high-traffic Clark Quay area

Projection reference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TM8DA830xng

The insight that sparked the idea come from our research into the consumption occasion itself: when guys and gals have had a few drinks and covered off the usual conversation topics, their conversation invariably get to a point where people express what they would really like to do…if only they had the courage. Suggestions about quitting their jobs, perhaps joining forces with their friends to pursue their passion would pop up. At this point, our idea would encourage people to rise to the challenge and make this leap – to start their own business. And the role of the brand would also be to help them get there by offering support by partnership deals.

Congrats to Gary and Hagan, Simon and Justine, Nirmalo and Bibiana and everyone else involved for making it happen. Hat off to the client as well. Well done!

(Picture of The Ultimate Start-up Space at Clark Quay pre launch)

Watch case video here:

Aspiring creatives dreaming about an advertising career in London (realizing they don’t have the required experience and qualifications) now have the opportunity to give their career a kick-start via eBay. It’s Craig Kind, a recent graduate from The Birmingham Institute of Art and Design, who’s auctioning a starter kit for lazy careerists with their hearts set on Adland.

Included in the kit are:
- A portfolio of eight integrated campaigns
- Eight awards
- Phone numbers to London’s twelve most influential creative directors
- Tickets for RSA’s party in Cannes

The opening bid is GBP 50 and the proceeds will go to NSPCC, a British charity against child abuse.

Clearly, Mr. Kind is of the opinion that the end justifies the means.

When good, old-fashioned TV storytelling is done well, it’s an incredibly powerful means for brands to forge bonds with their audiences. And as spirit brands, much like most categories these days, seem to be cutting down on their advertising spend, it makes a powerful leadership statement to raise one’s voice when everyone else is quiet. Johnnie Walker – case in point.

In this thought-provoking story about an esoteric bit of life-critical decision-making, our friend Johnnie appears to be less steadfast than usual in his stride. In fact, he has reached a crossroads in his journey. How odd you may think, but there’s a reason: this film is the story about how it all began … the first stride on Johnnie’s journey.

From this fresh perspective on the core brand idea “Keep Walking”, in which progress – advancement towards fulfillment – is achieved by relentlessly pursuing the dream one’s heart is set on, Johnnie calls out to the adventure-seeking, risk-taking side of the male mind. And he reminds us that our fate is something we choose.

The bold execution exudes loads of confidence by not shying away from the sometimes rough and crude reality of life. The tone is raw, gritty and very real. And there isn’t a pouring shot, a product shot or smiling model to be found. Instead, we see what appears to be a laden, unshaven dipsomniac on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere.

Here, he stands and observes villains and numerous deceptive characters driving by in distinctively “unpremium” rides. Hat off to the JW/Diageo marketers for buying interesting, evocative creative work based on audience empathy and insight. Advertising for humans, not consumers. And the same goes for BBH for making it happen.

All of us harbour a theory about how advertising works because when asked, everyone has an opinion on what works and what doesn’t. But we’re not always aware what that theory really is and how it found its way into our heads. More often than not it is predicated on the assumption that people’s behaviour is rational and largely driven by reason – a rather self-comforting thought. Hence, we spend most of our strategic/creative agency conversations discussing ‘message’ – what’s easy to reason around.

Now, I’m not saying we should stop doing that or that this conversation is obsolete. Not at all.  But I firmly believe it attracts a disproportionate amount of attention from both brand owners and agencies. Or rather, it draws attention away from the strategic question about what the audience outtake ought to be in a much wider sense than a verbal message. Most of planning processes and tools in the agency world today are constructed with the underlying assumption that their job is to help brands implant messages into the conscious minds of people. And in a majority of cases, this turns out to be verbal messages. A few personality attributes may also be injected as “wrapping paper” for the “core message”, often as an afterthought. This, I believe, is stifling Viagra-potent lateral ideas that can literally transform businesses.

This Audi film was developed from the insight that compact SUV-inspired cars are often perceived to be boxy, which isn’t the case at all with the streamlined Q5. While this barrier is being addressed head on in the creative with the message “unboxing the box”, you decide whether the effectiveness of this spot hinges on the rational,  conscious understanding of this message or should rather be attributed to the emotion this ad makes you associate with the Q5.

Think about it.

In their article “50 years using the wrong model of TV advertising” Robert Heath and Paul Feldwick say the following: “Clients and agencies must take on board that advertising can be effective without “message”, “proposition”, or “benefits”, and recognize that attempts to impose these may reduce not increase effectiveness.” Does this scare you? Good. Find out more about why they say what they say
here:

-    Exploding the Message Myth
-    50 Years Using the Wrong Model of TV Advertising.