Open Letter to ad agency executives

Dear Mr. XXXXX,
I wanted to say thank you for your pitch. The part in focus that I wanted to discuss was where you said “Google and search is not everything”.
I understand your viewpoint, and I would like to discuss this further. When you have a chance could you call my google voice number. I have that number forwarded to my Google Android powered cell phone … while on the topic, I loved the idea of the app you discussed. Just make sure it runs on my Droid.
When you send over the document, I will make the edits in Google docs and make sure to run the media plan you sent over though Google Ad planner to double check the suggestions.
Regarding the commercial you presented to us, I need to send that to a few people here for discussion. If you could upload that to Google owned Youtube that would be great, just make sure to limit who can see it.
Regarding the billboard placements, that was a wonderful idea. Send me the locations so I can check them on Google Maps via street view to make sure it’s where we want them.
I really liked the beta webdesign you showed us, can you make sure that it renders properly in Google Chrome? When designing the site, don’t do it all in flash and make sure that it has unique titles and metas. I want to make sure we rank organically for our terms in Google. I agree with you that Google Analytics is the right way to measure the traffic and ROI from the campaign.
Also the discussion we had regarding mentions of our company in the press? We do feel that Google Alerts would do the job for us regarding that. As of course the press releases you send out will be in Google News.
You know, the more I think about this, the more I feel that perhaps I don’t want your advertising agency running the campaign. Perhaps we should hire an SEO firm for this.
Best Regards,
XXXXXXX

Campaign Vs.Conversation

This graph clearly and neatly map the differences between the two approaches and  this RGA film talkes about the importance of long term brand platforms.

Campaigns versus conversations Infographic by Kenneth J Weiss

The danger, however, is that the believe that we can simply shine a spotlight on the conversation, abandon the campaign and leave consumers to it. It’s dangerous for a number of reasons:

1. They may not be saying very much at all. Writing about launching “Brands in Public” Seth Godin observes “If your brand has any traction at all people are talking about you”. That’s partially true of course, but only partially. If you’re say a bread brand, a detergent brand or a toilet paper brand they may not be saying a lot.  As Oscar Wilde so memorably put it “The only thing worse than been talked about is not being talked about”.Or is it…
2. In the absence of something positive to respond to, the conversation may be dominated by customer service issues or by mischief making. The Skittles experiment is a case in point where without a conversation starter from the brand the conversation is effectively high-jacked. Indeed many brand owners’ reaction to the Brands in Public initiative seems to indicate that simply letting the conversation run without interesting brand stimulus and curation is problematic for any number of brands.
3. Our brands become the guy with no opinion-the one who responds to every question with “I don’t know, what do you think?”

Skittles' Twitter Homepage Experiment

It’s very easy to see the campaign as the poster child for everything that is wrong with communications today-monolithic, monomaniacal and myopic. But do any of us really want to talk to a brand with nothing to say for itself? The people I want to talk to are the ones who tell me interesting stories, make me laugh or show me something beautiful. The brands people participate with most are arguably the ones generating the most interesting material of their own. So perhaps we need to re-frame the way we think about campaigns, seeing them not as egomaniacal, one-way rants but as conversation starters and stimulators-the jokes, stories and provocations that start a conversation, keep it going, keep it interesting.

Benjamin Palmer of the Barbarian Group in an excellent-and provocative-post on the subject of brands and conversations emphasises this need to do something worth talking about:

“I can’t help but feel that while we’re in a phase where our industry is looking at social media as a new marketing platform, what we should be thinking is that it’s just the newest place our audience goes to to talk about us when we do something worth talking about”

Smart and nuanced stuff, though I’m not sure I agree 100%. There’s no question that the age of the monologue is over. The conversations between brands and their consumers happen in the open today and we either embrace that or lose all control of the dialogue. Likewise, as media platforms fragment we need to create our own platforms; brand destinations delivering ongoing utility and entertainment. As consumers become ever more empowered and expressive we will want to embrace that expressive-ness and co-create with them.

Clearly, any smart social media thinkers will find ways of managing and directing the conversation. They will understand the role of content in giving shape to conversations, they will know how to associate brands with the subjects consumers do want to talk about, they will build in simple and scaleable ways of joining a conversation. They will find ways of aggregating the conversation into something bigger and more beautiful than the sum of its parts.

But we believe campaigns also have a pivotal role to play if we want our brands to be involved in the right kinds of conversations:

• Campaigns start conversations: Campaigns are the jokes, the chat-up lines, the anecdotes that get conversations started. Done right, they make our brands look interesting, sexy and funny-the kind of brand you want to talk back to. Campaigns bring people to platforms.
• Campaigns refresh and expand conversations: So you’ve started a conversation. People are talking about the brand, passing around branded content, buzzing about the campaign. You’ve used that buzz to draw some people into a deeper conversation, perhaps engaging with a long-term brand platform or utility. Now you want 1. to give those people something new to talk about and 2. to draw more people into that deeper relationship.
• Campaigns amplify conversations: You may have a hard core of loyal users who talk to you all the time. They’re fascinating individuals, they make excellent comments, they co-create some fantastic content with the brand. But they’re maybe 1% of your target audience. Campaigns can give these users and their content a much broader stage to play on.

The role of campaigns in conversation thinking

Of course, to do all this we need to be designing the right kind of campaign. Campaigns that provoke, entertain and inspire, campaigns that invite participation, campaigns that are designed to move consumers from buzzing about brand content towards a richer, longer term dialogue. We need to design in social features from the outset and incentivise social spread. We need to make a Campaign’s ability to drive participation a key metric, to try more things more quickly and see what catches fire. Campaigns have long been designed to be talked about, it’s time to start designing them to be talked to.

If we think of conversations as the fire and campaigns as the fuel for those conversations, it’s pretty clear we need both. There’s no fire without a spark. There’s not much heat without fuel.

Daffy's Dancers JUMP out of MOVIE SCREEN

The discount retail chain Daffy's staged such live performances over the weekend at the Ziegfeld Theater in Midtown Manhattan before screenings of the new film Amelia. In a campaign by Johannes Leonardo in New York, part of WPP, dancers acted out how shoppers try on clothes in what was called Fitting Dance."

Advertising wars between advertising agencies.

two successive billboards seen in South African airports, both placed by successful South African advertising agencies.

First The Jupiter Drawing Room,

then Ogilvy’s

The Ogilvy ad contains a link to its site called ‘Ogilvy on Recession’.

5 Fashionable Myths About Advertising

1. Consumer Behavior Is Difficult To Understand

Marketers spend enormous amounts of time and money looking for arcane reasons behind consumer behavior. In fact, about 90% of consumer behavior is perfectly obvious. They buy stuff because it tastes better, looks nicer, is more convenient, or costs less.

Marketing executives and ad agencies like to pretend they don't know this and they focus on the 10% about consumer behavior that actually is mysterious. It makes them appear to have some magical knowledge and insight.

Most marketers would be way better off sticking to the 90% we understand and forgetting about the 10% we don't

2. Mass Marketing Is Dead
Tell that to Wal-Mart and McDonald's. This nonsense is being perpetrated by new age marketing gurus who need something new to sell (usually something related to the internet.) If they tell the truth -- marketing is pretty much what it's always been, plus search-- they're out of business.

3. The Purpose Of Advertising Is To Change Consumer Attitudes
Wrong. The purpose of advertising is to change consumer behavior. You don't make a nickel until someone buys something. The fact that they think highly of your brand is lovely. But until they buy it, you haven't done a thing.

Check this out http://www.hoffmanlewis.com/PBA_EBook_3_2009.pdf

4. The Future Of Advertising Is Online
No one knows what the future of advertising is. Not me, not anyone. Those who say they do are full of shit.

But I do know what the current status of advertising is, and it ain't online. The only online advertising methodologies that have proven to be consistently effective are search and email. The rest is all talk, ideology, and wishful thinking.

5. Consumers Want To Have Conversations With Brands
Most consumers, wisely, don't want to have conversations with their husbands. Why in the world would they want to have conversations with the makers of mufflers and vegetable oil?

via:adcontrarian.blogspot.com

QR code::: living book

New Media:::Movistar

Does honesty sell?

"Men Wanted for Hazardous Journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honor and recognition in case of success."


Ad written around 1900 by the famed polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton.

"???" in today's context of consumer cepticism and distrut, would plain honesty without the hyperbolic adjectives we're used to hear on brands' speeches, be the best and more effective way to reach people?

Grand Central Station stunt:::bikinis and bathing suits hit grand central

YouTube Cannes Young Lions 48 Hour Ad Contest

Cannes International Advertising Festival is collaborating with Oxfam GB and YouTube to run a 48 hour advertising contest for Young Lions 2009. The entries are pouring in thick and fast right now. Here’s a few samples of what’s out there. But first, the explanation from Cannes.

Creative teams have the opportunity to get to Cannes with their winning entry but must be 28 or under. The ads, to be produced between May 15 and 17, will need to be turned into a viral campaign from May 18 to 31

Click on the image below to play the video in YouTube (HD)

YouTube Cannes Young Lions 48 Hour Ad Contest Brief (Summary)

Strange

Sehr Khan and Jure Repina demonstrate how strange the world would be without seasons. Director: Blaz Zavrsnik, Art Director: Matija Kocbek, Creative Directior Tine Lugaric, Music: Adam Giacomelli, Sound Production and Mastering: Andrija Sulic, Video Production: Blaz Zavrsnik, Post Production: Matija Kocbek, Lights: Adam Giacomelli.

Click on the image below to play the video in YouTube (HD)

Cow’s Fart

From France comes this exposition on the science of methane production, brought to us by Bruno Maugery at Conseil Publicis.

Click on the image below to play the video in YouTube (HD)

Oxfam Big Petition

Jon and Rob from Rapp, London, went to the streets with a giant petition.

Click on the image below to play the video in YouTube (HD)

New Media[Social Media]::: Who stays????

Sign Spinners

McDonald's:::Tourists are lovin’ it…

McDonald's Piccadilly Circus

BRAND OWNER:McDonald's Corporation

CATEGORY:Food

REGION:UK

DATE:Apr 2009 - Dec 2008

Piccadilly Circus is London's equivalent of Times Square - right at the heart of the city and filled with brands digital billboards, each clamouring for attention. Some 1.1 million Londoners and tourists pass through each week. McDonald’s tends to have a presence there, but wanted to create a more interactive experience and encourage people to specifically photograph the brand’s ad and then share the photographs.
McDonald's therefore launched an interactive sign where passers-by can interact with images displayed on McDonald's giant LED screen, and visitors can take an interactive role at one of London's most photographed locations. 

A series of images ranging from hats to speech bubbles, to idea clouds are shown on the giant LED screen billboard. People in Piccadilly circus can then position themselves to make it look as though they are wearing a hat, saying something or having an idea. People are then encouraged to post up their photos to Flickr or Facebook

McDonald's has long been the friend of weary tourists whose enthusiasm for the local cuisine has been exhausted by one dietary novelty too many...
But now that relationship has gone one step further, with the launch of a new 'interactive' billboard in London's Piccadilly Circus. The giant LED sign displays a rolling selection of images which invite camera-happy tourists to strike a pose with the props on screen.

Some of these have a British theme - an open umbrella and a city gent's bowler hat - while others are just about inviting participation - a birthday cake with candles you can pretend to blow out, a hammer that seems to beat you over the head, a strongman barbell you can hold triumphantly aloft.

The YouTube clip above shows the idea in action and the magnetic appeal it has to tourists... how many go on to eat a McDonald's burger after painstakingly lining up their shot has not yet been established but we're SO tempted to send someone down there to follow that up!  Participants can also upload their snaps to a dedicated Flickr group, set up to corrall all those happy memories into one big experience-extending gallery and ensure that the event remains public long after the holidaymakers go back home.

Inventive stuff from Leo Burnett! 

Flickr group 

Peugeot::: Nude |308 CC

In a cheeky bit of naked ambition, French automaker Peugeot inundated London's morning commuters today with a pool of 308 'nude' actors who appeared to only be wearing scarves. What was the reason for the au natural display? Why, to celebrate the arrival of the company's latest topless model, the 308 Coupe Cabriolet.
Upon closer inspection, it turns out that the flesh flash mob was actually outfitted in form-fitting body-colored suits, thus preventing the local authorities getting rude with the nudes.

Website : http://www.nudeinascarf.com/

Twitter:http://twitter.com/nudeinascarf/

Subway Art Gallery Opening

From http://improveverywhere.com/, 50 Improv Everywhere agents create and art gallery opening on a subway platform