Another note on books

The Book Seer. I know there is stuff like this about, but found it quick and simple. While testing it, I found a book that looked interesting (which I hadn't previously heard of) and bought it.

Found this via Dan Germain.

Google books

Just noticed a new tab called Google books in my Google account. Available for iPhone apparently too.

Free article on the worrying divide between facebook and myspace

Ethnographer and social network guru, danah boyd, has make her recent talk available online. She talks about how Facebook and MySpace are divided by race, class, education, and other factors.

Worth a read here.

Advertising works best when you have a specific challenge.

Advertising works best when you have a specific challenge.

While brand 'awareness' as a measure is sometimes legit, it can also be lazy as a strategy. Before deciding that advertising is the answer, spend more time on the question. What exactly is the communication challenge? Try to get beyond "We want more sales". For example, do you want new customers? Or do you want existing customers to buy more of your current product? Or buy something else? Or, as in the Campbell Soup example, do you want them to use more of what they already have? Or use it at a different time?

The 'Got Milk?' campaign is a wonderful example of advertising strategy.

Faced with a steady decline in milk sales over many years, the Californian Milk Processor Board and their agency Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, devised a very insightful campaign, targeting teenagers and young people.

They realised that milk was boring. Everybody knew milk. Making people more aware of milk would hardly drive sales. What could they possibly say that was new or interesting?

Their used this insight - teenagers often have milk with particular food types, such as chocolate brownies, cookies and peanut butter sandwiches.

So, instead of promoting milk itself - they decided to market milk as a necessity for these other very desirable foods. They now had a very specific communication challenge - to remind their audience how delicious this combination of milk and cookies was. Remind them to have milk with their peanut and butter sandwiches. Get them to want a chocolate brownie. And make sure they have milk on hand so they enjoy it more. Above is one of their original series of ads. They went on to make a lot more.

The result? They stopped the decline. Milk consumption in California increased for the first time in over 10 years.

See full case study here and read more about it in Jon Steel's book.

Want to get into marketing? Read everything.

Image courtesy of Olivander

This post is aimed at anybody trying to get into a marketing communications career.

When starting out 11 years ago in marketing, I got an initial surprise. I realised that many of the marketers I met didn't seem interested in studying the past. In learning more.

For example, I met people that considered themselves direct marketing professionals - yet had not read the books by John Caples, Claude Hopkins or even David Ogilvy. There were people responsible for online marketing who gave me blank looks when I mentioned Jakob Nielsen. I bet there are people today responsible for email marketing who had never read Permission Marketing, Unleashing the Ideavirus or anything by Seth Godin.

I was surprised but pretty happy. This was a real opportunity for me. So I studied everything I could find.

Direct marketing and online marketing were the areas I was working in. So I started there. I read every book or article I could find by these guys - John Caples, Claude Hopkins, Drayton Bird, Denny Hatch, Bob Stone, Graeme McCorkell, Jay Abraham, Seth Godin, David Ogilvy, Julian L. Simon as well as others somewhat connected to the discipline like Richard Koch and Ries & Trout.

There were obvious links between direct and online marketing. Online was getting bigger, so I decided to upskill myself more. I bought some books on webdesign and usability (Steve Krug, Jakob Nielsen) and taught myself how to build and design websites using the Macromedia products Dreamweaver and Flash. And I started reading Danny Sullivan's newsletters about search engine optimisation.

Later on, I read everything I could find on advertising and brand management, from the likes of Jon Steel and John Grant to Alan Cooper and David A. Aaker.

Third hand knowledge is not a substitute for experience. But even with experience, having knowledge from others will vastly improve your decisions. And if you don't have the experience, and really want to become an expert in an area, start reading everything you can about it.

If you really want to get into marketing communication - start with the authors above. But don't limit yourself to books. Blogs, email newsletters, articles, forums. There is so much information available. Much of it is free. Email me if you want names of other good books.

Have a read of Outliers too - Malcolm Gladwell's explanation on what is required to master any given area.

This really is insightful comms

This really is insightful. I'm guilty of the almost-empty milk bottle and last minute laundry.

Found via Adland

Be consistent but evolve - Absolut Vodka

Consistency is generally something brands try and maintain in their advertising.

The reason is clear. A consistent look or feel across your advertising will help consumers know it is you quicker. Each ad builds on previous ones and helps build awareness quicker. At less cost. All good. But the danger is everything becomes the same. And you lose cut-through. Yes, they know it is your ad but are bored with it.

Absolut Vodka is an interesting case study of a brand that has been highly consistent - while managing to inject relevance into their advertising.

Absolut break many of the rules most brands work within. For example, unlike most global brands in the 80's and 90's, they never used TV to build their brand. Most brands might use an advertising idea for several years, then move onto another. Absolut have used the same campaign since their very first ad in 1981. And unlike many premium brands, all their advertising is based on product shots - on the bottle.

They are consistent. Very. But they are brave and intelligent enough to break their own brand guidelines rules, while still staying true to the campaign. For example, in the beginning they agreed they would always have two words in their headline. Nice idea but they dropped this, as it was limiting. You'll see many ads with just one word. Another example - in the beginning, their brand colours were black, blue and white. Again, they dropped this later, introducing some vibrant colours like red, blue and yellow.

Seems like small stuff but if you've worked with any large brand, you'll know how serious they are about their brand guidelines. And rightly so. Brands need guidelines to be consistent, to get the awareness and craft the right position and image. But having the courage to break the rules is important.

I'll come back to Absolut in future posts pointing to more examples showing their leadership approach to brand management. There is a good book available with all their ads if you're interested.

I first saw this a few months ago, and was memorized.

I first saw this a few months ago, and was memorized.

There is a lot of talk about putting money into digital marketing instead of TV. However, (I think) it was Richard who first pointed out that digital doesn't do 'emotion' very well. Clearly I'm a fan of digital marketing. It has advantages over other advertising media. But I believe its real strength is not actually in advertising e.g. banner display ads. No offence meant lads, you do some of the finest digital advertising I've seen. But digital's strength is in its intimacy and closeness. See my tumbleweeds ramblings for more on this.

This ad demonstrates that, when done right, a TV ad can still invoke an emotive feeling better than any other advertising medium.

I suspect I've watched this about 40 or 50 times. Visually it is just stunning. I love the music track. It is called 'To build a home' by Cinematic Orchestra. It was used in an episode of Grey's Anatomy. Worth listening to it in full here. I downloaded the album after a few listens.

Will this ad sell?

Found via AdsoftheWorld

Visually, this looks good. The contrast between the shiny car and everything else would catch a reader's eye. The copy reads "New Megane Coupe. Everything else seems older".

The message is clear-ish - something along the lines that this car is more advanced or at least will look better than other cars in the market. The visual and copy both amplify this message. I can't fault the execution.

But does this sell? I don't have experience marketing cars. Is it ok to just say that the car will stand out? Without giving any reasons why? Or is the strategy to compete on looks alone? And this ad is simply to show off how well the car looks?

And if so, is that good enough?

Orange tv ad

I've always liked Orange ads. One of my all-time favourites is the New York Blackout one. This one here isn't bad at all either.

Striking press ad

Press ad for a shopping centre in Sao Paulo. The copy - which is too small to read - says "Morumbi Shopping Fashion Mall. For and inspired by the city of Sao Paulo." Visually this stands out. And feels high quality for a fashion mall. Nice job.

Found via here.

Insightful MINI press ad

I liked this. Reminds me of when we all sit outside the pub or restaurant even though it is freezing. Found via AdsoftheWorld

What can your phone do? Can it help kids with Autism?

Lisa in Irish Autism Action asked me (given my O2 connection) to mention the deal on the Samsung Tocco. Buy one in June and money will be donated to kids with Autism. Nice phone if you're in the market for a new one.

See Lisa's post for all the info.

Women's mini marthon - an exercise in focus

Image courtesy of Irish Cancer Society & Daffodil day

Sitting in the shade last weekend, I watched a bit of the Dublin Women's Mini Marathon.

It is an impressive event, with about 40,000 women taking part. No doubt it generates a load of cash for charities. Initially I wondered if it would be more successful if it opened up participation to men also?

The answer is no.

By focusing on women, it gives the event focus. This is not just about running. It is about women getting together for a day out. And getting together beforehand to train. And raising money for good causes. Running is often considered a lonely sport. Not this. It is a very social occasion. Owned by women. It is about solidarity. This makes it much easier for the organisation managing it when it comes to promotion, fundraising, sponsors and the day itself.

I don't actually know their reasons for keeping it just to women, but it feels like a very successful excercise in focus.

Another insight into twitter?

If you like some honest, blunt opinions about brands and advertising, and do not yet read The Ad Contrarian blog, do drop over. You'll enjoy.

He posted recently with his observations on twitter.

Such as "Anyone who actually reads all the tweets he gets is completely and utterly insane. I'm convinced that most people follow other people not because they're interested in what they have to say, but in the hope that they, in turn, will be followed."

Sounds controversial. Any twitter users agree?

Explaining twitter status updates

Status updates explained from quub.com on Vimeo.

I seem to be posting more about twitter these days. I don't use it myself to be honest. Although I joined and followed Southwest Airlines last year as an experiment to see how a brand that really cares about its customers might use this. And was impressed - see Southwest Airlines is following me. I'm not a big facebook user either. But do find all this stuff interesting.

Found this video at Helge's blog. He makes the point that the twitter updates seem just like the old 'broadcast model'. But of course from an individual, not a tv or radio station.

Impressive online page takeover

This is good. Click here to see it in action. Well worth it folks.

Found it here.

A good press ad should grab your attention.

A good press ad should grab your attention. This one would I think.

The copy reads "It's not acceptable to treat a woman like one". Found via AdsoftheWorld. Reviews of it were not great, but I think this would stop and make me look.

Free coffee if you have an iPhone

I like this.

7-Eleven in Sweden, have developed an app that let iPhone owners get a free coffee and biscotti in their stores. You just plug in your number, get a voucher code and show it to the guy behind the counter. No purchase necessary. It was only valid for one coffee in the month of April. But if you're in Sweden this month - you can get a free ice cream. More here.

Loney Duck produced the app - which also has a store locator.

Found via chroma.

Let a stranger drive you home

Watch this a couple of times. It will grow on you.

Found W+K Portland

Lawrence Lessig makes new book available for free

Author, Lawrence Lessig, has made his book, Remix - Making art and commerce thrive in the hybid cconomy, available to download completely for free under a creative commons licence. Fair play.

Mr Lessig is a smart and very articulate writer. I'm sure this will be good. I've downloaded this but not got stuck into it yet.

This novel beats most business books

I can't remember who recommended The Goal to me. I was recently thinking about some of the most useful books I've read. And this popped into my mind. I read it a couple of years ago. It is written as a novel. And is based on manufacturing - something I've no experience in, or any real interest in.

However, I strongly recommend it to you if you are a manager or business owner. Over at Amazon.com, I see it has a 4.5 star rating from 326 people. Not bad at all.

It is about a plant manager that needs to turn things around before he is closed down. It is also about discovering what decisions need to be made, and the consequences of these decisions. If you've read and liked books like The 80/20 Principle or Moneyball - you'll enjoy this.

Tumbleweeds...

Image courtesy of jpdodd

Below is my contribution to the recently published book - 'Connect. Marketing in the social media era', although my article in the book is titled "It's not that we don't care. We do. But our structure is wrong".

Today, many marketing departments are structured to launch advertising campaigns. We push out messages to the marketplace. We go live.

Six weeks later, we go off air. We retreat and get ready for our next campaign. We use all relevant media, including online. We may choose to build a presence - a page - on Facebook, myspace or bebo. We post messages on our page, maybe organise a few competitions and chat away enthusiastically with customers that drop by.

Then, just when our customers are beginning to think there are real people behind the brand, we disappear. We don't want to 'go dark'. We were actually beginning to enjoy the conversations. But we're busy and need to get another ad campaign out the door. Our jobs are to make the next TV ad, or get the next suite of online banner ads ready. Nobody is officially responsible for responding to comments. Nobody is responsible for the fix if a customer is not happy or negative on our blog or social network. And we have to fix their problem. Apologising is not enough. Who decides if a specific customer is entitled to a refund or replacement product? Who's budget does it come from? And of course, once we're onto another campaign, our Facebook or twitter page become a ghost town. Tumbleweeds...

Our intentions are good. It is not because we don't care. We do. But our structure is wrong. For many companies, Marketing and Customer Service are different departments. Different teams. Often different buildings. Definitely different objectives and different mindsets. One sends out messages to customers. The other group is tasked with responding to these same customers.

The solution? Merge these two departments and encourage both groups to talk with their customers. Have the same people talking with our customers in our ads, at our website, on our Facebook page - and any other blog or forum where our brand can add to the conversation.

We will still launch campaigns. Yes, I still plan to make TV ads. But they should be just a conversation starter.

As a rule, I don't talk about O2 here, but...

As a rule, I don't write about O2 here. I keep my personal blog separate from my work. We all know how boring it can be listening to people talk about themselves and their own stuff all the time.

But I'd like to break this rule just for today.

Today we launch our latest tv campaign. It's about priority tickets at The O2. I really like this ad and want to thank and congratulate, the very talented, Emer McCarthy, for this spot. (Please nobody try and poach her).

The ad itself is very simple and beautifully executed. It was directed by Nima Nourizadeh, the man behind the wonderful House Party adidas ad. The haunting voice you hear is that of Florence Welch, of Florence and the Machine.

Banner ad with twitter embedded in it. Nice

This is new. To me anyway. Banner ads with twitter updates embedded in them. Click here to see it in action.

Via Contagious.

McCann Erickson have a (nice) blog

The folk in McCann Erickson have a new blog.

Actually, their entire website is a blog. I'm impressed. We've had a debate before (the world doesn't need any more websites) on whether most companies really need a static website and a blog. For me, this suggests they know what they are doing. Good stuff.

Wonderful TV ad

This is a wonderful ad.

Everybody will get knocked at some stage.

As a kid, I was a massive fan of Michael J Fox. Despite the stick I got from mates, I insisted he was one of the finest actors around. I loved Family Ties. I'm still a big fan of his - for other reasons which I'll explain in a moment.

This post is not about advertising or marketing. I want to talk about set-backs.

Actually I made a note to write about set-backs just over three months ago. Not sure what triggered these niggling thoughts. Might have been all the talk of the recession. Or maybe Nassim Nicholas Taleb's Black Swan theory was rubbing off on me.

So sitting down at my kitchen table one morning about three months ago, I scribbled the following few words in my notepad "everybody will get knocked at some stage".

What was on my mind was this: Things don't always go as planned. Bad things happen. You don't get the promotion you deserve. You get let go from your job. Or you mess up at work. You lose a client or an account. Or you get sick. And these things knock your confidence. They make you question your competence, your motives, your career - even the way you live your life. Now, here's the thing. I guarantee it will happen to you. Because it happens to us all. And we never see it coming until it smacks you in the face. We're often left in shock.

The reason I wanted to write about this was to point out that...we recover.

I'm an optimist. I've been very lucky all my life. I know I'll hit bad times. I don't know what it will be, but I also know I'll eventually get through it. We all will. We're resilient.

I never got to write the post that day. Literally hours after I'd written the note, I got a call to say my granny had died. She was sick but I hadn't realised how sick. Exactly one week later, my auntie died. She'd been diagnosed with cancer just weeks before. My poor mum - her mother and sister, both gone within one week. Then weeks later, I discovered an old friend, aged just 36, had been diagnosed with a serious stage of breast cancer.

I suspect we can all relate to this or a version of this.

This brings me back to Michael J Fox. He wrote a book about six years ago about his fight with Parkinson Disease. Titled Lucky Man, he talks about how he has found more happiness because of his illness. His humility and courage was impressive. His new book Always looking up continues with his story of resilience and optimism. It's inspiring and hopeful. I'm listening to it on audio - read by the man himself.

I do believe everybody will get knocked at some stage. Just knowing this won't stop it but hopefully it helps us make sense of it and recover.

Good (+short) article on social media

Good article by Faris on social media, titled "Be nice or leave". Worth a download and read - here.

twitter whore...

Good test for effective outdoor ads

Nick, ad man and copywriter, left a comment last week, musing why so many brands mess up outdoor ads? I find it hard to believe that brand managers do not know the main principles of good outdoor. You can be sure most agencies know what it good and what is clearly not good.

So why poor ads?

I suspect there are other reasons. One might be the time-pressures to get a campaign live. Or perhaps there are internal struggles within the client's organisation. Everybody has an opinion on advertising. And many marketing departments do not have the clout or power they need. So the final result is not the single-minded piece of communication it started out as. But as this video demonstrates - compromise is not always a good thing. It might be good for relationships in the company - but not always a good thing for the end result.

In fairness, Heinz know how to do outdoor. Even from this distance, it is obvious this ad is for Heinz. The photo quality itself isn't great. And even if you can't read the copy - the tomato image suggests this message is something about being fresh. Simple.

If you can't figure out the intended message and the brand from this distance - the ad has failed.

adidas Originals House Party - simpsons version

Simpson's take on the adidas Originals 'house party' tv ad. If you don't know the real one, you're missing out.

Latest TV ad from T-Mobile

Latest TV ad from T-Mobile - a sing along in Trafalgar Square. It's not bad, and is true to the 'Life's for sharing' idea - but thought the first one was more interesting to watch.

MINI's page takeover

I've only taken a screengrab of this so worth clicking here to see it live. It's a page takeover - look at the Mini ad at top of screen and take it from there. It's not bad. Playful fun.

Found via AdsoftheWorld

Insightful press ad about toast

I like this. I love my toast. And hate when butter is too hard and breaks it up. Nice.

Found via AdsoftheWorld

We need more of this.

A friend send me a link to this.

"The most hopeful sound on earth" is what Neil Finn, of Crowded House, called this group of 10-year old kids from a school in New York. Mr. B, their music teacher, uses youtube and their blog as an effort to "promote the benefits of keeping the arts an integral part of the school curriculum".

I think this is inspiring stuff and another good example of how all our free tools like youtube and blogs can shine a global light on amazing, yet local, stories.

Fair play to Mr. B

Do 'curiosity' style headlines work in direct marketing?

This arrived in the mail the other week.

Clearly they are hoping I'll be intrigued enough to open the envelope and see what it is all about. I was. But then again, I look at ads way too much. But for your (normal) busy person - does this work?

John Caples in his classic 'Tested Advertising Methods' cautioned that curiosity-style headlines in ads are risky. People don't care enough. Anybody have evidence suggesting otherwise?

This DM piece is for a charity. Given most non-profits don't have buckets of spare cash hanging around, I'd hate to think they are blowing budgets on risky communication strategies.

Do brand conversations really exist?

Found this via The Ad Contrarian. Takes a slightly different view to most of what we hear or read online. Not sure I agree fully but always refreshing to hear different views.

More strong outdoor: Dove

This Dove ad is another example that follows the principles of good outdoor execution: Single image. Simple message. Clearly this is just one execution from a very famous campaign. However, it would still make sense if you were not aware of previous ads - comprehension is strong. The contrast between the girl and background is strong. Lots of white space. And the product shot increases comprehension and helps branding.

The headline is relatively short and easy to read, although font size may be a bit small for outdoor.

Performance Management in practice

Anybody that has studied Southwest Airlines will know that devising a strategy can be easier than executing one. Many airlines have tried to copy Southwest. Few have succeeded. Southwest know how to execute.

I realise this piece may look like a deviation from my general posts about marketing communications. But getting high performance marketing is a team effort. You need highly motivated, talented and hard working people to deliver on any marketing strategy. It requires leadership and management.

I posted last week about performance reviews. These are critical to executing strategy. The most difficult part of performance reviews is getting the objectives right at the beginning of the year. In fairness, getting them right takes a bit of time and usually a few drafts.

I wanted to show the the process I use.

The starting place is clarifying what exactly you want done and how well you want it done. One way to figure this out is to ask yourself what would you do if it were you doing the work yourself. And to what standard would you do the work. When you know what you want, next step is to figure out an objective way to measure this performance. Involve your team member. Get very specific and agree (1) the output itself (2) how it will be measured (3) when this will be measured and (4) by who.

I'll use a typical 'Direct Marketing Exec' role as an example.

Let's say it is January and one of your team members manages your direct marketing activity. Let's assume you need 100 sales each month to hit targets. Assume also that you know from experience that your direct marketing activity needs to generate 250 sales leads each month to create these 100 sales. Finally, let's assume that you know you need to target 5,000 people each month to generate 250 leads.

Objectives for the Direct Marketing Exec might be something like this:

1. His overall objective is 100 sale a month. Often the big objectives are not fully under the control of the individual. He may be relying on the sales team to close the sales. This is why it makes sense to have a few other sub-objectives which would be fully under the individual's control. I believe it is important to include the overall objective though, as this the real output objective the business wants.
   
2. A sub-objective might be to get the actual campaign out, by a specific date each month, targeting 5,000 people.
3. Another sub-objective for him might be to drive up response rates to 7% by 31st March. So currently, 250 leads from 5,000 people is a 5% response. To meet this objective, he would need to generate 350 leads from 5,000 by 31st March.
   
4. Another sub-objective might be to drive down the cost-per-piece. So if it currently costs €3,000 to target 5,000 people, the cost-per-piece is €0.60. His objective might be to drive the cost down to €2000 per 5,000 people, costing just €0.40 per piece.