Category Archives: Advertising

Oct 28 2014
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Advertising, Insight, Planning

Anatomy of An Insight: Bud Jukebox

Marketing alcohol brands in bar setting is a delightful task, because generally your audience is quite willing to hear your proposition.

One of the smartest gimmicks I have encountered was in Divine Bar. When you order a wine bottle, “a wine fairy” goes to fetch the bottle with cable. The whole order was part of performance. It definitely got our group to order bottle of wine instead of just having regular pints. Actually they could even up the ante by placing the most expensive wines the highest to encourage even more splurging:

Wine Fairy

“Wine Fairy” reaching for the bottle in the middle of the picture (sorry for the blurry picture, it was a blurry night)

The following Budweiser activation is a brilliant idea merging together promotion to sell more beer and providing actual value to the consumer:

Budweiser – Bud Jukebox from Bruno de Carvalho Barbosa on Vimeo.

Insight: Choosing a beer in bar setting is quite arbitrary. You either choose what is on the tap or go with the best promotion. How could you do the beer promotion so it would have a little bit more idea on it? What value could you provide which goes beyond traditional discount?
Jukeboxes are social glue in bars. There are always people who want to play some music and also pay for it. What if you could have jukebox, which works with only Budweiser beer caps? Would you select Budweiser instead of Miller to get that “currency”?

The idea is just perfect for the bar setting: fun, simple and relevant for the product. Not to mention increasing sales of the product. I love ideas where you turn a neglected part of the product (this time beer cap) to something valuable.

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Oct 27 2014
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Advertising, Business, Insight, Planning

How To Survive in World? Take The Piss Out of Everything

All the personal development stuff in workplaces makes me feel awkward.

Self-assessments, 360 reviews and personal SWOT evaluation is just a really odd and alien concept to me. I am more familiar with the competitive sports feedback loop. Your coach keeps saying that you suck, until you become better, hit your coach or quit (can be combination of all of the above). Negative feedback fuels your fire to show the world.

Developing yourself is naturally important and performance reviews in work as well. Maybe because of that sports background, I generally remember the negative feedback better. The following two criticisms I have gotten throughout the years have stick for some reason:

1. Being too cerebral

I had to check what that word evens means from a dictionary. I think that proves that this criticism was not really valid.

2. Trying to make joke about everything

This I heartily endorse and will continue to do as long I am living and breathing. 

If you do not recognize the absurdity of work and life in general, you will likely suffocate to your own seriousness. Like my spiritual advisers Monty Python stated in their song “Meaning of Life”:
 
What’s the point of all this hoax?
Is it the chicken and the egg time, are we just yolks?
Or perhaps we’re just one of God’s little jokes
Well ca c’est the meaning of life

The humor is the greatest survival mechanism to the various setbacks of life. Continuing with my gurus Monty Python from “Always look on the bright side of life”:

Life’s a piece of shit, when you look at it
Life’s a laugh and death’s a joke, it’s true
You’ll see its all a show, keep ’em laughin as you go
Just remember that the last laugh is on you
And…
Always look on the bright side
of life…

Humor is a universal way for people to connect. You laugh with someone, laugh at someone or are the one who is laughed at.
When people and things get too self-righteousness to their own right, it serves as a balancing act. If you are not able to laugh at the things you are doing, you have drunk your own Kool-Aid for way too long.
Irony is the highest form of self-confidence. That is why we trust people who are able to laugh at themselves. We recognize that they realized something bigger in this life. If you look at the bright side of life, generally the bright side will eventually appear.

The minority of us still buying records in 2014 has experienced the surge of special pre-order packages from artists. With colored vinyl records, autographed shirts and other swag, artists are trying to fill the void of the disappeared record sales. Rappers El-P & Killer (collectively known as Run The Jewels) took a delicate piss on the phenomenon with pre-order packages to their sequel Run The Jewels –effort. In addition to real colored vinyl and merchandise packages, there were a couple of really crazy ones:

The We Are Gordon Ramsey Package*: 150,000.00 USD
Run The Jewels will self produce a new episode of Kitchen Nightmares with Gordon Ramsey, with Mike and El both playing Gordon Ramsey.  We will travel to a restaurant with you of your choice, completely uninvited, and attempt to force them to change their menu. All the while verbally abusing and insulting the entire staff to hilarious effect.
 
The Self Righteousness For Sale Package*: 350,000.00 USD
Run The Jewels will spend 6 months pretending to care about whatever you care about.  We will travel to no more than 3 events of your choosing and make eloquent, timely speeches on your causes behalf.  We will shoot a heartfelt, informative video for your cause as well as co-author an info packet to be distributed on your causes behalf that includes an original song called “WE’VE GOT TO BRING _ _ _ _ _ _ _ TO AN END”.  This offer does not extend to terrorists or cops.
 
The Run The Jewels Retirement Plan Package*: 10,000,000.00 USD
Run The Jewels will retire from music, making only one song a year for you personally. Every song title will be your name with a number next to it.  You are free to exploit these recordings however you feel like. 
Includes:
All run the jewels publishing from any new song created during our retirement
2 fake gold 36” chains
2 green hands
A sticker
 
The Meow The Jewels Package*: 40,000.00 USD
Run The Jewels will re-record RTJ2 using nothing but cat sounds for music. You are free to profit from this album in any way you see fit up to 100k in net global profit or 3 years (whichever comes first).

Actually the last one has now become a reality. Hardcore fan started a Kickstarter campaign to raise those 40k. And as of writing this, it has already gone over that goal.
Yes we are getting a rap album done entirely from cat sounds:

The surrealism continues with this video where El-P “auditions” potential collaborators:

Where this really gets interesting is that the proceeds from Meow the Jewels will benefit Eric Garner and Mike Brown, who were victims of police brutality. El-P summarized the project really nicely:

“(This is) an opportunity to possibly do something good in the stupidest way possible.”

Just because you are not taking things serious, does not mean that you don´t care.

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Oct 24 2014
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Advertising, Insight, Planning

Anatomy of An Insight: Horse With Harden

horsewithharden

NBA season is starting soon and it will be super interesting.
Kobe and Derek Rose are back and Lebron is back in Cleveland.
From advertising perspective I have really enjoyed the James Harden & Foot Locker collaboration, which has resulted in many entertaining ads like “Short Memory”-series:

Charles Barkley is the greatest player ever and the most funniest commentator as well:

Pt.2 shows that sequels don´t ever work in Internet:

However, one of the more innovative campaigns was James Harden playing HORSE with Interwebs:

Insight: It is the age of YouTube celebrities. With enough time, you are able to do a trick shot that even the best NBA players cannot nail in one go. Opportunity to flex your special shot against James Harden is just too tempting.

It is always tricky for a brand to get people to engage to their competitions. When you can provide exposure and fame to the participant, the devoted fans will deliver. When you have people investing their time and putting their best effort to the campaign it will become interesting content for those who just want to consume the entertainment.

I have to say I like James Harden more as an advertising person than player, because this Beard Guru ad for NBA 2K15 is hilarious as well:

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Oct 20 2014
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Advertising, Business, Insight, Planning

How To Conduct An Effective Meeting?

I don´t like meetings.

They go overtime, everyone is late, and no one is listening but instead just playing with their smartphone. Every agency has certain amount of personnel, whose sole purpose is to book pointless status update meetings. Usually they are the people who don´t have to do the actual worh. These meetings are just a way to secure their ass and tick some imaginary milestone on calendar.

My work is to think and present that thinking, not to sit in pointless meetings going same things over and over again. Unfortunately the more people you have with opinion in the meeting room, the less effective your marketing will be. The same applies to all the revision rounds.

Advertising seldom is a democracy. It is war of the ideas, where every opinion is not equal. You have to fight for the ideas, until you win or lose.

There is a need for meetings and good ideas can come from anywhere. The problem comes when you try to fix all the issues in one single meeting. There are times when you have to make decisions and when you have to come up with ideas. To try to do both things at the same time is lunacy.

So what you need to do is to only have two different types of meetings (and never ever confuse these two):

  1. Getting sh*t done -meetings (15-30 minutes)

This is project management with tight leash: tight agenda, tight timeline and total army discipline. Deciding on stuff on max. 30 minutes, preferably less. Clear leader for the meeting and limited opportunity to voice your concerns. The goal of this meeting is to make sure that the project is on timeline, right track and all the practicalities are taking cared. No joking around, you can really feel the pressure on this meeting. If someone starts brainstorming throw him with an apple, pen or whatever comes handy in the meeting room. If he continues, use more severe methods. Time is ticking, so shut up.

  1. Getting sh*t figured out –meetings (2-4 hours)

Call it brainstorming, kicking around the idea or ideating. This can take the whole day and it does not have to happen in boring meeting room. Get somewhere else to let the creative juices flow. Talk about it over lunch or over a drink. In these meetings every opinion has a value and the timeline is more relaxed. You still have a goal for the meeting, but it builds up gradually.

If you follow this construct when doing meetings, you will be much happier and more effective person in workplace.

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Oct 17 2014
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Advertising, Business, Insight, Planning

All Advertising Problems Are Translation Problems

We talk (usually) the same language and use the same terms in the advertising agencies. Still we often cannot understand each other.

Every agency should try to minimize these unfortunate and time-consuming translation arguments by creating:

Agreed definition on the basic advertising terms

Concept, idea, creative route, insight, big idea, exploration, strategy, social, proposition, …

Here are some terms that quite often have as many interpretations as there are people in the room. I have seen the most trivial & obvious things stated as an insight that they have made me want to jump from the window. Every agency should have agreed written definitions of all the common terms used when doing the work. Every single member of the agency should be instructed to go it through and learn it by heart. When different people would have dispute about the work, these definitions would serve as the basis of the discussion. Maybe company should also have translators to solve the conflicts?

All of the new clients would be taken through these definitions in the beginning of the relationship. This would reduce the probability of misinterpretation and ensure that everyone is in the same page.

Translation problems naturally do not stop there. When you have written something down, it is easier to understand in wrong way. That is why the nitpicking on copy can take totally absurd levels.

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Oct 16 2014
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Advertising, Business, Digital Strategy, Insight, Marketing Strategy, Planning, Social Media, Strategy

Who Will Be The Master of Internet Universe?

Web is dead.

That is the title of one of the greatest articles ever written about digital revolution four years ago to Wired. The main points about that brilliant piece are still valid, although speed of mobile revolution surprised many of the players for a while. The main idea of the story is that web starts to resemble more and more traditional industry with handful of players. Web is oligopoly and certain verticals almost resemble monopolies.

If you simplify the consumer-facing web business (so I am excluding infrastructure and other boring things which is where the real money is), it is about three things: products, commerce & advertising. Products enable you to connect to the Internet: smartphones, computers, watches, television sets, fridges and whatnot. Commerce is about being able to buy things from Internet and advertising is what it is: bombarding you with messages to buy more stuff.

Product category as we know it will eventually be commoditized. If you want to remain premium, you have to innovate constantly. That is the only way to remain luxury brand in this realm. Cheap smartphones will eventually beat the premium ones. In the future you are able to connect to Internet in whatever device and you do not really have to pay that much of that privilege.
Where the growth will come? Wearables can be the future winner product category, although they have not really yet taken off. The changes are rapid though. iPad was launched only four years ago, created totally new category and is currently at risk of vanishing because of the phablets. So is the life.
 
Current champions: Apple, Samsung
Challengers: Xiaomi and other cheap manufacturers
Disrupters: Luxury brands (Would connectivity enhance Rolex? I say not, but I might be wrong as well)

Commerce will become even bigger and you are able to buy pretty much everything online. Will all the physical retail vanish? Not necessarily, but the point is not about that. It is about that you are able to buy everything online, and majority of people will do exactly that, because it is more convenient and affordable.
Commerce is the biggest opportunity and a space I follow most closely. Strong brands will definitely start to create their own online retail experiences, which would enable them to bypass the more traditional retail channels. In the next decade there will be lots of turmoil in this category and many big players will fall and new challengers will arise. Biggest challenges are not that much about technology (lots of payment innovations happening), but about logistics.
Second interesting point is that idea of commerce has changed with shared economy. Both Uber and AirBnB are selling physical service, which would not be possible without digital channel. How far collaborative economy can be stretched remains to be seen. It can potentially be really big disruptor to the way we do business in general.
Last point about commerce is the ecosystem approach. Apple makes money constantly through App Store by enabling others to make money. Facebook is building app ecosystem with the acquisition of Instagram, WhatsApp and Parse. Both Amazon and Alibaba are enabling developers to build things on their platform.
 
Current Champions: Amazon, AliBaba, Ebay
Challengers: Google, Facebook, WeChat, Line, Apple (Apple Pay) 
Disrupters: Brands, FMCG brands, Collaborative economy players (Uber, Airbnb…)

Advertising will be important, because people will keep on buying stuff. Stuff makes us happy. More stuff makes us even happier. How are you able to buy that stuff if you do not know that it exists?
Will advertising become smarter in the future? Yes and no. In last decade or so, we have had one revolutionary advertising idea. That is SEM. You show people ads when they actually want to see ads. Contextual advertising and retargeting have been nice inventions, but mainly advertising is still based on interruption (some of it being more relevant like app install ads). One of the most innovative companies in the world, Facebook, makes most of its money by interrupting its users in various ways.
The advertising business is relatively simple: it is all about reach. All of the most successful advertising platforms are based on firstly to reach and then secondly the quality of those who you are reaching. That is unlikely to change. However, the biggest task is to try to narrow the gap between the interruption (advertising) and purchase (commerce). The monetary exchange is the only tangible KPI we have and less you have to travel to do it, the better.

Current Champions: Google, Facebook
Challengers: WeChat, Line, Twitter (was tempted to leave it out completely, but I give it a shot still), “Traditional media companies”(although I do not really have high hopes for their complete digital transformation, but they will remain influential on this space as well)
Disrupters: Amazon (the closer you are to the actual transaction, the less you have to interrupt), Content owners (although none of them has done any major moves and have mainly milked the status quo)

The lines are naturally blurry. The quote from Eric Schmidt summarizes the whole situation:

“ Many people think our main competition is Bing or Yahoo. But, really, our biggest search competitor is Amazon. People don’t think of Amazon as search, but if you are looking for something to buy, you are more often than not looking for it on Amazon.”

That is also the reason why these big companies are testing weird things and buying obscure companies. Internet has made it easier to disrupt a category and also connect categories in new way. Facebook & Google test drones, so it can bring Internet the people who don´t have it yet. Thus increasing the reach. Amazon tests drones, because shipping is the biggest bottleneck of eCommerce. When your business can start to flourish rapidly, it can also vanish rapidly. There is no time to sleep, because sleep is the cousin of death.

What do you think, who will become the master of the Internet universe?

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Oct 14 2014
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Advertising, Digital Strategy, Insight

Anatomy of An Insight: Base + Spotify PartyDrone

I thought that everything there were left to say about drones was in this ad:

Luckily I was wrong, because this is really nice:

Insight: Many festival sponsors try to catch the attention in the actual festival area. That is hard, as you are competing of the attention with the main attractions: the bands. Therefore wise marketer uses places that are not that contested. Like in this case the route to the actual festival area. Especially in the Nordic music festivals, camping area is quite untapped potential for many marketers and people actually craving for entertainment. Personalization was nice added bonus, but I think that just bringing music and entertainment to places which do not have those, is a great insight and idea.

I see potential for this idea to be used in further campaigns for Spotify as well and not just a one-off. In general, I feel that Drones are perfect fit for surprise and delight –campaigns. Just as long you remember that drone is not the actual idea, but what inspiring, innovative and insightful you can do with the drone.

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Oct 09 2014
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Advertising, Business, Strategy

I Love Advertising, Because I Love Lying

I think that Jerry Seinfeld´s acceptance speech in Clios this year, was the most appropriate representation of what we actually do. Jerry might just be taking piss on every ad people on the audience and it might be filled with evil sarcasm and irony. I did not take it that way, I think it spoke with clarity and honesty why our industry is so great.

Five important points from Seinfeld´s Clio speech:

1. “I love advertising because I love lying. In advertising, everything is the way you wish it was”

Advertising is not really lying, but more of massaging the truth. Advertising is like your wedding photo, job interview or date. You are not making blatant lies, but you are emphasizing your good parts and trying to hide the bad parts. People are not stupid and this is the way the game is played. Just like in life, it is not the most handsome guy getting the prettiest girl. Who gets the prize will be the

2. “I don’t care that it won’t actually be like when I actually get the product being advertised because, in between seeing the commercial and owning the thing, I’m happy, and that’s all I want.”

I know that the weightlifting shoes I ordered will not make me the most awesome weightlifter in the world (or not even in my gym). There are no shortcuts for hard work and when doing sports your whole life you know it. Having those increases my mood and eventually will make me better lifter. The motivation to buy things is much more nuanced than just showing off or filling some kind emotional void and misery.

3. “We know the product is going to stink. We know that. Because we live in the world, and we know that everything stinks. We all believe, hey, maybe this one won’t stink. We are a hopeful species. Stupid but hopeful”

This is what makes us human beings so great. Our hopefulness exceeds our stupidity, and latter we have plenty of. Majority of start-ups will end in bankruptcy. Majority of marriages will end in divorce. Majority of the diets will end in you getting fat or even fatter again. But the flipside is that there are people who are living happily ever after, becoming multi-millionaires and staying in shape. Our ability for rational thinking combined with total negligence of that same rational thinking makes us the most dominant species in this planet.

4. “I also think that just focusing on making money and buying stupid things is a good way of life.”

I think so too.

5. “I believe materialism gets a bad rap. It’s not about the amount of money. Nothing’s better than a Bic pen, a VW Beetle, or a pair of regular Levi’s. If your things don’t make you happy, you’re not getting the right things.”

My grandmother mentioned in my wedding that after a day of shopping I had happily shouted: “This is the life everyone should live!” On that same occasion my father reminded that when he first took my little brother & me to McDonald´s and I got my first ever Bic Mac. I commented that important event with the declaration: “This is the happiest day of my life”. No wonder I ended up in advertising.
Consumption makes us feel good and yes it gets bad rap for no reason. I still get happy when after meticulous saving, I was able to secure myself a pair of Technics turntables. Those have served me well for over 15 years and I still feel utterly happy about that purchase. How many other events you still savor after 15 years? I still remember getting my first jeans (Levis 501s). They were not just jeans, they were passage to adulthood.

With advertising we try to channel the inner need of consumerism to the brands and products we represent. We do not create any new needs for consumers. We do not try to make you feel miserable of not owning stuff, but rather make you happy when you make the right purchase. Consuming products and experiences can have tremendous uplifting affect to your mood.

That is a great and we should be proud of what we do.
At least I am.

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Oct 07 2014
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Advertising, Business, Insight, Marketing Strategy, Planning

Lidl is The Most Authentic Brand

Unfortunately quite often advertising is totally removed from reality:

You cannot say anything negative.
No, we cannot mention competitors.
And we definitely cannot challenge them.
We cannot say that we are cheap. We should be affordable.
Let´s just do what we have done before and hope that enough media budget will save us.

Firstly of the seven basic human emotions only one is totally positive (happiness). Surprise can be either or and the rest of the five are negative (fear, sadness, disgust, anger, contempt). If sticking to happy smiling people we are only working with slightly over 20% of human emotions. Rest of 80% can trigger buying behavior as well, but majority of the brands are just

Secondly, brands should stand up for something and be proud of it. All the great brands in the world have distinct character and strong belief in something. That something benefits their customers and makes them loyal to that particular brand.

“You have enemies. Good. That means you´ve stood up for something sometime in your life”
-Winston Churchill

If competitor is attacking your brand, you should strike back hard. Or better yet, strike first so that your competitors do not know what has happened. For majority of the brands, the competitive strategy is dead simple: your either premium or your cheap. Being in the middle is just waiting the death of your brand.

For the above-mentioned reasons I have started to love Lidl.

They stand for something, which is being cheap. Not being affordable or other jargon, which does not mean anything. They are cheap, cheaper and cheapest. That is simple to understand. Last week they were attacked with the new scheme from Morrison. That got quite a lot of press and buzz. This quote from their chief executive Dalton Phillips however puts things in perspective:

“We are not and will not become a discounter. Match & More is about neutralising on price so that the rest of our offer will really shine through. There are so many areas where discounters will never be able to compete with Morrison.”

So basically you do not even yourself know what you are?

I think the following rebuttal has way more clarity, wit and balls:

Lidl is The Most Authentic Brand

Lidl-Morrison 1-0.

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Oct 03 2014
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Advertising, Insight, Strategy

Anatomy of An Insight: Don´t Skip Breakfast

Good insight comes always from human truth. But that human truth can be super simple. That human truth can also come from specific media constraints.

Pre-roll is currently the most under-utilized and boring digital advertising format, but luckily there are brands who are putting some thought to it:

EAT – Don’t Skip Breakfast from Brave on Vimeo.

Insight: People skip most of the pre-roll ads. Many people skip their breakfasts as well. Latter is unhealthy, first probably opposite. Can we combine these two skipping behaviors?

Eat is a sandwhich chain. All of the office workers skipping their breakfast at home and skipping those YouTube pre-rolls at work, are a lucrative target audience for them.

Just acknowledging the fact that the skip ad –button is there is great.
Then rewarding those who watch it to the end is just brilliant.
This is simple, but genius work from Brave.

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