Category Archives: Advertising

Dec 08 2015
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Advertising, Insight, Planning

Anatomy of An Insight: #joulurauhaa

I haven´t been following that actively the advertising scene in Finland, but this ad truly moved me:

Insight: The vibe in Finland has been quite depressing for a while. There has been lots of animosity against immigrants. This animosity is usually from people in small cities (rather like villages) who have most likely never even met a foreigner. They attribute their own misgivings and failures to foreigners coming to Finland. They let their prejudices cloud their mind. They view themselves as true Finns, but in reality they are not representing true Finland at all.

This film shows how being a Finn is not about your color of your skin. It is great that company takes a stand against xenophobia. It is everyone´s responsibility to fight against it. Different cultures are richness, which countries like Singapore have understood. Finland should understand that as soon as possible.

Great ads touch emotions and this is one of them. The story is a juxtaposition of traditional “manly” Finnish activities (which I never done, expect gone to Sauna and army) done by Finns, who are not necessary fitting to your general stereotype of Finnish person. You should also never underestimate the power of a great soundtrack. The song in the video, for those who are not that familiar with Finnish popular culture, totally summarizes the Finnish psyche:

unemployment, booze, axe and family
Snow, police and the last mistake

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Dec 01 2015
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Advertising, Insight, Marketing Strategy, Planning, Uncategorized

Sex is The Killer App

“Pornography was the unacknowledged “killer app” of the World Wide Web, not to mention the printing press, photography, and video before it.

The vibrator was the first handheld electrical device, predating the cellphone by century. Scooters took off in postwar Europe, particularly Italy, because they let young couples get away from their families.

Facilitating dating was surely one of the “killer apps” of fire when Homo Erectus discovered it a million years ago; and equally surely, a key driver of increasing realism in humanlike robots will be the sexbot industry.

Sex just seems to be the end, rather than the means, of technological evolution”

Pedro Domingos (Master Algorithm)

Sometimes the most basic needs are driving the consumer behavior. Many marketers fail taking into account those animal urges that still largely are driving us. As marketers try to stay politically correct, they will come up with lukewarm insights that are not really rooted in true human behavior. Tinder is growing in conservative countries like Indonesia & India, although it has not been that widely acknowledged. Humans are always humans, no matter where you are from.

People are driven by lust, hunger, jealousy and greed. Your brand might not be about those things, but if you fail to understand the real motivations you will not be able to make the connection with your audience.

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Nov 16 2015
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Advertising, Marketing Strategy, Planning, Strategy

Advertising is Just A Shortcut For Product Selection

“Brands are not the rich sources of differentiation marketers like to think of them as, but short cuts through the complexity of decision-making.”
Ian Leslie

I have been fighting against the lofty term engagement for a long time.

There is time and place for marketing activities that are not only aimed at reach. However, they should be approached like investing and with the notion that those activities will most likely fail. In terms of majority of marketing budget, you need to focus on top-of-mind. There are too many alternatives out there to every product imaginable so as a consumer you cannot be bothered. You want to buy your stuff and focus on other more important things in life. Advertising provides a shortcut for product selection. Therefore it is crucial to keep reaching people all the time, be consistent and be different than your competition.

In your next social media seminar there will be an annoying social media guru waxing lyrical about engagement. On that instance, close your ears and keep in mind these essentials:

1.Focus on light buyers.
Like professor Andrew Ehrenberg nicely put it: “your customers are customers of other products, who occasionally buy your products”. If you are doing consumer goods, you are mass product and you need to do mass advertising.

2.Focus on socially inactive audience.
1% of the people actually create content, while 99% are lurkers. Not all your activities should be focused to lurkers, but majority. 1% rule applies to general content in Internet. People who are creating content about your brand are on your payroll or they are crazy. Or both.

3.Focus on being focused.
Marketing directors and advertising agencies have short attention span. They feel the need to fix something that is not broken. They feel the need to tinker a brand that is in good shape. They want to innovate when they should stick to their guns. If you want people to remember you, you have to be consistent.

If you will keep your focus, you will be doing effective advertising.

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Nov 04 2015
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Advertising, Insight, Planning

How To Be A Blind Tasting Planner

In blind-tasting we only trust our tastebuds, in normal tasting we will automatically favor the more expensive alternative

In blind tasting we only trust our tastebuds, in normal tasting we will automatically favor the more expensive alternative

I recently read “Blind Tasting Manifesto”from Robin Goldstein, which is a though-provoking text about wine tasting. It also has three important lessons for a planner:

1. Always Manage and Manipulate The Expectations of the consumers

Expectations rule our evaluation of wine. Especially expectations based on price: you are automatically favoring wine if you know (or believe) it is expensive.

People are not rational and sometimes contrary to traditional economic model decreasing price can lead to fewer sales. Price is important anchoring point for quality. If something is too cheap it is not aspiring, believable and it does not get your expectations.

Too often we neglect consumers expectations and current biases around our product. We are too busy on focusing what we want to say and do within current campaign that we fail to realize that quite often our audience has already created their impression of our brand before even seeing any ads or experiencing the product. Consumers get the brand that they believe they get, not what the brand truly is.

2. Don´t trust the experts

Experts, who guide our wine expectations, cannot be trusted. Many studies have proven that many so-called wine experts fail miserably in blind-tasting setting.

Same thing goes with marketing. I stopped going to seminars, because I was constantly underwhelmed with all the “gurus” talking about the same things on their Keynotes. Planners want to be experts and also refer to other so-called “experts” too often. The most important thing is to absorb information and stimulus as possible, but at the end of the day, do your own decisions. If you are able to do unbiased decisions…

3. Try to Keep An Open Mind

Your true preferences are out there awaiting discovery via blind tasting. You might even like the cheaper wine, so keeping an open mind can save your money.

We as planners can easily fall prey to experimenter´s bias. Our expectations regarding study results bias the research outcome. Too often, we find exactly what we are looking for. That is totally counter-effective to what true planning should be, we should find something new.

Advertising is one of the most subjective industries in the world. We planners should try to be the most objective we can be. It is not easy, but if we are not trying, no one else is either.

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Oct 29 2015
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Advertising, Insight, Strategy

Millennial Dilemma

Although I actually quite like Hotline Bling and the memes involved, I also have recognized that I have become quite old.

Technically I am earliest installation of Millennials. What that means is that, we can use digital devices but had to learn how to use them. It is not something that has always been part of my life. Majority of my friends are from Generation X and my frame of reference has always been more from that side. So to put it to movies context, I am more “Straight Outta Compton” than “We Are Your Friends”.

Age is nothing but a number, but generally I found that there is more to learn from younger people than old geezers. Old age brings experience. Experience brings predictability. Predictability brings cynicism. Which means that every year brings you closer to become a truly whiny and bitter bastard. No need to beat around bush, that is where we all are eventually heading.

The behavior of real millennials (not from older end, like me) is shaping the future. If I think about my own parents they have eventually turned out to all things early adopters first pioneered, whether it is Netflix, smartphones or Finnish hip-hop. You cannot learn about stickers by reading about them, you have to observe people who are actually using them. There are lots of things to learn from younger generation, but how to meet them? I have three methods to try to pick brains of millennials:

  1. Be available mentor

Whether it is a company initiative or someone is approaching you for help, try to be available and meet different people. Bad experiences are valuable experience as well and when you mentor someone you most likely learn even more from you mentee. Millennials might think that you have something valuable to contribute, so be helpful. One coffee can make a big difference.

  1. Try to talk to the students

Today I was talking to marketing students in SMU. They were super active and smart bunch. Questions were sharp and made me also think from different angle. When you are at beginning of your marketing career it feels that you are actually thinking more straight and clearly. All the marketing jargon has not yet totally polluted your brain. Well, there is time for everything.

SMU

Selfie with SMU students taken by our HR Director, Kevin

  1. Go where the young people are

I don’t actually know where young people nowadays are and I would not dare to go there even if I know. And I don´t really want to know. Clubs are too noisy. I just want to hang out at home, listen to vinyl records (from when I was teenager) and enjoy a good glass of wine. So two out of three is ok as well.

If you don´t know what millennial is and you don´t know if you are one, check this Vanity Fair guide. Funnily (or sadly) in the latest Vanity Fair, there was a letter to the editor by (younger) millennial. She referred to VF as a magazine, she envisioned to be reading when she would be over 30. Damn, I have read VF from when I was 20.

I must be the most failed Millennial in the world.

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Oct 28 2015
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Advertising, Insight, Planning, Strategy

Sushi Train: The Best Ideation Exercise For Workshops

I have probably spent quarter of this year (or even more) in workshops. And I love it.

The collaborative boiler room environment is something I truly like. You generally come to the solutions faster. All the important stakeholders are present, so participants are more involved and invested in actual results.

Because of the sheer volume of workshops I either attend or moderate, I rotate quite a bunch of different idea exercises. Some exercises work better than others with different groups, and one size does not fit all. One of my current favorites which seems to be generating golden ideas every time is the following:

Sushi Train (group exercise 5 to 10 people)

sushi train

Ideas just keep on piling and piling up…

What you need?
– blank paper (A4) for every group member
– pen
– timer
– fresh ideas
– hopefully readable handwriting (my biggest challenge)

How long does it take?
Depending on the group size, i.e. 5 member team takes 5 minutes to write ideas and about the same to share. Good to have about 30 minutes for this exercise.

How does it work?
1 Min Write your idea on a blank paper. After minute is done, rotate your paper within the group to the next person to you.
1 Min Build upon idea you received from your group member. Rotate the paper. If you cannot build the previous idea, just write a new one.
…
Continue this until you will receive your first paper back.
Share the ideas within wider group.

It is generally way more effective to force people to write their ideas quietly at first, before you are going to discussion. Brainwriting is better than brainstorming, because latter favors the loudest and those highest in the company food chain. When you have to write, you have to think. And more people think, better and more effective ideas you will generate. Sushi train also encourages collaboration and is a quick acid test for ideas. If other people cannot continue with your idea, it was not probably that good to begin with.

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Oct 26 2015
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Advertising, Insight

Anatomy of An Insight: Angkasa Pura Last Minute Souvenir

This idea is almost so obvious, that it nearly makes you angry that you did not come up with something similar yourself.

Angkasa Pura (company operating Indonesian airports) in conjunction with Indonesian tourism board launched a series of small paper packages showing the stories and designs behind the humble Indonesian coin:

Angkasa Pura Last Minute Souvenir

Turning forgettable coin to unforgettable souvenir

When you open them up, they work as a display stand where you can fit a leftover coin from your trip to Indonesia. These could be picked up for free in Indonesia´s airport:

angkasapura2

Insight: When you are traveling abroad, you will have bunch of foreign coins you cannot really use anywhere. What if you would turn something worthless into something worth remembering?

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Oct 23 2015
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Advertising, Insight, Planning

The Paradox of Thought Leadership

The more effective you are in your “thought leadership”, the more you get business.

The more you get business, less time you have to maintain that thought leadership.

If you do not have time to read outside your day-to-day work, the negative effects will come eventually. As a planner, you should try to maintain your daily reading time no matter how busy you are.

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Oct 01 2015
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Advertising, Digital Strategy, Marketing Strategy, Planning

Anatomy of An Insight: Sizzl

Moving at the speed of culture has been the catchphrase for many marketers lately.

Oscar Mayer is one of the brands, that has turned that phrase into brand behavior.

Internet has love affair with bacon

Internet loves bacon. Actually there are more bacon-related conversations than there is chatter about Kanye West, Tom Cruise and Lady Gaga combined. They have been the bacon brand that has been capitalizing that eternal love for bacon. Oscar Mayer has done Bacon alarm clock and bacon branded content. Now their newest app will help you to find your true love (for bacon):

Insight: Tinder has become mainstream in the mating game*. When selecting for a potential partner, what could be more important than his or her preference of bacon?

Tinder for bacon-lovers

Tinder for bacon-lovers

Will people really start to use this app?

Probably not, but at least it grabs headlines and increases the brand love among bacon-loving Internet. The brand´s behavior online underlines their belief and dedication to bacon. And that is a noble mission.

*When I started dating my now-wife, we weren´t even on Facebook. We had to rely on real-life Tinder: going to bars. Kids have it easier nowadays.

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Sep 28 2015
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Advertising, Insight, Marketing Strategy

Why Advertising Still Matters?

Just when you thought that all the advertising is lacking the feeling, media innovation and overall passion, you come across to this fine out-of-home execution from Sheffield.

ooh

I assume that Lisa did the strategy and concept for this. This has important lessons for us professionals as well:

  1. Content: Don´t write for the masses. Write for the one person in mind. The succinct and sharp message trumps the visual gimmicks.
  2. Context: Know your audience behavior and habits and tailor your message according to that. Do not only generally target traffic, know whether your audience is on their way or way back from work.
  3. Go big or go home: With small media budget, it is better to invest in one big thing than to spread yourself too thin.

Great example that even traditional advertising can still move and surprise.

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