Although I am not necessary an advocate for perfection, I am fierce fighter against sloppy writing. I believe in “less is more”. Write like you would be boxing, every hit has to do damage to your opponent. Strip away all the fluff, edit and then condense even more.
I have been reading this excellent book about making of James Joyce´s Ulysses and it reminded me of this Ezra Pound´s classic poem called “In A Station of the Metro” (right spacing in the above picture):
The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.
Short, isn´t it?
The story behind this imagist classic is inspiring. Ezra Pound stepped onto the platform of a metro station and caught a glimpse of transcendent face amongst the crowd. As he turned to follow it, he saw another ones. This mesmerized him and he wanted to write poem about it. He wrote over thirty-line poem about it, tried to finesse it but eventually tore it up. It just was not working the way he intended (Pound was fierce editor). The sight haunted him and he tried to write it again six months later. He failed miserably. Eventually he finished the above poem, year after. Only two lines and 14 words: nothing more and nothing less.
That story should be the guiding light for everyone who has to write in his or her work. Simpler is more difficult to write, but it is more effective. The same Ezra Pound laid out the three laws of writing imagist poetry in his “A Retrospect”:
Direct treatment of the ‘thing’ whether subjective or objective.
To use absolutely no word that does not contribute to the presentation.
As regarding rhythm: to compose in the sequence of the musical phrase, not in sequence of a metronome.
These rules are worth to live by even when not writing poetry. Essentially you must cut the crap, get to the point and let it flow. In advertising where our space is even shorter, it is disrespectful to our audience to write lazy copy. We should be always sharp, simple and short.
Book industry has been shaken by the digital revolution. The act of reading has not become old, but especially the marketing of books has remained pretty much the same. Too often publishers have regarded digital as an enemy instead of embracing its possibilities. Instead of thinking about being in business of great stories, the publishers and writers have been obsessed with physical copies of the books. That is just a one channel for a great story. Digital can bring many other great channels to bring those stories into life and reach new target audience as well.
James Patterson has benefited from digital change and he was the first writer to surpass 1 million sold e-books. Not surprisingly, he is also a former adman. He knows to buy a good campaign when he sees it:
Insight: Patterson´s books are about binge reading. His fans want to read the book in a one go. The self-destructing book expands this behavior and connects relevantly to the themes of the book. The book remains the same, but the environment where you read it has been altered to suit the mood of the book as well.
Starting with the most devoted fans first is a mechanic that gets thrown too often in idea sessions. Usually the biggest problem is that majority of the brands do not really have those hardcore fans or are even tempting to early adopters. In this case gathering to the small devoted minority makes perfect sense.
“Our ads don’t need to be shorter, quicker, and more snackable; they can be longer, richer, and perhaps even a bit stranger.”
State of advertising in 2015:
Traditional agencies do 30s tv ads.
Digital agencies do 30s skippable pre-roll ads.
In many ways the fun age of experimentation is over and it is back to the status quo and advertising business as usual.
That does not mean there are not opportunities in pre-rolls. They are one form of storytelling. Some of the rules for good story apply to every media, but if you apply TVC storytelling method to skippable pre-rolls in mobile it does not work.
Some important lessons when you are running your next pre-roll campaign:
1. Just redistributing your TVC is a waste of money and just plain stupid.
When viewer has the power to skip your advertising bullshit, she will most likely do it. Spending a little bit money to different edits or even additional content pays itself back with more effective video advertising and better results.
2. Shorter is not necessarily better.
People have time to watch cat videos, music videos and naked ninja warrior. The problem for brands is that generally people don´t want invest any of their time to it. However, if they start watching your content, they can go longer than the standard 30 seconds…
3. It is all about the beginning
Pre-roll videos should not follow conventional story logic. It is better to start with your outrageous part or the most mysterious part. The main goal is to lure your audience to watch by any means necessary.
4. Do not be obsessed by the branding.
The longest clip has quite moderate branding throughout. Ad recall was worse, but eventually the brand lift was the same as with the other pieces.
5. When in doubt, have animals or cute babies.
Some things in storytelling never change.
Making more unskippable content is not even that difficult. It just requires a new way to approach your content production: more effort, edits, continuous testing and tweaking.
Although it would be disrespectful for the movie to label it only as an “ad movie”, it has one of the most realistic portraits of the creative process (not necessarily of the 1988 election). The film tells the story about Chile´s 1988 election, when Pinochet was eventually brought down. Both of the parties were promised to have 15 minutes of advertising time in national television. The incumbent had the more positive “si”-vote and the challenger the “no”. The whole film starts about making that a product that sells:
“By its very nature, ‘no’ was a negative concept; it was very difficult to sell. “‘No’ was not a person, not a candidate. It had no personality, no ethics, no aesthetics.”
– Eugenio García (the ad man behind Chile´s No campaign in 1988)
Some of the scenes felt almost like a candid camera would have been roaming in the ad agency. The movie has four important lessons for everyone working in advertising.
1.Creativity is not a democracy
There were 16 political parties in the coalition against Pinochet and of course everyone had an opinion. There are times for committees, but not when you are trying to do the great work. Eventually someone has to make the decisions and endless feedback loop from random people does not help it. Also it is easier to have opinion about advertising than for example accounting. It is impossible to take everyone´s opinion into account if you want to be single-minded and make your mark.
2.Solve the real problem for the real audience
The goal of the 15 minutes of advertising was to win the ballot with a single-minded message, not tell everything you know. The debates in the film are centered on the messaging of the campaign. The fictional ad man René Saavedra (played by Gael García Bernal, and based on Eugenio García) tries to show more of the joy, where as the committee members wanted to show the suffering that Pinochet´s coup-seized leadership has caused. Advertising is not necessarily about doing what is right, but doing what has the most impact:
“After years of polarisation, we all needed to live together in peace. We bet on the good nature of the ordinary Chilean; that they didn’t like violence, they didn’t like fear.”
– Eugenio García
Many people don´t understand simplifying the message. They want to cramp too much in every ad. The real showcase of your knowledge is to just tell that part what is interesting and leave rest out. Every extra word is an extra barrier for your message to go through.
3. When market leader starts acknowledging challenger, they are in the trouble
If you acknowledge your competition as a market leader, you are weak. People can also smell fear whether it is on sports field or marketing battlefield. If you are market leader, you have to be immune to criticism and just brush everything off. To make matters worse the “Yes”-party attacked campaign, which was based on hope, joy and happiness. Big mistake. By acknowledging your challenger, they appear more prominent than they really are.
4. Execution matters
The movie is filmed with ¾ inch Sony U-matic magnetic tape, which was widely used by television news in Chile in the 80s. It makes really unique feel to the film and also looks totally different than Larráin´s other movies. That also enables seamless mix of the archived footage.
Whether you are adman or not, this film is highly recommended to everyone.
Lemon lime soft drinks weren’t supposed to succeed against colas. It just didn’t happen. But then again, hip hop wasn’t supposed to succeed against pop, but that’s exactly what Sprite did – – and that sprite campaign is sort of a metaphor for what hip hop did. – Dan Charnas (author of The Big Payback)
Sponsorship is easy, right?
You just stamp your logo to famous musician, athlete, whatever and borrow her relevance to your boring brand. When done well, it works great. Unfortunately quite often sponsorship is quite ad-hoc (our CEO likes cricket, let´s sponsor it!) and the bigger role of brand is totally forgotten. Brands have to stand for something and believe in something. That cannot be changed quarterly.
Brands change their sponsorships too often. Last year you were about music, now you are about start-ups and next year about parkour. Because of the short tenures of CMOs, brands are struggling to keep consistency and sponsorship is definitely something that is too often just an add-on. Brands are trying to desperately collaborate with the current hot thing but at the same time forget for what they are standing for.
It makes sense to have focus on your sponsorship. Find a passion that suits your brand and then stick with it. It is better to go narrow than too wide. Instead of being about sports, be about football. Instead of being about music, be about hiphop. Be sharp. If you are everything for everyone, you are more likely nothing for a few.
And speaking of hiphop, one of the greatest examples of sponsorship has been Sprite. They have been connecting itself with hiphop for over 30 years:
That commitment to hiphop has also been something that has made business sense. In 90s Sprite was challenger brand, so it had to find its own voice in sponsorship as well. They made a bet on hiphop and that bet has paid off during those years. What is underground today, will be mainstream tomorrow.
Obey Your Thirst, which within two years doubles Sprite’s market share, and makes it the fastest growing soft drink in America, and eventually, in power of Sprite, they take away the NBA sponsorship from Coca-Cola.
– Dan Charnas
Brands need to have consistent behavior, whereas tone-of-voice can vary. Sprite was a challenger brand and it collaborated with challenger musicians. It´s collaboration with hiphop went deeper than just having hiphop music on Sprite ads. They understood and respected the culture. When you have right partnerships and sponsorships they make your brand stronger. When Sprite has been moving away from hiphop, it has been a mistake. Stick to what you believe in and where you are good, instead of trying pathetically to reinvent yourself every time.
What the Obey Your Thirst campaign did for corporate America was that it proved to corporate America that, it’s okay Proctor and Gamble, it’s okay IBM, Sprite took a chance on hip hop and it’s beating everybody. It’s at that point that Sprite sets the archetype for dealing with hip hop straight on. Dealing with black culture and by extension black people straight on, rather than trying to water it down, make it slap happy, and that was sort of a feature of some “minority geared advertising” for many years. Hip hop helps to change the tone of that.
– Dan Charnas
The Sprite ads were “content marketing” before that horrible term was coined. Other soda brands had hiphop artists in ads (leaning towards the pop side), Sprite let the artists shine where they were good at.
Pete Rock, CL Smooth and Grand Puba are freestyling on the studio. Funny part is that CL Smooth is dissing “commercial rappers” in commercial. Talking about meta-level:
The consistency and commitment is also apparent with the rappers they work with. With Nas they have worked from 90s and with Drake over 5 years:
Nas & Az over Wild Style beat
Constructing Drake
The assimilation goes deeper than just ads. Sprite has held hiphop talent competitions, pressed vinyl records and now their newest campaign “Obey Your Verse” showcases hiphop verses on the Sprite cans.
The selection is a nice mixture of classic lines mixed with their current brand ambassador Drake.
Sprite connects with the passion of our their target audience in a way deeper level than many other brands. That makes sponsorship a part of brand behavior and not just an afterthought. No need to change your course annually: stick to what you believe in and roll with it.
“I’ve never met anyone who has seen a vending machine reward them for laughing, I’ve never walked through a door marked ugly, got a Coke from a drone, or been offered a crisp packet with my face on. I’ve never had a friend share their personalised film, I’ve not seen outdoor ads that are also street furniture or had an ATM give me a funny receipt. I’ve not received a magazine with a near field communication thing and I’ve not had a virtual reality experience outside advertising conferences. I’ve not once seen a member of the public 3D print anything.”
– Tom Goodwin (Senior Vice President for Strategy & Innovation, Havas Media)
The biggest problem with the advertising industry is not the lack of innovation, but the lack of distribution of that innovation. Ad industry is overly obsessed by the niche “marketing innovations”. At the same time the advertising for the masses has become utterly boring. As we are desperately trying to find something new, we are failing to move people.
When I was a kid, ads from Nike and Levi´s shaped my whole identity. Current ads don´t make feel anything (although I am exposed to them more than ever). There is a divide between relevant real work and totally irrelevant stunts. Big campaigns are researched and focus grouped till death. Stunts are driven by the inner need of us to win awards, not by real consumer need. When worrying about our internal politics and external professional image, we forget our main stakeholder:
The consumer.
Quite often we say that people hate advertising. That is not true.
People hate when they are conned.
People hate when their time is wasted.
People hate when they are interrupted.
Although the technology has developed, we are still having our old bad habits. More desperate we are as marketers the more we are wasting people´s time, the more we are interrupting and the less authentic we are.
People will notice and even care about advertising when it is either meaningful (giving you a tangible benefit, for example) or moving (makes you feel something: laugh, cry, whatever).
If your next campaign is neither of them, why even bother?
“Turnstile has to make a sound, it might as well be beautiful”
– James Murphy
Last week I wrote about sponsorship and one point I forgot to mention was how brands are the patrons of this modern age. Catholic Church used to support the great artists. Now many of the great projects would not happen without the support of beer brands. And that is why I am supporting beer brands by consuming their products.
We can rationalize on how the project to turn subway turnstiles to play music with James Murphy fits into Heineken´s brand onion (or diamond for that matter)*. Whether it is good for the brand or not, does not change the awesomeness of the project. It also makes perfect sense for subway commuters. We have taken for granted that those turnstiles have to make certain sound. That certain sound is currently unobtrusive at its best, invasive at its worst. It actually feels totally weird that they do not play melodies.
Other great lesson about this project is that there are so many hidden opportunities around to rethink conventions. Some of them are opportunities for brands, some for art and some are in the intersection of both.
*They have this thing about improving cities, so I would say it is nice fit for that one.
Essentially you are doing what your supposed to do, but with a flair.
Sometimes you have to state the obvious, but do it with interesting way instead of trying to find your idea from the obscure.
Great speakers are not necessarily having the most original and inspiring thoughts, but they are delivering them in the most original and inspiring way.
That is the magic we have to bring as agencies. Because quite often people just need the obvious, but they have to be lured to hear that.
No matter how interesting your product is, the obvious can be truly boring. Especially product demos, which can be a total bore even for the most interesting products (take whatever Apple ad). If you have gift of the gab, you can do exciting, attention-grabbing and fun product demos for mundane products as well:
This Droga5-campaign for Under Armour won at Big Show (Best Interactive & Best Social). It features Gisele Bündchen punching and kicking a bag and same time projecting comments (both positive and negative) about the partnership:
Using celebrities is not an idea. It is an effective tactic, when done right. And to be honest, for many brands using well-known people is the only way to elevate their brand to rockstar level. By paying celebrities you upgrade your brand´s appeal, but it is not about slapping some mundane celebrity endorsement to your boring product and expecting to become interesting. It is making most out of that collaboration with celebrity: not just having a pretty face, but having the right pretty face (who can kick ass as well). Essentially the above Under Armour ad is a product demo, just that the person using the products is way more interesting than you.
This ad from Nando´s featuring Mac Lethal showcases that you can even make reading your menu sound interesting:
These examples show that often you don´t need a surprising insight, complicated transmedia storytelling or even a drone to create cut-through. You just need to what you are supposed to do, but do it with style.
It is an award season and there is a sudden torrent of relatively dubious case study videos popping up. Not any idea is the following campaign really executed, but it would be awesome if it would be. Some brilliant and functional packaging design shown in here:
Insight: There is not anything better than eat junk food outside. Unfortunately almost anywhere from Helsinki to Singapore birds are ruining that experience. Pigeons and other parasitic birds are shameless and aggressive in attacking your meal. When shooting is (unfortunately) out of question, we need different solutions to keep pests away from our fries.
The solution shown in this video looks valid at least based on my experience on building scarecrows. Unfortunately birds tend to get accustomed to many of these methods, so it would be interesting to know how long the holographic packaging actually scares the birds.
Stand-Up Strategy 