Category Archives: Insight

Jul 09 2015
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Digital Strategy, Insight, Marketing Strategy, Planning, Strategy

The Difference Between Invasive and Innovative Advertising is The Interest

I have mentioned earlier that I practice CrossFit. As a part of the addiction, I have become a victim of advertising and started spending on CrossFit apparel. When I started to train, it was ok to just go with regular running sneakers and whatever gear you had. Now I have different shoes for weightlifting and other exercises. I cannot even think of going back to training with normal (read: non-branded but equally functioning apparel).

Talk about taking your own medicine.

I was reminded of my Crossfit-addiction, when I noticed this ad on my Gmail:

RhoneGmail

I had not heard about the brand (Rhone) before, but it had the magic words that sparked my interest and also a discount. Discount is an interesting thing: if you are offered it, it already feels like bargain before you even know the starting price. Uncharacteristically I clicked on the ad (which was probably the first Gmail ad I have clicked ever).

The site offered apparently sweat and smell-proof shirts with quite steep prices. With my excessive sweating and vain ways I am of course the ideal target audience. After checking a while there came a pop-up which offered an opportunity to participate in lottery. Discount is interesting, but even more interesting is an opportunity to win something for free.

Rhonelottery

Naturally I signed up, so they have now my contact details.

After that I have been encountering Rhone advertising in my FB feed. They have been smartly changing the picture so I have noticed it every time:

RhoneFB2

RhoneFB1

Again uncharacteristically I clicked and again there was a pop-up with time-limited offer:

Rhonesecondchange

Nothing Rhone does is crazy innovative or cutting edge: just simple retargeting. They are essentially using the oldest bribes in marketing world: discount, rewards, exclusivity and lucky draw. If I would encounter as much communications from a brand in different field I would be super pissed off. Now I am more delighted and pondering should I actually test those shirts. That is exactly what smart marketing should do. From the starting point of not even knowing the brand, becoming a potential buyer within only a week is quite a feat.

So the lesson is: if you are able to find audience with natural interest, you can almost borderline spam them if you offer them something rewarding. People get touchy about marketing when it is totally irrelevant for them. It is not so much about what you say, but to whom you say it.

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Jun 25 2015
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Advertising, Digital Strategy, Insight

Anatomy of An Insight: The Self-Destructing Book

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:

The Self-Destructing Book – Case Study from Self-Destructing Book on Vimeo.

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.

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Jun 19 2015
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Digital Strategy, Insight, Planning

Personal Blogs Are Dead. Long Live Personal Blogs.

Fish where the fish are.

That has been my mantra for a long time. It does not make sense for brands to build expensive destinations and then spend shitloads of money trying to force people to discover those destinations where they don´t want to go in a first place. Generally it is better to collaborate with existing successful destinations. Two thirds of the apps get under 1000 downloads. Same way as it makes more sense to borrow relevance from already popular unit than trying to make your brand popular yourself.

In many ways the same applies for blogging. We who are still blogging in WP, blogspot, etc. are relics of an old age. Nowadays if you have some thoughts you want to write, better to highlight them on Medium or LinkedIn. There is an existing user base and recommendation algorithm helps your content to pop out there. Majority of readers to this blog come from Twitter & LinkedIn, so why not be even closer to the reader?

I realize the value of Medium & LinkedIn, but at the same time I also recognize the value for having something “own”. Own naturally being quite relative term in here, because probably WordPress can switch my account off anytime. That is why it also still makes sense for companies to have a website. In the digital world where information ownership is getting centralized to few major players, it might still make sense to retain some of your intellectual property to yourself.

That being said, I will feature some of my “best” posts from here in Medium and later on LinkedIn. Mainly I want to test them out from user perspective and also compare the reach. Also being a lazy and egoistic person, I feel that I could easily revisit my highly intelligent gems with no big effort and get some more readers.
You can find the greatest hits in Medium.

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Jun 18 2015
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Insight, Planning

Winning Changes Nothing

andreagassi

“Now that I´ve won a slam, I know something that very few people on earth are permitted to know. A win doesn´t feel as good as a loss feels bad and the good feeling doesn’t last as long as the bad. Not even close.”
– Andre Agassi (in his book Open, telling about his feelings after winning a Wimbledon)

Andre Agassi´s book Open is probably one of the most inspirational book, I have ever read (and definitely the best sports autobiography). Mainly because he had a career of up-and-downs and he is honest in the book about what drove him to success. Although you can never truly understand a professional sports star if you are not one of them yourself, I found quite a lot of valuable lessons in his book. Especially his drive to win and not to lose was something that resonated strongly to me.

Writing a book was always a dream of mine. When I had finished my first book and was holding it in my hands, I didn´t feel anything. Same thing has happened quite often when I have accomplished goals I have set to myself. You are already looking for the next challenge.

We overestimate the amount of happiness that achieving the goals will bring. Winning a lottery causes a spike in happiness, but soon your overall well being is back to pre-win state.

Therefore you have to enjoy the journey to the goals, because that is the best part. I have been doing quite a lot of weightlifting lately and actually every time I have hit a new PR, it has felt easy. When I have tried to force the results, it has not worked out. The harder I train the better I get, but to achieve the best results I have to try and think less.

Life is about grueling exercise, which should lead to smooth execution. In Agassi´s book, he talks about insane conditioning workouts they are doing with his trainer Gil to get in the shape. Although those exercises were pure hell, sections explaining them in the book are the parts where the true love for the sports comes through. If you don´t enjoy training, you cannot reap the rewards either.

Also you have to be able to embrace the setbacks. Although during the times it might feel that world is collapsing, people have tremendous ability to rebound from even the most grueling situations. Agassi beat the odds many times in his career. Getting your ass kicked is the biggest motivator at least for me. You want to show that you can bounce back. And you want to kick some ass yourself.

Motivation is a key to winning. Andre Agassi explains quite vividly in his book by how his winning streak in 1995 was fueled by his grudge against Boris Becker. He had 26 game winning streak and beat Becker. However, his real opponent was actually Pete Sampras:

“I’m 26-1, and I’d give up all those wins for this one. All that work and anger and winning and training and hoping and sweating, and it leads to the same empty disappointed feeling. No matter how much you win, if you’re not the last one to win, you’re a loser. And in the end I always lose, because there is always Pete. As always, Pete.”

After his loss to Pete Sampras, Agassi derailed with his game, took some crystal meth with assistant called “Slim” and fell eventually to 141 slot in the ranking. The anger was not enough motivation, but luckily he met Steffi Graff. That love fueled his comeback in 1999 and cemented Agassi´s legacy as one of the greatest tennis players ever. Not thinking about winning all the time, made him actually want to win more badly when it mattered. And win he did.

“I define success a lot differently, certainly than my father defined it for us. The two things that have given me most joy I have through tennis: my school for under- privileged kids in Las Vegas and my wife. Instead of a love-hate relationship, I had a hate-love relationship with tennis, but I am grateful that I survived to play long enough to appreciate.”

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May 29 2015
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Insight

Anatomy of An Insight: Nazis Against Nazis

It is hard to imagine a more deplorable event than Nazis marching in town where Rudolf Hess was buried. Luckily these sad creatures got a dose of creative thinking and became part of the Germany´s most involuntary charity walk:

Insight: You fight against hate with love. Sarcasm is also the best tool to insult stupid people (i.e. Nazis) without them realizing it.

Sometimes the best way to beat them is to join them., regardless how dishonorable they are.

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May 13 2015
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Advertising, Insight, Marketing Strategy, Planning

Just Say The Obvious, but Do It With Flair

Sometimes advertising is just about being simple:

You show the product.

You show how the product is used.

You tell what you offer.

You tell what is new.

You tell that you have a discount.

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.

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May 11 2015
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Advertising, Insight, Planning

Anatomy of An Insight: Hungry Jack´s Pack That Scares Birds

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:

Hungry Jack’s – The Pack That Scares Birds from Sarah Parris on Vimeo.

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.

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Apr 27 2015
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Advertising, Insight, Marketing Strategy

Sequels Don´t Work in Advertising…Expect When They Work

I could not put the following ad to Anatomy of An Insight –section as it is a little bit too in a meta-level. I also have had too many Foot Locker ads featured in here in any case (although they are all pretty much awesome):

Brilliant ad nevertheless and based on equally great ad as well. Now the situation has naturally changed and the match will be happening. Or is it?

Sequels don´t work in advertising, when you just try to duplicate the success of previously successful ad. However if there is opportunity to continue the story and it is still based on strong insight and great idea, you should not change your focus too soon either. The most challenging part in advertising and life in general is to know when it is time to turn on a new leaf.

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Apr 23 2015
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Advertising, Insight, Marketing Strategy, Planning

Fight for Your Balls

fightforyourballs

Regular readers of my blog know my appreciation of lowbrow humor and brands who take piss out of everything.

That is why I am a strong supporter for the Norwegian underwear brand Comfyballs. Lately they have been fighting US patent office, because they cannot register their name because it is considered “vulgar”. The reason for that being:

In the context of the applicant’s goods… Comfyballs means only one thing – that a man’s testicles, or ‘balls,’ will be comfortable in the applicant’s undergarments.
The mark does not create a double entendre or other idiomatic expression.
When used in this way, the word, ‘balls’ has an offensive meaning.

I wish more brand, would be as clear as Comfyballs.

Their main product benefit is in their brand name. Double entendre would actually be more offensive, because you try to hide something. Comfyballs is truly honest brand and not hiding behind marketing jargon. When you wear them your balls will be comfortable, because their patented design PackageFront™ reduces heat transfer and restricting movement. There is not anything offensive of having comfortable underwear, on the contrary. Using badly designed underwear when jogging is a truly offense to your crown jewels.

Comfyballs has not just been scratching their balls, but also actually risen to a challenge and they are trying to get their name registered officially in US. They launched the site “Fight for Your Balls” and also created video to celebrate comfortable balls:
Comfyballs has not just scratched their balls, but also actually risen to a challenge and they are trying to get their name registered officially in US. They launched the site “Fight for Your Balls” and also created video to celebrate comfortable balls:

Legalize Comfyballs from Fantefilm on Vimeo.

Naturally the ad was banned in YouTube (those US hypocrites), but again more buzz for the brand. At least the visitors in the site seem to be in their favor.

immoralballs

There are things in the life you should fight for, your balls are one of them.

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Apr 22 2015
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Advertising, Insight, Planning

Anatomy of An Insight: Rexona Social Experiment

I love doing work that is simple but insightful.

Too often we, as marketers, end up complicating things by weird marketing talk and creating irrelevant associations with our products that are not true. We just should try to be as authentic as possible and honest on what we do. Therefore the recent content series we have been doing with Rexona has been refreshing to do. It is all based on insight about the product and its need on our markets and nothing else.

This is the social experiment from Indonesia (don´t worry if your bahasa is a little bit rusty, you will get the idea):

Insight: People will not say to your face if you smell, but they talk about it behind your back.

The campaign is currently live in Indonesia and Brazil and has gained already over 1,5 million views.

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