Category Archives: Planning

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 15 2014
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Business, Insight, Planning

Embrace The Constraints but Break The Barriers

I work only to deadlines.

Generally it would never occur to me write a presentation today, which would be due next week. When writing (whether a document or presentation) I need to be in a state of panic, despair and insanity to produce anything.

I am not probably the only one.

Constraints are good, because they help you to focus what you need to do. You have week to do this, the budget would be 100k and we will use mobile. You immediately know what to do. Being without constraints does not actually help creativity, because when you are working on a clean slate you can mess it up with all sorts of irrelevant crap. Thinking outside of the box is not helpful; instead you should try to expand the box as much as possible. The box is always there.

Constraints bring effectiveness, because humans procrastinators by nature (which is not necessarily bad thing). Constraints define the playing field you are and what game you are playing. Which is essential. Playing soccer in basketball court is not innovative, it is just lunacy. You can still do innovative and crazy things within your constraints.

Constraints

  • Time (Faster is better)
  • Money (Usually there is never enough)
  • Brand belief (Good brand knows what it is and what it is not. It stays true to its belief and does change according to fads)
  • Target audience (Hardest projects are those where you are trying to speak to really broad mass audience. Quite often that is not really the case and you can actually narrow it down, but certain brands and products really have target audience of entire population)

What makes the job hard is not constraints, but the barriers.

They are quite often mistaken for constraints, but the difference is obvious. Instead of defining playing field, barriers are stopping you from doing great work inside that playing field. Sometimes they might come from your inner insecurity (“I don´t dare to do it”) or from general spinelessness of other people (“I am afraid to rock the boat”). Common trait of these barriers is that people who keep throwing them to your playing field genuinely believe that they are helping in defining the problem. In reality they are just making everyone´s life miserable and increasing the mediocrity in this world. And this is an unforgivable sin.

Barriers

  • Fear (“We cannot present this, it is too bold”)
  • Reluctance (“We tried this 4 years ago, it did not work”)
  • Egoism (“I know better because I won this award 10 years ago and have lived off it since then”)
  • Stupidity (“The copy text has word don´t, isn´t that negative?)
  • Weakness (“Let´s give them exactly what they ask and not what they need”)

So embrace your constraints because they help to get shit done. At the same time try to break the barriers as much as possible, because that helps you to do things that you can be proud of.

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Oct 13 2014
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Insight, Planning, Strategy

Want To Change Your Habits? Just Go F*cking Do It

“Change might not be fast and it isn’t always easy. But with time and effort, almost any habit can be reshaped.”

–Charles Duhigg (from the Power of Habit)

How many times you have decided to start to lose weight?

Or stop procrastination?

Stop smoking?

Start exercising?

Be happier?

Eat more healthily?

Go travelling?

Cook more often?

Or try to update blog every day?

Quite often, I would say (especially for the last part)

Behavior change is difficult, although the components are simple. You have cue, such as feeling stressed out at work. You have routine, such as smoking to relieve that stress. And then you have reward, which is actually the break from your office desk. To succeed in habit change you should always change one variable at time. So that´s why eating a carrot or “smoking” your pen might work even better than nicotine patch in stopping smoking habit. You alter your routine, but keep cue and reward intact. To be honest though, the physical addiction to smoking makes it one of the trickiest habits to break so you might need the help of some nicotine products as well.

The main principle is still clear. You cannot start a new habit from the scratch. You have to build it upon your existing habits. Lack of this insight results that majority of habit-changing apps don´t really work.

“It is facile to imply that smoking, alcoholism, overeating, or other ingrained patters can be upended without real effort. Genuine change requires work and self-understanding of the cravings driving behaviours.” 

-Charles Duhigg

Cue-routine-reward is the technical side of habit change. Important bit is also the motivation and that is where there are major differences between people. Different things motivate us. I personally am motivated by competition (mostly in sports, but how I see it you can compete in everything). Some people are not motivated by it at all, but more driven by social doing together or sense of fulfillment (and other crap I don´t really care about). The lack of understanding of what motivates people is one of the main reasons why companies can´t keep their employees. We tend to generalize our own motivation to apply to other people as well, so leaders try incentivize and motivate people using quite limited amount of tools.

Money motivates as well to certain extend, but again you have to craft the habit-changing program well. Yearly raise motivates us generally less than getting bonuses throughout the year for good performance (as we humans are quite adaptable). For smoker the schemes where you either get financial rewards or get penalized for not reaching the goal have been proven to be effective in studies. The motivation difference in these two ways is subtle: gaining attracts people who love winning and keeping those who are afraid of losing. Both work well. Also money is never only money. It acts as a metaphor of the sweet triumph or a bitter loss. The strength is that you can put a monetary value to almost anything and it can symbolize the struggle and fight behind reaching your goal.

Tapping into this insight comes this new site with catchy title:

go do it

Go Fucking Do It.

The premise is simple. You set a goal, deadline, supervisor and the amount of money you give if you do no reach your goal. Not surprisingly if you lose that money to charity it reduces the effectiveness of your decision.

“If you want to do something that requires willpower—like going for a run after work—you have to conserve your willpower muscle during the day,” 

-Charles Duhigg

justfkingdoit

The site has a potential, but important thing is to have really sharp and understandable goals. For example getting gluten-free is easily attainable than getting a girlfriend as the former one is only up to you and has clearly identified steps. That you do not have girlfriend can be due to multiple variables, so you would have to fist prioritize those variables and start changing those one at a time.

I like the attitude of the site though. Quite often we should not overcomplicate things and just fucking do it.

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Oct 10 2014
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Business, Insight, Planning

How to Know When It Is Time To Quit?

This night at 2AM I got rude awakening.

Some drunken moron was scratching our door and did not realize that he was on the wrong door. After trying to tell him that he is on the wrong apartment for about 100 times (and those who know me I do not have that subtle or quiet voice, quite the contrary), I eventually called the cops. Cops took him out and apologized.

After maybe an hour this nitwit came back. Apparently half an hour of trying to open door with no success with his key and excursion from authorities was not enough to unsettle his dedication. This guy was adamant that it is his house, although all the evidence pointed totally opposite. He was naturally drunk as skunk, but full of willpower nevertheless.

Luckily this ignoramus was finally placed in cell or passed out somewhere on the streets after my second call to the police. There was peace in the household and I finally got some sleep.

This got me thinking about persistence. When you should know when to quit?

We always appreciate people who struggle through obstacles: those who go against the grain, those who succeed against all odds, when there is a will there is way –type of business. Although everyone says to them that it will not work, they just believe in themselves and make it work by sheer decisiveness. Even I celebrated that boneheadedness on my yesterday´s post. Sometimes however you should give up and change your course.

What if you are going totally in wrong direction? It does not help to struggle, if every step takes you just further away from your real goal. It is a delicate balance, because I have always believed that it is better to fight until the bitter end than to give up too easily. However, if you try to win a fight by any means necessary you quite often jeopardize the whole war. It is hard to say when to call it quits, but here are three tricks you should utilize:

1. Believe in yourself, but do not trust yourself completely.

If you do not believe in yourself, no one else will. Many of the great men & women have been driven with egomaniacal belief of their own capabilities and vision. However when you only have hammer all the problems start to look like nails. When we are obsessed with our single-minded vision, we neglect the screws and bolts around and just try to hammer through.

The thinking of that drunken muttonhead was right in principle: “I have a key. It will open a door”. He was too obsessed with opening the door that he did not stop to think was it even right door at the first place.

2. Listen to the people you trust and who have knowledge.

Sometimes it is not beneficial at all to listen to other people. Some people just want to spread negativity. When something has not worked for the first time that is indication for those pessimists that it will not work ever. People like this are miserable company and you should try to avoid them by any means necessary. Unfortunately there are besserwissers like these in every organization. Just ignore them and keep your positivity.

However, it is good to get feedback from the people you trust and who are not as close to the project you are doing. They usually approach your problems from fresh angle, which provides unbiased point-of-view.

Although I did not know this cretin staggering outside our door, I had more informed stance of his situation. If he had listened to me, he would have avoided the embarrassing meeting with the police. I just wanted to sleep, I did not necessarily wanted him to end up in jail.

 3. Give deadlines to yourself.

The late Metallica bassist said to his parents, when he was 21 or so that he wanted to be professional musician. Instead of shooting this dream down, they gave him a deadline:

“OK, we’ll give you four years. We’ll pay for your rent and your food. But after that four years is over, if we don’t see some slow progress or moderate progress, if you’re just not going anyplace and its obvious you’re not going to make a living out of it, then you’re going to have to get a job and do something else. That’s as far as we’re going to support you. It should be known by then whether or not you’re going to make it”

He made it big. Same thing with your start-up or if you are fed up with your work. Give strict but realistic deadlines when things have to change or have moved. If things have not changed by that time, it is unlikely that they will ever change. People are good to make promises, but generally quite bad at keeping them.

If this drunk had given himself strict deadline of maybe 5 minutes, which is totally sufficient time to open a door, he would not had to have encounter with police and probably would not make one planner grumpy at his next day at work.

Admitting defeat is always hard, but sometimes it is the only way to grow.

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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 02 2014
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Digital Strategy, Insight, Planning

Why Don´t I Use Data on My Smartphone?

Constant amusement for my co-workers is that I use pre-paid phone with no data. So you cannot reach me with e-mail when I am not anywhere with Wi-Fi. I cannot be reached with WhatsApp (or at least not that fast).

Yes, I work in digital agency.

Originally this started because I was not quite sure how long I would be in Singapore. Now that it has gone well over two years, it might just be procrastination. When asked my odd mobile behavior, I will always tell these three reasons:

1. Only way to protest is through consumption

All of the telecom operators offer only 2-year plans, which I oppose in principle. I believe that you should be able to make profitable business without forcing the customer lock-in. Forced customer lock-in is total opposite of what great brand should do. It is a cheap move and there are smarter ways to do that lock-in as well (see: Apple)

If someone would come with more flexible plan, I would probably sign a proper deal. Until that, I am minimizing my phone costs and paying to any Telco by having the pre-paid. And they are already screwing me up with my home internet plan, so they are getting them nevertheless.

 2. Connectivity can be good: constant interruption is not

Being connected to Internet is a great thing and I damn the lack of data every single time I cannot get a cab. There is a superb app for that in here. If I would be constantly connected, I would also be constantly interrupted with different alerts (from mail, social media, other apps). That makes you stupid and it is a fact.

I counted that I have read over 100 novels, while I have been here. I mostly do my reading while commuting. With data, I would have probably read 100 novel worth of inane status updates or have a Nobel laureate in Candy Crush Saga.

3. Limitations set boundaries

My co-workers know that I do not have data and I generally do not read mails after leaving office. After a while they also respect that and also know where they can contact me if there is something urgent. As Internet and digital is so much of what I do at my work, I rather spend my spare time with analog activities. Which does not mean that it is a good thing, I just prefer vinyl records to music streaming services. Different strokes for different folks.

Am I a Luddite?

I don´t think so. I genuinely believe in the possibilities of digital. I think that digital detox is bullshit. Mobile Internet is constantly making our lives better. I am not a better person compared to antisocial commuters with their mobiles. I am antisocial with my book. What works for me, does not necessarily work for you. And vice versa.

I am also super excited about new technological possibilities. Yesterday I was totally amped up when testing new virtual helmet. I am probably abandoning my pre-paid days to fully experience Apple iWatch (as I believe in the potential of wearables). I constantly test new apps and services (I am even on Ello, which is probably the most overhyped new service ever). I usually test them for a while and find out what makes people tick. Why they are using them? Then I usually abandon them.

You don´t have to be a digital native to be able to do successful digital marketing. You have to be curious and always open to new things. And you better understand that none of your peculiar old-school habits reflect any other people. Then you will be just fine.

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Aug 28 2014
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Advertising, Insight, Planning, Strategy

“When I didn’t have a mic, I rapped on headphones”

Although I am white dude from suburban Finland, I have always been quite serious hiphop-head. This song below has always been one of the favorites. Raw simple drums and raw battle rhymes. That is all you need in a perfect hiphop-song:

One Charizma line has become a legendary hiphop-quotable from the song. It is almost like a rally cry for the indie hiphop movement and DIY spirit in mid 90´s and early 2000:

“ When I didn´t have a mic, I rapped on headphones”

For those who know, in the absence of microphone you can usually plug headphones to microphone input of mixer (I have done that as well). More street credible rappers have also been known to rap their records in telephones from jails. However, the line has lived on through the years within the song and also with this cool t-shirt designed by Parra:
tshirt
Now 18 years later, this legendary line has found again a new life with this awesome collaboration by headphone brand AIAIAI and legendary West Coast record label Stones Throw records. You can actually get to the record by rapping to your headphones:

This project is a great example that although you do a contest it can have some innovation with it. The contest promotes actual product launch. Many headphone brands do bespoken collaboration products and some might also do music contests. Stones Throw & AIAIAI have been one of the best ones creating quite holistic and enjoyable consumer experience from the website to the app. Because of that legendary Charizma line, it also makes perfect sense for headphone brand.

Also a good example that you should mine your good ideas way more often from old underground rap songs.

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Aug 11 2014
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Advertising, Planning, Social Media, Strategy

The Art of Making Effective Facebook Ads

Although I am strong believer of catching attention by any (relevant) means necessary, this ad seriously baffled me:

watermelonhead
Are you getting design services from guy, who has a watermelon in his head?
Or is the watermelon head representing guy who needs design help?
I think he definitely needs some kind of professional help, but I would not be worrying about the design. Unless you get some psychiatric advice in addition to the design services, which apparently cost less than a cup of coffee.

On the other hand I saw the ad and started to think about it, which is way more than I can say about the majority of FB ads.
The challenge with Facebook ads is that you seem to notice only the really weird ads, which you would never click on.
When you have small space to work on, it is difficult to get noticed but still be relevant.
Difficult but not impossible.

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