On planning, creativity, and strategy
April 20, 2012 1 Comment
This is one of the best presentations on what we (planners) do and why we do it.
Related articles
- Strategy is not a seasoning. (hottubcrimemachine.com)
Are we too uptight?
April 17, 2012 Leave a comment
I’m coming to the part a little late (okay, 20+ million views late), but after watching this video for the launch of TNT in Belgium I am once again reminded that some of the best experiential marketing happens in other countries.
Why can’t companies do things like this in America? Can you imagine what would happen if they did? In our “post-9/11” world the SWAT team would have descended on this square within minutes of the button being deployed. The square would have looked like a scene from the Hurt Locker.
Yup, something like that.
We’re just too afraid. And sometimes we have good reason to be, but look what it’s costing us. As consumers it’s robbing us of exciting experiences like this. Think of the story everyone in the square that day will be telling their friends for years to come. Think of how excited they were as it was happening. The rush of adrenaline, the laugh after the reveal, the “what the fuck are we seeing?” feeling shared by everyone there.
Instead we get awkward flash mobs.
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Can you honestly say that lame stunt is as good as the TNT stunt above? As marketers we are robbed of the ability to create incredibly memorable, shareable experiences that drive home the brand message in way that almost forces people to tell their friends.
I know that in this country we can’t have people staging fake gun fights in the street, but there’s a part of me that really wishes we could.
Related articles
- Needs More Explosions: ‘Push To Add Drama’ TNT Viral Ad (geekologie.com)
- Now this is how to do a dramatic viral ad (news.cnet.com)
- A Dramatic Surprise on a Quiet Square (videoholic.wordpress.com)
What is strategic planning?
April 12, 2012 Leave a comment
The only question I get asked more than “How can I become a planner?” is “What the hell do you actually do?”
I usually say something along the lines of “I help brands solve achieve their goals by creating solutions that are rooted in a deep understanding of their customers.”
Here’s another definition, from the blog How we move:
My job is to first find out as much as I can about the brand and its consumer to understand what will make people fall for the brand offer.
What else have you heard/said/written? Anyone else out there have a good explanation of what we do?
James Bond is a whore.
April 4, 2012 Leave a comment
James Bond has sold his soul. Or rather, the producers of his next film have sold it for him. Rumor has it, he will pass up his famous martini (shaken, not stirred) for a Heineken in the upcoming film “Skyfall.”
I’m okay with product placement (or integration as we marketers like to call it now). Characters in movies and TV shows need to use products/services and I’d rather see a real brand in their can Corca-Cola or Sorny. It adds to the realism, makes the scene more relatable. And let’s be honest, it does a great deal to defray the high cost of producing the shows and movies that we love.
What I take issue with is when the integration of the brand fundamentally changes the nature of the content itself. Brand integration should be subtle. When I see a horrible instance of product placement it’s like someone snuck a commercial into the film. For instance:
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What the hell is that? This does not add to the storyline – it detracts from it. Because it’s so ludicrous. No one behaves this way. No one looks at new shoes like that (well, maybe Carrie Bradshaw and her friends).
And to have Bond forsake his trademark drink in favor of one paid for by advertising is just disgusting. Can’t the villain drink it? or can’t he slide a beer can down the bar to disarm an opponent? Or maybe Bond commandeers a Heineken truck to chase down a bad guy. But don’t change the character for money. Where does it end? Maybe he stops being a spy and starts delivering packages for FedEx? Or does he stop wearing a watch altogether and checks the time on a new Nokia Lumia 900?
The sad thing is that this is such a huge retreat to the lame Bond movies from before the Daniel Craig reboot. “Die Another Day” featured so much obnoxious product placement (20 companies, $70 million dollars) and such a lame plot that critics called it “Buy Another Day.” Let’s just hope they don’t bring back Denise Richards as Nuclear Physicist Christmas Jones.
Related articles
- When Product Placement Goes Too Far, James Bond ‘Skyfall’ Edition (thinkprogress.org)
- From Holland With Love? James Bond is ditching martinis for Heineken in new ‘Skyfall’ ad (popwatch.ew.com)
Tweeting about strippers.
March 5, 2012 Leave a comment
My friend (and spring semester intern) Kevin tweeted a post from DeadSpin yesterday afternoon about a community manager from Major League Soccer who accidentally posted a picture of sign for a strip club to the MLS Facebook page with the comment “You had me at strippers.”
And naturally, the interwebs went into a frenzy. People made jokes about the CMs likelihood of being fired, others mentioned how they tweeted the picture to his boss. This isn’t the first time a community manager has made this mistake. In fact, it’s probably not even the twentieth.
So I have to wonder, is this really such a big deal?
Haven’t we all accidentally IM’d someone a message meant for someone else? Or replied to the wrong text message? While I am not equating a personal IM or text with a public message coming from a brand people know, trust or respect, can’t we all see this for what it is? An accident. And accidents happen.
I once screwed up a holiday contest from a HUGE brand and ruined someone’s Christmas – well, sort of – thanks to my awesome manager, a very understanding SVP and some VERY understanding/forgiving clients we fixed things for everyone. But the point is, people screw up. And sometimes it’s public and from a brand. People need to get over it.
Brands like the Red Cross quickly handled a mistaken tweet about finding some beers and everyone applauded them for doing so with humility and a quick wit:
So when will people stop caring so much? Do I think any less of MLS because their community manager opened the wrong app, or forgot to log out when he was done? No. I think it’s bad form. I think it’s sloppy work. I think that he or she may need to be on some sort of probationary period, or prohibited from using his or her mobile for tweeting/facebooking, but fired? That seems a bit harsh.
These things are going to keep happening as more and more brands invest more in social media. I think everyone needs to chill out and accept that there are people behind these brands and occasionally they will make mistakes.
How to become a Planner – Part III
January 18, 2012 9 Comments
At one point or another in their career, every account planner/strategist will write a blog post about how get into planning. I’ve “written” two and I put written in quotes because they’re really just re-blogs of other people’s posts on the subject. If you want my opinion on how to break into the field, see my earlier post “How to become a Planner.”
The latest in this series comes from my good friend Mitch Polatin who was a great help in my getting into planning. He was the first planner I worked with when I started out and he was more than eager to let me follow him around and do all sorts of planner-y things. Come to think of it, he may have just tricked me into doing his work for him in a very Huck Finn-ish way. But seriously, I owe Mitch quite a bit for helping me become the planner that I am today. So without further adieu, here’s Mitch’s take on how to become a planner, with come help from Rob Campbell:
The Similarities Between Planning and Fight Club…
You wake up at Seatac, SFO, LAX. You wake up at O’Hare, Dallas-Fort Worth, BWI. Pacific, mountain, central. Lose an hour, gain an hour. This is your life, and it’s ending one minute at a time. If you wake up at a different time, in a different place, could you wake up as a different person?
I’m constantly getting questions about how to break into Strategic Planning, and honestly answering this is more difficult than responding to my 3-year-old son when he asks ‘Where does hair come from?’ The point being, there is no clear rhyme or reason, which is a beautiful thing. But we can sometimes get caught up in this mystery. A recent blog post by Rob Campbell, Asia regional head of planning for Wieden + Kennedy, caught my attention. Rob writes: ‘planners – love to make a big deal out of being curious…Let’s be honest, curiosity is a basic human trait and even if planners execute this more than the majority [which I’d say is open to debate] they’re no where near as curious as people in the finance, technology, R&D or criminal investigation industries, to name a few.” Rob is spot on. All too often we set up Planning as some form of creative Black Magic. Something that can’t be described or discussed –The first rule of Planning is: You do not talk about Planning. The second rule of Planning is: You do not talk about Planning. We Planners have no magic powers (other than being loquacious and absurdly profound at times). In fact, quite the opposite, we are ‘liberators’ as Rob succinctly writes. It is our role to help liberate our client business. Now, rather than being seen as the mysterious agency people who lurk in the background, Planners are the ones who release the hounds! There is something tangible here. But alas, how does this help us in regards to breaking into Planning. Well, we don’t need to frame it up as a special club only for the curious few — but we can introduce it as a club for those who truly want ‘to understand and represent our client audience.’
So, my advice?…Go to your cave and find your power animal.
For more from Mitch you can follow his blog Elevator “Door Close” Button’s Do Not Work.
Bold Statements
November 23, 2011 2 Comments
Martin Weigel over at Canalside View has been playing around with some interesting new blog formats lately. My favorite has been a series of bold statements presented in black and white. He posted about 20 or so of these, and here are my favorites:
Me
I'm me?
