How Dangerous Is Safe Advertising?

About 25 years ago when I was working at my first advertising agency in Toronto, I came across a great little sell piece for an Agency in London called Davis Wilkins. Now I doubt this agency even exists today but their sell piece still resonates with me today. It had to do with safe advertising and how dangerous it can be. What follows is the copy from the piece which basically talks about taking the safe road in advertising and mushrooms, can kill you.

This should be mandatory reading for everyone who touches content development.


"One of the species of fungus opposite is the most dangerous mushroom known to man.

It is lethal even in amounts as small as 20 grammes. That's about the weight of a Brussels sprout.

Between six and fifteen hours after eating it, gastroenteric symptoms are present, and severe liver damage occurs within three days, followed by death.

It is a fairly common British variety, found in oak and beech woods between July and November and when fresh it smells faintly of honey.

The two other mushrooms illustrated are, by contrast, highly palatable.

One of them is quite rare, with a subtle mild flavour much prized in certain mountainous regions of Scandinavia.

The other is a Chanterelle, which smells slightly of dried apricots and is regarded in France as something of a delicacy.

DO WE PICK ADVERTISEMENTS LIKE WE PICK MUSHROOMS?

Given the element of risk involved in gathering our own mushrooms most of us prefer to buy them in shops with our hard-earned cash.

Which means that most of us end up eating mass-produced cultivated mushrooms. The taste may be bland and predictable, but at least we know they wont kill us.

Sadly, the same cautious attitude can easily be applied to the selection of advertising.

Anything, which looks unfamiliar, different or unusual, is regarded with understandable suspicion and anxiety by many advertisers.

As a result, advertisements end up resembling one another much as cultivated mushrooms do.

But although instinct may tell us that danger lurks in the unknown, it is the apparently familiar which threatens the greatest peril.

Partly because it looks so safe.

WHICH MUSHROOMS WILL KILL YOU?

Not, of course, the peculiar looking orange one, number three. Life would be much too easy if that were the culprit.

No, that's a Chanterelle. And like the very best advertising, it is distinctive, visible and has an entirely desirable effect on the consumer.

The killer is one of the others. One of them is the safe choice, the other choice just looks like the safe choice.

Confusing, isn't it.

But so it is with Advertising. How can you be sure that a new campaign really is safe? With the deadly mushroom, the effects are felt within days, with advertising, the poison acts more slowly.

Who knows how many products are dying a lingering  death right now because somebody took a decision years ago to run advertising that looked as though it couldn't do any harm.

WHICH ADVERTISING WILL KILL YOUR COMPETITOR?

All great advertising looks safe and familiar.

In retrospect.

But the famous and successful campaigns we now admire looked strange and disturbing when they were originally presented.

Many of the clients who bought that work can still recall waking up in a cold sweat at three in the morning, asking " My God, what have I approved?"

New ideas are scary.

But they're nowhere near as dangerous as almost-new ideas, which are familiar to everyone.

If it's been done before, your competition will be ready for it. Your only chance of killing him with your advertising is to hit him with something he's never seen before.

Which means you won't have seen it before either.

WHAT IS THE REAL KILLER?

The advertising to avoid is the kind that looks safe and isn't. The mushroom to avoid is number two.

Advertising which looks strange and distinctive is a much less-risk proposition, if you know what you're doing, than advertising, which is bland and comfortable.

But only if you know what you are doing.

Which is where we come in.

Tim Davis and Chris Wilkins bring more than 36 years of experience to their new agency. Experience not only of creating original and surprising advertising ideas, but also of recognising and weeding out the ones that are dangerously wrong.

If you're an advertiser who would dearly love to have startling and original creative work, without having to lose sleep over it, think about what we have to offer. It wouldn't kill you to give us a call."

#1. Rozites Caperata

 



#2. Amanita Phalloides





#3. Cantharellus Cibarius



The only point I will add to the brilliant copy above is that it works because Tim and Chris had insight about advertising and pretty and deadly mushrooms, which they turned into a great idea and execution. With out real relevant insights, you just can't get to the point where creative content can be scary but safe.

Client-Agency Relationships

I recently came across a blog from an old colleague of mine from McCann Erickson India named Chinta Rao. Chinta, like I, moved on from McCann several years ago and now runs a consulting practice and blogs every so often about things in the marketing communications world that compel him to speak. The blog of Chinta's that caught my attention dealt with the recently released CMO Council's 2011 survey of Chief Marketing Officers. Below is the link to Chinta's Blog and to the CMO Council's report.

http://chintarao.blogspot.com/2011/07/state-of-marketing-is-worrying.html

http://cmocouncil.org/images/uploads/pdf/207.pdf


The blog forced me to read the actual report, and while it is packed with much learning, I took away 4 key things that CMO's seem to have on their "to do" list in 2011.

1. Connect the measurements of multiple channels that reach across, social, digital and traditional media.
2. Redefine the customer experience. Bridge the gap between art of marketing and science of analytics. Better understand the impact marketing and technology can have in making better customer experiences.

3. Better understand the paradigm shift from BtoC to CtoB.

4. Better pull insights from reams of on-line and off-line data now being collected.

In short agencies of any kind that are hoping to do, and continue to do, business with marketers, need to have talent that can integrate all content delivery methods and be able provide real insight.

I wanted to explore the changing landscape needs between agencies and their clients further, so I focused on it in my latest BrandVertising webTV show. I invited one of my first bosses in the agency business on the show, as I always remembered Tony Altilia to have a strong point of view about how to build successful Client-Agency Relationships. So click on the link below to see the show and please give me your comments on the CMO council's report and the show.

Staying Marketing Oriented Is Everyone's Job

As I watch the restructuring of marketing departments to deal with the reality of customers demanding more relevant and rewarding engagements, I recognise that holding true to the belief that a company is really marketing oriented is tougher that ever. Marketing has always been about a philosophy that everything a company does is with the customer's drivers fully in mind. However rapid change in technology is highlighting the reality that the entire organisation must now, more than ever, be involved in "marketing".

I think the term "customer experience" can play a key role to helping companies simplify as they battle to stay a true marketing oriented company. As a recent article from McKinsey points out, "In today’s marketing environment, companies will be better off if they stop viewing customer engagement as a series of discrete interactions and instead think about it as customers do a set of related interactions that, added together, make up the customer experience."

I think if you keep in mind that to engage with people you need to understand the experiences they want with all aspects of the company, and then build engagement strategies that meet those insights. As I have been saying for sometime now, the key is to uncover insights into how people experince things, and usually this is on an emeotional level. The McKinsey article also reinforces this points by stating, "A premium will be placed on problem-solving and strategic-marketing skills, rather than on traditional market research capabilities such as designing surveys and commissioning focus groups."


I highly recommend reading the McKinsey article that I have linked to below. It serves as a timely reminder that staying marketing oriented in today's climate is not just business as usual and some innovation in structure is a likely need.



http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Were_all_marketers_now_2834

Mick Jagger, Rolling Stones CMO

Today from a facebook connection, I viewed this classic letter from Mick Jagger to Andy Warhol about artwork for a greatest hit cover back in 1969.

The letter reminds me of my time at Scali, McCabe, Sloves in Toronto in 1989, working on the advertising for the Labatt's Blue/Rolling Stones Steel Wheels Tour. The Jagger letter shows how much of a businessman Jagger is, and that everything about how the band is positioned really sits in his hands. He is the CMO of the Rolling Stones brand.

When we were developing creative to launch the Steel Wheels tour across Canada in 1989, Jagger had final approval on everything. All our script ideas and music background choices went past Jagger. In fact the launch TVC of the tour originally ended with the famous Stones tongue turning from red to blue, to subtly indicate Labatt's Blue was promoting the tour in Canada. Well Jagger as acting as CMO for the Stones brand, quickly killed that idea because nobody, but nobody screws with a key visual property of the Rolling Stones. He was right of course but hey we at the same time were just trying to build even more depth into the Blue brand.

As Labatt Blue's slogan of the time was alluding to, in 1989, it was the way we played. Those were great times, and as this classic letter indicates, Jagger is a great CMO, and not a bad frontman either.




Labatt's Blue Rolling Stones 1989 Tour Poster



Screw Your Youth Strategy, What's Your Elder Strategy!

When I was working on Molson and Labatt and Coca-Cola, it was imperative you had a youth strategy, as youth consumed a pile of your product. Working on Intel in China we were concerned with youth and the need to get them earlier to build brand relevance beyond the laptop. However, in no case can I remember having an elder strategy, a strategy to tap into the desires, needs and wants of the 50+ consumer. Well today all brands need to think about building one.

It is said that in 2009, 46% of Apple's consumer base was older than 55. We know that in the US, 46% of cars, and 80% of luxury travel is sold to the 60+ demographic. An old colleague of mine from FCB in Toronto, for some time now has run a successful business selling luxury items to the 50+ market. I know Johnson&Johnson and Afexa Life Sciences (the Cold-FX people and a client of mine) always keep a close eye on the elder market when developing new products. These two organizations, for obvious reasons, recognise that an ageing consumer base in most of the worlds key markets means health care will be high on their need list. I believe though, that all brands need to take a look at how their product and services can be better positioned to be consumed by this massive 50+ demographic. This baby boomer group will change pre and post retirement mind-sets just as it has changed everything else they have touched. So ask yourself and your brand, what do you know about the older consumer as it relates to your business. Are you relevant to them now, and if not can you be relevant to them going forward.

On BrandVertising (my WebTV show on branding and advertising) I recently focused on the issue of the ageing consumer with my guest Dave McCaughan, the Director of Strategy for McCann Worldgroup in Asia Pacific. Check out the show below and start now to build your elder strategy!

More Juice Around The Future of The Ad Agency

I was reading today in Campaign Asia about the intense pressure marketers are feeling to continue to come up with the next big idea. They are trying to stay relevant to a consumer base that is rapidly getting smarter and more savvy every minute. This means they are looking to anyone, including their customers for ideas. No longer are their AOR agency partners the holy grail of ideas, and this is sending shock waves through New York, London, Chicago, Sydney, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Los Angeles.

As past blogs I have written have eluded to, the game has changed because the consumer has changed. They carry the influence to persuade their community to act, and the traditional ad campaign is treated with the proverbial grain of salt. Advertising air cover is critical in the war to win the hearts and minds of consumers, but it is boots on the ground, the reality of the brand experience, that wins the war today. What is the brand doing as it actually engages and delivers to people. Is it a positive experience they will twitter about to their community, or will it be so counter to the big ad air cover that they will hold the brand hostage with negative WOM to their friends.

Never has the game been so exciting and played with so much at stake for those that used to dominate the brand building and idea generating world...the traditional big ad agency.

Click on the link below to read the Campaign Asia article.
http://www.campaignasia.com/Article/259364,pressure-mounts-as-agencies-search-for-the-next-big-idea.aspx

The Life Blood of Product Development

Last week on my WebTV show called BrandVertising, I had a great chat with Timothy Lee (a client of mine from Afexa Life Sciences in Canada) about product innovation and development. The show highlighted that invention and innovation are not the same thing, look no further than apple to learn how to innovate versus invent.

We also talked about the fact that engaging with customers is the only way you can do any type of inventing or innovating. Which is why a recent Interbrand study that shows so few companies are engaging with their customers is even more shocking. How will products that are relevant be developed in these organizations?

Have a look at the show and see what were rated by LaunchTV as the best new products of 2010.