Are Experiments the New Campaigns?

There’s no quantitative research that I’ve done for this but I can’t shake the feeling that almost every interesting campaign I’ve seen, especially out of Scandewegia, has been positioned as a social experiment. The quality of the work and the insights into human behaviour aren’t discounted by any stretch (see below for a wonderful example) but wondering if calling something an “experiment” does something magical in the eyes of the client? Is a product push a campaign but a pure brand-building initiative is an experiment? Is there any more or less accountability to the work? I’m not sure.

This experiment and resulting TV spot, courtesy of Edward Boches, by Forsman and Bodenfors for Maingate.

The experiment:

A TV spot from the experiment:

As a side note, I love the “experiment’s” framework of collecting data, tips and suggestions from “the crowd” and then finding fun and interesting ways to show that back to the population at large. It is a great example of how to use social media in a participatory, useful and entertaining way – a lot like we did with the Christmas Spirit Tree and McDonald’s Our Food. Your Questions.

Connectivity Holds Us in Captivity

A very smart set of ads from Brazil caught my eye and encouraged me to walk, nay run, outside. This is my favourite:

Its so true that it is almost a cliche now. That the hyper-connectivity we enjoy through our laptops, our phones and our tablets is changing the way we experience life. While at Tribal we believe that digital experiences enhance and enrich real life experiences, getting out there and having those experiences is so, so key.

Lurpak Celebrates The Cook

Brilliantly framed food porn from Lurpak.

And

Fantastic stuff from Wieden+Kennedy.

Vodafone’s The Kiss

The UK has always produced great advertising, especially what I would call brand-level work that is supposed to create an emotional connection with the consumer. I really enjoyed this piece from Vodafone and Grey but, while the line is powerful and does a great job bridging the story to the product, it feels as if this could be for almost any product or category – life insurance immediately came to mind, for some reason.

It is also strikingly similar to the John Lewis Christmas ad of a few years ago:

You Probably Shouldn’t Watch It on the Sleigh

A few weeks ago, I discussed my favourite ads of the year with Globe and Mail reporter, Susan Krashinsky. On Friday a compilation from industry luminaries was published and today, the ad I nominated, Samsung’s “You Probably Shouldn’t Watch It on the Plane” got its own follow-up/self-parody/holiday version.

Here’s what the Globe and Mail said about its predecessor:

‘Work Trip’

 Advertiser: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.

Ad agency: 72andSunny

Chosen by: Ed Lee, Director of social media, TribalDDB Toronto

For years, Apple Inc. has gotten away with taking shots at its competitors while declaring its own products magical. Recently, Samsung has made waves with funny, smart advertising and a campaign declaring, “The next big thing is already here,” deriding Apple fans as the kind of mindless followers Apple once mocked in its iconic 1984 Super Bowl ad. But of all of the ads that make up Samsung’s campaign for the release of its Galaxy S III smartphone, Mr. Lee’s favourite is an unassuming 30-second spot that showcases a feature that allows for file sharing by tapping phones together. A father leaving on a business trip is given a video from his daughters to watch on the plane, and another from his wife – not for public consumption.

“As the smartphone market continues to explode, it becomes harder and harder for products to stand out from the crowd. So many products focus on the new features but fail to convey the real benefits of those features to users,” Mr. Lee said. “That’s why my favourite ad of the year comes from Samsung for the S III, illustrating how the ‘phone bump’ file transfer can make the busy business traveller’s life more enjoyable; with a twist at the end that had me laughing, sharing, and considering a Samsung S III. A very charming and surprising spot that as a side benefit may save the world from exorbitant Internet charges at hotels.”

Media Planning and Ad Sales

So true…so funny…especially the bagels and swag…

Some NSFW language in there as well.

What Price Ethics in the Advertising Agency World?

Digiday tells us that ad networks are sending old sneakers to media planners, offering them a new pair in exchange for a meeting. Other sales professionals have jumped in on the thread but the interesting piece that grabbed my attention was:

I recently offered to take a team at a major agency to a ballgame, and they asked if they could instead go shopping at a specific apparel store. At first, I was a little put off, thinking they were rude for making such a request. But after thinking about it, I decided to just make the most of it. I spent an average of $125 per client (eight in total). The tickets to this game would have run $100 each (so $1,000 with mine and my boss’s included). We actually got off cheaper, made the client happy and closed the business.

Its an interesting point but it makes the whole vendor/buyer relationship in ad sales seem so…transactional. I would baulk at being sent a pair of kicks in exchange for setting up a meeting or being invited on a shopping trip for, well, anything as a way for a rep to get a foot in the door. I prefer the chance to build a relationship with someone – to break bread, to swap stories, to get to know the person and the product. Help ME understand what YOUR product can really do and EDUCATE me whether it is a fit for my clients and the problems they are trying to solve.

And it goes both ways. For my clients, rather than sending gifts, its far better to meet with them and discuss their views, philosophies, hopes and dreams. To aspire to become, as David Maister said, a Trusted Advisor.

Caveat: Like the rest of Omnicom, I’ve taken the “combatting bribery” online course and so am immune to such advances. Send no old sneakers, please.

 

10 Things I’ve Learned From an Advertising Agency

Its been almost three years since I joined Tribal DDB. Three years of working in the industry after being quite adversarial towards advertising. Here’re some truths I’ve learned from the last few years:

1. Emotional communication is more effective than rational communication – its why creatives want to focus on storytelling rather than product attributes

2. The truth is what you say it is with enough conviction (and media weight)

3. Award-winning work is more effective than non-award winning work but I’m not sure if this a chicken or an egg. Surely the most effective work will win the most awards? Something for our head of planning to work out!

4. Creativity can break through and have commercial value if it is allowed to flourish

5. “New” media executions are always more impactful than established ones – people haven’t been trained to tune them out yet. The first ever banner ad had 50-75% CTR, depending on whose presentation deck you believe

6. People dislike advertising in general, but like it in particular (this insight via Cindy Gallop) – even when I was working in PR I would appreciate and share the best, most creative and compelling work I saw.

7. The difference between departments is no where as large as the difference within departments.

8. It is more forgivable to sell a bad idea really well than it is to sell a good idea really badly

9. The more specific the brief, the more generic the insights that fill it. The art of writing a brief that is just right (not too tight and prescriptive but specific and smart enough to have the desired effect) is just that. Come to think of it, there are no such things as perfect briefs. Just smart, hard working teams blurring the lines between account, strategy, creative, production, technology and everything in between. Because…

10. This is absolutely a people business. Relationships get things done within and outside an agency’s walls. Without trust and a common goal, we flounder. I’m lucky to work with great people in an industry that challenges me each and every day.

The Creative Process

Truth in Satire, via Toothpaste For Dinner

Copywriting is good for the soul

Its a hard knock life for creatives, as one copywriter on reddit explained with rather salty language.

Receive a creative brief. Explain why it’s a piece of shit and that there’s not enough time to complete the project even if the brief was right. Get talked into doing two versions: the way the client asked (which sucks), and the way it should be done. Of course, you’re short on time, information/research, and other employees who give a shit, so the way it “should” be done is also going to suck. Find another writer or art director (or several) to brainstorm concepts for the ask (e.g., “Create a holiday campaign for this fucking candle.”). Balance this work with 10 similar projects. Stay late to prepare for an internal review with the Creative Director (CD). The CD thinks it all blows, so start over. Luckily, he/she has direction for you. Not so lucky, his/her direction is 100% off brief for both concepts, and it sucks more than the work that you just tossed. Stay late to complete new round of work. Two rounds later, the CD begrudgingly approves, because the client review is tomorrow. But the Executive Creative Director (ECD) thinks it really needs a funny monkey picture and a headline pun based on lyrics from a 60s song only the ECD recognizes. Quickly adapt the ECD’s brain fart copy to be somewhat presentable. Present concepts to account leadership. They respond with the politest “what the flying fuck is this shit” you’ll ever hear. They suggest it’d be wise to push the client meeting and go back to the brief. This triggers a debate between the ECD and account team over what good creative is. The ECD expects you to back he/she up, but at this point you’ve dubbed everyone an idiot and have tuned out the entire argument in favor of day dreaming about tonight, when you expect to get totally shit faced drunk and fuck the office slut. You snap out of it and take whatever side seems most likely to get this nightmare off your plate. You lose that argument too. The meeting ends, and the ECD asserts we can address the account team’s issues not by starting over, but rather by adding in an elephant, an extra paragraph of payoff copy that attempts to explain to consumers what the fuck they’re looking at, and a QR code nobody will ever scan. Account team sweats bullets at the next review. After receiving threats on their lives, they agree to show this work to the client, but only if we do a safer option as well. You quickly hack together a safer option from a list of headline options everyone rejected for last year’s campaign. You have the first client review. They’re silent on the phone. When you ask if they have questions, they thank you profusely for the “hard work” and “great thinking.” They ultimately choose the safe option, claiming it “really nailed the brief.” However, they have some revisions. They think it could “work harder” and it needs to “have a strong social component.” But most importantly, they think the idea is so big that this can now be a 52-week play, not just a holiday campaign. You are tasked with taking an idea that had no legs to begin with and finding a way to stretch it out to a full year, with a holiday-specific activation. It’d due Monday, so you’ll have to skip your vacation. It’s OK, though, because it wasn’t your wedding. Repeat all previous steps until a drop-dead date forces something in market that absolutely nobody likes but which you all pretend to. Attend meeting with the team where you discuss how we need to elevate the work and not let this happen again. Pick specific people to blame. Watch as those people get shifted onto other businesses, get fired, or quit. Receive new creative brief from new account leader who was just “laid off” from their last job. Repeat process.

via @jdmandell

I’ve covered this before – “why creatives are confused“.