The Jason Recliner

The Final Recline

2008-11-22T15:14:00.002+11:00

It's time to unrecline the recliner and put the thing on e-bay. This is the last post....although like all good rock bands there'll probably be a 10 year reunion tour when the money starts to run out.

It's interesting to look back at some of the stuff/crap I've written in that time...

Transmedia Planning
And to think at some point I actually entertained this as a valid concept. It's a wank. It's just a fancy term for coming up with a well rounded media plan. And that's challenging enough to get these days without overlaying an over-thought planning model.

Mount Franklin's Pink Bits
I thought Mt Franklins sponsorship of the National Breast Cancer Foundation would work well with women, but alienate blokes. Well I got that wrong! It's in it's 3rd year now and clearly very successful.

Barry Dawson - The Cougar
Barry and his bad mo are responsible for about half of the visitors to this site. The man has class!

Guiness - still crap
They still can't crack a good local campaign despite running killer ads overseas that position the beer in it's rightful spot amongst the beer brands.

Get Stuffed
NowI know why companies like Reckitt Benckiser use stupid animals to sell air fresheners and toilet cleaners. It's so they don't have to spend a fortune on talent costs when they roll out their global campaigns.

MOTHER
I'm still a mother. I don't read Adnews. I don't read B&T. I'm too busy doing my job, and so is everyone in the marketing team around me. These mags are interesting, but do we really need two weekly mags where everyone in advertising talks about each other and bla bla bla. At the end of the day, if a Creative Director at Watkins, Spruce and Gribley thinks a competitive ad for Fruit Loops is crap, who gives a shit. Ad folk could spend more time educating their clients rather than their colleagues, but that doesn't win new business does it?

Second Life is still weird
Not only is it still weird, it's dying. Two years ago media agencies were getting a little bit too excited about stuff like this. To bring up Reckitts again, that company still spends 90% of it's media dollars on TV, and is by far and away the most successful household cleaning company in the world in the last 5 years. They say they'll change it when less traditonal media proves that it can sell millions and millions of products at required company growth rates.
I don't work for RB (anymore) and they're aggressive and arrogant, but they're good operators.

The Lada
I also get a lot of people to the site after searching for one of the world's finest motor vehicles - the Lada Kalina. Not sure an article about Archie Thomson is what they were looking for.

Blogging wrap up
I've had almost 20,000 hits. At some point this blog was part of the top 300 marketing and advertising blogs in the world (but since plummetted to 736) and it's ranked 66 in the top 100 Australian Marketing blogs. Not bad for what really is just my personal diary on stuff I've observed in the marketing world.

Do I think I've had any impact on the marketing world? None at all.

My observation is that there's a small community of online bloggers who are passionate about (and very good at) what they do. Everyone checks out each others blogs and makes comments and engages etc - it's fabulous. And granted there are some blogs that attract a lot of attention.

Overall though, I still think it's pretty niche. Most marketers and ad agency folk I know have little time to get involved, and choose to spend their time at home with their families or other interests.

At the end of the day, it's a great community and for those involved there's some brilliant stuff to keep the marketing mind fresh and challenged. It certainly did for me for a couple of years. But my spark has gone and as much as I often think about adding a new post, I choose to watch Flight of the Conchords or Entourage instead.

I have really enjoyed being part of the scene, and will keep checking out my favourites like Brand DNA and Scamp.

Thanks for checking in over the years. Happy blogging everyone.

Cheers
Vando

British Petroleum - Finest Coffee in Town

2008-08-26T22:02:00.004+10:00

Mmmmm, these guys have to convince me they don't make shit coffee first....

Better Buy Bega....maybe

2008-08-20T22:02:00.003+10:00

I really want to buy Bega cheese....I really really do.

It's a beautiful part of the world, it's an Australian brand, it supports the local farmers.

But they're just not giving me a good enough reason to do it. Firstly, their low fat cheese is just too anemic in colour. So whether or not it tastes like Coon, it just doesn't look like it does.

Secondly, their new ad isn't giving me a good enough reason.

Yep, so Bega is famous for cheese. But so what? What they haven't done is bring 'real cheese' to life. You would think that there's enough warmth and character in and around Bega to do that, but the agency has spent 25 seconds on the joke.

John West (I think) did this brilliantly a few years ago for a product produced in a similar part of the world.

Noble Rise bread also did it, interestingly also using a similar tagline (Real Bread, Real Taste). There's a lot stronger reason the bread is "real bread" from the set up.

And OK, I'll admit, Noble Rise was my ad :-)

Bega "Real Town, Real Cheese"

Noble Rise "Real Bread, Real Taste"

Who Are You?

2008-08-03T16:36:00.002+10:00

I haven't seen too many magazines of late that have really differentiated themselves via their advertising.

But Who Weekly have done a great job in their latest TVC. Up against mags like NW and Famous, Who Weekly have given their brand a nice edginess and energy.

And the use of the Who song is so simple and common sense - it just works brilliantly and is a really strong point of difference.

Now if I could only get my magazine ads to work so emotionally on my consumers as this ad does on me....mmm....

Lleyton Hewitt Theory - Mk II

2008-07-27T15:37:00.004+10:00

One of the first posts I ever did on the Jason Recliner was called Lleyton Hewitt Theory, wondering what it would be like to be the Strategic Planner on the Chiko Roll account. And drawing some kind of conclusion that the target market for Chiko Roll might possibly be based around the character of Lleyton Hewitt (minus the tennis part and the Bec Cartwright bit).

Now I'm pleased to see the Chiko Roll is back! And they've taken my advice!!

There's a new Chiko Roll Chick, this time on a dragster, who's replaced the slut on the motorbike.

She's described as a "fun, outgoing Aussie chick who is down to earth". If that isn't Bec Cartwright then I don't know what is.

Not only that, the SMH newspaper article also lists the ingredients of the Chiko Roll. With carrot, celery, onions, cabbage and green beans, no artificial flavours or preservatives, it sounds positively healthy! OK, so it's all deep fried, but with all that goodness inside, who's counting calories.

Annette Melton, the new Chiko Chick, shows Cadel Evans how to really ride a bike.

The Evil or Good Backyard BBQ

2008-07-13T18:42:00.002+10:00

I think I know what the government is trying to say here in this Drinkwise campaign.

I think.

Be a role model for your kids when it comes to your drinking habits because it will help form their approach to alcohol consumption.

It's just that the TV ad doesn't seem to show anything particularly bad. A couple of blokes in the backyard having a yarn over a beer, everyone pretty well behaved, nothing untoward going on. It looks like a good day going on!

So I'm not sure whether what I'm watching is meant to be a positive articulation of social drinking through the generations or a negative one.

The message itself is an important one to address no doubt. But I don't think this TV ad makes anything a whole lot clearer. Not without delving deeper online anyway.

DDB (who I think are one of the best agencies in town) did a great job a couple of years ago selling a similar message, with a lot more impact. 740,000 hits on YouTube as well....powerful stuff.

Saucy Bits

2008-07-10T21:28:00.003+10:00

I like this ad for Drumstick. Product benefit clearly integrated into the creative idea.

Just one thing....shouldn't it be "Sauce from top to toe"?

Also, isn't it chocolate, not sauce? Unless the Nestle nutritionists are now avoiding calling chocolate by it's real name all in the name of Good Health, Good Living or whatever it is they're pretending to be nowdays.

Anyway, good ad though - I'm sure the consumer will still take in the message.

Got Chicken?

2008-07-03T21:34:00.007+10:00

Inghams seem to be a bit confused here as to whether to sell the benefits of their own product (versus fresh chicken I suppose) or to sell the chicken category.

Surely they'd be better off selling their own product rather than doing a job for Woolies, KFC, Nando's etc.

And surely the main thrust of the brief isn't to sell more chicken in Australia? Is it???

If so, maybe this whole campaign is about driving chicken consumption so they sell more of their chooks wholesale to everyone else around the country, using their branded product as the vehicle to deliver the message.

Meat and Livestock keep coming up with great campaigns to drive category consumption, and I know which I'd pick as the better piece of marketing. Apart from 17 year old boys, I can't see anyone else logging on to www.chookme.com.au

When you look at the way the Meat & Livestock Association has marketed beef and lamb over the last 10 years, it' s been outstanding. And this campaign always gives me a good feeling about buying meat.

David Thomasen talking about meat marketing

It's Your Money Ralph

2008-06-10T22:19:00.002+10:00

Three posts in three days.......It's a blogging frenzy!!!

This latest Commonwealth Bank campaign got me thinking.....how far off the mark are these guys and what really is a relevant insight for a banking customer?

And do you have to employ an american ad agency and feature the bloke who directed Transformers to bring that insight to life?

Maybe the client got sucked into the typical ad agency hype about how an ad has to be funny for it to be effective. I've had this shoved in my face so many times without any insight back to how the target is likely to respond to it in the context of what the brand is trying to say.

So here's the thing. 20 years ago the State Bank of Victoria created an amazing campaign that worked it's way into the vernacular with four words - "It's your money Ralph".

Two actors on a couch, with a newspaper prop, well directed and well written.

It's not funny. It's just true. And it struck a major chord.

Guess which bank owns the State Bank of Victoria now?

The Triple M of Blogs

2008-06-09T22:57:00.004+10:00

Hurrah!

I've made it onto the top 50 marketing blogs in Australia, even though I've spent much of 2008 talking about advertising to my mates rather than blogging it.

So even though my site was described by a fellow blogger as being on 'life support', I'd prefer to think of it as the Triple M of Aussie marketing blogs....not a whole lot of new stuff, but heaps of classics that go back through the years!

And no ads....just 136 blog posts IN A ROW!

Anyway, who says a blog needs to be updated every day or week. There's only so much interesting new news out there. With all the advertising theories, strategies, models, principles bla bla bla, I'm still trying to work out how to make an effective 30 second tv ad!

Thanks to Julian Cole for putting together the whole shebang.

Which Insight?

2008-06-08T22:46:00.000+10:00

So the Commonwealth Bank campaign has continued on from it's launch in February. There was a lot of speculation about whether it was genius which would lead to an amazing campaign that would help separate it from the other banks and really lead it forward.

So I guess it's now safe to say what it really is.

And it's still shit.

It all seems a very expensive way of getting across a simple message without any depth whatsoever, wrapped up in an insight that...um....I think has something to do with Americans not really understanding Australians.

But it's late at night and maybe I'm not thinking very hard about it.

I wonder if the consumer could be bothered to?

Advertising in Shit Places

2008-02-09T11:30:00.001+11:00

A couple of good ads suiting the environment, this time in the crapper at the Fox and Lion....

Scare yourself shitless this boxing day with Aliens vs Predator

And then an ad for RSVP.....part of a bigger campaign that says the chances of meeting someone really compatible in everyday life once you drill down through the odds are pretty much next to nothing.

Nothing like a campaign built on a strong truth!

Determined to be Different

2008-02-06T17:44:00.000+11:00

Perhaps I was a little harsh on the Commonwealth Bank when I rubbished their latest campaign for failing to understand the Australian consumer and their attitude to banks.

Now I realise, that by taking up it's mortgage rate by more than the official rise, they really are "Determined to be Different"!

I suppose they had a choice didn't they? Customers or profit. Guess which won again?

The Commonwealth Bank integrated it's new Determined to be Different campaign through the whole company by providing all staff with a range of 4 different coloured mouse pads.

The Commonwealth Bank of Rubbish

2008-01-27T15:27:00.001+11:00

What's going on over at the Commonwealth Bank?

Here's the scenario......

The banks keep reporting record profits year on year. Interest rates keep going up (and banks are quick to take 'em up and slow to take 'em down). Branches are closing and the there's no-one at the window for the ones that are left. They're greedy knobs and not many people like them.

So why not make a stupid ,expensive ad that says nothing, made by idiots, approved by bigger idiots, that does absolutely nothing to address anything. I'd like to know who this ad is meant to be targeting and what they're meant to think about the bank after watching it?

I'll stick with Westpac thanks. Even though they're milking me for profit like everyone else, at least I feel good about the fact that they're helping the environment and spending the profit on something worthwhile. Not million dollar rubbish ad campaigns.

Who the Hell is Clive Peeters?

2007-12-29T19:29:00.000+11:00

The question on all Sydneysiders lips (well, mine anyway) is who the hell is Clive Peeters and why does he have two e's?

I know full well who Clive Peeters is. I grew up in Melbourne and the family often ventured out to the Ringwood store to check out all the latest electrical items like Beta video recorders and jaffle irons. From memory that's where dad bought his two tier organ from as well.

Now, all these years later, Clive has entered the Sydney market and opened 5 stores. It's a tough market to crack - Harvey Norman and Bing Lee are very established players.

So what's Clive Peeter's point of difference? From the advertising I've seen it's the tagline "So easy". Well OK Clive, it might be easy if I lived next to your Auburn store, but that's a long way away. What else is so easy about it??

Apart from the fact that you have two e's, there's not a whole lot of difference going on. So I guess it all comes down to price, and that's not a great market entry strategy.

The best retailer who's established a point of difference has been Bunnings - Lowest Prices are Just the Begining - selling the message through their passionate staff. Enthusiasts for the home selling stuff to fellow enthusiasts. Plus they won't be beaten on price. Great strategy.

So it will be a diificult riide for Clive. Then again, Bing Lee has done pretty well using ad music sung to the tune of Monty Python's "I Like Chinese" so anything is possible I guess.

Farewell Slim Shady Snr

2007-12-03T21:08:00.000+11:00

Get This - the best radio show on....um...radio, came to an end last week because it was too popular. Or something like that. Too much talking, not enough Nickleback, despite increasing the station average.

Tony Martin, Ed Kavalee and Richard Marsland will no doubt pop up elsewhere but in the meantime we'll have to do with the archives. Like Slim Shady Senior, who was around in the 1930's and was apparently the inspiration for Eminem.

Bear in mind with this video I've pulled the audio clip from their web site and cobbled it together with a couple of old photos I found floating about. Please welcome Slim Shady Snr.....

The amazing thing about Get This is that every week 50,000+ podcasts are downloaded. For the final show, something like 270,000 of the things were downloaded! That includes me. I don't listen to the radio in my car anymore. I just hook my iPod into my cassette deck and listen to Get This and my CD's straight off the iPod.

No ads, just the stuff I want to hear.

Also, an interesting report from David Dale in todays Sydney Morning Herald. He points out that sales of the top 15 DVD's over the last 3 months is quite different from last year. Back then it was movies. Now most of them are TV shows.

Like Get This and the Triple M network, shows like The Family Guy scare the crap out of the good folk at commercial networks so it just gets shunted around in bad time slots. Any wonder they can't handle it - this is their idea of a good station promo.

Consumers, not networks, now control the way in which shows are watched.

My media agency told me the other day that Channel 7 was increasing it's rates by about 10% next year. Channel 9 is pretty minimal and Channel 10 is somewhere in between. I need to reconfirm the data but it's something like this anyway. So as viewing audiences go down, the rates go up. Work that one out.

As an FMCG marketer, this is all really exciting. With the growth of private label, a reliance on price promotions to drive volumes, and margins being squeezed, it will be the best marketers who shine through and capture consumers hearts and minds.

And it will be the best agencies who can balance this quest with the commercial reality of having to get 3-5% volume increases in mass brands.

Drunk on Election Night

2007-11-24T21:32:00.000+11:00

Rudd's on his way. I can't help feeling there's a hint of the Mark Latham Self Implosion Principle going on here. When Rudd has to deviate from the script it all gets a bit scary.

Anyway, best to drink this off in Kings Cross tonite and face the consequences tomorrow morning. The election that is, not the girl next to me. Possibly.

.....now I know how Dan Kelly felt

Fox up on the 9 & 7

2007-11-21T22:03:00.000+11:00

Saw a great ad for Foxtel the other day which was talking about how you could program shows onto Foxtel digital from anywhere you have internet access. In this case, some bloke in the Himalayas. The message was strongly built into a visually spectacular landscape and impossible not to watch.

Got me onto the website to see how much it would cost to upgrade.

Then it got me thinking about the creative team over there. There's new ads coming out all the time which I reckon really position Subscription TV as a viable, modern day alternative to the tripe served up on free to air.

Maybe I'm just the target, but these ads do a great job positioning the brand...

Foxtel Tumble ad....

Foxtel Ninja...

Compare this to the rubbish served up by Channel 9 and 7. I remember when this ad came out a year or two ago and came quickly to the conclusion that it's no wonder people are turning away from TV and onto other mediums....these guys have lost the plot.

And surely Richie Benaud is the closest thing we have to Weekend at Bernies....

Good Things Ain't Coming

2007-11-10T08:16:00.000+11:00

Good things come to those who wait.

Except in the case of Guinness drinkers, where ordinary ads come to those who wait.

I'm still confused about why Guinness don't take the big idea that's made them so big elsewhere. This ad was in the sports section of the SMH yesterday.

Phil Jacques finally gets a shot at opening the batting and makes a ton. Good things come to those who wait.

Mick Fanning becomes the first Aussie to win a world surfing title for 20 odd years. Good things come to those who wait.

Spring Carnival finally kicks into gear in Sydney, despite there being no live horsies running around. We can still get pissed though. Good things come to those who wait.

Instead, let's just sell a stereotype of a bloke in the pub who doesn't want to go home to his in-laws.

Guinness or XXXX or Tooheys. You decide....

Co-branding...the good, the bad and the ugly

2007-10-31T20:29:00.003+11:00

There's no doubt that the marketers who embrace the concept of co-branding are giving themselves an advantage in the market.

And the smartest marketers are the ones whose brands get dragged along in the stronger equity and values of the brand they partner with.

McDonalds have done that by linking their products with the Heart Foundation Tick. Great move for Macca's, but not sure that it does too much for the HFT. More and more people are starting to recognise it's not much better than another John Laws Cash for Comment advertorial.

I'm not sure how Prada much is benefiting from their association with LG here...

Then again, some brands do it really well - when two excellent brands combine together to truly enhance each others equity, like Qantas Business Class and Morrisey have done recently.

NRMA and a whole lot more!

2007-10-31T20:18:00.000+11:00

"Roadside assistance and a whole lot more"

A whole lot more what??! Boiled lollies??

Is it just me, or is this ad for NRMA just a little bit wrong?

The Advertising Industry

2007-10-06T07:14:00.000+10:00

he he....

Spring Ideas

2007-10-01T20:24:00.000+10:00

Coles has an idea......spend bucket loads of money on a full page press ad for a Spring Ideas catalogue.

I have an idea.....work on the copy and come up with a better idea.

Is it just me or is this a very difficult ad to read and make any sense of altogether?

And what that picture all about?

Then there's some kind of insight which says you'll save time so you can spend more time in the sun?

I just don't get it.

Get Stuffed

2007-08-16T21:54:00.000+10:00

I suppose if animated stuffed animals are the best thing some of the world's leading air fresheners like Glade and Air-O-Zone (or whatever they've called themselves this year) can manage to represent their brands, even though they have absolutely nothing to do with anything, then I suppose they're good enough for a no-name air conditioning gadget.

Shit, that's a long sentence and I couldn't be bothered finding a better version.

Well, at least the animals have something to do with the message. Don't know if a penguin and a hippo would be my obvious choice of hot and cold though. A couple of my previous girlfriends would be much better examples there.

MILF on a Loo

2007-07-29T18:22:00.000+10:00

Now I know that toilets probably aren't the easiest thing to advertise, but surely there's a better solution than a constipated MILF in bad aerobics gear sitting on a dunny with the lid down......

Second Life is Weird

2007-07-28T16:57:00.000+10:00

The other day I checked out Second Life and I reckon it's plain weird.

And it's full of weirdo's. They're probably all normal people in the real world but the whole thing seems a bit too bizarre - all these strange looking things running and flying around the place.

Is it me or is it all just a bit sad?

There's not one part of me that would prefer to converse with a cartoon figure who looks like a cross between Michael Jackson and the tooth fairy over going to a friends place for a glass of wine and a yak or heading to the pub.

I know there's a bunch of advertising agencies and companies and whoever else building a presence in Second Life, and for some brands it probably makes sense.

Now that I'm back in the real world of FMCG business and selling products on the client side rather than on the advertising side, Second Life doesn't get doesn't get much of a look in.

A couple of months ago we had an off site where 3 or 4 agencies presented an online update to all the marketing team. Everyone was talking about the phenomenon that is Second Life.

It's the agencies job to know about that so fair enough.

And maybe one day 38 year old mums with kids will be frittering their day away talking to alien things on Second Life, but right now a $100k investment will get me 2 weeks of advertising to a million people in Adelaide and for now I'll take that thanks.

Nando's Marketing Free Gum

2007-06-11T01:04:00.000+10:00

This is what happens when you listen too much to your advertising agency.

Then again, every client has the right to say no to an idea presented to them.

Probably a great ad in the schoolyard - 21,000 hits on YouTube. But surely you can target a male 17-23 demographic without every other target group looking on in amazement and thinking whether they'll ever buy the stuff again.

Nando's - quality food, well designed stores, slutty advertising.

Truth in Advertising

2007-04-04T20:13:00.000+10:00

It's amazing what happens when someone tells the truth in advertising. It's seen as a stunt.

From today's SMH...

Sydney's real-estate agents aren't renowned for being dead straight in their descriptions, but faced with selling a complete dump, one of them has decided honesty is the only policy.

In a regular property blurb, 25 Waterloo Street, Rozelle, might be described as "quaint", or a "renovator's delight" - realestatespeak for a screaming disaster-zone.

But its selling agent Paul Cooper has tried a different tack - the two-bedroom cottage is in such a state he decided to reveal the awful truth, cheerfully admitting it's a "dump".

"Situated directly next to a petrol station and metres from the almost stationary peak-hour traffic of Victoria Road, one can imagine they don't come much worse than this," his ad says.

The half-page ad, for Mr Cooper's agency Ray White Balmain, goes on to point out the home's other "features".

It is "particularly popular with talentless graffiti artists", the "holes in the wall provide natural air-conditioning" and its lack of kitchen is "irrelevant as the club does great food".

The property's owner approved Mr Cooper's unusually upfront sales pitch, which the 28-year veteran of the real-estate game says he's successfully used before.

"It was a place in similar condition to this, it was pretty much derelict, and we hadn't had any luck," he said.

"We put out an ad like this one and went from gettting two people to view it, to getting 30 people along."

Waffle

2007-03-23T22:23:00.000+11:00

Russell Davies has quite a nice little post about waffling on about pointless brand theory when from the consumer's perspective, nothing's changing and they're not seeing anything different.

Thought this cartoon was quite relevant. It's been sitting on my hard drive for a while.

I think I picked it up from another blog about 3 months ago, courtesy of Tom Fishburne, who has some pretty classic close-to-the-bone cartoons.

'Close to the bone' - is that the right expression?

MOTHER

2007-03-18T21:55:00.000+11:00

I'm officially a Mother.

I'm a Marketer On THE Run.

Which means we now have to consider the Mother Factor.

Since I got back into the corporate side 4 months ago, it's business as usual. Well, almost business as usual.

The big difference is that it's just so busy. All day, every day. Without a break. Long hours. Making decisions on the go. Not having enough time to think about stuff.

It's the same all over the company I work in. And when I talk to my other marketing mates in other companies it's exactly the same.

When I got to Sydney 11 years ago, things were different. I used to get taken out for lunch by the fragrance suppliers or ACP or Pacific Mags or some promo agency. Probably about once a month or so. I wasn't a bludger. It was just what happened.

And that was before the golden age of the 80's which I missed. Unfortunately.

Nowdays if I get taken out for lunch it just means I'll be working half of saturday to make up for it. Which annoys me because:

a) I like long lunches
b) the best deals are done over lunch and
c) great relationships with my suppliers are formed over lunch.

Tell this to a Brand Manager today and they look at you all funny, just before they turn away and keep writing the promo brief they're about to pitch to 5 different agencies. Including the one that just delivered record sales and response rates on the last promo.

Even the Christmas period is different. There used to be a wind down period before Xmas day. Then you'd ease back into it on Jan 10th and be full steam ahead by about the 20th.

Not nowdays. It's like stopping for a quick drink in the 100m Olympic Final.

So what does this all mean? What implications does the MOTHER factor have?

Call me. Call me now.
I love the strategic thinking. But I don't have a lot of time for it. There's a great opportunity for the agency to be pro-active. Start the conversation. Start the thinking. And then finish it.

I'm not sure the last time a strat planner rang me or my Research Manager to talk about an idea they had that they wanted to discuss further, or get some further insight into.

Hang on. Yes...I do remember it. It was 7 years ago. No bullshit. (Good on ya Cate).

Agencies have to be sleazy guys in a night club.
Sleazy guys who are out to pick up women don't take no for an answer. No means yes. They just keep going and going until the girl says yes.

Agencies have to keep pushing. Not on the creative idea. That's a given.

The agency has to push back on finding time. They have to make sure they know the business problem properly so they can formulate a strategic solution.

Marketers are so busy, finding 2 hours to just talk about the business seems like a waste of time. It's like nothing gets done. Of course that's not the reality, but it seems to be a non productive time in a younger marketers mind.

Don't Overwork the Waiter
Ever been to a restaurant where the waiter is really, really busy?

He's good at what he does, but he's the only guy working that night and trying to serve 25 tables. Everyone's pissed off. They're waiting too long. The guys not even getting the basics right. The guy might be trying his best, but hey....that's the last time I'm going to that restaurant.

It's the same feeling being a marketer and the Strat Planner is stuck waiting too many tables - 3 different clients and 9 divisions within them.

The guy's on a hiding to nothing.

Learn a Foreign Language
Marketing Directors need to force their team to learn a foreign language. The language of advertising and communication.

It's not a natural bent for marketers. Whilst we all want to travel to South America and learn Portugese and frolic on the beach in Rio for a couple of years, the closest most of us get to a Brazilian is when the girlfriend comes back from her beauty therapist.

Get the Brand Team to apply for Award School. Get the agency to run creative presentations. Run 1 on 1 workshops as part of the weekly WIP to discuss what other brands are doing. Start a marketing department blog and encourage people to contribute to it - brand team and the agency. Get the agency to be a sleazy guy.

Learn the foreign language of good creative. Just don't go overboard like Amanda Vanstone.

Look like Sydney Rail
A lot of marketing teams work in open plan environments these days. You want everyone to think you're always working really, really hard. No-one promotes a slack arse. And everyone can see when you're being one.

So it's hard to stop answering emails that no-one cares about and sit back and think. Even for 10 minutes. Sit back in your chair and think. Of course, people will think you've lost the plot.

But marketers are allowed to think.

Look like you're not working for a while. Look like Sydney Rail. And think about how to make things better.

Hire Good Mothers
Companies need to hire more experienced people who can make decisions on the run. Decisions based on years of experience.

Believe it or not, there are some Marketing Managers out there today who have only ever made one or two ads in their life. When things are going 150 miles an hour, it's gonna get sticky.

So when the 24 year old Assistant Brand Manager moans about not being a Marketing Manager on $150k a year, tell 'em they're dreaming.

Make time for the long lunch
Prioritise. Let small stuff slip through the cracks. Recognize the stuff that won't make a difference.

Learn that it's ok to say to some people 'that's too low on the list priorities and won't get done', and then go and have a long lunch anyway.

'Nuff said!

Amanda Vanstone - Super Mum and Dedicated to learning foreign languages

Killer Babies Driving Hyundai's

2007-03-14T22:23:00.000+11:00

Stan over at Brand DNA recently pointed out the lunacy of the Advertsing Standards Bureau Board banning a recent ad for Hyundai.

I wholehearteldy agreed. Until I read this article today in the SMH.

Stan, is there a case that we were wrong? Hyundai's advertising is turning KIDS INTO KILLERS.

TODDLER DRIVER KNOCKS DOWN MUM

March 14, 2007 - 10:03AM

A Melbourne woman is in hospital after her toddler son hopped into the driver's seat of her car, started the engine and then accidentally pinned her between the car and a brick wall.

A Victoria Police spokeswoman said the accident happened about 5.30pm (AEDT) yesterday at Rowville, in Melbourne's south-east.

"The car was parked in the driveway near the entrance of the garage and the child has got in and started up the engine," the spokeswoman said.

"The car has somehow moved forward and mum has become pinned between the car and a brick wall," she said.

"She was taken to Dandenong hospital suffering from a possible broken hip."

The woman, aged in her 30s, also suffered pelvic injuries and was in a stable condition this morning.

Her 18-month-old son was not injured.

The Knox Traffic Management Unit was investigating the incident.

I'd suggest Knox Traffic Management start their investigation over at Hyundai head office where they teach babies to kill.

Boring Bunnies

2007-03-11T19:42:00.000+11:00

What would be the most boring FMCG marketing job in town?

Here's one guess.....Brand Manager for either Duracell or Eveready.

There's only one thing you can do with a a battery to have a point of difference. Make it last longer. But you don't want to make it last too long or you'll drop volume.

So you just keep bashing out the same old comparative spot year after year after year. Senior management says it has to be done that way 'cos the research says consumers take in and believe the message. I suppose they probably do when you shove it in their face in qual groups and ask 'em 20 questions.

All I know is that when I see one, I just switch off. I just see another bunny, or action man, or whatever, and know I'm gonna hear the same old story.

"We last longer than Durcaell". "We last twice as long as Eveready". blah blah blah.......

After decades of seeing these ads, I still don't have the faintest which lasts longer.

The overall perception I'm getting is that they're both about as good as each other. It would be like getting propositioned on the same night by both Kylie Minogue and Scarlett Johansson. Either would be fine thanks.

Surely there's an opportunity for one of these brands to start connecting with the consumer in a different way? Maybe one that will make me feel a lot more positively about it when I'm at the shelf making the choice.

Jason Recliner trivia fact - I went to the same primary school as Kylie. I wonder if she remembers me?

Research clearly shows men would rather see another TVC with the bunny than these girls.

My Weird Twin Brother

2007-03-10T19:29:00.000+11:00

This is a bit strange.

I've discovered the Jason Recliner is being replicated over at something called antoffthehook.

It's like I've just found my weird twin brother who's kind of ugly and a bit stupid and doesn't make a lot of sense.

I wonder if this post will be replicated word for word as well?

Eating Sports Cars

2007-03-04T18:51:00.000+11:00

So you're the marketer of a 4WD and you have a tricky one on your hands.

You know one of the main reasons people buy 4WD's is so that when they're in an accident with another car, it's gonna be the other car that comes off worse.

This insight is even more powerful for new mums. Mums who have a lot of money. Mums who live in suburbs like Mosman. Mums who drive approx 3km each day to and from their kids school.

So how do you communicate the truth of that insight? The insight that if you're in a bad accident with another car, then the other person will probably be killed rather than you and your kid because you have a 4WD?

Here's how Ford Territory are doing it....eating other cars for breakfast. Pretty clever.

And yeah, I know that the voiceover is talking about turbo. But when you watch it without sound the visuals are telling another story altogether.

Click here for the ad

Australia Day Self Google

2007-02-28T21:28:00.000+11:00

Google maps have just been released with high resolution maps of Australia taken on 26th January - Australia Day, reports the Sydney Morning Herald.

I've always loved reading maps. As a kid I would spend hours cruising through the street directory.

So it was only reasonable that I tried to see if I could see myself on the map, as I drank the afternoon away with friends under the giant oak tree at the Oaks hotel on Australia Day.

Well I could see the Oak tree but not my beer.

The view was better from under the oak tree than from above it...

..then as you go up, the view gets better again!

That Orange Square Thing

2007-02-26T20:56:00.000+11:00

Last year when I had way too much time on my hands, I noticed everyone had that little orange Feedburner thing on their blogs.

It looked pretty cool.

So I headed over there to Feedburner, read all about it, and signed up and got one as well.

But I have to admit, I have absolutely no fucking idea what it actually does.

Warney

2007-02-25T22:24:00.001+11:00

This has absolutely nothing to do with marketing or advertising, and everything to do with the fact that I am already missing this bloke....

Shane Warne - 8 of the Best

Kevin Bloody Wilson - The Shane Warne Song

Tonk a Kiwi....not

2007-02-25T21:35:00.000+11:00

I notice that the end of the cricket season has fallen just in time for Ford, who have now taken their Tonk-a-Pom and Tonk-a-Kiwi promotions off line.

Because as we all know, the Kiwi's tonked our arses out of the park.

Just after the poms tonked-an-Aussie in the latest one day finals.

I wonder what the consumer's response would have been to the campaign if the results hadn't gone Australia's way in the test series?

Would that have left punters with a view of Ford as a brand which completely misjudges things? Backs the wrong horse? Boasts without delivering the goods?

Not great attributes to have associated with your brand I reckon.

Ford are very, very lucky for a 5-0 Ashes thumping. They've got Shane Warne to thank in a big way and probably need to buy him a new car.

Archie Thompson and the Lada

2007-02-19T21:46:00.000+11:00

About 20 years ago they tried to launch the Lada in Australia.

Russia's answer to the Ford Laser was launched onto the market for about $12,000. They sold a few of them. But then they stopped selling them. It seemed the hot Australian summers were melting parts of the Lada that were designed more for Siberia than Townsville.

But the Lada was always a brand destined for failure. It will never work in this country.

Or will it?

Sometimes when you launch a new product, it just dies in the arse. Then you launch the same product 5 years later and it bombs as well. Every 5 years, you relaunch it. Each time, there's something different. Maybe a new management team, new paint, some new features. But fundamentally it's still the offering underneath. And people see it as a dog no matter what.

Then one day, the product is launched again. And it goes mental! Everyone wants to get on board and own it.

That's football in Australia today. After years of Lada launches (and accompanying dodgy Lada quality), football is now the iPod of sport in Australia. And I am absolutely loving it!

How bloody good was it to see 50,000 football fans in Melbourne watch the Victory thump Adelaide yesterday?

Archie Thompson won the impressive new Lada Kalina with his Man of the Match performance

I'm a Sydney FC fan but really, it would have been an injustice to the league if Sydney had somehow bumbled their way into the Grant Final and tried to score by hoofing it over the midfield and into the slowest forward line in the comp.

The finals series had some fantastic football throughout. Really great football.

Years ago I got Foxtel and used to watch all the English Premier League games until the wee hours. Or tape them and watch them on sunday morning. Nowdays I have no interest in Arsenal vs Reading, or Tottenham vs Charlton Athletic. I would rather watch Newcastle vs Adelaide. Two years ago they would have locked me up for saying that.

I'm just going to reminisce for a second about the time that this brand was relaunched. When John Aloisi knocked in the deciding penalty against Uruguay last year, he started the rebirth of football in this country.

Unfortunately I missed the Australian World Cup frenzy in this country. Fortunately I was in Germany at all the first round Aussie games! Here's some photo's of this glorious new powerbrand sweeping the country.....

And perhaps there is hope for the Lada yet.

Sydney - John Aloisi gives birth to Football

Kaiserslauten. Australia v Japan.

Munich. Aust vs Brazil.
"I will sell my mother for a ticket"

Der Guten Guys. Proving that consumers the world over will buy white goods at cheap prices from dickheads.

Stuttgart. Aust vs Croatia. There's a party in my pants and everyone's invited.

In the Margins

2007-02-11T11:44:00.000+11:00

I was in a bar the other week waiting for someone and decided to do something else besides bury my head in my mobile phone trying to look busy when I'm really just sending meaningless text messages to friends for fear of being seen as a lonely loser in a bar.

So I pick up this street mag called Lifelounge, whose theme last month was 'Tight".

I remember growing up reading Mad Magazine and Cracked comics, where the margins of the magazine used to contain jokes. I forgot all about this until I started reading Lifelounge.

On every page there's a bit of a smartarse comment in the margins around the 'tight' theme.

It's an interesting little space I haven't seen too many advertisers in, and certainly not in the mainstream mags. Maybe there's printing limitations to doing it, but if not, maybe this represents some kind of opportunity?

If nothing else, at least I get to show the picture of the half shaved llama, or whatever that thing is.

Shiny Happy People

2007-02-04T22:29:00.000+11:00

Can you make someone feel like this?

I'm not sure if I can. Absolutely not in a business sense, unless I offer them an electric shock with each purchase.

The only other time someone may have come close is on a more intimate level which is clearly not an appropriate discussion for the PG rated Jason Recliner.

Even if I could make someone this happy in business, I'm not sure I'd like it.

I've done some pretty good powerpoint presentations in my time, but if someone in the meeting reacted like this I'd be ducking for cover and whispering the words 'Stress Management' to the nearest manager.

But if you do possess this amazing skill, then forget about earning the millions you probably would elsewhere and, as the back of this avant card outlines, go and work for the St George bank behind the counter.

Tone Diversity vs Media Diversity

2007-01-31T21:34:00.000+11:00

Why don't we diversify our style of message rather than diversity our choice of media?

When planning a campaign, diversity of media is front of mind. The whole media environment has changed. So a campaign is built around the core idea and leveraged across multiple media options. Or a TV ad is pooled out into other media and often cheekily post rationalised as 360 degree planning.

What I don't see a lot of is the same message being delivered in different ways in the same medium.

Here's an example.

Years ago I launched Finish Tablets onto the Australian market. We launched with a global ad that had the pièce de résistance - a Lionel Ritchie song - a surefire winner coming from our Dutch head office.

Finish was always advertised with a tonality of being the technical expert, with a strong product demo always centrepiece. It had a harder, efficacious edge and drew upon it's innovation credentials.

This was great for launch. We quickly got 12% of the market. But then sales plateaued. The message wasn't getting through to non-triallists. They were either falling asleep or turning off the TV and boogying the rest of the night away to Dancing on the Ceiling.

From research, we knew once people tried the Tablets, they became loyalists. They worked as good, if not better than the powder, and the convenience benefit became obvious. (although that was never made the core proposition as we could never own it).

We also knew from research that the launch ad attracted the early adopters. The housewife equaivalent of the first iPod users. Consumers who really got into the technical details and the product demo. Or Lionel.

Other consumers didn't care. They just wanted to know that it cleaned dishes better than anything else. Don't tell me about the V8 engine, just let me know that the car drives super smooth.

In other words, we went to the trouble of understanding how consumers were responding to the tone and manner of advertising

So we then made this ad, which delivers the same message. Yes, it's contrived, but it's tone is more approachable, warmer and more human.

The result? Finish Tablets share went from 12% to 20%. We resonated with a lot more non-users

It was the same message, just delivered in a different way.

What if we took it one step further and did another ad where the same message was delivered in a really creative way. Even though they worked their socks off, neither of the ads above are very creative ('Stuck on You' clearly the obvious exception). Perhaps that was another option.

So if you have a clear understanding of how the target market is likely to respond to different styles of advertising a similar message, is this as valid an option as leveraging the same style of message across many mediums?

Barry Dawson - The Legend Continues

2007-01-30T23:03:00.000+11:00

No commentary needed. Barry speaks for himself.

More Barry here

and here

The National Anthem

2007-01-29T00:05:00.000+11:00

Given we've just celebrated Australia Day, it's worth noting that our national anthem works perfectly when sung to the tune of Gilligan's Island.

I remembered this as I was re-reading one of my favourite books - Confessions of a Thirteenth Man - by John Harms. A great read about a bloke who follows the 1998/99 Ashes tour around Australian in his 1982 Holden Camira (incredibly voted car of the year in 1982).

Go on, give it a go......

Australians all let us rejoice, for we are young and free

With golden soil and wealth for toil, our home is girt by sea

Our land abounds in nature's gifts of beauty rich and rare

In history's page let every stage advance Australia fair (Advance Australia fair)

Spot the difference

XXXXing Beach Cricket

2007-01-28T12:49:00.000+11:00

It seems Peter Roebuck is not too keen on XXXX Gold's Beach Cricket program.

He slams it in his SMH article. "Beach cricket is silly", he says.

Well Robes, it probably is in Somerset, but not out here.

He says it's just wrong because after laying the boot into Warney's personal life again, he says 'Cricket needs all the dignity it can muster".

Is this the same Peter Roebuck who was found guilty of common assault by teaching three schoolboys some cricket discipline by getting them to bend over and paddle them with a cane. Now that's dignity!

Worse still, he has the nerve to call bloody legends like Allan Border and Richie Richardson ' cavorting pensioners'. Steady on Robes, no-one is getting any younger. Plus everyone has this thing called rent to pay.

Cricket legends with airbrushed anti-beer guts

So whilst Peter is busy pontificating his way through another pompous SMH cricket article, other people are out there earning a living including those marketers who are trying to sell some XXXX.

All my mates and I have tuned in at some stage and given it a look. We all love cricket, the beach, the past legends. It's a talking point for sure.

What Roebuck probably doesn't realise, or care about, is that the actual beach cricket event probably only provides about 1/3 of the campaign's total impact.

The rest of it came in the lead up - the TV ads, the print ads, the leverage the Lion Nathan field force had with the liquor outlets leading up to the event etc. New news for the brand, with a clear point of difference, in peak sales time. Nice work.

Beach cricket is good. Now beach volleyball.....that's a silly sport.

XXX have clearly looked at my Male Planners Guide before coming up with this

Is This the Truth?

2007-01-28T11:52:00.000+11:00

Further to my post about whether ad agencies, deep down, really gave a rats about making ads that sold lots of product, I came across a really interesting question over at a cool blog called Scamp.

Take these results with a grain of salt...it's probably a bit of harmless fun.

But deep down, is this what creatives would rather achieve with their ads?

In my time, I've never met a single marketer who would vote for option 1.

Planners Cheat Guide for Blokes

2007-01-27T10:44:00.000+11:00

Working on that new campaign for a power drill, car or beer and can't quite crack the insight?

Need some help getting into the mind of your blokey target?

Well then, just use this handy cheat guide to understanding blokes, and blow your clients away...

More Tonk a Pom

2007-01-23T22:19:00.000+11:00

It's getting boring Tonking Poms. People are now expecting tonks and tonkability is losing it's impact.

Or maybe not. Barry "The Dawson" Cougar has now been overtaken by Tonk a Pom as the biggest drawcard to the Jason Recliner.

I was talking about the whole Tonk a Pom thing to a colleague the other day, and we both agreed the same thing. As popular as Tonk a Pom is, it's probably doing an ordinary job for Ford's brand image.

Think about it. The whole 1970's backyard cricket thing roots Ford in the good old days - a relic of the past. The whole tonality of Tonk a Pom is one of yesteryear. Is that the optimal positioning for Ford? Maybe the research says it is, but when you're paying $30-40k for a new car, I seriously doubt it.

Or maybe it just seemed like a good idea at the time 'cos they sponsor the cricket and needed a cricket idea. A perfect case of the execution driving the strategy.

Secondly, car advertising only becomes relevant once you're in the market for a car. So if Tonk a Pom gets awareness for Ford over the summer period against new car buyers, then good job. But in my experience, all car advertising suddenly becomes relevant. So tone and manner have a big role to play in whittling the choice down to a select few.

So if you're heading off to lawn bowls, Ford might be starting to get pretty relevant.

Lastly, if the goal of the campaign was to drive people to the web site via Tonk a Pom, well....that's worked a treat. But then that's a hell of a lot of money to spend to drive people to a web site. Why not just give people a voucher for $1000 off a car...they'd probably sell more of them and it would cost less.

So whilst Tonk a Pom might be doing well with cricket punters who like playing a video game that sticks it up the poms, my guess is that European cars might be playing their own version of Tonk an Aussie on their sales spreadsheets.

The England slips fieldsmen poised for a catch

Do Agencies Give a Shit?

2007-01-15T21:29:00.000+11:00

I sometimes wonder whether ad agencies really give a shit about producing advertising that really sells.

Now that I'm firmly entrenched back in the client side after a couple of years working for small agencies, it's starting to become a lot clearer.

Here's my story: I've got 16 years of marketing experience at a high level with some of the biggest companies in the world. I love advertising and communication. I reckon I'm pretty good at what I do, and my strategic skills are one of my strengths.

So one day I decided to start my own consultancy and become a freelance planner/marketer. I'd always wanted to work as a planner on the agency side and spoke to a lot of people in the industry who assured me that the ad game was crying out for strong, strategic client side experience.

I didn't disagree.

That was two years ago. I reckon I did some great planning work (and so did my clients and the agencies who I helped win a lot of new business for). True 360 degree planning - the way the top planners and articles in B&T and AdNews talk about how it should be done. With great results for the brands I worked on.

The only 'problem' was that it was all for smaller agencies (ad/design/promo).

I thought I had the skills for a bigger agency, but none of the bigger agencies were interested in me. I got nowhere with a lot of agencies and definitely nowhere with recruiters for the ad industry.

Through my own contacts though, I got so, so close to planning roles at Y&R, DDB and JWT. Even to the point of being offered a job (which changed dynamics somewhat when they changed the rate at the last minute to a 100% bonus system based on the amount of new business I brought in. But sorry, I don't work for free).

The real irony was that for all three agencies, not one of them had the guts to call me and tell me I didn't get the job. They just crawled back under the creative rock and went quiet. That's ok, I guess...I just find it strange given that their job is to communicate.

My problem? I was seen as a client, through and through. One of those people who doesn't really appreciate the power of great creative. Someone who makes life difficult for agency people because we're so narrow minded. Someone who might even think...horror, horror....that a Brand Power ad might actually be the best advertising outcome. And even though I hate Brand Power, sometimes it probably is the best option.

Sure, I love creative work and believe in the power of a great creative idea, but it's not always the best way to sell more product. When has an agency ever recommended that the problem is not advertising, but pack graphics or PR or sampling?

Meanwhile, every planner jumping off the plane from the UK seems to have no trouble picking up a guernsey. English accents go a long way here in Sydney. Fair enough - that's my competition. That's life.

But I've seen a lot of English planners struggle with planning disciplines taught in London put against briefs from volume driven FMCG clients where the goal is to sell 4 million loaves of bread to the average aussie living in Telopea, or Bayswater, or Woolawin. As a client, I haven't got time to wordsmith 3 words in a half day session, only to see them disappear in a puff of dust at the first creative presentation.

Am I pissed off? Yeah, a little.

I can count on two fingers the amount of planners who I think have really added strategic value to my brand. And none to those who have added strategic value to my non-brand related business (eg margin improvement, NPD, trade, internal comms etc). You know....the other stuff that makes money.

Most planners have been pretty rubbish. Sorry, let me rephrase....most planners are certainly not worth the value agencies charge for them over the course of a year. Bear in mind this is my experience, along with a couple of marketing directors I've talked to as well.

So back to my original point. Sometimes I wonder whether agencies really give a shit about producing advertising that really sells.

Because if they did, they would be more open minded about bringing in people who have a true open mind about the role of advertising. They'd be open to people from client side who can add so much insight to the way clients think and operate and add value from so many perspectives.

I think agencies are scared of people who don't see absolute creative work as being the God of Brands. It seems like it would almost be too threatening to have someone with client experience in the boiler room, diluting brilliant creative work with ridiculous client side ideas and insights and suggestions designed to increase sales.

Deep down, big agencies are creatively driven, not (client) sales driven. The end goal is advertising. The means is managing the client to deliver the most creative outcome.

In client land, the end goal is sales. Advertising is one means to deliver it. And I'm not sure things are changing in any hurry.

Is this blog topic inflamatory? Probably. Is there another argument here? Most certainly.

But I haven't seen the argument made too many times (eg never) and this blog entry and a glass of wine seemed like an interesting to do this time of the night.

Good night

How to Be a 30% Better Marketer

2007-01-08T21:25:00.000+11:00

OK....enough of these twee nostalgia ads I've been churning out recently.
Let's get physical. Physical. I wanna get physical.

Why are some companies better marketers than others?

I've talked in the past about how good Sanitarium seem to be doing things smarter than the competition. From clever use of sponsorship, to good viral activity, to smart segmentation of product offerings.

But what if they had an upper hand? And I'm not talking about Jesus.

What if they could afford the best people in the industry by paying them 30% more?

What if they could buy their media 30% more effectively than their competition?

What if they made their ads 30% cheaper than everyone else?

What if they could bid 30% more than the competition for the services of Brett Lee and Tim Cahill?

What if they could promote their products 30% deeper than their competition in Coles and Woolworths?

Well, they can.

Because Sanitarium, a $330 milion dollar business, is wholly owned by the Seventh Day Adventist Church and is except from tax in Australia, according to this, and this, and this artice in BRW.

The Foo Fighters give me some kind of divine inspiration when I'm in the gym.

The lyrics and music of Josh Rouse have gotten me through some ordinary times.

I donate to charity and am even thinking of growing a mo' next November.

But I'm not expecting John Howard to give me a tax break any time soon. So why do Sanitarium get one?

The Foo Fighters tried 30% less equipment but just ended up sounding like the Beatles

Tab Cola. For Beautiful People

2007-01-08T07:00:00.000+11:00

Now is it just me getting all nostalgic, as I plough through YouTube videos from the early 80's, or is there an opportunity for a 2007 version of TAB cola to be launched back onto the market with some kind of nostalgia positioning?

Whilst Coke and Pepsi and targeting 25 year old females and music festival goers, who's targeting the 40-55 market with a diet cola offering?

Barry Dawson, The Cougar, is a sure fire winner judging by the amount of traffic I get here because I've got a couple of posts on him. There is something very alluring and appealing in nostalgia combined with an element of taking the piss.

And whatever happened to the great TV jingle?

Bigger, Better, Bigger & Better

2007-01-07T11:45:00.000+11:00

"Bigger. Better. Brashs city store. Now bigger and better."

Not hard to imagine what the proposition might have been for that one. Right on Mr B!

Good old Brashs. Interesting to note that the TV for $776 in 1978 equates to $2360 today. Sounds about right for an entry level plasma.

You Cannot be Serious!

2007-01-04T20:21:00.000+11:00

Seriously Soccer?

I don't think so.

If they were really serious, it would be called Seriously Football, given that's what we call it nowdays.

Now this is serious.....

Dennis Lillee Fixing a Joint

2007-01-02T22:03:00.000+11:00

Fresh from hiking around the Nullabor in his Blue Steel hiking boots, DK Lillee is back in action.

This time it's a much more relevant product to the legendary fast bowler.

Bio-Organics has a fantastic new product that repairs damaged cartilage and eases the pain of joint damage.

Everyone knows DK had a lot of back and joint trouble midway through his career, so 25 years later this looks like it's exactly the type of product he needs. Especially when he's bushwalking, for instance.

It's clearly not doing him much good though. He's not even running...he's just holding the stopwatch for the bloke who can!

Wine on a Plane

2006-12-31T09:01:00.000+11:00

How many times have you enjoyed a new brand of wine and then never drank it again 'cos you've forgotten what it was?

I was on a Qantas flight the other day, drinking some luke warm wine from a lovely plastic cup. Yet somehow it still tasted pretty good.

Mawsons have come up with a nice little idea which let's people rip off a small tag from the label so they can remember what brand it is next time they're in the bottle shop.

There doesn't seem to be a huge amount of innovation in the wine industry. There was a lot of resistance to the screw top cap by the wine makers, but it's been pretty quickly embraced by consumers.

So whilst this idea by Mawson's doesn't have much 'wine snobbiness' about it, it will probably sell a lot more bottles of plonk for them.

Pricelessness has it's Price

2006-12-28T13:31:00.000+11:00

Mastercard did a great job with their first tactical ad when we won the Ashes.

Then things started to do downhill when this appeared a couple of days later. And somehow the agency managed to convince them that because the idea is so ordinary, that it will take not one, but two full page ads in the SMH to work!

Then it got even worse. In this one, they haven't even used the glue that that whole idea is built around.

And it just looks crap. If you're gonna advertise a premium card, at least make it look like a premium ad. This just ain't attractive.

And is it really gonna make me change my credit card?

There must be something in the research that says it's ok to bag the living crap out of the poms when we're kicking their arse.

I reckon there's a difference between doing it to your pommy mates down the pub and having some corporate third party shoving it in their face.

They might want to remember that there's an awful lot of them living here, and a lot travelling around buying the paper every day (there's not a whole lot of choice here in Sydney, remember).

So whilst these ads might get Mastercard another 100 new users, they're probably pissing off another 10,000 current users.

Bootscooting Dennis

2006-12-27T10:41:00.000+11:00

Take one of Australia's greatest fast bowlers. A man who struck fear into opposing batsmen.

A man who thundered in with long hair, the crowd behind him.... chanting...."Lillleeeeee, Lillleeeee....."

It was 1977, a golden age of cricket, almost 30 years ago.

So what more logical choice for an endorser could there be for Steel Blue, the most comfortable boot you can buy.

Boots you can walk around in.

Maybe dig for coal.

Walk nex to a mountain stream. Chop wood.

Because when it comes to being comfortable in the outback, it's good to know that Dennis Lillee was paid a sum of money to promote a boot he has absolutely nothing to do with....

Steel Blue's first choice of Zoolander doing Blue Steel was unavailable

This is Australia

2006-12-25T16:46:00.000+11:00

Part of the reason The Snowman, from my last post, seems so mystical is because Christmas time in Australia has nothing to do with snow. I don't think I've ever seen a snowman.

For me, it's all about firing up the barbie in 40 degree heat and drinking beers.

There's been no better ad that typifies how different things are in Australia at Christmas time versus Europe than the Coke one from 1998. Features Gangjagang, incidently the very first CD I ever bought (it was either that or Genesis, Abacab).

I know this ad's not a Christmas ad, but it captures that feeling of heat and thirst and being with mates as you kick back over Christmas (even though I just spent Christmas Day in sub-zero temperatures in Melbourne yesterday!).

It's a classic problem/solution ad that also delivers the emotional benefit so well.

If they ran that ad today, straight off the rack, Coke might even go some way to delivering a relevant message for once to anyone of the age of 30. Like they do in Africa.

More Barry Dawson - The Cougar

2006-12-24T00:07:00.000+11:00

Like Warney to the MCG, Barry Dawson is by far the biggest bringer of people to The Jason Recliner. My post on these ads a month ago is still bringin' em in.

I had a link to all the ads on YouTube, but they got taken down. But at least you can see now them at the Barry Dawson web site.

It's a great site, too bad you can't find the bloody thing. When you type in "Barry Dawson Cougar" into Google, The Jason Recliner comes up fourth. The official site is nowhere to be seen. It's clearly adopted Barry Dawson's ancient art of invisibleness.

Even when you type "Cougar Bourbon" into Google, the art of invisibleness is again mastered.

There's also a Myspace site

Surely whoever did this, assuming it was George Patts Y&R, can get the thing up near the top of Google somehow. It looks like they've got a winner on their hands.

And if anyone from Fosters reads this, they can thank me for sending all this traffic to their sites by sending me a Boony doll.

Barry Dawson kicks back in his own version of The Jason Recliner

Cazaly & The Snowman

2006-12-23T11:01:00.000+11:00

Sometimes you hear a piece of music that just blows you away. And then you get some visuals which take it to a new level.

Kinda like hearing "Up There Cazly" for the first time and watching Jezza take that screamer in the film clip.

I'd never seen The Snowman before until I saw it over at Doug's. Thanks Doug. The first song in this is just amazing.

Merry Christmas from The Jason Recliner

One More Moment of Pricelessness

2006-12-21T20:46:00.000+11:00

Another Ashes celebration, from Tuesday's Sydney Morning Herald.

Not sure if Mastercard ripped off the bit of homemade viral that popped up a few days ago, but it was an ad waiting to happen.

They wimped out on not using the word 'pom' though, which was given the all clear today by the Advertising Standards Board.

It would nice to have the budget to blow on a full page newspaper ad for what's a one-off. Suppose that's what you can do when you've got a long term campaignable idea.

Thunderbird 5

2006-12-17T08:45:00.000+11:00

Apparently I have been tagged. Thank you Katie for this privilege. This means I have to reveal 5 things about me which most people don't know about.

I've already read through the lists of Seb, Gavin, and an Angry Man.

Given this is a marketing blog I've tried to at least keep some of it somehow related, but I must warn you that it might not all be pretty.....

1. I have never been with a man
In my 16 years of marketing and countless companies, I have never once worked on a product where the primary target market has been male.

2. I don't want to know about women
When I started at J&J working on feminine hygiene, the first qual research report I read was all about discharge (I told you this might not be pretty). I had to leave that job after a year. The woman's body was losing all of it's wonderful mystery and becoming some kind of machine!

3. I know how to get the dirt
I can reveal that there is no difference between the formula of Cold Power and Dynamo except for the fragrance.

4. I am a rock god
I have an albums worth of material, including the classic hits 'Nude Nude Nude' and 'Come to the Middle'. Anyone who grew up near Fern Tree Gully will understand this song. You can listen to them (and again I warn you in advance) here.....

5. I have felt like the England Cricket Team
Years ago, I played cricket against both Rodney Hogg and Graham Yallop, who played for a couple of different teams in the Ringwood District Cricket Association in Melbourne. They were both about 40 at the time. Hoggy nearly knocked my head off and Yallop made a ton.

Apparently I now have to select 5 people to pass this same request onto. I'm not even sure I know 5 other bloggers. So....

Stan Lee at Brand DNA. An astute observer of the world but the world of Stan remains a secret to us all.

Kirsty.... Spreading a little aussie sunshine from a Parisian winter.

Doug.... Planning for fun. As is should be. There's a lot of seriousness going around in this online planning world.

Track n Kern...the first blog to link to the Jason Recliner!

Rach from Syd-a-nee....I liked Angry Man's idea of randomness, so picked a random blog from the Australian Index

Tonk a Pom

2006-12-16T07:44:00.000+11:00

As Australia continues to thump England in the Ashes, it's impressive how the Aussie players always maintain such a diplomatic stance in interviews.

They've clearly been coached well in media relations - nothing of any interest is ever said and the players somehow manage to find nice things to say about England (excluding Fletcher) straight after kicking their butts on the park. It's cliche heaven.

So it's surprising that the players agents have allowed them to feature in Ford's Tonk a Pom. The Aussies are coached so hard not to gloat in the media, and next thing there's Michael Hussey tonking a pom. Sticking the boot in.

Something about it is just wrong.

Personally I would just prefer to thump them, say all the right things, and then party like there's no tomorrow. But maybe that's just my way of winning. And from what I've seen it's the way Ponting and his players think as well.

Australians love winners. We love beating England. We love it no matter what the sport is. But when the players start gloating about how good they are it generally doesn't sit too comfortably with the Aussie public.

Perhaps Ford have researched their target market and found out that the Tonk a Pom attitude is exactly the way to act. And after seeing lots of brainless yobbo's carrying on at the cricket it wouldn't surprise me.

It's possibly the same target market as Bundaberg Rum. Years ago I went for a job as a Brand Manager on Bundy Rum. When the recruiter said I would have to spend a lot of time drinking with the target market in places like Gympie and Rockhampton, I breathed a giant sigh of relief when I didn't get the job.

Bloody Australia

2006-12-15T06:02:00.000+11:00

I can't think of a more lovely person to stand on one of our beaches and swear at me than Lara Bingle...

Apparently it was a bit of a dud when the Japanese didn't quite understand the bloody tagline. Luckily the Chaser team came up with a couple of decent alternatives which they researched around Sydney.....

Bouncing Balls Resurrection

2006-12-13T22:00:00.000+11:00

I found this guy on YouTube who had all these great ads which I've linked from my site, including ones for Barry "The Cougar" Dawson (who is far and away the biggest drawcard to this website via Google).

Anyway, my YouTube buddy has taken all his ads down, so unfortunately...in case anyone missed it..... I'm going to have to re-post this ad....

I Feel Pretty

2006-12-11T21:31:00.000+11:00

I've been talking about sponsorship lately.

The use of celebrities isn't really sponsorship - it's more endorsement - but it kinda falls under the same roof. Ultimately it's about using the vehicle of a celebrity or an event to drive the equity and the sales of a brand.

I like this ad for Nike, featuring supergrunter Maria Sharapova. It really captures the whole "Just Do It" positioning, probably better than any other Nike ad I've seen.

I'm looking for an ad which uses an endorser but has missed the mark somewhat. Can't find one...that will have to wait for another day.

In the meantime, this sketch involving turtles from Shaun Micallef will have to do.

Another Priceless Ashes Moment

2006-12-07T19:34:00.000+11:00

Out of the Bix FMCG

2006-12-05T20:44:00.000+11:00

There's some smart marketers at Sanitarium. They don't sponsor sports teams and big events, and spend all the big bucks that go with it.

They go for the strategy of sponsoring individual athletes rather than the team.

It looks like they individually sponsor Brett Lee and Tim Cahill. Brett Lee is a major spokesperson for the brand and does heaps of ad hoc stuff at events, online, and of course stars in quite a few TV ads.

Then on top of this, they provide the 'Official Breakfast Cereal of the Australian cricket team'.

Same goes for the Australian football (soccer) team.

So as a punter, it all just blends in. It looks like Weetbix and Sanitarium is an official sponsor of the Australian cricket team.

Fact is they're probably only paying a fraction of the cost versus the mob who are.

Anyway, here's a nice bit of viral from YouTube. Probably done for about $5k on a handycam.....

Not forgetting a few years ago when every sixth pack of Weetbix became Brett-bix. This is out of the bix, oops - box, thinking for FMCG. These guys are good!

Sanitarium is toying with the idea of MontyBix for the English market

4 Losers in a Room

2006-12-04T18:46:00.000+11:00

Pretty crap prize if you ask me.

Anyway, I thought everyone else gets to have it as well?

Kodak's Road to Nowhere

2006-12-03T14:28:00.000+11:00

Everyone knows Kodak are really struggling, and they're not doing themselves any favours.

I saw this ad in the latest Marketing Magazine. The visual actually got my attention. Going up Kilimanjaro on an escalator makes a lot of sense to me.

Then the ad just gets into drivel mode. Lots of useless words that don't offer me any reason to use Kodak in a business environment.

Then at the end of it, they've got the cheek (or stupidity) to ask people to call them. It's pretty easy to see with this kind of attitude why they're on a road to nowhere.

David Ogilvy said it best in 1963 in Confessions of an Adman.....

"The consumer isn't a moron. She is your wife. You insult her intelligence if you assume that a mere slogan and a few vapid adjectives will persuade her to buy anything."

A Healthe Sponsorship

2006-12-01T20:05:00.000+11:00

I am thrilled the A-League is up and running, and football is finally building some kind of currency in this country up against the rugby boofheads.

And I finally have a team to support in sydney - Sydney FC, who now appear to running a lot more smoothly over the last month. Not sure how much of this has to do with the fact that an ex-adman - Tim Parker - stepped aside as head honcho, has to do with it.

From what I've seen, leaders of ad agencies often aren't the best equipped people to be running businesses, but that's another story. Not that running an ad agency would be easy I reckon, but I digress.

I've been to about 10 games over the last 18 months. I watch Sydney games on TV. I'm probably what you'd call a pretty decent supporter, without being fanatical. The type of person a sponsor of Sydney FC would probably expect to have an impact on.

Anyway, Sydney FC's main sponsor is a company called Healthe. Good on 'em....they took a punt on being key sponsor of a new club in a new league.

But to be honest, I still don't know what Healthe actually do or offer. All I've seen is their logo on the shirts and some signs around the ground.

When I go to their web site, I still don't really know what they're trying to sell.

When I go to the ground, there's a whole of activation activities from a lot of brands. But not Healthe.

When I go to the Sydney FC web site, there's not even a link to the Healthe web site.

To me it looks like Healthe had the money to cover the sponsorship, but not the money to do the over and above stuff which gets the punters involved in the brand over the course of the season.

Key point: Budget not just for Sponsorship, but for proper activation of the sponsorship.

England Heading to Adelaide for the 2nd Test

2006-11-27T20:30:00.001+11:00

And Now a Word From Our Sponsor

2006-11-26T18:57:00.000+11:00

I think I'm going to focus on sponsorship for a little while. It's an interesting arena and I see a lot of examples of how it should and shouldn't be done. In my eyes anyway.

Everytime I go to a big sporting ground and see signage around the ground which has a brand on it, I cringe. Especially when over the course of the game, that's all I ever see of the brand. A sign around the ground does bugger all.

If all you can afford to do is put some signage around the ground and drink cocktails in the box, then you can't really afford to sponsor.

The other part of successful sponsorship - relevant branding and engaging with the audience - are the most critical elements of a sponsorship program. Red Bull has done it brilliantly with their crazy plane flying lunatics.

Mount Franklin is one of many sponsors of the National Breast Cancer Foundation, and has whacked pink caps on it's water bottle for three months. Whether that's driven more loyalty from women (and from the women I've spoken to, it has) versus turning the brand into a gay brand for blokes (and from the blokes I've spoken to, it has), remains to be seen.

I remember reading a book by Sergio Zyman a few years in The End of Advertising as We Know It, and he was putting forth that everything is advertising. Not just the traditional stuff, but PR, customer service, sponsorship, the delivery trucks etc, are all forms of advertising where there is a consumer touchpoint involved.

That book came out 4 years ago and since then 360 degree planning and engaging the consumer at all touchpoints etc has become the norm (in theory anyway).

Within a company however, I wonder how much of sponsorship is viewed as advertising. I'm sure there are a number of aspects the team will work through in terms of what they want it to deliver. For instance:

* Build and drive brand values through a positive association
* Drive commercial return
* Engage staff
* Connect with the Community

For me, if you're investing $2 million behind a sponsorship, then it should deliver some kind of sales return.

Because ultimately, if you can't show your sponsorship investment to be having some impact on your bottom line sales, then there's a risk that that money could end up back behind stock standard brand advertising.

That's the challenge I guess. What are the right measurement tools to gauge success?

Anyway, this is my preamble. I'm now on the sponsorship hunt!

RSVP Online Dating knew they had made a mistake when they started sponsoring Shane Warne

Sorry We're Dead

2006-11-24T20:42:00.000+11:00

How many times have you seen this....

.....and ended up getting this...

It's all a matter of setting expectations up front with these beaut door signs....

From the Cereal Art website

Comedy Magic From Idris Karom

2006-11-22T06:20:00.000+11:00

Bold text provided by the Jason Recliner. Enjoy.......

FROM THE DESK OF MR IDRIS KAROM
THE MANAGER OF AUDIT & ACCOUNT DEPATMENT,
AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK (A.D.B.)
OUAGADOUGOU BURKINA-FASO.

Dear Friend,

Please read carefully, This is secret and confidential.

I hope that you are well today. I am the Manager of Audit and account dept of our bank, with due respect i decided to contact you over this business financial transaction worth the sum of FIFTEEN MILLION, TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS ( 15.2Million usd ) in other to entrust this fund into your bank account.

This is an abandoned fund that belongs to the one of our bank customers who died along with his entire family on 25th July,2001 in a plane crash disaster. I was very fortune to meet the deceased file when i was arranging the old and abandoned customers files of 2000-2001 in other to submit to the bank managements accordingly for documentation purposes.

Following our banking financial policy, it was obviously indicated and signed law fully that if such money remains unclaimed after five years without somebody been a foreigner apply and claim the fund as the next of kin , the money will be transferred into the Bank Treasury as an unclaimed fund. So the request of you as a foreigner is necessarily needed for the claim because a citizen of Burkina Faso cannot come forward to claim the fund since the law does not permit an indigene to claim such fund Since the real beneficary of the fund is died , the bank are expecting the next of kin to apply for the release of the fund for him or her without delay but unfortunately i learnt through the investigations which I carried out that there is nobody behind who can come and claim the fund.

Therefore I want you to apply to the bank with your reliable bank account details where our bank will transfer the fund into and immediately the fund is transferred into your account ,i will share the fund according to the percentage indicated below. SIXTY PERCENT (60%) of the total fund will be for me.THIRTY PERCENT( 30%) for you in provision of the Bank account.FIVE PERCENT(5%) will be for unexpected expenses which may occur during the transfer.FIVE PERCENT(5%) will be preserved for helping the helpless people, like charity organization and motherless babies.

Thereafter you will help me to visit your country for sharing the money according to the percentage indicated above. And for the immediate transfer of this fund into your bank account as arranged, you must apply first to the bank as the only existing next of kin to the deceased customer and after approval which will take place immediately as you applied, the transfer of the fund into your nominated bank account will proceed. Please note that you should keep this business secret until you confirm the transfer into the bank account which you will provide. And there is NO RISK in this business if you can follow my instructions because am still working with the bank.

The bank will forward to you all necessary documents related to the transfer and which will prove that you make a legal claim of inheritance. It is true that i pray to GOD before i was pushed forward to contact you for this business but i want you to assure me solemnly that you are trsutwothy,reliable,honest and capable to avoid cheating me in this business.If you are really sure of your integerity, Reply immediatelly you receive this mail. This is my privert e-mail address (idriskarom1@yahoo.fr) and call me on 00226-7650 7383 for more detailed information on how the process to transfer the fund into your account will be.

Yours faithfully,

Mr Idris Karom

Deadly Party Hats

2006-11-20T22:45:00.000+11:00

300,000 people turned out in Perth to watch madmen fly around in their magnificant flying machines on the weekend. Not bad, for a city of 1 million people.

And not bad either for Red Bull, who are the naming rights sponsor of the event. They pretty much own it all....The Red Bull Air Race. There's some awesome footage on this site as these blokes fly through giant party hats at breakneck speed.

This is a top example of how a brand which has values of excitement, energy, bravery, risk taking and possibly a good dose of mindless party-type loonyness has found an event to match.

Whilst so much sponsorship money falls through the cracks in an over cluttered environment, Red Bull has pulled off a winner here.

It will be interesting to see what kind of impact there is on the brand after someone gets killed. Somehow I don't think it won't make too much difference.

Great news in Perth though. The only casualty was a kid who got kicked in the head by a police horse.

Joe was flummoxed when he came into land and was confronted by not one, but two giant Mr Squiggles.

A Fantastic English Voiceover

2006-11-19T12:39:00.000+11:00

I made the comment in my last post about how many english voiceovers you hear in Oz, which does surprise me a little.

Of course, some ads work brilliantly with an english voice.

Then again, this is an ad from the UK so that's what you would expect.

And to be honest, I'm just trying to find an excuse to put this ad on my blog.

The Cougar

2006-11-17T07:32:00.000+11:00

I love looking at advertising for alcohol. There's obviously so much insight work that goes on behind the scenes and it's fun to try and pick which ones I think are working well and which ones aren't.

I reckon the current campaign for Cougar bourbon is a cracker. Barry Dawson is The Cougar! He's a king-fu hack and a real tragic. But I like him! And I think a lot of other aussies would like him as well.

Like Flashbeer, it pokes a bit of fun at the characters we warm to in our lives. Tragic dags with good hearts, who still have the confidence to take charge. Not too dissimilar from my favourite campaign of all time....Real Men of Genius.

Great voiceover too.

Pity I don't drink bourbon.

There used to be another video here but it was taken down from YouTube. Bugger

Compare the Cougar to this bloke here for a new Boags beer. Yep, it's got all the premium cues, but I'm not sure men are going to feel very much for this guy. It's all presented in a very removed kind of way. We're watching from afar, wheras with the Cougar we feel like part of the story. Also, from what I've seen, not many guys like to be seen chasing a woman that hard. The product itself looks great, but it comes across as someone in a shiny new suit trying too hard to impress a girl in the bar.

On a separate note, it still surprises me how many English voiceovers we still hear in this country. I'm not sure the English would be so tolerant of every second ad in the UK having an Aussie voiceover. Some of my best mates are English, but crikey....that's half a world away. And with the Ashes about to start and the country filling up with the Barmy Army, I'm not sure how receptive aussie beer drinkers will be a badge of english gallantry on their beer label.

Well, there used to be an ad on YouTube but the guy has taken them down

Google Minded Propositions

2006-11-14T20:26:00.001+11:00

How do you make an ad watchable and entertaining when the client gives you a brief with 47 different things that need to be said?

What's Your Problem?

2006-11-13T07:39:00.000+11:00

There was some discussion on another site about whether you needed to have a proposition or not as part of the creative brief.

So....here's my humble opinion.

Ad strategy normally starts with working out the brand problem. Once that's sorted, you work out what you want to do to solve the problem.

That's normally a course of action that means getting consumers to think and then behave differently. On all the products I've ever worked on it means an outcome that sells more units.

For me, a proposition is what you propose to say to the consumer. This proposal should be based around a functional benefit &/or how you want them to feel. And it's designed to get people to think and act differently to overcome the problem.

So if you don't have a problem, then you don't have to say anything.

And if you don't have to say anything, you don't need to advertise.

Brand problems that require a communication solution need a proposal.

Otherwise you risk a piece of communication which might resemble something like this....

Meat Boy

2006-11-12T07:43:00.000+11:00

Sometimes no matter how much you research a new initiative, results can often be heavily impacted by unexpected market forces......

Transmedia II - the Sequel

2006-11-11T08:27:00.000+11:00

OK, now that I have made myself appear all smart and stuff by talking about transmedia planning in my last post, I reckon it's worthwhile delving into the practicalities of all this.

In my (mostly) FMCG client side experience, I think that agencies are struggling to come up with the stock standard cohesive 360 degree/media neutral campaigns based around one idea.

I'm talking the big agencies here, not the assorted hot shops in town.

This is what usually happens....

The planner focuses on getting words right on the brief, and not much more. I'm wondering when all this interesting thinking I've been seeing over the net in the last couple of months is going to filter through to specific actions by big agency planners.

At the creative meeting a 30 second ad gets presented (with perhaps a bonus print ad). The TVC is usually the biggest spend item in the budget, so the agency is (understandably) reluctant to do the whole 360 degree planning outlook until the client signs off on that creative idea. And how often does that happen after showing the first ad?

Then when the TV is finally signed off, the comms idea gets half heartedly presented across some further channels. Some of it is good, some isn't. But it's not some integrated approach. It's ultimately force fitted around the TV ad.

I don't know whether they're harder for FMCG brands to achieve, whether agencies are giving the client what they want to see, whether it's a lack of understanding on the clients behalf about the potential of this new comms world outside a 30 second TVC. I suspect it's often a combination.

This isn't being cynical. It just generally happens this way. And some of the campaigns have been quite successful, I should add.

All based on my experience, and I'm sure there are plenty of other examples to suggest otherwise, but ultimately, I'd be happy if agencies could crack the common 360 degree comms model before they start talking about stuff like Transmedia planning.

Unless of course it's all one and the same thing.

Transmedia Planning is already being labeled as old news in the wake of the newest advertising model - Transvestite Planning.

Transmedia & Brand Communities - 1

2006-11-09T07:41:00.000+11:00

Here's a couple of random thoughts about the interesting thinking on Transmedia Planning and Brand Communities, currently taking place around the traps.

First it came from Faris at Naked, and then expanded upon by Jason at Burnetts Toronto.

Jason has mentioned a couple of examples where brands have successfully adopted this approach. Dove and Lynx/Axe being two great ones.

This is the stock standard media neutral model where one idea is expressed in different ways. Faris outlined the broad model which looks like this...

Transmedia Planning

Transmedia planning is (and I'll just quote Jason here)....

"The gist of it is that rather than using different media channels to communicate the same idea, you can use each channel to communicate different things. Everything is still tied together by the same brand strategy or narrative, but each channel does what it does best, rather than bending to fit an idea that's not really built with any particular channel in mind."

The model builds in the fact that different media is better at different things, and that people are social beings.

OK, so that's all the background. Now.....

What About FMCG?

This all makes sense for an iPod, or Playstation, or an aspirational car brand.

But I've been thinking about how the transmedia model works in relation to FMCG brands. What about toilet paper? Or laundry detergent? Or Chicken Tonight?

The key question is whether you feel a brand will sell more by engaging a brand community versus another comms approach. I was going to say 'smaller brand community' there but Dove has proved that theory wrong.

If it's agreed that it's the right approach, I think there's a way in for all brands - it's just a matter of understanding the key insights and an appreciation (and knowledge) of new media and a desire to go there.

The key is coming up with the insights which ultimately will help engage the brand community (or create one).

To quote Jason again, "perhaps Dove and Axe started by looking at what are some interesting, provocative, topical cultural issues that are linked with using those products, and played with them. So they've started by asking "what's interesting about this brand/category" rather than "what's our USP/message?" Maybe that's the way in."

Another I've heard is 'How can we spark their curiosity?'.

Russell Davies talks about listing a number of key insights rather than focussing on one proposition.

But ultimately where there's a will, and a valid reason to go there, there's a way.

I'll talk about some of the key barriers facing FMCG companies in another post. This one is already too long. For now, it's time to look at.....

Some FMCG brands giving it a red hot tilt

I've already talked about Sanitarium's Up & Go Energize targeting male youth through an integrated campaign featuring supercross star Chad Reed.

It's the same proposition against this thrillseeking, high adrenalin, motorcross loving community as it is against Gym Junkies. Yet the product has found a relevant voice amongst both targets. The only thing missing in the Chad Reed campaign is a blog.

Another one, fairly obviously, is Johnson's Baby's sponsorship and involvement in the popular BabyCenter online community.

Not so obvious is toilet paper.

Kleenex engaged the community of those with an interest in short films. In Australia we have a massive event every year called Tropfest- the world's largest short film festival. It features 16 short films (from 1000's of entries) and shown to massive open-air audiences.

Kleenex collaborated with a comedian and former Tropfest winner, Gary Eck, to create a short film featuring their new Flushable Wipes. It premiered at the Tropfest event and filtered through the Tropfest and short film community as a talking point.

The activity was also based on a solid strategic insight, as intensive quantitative research showed that 100% of these short film lovers do a poo every day.

Design my Record Profit

2006-11-09T07:35:00.000+11:00

The ANZ has come up with a nice Customer Made idea.

The idea is that you can upload a photo of your choice onto your ANZ credit card. It's called Design My Card and it seems like a good way to establish a stronger the connection between the brand and the customer. It might even attract a couple of new users.

The only question mark is the cost of $15. Last thursday, the ANZ announced record profits of $3.7 billion.

$3.7 BILLION!

Sometimes brands can get a lot of mileage out of offering something up a little unexpected. Especially like this when there's a level of emotion and engagement that works in the consumer's favour. This might have been an opportunity missed here I suspect.

You'd hate to think that 'Design My Card' could be construed by some consumers as 'Design my Record Profit'.

But then again, aren't all banks bastards?

Making Clients Less Stupid - 3

2006-11-08T07:05:00.000+11:00

As I've discovered, some agency folk think clients are stupid.

So here's another idea (alongside this one, and this one) which this agency chief might like to propose to his clients to help them better appreciate the role of creativity in driving the brand forward. Rather than banging them over the head telling them they're a bit stupid.

Why not set up a blog that can be accessed only by the agency and client. Probably not too dissimilar to The Jason Recliner.

The opportunity to make advertising for brands in my career was a really strong reason to study marketing at Uni all those years ago. It's the pointy, fun end. Most marketers just don't have that much time to devote to it once they're in the bump and grind of brand management.

But the blog might provide the stimulus to do it. I only set this blog up so I could record examples of marketing and advertising that I see. Now, everyday I'm keeping an eye out for things of interest. The marketer in me is working overtime. And it's amazing the amount I've learnt in the short time I've had the blog running.

And I've seen some pretty creative stuff that I'd wish I'd done for my brand.

So given that the best learning comes from within, the agency should get clients to start thinking about what they see as good/bad/creative/effective advertising. Because too often this conversation is a one way street.

Could be a nice little job for the agency Strat Planner.

The Hilux equivalent of Dove's 'Campaign for Real Beauty'

Yobbo-ism

2006-11-07T07:53:00.000+11:00

I've discovered another brand which has reverted to, and I'd like to apply my own Trendwatching term here....Yobbo-ism.

Yobbo-ism is the marketing act of taking a premium brand in the marketplace and tailoring it to yobbo's.

First it was Galliano. Now Lion Nathan have adopted it.

Tooheys Extra Dry has always been a more premium beer and reasonably cool. Not Asahi uber-cool, but cool enough to distinguish it from the good old staple Tooheys New.

Now they've launched Tooheys Extra Dry Platinum. It has more alcohol in it (6.5% vs 5%). But instead of making the brand cooler, it seems the message is that it just makes you drunker and more yobbo-like.

Flicking through a street press mag I came across this double page spread....

Attached to it was a plastic bag. It asks you to send in a bodily sample for DNA testing (at your own expense)....

Then you go to this rather boring site and wander around aimlessly with no sign of a brand whatseover. I know it's not meant to clunk you over the head, but at some point you want to get some brand exposure for the investment.

It all just seems like too good a brand to apply Yobbo-ism to.

Who knows - the positioning might be spot on. Lion Nathan have a bunch of serious european premium beers which they probably don't want to overlap with.

And there's probably a market for down-to-earth working types who are looking to trade up on image from VB and New but see Heineken as a wanker's beer.

But is the comms idea a good one when it's based around sending a scab through the mail? The first impression you get of the brand is pretty banal.

And it makes less sense when the last ad we all saw (and loved) for Tooheys Extra Dry was this.....

The Evil Despot

2006-11-06T23:05:00.000+11:00

There is something quite alluring about this fine bit of headline copy on todays Telegraph.

I think it's because it contains the words 'Evil Despot'.

Multimedia is the New LSD

2006-11-06T07:19:00.000+11:00

Sometimes I wonder why marketers get paid 3 times more than school teachers and all I do is make toilet water blue.

Al is a school teacher in South Australia who has introduced the world of blogging to his Year 3 and 4 students.

Al Upton and the Mini Legends is his class project. The kids all have their personal blogs, and they contribute frequently to Al's interactive blog posts throughout the year.

Al has had the passion and the foresight to base a whole learning and value system around blogs. And pretty soon this method of learning will be the rule, not the exception.

So what happens?
Students connect with each other.
They share learnings and knowledge.
They're 'making it personal'.

What does this mean?
Trendwatching talked about the Customer Made opportunity for brands some time ago, and it's a generational time bomb for brands slow on the uptake. Especially youth oriented brands. Today's kids are tomorrows big spenders (OK, they're big spenders now, just via their parents).

It means brands that embrace the philosophy of co-created goods, services and experiences will ultimately win.

This ain't new news to bloggers, but perhaps it is news to other marketers I talk to who don't know what a blog is.

Kids today are 'making it personal'. They have a need/want to share these experiences and learnings over blogs, MySpace sites, YouTube etc. It means they're operating in an environment where public give and take, often on a highly emotional level, are part and parcel of human behaviour.

In the words of Paul McCartney, "and in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make".

Only this time youth is doing it using the drug of multimedia rather than LSD.

Misc Planning Quotes 1

2006-11-05T10:01:00.000+11:00

Recorded here so I can reference them from time to time.

Thanks Richard Huntington.....

The planner's job is to devise a brand’s sales promise to the consumer and to prove the brands delivery against this promise. It is the planner’s role to be the salesperson. The planner is tasked with effectiveness.

This frees creatives up to present the promise and the proof in the most compelling way possible.

The role that creativity plays is as the media multiplier that converts £X of ad spend into £Y of effect through attention, engagement, transference of meaning, memorability and desire to disseminate. In this world the creative is tasked with efficiency – getting more effect out of limited budget.

Planners sell, creatives multiply.

Wonder Jocks

2006-11-03T08:14:00.000+11:00

With some talk in blog posts recently about winning strategies for pitches, an Australian company has come up with a secret weapon which will help agencies downunder.

The new Patriot wonderjock is the male equivalent of the Wonderbra, which super-sizes blokes packages. "It basically lifts, separates and extends," said founder Sean Ashby.

The new wonderjock is heralded as a breakthough for agencies during the pitch process. As one agency exec explained, "It helps show the client we're bigger and better in all departments".

Another remarked, "The client wants to know we'd be really excited about working on their account, and that we're not afraid to tackle the meaty issues."

Not all ad folk are convinced though. One leading Creative Director remarked, "We're an integrated through the line agency and I see the wonderjock as purely being a below the line activity".

And a report suggests that one agency is rubbing up staff the wrong way by demanding that all personnel working on the pitch process, men AND women, wear the wonderjock.

Derek could finally start wearing his socks on his feet

Action Standards Standards

2006-11-01T09:06:00.000+11:00

One man walks into a bar and talks to 5 women. He gets rejected by them all and walks home in the doldrums.

Another man walks into a bar and talks to 5 women and gets rejected by all of them. He looks at this as a positive outcome and approaches the sixth girl with confidence. He knows that with every girl he approaches the likelihood of success increases with each introduction.

If he's successful 9 out of 10 times on average, then every knockback is one step closer to success.

So what is the measure of success?

I've found that this is a critical question which has major implications on the brand strategy. For instance, some companies regard new product launches which only last a year in the trade to be raging failures. The direct competitor might define these as a success.

I've worked in an FMCG company where the lead times for new innovations were really long. Conversely, their competitor was swift and had the ability to introduce new lines quickly. Not all of them worked and they were deleted in a year, but they always had a new product to take it's place. And some of them were stayers.

As a result, the competitor commanded critical shelf space with the trade. They had new news to talk to their consumer about. They created power brands within segments and the new innovations were strong fits with the brand proposition, so they helped drive total brand equity. And overall, they were showing massive growth whilst the company I worked for was in concerning decline.

A lot of it was to do with the nature of that particular category, where consumers had proven over time that they were very willing to try new things. New products on the shelf were welcomed and accepted.

Interestingly, the company I worked in defined the one year launches by the competitor as being failures. Given the dynamics of the market, I argued that they were in fact incredibly successful. The business results were the ultimate proof.

This measure of success had critical consequences on the entire performance of the business.

I traced the problem back to the action standards applied by the Market Research Dept. They had one action standard (eg one top box number) in place for all products across all categories across the entire company. If the result missed by 1 (out of 100), it wasn't launched.

Each new launch was treated the same, whether it was the launch of a major new brand, or a line extension which kids would love but be tired of in 12 months time. The action standards were in no way tied to the optimal strategy for a particular market.

The solution? Brand and category strategy needs to be determined and agreed up front. When this is agreed, only then should the right research action standards be put in place. Not the other way around.

Not every new launch is going to be the new U2 or Madonna. Whilst that's what we should strive for, we live in a disposable and fast changing world, and there's often benefit in balancing these up with an Arctic Monkeys or Franz Ferdinand (only 'cos I think these guys will never have another hit).

Bert had had enough of women's rejection in bars and decided to hit back

Banks are Bastards

2006-10-31T07:17:00.000+11:00

Banks are bastards and nothing they can ever do in advertising will change that opinion.

Most advertising which is meant to make us feel better about a bank tends to have the opposite effect. The Commonwealth Bank's "Which bank is changing?" campaign two years ago springs to mind. If ever there was a campaign which made their employees look like fools, this wins it hands down.

Westpac however, have made a pretty good fist of it in their latest campaign.

In 2003, ten banks in the world signed the Equator Principles, agreeing not to fund projects that endanger the communities or the environment. Westpac was the only Australian bank to do so.

The strapline of "Every generation should live longer than the last" appears to be backed up with a wide reaching set of principles and brand assets.

I've sat in so many focus groups where the consumer talks about how they buy products which are good for the environment. It's transparent qual research talk, of course. Scan data shows products with environmentally driven propositions in the supermarket are niche products which get deleted after 12 months.

But are the times changing? Al Gore and "An Inconvenient Truth" has kick started a valid conversation about how well we seem to be treating the world like a disposable Britney Spears song.

Global warming has credibility. Brands that can help find a solution may find a larger audience.

Westpac may well have come up with a campaign which actually makes people think they're a bit less bastard-like, and that's a pretty amazing thing in the banking world.

View the ad here

Otto was satisfied he was ready for the next Woodchopping competition in town next week after an intensive training routine

Making Clients Less Stupid - 2

2006-10-30T07:03:00.000+11:00

I know quite a few people who have worked for Lisa Miles, who at one point was Marketing Director at Goodman Fielder. This was back in the day when the company was investing behind the Uncle Toby's brand and putting a really cohesive communication strategy in place that sold products but continued to deposit into the Uncle Toby's 'brand equity bank'.

These marketers felt that Lisa really understood marketing, brand strategy and creative. Not only that, she invested a lot of time with her team to help them become better thinkers.

One simple exercise she did was to sit down with a couple of her marketers, look at other brand advertising and discuss it. What was the insight? What is the ad trying to say? How powerfully do you think the ad is working? What could make it better? How does it stack up creatively? And so on.

Marketers become obsessed with their own world. They think people give a damn about the new seasoning they're about to launch. So sometimes it's good to look at how advertising is working outside of the company walls.

The point is.....marketing teams become better marketers and better at dealing with creative solutions when they're exposed to it and taught it. So when it's driven down from the Marketing Director (or maybe even the agency), the marketing team is going to be better equipped at evaluating advertising and media solutions. Including the more creative ones.

Top down teaching on the client side helps agencies sell more creative ideas.

Should agencies consider putting together some kind of ad/brand discussion toolkit that the Marketing Director can take and use with their team?

PS I don't think clients are stupid, but I think this man does.

The team agreed that the new Radiant ad was built around two key insights

Not Invented Here Syndrome?

2006-10-27T07:17:00.001+10:00

What I thought was a one off tactical campaign for Guinness actually goes well beyond that. It looks like they've really thought about this for some time and think it's strategically sound. I just think it's a lame campaign.

When there's such a strong and ownable story in 'Good things come to those who wait', why go with a campaign which could be for any old beer brand?

Are the Australian marketers on Guinness suffering from the NIHS (Not Invented Here Syndrome)?

It's beer. Special beer. From Ireland. It's traditional. It's cool. It's almost mystical. It's poured.....you wait. It's something.

Whatever it is, surely the magic in this brand doesn't revolve around bad sporting puns.

Like this....

or this.....

or this.....

But the magic quite possibly exists in something like this (which I haven't seen run in this country)......

Oh well, at least someone in Australia has adopted the 'Waiting for Guinness' approach.

A Gut Full of Business

2006-10-26T08:15:00.000+10:00

I'm thinking of smuggling one of these secret beer belly's into the next finance meeting.

It must be good. Crikey, look at how damn happy that bloke is!

With each passing sip, Ernie felt more comfortable about his new launch of Edible Mobile Phones.

Making Clients Less Stupid - 1

2006-10-26T08:11:00.000+10:00

Some people in advertising think clients are stupid.

Clearly that's rubbish, but I think there is an opportunity to help some clients better understand the role of creativity.

So what can agencies do to help clients feel more comfortable about creative ideas?

How can agencies encourage clients to write better briefs which open up the door to better creative solutions?

Here's one idea to start with (with a few more to come). There's no doubt lots more and I'd welcome any ideas.

AWARD School for Clients
Award School (Australasian Writers and Art Directors Association) is a 12 week course about ideas, creative thinking and the processes involved in coming up with great ideas (and ultimately great ads). It's primarily aimed at people wanting to be art directors and copywriters in the ad industry. Anyone can apply.

Lecturers from the ad industry talk every week about how to spark ideas, or great creative within a particular medium, or some other creative principle.

Groups of students are also allocated to agencies, where students work on a brief evey week. These are evaluated (quite ruthlessly!) by agency creative teams.

I did it four years ago when I was a Marketing Manger. It was one of the best pieces of training I have ever done in my career. The key benefit was that it taught me how to write simpler, clearer, more powerful briefs.

It also exposed me to creative ideas across all mediums. It helped me understand what the creative team has to go through. It helped me appreciate the power of a creative idea.

Whilst some marketers might always revert back to the comfort of a formula ad, it can only help when marketers better understand creativity and embrace it, so they can at least make a balanced decision when it's time to approve creative.

Now that I've written this and searched for the Award link for this post, I see that there actually is an Award for Clients! Great news.

What might make it even better is to replicate the AWARD School course designed for future creatives. Make it an 8 or 12 week commitment. That's probably unrealistic, but even a 4 week commitment would be more beneficial than another 2 day training course.

If clients don't know about it (like I didn't), it might be worth a mention.

Advertising approved by someone who didn't do Award School

Borat and 57 Varieties

2006-10-25T07:53:00.000+10:00

I recently wrote a post about how FMCG marketing is getting harder due to excess innovation and private label growth.

Rather than being a barrier, I think this represents a fantastic opportunity for marketers to ensure consumers connect emotionally with their brand. And do it better than their competitors.

I'm combining a couple of things from some interesting blogs around the traps. Firstly a comment from Ben Mason's blog, summarising an APG gig in the UK....

Greg Nugent of Eurostar said that FMCG goods are not moving half as fast as consumers and quoted, 'I'm feeling 57 varieties of I don't give a fuck.'

Secondly is a clip from Doug's Planning for Fun, which features Borat and some cheese. Say no more......

The Flat Packed Freedom Fighter

2006-10-24T08:02:00.000+10:00

Someone has taken the observation that little kids enjoy playing with the box more than the toy and then made something which, like McDonalds, appeals to our inner child.

Although unlike McDonalds, it won't give you Type 2 diabetes.

I came across this thing called Cardboy. I took me a while to work out what it was, but it's basically a cool collectable cardboard crimefighting art toy where the cardboard packaging is an integral part of his body.

The web site describes it as 'The Flat Packed Freedom Fighter. Fighting Crime in Cardboard City*'

* Except when it's raining.

I had the thought the other day that some brands have the opportunity to really drive a point of brand differentiaion with their packaging.

One of the latest Cardboy offerings is a sneaker series. I reckon this would be pretty cool to buy a new pair of runners, and then when you take the shoes out, you can turn the sneaker box into a Cardboy.

Real World Ad Testing

2006-10-22T14:34:00.000+10:00

Just a random What If moment......

What if a company said to it's agency that it wants to make lots of ads?

Perhaps in the past, the company has worked on making one ad a year which cost $400k on production and $100k on pre-testing. That's $500k spent before the ad's gone on air, and it better damn work otherwise they'll never get their bonus.

Now the company says it wants ads which cost $50k to make. Lots of them. And test market them. And over time build up a bank of ads which work which can be run all around the country.

Let's say you made an a TV for $50k. You ran 600 TARPS in Adelaide over 4 weeks. This might cost another $50k or so. You measured scan data (2-3 week lag), and did some on-line brand tracking research (costs you would incur anyway).

Within 8 weeks you'll know pretty quickly what the ad did for your brand and it's sales. All for about the same cost as a Link test.

You might do something similar in Perth. And Brisbane.

Over time, you'll have a nice bank of ads, backed up with a robust understanding of how each of them works.

The contentious issue of ad testing is replaced with actual in market testing. The key challenge is the agency needs to come to the party and deliver strong creative on small budgets, and on a regular basis.

The upside is that they can sell more creative ideas more readily, because the risk suddenly becomes a lot less.

This approach won't work for all products, but it might work for some, especially those where the product offering doesn't change over time. Insurance firms, soft drinks, wine etc.

The creative teams were thrilled at the new "make an ad for $50k" policy

Coke's Cold Comfort

2006-10-20T13:20:00.000+10:00

Coke invest a lot of money supplying fridges to customers in the route trade. But over time they have the problem of keeping the competition out of their fridges.

This is a nice little visual device which at least gives Coke some ownership and provides a bit of last minute advertising before the brand choice.

You wonder what other brands could look at a unique and innovative pack shape that's different to the rest of the category which they could take ownership of over time. Cigarettes? Tomato sauces? Shoe boxes? Milk? Politics? (Kim Beazley gave it a go and failed but has since relaunched)

Kim Beazley's new Super-Sized pack shape. Free toddler with every purchase.