Archive for the 'Creativity' Category

Marketing spend is supposed to be the bellwether for the economy. When the economy is weak, marketing budgets are the first to go. So alarm bells rang a week or so ago when automaker Hyundai announced it might pull out of advertising on the Super Bowl. But then, thankfully I guess, they relented and decided to spend the cash anyway.

The $2.7million it costs to run a 30-second spot on this year’s Bowl sure is a lot of money to spend on a single airing when tough times are just around the corner. But, on the other hand, the SB is also about the last big advertising game in town and pretty much the only chance every year to make a big brand statement that sizable numbers of people will see, and maybe even talk about. Nowhere else is there opportunity for such a shared experience and so advertisers will spend huge bucks to be part of the water cooler conversation about it.

So Madison Ave and Wall Street breathed a joint sigh of relief when Hyundai decided to play along after all. Maybe we’re not about to dive headlong into recession after all! Maybe consumerism will save the day! Maybe we can spend our way out of this thing!

Not so fast. If past recessions are anything to go by, marketing spend will take a hit as it is the least painful way to cut costs. Of course, the hope is that this might not be like past recessions. Since the last one, which began in mid 2001, spend has started to shift to media that can be better measured, so making it easier to justify marketing spend to those holding the purse strings. This time around, for instance, 7.5% of all spend is on Internet advertising, where results can be easily correlated to cost.

But, compared to the money spent on broadcast campaign, this ain’t big dough. So while digital media might not suffer as much, and might actually benefit from a stinky economy, as money is shifted into it from less measurable media, big budget brand-building campaigns that don’t translate into short-term sales almost certainly will be cut. And because these make up a much bigger part of the pie the overall pie will get smaller. And a smaller pie, even when covered with whipped cream, just isn’t as satisfying.

The good thing about recessions of course, is that tighter budgets force smarter thinking and favor brave marketing based on creative approaches.

So, to end on a positive note I say pie be damned! Bring it on. Let’s think, not spend, our way out of this recession.

Okay Punk Marketing Legion, since my last post was so looooooong, I’m going to keep this one short. I wanted to share something I came across while trolling the InterWhatever. Cooked up by German agency Jung von Matt/next, it’s somewhere between a bill board, a graffiti mural, and a really GINORMOUS video game:

Hamburg-based funny-named agency Jung von Matt/next unveiled a graffiti wall with embedded interactive qualities. (So much better than those silly walls that shout out to you in the U.S.)

Billed Nextwall, the 30m-long unit features embedded Semacodes. Snapping a pic of a Semacode with a cameraphone unlocks hidden videos, mobile wallpaper and social features, like the ability to write to friends on the wall’s “digital pinboard.”

Passersby can also download an info guide on the wall via Bluetooth. Anyone that snaps a photo of one of the wall’s characters can use it as a coupon in nearby shops.

After reading this, I got so excited (ooh!) about multitudinous possibilities for mobile marketing.

Can you imagine a scavenger hunt-type game played across a whole city (or a country) with these things?!

Graffiti laden or not, the newest interactive billboards offer wild ideas that will keep intrepid Punk marketers awake at nights. Go get ‘em.

As I rush off to India for my first tour of Bollywood, I thnk to pay attention to Julian Myer’s comments to Variety last Friday (“Myers fears Hollywood’s end is near”):

Longtime Hollywood publicist Julian Myers will turn 90 soon. And he worries the end may be near … for his beloved town.

Myers frets that the WGA stalemate — with all of its acrimony, vitriol ,and job losses — is a harbinger of ill things for the industry.

“The strike impasse is speeding the end of Hollywood filmmaking and television production,” said he.

Notice Myers qualifies his statement with the word HOLLYWOOD because film and video production are no longer geographically anchored to that festering freak show.

However, while we certainly agree with his sentiment that much volatile change is afoot, we wouldn’t go so far with the doomsaying Mr. Myers portrays. Though the colossal days of Hollywood largesse are waning, rest assured the studio system of today isn’t going anywhere. There will always be power players, but maybe this strike will have done some good.

In fact, why do Myers’ comments strike such a chord with the Punk Marketing crowd?

His statement is illustrative of the way the wind is blowing, highlighting the fact that media content models are shifting. But all of this could leave the uninitiated scratching their heads asking “Golly, what’s next?”

It’s a pretty easy question to answer if…

…you’ve read Punk Marketing (especially Chapters 10 & 11!).

…you were one of the 13 MILLION people who watched that “Chocolate Rain” video, composed and performed by 25-year-old singer/songwriter Tay Zonday.

…you work for Dr. Pepper’s marketing team and were smart enough to pay Tay to do a branded content video for Pepper’s line of Cherry Chocolate soda.

You may have already seen the “Rain” when it was posted on YouTube back in November, along with the gazillions who started sending it to friends, but if not—loser—you can check it out here.

It’s a kick ass example of how an independent artist (quote unquote) can benefit from a new content model and oddly cash-in on the power of 2.0! And how companies CAN use branded content for marketing to insinuate themselves into a mix without being too damn heavy-handed.

So if it works for marketing, why not TV shows and movies? It’s only a matter of time before major production dudes begin seriously engaging and recruiting straight from the ranks of DIY artisans just now relegated to the wilds of YouTube and the very large Web.

In fact it’s already happening. Peep into what Jenna Wortham posted on Wired’s Underwire blog last Tuesday, “From YouTube to the BoobTube: a Parody of The Office Gets a Movie Deal:”

A group of YouTubers hit it big when their mash-up vid got picked up for small-screen distribution. 305, due out on DVD this Spring, will be a Spinal Tap-style mockumentary, following the adventures of a group of Spartans.

So there you have it. Need clearer?

Myer’s was right in one respect: ‘an end’ is near in a manner of speaking: but it’s the end of the beginning, not the beginning per se.

No writers strike, no stalemate, no real Hollywood—it’s all just gravy for everyone!

Or maybe curry.

As I rush off to India for my first tour of Bollywood, I thnk to pay attention to Julian Myer’s comments to Variety last Friday (“Myers fears Hollywood’s end is near”):

Longtime Hollywood publicist Julian Myers will turn 90 soon. And he worries the end may be near … for his beloved town.

Myers frets that the WGA stalemate — with all of its acrimony, vitriol ,and job losses — is a harbinger of ill things for the industry.

“The strike impasse is speeding the end of Hollywood filmmaking and television production,” said he.

Notice Myers qualifies his statement with the word HOLLYWOOD because film and video production are no longer geographically anchored to that festering freak show.

However, while we certainly agree with his sentiment that much volatile change is afoot, we wouldn’t go so far with the doomsaying Mr. Myers portrays. Though the colossal days of Hollywood largesse are waning, rest assured the studio system of today isn’t going anywhere. There will always be power players, but maybe this strike will have done some good.

In fact, why do Myers’ comments strike such a chord with the Punk Marketing crowd?

His statement is illustrative of the way the wind is blowing, highlighting the fact that media content models are shifting. But all of this could leave the uninitiated scratching their heads asking “Golly, what’s next?”

It’s a pretty easy question to answer if…

…you’ve read Punk Marketing (especially Chapters 10 & 11!).

…you were one of the 13 MILLION people who watched that “Chocolate Rain” video, composed and performed by 25-year-old singer/songwriter Tay Zonday.

…you work for Dr. Pepper’s marketing team and were smart enough to pay Tay to do a branded content video for Pepper’s line of Cherry Chocolate soda.

You may have already seen the “Rain” when it was posted on YouTube back in November, along with the gazillions who started sending it to friends, but if not—loser—you can check it out here.

It’s a kick ass example of how an independent artist (quote unquote) can benefit from a new content model and oddly cash-in on the power of 2.0! And how companies CAN use branded content for marketing to insinuate themselves into a mix without being too damn heavy-handed.

So if it works for marketing, why not TV shows and movies? It’s only a matter of time before major production dudes begin seriously engaging and recruiting straight from the ranks of DIY artisans just now relegated to the wilds of YouTube and the very large Web.

In fact it’s already happening. Peep into what Jenna Wortham posted on Wired’s Underwire blog last Tuesday, “From YouTube to the BoobTube: a Parody of The Office Gets a Movie Deal:”

A group of YouTubers hit it big when their mash-up vid got picked up for small-screen distribution. 305, due out on DVD this Spring, will be a Spinal Tap-style mockumentary, following the adventures of a group of Spartans.

So there you have it. Need clearer?

Myer’s was right in one respect: ‘an end’ is near in a manner of speaking: but it’s the end of the beginning, not the beginning per se.

No writers strike, no stalemate, no real Hollywood—it’s all just gravy for everyone!

Or maybe curry.

In 1985 Coca-Cola launched New Coke to replace the original version, which had been losing market share to arch-rival Pepsi for some time.

The Coca-Cola Company’s research had showed consistently in blind taste tests that Pepsi was preferred over Coke because of its sweeter formulation and they came to the, completely logical, conclusion that if they were to reformulate the product to taste sweeter, the decline in market share would be stopped. They tried a number of new product formulas and eventually hit upon one that beat Pepsi hands down in those all-important taste tests.

On April 19 2005 the company let the media know that it would be making a major announcement on April 23 regarding its product, and Pepsi correctly guessed it would be a change in the formulation of its flagship product. Then director of Pepsico’s North American operations, Roger Enrico, gleefully took a full-page ad out ion the New York Times declaring they had won the cola wars. Neh neh ne-neh neh.

On April 23 Coke made the predicted announcement that they would be replacing old Coke with New Coke. Shares in the company went up. Then the consumer backlash started. Pesky people, those consumers. Within a few short weeks a vocal minority, who didn’t want the product they had grown up with to change, became, well, more vocal. And soon Coke headquarters was being flooded with hundreds and thousands of angry letters. Even Fidel Castro, a longtime Coke drinker, declared New Coke to be a sign of American capitalist decadence.

The protests from consumers and bottlers got too much for Coke and in July 1985 it announced its decision to revert to its original formulation, which eventually became known as Coke Classic. By the end of 1985 Coke Classic was outselling both New Coke and Pepsi. Sergio Zyman, head of marketing at Coke during that time (and still in the job when I was working there), later said: “Yes it infuriated the public, cost a ton of money and lasted only 77 days before we reintroduced Coca-Cola Classic. Still, New Coke was a success because it revitalized the brand and reattached the public to Coke.”

In other words, absence makes the heart grow fonder.

Crispin Porter + Bogusky’s have taken a leaf out of Coke’s play book for their “Whopper Freak Out” campaign for Burger King. TV commercials and an 8-minute web film show what happens when customers in a Nevada Burger King are told that the Whopper is off the menu. The web film goes further, showing reactions from customers when, instead of being served the Whoppers they have ordered, they are given products from McDonald’s and Wendy’s.

Research from IAG Research, revealed in Ad Age today, indicate that the “Freakout” spots are among the most highly recalled ever, ever, EVER.

It’s a brilliant campaign.

I love the fact they used what happened to Coke in 1985 to create a whopper of an idea, demonstrating in the most entertaining way possible how BK customers really feel about their Whoppers (if you see what I mean).

Here’s the secret formula they used for the campaign:

Great insight derived from marketing history + big idea executed well + understanding of the media = holy grail.