Feeling Viral?

This month I wrote a piece for AdNotes about a viral ad for Coke that I felt just didn't seem 'viral' ... or good. The editor of Mumbrella got wind of it and they've been running it for a few days.

So why not pop over there and have a look?

http://mumbrella.com.au/cokes-phoney-happiness-machine-is-a-fail-for-me-16813#comments

One of the fun things about Mumbrella is that the readers are a pretty vocal bunch and contributers have to have pretty thick skin. So far I've been accused of as being silly, wrong, a hypocrite and a user of crack!

No worse than some creative presentations then.

Cardboard Marketing

I’ve just come back from a terrific Christmas holiday in New Zealand. My family and I drove all over the North Island, the less glamorous and more practical sister to the South Island.

Our final night was in windy Wellington and the family voted me as official pizza collection and delivery guy.

I had noticed a Pizza shop near our hotel. Or rather I had noticed a woman leaving the shop carrying a huge pizza box. The really massive ones they have in American movies and sitcoms. The ones big enough for the whole cast of Friends to munch on. The giant box had stuck in my head. I’d never seen one so big in real life.

I found the store pretty easily. It was called Wholly Pizza and specialized in thin crust, simple topping, large New York style pizzas. I chose a modest 14 inch size, rather than the 20 inch New York-size. And as it baked, I chatted with the owner, an ex-marketer of all things.

When it was ready my new friend slipped the 14 inch pizza into the giant 20 inch box. We only have one size of box, he told me. Strange, I thought.

So I made my way back to the hotel … in the wind … with a 20 inch pizza box. Of course it flapped around a bit. And being 20 inches wide I had to step out on the road just to get around groups of people on the footpath.

Every time I did someone would comment. Did I have enough to eat? Did I need a hand eating all that pizza? And so on.
Then, when I arrived at the hotel lift, a party of four was just ahead of me. Again with the jokes. ‘You’ll need a whole lift for that baby’. Although this turned out to be no joke. I had to let them go ahead without me. There was just not enough room for them, me and my gigantic pizza box.

As I entered the hotel room my wife and kids were surprised by the big box and I had to explain that there was a smaller pizza within.

We ate it and it was delicious.

But as I chewed I started thinking about the marketing implications of what just happened. In the space of a few minutes three or four groups of people (other than me the purchaser) had been touched by the Wholly Pizza brand. And I had originally gone there because I saw someone else with a big box.

Clever marketing communication is nearly always about ‘zigging’ when others ’zag’. But your zag doesn’t have to be complex or expensive or high tech. It can be as simple as a piece of folded cardboard.

Exciting new media. Same old laws.

If AdNotes were a child it would be starting school next year. Or put another way, we have just turned five. (Gifts gratefully accepted by AdNotes’ Dad, Tony)

In 60 issues of AdNotes, I’ve never given legal advice … until now.

But, as often happens, several related events enter my radar space at around the same time and I am compelled to glue them together to make a point.

Those several things are in order:

1. A video uploaded to YouTube by ad agency Leo Burnett, showing an internal creative exercise, had to be quickly taken down because it used music without permission or payment.

Shouldn’t a traditional agency know about music copyright?

2. Online media publication, Mumbrella reported that, “ “Ideas agency” Tongue, which recently rebranded from Ikon spin-off New Dialogue, has been forced to pay $22,000 to the communications regulator and make a legally enforceable undertaking about its future conduct after arranging for spam mobile messages to be sent on behalf of client Coca Cola.”

Shouldn’t a digital agency know about spam?

3. An article by Julian Lee, marketing editor of the Sydney Morning Herald, quotes Mathew Liu of YouTube as saying, “We hope that over time our advertisers will blur the lines between advertising and editorial.”

Didn’t John Laws and Alan Jones get into hot water over this?

Julien goes on to quote Freehills Legal firm partner Sue Gilchrist. “Advertisiers are going to have to be very careful in this space, as the fact that they have planted an ad and it is not made apparent [to viewers], in itself, could be seen as a contravention of the Trade Practices Act.”

That means that even viral films (created as marketing) that are not ‘addy’ enough may be in breach of the code!
So while the digital sphere is incredibly exciting for marketers and their suppliers, it cannot remain a legal cowboy town forever.

The basics still apply.
- Music (or images) used publicly must be paid for.
- You can’t spam.
- An ad has to obviously be an ad.

Kids creating mashups may get away with it. But don’t think the old rules don’t apply in cyberspace, especially if you represent a large company.

PS. Some further spam advice:
http://blog.publicisdigital.com.au/2009/11/16/3-golden-rules-of-smsmms-marketing/

AdNotes is brought to you by Tony Richardson Advertising and our branded product, TacticalTV - absolutely free! (You are welcome to pass AdNotes on to your friends and colleagues.) We are specialists in creating and producing Tactical TV, Print, Design and Radio advertising. We believe that clever cost solutions are a big part of clever creative advertising. Maybe that’s why some of the biggest marketers in the world have used our small agency! To find out more visit TacticalTV.com.au or TonyRichardson.com.au or leave comments and view back issues at our blog adnotes-tony.blogspot.com Or call us on (02) 9929 0588

A matter of Trust

An exercise that ends with more than three quarters of your consumers calling you a liar is probably not good business. The votes are in on the Vegemite iSnack incident, suggesting that democracy and marketing might not always mix.

Never before has an Australian brand been subjected so thoroughly to the will of the people. And possibly, never again will a marketer throw his or her brand (and career) so carelessly to the mob for appraisal.

You know the story but lets look quickly at the numbers.

48,000 suggested names were entered into the ‘give this stuff a name‘ contest. The winner, iSnack 2.0 lasted 4 days before being dumped by Kraft.

30,357 people then responded to a short list of alternative names. 10,928 agreed on an OK alternative, CheesyBite. But nearly as many disliked ALL the choices offered.

So the cheesy vegemitey substance now has a name that a substantial minority don’t hate.But a stat that really shook me was found by a crowd called BCM. Their online survey of 1250 people found that 77% thought the whole iSnack thing was a “carefully crafted media stunt”. Most TV, radio, print and online media commentators seemed to agree.

This, despite Kraft spokesman, Simon Talbot claiming, “At no point in time has the new Vegemite name been about initiating a media publicity stunt…The new name has simply not resonated with Australians. Particularly the modern technical aspects associated with it.”

Have Australian consumers become so used to stunt marketing that they now see hoaxes and tricks where none exist? Do they expect the custodians of trusted brands to mess with their heads as a way of selling product?

A stuff-up is one thing. God knows, we all make mistakes. But to essentially be called liars by three quarters of your consumers is incredibly concerning, I would have thought.

Kraft’s good-natured naming experiment has highlighted a very worrying development. And that’s that our consumers no longer trust us. They are not only prepared for trickery and sleight of hand, they expect it.

Marketers, creatives, account service and channel planners will have to think differently in the future. We will have to factor in the possibility of very public consumer backlash and distrust to any communication we create from now on.

AdNotes is brought to you by Tony Richardson Advertising and our branded product, TacticalTV - absolutely free! (You are welcome to pass AdNotes on to your friends and colleagues.) We are specialists in creating and producing Tactical TV, Print, Design and Radio advertising. We believe that clever cost solutions are a big part of clever creative advertising. Maybe that’s why some of the biggest marketers in the world have used our small agency! To find out more visit TacticalTV.com.au or TonyRichardson.com.au or leave comments and view back issues at our blog adnotes-tony.blogspot.com Or call us on (02) 9929 0588

iSnack 2.0 - Fiasco or clever marketing ploy?

Does 'iSnack 2.0' ring a warning bell for marketers, about the pitfalls of consumer engagement?

I think it does, so I wrote a piece exclusively for Crikey.

Pop over there for the full catastrophe.

http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/10/05/is-isnack-2-0-a-marketing-success/

Not more ideas!

- I recently discovered a firm that will, if supplied with a brief, provide a client with 100 ideas … overnight! They use Twitter to contact hundreds of ‘ideas people’ internationally.

- Creative agencies now provide media ideas as well as creative ideas. Media agencies now provide creative ideas as well as media ideas.

- Large supermarket retailers have in-house creative departments that can provide ideas and advertising for their supplier’s brands, rather than the other way around.

Marketers have more access to ideas than ever before. Everyone now seems to be providing ideas. As a creative person I’ve been raised to believe that the more ideas on the table the better.

But now I’m beginning to wonder.

Take Nandos Chicken. They’ve tried every bizarre idea you can think of. They had a stripping Mother wearing a Nandos Nicotine patch on TV.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxsjhREHH3M&feature=related

They’ve created a radio ‘satire’ of Clare Werbeloff, the Chk Chk Boom girl.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJ-pt95BNZU&feature=related

They’ve even got into the latest craze of creating a disruptive PR stunt, that disrupted the king of disruptive PR stunts: Sacha Baron Cohen’s, Bruno.

(The raw footage has been removed from YouTube but you can see some of the news coverage at the following link)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIUlpkPKGvA

Some are funnier than others - I quite like the stripping Mum spot for some reason. But what story do they tell? What problem do they solve? What brand image do they build? What, as a consumer, am I supposed to think of the brand?

I honestly can’t tell. In Nandos I see dozens of random ideas and not a single brand message.

Possible taglines like, “We’re a little bit different”, “Unexpectedly delicious chicken” or even “We’re not for everyone” would tie the zaniness together. But we don’t get any help at all.

A visit to the website makes you think your dealing with a different brand altogether. It shows a low tech, hand drawn, food focussed, ethnic style brand. Nothing like the TV, radio and PR communication. I’m even more confused now!

http://www.nandos.com.au/

Many other brands are excitedly experimenting with channels, executions and ideas. Which is fantastic … as long as each piece of communication supports and builds on a consistent brand message. The beer people are particularly good at experimentation without losing sight of the message and target consumer.

When consumers are forced to re-evaluate a brand every time they see a new piece of communication, they just don’t bother.

Potential consumers of Nandos know the brand exists, and sells chicken. But they have no idea what it stands for and therefore why they should consider it.

When it comes to brand communication, dozens of random ideas won’t help you, one correct one will.

AdNotes is brought to you by Tony Richardson Advertising and our branded product, TacticalTV - absolutely free! (You are welcome to pass AdNotes on to your friends and colleagues.) We are specialists in creating and producing Tactical TV, Print, Design and Radio advertising. We believe that clever cost solutions are a big part of clever creative advertising. Maybe that’s why some of the biggest marketers in the world have used our small agency! To find out more visit TacticalTV.com.au orTonyRichardson.com.au or leave comments and view back issues at our blog adnotes-tony.blogspot.com Or call us on (02) 9929 0588

History of the Australian Web

If you have 30 seconds check out this wonderful site. One of the best graphic interpretations of boring old numbers I've seen in years.

http://avant.interactionconsortium.com/australian_internet/#