Jacket fiasco update

STOP PRESS

Just today Naked released research findings on the effects of their campaign
(All comments about 'protesting too much' to be sent to Mr Shakespeare).

I'll let you read the full SMH story. http://www.businessday.com.au/business/fake-heidi-a-real-success-agency-20090128-7ryb.html

But one figure caught my eye. Naked and Witchery maintain that the campaign has been a roaring success with the consumer, with "only a quarter saying they had lost respect for the brand".

Pardon?

25% of consumers losing respect for your brand is a good thing? If Witchery gave me the account I bet I could lose the respect of only 10% of consumers. Spare me!!!

The jacket that blew up in the client's face

How would you like your brand name mentioned on most TV news programs and News Papers across the country for several days in a row? How would you like your brand to be discussed at BBQs on Australia day? And how would you like all this coverage without spending a cent on expensive TV media placement?

A Marketing Director’s dream come true, right? Well in the case of Witchery the dream that started out so wonderfully soon turned into a rather messy marketing nightmare: the one where you go to work with no pants on.

Rather than loosing his pants, a male Cinderella leaves his jacket behind. A pretty young woman, Heidi, in an impossibly neat almost art directed bedroom, posts a YouTube search for her man.

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=zQybOsM-7Qw&feature=relate

It’s a great idea based not only on a human truth but a fairy tale that is burnt into most English speakers minds. Brilliant.

But there’s an evil stepmother waiting in the wings of this story.

The various journalists, who had been ‘seeded’ with the story, understandably had some questions. (You didn’t think that viral campaigns went viral without lots of help, did you?)

They soon found Heidi, real name Lilly, who claimed the story was 100% authentic. They found that jacket was a Witchery one and that Lilly/Heidi had modelled for Witchery in the past. They then found Witchery’s Agency, Naked, who present themselves as anything but an Ad Agency, but are in fact ... an Ad Agency. Senior Naked executives claimed a surprising ignorance of the whole affair.

The story completely unravelled in a few short days.

THEN another YouTube video was released allowing Heidi/Lilly to confess all on behalf of her employers … and to do a little retail spruiking while she was at it.

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=lciYV9Fks-o&feature=related

Adam Ferrier is planning partner at Naked and he is quoted in B&T as saying, “We are very pleased with the start to the campaign – it has got people talking. No one I have spoken to has felt deceived. Everyone seems to be outraged, but they are not upset about it personally. It’s a playful campaign that creates a sense of intrigue. The word deception implies an element of harm. This campaign hasn’t harmed anyone, not even close.”

In 1974 then President Nixon is reported to have said, “It’s the lie that gets you.” That is, wrong actions are often forgiven, but deception just makes things worse.

I believe that is what’s happened here.

I’m sure (or I hope) there was a plan to eventually come clean and roll into the next stage of the campaign. But the fakery seems to have been tumbled much earlier than hoped. The agency and client seem to have variously panicked, hidden, taken a holiday, been untruthful, told us that being untruthful is OK if no one is harmed, and created a ‘come clean’ video after being sprung! At best they were off message. At worst they created an utter shambles.
What can we learn here? Several things.

- Consumers do not like being lied to, even if they are not being harmed. This campaign has variously been described in the non-advertising press as a hoax, a scam and a fraud.

- Too many industry players are disconnected from the real world. If Ferrier really knows no one who felt deceived, he needs to get out more. The builders, accountants, IT people, HR people, and teachers that I discussed this with feel VERY deceived.

- Any publicity is NOT good publicity. Naked has damaged Witchery’s brand image. Naked doesn’t look too smart either.

- Clients need to remember that Viral Campaigns are NOT free TV campaigns. They are 90% PR and 10% creative/production. Such a high level of PR means a loss of some control.

- Viral campaigns need to be planned EVEN MORE than traditional media. Undesirable outcomes as well as the desired one, need to be considered and prepared for. In this case a great idea has blown up in the faces of all concerned mainly because they had no plan for the direction it took.

After this brief but exciting part of the Witchery campaign I feel like we’ve all learned a lot about the still new channel of Viral + YouTube.

Will consumers and clients ever trust Witchery or Naked again? That I’m not so sure of.


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Are you paying too much for creative work?

Strong creative communications and advertising ideas are immensely valuable marketing tools. But what are they worth? How do you know that you are paying a fair price for something as ephemeral as an idea?

Let’s go to my kitchen to find out.

My kitchen mixer (or tap or faucet) had died and begun to leak all over the place. So I bought a new mixer and started the job of removing the old one. It soon became clear that the old mixer was held in by a single rusted bolt that didn’t want to budge. The job was a bit beyond me so I called a plumbing company.

He arrived, took a quick look and flipped open the price book. My eyes nearly fell out of their sockets when I saw the figure of $508. This is to install a kitchen mixer that I had already bought, mind you. The guy was an employee and the price was not negotiable.

I politely said, ‘No thanks, I’ll get a friend to help me get it sorted somehow.’
The plumber then offered to do the job for the company hourly rate: the hourly rate being $250. You may not be too surprised to hear that this was still too rich for my blood.

As I thanked him and showed him the door, the plumber then offered to do the job for $100 cash. Now he was talking sense! ‘You bet’, I replied. $100 is about what I had expected before he came.

The new mixer was installed in 10 minutes.

How does this relate to creative pricing?

Here’s how. Each of the prices quoted to me came with a bundle of advantages.

- The original $508 was fixed and known. This is very similar to paying a communications agency a monthly retainer. The costs are high but you know where you stand upfront. This method is good if you haven’t got a clue about what’s involved in the job.

- The hourly rate of $250 was half the fixed price. The risk I took was that the job would drag on. This is the same risk a marketer takes when they pay an agency by the hour. Where does it end? Is there any benefit in the supplier working quickly?

- The final figure of $100 was what I had in mind from the start. In the same way a marketer who states a price as part of their brief seldom gets cost blowouts.

But the really important parallel between my kitchen and your marketing communications is this:
The very same job can cost you up to 500% more!

- It will cost you more if you are unaware of the process. Acquaint yourself with the costs of similar jobs done in the past.

- It will cost you more if you want all the bells and whistles. Agencies with nice furniture, water views, free lunches, lots of staff: who pays for all this stuff? You.

- It will cost you more if you don’t set a realistic budget as part of the brief. Good creative suppliers will work to your stated budget.

So by following the tips above, you’ll get what you want for the cost you want.

Now, I’m going to have a chat to my kids about a future career in plumbing.

Let's get sensible about marketing communications in Australia in 2009

I’ve been speaking to quite a few marketing directors recently. Some are new to their roles and some are old hands who have worked through several recessions before. Their brands range from snack food to finance. The consensus in two words is DON’T PANIC.

It only FEELS bad. Did you know that the average Australian is $700 better off than they were six months ago? That’s the same as an $8400, tax free, annual pay increase!

Petrol prices are dropping and mortgage rates are heading towards levels not seen since 1964. Do you remember 1964? I don’t.

But consumers FEEL anxious. Their super is worth half what it was a year ago. They are bombarded with doom and gloom news coverage from the US. And now there is the new possibility of losing their job.

So it’s not all bad. But consumers, like ‘the market’, hate uncertainty. The old cliché, ‘Perception is reality’ is truer than ever.

Smart marketers are adjusting their communications accordingly.

One example is the finance industry. A year ago the message was all, ‘Buy it on your credit card, you deserve it.’ Now the message is ‘Buy it on your charge card, that’s the sensible thing to do.’ Notice the message is still encouraging purchase. It’s just couched in a different way: the sensible way.

Similarly Holden started to run the line, ‘Times are tough. Holden is tougher.’ GM Holden recognised the economic climate but then perhaps predictably talked about themselves instead of their consumer. It was later changed to the slightly clunky, ‘Times are tough but Australians and Holden are tougher.’

Holden is now positioned as the sensible choice. A year ago every vehicle from small hatch to station wagon was a sports car.

Many FMCG brands are talking ‘value’. Small indulgences such as chips and chocolates can be justified if they are of good quality. Food, household and personal care brands are all about quality for less. Look out for more advertising that balances a slightly higher cost with, in the case of laundry detergent, more washes per pack.

Australian consumers still have money. They just need to be reassured that they are not wasting it.

Here’s the three step plan to marketing communications in slow economic times:

1. Don’t panic

2. Don’t do nothing.

3. Communicate quality+value, and sensible purchasing decisions.

If you have a creative advertising problem call Tony Richardson on (02) 9929 0588 or visit Tony Richardson Advertising or TacticalTV.com.au

You are welcome to reprint any AdNotes article on your website and in your e-newsletters for FREE. All I ask is that you attribute me, Tony Richardson and include a link to http://www.TonyRichardson.com.au

Marketing in troubled times.

I like journalists and think they provide an essential service. BUT they do have a propensity for the dramatic. While crazy financiers have started a worldwide economic bushfire, the media are cheerfully screaming ‘Run for your lives! We’re all going to die!’ Bad news sells papers. But is the news really that bad?

Is an economic downturn really the end of the world? Or is it an opportunity to review how we worked in the past and to improve those practices for the future? I think it is.

We all know that ‘marketing’ is the first department of any company to have its budget slashed in economic slowdowns. It’s an easy way for the bean counters to save money. But of course reducing marketing exposure leads to reduced revenue and the prophecy of doom is self-fulfilled.

Short of holding a gun to the CFO’s head, we must live with the fact that budgets will be tightened in the coming year or so. The question is then, “How do I maintain and grow my business with less money and fewer resources?”

The answer is that you have to work in different ways. Picking up the phone and calling ‘the agency’ is easy but it’s expensive. Here are some examples from real firms who invested a little extra time to save big money ... and they still achieved outstanding results.

1. YouTube campaign. Company A had a confectionary product that researched well and seemed like a market place winner. Traditionally it would have gone straight to TV (with the associated high media costs). Because it was ‘fun’ and targeted to ‘young people’ a YouTube campaign was devised. Production costs were kept low and media costs were $0.

Cost to the marketer – She had to really work her email database to get the viral traction the campaign needed. And she had to give up the control she would have normally had with a TV campaign.

2. Virtual Agency. Company B assembled a group of talented creatives to execute a one-off creative campaign. They paid about half what they would have done with a full service agency for the same or better minds and options.

Cost to the marketer – He had to find the right people for the job.

3. Website Renovation – Company C had an existing website that was a little out of date. Rather than tear it down and start again the marketing person employed a copywriter to revamp the copy, improve the SEO and add a few new features all within the existing structure.

Cost to the marketer – Finding the time to accurately brief the copywriter.

There are many other ways of maintaining strong marketing communications in troubled economic times. The cost can be as low as looking around for alternative suppliers.

How big are you?

In the past few weeks I’ve been asked 3 times how many people I employ. It’s a funny question really, a bit like asking how many pens I have. I guess prospects want to know if I have sufficient ‘resources’ to service their business.

If I were running a mill in the eighteenth century, numbers of worker bees would matter. But the digital revolution has changed all that. Brain-power has replaced man-power.

Choosing a creative supplier has never been easy. One way of judging a company’s success was to count heads. The bigger the better. Right? Wrong.

Take a little company I know of. Last time I heard, it had 5 full time staff and no plans to expand that number. If you met the founder, Jimmy, at a party you might think that he was a slightly nerdy guy who did things to do with computers or the internet. You’d be right.

Jimmy Wales runs Wikipedia, with only 5 full time staff. That's right. Mighty Wikipedia runs on only 5 full time staff! Sure they have thousands of eager helpers. And that's just the point. A modern company can run very well with a few full timers supported by contractors as and when needed.

Wikipedia is probably the best example of the power of outsourcing. But there are many others.

When a friend wanted a full orchestral sound and real opera singers to launch a brand of pasta sauce, did he go hunting for a building that contained just such a group of talented individuals? Of course not.

I went to Raphael May, who has a staff of one (himself) and works from a home studio. Raf hired the best opera singers and classical musicians that Australia had to offer. My mate watched in awe as a small group of musicians laid down it’s tracks and left his studio to be replaced by the next group and the next layer of sound.

Soon they had an outstanding soundtrack that was the core of a very successful TV campaign and launch.

How many staff did Raff have? One. How many did he hire for the task? Twenty or so. Were they the best professional musicians available? You bet!

A third example is Omo detergent. I ran the creative advertising business for about 18 months. We produced 4 TV campaigns and 5 print campaigns. I was alone … but I wasn’t alone. I had a line up of professionals helping me every step of the way with this multi-million dollar account. My client got very effective work for a fraction of the cost.

So when it comes to creative suppliers, maybe the question should not be the quantity of staff we have, but the quality of contacts we have.

Jimmy has thousands of contributors filing entries in Wikipedia. Rafael knows Australia’s best mussos. And I have a little black book bulging with golden phone numbers.

We all create outstanding results ... even if Friday night staff drinks are a little quiet.

Old dogs new tricks

You have the biggest software company in the world. You’re riding the wave of the most important communication revolution, since Gutenberg pinched movable type from the Chinese. Where do you advertise the brand that has become synonymous with the digital revolution?

On TV of course!

Microsoft plans to launch a campaign to counter the ‘I’m a Mac and I’m a PC” ads that have been so successful for Apple Mac (See AdNotes, June 2007).

The Microsoft work is ALSO aimed at smothering the general attitude that it’s new Vista operating system is riddled with bugs and other problems.

Who have they chosen to be the main spruiker?

Another surprise.

None other than Jerry Seinfeld. As you know, if you’ve been paying attention, I believe that Seinfeld is a genuine comic genius (See AdNotes, Jan 2007). And while his TV series was the biggest thing on TV, that WAS in the nineties! The naughties are nearly over for Pete’s sake!

None the less, Gerry’s cut of the $US300 million marketing campaign is $US10 million. Now that’s a talent fee. I wonder if he gets annual rollovers as well.

The creative agency behind the idea is Miami-based Crispin Porter + Bogusky, possibly the coolest creative shop in the world today.

The slogan is (or might be, no one is sure yet) "Windows, Not Walls" and is all about connecting and communicating with others without barriers.

Due for roll-out on September 4, I for one can’t wait to see how works.

There is some chatter that Jerry and Bill Gates will be ‘acting’ together. That should be interesting. Gerry has never pretended to be anything other than a stand up guy. And I’ve heard that Bill is a pretty stiff with scripted lines and planned banter.

The world's biggest computer software company, an 83 year old medium, and a 54-year-old comic who hasn’t been on air since 1998!

That's creativity.

Adman and author Harry Beckwith claims that good advertising IS IT'S OWN PR. In this case I think he's right. Look, I'm writing about a campaign I haven't even seen yet.

Most of us will never have a budget that could include Jerry Seinfeld. But we can all aim to create a little genuine 'buzz' by being unexpected in our advertising and marketing.

For a web news version of this story visit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFR1dvOQ0Ew