Worn out words

A few months ago I railed against clichés (the story was picked up by the marketing section of The Australian newspaper. Mention in the ‘real’ media! Quite a proud moment for AdNotes).

Little did I know a federal election was around the corner (oops a cliché!) It’s been an opportunity for both sides of politics to join up lots of clichés and call it a campaign.

But more irritating, to me anyway, are individual words that just get used too often. These are not strictly speaking Cliches, just words that suddenly seem to appear in every sentence or conversation.

There’s one that seems to be everywhere at the moment.

This little word has seen active service for centuries and used to evoke images of knights in armour battling dragons.

But recently it has evolved into a monster itself: a kind of irradiated moth from a sixties Japanese movie.

News-readers use it. Politicians use it. My 14 year old uses it. I try not to use it but it comes out anyway.

This overworked word is … challenge.

It can stand for anything from an ‘almost impossible task’ like plugging an oil leak in the US, to a ‘chore’ like peeling a potato on Masterchef.

But, I knew 'challenge' had lost all value when I picked up a flyer at St George Bank. The flyer invited me to ‘Challenge us for a better home loan deal.”

Poor ‘challenge’ now means nothing more than 'to ask’.

Like printing too many Zimbabwean dollars, overusing a word devalues it to the point where it has no worth or particular meaning.

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

Masterchef - More research for smart marketers

I've written a story for Mumbrella. It's the second instalment on MasterChef and how the show is a great piece of market research for all marketers. Click here to check it out.

More bitching about pitching

Here's some thoughts from veteran Ad man, Drayton Bird, on pitching, why it's a waste of money and what to do instead. Good advice I reckon.

http://drayton-bird-droppings.blogspot.com/2010/07/you-dont-have-to-hunt-andrew-but-you.html#disqus_thread

Making powerpoint have a point

I was asked to give a talk to a group of potential clients the other day. They reckon public speaking is a fear worse than death for many people. The thought of speaking didn’t faze me. It was the accompanying powerpoint I had to create that had me worried.

I recalled, with a shiver, a drug education presentation at my kids’ school. This wasn’t death by powerpoint, it was genocide by powerpoint.

Dozens of text heavy pages rolled on as the plastic chair dug further into my back. In desperation I started following the powerpoint page numbers … 69, 70 …blah blah blah. I couldn’t walk out. My reputation as a caring parent would be ruined … 78, 79. Finally it was over. I couldn’t wait to get home and open a bottle of wine. Ironic, eh?

It was the worst use of powerpoint I’ve ever seen and I’ve seen some stinkers. Naturally, I wanted my talk to be better than the drug one.

Most powerpoint presentations aren’t that bad, but they aren’t that good either. They’re just there: the speaker’s notes writ large and stuck on the wall. Yawn.

Then I remembered another powerpoint presentation that couldn’t have been more different. It was given by my great mate Troy. Troy is a copywriter, but one with a strong visual sense. He took the usual powerpoint and turned it on it’s head.

He didn’t want people gazing at his notes, he wanted people listening to his words.

He decided that the big screen would show mostly pictures to add a counterpoint to what was being said. He spent hours finding just the right shots to fill the screen. The images were big and arresting. They added to what was being said. They broke the talk into digestible chunks.

Text would be as rare as a diamond rather than as common as gravel. It would act as chapter headings to remind the audience what the focus of each section was about.

I’m sure you’ve guessed that Troy’s presentation was a triumph. It was the best powerpoint most of us had ever seen.

So I just stole Troy’s technique.

My presentation took a long time to plan, write, find shots, practise and memorise. But it worked. It worked as a delivery of facts and more importantly it worked as a memorable piece of communication.

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Cliches

Like them or hate them, they’re here to stay. At the end of the day, clichés are just a part of doing business, aren’t they, part of the landscape?

Well, yes and no.

Clichés are so entrenched in marketing communication that they are hard to pin down.

Ok I really have to stop this now.

My Granny thought that clichés were just plain lazy, like swearing.

Chris Pash thinks they’re fun.

Chris is director of content licensing at Dow Jones & Co Asia-Pacific. Among his many duties is the running of a kind of “cliché-ometer”. This digital marvel sifts the Dow Jones Factiva database, currently holding over 25,000 newspaper, magazine and online publications.

According to Chris, our old friend ‘at the end of the day’ is the current winner and has been used 21,000 times worldwide in the last three months. That’s a lot of wasted column inches.

Chris’ main focus is journalism. You can see an interview with him here:

http://player.video.news.com.au/theaustralian/#L_DPbjOKBi5xN6traoEczl2StKFzYU1N

But we in the wider marketing world are not guilt-free of the heavy use of clichés.

To test my claim I visited four advertising agency websites. I felt there was a certain sameness to a lot of the words used.

Agency 1 – Information rich, compelling strategic idea, engaging ideas.

Agency 2 – Integrated communications, committed to a holistic approach, strategic collaboration, consistent message across all touch points.

Agency 3 – Brand architecture, long-term customer relationships, strategic customer engagement programs, executing personal and engaging customer experiences.

It’s not a crime to trot out business clichés … unless what you sell is creativity, originality and ideas. It’s ironic that each website professes to an expertise in communication and connecting with consumers and yet, does so in such a hackneyed and interchangeable way.

They tell potential clients that this agency has no imagination.

I suspect with a list of the right buzz-words almost anyone could write copy for an agency website … and possibly win a few pitches.

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

TV ads now 95% off!

Have you noticed more TV commercials on air seem to come from overseas?

I wondered how many spots originated offshore. So a while back I did a little high tech research. Watching TV and counting with my fingers, I was able to come up with a magic number, for the FMCG sector anyway.

Over a few weeks, in every ad break, I’d pop up one finger on my left hand for Australian made and one on my right hand for overseas made. When I wasn’t sure, which wasn’t often, no finger went up.

When my family finally got sick of this habit and stopped me I found that just over 50% of all FMCG ads on Australian TV had been created overseas!

That was way higher than I expected but it makes sense really. The cost saving to clients is enormous. Changing the voice over and putting a new pack shot at the end could save a marketer over 95% of the cost of shooting the whole spot here. Even re-shooting new scenes to ‘Aussie’ the ad up a bit might bring the saving to 90%. It’s hard to argue with savings like that.

So this surprising percentage might suggest a change in the way creative agencies do things.

Unfortunately not. My marketer mates tell me briefing a TV adaptation is a lonely experience. No one in the agency really wants to know. Usually a junior producer, with zero creative help, will begrudgingly accept the job.

When the adapted million Euro ad makes it to our screens the lack of agency care is often obvious.

We creatives would all love the open brief, the blank cheque and the clean sheet of paper to show our genius. But being creative isn’t always about turning the world on its head. It can also be about answering a client’s problem in an elegant and cost effective way.

In fact I put my ‘money where my mouth is’ and wrote a book about it. The TVC Renovation Manual is written with marketers in mind. It’s a guide to adapting overseas TVCs for the best results and the best price.

If you’d like a copy call me on (02) 9929 0588 and I’ll drop one off absolutely free.

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

I hear Music

It seems that every time I see a new TV commercial these days it has a song or piece of music that sounds kind of familiar.

It’s easy to see (or hear) why familiar songs are so popular. They bring a familiarity and likability to your new spot. As a marketer you are effectively renting their popularity.

But rented popularity is not cheap. I’ve recently been doing a lot of work finding good music for a low cost. Let me share my findings.

First of all we have to understand the difference between publishing rights and recording rights. Publishing rights are given by the composer (or their heirs) based on channel, location and duration. Eg. Free to air, Pay TV, Internet, 12 months, Australia and NZ only. The fee for publishing rights varies by artist and record company, but for a well-known song expect to start at $75,000.

Now that’s just for the right to use the piece. If you want the actual performance that made the track so famous add another $75,000. Of course you can hire some talented mussos to record the song for a lot less, but everyone will know it’s not Aretha Franklin

So you’re looking at a starting price of $150,000 for publishing and performance rights. Add your agency markup. Add the artist’s ‘creative conditions’. Add a bit because everyone wants this artist at the moment, and your pleasant pop song is starting to give you a real headache.

Is there an alternative Tony?

Yes. A couple.

Option 1) Commission original music. It’s 100% yours. It will cost a tenth of the figure above. And it can be what-ever style you want. BUT it’s an unknown. You have to take a leap of faith. AND there is always the temptation to dabble, to dial up the branding, to have a go at this music lark. My advice? Don’t.

Either accept the piece or ask for another one. You want music that sounds like it came from a musician, not a marketer.

Option 2) Find existing music that is out of copyright. When you do this, the nasty $75,000 publishing rights disappear in a puff of smoke!

You still need to decide between an existing performed track or creating your own. Creating your own might be $15k. But finding an existing performance could be even less.

OK so what constitutes ‘out of copyright’? It’s different in every country. (In France if a composer dies fighting for his country his descendants get a bonus 30 years. I love that)

But here in Australia there are two rules. Copyright applies to music for up to 70 years after a composer dies. UNLESS he/she died before 1955 in which case it’s 50 years. You can find out more at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries'_copyright_length

Option 3) Find an up and coming band and sign them for peanuts. It has happened, but it’s messy, and time consuming. If you want to go down this road, make the music the core of the idea and be prepared to let it lead the campaign.

So there’s three ways … hang on. I almost forgot. Stock music.

Option 4) Stock Music. If it’s just to fill in the background a bit, stock music can be insanely cheap. I’m talking under $100! On one job, I had used up the client’s sound budget, so I paid for the music out of my own pocket! That’s how cheap it can be. Of course the tunes are pretty simple, but there’s a wide choice and if that’s all you need, it’s almost free.

So there’s FOUR ways to make your commercials sing (sorry couldn’t resist).

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