Made You Look Marketing

It's cheap. It's easy. It's virtually worthless. And it's happening far too often these days thanks in a large part to the proliferation of media and all the 24/7 platforms that unquenchable thirst for constant content.

I call it "Made You Look Marketing." Or in other terms, executions in search of a strategy.

The latest trend is auto manufacturers to get attention is to have someone make their cars out of Legos and seemingly everyone is doing it from Chevrolet to Bugatti to McLaren. For Chevy maybe it makes some sense because it's a tie-in to the Lego movie (we'll discuss the merits of that at a later date), but why are manufacturers of multimillion dollar cars that are already sold out doing it? And, how can a tactic that's right for a mainstream brand be appropriate for a niche manufacturer targeting the 1% of the 1% of the 1%?

It's not just Lego cars either. So much is happening in marketing right now that is both derivative and ephemeral, with no grounding in marketing strategy and no lasting impact on brand image.

This short-term thinking is leading marketers to follow the latest shiny new thing regardless of its effectiveness. In some cases, it's undermining the integrity of our entire business.

Marketing and branding is strategic and requires long-term vision from which short term tactics can be executed. The pressure to get clicks, views, likes, and follows as a proxy for awareness, preference, and sales has been going on for far too long. It's time for marketing leaders to thing about the future of their brands, not the next big thing in marketing.

Apple's social strategy is its products

Recently, Christopher Heine, digital editor of Adweek was quoted on Smartbrief as saying "It's really hard to figure out what Apple's social strategy is -- if it has one at all."

This comment stems from the fact that unlike most companies, Apple doesn't have a legion of ninjas, commandos, wizards and rockstars tweeting, posting and instagramming inane content for them all hours of the day and night. Instead they decided to drop a few hundred grand on a promoted tweet for the iPad Air.

Rather than manufacturing news, here's Apple's social strategy: They manufacture remarkable products their owners love to talk about.

Just because a brand doesn't talk about itself on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram doesn't mean it doesn't get talked about on those platforms. And in the end, what is more valuable, Samsung telling everyone how cool they are, or Apple users telling everyone how cool their iPads, Macbooks and iPhones are?

Yeah, I thought so.

Jack and Frank

Celebrity endorsements are often forced and feel disingenuous, like when Tiger Woods was a spokesperson for Buick. Did anyone believe he really drove one?

This, however, is the kind of endorsement, I can endorse.



Frank Sinatra drank Jack Daniel's on stage. Every night.

He wasn't paid to do it. No marketing guru scripted his line "Nectar of the gods, baby." It was what Frank believed and how he lived. It's a very cool and authentic part of the brand's heritage, one that's still relevant today.

Jack Daniel's is smart to remind us of Ol' Blue Eyes' love of their liquid and leverage this association to enhance the timelessness of the brand.

It proves that sometimes you can move forward by looking back.

Walmart takes back America after wrecking it

Walmart was founded by Sam Walton, a smart, hard-working former Ben Franklin store franchisee who knew that through superior logistics, he could drive cost out of the system and offer goods a lower prices, thus helping people buy more of what they need.

A World War II veteran, Mr. Walton also made a concerted effort to offer American-made products in his stores, identifying domestic manufacturers who could deliver goods at or below the price of products that were made in Japan, then the worlds low-cost production center.

Somewhere along the way, Walmart went from focusing on selling low-cost American-made goods to the lowest cost products it could find no matter where they were made. This led U.S. manufacturers to move production to lower cost labor markets like Mexico, China, Indonesia and South Korea, which in turn led to the collapse of entire manufacturing sectors in the U.S. like textiles and electronics. Walmart's policies have also been a major contributing factor to wage stagnation to the point where good factory jobs: once a ticket to the middle class, now barely pay a living wage.

I'm not saying this migration of labor and stagnation of wages wouldn't have happened without Walmart, but their policies and practices certainly were a contributing factor to the pace of change.

That's why I find this new "Investing in American Jobs" ad campaign a little disingenuous.



I also find it ironic – and a little tone deaf – that the sound track for this ad, was outsourced to the Canadian band, Rush.

Other than that, this is a fine ad.

A marketing miracle

By now, we've all seen this video of the amazing stunt marketing event from the Canadian Airline, WestJet.



Actually 19 million people have viewed it directly on Youtube, more on social media channels and millions upon millions have read about it thanks to all the press its garnered in just the week since it was posted.

How did they achieve such success?

Let's start with the concept. It's big. No, not just big, huge. I can barely get the shopping done for my family in the weeks leading up to Christmas. Buying Christmas gifts for 250 people in just a few hours is a massive undertaking.

It was executed perfectly.

Starting with Santa on video gathering wishes, to the army of employees who were sent to do the shopping to the decorations around the baggage carousel, they nailed every detail. It was magical from start to finish.

This effort was clearly genuine, heartfelt and relevant, promoting the company's real differentiator, service.

The result is that for less than the cost of producing a national TV commercial, WestJet was able to create international fame. This is an incredible marketing achievement that is sure to be honored at Cannes and every other advertising festival next year.

The question is, how can they take the momentum from this event and use it to build their business in the coming year? Their brand now stands for 'miracles' and they have to deliver on that promise on a regular basis, maybe not with grand stunts like this, but little gestures that demonstrate how much they care about their passengers. Otherwise, this big event is just marketing and all the energy it created will be drained as quickly as the batteries in a child's toy on Christmas morning.

I'm assuming that a company smart enough to create and execute this event knows that. So I'm looking forward to seeing what they do next.

Everyone has a brand

I spend a lot of my time talking about branding and its impact on a business. Invariably, someone will say, "My business is too small. I don't have a brand." To which I reply:

If you're in business, you're branding.

When you pick a name for your company, you're branding.

When you hire your first employee, you're branding.

When you answer the phone, you're branding.

When you design your product, you're branding.

When you choose your location, you're branding.

When you pick your office furniture, you're branding.

Branding isn't just your marketing communications. It's everything you do, because everything you do communicates something about your brand.

That's why it's important to make sure you understand your mission, vision, promise and values so you can deliver on them consistently every time in every interaction to any audience. A strong brand directs more than marketing. It directs your business.

Dear Charter:

We've been together for more than seven years now and for the most part I have been very happy. My cable, internet and phone all work as expected a majority of the time and even when I've had problems your customer service people have been surprisingly friendly and helpful.

Yet every week or so I get a little note from you in my email that's clearly intended for someone else.

How dare you.

Aside from the really lousy copywriting – "what you're majorly into" is just wrong on so many levels – this email only reminds me how little you actually care about our "relationship."

For seven years I've spent countless hours and thousands of dollars to keep us together. I can't quit you. I must have your precious high-speed internet. Sure I could stop there but then I wouldn't be able to waste all that time watching bad reality shows, irrelevant sporting events and rigged cooking competitions in stunning high definition that come to me courtesy of your coaxial cable.

But, according to this email you're just not that into me anymore. Your love light has turned to new customers who must be better than me since you're willing to let them have you for nearly half of what I'm paying.

Have you ever thought just once about how that makes me feel? Sure, everybody loves the new kid in town, but what about those of us who have stood by your side through the service outages, billing errors and four hour installation windows?

What do I have to do to get your attention? How can we rekindle our relationship? Here are a couple of thoughts.

First, just show a little compassion and stop making your ogling of other customers so obvious. Could you please make sure I don't see the messages you send intended for others who catch your eye?

Second, you know what I watch. You know what I like. How hard would it be to give me a little something-something every once in a while? I wouldn't mind a free on-demand movie or access to the occasional Red Wings game. Use that big data of yours and surprise me.

I'm not asking for much. Just the attention I deserve.

Love it or hate it, it's brilliant

God bless the British for their sense of humor and bad condiments. They've come together to create this wonderful spot for a jar of their beloved/despised Marmite.



This spot is so wonderful on so many levels.

It's a smart strategy for a brand that is seemingly everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

It actually acknowledges that not everyone loves the product – the young boy's reaction upon taking a bite of his toast and Marmite is priceless.

It's a great send up of the rescue shows that are proliferating across cable today.

And of course, it has some people up in arms, so it's getting even more play in the media.

Yes surprise, surprise, the perpetually offended are complaining that this spot makes fun of animal cruelty and demeans animal rights workers and volunteers.

[sigh]

I have no doubt the spot will stay on the air. After all Unilever, Marmite's corporate overlord, is no stranger to controversy as the parent to the Axe brand.

Tweet this

In its new Twitter Causation Study, Nielsen Research has found that twitter activity had a statistically significant impact on the ratings of programs 29% of the time. And, according to the study there's a reciprocal relationship:

“Using time series analysis, we saw a statistically significant causal influence indicating that a spike in TV ratings can increase the volume of Tweets, and, conversely, a spike in Tweets can increase tune-in,” said Paul Donato, Chief Research Officer, Nielsen.

So when more people watch a show they tweet more about it and when more people tweet about a show more people watch it.

Thus, when someone tweets, "Dude, are you watching #Sharknado?!!" a few more people tune in and when more people tune in, more people tweet about the awesome awfulness that is Sharknado.

This is good news for TV networks and for marketers because it's hard evidence that Twitter works as a word of mouth platform to a degree.

The challenge is nobody talks or tweets about ordinary things. You have to be remarkable to get the conversation started. In Sharknado's case, the show was remarkably bad, in a fascinating "I can't turn away even if I wanted to" kind of way.

So to set the twitterverse afire you need a killer product, a surprising and relevant marketing event, or a great story worth sharing.

Because while people are tweeting about a tornado that transports sharks, the unreal acts of real housewives, and backstabbing top chef/designer/model competitions, nobody's tweeting about a documentary of vanilla ice cream.

It's all branding

It amazes me that a leading publication in the advertising industry still doesn't get it.

It's all too clear based on this headline on Adweek.com

I'm going to say this very slowly to make sure they understand:

Branding is not a logo;
it's everything a company does.
Especially the product.

The fact that McDonald's can create ads showing just the product with very few other visual cues only demonstrates how strong their brand is. They've managed to differentiate it right down to the two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles on a sesame seed bun...

If you want to see how strong your brand really is, this is a great exercise. Go ahead, create an ad without a logo. If you can't recognize it as yours, neither will your consumer. That's a signal you should get to work on making your product, your packaging and everything else unique so that it expresses your brand. That'll make your "branding" work a hell of a lot harder.

Here are images from the "unbranded" campaign in question.

The future of advertising is more advertising

Well, there it is.

Yesterday Facebook announced it would start selling 15-second video ads for as much as $2.5 million per day.

What's surprising about this is not that video ads will now be part of Facebook's everyday experience, but that the only way you'll be able to target your ads is by age and gender.

So basically, they're admitting to the lie they and every other social media platform has been telling advertisers since the invention of the internet and will advertise to their users just like television does, en masse. No geographic targeting. No affinity targeting. No slicing and dicing their reams of data so I can speak to the exact person I want to at the exact moment that matters most.

The one-to-one future is dead, at least for now.

Facebook is a mass-medium and proves that when it comes to marketing. They've proven customization doesn't scale. The platform's only real value is in the aggregate of its users.

Maybe this will change. Maybe when we're all used to seeing spots roll after every 20 posts on our timeline they'll start selling space to local advertisers and microtargeters. If they're selling a few hundred companies a day at a million dollars or more, 365 days a year, however, why would they?

The folks at the networks are breathing a little easier tonight.

NeverWet may soon be nevermore

When I saw this spot for Rust-Oleum's new NeverWet spray, I thought. Cool. Now I never have to worry about bolognese sauce ruining my white polo ever again.

But then I did a little research.

Apparently according to this review on Gizmodo, NeverWet's label explicitly states "Contents contain a chemical known to cause cancer and birth defects." Hmm. That's something I don't want anywhere near my skin or mouth.

Strike one.

Geek.com says the spray leaves a "frosted white coating" on whatever it's applied to. So unless your putting it on a white surface, NeverWet will be visible. Apparently it rubs off pretty easily as well.

Strike two.

This demo video that's been viewed over four million times on YouTube shows it being applied to several items (electronics, clothing) their own website clearly states NeverWet should not be used on. And since it causes cancer, I'm not sure I'd want it anywhere near my beer.



Strike three.

So this amazing product is poisonous, can ruin electronics, and discolors whatever it's applied to. Those are probably three things they need to work on in version 2.0. But based on the way they've marketed this version there probably won't be a version 2.0 because people will be so disappointed after trying it, they'll never buy anything from Rust-Oleum again.

Just a little tip when you're launching a new product. Be honest about it. Nothing kills a bad product faster than great advertising. If you're product doesn't perform as promised, the long term effects on your brand will be cancerous.

Stereotypical marketing

In another of those coincidences where I write about something one day and a brand proves my point the next, we have this quotation in an AdAge article from Harley-Davidson's Mark-Hans Richer about their new campaign #stereotypicalharley:

"There really is no stereotypical customer. That's the whole point of it."

I have criticized Harley-Davidson marketing for parting ways with Carmichael Lynch, the ad agency that saved their bacon in the '80s, and their decision to crowd-source creative ideas for their ads. I still don't believe those decisions will serve the brand well in the long run.

This campaign, however, gets one thing right. It shows how one brand can serve many different demographics by finding something common in all of them. In the article, Mr. Richer says it's about "living the life you choose." That's a politically-correct way of explaining what really binds these people together.

I'd say its about expressing their inner outlaw.

Yes, these people may be teachers, soccer moms, artists, soldiers, etc., but when they get on their Harleys they get to be something else, something the world doesn't ordinarily see. It's obvious from the images in the spot. The riders are not smiling, happy innocents.

These normal, workaday people get on their bikes and suddenly they're a little bit badass.

That's the common bond for the Harley brand. It feeds that archetypal need that exists at some level within all of us to rebel from conformity.

What deep-seated desire can your brand feed? Focus on that and you'll find a way to attract more – and more diverse – people than you ever thought possible to your products.

And the winner is...

The oh so ridiculously named Cannes International Festival of Creativity – formerly the Cannes Advertising Festival – got underway yesterday and this year's first winner is actually very creative.

Developed to help reduce the number of deaths around railroad tracks in Australia, "Dumb Ways To Die" is a campaign does everything great marketing is supposed to do.

It's disruptive.

It's memorable.

It's engaging.

It's shareable.

And best of all it's effective, reducing deaths by 21% last year.

The campaign starts with a great insight: nobody likes to be lectured to. That's what most public safety campaign do. Don't drink and drive. Wear your seatbelt. Don't smoke. Stop drinking 64-ounce sodas. All of these campaigns have one strategy; they nag, nag, nag – to the point where nobody listens anymore.

Starting with a perky happy pop melody and lyrics that are dark and disturbed, this video is impossible to ignore or forget.



Not satisfied with nearly 50 million views YouTube views. The campaign's creators worked hard to get the song played on local radio. They created a karaoke version that people have used as a foundation for their own videos. They printed coloring books and built a smartphone game for kids. And of course, they produced this fun, interactive and informative website.

It's the rare smart campaign that prevents humans from doing dumb things.

The Greatest Spectacle in Marketing

I spent this past weekend in Indianapolis as a guest of HP. During my 48 hours there I got an inside look at how HP products are used to help DreamWorks produce its upcoming film "Turbo" about a snail who dreams of racing in the Indy 500. I was also able to interview Kate Swanborg, DreamWorks Head of Enterprise Marketing, see some previously unreleased scenes from the movie and hear directly from her why HP is such a great partner.

That was after spending the day with HP's Indy car team in their garage watching them use HP products to prepare their car for 500. Oh, and somewhere in between I was given a complete overview of HPs new wireless printing systems and drove their HP Workstation-powered racing simulator at the HP Pavilion in the Indy 500 FanZone.

In addition to that, had I been so inclined during my day at the track I could have sampled 5-hour Energy Drinks; gone on a Chevrolet test drive; tested printer, camera, tablet and apps from Crayola, Samsung, Verizon and others; amassed a small collection of commemorative posters; and seen Brett Michaels' in concert to promote his new tv show about over-the-top RVs.

If you want to see marketing's ultimate showcase of hand-to-hand combat, get to Indy next year for the 500.

But make sure you carve out a few hours on Sunday afternoon, I hear there's a race that's usually worth watching.

Bad ads are bad for business

After a recent run of particularly distasteful ads, clients, account supervisors and creative directors may want to revisit this study from Harris Interactive and Adweek of a few years ago.

What it boils down to is obvious. Offensive advertising drives customers away.

So why does it keep happening?

Because everyone wants their ad to "cut through the clutter," to be memorable, to drive social buzz, to appeal to the holy grail of marketing targets – 18 to 34 year olds (which in and of itself is insane, but that's another post).

Advertising is harder than it looks. Creating interest in toothpaste, underwear, web domains, appliances and other items that most people really don't spend a lot of time thinking about requires you to take risks to get noticed. But it also requires you to be smart.

There's nothing wrong with being exclusive and creating work that appeals to your target, but it rarely pays to be offensive.

I'm not sure if more people are making dumb decisions about their advertising now than a generation ago or if we just see more of it thanks to Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Whatever the case, the price you pay for lack of judgement is much higher now than ever.

So in the immortal words of Sargeant Esterhaus, "Let's be careful out there."

Brands with benefits

Apparently my message isn't getting through to some people who manage brands in this country. I realized this when I read this article about Panera Bread's new "Purpose Marketing" campaign.

Purpose marketing, conscious capitalism, cause marketing, or whatever you want to call it, is essentially building the social values and beliefs of your target into your business and focusing on them as a key component of your marketing. It's a great strategy and it works when your purpose is a feature of your product and relevant to your customer.

So what's my problem? This quotation from Mandy Levenberg, VP and Consumer Strategist for the otherwise very cool and useful research company, Iconoculture:

"Consumers are seeking authentic emotional connections with brands."

No, they're not.

People are looking to make choices they can feel good about. They are looking for brands that reflect their values. They are looking for emotional benefits. What they are not looking for is an "emotional connection" or relationship with the brands they buy.

It may be a fine distinction, but it's an important one. Because the minute you think they want a relationship, you start thinking about consumers as friends instead of customers. You start asking what they can do for you, instead of what you can do for them. You start taking them for granted, instead of serving them.

Your social responsibility platform – whether it's paying a living wage, feeding the hungry, using natural and organic products, supporting veteran's organizations, etc. – is a benefit, just like good fuel economy, great taste or low prices. In many cases it is a powerful emotional benefit that tips the scale in your favor and provides context for all the other benefits you offer, as is the case with Chipotle.

It is not the foundation for a relationship.

Your relationship with your customer – and I use that term purposefully as the only business relationship that matters is one in which people trade money for goods and services – is this: Give them a product that works with relevant functional, emotional and social benefits, at a price they're willing to pay and they will give you money. If you do it right they will do it over and over and over again.

Don't for a minute, however, starting thinking that the relationship is anything other than a transaction.

From the belly of the beast

And now for something completely different.

For some reason people seem to like this blog and it has received occasional bursts of popularity beyond my circle of friends and family. Because (or in spite of this) I've been asked, along with about 50 other bloggers, artists, business people and social media activists to participate in an online campaign for IBM called "The IBM Social Influencer Think Tank." Fancy, huh?

Now before you scream "SELLOUT!" let me explain.

I am not a spokesperson for IBM. I am not endorsing their services. (Not that I wouldn't, that's just not what I've been asked to do.) I have only been asked to blog about the roles that social media and technology play in my life and then incorporate the hashtag #MySmarterCommerce into my posts.

My compensation for this effort? The potential of a wider platform for my blog and other online communiques.

IBM will feature their favorite contributions from me and my fellow Think Tankers on their website exposing my thoughts and ideas to more potential consulting customers. I also have the opportunity to participate in a panel discussion at SXSW depending on the amount of "engagement" created by my posts.

I figure it's also a great opportunity to experience social media marketing from a whole different perspective. Either way, it's not going to change how I approach this blog or what I write.

So if you see an occasionally post on Facebook, Tweet or blog from me with the hashtag #MySmarterCommerce embedded in it over the next 30 days you'll know why. If something that I've posted strikes you as worthwhile, please share it with your friends and followers. I've always wanted to go to SXSW and doing it on IBM's nickel would be pretty sweet.

My post game analysis

Yesterday, I wrote about my favorite Super Bowl spot, "Farmers" for Ram. While there is some controversy about the origin of the idea and whether the agency or Ram should have credited the original video somehow, as long as Farms.com gave their permission and were compensated fairly, I'm okay with it.

Now on to the rest of the spots.

My favorites in no particular order:

Tide

Fun story, tied nicely to the game, nice demonstration of the product benefit. People think you can only do great ads for cars and beer. P&G and their agencies consistently prove that wrong.

Mercedes

Nice twist on an old story. I'm a sucker for that song and unlike Landslide on the Bud Clydesdale spot, it actually adds to the concept. I'm not sure I would have put the car on the track – a gratuitous nod to performance – but I guess a lot of guys fantasize about that, too. I like the reveal at the end. It's a smart, well-crafted ad, designed to address the perception that Mercedes are unaffordable.

Taco Bell

Fun, well done, easy to like. Great music. Yeah, Pepsi did a similar concept in 1990. But this works.

Audi 

I didn't like this spot at first but it's grown on me. Audi to me is all about inspired engineering and technical superiority. As I was driving my A4 Quattro through the snow yesterday I realized that the benefit of that feature is confidence. And that's what this spot is all about.

Volkswagen

I like it for the same reason I like Audi, it sells the ultimate benefit of the car. You can't drive a Beetle and not smile. And no, contrary to what the perpetually offended will have you believe, showing people of different races speaking with a Jamaican accent is not racist. 

And now onto my least favorites...

Budweiser

Here's a sappy, predictable story about a boy and his horse. Now, drink a beer. Oh and maybe you'll like this irrelevant song we put behind the video. I know I'm in the minority here, but it's my blog, so there!

Doritos

Ignore your child unless she offers you a tasty snack, then cross dress. Can we please stop the consumer-generated ideas? They're way to cliche, predictable and do nothing to sell the actual product.

Budweiser Black Crown

I can't think of a group of people I'd less rather drink an ordinary beer with than this crowd. 'nuf said.

GoDaddy

This spot is so bad, I'm not even going to embed it. If you really must punish yourself by watching it, click this link. I moved all my accounts from GoDaddy to another host last year specifically because their advertising was so bad. I was talking to a guy yesterday who has thousands of domains registered through them and said he would move if he didn't have to hire three people full-time to make it happen. The people at GoDaddy will talk about all the buzz they generated, but just like Groupon a few years ago, they'll find out that bad buzz is a lot worse than no buzz at all.

Obviously there were a lot more spots. And a lot of good ones – Sketchers, Hyundai, Oreo, Jeep, M&Ms – and a lot more bad – Calvin Klein, the CBS Promos, Kia, Samsung, etc. – but these are the ones that stood out for me. 

Let the debate continue.

Haiti doesn't have a marketing problem

Talk about a tough challenge.

After multiple national disasters, being a hot spot for the global AIDS epidemic, rampant disease caused by insufficient sanitary systems, several corrupt governments, Haiti wants you to come visit.

That's right, while driving last night I heard this story on NPR in which Haiti's Tourism Minister explains the virtues of her country for vacationers.

I have no doubt that Haiti is a beautiful island. I have no doubt that the weather can be amazing. I have no doubt that the island has a rich cultural heritage and important historical monuments.

What I do doubt is how safe it is to visit.

Now, I'm not averse to risking a little danger for the sake of entertainment. I spent more than a few evenings of my young adult life in clubs below 8-Mile. But I'm guessing, most tourists would prefer a destination where their chances of being kidnapped or killed are just a bit lower.

Haiti has a lot of things to recommend it, but I'm guessing until they fix the roads, add some hotel rooms, improve the sanitary conditions and can guarantee the safety of those who visit, no amount of marketing will suddenly have people flocking to the island.

What Haiti is about to find out is what most marketers already know: the most important thing you can do to improve your marketing is to get the product right.