Diary Of A London Account Planner

A girly substitute

2011-09-16T13:59:00.000-07:00

Us girls can be pretty hard on ourselves most of the time, to say the least. Therefore it's rather satisfying to see an ad celebrating the moments when we feel pretty damn good! For once they're not begging for the attention of a handsome stranger, they're completely ignoring them and relishing how good they feel.

And what's more, the ways in which this is brought to life bring such a smile to my face because they're things that my friends and I talk (and laugh) about all the time. Grinning from ear to ear when we get ID'd being the clear winner in our group, and we've all been guilty of using the bus or train window as a mirror whilst we pretend otherwise.

That's how the Boots ads always make me feel, like I've just had a good girly giggle on my lunch break. An in-joke that's naughty and delicious in the most innocent way. It's like a sort of happy medicine you only get from your best friend's of the fairer sex. Sorry lads, you can recoil now.

The insights for each age group have been thought out beautifully, and prove (despite some recent wobbles) that the Boots ads are still as strong as ever when it comes to understanding women.

Simple insights...niiiiice.

2011-04-13T09:42:00.000-07:00

Recently I've been noticing some incredibly simple insights, which have produced some great work. The brand that are doing this most recently are Ikea, with the help of Mother. Their ad 'kitchens for every party' was fantastic. The 80s treat of a soundtrack engaged all who watched it during last year's X Factor. And the insight? Eveyone hangs out in the kitchen at parties - hardly rocket science but fab nonetheless.

Thier most recent comms is all around storage, and how have they chosen to talk about this? In the context of men vs women. Brilliant. As we get older we realise the downfalls of cohabiting with our partner. They wind us up, and quickly become less than perfect in our eyes, however Ikea has stepped in with 'peace, love and storage'. Do I like the ad? Not so much, but the thought has potential to be great.

The same goes for Orange 'tiny top ups'. I remember being a teenager, longing to top up much less than £10 or even £5. And the fact Orange let you top up as little as
10p shows real understanding of their audience. The ad didn't quite do it justice, but again the insight was spot on.

Boots original 'Here come the girls' all stemmed from the difference between men and women getting ready for a night out, and again...more success! Seeing a pattern here?

John Hegarty says (and I paraphrase) the best way to talk to people in advertising is simply to tell the truth, how right he is.

Predicting consumers behaviour: head, heart or herd?

2011-04-04T01:49:00.000-07:00

Recently I worked on a project which produced some brilliant creative concepts. I mean 'add to your proudest moments list', 'mention it in any future interviews', 'makes you feel brilliant about your career and gives you goosebumps', creative. But alas the creative (in storyboard/ scamp form) got put into groups and was brutally murdered. Luckily our second favourite out of a few came top - phew!

But it kept bugging me, over and over. The clients loved it, we loved it, but consumer groups didn't. And I knew if they had seen the finished product, in thier living room amoung friends and family, they would have felt differently. Complete injustice. Could you imagine the group comments for a Sony Balls storyboard? "But what have colourful balls got to do with TVs? What about the TV makes the Colour Like No Other?!" The results of that ad? Bravia sold out in the UK and the ad was downloaded nearly 20,000 times in eight weeks.

Richard Huntingdon describes brainstorms as trojan horses of mediocrity. People who have little end responsiblity making huge suggestions on something, in a teacher/ pupil 'I must say something' fashion. To me most focus groups are the same. So the question I set out to find the answer to was how the hell do we avoid this in the future? And I think I found a few answers.

I came across this great set of videos on the APG site, which was from a talk called 'Head, heart or Herd.' Essentially they offer up four different ways to predict consumers behaviour:

1. Just ask them to describe thier emotions when viewing the ad.

This was compelling. According to this emotional test, Cadbury's Gorilla was deemed to be a success. It made a few people question the link between the creature and chocolate, but overall the majority of people didn't care and said they just loved to watch it. This same ad failed miserably on Millward Brown's indicators around message take out. But as Winston Churchill said, "However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results". Gorilla increased market share by 9%. His arguement: if you don't feel something you don't do something. And it's true. My problem is we rarely show a group a finished glossy ad. We show an underwhelming piece of stimulus.

2. The second was more of an observation than a solution. Neuroscience.

The point I took out of this was that only 20% of our brain is conscious, the remaining 80% is subconscious. And examples of this would include driving from A to B thinking the whole time about what you're doing that night, or leaving a crossword puzzle, sleeping on it, and the answer coming to you the next day. Or dreaming of improving a sports technique and waking up to find the method you dreamt works. This is your unconscious brain working, so what's to say this part wouldn't aid decision making, post seeing an ad? The reptilian brain makes the decision and frontal lobe rationalises it after all.

3. Rory Sutherland made the case for bahvioural economics, and researching that instead not the big brand stuff.

He compares brand preference to gravity. It's a potent force but it's not the only force acting on moving objects. Plus gravity is relatively weak at a long range but is pervasive. So a realistic model of what effects human behaviour, means recognising all forces that act on us. Electro magnasitsm is powerful at a short range, and this in consumer behaviour terms would be framing effects. So people can't tell the value of anything without comparing it to something else E.G £6.00 for 25 Twinnings tea bags seems pricey but 25p per cup is way below what we'd pay in a cafe. Or we're happy to pay 26p for individual espresso machine pods as it's comparative set is starbucks. "Still or sparkling?", is what stops you telling your waiter to piss off if he asks you if you'd like bottled water. Or a simple one - the AA as the 4th emergency service. Plus the sequential behaviour element, which may be not 'what will make them buy' but 'what's stopping them buying'? In New York 1-800 Mattress is successful because it get's rid of your old mattress which is what usually stops people buying them in the first place.

The final two were Herd behaviour, which is all about the visibility of products and the space between people which makes them copy eachother's behaviour and therefore create trends and/or sales. And finally looking within to find insights yourself.

The conclusion? Tell clients about other clients who have used broader techniques that traditional market research. As Mark Earles suggests, tailor the research experience around how you believe the comms will work. And finally use all of the above rather than treating them as mutually exclusive to help you build a case.

What would Paul Feldwick's creative brief look like?

2010-08-12T11:56:00.000-07:00

I recently read the legend that is Paul Feldwick's article on the Myth of the Message, recalling slowly that I'd actually had the priviledge of hearing him deliver it in person at my old agency! No sooner had I remembered but was kicking myself at not asking him more questions at the time.

Could have been because I have recently crossed over into planning and am more receptive to thinking about how to help stimulate the creatives to create what it is he is talking about. That is, creating ads that don't live and die by a USP but instead are communicating through associations to solve a business problem. e.g. Barclaycard's 90's ad ft Rowan Atkinson taking the brand from the stuffy Alan Whicker to a modern contemporary comedian, and one result of that was a significant growth in numbers of younger cardholders for example. I've read the IPA paper for this and it doesn't say really how they jumped to that creative idea, or mention anything about them intending to attract younger audiences at all. I'm sure you could post rationalise a USP in there somewhere. But his earlier example of PG Tips for instance, or the Hofmiester bear,you REALLY couldn't.

I know the briefing isn't one solitary piece of paper, it's a lot of conversations before and after that. But I have to ask, what would Paul's creative brief look like, if USP's weren't allowed? I suppose a drive to think about what we want the consumer to 'feel' as opposed to just 'think' or 'do'. But it's not as simple as that. Or is it?? My head hurts...

Blue sky thinking - literally

2010-04-22T14:19:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I went to Hall & Partners' Engagement Model talk on the 33rd floor of the Centre Point tower. Did I go because I secretly wanted to see what the Paramount members club was like? Yes. But did it turn out to be truly interesting? Hell yes!

The talk started with Hamish Rickman from Virgin Atlantic talking about the brand from it's challenger years, when they set BA in their sites, through to it's 'Red Hot' anniversary campaign which saw them profiting in a recession. They're in the process of repositioning all their work globally with the thought 'Your airline's either got it or it hasn't'. The work shown has surprisingly stripped back a lot of the signature red and has a very confident air to it. Homogenizing their work to one global look and feel is at the risk of diluting what they stand for - hence them using the H&P Engager research model.

Richard Owen from H&P then put the model into context by explaining how brand responses are unconscious (something that I think we keep forgetting in the day to day agency life), and how actually as humans we like to see what other people are up to and sharing or passing whatever it is on. This obviously is why digital has exploded and why transmedia planning (seeing lots of messages in lots of places) is so important for brands.

Here are three of the most interesting 'parts' of the model in my opinion:

1. Sensing
The white ipod earphones, seeing someone using AMEX, Bulmers' ritual of pouring cider over ice. All these things give people a nudge to sense what others are into and is critical for product growth.

2. Understanding
Purple, milk, Phil Collins. Do people consciously or unconsciously understand what your brand is?

3. Participation
Nike ID, Compare the Meekat app, Rage against the machine beating X Factor, Nick Clegg support on Facebook. How do you capitalise on participation? 4.3m downloads later VW sold 60 GTI cars (each at $30,000) from an iphone app with no paid for media, and saw a 80% increase in dealer calls and test drives. The game itself already existed so all the client paid for were the rights from the developers. Brilliant.

It's not linear its very messy, but that's how communications work. It all resonated hugely and could be a very useful framework for clients.

Dislike for estate agents and account [wo]men

2010-04-14T16:15:00.000-07:00

Someone said to me once that my profession was as distrusted and disliked by people as the art of real estate is. 'Nice' I thought, I was in Ibiza at the time - don't ask.

Anyway I at least can see the similarity of roles after watching an episode of good old Location Location.

Kirsty and Phil (god love them) had a brief, showed houses that ticked the briefs boxes and.........nothing. The couple didn't like any of them. Options would have been greater if Phil and Kirst had more budget. But finally they liked one. As Kirsty succinctly put it:

'Just be honest now, and say this house does not match the brief you gave us..........but we love it, let's make an offer.'

Sometimes thats all that matters - that everyone loves the end result, whether thats clients, or more importantly consumers. Phil also did a great negotiation move, showing them a house abroad that was out of budget. He made the point that they could rent it out across peak season and make the extra money they're spending back within X years. It's all about compromise and openess - that's great account management I think.

Haagen Daz is back

2009-10-17T13:46:00.000-07:00

I recently wondered when Haagen Daz would put out another piece of brand comms, and I have to say I love what they've returned with...

The inisght into the excitement, passion and ability to speak without words in a new wave of romance is the warm fuzzy feeling a piece of big brand comms should do (putting aside what they're trying to say they're all about nowadays). As a single girl does this make me feel like I can't relate to this brand? Not at all.

I think integration, 360 degree ideas and digital are crutial but as a TV ad in silo - I totally bought it.

Taking pride in Art

2009-05-11T12:44:00.000-07:00

This is Lady GaGa. She actually reminds me of Nicolas Cage/ Castor Troy in Face/Off in those strange glasses.

However one thing I like about her, is the fact that everything she does from her bespoke clothes, to her dancing, to her lyrics is all created by her, and is as she puts it - art. She even sites Bowie and Donatella Versace as her muses. Donatella for instance also wears little on her bottom half as her signature look.

Now as I grew up there was many a pop-sensation but none of them talked about their art, or themselves as an artist (at least not comprehensively). And to tell you the truth I always thought Art [in museums, especially modern art] was a bit naff and elitist. And deep down it was probably because I didnt understand it, despite loving drawing itself.

But what I love is that the people that this generation are exposed to, like GaGa or Dizze Rascal or even Peaches Geldof, are showing kids that art doesn't have to be a light installation, or a painting. It can be lyrics, clothing, furniture, dance. All the things they use to express themselves every day. They show the importance of expressing yourself through creativity.

The scariest thing is that I get given a lot of advice from people on my career in advertising, and I can't remember the last time someone told me to just BE MORE CREATIVE. To take pride in the mini works of art I try to make happen every day. It's the hardest thing to do, to stop the admin and the meetings and just be creative more in the day - but I should be.

Spectacle advertising

2009-05-05T04:45:00.000-07:00

The new T-Mobile ad has caused quite a stir in the haul back to the office this [post bank holiday] morning. Certainly is putting Saatchi's back on the map. But straight away the first thing I think of is Sony Balls, Play-doh, foam, T-Mobile rick-roll... big production ads. (There are probably more but I only have my lunch break to write this). I'm by no means against this, and I think Faris puts it best here when he says its about brands bringing people together and giving them something to do.

I guess its the same ethos as don't write me a script write me a press release, and all that. I hope I don't sound too cyncial, and I of all people know the importance of PR and talkability of your idea - but I'm wondering if we're heading towards PR idea land and forgetting how good regular ads can be (including digital, experiential etc).

As long as it answers the brief these ads aren't comiting any crime. For T-Mobile if the brief was bringing people together and giving them something to do then gold stars all round. If its about being associated with moments of sharing then I think they've done a pretty good job of that too.

Just a thought, I'm still stewing.

Clever copywriters

2009-04-23T06:37:00.001-07:00

I love this, insightful and succinctly put.

Emotion and behaviour change comms - seems obvious now

2009-04-04T02:58:00.000-07:00

Was it really before Christmas I last posted?! Scary how fast this year has gone, mainly because we've been so busy at our place (only a good thing).

But amongst all the running around to enter Meerkats into every Awards body going, I've been tearing my hair out thinking about the solution to solving briefs that I work on. You see these are predominantly behavior change briefs - anti-binge drinking and school food trust. I'm not saying brands have got it easier than the Government, but in terms of getting your heads around a business problem and coming up with a strategic plan of attack they do.

Crassly speaking, with a brand you can identify gaps in the market, break category conventions, do fun things with social media. Not so easy if you're telling 18 year olds who live for £2 Apple Sourz in their SU club to reconsider their options, or 11 year olds who despise their canteens to go it alone and let their mates go to Chick City.

Rachel Barry at Fallon spoke the other day about the 'spirit' of a brief as opposed to treating it like a skeleton that needs flesh adding to it (I think that's how it went anyway). And I have to say that really got me excited - especially when it's obvious that the briefs for Cadbury's or Sony Bravia had real spirit to them.

So what is the brief spirit for government comms?? The answer came to me when someone mentioned Richard Huntingdon's theory on emotion in advertising. Joy for Cadbury's, anger for Dove, shame for anti-smoking (clog campaign). Most current e.g. would be the emotion of fear in the Violence against women ad Kiera Knightly appeared in (for free). Truly amazing stuff.

Thinking about booze alone, I know I reconsider what my limits are most when I regret something I did the night before as opposed to the fickle 'I'll never drink again' ailing of a brutal hangover, or booze bruise. Shame. Regret. Remorse. Guilt. That's what makes me think LONGER TERM.

SFT is a bit harder, so suggestions are welcome! Like a brand whatever idea we come up with should have longevity - and that's the hardest part I suppose. What emotion have we previously run with? Well we told kids to 'Get Real' about what's in their junk food to encourage them to shift to their canteen - I guess that would be Shock. But now we need to move on to something closer to the canteen itself. Would emotions would that entail? I'm going cross eyed at this point so think it might not be the right way to approach it, but all the same think its a very interesting concept.

Digital Marmite – FMCGs should decide how much they need to love it, or hate it.

2008-12-08T03:37:00.001-08:00

It’s not easy being a brand nowadays. As well as keeping your stakeholders happy by delivering on the bottom line, you need to appeal culturally to consumers, and MUST be seen to be doing something ‘digital’, to avoid being accused of being stuck in the 80s when TV was King and nothing else mattered. Brand marketing managers read trade press articles with fear, as they see the next Facebook widget, iPhone application, or MySpace page being launched by their competitors. And what is their machine-gun reaction? WE MUST PRODUCE SOMETHING ONLINE TOO! SOMETHING. ANYTHING!

FMCG’s and digital aren’t a match made in heaven, mainly because things that thrive online tend to be issues that people are passionate about, want to discuss with others and will seek out relentlessly to dig out more information. So common sense tells you that this is less likely to happen for a bar of soap than for a candidate running for US President. So what tends to happen (as was also the case with fashion brands up to recently) is that an FMCG will have an online brochure, adapted straight from a print and therefore not bringing anything new to the consumer, then generally there will be no links to buy online, and the interest for people to seek out the brand online will soon die off.

But the truth is, and I probably shouldn’t say this, that digital isn’t for every brand. It’s rare that there’s legitimately no need for digital ideas for a brand, but it does happen. Or more accurately, the EXTENT to which digital is needed in the brand’s marketing cocktail can sometimes be more like 1 part than 3 parts. One great way of honing in on the instinct to recognise how diluted or potent your digital cocktail is, is to look at other brands and laugh at their mistakes, rather than make your own, and more importantly - praise them for getting it right.

Only when brands can judge others digital comms with rigour can they take digital into their stride for their own products, and make a decision as to digital will play a leading, or supporting role in their comms going forward.

So how should they go about it? The 3 point programme:

1) Digital landscape

Well, and I’ll say it again, it’s not easy for brands. The first thing to do is become aligned to the rough timeline of digital channels that exist – but the truth is new channels are born everyday. It’s a problem, but the easiest way of getting around it is just to accept: Whatever country you’re in, every media will become digital eventually. Become comfortable with that, and the first step is done.

2) Find common ground with traditional creative judging

Despite what some digital hot shops would love you to believe, there are plenty of similarities between ATL and Digital channels. Mainly: Insights, Involvement and Integration. The planning should be thorough and insightful; you still have to adopt the school of thought that if you’re in someone’s living room you should perform some form of entertainment or value exchange (and let them become involved in some way); and finally ensure that if you have various platforms, each one is in sync with the others visually and tonally (like cutting a stick of rock at an point and seeing the same thing).

3) Put this into a framework

Putting the above into a checklist, is easy. You need to ensure all Digital activity your brand does: Meet’s brand strategy; has talkability; and uses the right environment for that audience.

An example of a brand that got it right would be Walkers’ ‘Do us a flavour’ campaign. (If you’ve not seen it, they’re getting people to submit new flavours of crsips. If you submit the winning flavour you get £50k and a 1% share of the profits from the new flavour). To put it in the framework:

Meets brand strategy

The campaign works seamlessly with their traditional advertising. It doesn’t stray too far from home, for example creating a soap opera for Bebo around Gary finding new flavours wouldn’t have worked at all, it feels forced. This is simple, fun, light-hearted, and British – things the brand is.

Talkability

They’ve built the campaign around a great question. A superb conversation starter. I’ve ended up two or three times now in conversations where people have got really excited about coming up with interesting new and bizarre flavours of crisps. And debating what would actually sell.

Once the submissions round is over. They’re going to manufacture the judges favourite top 6 flavours and let the public choose which of them wins. Generating trial / sales and driving even more conversations. As a genuinely integrated campaign

Reaching the audience with the right environments

On something like this, awareness is crucial to get good numbers, so a heavy burst of TV went out to promote it with the brand hero Gary Lineker. The site’s got a lot of shortcomings. It doesn’t handle duplicates at all well, and the searching isn’t up to scratch. But it obviously doesn’t matter that much to people: 130,000 pages of entries - 6 to a page - gives almost 800,000 flavours submitted. That’s incredible. It’s a brilliant user generated content idea because anyone can do it. You don’t have to have any technical skills whatsoever. It’s just about imagining something. And something that almost all of us will have an opinion on whether we’ve thought about it before or not.

Other good ones I could mention are Lynx's 'Blow', Snickers Mr T app; Whispa's 'Bring back' campaign; and Innocent's blog. Non FMCG, same principle: Doc Martin's customisable boots site; Bugaboo pram-friendly maps; BBC Beijing Olympics widget; Diesel's XXX viral...

Thank you to Iain Tate's 'Crisps and Conversations' post for inspiring me to write this one.

Britney Badge

2008-12-06T14:40:00.001-08:00

"There are two kind of people in this world. The ones who entertain, and the ones that observe. Well I'm a put-on-a show-kind of girl." - Britney Spears, Circus

Have been checking out Britney's site since seeing her on last week's X-Factor. Admitedly she doesn't write her own blog (her street team from different cities do that), but there's an opp to listen to all tracks off her new album (full length); a video of her introducing the site; exclusive videos from her Bday celebrations at G.A.Y; YTube vids of her Good Morning America medley, polls asking which song fans think she'll release next off Circus [the album]; back stage photos of her at dance rehearsals; and they promised to put the best YT video responses from fans up there too [and did]. They even gave you access to her iTunes librabry for a week.

As someone who's still as much of a fan now as when she came out when I was a wee 13 year old, I know how much fans appreciate stuff like this. (And see how insightful it was that they recognise people ALWAYS try and predict the next release - will they even put the power in the fans hands to decide that outcome?) Whilst at Uni people were asking what the music industry's answer was to P2P file sharing of music; and seeing this site - and what Radiohead did earlier this year - is kind of the answer.

Her management have woken up to what's required digitally to market her latest release, I wonder what she makes of it all? After all there's a certain vulnerability about releasing so much extra content when you're an artist. Gone are the days the public only saw picture perfect Vogue shoots and album covers of our idols. Still if you're going to have the occasional 'bad' photo, may as well keep it real on your own blog. My favourite thing, is the below badge.

As a final thought it occured to me that like campaigns, albums (or any entertainment property) are better when one creative idea ties everything together: Britney's Circus, Madonna's Confessions from the Dancefloor, Ricky Gervais' Animals. Next time I'm working something new, I'll try and ask 'if it [the brand/ government campaign] were a pop star on tour - what would it's tour theme be?'.

And yes - I did actually get tickets if you're wondering - will perfect learning the shimmying dance moves of Womanizer for June!

Diary of a housewife

2008-11-28T08:19:00.000-08:00

This week I had a staycation. That's right - a week off work with no budget for a holiday and a more than happy attitude to staying at home nice and cosy!

I can't remember the last time I did this, maybe I was still at Uni? Anyway I have to say, just living 'real life' away from the advertising bubble was great. And if I were running for Prime Minister I'd introduce 'an extra week off work for all who work in marketing, (clients too of course), to remind themselves of the people they spend their lives trying to change the behavior of'. Or something less wordy.

The one thing that stood out the most: TIME (i.e. lack of).

Here's a shocker...time goes as quickly when you're at home pottering about, as when you're at work!! And therefore what we bang on about but sometimes don't always adhere to - is the lesson about making things as easy, quick, useful and enjoyable to these people AS WE CAN if we are to succeed.

Tidying takes time, cleaning takes time, cooking takes time, banking REALLY takes time, catching up on correspondence takes time, making sure things like insurance and birthdays are all up to date TAKES TIME. The amount of messages I was bombarded with whilst in the home for a week was frightening (post especially). The worst thing is 'relaxing' isn't as fun as you'd think, with such awful daytime entertainment - you end up feeling guilty for having your 13th nap, or doing something to keep occupied.

So just bear this in mind upper-east [adver]siders when you're on your lunch break on Brick Lane. Men and women who are stay at home partners or work from home haven't got it as easy as we think - do something that will really catch their eye and make them stop, or be at the mercy of being rejected rather swiftly.

Nokia's new spot

2008-10-16T01:54:00.000-07:00

I'm not 100% convinced by W&K's latest Nokia ad.

The insight of people loving to look through other people's mobiles is tastey, but the execution feels like they've taken any popular teen show of late (Skins, Gossip Girl, Kate Modern) and tried to replicate it. It's intrguing I must admit, and a new way to sell a handset, which is good - but will be interesting to see response from it's target audience.

The post that broke the camel's back

2008-10-15T14:16:00.000-07:00

Having now been in the ad industry for 2 years 2 months and 2 weeks, I thought about what I'd tell my course at Uni if I went back to give a talk or something. Here's what I've got so far...

(Picture of wisdom and strength as portrayed by Paolo Caliari, 1528-88, Italian painter - not sure what the baby stands for)

1. Be brave to say you don't like something

You need to have a good reason and articulate why, but generally it's better to own up to not liking a creative idea at the start of the process (for better or worse), than to end up working on it and not be passionate about it. You have to have an opinion on it and sell it to clients [in front of peers no less] - and that's much harder to do when you feel indifferent or negatively about something than something you're proud of.

2. Think

In the words of Cat Stevens, take your time, think a lot. Don't get wrapped up in the 'doing' part. It's easy to get into that bubble, and can erode creativity very quickly. (I find my best thinking time is in the bath, ideas usually come to me there too).

3. Don't listen to what recruiters tell you

Always trust your gut feeling about a job, agency, or future line manager. If the recruiter says they're the best thing since sliced bread - but they simply don't blow you away, the chances are they never will.

4. Experience it for yourself

I asked someone I knew previously what they thought of their agency before I took a job in the same place. The question was 'how integrated is it?'. They responded, 'not at all, I never work with digital'. I took the job anyway and how wrong he was. But it's HIS opinion, HIS account. Every angle is different.

5. Read

That thing your Mum says about clever people...'ooh she sounds well read'. How true it is, the smartest people I know read ALL the time and it shows. Must read more myself truth be known.

6. Keep looking at friends in different careers

This is sort of 2 fold. 1) Don't get wrapped up in the advertising bubble too much - or the bloggersphere come to that. A brilliant planning director recently told me, 'read The Sun!'. 2) Look at other people's careers. David Ogilvy learned presentation, discipline, organisation and patience from his time as a Chef in Paris. Appreciate skills in other job sets and watch how people take pride in them.

7. Carry a pad - always

You'll have an idea, hear something you'll want to steal or get a load of stuff dumped on you by someone senior - it just makes good sense.

I'd like to have had a rounded off '10', but don't want to make them up for the sake of it. These I GENUINELY learned and are pearls!

Are we done with Facebook?

2008-10-10T01:48:00.000-07:00

I certainly don't spend so much time on there unless REAAALLY bored. Having said that for status updates I prefer it to Twitter because I know more of my close friends will read it. Inbox/ Messages to friends are becoming too much work with all the other ways of talking to them that exist, and the feeling of desperation when browsing ex-boyfriends pages and pictures is starting to get a tad silly.

This morning I found the most lovely Friday treat however, a viral on 'Getting bored of Facebook'.

Best parts include 'oh no f**k me, another fortune cookie' and, 'please don't hug me give me your graffiti'.

In all seriousness though, we talk to clients about Facebook all the time, and there's no denying it's still hugely popular, especially for facilitating nights out or big events. (Kind of a herding tool). And if you listen to the lyrics of the viral (cover of the classic anthem 'We didn't start the fire' btw), it's talking about friends who have too much time on Facebook - not Facebook itself.

Think we should be aware however of the wave disillusioned ex-Facebook fans and remind ourselves how tough an online (or any) audience can be when you don't listen to them. I for one hope Mark Zuckerberg noticed the 'I hate the new Facebook' group, and realises his future fortune is in the users hands.

The power of people's passion

2008-10-03T03:44:00.000-07:00

Ok I may as well call this 'Diary of an Obama fan' and be done with it! He's impressed yet again. Well indirectly...

A free application was developed by volunteers in less than three weeks, for the iPhone. Primarily the software has a "Call Friends" option to help organise contacts in swing states. The application also passes on up-to-date news from the campaign, plus video, photos and talking points to help convince friends to vote for the candidate. Other features include making notes on which friends have been called, who they are supporting, and if they need a reminder on election day.

The website said the total amount of calls the application made were tallied but no information left the phone, so the privacy of friends and users were protected.

A note about the software was OF COURSE on his blog, saying: "This tool is designed to help you become more directly involved in our campaign to change the country."

When 2.0 isn't the right option

2008-08-10T12:09:00.000-07:00

Many moons ago when I did my dissertation, I did it on 'trust in marketing' using Dove as a case study. All my interviews showed categorically that despite a rollout campaign all respondents recalled & resonated with the 'One quarter moisturiser' ads from back in the day, far more than the 'Campaign for real beauty'. The litmus test to be specific was the one people spoke of most; the 92' ad where beauty and science meet, and in turn visual proof of the USP is shown:

Image taken from here, thanks!

They were actually quite cynical about the latest ATL ads, and no 2.0 stuff had been done yet.

3 years have passed since then and to be honest I still rate the old ads to the new (2.0 included). Why? FIRSTLY because it was based in a product truth, creatively executed in a simple, brilliant way that stuck in people's minds for years to come, and benifited the realistic audience of Mums picking it up in a 2 for 1 in Tescos. The ad was used in nearly all expansion markets 6-9 months after launch, with a powerful and noticeable effect on sales.

SECONDLY because they're a MNC and can't get away with the philanthropy angle without people (my dissertation peeps included) going 'yeah right!'.

Which leads me to my point, the campaign for real beauty doesn't pursaude people Dove really care, and 2.0 just hieghtens that.

The 2 virals they've produced recently have had fab PR, but so has the Onslaugh[ter] viral, that has forced Unilever, the biggest single buyer of palm oil in the world, to help clean up the industry that's behind so much forest destruction.

There's also this piece of content, where someone points out that Axe and Dove are both owned by Unilever...yet the two brands have very different views when it comes to women.

I went to the IPA 44 Club 2 weeks back - where Rachel Bristow, Marketing Comms & Buying Director Unilever, was 'Lifting the Lid on Marketing at Unilever' . She briefly mentioned the Palm viral, but still thought the 'Evolution' viral had far more impact. She was probably right, but the truth is that Dove had a good formula, and they've changed it to something that doesn't wash (pardon pun) with ABC1 Mums in Bournemouth, let alone the e-generation [who won't remember the 1/4 moisturiser ads with fondness and repeat purchase it for thier family]. They're Unilever's future consumers and they want proof behind promises. They are scarily ad literate, and ruthless when it comes to exposing organisation's social faux pas.

Brands have an expectation economy facing them, and quite frankly some need to stick to what they did best to survive. Dove will do ok for the moment, but David Ogilvy would be dissapointed I'm sure.

Are celebrities the new benchmark for good marketing?

2008-08-09T14:45:00.000-07:00

We're always telling clients to let go of thier brands a little, when it comes to digital especially. Recently I've been thinking of case studies to illustrate that brands can do this and still live to see the day. And while I was making my list, it felt less brands, more people.

Lily Allen blogged with her fan base over 2 years ago; Radiohead did a brilliant campaign (fab case study here); Obama's got 2.0 licked, and John Mayers' pseudo real blog is often mentioned as part of him having a good relationship with the press, it's making me wonder why people are selling thier product so well, and brands aren't. Maybe one day.

Jolly Good

2008-08-09T13:04:00.000-07:00

Our office gave us a lovely treat the other day - Pimms O'Clock on a sunny lunch hour. I like Pimms as a brand; the product; the TV ads - the attention to detail on their site ('Tally ho, in we go' is in place of boring old 'enter'!) And one thing I saw that made me smile today was this:

It's a 5 night comedy festival held in one of London's most beautiful outdoor venues, Holland Park. I've lost count of the amount of brand events/ festivals that have cropped up this summer, but this I like - because it's so in keeping with Pimms itself (inherently a brand that is full of humour and fun, and British 'social outdoorishness'). And to boot, unlike the other me-too brands attempting events, it has a good line up that I'd genuinely like to spend my time watching. Bravo I say.

Milkround

2008-06-30T09:02:00.000-07:00

When I was in LA on hols a couple of weeks ago I saw a woman wearing this T-Shirt:

I didn't ask her for a photo (because I'm all about the class!) but just stood open mouthed about how long that Got Milk? campaign has happily lingered in the states! This is more of a homage to Jon Steel than Obama FYI (Jon was actually in my agency giving a speech when I was away, sods law). It must be incredible to work on a campaign that successful and that loved - here's hoping! Having said that, I'm rather proud of something I've recently worked on...Anti-Binge drinking. Have a read!

Just as you thought the Obama campaign couldn't be more web 2.0...

2008-06-05T01:59:00.000-07:00

Just seen this on PSFK: Oh Boy Obama is a new Digg-like site where Obama supporters can post and rank grassroot campaign strategies for Obama. The best ideas get to the top, and you can search through ideas by category. Nice.

The [not so] Perfect Pitch

2008-04-23T03:21:00.000-07:00

I'm reading this at the moment and loving the examples Steel makes to give conviction to his thinking - OJ Simpson's legal team for one. It seems there are more similarities between the Legal and Advertising world than I thought. And last night I came to the same notion about Politics (quite obvious when you think about it).

I watched Ken, Boris and Brian (Paddick) take questions from a studio audience on ITV at 11pm - trying to sell themselves a week before polling day. Ok, so ITV is the media equivilant of Fish & Chips and Magalouf (spelling?)...but it's the best bloody chance they had to broadcast thier values and ulitmately 'thier product', that anyone could have given them. Why then did they make such a pigs ear out of it?

If they were a product, and I say this with a planning head on but to anyone in the industry this will be 2nd nature to them, they needed to come up with a single minded proposition. Something that puts on the table an issue most important to them, is true to what they stand for, that comes from an key insight about Londoner's views of living here.

They needed to tell a joke, not tell us they're funny (something Paddick did best I thought). In other words speak in plain English, in short statements that get to the point. Instead they waffled, shirked around the subject, tried to please everybody - which enivitably diluted thier overall image because no statements stood out and were solid - and Boris especially had all the elequence and good communication skills of Paris Hilton (actually she's probably better, sorry Paris please forgive me). When you listen to Hilary & Obama the difference is shameworthy in how well they speak.

It's like they had a pitch situation and tried to tell us everything they ever knew about anything, as build up to the idea which was weak. Large amounts of statistical data and wordy promises. They need an ad man in there to go in and sort out thier creative brief before we end up with a Mayor that is less Apple & more Microsoft. Rant over.

Raise the bat signal!

2008-04-10T06:24:00.000-07:00

The other day I noted my positive experience on ebay, how far I have come on my adventure of selling my first item...

I was doing well, finally I had a respectable bid, nothing too greedy, just what I'd hoped for. Then at the last minute got attacked by scammers bidding £1,100! (For a handset that can be bought for £200). Not only that, but they then sent fake Paypal emails to my hotmail claiming that once I sent the item the payment would be cleared. The nerve of these people, who is sad enough to do this?

The girl who had previously bid was very sweet and said she recognised I was being had, but that she was still interested. It was the way she said it that gave me chills, 'I hope you don't get scammed, they're terrible on here'.

What has happened in the land of Ebay?? How has it become so corrupt and brimming with thieves? I felt like this was the cyberspace version of Gotham City, and it desperately needs Batman to go sort it out. And do Ebay know the scale of what's going on and the damage it's doing to thier brand?

It's a real shame, as it's these kind of experiences which scare people away from the web, and all it's positive points. If you're lucky you meet some lovely people online through commerce, blogging or 2.0 - shame others want to do the opposite. Guess online and offline aren't so different after all.

Actions speak louder than words

2008-04-08T08:11:00.000-07:00

You can have the best ad campaign money can buy, but falter on customer service, and you've had it. Which is why I'm so glad to be singing praises of brands that have woken up to the fact that what you do outweighs what you say by a mile. (FYI for the record, brands who don't do the above include HSBC, Orange and B&Q - but I won't go there).

No, my gold stars go to Ebay and Lastminute.com. Firstly Last Minute. When I called them to make a query the FIRST option on the autoresponce was 'Refunds or complaints'. Do you know how rare that is? To give you an example, Orange put thier 'to leave Orange' option right at the bottom of the list - quite infuriatingly when you realise the call is already costing you a tenner!

That's a basic one that made me smile (not that I was ringing lastminute to complain may I add). They even emailed me straight after suggesting I give feedback on the call I just made. Shame the multiple choice feedback form didn't have a space for blog URLs that talk about the experience - can't have everything. The fact that they sent me a bespoke email suggesting things to do on my 2 day break to Paris, acknowledging how hard it is to pick things to do in such a short time frame, more than makes up for it.

The other example is Ebay. I sold (or tried to sell) my first item on Ebay. (It's still not gone, and that pair of Uggs I want seem further out of my reach - and budget). But the first time round it didn't sell I got this:

How fantastic. I know it's in their best interests that I re-sell but this little bit of encouragement really gave me the push I needed. Well done I say!

Just a thought...

2008-04-08T07:58:00.000-07:00

Rather than just claiming to be 'friend orientated', how cool [and useful] would it be if mobile phone service providers sent itemised bills with friends/ contacts names down the side rather than just thier numbers,that you painfully have to check when a high bill comes through?

Perfect Sunday Night TV

2008-03-11T04:00:00.000-07:00

For me Sunday (maybe even Monday) television should be all about escapism, feeling cosy and fed and above all watching no depressing TV which will contribute to your Monday blues. The BBC is doing a great job of this; and I have to say compared to a year ago, thier choice of programming and digital enablement for consumers has really impressed me. The fact it's a public service means everything it does should be consumer centric - and I really believe they're in a much better place to say that everything they're doing, is.

Sunday night presented an entertaining but also semi-educational program on the rise and fall of the ad men. Fair enough its relevant for me but I watched it with an accountant and he too found it enjoyable. Did it make me wish I was doing my job in the 70s/80s? Yes. But did it also shed light on the way TV ads are viewed in our culture and why that is? Yes.

For me its all about a sence of loss. Loss of family TV not being what it was, pop culture not producing the icons it did do, and cultural references not being as endearing (watch Peter Kay and you'll get where I'm at).

And I also think that of ads. I love what digital has brought to our lives, but please throw me another Nescafe soap opera, or a Papa Nicole! Have you noticed how 80s/90s ads have reappeared recently unedited? Aquafresh & Crunchie?

What this show, well showed, was that ads back then had SO many British [often northern] cultural refs (Hovis for eg) so much pop culture internally that everyone felt cuddled by them, they were a talking point. Because of the wonderful prolification we have now, main stream culture has kind of gone down the pan. Think of groups at school. Once you had cool and geeky. Now you have fashionistas, goths, kooky smart kids, skater kids, rocky kids etc etc. And the fact we embrace US culture has also meant we've lost grip on our own British culture (although that would alienate old school Levis ads which I have NO problem ever resurfacing girls). Gordon Brown wants a public holiday dedicated to this Britishness btw! So the fact times have changed has shown me why I may never see a pedistal ad again, but you never know - Monkey from PG Tips isn't bad.

Star gazing ...or is that squinting?

2008-03-07T03:23:00.000-08:00

Working in digital and being a wanabee planner my two favourite things are spotting trends and keeping up with new techonlogy as much a possible. One thing that I've never been amazingly confident on however, is Mobile. Being fortunate enough to know someone who works on a mobile brand I have had the joy of now understanding what is to come a bit more clearly.

Like most people I know, I've always feared using my handset to browse the web for cost reasons (I'm not considering business blackberry handsets here). And the reason for this is that it's just not transparent as to how its done, with words flying around like GPRS and G3 - it just doesn't seem worth the hassle. Having said that if I did have a brand spelling it out to me, for a reasonable price (preferably free) I'd love to use it. Apple have done this with the iPhone, very cleverly - because the concept is simple: use the web for free, like when you use it on your iPod touch. No doubt the handsets will fiercly drop in price, even more so when Google Android is released.

Android will be a piece of software that all handset brands and service providers will want to use (other than Nokia - big mistake) so that thier customers can browse the web free and easily, and talk to eachother digitally (at the moment that isn't the case, think PC and Macs). And its coming soon, the implications of which are HUGE (namely social networking structuring, brand opps and time management).

Not only that but buttons on handsets will soon be a thing of the past, as every manaufacturer is turning to what the iPhone has done which is just a load of software [displaying phone like characteristics]and no real handset! LG Chocolate, the Prada phone, iPhone etc. (We'll probably see this on work/ home phones too)The lines are blurring as to just HOW much we can/ will do all from our phones, seems to me pretty much everything is the answer - customers just need to be educated in it a bit more.

Finally something I saw O2 are doing which is both techologically relevant but also beautifully insightful (not sure which came first in development), is thier Blue Book. All O2 contract customers will automatically have all messages and contacts saved online. This is so strong because people like my Mum hate to delete special messages from kids and loved ones, spending hours deliberating over it! Or likewise from ex partners. The environmental implications are also great however, as people can now feel comfortable recycling old handsets, for no fear that thier messages are lost on an old sim card with an old provider. Its an exciting time.

Impossible is nothing...but something's got to give

2008-03-06T02:44:00.000-08:00

It seems that thanks to reality TV anything is possible. Fame (big bro); entreprenurialism (dragon's den); modelling careers (find me the face/ next top model); becoming a chef (hells kitchen USA); becoming a fashion designer (project catwalk); launching a pop/ rock career (X factor; mobile act unsigned) etc etc. But where will it end?

I'm all up for giving opportunity to those who haven't been as lucky in life to have supportive parents and good schools, but then hey I don't think Madonna came out of NYU with a 1st either! Ashamed as I am to say it, I actually feel threatened where this trend will lead next. So far it's all been in fairly glamorous sectors, which is why I'm wondering if PR or Advertising are next on the list. BMB already featured on Coleen's real women! Will agencies like mine have camera crews running around with June Sarpong cackling in the foreground while bitchy applicants fight to the death for a role in the industry. Maybe it does seem far fetched, but when will it end?

Experiment

2008-02-20T04:03:00.001-08:00

I'm testing this new Windows Live software that allows you to blog from your Hotmail/ MSN account. A bit fascinated about transferability of social media at the moment - it's my week off I'm allowed to be a geek.

2008-02-08T09:03:00.001-08:00

Messy Desk Mania

2008-01-25T07:52:00.000-08:00

3953. That is how many people are in groups across Facebook and Flickr dedicated to pictures of messy desks. The 2 style editors of Heat desks are the best:

I don't know what it is about these pictures that intregues me, and obviously so many others, the most. Could be the following:

1) Your desk is your home away from home. People spend 40% of thier week at work, most people meet thier life partner as a result - it's basically a space as important to you as your kitchen! Therefore people love a good old nose looking at other people's 'work homes'. (PS women spend 8 years of thier life shopping - gotta love that stat).

2) The sheer number of objects and the curiosity to know what the story behind each thing is. It's a bit like the carousel at Yo Sushi, I don't really want to eat each thing but the number of objects mean I have to keep staring at it! I love the fact you can tag inanimate objects, see below - telling little stories behind each thing if you wanted to!

3) The Nigella-ness of it all. Standing proud and saying: I'm not perfect, I hate cleaning - take me or leave me.

4) Finally there's the opportunity to show off - or is that just me? Champagne from Channel 4 is a must tag surely?

But this is why 2.0 is so great, stupid stuff like this that people can either empathise with oneanother about or just have a good giggle over. My ingenious lady friend has got her own site which contains pop star's feet which she's photographed and accompanying notes for each (combining her 2 fave hobbies of course - pop and shoes). Pointless. Brilliant.

Sign-Up Detox

2008-01-24T09:45:00.000-08:00

Like anyone leaving thier job and finding a new [vocational] home I'm as emotional as the next person would be. That is until I realised I'd made the fatal error of allowing myself to sign up to different sites with different email addresses, work and personal. Then I was REALLY erratic. I had to go through every site, newsletter, social network and customer service email I'd ever received noting down username, password, and email for each one - and make sure I changed my address to my hotmail account. (My fault totally I know). But do you know by the time I wrote them all down I counted a total of 70 different sites!...That's about 50 various newsletters!

How can anyone possibly read in detail all of those? I'll tell you, they can't! So I've decided to unsubscribe from as many as possible only leaving those most important to my life/ work and make sure i scan them ALL. So many different pieces of communication all flooding my inbox on a daily basis, I'm still in disbelief. A few planning/ techy newsletters I signed up to are HUGE - and seeing how tiny my scroll bar gets when I open them is enough to put me off. And no matter how much I tell myself I really am learning from them...I'm not.

Which is why I've decided to start up a Beer & Technology night. Once a month, me, anyone else who's interested, and a load of developers and animators who I have befriended, talking about the cutting edge applications, browsers, games, sites - anything that excites them, over a good bevvie! My lecturers always told us you remember 'stuff' more when you talk about it, rather than read it, so let's test that hypothesis. I'll report when the first one is going to be.

"One day little digital children and little advertising children will play together" - Iain Tait, founder of Poke

2008-01-17T06:42:00.001-08:00

So having been in the Digital camp for 1 year and 6 months I have consistently felt under pressure from my peers to favour and love digital more than above the line - specifically TV. The only alternative would have been to feel ashamed and shunned, much like admitting you've made friends with a geek at school. Indeed my professional home has in my opinion been slightly facist in it's view that digital has meant that advertisisers are no longer puppeteers controlling drones of audiences in a 1984 Orwellian state, and has given people power to fight back. I'm not so sure it's that extreme.

First and foremost let me say I adore my job and digital as a channel (if you can even call it that it's so broad). But I'll put my neck on the chopping block and say when I was a little girl it was the classic Levi's and Wrigley's ads of the 80's and Nescafe Gold blend soap-opera ads of the early 90s which kicked off my love affair with advertising.

Iain Tait did a fantasitc presentation on '10 reasons why digital is better than advertising', all of which I'd agree with but in my opinion what matters here is that we nourish the love consumer's have with a brand - that brand's story, and what we ought to be thinking is, 'what vehicle is best/ necessary' to tell that story?'. It may be digital is best, it may be that digital isn't required. (Cue sound of tomatoes being thrown).

2 good examples of this are Heinz and Sainsbury's. When Nikki Crumpton assesed Heinz's business problem she looked at it as a category not a queue of single products. She concluded that the cateogry didn't look appetising it looked manufactured. They key was that people saw it as NATURAL. And so the ad was born of the Ketchup bottle built up of sliced tomatoes. Beautiful, tells the part of the story that's needed to solve the business problem and is the required vehicle. Sainsburys had multiple [own brand] lines which weren't selling as time poor Mums were scurrying round supermarkets, not paying attention to detail. So, TV spots highlighting quick recipes you could do with those lines were born, coupled with the fact those ingredients were then placed at the end of every isle. Bingo.
Even Les Binet shocked everyone by saying that young people aren't watching any less TV than before:

View Upload your own

Young people have ALWAYS watched less than adults and the only difference is that it's fragmented watching. This only spells trouble for media companies not marketing agencies.

So let's not scare monger too much, I think there's room in the world for Digital and Advertising.

I heart Channel 5

2008-01-16T09:08:00.000-08:00

Ok not really, but the Gadget show is sooooo cool. Gold nugget of information for those who work in the digital side of comms or those who just need to keep abreast of it in ABL agencies - WATCH THIS SHOW!

In one episode the team showed how you could use Google earth to generate a flight simulator from JFK and hook it up to a games console (think how fun this could be for certain brands); and unbiasly interrogated how great the iPhone is (or not so great - only 2 megapixels inthe camera, which is five years behind, no sat nav gps and no video recorder), concluding that the whole point of iPhone is that its beautiful and everyone will stop you to look at it - that's it's honest selling point.

What's great about the show however is that there is minimal levels of jargon - and rightly so as it's aired on a Saturday morning when no-one wants to think too hard. Sales pitch over.

Don't promise if you can't deliver!

2008-01-16T07:13:00.000-08:00

No I'm not talking about men, I'm talking about brands. The other day I read a thought provoking article by Amelia Torode (a great Planner at VCCP) all about 'Chatty Packaging', if you want to be really Harvardian she was in fact citing Marmalade magazine, but anyway...

In a nutshell the arguement was that brands who don't suit the buddyish, chatty tone of that which Innocent smoothies has been the Pied Piper of, SHOULDN'T TRY! (Unless they want to risk 'looking like an embarrassing uncle wearing his nephews clothes'). I read this while sipping tea one non-eventful Thursday afternoon and agreed with myself that she was right.

But alas I found myself being quite fickle when yesterday this exact type of communication crept up on me in the form of...a hard drive! I'll keep the brand anonymous, but let's just say it isn't particularly well known when first encountered. I know very little of hard drives and actually bought it in attept to free up some room on my laptop (aka offload a tonne of illegal downloads from my student days) to speed it up*.

Now I have to admit the look of the hardrive was pretty sexy, orange and black and very compact in size - like the Nokia of the hardrive world I guess, but no sooner did I open the box when the wrapping containg the leads had a sticker on which said 'Hello' - I didn't know wires could talk! I then opened the minimalist manual - again very chatty, in an Innocent style font/ colour pallette & tone of voice.

So at this point I felt like a traitor to lovely Amelia as i found myself enjoying the experience of being spoken to ever so sweetly by a hard-drive, wow I thought this is great. A brand that can talk to and empower, (loosely used verb), girls, without being barbie-fied or washed in magenta (another good point which Belinda Parmar makes on her blog). But no, the happiness didn't last, when the product unlike the packaging wasn't easy, and fast to figure out and enjoyable in nature. It didnt work. And I was sent off to a self help website online. Something I'm not looking forward to doing when I get home tonight and will probably put off for a better option like watching Nigella Express.

Fair enough I don't necessarily think Microsoft's packaging is better than Apple's, but at least you know what you're getting: 'Information' not 'sexy & cute'. So my final viewpoint is probably what Amelia was saying all along...as a brand if you can get away with it, go nuts! Take the 'me too' strategy and become all cute and chatty. But if it doesn't suit you or if the product can't deliver...shut up!

*In an ironic twist I secretly hoped this wouldn't resolve the problem as I would then have an excuse to convert to the church of Mac Notebooks and feel much more whole as a human bieng as a result (for all of one month at least) - Barbara Kruger bugger off!