Church of the Customer: Advertising archives
August 23, 2007
The $100 million boob job
The WSJ asked a rhetorical question today:
Can a splashy ad campaign featuring the likes of domestic entrepreneur Martha Stewart, tycoon Donald Trump and singer-actress Jessica Simpson help revive Macy's sagging fortunes?
No.
Even if they spend $100 million on advertising.
In one of those "what are they thinking" efforts, Macy's really is going to spend $100 million to saturate us with already over-saturated celebrities to profess how they now love Macy's. $100 million.
The real solution, of course, is that only improved word of mouth from thousands of existing customers, not a bushel of shill-happy celebrities will turn Macy's around. Or any retailer whose fortunes are sagging.
Such an effort requires a holistic and coordinated effort from operations, design, human resources and marketing. It requires an unwavering belief from the CEO and a company-wide can-do spirit. It's a lot of work.
That's the problem. It also requires significant changes in culture and personnel. That's why it'll be easier to blame the CMO or the ad agency when revenues worsen or better yet, take the $20 million severance package when the board shows you the door.
May 25, 2007
Chicken Little pecks again
Citizen-created content is "stressful, costly and time-consuming"... for the brand.
That's the latest fear-mongering about citizen-created content that has wormed its way into the pages of the New York Times. As the paper did with the advent of blogging a few years ago, the NYT is following the journalistic recipe of inciting fear about subjects for which it does not understand. (I worked at a big-city newspaper for eight years and saw this wide-eyed fear writing all the time.)
Don't be too surprised if the pitch for this particular story came from the ad agency owner who's quoted in the piece. Message-creating agencies are threatened most by sharing power and influence with citizen-participants. The loss of control is threatening, but nothing will stop the democratization of participation. There's too much broadband and too many cellphones and laptops and too many people accustomed the idea of sharing their opinions. Better to accept it now than two or three years from now when an upstart gains marketshare because it embraced participation and all of its quirks.
So to the people at Heinz who are in the midst of hosting a citizen-created ad contest, ignore the noobs. Your contest is not about "creating great advertising." It's giving everyday people a voice and a vocation. Those two tactics alone generate word of mouth. Just scrolling through some of the entries I watched 10 different ads for Heinz. Isn't that the idea? Trust me, none of them harmed my impression of your ketchup.
Press on with your experiment and use it as the foundation for building relationships that bypass the black holes of sales channels. Not everything submitted to your contest is going to look polished, like it came from an agency.
Which is precisely the idea.
February 04, 2007
Neither can we
"I can't even imagine having that much money in my life and then to spend it on one 30-second spot."
-- Katie Crabb, after winning a contest to design an ad that costs $2.6 million to air during the Super Bowl, as told to the Associated Press
January 15, 2007
“Ubiquity is the new exclusivity"
That's how one ad person sees the world, as quoted today in the NY Times ("Anywhere the Eye Can See, It's Likely to See an Ad"). The average American is now exposed to about 5,000 ad messages per day, but that's not enough for an ad person who sees the world through the sights of a shotgun and the rest of us as ducks.
If all of the natural spaces in the world also prominently feature billboards, stickers or posters, that's a fait accompli to the believer in ubiquity. The common good is someone else's problem. Oh wait, that's the new exclusivity.
If radio ads meant to be played specifically for children on school buses helps put food on someone's table, or some other tired excuse, then the moral trade-off of marketing to a captive audience simply becomes ambiguous. Besides, everyone else is doing it.
A company that waterboards society and its culture with advertising is an organization that not only lacks imagination and creative skill but is probably incapable of creating or maintaining any kind of meaningful relationship.
Like a sociopath.
July 26, 2006
What Microsoft is probably thinking
Fun with Photoshop! See more citizen-hacked ads here.
April 24, 2006
Orbit White gum cult
Wanna join a cult?
Wrigley has one for you, and it's all about the magical powers of gum.
If that sounds beyond cheesy, that's the idea. The "Friends of Brightness" cult is led by cheeky host Rob Anthony (a takeoff of Anthony Robbins). Rob is a hybrid video/animated character who leads you through the microsite and "into the brightness" of teeth whitening promises made by the chewing gum Orbit White.
The site is certainly campy like a B movie, and the animation technology features some tasty eye candy. After "joining" the cult and uploading a photo of yourself, the site dresses you in a white choir mumu and, of course, gives you teeth so white it'll cause lens-flare.
While fun, the site also illustrates the barriers that some brands have yet to cross with their viral marketing efforts. What's missing are larger social media conventions, such as:
- Creating sub-networks, such as the composited photos being uploaded to Flickr or displayed on the Orbit site for everyone to view and comment on.
- Spreading Rob Anthony's video/animated (a vidanime?) character to YouTube or video sharing sites with a link to the microsite.
- Allowing the "cult" members to connect with one another via their own profiles. A site like this could open the door for Wrigley to build and foster a community of Orbiteers and grant access to end customers in a way the corporate confectioneer has probably not had before.
(Via WOMMA)
April 20, 2006
More marketing money for blogs, RSS
Devoting marketing resources to blogs, RSS and social networks is most popular among consumer products and media/communications companies, and the least attractive to financial services firms
That's according to the 2006 Interactive Marketing & Media Fact Pack report (PDF) from AdAge. Also worth noting: in 2006, 40% of marketers surveyed say they'll "definitely" spend money on adding RSS feeds. Only 10% say they'll spend money on product placement in video games.
Technorati tags: email blogs RSS advertising
April 15, 2006
Advertising on citizen marketing
It's bound to happen: As citizen marketing grows in reach and influence, companies will find it an irresistible outlet for advertising.
The Center for Media Research says companies in 2005 spent about $20 million advertising on citizen marketing (nay, user-generated media). The center projects that amount will grow at a compound rate of 106% per year, reaching $757 million by 2010.
Technology companies were the biggest spenders, followed by the auto industry and then, interestingly, media companies.
Big media advertising on niche-oriented citizen media... ironic but indicative of the quickening bottom-up evolution.
(Via Buzzmachine)
April 09, 2006
Amazon launches online webinars
How's this for disruption: Amazon is getting into the webinar business.
This week, the online retailer will host its first-ever "virtual seminar," a 90-minute online confab with author Patrick Lencioni.
It's a great idea to have authors do live appearances on the site, nestled naturally among Amazon's stacks of books, especially for authors and artists who have new releases. It almost certainly would be a mandatory stop for anyone on a PR tour.
A bit startling, though, is this webinar's price: $199.
Should be interesting to see how it works out.
March 22, 2006
Cultural relevance vs. customer relevance
Troy of Organic's 3 Minds blog writes of the confusing times marketers live in these days, especially for the challenger brands. What if you're not very remarkable?
Is the solution more-clever advertising? Branded content? Paid placements in reality shows?
Troy goes through the list and rightfully wonders what results these new advertising hybrids actually deliver. Some marketers spend millions praying for a shortcut to cultural relevance.
But Troy helps illustrate the missing objective from many marketers' game plans: building relationships with people who already love your stuff.
What's remarkable these days is any organization that nurtures a community of fans. Their products may not be a mind-blowing as the iPod, the current standard by which most products are surely measured these days, but your product probably won't be a disruptive influence in the cultural lives of 40 million people, either.
However, you, or your product, or your service are probably loved by many more people than you imagine. How else could you stay in business?
Go find them.
Technorati Tags: Advertising, Marketing, Relevance
