Local Wine Lingo

Almost two-thirds of us are apparently baffled by wine speak. To make vino more accessible Spar is using local dialects on its wine labels. Their Merlot with the label written in 'Scottish dialect' for example, above. And here are passages of the article in the Guardian about it:

Bewildered by talk of "blackcurrant top notes"? Baffled by "bouquets"? Unsure if "long legs" are a good thing in a glass of wine? Retailer Spar is claiming today that 64% of shoppers are intimidated by the labels on the back of wine bottles.

So what is it doing to help confused consumers get the perfect wine to complement Sunday's roast dinner? Relabelling the bottles with plain English versions? Offering definitions of common terms to buyers? Umm, no. It is slapping on labels written in "local dialects" – and yes they are as bad as they sound.

Fortunately, just one of its wines – a £4.99 Merlot – is getting the treatment. The descriptions have been "translated" into eight different local dialects, including geordie, Brummie and scouse.

Geordie wine label: 'A canny Merlot ableeze wi succulent blackcurrants'. So instead of a straightforward plain English description of what you might find when you pour yourself a glass, if you are in Somerset you get this: "Alright my luvver, eers one helluva Merlot. Be stinkin hummin a sivvies thar be bleddy ansome wi yaw croust or oggy. Purfect ta share wi yaw pardy as i' aiin ta eavy. Mygar be a purdy wine! Churs!"

While in Liverpool you are promised: "A totally boss bottle of Merlot which smells o' blackberry, choccie, a brew and toffees. Juicy and complex like, this bevey is top wi most scran 'specially me ma's scouse. Tellin ye, this is deffo a bevey that will leave youz and youz mates made up over yez Sayers pastie."

As well as being borderline unintelligible, the descriptions also include what might be considered baffling wine-speak, albeit with a regional accent. In Newcastle consumers are told the wine has "legs leik a thoroughbred", while in Scotland the label describes "a youngane's colour wi cherries an black fruit on the nose" – if you can't understand that in English, is it really any clearer now?

A spokeswoman for Spar denies the labels are patronising. "Local shopkeepers and suppliers came up with the dialect – it's not come from central office or from a computer," she insists. "We know that people don't really talk like this – we just wanted to make wine buying accessible and fun." She says the wine is genuinely on sale at 50 stores and could be rolled out if the reaction is favourable.

Spar's wine controller, Laura Jewell, adds: "Ultimately our wines will speak for themselves, but in the meantime it's time to speak people's language." Let's hope they don't have too many bottles in the cellar.

This is not the first time a company has tried to harness local accents to attract attention – earlier this year, ATM provider Bank Machine launched cockney cash machines.Fingers crossed it's the last.

I think it rather amusing, and ironic that impenetrable wine lingo has been replaced with impenetrable dialect speak (which I am not sure is for writing anyway!).

Get Out Of My Face

I don't like it when brand represenatives try to make that extra sale when I don't want it.

I don't like it when the server at Starbucks asks me if I want a blueberry muffin with my cappuccino even though I am standing in front of them and quite clearly haven't asked for one with my order.I like it even less when a group of "volunteers" from Friends of the Earth, a brand I previously had a lot of time for, were virtually patrolling the pavements on Victoria Street, accosting pedestrians, some of whom were clearly not interested, and trying to get them to sign up. When I approached one of them with my camera phone pointing in their direction they scarpered and hid. I suggested to them they were not doing their brand any favours by engaging with the public in such an aggressive way and would be better off having something which 'gave' to the pass public; music, some speakers, etc.

I like it even less when what is being fostered on me seems to make no sense. I went to the gym yesterday for a quick lunchtime swim. I gave the receptionist my gym membership card and a pound deposit for the towel before going through the turnstile when the receptionist turned to me and said "Would you like a drink?"

Now I understand why, even if I don't care for it, the server at Starbucks would ask me if I would like a muffin when I order a cappaccuino, or a shoeshop salesperson would ask me if I would like some polish or a shoe tree when I buy a pair of shoes, but I asking me if I want a drink when I going to have a swim, well that is a bit of a stretch. I didn't like it. I told him I didn't want a drink but I would like a swim.

These brands just don't do themselves any favors by trying to make that extra sale. Perhaps the numbers DO add up. It would interesting to find out if these staff prompts actually generate enough sales to justify the little bit of sales training required to push today's hot sell AND overcome the level of negativity they will be building up around the brand.

In contrast, I was walking through St. Pancras/Kings Cross station a few days ago. There were a few Gt. Ormond St. volunteers dotted around the station concourse (never more than one, not a pack like Friends of the Earth folk) holding a bucket into which they wanted passers by to put their cash. They didn't make a sound. They stood still and just waited.

I immediately put all my change into one of the buckets and told him of my encounter with the Friends of the Earth "volunteers" in Victoria. He replied, sagely, "they are probably on commission".

Signage

From NJ. A very old-fashioned way of addressing young-fashioned people. I suspect it was not the best way to get this message across to this target group.

Account Planning Group Article

Another article I tracked down. This one is from 2002 and appears on the Account Planning Group's website.

- - - - - - - - - -

Media-neutral planning - what is it?

Christian Barnett, Board Account Planner, Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe/Y&R
This paper focuses on three key areas for discussion: firstly, what an agency delivers to ensure a media-neutral campaign, secondly, what the optimum agency-client structure to make integrated campaigns a reality, and thirdly the implications for the agency team composition.

What the Agency delivers

It is important to deliver more than just the written definition of the 'creative idea', and the advertising campaign. There needs to be an entire 'brand language' which includes definition of the idea in a conceptual, linguistic (literally examples of headlines and copy) and a visual way. The last is particularly important as many integrated campaigns rely on a visual synergy to hold them together, especially in media such as packaging, trade merchandising, and other in-store design.

The best approach to developing a 'brand language' is by means of a specifically tailored 'style guide'. This ensures that an integrated solution can be implemented not just sold. The style guide contains examples of how the campaign is intended to work in various media (TV, outdoor, print, on-line, trade, in-store, etc.). The idea, the visual look, the language and other executional elements are dissected and explained so that they can be easily reproduced.

The skill lies in being able to produce an integrated campaign that has an idea and a look. An idea with no look is difficult to replicate in many of the static media. A look with no idea becomes hard to execute in a dynamic media such as TV.

As a result, a clear distinction is made between the integrated campaign style guide and a traditional graphic designer's brand book. The latter may establish a visual look but can be very difficult to create advertising to.

What is the optimum Agency-Client 'Structure'

Some agency-client structures are more helpful than others at facilitating media-neutral campaigns. The least helpful scenario is that where a client keeps its agencies in separate 'silos'. The different agency disciplines are kept at arm's length, thereby stacking the odds against integrated thinking and solutions.

On the agency side, the least helpful scenario is one in which the agency develops an idea, shows how it works in advertising and hands the execution back over to the client. It is then up to the client to make it work in other media. Often the idea will not have been rigorously road-tested inside the agency and collapses as soon as it is taken to another media, either through insufficient skill in the transportation or because another agency has its own ideas and scuppers the 360 solution. A more typical scenario is when the client selects a number of specialist agencies. This way of working enables the client to pick 'best of breed' agencies, but it is reliant on the different agencies working closely together, something which at best requires considerable managing. In addition, best of breed agencies with their own client contract will want to impress so it is only natural that conflicts arise. This form of client-agency structure can have huge pluses; genuine integration from best of breed, but can easily go off the rails.

Another favourable scenario is the client who wants a genuine one-stop agency solution. A good example of this at RKCR/Y&R is the LEGO account. The LEGO Company had too many agency relationships around the world and saw a one stop global agency as a way to create totally integrated campaigns coming from one brand. Their brief included an integral role for media planning as part of the central creative function even though they already had regional media planning in place. They recognised that to speak with one brand voice throughout the world a one-team solution was the best way forward.

To get truly integrated ideas it is preferable to have all the disciplines under one agency roof, all working for the same agency team and pulling together. This ultimately means creative teams from different disciplines being briefed and working side by side, inputting ideas into each other's discipline in campaign development.

This thinking carries over to media planning: account planners and media planners work side by side to produce creative briefs and media shapes and then work together with creative teams to develop the best creative route.

Ironically, this structure is like a return to a full service agency, as it works better when all key parties are in the same building. The LEGO account pitch saw the RKCR/Y&R team working with the interactive specialists (2.1), the communications planning team (TME 360), and so on. All the constituent parts of the team were literally a stone's throw from each other so it was easy to 'roll' ideas on in real time rather than have lots of lumbering set piece meetings which can confuse and impede progress.

Implications for composition of agency team

Inevitably, the above has implications for the agency team composition. Creative teams need to be open to other creative teams, from different disciplines, working with them. Media planning needs to be brought into the process earlier as a 'guide' for the media shape. Non-traditional, non-silo thinking is essential and can be generated by including non-traditional, non-silo people. There is likely to be a big visual component, so significant art direction /design is required. But above very clear strategic and creative direction is required to keep the creative development process on the rails!

The Wall Street Journal Superbowl 2007

Another one of those "if I don't keep this here, I might not keep it anywhere" posts. I was interviewd, with Jill Applebaum, for the Wall Street Journal coverage of the 2007 Superbowl. The game itself is on a Sunday, but we were shown the ads and interviewed on the Saturday at the WSJ offices in downtown Manhattan. I remember it being very cold and very windy

- - - - - - - - - -

Advertising Super Bowl Advertisers Play It for Laughs --- Anheuser-Busch, Nationwide Seen as Hits With Humor; A Big Fumble by Flomax
By Suzanne Vranica 1,809 words 5 February 2007 The Wall Street Journal B1 English (Copyright (c) 2007, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.)

Slap-happy men, a celebrity bad boy and a feel-good Coke ad won the game within the game during Super Bowl XLI, impressing ad-industry pros and consumers, and showing once again that humor is the best way to grab viewers' attention during the gridiron classic.
Anheuser-Busch Cos., in particular, produced a series of ads that resonated among a group of ad executives and consumers who talked with The Wall Street Journal after seeing the Super Bowl ads. Among the most popular was a Bud Light spot, crafted by Omnicom Group Inc.'s DDB, showing a string of men slapping each other. The ad was "one of the favorites of the game," says Greg Yeadon, a 28-year-old student at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management in Evanston, Ill., who was watching the game with a group of 36 students and faculty.

"It is something I can imagine catching on like other Bud ads have in the past, like the 'Whassup' stuff," says Kristi Bridges, creative director at the Sawtooth Group ad agency in New Jersey, referring to the popular Budweiser ads that ran in 2000.

Despite the standouts, this year's Super Bowl ads overall didn't live up to the hype surrounding them. Even a surprise CBS Corp. promo managed to outshine some of the big-spending advertisers. The spot showed Indianapolis native David Letterman, wearing a Colts jersey, and Chicago resident Oprah Winfrey, sporting a Bears jersey -- snuggling on a couch. "It is one of the best things I've seen so far," says Christopher Celeste, a 41-year-old who works at a technology startup in Cleveland.

About 90 million viewers in the U.S. were expected to watch the game on CBS, an audience far bigger than any other television broadcast attracts. Advertisers paid as much as $2.6 million for 30-second spots, confident that viewers would pay special attention to the commercial breaks. More than half of U.S. adults who watch the Super Bowl do so as much or more for the commercials as for the game itself, according to a survey conducted by Harris Interactive Inc. for Hanon McKendry/The Brand Consultants.

While Anheuser-Busch is an old hand at producing winning Super Bowl ads, Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. catapulted into that territory for the first time with an ad starring Kevin Federline
-- wannabe rapper and singer Britney Spears's soon-to-be ex-husband -- as a worker in a fast-food joint. The idea: Be prepared with an annuity if life throws you a surprise blow. "I loved it. Insurance and pop culture together -- now that's an accomplishment," says Jon Bond, cochairman, Kirshenbaum Bond + Partners. Interpublic Group's TM Advertising created the ad.
Successfully tying into the country's obsession with celebrity, Nationwide's ad managed to generate millions in free publicity over the past three weeks.

Early polling on WSJ.com had Coke ads and Bud Light's classroom spot leading the pack.
Coca-Cola Co., returning to the Super Bowl after an eight-year hiatus, was the clear winner of a much-anticipated matchup with its archrival and prolific big game advertiser PepsiCo Inc., ad executives said. "Coke was brilliantly done --superb," raves Christian Barnett, an ad executive at Brand Buzz, a unit of WPP Group's Young & Rubicam.

Even though Coke's ads have aired in recent weeks on Fox's "American Idol," and lacked the advantage of surprise, they still captured the attention of advertising experts and viewers last night -- good news for Coke, which has struggled with lackluster advertising in recent years. One, made to look like a videogame, showed an ominous looking do-gooder character passing out Coke to the people he meets while the other whimsical spot reveals what happens inside a Coca-Cola vending machine. "It made me feel good," says Steve Archer, a 52-year-old vice president at a financial firm in St. Louis, Mo. Both spots were crafted by Wieden + Kennedy.

In contrast, PepsiCo's ads promoting Sierra Mist brand were seen as generally missing the humor mark, though one, featuring a man with a freaky-looking beard comb-over, did leave some chuckling. Pepsi sponsored the half-time show.

User-generated ads -- those created by consumers, rather than ad agencies --created a buzz. Maybe the biggest winner of the night was 21-year-old Dale Backus, an amateur filmmaker who won Doritos' contest for a member of the public to produce a Super Bowl commercial. Doritos are made by Pepsico's Frito-Lay.

In the latest example of how the user-generated content trend has swept Madison Avenue, Doritos revealed the winner publicly only when the ad aired. The high quality of the spot, featuring a guy getting into a car accident, had some on Madison Avenue a bit nervous. "It's kind of scary that a consumer can come up with stuff that good," says Simeon Roane, executive creative director at the New York office of Publicis USA, a unit of Publicis Groupe.
Doritos seemed to agree. Yesterday, the company announced that the top five finalists in the contest would run on national television through March. The company also decided at the last moment to air the runner-up in the contest -- a funny ad showing a supermarket checkout girl
- during the Super Bowl broadcast. Also tapping into the user-generated phenomenon was General Motors Corp.'s Chevrolet, whose ad originated with an idea proposed by Katie Crabb -- a freshman at University of Wisconsin. But the spot was a bit more polished than that of Doritos, because Chevy's ad firm helped to produce it. The commercial featured a group of girls in a Chevy HHR, a retro-style miniwagon, enjoying watching their car being washed by a group of half-naked men who can't seem to take their hands off the car.

All Super Bowl advertisers, though, had a tough task trying to drown out Anheuser-Busch, which aired a total of nine ads for Budweiser, Bud Light and Bud Select. The brewer's Super Bowl ads are routinely among the most popular with viewers and this year was no exception among the group of advertising executives. Among the spots generating a positive reaction was one heartfelt spot featuring a dog making his dreams come true and another funny ad showing a game of rock-paper-scissors. Another spot showing Latino comic Carlos Mencia teaching English to a room of immigrants was a particular crowd-pleaser.

"I love the spot, it was hysterical," says Holly Ross, a 39-year-old who was watching the game in Cincinnati.

One spot that is likely to generate much water-cooler discussion today is Mars Inc.'s ad for Snickers, featuring two mechanics sharing the candy bar -- in what is a somewhat bizarre spin on the famous scene from "Lady and the Tramp," where two dogs simultaneously eat the same strand of spaghetti.

"Its very funny but also disturbing on so many levels," says Mark DiMassimo, CEO of DiMassimo Goldstein in New York.

General Motors won the battle of the automotive titans. Its ad, via Interpublic's Deutsch, featuring a robot that dreams about losing his job, got high marks from advertising executives for using a different approach to the typical car ad that shows cars speeding around curvy roads. Many said the ad was "epic" but some predicted the spot would rub certain viewers the wrong way. "How many folks in Detroit were put out of work because of robots?" asks Rob Feakins, president and chief creative officer of the New York office of Publicis USA.

The hype surrounding Super Bowl ads has raised expectations of viewers about what they will see -- making it difficult to please audiences. And overall, this year's crop of ads fell a bit short. "The game is better than the ads for a change," says Michigan State University advertising professor Bruce Vanden Bergh. Ad folks blame the lackluster output on the larger number of marketers who jumped into the game late in the process and either ran ads that had been seen before or ran new ads that weren't designed specifically for the Super Bowl. "If you are going to pay that price tag, you better go big," Mr. DiMassimo added.

Honda Motor Co., for instance, ran two ads that have aired before. Revlon Inc. jumped into the game only in recent weeks, producing a new spot starring singer Sheryl Crow -- but one that wasn't designed specifically for the Super Bowl. Some ad executives gave the company credit for entering the male-dominated arena --its ad promoted a new women's hair-coloring product.
Also disappointing were several advertisers that have previously scored big in the Super Bowl, including FedEx Corp., Careerbuilder.com and E*Trade Financial.

FedEx, which scored strongly last year with an ad set in the Stone Age, this year went for a moon setting. But the ad, created by Omnicom Group Inc.'s BBDO, didn't measure up. "It was a big ad but it doesn't pay off," says Brand Buzz's Mr. Barnett. "Last year's dinosaur ad was so much better." Still, the package-delivery giant didn't entirely flame out.

Another ad that exaggerated the saying "it's not what it seems" managed to get some points. The spot was "amusing and fun," says Jeff Kling, executive creative director of the New York office of Havas SA's Euro RSCG.

Also drawing some grumbling this year was Careerbuilder.com, the online job site jointly owned by the newspaper publishers Gannett Co., McClatchy Co. and Tribune Co. It has pleased viewers in recent years with Super Bowl spots showing offices where monkeys sat working at desks, but this year the company left its monkeys behind in favor of such spots as one showing office workers fighting hand-to-hand over a promotion. "Where are the chimps?" says Mr. Roane.
But the biggest fumble of the night come from Flomax, the prostate drug from Boehringer Ingelheim Corp. The spot, which described the drug's side effects as including a "decrease in semen," showed men competing in a bike race. Ad executives questioned whether such ads should run during the Super Bowl. "Call me a prude but there are kids watching the game," says Mr. Feakins.

The company is required to list the drug's side effects in ads. The drug maker recognizes the personal subject matter in the spot and told The Wall Street Journal last week that it elected to run the commercial late in the game to avoid younger audiences.

The Best Place To Work

Le Chateau de Touffou is one of the best places to work I know. I have had the good fortune to go there twice to work and both times have been magical. It is not the grounds and the magnificent architecture and art or the sense of history, but the long meals (4 course lunch and dinner, with wine that go against modern day work practices) and most importantly Madame Ogilvy who has lived in the chateau for almost 40 years. It is her home and that it is a home makes all the difference to people's ability to get on with one another and to work productively, at least in my experience. Every company should have one (or for smaller companies, a slightly less grand one).

For the full set of pics, click here, and go for the slideshow in the upper right.

War and Peace

It's a monumental read. I started in February when we were in ski-ing in The Alps and it has taken me almost until our summer holidays to finish it. There were periods where it was unputdownable and other periods where it was almost unpickupable. My favourite storyline/ character set were the Old Prince, Prince Andry, and Natasha. There was real verve and pathos in that story, especially when Andry was dying.

The big idea in the book? That history isn't just about the story of the leaders, and leaders are not the makers of history. It is the stories of many many many people and that history is created by movements beyond individuals. And if history is that way, so is society in the present.

The huge array of characters and the length of the book reinforce that. It is the stories of the peasants and the infantry as much as the story of two kings. (Look at the thickness! Here it is compared to my Mac Book Pro)

I have read War and Peace and Anna Karenina in the last couple of years. My grandmother gave them to Jill and I went we got married and it was for her that I embarked on them. To my mind the climax of Anna Karenina is one of the most gripping pieces of fiction I have ever read. I preferred it as a novel to War and Peace, though the themes developed in War and Peace are more interesting to me.

Brand Design

Some notes I made on brand identity and brand design that I wanted to keep a hold of:

"In its earliest form, when animals were branded with a hot iron to demonstrate ownership, the resulting mark was to give the animal a distinguishing and recognisable identity: in this case identity meant ownership.

The way we talk about brands today has evolved but they still need a distinguishing and recognisable identity.

We often talk about having a differentiating idea at the core of a brand but that core idea still needs a differentiating identity; a way to bring the idea to life.

In today’s fast paced, multi-media, multiple branded world sensory shortcuts that carry meaning are more important than ever. The most obvious of these in the branded world are the visual cues: the associations with a logo, the power of colour, the rich meaning of visual brand equities. But, increasingly, smell, touch, sound and the ‘feel’ of a brand space or brand experience are part of a brand’s identity.

What brings all these elements together is the notion of brand design. We believe that great brand design is fundamental to having a great brand. And the philosophy of design runs deep, deep into the DNA of the brand and is manifest through every expression of it. Think about Apple. Their identity is expressed through brilliant, coherent design again and again. Across products, packaging, website, retail environments, communications, time and geographies."

Article In Design Week On Blogs

Excuse a little bit of self-indulgence. The truth of it is, if I don't put it here I don't think I will have a record of it in a few months time!

Design Week
Blogs rule, but watch the rules
09th July 2009 By Christian Barnett

Blogs are a great way to promote your consultancy. Christian Barnett offers some advice on setting one up.

A good blog can inspire its readers and galvanise a community around it. And though it is possible to get one up and running in the time it takes to read this article, having recently launched our ‘Making brands beautiful’ blog I wouldn’t recommend it.

The most important thing is to work out the purpose of the blog. Many blogs fail because they are rudderless, leading to a never-ending series of ‘what we/I did today’ posts. State your blog’s objectives _ consider things like ‘to give the “outside” world a sense of what it is like to be “inside”’ (check out http///wklondon. typepad.com/), or ‘to give the chief executive a platform for his/her views’ (http:// designthinking.ideo.com/) or ‘to showcase great work’ (www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog).

It may be worth having someone on the project team quickly set up their own blog. The best way to do this is to go to one of the free blog-hosting sites, like Blogger, Wordpress or Typepad, and just set one up. It takes five minutes. Get used to the mechanics of posting - try posting a picture or a short film, and think about how you generate content. Spend some time exploring competitor blogs - what are they doing? Is it arresting or interesting content?

You will also need to work out how your blog will be organised. If it isn’t easy to navigate around, people will not stay. Think about the type of categories you may have, how much of each post will be displayed on the main blog page, what widgets you may have, and so on. The blog also has to be designed - think about things such as width of copy, choice of colour palette, font and type of imagery. The question of the blog’s relationship to the website needs to be given some thought, too. It is also at this point that you may need a little bit of help from experts to host your blog. They can help tailor the navigation and design to your specifications.

Finding compelling content time after time is a challenge. Of course, the blog’s objective will guide the content, which is another reason to get the objective clear and empowering. The best blogs seem to have a fairly conversational, rather than corporate, tone - they don’t waste time, and they are prepared to stick their neck out a little in terms of stating a point of view or making interesting connections.

Giving posting rights, especially in a group with more than 50 people, requires a little thought. It could result in chaos to give all company members posting rights in one go. We learned that the best way to get people posting is not based on hierarchy, but on ‘bloggers vs non-bloggers’.
Put simply, some of the older ‘digital immigrants’ in the consultancy were not as blog-savvy as the younger ‘digital natives’. The lesson is to find your natural bloggers and let them lead the way.

We also put a short training session together so everyone in the consultancy was able to do some posting. It meant we were able to spread out the enthusiasm to post - having a glut of posts all at the same time is almost as bad as having no posts, so the ideal is to have a steady stream.
It is worth going live internally first, to give the blog a test run and see if you are able to generate the right content sufficiently often.

You are then ready to launch externally. By now, people should know the type of content, how frequently they need to post, how to tag it to get it up the search engine results, and such like.
The level of ‘ta dah’ surrounding any blog launch is up to you. It could provide a nice platform for some marketing activity, or you could let it grow organically as people find it through searches, online word-of-mouth and the like. It is cheap, though time-consuming, to market a blog in the blogosphere using links, commenting in other’s blogs places, building an online presence via Facebook and Twitter, and so on.

Don’t forget to set up an analytics programme to measure blog activity. Google analytics never cease to amaze me with the depth of information. You can find out which posts get the most visits, from which geographies, the percentage of new versus returning users, and so on. It is a really valuable, and free, feedback loop.Allow a couple of months for the entire process. Unlike the five minutes it takes to set up the one-person blog, you need time to get everyone on board. But a good blog is worth it. It gives a real insight of what your consultancy is all about.
We found that it was a great way of showing where we found beauty in all its nuances to reflect our consultancy philosophy.

Good luck.

Posting notes:
Have an objective for your blog
Don’t ‘police’ content - it should be fluid and conversational
Get your blog right internally before you share it with the outside world
Try to enjoy posting, so it doesn’t become a consultancy chore

T-Shirts To Convey Feelings

Hmmmmmmmmmmm!

Crusty Bread, Wine and Cheese

Difficult to beat it. After a long week, I can't think of a better way to wind down with a little indulgence. The only thing I would do is to exchange the dinning room table for a outside wooden table by a French rural retreat.

Taking Something Out

I have been feeling a little stodgy of body and musty of head recently, and wondered if I could feel a little lighter in both areas by changing my diet.  So I radically cut down on diary and bread intake. It worked. But there was an interesting side-effect; I started eating much more 'creatively'. Rather than just grab a nearby sandwich, I thought about what foods might go together to create a meal. And though it took longer to get my lunch during the week, my lunches started to get more interesting, varied and satisfying. 

The third Peter Gabriel album (Peter Gabriel III or 'Melt' as it is now know) contains NO cymbal hits. Apparently, Gabriel insisted on this to the drummers used on the album.  When you don't know that it feels like something is missing, but you aren't quite sure what it is. Though what is missing is replaced by things which are more inventive, for example the 'grated' big drum sound that Phil Collins used extensively in the 1980's was created for the first track on Grabriel III, 'The Intruder'. Listen to the album. Knowing what Gabriel took out increases the appreciation of what is already a great album. 

In Sao Paulo the Mayor declared an end to visual pollution ie out of home posters and billboards, and signage over a certain size, as he believed it was taking over the town. One effect of the ban was that brands became more creative and inventive in their public communications, using street artists, deploying brand equities in an intelligent and dramatic way, using brand colors to full effect. It is worth having a look at this post, on the Coley Porter Bell blog for some more details.   

Perhaps one way of being more creative is to take something away, or remove one part of the equation. 

A Revelation In Every Cup

Green Mountain Coffee. Great company. Great marketing team. Wish them great success.

Here is TJ in Ad Age's CMO column.

The Signalbox Experience

Just to complete the trio of 'experience' posts, here is the St. Albans signal box. Apparently, it is the only restored signal box (in England) that is still on its original site. It is being restored by a group of local enthusiasts and it is open for the second and fourth Sundays of each month. We went in and got a very enthusiastic volunteer show us how all levers work: 

Unfortunately, he wasn't able to control the real trains on the real track so we had settle for a pretend scenario of a pretend train coming down the track in order to press buzzer, ping bells and pull and push levers. Perhaps that was a little virtual after all!

For more details on the St. Albans signal box click here. 

You'll Never Know What You'll Find In The Park

Demonstration of the Roman army's tortoise formation during the Roman Museum's 70th birthday celebration in Verulamium Park.  We also saw Roman surgeons, potters, surveyors, gladiators, weavers, and some fearsome cavalry:

The point is, if there needs to be one, similar to my previous post about the power of getting out and experiencing stuff first hand being such a good thing, especially for kids. 

Authentic Aircraft

In an increasingly viral, on-line, digital world, it was great to see our boy's reactions to a trip to the Hendon air museum. We could have left them there for weeks. There is something so imposing and impressive about seeing the real thing.  Especially the big planes like the Sutherland, the Lancaster (above) and the Vulcan. But also the fighter planes like the Lightening and the Phantom which resemble a man sitting on top of an almighty rocket with a load of explosives hanging from the wings and fuselage. The pictures below feature the ME 262, the world's first turbojet plane used in WWII.

It sounds a cliche to say it is 'living history' but that is a pretty good description.

Foot and Cycle Paths

One of the good things about Britain is the amount of public paths, short cuts and through ways. Invariably they are a function of history, whether the paths mark ancient cattle tracks or disused railway lines. Even when they go over private property, English law gives a right to use the pathway, which makes for some lovely walks over farmland. In towns and cities it has resulted in lots of short cuts, back alleys and a maze of little discoveries. And St. Albans, as a town with at least a couple of thousand years history, has many of these little paths. Generally towns which grew up before the car have more of them than planned towns or towns that have grown after the car. The one above is a little backcut which gets me to Ramsbury Rd much quicker than going around the roads. 

The one below, is called the Alban Way. It is a cycle path that runs from the Roman site at Verulamium to Hatfield along the route of an old railway line. More details, here. I cycled to Hatfield on it yesterday. The photo below is when the path runs through open countryside.

It also runs through St. Albans very close to where we live. In fact Charlie and Ollie use it everyday to get to school, here. 

I also found some lovely pictures of the Alban Way on flickr, courtesy of phatcontroller: 

I also took a couple of pictures of the flora. This is a bluebell, I think! 

This time of year is lovely in Britain. Spring doesn't exist in quite the same way in the States, where it seems to go from winter to summer remarkably quickly. The English spring looks lovely as everything becomes green and the flowers bloom. Birdsong fills the air and the days are getting longer. 

Pitching

I was recently asked to put down some thoughts about pitching. It has been before, and better than I could do, notably here, by Jon Steel, and here, by Mavity and Bayley. However, I thought I would post thoughts on the subject. 

1. If you have a good chance pitch it
2. If you are not suitable, or don’t want to do it, don’t pitch it
3. Small tight team
4. Team leader crucial
5. Clear the diary
6. Get info early.
7. Be obsessive about it. Know most. Learn most.
8. Build hypothesis fast.
9. Dip in an out of research during the process if you need. Best pitch based on real insight.
10. Develop a clear and simple point of view
11. Build a simple argument based around a SINGLE pivotal point. Everything should related to that.
12. Problem – solution is never a bad way to go. Definition of problem is half way to a solution
13. Don’t be scared to say what is ‘right’ as opposed to what you think client wants to hear
14. time spent approx 30% strat 30% creative 30% presentation
15. Different functions lead different parts of process but pitching is where functional divisions are at their most blurred (for the good)
16. Cut people out who don’t need to be there but use ‘outsiders’ when needed
17. Have one person own the deck. Different people can write/present different bits, but the deck should be owed by one person.
18. Have an outside POV who doesn’t know too much about there are a couple of key points in the process (with enough time for their input to be reflected upon and included)
19. Can you win the pitch without a meeting/before the meeting: relationship, showing thinking? Work?
20. Rehearse, esp the links between speakers
21. Never plan to fill the meeting timewise. Plan to go well under time. Everything takes longer than you think.
22. The pitch meeting is about theatre and simplicity
23. Don’t let ppt control you. Try to avoid it.
24. One thought per slide (audience can’t read and listen at the same time)
25. Think about audience all the time
26. You need to be tightly rehearsed but loose in presentation (if you see what I mean)
27. Winning the pitch and winning the business are two very different things

It's the Cricket Season

When I was a teenager summer meant the cricket season and the cricket season meant summer. I played a lot. It is a wonderful game. I cannot think of a game that is better. It is subtle yet explosive, incredibly physical yet idle for long periods, it has endless stats (always good for geeky teens), is exclusive for those who understand its laws and rituals yet open to all. Some of the best moments of my life have been towards the end of a game, fielding on the boundary, after a long spell of bowling, chewing on a long blade of grass, as the shadows cast by the local village church spire stretch further across the ground and the wheat in a near by field sways in the gentle wind. It is like nothing else. It wouldn't be invented today. It takes too long. And that is part of its charm.

Hungry Cravings

I came across this food blog today. I haven't really thought about blogs as a great source for cooking inspiration (or recipes as I would usually call them). But having a little scroll through this one has already got me thinking again. And there are load of links to other foodie blogs. Yummy.
So click here, to visit.

Global Issues

I chanced upon www.globalissues.org during a search about child poverty for work. It is a great site, and worth bookmarking just for its coverage of big issues. However, when I was working my way around the site, I realised that it had been built and maintained by one guy, Anup Shah, in his spare time, and it is a fabulous acheivement. Anup has Indian and East African roots though grew up in Britain. He lived in America in the late 90's/early 2000's and it was his perceived lack of quality mainstream news media that led him to start the site. It is definitely worth a look, here.

Over Empowered?

Image: tonync. From the 1972 Red China Children's Story Book

An article on the BBC about the lack of respect in the classroom got me thinking that perhaps this is one the dark sides of consumer empowerment.

There are situations where the establishment of law and order is useful; the interviewee this morning - I didn't catch her name - cited the need for it in the classroom for example. And whilst the need for law and order may be putting it a little strongly for a classroom situation - 'respect' might do just fine - the point is well made. 

Another dark side of consumer empowerment is companies poses as activist sites in an attempt to 'sell' consumers off a certain choice. We would feel duped if we found out that an anti- McDonalds site that appeared to be run by activities complaining about everything we don't like about McDonalds was actually run by say, Burger King or Wendy's.  

Crowdsurfing

Martin Thomas, author of the book “Crowd Surfing”, paid a visit to Coley Porter Bell last week and spoke about how brands are dealing with the age of consumer empowerment.

His thesis is that, though it has become something of a marketing cliche that consumers own brands whilst brand owners merely control trademarks, in reality the way that companies and agencies talk about brand development and management is largely predicated on the notion of absolute control, a notion that runs counter to what is really happening in a consumer empowered and expressive world.

If you want proof, says Martin, try an Google image search for ‘MasterCard priceless’ or ‘McDonald’s.’ 

All to often the trademark owners don’t really know how to navigate this changed world and come down disproportionately heavily on consumers messing with their brands. Sure, there will be cases where empowered and creative consumers have crossed the line, but all too often the corporate giant gets too defensive too quickly.

My personal favourite is computer programmer, Jose Avila, when short of money and furniture when he moved to a new town, starting to create tables, chairs, a desk, shelves, and even a bed out of used FedEx boxes. 
He posted pictures of what he had done on www.fedexfurniture.com This could have been a brilliant story for FedEx. It is a very creative. And it is a recycling story par excellence. FedEx could have fanned this story and started a whole new strand of interesting PR coverage, stunts, events, etc. But instead of embracing what Jose was doing, the company brought a lawsuit to have the site taken down. The case seems to have gone back and forth, with Stanford lawyers working pro bono with Jose. As of January 2009, the site is down.

But there are people who are beginning to embrace the crowd. People such as Proctor & Gamble’s former Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, A.G. Lafley, who describes how business leaders: “are operating in what is very much a ‘let go’ world”, Alex Marks at Microsoft Advertising who talks about “allowing your work to get ‘messed up’”, by which he means allowing consumers to get involved in the creation and dissemination of a brand message, suggesting that “You’ll not only save yourself money but you just might increase your share of voice.” Go to www.ideastorm.com and see how Dell are embracing the crowd and their ideas. Doritos has run a competition for people to send in their ideas for superbowl ads (the winner gets to make theirs and it is aired).

I wonder how long it will be before we create a ‘logo of parts’ and allow people to create their own versions of it, or have an open source brief with a global call for logo submissions for a new identity?

For more details on the book, the blog, Martin or to enroll for surf school, click here .

Lasting Value

Reading a review of Martin Wolf's lastest book, 'Fixing Global Finance', in the Business Spectator, I was struck by the thesis that the huge excess in production from the Far East had to be offset by huge consumption in the West, funded of course, by our binging on mortgages.

I have recently been clearing out my Dad's house and have been struck by how many things he had kept from when we were kids. Things that still worked; tools, kitchen implements, etc.

Why is it we have become seemingly addicted to the new, the novel, the disposable? We in marketing talk about value, but real value is the stuff that we buy today and will still be working in 20years time.

This was blackberry posted.

The End of Advertising

Imagine a city stripped clean of all its advertising. No billboards. No posters. No Adshels. No nothing. In December 2006, this fantastical statement became a harsh reality for São Paulo, Brazil. Known as ‘Lei Cidade Limpa’, the Clean City Law, it was an initiative of Mayor, Gilberto Kassab, and intended to cleanse the city of what he dubbed its ‘visual pollution’. 

Michael Canturi, a designer at Coley Porter Bell, won the company Blue Sky competition, and chose to go to Sao Paulo to investigate. This is his post. 

External Testing For Brand/Taglines

                   Image: PototoJunkie 

1. It is difficult to assess a new brandline without some context. Even the best brandlines benefit from some explanatory introduction.

2. Brandlines generally take years to really build equity. To test them ‘cold’ is not an indication of how successful they could be after years of use and equity has been built around them.

3. Respondents tend to get too caught up in the executional details of a tagline rather than the conceptual side. For example they might concentrate on a full stop/period between the two words or get fixated that the brandline isn’t grammatically correct ie doesn’t contain a full sentence.

4. Exposing respondents to a new identity and its possible applications in a short interview situation doesn’t in any way replicate the real world experience of seeing the brand repeatedly over time.

5. If a brandline is to be shown, it ought be shown in some sort of context, perhaps with the identity as a whole, even in other applications (ad, exhibition stand, etc.). However, there will then be issue of trying to disentangle which bit of the new identity and tagline has what effect on respondent response.

6. There are issues of secrecy: respondents may ‘leak’ the idea to others, to competitors which whom they may also have a relationship, to the press, to colleagues who may ‘leak’ it further.

7. There are also issues of politics: will an external respondent feel ‘hurt’ if their comments are not taken on board? Will they use the fact that they were asked as a way of showing some favouritism versus those who were not asked?

8. In research situations when confronted by stimulus material that people are unfamiliar with, especially in a business context, there seems to be an overly rationale and negative response. Respondents often want to appear ‘clever’ by being critical rather than looking for the positive.

9. There are cost and time implications of conducting external research.

10. If ‘testing’ does happen, it is better to talk about the thinking and concepts behind the new identity and brandline; for example spend 30 minutes talking to some customers about the strategic direction and personality of the company rather than a crude (and forced) exposure of the brandlines. It should be possible from a wide discussion to understand if the brandline should work. If brandline has to be shown it is better to do it with other elements, generally explaining why things are as they are and leaving pauses for spontaneous responses. It is silly to pretend that the situation is anything but artificial so why not take the respondent through the thinking like it would be presenting into the company. The respondent will at least be able to judge brandline intention against objectives and have a meaningful discussion. It is better than a barrage of questions administered via questionnaire.

11. Ultimately the decision on brandline and brand identity is a CEO decision. It is a question about business strategy and direction and how the company projects itself. The logo is the company’s identity. Input and counsel to the decision is very valuable but at some point the leader needs to make a decision and set a path forwards. 

Coley Porter Bell Red Nose Cross Dress Day

One of the things I like about Coley Porter Bell is dress up Friday. Not because I am in inveterate dresser upper but because it is done out of a such a good spirit. It is not a management directive, somebody makes a suggestion and if there is enough momentum for the idea around the office, people dress up. Some of the themes from the past have been "posh" Friday (when a chap with a double barrelled name was leaving), "chav" Friday (chavs were invented when I was away but it seems to be an update of Essex man/woman - all sheeny track suits and bling), "animal" Friday (dress as animal of your choice) and "accident" Friday (look like you have had an accident).

This Friday was cross dress Friday, and we did it for Red Nose Day. Here is the group picture:

Taglines

I have been thinking about taglines recently. It is a difficult subject. There is very little literature that I can find, nor so many rules, on what constitutes a good one. My thoughts are: 

1. Taglines should be the end point of a strategy or strategic process. It seems to me that too often they form the start of a process; people trying to think of a tagline before working out what they want a it to do. 
2. Taglines are given undue prominence. We all remember a couple, but it is probably difficult to recall more than half a dozen. If so few burn into our consciousness why do organizations spend so much time on them?
3. More often than not taglines are all about internal agendas; who has the power to decide, to influence, to 'own' the tagline internally. The amount of meeting time, argument, politicking and money spent compared with the recall of tagline can be quite alarming. 
4. Taglines act as a shorthand for where the company wants to head. Some taglines may be very short-term and some very long-term but they will reflect a direction. 
5. Taglines generally need context or meaning around them. They are too short to really mean much in themselves. They become, at best, a hook upon which to hang lots of meaning. 
6. Taglines have impact. They are generally short and colloquial but not always (one of my favourite is "never underestimate the power of playstation" which is quite a mouthful)
7. There are no rules about how to generate them, or who can generate them. Or even whether you need one.

Here are, according to The Tagline Guru, the 100 most influential taglines since 1948. 

As I have never written the taglines that I have been involved in creating anywhere this is a little list of the ones I can remember; just for me. Sorry if appears a little indulgent, but I losing brain cells rather more rapidly than I used to. 

Play On (and on and on and on and on) - LEGO

Know Your Stuff - Virgin Money

________ better  - NYSC

A revelation in every cup - GMCR

Human Energy - Chevron

No funny stuff, just money stuff - Virgin Money

People Changing Politics - DEMOS

Welcome to the New Frontier - Frontier communications

A Better Cup of Tea - Twinings

Trust your car to the (Texaco Star Logo)

Bring It - New Jersey Nets

Testing mobile upload and ID cards

According to an article in today's observer, last year 80% people were in favour of ID cards. This year it is 80% against. I am curious to find out more.

The Dudley Diplomat

This is the brand name I noticed on a toilet tank. That a toilet could be called a 'diplomat' is funny. Do you think it means that the next level up in the series is named 'monarch' or 'aristocrat' ? And the the basic level called the 'commoner' or plain 'civil servant' ? And what of the advertising for the whole range? We will see the whole line up? I hope so.

And if it is funny that the nomenclature is amusing, its provenance adds to the fun. Please don't think I am being Dudleyist here, but I could better envisage the diplomat as originating from Westminster or Oxford more comfortably than from Dudley. But perhaps that was the whole point, that this particular make of toilet helps us reassess the diplomatic corps.

A Romance on Three Legs

A lovely book about the brilliant and eccentric pianist, Glenn Gould, and his obsessive search for the perfect piano and how to get a sound out of it as good as the sound in his head. 

So many things that are perfect in our heads are so imperfect in life that we give up on seeking what is right and best for us. Gould didn't. 

Coley Porter Bell Blog

A plug for the Coley Porter Bell blog that went live today. It is worth a look, here.

Glaspaleis

Heerlen, where I have been visiting a lot recently, isn't the most inspiring or beautiful town I have visited. That said, the centre does have some nice bits and one wonderful building, the Glaspaleis.  Even my trusty blackberry camera couldn't destroy its looks, though next time I am taking my 'real' camera and try to do it justice. 

The Glaspaleis ('The Glass Palace') is an example of early modernist architecture. Designed by Fritz Peutz and commissioned by Peter Schunck, it was completed in 1935, to be used as a department store. As well as the architecture being leading edge for its time, the lack of back room storage, meaning that the stock would essentially be on display as well, was new. The intent was to give the atmosphere of a market. It is now used as a library, an art house cinema, an art gallery and architectural centre. It is lovely inside. 

In 1999 it was put on the list of the 1000 most important buildings of the 20th century by The International Union of Architects. For more information, click here. 

Baby Dump

Spotted in Heerlen, Holland.

Are You Happy?

Was the last question asked of Gerry Moira, snr advertising creative, in a Campaign questionnaire. I thought this was a moment of profundity in what is usually a trade magazine full of banality. Here is his answer:

"When Nigella Lawson lost her sister and then husband to cancer, she spoke of having to "choose happiness". I had the same ineluctable decision when my wife died tragically young from the same condition. Blissful happiness is reserved for the idiots and the innocents of this world. The rest of us have to work very hard at it, every minute, every day." 

Change

In today's London Times a short piece about how people manage grief but repackaged about how they manage change at work. It is based on Elizabeth Kubler-Ross' stages of dealing with bereavement, but is used to describe emotional reactions to all types of change or trauma. It's pretty dark stuff but worth thinking about, especially when so many people are being made redundant every day.

1. Denial
2. Anger
3. Bargaining
4. Depression
5. Acceptance

On the news front Mandelson pumped $2.3bn into the UK car industry to try to prevent those five stages occuring.

Real Time Strategy

This is a piece I wrote in 2007 whilst at Y&R in New York. It appeared in February on Y&R's in-house thought leadership space online 'Spark'. Interestingly, Alastair Campbell seemed to fulfill the role of a real-time strategist in the work he did for Tony Blair. See here for a post on Campbells Diaries of the time.

- - - - - - - -

The last few years have seen a downturn in management consulting revenues. Has “strategy” had its day? Perhaps. For instance, Michael Eckstut, a former partner at strategy firm Booz Allen Hamilton, says flatly, “The pure-strategy, big-picture stuff is over.” Maybe client companies are getting wise to the ruses of the strategic consultants peddling business transformation.

My own view is that strategy is a vital as ever. But it is the way we do strategy and the type of strategy that we do that is causing a bit of a re-think.

Traditionally, strategy has been about the future. In the communications industry, where the strategists are called ‘planners’ the title even more clearly signals a function that is thinking about the future. But that title was coined in the late 1960s when things ran at the speed of a tortoise compared to the hare-like pace of today.

In the intervening years two big things have happened. Firstly, the world of business has speeded, and secondly, the ‘planning for the future’ mindset has replaced by an ‘action today’ mindset.

Perhaps strategic planning in communications agencies should drop the ‘planning’ title altogether. The act of planning years or even months out seems an increasingly futile notion to me as we see day to day changes in markets. The idea of planning communications campaigns for launches that will occur in 12 months time seems positively Victorian in today’s world.
However, more than ever clients need strategic counsel. They need an objective pair of eyes that can understand the strategic implications of decision-making on a day by day basis. This isn’t the strategy of sitting in a room with data and deep thoughts; it is the strategy of on the spot decision-making. I would call it ‘real-time strategy’. It is not planning for the future - which is going to be different from our prediction anyway – is planning for the NOW!

Of course, the old skills of a good strategist are the bedrock of the ‘real-time strategist’; the understanding of markets, insights into the consumer, how the business model works, etc. etc. Only in ‘real-time’ strategy, the strategist is the go to trusted advisor, the colleague whose opinions are sourced in brief and informal phone calls, a casual conversation by the water-cooler.
‘Real-time strategy’ is an ongoing strategic view of the day to day. Not a set piece, choreographed power point pitch. It is difficult to cost out but is incredibly valuable. It is without pomp or circumstance or ego or status. It shifts repeatedly and it recognizes that the right way today may not be the right way tomorrow. Above all it is intensely pragmatic but it is not devoid or rigor or thought.

The grand generals of business strategy, like their military counterparts that they are so fond of quoting, have to accept that asymetical warfare and guerilla tactics are the new norms in business, as well as military, warfare.

Strategists everywhere need to step up to the challenge. It is strategy on the front foot. Perhaps this shift is why the grand masters of traditional and process-centric strategy, the Big Three management consultants, may be having problems in today’s ever-changing business environment. In contrast we say “bring it on”.