barnettblog

Revamp, relaunch

2011-07-07T00:35:00.001+01:00

I've been busy for a few months, setting up my own company. The blog has taken a bit of a back seat whilst I have been doing this. Now I have a website up and I am linking my blog to it, it is time to start up again, and perhaps in a more focused way at that. Probably also a good time to disengage the family and friends element of the blog from the 'work' orientated blog.

So that will keep me busy for a few days more.

Names

2011-02-23T23:22:00.001Z

I provided some thinking for Alex to write an article about names. I don't know what happened to the article, and I can't claim authorship anyway, but so I don't forget, here are my four suggestions for when a company or brand may need a new name.

1. Legal requirement. Andersen Consulting to Accenture. 6 weeks warning.

2. Change of strategy or positioning. Eg. Lucky Goldstar to LG (arguably BP too). I guess change of CEO would come under this bucket too.

3. Business efficiencies. Having one name around the world may be cheaper for producers. Marathon bars are now Snickers (I can't see any other reason that cost savings), Opal Fruits now Starbust, etc.

4. Brand equity. Toyota didn't think its name had enough premium cues to enter the luxury car market, hence Lexus. Often local brands carry more equity then intruder brands hence Chevron keep Clatex and Texaco where they have equity. Vodafone, if buying locally, rebrands Vodafone. You would if you wanted to position yourself as an international communications company.

MacLash

2011-02-21T23:01:00.000Z

Martin Thomas come by CPB a month or two ago. Originally it was for a catch up and a cup of coffee, but Alex and I were just having a chat about this . It seemed opportune to get Martin in on the conversation, especially as he was thinking of ways to get his new book publicised. So we got planning. One of the offshoots of this was Alex's post on the CPB blog about Apple being 'oppressive', here. This in turn got picked up by a journalist from The Independent and became this.

It's pretty interesting and we all got a mention. This thought has been knocking around in my brain since I worked on Dell a couple of years ago. I must admit, I thought it was going to come around a little quicker than it has; again testament to Apple's brilliance. And I don't think it will come just yet either. But given the state of Job's health, the fact that people don't tend to like the big boy for too long and that Apple is now the big boy, and that the world seems to exist so much in beta nowadays, unless Apple are just head and shoulders above anyone else, they will being to suffer, perhaps rather more slowly, but nevertheless, still suffer the fate of other tech companies and plateau to decline. And that was a long sentence.

Ambassador Gil

2010-12-16T23:14:00.001Z

Really excited for - and a tad envious of - my ex-colleagues at BrandBuzz for the world's first interactive wrap around digital out of home billboard for LG in Times Square.

Buzz worked with North Kingdom on it and this link is to the North Kingdom blog which does a very nice explanation. Which means I get let off the hook.

Design Week Article

2010-12-15T05:56:00.000Z

Here is an article I had published in Design Week. It came about after CPB's PR guy, and myself, wrote a letter about testing pack designs. There was, for Design Week, quite a flood of responses, one of them quite virulent. The initial letter was about bad research on some bread packaging, but the response was about not embracing consumer input! Anyway, I was sufficiently worked up to write a considered response, which was too much for the letters page but became an article instead.

The strange thing was that the sub-editor, or whoever writes the synposis (or 'standfirst' as it is correctly called), wrote a very misrepresentative couple of sentences.

They titled the piece "It's new, it's exciting, but it's not clever" and the standfirst was "crowdsourcing and co-creation are the buzz words of the day but Christian Barnett argues for more traditional methods of idea generation".

Anyway, here is the article:

"In recent weeks there has been the start of a useful discussion about the role of research and other consumer ‘input’ into the design process. Though the subject of research in of itself may be a bit of a hoary old chestnut, the impact of ‘new media’, co-creation, and the ability to crowd-source have meant that consumer input has taken on a much broader meaning over the last few years. As such there may be some value in opening up the debate for 2010.

Of course it is a good idea to have consumers involved in the development of work. The best strategies and creative work have some genuine consumer insight baked in. But the best ‘input’ or research is not generally done to decide between different creative expressions of a strategy.

That is a beauty parade and is riddled with problems.

i. It is not possible to make a realistic test of effectiveness in a ‘laboratory’ situation in advance of real-life exposure. We need to be very wary of how we treat results from this type of ‘input’. This is not to say that ‘pre-testing’ is always a bad thing; it isn’t. But it isn’t always a good thing either, and if done, we ought be careful about how we do it, and what agency and client folk take from it.

ii. We need to remind ourselves that consumers are not party to the brief or what we are trying to achieve with any particular piece of creative work. Consumers may not be using the same criteria to judge creative work as the agency/clients are.

iii. Consumers generally like things they familiar with. They tend to stick with what they know. This is ok for some briefs. But for more innovative, break-through or radical briefs that demand that consumers see a particular brand in a new light, you can see how, very quickly, ’ ‘beauty parade’ ‘input’ can get quite tricky. Consumers readily back away from change.

And we also need to remember that assessing creative work on-line means that we are not capturing a whole stack of data points, and arguably the more emotional ones that are crucial when assessing creative work that is intended to elicit some kind of emotional response. Data such as body language, tone of voice, ‘how’ people speak about the stimulus material are all important when looking at creative work. They provide tell tales clues to how people are feeling about the creative work. On-line research may work terrifically well when all that is required is rational recording of data but it is less reliable when addressing creative work that probably merits a more sensitive form of inquiry, and analysis.

The best research is used to inform the brief, to work out what the task is, and give illumination and clues as to how to move forward. This ‘early’ or exploratory research can give us insight into the market and our brand’s position in it, why people are attracted, or not, to our brand. It takes place at a strategic level, has a greater impact on the creative process than the ‘beauty parade’ research, and often helps with how we set the criteria for success when we are in market. It is the most overlooked type of research, in part because the output is some kind of brief which most people are typically less interested in than the tangible creative deliverable.

‘Testing to Destruction’ by Alan Hedges is the classic text on this subject, and though written 40 years ago and primarily about advertising research its lessons still hold good. It should be read by anyone who has a stake or interest in the subject. It is out of print but an updated version is available on the APG website.

Under the heading of consumer ‘input’ comes research, which I have addressed above, and also ‘co-creation’ or ‘crowd-sourcing’. Although inevitably, there is some overlap between the two, for this letter, ‘research’ is more about understanding our consumer better and getting feedback from them whilst ‘co-creation’ invites the consumer to be an active participant in the generation of creative ideas. With co-creation, we are not looking for ‘consumer truths’ or ‘insight’. We are looking for ideas, solutions. It is a very different type of ‘input’. Our increasing familiarity with social networking and digital media allows this type of idea generation to be done quickly, imaginatively and cheaply. The Moving Brands pitch for the London identity was a great example of co-opting consumers – in this case Londoners – to participate in idea generation.

However, though this type of input is exciting, new, and seductive my suspicion is that the best ideas still consistently come out of the best agencies with the best talent that give most of their waking hours to the generation and execution of ideas. And to my mind it would be a tragedy (not to say a serious indictment of our industry) if it was any other way. "

Blogs

2010-11-25T13:25:00.000Z

Probably about time to do a couple of "likes" for blogs. Easy one, Dave Trott's at CST here. Like the man himself. Clear, opinionated. Often very insightful.

Here is Tim Jones's blog. He is busy applying the principles of gaming to brand building.

Gareth Kay, I think he is head of planning at GSP&Partners does Brand New.

And the last one for today, that I have just stumbled across, and may be useful in the future is Ben Terrett's blog, here.

Bach

2010-11-23T19:47:00.000Z

At the office, late, doing work on brand architectures. This is nice music to have on, and from time to time, actively listen to. I like the calming rhythms of Bach. This is the Concerto for Two Violins in D Minor

Advertising Works Article

2010-11-10T20:22:00.000Z

I was honoured to be invited to write an introductory chapter for Volume 19 of Advertising Works, here. The title isn't one I would have chosen and I thought I should really play it a little safe with it. The resulting article is steady if unspectacular. Good enough to print but hardly the stuff to cause a tidal wave in advertising thinking. Though if a couple of people in the next recession look it up and have a read, then I'll be pleased.

It's a shame I can't lift the article directly from the book, as it looks way more impressive in a £130 500+ page hard cover book, especially with a photo of me in!

Chapter 2

Learnings for the next recession

By Christian Barnett

Planning Director, Coley Porter Bell

It’s a bit tough being asked to think about learnings for the next recession, in part because we’re not completely clear of this one yet – double dip and all that – but also because no two recessions are quite the same. They have different causes, different effects and different remedies. My current favourite fact is that, on average, people had more disposable income in 2009 than 2008, which seems at first sight, a little counter-intuitive.

However, it is fair to assume in the next economic downturn marketing budgets will be put under more pressure, that demonstrating return on investment will be even more important, and that creativity, channel selection and mix, and targeting –be it demographic, attitudinal or behavioural – will all be under increased scrutiny.

And, in a rather perverse way, perhaps the brand and communications industries should look forward to it. Recessions put us on our mettle, force us to look at, and justify, the value of what we do all the more keenly and force us to be more innovative. Tough economic conditions should, in theory, expose the lazy and wasteful and reward the skilful and brave.

There is already some excellent literature around about advertising during a downturn.* The main theme is that of the crucial important of the relationship between share of voice and share of market. In practical terms this meant bolstering advertising expenditure in times where the natural inclination is to cut it and realizing that recessions are great times to buy share of voice, and thus market share, because competitors retreat and media rates fall.

However, there doesn’t seem to be much in the way of reviewing creative strategies, so I thought it might be useful to look at the different approaches taken in this recession to draw some generalised rules for the future, and use some of this year’s winning papers to provide examples.

*‘Advertising during a recession’ Alex Biel and Stephen King, Chapter 9 in Advalue, IPA, 2003, and Advertising in a Downturn, IPA, 2008, ‘How share of voice builds market share’, IPA 2009 and ‘The link between creativity and effectiveness’ IPA 2010 for example.

The big emotional idea

When brands are under pricing pressure, reinforcing the emotional bond with the consumer is a time-honoured way of maintaining value in the brand. It sounds easy, but requires a real appreciation of how the brand fits into the emotional landscape of its audience.

The Heinz paper, ‘Maintaining leadership in uncertain times’ does just this, showing a deft understanding of the brand and its role in British life to rejuvenate emotional affinity and purchase. The ‘It has to be Heinz’ campaign drove a strong emotional response that helped rebuild core equity, and due to the renewed loyalty rebuilt the sales and share that had been in decline due to Heinz loyalists drifting away from the brand.

In contrast, the Cadbury Dairy Milk paper doesn’t seek to show how the brand is integrated deftly into our lives. Instead it carves out confidently a whopping big emotional territory, a far cry from the previous ‘persuasive’ Dairy Milk advertising model. The big leap was to make people feel the same joy as they might get from a bar of Dairy Milk rather than tell people. In essence Cadbury Dairy Milk stopped being a ‘manufacturer of chocolate and became a producer of joy’. Though not a recession-specific paper it certainly gives us lessons in one way to respond to an economic downturn. The campaign has increased key measures of ‘love’ (involvement) and ‘fame’ (salience) and improved price elasticity, with less reliance on price promotions, and a greater return on investment.

Leveraging brand heritage

In tough times we look to brands we trust. Drawing upon a brand’s heritage is one way to remind us of the brand as a rock. Indeed, there was a spate of ‘heritage’ campaigns that aired in late 2008/early 2009. Guinness, Colgate, Milky Bar, Persil and Lego all rebroadcast old ads, Walker’s relaunched Monster Munch, Mars repackaged Starburst as Opal Fruits and, in an act that combined the old and the new, Cadbury reintroduced the defunct Wispa brand after a campaign on Facebook calling for its return. A limited edition turned into a permanent relaunch which in its first week was the best-selling chocolate bar in the UK, and managed to sustain its success as online engagement grew. The paper shows a glorious mash-up of a heritage brand reborn and sustained by the power of today’s social media.

Two other award winners stand out in this area. Firstly, Virgin Atlantic, that celebrated its 25th anniversary in style by going back to the 1980s with a big TV ad. In an industry that took a significant hit due to the recession, Virgin Atlantic, not for the first time, zigged whilst other zagged, and instead of slugging it out in the gutter on price took to the skies with a big brand piece which drove top-line revenue.

Secondly, Hovis, with its epic TV ad ‘As good today as it’s ever been’ depicting a young lad running home with a loaf of Hovis through various scenes from the last 122 years, is perhaps the most obvious example of a brand drawing upon its heritage. Not only did the film take us on a journey through the times that brand has been with us, but did so with the atmosphere, style and equities that evoked the brand’s most famous past moments. Though not created directly in response to the recession, its timing couldn’t have been better – it launched just as the downturn hit – so much so, that it didn’t just tap into the prevailing zeitgeist but helped define it.

Innovative thinking and value

Recessions put significant pressure on premium brands andit takes skill and dexterity to walk the tightrope of demonstrating value without compromising hard- earned brand values. The retail sector provides us with two excellent examples of how smart innovative thinking can relieve the pressure from mid-market and discount predators looking to lure the more value-driven shoppers away from the premium stores.

Waitrose took the opportunity to create a coherent own label range, ‘Essential Waitrose’ by bringing its disparate offering together under one new sub-brand. The range itself was simple and elegant, in keeping with the Waitrose style, and the communications effort was underpinned by the line: ‘Quality you’d expect at prices you wouldn’t.’ The ‘Essentials’ rebrand helped prevent shoppers from switching out of the brand, built loyalty amongst Waitrose shoppers and delivered a considerable return on investment.

Sainsbury’s was fearful that the good work done in 2007 with the ‘Try something new today’ campaign, would be undone in 2008 as the credit crunch took hold, food inflation gathered pace and Sainsbury’s could be perceived as too expensive. ‘Feed your family for a fiver’ was an idea that offered Sainsbury’s quality for great value in difficult times. The price point was delivered by standard prices and not special offers or discounts. It produced the best recognition score for any Jamie Oliver TV ad tracked to date, was recalled as well as Tesco’s longer-standing ‘Every little helps’, and delivered over £500m in sales in two years.

The ‘baddies’ do their bit

This is a tricky area, and probably worth a more detailed analysis elsewhere, but it seems to me that brands, like celebrities, who bury their head in the sand on difficult matters that directly concern them generally don’t enhance their reputations. Some sort of communication (ideally with corrective action) is necessary and it seems to be the only way to try to find some redemption. Whether it succeeds is another matter. So it is interesting to find a number of financial papers in this year’s awards. The two most pertinent are the Lloyds TSB’s ‘For the journey’ and the Barclays’s ‘Take one small step’ as they directly address the recession. Both take the line of offering a helping hand. Lloyds TSB, which had to face considerable public anger over pay and bonuses after the government bail-out and saw an accompanying dip in consideration, avoided any temptation to change campaign and saw the value of sticking with the ‘For the journey’ theme.A new ‘How we’re helping’ message reminded customers that the heart of the business was in the High Streets of the country and not the Square Mile. Consideration started to rise again.

Barclays too, offered some practical help, with their ‘Take one small step’ campaign. In a climate where customers were feeling powerless, the intent was to help them manage their money better and feel in control of their finances again. This was done by encouraging people to adopt relatively small but achievable behaviours. The campaign took a series of needs and matched it with a Barclays product or service. It successfully shifted attributes like ‘offers helpful products and services’ and ‘helps me manage my money better’ and delivered a hefty return on investment.

Behavioural economics

Perhaps the most interesting of the approaches, as it is a relatively new area of thought, is that of the application of behavioural economics. It seems to be ideally suited to how brands and communications respond to recessions. The notion of many ‘small’ choices and decisions having a bearing upon eventual outcomes seems well-adapted to a marketing environment – with huge permutations of touchpoints; consumer journeys that are no longer predictable nor sequential; increasing emphasis on targeted digital engagement; and demanding greater accountability.

The Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) paper, ‘Best in class: how influencing behaviour with a new media strategy helped nudge teacher recruitment to record levels’ is a superb exposition of this new type of thinking.

The issue was the shrinking pool of quality applicants entering teacher training and in particular, the number of ‘career switchers’ was declining faster than applications in general. For someone already in a career, switching to become a teacher is a big decision. In addition, progress towards becoming a teacher for career switchers wasn’t linear or mechanical. Instead their behaviour was full of stops and starts, emotional and logical, decisive and uncertain. The communications strategy is best described as a pinball machine, keeping the applicant ‘in play’, and nudging them towards an application.

It may not be that all decision processes are this complex or long-winded. For example, deciding on which brand of bread to pick off the shelf may not require the same thought process as changing careers. Yet, there will be broad lessons and principles of thinking that apply to any scenario where communication is trying to overcome a behaviour barrier, or set of them. Understanding the interplay between triggers, barriers, decisions (and non-decisions), message and media helps us construct communications in a way that should lead to better and more effective outcomes.

The one thing I found disappointing was that there wasn’t more thinking like the Teacher Recruitment paper. There were other submissions that borrowed some of the language of behavioural economics, and certainly demonstrated how they have used communications to shift behaviour. But this paper really got under the skin of how messaging and media could help nudge people. Given that some of the big discussions in the industry over the last decade – fragmentation of media, digital communication and now behavioural economics – all seem to intersect at a point that would have proved very useful in recessionary times, I am surprised that this type of approach was not used more. Perhaps by the next recession we will have learnt how to better apply all this good stuff we have been talking about for a while.

I don’t pretend these themes are exhaustive, or that they are exclusively for recessions. But judging by what has worked over the last couple of years, the papers and themes outlined above might be a reasonable place to start some thinking the next time around.

We are fortunate that we have fantastic resources such as the IPA Databank, www.ipa.idol.co.uk and other specific IPA papers, to draw upon in difficult times. Recessions are tough for many industries, including ours, and the wealth of data we have available helps us to strengthen and prove our case for investment in harder times, and in so helping our own business through helping our clients.

Brand Spirit

2010-11-10T00:45:00.000Z

I had breakfast with Russell Davies today, which was very nice. Good guy. And head of planning EMEA for Ogilvy nowadays. The most interesting part of the conversation, of which many parts were interesting, was the idea about how the best brands convey a feeling or spirit or essence which almost defys definition. How many times have you heard people talk about the idea behind Nike or Apple and yet they seldom use the same words, the exact words, to describe the idea. Yet, somehow, we all recognise it. We recognise it almost inspite of the different, and often inexact descriptions of the idea because we have a quite refined and shared sense of what 'Nike-ness' is all about.

This conversation reminded me of a meeting a few years ago with a client who had the issue of how to brief local offices on how to generate creative work. Merely generating ads that LOOKED correct ie had the right visual equities, wasn't right as it didn't communicate the IDEA. If would be better to get the idea right even if the visual equities weren't quite the same, though it would be better if they were. Or at least FELT as if they were.

I came to this conclusion about a brand's spirit back then. It was as though you need to live with the campaign or the brand for long enough to 'know it when you see it'. To do this amongst the client/agency team takes a while in itself. To do it amongst a target audience, a country, a region, the world, takes a long time. Yet it works. No wonder great, lasting brands, take time to put together and build up a head of steam. And incidentally, it might also explain, certainly with Nike and Apple why their agencies have been with them for so long, because, they FEEL it too.

There are many implications of this, but the one to mention now is that the getting the exact exact word, phrase, nuance may matter a little less than getting the feeling right. Words, imagery, film, humour, tone of voice, use of language, personality, all matter.

Changing Logos

2010-10-29T19:05:00.004+01:00

Following on from the weekend conference where LifePlus's new identity was revealed, I wrote very briefly about the GAP new logo being ditched in favour of the old one, in this post. I thought it would be a good idea to post the two GAP logos, below, so I have them somewhere. I like the old one more. Not only is it familiar, but it is more distinctive. The blue square also looks more meaningful, or more intrinsic to the old one.

I also found a nice article on bbc.co.uk. It has a few cases in. May be useful for work one day. Here is a link to the article.

Disco

2010-10-29T17:15:00.000+01:00

Part of my birthday present from Ollie was a disco. He created a tailored CD for the occasion, and the strobe lighting was provided by Poundworld.

Alva Noto

2010-10-28T21:55:00.000+01:00

I haven't posted any music for a while now, and I have been enjoying this tonight, slowly working my way through emails and some personal admin. Every so often a delicate crescendo slowly takes hold of my attention, without me really noticing, and I am pleasantly lulled away for a few seconds.

I really like Alva Noto. Here is his website, and here, is his wikipedia entry.

Now, I think the music should be left to speak for itself.

Leadership Is All About Change

2010-10-24T10:15:00.000+01:00

I don't know where I have heard that before, but I have, somewhere. And it struck me as very true when I saw the CEO of LifePlus present the new brand identity. He presented it to 3000+ people who were very familiar with the previous identity. The leadership team of the company were very tense. We all knew it would be ok as soundings had been taken at various points in the process, but it was still nerve racking. In this particular case the CEO has a calm authority that won the day. At the end of his introductory presentation the conference audience was clapping. By the end of the day, they were starting to love it. But it was one of those moments that in the wrong hands and done in the wrong way could result in a very different outcome, like the introduction of the new GAP logo recently, though I am not sure why GAP needed to change their logo. There didn't seem to be as compelling a case for change as LifePlus have.

Life Plus launch

2010-10-23T11:40:00.000+01:00

Taking a lunch break from the LifePlus conference I am a guest at. They are re-launching brand identity. I wrote the introductory speech to the reveal of the identity. It is the first time I have had written a speak for a CEO that gets presented to 3000+ people, and I learnt a fair amount. I thought it was short, it needed to be shorter. I thought it hung together pretty well, it needed to hang together better (ie even simpler logic). I thought it was simple, it needed to be simpler. All in all, it went pretty well, but I am a critical. If I have time, I may go back to my draft and re-write it, just for the practice.

I rather like the immediacy of 'real time' blog posts. I can capture feelings quickly and not dawdle on posting. It is less of a chore. But it means I can't get photos up quickly as they are in my camera and I have no lead to download.

Also, I am on a hotel mac, and I have a time limit. And it is rapidly approaching.

Judging the Jay Chiat Awards

2010-10-17T22:31:00.000+01:00

Top man and top strategist, Russ Meyer, the CSO of Landor, invited me to be a judge on the 'Innovative Design' category of the AAAA Jay Chiat Awards for strategic excellence.

It was fun, though it would have been more fun if the judges had been able to convene in person rather than on conference calls.

It was interesting comparing this judging experience to the IPA and Effies. Overall, these awards were focused on the creation of good strategy and the resulting creative, whereas the IPA Effectiveness Awards, are, not surprisingly, focused more on effectiveness.

You might have thought, intuitively, that the Jay Chiat awards would have more variance of opinion because the focus was on creative strategy which on the surface is more subjective than judging the hard data of effectiveness, but it wasn't the case. Although there were far fewer papers to judge and far fewer judges to agree there was a lot of agreement on what was a good strategy and why.

In contrast, judging the Effectiveness Awards, provoked more variance in discussion, especially around the subject of effectiveness which one intuitively would think would be more cut and dry. The discussion was often good, but often vague and off point. With so many entries having econometrics in them it put people in an uncomfortable place. Unsurprisingly, a good few judges were not prepared to say "I don't know how to judge this paper" (which would have been a good thing to do but would have made people appear rather dim in front of their peers - they are prestigious awards) and we found ourselves having to look to the specialist econometricians a little too often.

The day spent judging the IPA awards was, overall, fantastic. The sheer rigour of the IPA award submissions were fantastic. Huge amounts of work had gone into at least 40 of the 60 odd papers. In the end the best papers did go forward; it wasn't as though we were totally incompetent as judges, but it did leave me more sceptical about effectiveness whilst the AAAA judging did leave me feeling better about the power of the creative end of the strategic process.

I think this subject may deserve a little go around another time.

Writing Books

2010-09-30T11:05:00.001+01:00

This reminds me that it can't be too hard to write a book. I don't know why. But it suddenly feels like it can't be too hard to write something coffee table like, with nice illustrations or photographs, get it designed and get a few copies printed up. I must be able to find something to write about planning and strategy for instance.

Giles has done it. Here is his book. It looks real pro.

An Old Fridge in Minnesota

2010-09-26T14:48:00.000+01:00

A few weeks ago I was in Minnesota, staying at the Wildwood Lodge, Oakdale and came across this. I didn't know initially what it was. Some kind of oven? Another guest noticed me looking at it quizzically and told me it was a 100 year old fridge. It worked by putting ice in the TOP of the fridge and food in the FRONT and onto circular metal shelves. The cold air from the ice would go down and cool the food. Very smart indeed. Though it does poses the question, where did the ice come from?

Pitch Magazine (2)

2010-09-20T22:48:00.000+01:00

I managed to get the article, mentioned here, fowarded to me. And here it is, in its entirety.

Chocolate Weetabix: A brand extension too far?

3 September 2010
By David Benady

Some of the UK’s biggest grocery brands are launching line extensions that seem to contradict the values of their parent brands. As the economic downturn hits sales and shoppers turn to own labels, brand marketers are under pressure to meet tough sales targets. But launching opportunist off-shoots risks undermining the long-term equity of their brands.

Weetabix, Britain’s top-selling breakfast cereal, contains just 4.4% sugar and is much-loved by parents concerned about shovelling sugar into their children’s mouths at breakfast time. Now the £113m brand with excellent kiddie health credentials is launching Chocolate Weetabix.

The chocolate-laced version will appear in a new TV ad campaign breaking this week through agency WCRS. The blogosphere is awash with positive commentary about the product which boasts that its sugar content - 15.9% - is less than half that of other chocolate cereals such as Coco-Pops (35% sugar). But the brand extension contains three and a half times as much sugar as its parent brand. Nutritionalists warn that once children taste the delights of chocolate at breakfast, it is hard to ever return them to a healthy cereal.

The Chocolate version risks damaging the association between Weetabix and a healthy breakfast for kids. It may well be successful in the short-term. But the values of the main brand could be undermined in the long-run. For some, the Chocolate Weetabix launch is a logical response to parents’ health concerns and carries the health credentials of Weetabix into a new arena - enabling consumers of chocolate cereals to find a much lower sugar alternative. Weetabix marketing director Sally Abbott was unavailable and no-one else at the company was prepared to comment.

Meanwhile, in the personal care category, Unilever has extended its female-orientated Dove brand into the male grooming market with the launch of Dove Men+Care. Here, a brand built through a critique of women’s consumption psychology and the “Real Beauty” campaign seems to be dropping those values as it seeks to target men. Unilever claims the launch has been a phenomenal success, with 1.5 million products sold in the UK so far this year and the brand is on course to hit 5 million in its launch year. With each unit selling at about £2.50 each, that could be some £12.5m. On this estimate, sales at retail would just cover the cost of the £12m launch marketing budget.

According to Christian Barnett, planning director at branding agency Coley Porter Bell, Dove Men+Care builds on the basic values of the brand. “Dove stands for inner beauty, real beauty in all sorts of people. Why shouldn’t that extend to men? It just feels right,” he says. However, he is less convinced about Chocolate Weetabix. “Sometimes you can see brand extensions undercutting a brand. Weetabix is a healthy, simple, fortifying breakfast. The addition of chocolate doesn’t build that equity, it detracts from it. The only way to really make it work would be to think again what the overall brand stands for. If Weetabix is about “healthy fortification” the introduction of chocolate starts to push the overall Weetabix brand to a more “fortification can be fun” place. So the extension redefines the parent brand. It is like the kids re-defining the parents.”

Other seemingly self-contradicting product extensions out this autumn include Twix Fino, where the biscuit base that has helped Mars-owned Twix become a UK powerbrand is replaced by a lighter wafer filling. This version has long been available in Europe, where wafers are commonly eaten with afternoon coffee. But in the UK, this seriously redefines the product’s identity away from a stomach-filler towards a lighter snack.

Twix will be competing with Kit Kat, whose owner Nestlé is itself the arch extender of brands into unexpected areas - it rocked the confectionery market when it relaunched Kit Kat with a Chunky version as it attempted to encroach into the territory of the Mars Bar. Nestlé marketers at the company’s York-based confectionery division have applied the brand extension approach to Milkybar, the quintessential kids’ white chocolate bar. This is being reinvented as an adult treat with a Raisin & Biscuit version. The brand is moving deep into the territory of rival brands and appears to be category vaulting, re-inventing itself as part biscuit, part short-bread. A spokesman says the company is simply broadening the appeal of the brand. “Milkybar is proof that you can take long-standing brand and advertising heritage and bring it up to date. We haven’t changed the recipe, we’ve added a product for adult tastes, we’ve held on to the Milkybar kid, the line, the song, but made them fun and relevant and interactive for an adult audience.”

The whole sweets and treats category is awash with cross-over products seeking to cash in on the brand values of competitors. Kraft-owned Cadbury has teamed up with Burton’s Foods to launch biscuit versions of Turkish Delight, Crunchie and Caramel. Sales are reported to be booming, with some £7.6m of the biscuits sold since their launch in March. One wonders how long this boom in countline branded biscuits will continue, what will be the effects on the mother brands and whether the sector is driven by people trialling the products out of interest.

Some observers are sceptical about the drive to launch sub-brands. As one says: “Brand managers and marketers are typically only in their jobs for 18 months and in that time might have about eight reporting cycles, where they need to show growing sales. It doesn’t matter what the long-term impact on the brand is of launching an extension, even if it dilutes the equity and confuses the positioning of the main brand, they have got to make a difference.”

Such marketers have been dubbed “galloping midgets,” who are more interested in personal advancement than in the health of their brands in the long-run. Then again, as Keynes said, in the long-run, we are all dead.

Striking the right balance when launching a brand extension is crucial, but all too often extensions have to be reined in after swamping the master brand with conflicting brand values. Unilever has spent the past ten years pruning back its portfolio to a handful of power brands. Now the portfolio is growing again with continual brand extensions. Meanwhile, Procter & Gamble has been reducing the number of brand extensions around its Pringles Crisps brand, phasing out Minis and Select.

The economic downturn has sent marketers scurrying to look for short-term hits from brand extensions which play on the values of the parent brand as they struggle to hit their numbers. But they should beware of destroying brand equity that has been steadily built up over decades.

Strangest brand extensions of all time

- Sex Pistols scent
- Snoop Dogg’s range of pet accessories
- Budweiser Barbecue Sauce
- Cheetos Lip Balm
- Burger King fragrance BK@Flame which “captures the essence of Whopper love in the form of a body spray.”

Pitch Magazine

2010-09-19T21:18:00.000+01:00

I was interviewed recently for 'Pitch' an online marketing magazine (which ironically, I don't think I get a subscription to). It was about brand extensions. I don't know the whole thrust of the piece, but if I manage to get access to it, I can post it. Anyway, as there is little chance of me finding it, let alone saving it, here is my little section. I was talking about having no problem with Dove extending to a male audience, if it was done correctly, but having more issues with Weetabix, a staple British breakfast cereal, doing a chocolate version.

- - - - - - - - -

“Dove stands for inner and real beauty in all sorts of people. Why shouldn’t that extend to certain segments of a male target?” he (ie me) says."How Dove express that thought may need some thinking about, but the thought itself is valid and seems to build out the brand equity"

In contrast, he is far less convinced about Chocolate Weetabix. “Sometimes you can see brand extensions undercutting a brand. Weetabix is a healthy, simple, fortifying breakfast. The addition of chocolate doesn’t build that equity, it detracts from it.

The only way to really make it work would be to think again what the overall brand stands for. For example, if Weetabix was about 'healthy fortification' the introduction of chocolate starts to push the overall Weetabix brand to a more 'fortification can be fun' place. So the extension re-defines the parent brand."

"It's like the kids redefining the parents!"

John Cole - As It Seemed To Me

2010-09-18T08:24:00.000+01:00

When we cleared my Dad's house, there were a few books that I wanted to read before passing on or tossing out. One of these was an early biography of Tony Blair, before he became Prime Minister, which I haven't posted about, and there is this one, 'As It Seemed To Me' by ex BBC political correspondent, John Cole, who was a regular fixture on TV during the eighties and early nineties. So much so that the satirical TV programme, Spitting Image, parodied him.

His memories are interesting, though quite dry. He clearly is a decent guy who doesn't want to offend and treads lightly when he is in disagreement with something, for example Thatcherite policies. There is a really interesting section in which he divides politicians of all persuasions into two groups. One for whom "events fortify their original political creeds or prejudices" and others for whom their dogmas are refined or modified by experience. He clearly prefers the latter category.

It is also interesting looking back at the huge difference between the 1970's and the Labour (and to a lesser degree Conservative) attempts to deal with double digit inflation, having to negotiate incomes policy with the unions on an ongoing basis and compare that with the issues under the Thatcher governments who applied a monetary solution to economic problems, causing immense hardship in certain areas, and didn't try to reach an accommodation with the unions but instead defeat them. The difference between the two periods is even bigger for me due to my associations with each era. Bushy sideburns, glam rock and flared trousers in the early 1970s. As I was young is it all a bit 'grainy' in my memory as well as on the re-runs of the TV quality from that time. By the time we get to the 1980s it is straight jeans, post punk, even New Romantic dress sense, big shoulder pads and a sense of sometimes absurd fun and pretension.

Trout Music

2010-09-17T22:43:00.003+01:00

I have been listening to more classical music recently. But then again I have also been listening to more BBC 6Music also. I think it is a function of having a little office at home to sit and work in. The little office will be the subject of a separate post as for this one I'll talk about music.

In the little office I have put a radio (we have radios in every room in the house and they are usually tuned to speech radio) which is set to BBC Radio 3, 6Music or ClassicFM. I put it on low volume, turn the desk light on and start doing paperwork or work. It is quite therapeutic.

I have also been listening to music downstairs as well. I have all my father's records (and my grandmother's as well, come to that) and I am slowly working my way through them. The old vinyl ones are fun; they are SO thick compared to the vinyl records I bought as a teenager. My current favourite is The Trout Quintet by Schubert. I like the music, but I like the name even more!

I had a look online for some of it, and I found this 55 minute documentary of five classical superstars coming together in London in the 1960s to play it.

Poundworld

2010-09-12T12:49:00.001+01:00

There is something enormously fun about being given a pound and being asked to go to Poundworld and buy the best thing in the shop. Everything is a pound, or you can buy multiples of items for a pound (eg 3 cans of coke). There is a huge a selection of things to buy. It's like that silly game we play in media strategy - if you had a pound/dollar - how would you spend it. But it is for real.

We - Ollie, George and myself - were in the middle of buying presents and we took a detour to go in poundworld. We couldn't contain ourselves to just one pound and came away with six things - solar powered light, knee length socks, changing colour light, small gardening spade, gnome, and a pack of many many AAA batteries.

I have decided when we want a cheap family day out, that we give everyone a pound and go to Poundworld.

A Memento From The Project

2010-08-28T17:15:00.000+01:00

When we realised that the pen we had used on the wipeboard wasn't going wipe with conventional means. Luckily we found a towel and a bottle of water.

The Future of Brands

2010-08-22T20:36:00.002+01:00

A rather grandiose title for this post, and really the title for a book rather than a short post on the blog. But it is worth mentioning that I had an interesting conversation - I was kinda of interviewed for a project - on this subject this week. Here are a few themes that cropped up.

1. Brands being useful. No longer can brands be the nice looking fluff on top of the product. They need to offer real utility. Apps are clearly the best example of this but I suspect that it will increasingly become more widespread. Of course there still will be really luxury brands that don't apologise for their expense and opluence (one of my favourite propositions was about having the 'luxury of unused space') and of course there will be brands that strip the costs out of everything to provide unbeatable value, but utility is where it is at, especially in tech, entertainment, delivery mechanisms, etc.

2. The notion of brand as a composite of different elements you can play with, or can take different parts from or even be given the elements of and create a new/unique version of it. This way of thinking flies in the face of a single-minded brand and is more akin to a brand jigsaw or molecule or quilt of which there are many different aspects or pieces to the brand which make the whole. It speaks to the need for brand narratives or brand stories rather than single-minded propositions. This notion also allows for anyone to create their own version of the brand - which I guess is what happens in our heads anyway, each person has a slightly different take on say, Nike - rather than just think it.

3. A re-trenchment of authenticity. There will be a greater premium placed on true heritage, niche and cottage brands that story rings true. I like Clif Bar myself and the story of dissatisfaction with the current markets on a 175 mile bike ride, spending hours in mom's kitchen to get the right product, called the bar after his dad, Clifford has a great feel about it. I just hope it is true. If it isn't I will be severely let down. Ben and Jerry's would be another great example.

Effectiveness and Creativity Are Not Mutually Exclusive

2010-08-18T22:47:00.001+01:00

I gave a paper today about objective-setting and how to measure effectiveness (perhaps I can de-brand it and insert it into this blog, like this, though I have forgotten how to do it!). It continues to surprise me how reasonably senior people see creativity and effectiveness as mutually exclusive.

Firstly, we are in a commercial industry. We don't make art.

Secondly, creativity has HUGE value in generating business value. That is to be celebrated. The more we can show the business effect of creative thinking and creative work the better we will all be.

Thirdly, though people may not get out of bed to create value for their clients - they may do it for the creative bit for example - demonstrating value to clients SHOULD be part of the job. And if you are in client servicing in any way, and arguably we all are, there is no real get out.

Everything Everything

2010-08-17T16:22:00.003+01:00

Everything Everything's first album is out this month. This is a single that was released last year entitled "My Keys, Your Boyfriend" and the video above accompanied it. I think they are re-releasing it with a different video very soon. The new video is at their facebook site, here, but I don't like it is as much. This is just a little more nuttier. The song is also being renamed for this release as "MY KZ, UR BF".

The lyrics are indecipherable, so I looked them up. They are also pretty potty:

Lucifer you're landing
Cross-hairs on the kitchen sink
Barb-wire in the bathroom
I can't make new memories since

Flashbacks to the time
this shell-shocked apartment was the place
i met with your boy
it's a mortal
thing, yeah it's a mortal thing
oh! he looked at me funny and a
oh! oh! think
our secret's out and a
oh-ooh-oh i try to explain
but then munitions rain,
and we're the epicentre

It's like I'm watching the A4 paper taking over the guillotine,
It's like I'm watching the A4 paper taking over the guillotine

And I wanna know what happened to your boyfriend
Cos he was looking at me like "woah..!"
Yeah right before the kitchen was a dustbowl
And tossing me the keys and I can't forget how
everything just coming through the windows
and half the street was under my nails
it's like we sitting in the Faraday cage,
when the lights all failed

i fly through the walls
all pieces colliding and i
see raymond apart
he'a a frowning now, wagging a
finger at me
"boy!" his knees bend the other way and
"boy! boy!" are you guys together honey?
"b..b..boy!" oh but now i can't find his torso, mmhmmhmm i
guess you're seperated ooh,
Monica i just wanna know...ooh

It's like I'm watching the A4 paper taking over the guillotine,
[Monica I just wanna know..]
It's like I'm watching the A4 paper taking over the guillotine

And I wanna know what happened to your boyfriend
Cos he was looking at me like "woah..!"
Yeah right before the kitchen was a dustbowl
And tossing me the keys and I can't forget how
everything just coming through the windows
and half the street was under my nails
it's like we sitting in the Faraday cage,
when the lights all failed

Lucifer you're landing (6 cars the
driveway oh i do believe it will be business inside)
Cross-hairs on the kitchen sink
(it's a real spanner into my works i think i kicked the bucket)
Baby's on the bullseye (...do believe it will be business inside..)
I can't make new memories since, ..ries since, ..ries since.

And I wanna know what happened to your boyfriend
Cos he was looking at me like "woah..!"
Yeah
right before the kitchen was a dustbowl
And tossing me the keys and I can't
forget how
everything just coming through the windows
and half the street was under my nails
it's like we sitting in the Faraday cage,
when the lights all failed

And now everybody gotta go hungry
and everybody cover up their mouths
And I haven't seen the bodycount lately
but looking at your faces it
must have been bad
and if everybody answered their phonecalls..
but people
say the army's on fire
it's like we sitting with our parachutes on
when the when the
airport's gone

I like the song so much I found this live version. It is also good and you get to see the band play it for real.

You could even watch them simultaneously.

Joining The Dots

2010-08-17T15:58:00.000+01:00

I made a presentation to The Futures Company this morning called 'Joining The Dots'. It was about how some of that very powerful trend and insight work - whether it be desk or primary research - often gets lost in translation to the creative agency domain. It is a particular bugbear of mine as my career has crossed this divide. It was difficult for me to make the switch from enthusisatic and brainstorming researcher who thought he was being creative to being able to make a meaningful contribution to creative strategy and output. I have seen other people frustrated by the transition. It isn't easy and there is no manual to help you do it - perhaps that is a good idea for one - and my sense is that, inspite of my manuel idea, there is no substitute for the experience of doing it. It is a shame, as the very best ideas I have been involved with have been generated by looking 'outside', for insight or research or trends or some combination thereof. The trick is in bringing them to bear in a meaningful way that creative people can do something with.

It doesn't help that so much of this potentially good stuff gets handed across disciplines in the form of powerpoint and almost inevitably, it gets lost in translation. There is no substitute for talking rather than handing power point decks over. Because the recepient needs to internalise the nuggets of insight and somehow make it there own, in order to create from it, it is no wonder that a powerpoint slide just doesn't do it.

We have also become so specialist that in our process it has become rare for one person to champion insight all the way through the process. Back in the early days of account planning, planners did lots of groups on their own ideas. They were able to understand any creative work that was going into the groups and fed back to the creators in a language they understood. With more and more creative development work being put in the hands of research specialists the passage of good, clean, inspiring information is hampered.

I have more to say on this subject, but that will be for another day. The presentation seemed to go well. Whether the group take me up on the offer to have a further working session is another matter altogether.

The Visual Semiotic of Western Print Advertising

2010-08-14T01:01:00.001+01:00

Look at most Western print advertising, or just imagine some, and the chart above will make a lot of sense very quickly. It also works for some packaging (rectangular shaped), and probably a fair amount of other stuff as well.

TV star

2010-08-12T23:51:00.001+01:00

Instead of writing AGAIN about how crap the trains are in the country - today it was a train that was meant to take me to Wakefield cancelled at the last minute, almost literally - it is about time I posted about my appearance on the final of the Junior Apprentice, broadcast a month or so ago. The final itself took place at the end of last year. I was a member of the audience of 'industry experts' and I must say, I am looking terribly expert-like in the above still taken from the broadcast (I didn't know it was on until the next day when I showed up at work and was told about it!).

The kids - they were around 15-16 - were brilliant, and though they had some (real) expert help they did a fantastic job in their presentations and dealing with the questions the audience asked. They were both given a bottled water to sell. One team (male) branded it a 'Bottle of Water' and targeted adults with a cheap and simple challenger to the market. The other (female) team targeted their brand, 'Drip Drop', at the teen audience, which, though brave, finally did for them as Sir Alan Sugar didn't think that was the right audience to target. It was a very close call. Personally I would have given it to the girls as they were just a little more creative and courageous in their approach. But I wasn't party to their dynamics, how they worked together and all the background 'stuff' which has a bearing on the decision.

The other interesting aspect of the evening was how the audience questionning got increasingly more 'competitive' as more questions were asked. Though extremely good, the competitors were only in their mid-teens and some of the questions that were asked were just too difficult for them. It didn't take very long for the questions to be about how smart the questioner was, in front of his or her peer group. Naughty.

Zero 7 - Give It Away

2010-08-11T20:01:00.000+01:00

Lovely lilting track. Chilled and melodic. Dreamy. This track is the type that makes me want to dabble in music.

Running Workshops (1): Energy levels

2010-08-10T18:12:00.000+01:00

I have been running a few workshops recently, and have been stuck by how the way most workshops are run the 'wrong way around'. What I mean is that most workshops start with some presentation. I don't mean just a 15 minute introductory thing, I mean a couple of hours worth of presenting. Often people don't get to be 'creative' or generative until after lunch, and by then their energy has declined, and the ideas are not as creative or as bountiful. I would have thought it would be better to have people start the by being creative.

I have some idea that people's bio-rhythms are also on the 'up' in the morning and down in the afternoon. Even more reason to try to capture people's creativity in the morning.

New Blackberry

2010-08-09T15:53:00.000+01:00

I had had enough of the trackball failing and the damn thing wasn't synching with my diary. I took my trusty blackberry to IT and within a couple of hours I had a new one. Yippee. Now if I were a real tech head I would be up to my neck in iPhones, iPads and all sorts of other devices, but for me the company blackberry is functional and does what I need, plus a little more. It is exactly the same type as before, only it has a colour screen, the handset is a slate grey colouring and the keys/track ball make a satisfying 'click' when I depress them. I like that. The satisfaction of a good 'click' is a good thing. The other good thing is that I no longer have to make do with a rather fuzzy camera. This one seems to work much better, as evidenced by the clarity of the images on my second picture (the first was a little fuzzy due to hand shake!):

Pretty good eh? More to follow in due course.

The Cost Of A New Duffle Bag

2010-08-08T16:54:00.001+01:00

Of course First Capital Connect haven't found my duffle bag, the one I lost here, inspite of me being able to pinpoint it pretty accurately in terms of exactly where I left it and having called within 5 minutes of me getting off the train.

In it was swimwear, goggles, swimming hat, washbag and contents of the washbag. Not too hard nor too costly to replace. But of course nothing is as simple as you think it is.

I bought some very natty swimming goggles:

Speedo, with a little carrying case (black) and some interchangeable bits (in the plastic bag). But they hurt my left eye which seems to stick out a little more than my right and when the glasses are tight, I blink 'against' the goggle, and it hurts. So I bought some more:

These are Zoggs 'Predator' goggles (strange name for swimming goggles) and they are fantastic. They 'suck' the skin without being too tight, and my left eye doesn't hurt when I blink. It is a shame I had two goes to get there but that is the problem when losing a duffle bag.

When I bought my first pair of goggles (the Speedo ones), I also bought this:

A micro-towel: super-absorbent, packs down very small and seemed just right. But there is a big glitch; it doesn't stretch around my waist, so I can't wrap it around me. Crucial for a towel.

Here is the micro-towel with my foot. The towel may be super-absorbent, but it is just too small. I wouldn't have known that by looking at the packaging. Anyway, I bought a new towel.

Much better, and bigger, though only the standard size of towel. Boy, that small one is small.

I got a washbag, which is the only thing I haven't had to replace, and I am gradually filling the washbag with the appropriate toiletries.

The moral of all this: "Don't lose your duffle bag"

A Good Reason To Like Facebook

2010-08-07T22:12:00.000+01:00

In amongst the disquiet about the value of Facebook - there was another article in the supplement of The Guardian today, entitled 'Social Networking: Failure to Connect' - the response I got to my tweet/status update about being passed 'clear' for another year on the cancer front was really heartwarming. Thank you everyone who bothered.

No Cancer

2010-08-05T23:21:00.000+01:00

This is a thyroid ultrasound image. It is not mine. But it is like mine. I had my thryoid ultrasounded today: well what is left of my thryoid. I had cancer in my left thyroid in 2000 and it was surgically removed. Though it is the best type of cancer to get supposedly, it is still a pretty significant operation, coming in at 4 hours and a neck held together with metal clips for 10 days thereafter. I don't want to go through it again, and I don't really want to take pills everyday if the right one has to go as well.

When I returned to the UK, I was told that best practice now is to remove the entire thyroid, and I was advised to have the operation. If there is no thyroid at all, it is easier to detect any abnormal levels of thyroxine as the pills taken provide a regular measurable reading. Detection is harder when half the thyroid remains as the bodies production of thyroxine is not as regular as the dosage in pills and therefore harder to know if the cancer has returned. So it is chiefly a detection (of cancer returning) issue rather than a likelihood of it returning. That's what I have understood anyway.

I didn't want the operation, and after a few sometimes testy meetings with consultant doctors, it was agreed that I would continue to have regular ie annual ultrasounds to see if there was any abnormalities. Thankfully this time there are not. There are no flecks, odd dots or anything sinister. Phew.

Losing My Duffle Bag

2010-08-02T22:06:00.000+01:00

I left my AT&T duffle bag on the train today. It seriously annoys me doing that. It only contained my swimming gear, a towel and a sponge bag (full) which is not too much hassle nor too expensive to replace. It is the fact that I left it.

Of course First Capital Connect are totally useless and there is no way that their lost property central office can call the station where the train terminates (even though I rang in to report the loss before the train would have terminated), so I doubt whether I will ever see my AT&T duffle bag again.

And that is a shame. Not only is that duffle bag very practical - it folds up better than a backpack, I don't carry the stress on my right shoulder as I can sling it over my neck to carry it and it is a good size for things like swimming stuff - but I am very attached to it. Patricia Woodward gave it to me early in my time in the US when I was working on the AT&T account.

And more than that. Duffle bags, as far as I define them in that classic cylindrical shape with a drawstring at the top and one strap way, are an endangered species. For me to lose it is a poor show, but for First Capital Connect not to manage to return it to me is even worse. I only wish I had a picture of it.

A Couple Of Interesting Things

2010-08-01T23:08:00.001+01:00

Whilst having the tour of Shakespeare's birthday place last week, I learnt a couple of interesting tid-bits. Firstly, the phrase, "goodnight, sleep tight" comes from the days when the mattress for a bed was laid on top of a rope that was woven into the frame of the bed. The nearest analogy I can think of is how a tennis racquet is strung. When the rope got loose, it needed to be tightened using a neat little tightening tool. The expectation was that with a 'tighter' bed to put the mattress on, the better the occupant would sleep.

People also used to sleep sitting upright, or at least propped up, as they believed that the devil might come and take you if you slept lining horizontally. The only time humans laid out horizontally was when they were dead and if you slept in that position, it was thought that the devil may come and take you away. So if you see a much shorter bed dating back a few hundred years, it wasn't just that people were shorter, it was as much about concern about the devil.

Little boys were dressed up as little girls because the infant mortality rate amongst boys was higher than girls. People believed that by dressing little boys up in dresses and the like, the devil would not be able to spot them as boys and therefore not 'take them'.

Fascinating. Also shows the power of collective beliefs.

Clouds Over Holkham Beach July 2009

2010-07-22T23:46:00.000+01:00

Direct Action

2010-07-20T22:12:00.000+01:00

I really don't like First Captial Connect. Many people don't. Here is someone who clearly doesn't. Yesterday they were queues outside the station as people waited for the service to be resumed after a problem with the overhead cable. Today, it was a cracked line at Farringdon. So I turned around, went home, and tried again an hour later. I got on a train and the journey seemed to be going smoothly until we stopped outside St. Pancras. The driver told us we would have to back up to the last station as St. Pancras had too many trains in it. Great! I was going to be late for work, two hours late, for the second day running. I was annoyed. Whilst in the train, I found, and called, the complaints line for First Capital Connect (at least they have one) and got through to a very pleasant chap. I told him he was very nice but I hoped he was able to move job very soon as it was a dreadful company. I also told him the service was a shambles and then asked my fellow passengers to shout "shambles" into the phone. It was a little hit and miss; some people shouted quite forecfully, others looked on quizzically. But he got the message, and it cheered the passengers up a little, at least those who understood what I was doing. Next time I will orchestrate it better by informing my fellow passengers what I am planning to do, then get a much heartier and full response.

Cool boy summer shorts

2010-07-18T23:35:00.000+01:00

Judging at the IPA

2010-07-15T00:49:00.001+01:00

I had the honour a few weeks of being one of the industry judges at the 2010 IPA Effectiveness Awards. These awards have the reputation of being the most rigourous and difficult in the marketing and communications world. It is worth taking a further look, here. They are only held every two years as it is felt it would be too ardous on potential entrants to have them every year. 'Even' years are open to agencies, media owners and clients worldwide, and 'odd' years are limited to campaigns with a total annual marketing communications budget of up to £2.5 million and have to be submitted by agencies, media owners and clients in the UK only.

Two things separate them from their Effie cousins above anything else, in addition to the every two years piece. Firstly, they absolutely require evidence that the activity paid back on the investement made ie fees, production and media. If the paper doesn't show this has been achieved then it will be disqualified. Secondly, the entries are far longer than the Effies: with 'even' years being limited to 4,000 words and 'odd' years being 3,000.

This year was, by all accounts, a very good year. A very high number of entries, just under seventy, and the majority of a high standard. There were about 30 industry judges who are split into two groups, each group will mark about half the papers and everyone in each group reads all the papers that are allocated to that group. Each paper is generally reckoned to take about one hour to read. The box of the papers you have to read arrives one day in a big box with a judging form and a survival pack that includes; Nurofen, Pro Plus, an energy bar, an energy and a small bottle of champagne. Very sweet. So with briefing and a day's judging I guess I notched up close to 40 hours on it. And what a privilege.

The quality of the entries was fantastically high, and very enlightening, in the main, to read. The judging day, with a group of very well informed judges, with a broad range of experience (see here for more details on the judges) was equally enlightening and great fun as well. The discussion throughout the day was extremely high and enjoyable.

A number of observations about the papers really popped. The really good ones are clear to read. Superflous adjectives grate. There needs to be more general knowledge about econometrics (so many papers have them now, over half, and we were too often hanging on our econometrics specialist's every word). It is a time consuming task to write a really good one. If you can make the paper work without economics, do it, as it will likely be easier to follow. Too many charts is as bad as too few.

A big thanks to David Golding, convenor of judges and Marie Oldham, the deputy convenor, who steered us through the day with a deft touch and from our short-listing of entries the client judges now have to decide who gets bronze, silver, gold and grand prix. I am already looking forward to the awards dinner in November.

Peter Cooper Obituary

2010-04-18T15:16:00.000+01:00

Psychologist and pioneer of focus groups in Britain

Peter Cooper, who has died suddenly aged 73, was a psychologist who pioneered the use of the focus group in market research in the 1960s. His company, Cooper Research and Marketing, advised many large companies on consumer behaviour, helping them to understand the market in relation to leading brands.

Peter also recognised the potential of market research to empower disadvantaged groups by breaking down traditional structures in society, such as the doctor-patient relationship, and even ventured into the imbalance in equality between men and women, thus seeking to make market research an integral aspect of the democratic process. His work in the last years of his life was preoccupied with the needs of consumers caught in the recession.

Born in north London, Peter was evacuated during the second world war and, after his parents separated, he was brought up principally by his father, a professional trumpeter. In 1959, he graduated with a first-class degree in psychology from Manchester University, where he stayed on as a postgraduate to work with his mentor, John Cohen, on aspects of the psychology of risk.

A significant element of his research involved children's understanding of war and peace, based on studies carried out in Japan, Germany and the UK. His work took him to the Sorbonne, in Paris, and to the universities of Oslo and London. During this period he was also actively involved in the Workers' Educational Association.

In the mid-1960s Peter studied in France, where he was intrigued by new approaches to understanding consumerism. People would be taken away for a long weekend in order to be observed as they expressed their relationships with different brands and products. Peter recognised that equally effective results could be obtained by bringing consumers together for three-hour sessions to explore emotional, as well as practical, responses to a range of issues relating to consumerism, from product attributes to advertising, packaging and brand identity. During these "extended creativity group" sessions, respondents were asked to draw, model with clay and role-play their feelings and emotions. In time, this method was to become recognised globally as the alternative to the more narrative-centred groups that predominated in the US.

In 1963 Peter became one of the first academics to apply his research to the marketplace and, in 1966, with his then wife, Jackie French, he set up Cooper Research and Marketing (later CRAM International). In 1968, the company moved from Manchester to London where, over the next four decades, a string of major companies sought Peter's advice on consumer behaviour, among them Guinness, BMW, the Financial Times, British Airways, Persil, American Express, BP, GSK, the BBC and Nokia.

From understanding marketing techniques to helping pharmaceutical companies better understand patients' needs, Peter gave an intellectual rigour to market research. Furthermore, he was fascinated by the need to develop different techniques outside western markets. From the early 1980s, he was in the far east, introducing his methods to Japan, China and south-east Asia.

He was also acutely aware of the importance of new technologies. A fellow of the UK Market Research Society and the Royal Society of Medicine, Peter conducted pioneering work in ethnography and also on the quantification of qualitative research data, which he called QualiQuant. He wrote many papers and was active right up to his death, highlighting key issues in contemporary marketing, market research and communication.

A byproduct of Peter's love of psychology was his passion for phrenology. While he acknowledged the flawed science behind it, for him phrenological busts were things of beauty, and over the years he amassed a significant collection of phrenologica. He sought to revive interest in the subject, and in the early 1980s commissioned a limited edition of Coalport china phrenological heads.

Peter and Jackie divorced several years ago. For the past 10 years, he lived with his partner, Claudia, also a psychologist, in Gloucestershire. They were brought together not only by their interest in psychology, but also good food and fine wine. They shared their lives with two horses, two Shetland ponies, three cats and six chickens. Claudia survives him, as do his three children and five grandchildren.

• Peter Cooper, psychologist and market researcher, born 26 November 1936; died 12 February 2010

(From the Guardian Thursday 8 April 2010) Simon Patterson

LIP DUB

2010-01-10T21:20:00.008Z

LIPDUBing is a combination of lip synching and audio dubbing. I hadn't come across it until John Richer, a family friend from France, sent us one, that he had directed for his college in Lyon. John, by the way, is the cool one in the shades at the beginning.

Local Wine Lingo

2009-11-21T22:48:00.003Z

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

2009-09-25T16:53:00.008+01:00

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

2009-09-15T22:39:00.003+01:00

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

2009-09-02T17:44:00.002+01:00

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

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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

2009-08-20T17:22:00.003+01:00

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

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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

2009-08-03T21:50:00.009+01:00

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

2009-08-01T21:27:00.006+01:00

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

2009-07-15T19:29:00.001+01:00

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

2009-07-10T22:31:00.005+01:00

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

2009-06-22T22:09:00.003+01:00

Hmmmmmmmmmmm!

Crusty Bread, Wine and Cheese

2009-06-20T14:57:00.003+01:00

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

2009-06-06T21:51:00.009+01:00

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

2009-06-05T17:47:00.003+01:00

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

Here is TJ in Ad Age's CMO column.

The Signalbox Experience

2009-06-02T22:47:00.009+01:00

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

2009-06-01T22:36:00.006+01:00

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

2009-05-10T22:22:00.008+01:00

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

2009-05-03T08:34:00.015+01:00

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

2009-04-30T22:09:00.003+01:00

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.

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

It's the Cricket Season

2009-04-25T21:54:00.006+01:00

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

2009-04-22T16:22:00.004+01:00

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

2009-04-09T23:33:00.006+01:00

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?

2009-04-06T10:44:00.006+01:00

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

2009-04-04T21:54:00.007+01:00

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

2009-04-02T09:15:00.002+01:00

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

2009-03-29T21:53:00.004+01:00

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

2009-03-21T08:45:00.009Z

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

2009-03-15T10:40:00.007Z

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

2009-03-08T19:22:00.006Z

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:

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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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)
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

2009-03-01T16:19:00.001Z

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

2009-02-28T18:31:00.009Z

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

2009-02-12T23:15:00.007Z

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

2009-02-09T21:19:00.003Z

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

Glaspaleis

2009-02-08T22:14:00.004Z

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

2009-02-04T22:36:00.002Z

Spotted in Heerlen, Holland.

Are You Happy?

2009-02-01T20:35:00.002Z

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

2009-01-28T20:50:00.003Z

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

2009-01-26T18:00:00.007Z

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”.

Progressive Conservatism

2009-01-24T22:28:00.004Z

I attended a DEMOS event last Thursday. It was the launch of DEMOS's three year project on progressive conservatism. It was an interesting afternoon. David Cameron, above, talked about the desired 'progressive' 'ends' of fairness, equal opportunity, sustainability/green, safety and he talked about the conservative 'means' of how to get there; de-centralization, govt. to strengthen institutions that help that eg. family, economic growth and living within our means.

To be honest, my view of him was a media friendly, young, energetic, Tory version of Tony Blair, though not as good (though I never saw Blair speak at such close quarters). He had presence, though not charisma, and isn't someone I would readily warm to even if what he said made good sense.

The interesting stuff came later. Philip Blond theologian, philosopher, and self-proclaimed 'red conservative' who is heading the DEMOS project, was provocative and interesting. He spoke of the poor being progressively decapitalised, of the market state and the welfare state being insufficient and advocated a 'civic' state, where the end result isn't monopolies or oligarchies (as he sees in the market state) where ownership is for all and there is equality in participation.

After the break, there was a panel discussion that included Will Hutton , Oliver Letwin and John Gray . It was excellent. It started to throw up issues like the extend and duration of government involvement in the markets (and therefore society at large), whether Margaret Thatcher was really a Conservative at all and belonged to the traditional Conservative lineage or whether she was really a free-market liberal and Conservative outlier, how did progressive Conservatism differ from compassionate Conservatism (or even, to my mind one nation Toryism) or liberal Conservatism.

The Cameron speech was well reported in the press, though more for his comments on Labour's handling of the recession than anything else.

The photo was, as you can probably guess my now, taken with my trusty blackberry camera, and on zoom this time, just to add to the grainy quality.

Alastair Campbell: The Blair Years

2009-01-18T10:16:00.007Z

Alastair Campbell was officially Blair's press secretary, but in reality was so much more; adviser, strategist and 'spin doctor' and often claimed as the second most powerful man in Britain. It is a great insight into government, and particularly No. 10, from what is essentially the perspective of a strategic communications man. It is fast-paced and compelling reading, and though Campbell is not without flaws, I was rather taken by his straight talking style, touches of humour and emotion and his insights.

Not surprisingly, Blair himself comes out of the book rather well. One of his skills is to be able to move fluidly between policy areas and still keep hold of the overall strategy. And though that is clearly part of a PM's job it is still eye-opening the number of really important issues that a PM may have to deal with in a day: an meeting on peace in Northern Ireland, cabinet reshuffle, Middle East, National Heath Service, Millennium Dome, etc

My favourite single passage of the book described the time when Clinton visited the Labour party conference in Blackpool and fancied a walk back to his hotel rather than the car. A little coterie, including Kevin Spacey, and Campbell ended up having a bite to eat in a McDonald's and chatting away to the other diners. Commenting on the incident, Campbell writes, "He was like a man replenished, not because of the food but because he had been out with real people, and got something out of it".

It's Absurd

2009-01-13T21:37:00.002Z

The notion of have an "on the go meal", which I thought was meant to be a portable meal you could carry with you, served on a tray, with all the trimmings, 20 mins into a 3 hour journey on the Eurostar.

Tasty Medicine

2009-01-08T17:54:00.003Z

One thing I love about Stevie Wonder's 'classic' period (early 1970s) is that songs about oppression, the underclass and the uselessness of those in power - pretty heavy subjects - can sound so joyous. And because the music is so unfailingly upbeat and danceworthy, it makes the juxtaposition with the social commentary all the more pointed.

I had a creative director once who used to show me to his office door with such grace and charm that I felt terrific that he had personally taken the time to show me out. It only occured a few minutes afterwards that he no longer wanted me in there. He delivered a rather brutal message with such panache.

It just goes to show the how you say it is just as important as what you are saying.

Surprise and Delight

2008-12-20T12:00:00.005Z

I was running today(I don't do it so much nowadays due to a dodgy knee), and apart from thinking how brilliant Nike + is, I found myself clicking through some of my favourite ever songs on the Ipod; "Uptight" and "Signed, Sealed, Delivered" by Stevie Wonder, and "Tears of a Clown" by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles. It occured to me that with the download culture I had listened to them so often I have become too familiar with them. This is in marked contrast from when I was a kid and the songs would appear on the radio when you didn't expect them and they were all the more brilliant becuase of that element of surprise. I am not quite old enough to remember them in the charts (ok, perhaps just the last one) but there was genuine, spontaneous excitement when they came up on golden oldie slots, and I would wait with my old flat tape recorder, fingers poised over the 'play' and 'record' buttons, hoping the DJ didn't talk for too long over the intro of the song I was going to record onto my C60 Cassette. Now I can get the song when I want on youtube, my Ipod, my phone. Even the 'I can't wait to get home and play the record' feeling has pretty much gone.

It is way more efficient - I get my music when I want rather than waste hours waiting for it to come on the radio or save up and go down the shops for it- but boy does it take away that sense of surprise and delight.

Perhaps that is why we need to do what we can to put the surprise and delight back into what people are buying.

Pressure

2008-12-14T17:42:00.001Z

"You have to learn how to use the pressure".

Gianluca Vialli, the great Italian football player said this, or something very like this, when interviewed on Radio 5 Live this afternoon about the pressures of managing in the Premier League.

It made me think of a manager, of any kind, being able to take on significant pressure that the team is facing and be a vessel for and yet somehow transforming it into positive energy for everyone around. Perhaps Obama has been able to do that. I wish I could.

Pork Chops at $4.99 or Brand Anthem?

2008-12-12T23:18:00.022Z

There are clients who want to sell pork chops for $4.99, and are only ever going to creative work that sells pork chops for $4.99.

But of course the agency decide it is an excellent opportunity to create an amazing new brand campaign.

99.9% of the time , this scenario is going to end in a mess; too much time wasted, too much agency resource pointed needlessly in the wrong direction, too much course correction needed. It all smacks of irresponsible fiscal management and ends up with demotivated staff who don't feel confidence in what they are being asked to do ("here we go again").

Why not just recognise that this client wants to sell pork chops at $4.99? Wouldn't be better for the agency to devote its resources to answering the brief spectacularly well? Selling $4.99 pork chops can be done very creatively. Save the big brand anthem effort for the client who wants it.

Agencies are usually to blame for the mess. They really should know better. But clients aren't exempt from blame. By pandering to the agency's desires or not being clear about the task they are quite capable of bluring what should be a simple brief.

There is a very powerful lesson in this. Understand what the client is asking for, and what they are going to buy.

I mean if you asked a shop assistant for a yoghurt you wouldn't expect her to come back with some broccoli, would you?

Moon

2008-12-10T22:26:00.005Z

After the post about long shadows it didn't feel wrong to post a night shot. This shot of the moon was taken almost a month ago (11/11) with my 'real' camera, not the trusty blackberry. The definition in this shot is a nice complement to the 'inexactness' of my previous moon post, here. Another time I shall take two shots of moon at same time with different cameras and post both for a true comparison.

Long Shadows

2008-12-07T07:07:00.007Z

This picture was taken at 12.24 p.m yesterday (with trusty blackberry camera). The long shadows - and low sun - so soon after noon got me thinking about the the length of the day at various latitudes. Here are some comparisons (for 6th Dec):

Reykjavik: 64 Lat, Sunrise 11.06 am, Sunset 3.30 pm, Daylight 4hrs 24 mins
London: 51 Lat, Sunrise 7.53 am, Sunset 3.49 pm, Daylight 7 hrs 56 mins
New York: 41 Lat, Sunrise 07.07 am, Sunset 4.26 pm, Daylight 9 hrs 19 mins
Singapore: 1 Lat, Sunrise 05.54 am, Sunset 5.57 pm, Daylight 12 hrs 3 mins

Hammerfest, at 70 Latitude, in Norway, didn't have sunrise and sunset times for 6th December. I can only presume the sun didn't officially rise yesterday.

DEMOS

2008-12-02T09:19:00.007Z

DEMOS is a think tank. It was launched in 1993 by Geoff Mulgan and Martin Jacques as an independent and fresh thinking anditidote to short-term, aligned, dull and Whitehall-centric think tank culture prevelant at the time. At the time, I read an article about DEMOS' intentions , got excited, got myself invited to the launch, and became a paid up member, receiving articles and going to meetings but staying perpherial and anonymous.

My involvement changed in 2002/3 when I saw colleague at RKCR/Y&R involved in DEMOS work. It transpired that my boss at the time, MT Rainey, was one of DEMOS' trustees. I waded in and took the work on. Work that culminated in presenting a strategy document to DEMOS at their annual weekend offsite.

I have tried to retain links with the organisation, offering insight where I can and providing a base in the US for visitors from the UK.

Yesterday evening DEMOS held a meeting for its Assoicates. I am lucky enough to be included as one, I presume for my work five years ago, and I am keen to contribute to such an excellent and inspirational organisation.

DEMOS have a new director, Richard Reeves, his website is here. He was excellent yesterday evening; thoughtful, authoritative, and eloquent. After a couple of difficult years including changing management and financial concerns, DEMOS seems rejuvenated and back on track. I look forward to being a playing a part.

Don't Be A Snippy Chimp

2008-11-29T23:59:00.010Z

I had the good fortune of going to a brilliant 'inspiration' talk from Dave Brailsford, the Performance Director of British Cycling. It was anything but the charicature motivational speaker thing event. Brailsford established his credentials by comparing the 1 Gold medal won in the 76 years to 2004 by British cyclists with the haul gained in 2008, that would have put British Cycling, if it were a country, ahead of France in the medals table; 8 golds and 14 medals in total.

He put his success down to three key points (plus a huge increase in lottery funding).

1. Focus. Taking only cyclists with podium potential. Brailsford was offered 46 places by the British Olympic authorities, but they took only 23. The rest weren't good enough. They set goals; not goals of beating others, but of being the best they could be, identifying a time as the goal. The times were audacious but were not unrealistic. They had been carefully worked out.

2. People. Brailsford got in the right people. The one he talked about most is Steve Peters, the only psychiatrist working in the top echleons of sports apparently (mostly, it is sports psychologists). In essence Peters talks about the emotional 'chimp mode' that if left uncontrolled, can take over, just when you don't need it. You can't change your chimp, but you can learn how to manage it so it doesn't impair performance.

Brailsford also doesn't believe in 'fear' coaching. Only positive coaching. It was part of a value system that on the team had to buy into. One very senior coach was fired for not buying into the vlaues, and others didn't last. Podium potential riders needed podium coaching.

3. Aggregated Marginal Gains. When the prepartion for the 2008 games began Brailsford gave everyone on the pursuit team, including all backroom staff, a short film for inspiration. It essentially showed their 2004 Athens defeat by the Australian team with a dramatic voice over from a movie, by Al Pacino I think, about winning one inch at a time. This laid out the philosophy to the team. They were ruthless and ingenious about breaking down every tiny element of performance. For example, McClaren F1 team did modelling on aerodynamics (helmets, body position) and race strategy. One resulting change, that defied conventional wisdom, was the start 0ff man switching from 3/4 lap to 1 and 1/4 first leg. They also got the team to 'feel' the right speed so that riders could change when they wanted to keep the speed up, rather than everything being pre-set (ie one lap per rider). In the final this resulted in one of the riders riding an unheard of 2 and 1/4 laps without a change. But it also took in learning how to wash hands properly, so avoiding the main source of passing bugs. They went to such lengths that team members were employed in Bejing to keep door handles clean. Brailsford even 'joked' about taking an inch out of riders collar bones to lessen the wind resistance. It was a joke, but I bet he had the figures!

One other comment Brailsford made was the importance of removing all stresses from the race itself which meant the performers were then freed up, as far as possible, to perform to their best. In essence it was all about preparation and leaving as little to chance.

There are some good implications for individuals and for organisations alike:

Focus

Audacious but realistic goals carefully worked out

Best people

Best people on side

Don't focus on the competition, focus on your own performance

There are improvements to be made in many many areas.

There are improvements to be made in many areas you don't even know about.

Every area should be looked at from scratch - conventional wisdom needs to be challenged.

Get rid of as much stress before the event so you can focus on performance during the event (not the stress of it).

Understand the chimp inside and work on it.

A Different Perspective On An Orc

2008-11-22T11:31:00.004Z

This is an Orc. It is from Warhammer, a fantasty strategy game that George has got into. The Orc is only about an inch in height but this picture makes it look bigger. And angry.

It minds me of some really good work we did for LEGO company a few years ago. Initially, we couldn't find an interesting way to present the LEGO models. Then Phil and Graham got involved. They started thinking about the models from a kids perspective, namely lying down with head on the floor, playing at the same level as the toys themselves. It was brilliant insight. Whilst adults are looking from a vantage point five or six feet up in air, the kids who play with the things see them much more eye to eye level. Everything flowed from that.

The ads we did, and I don't know if I can find them a few years on, had a sense of dynamism and scale that just couldn't have been achieved it we had looked the issue from our adult vantage point. It was one of the best examples I know of, literally, understanding the perspective of your target.

Brussels Building

2008-11-20T00:27:00.005Z

This is a cool building in Brussels, opposite the Sheraton hotel. Click to see the light show.

It is the lights moving, not the camera! There were also had multicolour displays as well. But by then I was off in a cab. This was filmed with trusty old blackberryvision.

Brand Architecture

2008-11-19T09:20:00.006Z

It's always good to have access to Aaker's brand relationship model. There are many different architecture models. This one is one of the more comprehensive. It is from the 'Brand Leadership' book. It looks like a picture taken from my trusty blackberry camera. Unfortunately it wasn't. I had to play around with scanners and proportion. Apologies for the final result. You may have to peer a little. I will try to find a better, more legible version.

Cartoon Time

2008-11-17T06:59:00.005Z

I got the set!!

Genius or Graft

2008-11-16T07:23:00.005Z

Great article in yesterday's Guardian, an edited extract from Malcolm Gladwell's new book 'The Outliers', that questions the notion that genuis is born and not the result of other factors.

Gladwell suggests that hard graft is vital. That there seems to be a magic number of around 10,000 hours 'practice' to obtain expertise. He quotes Daniel Levitin, a neurologist, who contends that this holds true across sport, music, programming and many other subjects.

He argues that timing is also vital. For example Gladwell demonstrates that the richest Americans ever were all born between 1831 and 1840, just the right time to take advantage of the industrial transformation of America that happened in the 1860s and 1870s. He also suggests the best time to be born to take advantage of the personal computer revolution that started in Jan 1975 with the announcement of the first assemble-it-yourself at home PC, the Altair 8800, was between 1952 and 1958. He shows that a whole raft of computer legends were in fact born in this period.

It is a beguiling argument. But many people were born at the right time, and many of those people worked hard, though not all of them are "geniuses", so I suspect there are still other variables that distinguish the "geniuses" from the rest of us. Nevertheless, the theory gives us hope that we can, with hard graft and good timing, make it big. It is nothing if not democratic.

Extracts from the book are here.

One last thought, the hard graft and timing theory, as a prerequisite for success is not totally new, as here suggests!

Design Time

2008-11-15T07:36:00.006Z

I love this digital/analgoue radio. Not just because I can listen to the BBC World Service broadcast in great clarity, but because of its super design. It has very simple lines when we see it face on. All the dials and buttons are on the top so it is pretty easy to use in this vertical position.

Swivel the handle right the way around and it can be used as a stand/rest for the radio.

Put it on a desk, like I do, or a shelf, and operate it in the horizontal.

It was designed by the innovation house, IDEO .

I can't do a post on design without quickly showing this:

It must be nearly 5 decades old, and with kind hands it still works very well.

I Wish I Had The Confidence to Say Less

2008-11-13T16:53:00.003Z

The Power of Emotion

2008-11-10T22:43:00.004Z

Listening to some of the speakers at The Battle of Big Thinking last week, I found myself becoming rather cynical at the weightiness of their intellectual models as a way into their subject. We had two papers about the quantum theory of communications, a paper grounded in theories of sex and death, one on bio-mechanics and another on how the brain works (it was too complex to make any more sense of it). Whilst not against interesting hooks to introduce a subject nor borrowing from other disciplines to make a point, see here for an example, I did find myself longing for something very simple and very persuasive.

An example might be that all we are attempting to do with communications is to move people, connect with them as emotional beings. Whilst I realise it isn't an easy task, it is does form the basis of a lot of what we do.

I just happened to chance upon a brilliant example of this. The blog is Richard Huntington's adliterate, the particular post I have in mind is this one; 'The Power of Raw Emotion' .

The Battle of Big Thinking

2008-11-07T13:57:00.003Z

Graham Fink receives the Mexican wrestling belt as winner of the 2008 Battle of Big Thinking from Malcolm White yesterday afternoon. Graham's idea was big and brilliant. Driven by the belief that we need to put different, or opposite, thinking in the same place to create ideas, he proposed a way to put people in touch with their 'opposite brains' by meeting people from a different walk of life. These people would meet for an hour and see what happens. Any ideas would be submitted to a website. He called it the bigthinkingclub.

His master strokes were twofold. Firstly, that he was going to make it happen, not just talk about it. And by pledging to launch the club if he won, he pulled that one off. Secondly, he seduced us by recognising us as founder members! How flattering is that.

The other outstanding piece was Nigel Newton, CEO of Bloomsbury publishing, who spoke about trusting our instincts rather than the analysis whilst we watched a seemingly random series of data slides about the minutia of Lloyd's life pass by.