One Step Away from Creepy

I mean, I love Coke’s Happiness Factory spots, and I love Coke’s dedication to the feeling of their product (as opposed to Pepsi’s dedication to fitting into a specific demographic with a revolving door of logos, juxtaposed messages and awful tasting soda.)

(Full disclosure #1: I’m a Coke person. Our whole building seems to be, actually - it’s our fridge soda of choice at HenkinSchultz.)

But, come on Coke. Your new spots are original and fun, but they’re treading really close to creepy. It’s one thing to be a Flaming Lips fan. It’s another to actually be Wayne Coyne, smearing fake blood on your face during a concert and walking over the crowd in a giant bubble.

(Full disclosure #2: I do really like this spot.)

Via The Denver Egotist.

Dr. Bogusky, Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Client

Bribed to Sioux Falls by the promise of a Jackalope, Alex Bogusky—partner at CP+B, as if you didn’t know—enlightened our advertising community during today’s South Dakota Advertising Federation luncheon.

And his insights no doubt raised a few eyebrows and ruffled a few midwestern feathers.

In complete command of the limelight, Alex proved his ability to always do things differently—and effectively. He took control of VVI’s Toby Kane’s interview, cracked jokes about the diminutive projectors and marveled over how the AV guy always seems to get it wrong, no matter how much he’s rehearsed.

But his presence was felt even more with his message. With ideas on the power of account executives over creatives, delusional positivity, and the ease of social change, Bogusky examined the client relationship, remarking that there’s no wonder clients don’t trust our ideas when we always seem to discount theirs.

If we present work that will only garner us awards and solves none of their business problems, it’s only natural that our clients will pick the crappiest version of what we present, seemingly saying, “Up yours, XYZ Agency. You didn’t even solve my problem.”

When we don’t embrace changes (or, at least, position them as opportunities to push the creative further) we are only punishing ourselves. As Alex said, “Clients can’t be punished. You think you’re punishing them by giving them the crap work, but you’re not. You’re only punishing yourself, your work, and your agency.”

So what do we do?

It’s a simple answer, but a difficult process. That’s where delusional positivity comes in; because it’s hard, we have to keep each other up as much as possible—especially when it’s hardest. We need to reevaluate the way we approach our clients. Listen to their requests. Get jazzed about their perspective.

Start loving the process, not the end result.

In doing so, we can work together with more heart. As partners. It was never meant to be agency and creative versus client. Instead, it should be agency and creative plus client, each party embracing the inevitable changes with gusto.

Huh. AC+C. That structure looks familiar.

Beach Side Property

I’ll be the first to say that certain variable data applications can be pretty cool.

For example: I received a postcard in the mail from a local Realtor for a house that had just hit the market. The back highlighted the features, with an image of the house. The front was this:

It’s a neat little bit of technology. See the boats? They’re in the shape of my name!

But… Er…

This home is in Sioux Falls. Not the luxurious beaches of the Mediterranean.

It’s not enough to just throw out a cool image with cool technology. It has to, you know, fit. It’s not enough to know how – you have to know why, as well.

What the Washington Generals taught me about working on boring projects

It’s been your dream. Every since you were a little kid, you’ve worked your way toward becoming a basketball star. You’ve developed your skills. You’ve worked on your jumper, your strength, your moves. You went through college on scholarship, not the star but a solid piece of the puzzle.

You weren’t drafted. You graduated. And not wanting to lose the dream, you looked for an outlet. Europe? The minor leagues?

And then you settled for what could be the most humbling job in basketball. You’re a guard for the Washington Generals.

Your job is to make the Harlem Globetrotters look good. You have the task of tanking, of losing night after night, with no respite from the constant barrage of ill will. Your job is to lose. And, as long as you’re a member of the Generals, you’ll never win.

It’s a concession you make in order to keep your dream alive. You lose so you can play.

Watch as I switch gears.

In all aspects of marketing – especially between an agency and a client – there’s a fine balance between art and function.

As marketing experts, we work for our clients. We hope to enjoy a loose relationship – one that produces the best results from both a creative and functional side. It’s a relationship, and without buy-in on both sides it won’t work.

With this in mind, we have to realize that – as marketers, and especially for those of us on the creative side – we aren’t in the position to be the Harlem Globetrotters every time.

Depending on budgets, or time frame, or the needs of the project, there are times when we don’t get to experience an environment of free art, where the functionality of a project is secondary to its beauty. Where our duty to the client and their requests weighs a little higher than our individualistic need to impress.

It’s not a popular view – especially from the creative community – but there are times when our talents are best used being precise and pointed. When our flourishes and the newest trends and a desire to be unique gets in the way of the basics of the project. An HR ad. A storefront sign. An application form.

In other words, we all got into this business to be creative and artistic and ground breaking, but sometimes we just need to realize the basics and use our talents to create the best, hard-working products we can.

Sometimes, we need to realize that not every job can win an award. But every job can be done right, to the best of our ability.

I need to remind myself of this constantly. That I love writing, but sometimes I can’t write what I want. Sometimes I have to roll up my sleeves and accept the job as it’s presented, hoping to fill the cracks with some wordsmithing but otherwise working straightforward, true to the style; creating a perfectly crafted wooden bowl instead of the crystal chalice I had hoped.

It’s just part of the business. We create. We solve. We succeed. And we leave it to the next project to try to be the Globetrotters.

Our Connection to Ads

Forgive me for a moment. I don’t want you to think I love every ad that hits the streets these days. Ha! That would be critical suicide!

But seriously. I love these ads.

I really love these ads. Not for the copy, which is good, but not great. Not for the design, a style of which I’m a huge fan, though New Belgium does it so much better. I’m even a little sad that they didn’t bother to really connect with the consumer over the seemingly unpronounceable name (it’s Toe-ga-TEE) until you reach the Web site.

I love these ads because they’re for The Togwotee Trail, an area of the country that I’m incredibly familiar with and that is as much a part of my family history as my genealogy and my male-pattern baldness.

I have a connection with Togwotee. It’s the mountain that leads into Jackson, Wyoming, where my grandparents grew up, where my great great great grandfather Uncle Nick traveled as a member of the Pony Express, settling later in the valley that would later become one of the most renowned skiing towns in the nation. It’s the gateway to the Tetons and a palate cleanser after the beauty of Wind River Canyon.

There are hundreds of stops along the way. There are hundreds of areas I could feel such nostalgic longing for. But it’s Togwotee that always tops my list. Not Buffalo, Wyoming. Not Wall Drug. Togwotee.

Successful brands can garner this same reaction. You might have a connection with Coke. Or Apple. Maybe you shop at OfficeMax because you have had a great experience in the past. Perhaps you’re like me, in love with one area of the country, or one can’t-live-without service, and no matter what they say, it’s the feeling behind the brand that keeps you coming back.

The feeling of the brand. The things that matter outside of advertising. Service. Respect. Style. The small things that make a brand successful.

Though I have no connection with the area aside from using it as a pass-through to my family, the feeling that the mountain trail gives is unmistakable. These ads aren’t selling the road. They’re showing us the feeling of the road. And they’re reminding those of us who love the road just how important it is to our lives.

That’s what a great brand offers.

(Click images to see them larger. Via Ads of the World.)

Youthenize!

One of the coolest trends in our industry over the past decade is the “de-stigmatization” of television commercials as ham-handed pseudo-art. You can direct, or star in, a commercial without feeling as if you’ve sold out. Big name directors and big name stars make big time impact with fantastic creative and great production.

My favorite example: Christopher Guest.

Aside from starring as Spinal Tap’s Nigel Tufnel in a Volkswagen spot for CP+B, Guest has embraced television spots, in the process becoming one of the most sought after directors in the agency world. And he’s rocking on all cylanders with the most recent DirecTV campaign for Deutsch LA, starring many of Guest’s typical acting partners - Ed Begley Jr., John Michael Higgins, Don Lake, etc.

(Oh, and it helps that the spots poke fun at us marketing types. Us advertisers love that stuff. Keep it up, Mr. Guest.)

Via AdPulp.

Knowing (What You’re Doing) is Half the Battle.

CVGadget is a search engine aggrigator that pulls together and organizes search results for any name. Really, it’s just an organized way to Google yourself.

It’s not perfect. For example, using my name, clicking on “Blogs (By Google)” brings up six entries - literally, six blog posts from one of the three blogs I contribute to. And as Cuil.com proved, image search can be a pain - of the 17 image search results that pop up, only six are connected to my name or any of the sites I write for. And, naturally, anyone with a common name is going to find trouble searching for specifics, just as with Google (My friend John Scott brings up 200,000 results).

On the other hand, it does correctly identify my Facebook, MySpace and Linked profiles, and “Documents (By Google)” brings up .pdf and .doc files with my name embedded within.

It has potential. But it suffers from two crucial flaws.

1. It’s being done better elsewhere. Why go to a special site to Google yourself when you can, you know, just Google yourself?

2. It’s not ready to receive public scrutiny. It’s not complete. It’s not ready for launch. Search problems aside, it hasn’t even been proofed.

Video’s. Yup.

Technology, like creative marketing, is only as good as the first time you encounter it. There are too many choices. Too many distractions. If something doesn’t work correctly the first time you try it, you’re significantly less inclined to return. First impressions, after all.

If your first attempt is Bush League, you’ll forever be branded as Bush League until you can prove us wrong. And it’ll be harder to convince us the second time around. There’s a reason most people haven’t returned to Cuil.com since their first visit. They may have fixed everything, turning the site into the Google Killer it was supposed to be. But I’ll never know. It’s not worth my time to check.

Your customers. Your targets. Your bosses. Competition is rising, and resources are dropping. I don’t want to pick on CVGadget - after all, there are thousands of similar examples out there. Examples that feature unsound techniques, incomplete thinking and “good enough” execution.

With CVGadget, the unpredictability of the search results and the oversight in spelling won’t kill the site. But it will damper its respectability, painting the site as an unprofessional application that’s worth a look but not worth the time it will take to integrate it into your life. It’s “good enough.”

Unfortunately, “good enough” isn’t good enough anymore.

(Via brandflakesforbreakfast.)

The Difference Between the Colas…

Two rivals. Two very specific strategies. Two of the most recognized brands in the world.

On one hand, there’s Coke. At a recent South Dakota Advertising Federation meeting, we were treated to a presentation by the brand manager of Coca-Cola, Terisa Monroe. She walked us through the history of Coke – the name, the logo, the bottle, the ups and downs and successes and failures.

One thing stood out. They have found success through a strict dedication to their history. Their logo has been unchanged for over a century. Their bottle has become an icon unlike any other. They have the same colors, the same attitude and the same marks.

And the one time they strayed from the original? New Coke. We know how that ended.

On the other hand, there’s Pepsi. The agent of change. The cool kid in the cola market. Generation Next. And on. And on. They’ve spent the last few decades racing after a younger market, fighting to stay on this generation’s minds as they grow older.

And while their logo has stayed the same for the most part, it has been tweaked and re-shaped at least three times since I became old enough to notice such things. Every several years there’s some kind of identity crisis. The logo undergoes a million-dollar-rebrand and emerges – let’s be honest here – a little goofier than the last.

Which leaves us with this. The new Pepsi logo. A little too subtle (it’s supposed to be a smile…get it?) and a little too disingenuous. As if they are taking Coca-Cola’s message of happiness and enjoyment a little too far, attempting to create brand loyalty by simply stating that there IS brand loyalty.

The logo smiles, as if we’re smiling too.

What I wonder is if this is becoming expected. Pepsi is unable to keep their logo stable, always changing it to meet oncoming trends, and I wonder if the public is now more likely to subconsciously expect a change every several years? Are they able to look back on old logos and realize how dated they look?

When you look at the Coca-Cola logo (acknowledging that, yes, they have that secondary “Coke” logo, etc.) there is no change. None. You know what you’re getting. It’s stable. It has the “everyone loves us” market tied up.

Likewise, Coca-Cola shrewdly positions itself ahead of the game, dictating trends rather than following them.

Which leaves Pepsi no choice but to try to play catch-up.

It looks a little desperate, if you ask me.

(For more thoughts on the new Pepsi re-logo-ization and, more specifically, the “blogger outreach marketing plan” that Pepsi attempted, check out my more random and harsh thoughts over at Make the Logo Bigger.)

How Mad Men is doing it wrong.

Imagine this for a second.

You’re producing a very successful television show. You have a loyal following. You can’t open a magazine or newspaper, or read a blog, without seeing a pile of praise heaped on your show. Popularity is rising. Everyone is jumping on the bandwagon.

You’ve helped create something that’s difficult to make: a critically acclaimed television show that is receiving tons of public attention.

Everything’s looking good.

Now imagine that a group of fans hops on the Internet and starts emulating the characters in the show. They are true to the nuances of the program. They are gaining quite a following on their own, in fact, leading those who love the show to become even more involved during the six days in between new episodes. They are promoting your product in a fresh, original way.

Why would you sabotage that?

I’m not sure. Let’s ask the creators of Mad Men.

It’s no question that Mad Men, the AMC drama about advertising life at fictional 60s shop Sterling Cooper, has gained a big following. So it’s no surprise that, given this era of global online marketing, someone was bound to take the Mad Men idea and make it better. And they did – on Twitter, of all places. (What is Twitter? Watch this video.)

What this group has done is take the personalities of the main characters from Mad Men and created a series of online avatars. Acting out the parts. Furthering the behind the scenes identities of the characters. Being as completely true to the original concept as possible. Go ahead – ask them questions. They’ll answer in the way you’d expect the character to answer.

The only problem: they’re not AMC employees. Just fans. And now, AMC is forcing Twitter to suspend these accounts (via VentureBeat) due to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

I understand copyrights, and I get that AMC thinks they’re protecting their intellectual property. But this is fan fiction. This is like telling a group of Star Trek fans that they can no longer dress up as their favorite characters. Because that’s exactly what this is – it’s a group of fans dressing up, using an Internet avatar instead of a pair of pointed ears.

Even more, this is a golden opportunity; to create a cult following, to promote the television show in new ways. Don’t suspend them – heck, HIRE THEM. Give them a stipend to keep the banter up. Use them to your advantage. I’d guarantee that almost every one of them would accept some kind of payment for doing something they loved doing for free.

Because even though it isn’t an official series of accounts, the Mad Men doppelgangers are more than just fictitious slander magnets. They are an extension of the characters that many of us have grown to love. Fans of Mad Men get it. Those who aren’t fans are intrigued. Awareness is rising.

And for AMC, apparently, this is a bad thing. As if they don’t realize the public relations dream this could turn into to.

The goal in today’s marketing world is to be embraced by those who follow you. To be allowed into the precious circle of permission marketing. To gain feedback from those who know your product best. Business models are based on taking free publicity and working with it, not against it. Consumer generated content. Letting the people speak freely, feel comfortable and, in turn, become loyal.

In other words – before you rush to grab the lawyers, take a chance. See if the road bumps in your path can actually help you before tearing them down.

Read it out loud

Here’s a word of advice. Make sure you read your television and radio spot out loud.

Be extra careful. Because sometimes, things get by.

For example, whenever I hear Southwest Airlines commercials on the radio, I’m always confused. The fast paced nature of the spots and the quick radio read always garbles their new tagline. And I’m left wondering why Southwest would end every spot with “Please Don’t Fly With Us.”

(For the record, it’s “Fees Don’t Fly With Us.” A nice line, but poorly executed for radio.)

But that’s not nearly as bad as the most recent True North TV spot.

Seriously, was this a joke by a copywriter that no one caught? Was it a bet that made it past production?

Yeah. Nut Snacks. Maybe my mind’s in the gutter, but I can’t help but snicker every time I hear it. And I wonder how many people involved with the account, from production to placement, finally realized the error.

Read it out loud. Carefully. Then, have someone else read it. Out loud.

Lest you find yourself defending an extraordinary nut snack.

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About HenkinSchultz

HenkinSchultz is an agency. An advertising and marketing and branding and design and production agency. All of those things, and then some.

But, underneath all that, we're really a bunch of thinkers. As in, we think about stuff, both pertinent and not, with and without boundaries, as if our lives depended on it. And this right here, Post Haste, is where we write about it.

Visit us at http://www.henkinschultz.com.

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