No, it’s not the artificial dialogue. Not the predictable story lines. Or the lame special effects. The main reason why I don’t like old movies is being confronted with a linear story in a non-linear world.
And, as you can imagine, these linear story lines are not limited to movies: Almost all campaigns are linear, same is true for books, magazines, radio programs. The majority of our entertainment industrial complex is based on linear storytelling.
In the new marketing reality, good advertising is non-linear: It’s relevant, personal, exploratory, weird, interesting, bizarre, different. Budweiser UK gets it in above commercial: Building an emotional environment, an intellectual platform to communicate to people is all they were looking for. A story that starts to build, a story intriguing enough to make me look again for the next storyline
Providing a non-linear storytelling experience will satisfy the desires of people (who hunger for these kinds of stories) by connecting their actions, channel choices and media snacking to the unfolding story directly. Game developers have understood the potential of non-linear stories a long time ago and the IGDA offers a few good pointers to make the complexity work.
Since our lives are increasingly non-linear, the stories that surround us need to adjust: When TV started to develop programs, they showed mostly theatrical plays because they didn’t know what to do with the medium. It took a long time to develop soaps, sitcoms, etc. We still try to transfer the TV format to the digital medium. That’s not a solution. It’s a pity.
In 20 years, we’ll look back at these stone-age attempts to digital storytelling and in our memories will be black and white. And grainy.
We’ve said it many times: Businesses would be better off not spending a dime on marketing for year and re-investing all these funds in their product/service/brand experience. And a new study by Nielsen CGM/Homescan Buzzfacts makes exactly that point:
“Advertising and promotions, whether in traditional media or online, play only relatively small roles in driving consumers to post content about products and services.
This is the somewhat humbling reality, according to survey data from Nielsen CGM/Homescan Buzzfacts. Asked what motivates them to post such content on a Web site, blog or message board, just 18% cited seeing a promotion for the product, 12% cited seeing an ad on TV or in print, and 7% cited seeing an ad or video clip on the Internet.
So what is driving product/service consumer-generated media/CGM? In two words, “product experience.”
Over half (55%) of consumers said they posted because they had used and liked a product; 28% because they’d used a product and didn’t like it, or wanted a refund; and 27% said they’d read a comment about a product on a site, blog or message board and responded to it.”
Pete Blackshaw, EVP of Nielsen Online’s Digital Strategic Services (DSS) group continues:
“It’s vital that agencies and marketers understand that when you put all the data in a blender, the root causes behind why consumers talk are product quality and process issues,” Blackshaw said in an interview with Marketing Daily. “Advertising and marketing generate a certain amount of word of mouth, but by and large, brand reputation rises and falls based on the quality of the product and the service wrapped around it.”
Marketers, he says, tend to “over-romanticize” the power of tactics like “sensational viral campaigns.”
At heart, marketing is about delivering values. Now, everybody defines values differently. It could be money, time, the little things in life, a racing heart - whatever you define as value is valuable to you. Marketing’s job is to deliver what’s missing in the value chain and fill that gap.
If your product is mediocre, has design flaws, offers people not a lot of value and doesn’t fill an immediate need - do you think a mass marketing campaign will convince people to buy it? You have so many gaps to fill, your marketing dollar is better spend exploring the real needs of people, how they define value, redesigning your product/service and offering something that kills the competition. Or starts a new market.
If your product is amazing, offers flawless design, has immediate value and fills a desperate need in people’s lives - Go ahead and mass market your product. The only gap to fill is to make the world aware of your awesome product. That’s the point where marketing/advertising delivers value. Because people will appreciate to find out about your product.
Marketing/Advertising is a gap filler. Just like R&D, Product Planning, etc. Use it wisely. Or, rather save your money.
Big events have become the nirvana of marketers: The perfect target audience, the perfect setting, minds being to open to marketing messages.
Most marketers waste that opportunity with big billboards, crappy giveaways, fly-over planes - you name it. Heineken did it right: Coachella is an all-age event in the Southern California desert. They have gated beer gardens to ensure that the pre-21 crowd doesn’t get the promoter in trouble. In order to gain access to the beer garden, you need to go to various ID Checks to get your prized wristband. As you can see on the picture above, the white wristbands include the Heineken logo. So what, you might say.
Think about it: Every time when 21+ attendees think about alcoholic beverages they see the Heineken logo, they have to show it to security to become part of the drinking crowd. And the under 21 crowd who desires to be part of the beer garden crowd regards the Heineken wristband as a symbol for their desire.
Does it work? I don’t usually drink beer at home. Back home Sunday night, I was looking through the fridge to find a Heineken. Worked for me.
The one thing that kept TV vital and as the premium communication channel was the promise of live TV: People will watch live TV, such as sporting events, and they will consume commercials just to see the live action again.
This theory was always faulty: Besides the fact that people might not leave the room but focus their attention on their family and friends during commercial break, a majority of people have their laptop handy and will focus their attention on productive work before refocusing their attention on TV again. But, more importantly, people are getting sick of the time tyranny of live TV.
A Global Broadcast Consumer Survey conducted by Accenture shows that people are getting used to an on-demand lifestyle: they want to pick and choose when they consume any form of media. The numbers are astounding: 83% of of people are unhappy with the inflexibility of live TV, mostly based on their complaints about commercials (64 percent) and not being able to rewind (40%).
Media consumption habits are changing so rapidly, businesses and agencies have problems keeping up. Even worse, media consumption habits are not even studied closely enough. An impression makes no impression anymore. When you have a magazine next to you on the couch, the TV blaring and the NY Times homepage on your computer, what do you count as an impression? We all know that people can’t consume three different medium at once, so how do you count these three impressions? And how shall publishers be reimbursed for part-attention impressions?
Add to the mix the advent of Social Networks, the move from top-down to bottom-up entertainment and you have a pretty confusing picture and even more confused brands. Agencies need to help businesses to clear up that confusion. Unless they are even more foggy.
Sure, they put up a link on the corporate site, summarizing the situation. Very White House press statement of them. The press statement from Gerard Arpey was uploaded on their YouTube page. They covered the bases. But did they join the conversation?
Obviously not.
Top-down statements might have been good enough a decade ago, today they just cause a shrug. CEO’s tend to apologize on a daily basis and links on sites to a press release are almost an insult to seething customers. Instead, American Airlines should have explained the situation in full: Why were the planes grounded? What is the benefit for the customer? How are they going to make sure this won’t happen again? Are they willing to accept that customers are so fed up with their product? How are they going to change it?
Encourage people to converse with American Airlines. Let them express their feelings. Passengers feel helpless when dealing with airlines. Give them a channel to communicate their feelings.
And, most importantly, give the staff on the ground authority to treat people like they should be treated: If they have to spend the night, offer them luxury accomodations. If their flight is delayed, offer them a generous voucher for food and drinks. Give everyone affected a free flight within the US. People that had to stay overnight should receive a transcontinental flight.
Currently, American Airlines is hiding and hoping another airlines will mess up and their mistakes will be forgotten. People don’t forget days of delays. They will talk about it. Write about it. Share it with others. American Airlines should consider the crisis as an opportunity. It’s not too late.
Whenever we get hired by a new client, we try to immerse ourselves in their brand world: Read anything we can find about the brand, talk to the stakeholders, explore the blogosphere, discover their brand mythology, experience their products and services. All very heady, sensual and experiential. And interesting.
The idea of attending a sales conference came up and I jumped on it immediately. Sure, you might not hear the newest Web 3.56 ideas or Twitter applications. But you get something much more valuable: The story behind the story behind the story. I discovered the backbone of the brand, chatted with people that take care of the brand while selling to people, solving their problems and being rejected day by day. Factory tours are a good start but talking with real people is where the real magic happens. I found it to be highly interesting, inspirational and insightful.
It takes you away from the Marketing Ivory Tower to the authentic essence of the brand. Exactly what I was looking for.
Advertising used to be so easy: You write a cool tagline, develop a cool commercial, make sure all communications surrounding the commercial is integrated and then hope for the best. You worked for a great agency when you were thinking about the client goals throughout the creation process. You worked for a mediocre agency when everybody just cared about the awards and recognition. And you worked for a real crapshop when everybody was just thinking about their paycheck.
Ob boy, things have really changed. Now, agencies have to deliver experiences that improve people’s lives and, at the same time, make sure to help their clients with the bottom line. Thinking about awards shouldn’t even make the Top 10 list anymore.
In the old days, we tried to build emotional connections through funny 30-second sketches and innovative imagery. Today, we build emotional connections by helping people solve their problems: The widget displaying real-time traffic on your desktop, easing your commute and saving nanoseconds because you don’t have to type the URL. The Pizza Builder that makes the ordering process less arduous and so much more enjoyable. The Facebook CarPool application that helps people to connect with each other to reduce the their carbon footprint and get from A to B quicker.
The flashy ad doesn’t work anymore. People have moved on a while ago. Today, businesses build emotional connections through utility. Make my life easier, more enjoyable, more experiential. Give me stories and memories to share, develop something special for me. Show that you understand me. Show that you don’t want to pollute my life with more noise. Show that you care about me. That’s how you develop connections and relationships.
And make people care about you.
I went to Washington Mutual today, depositing a few checks. While I was filling out the paperwork, a voice boomed through the Intercom: “It’s noon. Everbody: 3,2,1…” All employees got up and exclaimed “Whoo Hoo”.
Now does that get you excited and don’t you just want to rush out and do more business with Washington Mutual? Actually, I almost closed my account on the spot.
Besides the association with Homer Simpson and a possible missspelling (Homer says: Woo Hoo!), the Whoo Hoo campaign is a good example (Or a really bad one!) for a brand that doesn’t listen. A brand is the most important asset of a business. It tells people what you are, who you are, what you stand for and what people can expect from you when they interact with you.
Washington Mutual explains in a press release that “through ongoing brand tracking, we know we always outperform our peers when it comes to being emotionally relevant to people. Whether it’s been in focus groups or surveys, we hear that WaMu is a bank that truly cares about the consumer.”
How does the new campaign show that they care about the consumer? How does a person feel when they are debating loans or opening business accounts and the employee jumps up in mid-sentence and screams “Whoo Hoo?” How does this brand experience retain or even generate customers? What does “Whoo Hoo” stand for? Does this mean we’re going to have a great time while banking at WaMu?
People have serious business to take care of when they go to banks. They want the best advice, the best rates, the lowest fees and quick service. They want to be taken seriously, want to be treated as important customers. “Whoo Hoo” just shows people how self-indulgent and removed from real people WaMu is. It shows that they don’t care about the needs and desires of people. Instead, they pushed communication out that might have played well in a boardroom but doesn’t connect with any of us.
WaMu should take a hard look at the ING brand. Their brand promise: “a commitment to providing the financial services solutions our customers value.” Their advertising promises the experience they’re providing: Simple, easy, customer-centric. And ING delivers on that promise throughout each and every touch point.
Traditional brands had one goal: make money. They used to live within a commerce and communication environment with the end goal of selling emotions and products to the public.
Meaning, brands move away from a selfish purpose to the bigger cause of social change by sharing a passion and unifying against a common enemy. In order to succeed, brands will have to play a more cultural rather than a commercial role. This cause has to be serious and permeate the whole brand culture; otherwise people will see through any clever advertising and immediately feel cheated by the hollow attempt to sell. Aspiration as the ultimate goal for brands doesn’t sit well with the changing roles of people: They evolved from consumers to prosumers, journalists, thieves, producers, brand ambassadors. And they don’t buy stuff anymore, they vote with their wallets.
Our old form of communication was about seducing people with flashy stories and imagery. But those times are coming to an end. A brand that understands the passion of people and stands shoulder to shoulder with people fighting for a cause or against a common enemy has a good chance of being seen as a credible partner to enhance the culture and social environment.
The real question is: Will brands rise above the quarterly profit stranglehold of Wall Street? Will they pursue a better culture than a better profit? Global brands clearly have the firepower to change society and culture in unimaginable ways. It’s doubtful we’ll ever get another political ‘Ask not what your country can do for you: Ask what you can do for the country’ ground swell together. But there’s hope a brand will say one day to Wall Street: ‘Don’t ask what this brand can do for you. Ask what you can do for the brand.’
Everybody is talking about listening: Listen to your customers, listen to employees, listen to your intuition. Listening has become the new buzzword in the marketing world. The whole idea of Conversational Marketing/Social Media is based on the concept of listening. And listening can make or break your business. But if you don’t know how to listen, you might do more harm to your business than you ever imagined.
Remember the Simpsons Episode, ‘Oh Brother, Where Art Thou’? Homer meets his half-brother, Herb Powell, head honcho of the Powell Motors car company, who decides that Homer is the perfect match to design a car for the average American. Homer comes up with a concept that he markets as ‘powerful like a gorilla, yet soft and yielding like a Nerf ball’, featuring three horns that play ‘La Cucaracha’ and a sound-proof bubble dome for his kids. Powell Motors goes out of business shortly after.
Yes, Herb Powell, listened. But he didn’t listen actively.
No matter in what business you’re in, customers expect from brands to solve their problems. Allergy medicine solves the annoying hay fever problem. Cottonelle for Kids solves a potty training problem. Mac’s solve the virus problem. (At least, reducing it.) Cottonelle for Kids solved a common parenting problem because they asked the right questions. Asking people ‘What do you want?’ will get you nowhere. Asking people ‘Tell me about yourself and the common issues you’re facing on a daily basis.’ will get your creative juices going.
Suggestions by people should not be treated as requirements for the next phase of your product development. Instead, suggestions need to be regarded as problem reflections that you’re tasked to resolve. Does a parent really want a soundproof bubble for their kids while driving long distances? Or do they want ways to entertain their kids safely while they can focus on the drive and listen to radio at the same time?
Businesses need to structure their listening initiatives to ensure they suspend their own frame of reference and judgement while leaning forward and attentively engaging in a conversation. The advent of UGC, Social Networks and consumer participation clearly show that people are growing out of the passive consumption phase. Brands need to catch up quickly. Or they end up with below monstrosity.
