The Musings Of An Opinionated Sod [Help Me Grow!]

I have always believed society swings from being disproportionately influenced by media to media being disproportionately influenced by society … so one of the things I’ve been religiously doing since way before televisions were even invented [ahem] is expose myself to as much ‘communication’ as possible.

Films … television … internet … magazines … newspapers … games … books … you name it, I consume, consume, consumer … however there’s not much point in doing this if all you do is experience the popular [though that is obviously highly important] so there are a couple of things I always try to do …

1 Read a totally new magazine title each month [You’d be surprised how many things are in there that can spark your brain]

2 Continually read counterpoints to the same issue. [Be it opposing newspapers to opposing documentaries – it’s amazing how quickly you can get a basic understanding of the big [and small] issues causing the central conflict]

Of course there’s loads of other stuff [the cynic boys ‘Eat Your Words’ and ‘Freaks Of Nature’ get-togethers are especially brilliant] however the point to all this is that more often than not, I come across a real hidden gem … not just interms of information or insight or viewpoints or ideas, but interms of being introduced to a person/group that deeply affects me for totally wonderful and beautiful reasons.

Anyway, last night one of those occasions happened and it was all because I watched a documentary on this mob …

Let me start by saying I never liked the New York Dolls.

As much as I am a lover of rock music, they were just too much of a shambles for me … and the only reason I ended up buying the doco of their reunion gig was because I found it fascinating their bassist, Arthur “Killer” Kane. had become a Mormon. I won’t go into the details of the film, but I do urge everyone to find a copy and watch it.

Long story, but if you have the time and inclination, could you please photograph your computer desktop and send me the result.

As usual, no one else will ever see it – it’s part of a project we’re doing for a rather well known fruit-named technology company. 🙂

If you have multiple computers, could you also indicate whether the photograph represents the one you use at home/work/toilet etc etc.

Thanks a trillion [dependent on you actually sending me something, ha!]

One of the things I absolutely detest is when research companies come in and tell me they have discovered some ‘MEGA TRENDS’ then go on to tell me things like …

“Mum’s want the best for their kids”

“Kids love technology”

“Women feel under great pressure to fulfil all their roles”

“Men are understanding the importance of health and image”

Really?  WOW I never knew that …

And you say they are trends that are just emerging, rather than being around FOR FUCKING YEARS!!!

ARGH!!!!

Actually there is something I find even more annoying … well, actually there’s lots of things I find more annoying however to keep to the point I’m trying to make, I hate it when a research company comes in to tell me all about their GLOBAL MEGA TRENDS, then acknowledge they’ve only done research in the US and European markets.

What the fuck????

You think I’m joking don’t you? 

You think no professional organisation could act in such a way? 

Well sorry folks, the ‘Global insights validated in only Western markets’ was something I had someone try to sell me just last week. [As I am sure you can imagine, I had a lot of fun at that meeting, haha!]

Please don’t get me wrong, I love research … I really do … there’s some fantastic companies and people out there who have literally changed the way I’ve looked at life [not to mention made a massive difference to what I have been able to do/achieve with my clients] – however there’s a hell of a lot of companies who are taking far too much money for [1] stating the bleedin’ obvious or worse [2] saying what the client ultimately wants to hear.

I’ve always been of the belief that research should be totally impartial … but I appreciate that is incredibly naive of me, it’s about as impartial as journalism and the legal system … however when a research company starts focusing more on the financial returns they can get from a client [and a client is happy to accept mediocre and skewed information and insight] then we’re all heading down the slippery slope to blandom.

LETS CELEBRATE RESEARCH’S GREAT AND THE GOOD … come on, we need them more than ever now! 

[Rachel, do you want to start with the honours or maybe even do some naming and shaming? Ha!]

Oooooh I feel so much better after that … thanks.

Watch and learn Western business people, watch and learn …

Thanks to Sanjay for sending this.

So over at Mr Deviant Dodd’s wonderful blog, he has written a post about marketing to woman – or more specifically, marketing tampons to women.

Well saying he’s ‘written a post’ is abit of an exaggeration because all he’s really done is show a commercial … but it does raise a massive point as regards communicating to women.

Recently I got asked by a journalist what I thought were the ‘tricks’ to communicating effectively to women … and my simple response was to stop treating them as either bimbo’s, Mum’s or ball breakers.

One of the things I hate about my industry is its obsession with the ‘lowest common denominator’.

I appreciate our job is to help our clients get rich so you need an idea that has relevance to the widest group of people as possible, but to treat the genders in such basic terms is offensive and makes a mockery of planning, insights and creativity.

Just like men actually aren’t all slobs, fools or hunks … women aren’t all one-dimensional individuals … however if you look at the majority of communication today, that’s exactly what you see.

A while back I watched a great documentary called Z Channel.

Z Channel was a pioneer in the US cable television industry and was instrumental in developing people like Quentin Tarantino’s love of films.

One of their philosophies was to target the highest common denominator rather than the lowest – resulting in them showing one of the most mixed bag of movies you could ever imagine in your life – because they said they would rather have smart, influential people watching their programmes than a bunch of folk who only have it on as background noise.

There was method to their madness because not only did it result in more and more people actually subscribing to their channel … but their ad revenues went through the roof as more and more advertisers paid huge premiums so that they could ‘speak to’ this highly influential group of consumers.

And here’s the thing … the ad industry needs to start adopting this approach before it’s too late.

This focus on gutter insights and communication is doing everyone harm … the clients, the agencies and the consumers … because less and less people are paying any attention to what we are saying anymore.

The industry is becoming over reliant on special effects to ‘stand out’ because the messages we express tend to be limited to a bunch of ‘product features’ [that the client is insistent on spouting] rather than a simple message [or story] that is interesting, relevant, entertaining, true [to the product and the consumer] and motivating.

One of the greatest projects I’ve ever worked on was a tampon brand in Australia.

Over 6 months I watched the entire age spectrum of tampon users/buyers talk about all elements of their lives [and for girls starting their periods either earlier or later than everyone else, it was heartbreaking hearing the suffering and self doubt so many of them went through] and one thing was very, very clear – they didn’t want television commercials, especially those that talked about ‘product features’ or ‘freedom to parachute from a plane or forget all rollerskate down the street in your hotpants.

This was especially prevalent with younger women … who were often incredibly embarrassed if a tampon commercial came on while they were in the company of male members of the family.

Infact our recommendation was that if any television commercial HAD to be made, it made no reference to ‘product features’ [the ad we created just showed a woman walking down the street in a white dress – and you’d be amazed at how powerful this message was to women] and we used more innovative and direct channels to convey the benefits of the brand to the customer.

Did the client take any of this on?

Of course not … they had a product they wanted to shout about … a product they wanted to show off … a product they needed the ‘trade’ to know they were promoting … so the actual needs and wants of the consumer were pushed into the background [or re-expressed so they answered the ego-demands of the client ] resulting in …

[1] Us being sacked

[2] Them producing the sort of cliché driven drivel you saw back in 1982

[3] A brand that died

 How adland sees society?

I was once asked by a researcher to name the single most important thing about the person I loved.

I answered by saying that if there was only one thing I loved about the most important person in my life, then they didn’t deserve to be that special … and my point is that the industry [and I include clients in this] needs to remember each and everyone of us is multi-dimensional so to only focus on the bland and the overly generalistic is short-sighted both interms of effective communication and true brand building.