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

Grandmother Fails Driving Test 771 Times And Counting …

A South Korean grandmother has failed her driving test 771 times, and a newspaper reported she will keep trying.

Police estimate she has spent almost five million won (HK$28,080) to take the written test, with each test costing 6,000 won in addition to other expenses.
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I know they’re mischievous but I still love them and were based on my old colleague Wayne, who I would see coming back to the agency every day with pie and chips and a diet soda.

What I loved was that he really felt that diet drink was contributing to being ‘healthy’ when what it really was doing was helping his justify his pie and chips when he’d promised his other half he was trying to make better choices.

Hahahahahaha!

Anyway, here the are:

[I have the entire set, but these 2 are still my faves!]

After all these years they’re still great – infact, I’d go as far as to say they are better than many current television commercials – which demonstrates that once upon a time there were creatives who could write great communication [for any medium] despite having some pesky planner demand it all be linked to their core insight and commercially focused strat/idea.

And to think I was starting to believe it was all a dream … 😉

PS: Yes I know there’s a lot of creatives that can do this, it’s a joke.

Photo: Candiceecidnac

Like everyone else, I am very upset at the devastation being caused by the Victorian bush fires.

And like everyone else who either lives – or has lived – in Australia, I have friends who have been affected by the terror and horror that is going on there.

One of my friends, Tom, has lost everything.

His home has been destroyed, leaving nothing but the clothes he and his family were wearing when they managed to escape the fire that came towards them at a speed they found hard to comprehend.

Tom is being fairly upbeat.

As much as the guy has lost 40+ years of possessions, his family are alive and unharmed, which is more than can be said for some of his neighbours.

He accepts he lived in a higher-risk bush fire area. He accepts living there meant he was always going to be charged eye-wateringly high premiums on his house insurance. He accepts that one day his worst nightmares could come true.

But he asks for no money or support – because he believes there are other people out there that need and deserve it more.

Tom is the best of Australia.

Now let’s look at another situation.

Like everyone else, I am very upset at the devastation being caused by the economic collapse.

A loose acquaintance of mine, Steven, has lost everything.

His house, car and furniture has been taken away from him, leaving him nothing to do but to move back into his parents house at the age of 42.

Seeing all the trappings of his credit card taken away, Steven is angry, miserable and upset.

He doesn’t accept he lived a life built on financial sand. He doesn’t accept he should be forced out of the over-priced, image based home he bought. He doesn’t accept that all financial bubbles burst at some point.

Which is why he asks for money and support – because he thinks he needs and deserves it as much as anyone else.

Steven is a total wanker.

So how come the Australian Government are pumping billions [that’s with a ‘B’] to help people like Steven and yet have only put forward a fund of AU$10 million [that’s with a ‘M’] to help people like Tom?

I appreciate that in harsh terms, more people may be affected by the economic collapse than the bushfires – good, decent people who are about as different as Steven as you can get. I accept Australia’s prosperity is more linked to keeping the economy afloat than stopping houses and communities from being burnt down to the ground. I accept there are chaos-theory implications to the economy rather than the bushfires … but for all the tears and claims of arsonists being murderers, the fact is that the financial response to the people like Tom is a slap in the face – a demonstration that the urban wealthy are worth more than the calm community – and whilst I am sure the donations will come piling in from the good people of Australia [forcing the Government to stump up more cash to ensure embarrassment is kept to a minimum] I still find the inequality in the value of human misery terrible.

I know you can’t truly compare like-with-like – but at a time where Governments all around the World are talking ‘billions’ like it’s loose change, I find it tragic that at a time of genuine tragedy, they only think talking interms of ‘millions’ is necessary, even though the banks and utility companies will still expect their mortgage payments to be made on time as usual.

Wherever I’ve visited in the World, I have always … and I mean ALWAYS … heard a radio station position itself with that same, inane line.

I have to say, I almost admire the balls of the above radio station for having the nerve to splash ‘ENJOY THE DIFFERENCE’ on their ad.

And what difference might that be eh?

Is it that one of your bland DJ’s now saya “You’re listening to 91.3FM” instead of “Radio WKRZ” or “Radio Heart”?

Oooooooh, that’s big news – hell, that would make me switch over, I mean, that’s just strategic genius.

Then there’s the fact they say they’re 100% fun when they also say they play the ‘biggest hits of the 90’s’ is confusing.

Well ‘Nothing Compares To You’ was one of the biggest hits of that decade and I don’t think “fun” is the kind of word most people would use to describe it.

Now in Asia, differentiation is an interesting concept. It’s interesting because one of the value systems of the region is ‘group acceptance’ and so being different from everyone else is actually a negative rather than a highly sought after marketing goal. Of course people don’t say that – they all claim to want to be ‘unique’ – but the reality is they only want that as long as they can be the same as everyone else at the same time.

Of course this can lead to incredibly frustrating times – however with reasoned argument, good insights and a sound, relevant business case, you can make it happen, as we did with SONY and our ‘FEEL’ idea.

Anyway the purpose for that brief culture lesson is that maybe Radio 91.3FM are simply playing to cultural rules and actively seeking to sound/present themselves as a similar radio station to all the other local independents around the World.

Believe it or not, this is not necessarily a bad strategy.

There are times when being like everyone else is a sound idea – for example if you’re way down in the public’s consciousness, saying you’re exactly the same as the leader and making sure that interms of media, you’re wherever they are, can lead to a real boost in your awareness, sales and profitability.

It’s nothing new … Heron paracetamol did it in Oz against Panadol and way back before the earth was fully formed, I did a similar thing with Fuji Film [at least interms of media strat] against Kodak.

Of course I’m being polite – because even if Radio 91.3FM were adopting that strategy, it doesn’t excuse the fact their ad is bloody horrendous.

And why the hell have they had so many name changes? What’s going on with that?

Of course letting people know when you’ve changed your name is important – but it never fails to amaze me how few companies take the opportunity to do something that represents a change in their fundamental offering – something that is genuinely beneficial to the end user rather than simply spending shit loads of cash getting society to think ‘same shit, different name’.

Recently our esteemed Mr Dodds slagged off Norwich Union/AVIVA’s name change commercial.

I understand why he did that – and I appreciate many of the subsequent disapproving comments are valid [though sometimes a name change has allowed people with talent get noticed and as such, realise their potential] – but compared to the numerous ads that try and do a similar thing [ie: the one above] or the countless alcohol companies who promote their new bottle [despite the fact it’s more likely to be seen behind a bar rather than in your house], I think it’s a hell of a lot better than most.

Of course all I’m doing is congratulating a semi-decent spot against a bunch of super low standard ones – abit like saying George Bush wasn’t as bad as Hitler – and without doubt it would have been so much better if they’d done something with their product that signified a real change and benefit to their customers rather than just relying on an ad [something that made people care about insurance, rather than just view it as a passive industry that makes excuses when you need to make a claim] … but given the legal legislation required to do things like that, married to the general apathy big corporations have to make something great happen, I guess the spot shows at least a bit of thought went into the campaign.

God how bad is that – I’m giving praise for a bit of consideration – is that how low we’ve gone?

Positioning – be it differentiated or not – should paint a clear and concise idea of that brand in your mind. It could be about who the company is, what they think, what they believe, what they want, what they do etc … it doesn’t matter [well it does, but you hopefully know what I mean] but to have something that actually tells you nothing, as Radio 91.3FM have just done, is pretty much against every principal of brand building.

Saying that, I know they’re a radio station … and I know they play music from the 90’s … so when you compare it to the rubbish McCann Singapore did for 987FM, you almost feel you’re in the presence of genius.

Yep, we’ve really stooped that low!

Companies spend millions upon millions of dollars trying to lift themselves out of this profitability quicksand, often embarking on pointless – and costly – marketing ventures that end up alienating rather than attracting.

I’ve written a lot about how to differentiate via innovation however sometimes it can be done by a single word.

I was in a shop near our house when I saw a rubber.

No – not the kind that stops my mother becoming a Grandmother – but the good ol’ pencil removing product.

Now let’s be honest, a rubber is a rubber.

Sure they come in different shapes and different colours but at the end of the day, they’re all the same. A commodity.

Because we’re all electronic junkies these days, I thought I’d jog your memory on what a rubber actually looks like …

White.

Rectangular.

Rubber.

However, the guys behind this rubber were a bit clever.

You see, they realised they could ‘differentiate’ from the countless other varieties and as such, increase its value and desirability.

No, it hasn’t got an inbuilt USB.

Nor a radio.

It hasn’t even got a remote control R2D2 robot in it.

What these guys did was add a single word that instantly appealed to a computer [ab]using old fart like me …

DELETE.

That’s it.

One word and yet it managed to make me smile … not just because it now resembled a key on an Apple keyboard [a modern look for an ancient product], but because in this techno-focused World, DELETE is the perfect modern definition for one of the oldest ‘type removal’ products you can buy.

That single word helped me part with 10 times the amount of cash a plain old white erasure would have cost.

One word … but it’s the perfect word!

More money than sense?

Well let’s be honest, with my brain cells, that’s not too hard but it’s worth remembering that differentiation isn’t just about being unique from your competitive set [especially when in many cases, it’s the competitors who are making you go in that direction rather than the business opportunity], it can be about differentiating your audience – and in this case, the makers of this product seem to be targeting 30+ sad bastards who use an Apple computer and like tat.