Filed under: Comment
I hang a lot of shit on adland.
Not because I hate it, but because I love it.
Apart from the fact it has provided me [so far] with an amazing and rewarding life, it has also made some fantastic things happen.
OK, so its not cured cancer or stopped World hunger, but it’s done a lot of good and I don’t mean just helping companies get richer.
But we are in a slump.
A dip.
Maybe it’s a loss of confidence, maybe it’s a loss of vision, maybe it’s a loss of reality – but we are no where near where we were or where we could – and should – be.
Of course there are exceptions – but not nearly enough – which is why even now, after 20 years of working in this industry, I still get excited when I see great work … work that makes me feel something, think something, consider something … and that’s why I love this ad for the Canadian Paralympic Team.
[To see it better, click here]
What I also love is that it’s a print ad.
Just a print ad.
No interactive, crowd-sourced, 12 minute “movie” bollocks.
No teaser, Twitter or Facebook Fan components.
Just a print ad.
A great print ad.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not anti ‘integrated’ campaign – far from it – I just think a lot of integration is either:
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1. Duplication, Not Integration:
Where one ad is shoved into as many places as possible.
2. Brainwashing:
Where the lack of a powerful idea is replaced with media volume exposure.
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I feel too many people approach campaigns with ‘rules’ that just aren’t real.
Like saying ‘long copy ads don’t work’ when the issue is it doesn’t matter how long it is as long as it’s interesting.
Or that an old school medium can’t achieve the reach of digital when the issue should it’s about how it affects people rather than how many people have ‘the opportunity’ to see it.
There are a lot of great campaigns out there – a lot of great, integrated campaigns – but for me, I find it interesting that the two ads [let’s face it, they’re not campaigns] that have impacted me the most recently are both from the print medium … this one and this one.
Maybe it’s because I’m weird bastard.
Maybe it’s because adland seems to have turned into a sponsored joke writing machine.
Whatever the case, when you see something that has obviously been nurtured, crafted and flawlessly executed by people who care and want to make a difference, you can’t help be reminded how powerful and influential great advertising can be – regardless of the medium or integration it appears in.
Thank you Canadian Paralympic Team, you have promoted the abilities and potential of more than just Paralympians.
Filed under: Comment
Today is June 1.
JUNE 1!!!
How the hell did that happen so quick.
Half way through the World and what have I achieved?
Hell, half way through my life and what have I achieved.
Life passes so quickly, so I guess it shouldn’t be a surprise we often come to the end of our days and wonder what the hell we’ve good things we’ve actually achieved – even though, by then it’s all a bit too bloody late.
On top of that, as you get older, you discover there’s an amazing amount of other interesting and exciting things you can learn and experience which basically means that even if you commit a large percentage of your life to doing the things that matter, you’re going to end up disappointed overall.
Well, you will if – like me – you’re a glass half empty kind of guy.
In some respects, we should close off our minds to ‘new’ and just focus on what is wonderful in our lives now – at least that would stop us getting distracted and let us invest in what lovely things are right in front of our faces – but as much as I want to surround myself with the people and things that make me feel alive, I can’t help myself when I see new stuff that I find exciting …
I blame being an only child … which means I can say it’s all my parents fault, ha!
Of course what makes it worse is that we have these things called ‘birthdays’.
Those pesky annual events that not only remind you you’re getting older but that the gap between time and total fulfillment is shrinking.
In 11 days, I have another one of those pesky birthdays …
Which is the real reason I wrote this post, even if it won’t make a jot of difference to whether you send me card/pressies/money or not.
Did you see what I did there?
I just fused seeding and reverse psychology strategies together.
T.O.G.E.T.H.E.R.
That’s the sort of shit you’d expect to see on serious planner blogs – or PSFK – not on my rubbish so let’s see on June 12th whether strategy fusion is the future of advertising or another load of overhyped, ineffective, ego-infested, twaddle.
Filed under: Comment
For a long time, people have been saying the USP – or ‘unique selling proposition’ – is dead.
I’m one of those people.
Sure, there are the odd exceptions, but in the main, there’s such incredible parity between brands and products, that if any unique element is in existence, it’s either [1] unbelievably negligible [2] copied in an instant or [3] through the values of the brand rather than the features of the product.
OK, so that means that when done correctly, the value and benefit of a USP still exists – but with so many brands approaching things in terms of building down to a price, rather than up to a quality – it appears it’s rarer than hens teeth.
But does it have to be?
In my view, no … though the way to achieve it means letting go of your ego, which automatically means it’s an obstacle that few brands would be willing to do.
I’ve previously written about unplanned planning … where you embrace your audiences perception of the brand/product – good or bad – and use that as the foundation of your message.
As I said ages ago, the benefit of this approach is that you’re dealing with a perception that already exists in your audiences mind, so it’s easier to nudge them along or reframe their perspective than taking unbelievable amounts of time, effort and money to try and convince them to view things in a way they might never accept or believe.
Of course it’s not a new view – or a guarantee of success – however, in these days where planners are trying to push things into more and more ludicrous territories, maybe embracing the honesty of the situation is more of a pragmatic position than saying chewing gum is the stress ball for the mouth or something similar.
What the fuck am I going on about?
OK, you got me, all this is to simply justify using a picture a mate of mine sent me recently.
God I’m pathetic.
So to stop boring you any more, let’s get to it shall we?
A while back I wrote that Facebook’s demise might be inevitable.
While that situation looks far away, it hasn’t stopped companies from trying to launch similar platforms in a desperate bid to not get left behind.
While I do think that at some point in the future, younger generations will want a social platform that doesn’t have their brother/sister/father/mother/teacher/boss on it, maybe the way Google+ could start encouraging this transformation is by embracing their USP failure [depending on what data you use to justify that position] rather than trying to push a benefit few care about or want.
Maybe something like this:
Wow, all that post just so I could use that simple picture.
Wasn’t worth it, was it.
Sorry.