Filed under: Comment
A long time ago, I worked on a brand called Tango.
While it was available in a few other countries, it was basically the British version of Fanta.
And the fact it was the ‘British version’ was something I just couldn’t shake from my mind.
Basically I kept asking myself why would there ever be a British version of something so American when, back then, America was so bloody cool.
They had Ford Mustangs. We had Ford Sierra’s.
They had Star Wars. We had Blake’s Seven.
They had the Jackson 5. We had Bucks Fizz.
To cut a long story short, we kept asking ourselves a two-part question:
1. What is quintessentially British?
2. Will it make kids think it’s cool compared to the version from the US of A?
We discussed and explored a lot of things, but it was when we spoke to foreigners living in London that we uncovered a possible answer.
Very quickly, it became apparent that many of the things the Brits regard as normal behaviour was quite the opposite for our foreign friends.
Our love of queuing.
Our willingness to apologise for things we hadn’t done.
Our utter mad response to it being ever-so-slightly warm.
The more we delved, the more we discovered their confusion about our good-natured strangeness.
“Why do you pour a brown liquid over all your food?”
“Why is insulting someone a sign that you like them?”
“How do you work out who has to buy the next round of drinks in a pub?
We found this spirit of eccentricity really interesting so we asked fellow Brits what they thought.
While I remember no one said queuing or apologising or pouring gravy on their food was weird, they did speak in glowing terms about the slightly unhinged – but entirely good natured – spirit of ‘Britishness’, whether that was Monty Python’s Flying Circus, The Raving Loony political party [which would still be less mad than the policies Trump is pushing] or the guy who invented a micro-sized, fully-working pistol so he could shoot flies out of the air.
And that is how a British carbonated soft drink stopped being compared to it’s American counterpart and took its place as a fully-fledged member of British culture.
And why am I telling you all this?
Because when I read the article at the very top of this post, it reminded me how wonderful British eccentricity is … even if now, our good natured crazy seems to have manifested itself into small minded, racist bigotry.
God, how I hope the good crazy comes back soon …
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Brand Suicide, Comment, Corporate Evil, Crap Campaigns In History, Culture, Egovertising, Marketing, Marketing Fail
So I was reading a business mag [I know, I know] and saw this …
In some ways, I am kind of impressed that a company would be so blatant in its ‘greed is good’ approach.
Let’s be honest, most brands – even super luxury brands – kind of steer away from talking about cash so literally.
Instead, they use words like ‘exclusivity’ or ‘precious’ or ‘craftsmanship’.
I get why …
Not because they think talking about money is vulgar, but because they’re scared if they put a price against their brand, a competitor could say “we are even more expensive than them”.
Yep, that’s the kind-of fucked-up world we live in.
So when I saw this ad, I have to say it grabbed my attention by it’s sheer confidence/arrogance.
It’s an ad for the ambitious. The hungry. The never satisfied.
It’s an ad for those who want to change the World and get reap the rewards of it.
Or that’s what they’d like to convince themselves it is.
In reality, it’s an ad for the sort of guys who don’t give a shit about others.
The types who fuck others over and think that by saying “it’s just business”, it relinquishes them from all blame.
The people who believe money defines who they are and who others are.
The folks who say they want to change the World but really mean want to change their world.
There’s probably millions of these people out there.
They probably now hold ExcelAir in the highest of esteem.
I kind of admire that.
I kind of admire the balls of ExcelAir to ignore the sensitivity of the times and just go for it.
But I’d still rather shit in my hands and clap.
Especially when it’s delivered in an ad that looks like Stevie Wonder art-directed it.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Brilliant Marketing Ideas In History, Comment, Creativity, Culture, Design, ECommerce, Innovation, Insight, Marketing, Technology
One of the things that makes me smile is when I hear – or read – Western articles talking about how things like iPay will change the way people spend/transact forever.
The reason for my amusement is not just because this has been happening in China for at least 2 years, but that iPay is a massively inferior product when compared to something like Wechat wallet.
Now, to be fair, lots has been written about Wechat.
From how it has become a hub for almost every aspect of daily life in China – from messaging, to ordering food and taxis to spending, borrowing, investing or sending money – right through to it’s ability, in 2016, to transact more mobile payments in 14 days that eBay & Amazon did globally in an entire year.
[UPDATE: During the 2017 Chinese New Year, Wechat say 46 BILLION red packets [envelopes with money] were sent through their app over the 7 day holiday period. This represents 5 times the volume that occurred in 2016]
And all that is true and fascinating … but unless you live here, I don’t think anyone can truly grasp the way China has embraced technology based spending.
What makes it even more amazing is that prior to Wechat, China tended to be quite protective in how they used their money.
They were one of the slowest nations to embrace internet banking.
There’s millions upon millions of people who still won’t put their money in a bank.
And yet Wechat has come about and despite not being a bank, if has fundamentally changed consumer habits and sentiment regarding their cash.
Which has fundamentally changed retail habits and sentiment regarding how they offer service to their customers.
So how did they do it?
Well, there’s a bunch of reasons.
Without doubt one is they appeal to a different generation to those who were there before.
A generation brought up in the digital age.
A generation who have a ‘I want it now’ mentality.
But it’s more than that.
You see Wechat’s genius was they refused to take any advertising for years.
In a nation where making money is everything, Wechat resisted the lure of ‘easy cash’.
This might not seem a massive thing, but to the people here, it felt like they’d found a brand that actually cared about them.
A brand that wouldn’t sell them out to line their own pocket.
This gave Wechat an integrity few brands could ever hope to achieve – especially in such a limited period of time and in a place as suspicious as China – so when they launched their ‘wallet feature’, there was no doubt people would embrace it because the level of trust in them was so high.
Of course there’s many other reasons for their success – and arguably, Wechat did this so they could ultimately win the long game with advertisers and partners – but with so many brands talking about ‘changing behaviour and perceptions’, it’s worth remembering part of Wechat’s success is as much because of what they didn’t do, as it is what they did.