Filed under: Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Brand, Business, Comment, Crap Campaigns In History, Creativity, Culture, Emotion, Management, Marketing, Marketing Fail, Planning, Positioning, Relevance, Resonance, Virgin Atlantic
Years ago, there was an email that went around that invited people to play ‘Bullshit Bingo’, the marketing edition.
Included on the paper were words such as ‘synergy’ and ‘optimization’ and the aim of the game was to take this to your next meeting and cross off each word as someone said them.
The person who crossed off all the words first, won.
It was a tongue-in-cheek way to take the piss out of the marketing industry and it’s obsession with using words that are the absolute opposite of the words the audiences we try to have a meaningful connection with, say.
Well it appears there is a new version of this game in town … except some people haven’t realized it’s a game.
Worse, it appears they think it is a brand building bible.
Have a look at this …
I don’t know about you, but nothing says ‘brand transformation’ like bigging-up the fact you have decorated your reception area.
Don’t get me wrong, a brand should infect and influence every aspect of how you behave and express yourself but – and it’s a big but – it should be something that is truly distinctive to your brand, not just a bunch of brand mumbo-jumbo words and corporate colours that end up making you look and sound exactly like everyone else.
I wrote about this a while back when I said the best brief I ever received was from Richard Branson for his now infamous Virgin Atlantic London lounge.
I also talked this with Martin at Cannes.
The reality is too many companies aspire for best practice.
But the reality is best practice means averageness.
Fitting in not standing out.
Differentiation without distinction.
Staying in the middle rather than reaching for the edges.
I am amazed how many companies fear being different and yet claim to be.
I am even more amazed how many companies then shit themselves when someone comes along with a point of view that is genuine and authentically expressed and executed so that it attracts culture rather than tries to chase it.
Apart from being a law firm, I don’t know who Pinsent Masons are, but if they aspire for their new reception to reflect their bland brand value with words like ‘bold, connected and approachable’, I think I’ll survive living in my ignorance.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Dad, Daddyhood, Family, Fatherhood, Jill, Mum, Mum & Dad, My Fatherhood, Nottingham
As I wrote a while back, we are looking to buy a family home.
Well the good news is we have found one – and while we don’t move into it till December – we’re already getting excited about it.
But as I also wrote, to help us buy it, I was going to sell the house I inherited when Mum died.
The house that was my home for my entire childhood and early twenties.
Well, it has been sold and while I know my Mum would be incredibly happy the proceeds have helped her beloved son buy a home for his family, it’s still quite an emotional wrench.
I absolutely think I’ve done the right thing.
The street I grew up on all those years has changed beyond recognition.
Neighbours have gone.
The college at the end of the street has been knocked down.
My connection to the area is no longer what it once was.
But despite that, it will always hold a special place in my heart … a place that represents ‘childhood’ … a place where it was just Mum, Dad and me and I will treasure that forever.
Anyway, one of the things we have been doing while the purchase goes through has been to visit the house.
Part of this is my way of saying goodbye.
Part of this is to take some flowers so we can plant them in our new place and have a bit of my history in my present.
Part of this is just to let Otis feel a connection to a place that was so important to his Dad and – for a period of 3 weeks in 2015 – was where he also lived.
And while just spending a few minutes there every odd weekend may seem very small, I cannot tell you how much it has helped me reclaim some connection to my roots.
The picture at the top of this page, is one of those connections.
Seeing Otis in the garden I used to play in was wonderful.
The garden my parents absolutely treasured and loved.
It brought back all sorts of memories … from hiding under those fern trees playing ‘hide and seek’ through to running through a small gap that existed between the garden and the street [right behind where Otis is standing] that meant I could have a quick getaway when playing British bulldog or simply wanting to get to the ice cream van before anyone else.
That home will always be special to me.
That garden will always remind me of my parents.
The memories created in that house will always be previous.
And while I will soon say goodbye to it [though I have had it written into the contract I can visit it once every 5 years] I will forever be grateful for all it gave me … from a childhood home filled with happiness and love, through to giving me the chance to buy a house where my family can create the sort of memories that will be as precious to Otis as Nottingham was to me.
Thank you Mum and Dad, you keep on taking care of me.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Audio Visual, Authenticity, Creativity, Music, Queen
I love Queen.
Or more specifically, I love early Queen.
I can just about stretch to 1984 – after that, I accept their choices and output became rather questionable.
OK, so I have thoroughly enjoyed seeing them with Adam Lambert leading the stage, but from a musical point of view, it’s fair to say their best days are definitely numbered, but then at 70+ years of age, who can blame them.
That said, Brian May is still someone very special to me.
He basically made me pick up the guitar.
He gave me the desire to learn, the hunger to keep practicing and the confidence to play in bands and gigs all around the World.
Since those early days, I have done a lot of playing.
And bought a lot of guitars.
Classics. Custom made. Cheap as chips.
And while the closest I ever got to his handmade Red Special was a pretty dodgy Gordon Smith back in 1984, I’ve always thought about getting a custom made one of his.
I never did it for a few reasons.
I always thought it was a bit sad to have a guitar so synonymous with someone so famous and – frankly, with the amount of guitars I own – I couldn’t justify it.
But a couple of weeks ago, I accepted owning one is not going to make me any sadder than I already am so while my chops are a fraction of what they were when it was my life and my job, I took the plunge and last week, all my Brian May fantasies came true once and for all.
It might not make me play like him.
It might not even make me sound like him.
But it makes me feel insanely happy and has me playing guitar more than I have in years.
Now all I need is a poodle perm. Oh, and some hair.
Thank you Mr May. Again.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Audio Visual, Marketing, Names
So I saw this beverage fridge a week or so ago …
I can’t help but wonder if the ‘effi’ of efficold is meant to mean ‘efficient cold’ or ‘effin’ cold’.
Or maybe it’s the most genius name ever …
Letting cafe owners who have the fridge on their premises think it’s for efficiency so they don’t worry about the increase in their electric bill while letting hot, thirsty Londoners believe they’re about to consume a beverage that is fucking cold and will quench their thirst once and for all.
If only all brand names were so multi-interpretive because quote frankly, that is a better naming strategy than anything I’ve seen from any of the brand consultancies …
Have a great weekend. I know I will, it’s a long weekend here.
See you Tuesday.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Brand Suicide, Business, Comment, Communication Strategy, Crap Campaigns In History, Crap Marketing Ideas From History!, Crap Products In History, Egovertising, Innovation, Marketing, Marketing Fail, Positioning, Pretentious Rubbish
Have a look at this …
I’ve got to be honest, I think it’s one of the most amazing ads I’ve ever seen.
Not – of course – because it’s good, but because there’s so many things in it to hate, I don’t know which one I loathe more.
From the cliched photograph that is obviously trying to associate with street culture through to the absolutely fucking awful oxymoron/pun of ‘Future Retro’ and ‘Deja New’ … there is an endless amount of hate inducing triggers in this ad.
But even those things don’t come close to releasing my inner rage as ‘Time Tracker’.
TIME TRACKER!!!
It’s a watch. A bloody watch. Yes, they ‘track time’ but they’re attempt to make it sound like the future of watches makes me literally want to kill.
Oh I am thinking about how I’d do it.
Maybe a wooden post so I can smack them around the head.
Or maybe a canon, so I can shoot them far, far away.
Or maybe … oh hang on, I know what I’ll do … I’ll make them wear that ‘time tracker’ and refer to it in the same way, so their shame will be all encompassing and complete.
Time Tracker is a perfect example of something I’ve been seeing more and more of … repositioning that isn’t repositioning.
Repositioning is about helping culture look at your brand in a totally different way.
When Wrigley’s chewing gum moved from being a sweet to a dental care product … that is repositioning.
When Poloroid cameras shifted from photography to being a social lubricant … that is a repositioning.
When Old Spice moved from being used by men to being valued by women … that is repositioning.
A watch going from telling the time to tracking the time is not.
And yet I am seeing more and more work that is trying to position themselves as a catalyst for change when they’re doing nothing but re-articulating the category expression.
One of the categories doing this the most is the financial sector.
There are more new ‘banks’ than at any point in my life.
All with quirky names.
All claiming to be revolutionizing the industry.
All stating they are being developed around the needs of their customers.
And yet not one of them seems to realize that as much as they’re trying to be seen as disrupting the banking industry, they’re doing it in exactly the same way as everyone else.
Disruption but without distinction.
But here’s the thing, are they even disrupting … because so many of them are trying to communicate you can ‘trust’ them. I get trust is important wherever money is concerned, but it is also the backbone of the industry … so in essence, they’re saying ‘we’re different’ and yet they are communicating in exactly the same way as the establishment.
In essence, they’ve become the beast they claim they were created to slay …
But they’re actually worse, because not building any distinction into their offering or behaviour except their name and choice of pastel ‘brand’ colour means all they are really building is commodotisation.
Of course that’s probably because their business plan is to be bought by the establishment and so they don’t care about long term thinking, but this – just like the idiots behind that Nixon watch – is the new ‘best practice’ for brand and business strategy.
And we wonder why the business community questions our ability to talk business.