Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Brand, Cars, Comment, Communication Strategy, Confidence, Creative Brief, Creative Development, Creativity, Culture, Differentiation, Great Ads In History, Marketing
… and they should, even if it’s about a terrible football team in an outer suburb.
Have a look at this …
How good is that?
No corporate, bland, fake-aspirational rubbish here … nope, just the sort of language a West Ham supporting, Dagenham-residing away-ground visiting fan would spout to their mates day in and day out.
Hell, it even talks about another brand [Persil], cheating the system, pub crawls, beer, alternative transport, violence and derogatory names for the are they come from. [Dagenham dustbin]
All this in a car ad. It’s amazing.
Given we live in an age where data is supposed to be able to tell us everything we need to know about a specific audience so we can create highly targeted communication just for them, this ad is more targeted than anything I’ve seen recently. And there’s two reasons for that …
The first is they acknowledge the role of the car is to transport people to-and-from locations. They don’t claim – as is the current fashion – that owning that car should be considered the pinnacle of their existence and achievements, it is simply a great way to go on journey’s to destinations where something they love takes place.
Refreshing.
The second is because instead of speaking in current favoured style of ‘corporate faceless brand to generic, middle-of-the-road, mass market audience who all aspire to live the same generic, bland aspirational lifestyle as one another’ … this speaks in the voice of ‘travelling footie fan to travelling footie fan’.
Our industry likes to talk a lot about authenticity, but it seems we have forgotten what that actually means.
This ad works because it speaks in the voice of where the car was [then] made and who [then] made the car.
Dagenham.
A proud, working class town where West Ham football club was the central pillar that fed the dreams, community and escape for the area … which is why even the endline, ‘spirit of the terraces’ is brilliant.
Of course it’s too ‘bloke’ focused and linking driving and drinking is never a smart thing to do – let alone the ‘service station fracas’ but when I – a Nottingham Forest supporting, West Ham hating bloke – see that ad, I feel something … imagine something … and that’s far more than I can say for most car advertising I’m exposed to these days.
And while the Ford Cortina was always designed to be a working class wagon, this ad makes it aspirational.
Not in terms of promising you a faceless, sophisticated life of beige bland … but because it owns who it is and is proud of it.
As I wrote a while back, when you own who you are, not only does it mean no one can own you, but you find you attract rather than have to continually chase.
Given the standard of current Ford ad, maybe they could do with going back to Dagenham.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Communication Strategy, Corporate Evil, Creativity, Culture, Customer Service, Dad, Emotion, Empathy, Humans Goodness, Imagination, Innocence, Insight, Mum, Mum & Dad, Parents, Relationships, Relevance, Resonance
That quote is from my Dad.
I love it.
Not just because it’s from him, but because what it means.
You see he taught me – through his actions and behaviour – that the key to pretty much everything and anything is spending time really getting to know people rather than just focusing your attention on chasing the answers you want from them.
Given my Mum had a similar view means I guess I was always destined to place greater value in the authenticity of subculture than the simplistic, convenience of a focus group.
The reason I’m saying this is that everyone is banging on about the importance of speed, efficiency and optimisation, but are forgetting there’s a huge difference between information and insight … which may explain why society has so much but values so little.
What makes this even more frustrating is companies spend billions each year attempting to ‘earn loyalty’ from customers by trying to do things that they think are more personal to them … which is why I would suggest that if they’re serious about resonating with their audience [rather than just being mildly relevent] they could do with being more like my Dad. And Mum.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Communication Strategy, Culture, England, Entertainment
So I went to a pub recently and needed the loo.
While there, I couldn’t help but notice the array of products available in the vending machine.
Condoms.
Mints.
Headache pills.
Deodorant.
Have vending machines in pub toilets always offered this range of goods?
And more importantly, do the owners of vending machines placed in pub toilets think all British men are ‘sex pests’?
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Comment, Health, Jill
I’m at that age where you think every pain is terminal cancer.
Cracked nail? Cancer.
Aching knee? Cancer.
Overly tired? Probably cancer.
To be fair, there was a time when I did have the ‘big C’ but that was long ago, caught early and I‘ve been all clear for over 20 years.
However when I saw a groove appear in my head – literally in the top of the skull – I feared the worst.
Consulting Dr Google didn’t help, with diagnosis ranging from my skull caving in to the cliched impending brain tumour.
Just as I was about to start planning my goodbyes, Jill looks at me and says, “You know it’s from your glasses when you rest them on top of your head when you’re reading” … and suddenly life is full of colour and optimism and our life insurance doesn’t get cancelled.
So as bad as your Monday may feel, be grateful you don’t have to work with me and my moronic self diagnosis.
Of course, if you read this and you do work with me, then I have no sympathy for you.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Comment, EvilGenius, Metallica
As you know, I have a side gig where I basically get paid to be shouted at by members of a famous heavy metal band.
Well, strictly speaking, it’s one member … along with their management team, Q-Prime.
In all seriousness, they have been nothing but supportive, even when they absolutely detest what I’ve done for them but recently I received a text that may just be the best text I’ll ever get.
Even better than the one I got from Richard Summers at Wieden, who I had sent to visit China’s 6 fastest growing cities, who messaged me to say it was so cold, he had to steal toilet paper from the youth hostels – I had insisted he stay at – to keep himself warm.
Here it is.
Just helping you to keep it real boys.
Ahem.
Happy leap year weekend everyone … to make it sweeter, know there’s no blog posts until Wednesday as I have to nip off to the US.
America’s loss is your gain.