Filed under: Advertising, Airports, Attitude & Aptitude, Chocolate, Corporate Evil, Crap Marketing Ideas From History!, Environment, Honesty, Marketing Fail, Reputation, Respect
A lot of companies think ad agencies lack business credibility.
We’re self-indulgent, selfish, and should serve … not challenge.
To be fair, there are some agencies that prove that but – and it’s a big but – you can point the finger of failings the other way around.
Nestle have recently proved that size doesn’t equate to smarts.
Having seen the impact of Tony’s Chocolonely – both in terms of sales, share and corporate responsibility – they have come to the party by creating their own product.
A sustainably sourced, eco-conconious chocolate.
Now normally I would say this is a brilliant thing, because the more brands who embrace ethical production, the better things will become for everyone.
Except given Nestle’s history, you know the reason they’ve chosen to do this is far more about exploitation and profit than doing the right thing.
And nothing shows that they don’t really get it than their distribution model.
Because while I appreciate chocolate sales at airports are big – because they’re either a last minute present or a quick personal treat – the last place … literally the last place a sustainably sourced, eco-conconious chocolate should be sold … is a fucking airport.
Seriously, what the hell were they thinking?
Of course the reality is the only thing they were thinking about is cash.
I swear to god, if they thought they could make an extra $2 a year, they’d sell it at Fossil Fuel Power Stations. And probably still not see the irony in their actions.
Which is why for all the shit companies throw at agencies about their business naiviety, we can throw it right back about their blinkeredness towards human understanding.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Airports, Art, Attitude & Aptitude, Australia, Authenticity, Childhood, Comment, Content, Context, Creative Brief, Creative Development, Creativity, Culture, Empathy, Fake Attitude, Humanity, Imagination, Marketing, Marketing Fail, Mediocrity, Point Of View, Provocative, Qantas, Relevance, Reputation, Resonance, Respect
Many years ago – 2009 to be precise – I wrote a take down of Qantas, the Australian Airline.
It wasn’t about their experience or service which – back then – were pretty good, certainly much better than they are today. No, it was about the lyrics to their ‘iconic’ song, ‘Still Call Australia Home‘.
Now I appreciate I’m a Brit.
I appreciate that, at the time, I had an agency called Cynic, so was full of piss and vinegar.
I even appreciate – as my Aussie wife reinforced to me in no uncertain terms – that the song and Qantas’ advertising was pretty special for Aussies so maybe I should shut the fuck up.
And that is good advice. Except 15 years later, I’ve decided to come back with a comeback.
You see recently I saw an ad for another Australian icon …
The difference being this one is worthy of that label annnnnnd – even more significantly – they’ve made a piece of advertising that ignites all the emotion, pride and Australian spirit that Qantas would possibly sacrifice their ‘never had a crash’ reputation, to achieve.
[Please note, this is simply to emphasise the point. I get it’s not a great turn of phrase. And I obviously don’t mean it. So if you prefer, simply replace it with: “… that Qantas would allow themselves to be embroiled in even more financial scandal, to achieve”. Better? Oh god … there’s no pleasing some people is there!]
Anyway, if you’re wondering what I’m talking about, it’s this from the Sydney Opera House for their 50th anniversary.
[Though while it’s being shared a lot at the moment, it actually came out about 8 months ago]
I love it.
I love it so much it made a cynical Brit emotional.
Sure, I have an Aussie wife … a ½ Aussie son … Australian residency and was even a member of the audience in a couple of the historic scenes they show in the film … but I’ve never, ever felt that way about a Qantas ad.
Not once.
Hell, I don’t even like Tim Minchin – the guy who leads every thing in the ad – and yet I still felt connected to the spot.
Part of it could be because The Opera House was to me, a symbol of Australia, decades before I moved there.
I still remember how overawed and overwhelmed I was when I first saw it for real. This incredible place whose image had been burned into my mind from years of seeing it on TV shows, in magazine articles or just everyday imagery.
But it’s more than that, it’s what the place signifies.
The story that underpins the whole film.
A true story.
One where the quest to do something different triumphs over the demands to control and conform. An ode to the majesty of imagination and art rather than the adherence of tradition and regulation.
It all feels – ignoring the fact the Opera House was designed by the Dane, Jørn Utzon – much closer to the ‘Aussie spirit’ than anything Qantas has ever done.
A salute to those who wish to push and challenge rather than seek the comfort of being back ‘where they’re comfortable’.
Now I appreciate that maybe that spirit is more confined to the past than the present.
One look at how the vote for ‘The Voice’ turned out reveals comfort, convenience and control are the words of the day.
But that aside, it’s a very special film.
Helped by the fact the Opera House is a very special place.
Not just for Australia, but for anyone who hopes for something a bit more.
A bit more personal.
A bit more emotional.
A bit more wonderful.
And if you need any more reason why you should love the Opera House far, far more than Qantas … let me tell you, even the Opera House’s cheapest seats offer more leg room than pretty much anything you’ll get on that airline.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Airports, Attitude & Aptitude, Creativity, Culture, Leadership, Management, Marketing Fail, Mediocrity, New Zealand, Planes, Relevance, Reputation, Singapore
This may be the most privileged posts I’ve ever written.
So for the last 19 odd years, I’ve spent a lot of time on planes. Mainly flying long haul. And because I’ve moved countries a lot, I’ve got to experience a whole bunch of different airlines.
As an aside … when we moved to NZ, I genuinely thought it would be the end of my plane habit, without realising that when you live on the other side of the planet – and have clients in Europe, the US and Asia – you’re going to spend a fuck load more times on planes, not less.
Yep, I’m an idiot.
Anyway, in the time I’ve been travelling, I’ve experienced it all.
Good airlines, bad airlines, questionable airlines.
I should point out that when I say bad or questionable – it’s never about the safety of the plane [bar one occasion in China and one in Portugal] it’s more to do with the service and/or the passengers on it. I mean, who can forget the time I woke up on Air Canada, flying to Toronto from Shanghai, and found a 7 year old pissing on my blanket while his Mum watched and did absolutely nothing. No, that is not a joke.
But one airline that has consistently been great has been Singapore Airlines.
Excellent planes. Excellent service. Excellent facilities.
Now, I don’t fly them as much as I obviously did when I lived there – so I was quite excited to be flying with when returning from a trip to Amsterdam.
The first leg was up to its usual quality, but the Singapore to NZ leg was a bit weird.
First of all they changed the gate at the last minute to a totally different terminal, which meant I ended up being 3 minutes away from missing my flight – which would have only been the 2nd time I’ve ever failed to get on my plane. Then, on boarding, I discovered it was possibly the oldest plane I’d ever seen Singapore Airlines fly. Admittedly not as old as the one I flew with Air Koryo – the North Korean state airline – but proportionally, the same.
So not a great start.
But what really got me was the service.
The people on board were their usual brilliant self, but when it came to lunch, this is what they gave me to eat my food with.
Jesus Christ, were they serving me a 4957 course lunch?
Now I appreciate I sound like a privileged prick here – and I did acknowledge that at the very beginning of the post – but while this may sound the epitome of ‘first world problem’, when you’ve experienced almost 20 years of attention-to-detail perfection from Singapore Airlines, these things stand out.
Worse, they get remembered.
Which is why companies need to remember that the service they offer creates the minimum standard for the experience customers expect and the more they try to cut corners, the more all that hard work and effort goes to waste.
I get some routes are less profitable than others.
I get there’s only a certain amount of planes available.
But as the father of a friend once told me, “the sooner you see your reputation as a cost, the sooner you lose your reputation.”.
Hopefully SIA work that out faster than it has taken adland.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Airports, Attitude & Aptitude, Business, China, Chinese Culture, Culture, Customer Service, Empathy, Experience, Fulfillment, Individuality, Management, Planes, Prejudice, Relevance, Reputation, Resonance
So as you know, I was in China recently and when I was flying from Chengdu back to Shanghai, my plane was 5 hours late for takeoff.
While that is a pain, what made it worse was it meant we didn’t even take off till nearly midnight.
Now the good news for me is I sleep on planes.
In fact I sleep better on planes than anywhere else.
I’m fast asleep before takeoff and tend to wake up on landing … and that’s what happened to me this time, aided by the late hour.
However what was different this time was I found a package and this note next to me.
Specifically this package and note …
Apparently the crew on the plane were worried I’d wake up hungry but didn’t want to wake me up as they could see I was fast asleep and it was very late so they made up that package and wrote that note.
While I am not sure if the food I received was worthy of that much care and consideration, that level of service – despite the note being written on a sick bag, hahaha – is ‘TV ad worthy’.
China gets a bad rap for customer service, however in my experience it’s miles ahead of most other nations [which suggests it’s driven by ignorance and/or prejudice] because this small act on a China Eastern flight between Chengdu and Shanghai shows what happens when you train your people to not just blindly follow a corporate, cost-efficientprocess, but to actually and actively care about your customers.
Thank you China Eastern.
Another month forward with a totally un-topical post.
Kinda.
So a while back, I was walking through Heathrow Airport and saw this …
A Top Trumps vending machine.
Top. Bloody. Trumps.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Top Trumps … hell, we even made some for a project cynic had with NASA … but I was surprised as hell to see a vending machine dedicated to them.
Of course they’re perfect plane/holiday material … but in a smartphone world, it was still a surprise to see them because they’re proper old school.
Mind you, so are Rubik’s cubes – which in a few days, you’ll read a post about – so maybe there’s a growing desire to get back to more simple but immersive stuff.
Maybe.
Whatever the reasons, I liked it and I like the line on the side of the machine: “Whatever you’re into, so are we”.
OK, so they could have dropped ‘so are we’ – and not just because it would make it sound better – but I like they’re basically communicating that they see everyone, regardless what weird shit they may be into. Better yet, they do.
OK, so while they definitely don’t have a pack for everything people are into [ahem] there’s an incredible range [see the Spitting Image pack] and there’s the chance to make your own, which would have been great if they had that 20 years ago, ha.
So well done TT … you may be old, but you’re aging better than most. Me for a start.