Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Agency Culture, America, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Brand, Cars, China, Chinese Culture, Creativity, Culture, Wieden+Kennedy
Years ago, at Wieden, we pitched for Porsche.
Actually we pitched twice and lost both.
Then we pitched for them at R/GA and lost that.
Which means I am the Porsche problem.
Makes sense …
Anyway, the first time we pitched, Sam – one of the creatives, along with Ryan – wrote the best positioning line I’ve ever read.
I can’t say was it was because I don’t want someone to steal his work, but it was one of those moments where you go, “Fuck me, that’s amazing”.
It was so good it conflicted Porsche.
They didn’t like our work at all but wanted to give us the business because of the power of the line. Then ‘international politics’ got in the way and we got told to take a hike.
Or a drive.
Though I acknowledge that I probably didn’t help matters by asking them why they sponsored golf when that was the antithesis of what Porsche were about. Hahahaha.
Anyway, as part of the campaign, Sam wrote a line in the TV script that I also thought was wonderful.
One I am OK with sharing because it isn’t sooooo specific to Porsche. It was …
“Ribbons of road draped over highlands”
God I love it.
I love it so much.
It’s so bloody evocative and – for me – captures the perfect balance between the quiet determination of nature surrounding a thin line of tarmac that has been gently placed over it and the loud performance of a car that’s hurtling along it at breakneck speed.
Torturing and teasing each other.
Both trying to dominate.
A game of cat and mouse.
The fine line between respect and ridicule.
I say all this because I recently came across a picture of a road that I feel this was written for,
Where we were writing for China, this road is in America – California to be more precise – but it is perfect all the same.
Which is why if someone at Porsche reads this and wants to get their brand back to the stature it once had – rather than this ‘fast luxury’ superficialness that it currently seems happy to communicate … let me know, because have Sam, Ryan and I got a brand idea for you.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Brand, Brand Suicide, China, Chinese Culture, Comment, Communication Strategy, Confidence, Creative Development, Creativity, Culture, Emotion, Empathy, Insight, Marketing, Nike, olympics, Resonance, Shanghai, Sport, Wieden+Kennedy
I have now had time to get over the Euro finals.
While my Italian/English heritage meant I was going to ‘win’ regardless of the result – and while the result, at least to me, was probably fair – I was gutted for the England team.
Ironically, the disgusting behaviour of the fans after the match – fired up by the equally disgusting behaviour of the British government – kind-of made me happy they lost.
It’s at these moments teams – or brands – can fall away and so what happens next becomes unbelievably important.
It reminded me of 2008 when Chinese hurdler – and gold medal contender – Liu Xiang, broke China’s hearts by injuring himself during the race.
Remember, this was the year the Olympics was held in Beijing and in many ways, it was the governments ‘coming out’ party to the rest of the World. A chance to showcase the nations abilities, talent, skills and sophistication. A declaration a new superpower was here.
While that might have been news to the rest of the World, for the people of China, they had known this for a long time which is why when Liu Xiang faltered through injury, people – like in the UK – started to turn on him.
While he did not face the disgusting and disgraceful racist abuse certain members of the England team have encountered, he did face claims that by pulling out mid-race, he had not tried hard enough, had embarrassed China and sold the people false hope.
Because Liu Xiang was a NIKE athlete, overnight W+K Shanghai created an ad that aimed to reframe the loss for the people across China.
To shift emotions from anger to pride, love, support.
The next morning, this ad ran in most of the papers …
It is still widely acknowledged as one of the pivotal pieces of communication.
Not just by the industry.
Not just by NIKE.
Not even by Liu Xiang.
But by people across China who woke up to that ad the next morning.
Turning anger to sympathy.
Turning abuse to respect.
Turning sport into culture.
I say all this because on the day England finished runners-up in the Euro’s, the English FA released – what I consider – the modern version of our Liu Xiang ad.
I hope it works for England and their players.
But mainly the players.
Because they did bring something home …
Every one of them.
Pride. Unity. Hope.
Until those racist fucks robbed it off them … off the rest of us.
And while the media may like to suggest those responsible are a small minority of hooligans, the reality is it’s not a small minority and hooligans are not some cartoon villain.
In fact the problem is these pricks live amongst all of us. They are invisible because they look, live and work like so many of us. They’re fathers. Sons. Brothers. Uncles.
They’re also racist scum.
Exemplified by their hate towards the 3 England players who missed their penalties.
These 3 brilliant and inspiring men are young.
Hell, Bukayo Saka is 19.
NINETEEN.
At that age I couldn’t even ask out a woman who worked on the till at Asda, West Bridgford … so anyone who gives him shit when he’s playing for the England national football team, in the final of the Euro’s, at the most intense and pressured moment of the entire tournament, with billions watching can just fuck off.
Winning FIFA 2014 on Playstation doesn’t make you a winner, it makes you a fantasist.
And to them I am glad football didn’t come home.
I just wish football could take them far away from it.
Filed under: Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Brand, Comment, Consultants, Creativity, Culture, Customer Service, Emotion, Empathy, Loyalty, Management, Marketing, Marketing Fail, Relationships, Relevance, Resonance
I hear so much about brand experience these days.
How the focus is to ‘remove the friction of purchase for the customer’.
That they genuinely believe this means they’re being valuable to their audiences.
And while that is rather misguided – given it is done to ultimately be in their own interests – if brands genuinely want to do right by their customers, then all they have to do is something their customers find valuable.
I’ve written a ton about this over the years.
From Timpson dry-cleaning suits/dresses for free if you have a job interview to the Co-op ensuring their food delivery staff make time to talk to lonely householders and almost everything in-between … but nothing made an impact on me like the experience I had with Texas Instruments.
Brand experience isn’t something you simply outsource to an ecosystem.
Sure, that can help improve overall efficiency or engagement … but in terms of offering an experience that helps people actually connect to the brand, then the brand has to do something that actually connects to the customer.
Something personal.
Something valuable. [To the customer, not just to themselves]
Something that demonstrates going out of normal practice.
Something like this.
Now I know what you’re thinking.
“But brands can’t do this sort of thing on an ongoing basis”.
And you’re probably right.
This sort of thing costs money.
But there’s two sides to this.
1. As H&M have shown with their free suit hire campaign, the return of acts like this can be significant both in terms of driving affinity and awareness.
2. If everything you do is based on the perceived ‘value exchange’ you’re making between brand and customer [which is always bollocks, because brands always over-estimate how much their actions are worth in the eyes of the people they’re dealing with] then you don’t really care about your audience, you only care up to a set amount of money and/or time.
Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate there are many aspects brands need to manage to keep their business going. But like companies who claim their staff are their greatest asset before treating them like shit, brands better know that they can’t say they care about their customers when they evaluate them purely by a financial transactional value.
It doesn’t mean you have to go crazy, but it does mean you have to actually give a shit about what they value not just what you want them to value.
Which is why I love the Marvel example so much.
Because they did it.
More than that, they did it and didn’t make a huge song and dance out of it.
No wonder they’re the home of the superhero.
Filed under: Advertising, Agency Culture, Apathy, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Brand, Brand Suicide, Colenso, Comment, Communication Strategy, Confidence, Crap Campaigns In History, Crap Marketing Ideas From History!, Creative Brief, Creative Development, Creativity, Differentiation, Distinction, Emotion, Empathy, Equality, Experience, Fake Attitude, Focus Groups, Honesty, Imagination, Innovation, Insight, Management, Marketing, Marketing Fail, Only In Adland, Perspective, Planners, Planning, Point Of View, Relevance, Resonance, Stubborness, Uncommon, Wieden+Kennedy
So many ads today end up just being fancy sales brochures.
A nondescript, stylish image that either has some meaningless line thrust upon it or a literal lift of the proposition from the brief to become the headline.
Clients love it because they think there’s no wastage.
That there’s no ‘thinking’ that the audience has to do to ‘get the message’.
I remember years ago – when I was working on SONY – the client kept referencing Mr Bean.
No, I’m not joking.
They kept saying Mr Bean is understood by all. Loved by all. Communicates a message without saying a word. They were really trying to push this until I pointed out that while that’s the case, no one would spend thousands buying a TV made by Mr Bean.
Then Balls got made and undermined my argument for years. Hahahaha.
And while I hate looking backwards, I can’t help but think the past was far more interesting creatively than where we’re at today.
These days Audi talk about ‘Future is an attitude‘ when once they talked about Vorsprung Durch Technik.
We have Chivas Regal going on about ‘every taste is an experience’ when once they talked about ‘giving Dad an expensive belt‘.
Heineken now ‘open your world‘ when they once ‘refreshed the parts other beers can’t reach‘.
We have countless other brands who were once so powerful with their brand voice who have now become bland.
[Nothing sums it up like this Audi ad for the same car with pretty much the same line]
What really gets me, is we have the talent in the industry to change this.
We have the hunger as well.
But while there are exceptions – and I mean it in terms of agencies who consistently bring the work rather than the odd bit of work getting through – somewhere along the line, we seem to have chosen a path of complicity.
Without doubt the research techniques becoming more and more favoured by companies plays a part in this. As our clients who are more focused on not making a mistake than making an impact. But it cannot be ignored that agencies have a lack of desire to stand up for what they believe is right. Preferring to be complicit rather than respected.
Which may explain why so few of them believe it is worth investing in finding out what is really going on in culture – preferring instead, to either outsource it or just accept the viewpoint of whichever ‘paid for’ 3rd party the client has hired to do the work for them.
What brought this all up was seeing an old Honda ad from the late 70’s/early 80’s.
OK, so Honda have a long history of doing great work – especially from Wieden London – but it’s always been a brand that has run to its own rhythm with its own idiosyncrasies. But even they – these days – are falling into the trap of rubbing off the edges that defines who they are to become like everyone else.
This ad – like so many of the truly great early 80’s ads – came from Chiat/Day.
My god, what an agency they were.
Sadly I say ‘were’ because as much as they still have great people in there and pull off the occasional truly interesting bit of work, when you compare them to what they were like decades ago, there is no comparison.
Brave. Honest. Distinctive. Creative as hell.
Hell, even when they lost, they did it in a way where they would win.
Every single person in adland – especially at C-Suite level – should read this brilliant article by Cameron Day, son of Guy Day … one of the founders of Chiat.
‘How Big Till We Go Bad’ is a fantastic guide on how to build a truly great agency. And then destroy it.
Anyway, I digress.
The Honda ad I saw of theirs was this …
No, your eyes are not deceiving you.
Once upon a time, car manufacturers – or at least some of them – understood equality.
No cliches.
No pandering.
Just treating their audience as adults and equals.
It’s not really that hard is is, but if you compare it to what we see today, it feels we’ve regressed. [Read more about car ad devolution – with a few exceptions – here]
I do not want to look in the past.
I believe my best creative work is ahead of me.
Or at least the potential of it.
To paraphrase Death of a Salesman – or the equally brilliant Nils of Uncommon – we shouldn’t be interested in stories about the past or any crap of that kind because the woods are burning, you understand? There’s a big blaze going on all around.
But the problem is, people have to see the woods are burning and I worry a bunch of the fuckers think it’s a sunset. Then again, it will be … because if we don’t push forwards, it will be the sunset on our industry and that will be the ultimate insult, because the past should never be more exciting and interesting than the future.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Brand, Brand Suicide, Comment, Communication Strategy, Crap Campaigns In History, Crap Marketing Ideas From History!, Creativity, Culture, Equality, Management, Marketing, Marketing Fail, Women
Years ago I worked on the shampoo brand Sunsilk.
I know. Me.
A bald bloke.
Hahahahahahahaha.
Back then, it was in a two brand fight for dominance with Pantene.
They went back and forth trying to get one over the over.
Apparently the brands had legally agreed how each one could show the ‘shine’ of the hair they washed in TV ads. A slight deviation that allowed each one to build their own distinctive look.
Back when I was on it, albeit for 2 mins, Sunsilk was a big, mature brand.
A powerhouse.
So you can imagine my surprise when I saw this:
What in gods name is that?
What is it?
It’s like the worst Barbie ad I’ve ever seen.
An ad that claims to ‘rethink’ pink but doesn’t really rethink anything.
Oh they may think they are, but the people behind this need to know you can’t just say pink now represents possibilities, future, strength and shiny [gotta get those haircare ad cues in there, even if it makes even less sense to the premise of the ad] … you actually have to make it mean that.
It’s a commitment.
A focus.
Acts beyond advertising.
So sadly, when you make an ad so bubblegum it looks like the bastard love child of the movie, Legally Blonde and a packet of original Hubba Bubba, you’re not really going to convince anyone.
On the positive, they cop out by saying ‘pink is whatever we make it’ and so I would like to tell the people at Unilever and Sunilk they did exactly that, because they have made pink brown.
Shitty brown.
Am I being mean?
Yep.
But then this is a multi-billion dollar company who has profited by putting women across Asia in cultural jail by promoting white skin as the right skin … used COVID to maximise profits for their antiseptic products and continually used stereotypes to promote it’s products … so I don’t have much sympathy for them.
Especially when they’re now trying to connect to young women by saying ‘pink’ is powerful while using all the same tropes, styles and themes that means what they’re actually communicating is ‘pink is the same old girly cliche they’ve been profiting from, for decades’.
There’s some absolutely incredibly talented people at Unilever.
Including some very good friends of mine.
There’s also some brilliant systems and processes within the organisation.
Sadly, there’s also a blinkered reliance on some questionable research methodologies, which results in a lack of self awareness so they end up with work like this.
They have done some brilliant work in the past.
Some truly brilliant.
But – in my opinion – not so much right now. Made worse with the sort of underlying messages that undermine people rather than elevate them.
If it wasn’t for their huge distribution and pricing power, it would be interesting to see what would happen to the brand.
But the thing is I want them to do well.
I want them to make work that changes and positively impacts culture.
They’re a huge spender on advertising.
They have the ability to change how culture feels and how the industry is perceived.
A Unilever that does great advertising is a Unilever that will have positive knock-on effects in a whole host of other areas and industries.
I’d even be willing to help them – for free, for a time – if their starting point was about building change through truth rather than their messed-up, manipulative version of purpose.
However given they made this ad after saying they wanted to stop the stereotypes in their advertising, it appears their view of reality is more blinkered than a racehorse.