Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Creativity, Culture, Design, Innovation, Insight, Marketing, Perspective, Research, Technology
So a few months ago, I was invited to talk at a conference about ‘ideas’.
Yeah … I know, it’s all been said and done before, but the reality is a good idea is still the only legal means to counter distribution, history and cash.
The issue is a lot of the ideas being spoken about are not ideas, they’re attempts at hype.
The ad industry is notoriously bad at this, often confusing an ad idea with an idea or worse, confusing bollocks, with genius.
Anyway, while I was there, I got to hear a bunch of great people speak – people who have built sustainable businesses through genuine breakthrough ideas – and despite them covering a whole range of industries, there was one thing that was common to them all.
Their idea made sense.
They could describe it in a few words.
And while it’s true some of their ideas required massive infrastructure change before they would see success, at the heart of it, their idea was something simple and – to a certain degree – obvious.
Each one had tackled a real problem, not a marketing problem.
Each one had looked for what the audience didn’t like rather than improving what they did.
Each one was able to be utterly focused on what was the key deliverable to increase the odds of success.
Each one ensured the execution of their idea was as intuitive as possible to minimise the gap between the old ways and the new.
These 4 things helped them get investment.
These 4 things helped them get other people to share their enthusiasm for their idea.
These 4 things helped them build a business that disrupted the category to define the category.
It sounds so bloody simple and yet so few people are actually any good at doing it.
Sure, there’s a whole host of other factors that go on behind the scenes to make it happen … and they all talked about the stresses and failures they had along the way … but what really struck me was that regardless whether they had developed a new car brand or a new way for youth to interact, each and every one of them described their idea in a way that made sense.
Now compare that to some of the ideas we see from our industry …
Pegs that use weather aggregation technology to tell you when it is best to wash your clothes.
Plates that use holes to drain 30 calories of fat from each meal.
Caps that help blind paralympic swimmers, swim.
There’s a reason they end up as scam because no venture capitalist worth their salt would invest in them.
I know there are many, many brilliant people in this industry.
I know there are many brilliant ideas that can be turned into something phenomenal for brands and business.
But maybe it would help the whole industry if we stopped thinking we were the Idea Kings and learnt from the people who have made it happen … because while it seems what they have achieved is incredible, their genius is that they made is sound utterly acceptable and inclusive.
Filed under: Attitude & Aptitude, Brand Suicide, Comment, Crap Marketing Ideas From History!, Design, Innovation, Packaging, Pollution
Hello there.
Not that you asked, but yes – I did have a good birthday thank you very much.
I didn’t get anything stupid [which for me, means awesome] but it was lovely.
Jesus, how old do I sound!
Talking of old, I recently came across this …
Believe it or not, this photo is not all that old.
But what I love about it is that huge sticker declaring it to ‘never be obsolete’.
That’s some big claim.
It’s also a massive pile of bollocks.
Given the alleged breakthrough by Canadian company, D:Wave, all computers may soon be obsolete so for some company to suggest their 90’s PC Tower would be able to withstand decades of focused innovation and technological breakthrough is both massively misguided and massively misleading and anyone who fell for it deserves all they got.
But the other thing this photo did was remind me of the ‘stickers’.
Oh my god, back in the day, every computer had them.
Little logos explaining either what the machine claimed to do or the manufacturer of some of its components.
And people fell for it, because we didn’t know better and we were looking for some reassurance we weren’t being taken for a ride.
Even when they put a massive fucking sticker on it claiming ‘NEVER OBSOLETE’.
God we were gullible fools weren’t we and while I’d hope we have got past that, the fact is I know we haven’t.
Sure, the tech industry have started moving away from sticker pollution, but there’s a whole host of brands in a whole host of categories that have started taking it on. Just look at any car ad these days and it seems they have more logos on the page than words… which is why it seems this video is the perfect way to sign off this post.
Microsoft may no longer as bad as they once were, but it seems a lot of brands are still forgetting that confidence in your product is about what you don’t say, rather than what you do. By all means use channels to explain the benefits of your product … hell, you can even talk about who has been part of it’s development … but when it comes to the actual product, be focused and make it glorious.
I will go and lie down now.
Filed under: Brand Suicide, Comment, Crap Campaigns In History, Crap Marketing Ideas From History!, Crap Products In History, Innovation, Marketing Fail, Technology
Can you tell I’m a bit pissed from that blog post heading?
Can you?
I’m pissed because an agency have launched an ‘intelligent peg’ to help people know the best time to do their washing … based on a bunch of weather indicators.
And then, they’ve gone one step further, by saying this is so families can free up more time for the “moments that matter”.
You don’t believe me do you … well watch this.
WHAT. THE. FUCK.
Have they – and their client – gone completely and utterly insane?
This is not a problem that needs solving … or at least not via a fucking peg.
And remember, I am an idiot that paid money for robot pets, balls and a bloody wi-fi suitcase!
Just think of the time, effort and money that went into making this piece of madness when weather apps and simply USING YOUR EYES TO LOOK OUT THE WINDOW have served people well for years and years.
And then there’s the fact I could argue it doesn’t actually save people any time at all.
Not really.
So it doesn’t even do what it was supposedly ‘invented’ for.
This is just another tragic and desperate attempt by an agency – and client, a client who has actually done really good work in the past – to look interesting.
Well guess what, they don’t. They look desperate.
Oh I’m sure they can make it sound great in their agency credentials …
“And we developed a peg that empowered people to maximise their day through weather aggregation technology”
… but anyone with half a brain will just snort in derision, that is if it ever sees the light of day because I have a sneaky suspicion this is more for award shows than anything the mass market will ever encounter.
And that’s a good thing because it’s a pile of embarrassing rubbish.
However what devastates me is that adland will probably bestow countless awards on it to delude itself that we can help business and do technology in creative ways when really all it will do is show how utterly far away we are from actually understanding how to change our perception and value to commerce and culture.
Seriously, I thought the stuff this agency did for tampons in China was bad but this beats it and I didn’t think that was possible.
Oh hang on it is.
They – and let’s call them out now – JWT, also created a tattoo they say is designed to help Westerners travelling in Japan find out if they have a Soba noodle allergy.
Yes, because that is a massive thing isn’t it.
So massive, that in a bid to show THIS WASN’T A MASSIVE PILE OF SCAM, they gave out 200 of these tattoo’s to one restaurant.
Two hundred tattoos.
For one restaurant.
Apparently Japan receives over EIGHT MILLION tourists a year so JWT can feel really proud that those 200 tattoos … available in 1 restaurant … for an allergy that few people have and that those who have it, probably know about it … will make a huge difference.
You think I’m joking don’t you?
No … here you go.
And given we’re coming up to the Cannes entry deadline, I’m scared this sort of shit is just the beginning of what we’ll be seeing peddled by certain agency networks all over the place.
Thank God not everyone follows this view.
Thank God there’s some agencies and clients who will be recognised for what they really did.
And so they should, because anything is easy when you don’t have anyone – or anything – to answer to … which makes the fact these scam ideas are so utterly rubbish, even worse.
But let’s end this by returning to Peggy Peg.
Given it has been done with such an obvious nod to creative awards, let’s give them what they want. I know … but that’s the kind of guy I am.
To everyone behind Peggy, a huge congratulations. It gives me great, great pleasure to award you the gold shit stick medal for over-engigneered, pointless, PR stunt rubbish, because – and you might not like to hear this – while Peggy might be the first intelligent peg, anyone who uses it is the most stupid and anyone who developed it, is the most desperate.
Filed under: Attitude & Aptitude, Comment, Culture, Cunning, Innovation, Insight, Planning
One of the things I love about being a planner is that it allows us to do stuff in the name of ‘investigation’.
Recently we worked with a client in the fast food industry.
They had approached us because in addition to wanting communication, they wanted help with where to locate their stores.
Given the incredible cost of real estate in Shanghai, they didn’t have the funds to support being located in ultra high traffic areas but they obviously didn’t want to be so hidden away that people couldn’t find them.
Retail location is an art.
It may sound easy, but there are so many factors to consider.
In fact, having sat down with our client over a number of weeks, I’d now say ‘the potential for passing trade’ is one of the least important criteria.
Anyway, we were exploring possible locations when someone talked about the importance and influence of scent.
Our clients product emits a very distinctive and appealing smell and it seemed mad to us that we hadn’t thought about how this may help us with our challenge.
Could scent act as ‘directions’ to our store?
Could scent pull people away from our competitors store?
How far could our scent actually travel?
It was this 3rd point that we found the most interesting because it had implications on how far we could be from major traffic areas and yet still attract customers.
But here was the problem …
While the client was pushing us to explore new places for their stores to be located, we would need to do it in a way that justified this new approach to their board of directors.
And this is where the planning madness came in.
To find out the ‘reach’ of our clients product smell, we turned to someone who had the most sensitive nose we knew.
Meet Sam.
Sam is a beautiful 4 year old brown labrador who spends his days walking around Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport checking suitcases for food.
Yep, Sam is a Police pooch.
Sam was hired [we paid him in treats and we paid his handler in cash] to tell us just how far our clients food could be smelt from.
Yes, dogs have far more sensitive noses than humans – and Sam’s was more sensitive than most – but doing this would [hopefully] allow us to identify the ‘peak distance’ we could be from high–traffic areas.
OK, so I know using sniffer dogs for things other than finding food or drugs is not new – and we knew there was a very good chance this could all collapse in a heap – but having seen how prostitutes and priests had helped us solve some very complex client challenges, we were excited about trying out a new hypothesis, not to mention being very relieved we had a client [and a dog handler] who were willing to let us experiment with it, which is why we went at it at full force.
Over 4 weekends, Sam and his handler were taken to different high public traffic areas of Shanghai.
Before he arrived, members of our planning team [Paula and Carina] took samples of our clients products and walked from the initial drop-off, out towards the back streets.
I must admit, things did not go as smoothly as we hoped.
Sam would sometimes get distracted by other smells and people had a nasty habit of wanting to pat him which caused him to lose the scent … however after multiple attempts, we were able to prove that our clients food scent would travel an average of 430 meters.
That might not sound a lot, but that 430 meters meant our clients average retail space costs could go down from 46,000RMB to 27,000RMB per week … a saving of 42%, which over 15 stores would mean an investment saving of over 285,000 RMB [US$43,000] a week.
A WEEK!
Now of course it wasn’t just a case of finding a location 430 meters away from major thoroughfares and opening a store – if only it was that simple – but what it did do was open more possibilities of retail location for our client, which meant their initial capital investment could go significantly down without major implications to their ‘audience attraction’ potential.
Win Win.
All this shows the importance of finding out what your clients real problem is … because when you do that, it not only allows you to be more focused in your solution, it liberates the way you can achieve it.
And when it lets you turn sniffer dogs into ‘planners with retail location capabilities’, how can you not be excited by that.
And if you believe any of this, you need to be bitten in the neck by an Alsation.
Though I doubt you did fall for it because, let’s be honest, it’s not vey good this year is it.
Certainly not as good as Method Planning.
Oh well, there’s always next year.
Happy April 1st.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Comment, Design, Innovation, Insight
After the madness of Monday, you’d think the Police would have picked me up and thrown me into a cell.
But no.
Idiots.
While normally I would take this as a sign that I can push things even further, even I accept there’s only so much anyone can take of my best friends penis [pun, most definitely not intended] so today I’m slowing the pace down and getting to something you may find interesting. Or at least more interesting than the subject matter of yesterday’s post.
I’ve written about my admiration – and occasional derision – for designers many times.
This is not purely because my wife is one, but because when they truly overcome – or solve – a problem, they do it in the most ingenious of ways.
Design helped Apple increase their brand value.
Design helped SONOS create a static logo that produces sound.
Design helped make the World laugh.
OK, this last point is taking the piss … but you get the gist of what I’m saying.
Anyway, the reason I am saying all this is because I recently saw another bit of brilliant design.
This …
Yep, stairs that have wheelchair access built right into them.
Simple, brilliant and effective.
As with many ingenious ideas, the solution seems so obvious.
As with many obvious ideas, it needs someone special to realise it.
Think sharp. Execute simple.