23

May

Cities: a soil for online networks

We know that targeting people is getting more and more complicated and expensive in mass media but there are not so many other things you can buy to build the reach a brand needs. What if we would think of communications plans based on the networks you identify from the  17 biggest cities in the world?

“While the internet facilitates communication, it doesn’t obliterate that human need to be around other humans. That’s why I think cities consistently become magnets for talent and capital. It’s cities that create great countries.” - David McWilliams (full article here on Google Think Quarterly)

I think that actually that internet is a perfect tool to convert those magnetic places into online communities. The idea is to build on pre-existing offline networks. Remember that the web is just a mirror of the offline world.

Having this idea on mind for a few weeks now, I realized that this is probably what actually Nike+ did. This was probably the magic of it. The chip is actually the layer that has translated an offline network of runners into a digital community of runners. It became the connector that breaks the distinction between online and offline getting everybody together around the activity – the interest: running.

 

 

Take-away:

What is the layer your brand can set up to connect and convert your offline networks into online ones? That sounds like a very exciting idea to me!

4 days ago Short URL Comments

Connection marketing/English/Neat ideas

04

May

Companies should embrace their beta version

I’m reading AKQA’s founder book on Velocity at the moment. I’ve yet to come to the end, but I like this idea that companies need to learn from tech companies in their capacity for adaptation and reactivity.

Which brings me to another point regarding strategy inspired by the talk Gen Sir Mike Jackson gave at the Worlds Collide event.

It’s fascinating how strategy in advertising is about building A plan. THE PLAN, only 1! 1 Strategy, 1 year.

I suspect this is coming grom the old days of advertising where the plan was linked to huge media investments and TV production that took ages to go into the market and etc.

But, this is not relevant anymore.

We should get better at proposing a plan B and start writing a plan C as soon as B is in progress. We should write strategies where this go right and strategies where things go wrong.

Those plans should not be vague options but instead they should result in a realistic set of actions that is easy to implement if plan A becomes obsolete.

Building up this adaptability in your advertising (in your company) means that you need to track the market closer, outside of the sales indicators, to actually react to the market much faster. Hence, the crucial role data capture and analysis will play in the future.

This means to me that companies, and investors, should embrace the idea of always being in a beta version of something. Just like facebook, Google, Apple… They aren’t stuck into something, they do things, they react, which help them generate lots of conversations as well.

This is not possible to work with one PLAN as it used to be. However, building a company capable of embracing velocity is certainly the best thing for markets to invest on.

23 days ago Short URL Comments

Connection marketing/English

03

May

Hey brand! Your consumer IS now the group.

Talk to us

24 days ago Short URL 1 Comment

Connection marketing/Digital Planning/English

15

Mar

A framework for transmedia communications

This presentation provides a framework for the implementation of transmedia brand communications.

It rapidly drives us to the conclusion that transmedia not only offers a huge potential to build a sustainable paid-owned-earned communication mix but actually to also transform your marketing operations at large.

A framework for transmedia communications

73 days ago Short URL Comments

Connection marketing/English

14

Mar

Social media is dead, welcome social compagnies!

Image

I recently renamed this blog as I truly believe this connection people and brands have built over the last 3 years is the start of something much bigger. Advertising is being challenged but above all I think it’s the way people and companies interact together through brands that is changing.

Have you noticed the number of people around you who wants to “change the world”? Well, if I was involved with a big multi-national company right now I would think about it twice. Consumers express their wish to change things, they realize they do have an impact on earth, employment and resources scarcity when they
consume products. But they have never been made aware of all the consequences that were involved and they want to change that. They don’t want those nasty consequences, most people want to be nice and fair to each other.

Companies cannot function without people’s input anymore, as it does impact their communications and therefor, sales. That interactive connection digital has established now goes beyond communications, it’s not social media anymore, it’s a social company.

Younger generations have brands in their minds since they were born, the culture of mix and co-creation is established, and the creative process social media has enabled isn’t going to stop. It’s our role to understand it and turn it into an asset.

People’s influence now goes beyond the impact they have on communications:

Are you ready?

73 days ago Short URL Comments

Connection marketing/Engaging/English

23

Jan

In search of the new Bernbach

Let’s face it, EVERY single book on advertising refers to Bernbach and his work at DDB for the Beetle back in errr… 1959! Fact is the “Think Small” ad remains the best advertising campaign ever, certainly the one that marked the beginnings of the Golden Age of Advertising, 50 years ago…. Wait, 50!

I think it’s time to wonder who the new Bernbach is today?  Our industry is going through a revolution and I’m looking for this guy/gal because I’d love to be on board with him! In my search to trace this person down,  I’m looking at the ingredients that made “Think small” THE ad, and what would that mean if we were to reproduce such an impact in 2012.

Here are some of the major innovations this ad offered back then:

  • Strategy: instead of the usual USP the angle here is to position the car as SMALL in days where everything was about being BIG. The game plan was to disrupt the category by promoting the new entrant as a completely new way of doing cars.
  • Art direction: from painting, handwritten fonts to B&W picture and Futura as well as major innovations in the layout (the car isn’t centered for example).
  • Message: the line “think small” combined with the visual assumes that the audience is smart and is part of the message resolution. There is a moment when you get it. The magic happens just here.

I think there is room today to recreate an ad that will change the face of advertising for the next 50 years. In the late 50s, the revolution was mostly contained in the message ; the 2012 revolutionary piece will come by challenging the concept of “media”, hence “ad”, itself.

The Anomaly, Naked, Sid Lee, Frog, WK… One of these might host the next Bernbach, here are some interesting similarities they share:

  • The need to disrupt. By being independent. By embracing chaos in the way ideas are born and produced. By being media agnostic, not being attached to a media company as most networked agencies are. By being product agnostic, they don’t necessarily answer with a TV campaign, they are ready to answer without a campaign.
  • The focus on GREAT story telling. Inspired from the world of video games and cinema, their ideas are stories. Not a one-line for a spot but stories that are easy to understand, to remember and to share (in any form of media from social to TV and retail).
  • The need for change. They know advertising is changing and they want to lead the pack. They are very entrepreneurial and they want to master this change as soon as possible. So they don’t fear doing it, and experiencing new things with conviction. They select clients willing to embrace innovation as well as risk taking.

Who knows where the new Bernbach is… Names to share anyone?

124 days ago Short URL Comments

3 years from now/Connection marketing/English

09

Jan

Paid-Owned-Earned: Recipe for a perfect mix

Paid-Owned-Earned-Perfect-Mix

The perfect mix

Well, obviously, there is no cookie-cutter template in our industry, so no one size fits all recipe I’m sorry…

However, owned and earned media are now understood and integrated by leading agencies as key pillars to launch and to sustain a brand when the mass media (read paid media) is shut down.

Objectives for owned and earned being:

  • To extend the reach of the mass media,
  • To engage with consumers in the digital sphere (data base/knowledge building),
  • To raise loyalty among existing fans-clients (owned).

Inevitably, achieving those objectives mean that the mass media, aka “the campaign”, cannot live on its own in paid media anymore. It has to be part of a broader idea, a conversational idea.

The campaign should be treated a the spark in your annual marketing activities. The moment where you gather the reach you will work from the rest of the year. That’s a fact, we cannot pay massive mass media all year long and even if we could, we all know it wouldn’t deliver the expected results anyway.

So here are some (humble, feel free to comment) conclusions I’ve come up with in the last year by working on multiple POE communication mixes:

  1. The communication idea is the start, not the media. It must be true to your audience’s behaviours as much as it needs to be true to your brand DNA. It is the element of connection between people and brands that will survive the paid media exposure. The #makeitcount campaign Nike released last week is a perfect example. Finding out this idea requires deep dive into existing conversations about your brands as much as your audiences. You don’t want to reinvent the wheel, if you can find something that already is a conversation, then go for it, this is your gold mine.
  2. The raise of creative strategy. This idea cannot be purely creative anymore; an amazing story told in TV is not enough anymore. It has to embed a media potential in it. What is a media potential? This idea must be the start of an interaction whether it be sharing (The Force) or engaging consumers with the brand (Old Spice). This can be nurtured by inviting people to create something with the brand and its ambassadors (please read my last post on this topic where I mention pop-culture as the new insight).
  3. From frequency to a call-to-action.  I’m under the impression that frequency is evolving to a new era where it is not only the role of the media buy to provide frequency. But instead the creative idea must embed a capacity for building frequency on its own. How? By embedding a clear call-to-action for example that will generate reach and frequency in social media (ie: Write the future).

Hence, the evolution of paid media which becomes a mean to capture attention, to touch the heart of the people you need to engage with to support your brand/your product. The messaging here being focused on sparking emotions more than building a traditional USP-USL messaging. It is not to say the full story any more, if you do a great job they will keep up with you in digital.

This is where the advertising industry as a lot to learn from the video game and Hollywood industries. Those two being at the leading edge of the culture of transmedia.

Who ever said a great creative idea should be contained and expressed in one distinct media support? Isn’t this fantastic that our industry has yet to reinvent itself?

Happy daring & innovative 2012 to all!

139 days ago Short URL Comments

Connection marketing/Engaging/English

20

Dec

Is pop culture the new insight?

I was looking at the Time’s selection for the top 10 TV ads of 2011, and realized that there is certainly a shift happening in the secular insight advertisers have worked with since the early days of advertising.

In fact, the insight is now completed with a new spin that gives it more emotional traction. What strikes me is how icons and celebs made popular through TV are becoming a new element of the messaging. 4 out of the 10 top spots by Times are in fact leveraging those TV/pop culture icons:

  • 2. The Force — Volkswagen x Darth Vader
  • 6. Imported from Detroit — Chrysler x Eminem
  • 7. All In — Adidas x Katy Perry x Messi (…)
  • 8. Best Fans Ever — NFL x Simpsons x Dallas x 90210 (…)

When looking at the other messages, we can see that they refer to “digital” experiences we all share:

  • 1. Dear Sophie — Google
  • 3. Reply All — Bridgestone
  • 4. The 4G “Spider” — Samsung
  • 9. Dog.ppt

Leveraging one or the other allows the brand to connect with people outside of the pure product functional or emotional benefit. Using pop culture or digital behaviors as a new layer to the brand story certainly adds depth to the brand messaing making it more authentic and true to people.

It says “I am also part of your world and I know you have a life outside of my product’s usage”. Well, that was about time, this sounds really inspiring for our future ;)

Looking at that list, the outsiders are clearly  5. Bold Choice — Jim Beam (by StrawberryFrog) and 10. Parking Garage — Citizens Bank (by Ogilvy & Mather) that are using the “same old same old” way of doing advertising…

And yes, I’m very proud of seeing the spot Montreal-based SID LEE created for adidas in that list!


158 days ago Short URL Comments

Connection marketing/English/Humanified brands/I like

//

11

Apr

The (R)evolution of strategic planning

Strategic planning

Credits: fred...66 @FlickR

It keeps surprising me the “traditional” agency vision on planning. Even though the media landscape is changing, consumers’ habits are changing but planning should stay as is: finding an insight an creating a message our of it. It really questions me why so many smart people hesitate to question and evolve the way they see the role of planning.

It seems to me that planning is the area where you have that luxury to find the best solution what ever the solution is without being attached to any particular mean, media or technology. This is the area of possible.

Why not evolving the art of planning and revise the way we see traditional planning to make it more relevant to how people live today. And yes. That means digital, mobile and social media are a big part of it. But considering these as new tools in your palette shouldn’t be seen as a limitation. That’s the exact opposite.

I truly believe that insights are still really relevant but they need to be evolved in order to match a more digital notion which is the concept of user’s needs.

At the end of the day the better you understand the needs of your market, the better you can:
- emotionally connect
- be remembered
- generate word-of-mouth

… and ultimately, grow your business, don’t you think?

411 days ago Short URL Comments

Connection marketing/Digital Planning/English

02

Apr

From branded utility to meaningful utility (3/3)

Credits: BretBernhoft @ FlickR

I believe that branded utility is required to move to the next level and to move outside of being just utile. Every brand in a category could potentially bring the same utility to the market as an extension to its product. So the question is how could you express your brand positioning through a new utile experience that aligns with your brand DNA.

This very one thing you create is now also unique – and this might be strong enough to become your very own digital communication platform. Something strong enough to gather the attention of your own community of consumers-users (ie: Burberry – Art of the Trench). It becomes a value added to your brand – a social capital – something that creates a connection above the product itself. (ie iTunes for iPod back in the days).

How does this apply?
Facebook and social media: to turn your facebook fans into a truly engaged group of people, you need to offer them some branded utility platform that has a true meaning to them. As seen in the previous posts, this could be brought by technology through data collection and analysis for example.

In a nutshell:
A brand should insert itself meaningfully into people’s lives by enabling and enriching their existing behaviors, not by requiring new ones. This is the next generation of branded utility something that ties back to a brand DNA instead of being true to a product category.

421 days ago Short URL Comments

3 years from now/Connection marketing/English

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