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Friday, September 3rd, 2010
Anton Ratinsky is an Art Director and possibly the best dressed person here at Grip Limited. (Sorry Bob Goulart.) While the rest of us in the creative department are kicking it in flip flops and jeans, Anton routinely shows up in immaculately pressed pants and ties, perfectly chosen to match from his vast collection. (25 ties and counting!)
We documented Anton’s looks for a week and then asked some other slightly less well-healed Grip staffers to weigh in:
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An unexpected resurgence has taken place in the music marketplace: vinyl is back. In a media landscape that’s moving overwhelmingly in an digital direction, the strong comeback of a seemingly outdated analog format is nothing less than paradigm-challenging. What’s behind the trend, and are there implications for other media? Let’s take a step back.
The traditional evolution of media has always been linear. It is driven forward by technological advance at an ever-accelerating pace.
Over the past 30 years, recorded music has been marketed in a variety of different formats: First, the analog media of vinyl and audio tape, then digital formats (CD, MiniDisc, etc.), and finally audio files (MP3).
A similar progression has taken place in home video, moving from VHS to DVD to downloadable media, while consumer recording and camera technology followed suit. And when competing formats arrive on the marketplace at the same time, it’s survival of the fittest, or perhaps “survival of the best marketed,” as the VHS vs. Betamax or DCC vs. MiniDisc wars confirmed.
As demand for physical copies of albums and films has diminished with the predominance of home computers and digital media players, it seems incredible that an antiquated medium such as the vinyl record would return to retail shelves. But stranger things have happened. It would be unthinkable, for instance, for Super 8 home movie cameras to suddenly reappear on the market, or for VHS to have a second life. But in an industry that’s seen a steady decline in sales for more than a decade, vinyl was one of the big success stories of 2009.
Rolling Stone magazine recently reported that vinyl sales jumped 37% in 2009, “an unexpected bright spot in the slumping retail music market . . . a record in the CD era” (Issue #1093, Dec. 10, 2009). Similarly, Toronto’s weekly, NOW ran a sidebar to its Jan. 14, 2010 cover story, asking the question “Is vinyl the new black?” The piece quoted an unprecedented 37% rise in vinyl sales in Canada in 2009, as well as noting that a new vinyl-pressing plant, RIP-V, had opened in Quebec – a clear indication that a significant demand for the medium exists and is expected to continue.
What is it about this medium that gives it such staying power? In truth, vinyl records never really disappeared completely, but the format did make a decisive exit from the mainstream. Audiophiles, record collectors, and music fanatics have always gravitated to the format, and it’s been kept alive in various music communities, such as dance, hip hop, punk, and jazz. The nostalgia factor certainly comes into play, as the vinyl record is a direct link to music of decades gone by. The tangible, tactile experience of listening to music on a turntable has not been carried into the iPod generation, and perhaps the proliferation of cheap USB turntables has inadvertently sparked some new interest in vinyl records.
Corus Entertainment tapped into this nostalgic link in late 2009, when it rebranded its Hamilton country station to a new “classic hits” format, naming it Vinyl 95.3 FM, with the tagline “Tune into your memories.”
And it keeps going: Vinyl racks have returned not only to your local High Fidelity-style indie music retailer, but to large chains such as HMV and Sunrise Records. Even big-box giant Best Buy is selling records – confirmation that the demand is being taken seriously on a mainstream level.
So while larger music retailers have had to diversify to hawking DVDs, video games, books, and digital music players and accessories to stay alive, it’s strange to see old fashioned albums back on display. It’s not like vinyl’s going to recapture the market in a big way . . . still its presence has been duly noted and embraced.
Besides stalwart labels such as Sundazed and Rhino Records reissuing classic albums on high-quality 180-gram wax, it has become almost compulsory for any notable new release to be pressed on vinyl. And saavy music labels have made it a win/win prospect to purchase the vinyl edition, by including a free download code so that consumers can receive a digital copy of the release to add to their MP3 player.
You can’t listen to your hot new vinyl purchase on the streetcar on your way to work, after all.
The return of the vinyl record album is also good news for the design world. Packaging has always been an important component of music releases, helping define the identity of an album and the brand identity of the band. But in the MP3 era, record covers have been reduced to thumbnail jpegs, a fact bemoaned by designers and music enthusiasts alike. Designers will no doubt savour the opportunity to work large again, and embrace a format that has in the past allowed for much innovation in type design, photography, and packaging.
Whether the dramatic upswing in vinyl sales is merely a temporary, nostalgia-driven trend, or a more long-term phenomena, it remains a landmark turn of events in the evolution of media.
Perhaps vinyl records simply offer something that can’t be duplicated in the digital domain. There is a place for them in the marketplace despite the overwhelming dominance of MP3 players. As Apple has proven over the years, it isn’t necessary to be the biggest player in the market to be a strong presence and a survivor.
So it seems there is indeed a place in the market for both apples and oranges. Make that apples and round black discs.
As early as five years ago, only organizations such as World Vision and the Red Cross or governments with armies could mobilize and respond quickly to massive humanitarian crises. Today, technology connects us in ways that enable, empower and compel us to do more than lament. We can act on our intentions by giving in extraordinary ways.
Case in point: There has been an overwhelming response to the recent Haitian crisis. Largely, it has been achieved by harnessing quick, real-time applications such as Twitter, texting and Facebook. Companies large and small are all thinking creatively and quickly to set up fundraising for these platforms. People have been able to immediately share the ways that they’ve given with their friends, which has inspired (and pressured) others to respond as well.
In the hours and days immediately following the disaster, you could text “HAITI” to 45678 on your Rogers, Bell, Virgin or Telus cell phone and $5 would automatically be directed towards The Salvation Army from your monthly bill. (More details here.) Rogers has promised to donate $250,000 to relief efforts, and customers can donate $5 by texting “HELP” to shortcode 1291. You can also text “HAITI” to 90999 to donate $10 to the American Red Cross relief for Haiti.
How much money are we talking here? The Red Cross has reported that as a result of the mass social network campaign, it received $35 million in donations in the first 48 hours after the earthquake — more than half through online contributions and at least $8 million by text.
Great results, but a word of caution: beware of jumping on the fundraising bandwagon without proper research. Many companies and non-profits may not be organized to direct the funds to the right place. There have also been a number of false fundraisers setting up collection bins on Facebook and other websites. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has even released a Haitian Earthquake Relief Fraud Alert.
Personally, I like the transparency of the Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund. Donors can give to the efforts, then connect with up-to-date information via email, Facebook or Twitter. Once you’ve donated, you can tell all your friends by posting links and buttons, tweeting and blogging.
We’ve added some awesome blogs to the Big Orange Slide’s blog roll. Here’s what and why:
15 ideas
Ignore the “About” page writeup. Kevin Lynch’s 15 ideas blog has nothing to do with “rock drills, jackhammers, and rock drilling accessories.” It’s actually a miscellany of pithy insights on advertising and visual communication. For example, “. . . if there’s one thing we in marketing are good at, it’s patting ourselves on the back and handing each other trophies.” And, “one of the things I love most about traveling is, you can wear the same clothes you did the day before without anyone knowing.” This is also your gateway to Lynch’s @fifteenideas Twitter feed, where you’ll get up-to-the-second news of his year-long quest to find the missing glove.
Makin’ Ads
This one’s “For students of advertising, portfolio school hopefuls, and anyone else putting their book together. Please remember: Everything written here may be wrong.” Modesty aside, there’s lots to love about this blog and its regular updates by U.S.-based copywriter Jim Bosiljevac and Geneva-based writer Greg Christensen. The recent Not Closing the Loop post, for example, offers a persuasive case against testing commercials.
bannerblog
“Where banners click.” A constantly updated collection of some of the world’s best online ads. The archives have hundreds of banners going back to 2005, many of them with the requisite “thinking outside the big box.” Of the banners shown recently, I like Barnardos for its innovative use of video.
Ads of the World blog
Ads of the World is an online archive and community that showcases campaigns from around the world. Recent highlights on their blog include 21 suggestions for a successful advertising career: “#17 Be decisive even if it means you’ll sometimes be wrong. Timing is everything in advertising.” And The next generation of truly transparent ads: “What would it be like if with every ad you saw online, you knew exactly how and why it found its way to your screen?”
It’s Design Week in Toronto. That means the Toronto International Design Festival is on from January 20-24. Anchored by the Interior Design Show (IDS), the city is set to burst into little design flames with shops, galleries and even schools opening their doors to celebrate design and innovation.
Curated and promoted by Design Exchange, there are a number of events that span the disciplines of design: fashion, interiors, graphics, architecture, and environmental.
My top pick? I’d like to hear Bruce Mau share his thoughts on “A World Without Oil” at IDS. Opinions of Mau are polarized, but he’s clearly a design thinker who contributes across many disciplines and he’s been a longtime proponent of lateral, collaborative work in efforts to cause positive social change.
Unfortunately, it will cost you dearly for the privilege: $125 for a half day of talks.
Then, of course, we have Advertising Week. It picks up where Design Week leaves off. January 25-29, to be exact. Promoted by the Institute of Communication Agencies (ICA), it will be held concurrently in six Canadian cities and will include film screenings, talks, networking events, exhibits and the like.
Apparently Advertising Week is for people in “creative industries and those who aspire to be creative.” That covers just about everybody, doesn’t it?
There are a lot of great picks here, ranging from Toronto advertising celebrities such as Terry O’Reilly and living legend Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at MaRS with ideas, tools and inspirations for “Leading Social Change.”
The only downside to all this action is that it’s impossible to take it all in. Maybe somebody will design a time machine. Or at least a better way to track the growing number of relevant events now that things are really getting interdisciplinary.
Matthew Corrin is Founder and CEO of Freshii.
1) Freshii is to McDonald’s as _____ is to ____?
Fresh is to frozen.
2) How’s business in the Healthy Convenience Food category?
Ask me January 1, 2011 once we have 65 units open and operating in 15 cities around the world, including Dubai, NYC, LA, Orange County, Vienna, Houston, DC, Denver, Edmonton, Calgary, Toronto, Chicago and Nashville.
I THINK and HOPE I can say, “GREAT.” Time will tell.
3) With nearly 100 new locations on the horizon, how are you managing to keep Freshii on-brand?
The make-or-break is with our $30,000/year store managers and their $9/hour part-time staff. Most of the time we get it right. Sometimes we don’t. When we don’t, we use all means possible at a corporate level to make good and fix a mistake in real time.
4) Do you have any good examples of staying true to Freshii’s sustainability manifesto at the expense of business growth?
Our Freshii Green Mission is simply that: a mission. To us it means to constantly strive to be more and more ‘green.’ We don’t take on a green initiative if it will significantly compromise profit – that wouldn’t be prudent to our shareholders or franchise partners. However, we are proud of the steps we’ve taken to date and look forward to opening new stores so we can continue to leverage economies of scale to implement additional green initiatives.
As an example, we’ve stayed away from building stores with LEED certification because of the significant additional cost, and the ROI pressure. I think one day this will change. We have been able to implement almost totally biodegradable packaging, as well as operational techniques that have eliminated the need for dishwashers in our stores – and the additional chemical, water and energy waste that comes with commercial grade dishwashers.
So, we do everything we can and have big plans for the coming year.
5) How important is it to keep the Freshii brand separate from the “Matthew Corrin” brand?
In Toronto, our home market, I get recognized a lot – at the airport, in line at Starbucks, within our restaurants – and actually really like it because it reinforces the sense of passion people have for Freshii and their willingness to say it to my face, sometimes positive, sometimes constructive. My friends call me a D-List celebrity.
In the infancy of our growth, attaching myself to the brand really helped generate media attention and sell franchises, which in turn helped drive our company growth. However, the concern with me being too tied to the brand was what it could do to the valuation, should I ever choose to step away from the company and no longer associate myself with it as intimately as I do today.
The good news is that in every other market that we’ve opened or are opening in – Chicago, DC, Denver, Dubai, LA, etc. – nobody knows me and nobody cares about me. The ‘buzz’ is now mostly derived around the Freshii brand, itself, and is not tied to one person. I guess that makes me an E- or F-Lister now . . .
6) How much return on investment are you getting from the company’s social media marketing spend?
I noticed that as Freshii grew from one, to two, to 15 stores, there was a particular demographic that felt we had ‘sold out’ and lost our ‘local’ appeal. I was, and am, extremely sensitive to this, as I saw what it eventually did to Starbucks. Focusing social media on a local level has been really helpful in keeping that important demographic engaged with our brand and motivated to support our local restaurants and be evangelists for Freshii.
7) What’s one of the common marketing mistakes you see coming from less experienced entrepreneurs in the social media space?
I’m more interested in companies that use social media really well, then we try to put our own spin on it and launch it to our customer as fast as possible. For example, we took the Supersize Me movie and launched Lettuce Size Me a few years ago. It was very buzz-worthy and generated national media attention for several weeks.
8) What’s your leadership style?
Talk a big talk and then walk a big walk.
That is: Dream big and then work my butt off to reach those dreams. Everyone on my team subscribes to this philosophy. We have a motto internally: Merely ‘good’ managers need not apply. You will only fit into our organization if you’re a ‘super-achiever.’ It took us some time to figure that out – but it’s really helped. It’s the same reason that I personally fly to every single market to perform the final stage interview with our Store Managers. I need to make sure they embody the ‘super-achiever’ mindset.
In fact, I’m flying to San Francisco as I type this to perform exactly that: a final round interview. Then I go to LA. And then Dubai. My wife loves it . . .
9) How do you make sure your employees are growing in their roles?
Give them the message that they can be anything they want within Freshii – all they need to do is prove it.
We reward for results and not tenure.
10) Do you think Canada does a good job of supporting its young entrepreneurs?
I think it could do a better job – and I’m about to put my money where my mouth is with a really cool website I am launching with my brother. Think American Idol meets Monster.com meets TMZ meets a talent agency. The domain is still a secret, but our tagline is: “Rising Stars Wanted.”
Can I come back for another interview once we go live?
YouTube Annotations
Forgive me – this first one’s not cutting edge, but Grip’s Stephen Bennett reminded me how powerful, yet under-utilized, this technique can be. YouTube Annotations let you add background information about your video, create stories with multiple storylines, and link to other videos, channels or search results – all within the video player itself. For an elegant demo, check out the Charlotte, North Carolina-based agency Boone Oakley’s YouTube-based website (above).
fotobabble
This fun little site lets you quickly and easily add your voice to photos and then share them via e-mail, Facebook or Twitter, or embed them into a site. They call them, “talking photos.” My guess is that we are minutes away from seeing the first brand with a Facebook app using this simple marriage of existing platforms for a contest or community activation. I hope we’re working on something!
Digital Spray Paint
Technology puts street graffiti into the marketer’s arsenal with software-creation tools and projection interfaces. Think: the immersive, experiential qualities of graffiti – without the nuisance of the arrest warrant.
I went to a portfolio viewing recently to scout for potential creative interns. All of them featured integrated or 360 campaigns in their work. As I went through the portfolios, one by one, the students would explain the thinking behind what they did. One after another, they showed good thought on their print pieces, out of home, and broadcast storyboards. But when it came to their online offerings it was an entirely different story. The work seemed flat, as if a train of thought started down the tracks and then ran out of steam.
One campaign featured windows opened in unusual places with unusual things on the other side of them. For example, you would see an open window on an industrial building, but inside was green grass, and bright skies. When we turned to the online (banners), it was simply the print work pasted into a thin dimension. When I asked the student what the online was about, they replied, “I don’t know, it seemed to fit with the campaign.”
The integrated mistake
The above-mentioned students can’t really be blamed for the drop off when it came to the digital portions of their work. They’re suffering from a common mistake/misconception, which is that a good integrated campaign consists of messaging that is consistent across multiple media. To give an analogy, the belief is that if you take all the pieces of an integrated campaign, stitch them together and lay them flat, you could run your fingers across them and not feel the seams.
In broadcast and print, the consumer value attached to the advertisements is external. They get a TV show or a magazine article served up alongside their ad. In the interactive realm, the audience consumes the advertisement because it, in itself, offers them value. This has obvious implications for integrated campaigns. Agencies will often devote significant time trying to make sure there is a consistent message across all media. Although this is an important part of creating an effective campaign, it simply isn’t enough to make all aspects of the campaign effective. You also have to make sure that each medium in the campaign has value. So how do you make sure your interactive initiatives have value in the eyes of your audience?
The answer is “Why?”
“Why?” is a question we ask all the time in the advertising world. We use it to help us define problems and devise creative solutions. In the more mature media – such as print, out of home and broadcast – the biggest “why” is answered for us: “Why is our audience viewing/reading this?” With broadcast and print the answer has to do with subsidy. It’s an exchange of the audience’s time for subsidizing something they value.
Why does someone watch a commercial? Because without the commercials, the TV shows we love would be too expensive to produce. Without commercials, there would be no House, or Grey’s Anatomy. And although you might get up to get a snack during commercials, odds are you will sit through several during the viewing of your favourite show.
Same goes in the world of print. Our own Dave Hamilton explains, “I love The New Yorker, but if there were no ads in it, it would be way too expensive to buy.”
Advertising subsidizes the salaries of the writers, and offsets the price of production. Readers of the magazine will at least see the ads in the magazine. In the digital space (web, mobile and such) the answer is not as obvious.
Why in action
A few weeks ago someone sent me the Elf Yourself link. I spent a good 20 minutes using the application. I found images of my family. I cropped them out. I uploaded them. I chose a theme. And then I spent several minutes waiting for the application to process it all. Out popped a video of my wife, kids, and myself singing and dancing as elves. I then spent another 5-10 minutes sharing the video, giving it further exposure.
The question is “Why?” Why did I invest 30 minutes of my time (specifically half of my lunch) using an advertisement for Office Max?
The answer is that I interacted with the ad because it, in itself, provided me with value. In this case I knew my boys (ages 2 and 4) would love to see themselves dancing and singing as Santa’s Elves. I also knew that some of my immediate friends would find seeing my wife and I dancing as elves entertaining.
This is the digital “Why?”
There is no formula for creative value in interactive advertising. It simply requires a lot of thought and imagination, combined with putting yourself in your audience’s shoes. You need to imagine yourself as a member of your audience, and ask, “Why would I do this? Why would I participate? Why navigate? Why read?”
If you can come up with great answers for all of these questions, you’re well on your way to coming up with an effective piece of digital advertising.
Prescriptive marketing solutions. Everybody wants them. The marketing blogs have them. Some recent cases in point:
• What’s The #1 problem most brands have? Consistency. That’s according to Mitch Joel at TwistImage. “The brands that master consistency win. Especially when that consistency happens on top of a product or service that people love (and will talk about).” Easier said than done? Not if you follow the handy “to-do” list he’s included.
• Then, in Amplifying complaints, Seth Godin reveals the secret to effective complaining. It involves underplaying your own suffering while proposing a solution that’ll inspire the person you’re complaining at to make things right.
• Thinking about a job change? How about “Community Manager”? The folks at the Three Minds blog say it’s a role on the rise. “This role may be an ideal career succession for out-of-work copywriters or journalists because many already possess the key components of being a community manager…” Sounds like a trick. Maybe not though, because they’ve included a checklist to help you through your interview.
• And finally, Mark Nicholson at the Canadian Marketing Blog has christened 2010 The Year of Online Branding. He says we should expand our thinking of online marketing past websites, online ads and social media to “online branding,” paying special attention to search. “The bad name SEO has received with its infiltration of snake oil salesmen has left a bad taste in the mouths of many. But passing it over is like leaving money on the table. In fact, it’s the most likely source of traffic and stands to be one of the biggest contributors to your online branding efforts.”
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The Big Orange Slide is the central gathering place for Grip Limited’s unique perspective on the modern marketer’s daily grind. Our contributors are some of Canada's (and Grip’s!) most insightful and enlightened thinkers on Strategy, Design, Digital and Culture. Our big hairy goal? To be the best 5-minutes of your day.
Jesse Ouimet said
