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Is “The Pitch” an accurate reflection of our industry?
Wednesday, May 23rd, 2012
With “Watch This Space,” Google is attempting to add value and innovation to an ad format that has notoriously low clickthroughs and shows up less and less on client wishlists.
What do you think? Is there as-yet unexplored promise in banner ads, or is Google flogging a dead horse?
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Those of you who know me, know I play drums – Gretsch drums. And you may also know that I have always believed it’s not a good idea to reinvent the wheel. Especially when your client is paying for said wheel. So when Gretsch Drums USA recently launched a new Facebook-esque site called “The Woodshed,” I was dubious.
I wasn’t sure why Gretsch wouldn’t just use Facebook as their social platform. It’s built. It works. And there are like, a trillion users. In fact, if Gretsch was a Grip client, I would have suggested they use Facebook.
Then I spent actually some time on The Woodshed site.
It doesn’t support Facebook connect, so I had to register, create a profile and so on. But after the hoops, I was struck by the simplicity of the experience. There was no other noise, no other distractions, no ads. It was purely drums and the people who love’em. I think there is something to be said for that. Without the ancillary noise of the rest of Facebook, I found I could really just sit back and enjoy the content. I could focus. I could make new friends, albeit in yet another artificial way.
My point? I started by wondering why Gretsch built their own social networking site when it’s impossible to rival Facebook for available community. But after a little poking around, I’m glad they made that call. It’s a great niche experience, with nothing to distract or detract from the love of drumming.
I was wrong, Gretsch was right. There, I said it.
The moral of the story? If you are going to reinvent the wheel, make it a wheel people want. One that suits the brand. One that serves a purpose. And don’t be afraid.
Which brings me to iTunes’ new Ping community: do you think it’s an answer to a question no one asked? Or another example of Apple brilliance?
There’s no scarcity of that headline. Innovations, as ubiquitous as intuitive search rankings and as inspiring as The Wilderness Downtown collaboration with Arcade Fire simply abound from Google.
But here’s another. The Virtual Paintout is a blog hosted by Bill Guffey. A site devoted to the display of art, painted or sketched using Google Streetview as its source for inspiration.
To participate in the project, artists must simply use a view found through Google Street View as the reference for the painting or drawing. September’s inspiration is the island of Manhattan.
Love or hate the work, love or hate the construct, Google has weaved its way into yet another creative endeavor, successfully and with little in the way of parameters or interference.
Perhaps my headline should have been “Google inspires.”
Maynards candies are so desirable, they’re practically “wanted.” That’s the idea behind a new, national, integrated advertising campaign from Cadbury and Toronto’s Grip Limited.
“From Swedish Berries to Sour Patch Kids, Canadians have loved Maynards candies for years,” says Marsha McFadgen, Senior Brand Manager, Kraft Confectionery. “But despite their popularity, people still think of Maynards as a Wine Gums brand. We’re launching a program that showcases other Maynards sub-brands, while strengthening the overall Maynards name.”
At the heart of the new Maynards’ Most Wanted campaign are six wanted posters. One for each of five Maynards candies: Fuzzy Peaches*, Sour Patch Kids*, Original Gummies*, Sour Cherry Blasters* and Swedish Berries*. There’s also a sixth poster featuring the full criminal lineup. Each candy has a fun criminal name and is accused of a crime that is in line with its flavour profile.
In addition to their role as brand awareness pieces, the posters are the top level of a highly interactive consumer experience. Using their smart phone (via QR codes, SMS messaging and the Maynards’ Most Wanted mobile site) consumers can interact with the posters. A successful engagement leads to a “capture” that drives them to a Facebook application, where the $25,000 reward contest plays out.
“This campaign offers consumers a seamless experience between out-of-home, mobile, and Facebook,” says Randy Stein, Creative Partner at Grip Limited. “That’s where our target is, and that’s where we’re engaging them.”
“From the start, we just fell in love with the idea of candy mug shots,” says Stein. “And with the right execution, we found that they could support a lot of layers. They’re playful and flavour-focused – but they’re also highly engaging and have a ton of branding.”
“We’re thrilled with how this campaign has come together,” says McFadgen. “It’s the best of two worlds: a strong traditional equity campaign with an innovative engagement tactic.”
The campaign includes out-of-home, print, online media and a mobile website.
To join the hunt, visit MaynardsMostWanted.ca.
Last night, one of Geico’s customers launched a claims appeal on Facebook, organically fueling a hot debate between several Grippers around Social Media brand stewardship. The following is a transcript of the real-time email roundtable.
What do you think the best practices are when brands have to field complaints in a social media context?
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
On 10-09-09 4:29 PM, Jacob Karsemeyer wrote:
This is currently unfolding on the Geico Facebook Page – a great example of Facebook customer interaction going wrong: http://i.imgur.com/biHIX.jpg
On 10-09-09 6:43 PM, Jacoub Bondre wrote:
Hasn’t gone wrong yet. Let’s see how Geico reacts.
In my opinion, here’s what they should do:
1) set up a venue for these type of requests/complaints outside of their main Facebook page.
2) pay for the surgery.
3) re-direct future grievances to the new mechanism.
4) enjoy the positive press.
Sent from my iPhone
On 10-09-09 7:22 PM, Chris Eyerman wrote:
Wouldn’t the venue outside of Facebook be their claims department? Sounds more symptomatic of a company that failed to understand that social media participation means a higher level of transparency, anticipation and reactiveness to situations like this. Their page is still getting mobbed and as far as I can tell they’ve yet to respond. That means they’ve already lost.
Also, going to disagree that Facebook isn’t the right platform for complaints. An insurance company that offers a direct line through their Facebook or Twitter page is going to deliver a vastly superior brand experience to those that don’t. Take a look at what Best Buy has been doing in the last few years. Every company should be following in their footsteps.
My two cents. :D
On 10-09-09 8:32 PM, Jacoub Bondre wrote:
I have to disagree with the “already lost” comment. Granted agility is preferable. But as long as they respond within 1 business day, I’d say their fan base will accept it. It takes more than a couple of hours to investigate something like this. To Jon’s point, she could be lying.
Right now they seem to be ok. Brand stewards are defending them. They are welcoming criticism and are at least claiming to get in contact with the person that has the grievance. People are commenting on things other than this situation. Too early to tell, but if they follow this path they should be just fine.
Good learning though. We all should continue to watch with interest.
Sent from my iPhone
On 10-09-09 8:58 PM, Chris Eyerman wrote:
Agreed to an extent. Upon further examination it looks like they’ve actually been more responsive in recent posts. I’m still not completely sold they’ve dedicated the proper resources or infrastructure to handling situations like this via Facebook though. The ratio of comments to responses really seems disproportionate. Will be interesting to see how it plays out.
Think this might deserve to be a part 5 in your “How to Be Social” series – always be prepared for the mob.
On 10-09-09 9:02 PM, Jacob Karsemeyer wrote:
I think the problem is that even without the transparency of social media it’s really tough for insurance companies to be the “good guy.” It sounds like she made a claim and is being denied her compensation because the company has determined that she’s ineligible. If they solve the problem by making an exception because this lady has a great narrative to support her claim they give the impression that anyone with a sob story can get their rejected claims approved. Whether she’s lying or not, I think she’s made it clear why it’s particularly tough for this kind of business to navigate the same kind of branding that service or product-based industries can engage in. Sure, I’ll buddy up to my favourite beer on Facebook…but do I really want to digitally befriend my insurance company? Exterminator? Funeral home?
As those attending this month’s FITC Mobile conference will find out, story is king. It only stands to reason: if you’re running a mobile campaign, you have to make people care. Having a story to your campaign isn’t just important. It’s the make-or-break item on your list. And no one exemplifies that idea better than an organization named 826 National.
“We are an American based organization dedicated to giving students the individual focus they need in order to improve their literacy, writing and communications skills,” says Erin Archuleta, 826 National program & outreach coordinator. Through their free tutoring services in 7 locations, 826 has helped 22,000 kids across America migrate from Nickelodeon and PS3 addictions to understanding the power of telling their own stories.
“I don’t really focus in my house because there’s a TV and video games. I focus here because I have tutors that know a lot of stuff. When I’m done I can make a story,” says Khaled Hamdan, one of the 826 students.
Not only can Khaled make stories – he himself is a story.
Joan Kim, 826 NYC program coordinator, tells me that although Khaled is only going into grade 7 this fall, he’s already been published in 5 different books, and has written a mockumentary about superheroes that have gone by the wayside entitled “Super Has-Beens.”
The program is partially subsidized by sales in uniquely-themed retail fronts to the tutoring centres, like 826 Valencia’s Pirate Supply Store, or the Superhero Supply Co. at 826 NYC in Brooklyn, where you can try on a cape in the fabled “capery” and buy superhero-themed canned goods.
But other models of funding are clearly necessary. Enter 826 National’s Youth Advisory Board comprised entirely of the students and program staff. They designed a fundraiser for Youth Literacy Day, which serendipitously falls on 8/26.
“It was our first time doing this and we wanted to celebrate literacy and the art of storytelling while having fun,” says 826’s Erin Archuleta.
The fundraiser included a write-a-thon that lasted 8 hours and 26 minutes and – wait for it – also featured a mobile giving component.
Using the power of social media and their strong following, 826 National ran a grassroots campaign asking US cellphone users to text the word “WRITE” to 20222 to give $8.26.
The results? They Tweeted, Facebooked and blogged their way to more than $8260.00 in contributions. The campaign moved supporters to engage with the organization on a deeper level.
NGOs like 826 National need to use story as a means of attracting support and interest to their cause. And as the mobile marketing dance floor becomes more crowded, with an estimated 4 to 5 billion devices, organizations and companies are understandably interested in how to leverage the platform. But the trick is considering whether mobile is being used as an extension of a compelling story.
W. Glenn Griffin and Deborah Morrison are the authors of the new book, The Creative Process Illustrated: How Advertising’s Big Ideas Are Born.
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Where did the idea for “The Creative Process Illustrated” come from?
I [Glenn] wrote my doctoral dissertation about how advertising students develop their creative process in a couple of the leading programs. The results were intriguing and Deborah and I then started thinking about how to look at/learn about the creative process among professional creatives. We decided that asking people to visualize their own creative process for us would be both a fun and innovative way to learn about it. When we started receiving the first drawings, we knew we had something really cool – “data” that was very rich in insights but also very compelling for anyone to look at.
Whose creative process maps can we expect to see in the book?
There’s a broad spectrum represented – seasoned veterans, an advertising legend or two and some rising stars. We’re so honored to have David Kennedy (Co-Founder, Wieden+Kennedy), Kevin Roddy (Chief Creative Officer – BBH New York), Janet Kestin and Nancy Vonk (Co-Chief Creative Officers, Ogilvy Toronto), Luke Sullivan (Group Creative Director, GSD&M – Austin, TX and author of the classic Hey Whipple, Squeeze This) and Nancy Rice (Founding Partner, Fallon McElligott Rice – Minneapolis, MN) in the book, just to name a few.
How receptive were creatives to the challenge of illustrating their creative process?
We discuss this in the book, actually. It was funny because – at first – most everyone told us how exciting the project was and how fun it would be. But then we started hearing reports that this challenge was harder than most had expected. It was talking longer to do than most thought it would. We had to do a lot of reminding, prodding and (we’ll admit it) begging to get almost 80 drawings sent back to us (from a wish list of several hundred names). But it was so worth it. The collection is amazing and it was very tough to narrow it down to the 35 drawings you see in the book. But we know it wasn’t an easy assignment and we appreciate the people who took the time to wrestle with it.
Did you see a difference between the creative process of art directors versus writers?
You know, we thought we might see an “art director’s process” and a “copywriter’s process” emerge from this study, but that didn’t happen. That’s probably because of another lesson we learned: the idea is king. We see the journey towards that great idea being so much more important than the crafting of a headline or the design of a page to most of the folks who make advertising. The specific executional skills that distinguish the writer from the art director as job titles are really secondary to the discovery of big ideas, at least in the responses that we see in this book. Fascinating.
Do you have a favourite creative process map?
For us, that’s like picking favourite children! How do you do it? There’s a beautiful arc in the book between Andy Azula’s (The Martin Agency – Richmond, VA) lively and funny take on the process versus Kevin Roddy’s (BBH New York) beautifully simple (yet complex) statement about working through a problem. But really, we’re big fans of all of them.
Does a better understanding of the creative process lead to better work?
There’s lots of evidence here that it does, we think. We discuss the concept of metacognition in the book, the theory that we can leverage our own understanding of how we think and mentally supervise the achievement of cognitive goals. That theory’s been around for about 30 years now, but we think that creative directors, art directors and writers in advertising really exemplify this phenomenon. If you think about it, they have to know their own minds very well. They have to know how the machine works and how to make it produce. So, they probably pay a lot more attention to their own thinking patterns and preferences more than many of us do. It’s quite impressive to see.
How did the results of the book relate to your research on creativity?
Most of what you see in the book reinforces what we already knew in our “gut” about the way things work, but it offers that confirmation with such beautiful detail and humanity – in so many unexpected ways. We want to help push the scholarship on advertising creativity into new and even more interesting places, so to the extent that this book helps make that happen, we’ll be grateful. Advertising creativity is still relatively unexplored territory as far as research is concerned.
Are there lessons from the book for people outside of advertising?
Sure, we think so. In fact, we made a real effort to make this content accessible and interesting to students, professionals and anyone who just finds advertising fascinating for whatever reason. We hope that people outside the industry will gain a new appreciation for how intellectual this work can be and how amazing some of the people who do it really are. And we hope that the book will challenge everyone to appreciate their own creative ability and use it to fullest advantage in their careers, in everyday life – it makes everything better, doesn’t it?
For the last week, there’s been a thing in a parking lot near our office that resembles a large black pylon. It’s about 8 feet tall. Has an inscription on it. The other morning it was billowing smoke. I have no idea what it means, but I do know that it’s part of the campaign for Halo: Reach, the latest instalment in the super popular game series.
As someone in advertising, I question whether it’s self indulgent. Whether I’m just not getting it. Whether I ask myself too many questions.
But as an occasional gamer, I have to admit that it’s not doing its job. Large black smoking pylons don’t get me excited to play the game.
Halo: Reach hits stores in a couple of weeks and, per the Halo standard, there is an absolutely gargantuan advertising budget for it. The campaign—helmed by AKQA and AgencyTwoFifteen—is sprawling, immersive and detailed.
They have TV spots, outdoor installations (hey, a smoking black pylon!), online videos, and a tie-in with Doritos and Pepsi. But the big kahuna of the campaign is the robotic arm on RememberReach.com.
The robotic arm adds a point of light to a light sculpture. Not just any light sculpture, mind you, but a light sculpture that serves as a monument to the Spartan warriors.
Not being a Halo player, I don’t know whether light sculptures are a regular thing in that world. But in this world, they seem a bit ridiculous. Unless you’re into Lite-Brite.
The head-scratching doesn’t end there. RememberReach.com also features a bunch of live-action videos – soap opera-ish vignettes of everyday life before the alien craziness goes down. A husband and wife arguing, a mom going on a business trip, a girl letting go of her red balloon. (Damn, sounds like my weekend.)
I could forgive the melodrama if this were Alien 5: That’s Gotta Hurt! or something from the Gene Roddenberry franchise. But, Jiminy Cricket guys! This is a video game launch! Get me pumped to shoot stuff.
By reveling in the minutiae of the Halo world, they seem to be speaking only to those already immersed in it. Of course you want to speak to your core audience—preach to your own choir—but is there not a greater opportunity in reaching out to those who aren’t converted? When we work on a beer campaign, we’re not advertising to the guy who drinks it, we’re advertising to the guy who doesn’t.
I put it to you, advertisers or gamers, or none of the above: when does it make strategic sense to market almost exclusively to your existing fan base?
Good news for the Grip blog and its readers: We have a new editor.
Effective now-ish, the lovely and talented Leilah Ambrose will be taking over for me as Editor of Big Orange Slide. Leilah is a Senior Copywriter here at Grip. She has an infectious laugh, razor-sharp wit, and a pen that is mightier than any sword I know. We are in good hands. This transition also coincides with the blog’s first birthday (woot woot).
To mark the occasions, please allow me to ruminate on lessons learned in year one:
1) Start by failing.
This isn’t Grip’s first blog. You probably never heard of the first. It was called “Better Ideas.” And though it was originally slated to be an external blog, it never gained the momentum it needed to get off the ground. It did, however, provide a testing ground for what a Grip blog might be if it pulled up its socks. In the end, “Better Ideas” died to make way for an even better idea.
The lesson: Whether you’re throwing down bad ideas in a brainstorm or creating an ad campaign that’s doomed to mediocrity, failure is an important weigh station on the road to success.
2) Get some muscle.
Big ideas need support. Lots of it. For this blog, that support came in the form of one of Grip’s Partners, Dave Hamilton. He recognized the seed of a good idea. Got behind it. Assembled a team. And then gave it the muscle it needed to power through the rough patches of its inception.
The lesson: Teams are only as strong as their leader. Make sure you’ve got a good one.
3) Make it pretty.
There are more than 120 million blogs on the internet. And despite what the cynics say, a lot of them are good. So what makes this one extra-worth your time? For me, it’s the pictures. Grip’s Associate Partner, Creative, Colin Craig created its playful look and feel – and paired it with an arresting illustrative convention. Of this blog’s 197 posts to date, nearly all of them have been given their own wonderful little illustration. They add richness beyond measure.
The lesson: You can be as wicked smart as you want, but if you’re not presenting well you’ve already lost.
There are more lessons: Always write about StarCraft 2; Posts about Apple cause foaming at the mouth; Sometimes the people you least expect to be able to write are the best writers, and; Our industry is chock-full of witty, passionate, intelligent people.
For my part, I’m excited to see where this blog goes next. Upwards, no doubt. I’m also excited to have a bit more time in my schedule for writing on it. Stay tuned. And welcome Leilah.
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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.
elizabeth b. said
