Seriously?

Really. Bad. Adserving.

Girl’s Night Out Evite template.

Weight Watchers for Men ad served.

This calls for a makegood.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Opportunity?

As Tiger Woods stands poised to return to golf at this year’s Masters, there’s a lot of discussion about whether he can return to any semblance of his prior standing as God’s gift to celebrity spokesmanship. I’ve been thinking today about how his re-emergence could potentially be a huge opportunity for a forward-thinking brand.

For instance, there could be a pretty straight connection between Tiger and brands that stand for taking control of your future. Or brands whose principles include humility, forgiveness, or personal strength. And these are just the obvious, top-of-mind alignments. 

Just imagine a brand maximizing the power of this type of aligned message through a partnership with the “new” Tiger Woods. Done right this allows a brand to take the lead on showing respectful empathy for a man who many US consumers want to like again but don‘t feel like they should. Giving them a way back in, acknowledging he’s not perfect but that he’s still great and that he’ll only be better and stronger for this trial, could create or improve a brand’s standing with a huge potential consumer base.

And just imagine the earned media that would come with signing Tiger to his first major sponsorship deal post-scandal. 

All that said it could totally backfire. Whether Tiger is truly reformed and whether his game will have suffered for his lack of focus since November remains to be seen. He may be neither the man nor the athlete we want him to be. But my two pennies are that an opportunity may very well exist and brands need to thinking right now about how they might capitalize on it.

Digital.

There’s been a lot of debate lately about the effect digital will have on branding.  Will digital change the science of branding as we know it?  Can the same principles apply?

The thing that keeps catching my attention however is the underlying confusion about what digital even is.  Is it a medium?  Is it a channel?  Or is it just this black box with magical powers to make or break your brand?

It seems to me that before you can enter a debate on how best to brand in digital, you better figure out what digital is.  As recently as yesterday I was talking with a colleague and referring to digital as a channel.  But I’ve had a change of heart and in perspective. I think that calling digital a channel is our first mistake.  Digital is a spectrum.  In fact it’s a full-on universe.

Bear with me. This will all make sense in a moment. Or it won’t. But take a ride with me.

You and I grew up in the traditional universe – let’s call this the in-person universe. Dialogue took place in-person. Transactions took place in-person. Friendships were formed in-person. Marketers first reached us in-person. Signs at point-of-sale, ads in newspapers.

And then the airwaves were discovered and marketers could reach out to us from the great unknown – via radio, and then via TV. The advent of the telephone allowed us to be connected one-on-one at a distance.

Fast-forward to now. There is a whole new set of airwaves. We can’t see the poles and wires that connect us in this virtual space but yet here we are, more connected than ever, in real-time.

Remember Second Life? Remember how we were both intrigued but also somewhat saddened by the idea of people wanting to live a totally different life in the virtual world? Well Second Life may have been the extreme but the truth is we don’t need some fancy, avatar-filled universe to bring us to life online. We’re already there. And it’s no game. The evolution of our digital selves is real – it’s just that a whole lot of us consumers haven’t quite realized it and a whole lot of us marketers still haven’t quite figured out how to harness it.

Case in point. If you have an email address you have the outline of your digital footprint. And for the most part this is not a passive existence. People interact in this universe, they transact in this universe. And almost everything they do here they do differently than they do offline.

Why? Because we as companies know more about our consumer’s digital selves. We have more information about them. And therefore we provide them with an experience that is almost automatically more customized. And it’s 24-7. And it’s almost always more on their terms than ours.

So how do we harness this universe? And, to get back to the “burning” question of the day, how do we brand there?

Well, you’ll be a step ahead if you let go of the notion of digital as channel.  Re-ground yourself in the idea that digital is the second universe that your brand has to live in. And familiarize yourself with the channels in that universe just like you did with the ones in the universe you grew up in. Banner ads are billboards on the (oh lord) information superhighway. Social media platforms are the high school cafeteria, the airport bar and the yearbook. Websites are the newspapers and televisions and coffee-houses. You get where I’m going.

So get acquainted with your surroundings. And then do what you do best. Get to an idea that delivers on your brand and business insights, understand who your target audience is AND how they behave in the digital and traditional worlds, and then choose from the channels available in each to best deliver your message to them.

And that’s my two pennies.

Good work.

So I’m kind of a sucker for poignant creative.  And the P&G Olympics spot certainly was poignant.

But you know what I’m really a sucker for?  Brilliant business strategy.

Clearly P&G is making a play to increase usage of its family of brands via appealing to loyalists of its individual brands.  Trying to inject meaning into the name “Proctor and Gamble” among an audience that has never known it yet has likely purchased many its products over the year is no small feat.  And they certainly did a nice job with the spot below, aligning P&G with moms, who certainly do the bulk of packaged good buying.

But if you’re questioning my “brilliant business strategy” comment, hang tight because here it comes.  Driving in my car during the Olympics, having just seen the spot in the opening ceremonies, I hear a commercial for my local drugstore.  It’s a typical :60 for the drugstore chain but it was the tag that caught my attention.  It offered a cash gift card earned simply by purchasing 10 P&G products.

Now the radio spot was not a P&G branded spot.  It had no connection to the Olympic spot I had seen, no mention of moms.  But it made the strategy clear – first we’ll tell you that we actually own all these brands you buy or consider buying everyday and then we’ll incentivize you to actually buy them. 

Taking an idea and executing it at every level, beyond the  TV, the print, and the campaign website to a generic retail mechanism, recognizing that it’s the idea, not the creative execution, that makes it all work.  Simple.  Brilliant.  Effective. 

Love the strategy.  Love the execution.  And love the little kid shaving in the spot - that kills me every time.

Just my two pennies.

Just Cause.

With the humanitarian crisis of both Haiti and now Chile so fresh in our minds, and the mad rush of companies aligning themselves with charitable organizations to ensure that the public knows they to care, and care deeply, I have started to wonder about cause marketing and whether it is now another “channel” that we should be considering when we put together plan recommendations for our clients.

Is cause marketing the new social media? And if so, is it going to be the next agency service we are all scrambling to offer?

Think about it. Cause marketing has the dual benefit of making your brand look compassionate and relevant while also getting you, well, you guessed it, PR. And cause marketing quickly goes viral, so it has the ability to exponentially stir up brand awareness and involvement.

If done right.

Too many brands will jump on the bandwagon of cause marketing the same way they rushed into social media – because it’s cool, because their competitors are doing it, because someone they admire was successful.

But as with any new channel, any foray into cause marketing needs to be assessed for how it aligns with your brand positioning and values. Look, it’s great if you want to use your brand to support relief efforts in Haiti and Chile. But don’t expect to get some major lift in awareness or brand perception – you’re on a crowded stage with a whole lot of other folks that realize in this instance it’s more about avoiding the negative of not supporting the popular cause than getting the shine for being behind it.

But I go back to this question – should we be considering causes as another channel?

Truth is, we’ve been suggesting aligned partnerships for a long time. Who hasn’t been in a meeting when someone has said “wouldn’t it be perfect if X brand teamed up with Y brand – the synergy is so great.” Granted we’re usually talking about pairing a beverage brand with a snack brand, or a beauty brand with an entertainment brand.

But there are agencies out there whose sole purpose is to match companies with a social raison d’être and then manage the partnership to be mutually beneficial to said cause and said brand. The question I have is why causes aren’t in our consideration set from the outset, just like every other channel we consider.

Now, some companies come with a cause already built-in. McDonald’s has Ronald McDonald House Charities. Microsoft has the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (which pretty much means they can support every charity under the sun and still have some left over). But what about the many companies that do not come preset with a particular social cause?

As keepers of our clients’ brands, and often as the group that sets the brand strategy, aren’t we well-suited to help them find a cause that aligns to their target audience and stays true to their brand? So why aren’t we thinking about that too?

The answer is simple – cause marketing tends to be an afterthought. We jump on the bandwagon when it’s convenient or because it’s situationally correct (i.e. after a serious PR snafu). But proactively go after a cause-based partnership? Who has the time or money, especially when these are efforts that don’t have a short-term sales effect?

But here’s the argument for why causes should be a channel for consideration on every plan. Although budgets are tighter and tighter every day we are constantly balancing the need for short-term sales effect with longer term branding to create loyalty and repeat purchase. Just like any other partnership, alignment with a cause that complements your brand strategy and identity can have a long-term positive effect for brand perception, which in turn can affect purchase behavior and loyalty.

Now look, I’m not suggesting brands run out and jump on the cause bandwagon without some serious thought. Insincerity in this realm will completely undermine your credibility – think of the backlash that would ensue if a cigarette brand all of a sudden decided to try and partner with the American Cancer Society. But if you can find a cause that reflects the truth of your brand and the will of your target audience – Trojan condoms and Planned Parenthood perhaps – then maybe it’s worth some consideration.

But do it because it’s right, because it’s something you believe in, because it’s something your customers believe in. Don’t do it because everyone else is. Or because you think you have to. Because we’ll all know. And we won’t buy it. Or you.

As always, that’s just my two pennies. Which I’ll be donating to a good cause.

Cheater.

Well, I did it.  I committed blog adultery.  And I’ll do it again.  Check out my new monthly column for Media Post’s Travel: Marketing blog.  Round 2 publishes on March 22.

http://tinyurl.com/ycxrovm

Profiling Gone Wrong. Unforgivably Wrong.

Really, AARP?  Unless you are starting a waiting list (a VERY advance waiting list), it might be time to review your DM lists.  Average age in my neighborhood?  Early 30s.

Just my two (not 50 year old) pennies.

Move. Dammit.

I came upon a great article on NYTimes.com today and wanted to share it.  It covers a subject that is close to my heart – women and athletics.  I actually wrote my college thesis on the evolution of the female athletic experience, and I continue to believe that participation in sports, anywhere on the spectrum from serious athlete to serious fan and everywhere in between, adds texture to life whether you’re a boy or a girl.  Check out the article here…

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/15/as-girls-become-women-sports-pay-dividends/?em

I also encourage everyone to look into ways to reintroduce actual physical activity into our childrens’ lives.  Atari was no match for kickball with the kids in my neighborhood but these days most kids are too busy texting, emailing, Facebooking, Twittering and gaming to start a game of four-square or HORSE.  Kudos to the NFL for its Play 60 program and to the new Let’s Move initiative sponsored by Michelle Obama and a host of others to encouraging a return to physical play.  Check them out here:

http://letsmove.gov/

http://www.nflrush.com/play60/parents

Thanks for indulging me on this one.  Since I’m not a parent and haven’t been anything I would consider athletic in years this is one place where my two pennies probably should be, well, just mine.

Fail forward.

Last night a colleague of mine told me about a panel she recently attended and how one of the panelists, a female executive, was talking about the difference between men and women leaders in the workplace.  One quote stuck with my colleague and she shared it with me.  The panelist mentioned that one big difference she has seen is how men have an amazing ability to “fail forward.”

Now I have zero interest in getting into a gender debate on how men and women deal with failure in the business world (or any other place).  But the concept of “failing forward” absolutely intrigues me and I think it’s a lesson that we can apply spectacularly in our business.

Because let’s face it.  We fail.  A lot.  How many creative concepts don’t make it past the first client review?  How many RFP responses, 100+ staff hours in the making, don’t make the cut? 

Dwelling in failure is a waste of time.  The smart agencies have already figured out how to fail forward.  Yes, our work is specific to each client.  But we all know that key insights and research done for one client will likely have some shared value across any client in that category.  So whether it was a new business RFP or a great creative idea, if it doesn’t work for that client, why not look at how it can be tweaked and repackaged and shared with another?  You’ve done the work, your client didn’t buy it, so why not find a way to get value out of it elsewhere?

[Insert necessary Account Person caveat here] Clearly, I’m not recommending you take anything proprietary and share it.  But category research is category research and category insights are category insights.  You came up with a great idea for the financial services category?  It probably has merit across multiple brands.  Take that idea, strip out the brand specifics from Client A, add in brand specifics for Client B, C and D and take that idea on a road show.  A good idea will sell.  And you, my friend, will have just failed forward.

As always that’s just my two pennies.