Message from paradise...

show vs. tell

It's pretty ironic that a brand like Apple who's supposedly all about "discovery" keeps telling consumers about all the freakin' iPhone apps out there. These seemingly ubiquitous full page ads in every major newspaper and magazine have grown increasingly tiresome.

 

Rather than being told, "there's an app for that," don't you think it would be far more intriguing to get people discovering for themselves and asking the (rhetorical) question, "wow, there's an app for that?"

FINALLY, I noticed a marketer doing just this - Miller Lite. Their current tv spots show a scene in a crowded bar and a guy holding up his Miller Lite Beer Time! app ordering beers without having to screen across the bar. Useful? Check. Clever? Check. Kinda cool to "discover" the app without being told? Finally.

uh....could you do me a favor?

Sticky Fingers was #63 on Rolling Stone magazine's 500 greatest albums of all time.

The part of the story behind the album that I love the most is how Mick  got Andy Warhol to design the album cover.

1.) take your time (it took almost 2 years), and

2.) name your price (no clue what he charged).

The result? VH1 named Sticky Fingers the "No. 1 Greatest Album Cover" of all time. Now, if more clients would tell their agencies to take all the time in the world and money's no object, don't you think there'd be more game-changing campaigns out there?

feel good about spending again

in the last 24 hours, I've seen two examples of marketers urging consumers to "do the right thing - spend money." when you spend money, you drive our economy, businesses can pay wages and employees can also spend more money. in many ways, it's a twist on the "buy American" movement several years ago.

the first thing to hit my inbox was this video encouraging people to eat out again. hey, who doesn't want to avoid cooking at home these days and indulge in an evening out? it'll make you feel better! really smart angle for the dining category to appeal in this manner.

 

and then I got this e-mail today from an outdoors retailer in Arizona pointing out that buying online is bad, buying locally is good.

the hard-working shrimpers in the Southeastern US, through Wild American Shrimp, have been pointing out to locals for years that they have a choice - buy imported shrimp and send the money overseas, or keep the dollars at home. I'll wager that more and more marketers are going to pick up on this American optimism for the holiday shopping season and encourage us all to spread the wealth around - as long as we're keeping the greenbacks close to home.

in the public we trust

several years ago when I worked on Jack Daniel's, one my clients used to say that no one in the marketing department oversaw the brand. rather, it was a "public trust" and his job was to simply try to guide the discussions out there in the world about the brand.

that was years before social media was around, yet even with the explosion of social media in the last few years....how many other brands can you say have wholeheartedly embraced the notion that the brand is no longer run by marketing departments?

one of my colleagues (thanks, Jeff) turned me on to the new Hyundai campaign today and this is such a great example of someone simply trying to guide the brand discussion vs. trying to manhandle it the old-fashioned way. yes, they introduced the  Hyundai Assurance program back in January and it absolutely revolutionized the industry. Hyundai is now challenging Toyota and GM for more and more market share in the US, posting double digit growth along the way.

But they haven't forgotten that consumers still do a lot of research prior to pulling the trigger. their latest initiative, Hyundai Momentum, is simply amazing. Talk about turning over your brand to the masses! It's a game-changing move, confident, intelligent.....I wish more companies had their vision.

making $700 million pay off

do you know who these people are?

 

The gentleman on the left is Mikhail Prokhorov, the Russian tycoon who recently paid $700 million to buy the New Jersey Nets.

The guy on the right is Brook Lopez, the "star" of the Nets, their best player.....the guy that Prokhorov thinks is worth an hourly rate of $25,000.

Yes for a mere hard-earned $25,000, you, too, can realize your lifelong dream of having Brook Lopez (or another Nets player) attend your kid's birthday party. The Nets announced their "Ticket to a Player"program this week, clearly ahead of the curve of any economic recovery in the US.

If this were the Cleveland Cavaliers  or LA Lakers, I could sorta understand the appeal of pimpin' Kobe or LeBron. But.....Brook Lopez? OK, the guy makes over $2 million a year and went to Stanford, so perhaps he'd be a great motivational speaker for kids (e.g. "stay in school and see what you can achieve"). But, for some reason I don't think Prokhorov had altruistic motivations. The Nets announced their business goal of selling 20 of these packages and raising $500K. Given they can't sell out a home game, this is one way to start making back the $700 million investment, eh?

it's like 1994, like, all over again.....

I was standing in line at Dunkin' this morning and overheard a pair of TwentySomethings in front of me saying, "I saw this great movie on HBO last night - 'Reality Bites' - and it spoke to me. I mean, like, we're a disillusioned generation just like old people who were living in the early 90's."

Reality Bites - DVD Trailer | Movies & TV | SPIKE.com

Well, aside from the dagger through my heart at being referenced as "old," I was struck by the  mention of disillusionment. Yeah, things sucked back in the early 90's but there was a prevalent sentiment of "I don't give a fuck" among my friends back then. Not the "gosh, I don't see any hope" feeling among recent college grads today.

So what was so different back in 1994?

I'd call 1994 vs. 2009 a wash, eh?

making the USPS relevant again

we've all read about the impending demise of the US Postal Service. with e-mail, video chats and real-time conferencing, who needs to use the old-fashioned mail system anymore? and if you're like me, you loathe all the worthless junkmail clogging the mailbox every week.

what if the USPS set up an online system whereby every home had a unique e-mail address (YourAddress@usps.gov) and you could customize your preferences and provide as much/little personal information as you wanted and the USPS could turn around and manage the coupons, promotions and offers that arrived in your inbox? marketers would be thrilled, right? they'd have your demo, geo and personal profile at their disposal to segment tighter than ever before. we'd all be tickled to have more customized offers that weren't junk, plus we woudn't feel violated every time a different marketer aked us for our personal information. and the USPS would have a relevant role in our lives again.

win-win-win.

thank you, sir. may I have another?!

this pretty much sums up client-agency relationships these days.

it's so cliched to blame/fire an ad agency because a brand's sales are tanking. case in point - Cadillac. last Friday morning, they canned Modernista, blaming them for inability to attract today's luxury car buyer.

really?

last I checked, Modernista breathed new life into an otherwise moribund brand with catchy, clever, sexy work like this...

"when you turn the car on, does it return the favor?" was provocative and emotionally stirring despite the fact that the car itself was....eh, so-so design. Modernista provided Cadillac with contemporary personality, made them relevant again.

and for that, they got fired.

if GM really wanted to turn around their brand they wouldn't fire the agency that was helping them. they'd take a long, hard look in the mirror and evaluate their marketing team. maybe actually DO something like the Fiat chairman did 2 weeks back when he canned the marketing heads at Chrysler. but for the love of Christ, people, stop placing all the blame on agencies.

kick-starting the travel industry

we need a return to 1968 to kick start the travel industry.

1968?

in that year, Congress passed the Monday Holiday Law making Columbus Day, Veterans' Day, Washington's Birthday and Memorial Day all Monday national holidays....effectively creating the 3-day weekend.

Over the last 40 years, though, our culture has created enormous guilt in taking time off. Think about the last time you scooted out on vacation - how much guilt did you feel about taking your hard-earned vacation days? As a result, Verterans' Day, Columbus Day, Washington's Birthday (now Presidents' Day)....no one gives employees those days off anymore (except the government). What a travesty!

So I say to you, my friends, take a stand! Take this coming Monday off, recognize Columbus Day and celebrate the discovery of America! Invite friends over and mix fruity drinks called the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria! And next year, get back to taking 3-day weekends. The travel industry will thank you.

(Chris Columbus)

stress

I asked folks to give me their opinions about the stress levels associated with various purchases earlier this week. not surprisingly, home purchase ranks near the top of hand-wringing events in our lives. I'd surmise that the associated cash outlay is the primary driver.

home renovations, though, were most frequently cited as the "most stressful ever." given the uncertainty in the world today, who needs to undertake such an uncertain endeavor?! I can speak from first-hand experience. when we began the journey last year of re-doing a bathroom, it became 2 bathrooms.....and new hard-wood floors and new support beams and....... every time the contractor tore out something, there was something else that went wrong. my favorite "discovery" was finding an empty can of Schlitz embedded in an old bathroom wall. no kidding.

 

what was surprising, though, was the frequency of flip-flopping people admit to when it comes to buying business suits, flat-screen televisions and.....bathing suits. they're all fashion purchases, outward symbols of ourselves.

and then there were the "walks in the park," those purchases that apparently created zero anxiety - the wedding reception band and 1st anniversary dinners. my take? the "difficult" part of those equations were already taken care of (i.e. pulling the trigger and getting married in the first place). hey, if you screw up the anniversary, no big deal.....she's stuck with me.

truth be told, my top 6 all-time most stressful purchases......

6. recent cell phone (I debated Blackberry vs. iPhone for weeks)

5. baby stroller (who freakin' knew how many options there were out there?!)

4. life insurance policy (would I pass the medical exam to get the coverage I wanted at the premium I was able to afford?)

3. grad school (a Stafford loan + 2 years without a salary....jeez)

2. new car for my wife just before our daughter was born (yes.....we got a Volvo)

1. first Christmas gift for my father-in-law (would he regret having me in the family??) I wound up going with a bottle of scotch.....good scotch.