The USP (evil) is dead, long live emotional engagement (good)

The revolution has started ladies and gentlemen. Well, it started many moons ago before I was even born but recently the marketing new thinkers have started to kill off old school thinking, approaches and frameworks. It's like the Rebel Alliance vs The Empire - the young free thinking liberals against the dark, structured orderly conservatives. Never before has the movement towards emotional engagement been so strong. We've just had the Sony trilogy - ending with Bunnies (which yes of course isn’t as good as ‘Balls’ or maybe ‘Paint’ – but the very fact that people are arguing about it is a sensation in itself). We’ve just had Cadbury Gorilla which everyone says has had its day and that it’s cliché to discuss. Far from it. It is a milestone in a new movement to change the creative format for which we work in. Then we have Sony Music Pieces (below).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0X3l7mZcfG0

A true gem and echoes Honda Cog. All of this great stuff, none of it selling you a rational reason to purchase with a clumsy USP rammed in there to keep a client happy. What it does do is creates a level of enjoyment, engagement and positive values, all attached to a logo, whether it be concious or subconsious. A far stronger lever towards a brand than any hard sell messaging will achieve. I think the faster we break down the rationale that all work must be based on a rational reason to buy the quicker we can start doing our jobs better.

Of course, there are exceptions to the emotional engagement trend, FMCGs you might argue must be based on USPs, how else will you shift medicine for example. Well, a very successful example is Andrex. It’s USPs are that it’s strong and long. So, what the hell has a puppy got to do with anything?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wn4rdTCedGU

But….it works, and Andrex now commands the greatest market share and share of mind in its sector. So you can apply the emotional leverage to FMCGs and it’ll work.

Now a bad example, one from the old school of thinking that is a dying out, British Airways

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUqNDisBi8c

A brand that you could really go to town with in terms of leveraging the engagement levels and based to a degree on a product truth (once upon a time). Now however we see a bunch of people walking around Sydney handing stuff out because……well……that’s what the lovely people of BA do and make you feel like you’ve upgraded. Firstly it’s a very poorly produced piece of film, secondly the idea is really lame and undifferentiating and thirdly it’s a promise that isn’t delivered by the customer experience - when I'm sat in economy being a lowly 'young' planner - I don't feel like I've upgraded at all, I feel like the sooner I can afford to fly with Emirates or Singapore Airways I will. Surely it would be a better job for the agency to advise BA on how to innovate itself before running off to create seriously vanilla advertising.

The above is surely a case to stay well away from such a clinical, structured and frame worked ways of working. We’re talking to human beings who don’t process in rational ways, don’t consume TV footage in rational ways and don’t buy in rational ways. If that’s the case why the hell are we trying to shove rational communication through the medium of TV? Surely that’s a job for online and print where people have actively flagged an interest in information (not that online and print shouldn’t be emotionally engaging - but is the perfect platform to elaborate on a brand image).

Apologies for the long winded and incoherent rant, I just feel that a few agencies have their finger firmly on the pulse right now by actively understanding how human beings work and have a fantastic creative talent. The combination fuses and creates what we’re seeing now which is a colourful revolution against functional and structured advertising.

Start thinking about which ads fall into which camp, it could be an interesting debate in your interviews.

Anton xx

How I'd Sell Coal To Eskimos..

Some of the good stuff

I'd show them a fistful of diamonds and a handful of coal. I'd tell them 'One day, all this coal will be just like this..". Then I'd fly away and never, ever visit them again.

BBH Deadline Extended To Monday 12 November

David Murray from BBH writes: Due to the fact that between 400-500 people tried to post their forms at the same time this evening, the BBH website had a little wobble about an hour or two ago.
In light of this, we have extended the application deadline to Monday 12th November.

And now...the time has come....and so I face...

So filling out countless application forms is now done, you’ve been knocked back a few times but you’ve managed to get through to the first round at one or a few of your chosen agencies. Firstly, you feel over orgasmic and then you feel a cold cloud of fear come over you as you try and work out what this interview will be like. To be honest, they’re all different but there are certain steps you can take to making it go much more smoothly than if you sit back and smoke a phat cigar contemplating your first gram of coke off the board room table – which are usually sticky surfaces anyway.

Preparation, preparation, preparation is your new mantra. Firstly it’s certainly a good idea to let your tutors know especially the head of your dept. For one think it’s a great brown nose tactic and makes you look like the kind of student who should get a good degree (it’s now in their interest you pass and go on to work at a prestigious ad agency as this will in turn reflect on their tutoring so you may find your grades being boosted somewhat) and secondly it could be invaluable to buy you some extra time with assignments etc to desk research, prepare and then attend the interview.

Now that’s out of the way you need to know what the fuck you’re talking about….clearly. You’ve more than likely researched the agency’s website in order to help your application but re-visit it…actually no….live it. Learn their reel off by heart, think of where the strategies have come from which some of our earlier posts will help with. Think of giving creative critique to some of their work which some of our earlier posts go over. Then start thinking about the competition to their clients, for example if Strongbow are doing X it may help to inform your opinion that Magners is doing z.

Read, read, read. You need to get up to speed with the current climate in the industry. Saturate yourself in Brand Republic, Campaign…and of course our blog..and maybe a few others. Buy some current advertising literature (certainly not the text books rammed to you from tutors) like Herd by Mark Earls or The Brand Innovation Manifesto by John Grant. Start forming views, if you feel digital is just another medium and not God’s gift to marketing then fine, but have a well structured, intellectual and business orientated support as to why.

Also, chill the fuck out. Whilst being nervous is a great natural drug it can also cripple you. This should be exciting not terrifying and at the end of the day it’s not a job at NASA, it’s a job to work at selling stuff…it’s more than that obviously but put it into perspective.

Other tips when in an interview – drink water, keep eye contact, smile and laugh (but not in a scary way), be smart both in your rapport and in your dress (Will likes to wear ties I think they are horrible nooses – whatever you’re comfortable in), polish your shoes, show your sense of humour (this is advertising not banking), don’t name drop unless prompted and steal stationary.

Questions you should have answers to before you walk in:

So why advertising?

What is the most iconic thing in the world and why?

What advertising do you admire and why?

What is the future for TV?

What is the future of digital?

Take this ad and sell it to me
(you can prepare a selling structure based on an earlier post on creative critique)

What is a brand?

A client has said they want to pull the account, how would you save it?
(this is an example of lateral thinking questions they’ll ask you)

Etc etc

We’ll post more on interviews moving forward but the above should help as start. Good luck

Anton

p.s. There has been mentions to us about the possibility of writing a book, the next text in how to get into advertising. You're our audience so what do you think? Would it be worthwhile or do we remain as a blog? What would you prefer to see more of or less of? All your feedback is much appreciated

xx

The Form Of Forms

Just a reminder to everyone that this week is pretty busy application deadline-wise. JWT's deadline is in the morrow (Wednesday the 7th), with M&C, AMV, BBH and DLKW all due on Friday the 9th (DLKW by noon that day) - perfectly arranged so you can mosy on down to The Green Man on Berwick Street in the evening for some AdGrads themed catharsis.

Links to applications are in the sidebar. Get them in!

And part 2 of Diary of An Applicant is live on AdGrads Brand Republic, it's from someone we'll call Bernard who's very kindly contributed some thoughts on his experiences so far. As always, email me if you want to write for future editions.

Peace out...

Sam

The Sausage Not the Sizzle

Advanced apologies regarding the analogy, I’ll explain. I’ve recently just come out of what can only be described as one of the most enlightening meetings with a planning mentor.

We tend to discuss advertising (well I do) here on blogs in very conceptual, consumer interacting ways which is obviously the sexy part of advertising theory and debate. I indulge in this past time a lot and I worryingly force those not in the advertising industry to engage in such debates also (which isn’t always the best way to make friends). However, I was stopped in my tracks today and asked to in a very thorough and logical way to express my understanding on how certain campaigns came to the fruition. So I started using a VW example which is the new print executions about their new fold down roof and the way it works with the consumer, visually it……. No no no Anton, what did the agency actually do to get there?

I think when discussing advertising it’s very easy for us to get lost in the sizzle, by that I mean how the ad looks, how it sounds, how it is reacted to. When really this should maybe become a luxury conversation that comes after we’ve been credited with discussing the sausage by providing a solid and practical discussion on how the strategy was arrived at, translated into a brief and then passed on to creatives. Was this a brutal and simple USP or product benefit that when tested on audiences, responded well to and as a result developed into a strategy i.e. a sports car with greater leg room for passengers for greater comfort. Was there an insight discovered about how the product was used which was then crucial to building a creative strategy and how was it discovered i.e. how people consume Cadbury Cream Eggs and practical research techniques into the phenomenon on how it is physically consumed hence ‘How do you do it’.

I dissed rigid strategic frameworks but at the same time celebrated their importance in previous posts which I can understand must seem confusing. What I was trying to express is that arriving at a strategy can’t be the same in every instance…which is obvious, obviously, hence we can’t apply the same way of arriving at a strategy every time you are tasked with writing a creative brief. A different brand and product will require a different methodology in getting there. So maybe to build the really important part of a career in advertising is to understand and discuss the very beginning of advertising strategy and think about the practical ways the agency got to that pretty picture – sales and market data, consumer habits, well structured research groups, factory visits, interviews with industrial opinion leaders and product designers - all the really important steps that were taken to get there. In some cases I said that some advertising was created off the back of a strategy ‘make it look cool’, and quoted ipod. Whilst I still believe that to be true I’d like to note that the luxury of such instances are rarer than a blue steak and can’t be a rule of thumb.

Ramble over, just a thought or a critique of oneself.

Anton xx

Diary of An Applicant..

..is now live on AdGrads Brand Republic.

Check it out here.

Thanks to all who have contributed so far, I'm working on future entries in betwix studying. And if you're interested in contributing, fire me an email.