Thursday, 27 September 2007
Idea Thinking...
Rightyho. As promised in the last post, I thought I'd help by attempting to explain the difference between three notions of what an 'idea' is. Anyone who is reading this and wants to disagree, feel free - some of them are open to debate.
1) Executional Ideas
This one should be relatively straightforward. Basically, it's a one-off ad, which builds upon the overall campaign message. So say one of the BT ads with Kris Marshall does something different (say they meet his step-kids father, and the ad advertises new technology), it can be seen to be an executional idea.
Now, this can all be critiqued if the executional idea doesn't seem to fit into a brand line of thinking - say the ad had no resemblence to the ad before it, and jarred with the previous executions/campaigns. Now, if you wanted to criticise a piece of work in your interview/application form, I'd suggest stating that you thought the ad was 'just an executional idea' - that is, it's a one off which jars with any strategic thinking/campaign thoughts of previous work.
In theory, every new ad is an executional idea to an extent, so it needn't be a criticism. But it's a useful piece of terminology to pull out in an interview (particularly if you are interviewed by a planner - they love that stuff, for the most part). Of course, you'll have to explain why..
2) Campaign Ideas
A campaign idea then...I see campaign ideas as being longer term than an executional idea (natch), but not necessarily the full blown 'this is our longest term strategy, which will go on for 20+ years'. Most strategies fall into this category, especially with the quick turn over of new technologies/marketing directors/pricing plans (although work for the latter can just be simply an executional idea - it depends on the range of ads).
This is not to say that they aren't worthwhile, and bloody successful. Often, a really good piece of thinking/planning/creative on a Campaign idea will go on to form the basis of a brand idea - say 'Have a Break, Have a Kit-Kat' - giving people a reason to eat Kit-Kats by making it a little reward for their hard work. It may have once been a short term campaign thought to boost sales, but over time, it has become their big brand idea. (No, I wasn't about in 1957 when they thought it up, so I really don't know for sure).
A modern day example could be, ooh, the majority of ads out there - just be sure you know WHY it's a campaign idea and not an overall brand idea, otherwise you could be left open in interview.
3) Brand Ideas
The legendary ideas. Those that shape a company's thinking for the next 20, 30 or 40 years. Examples of this could be the Avis work 'We're Number 2, so we try harder', which has been running since 1962, the Economist print work from AMV BBDO and Guinness's transition from being 'Good for You' to making a virtue of the product taking a long time to pour, and how this impacts on things being worth waiting for - a genius bit of thinking.
Now, the industry is obsessed with 'big brand ideas', and the above three, I think it's safe to say, are examples of them. They are great and (usually) long lasting because they provide a new way of viewing the product, maybe turning a negative into a positive, but always, always reframing how we see things.
And, of course, they allow agencies to keep ahold of clients for a very long time. Which is great.
Essentially, if you start to talk about any big brand ideas, or any ads, be aware that if you can suss out the 'idea behind the ad', as cliched as that sounds, you'll do very well. It's very easy to say that you like Sony Balls because it's a fantastic piece of film; but what about the overriding message? Have you begun to decode what 'Like No Other' is implying, and how it may well become a great brand idea.
That said, when it comes to talking about other people's ideas, pick one which is likely to be a bit more original - EVERYONE will talk about Sony Balls, Gorilla, Skoda Cake or Citroen's Robot. Be smart, and pick something which isn't obvious - what about the new Brylcreem work? And by all means, say there are bits you don't like/understand etc, if needs be. How you respond initially is every bit as important as deciding which of the three categories the ad fits into - after all, you are viewing it as a potential consumer, and not a planner (yet..).
And for goodness sake, don't mindlessly slag off the ideas at the agency you are interviewing at. You can say you didn't understand things/don't agree with this and that, but be prepared to back it up - and realise that a lot of bad ads come about from poor agency/client relations; there will be a lot going on behind the work that you don't know about - politics and so forth. So be careful..
Wednesday, 26 September 2007
The Real Planning School of The Web Part 2: What is a consumer insight?
Okay, let's use some useful terminology which will get you into a higher level of conversation in your interviews rather than discussing some trivial definitions of marketing and advertising speak.
The first definition we’ll cover is Consumer Insight. Yup, I’m sighing while writing it as it’s really quite basic so apologies for wasting your time with this one. However, understanding the thorough meaning of a Consumer Insight is key to getting into planning …and then writing briefs….and then briefing creatives…..and then writing APG Creative Award papers. What’s more is that people tend to define a Consumer Insight as an observation.
The first definition we’ll cover is Consumer Insight. Yup, I’m sighing while writing it as it’s really quite basic so apologies for wasting your time with this one. However, understanding the thorough meaning of a Consumer Insight is key to getting into planning …and then writing briefs….and then briefing creatives…..and then writing APG Creative Award papers. What’s more is that people tend to define a Consumer Insight as an observation.
This is wrong wrong wrong….kind of.
So, a Consumer Insight is a brutal truth of how a human behaves, interacts or responds to a product, brand, task or object. Therefore a Consumer Insight could be that joggers like listening to music when out running because it motivates their pace (hence the Nike ipod), or that people didn’t try Dr Pepper simply because they were complacent to give it a go and always chose their default can of Coca Cola or Pepsi (hence ‘Dr Pepper what’s the worst that can happen?’) or that when calling your bank you become quite pissed off because a) you can’t speak to someone in the UK and your call is being handled in a cheaper call centre based in India and that b) your bank has no sense of close customer relationship and you therefore you feel negative towards it (hence NatWest mocking the management of banks who make selfish decisions).
How is that different to an observation? Well, an observation can be misleading simply because it’s only observing WHAT a person does. A Consumer Insight is a conclusion based on WHAT someone does and then WHY they do it. That’s it. It’s not rocket science or anything and is almost so trivial it’s not worth writing about, but it’s the kind of question you’ll get in an interview:
Q. “What would you say was the consumer insight in the Cadbury’s Gorilla ad?”
A. I would say the consumer insight is based upon the fact that when people eat a bar of Cadbury’s Dairy Milk they feel overwhelmed with pleasure, joy, freedom (from behaving with a diet etc) and that was dramatised by the total random but enjoyable visual/audio ‘feast’ that is the Gorilla ad
Q. “What would you say is the difference between an observation and a consumer insight?”
A. An observationwould be that I have observed that you are using a gold plated moleskin notepad to take notes in my interview. A consumer insight would be that I have observed (WHAT) you are using a gold plated moleskin and have the insight (WHY) that you are totally insecure with your position, status and therefore ability in your role and therefore use what is essentially a wanky pad to give off an air of false achievement in the dire hope someone will think you're paid relatively well to afford such a pointless luxury - that or your parents bought you it and are therefore a spoilt bitch helping to explain your lack of personality due to the middle class cotton wool existence that is your world.
I’ll hire anyone who has the balls to say that or something along those lines in an interview.
Anyway, these are the kind of things that will come up and therefore I thought it important you know some definitions in order to converse fully about them.
Hope that helps
Anton xx
Tuesday, 25 September 2007
The Rebel Sell
Has anyone read this book before?t’s not particularly ground breaking however it’s a great account of the history of how rebellion has become fashionable and I recommend you get a copy as some of the points made can get you into some quite interesting arguments with the trustafarians of this world.
Anyway, the reason for making note of it is because I’ve started to notice that this fashionable or stylish kind of rebellion is becoming more and more apparent. If a brand does it then they become a ‘challenger brand’ such as Apple vs IBM and achieve instant credentials for sticking it to the system. If someone does it at work they are heralded for being an innovator, a successful rogue trader or not being afraid to challenge the set structure.
Having said that, there are quite strict boundaries to rebellion that sells or is considered fashionable or stylish (essentially if you’re just a pure cocky c*nt you’ll run into trouble – I have this problem you see, but reversely there are those who I think are cocky c*unts so it’s the circle of life really, just don’t be stupidly arrogant).
What seems apparent is that in order for this kind of rebellion to be considered quite acceptable is that it must be fighting for a clear benefit (e.g. to provide an alternative product to a megalomaniac monopoly) Essentially there is no revelation in the theory of revolution/rebellion that has changed (see very basic chart below).
Anyway, the reason for making note of it is because I’ve started to notice that this fashionable or stylish kind of rebellion is becoming more and more apparent. If a brand does it then they become a ‘challenger brand’ such as Apple vs IBM and achieve instant credentials for sticking it to the system. If someone does it at work they are heralded for being an innovator, a successful rogue trader or not being afraid to challenge the set structure.
Having said that, there are quite strict boundaries to rebellion that sells or is considered fashionable or stylish (essentially if you’re just a pure cocky c*nt you’ll run into trouble – I have this problem you see, but reversely there are those who I think are cocky c*unts so it’s the circle of life really, just don’t be stupidly arrogant).
What seems apparent is that in order for this kind of rebellion to be considered quite acceptable is that it must be fighting for a clear benefit (e.g. to provide an alternative product to a megalomaniac monopoly) Essentially there is no revelation in the theory of revolution/rebellion that has changed (see very basic chart below).
But what has changed is the attraction in how we consume products that gain kudos from such soft rebellion or people who strive to evolve current systems via soft revolution and where successful clearly gain respect.
This truly is one of my long winded points…and I shall endeavour to make it somehow relevant. When entering into your career in advertising you are not there to simply tow a line and play by someone else’s book, you can but you’ll end up like much ad agency grey matter. This is a creative based industry that is meant to keep up with how humans behave, interact with the world around them and understand what levers to pull them on …….like humans there are no set way of doing things. Now don’t take that as a green light to cave the face in of the first snot nosed Account Director who asks you to photocopy their tedious documents or challenge a creative director because you think he’s a coke fiend with less creativity than a retarded newt. Play the game, keep focused, remain hard working, pick fights wisely but don’t be afraid to challenge the norms and the established if you see a benefit for the ‘work’ in it – just like the brands which people love for their revolutionary nature…….and don’t network too much….it’s for cun…..
Anton xxx
Monday, 24 September 2007
Star Stories: Eaon Pritchard
Our sixth star story comes courtesy of Eaon Pritchard, a creative at Weapon7, an interactive ad agency, which has done some very interesting work for Xbox and Smirnoff (the 'Triple Distilled' spot in particular) amongst others. Eaon's blog can be found here.
FLASH BANG WALLOP
by Eaon Pritchard
FLASH!
It's 1992 and I'm in the back office of the record shop in Aberdeen that I manage.
I'm clutching a brown cardboard envelope containing an Italian white label 12" record that's been mailed to me by one of the specialist importer/distributers I buy from. The note attached tells me they are hopeful of doing some business with this record and what did i think? It will be available as an import in about 3 weeks.
On the blank white label the words Glam Hell's Party are scribbled in black marker.
I dump the record onto the turntable and drop the needle on. Its a full on Euro house/disco stomper that samples Curtis Mayfield from 'If theres a Hell Below..'
On first listen, I'm thinking that I could probably shift about 20-25 of these on import before any UK release and decide to give it a whirl at one of my dj engagements at the weekend.
Over the next few weeks I play it at every gig and everywhere it drops the roof goes off. It's a monster tune. When the labelled copies are finally available I end up selling over 250 12" on import over the following couple of months before it's picked up by Sony in the UK, remixed and released for a stab at the charts.
The Sony rep calls me to sell in his new releases and offers it as a 1 in 3 deal (ie buy 3 get one free) expecting a big order. I buy 6. Ive already sold 250 on import so I'm done with it, now it's time for HMV or whatever to takeover.
Recap...
The distributer gave me one of the few white labels know in my history of being able to sell decent numbers of Italian imports. I'm also a reasonably well-known dj in Scotland. An influencer in my niche.
I play the record at the clubs I'm booked at (the small ones that are full of the clued-up kids - the influencers in their towns) - the cool kids love it and want it. When it's available they are the first to have it and play it at there own parties. The idea spreads. The specialist shops sell shed loads on import.
Sony cool detectors pick up the record for mass market - its in all the chains and hits the top 40.
It's hit the early and late majority.
It was round about this time I realised that I was destined for marketing because, without any formal training or anything, I just understood this stuff.
FLASH!
It's now 2007.
I'm working as a creative technical strategist with Weapon7, a specialist digital advertising agency in London, using basically the same principles to develop digital marketing campaigns for global brands. It's come full circle again as traditional mass interruption advertising is no longer as effective as it was in the pre-digital age, with word of mouth - this time accelerated by networked connectivity on an unprecedented scale. An evolved (fuzzy) role (geek marketer? T-shaped creative? Job 2.0? – delete as appropriate) with an evolved agency.
I quit the music industry around ’96 after helping launch a group of indie labels. We released about 15 records a month for 3 or 4 years. No big hits but the Long Tail kept us ticking over – we could sell about 2,000 of any release so it made sense to release loads rather than look for one big hit.
Next stop was a small design and comms agency based in Aberdeen where we worked with the oil companies on everything from brochures, intranets and safety videos. The big lesson there was – never say no to a job. If we didn’t know how to do it we’d just go and figure it out. Try, fail and learn.
Decamping to London in 2000 I had the idea that interactive tv was going to be the next big thing, post dot com crash. After about 18 months at Sky I realised that probably wasn’t my smartest move (fail and learn, again) and then became Creative Director with Littlewoods Gaming, an old fashioned company looking to launch its gambling products into the 21st century and a market dominated by young pretenders like 888.com.
Around this time, I had my next epiphany when I was given a copy of Seth Godin’s Purple Cow. It seemed like everything I had been thinking but unable to articulate properly was encapsulated in those pages.
‘Pouring off every page like it was written in my soul’ as Bobby D would say – that’s maybe a bit dramatic but you get where I’m coming from.
Well, if you are clever enough to be reading this blog and participating in these conversations you don’t need much from me. You already realise the power of community and dialogue in modern marketing. You are smarter than the average bear already.
Be fuzzy, poke your nose in where its not wanted, challenge the status quo, don’t ask permission for anything and be prepared to fail and learn.
That’s about it.
Friday, 21 September 2007
This is how recruitment should be done..
Well done BBH.
It's why I chose advertising at any rate - to have a good time and be paid a good salary. The insight is spot on. The little lad even has a fine pair of planner glasses, as well.
I'd love to know if this viral film has had any influence on where potential grads would like to work..comments, anyone?
Being Yourself and Grad Apps..
Well, I thought I should write something on Ad Grads, especially after the dissection of how to answer the 'proper' ad questions yesterday. This post relates to personality, and how that, in turn, relates to graduate applications.
Essentially, a lot of the more peculiar questions on the grad apps are personality tests. What flavour sandwich filling you'd be, for example, is just a way of seeing if you think laterally and just how skilful you are at explaining yourself.
After meeting a lot of graduates/people looking to get into advertising at the 'Don't Tell My Mum' event last night, something became clear - people wanted to have an idea of just how to conduct themselves in these interviews, and essentially, how best to go about answering questions on the application forms.
And it goes - do you try to be 'wacky' on these forms, or not? Well, it really depends on your rationale. If you can pull off humour in these forms (not everyone can, so be careful), then go for it. One thing I would say is to identify which questions you think they want silly (but thoughtful) answers to.
You can get bitten on the arse if you take the mick on a question they think should be serious. Ultimately, answer the questions as you see fit, to help people see just what the 'real' you is like (obviously with the odd embellishment when answering the sillier questions). And be on your guard; you don't want to come across as straight laced person on paper, and then be a bit crazy in real life - it's not a fair reflection of who you are (unless ad agencies value schizophrenics, which they didn't, the last time I checked).
One thing which is evident is that people who write well, and see the 'question behind the question' that Anton identifies, will usually get to interview. So if you don't think you write that well, spend a bit of time poring over the application questions.
If it all goes to plan, you get to have a face-to-face interview.
Then the real games begin, and you begin to realise the lottery element of it all (and why, sometimes, the most talented people slip through the net). But don't give up - if this is going to be your career, you shouldn't compromise on what you want to do.
Thursday, 20 September 2007
The Real Planning School of the Web: Part 1 creative critique
Never heard of this film before......looks worth a box of popcorn though....anyway
.....so it’s grad recruitment time. The applications are out there and you’re mulling over them all thinking what the fuck. Maybe you’re not actually, maybe you’re doing quite well and therefore my opinions don’t actually count. However, for some of the rookies looking to get in I thought I’d start my own planning school here on adgrads. Really to help you think about advertising in a different way.
So my first attempt at this is going to be on creative critique. The reason being is that most of the time you’ll be asked to give a creative judgment on a campaign or execution and share your thoughts or act as an account handler and sell in the work. Not always an easy thing, the sell in of the Cadbury’s Gorilla work must have been a gem to watch but where do you start? So here is a brief framework to get an opinion together which you can follow, morph, scrap or just ignore.
Advertising Idea & Execution
I always find it best to make the stark distinction between these two when looking at creative work and as the title may indicate, it’s quite obvious. The advertising idea being the core thought that makes the advertising relevant to both the product and the target audience. It can be communicated in many different medias and usually can be summarised in a simple sentence. The execution is, clearly, a creative manifestation of the idea. It renders sound, colour, symbols, shapes and provokes emotion and thought (or in ad speak ‘consideration’). So far so good….well no, not really as that doesn’t help in the slightest unless I can apply it to a real example. One that always springs to mind which is quite easy to use is the Dr Pepper work…although not around today. You know the one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHDo2YbeYnQ
The advertising idea being born from the problem that people just weren’t buying Dr Pepper. It wasn’t because of the taste it was simply because people had the default carbonated choice of Pepsi or Coca Cola or the other major players such as Lilt or Fanta. When researching this problem it was found that people actually really liked Dr Pepper, just they’d never tried it. So the advertising idea was simply – don’t be afraid to try Dr Pepper
The execution is what you can watch on the YouTube link above i.e. Dr Pepper, what’s the worst that can happen, manifesting the play on the consumer insight that people weren’t trying it for the silly reason that….they hadn’t tried it before…..so the execution dramatised this consumer insight and produced the Dr Pepper advertising we know and love.
If you think of a ‘now’ product you could apply the above framework to then Lipton Ice springs to mind. It’s a really good soft drink but people will 9/10 opt for Oasis or Lilt as the thought of cold tea isn’t that great. Try it though and I guarantee you’ll like it and drink more of it.
Anyway, I digress. So the next step after being able to make the two clear distinctions in breaking down creative is the Creative Rationale. What this means in human speak is a reason for the existence of the execution. This will 9/10 times be consumer knowledge. For example, research shows that men buy the majority of Citroen C4s, so use a robot to talk to men. That quite simply is a creative rationale and will follow the idea and execution.
The great thing about this framework is that there isn’t any mystical skill to it, just practice as you would any technique. Take an ad from TV or a magazine and try it. Some wont be as easy as others, some will be shit with little to no thought and therefore are either really obvious or just don’t exist or some really good ads will be quite obscure such as Sony Balls (how do you communicate HD colour on non HD colour TVs – use lots of colours in a beautiful way on any TV) and Cadbury Gorilla (communicate enjoyment by giving people 90 seconds of random entertainment). Remember, it is creative stuff you’re talking about so it won’t always fall neatly into boxes.
Then there is a Buying Rationale, wont bore you with this but essentially this is a summary of your points so you would recap your verbatim in a linear process to make the interviewer know you have a structure to your analysis, so your recap would be:
…so to summarise I believe the idea for Cadbury's Gorilla (and this is subjective and not the law, if you can support your idea then it’s valid – that’s the beauty of advertising analysis) is that Cadbury's are more generous with their milk content than any other chocloate bar, therefore they use that generosity in their advertising by giving the public 90 seconds of entertainment. In order to execute this, the advertising is be as enjoyable as eating chocolate so to have a gorilla drumming to Phil Collins is not only random but funny and therefore enjoyable. The rationale for this being that Cadbury's Dairy Milk has reached a peak in terms of awareness, everyone knows it exists, therefore there isn't a need for a hard sell but to create an emotional affinity with the product, to have positive values attributed to the product. Therefore this ad is there to entertain and engage audiences with Cadbury Dairy Milk via a completley different TV advertising model - almost branded content if you will (that's a different post).
Think I better get back to work now. Hope that helps.
Anton xx
So my first attempt at this is going to be on creative critique. The reason being is that most of the time you’ll be asked to give a creative judgment on a campaign or execution and share your thoughts or act as an account handler and sell in the work. Not always an easy thing, the sell in of the Cadbury’s Gorilla work must have been a gem to watch but where do you start? So here is a brief framework to get an opinion together which you can follow, morph, scrap or just ignore.
Advertising Idea & Execution
I always find it best to make the stark distinction between these two when looking at creative work and as the title may indicate, it’s quite obvious. The advertising idea being the core thought that makes the advertising relevant to both the product and the target audience. It can be communicated in many different medias and usually can be summarised in a simple sentence. The execution is, clearly, a creative manifestation of the idea. It renders sound, colour, symbols, shapes and provokes emotion and thought (or in ad speak ‘consideration’). So far so good….well no, not really as that doesn’t help in the slightest unless I can apply it to a real example. One that always springs to mind which is quite easy to use is the Dr Pepper work…although not around today. You know the one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHDo2YbeYnQ
The advertising idea being born from the problem that people just weren’t buying Dr Pepper. It wasn’t because of the taste it was simply because people had the default carbonated choice of Pepsi or Coca Cola or the other major players such as Lilt or Fanta. When researching this problem it was found that people actually really liked Dr Pepper, just they’d never tried it. So the advertising idea was simply – don’t be afraid to try Dr Pepper
The execution is what you can watch on the YouTube link above i.e. Dr Pepper, what’s the worst that can happen, manifesting the play on the consumer insight that people weren’t trying it for the silly reason that….they hadn’t tried it before…..so the execution dramatised this consumer insight and produced the Dr Pepper advertising we know and love.
If you think of a ‘now’ product you could apply the above framework to then Lipton Ice springs to mind. It’s a really good soft drink but people will 9/10 opt for Oasis or Lilt as the thought of cold tea isn’t that great. Try it though and I guarantee you’ll like it and drink more of it.
Anyway, I digress. So the next step after being able to make the two clear distinctions in breaking down creative is the Creative Rationale. What this means in human speak is a reason for the existence of the execution. This will 9/10 times be consumer knowledge. For example, research shows that men buy the majority of Citroen C4s, so use a robot to talk to men. That quite simply is a creative rationale and will follow the idea and execution.
The great thing about this framework is that there isn’t any mystical skill to it, just practice as you would any technique. Take an ad from TV or a magazine and try it. Some wont be as easy as others, some will be shit with little to no thought and therefore are either really obvious or just don’t exist or some really good ads will be quite obscure such as Sony Balls (how do you communicate HD colour on non HD colour TVs – use lots of colours in a beautiful way on any TV) and Cadbury Gorilla (communicate enjoyment by giving people 90 seconds of random entertainment). Remember, it is creative stuff you’re talking about so it won’t always fall neatly into boxes.
Then there is a Buying Rationale, wont bore you with this but essentially this is a summary of your points so you would recap your verbatim in a linear process to make the interviewer know you have a structure to your analysis, so your recap would be:
…so to summarise I believe the idea for Cadbury's Gorilla (and this is subjective and not the law, if you can support your idea then it’s valid – that’s the beauty of advertising analysis) is that Cadbury's are more generous with their milk content than any other chocloate bar, therefore they use that generosity in their advertising by giving the public 90 seconds of entertainment. In order to execute this, the advertising is be as enjoyable as eating chocolate so to have a gorilla drumming to Phil Collins is not only random but funny and therefore enjoyable. The rationale for this being that Cadbury's Dairy Milk has reached a peak in terms of awareness, everyone knows it exists, therefore there isn't a need for a hard sell but to create an emotional affinity with the product, to have positive values attributed to the product. Therefore this ad is there to entertain and engage audiences with Cadbury Dairy Milk via a completley different TV advertising model - almost branded content if you will (that's a different post).
Think I better get back to work now. Hope that helps.
Anton xx
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