by Emma King (@EmmainSA) In the compulsion to be cool, to be the popular ones, perhaps the cool kids forgot how to develop a personality. They tried to be everything to anyone, to conform to the appeal of the masses and not to stand out. They became vanilla. I wonder sometimes whether this is true, too, for brands.
Category archives: Marketing
When Stuart Lowe asked Why? five times
by Herman Manson. Stuart Lowe, the former MD of media house Ramsay Media, sits in his newly furbished home office and proudly shows off the first report of his new research venture, WhyFive.
Shelf Life: Trail blazing snail
Louise Marsland’s (@Louise_Marsland) pick of new product, packaging and design launches.
Snails and robots are back on our screens to launch new products in the FMCG and office space; on pack promotions still work; and Pyrotec produces a coder to increase product output.
Africa Style: Target markets — what do you see?
by Masingita Mazibuko. Do I experience ads in the same way in which you do, your neighbour does, Brand X’s private clients do? Are we a largely homogenous target market? And if we are, will we remain so for the foreseeable future?
Mad Men to Math Men
by Herman Manson (@marklives) Mad Men to Math Men is where advertising has been heading for a while now, and the pace of transformation is only picking up Steven Plimsoll (@splimsoll), Chief Technology Officer at the WPP Data Alliance and at Mindshare Worldwide, told delegates at the recently held Acceleration Digital Ignition Symposium.
In case you don’t know, the WPP Data Alliance is a partnership between WPP companies “to connect diverse data to provide powerful, analytics-driven solutions for our clients.” This is where direct marketing meets media, says Plimsoll, who argues that the traditional adoption model used by many marketers is broken as consumers adapt communication technology at an unprecedented pace.
WPP, with its keen eye on shifts in marketing spend, and backed up by the findings of a 2012 Gartner report that says by 2017 the CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) will spend more on IT than the CIO, is investing in building data partnerships, like the one recently announced with Twitter, and going into client data strategy.
For the WPP Data Alliance every consumer interaction, across the various channels they make use of, becomes an opportunity to collect data on consumers. “Insight opportunities” extend from store openings to tweets, call center activity, online ratings and reviews, media preferences and more. Data sources include traditional market research, owned activity monitoring (own website, call centre activity etc), social monitoring and media intelligence.
Shelf Life: No more crate man
Louise Marsland’s (@Louise_Marsland) pick of new product, packaging and design launches.
The joy of chocolate; say goodbye to Elliot; a water refill loyalty campaign; and a designer win.
Green Sky Thinking: Slow moves from fast fashion
by Colwyn Elder (@colwynelder) The recent Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh calls to question whether the sustainability movement has achieved anything at all. That such a tragedy can – and did – happen in these times of social audits and supply chain monitoring seems astounding.
Effective creativity – mutually exclusive or myth?
Is creativity and effectiveness mutually exclusive, what is the relationship and can it be defined? This question was put to a number of captains of industry who served on the 2013 APEX awards jury and this is what they had to say…
Vice Chairperson of the APEX awards jury and Chief Executive Office of award-winning agency, TBWA – Ivan Moroke said that the relationship between creativity and effectiveness has been debated by marketing moguls and advertising gurus for decades and agrees that creativity and effectiveness are indeed linked. He added that the impression that creativity is only relevant if one talks about producing brilliant, ground-breaking adverts, is false. Applying creativity is intrinsic to delivering effective advertising – one needs merely to broaden how we define and apply creativity. And, likewise, effectiveness shouldn’t just be associated with the kind of advertising that delivers business results. Effectiveness should be measured alongside creativity. Moroke provided a good example – “Even if the central idea is not driven by explicit creativity – these days creativity is often applied somewhere else in the communication mix in order to deliver the message effectively to the audience. The Apple brand is a typical example of this.”
This comes as little surprise. With innovations in mobile devices, the fragmentation of media channels and tsunami of social media that has changed the way we interact – little wonder that advertising agencies have had to apply creativity in ways beyond a pretty picture.
The Real McCoy: Great spaces – go places
by Sean McCoy. I wonder how many departing employees are asked about how they felt about their workspace during their exit interview?I know what many of their answers would have been.
“Drunk Tank Pink” author Adam Alter on the hidden factors influencing how we think, feel and behave
An excerpt from a presentation made in Cannes today (Friday June 21) by ‘Drunk Tank Pink’ author, Adam Alter, and Director of Draftfcb’s Institute of Decision Making, Matthew Willcox.
The mind is basically like an iceberg, and while we have access to the stuff above the surface, much of what’s interesting and influencing our decisions is below the surface of conscious awareness.
For example, numerous studies and psychological research papers illustrate how hidden, powerful, and unexpected forces — a colour, a name, a noise — operate behind the scenes so to say in the decisions, choices, and behaviours of consumers and others.
For many years, marketers have known that understanding more about how the unconscious works is potentially a huge competitive advantage.
Unfortunately, the unconscious wasn’t keen to give up its secrets. Until now, that is. In fact, the speed with which we are today learning more about just what affects our behaviour is breathtaking.
It truly is an emerging science. And just as being an early mover in emerging markets gave brands an edge over the last couple of decades, tapping into the unexplored geography of the mind is going to be critical to their future.