PAUL ISAKSON

A Modern Campaign Approach: LEGO® CL!CK

Another one that's popping up again after its initial appearance in early January—a fun and well done video for LEGO® by Pereira O'Dell. The corresponding site is also interesting and entertaining. Given the creative nature of LEGO fans, I like that they've got an place where the purpose is to share inspiring and imaginative creative content.

In going through the LEGO CL!CK posts on Pereira O'Dell's blog, it's interesting to see that they launched this campaign with their iPhone app. Following that was this short film and the site. 

For those of you who have been thinking about the "modern campaign," I think this is a decent example.

It's no longer led with a big national TV commercial -> follow-up with at least two more TV commercials of the same ilk (afterall, you've got to have three to enter it as a campaign for all the award shows) -> supported by print, OOH and maybe radio... oh, and better get a micro site up too.

The modern campaign starts where ever it makes the most sense to start based on the people you're trying to connect with and the behaviors of theirs you wish to influence. It then goes where the ensuing reaction from said people takes it. It's about the brand playing a bit of idea volleyball with culture. One inspires the other and a "conversation" of sorts naturally happens.

That's all I have to say about it for now, but more will probably come up later...

A New Voice For Apple?

I've seen this iPad commercial the last few nights. I can't help but feel like it's just not Apple. I get that the iPad is a different experience than the iPhone or a laptop, but it's still an Apple product. To me, the tone of this spot feels more like a commercial for a Ford F150 than the Apple iPad.

Am I off here? What do you think?

On another note, surprised (but not too much) to see that Apple turned off the comments to this commercial on the YouTube page for it...

Adobe Responds to Apple... With A Banner Campaign

Just came across the new banner campaign from Adobe to defend Flash. It's kind of funny to think that an open letter on Apple's web site from Steve Jobs now has Adobe running an ad campaign.

The question is, is Adobe doing more harm than good by being so defensive?

On a related note, the banners are in Flash, so they can't be viewed on an iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch. Ha.

Time For A Refresh: American Luxury Automotive

That is a comment straight from the Cadillac YouTube channel home page.

I would say I have to agree.

It's in response to the new Cadillac work from BBH New York. I don't blame BBH at all on this one. It's obvious that it's the result of direction from the Cadillac team at GM.

Don't believe me? Do me a favor. Watch the following two videos with the audio muted:

The first is BBH's new work. The second is from when Cadillac was at Modernista! Not that different, right?

Now, here's the real kicker. Watch this one with the sound off:

Tell me, how different is that from the two Cadillac spots?

To recap and expand...

• GM and Ford are playing a game of copycat in the luxury segment with "dumb expensive videos that mean nothing."


• This is further support that GM is all talk when they say that they're about reinvention and reinforces that they are really just pissing away bailout money while they lie about paying it off.


• Meanwhile, new car companies with ideas for a different way of doing things have to jump through several hoops to take off and/or struggle to get proper funding.

So, do we think that it might be time to really rethink the way we market the American Luxury Automotive Category?

Or should we just keep talking about it and not really doing anything different?

Oh... and meanwhile, Modernista's home page tells people about all the business they've lost in the last few months...

 

Fun times.

What The Facebook?

That's the message I got when I didn't want to join groups and fan pages for all of my stated interests to go with their new "Liking" policy. I simply wanted them to remain listed as words on the page, just as they had always been. But that was no longer an option. And that was when I decided it was time to seriously consider ditching my Facebook account. (I haven't yet, but it's getting closer every day.)

Up until now, I have been a supporter of brands using Facebook to connect with people. Now, I'm not so sure. Especially as I come across things like:

The infographics showing the evolution of Facebook's privacy changes.

What Zynga is saying and what is happening to them due to Facebook's policy changes.

What Jason Calacanis' thoughts are on them, along with several others.

The fact that their mission has changed nearly every year.

The list could go on and on.

They used to be about connecting people. That was it. Plain and simple.

Now they're about giving people the power to share and make the world more open and connected?

If they were really about giving people power, then why do they keep doing things to take away people's power to control their own data and profiles?

Facebook is no longer truly about something bigger than themselves. They are not giving people something to believe in. They pay it lip service in their public mission statement, but their actions show that they are solely about Facebook.

It all has me thinking that Facebook has lost their way, if they ever really had a direction in the first place.

It also has me thinking they're on their way to becoming the MSN to MySpace's Yahoo! and a new Google is lurking somewhere out there, ready to take over. (Maybe here?)

What they really seem to be on a mission to do is become their own version of the web. And since they're so good at stealing from others, their line is already written - What you put in Facebook, stays in Facebook.

Overall, I don't have a good feeling for the direction Facebook is heading. They seem to be focused on what's best for their revenue stream over what's best for the community of users they've built—the people who make that very revenue stream possible.

When you've got people sharing very personal things about themselves with their friends through your platform, that doesn't sit well with me. And I know I'm not alone.

I'll quit now. Mostly wanted to dump these loosely collected thoughts that have been bouncing around for the past few weeks out of my head.

Would love to know what some of you think...

Give Them Something To Believe In

Flickr / Daniel Y. Go

In last year's "What's Next" presentation, this was (a version of) one of the closing thoughts for how brands need to start behaving differently. I was reminded of this a week or two back when the NY Times ran a piece on figuring out how much of your income should be given to donations.

In the article, they shared that Americans donated $229 billion in 2009, with about half of that going to religious institutions. Consider that for a moment.

People openly gave over two hundred billion dollars to organizations because they believed in what the organizations are doing and because of the way helping those organizations makes them feel. Not because of a product they took home to use. Not because of a service performed for them. They gave simply because they wanted to support something that they believed in.

I bring this up because it's part of how I think and talk about the "commit to something bigger than yourself" idea.

The talk around this slide wasn't about committing to adding a cause or charity to your business. It was about committing to being about something bigger than making a profit—it was about focusing on doing good things for the people who buy your products or services, not only for yourself or your shareholders.

As I look back at this now, I still agree with this but I do think it isn't worded quite right. It leans too much towards causes and charity. Not that those are bad things, but we've got several major brands around who weren't built on these principles and in trying to pull them in now, they come across as shallow ploys to try to get more people to buy their products.

I think the way I would word it now would be something like, "Give people something to believe in." It's really about committing to doing things for and with people, and then living out those commitments every day. In doing that, you're showing them that they can believe in you; and as the donations numbers show, people like to support things they believe in.

Maybe still not quite right and certainly needs more work. Would love to hear your thoughts...

Gathering 'Round the iPad?

Photo: Scrabble! of sorts by @superamit

Calle put up a post asking if the iPad is the new campfire. It's an interesting thought. People have always gathered where ever good stories are told, and the iPad certainly is a new delivery mechanism for story telling. 

As proof of his observations, I'm sitting in a coffee shop right now where a guy is at a table front and center with a 3G iPad. He's the center of attention for everyone standing in line waiting for their coffees or to place their order. Some (a.k.a. the non-Minnesotans) come ask if they can play with it and ask him how he likes it so far. Others just point and stare and chat with each other; nodding their heads in approval with glowing, wide-open eyes. 

To me, this isn't happening because the iPad is becoming the new social storytelling place. It's the newness factor. It's the Apple factor. It's the "I don't know if I really need/could use one of these yet, but I really want one" factor. It's all those and more.

As soon as these wear off though, like most of those in the comments to Calle's post have said, it won't be a campfire itself. We'll have experienced enough of the capabilities and new shiny apps to not vulture over the iPad adorned around us. 

I do think people will continue to find new reasons and ways to gather around the iPad though. It just won't be the device that causes the huddling. It will be some of the content. 

As others are saying, I believe this device will change our experience of bridging the digital and real world in ways that our smartphones haven't been able to. Especially through the games—the best of which are yet to come.

We hear plenty of people talking about applying game theory to marketing through social and mobile. This device will take that to a new place. We'll be able to create new ways of engaging with each other in the same location through the combination of things like the iPad and the iPhone. 

I also believe this will change gaming in a way that hasn't happened yet. It has the potential to bring new people into gaming, similar to how the Wii did. The opportunities for location-based social games on the iPad are bigger than anything we've been able to bring to life to date. When you combine that with its ability to connect to the iPhone and WiFi/3G, a new level of social and casual gaming take shape.

Not too far down the road, stuff like Roku's Reward will start to become more of a reality when a camera gets added. And maybe, just maybe, we'll see MMORPGs turn into MMR(eal)W(orld)RPGs (and I'm not talking about those that already go on at your local renaissance festival). Or maybe not.

Anyway, all this to say that while there were many who harpooned the iPad upon its launch announcement, sales and people's behaviors are showing and will continue to show that this device just might have a chance of finding space between (and connecting to) our televisions, laptops and mobile phones.

Good Ideas Spread: Old Spice

In Monday's MCAD class we discussed the future of TV advertising and this spot was part of the conversation. We talked about how now, more than ever, we need to create ideas that inspire people to pick them up and run with them. This great work from W+K and Old Spice continues to do just that as shown here and through the John Denver remix of it.

[via Avin, The Daily What]

The Beauty of Slowing Down

Photo: Jonathan Harris

I've been enjoying Jonathan Harris' Today project very much. Today's set especially. The note that goes along with the above image from Jonathan says:

From Reykjavik to the far north of Iceland was a 12-hour Odyssey that could have been flipped through like Cliff notes by plane.

But planes don't see
yellow tools,
black rocks,
red horses,
dark girls,
gold towns,
weird mounds,
purple hills,
fjords,
or wild skies.

If you want your life to look like that, take the road and watch the sky.

There is an interesting tie here to marketing research. So often we're too easily drawn to the comfortable and easy—focus groups, surveys, on-going panel studies, etc. Certainly, all of these have their time and place, but we've way over-used and abused them.

We're going through the motions to check the box that says we've done some research to support where we're going and in the process, we skip over the really good stuff. The stuff that will give us the insight and clarity we need to truly help people. Nothing opens your eyes to new opportunities like getting out and spending time with the people you're trying to build a relationship with.

If you truly believe that the future of marketing is about finding ways to make people's lives better by doing things with and for them, you aren't going to find the best ways to do that sitting in the office or hanging out at a research facility. You can't see the red horses, purple hills, golden towns and wild skies from behind a two-way mirror or in a pile of survey data.

You can only do that by taking the road and watching the sky; not the other way around.

Project Dream Ball

Came across another great idea that (re)surfaced this week—Dream Ball—from Unplug Design in Seoul.

Children in Africa love playing football. The only problem is, the ball can be hard to come by. Enter Dream Ball, a solution that is good on multiple levels.

1. The ball is made from the packaging of an aid package, helping to come up with a secondary use for the packaging beyond its original purpose.
2. The package itself is a cylinder, which allows it to be rolled from the delivery drop to the desired unpacking location. Rolling a package is a lot easier than having to carry a box.
3. Aid workers can help the children make the Dream Ball out of the packaging; creating a stronger bond between the children and workers.

There a couple things here that any brand would be wise to consider further, one of which Puma has done already.

The first would be, how can you rethink the design of your entire product or service experience to make sure that every bit gets as much use and enjoyment as possible?

The second thing is that according to the comments on Dezeen from back in early December, this project is having a hard time getting the support it needs to take off. Seems like an excellent opportunity for a brand wanting to connect with people through the sport of football/soccer...

To see another form of how soccer, errr footballs, are being made in Africa, watch this:

For more on Dream Ball, visit the original post on Dezeen.