[ paul isakson ]

Heineken Light vs. Coors Light

The Battle of the Facebook (FREE) Beer Gifts

Noticed today that Heineken Light had sponsored the "Gift of the Day" on Facebook and remembered that Coors Light did so a couple weeks back.

I found it interesting that in just one day, Heineken Light nearly sold out - with people giving away almost 275,000 of their beer gifts (25,000 more than Coors Light had available in total). Meanwhile, Coors Light still has 96,130 to yet give away after being available for two full weeks.

The question is, does any of this matter? Regardless of that, does it say anything about either brand? Is it simply a matter of the execution? I've got my thoughts, but first, I'd love to hear yours.

Please, let us know what you think in the comments...

What's Next In Advertising - Uwe Gutschow's Take

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If you have followed this blog for a while, you know that I'm a fan of mash-ups and remixes. Never in a million years though, did I expect something I created to become part of a remix/mash-up of sorts. I'm honored, flattered and impressed all at once.

What am I talking about? Well, Uwe Gutschow and Don Longfellow have picked up the "What's Next In Marketing & Advertising" presentation I shared a couple months back and taken it further with their "What's Next In Advertising - Moving from Advertising to Marketing."

As you can guess from the title, their main point is that advertising needs to go from where it is and has been (interruption and now, annoyance) to adding value. They say we need to "create marketing solutions, not ads" and "stop pitching people with messages," and "start providing useful content." I wholeheartedly agree.

Please give it a look and let them know what you think over on Uwe's post.

To download the slide show or view it full screen, jump over here.

How Brands Can Get Ahead In A Recession

First, if you haven't read either of the above, I highly recommend them. (Clicking on either of the quotes above will take you to their respective pages on Amazon.com.) Now then...

Every day, I'm convinced these statements are increasingly true. Especially today in our open-source, collaborative, conversation culture. The more good things you do for people, the more of your thinking and ideas that you share, and the more you help people out, the more good things will come back to you.

I've personally experienced this throughout my life, but none more so than in sharing things here. (Just as I'm sure many of you have.) Now we're in a situation where this mantra could create significant returns for brands if they are willing to take heed.

With growing talks of a global recession and reports of consumer confidence sinking around the globe, people are looking for ways to make their dollars go further. Brands that truly try to help people get through this period solely for the purpose of wanting to help make peoples' lives a little bit easier will come out significantly ahead of the pack when things turn around.

Almost everyone has natural tendencies that kick in when money starts getting short which tell them to hang on to as much as possible. This is just as true for businesses as it is for people. But if a business is willing to take a little less profit now in order to create greater savings for people and help them get what they want, it will come back to them when people have more money to spend.

It's not an easy decision to make. Especially when there are outside demands from stockholders and parent companies. But I have no doubts that those who approach this the right way - by doing what's best for the people who buy their products or services - will end up far better off than if they just try to ride it out by cutting costs that do not get passed through to consumers/customers.

On a related note, David Armano has turned a smart post titled "10 Ways Digital Can Help You Thrive In A Recession" into an easy to view slide show. You can view it below, on Logic + Emotion, or in glorious full-screen mode through SlideShare.

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I'm certain there are several great examples out there that show this and I know I've heard or read them several times before. Right now, I'm simply too tired to look them up. Ha. Sorry, but just being honest. So, if you know of any off-hand, please share them in the comments...

A Few Worthwhile Reads

Some interesting things I came across yesterday and would like to post more on, but probably won't be able to for a day or two if at all, so for now, here are the links...

First, Dave Trott Live Chat via Scamp - Dave shares some great advice and thinking on how to get a job in this business and what he thinks makes for great advertising today. I also really liked Scamp's approach to this for two reason. First, Scamp wrote a post arguing that much of what Dave wrote 30 years ago on getting a job in advertising was irrelevant today and followed it up by allowing Dave to have a conversation with Scamp's readers to defend/explain himself on the Scamp blog. Second, I think using the comments section of a blog post to host an audience driven interview was a fantastic idea. Thanks to Alan (a.k.a. Tangerine Toad) for pointing it out via Twitter.

Second, Scholz & Friends has posted an interesting presentation titled Brands and Communication in the Era of Media Democracy that is well worth a look. For those browsing here, following is the slide show. For those reading this where it won't come through, here's a link.

Lastly, BMW has revealed some inspiring thinking on the future of car design that caught the attention of quite a few. I love that they ignored conventions and took a fresh look at things. A bit from the WInding Road post:

Chris Bangle, head of BMW Group Design, describes the philosophy behind this wildly innovative GINA Light Visionary Model as “Being flexible. Thinking flexible, acting flexible – context over dogma.”

The Curse of Great Expectations

Great expectations are always a dangerous thing. The unveiling of iPhone 2.0 on Monday reminded us of this age-old lesson.

We've all been waiting, some of us for nearly a year now, for the second generation of this device that changed the way we think about mobile communications and web browsing.

Expectations were already high, based on what happened last time. Rumors kept circulating, gaining more and more momentum to the point that they became what several people believed would be announced. Then when it was finally made public, many were underwhelmed. iPhone 2.0 wasn't as fully loaded as they were hoping and speculating.

This seems to be a growing problem for brands. In addition to Apple, we can also look at what happened when Cadbury released their follow-up spot to Gorilla.

We build up grandiose visions of what will come based on a previous experience that surpassed our expectations or completely surprised us. Then the big moment comes and we don't get what we were hoping for. We're let down in some way. We wanted to be blown away again.

But is that fair? Cadbury didn't promise us anything implicitly. They simply made a commitment to creating videos that brought people joy. They didn't say that each time they made a video it would be better than the last one. They just said it would make us smile.

And in this case, Apple didn't make any promises or even give away too many clues as to what was coming with the new iPhone. They just said some new software was coming in June/July and then did what they always do - keep very, very quiet.

Maybe therein lies the problem.

In the "Age of Conversation," keeping quiet and being secretive can be just as dangerous as, if not maybe worse than, saying too much. Especially when you have a bunch of passionate, forward-thinking, creative fans who are highly active online - sharing their visions and hopes for a new product or service - building unrealistic expectations among a larger portion of the general public.

If you are fortunate enough to be a brand that has a community of amorous fans, such as Apple, maybe now your job isn't to create anticipation and excitement for your products or services as much as it is to properly manage expectations.

Had Apple (or better yet, Steve Jobs himself) come out several weeks ago and done something to properly set expectations, we wouldn't be disappointed we didn't get video chat or a bigger hard drive. In fact, if they had done a good enough job, we would have expected less than what we got and we'd be more excited about what was announced yesterday.

Just as we don't always know what we want or know what is possible, we don't always know what is not yet possible. If one of your brand's core principles is to surprise and delight people, then in an age when anyone can generate an idea and spread it quickly and broadly to the point that it becomes accepted as truth, keeping expectations in check should be a top priority.

I'm not advocating that brands should try to control the message. Not at all. I'm simply saying that when these things happen, they better join the conversation rather than sit back and watch. It might seem like a great thing - getting all this "free" publicity talking up your brand and imagining you can do more/better than you really are going to - but it's not. It's irresponsible.

Not managing expectations is gong to become, if it hasn't already, a bigger problem for brands with passionate fans. Not speaking-up when you can see that people are setting themselves up to be disappointed is just as bad as over-promising things yourself.

Brands have more access now than ever before to understanding peoples' expectations. I suggest they start paying attention and getting involved when it's called for.

In an age of collaboration, open source and idea sharing, you don't want to let people down too often or they'll just go find someone to help them make their expectations become a reality on their own.

Back to Basics: Creative Problem Solving, Part 2

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Whitney Hess left a very thoughtful comment on the previous post bearing this title and it reminded me of another comment she left on a Logic + Emotion post a while back that I really liked. The first bit of it really stood out to me and reads:

I think we forget sometimes that "design" means "to develop a plan." Design really isn't about execution, but about accurately defining the problem in order to allow for the most successful, effective and valuable solution -- given the objectives and constraints of the system -- to emerge.

Very well said.

It's not about sitting down right away and sketching out the brief to create an ad, a Web site, or whatever the client requested. It's not about trying to figure out what the main idea is immediately or what the "one thing" is we need to communicate (and as the research by Duncan Watts shows, it's likely that we'll need more than one thing or one idea anyway).

No, none of those things are the right way to start off, if they ever really were. We have to start by digging deeper into the issues facing our clients' brand(s). It might not be that they need what they are asking for. We need to do as Whitney outlines.

Start by accurately define the problem(s), taking into account all of the objectives and challenges, and then begin looking for the most successful, effective and valuable solution(s).

I know it's easier said than done. Especially given some of the circumstances we're up against at times. But following the same map that has been used for the past several decades won't lead us to interesting new places. That map leads to a ghost town now.

I don't know about you, but none of my clients are marketing their products to ghosts.

Brand Building in the "Application Economy"

Much ado has been made about the Domino's Pizza Builder. It has been praised, including here, as a great example of branded utility. While that is still true and deserved, one of their biggest competitors recently threw an oven-fresh piece of pan crust pie in their face.

Yup. Pizza Hut not only re-tooled their online ordering experience, but they also launched a slick application running on Adobe Air. Now if it's too much work to go to Pizza Hut's web site to order, you can place an order right from your desktop.*

Why am I pointing this out?  Good question.

Long before many of us got into this business, someone decided that they could stand out by putting their product in attractive packaging. They were right. At first this probably worked tremendously for them, but then all of their competitors started doing the same thing.

We're looking at a similar situation today, only in a different environment. The evolution of the internet, the growth of broadband, and expansion of WiFi (and soon the presence of a more powerful mobile web) have made most products or services a click or two away from virtually anywhere. The same is true for 360-degree information about those products.

As people dig for more and more information on what they buy and online shopping continues to grow, having a great digital experience for your brand becomes as important as, if not more so than, having the right packaging at retail.

The problem is, any brand can work with their agency (or hire a new, better one) to make their digital experience more engaging, rewarding, useful and valuable. While this is quite important to do, and it can provide short-term competitive advantages, it doesn't necessarily communicate what makes your actual product or service unique and special and it doesn't give you any real long-term advantages. It just makes it easier to procure/engage with your company today. (The content within a brand's digital experience most certainly can differentiate it and make it more meaningful to people, however.)

When every one of your competitors has essentially the same quality of application/utility/experience as you, and eventually they all will, then what? Mobile? Nope. We'll be having this same chat when the code gets cracked there too.

Now, I'm not saying developing applications, making better digital experiences, and creating greater brand utility aren't important. They are. They're new pieces you need to add to the mix that will help contribute to the overall feeling a person has about your product or service (otherwise known as your brand).

But they're not the magic solution to leap-frogging the competition that many are making them out to be. They're a cost of entry to doing business today and tomorrow. They're not the long-term solution to making people want to buy your product or service over a competitor’s.

No, this all points to why the essence of what modern advertising has been about - building emotional connections between people and brands - is still needed. (But let's stop with all of the annoying and interrupting people, o.k.?) Especially as advancements in technology continue to make borders disappear and markets open up.

It is precisely why despite all the talk about this being "the application economy," having an engaging and interesting way to communicate what actually differentiates you from your competition, and that helps people feel something emotional for your brand, matters most.

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*For the sake of transparency and honesty, I've not spent much time with their ordering tool, nor have I downloaded the application. The experience could fall short of what Domino's has done for all I know. But since the point of this post was about the importance of brand building today and not a review of their new application and online ordering tool, I didn't feel it required me to do so.

The Power of Unexpected Creativity

Earlier this week, while working away on some slides for a presentation, I left the TV going in the background after eating dinner and watching a re-run of Seinfeld. Being "in the zone" I wasn't really paying much attention, but the music to Robert Muraine's performance combined with the laughing and "Oooooh. MY. God!" comments coming out over and over from the judges made me look up half way through his routine. I was instantly transfixed on what I was watching. As soon as it was over, I rewound it and watched it again. And again. Then I tried to find it online to share here.

What I experienced in watching Robert's performance contains a truth about building great brands.

In the previous version of the W+K Web site, Dan Wieden talked about the power of the unexpected creative insight and its ability to take people to a place they didn't think they would go and never would have gone had they followed logic and reason. In Dan's eyes, it is these insights that build some of the world's most powerful brands. They connect brands with people because they cause people to feel something emotional and that feeling was caused by unexpected creativity brought to them by a brand. You certainly can't argue with the success W+K has experienced based on this simple principle.

It's not just true or Wieden and Kennedy though. It is part of what made Cadbury's Gorilla and Sony's Balls spots so powerful. They took simple ideas grounded in the brand (Joy and Colour Like No Other) and brought them to life in unexpected ways. I think this is also why the follow-up ads fell short for many. Given the first for each brand, we now had much higher expectations and rather than surprising and delighting us with something totally different and new, just as they did the first time, the agencies and brands elected to attempt to mirror their previous successes with different executions of the same idea.

Using unexpected creativity is a powerful way to connect with people - no matter if that comes from a brand or an individual. It's something we need more of in today's world of advertising and brand building where so many things seem to have become all too familiar and formulaic.

Age of Conversation 2.0 Teasers

Last week, Ryan Barrett put out a request for the authors of the upcoming Age of Conversation 2 book to share a brief snippet of their chapters.

Greg Verdino has some critical thoughts on why this should have waited and I tend to agree him. Perhaps it is just the nature of many who blog to want to share what they write almost as immediately as it is finished.

Anyway... After reading what others have given her, I'm really looking forward to the book's eventual arrival so I can read the rest of their chapters.

Given that, and in the spirit of playing along, here's mine - based on a quote from George Bernard Shaw:

"The reasonable brand adapts itself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to it. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable brand."

The unreasonable brand is something I intend to start posting more and more things about without giving away my chapter as it's something I've been thinking a lot about lately and where I'm going to go with it won't encroach upon the specific sub-topic I chose to write on.

To see all of the bits Ryan has collected so far, jump over here.

Passion + Listening = A Great Brand

Chris Brogan shared this video as an example of how great branded content doesn't come across as an ad and in doing so, it stands a much better chance of getting passed along from one to many. I absolutely agree with him but that's not why I'm posting the video here. Nor is it because of my appreciation for street art and great street artists. The reason I'm sharing it is because of what gets said around 2:43 into the video.

The guys behind Montana actually paint, so they have an inherent feel for what makes great spray paint when it comes to writing graffiti. Not only that, but they also get out and talk to street artists to really understand what they need. Then they go back and develop those things. The entire video shows how Montana has specially formulated their paints and developed a variety of caps so that street artists can create better work.

This is what great brands do. They have passion for what they make and that passion helps them start out with a pretty good product to begin with. Then, they go out and spend time listening to people who use their products and find ways to make them better.

Great brands always consider themselves to be in beta - even if they don't use that term. They're always looking for ways to improve and be more meaningful to the people who use them. In return, this makes the people who use them even more passionate about them. In my book, that's never a bad thing.

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Side note: Chris also has a good post on thinking about your blog's design. It made me see the real answer to the question I had been asking myself with regard to my recent banner refresh - "Does my blog look fat with this header?" Thus the change to trim it down a bit. Next up is thinning out the sidebars a bit. Have a bit too much going on over there.