the art of conversation

Strategy is dead. Or is it?

 

Look at the most admired recent advertising: bouncing balls, drumming gorillas and now dancing eyebrows. What they have in common (apart from being from Fallon) is no discernible strategy, as Mark mentioned. It’s not saying anything about the product, it’s not identifying a consumer need, it’s not based on any consumer insight. It’s all about entertainment and any strategy is to ‘justify the strapline’. 

Is the new idea to have no idea? What’s going on?

But it’s also a new intellectual environment where people rely less on carefully laid plans to meet consumers’ rational and emotional needs and more on ‘simple’ publicity and word of mouth. If the marketing game is all about being famous then maybe entertainment is the only thing that matters.

Thinking back, there were always ads with new products or in growing categories where the strategy/ brand positioning/ USP were clear (like the introduction of the Dyson for example) and ads where strategy was ditched for legal or other reasons in favour of pure entertainment (a great read on this is Sam Delaney's Get Smashed.)

Would be great to know whether pure entertainment is effective in the long run. Successful advertising  builds strong brand associations over time. But that isn’t going to be achieved with ‘pure’ entertainment and a strapline. Or is it?

Dominic

Ideas, insights and delusions

We researchers used to work a lot with advertising planners. We used to have a common purpose, looking for ideas and insights which help to explain a market or a brand. To adapt the line used by Dave Trott to describe planners and creatives, we used to drink from the same well of inspiration – although planners got to piss in it first. (Pic by lulidesigns)

 

But what has happened to planners that they now feel they have to sneer at qualitative research? It’s a bit like your outgoing and stylish younger sibling, who you got on so well with, now saying that you are so-o boring and predictable. You spoil the fun. You don’t have any imagination.

 

When account planning started, planners did not feel the need to put down research, or act as if research and ideas were somehow opposed. They used research to help to generate insights (cf JWT's 'planning begins at 40' event). Planning co-founder Stephen King said "you cannot know the facts until you've had an idea". He was a keen supporter of research, advocating 'occasionally beautiful' research and calling for more imaginative solutions and processes.

 

Is research any less beautiful now, or are planners getting more and more desperate? You might think the latter, to judge from two recent posts from Adliterate.

 

In praise of... justgiving.com

 
Particularly for those who feel that the internet make us all a little bit more selfish, we wanted to laud the merits of justgiving.com.

Justgiving.com is an online tool allowing people to raise money for the charity or cause of their choice and to contact other people to get donations or sponsorship.

For example, one of our colleagues, Neil, is currently raising money on behalf of One World Action by running in the next London marathon (you can donate here).

Along with sites such as charity choice and charities trust, justgiving allows you to donate to a cause of your choice or setup your own fundraising page. With many charities struggling to break even, it is good to know that justgiving takes only 5% commission from donations.

It's a good reminder of the positive power of a website to act as a force for good in the web 2.0 world, connecting the more wealthy with more impoverished people.

Convergence Confusion

I've been investing in a great deal of 'convergence technology' recently (ie Sky Plus, Playsation 3) but it seems with innovation comes confusion.

One of the points of convergence technology is to have everything in one place. I can watch the lastest episode of Top Gear on BBC's iPlayer via my Playsation 3's wireless facility or playback Harry Hill's TV Burb 2008 Review using Sky Plus at a time convenient to me.

However, the path to this Nirvana is full of barriers. It's not only the setup that's confusing; but the pile of indistinguishable multi-buttoned remotes you need to operate the various boxes. I have five controllers - analogue TV, Sky Plus/Digital TV, Playstaion 3/Blu Ray player, VHS, the stereo.

TV advertising may be under threat from 'new media' and convergence technology, but I get the impression this evolution is a slow burn. With over half the population appearing to be relatively slow-adopters of technology, it's likely they'll prefer to set their free time around Corrie rather than investing in the benefits that convergence technology will surely, eventually deliver with more simplicity.

Simon