Oh, Soft Drinks, Thou Art Silly!
Let us further assume that your preference is Coke over Pepsi. Coca-Cola has not one, but TWO zero calorie cola beverages out there. Coke Zero is advertised as having REAL cola taste and ZERO calories. My question is, “If Coke Zero has zero calories, and Diet Coke has zero calories but apparently tastes LESS like REAL cola, WHY would you EVER drink Diet Coke in lieu of Coke Zero?”. Keep in mind, I didn't say that Diet Coke doesn't taste like cola. Diet Coke's OWN parent company made that implication when they branded their other product that way.
Pepsi is no better. There is Diet Pepsi. There is Pepsi Max. There have been several iterations of a clear or “Crystal Pepsi”. To be honest, at first I thought, “Hmmmm, ok, well they replaced aspartame with better tasting sucralose, or Splenda” but NO…they didn't! Both products use the sweetener, aspartame. Basically, you've gone through the trouble and expense of creating a new beverage that creates no new market, but only further divides an existing one while only incurring greater cost by diversifying your beverage line (ingredients, packaging, etc…).
I will only briefly touch on Dr. Pepper excluding half of the earth's population by blatantly saying Dr. Pepper's new 10 calorie beverage is JUST FOR MEN. Am I then to infer, that men don't like zero calorie diet beverages, and that those ten extra calories make it bold, and tasty, and maybe that the beverage doesn't go flat as quickly as would, say, Diet Dr. Pepper, which used to be branded as tasting “more like regular Dr. Pepper”?
Ladies and gentlemen of the business-blogging community, I ask you, “Do you not demand more of your beverage companies?”.
Tune in next week for my exciting rant on the microbrew industry.
The Importance of Staying Power
Is it really a great commercial, if you don't remember the product after you've seen it? I agree that without entertaining or visually captivating material, TV commercials would have lost their value years ago. However, can being too “creative” actually hurt a campaign?
I would like to be clear before I continue… If you have read or heard anything about our agency, you know how much we believe in and thrive on creativity. It is the cornerstone for any good campaign and the catapult for a great one – but this specific argument is more about the different types of creativity; the best being the ability to create a campaign that not only entertains, but also has foresight, adaptability, and of course, staying power.
OK, so returning to my point… It is my belief that some creators allow an idea to get away from them. They can get so carried away and forget the idea's place in relevance to the campaign all together. The effect of that being, their efforts are lost on the consumer. To ensure this does not happen, the industry needs to get a prescription for something I'd like to call “AADD” (Advertising Attention Deficit Disorder) – to keep our heads from spinning in random directions while determining the course of an idea.
SO, instead of having your customer watch a man start on the couch, leave to play racket ball, go to the doctor, wear an eye patch, ride a bus home, be mistaken for a tough guy, get attacked, and end up in the gutter…? Why not simply show three frogs, sitting on lily pads, croaking out three recognizable syllables, while craving an ice cold beer… Remember that one?
You can push your mind creatively (through different characters, themes, scenarios, etc.), while still staying on track and being aware of the bridge between the product and the consumer. Here is the formula that will ultimately steer them right to your door – smiling the entire way… and if you're lucky… they'll remember how they got there for years to come.
Google’s Revamped Search Engine
I read an article on this change to Google on CNN.com and wondered to myself how this will affect certain aspects of SEO, etc. The example used in the article discusses the search term 'kings'.Now kings could be a number of different things, the NHL team (LA Kings), the NBA team (Sacramento Kings), or you could be searching for an actual King. The new Google search will have separate boxes asking you which 'king' you could be referring to. This will hone in on what exactly the user is searching for so they won't have to sit and look through pages of search results in order to find exactly what they are looking for. Another quote from the article reads, “More specific searches, say for the name of a celebrity, will render boxes with basic information, as well as links to what Google believes are possibly related searches”.
This new and improved search is known as Knowledge Graph, and claims to have Google search think more like a human. In a quote from the article, Jack Menzel, director of product management at Google says, “The web pages we [currently] return for the search 'kings,' they're all good. You, as a human, associate those words with their real-world meaning but, for a computer, they're just a random string of characters.” Menzel also says, “the initial version of Knowledge Graph has information on 500 million people, places and things and uses 3.5 billion defining attributes and connections to create categories for them.” This adds another innovative idea to Google's arsenal. Knowledge Graph should directly affect the way a user searches on the web. Another great job by Google.
Mission Statement VS Branding Statement: Marketing 101
To some, the single most challenging aspect to creative advertising is drawing the line between a company's Mission and their Brand. To put it simply, your Mission is about YOU, your Brand is about the CONSUMER. Although it may seem like a simple concept to grasp, surprisingly enough, when you're in the thick of it, working with a company who bleeds their mission, making the distinction between who they are and what their consumer wants, is like ripping off an over-sized band-aid from Robin Williams' forearm.
Getting a company to let go of their mission (if only for a moment), to recognize that it relates very little to the needs of the consumer, and then allow a seemingly irrelevant brand to be broadcasted mainstream… doesn't make much sense to an organization whose sole purpose is to serve the customer. It's thinking from an entirely different perspective… like learning to write with your opposite hand. Unless you’re ambidextrous… in which case, I feel you would be very suited for the job.
So, let us bring the conversation back to Nike. As seen in the above picture, their Mission is to “Bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world”. Now, what does that mean to you? I mean, personally as a consumer..? Absolutely nothing. What do you care? That's what they do, and that's great for them… but what about YOU? Well, they don't tell you about their mission, now do they? This is what they say to you, Mr. Consumer… “Just DO it.” – Thinking about going on a run today..? Just do it. Thinking about going to the gym? Just do it. How about going out for a round of golf? Just do it. Thinking about buying yourself a new pair of shoes? Just do it… Oh, and by the way… why not make it Nike? I mean, after all, they are the ones telling you to get out there, aren't they? SO, why not try their stuff?
There is such a large distinction between a company's goals and what that means to those who will buy it. Nike does a great job talking directly to the consumer, inspiring them to do, and in order to DO, you might just need some Nike shoes, or one of those fancy no sweat, dry fit shirts… That is the innovative thinking that keeps you relevant. And that's what companies need to survive and achieve greatness!
So, the next time you are trying to come up with a branding statement, remember – JUST DO IT.
Prophetic Presumptions As It Pertains To Paradigm Shifts
Imagine, if you will, that all the TV shows (past and present), sitcoms, Super Bowls, etc…were all available to you simply by searching for it and pushing play. Now imagine that what I just said is happening on a 60″ flat screen, high-definition TV. Television is going to be dramatically changed forever and in the near future. Internet capable TV's will go from being gimmicky to becoming the norm and exploiting that connectivity to its fullest potential. A prospective service could even charge a monthly fee to use this service, replacing companies like Comcast, unless they too jump aboard.
Do you think it's out of the realm of possibility to eventually have integrated DVR's in your iPhone that would allow you to pause a TV show that you were watching at home and take it with you on the go? Do you remember when all a phone could do was make a phone call? All digital devices are headed toward multi-functionality.
This is a GOOD THING! Consumption of media on the go and on-demand will not only revolutionize the industry from an entertainment standpoint, but it will change the way that companies sell their goods, market their goods, and advertise. With this type of epic paradigm shift on the horizon, your business needs someone that understands all of the facets of digital media and its potential application. Mad Men Marketing has extensive experience with digital media and a comprehensive understanding of e-commerce. Let us MAKE THE FUTURE WORK FOR YOU and keep your business on the cutting edge of digital creativity.