Netflix Re-brand and More
The logo has received mixed reviews by various internet blogs. Some people think that the new logo is more modern and shows that Netflix is moving away from being just a movie platform. It represents their move into original content such as House of Cards and Orange is the New Black. Others feel that the new logo is a downgrade from the original that takes away the cinema feel but brings nothing in return.
Netflix’s logo change follows a trend of numerous companies changing their logos or other aspects of their brand identities. Some have received positive reviews while others have lost customers due to the change. One example of an excellent rebrand is Old Spice. They targeted a new demographic with an innovative strategy and saw sales skyrocket. There are also examples of rebranding mishaps such as the ill-received Gap logo redesign which only lasted for one week before the original logo came back.
So this begs the question, when should a company rebrand? There are positive and negative factors to consider when you are making any changes to your company’s brand identity. Is it worth the cost? Is it worth the risk that employees and customers may not accept the change? Will this new change bring in the clientele your business is looking for? Does this change better represent how you want your business to be perceived?
You may want to change your branding if your current brand is boring or stale, if it has a bad reputation, if you are changing services or target audience, or if there is a change in ownership/management. But always remember that any change you make may alienate your current clientele and hurt your business.
A company should always do its research before settling on new branding. That may be what Netflix is doing by only revealing their new logo design on a promotional piece. They may be testing the waters to see how the general public feels about the change. We will just have to wait and see.
More Platform Jumping Than Ezio Auditore
What this means is that if you were to view an advertisement on your laptop, in theory, the same ad would appear on your smartphone or tablet. This would be absolutely HUGE if it works as anticipated. Currently, this is in a sort of beta phase, with large agencies with high traffic testing this nouveau hashtagging system. If this works, this could be a boon to the advertising community at-large. Digital marketing has already grown leaps and bounds due in large part to the ability to view and track analytics and hypertarget demographic groups. This has the potential to usher in a new era within the purview of the digital marketing age, and with streaming television services becoming more and more the norm, how long will it be before digital supplants traditional media as the dominant medium for advertising? Food for thought….
Super Bowl vs Olympics vs World Cup
This is the epitome of comparing apples to oranges. The Super Bowl is a single-day television event, largely isolated to just the United States. The Winter Olympics, while international, doesn't have the same kind of viewership that the Summer Olympics has, possibly because it largely excludes countries that don't participate in winter sports. The Winter Olympics also has the advantage of putting up large numbers because it is televised on multiple stations that showcase multiple events over the course of a couple weeks.
The World Cup trumps even the Olympics. It is a month-long event that takes place in the summer and televises the world's most popular game to an international audience. Corporate sponsorships are priced ~$75 million per sponsorship. That's nearly 20 times the cost of a Super Bowl ad, BUT this includes a lot of bonus spots and a confirmed number of spots that eclipses 400. This puts increased pressure on agencies and corporations to keep their message fresh because no one wants to be diluted with the same commercial over 400 times for a month.
The Olympics offers more competitive rates over a sustained period, but ratings will likely diminish based on time of day, event, and so forth…Figure skating may not appeal to a younger audience, whereas snowboard superpipe may not appeal to an old crowd.
The trick to determining whether or not to advertise during one of these highly visible sporting events is to do some thorough cost analysis and opportunity cost analysis and decide which suits your target demographic best. Will the impression you get with a Super Bowl ad give you the frequency you want? Will the frequency you get with a World Cup or Olympics ad reach the number of people you want it to reach (think Croatia vs Cameroon in the WC or Curling for the Olympics)?
Regardless of what happens, the CPM will continue to rise and so will the price for a single spot (as high as $10 million/ 30 seconds for the Super Bowl by 2040). Why does this happen? It's not just because of the VOLUME of people reached, but the quality of ads increases on the world's biggest stages. During the Super Bowl, people don't turn the channel, the viewership of advertisements actually EXCEEDS that of the game itself! Exciting times indeed….
Real Mad Men, 1960 vs 2013
Creative
One of my favorite aspects of the television show, is how they nail the creative process. The research, development, execution, and pitch. Sometimes no matter how hard you want to magically have a great idea, it just won’t come to mind. Other times you can think your idea is ground-breaking, but the client isn’t onboard with your direction. As far as the business world of a career in the creative industry, Mad Men is spot on.
Office Culture
Always watching their back from their coworkers, the cast of Mad Men are consistently out for themselves. Everyone is trying to get ahead, and willing to go to extreme lengths to be at the top. Today, this would be the perfect set up for a failing business. Burning bridges won’t get you far as an agency, as well as taking the time to lend a hand. A successful agency is sustained by good relationships, not only with clients but also with the entire team. Going the extra mile rather than cutting corners is what makes a great agency stand out from a good agency.
The Power of Advertising
In my opinion, this is the biggest change to advertising due to technology. In the 50s and 60s, the media had a certain control that it no longer has. With so many product options, advertising clutter and noise, ways to order, and convenience of the internet consumers’ brand loyalty is nowhere near where it was in the past. Being able to search for the best prices around allows consumers to be fickle with their purchasing decisions.
The power today is in the hands of the consumer. Rather than creating a marketing plan that you think is effective, it is important to put yourself in the shoes of the consumer. Would I benefit from paying attention from this ad, or is it just feature dumping like the other 3,000 advertisements that I see on a daily basis?
Conclusion
So, would an agency like Sterling Cooper be a top agency on Madison Ave. in 2013? No, just as the world evolves over time, so must agencies. Technology has pushed agencies to become more consumer-driven in their strategies. While Sterling Cooper would wine-and-dine their clients into their ideas, it was mainly their way or the highway. Today a lot more listening needs to be done rather than talking.
As Don would say “If you don’t like what people are saying, change the conversation.” However Don never had to deal with Yelp reviews. Sorry Don, your persuasive words might not make the cut in modern advertising. Time to work on your people skills!
Never Thought I’d Be Jealous Of Kansas City
This service, which goes for $130/month for TV and internet, was originally only available in Kansas City, MO/KS (of all places) and has received such wild fanfare that Austin will be next. It's assumed that the roll-out will be implemented in Texas even faster than it was in Kansas City due to the city's higher population density in Austin. However, this makes me believe that Jacksonville, the country's largest city in terms of square-mileage, won't exactly be on the short list to receive the service. This seems to be fitting skepticism considering we can't even get decent broadband coverage at our location in the heart of downtown Jacksonville. SO, this is the point in my blog, where I will crank my megaphone to 1,000 and urge my fellow residents of Jacksonville to write the mayor's office, write your senator, and pester Google incessantly to have the “Bold New City of the South” live up to its namesake by incorporating Google Fiber throughout our fine city. The potential applications for this service are endless and could change the way we do business, watch television, disseminate information, educate our children, and so on….Let's start a grass-roots movement to be the first city on the eastern seaboard to employ this paradigm-shifting technology! OH, and before I forget…..that Google stock that is north of $800/share that people think will be tapering off or even becoming cheaper….THINK AGAIN.