Influx Insights Tag Feed: advertising

brand as friend and facilitator

Influx Insights — 2008-03-02T19:05:57Z

A few weeks back Esther Dyson wrote an op-ed piece in the WSJ about the future of advertising. She uses the example of Dopplr (the travel based social network) as a way of imagining a new brand relationship.

"Each user determines who will get into his own garden, whether friends or vendors. Look at Dopplr (where I plan to become an investor), a site for travelers. I list my trips, and see how they intersect with my friends' itineraries. "Oh, we'll both be in London April 4? Let's get together!" Or, "Juan and Alice will be in town next Tuesday. Let's hold a dinner!" You can imagine or visit equivalent approaches for books (a hypothetical Amazon 2.0, new and more personalized), clothes (Glam.com and Stardoll.com), and even money management.

So what's the business model? I'll "friend" British Airways, which will say, "We see you're going to Moscow next month. Why not fly through London and we'll give you 10,000 extra miles?" I'm no longer in a bucket of frequent travelers, my privacy protected. I'm an individual with specific travel plans, which I intentionally make visible to preferred vendors. British Airways, of course, will pay Dopplr a handsome sponsorship fee to be eligible to be my "friend" (just as a Nike rep might pay to sponsor a basketball game and be part of the community). Someday NetJets may show up, offering to ferry me and my friends to a conference we'll be attending together."

It's interesting when you look at the changed dynamic here.

The user is in complete control, they are only inviting the friends they want, to be inside their walled garden and the brand friends have to behave in a very specific way.

Note: This is not Facebook with unsolicited ads coming at you from all sides.

This new world requires a lot from brands.

1. Are they trustworthy and good enough to be considered "friends" in the first place?

Do they have a powerful enough brand reputation?

Are they interesting enough?

2. Once they become a friend-Are they a smart friend or a dumb friend?- do they just spam offers without intelligence or do they know user behavior and needs in rich enough detail, so offers can be tailored?

This requires using data correctly and perhaps the means and ability to create billions of tailored offers (ads?) in real time.

3. Are they prepared to be flexible?- change their voice to be more personal, sound friendly and on the consumers side, perhaps even negotiate to win over a customer

Overall, Esther's scenario represents a radically changed relationship one that could be truly one to one and one where brand respect has to be continuously earned and maintained.

Posted by Ed Cotton

influx quote of the day- robert stephens- geek squad

Influx Insights — 2007-12-15T00:11:36Z

"Advertising is a tax you pay for unremarkable thinking."

Robert Stephens, founder of GeekSquad

Via Social Customer Manifesto

Posted by Ed Cotton

do we want corporations to be our friends?

Influx Insights — 2007-11-08T02:56:07Z

Facebook launches its ad platform and suddenly the giant monetization scheme is revealed.

All the hype was worth it, because it's just the same as every other ad platform invented since the start of the consumer society.

It also looks very much like an interuptive model to me, albeit one with some fine targeting opportunities.

One has to ask a simple question.

Do I really really want to make friends with Coca-Cola?

That appears to be what Facebook is suggesting, so when I searched and found that "person" called Coca-Cola, I discovered the world's most valuable brand only had 15 friends and two of them were journalists. Something tells me this thing is working already.

Taking a more lateral and perhaps unconventional approach, it might have been possible to see a Facebook platform as a way for brands to liberate their nameless employees.

A way for everyone to see and interact with the faces behind the faceless.

Could I be friends with an employee of a brand or corporation?

Possibly.

Sadly, that's not going to be the case and surely, that's a missed opportunity.

Posted by Ed Cotton

handvertising- real or fake?

Influx Insights — 2007-10-23T03:31:59Z

I got an email today asking me write about "Handvertising", the problem is that I am unsure if it's real.

Is it an example of the growing spread of media into every possible space, or an experiment to see how many bloggers take the bait?

This is some of the text from the email.

"This is a new form of advertising and is completely different from the television commercials and magazine ads people are used to. What do you call advertising on your hands? "Well I like to call it Handvertising", said Mike Brown CEO of Handvertising USA.

Handvertising USA is transforming the way advertisers are looking at your skin, more specifically your hands. "Almost everyone has been to a county fair, swap meet, bar or club and had had their hand stamped for proof of entry. We have found a better use for this space that could make everyone happy" said Mike. "Advertisers are always looking for a new and exciting way to promote their brand. Handvertising USA offers a unique way to do this and everyone benefits" said Mike."

Take a look at their site and let me know what you think.

Posted by Ed Cotton

influx interview- shari leventhal- firebrand

Influx Insights — 2007-10-04T04:59:05Z

As online video explodes and fragments, new entrants are emerging to lead new niches. One interesting example is Firebrand, who've decided to focus on advertising as their lead form of content. I emailed Shari Leventhal, the company's Chief Marketing Officer to learn more, ahead of the site's launch on October 22nd.

1. Why is now the time for Firebrand?

Firebrand enters the media landscape at a time when the commercial interruption is coming to an end. Firebrand believes that by taking commercials out of its second-class position as an interruption and creating a destination where consumers can choose to watch and are guaranteed to find the best in creative advertising, that users will seek it out. The research supports this demand indicating that over 33% of our target market is already downloading TV ads from the Internet and that 68% would watch Firebrand on TV, opt in on the web or do both.

2. Don't most people hate ads, why would they want a channel dedicated to them?

To the contrary, our research shows that 81% of our target demo feel that some ads are more entertaining than TV programs, while 74% said they would like to watch some commercials even though they have seen them before. Additionally, Firebrand offers the full depth of brand experience where users can Watch, Win, Shop and Share.

3. Who do you see as the audience?

Our primary audience is the highly desirable “Gen Y/Millennials,” a wired and media-savvy generation, loosely defined as ages 12-34.

4. How will the ads be selected?

Firebrand has developed a panel of in-house programmers who curate and program the “coolest” TV commercials the way MTV used to program music videos, creating the first multi-platform network to go “live” simultaneously on TV, web & mobile…You can’t pay us to air a bad commercial.

5. Will people be able to buy the products advertised?

Whenever a user is interested in a product featured on Firebrand, they will have a one click option and can go directly into that brand’s online environment where they can make their purchase.

6. Will other advertisers be allowed to advertise on your site?

Firebrand will program and curate video advertising as content so users can opt in and choose to watch and interact. There will not be any interruptive ads like banners or pop ups anywhere on the site.

7. What happens if their ads suck?

You won’t see it on Firebrand. Firebrand has a commitment to its users to program only the best in creative advertising. This means an advertiser can’t pay Firebrand to air a bad spot.

8. Give us some examples of your favorite ads of the moment that you would like to have up on your site?

JC Penny – It’s Magic
Sony Bravia, “Balls”
Bud Light, “Swear Jar”
Nike, “Free Style Basketball”
Coke, “Happiness Factory”
Skittles, “Touch”
Ikea, “Lamp”

9. Is your idea to show the ads alone or will there be any opportunities to showcase behind the scenes material?

Firebrand features “Commercial Jockeys” or CJs that contextualize commercials as art and entertainment and guide viewers through the spots, contests and promotions. Moving forward, credits to directors, and “best director” cuts will be just some of what Firebrand offers.

Posted by Ed Cotton

what kind of conversation does chevron want?

Influx Insights — 2007-09-30T01:31:57Z

The important ad news of the weekend is Chevron's 150 second advertising buy on Sunday's 60 Minutes.

It's big, bold and epic and the purpose is to educate, inspire and try its hardest to improve the negative perception of the oil business.

Of course, the ad tries hard to be real and genuine by employing the talents of Lance Accord and a voice-over from Campbell Scott. The result is a somewhat restrained flashback to the glory days of big corporate advertising in the mid 1980s. You can't help but feel the production dollars that were thrown into this as the multiple locations fly across the screen.

You are left with the feeling that this is a company that wants to create the impression that it wants to have a conversation, but by the looks of things you can tell its going to be very one sided. The kind of conversation where you can't get a word in.

Despite all the good intentions of the campaign, you get the message that a big oil company has created the longest and perhaps the most expensive ad ever created on American television.

It's brave of Chevron to start this tough conversation and get the ball rolling, but you can't help feeling that this could have gone much further.

This is evident because the campaign uses an old web site , complete with "token forum" that's difficult to navigate and contribute to. When you read the small print it becomes clear..

"One a topic is closed, you will be able to view all of the previous comments, but no longer be able to submit new ones. We will then have an independent organization review all of the published comments and summarize their findings, which we will post on this site within 60-90 days."

Net- We will publish a report

This isn't good enough, Chevron needs to act and do something not publish a report and let it gather dust.

It needs to start and maintain a real conversation that isn't token, but is dynamic, real and acted upon.

Where are the Chevron employee pages on Facebook?

Where are the and the hundreds of Chevron employee blogs?

Where is the the pitch to the world for ideas and open innovation?

Reading between the lines, you can't help feeling that Big Oil wants to educate us.

Sure, there's a very important job to be done, but if you want to win the battle of hearts and minds, you've got to get down off your high horse and out into the streets.

You've got to create real, vibrant communities on the internet and you've got to respond in a tangible way to those voices in the community.

Educate doesn't mean dominate.

Big Oil needs to find a way to show us its humanity.

Perhaps before it does this, it should go back to the classroom itself and read up on what Procter&Gamble, Sun and Dell have been up to recently and learn how to reach out and invite the outside in.

Posted by Ed Cotton

if advertising equals myth, does design equal truth?

Influx Insights — 2007-09-09T20:01:16Z

"Design is so popular today mostly because business sees design as connecting it to the consumer populace in a deep, fundamental and honest way. An honest way. If you are in the myth-making business, you don’t need design. You need a great ad agency. But if you are in the authenticity and integrity business then you have to think design."

Bruce Nussbaum-Business Week- Speech given to the Royal College of Art- London

Posted by Ed Cotton

cbs launches a sensory invasion

Influx Insights — 2007-09-05T14:43:24Z

Although the television networks don't yet have the technology to bring "smell-o-rama" to our living rooms, they appear to be experimenting with it in their promo advertising campaigns.

CBS is using flavor strips to promote a new Fall show called Cane that follows the exploits of a rum-making dynasty. The print ad running in Rolling Stone uses a mohito flavored strip, sadly the strip is non-alchoholic, which sort of ruins the fun.

However, CBS seems happy with the advertising, regarding it as something of a breakthrough.

"What better way to launch a new series like this than design a one-of-a- kind print ad you can taste."

George Schweitzer,President of the CBS Marketing Group.

What better way, indeed.

Posted by Ed Cotton

iOverkill or iRonic?

Influx Insights — 2007-09-01T02:56:49Z

Ad in San Francisco for sandwich store and bakery

Posted by Ed Cotton

are you ready to rumble?

Influx Insights — 2007-08-24T14:37:20Z

Posted by Ed Cotton

it's 2007 in america and someone did this ad!!!

Influx Insights — 2007-08-20T04:56:58Z

I am a little late catching on to this one, but it needs to be talked about.

You don't an advanced degree in semiotics to work this one out, but if you
don't see anything wrong, Rob Fields explains it rather nicely.

Posted by Ed Cotton

people don't want ads to go away

Influx Insights — 2007-06-29T04:05:32Z

Doubleclick did an interesting piece of research last year, they asked consumers what forms of advertising (media) they thought worthwhile and what they would eliminate.

The results are somewhat suprising- despite living in a DVR world, only 7% would prefer to eliminate them, less than 2% would prefer to eliminate magazine or newspaper ads. They also found these traditional forms of media more worthwhile, than Amazon recommendations.

Less worthwhile and in-line for elimination; telemarketing, spam and pop-up ads that were rated more "evil' than spam.

Via Bankwatch

Posted by Ed Cotton

an ad-free city

Influx Insights — 2007-06-20T15:26:57Z

The city of Sao Paulo in Brazil recently banned out of home advertising.

This is the result. (Photos by Tony De Marco)

Posted by Ed Cotton

advertising icon museum

Influx Insights — 2007-06-16T23:17:01Z

Shots from the collection of the Ad Icon Museum,set to open in Kansas City in the Spring of 2008.

Posted by Ed Cotton

google needs creative

Influx Insights — 2007-06-06T16:39:48Z

The Google machine needs ideas, it needs creativity, it needs everything that Madison Avenue has got and it needs it now. To the salivating masses of agency business development heads, sadly this isn't a rallying cry to send your books and reels to Mountain View because they need an ad agency.

Cancel your FedEx packages!!

Google wants to creative talent to help its own clients out, yes your clients.

We're all aware of the potential power of online video and what it can do to TV and TV ads, well get this, Google wants to create this stuff.

Here's some copy written in typical Googlish style ("Guys bear with us, we are just trying out this little experiment").

"Creating your video ad is the first step to launching a video campaign. Using the Google Ad Creation Marketplace, you can find a video production professional to create your custom video ad, at whatever budget you set.

We're now signing up advertisers interested in trying out the Ad Creation Marketplace. Everyone who signs up will be accepted. Once you sign up, we'll contact you with instructions on how to launch your first video advertising campaign.

Note: Response times may vary because we are still testing this service. We'll notify you by email once you've been given access to the Marketplace. We appreciate your patience."

If you're Jon's Rib Shack, it might take time for them to get back to you, but it could be faster than some of the holding companies out there.

How long before Google's Ad Creation Marketplace becomes a global agency network with 5,000 employees in 35 countries worldwide?

Via Scott Karp at Publishing 2.0

new york times on user generated ads

Influx Insights — 2007-05-28T01:47:38Z

The New York Times reports today on some of the problems brands are having with user generated advertising, the biggest problem of all is getting great ideas.

“But these companies have found that inviting consumers to create their advertising is often more stressful, costly and time-consuming than just rolling up their sleeves and doing the work themselves. Many entries are mediocre, if not downright bad, and sifting through them requires full-time attention. And even the most well-known brands often spend millions of dollars upfront to get the word out to consumers.”

Don’t say we didn’t warn you about this.

Here are links to some of our posts about the perils and opportunities of user generated content.

8 Ways to Get Beyond the User Generated Ad

Post-Superbowl- Is it time to Re-think the Creative Department

“You” are Not Ad Agency of the Year

Consumer Generated Content isn’t Easy to Get

User Generated Content- Tools for Making the Crap, Great

3 Ways to Make User Generated Content Better

ad hijacking

Influx Insights — 2007-05-24T13:44:33Z

What happens when talent hijacks your spot and turns into something else entirely and then throws it up on YouTube?

This fake Nissan spot is one example.

Via Life Moves Pretty Fast

4 ways for brands to be entertaining

Influx Insights — 2007-05-12T14:02:36Z

"People don't love brands. This is an elemental economic truth. If they did, firms wouldn't have to pay for advertising."

Bubble Generation

This comment was made in reference to the latest attempt to create branded entertainment venue.The idea that a brand or brands can build its own TV network and expect people to tune in and drop by to be entertained.

The problem is that most brands haven’t built equity as entertainers, at best, their spots are tolerated as a break between the stuff that really entertains, but they can be considered as entertainment experts. They haven’t earned the right.

When consumers see branded entertainment, they see branded first and entertainment second. They find it hard to get through the idea that at sometime during the entertainment, they are going to be sold something or that the whole thing is really a giant ad. Branded entertainment is starting off with a couple of hands behind its back; it has no track record and it's perceived to be a giant ad.

What can brands do to compete?

There are a couple of options

1.   Keep Trying- Entertainers and entertainment companies have more failures than hits. Even in the controlled world of television; entertainment doesn’t work and get cancelled. However, they keep trying to make it work. The more you try, the more likely you are to have some success.

2.   Be Credible- To be an entertainer you need to work with the best. Ad agencies need to learn to collaborate with entertainers with a track record who can bring credibility to their efforts.

3.   Quit the Hard Sell- To be credible, put the brand and the selling to one side and let the entertaining ideas breathe. They can disguise themselves as entertainment or content- such deception might not be popular.

4.   Do Something Useful- Do more than entertain-The shift to entertain is motivated by the attention challenges of television space. It’s not the only thing a brand can do to communicate. It can do the really important stuff like make better products, introduce better services, provide brand utility and act as a catalyst for its community.

we're all lads who love berries and cream

Influx Insights — 2007-06-14T18:13:23Z

Starburst recently posted a 30 second spot to promote its new berries and cream flavor. Their strategy: Be as weird as possible. And it worked.

It has over 2 million views on YouTube. Not to mention the hundreds of remixes, and blog mentions, and the thousands of comments (most of which include "lol"), this spot has become the most popular kid on the block. And its even catching on with the young lingo. MySpace bloggers are signing off with “Berries and Cream.” We’ve also seen this phrase used in place of the word “random” in sentences.

One of many questions we have is how this one slipped through the corporate colander. Imagine proposing this idea to the CMO of Starburst: An Amish-ish, elf-man, who looks like something straight out of a Monty Python skit, dances in a bus station and sings about how he loves berries and cream. It was a product of 3am creative desperation and too many berries and cream that hit the right chord with YouTube viewers.

We just hope that Starburst doesn’t turn around and try to ride the wave that they created. A joke isn’t funny anymore when someone has to explain it. They might have started doing that here:

Starburst isn’t the only one who gained popularity by being weird. Napoleon Dynamite was brillant. And many others have tried:

Most of these bizarre :30s sink - what made this one float? What makes this “lad” more popular than the singing rabbit? It could be the ridiculous try-this-at-home dance. It could be that it plays the genders equally; boys are having a hay-day making fun of this guy and girls are at home singing and dancing? It could also be the normal guys in an everyday setting juxtaposed to this bizarre and random meeting. The combination of these ingredients have either brought advertising creativity to a new level or they have reduced it to inanity.

Regardless, congratulations to Starburst for taking a successful risk. One YouTube viewer said it best: “WTF? But I love it."

Berries and cream,
influx

the opportunity cost of watching advertising

Influx Insights — 2007-04-28T18:13:48Z

This letter appeared in the Financial Times newspaper today.

Dear Economist,

Having recently acquired a personal video recorder, I find myself using the time-shift facility when watching commercial TV.

ADVERTISEMENT ( a web advertisment appeared here!!)

I start watching a programme around 15 minutes after it has commenced broadcasting - by doing this, I am able to fast forward through the adverts. Am I breaking my "contract" with the broadcaster by not watching its adverts, and do I miss out on some products that might be of value to me?

Paul, Dorset

Dear Paul,

If everybody did as you do, advertisers would give up, and broadcasters would have to find a new source of income. That need not concern you, however. If you time-shift and others do not, no harm is done. And if they all time-shift, you'd be a fool to do otherwise, wouldn't you?

The more pertinent question is whether these adverts are worth your time. If you earn �40,000 a year, then you make �5 in the time it takes you to watch 15 minutes of advertising. This is a rough guide to the opportunity cost of your time.

If the adverts are enjoyable or informative, perhaps that is a price worth paying, but it seems unlikely. While an advertisement in the Financial Times might alert you to a sophisticated product, mainstream television adverts are more likely to remind you that actors can be paid to hold fizzy drinks, or that when a car is filmed from a helicopter and driven by a stuntman along a remote mountain road, it looks rather cool.

I recommend, then, that you watch a few advertising breaks while keeping a running tally: the cost of time spent watching adverts versus your estimate of the benefits thus derived. I suspect you will find that time shifted is time saved.

clearly expressing your product benefit

Influx Insights — 2007-04-21T21:57:28Z

DDB Dallas- 1996

got milk 2.0

Influx Insights — 2007-06-14T18:12:16Z

The California Milk Processing Board’s (CMPB) Got Milk campaign is one of the most enduring and best-loved ad campaigns in history, not the Milk Moustache campaign, but the television work of Goodby, Silverstein and Partners

The mid 1990s campaign with “Planning God”, Jon Steel’s fingerprints all over it, despite being over ten years old, is still loved by planners and creative teams worldwide.

The powerful insight that certain foods are just born to be with milk and consuming these foods without it is perilous, was brilliant and dramatized in some style by great television advertising.

At the time, it was regarded as AN example of how planning can impact creativity, but over the years has emerged as THE example.

It looks like the campaign has been relegated to the vaults of history as the CMPB comes to terms with a new Internet age.

Goodby gave us a taste of the future with last year’s Cow Abduction campaign, but the latest work, produced in collaboration with North Kingdom , is something else all together.

It merges the worlds of television advertising, animation and gaming into a cohesive concept that’s stunningly executed.

There’s an amazing level of detail and the attention that’s gone into the work.

Get the Glass may become a “marker” for the future of the creative internet experience, in the same way that Goodby’s Jon Steel inspired television, now looks like it was the closing chapter of last century’s television age.

For years, the Internet was always playing second fiddle for production dollars to television, but that looks set to change. The level of complexity required in creating an engaging Internet experience demands significant investment, especially as the bar is being raised with video broadband everywhere on the internet and HD in the living room.

The internet’s communication future is no longer about analog “TV on the web”, but instead it needs to embrace multi-disciplinary experiences that exploit the creative potential of internet technologies to their fullest.

brand ecosystems on youtube-the "real" ps3 channel

Influx Insights — 2007-06-14T18:12:56Z

YouTube is a billion channel universe, but explore it by brand and you quickly notice that this ecosystem has different component parts.

Influx went through a hypothetical exercise; we tried imagining a “channel” for Sony’s PS3.

Exploring some of the 44k videos on the site and trying to organize them into themes, it breaks down into something like this:

1.   Instructional Information

Set-up videos have become alternative instructional manuals. Here’s how to set up and use your PSP with your PS3.

View count: 20k

Here’s a video on how to use the console’s web browser.

View count: 122k

2.   Hacking the System

How to run more on your PS3.

View count: 118k

3.   Brand destruction as entertainment and edutainment

Some people destroy the unit just for the hell of it.

View count: 3.5 million, this film with the most views of any PS3 film

Others, open it up, so you can learn what’s inside

4.   Community Conversation

Here’s a group of YouTubers debating why and why not PS3 is better than other consoles.

5.   Brand meets culture-news

Dozens of video showing launch chaos from around the world.

6.   Game and feature trailers

Here’s one for Sony’s new Second Life type environment for PS3 users.

7.   Advertising

Somewhere in all this, lies the advertising.

Obviously, all this might not be ideal content for an officially sanctioned PS3 channel from Sony, but there are clearly more areas they can play in.

-   Creating video-based instruction manuals

-   Highlighting new features

-   Game trailers and previews

-   Videos that explain the technology behind the system

In essence, brands could be doing more with YouTube by producing and distributing content, other than just advertising; material that could have broader reach and usage in this new ecosystem.