Archive for the ‘Media’ Category

Now sometimes we’re accused of being a tad juvenile over here in Sun PR (it wasn’t me that tried to stick the “HP UX, Rest In Peace” tombstone in front of HP HQ this Halloween!)…

I’m glad to see others engage in similarly witty behavior – seems O&M let their domain ogilvymather.co.uk expire last week. Viral agency Asa Bailey nabbed it and then posted this little gem in place of the usual, incredibly stimulating and illuminating, corporate Ogilvy 360 degree brand management stuff. Pepper has the full story.

As Tim pointed out to me, not the first time this has happened. One monday…

A quick aside, it was O&M that apparently created these ads for Ka – they deny doing so. The cat ad is just plain mean while the pigeon is an all time classic… scroll to the bottom of the page for links…

Ford’s European operation and Ogilvy & Mather, its advertising agency, began an investigation into how a proposed ad — which both insisted had been rejected — had begun circulating on the Internet.

The car maker said the advert was conceived as part of a “viral” campaign, where short videos are released on to the Internet and redistributed by e-mail, as people find them funny. But it insisted it was not meant to be developed. As an alternative, a clip showing a comedy pigeon being thwacked by the bonnet, had been chosen.

“It was done as a proposal somewhere deep down in the bowels of the agency,” Ford said. “As soon as we saw it we said absolutely not. We are appalled — this is not something we want to be associated with.”

Not the first time this happened either. Nokia headed down an equally sick but amusing track with this little number. What do European ad agencies have against cats?

My point here is that a) no agency or comms team is infallible (and that we’re mostly sick); b) too much great work gets lost in the bowels of an agency and c) marketing can be fun afterall…

Better go renew those domain names folks. Have a great weekend!

(btw… while you’re wasting time, take a look at the latest episode of Inside Jack...)

All this nonsense it getting to be too much. Advertising is dead. Branding Is Dead. Everything is dead… Oh my goodness… Give me a break. Seems all you need to score a page in a prominent magazine is to declare something dead. The blogs are entertaining though…

Proclamations such as these cloud what is really happening. We’re going through one of the most challenging, energizing periods of change marketing has ever seen. eMarketing is redefining the cost structure. Citizen journalists, blogs and the web are altering the information landscape. Buyers are becoming active recommenders and reviewers. New brands are being created at a faster and faster pace, and being made to a broader and broader audience. And the Long Tail is changing the way we think about our inventory, distribution and product mix.

Nothing is dying. It’s all changing. It’s all alive and well. It will all be very different. Sleep easy.

Foot in mouth, another media outlet mouths off about how blogs aren’t important… And TV is? Who watched CBS this week? Tell me, honestly… About 11% of the country watches broadcast TV right?

What’s really interesting is that I wouldn’t have known that blogs wern’t important but TV was if I hadn’t read a blog. Sigh!

Thought The Persuaders was great. A little disappointed it didn’t probe more into public relations – it started getting there towards the end.

I’m not sure if it is true, but O’Dwyers claims that PR Execs went to ground when asked to participate. (also blogged by Pepper). Sounds like nonsense to me. And, if it was true, why not report that on the show and flag the “shadowy world of PR”? ‘Journalists’ aren’t normally that slow to miss an angle as good as this.

PR EXECS GO UNDERCOVER

The Public Broadcasting System will air “The Persuaders” on November 9 to explore the inner workings of the marketing and advertising businesses.

The program intended to have a PR focus, but PR executives refused to “go public” about what they do, Justin Vogt, a producer at ‘Frontline,'” told O’Dwyer’s.

This website met with three “Frontline” producers earlier this year, and provided a list of top executives for the program to contact. “They were very informative, but would only speak off-the-record,” said Vogt.

Kevin Roberts, CEO of Saatchi and Saatchi Advertising, is among those interviewed by correspondent Douglas Rushkoff. Roberts talks about the importance of establishing an “emotional connection” between consumers and brands.

Doug Atkin, of Merkley + Partners says effective advertising goes beyond emotions. Marketers are trying to create a passionate zeal for their products equal to “cultists or religious fanatics,” he said.

Atkin considers General Motors’ Saturn unit a “mass cult brand,” pointing out that more than 45,000 people a-year spend part of their vacation time visiting its car plant in Tennessee.

Social critic Naomi Klein scoffs at emotional branding, saying that in the end it is about choosing a laptop or a pair of running shoes.

Recently read Kevin Robert’s book Lovemarks – a Tom Peterish rant on the future of brands – which from my POV is mostly correct. One point he makes that I find communicators struggle with day-in and day-out is that most if not all products are at parity. We all dream of launching the break-away product but few get to. So, why does so much of our communications work focus on the product and not the brand experience?

What was also interesting for me was how the media we’re clearly jumping on this. The NYT’s ran a story on Clotaire Rapaille this weekend. And aside, why journalists think Rolls Royce is still a status symbol is beyond me… Anyway…

Here’s Rushkoff’s blog.

Old communications rules said that information cascades from the most reputable source outwards – in a very linear and exclusive fashion – often based on a media scoop. Thus, we sought to influence the most important folks in our respective ecosystems.

New rule. Listen to the ecosystem. Information emanates from inside the ecosystem. Thoughts, observations, news… they all are replicated and filtered. And the more they are, the more they reach outwards towards the masess. Linear communications models are dead.

There is a great example making it’s way around the web. Steve Rubel has captured it nicely on the IAOC website.

The Kryptonite Bike Lock Company is one who should have listened. Consider the following chain of events. On September 12, 2004, a forum poster at bikeforums.net noted that he can open his Kryptonite lock with a Bic pen. One day later, one of his fellow bikeforums.net forum members posts video of lock being picked, verifying the salacious claim. Before I go on with the story, think for a moment what might have happened had the company been listening and using monitoring tools and had learned of this incident while it was in this early embryonic stage. They might have been able to have prevent what happened next.

On September 14, Metafilter – a group edited site – picked up the trail. This was quickly followed by Engadget and dozens of other bloggers. Still, Kryptonite remained silent, probably unaware of the tsunami that was at their doorstep.

Finally, just a few days after the initial forum post, the story leaped into the mainstream media with a story on September 23 in The New York Times. “The Pen is Mightier Than the Lock,” the Times headline screamed. Finally, only after the New York Times ran their story, did the company awake from its slumber and post a statement on their Web site. But by then it was too late. AP and dozens of other media outlets had picked up the trail.

While I am offering my own perspective on this, the message is the same. Communications will be less about communicating and more about listening. Thanks to Steve for a terrific story… RSS his site, well worth the read…