Alastair Crompton put it well and simple in his book Craft of Copywriting: "If you have something to say: say it. If you have nothing to say: use showmanship." Today the latter basic strategy would be a wise choice for many brands. Too often there's nothing unique or truly different about products and services. If so, my advice would be to communicate the company's identity in a compelling way. That is to say: if your organisation has an interesting idea about it's position in the world of customers. If nothing else works: use showmanship. Be interesting. Like Docomo. What to say about a wood cased cellphone? Well, if you use showmanship, it's something like this:
Even if you are IKEA, what interesting things can you say about kitchens?
Or about closets?
So, if you have nothing truly interesting to say about your brand, product or service: use showmanship!
I think today's real challenge in branding can be found in the street. Public Space as the next frontier. Even though Tom Himpe ("Advertising is dead..." and "Advertising next" - get these books!)and others made great inventories as to how brands and people can engage outdoors in a useful and inspiring way - these documented examples are still rare best practice. Dutch creative agency Indie (former S-W-H) just added a fantastic example of creative use of public space by inventing special delivery points for Domino Pizza delivery. When the sun invites us to spend most of our time outside on beaches and in parcs, Domino just brings the front door out there for us. So: Man Hungry? Dingdong! What a truly great idea. It's sympathetic and makes life easier. It's surprising. It generates word of mouth and media attention. It's not just a communication idea but involves en extends the actual service of delivering pizza with (temporary) augmented distribution. This is creative marketing and communication 2009. Well done!
The question remains: is this real or set up? I can't tell - This Derren Brown seems to have a reputation that he might lose so I guess the experiment was done for real (and it's not an acted piece of film). As such I don't find this shocking. After all, ad makers use popular culture and real life to steal their ideas from. But the outcome was quite accurately predicted. In particular the music instrument was hinted just very vaguely and out of context. Thanks Martin for bringing this to my attention!
Department store HEMA demonstrates it has a good sense of humor. They have promoted their top 5 most stolen articles in a special display. Food supplements, rechargeable batteries, lip gloss, CD-R's and Bicycle LED lights are temporarily on offer with a 25% discount. To top it off, they treated the 10,000th shop lifter in the Amstelveen shop on a little celebration. No wonder Holland loves HEMA.
Last week no less than 1.2 million Dutch people have been watching the broadcast of the 2006 Gouden Loeki, the Dutch audience award for TV advertising. I'm not much of a fan of statistics and figures for the sake of figures, but 1.2 million is an awfull lot on a total population of let's say 10 million adults. These people were watching commercials for over an hour... They did not go and get coffee. They did not leave for taking a leak. They did not zap away. They deliberately tuned in to a programme that was all about and celebrating TV commercials. Is advertising really dead? I don't think so. Yes, crap advertising lies six feet under and old school advertising is its neighbour. But well crafted great ads can still steal the hearts of the audience. (No, the length of my nose remains unchanged...)
Reading Tom Himpe's book on alternative advertising got me thinking a lot about exciting and engaging ways of making brands connect with people. Much of the stuff he has collected, acts in some sort of public space. But there is even more to be found in more intimate settings. I rediscovered an interesting example on our cook book shelf tonight. It is a book about soup made by Only - a Dutch ad agency that can be easily insulted by calling them just that. I admire them for their very original approach to brand communications. The soup book is made for the Salvation Army and its title reads "Soup for sharing". Its not so difficult to imagine why. Some time ago Only developed a brand for the Salvation Army, based on the thought of sharing. This brand is called '50/50'. In Holland the Salvation Army is well known for collecting old clothes and other household textile. Only got the brilliant idea to reuse these second hand clothes and let fashion stylists take them apart and put them back together into fascinating combinations. Much alike Dance4Life, who succeed in bringing a remote issue to the attention of youth by addressing them in their own language, Only helps the Salvation Army get noticed again by a young and upper class audience. They make the Salvation Army contemporary - cool if you like. The soup book was originally a Danish concept I believe. But Only executed the idea quite nice. The book comes in a cover made from recycled woolen blankets. And they got a set of successful young angry chefs to deliver recipes for soup. Equally talented photographers made the pictures. It's subtly infused with a message too.The Soup is great. The book looks great. And the Salvation Army gets my sympathy and support.Just before updating my Blog I found a pocket book among our toilet reading stuff (sorry): it was issued by a social organisation that protects nature in the Netherlands. In stead of printing some dull magazine or just sending me a request for money, we got an educative book about landscapes, plants and animals just around the corner and various routes for talking a walk or a hike in nature. Very inspiring. Dutch people can get Soup book here and obtain the nature book by Stichting Natuurmonumenten here. I can recommend both books as a gift. To yourself if you like.
I found this classic in The Art Direction Book. The typography is the idea. Reading it comes quite close to a bit of an experience. The demonstration of a point. I love this simplicity. Art: Paul Arden.
I think strategic planning is much about finding a convincing, compelling or at least interesting truth. Something the people you are trying to connect with will embrace. Some notion, vision or thought that could elicit a response like "...and THAT's exactly how it is!" The fresher the thought, the better. Yet the quest for freshness of thought often ends with far fetched and constructed ideas. This French AIDS prevention commercial (TBWA/Paris) is, in my opinion, a good example of great strategic thinking - i.e Truth finding. For it isn't particularly easy to convince youth of the clear and present danger of AIDS/HIV. If you talk to youngsters you will find out that they all aspire to have an exciting active sex life (inspired to search at the fringes; just look at MTV...). And at the same time they share a quite oldfashioned hope to get married, have kids and start a family life. "Live long enough to find the right one." That's the clever truth of this commercial - clever because it unites two different and seemingly contradictory worldviews (I want lots of sex AND I want to settle in the end). Great execution, too!
Update: This commercial is a sequel; find the (first) girl version here. (thanks Yves)
They sell instant fashion copied straight from the catwalk. If you wear the stuff a couple of times is gets out of shape. Color washes out straight away. Yet, everybody loves H&M. And with reason. After flings with superstar Madonna and couturier Karl Lagerfelt, H&M entered a new love affair with the successful Dutch designer duo Viktor & Rolf. This is how you make a brand cool. Bravo! See Dutch women loot the Amsterdam H&M store, this afternoon. Or shop on-line.
Chip Heath: Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die I found this one of the better books on the hot topics of storytelling and engagement. Where many authors present a couple of far fetched characteristics, the Heath brothers come up with insightful observations on what makes a remarkable story. (****)
Alastair Crompton: Craft of Copywriting This referencebook is as much about the craft of advertising as it is about copywriting. Although is was first published in 1979, it contains many truths still valid today. Reading a book like this helps shifting hype and Zeitgeist from intrinsic laws. My copy came from an anonymous technical college library and it was never opened. I'm glad that I did. (***)
Bob Gill: LogoMania I quite liked this booklet. In a witty, direct style it provides some insight into the art of design concepts. Interesting to anyone with a broad interest in communication arts. Gill demonstrates some fresh thinking. (***)
Malcolm Gladwell: Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking After the Tipping Point, this book is quite disappointing. The idea of Blink moments is interesting. But Gladwell doesn't make as strong a point as with the Tipping Point. His examples demonstrate both the accuracy as well as great failure of people to judge correctly in a blink. (**)
Seth Godin: Purple Cow Triggered by All Marketers are liars, I expected a lot from this book. I found it a bit disappointing. After classics such as Eating the Big Fish, Blue Ocean Strategy and Disruption, Godin fails to add something significant. All American brand examples don't make it better for a European reader. (*)
Martin Lindstrom: Brand Sense Maybe I expected too much of this book. I think there's more to sensory branding. Yet it contains a couple of comprehensive tools and pointers. (**)
Cooper: How to Plan Advertising Although this book was written in the late eighties, most of its contents still hold true. A valuable source book for those who take strategic planning seriously. (****)
Robert Greene: Concise Art of Seduction Recent brain research leads us back to the belief that seduction is stronger than argument. This booklet offers an inspiring overview of types of seducers and ways of secuction to get your thinking started. (**)
Crispin Porter + Bogusky: Hoopla An entertaining book about an entertaining agency that turned branded entertainment into an art. I much admire these guys for their contribution to the (r)evolution in advertising. (***)
Pim van den Berg: Ondernemen is een Straatfeest Inspiring book by a Dutch guy who invented 'street-o-logy'. Or: the fine art of observation and surprise. (***)
Tom Himpe: Advertising is dead, long live advertising A very helpful inventory and analysis of an art that in full organic development: alternative advertising. Must read for any planner and creative. Full of inspiring examples. The only standard work on the subject I've spotted so far. (****)
Paco Underhill: Why We Buy: The Science Of Shopping As with many true things, it all seems so simple and intuitive. Nevertheless this book is an eye opener. I will never see shops and shoppers the same anymore. (***)
Malcolm Gladwell: The tipping point Cram full of interesting and fascinating stories. Gladwell doesn't provide instant solutions but very useful food for thought when you try to stimulate or stop things of epidemic proportion. (*****)
