Never get out of the boat

inane drivel

noreply@blogger.com (Eaon Pritchard) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:42:00 +0000

You'll, no doubt, be pleased - as indeed I was - to know that National Car Parks have got Christmas 'all wrapped up'.

Yes,'tis the season for inane drivel.

Brands with nothing to say, suddenly feel the need to add to the noise with pointless non-communications, usually incorporating some kind of 'amusing' festive language.

'Yule' be sure to see plenty more 'tree-mendous' 'crackers' like this in the coming weeks...[take one of your tablets, now - Ed]

remembering to be mindful

noreply@blogger.com (Eaon Pritchard) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 08:02:00 +0000

In this advertising/marketing business we tend to not spend enough time thinking about the stuff that really matters, the human being stuff, creating value and meaning, but a lot of time thinking about the abstract stuff: strategy, data, ROI etc.
Focussing on outcomes and getting stuff done rather than processes and asking 'why?'.

That's what I get out of Hugh's cartoon.
It's kinda about 'mindfulness'. Being present. Not being distracted.
Mindfulness itself isn't difficult. What's difficult is remembering to be mindful.

top of the world

noreply@blogger.com (Eaon Pritchard) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:53:00 +0000

No reason for posting this other than it's ridiculously happy.
The mighty Shonen Knife do the Carpenters.
Not sure why there are English subtitles though...

one of these things is not like the other things.

noreply@blogger.com (Eaon Pritchard) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 07:59:00 +0000

How can we, as consumers, with limited attention and infinite choices choose a product from a overcrowded, commoditised market of same old sameness?

Disruption lesson over, thanks cookie monster and happy birthday Sesame Street.

fake it to make it

noreply@blogger.com (Eaon Pritchard) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:16:00 +0000

There's a great piece of advice I heard around how to climb Mount Everest.

Start at the bottom and keep climbing until you reach the top.

The theory is easy, the practice is somewhat more difficult.

How should brands meaningfully participate in social networks and social media?
Look for situations where you can create value, and be relevant then start doing something.

The theory is easy, the practice is somewhat more difficult.

There's a series of TED from last year featuring talks about urgent need for a new focus on compassion. That series was the forerunner to the launch of the Charter For Compassion which launches later this month.

Among the initial talks that precede the Charter was one from Swami Dayananda Saraswati

He asks 'How do we, as a world, start to demonstrate real compassion, practically, politically, socially and economically'.

The answer is simple. How do you learn to swim? By swimming.
How do you learn to ride a bike? By riding.

But his killer nugget comes right at the end.

You have to fake it to make it.

To be compassionate you have to start acting compassionate. Even if it feels forced at the beginning. It then becomes a natural behaviour over time.

This is sometimes known as a positive feedback loop.

So back to brands in social networks and social media?
Look for situations where you can create value, and be relevant then start doing something.

Fake it to make it. Start doing it, act as though you want to create value, act as though you are being authentic and relevant. Act as though customer is a priority and over time the interdependent benefits are apparent and it becomes real.

The theory is easy, the practice is somewhat more difficult.

passion is a fashion?

noreply@blogger.com (Eaon Pritchard) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:15:00 +0000

Marketing starts from the inside out.
This is something that is often forgotten.

Do the employees believe in your product or service?
Are they buying in 100% to the brand?
Is there a purpose or meaning that the workers can connect with?
Is the brand saying one thing outwardly but internally not walking the talk?

This came up in an email ping pong this week with Petar

We've discussed the idea of how brands can participate in the social web many times here and always come back to the notion of creating value in situations where the brand can be relevant.

In the workplace is where this starts.

Here's my diagram of the 3 kinds of advocacy.

1 - Customers
This is the no-brainer, and where the focus often stops.
Satisfied customers are loyal and will keep buying. Though there is both passive and active loyalty (passive loyalists are equally likely to stick or split if they get better 'value' elsewhere)

2 - Fans
Fans are the 20% or so of customers who absolutely love what you do, and will happily tell others about it. though fans may not actually be customers (fans of luxury brands for instance may not have the actual economic situation to be owners - this is where low cost brand extentions come in handy, but thats another story).

3 - Evangelists
This is the trick that's often missed.
This week Seth said:
'Every industry has people who are worth more, buzz more, care more and buy more than other people. Don't treat people the same, find the ones that matter more to you, and hug them.'
Marketing starts from the inside out.
Do the employees believe in your product or service?
If they do then it's the best word-of-mouth tool you've got.
If they dont?
I'm sure we have all experienced this, chatting to someone who works for company x and being told ' I wouldn't buy product x if i was you, I've seen what goes in it..' or suchlike.

In the same way that great advertising will not save a shit product and a great product can be killed by shit customer service, a brand without meaning, that says one thing outward and another thing inward will not generate those internal evangelists, the ones with the passion...

I spotted this from Spike Jones..
'Passion is contagious. It’s exciting. It fuels word of mouth. And we’ve talked about how it’s no longer a product conversation - it’s no longer about you and what you can do. It’s a passion conversation - it’s about how you fit into people’s lives and how you can be a conduit to their passion. You’re the enabler, not the destination.'

mush-a ring dum-a do dum-a da

noreply@blogger.com (Eaon Pritchard) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:35:00 +0000

In 2002 Busta Rhymes recorded his hit 'Pass the Courvoisier'. In a classic case of unintentional branding, that same year, Courvoisier sales shot up 30% to over 500,000 cases, almost triple the growth rate of the entire cognac category.

With a Whisky brief sitting on my desk, I'm wishing big Phil was still around.
Whisky being an altogether more rock'n'roll experience...

kasabian football hero

noreply@blogger.com (Eaon Pritchard) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 12:51:00 +0000

Football and rock'n'roll - culturally connected since forever.

'An experiment to create a giant (three stories high!) guitar game controlled with footballs. Football Hero is played by a team of insanely gifted young freestyle footballers. The game is programmed with the Kasabian track Underdog'

Finders fee to Andy Whitlock.

The tech skinny is at engadget.

royale with cheese

noreply@blogger.com (Eaon Pritchard) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 11:26:00 +0000

'What you see is what you hear!' This is the bollocks, awesome.
Pulp Fiction audio visual mashed up thing - with some considerable style - produced by a Dutch fella called Robin Koerts.

the great gig in the sky

noreply@blogger.com (Eaon Pritchard) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 08:14:00 +0000

To promote the screening of 'Pulse', The Floyd's 1994 live performance of Dark Side of the Moon at Earls Court, which was shown on Sky Arts 1 HD last Friday (and again on Monday 16th Nov), Cakegroup created the iconic album cover for Sky Arts using LED lighting and light lasers on Primrose Hill in London, beaming across the London skyline. Epic.

protect me against ads like this

noreply@blogger.com (Eaon Pritchard) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 08:00:00 +0000

This Dettol ad currently running gives me the creeps. Its Daily Mail-esque shameless exploitation of swine flu fear really grates. Plus that wee girl has an evil look, like those twins in the Shining or something. Someone needs shot for this.

Protect Against Cold..
Watch the ad...

living in the lights

noreply@blogger.com (Eaon Pritchard) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:18:00 +0000

'Living in the Lights' is a short film made by Bandito Brothers for the BMW M3. For those who remember 'the Hire' series from back in the day, it's in that vein.

Slightly guileless of BB to infer 'Me and my bros went out and shot a film over the weekend about my car' on their YouTube page, when it is clearly BMW 'branded content' but tasty content none the less..

bird is the word

noreply@blogger.com (Eaon Pritchard) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 09:06:00 +0000

I sat on a panel next to the fantastic Trey Pennington at SMiB last friday and marvelled at his ability to answer audience questions whilst power tweeting at the same time without even a blink.

If he could do the dance too I'd be even more impressed, though the singer here looks to be in an advanced state of SMEBS...

this is pop

noreply@blogger.com (Eaon Pritchard) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 08:25:00 +0000

This Last Supper was created by 5 artists at Toronto based Cube Works, using over 4000 Rubiks cubes (check out some of their other Warhol homage pieces including Marilyn, Mao and Campbell's soup).

I mention Warhol homage but the Cube works style is probably more akin to Roy Lichtenstein's Benday dots appropriation, eh art anoraks?

Though, as Jeremy from Popped culture rightly asks;
'Do you think they arranged the sides by hand, or just removed the blocks and/or stickers to arrange them the way they wanted?'

brand as platform

noreply@blogger.com (Eaon Pritchard) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 08:04:00 +0000

The Autodesk Sketchbook mobile for iphone takes scribbling in a moleskin or similar into another dimension altogether, akin to a mini Photoshop in your pocket.

HT to Brian Phipps from the Brands Create Customers blog who says (of the iphone as a platform for innovation):

'When a brand becomes a platform its virtues radiate in a hundred directions. They spark more innovations, often in distant quarters, then fold back to raise the platform even higher.'

sound affects

noreply@blogger.com (Eaon Pritchard) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 08:23:00 +0000

A great, if short, TED talk from Julian Treasure, brand sound consultant type at the Sound Agency.

I was knocked out by one of his nuggets.

Apparently open-plan offices are 66% less productive environments.
How many of us work in these spaces? A lot methinks.

Headphone manufacturers take note, thats a clear insight/benefit for your next marketing effort.

working 9 to 5

noreply@blogger.com (Eaon Pritchard) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 08:52:00 +0000

Some interesting stats from The Customer Strategy magazine website re: workplace flexibility.

One of my favourite moans is around the idea that we have been conned by the internet revolution, back in the early 90's I was convinced that by 2009 I would be directing things virtually from a lone organic croft in the highlands not filing in and out of London every day on the disease ridden tube ;)

- 81% of UK small business owners say flexible hours are key to business success, followed by online working (46%)

- 39% of UK small business owners would allow employees to work remotely if they asked for the option

- Flexible hours tops list of benefits small business owners believe will attract the best talent

- 1 in 5 UK employees would take a pay cut in favour of flexible working

- 54% of London workers are forced to travel into work, despite 47% saying they could be just as productive working from home

“It’s especially encouraging that small business owners are demonstrating a forward-looking approach to flexible working, considering they make up 99% of UK businesses."
Brett Caine, general manager of Remote Access tech providers Citrix Online.

'Tumble outta bed, and stumble to the kitchen
Pour myself a cup of ambition, yawnin, stretchin, try to come to life'
Dolly Parton

meeting request

noreply@blogger.com (Eaon Pritchard) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 07:04:00 +0000

If I could hack Entourage (or insert mail client of choice here) and change one thing it would be the 'meeting request' function. I would add in some sort of priority hierarchy to meetings.

Looking back at my diary from last week shows I spent over 40% of my working day in meetings. Meetings to decide what to do vs time spent actually doing stuff.

A lesson could be learned from The Sopranos. There's 3 quick kinds of meetings that solve most of the day-to-day problems and reduce the the need for Meeting Meetings.

1 - The Sit-down.
On point and fast, a sit down deals with one specific issue, usually when there are two opposing points of view. Situation described, alternatives weighed-up, decision made.

2. The Stand up
Usually small group, there's no need to book a room or type up an agenda. It's not even really a meeting. 90% of the decisions that need to get made could be done in this way. I'm sure the expression 'think on your feet' comes from this kind of thing.

3. The Chat
Super fast and happens wherever it happens. Person 1 has a question, person 2 gives answer. End of chat.

Over to you Microsoft.

decisions decisions

noreply@blogger.com (Eaon Pritchard) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 06:35:00 +0000

From Seths's blog the other day:
It doesn't have to be a wise decision or a perfect one. Just make one.
In fact, make several. Make more decisions could be your three word mantra.
No decision is a decision as well, the decision not to decide. Not deciding is usually the wrong decision.

Me, a couple of weeks back (with help from Tony Soprano)..
Sitting on your hands costs sales and customers.
The world is not waiting for us figure out what to do.
The wrong decision is better than indecision.

Me and Seth, we're like that ;)

trainspotting

noreply@blogger.com (Eaon Pritchard) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 06:57:00 +0000

One of my favourite soundbites from Trainspotting (by the main character, Renton) goes something like:

'It's SHITE being Scottish!...Some hate the English. I don't. They're just wankers. We, on the other hand, are COLONISED by wankers. We can't even find a decent country to be colonised BY'

A relatively minor niggle that never ceases to irk is when you hear Great Britain refered to generically as 'England'

With that in mind, I was bemused by this weeks new media age cover story around the exclusive screening of the England v Ukraine World Cup qualifier via ppv on the web rather than tv.

One would think the sub ed at nma would have access to the google machine should he have any difficulty with geography, but no. The line reads..
'With the UK VERSUS UKRAINE game getting no tv coverage, are people ready for live sports streaming'...

UK V Ukraine?

Thanks, but no thanks. Scotland are out and we'll deal with it.

mini-skirts

noreply@blogger.com (Eaon Pritchard) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 06:51:00 +0000

The fella who famously said 'half of my advertising budget is wasted..I just don't know which half' must be getting even more perplexed.

Two headline stories last week.
The IAB reports that 'The internet now accounts for 23.5% of all advertising money spent in the UK, while TV ad spend accounts for 21.9% of marketing budgets.'

Cue mass web v tv hysteria on twitter...

Interesting, but on further investigation (and I tip the hat to Simon Kendrick who done the digging so we don't have to) the growth in online advertising is propelled on the whole by search not display (so get back in yer box digital advertising types - display accounts for less than 20% of said online spend)

Serving only to confuse matters even further is the story from Adage that 'the number of people online who click display ads has dropped 50% in less than two years, and only 8% of internet users account for 85% of all clicks'

In reality, we all know that click thru is the most bollocks of measurement anyway, and the ratio points at something in the area of classic 80/20 rule, so no big deal.
And, again, averages really tell us nothing. Response levels and degrees of engagement are going to vary by industry sector (and by creative use of the format).

Ads that offer meaningful interaction and deliver return on interest for the user are going to be more effective. Boring, shit ads will not. End of.

I commented on Simons piece that as more and more ad supported media moves online (tv, newspapers, music, films, books etc etc) it stands to reason that ad spend will shift.
What would be MORE interesting would be to find out portion of total marketing budgets are moving from paid-for advertising spend (all media) to ‘other’ activities that tip sales in active evaluation, like customer service, utility and service driven activity.
That would be a real story.

Finally classic quote from Danish sage and former Aberdeen FC boss, Ebbe Skovdahl..

'Statistics are just like mini-skirts, they give you good ideas but hide the most important thing.'

happy birthday gandhi

noreply@blogger.com (Eaon Pritchard) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 14:18:00 +0000

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi born this day in 1869. Quite rightly honoured by google today.
Always good value for a quote of the day...

incorporation and commodification of subculture

noreply@blogger.com (Eaon Pritchard) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 07:05:00 +0000

As social media continues it's 'incorporation' into the mainstream I'm reminded of the 2 strategies commonly employed by the establishment (or petit-bourgeois, if you like – hence the nod to Barthes) in dealing with the 'other'.

The following has been largely influenced by sections of 'Subculture' by Dick Hebdige, a study of UK youth subcultures from the 50's to late 70's (a fantastic academic book. Fairly unique among academic writing in that it is actually readable for mere mortals)

First plan of the establishment is often to attempt to transform the 'other' into meaningless 'exotica'.
This is what Barthes describes as ‘pure object, spectacle, a clown’
Examples of this were the mainstream media outrage around 'facebook riots' (you know the drill, party invite goes up on facebook - 10,000 kids trash the house) add to that the, particularly bizzare, willing self-commodification by 'social media experts' trapped in some perpetual groundhog day of vacuous pontification about personal branding.

Or, secondly the ‘other’ is trivialised. What was 'otherness' is reduced to 'sameness'.
We can see this in the twitter-columns in the newspapers, who's main focus is highlighting what mainstream media celebrities are saying about each others divorces.
In effect a 'transmedia' amplification of the gossip magazines and daytime tv ;)

Advertising is of course now appearing to 'embrace' of social media (hey, it's all just 'media' now...) and the ultimate accolade for the first 'wave' of 'new media' celebrities is to be published in book form.

Note: I will undoubtably change my view on this the minute the phone rings or twitter tweets from a book publisher 'outreach'...

This incorporation minimises the ‘otherness’ and then ultimately defines the subculture in exactly the terms which it originally sought to resist in the first place. 'Punk' couture anyone? Acid house ad soundtracks? Phoney 'youtube' style tv ads?

So, as soon as the innovations that signified a subculture (web 2.0) are translated into commodities and become everyday they lose meaning, ie what were subcultural 'signs' become mass produced stuff.
What began by being symbolic as challenges (the 'other'), end up becoming the new conventions (#moonfruit anyone?).

'I believe in this, and it's been tested by research. He who f*cks nuns, will later join the church..'

turd polishing

noreply@blogger.com (Eaon Pritchard) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 07:06:00 +0000

Theres a well know phrase 'nothing ruins good advertising quicker than a bad product' [source needed?].
With that in mind I enjoyed an nugget in neuroscience marketing.com by Roger Dooley around Brand authenticity.

Roger says:
'The simple message is that today it makes no sense to waste money on polishing a brand that has underlying product problems. The mismatch between the brand message and the real consumer experience will surface sooner rather than later, and that dissonance may actually make things worse. Fix the product first, THEN worry about branding.'

Good point but it's deeper than that. If we agree that what a brand does is more important than the message then we are talking about value creation. Ethics, even.

So in looking for the elusive ROI on creating value in situations we should consider the behaviour that flows from these ethics and what it contributes the kind of society we live in. The big picture.

Unethical business practices and crappy products have direct economic consequences.
Simple example: Using crappy materials in foods (we've all seen the chicken factory documentaries) peoples' health is at risk.
There's the knock on of medical costs then, of course, these people work less efficiently, have time off sick causing a decline in productivity etc etc

Someone once said to me 'thinking in straight lines will keep you going round in circles.'

If we only focus on the linear progression of the economic events we forget that 'nature unfolds in all directions'. Economics, advertising and products are part of one vast interconnected whole thing, subject to the same natural laws as everything else.

One of the biggest mistake we as agencies make is chasing anything with a budget, but often it pays to remember you cannot polish a turd.

authenticity

noreply@blogger.com (Eaon Pritchard) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 14:20:00 +0000

'In learning this path, it is only important to walk on the real ground, to act on the basis of reality. The slightest phoniness, and you fall into the realm of demons.'

from The Pocket Zen Reader