paul isakson // everything can always be made better

Why The New CP+B Site Matters

2009-07-02T06:42:00-05:00

There are plenty of opinions on the new Crispin Porter + Bogusky site. Not shocking really for an agency that prides itself on creating work that gets talked about. Now we can more easily see just how much it's getting talked about and by whom.

The opinions vary, of course. People who have been using social media tools and platforms for a while think it's "soooooo 6 months ago" or maybe even longer. Others like to say they got there first, or some other agency did. This isn't new. It's an old game. When Skittles created their new site, people said they copied Modernista! When Modernista! changed their site, people said they copied Zeus Jones. And so on, and so forth.

While all of that is true, it doesn't matter really.

What matters is that Crispin has now done it. Arguably the world's top creative agency, and one of significant size, has turned their site into a dashboard of what people say about them—and if you follow what people say about them, you'll know it's not nearly all kind words. The good, the bad and the ugly, all right there for the world to read. Why this matters further is that now, other big companies and agencies will consider it. Some will even tell their agencies they want it.

If everyone really wants to create the kind of change that we all keep talking about, we need big, well-known companies and agencies to start doing things like this. If it's only the small shops, consultants and the like, we'll never get there. Most big companies and agencies need to see other big companies and agencies doing new things before they are willing to give it a try. It's another game that never changes—a handful of companies lead the way for the rest of the world to follow.

No matter what you think of it, just be glad they did it. It's one step toward making a lot of what several of us have been pushing for a whole lot easer.

Knob Creek: Quality Over Quantity

2009-07-01T12:08:00-05:00

Buzz about Knob Creek's shortage has been around for a while, but I guess this ad in Monday's Wall Street Journal makes it official.

I have to say that I've been a fan of Knob Creek for some time now and this makes me like them even more. (The idea, not the ad itself. Not really a fan of the headline at all, but anyway...) Rather than compromise their quality, they're willing to let the shelves go bare for a bit.

Thanks for being committed to quality of product over profit, Knob Creek. There are a lot of companies out there who could stand to learn from what you're doing.

Insights, Ideas & Commitment

2009-06-16T22:59:28-05:00

Before I begin, I want to be transparent in that I previously worked on Coors Light. I also worked with Pat Edson on a couple of projects. I'm very happy to see how successful both he and the Coors Light brand team have been with this work. With that, here we go...

I'm sharing this video for a few reasons. First, it's because there are some great thoughts here as they pertain to insights and ideas. A lot of this ties to the thoughts I shared as a part of Leon's wonderful Advice for the Next-Generation Planner series. Especially the importance of insights.

If I had to pick between insights, inspiration and ideas for an area for planners to focus on right now, it's without a doubt, insights. As the media and marketing landscapes continue to shift, proliferate and increase in complexity, we must have stronger and deeper insights into human behaviors.

As for great ideas, everyone in this industry needs to be able to identify and believe in them. You don't have to be able to come up with great ideas. You just have to be able to spot them, support them, and hopefully, make them even better. But if you can't make them better, at least believe in them. It's the only way they'll ever see the light of day and grow to reach their full potential.

The second reason I wanted to share this is to get to what I really feel was and is the important thing about Coors Light's idea of "cold refreshment." For me, the thing that works most for Coors Light with this idea is not necessarily the way they have executed against it, but their commitment to the idea and their executing upon it in every possible way—from their advertising down to the product packaging and serving itself.

They believe in it without a doubt and they've stuck with this idea for the past four-plus years. I think that's why it has been working for them—helping drive 14 consecutive quarters of growth. Had they not believed in it and not convinced others in the organization and distributor network to believe in it, I'm certain they wouldn't be where they are today.

Commitment is rare these days. Ideas and insights are given up on before they've had time to actually take hold. If you take anything away from this, I'd say take away that once you have an idea or insight you truly believe in, don't give up on it. Fight for it. Make other people believe in it with you. And once you've got that, make it all it can be. Give it all you have and then some. It will be well worth it, I promise you.

The Core Competencies of an Agency

2009-06-11T22:34:38-05:00

I've been doing a bit of thinking around the core competencies of an agency lately. Considering what makes an agency great and all that.

At first, I was just looking at the idea of thinking vs. making after seeing a booklet/brochure created by MCAD about Kinji Akagawa and some of his views on design and art. I really liked this way of looking at it. Thinking and making need each other. A great idea can't get past being a theory until someone can bring it to life brilliantly, and very few people can actually do both of those well. The agencies that do, get rewarded.

Then I recalled experiences in the past, observing client / agency relationships outside of my own agency (but with my clients) and recalled the importance of service. There are some agencies out there who do very well financially simply by being great at service and good at making. As I thought this, I asked myself if this kind of agency still had a place in the world.

From where I stand today, I think the days of getting by on great service are done. If I were a client, I'd nix the retainers and pay for ideas and execution of those ideas. I'd hire people and agencies great at thinking and get them to give me their best ideas. Then, I'd find the best makers and get them to bring them to life. I wouldn't want to pay an agency to suck up to me with a bloated staff. Just bring me great ideas and if you can't make them, help me find someone who can.

Anyway, just a thought or two I wanted to share here and see what you had to say about it, if anything. Would especially love to hear from those on the client side of the world...

Tools Don't Build Things. People Do.

2009-05-28T12:08:23-05:00

Flickr // macropoulos

A while back on The Planning Lab, Leon posted a quick bit talking about the trouble with brands using brand values documents to set their brand strategy. Not surprising really. I know I've done my fair share of complaining about these things over the years as well. It's an easy thing to do.

The thing is, it's really not the tools that are the problem. That's like griping about a hammer for the way a house turned out. It's not the hammer's fault - it's the person using it - and more importantly, it took a lot more than the hammer to build the house.

The same is true for all of the various brand architecture/values tools. We may not like the version(s) a client prefers, but getting them to change them can be nearly impossible at times, and as Adrian noted, tools are still incredibly valuable to our profession. Rather than fight them on it, maybe we should just find better ways to work with them and make sure they're being used correctly.

How so? Well, here are a few thoughts...

From what I've seen in all the shapes, sizes and sorts of these documents, they're really the same at heart. They're meant to either help you look into the history and soul of the product/company/service to figure out just what it is you stand for, or to set the values/ideals/etc. for what you want to be known for moving forward. The problem is, these tools often don't get used as they were intended.

One of the miscues that happens is that the team using them doesn't seek the truth of what the brand actually stands for / could stand for, but instead, makes it about what they think people want it to be - probably based on a bit of research with the "desired target market." Or, in the absence of research, they make it out to be their ideal image of the brand, like describing their ideal man/woman as Leon said.

Either way, this is bound to fail. To use one of our favorite exercises, imagine the brand created as just described as a person. How attractive is someone who goes out and tries to be what they think the people they hope to be loved by want? Or, try to be what their parents tell them the ideal man/woman is? Even if they can pull this off at the beginning, we've all seen what happens eventually and it isn't pretty.

A second misuse of these documents is that they are just an exercise in looking smart by the team that creates them and then they never get looked at again. The documents get worked through until they are perfect and true. Then, everyone feels really good about the smart thinking they've got down on paper, files them away in a nice binder or maybe even puts them on some boards or posters, and puts them away for safe keeping.

Now that those are done, people can get to work creating the work - running in whatever direction the trend breezes and influencer currents are shifting, even if those run against everything that the brand architecture/values documents told them was right. After all, those were just some documents needed to appease the CMO/CEO/etc., right?

Wrong. Does a toolbox get put away, never to be used again once it gets filled with all of the appropriate tools? No. It gets put in the hands of a (hopefully) skilled professional who can build or fix something worthwhile with it. The same thing was intended for all of the brand architecture tools. They're not meant to be filled out and put away for good, but to be used again and again as a compass that keeps all the work going in the same general direction.

The third, and possibly most harmful thing that happens with these tools is the result of the rotations of a brand team and/or CMO. Especially at bigger companies. Every 18-months to three years, a new team or executive comes along and wants to redo the brand architecture. Sometimes this even happens if the marketing from the previous team is working. Seems they've got their own ideas of what the brand should be.

Imagine if the brand were actually a public building, to use the term literally towards the idea of "brand architecture." Someone just spent a year and a half to three years and a few hundred thousand to a few hundred million dollars building it. Next thing you know, the building gets knocked down and new construction begins. How are people supposed to feel like they know and can trust you when you just demolished everything?

What I believe the original intent of any of these tools is, is to help you uncover the core of what the brand really is and has always stood / will always stand for. It's about looking within and finding what's true. Odds are, the company probably didn't start out with the sole purpose of making money. There was something there that stood for more than the bottom line. That's what these things are supposed to help you find.

Are they perfect? Hardly. Can they be improved upon? Always. Should we dwell on it? No.

The next time you're confronted with using one of these brand tools, rather than complaining about how much they suck, use them as best as you can to dig deep into the the brand and challenge yourself to find what it was that started the whole company/product/service. Bring back that core idea that got lost somewhere along the way and make it work hard again.

Or, if you're starting out fresh, look at these tools as a framework for creating a growing, evolving architectural masterpiece rather than something you just have to do to appease the people funding the company/product/service. You have a choice in how you select and use the tools. You can choose wisely and build a strong, lasting structure or you can merely check the box with what's easiest and create a sand castle

Regardless of which scenario you're in, use the tools you're given to help you get to the core brand strategy and once you've found that, commit to it and share it with the outside world, brimming with confidence. Because really, that's what makes a brand, or person for that matter, attractive - complete, unshakable confidence in who they are and what they stand for.

Ultimately, it's not the tools used to visualize a brand strategy that make it succeed, but a real commitment to great thinking throughout the process of defining the brand and the courage to stay true to it over time that do.

The tools are just tools. It's the people using them and thinking that goes into them that really matter.

Design Strategy by Continuum

2009-05-21T12:05:06-05:00

"As important as understanding what to do next is having the confidence in being right to make it real."

As I was catching up on Design Sojourn the other day, I came across this great video on Continuum's approach to and beliefs about design strategy. It's a very worth-while watch - providing a lot of good things to think about.

When you step back, it's really about putting people at the center of the approach, rather than profit or your own desires as a company. Not only is this relevant to design, but it is also paramount to creating great advertising.

One of the things that could easily get lost in this, but I think is important to call out, is our role as creative thinkers and strategists - to find ways to surprise and delight people. When you think about what makes a great product or a great ad great, it's often that there is something, or multiple things, about it that surprise and delight people.

That's why having a smart insight is one thing, but bringing an idea to life that addresses it in an interesting and relevant way is much harder, often takes more time, and really is something that not everyone can do.

I could go on, but I'll just shut up and let you watch and think about it...

Coke's Newest "Open Happiness"

2009-05-19T10:03:01-05:00

Had to do something positive and fun after that last little rant.

Been meaning to share this one for a while now. Just didn't feel like posting much for quite some time. Some people seem to have a problem (check the comments in that one) with this bit from Mother, but I think they're taking it and themselves way too seriously. It's Coke. It's about happiness. Happiness means a great number of things to a wide variety of people. Guess you really can't make all the people happy all the time, or however that goes...

The Internet Is Full of Shit

2009-05-19T09:45:12-05:00

Flickr//NicP

Warning: I realize this is a bit of a rant and as irony would have it, it adds to the problem it's addressing, but frankly I don't care. I had to do something to clear my head of this. With that, away we go...

More and more, I find that as I search for something, I have to troll through links up on links of garbage that have been created largely in part by the mess that is social media. While this is true for the internet as a whole (just pull up the "recent videos" page on YouTube for proof), I'm talking specifically about social media as it relates to marketing. I'm still concerned that we're losing valuable lessons from the past due to everyone's obsession with the now, but what's even more bothersome is the proliferation of sloppy thinking and the cheapening of words that once had significant meaning.

Due largely in part to wanting to be the first to impart some "piece of wisdom" or worse, create a post for no other reason than to drive traffic to their blog/site, the web is being filled with bad advice and crap thinking by people who have dubbed themselves "strategists" or "experts" of some sort. Their "bits of brilliance" are stated as though they were something handed down to Moses on stone tablets and are supported with links to an abundance of more brainless spew in order to make it look like what they're rattling off is truly something remarkable.

In reality, most of these posts are nothing but over-stated and highly-dramatized prattle designed solely to spark a link-fest among the chatterbox that is social media. It seems the Smores just can't get enough attention and so they have figured out a formula of sorts to driving traffic and search rankings; spawning a culture of "you link to my post and I'll link to yours" – all of which only serves to spread their trash further.

Exacerbating matters, to marketers trying to figure out what's good and bad in the evolving world of social media, this makes it appear as though what's being shared by these people must be something great if so many others are linking to it and praising it as "brilliant." The problem is, this stuff is not brilliant and is stated as though it's full of widely known and accepted facts, when in reality, it's just someone's opinion written to the aforementioned formula in hopes that it will land on Digg, take-off on Twitter, or something of the like.

This brings me to my second point. By using words like "brilliant," "insightful," "genius," etc. to describe these posts of shitastic thinking merely for the purpose of sucking up to the post's author in hopes of a return link at some point in the future, we're cheapening the value and meaning of the words. True brilliance is rare, as should be the use of the word and others like it. Using them to describe all of this stuff not only lowers the power of the words; it also encourages more of these posts from the author and others who want the same attention. (Ah yes, such a vicious circle...)

It's like a person I saw presenting recently who dropped the f-bomb for cheap laughs. The first time was kind of funny, but the third one was already tired and the fifth just made him look more foolish than the broad generalizations he was presenting as facts when really they were only opinions based on his view of the world due to his own behaviors in social media and the reinforcement of his own circle of readers and followers.

What is really bothering me with all of this is that in people's blatant willingness to be so lazy in their thinking and words that are shared globally through social media, we are creating a culture where getting short term attention for oneself is of higher value than being thoughtful, gaining real knowledge and improving the way we approach marketing as a whole.

I guess if there is a bright spot in all of this it's that eventually, those who trade their reputation for "popularity" by sharing and promoting crap will gradually be known for it and those who stand for doing good things and are here to add true value and actively learn will stay around. Or, at least that's what I'm going to continue to hope for.

Anyway ... If you've made it this far, well, I don't know why, but thanks for listening. As I said at the beginning, this was a rant I needed to set free in order to move on. Now I'm tired of ranting. Good riddance to that annoyance...

Hitting Reset

2009-04-19T14:08:04-05:00

In this video, Emily Haines touches on one of the major themes felt around the world right now - a large cloud of uncertainty and doubt hangs over many people's heads. I know that on a personal level, I've never talked with so many people asking the "what do I want to do with my life" question before.

People are questioning much of what they felt good about before. They are considering giving up on things they've been doing for years. They're not sure where to go or what to do next. They are searching for answers and help.

As an industry, we're partly to blame for this situation. We've worked to help convince people that if they simply buy our products, they'll have whiter teeth, enjoy the comfortable feel of their rich Corinthian leather seats and ultimately, be much happier. If there's any good in the mess that we're facing, it's that we have an opportunity now to help clean it up.

So how do we go about that?

A recent article in Time Magazine by Kurt Andersen said,

"The present chastening can't mean turning into a nation of overcautious, unambitious scaredy-cats. This is the moment for business to think different and think big."

Every day, we are presented with opportunities to help make someone's day, or life even, a little bit better. When a new project comes in, we have a choice. We can take the easy route and just do what is being asked of us; or, we can choose to go beyond the assignment and look for a bigger opportunity to help make products and services more meaningful to people. Sure, it might be harder work than just doing what was asked, but from harder work comes greater reward. We just have to start asking different and bigger questions.

Do we have to tell people that our product is X% than the competition, or can we create content that simply puts a smile on people's faces and reminds them how much they enjoy the product?

Do we need to cram more features into a product, or can we instead develop applications and tools that help people accomplish tasks easier or get more out of using the product?

Do we need to create yet another line extension, or can we figure out a way to extend the use of existing products so we can stop creating more waste?

As an industry, we have to stop just looking for ways to "build brands" through messaging and start looking for ways to actually help people have better days and build better lives.

As Kurt Andersen said, there's never been a better time to start thinking differently and start thinking bigger.

Honda: Let It Shine

2009-03-26T20:08:04-05:00

Great new work from Honda and W+K Amsterdam based on the idea that "people are fundamentally good.*"

More please.

*From the "Making of" video, found here.