the art of conversation

'This is Not Just M&S Food'

kevin mclean — 2009-11-06T17:42:23+00:00

News this week that Marks & Spencer has shifted from its 50-year tradition of only selling own-label products to including 400 big name brands on its shelves. In a direct challenge to its closest rivals, such as Waitrose, M&S will sell famous brands like Kellogg's, Cadbury's and Jack Daniels for the same price as other supermarkets.

This move is a sign of the times - M&S has seen a decline in sales whilst other supermarkets have seen increases. It is also one of the 'next big things' M&S could expand into, in spite of the economic climate.

Will it also begin to reposition M&S more towards everyday food than just simply premium food, or will it harm perceptions of M&S's uniqueness and perceived premiumness?

At the same time, ironically, Waitrose has announced that it will be selling own-label products in Boots.

It seems like downturn has made even the most polite brands like Marks & Spencer bare its teeth, roll up its sleeves and slug it out.

All is fair in love and war. And retailing.

Simon

Surfing Google's Wave

kevin mclean — 2009-11-04T12:14:25+00:00

It has been in the pipeline for a while now and is creating extensive online buzz, despite a minimal commitment to a release date. It is, of course, Google Wave. The detail is fairly complex but the implications are huge.

If you are not fully aware of this new Wave, think of it as an online tool that allows multiple users to communicate together in real-time whilst exchanging video, image, text, audio and link-based (VITAL) information.Google Wave enthusiasts, who have been lucky enough to be invited to preview the application, have already crowd-sourced a Google Wave manual, (called the Complete Guide to Google Wave) using a Wiki open-source platform; Google themselves have released a 1 hour and 20 minute video(!) explaining how it works. Here is the 10-minute abridged version:

Its potential for business communication is exciting. Meetings can be recorded in real time, altered and commented upon by attendees, where the conversation or 'wave' is permanently recorded. Think Vitamin sees huge benefits for businesses, saving time and money whilst insuring privacy and confidentiality of conversations.

For online research, capturing richer real-time conversations than text, for no cost, must be a breakthrough. As a social tool, its uptake is sure to snowball fast in spite of the apparent difficulties in getting to grips with its complexity. It appears that Wave is not intended to detract from other social media applications, like Twitter and FB. In fact the opposite is more likely, as integration and collaboration seem to be the key ingredients for its success.

Watch out for Google Wave on the online horizon. It's going to be a biggie. Probably.

Simon

People's Peperami

kevin mclean — 2009-10-30T17:49:09+00:00

In August Unilever announced it was crowdsourcing its new Peperami advertising, ending its 16-year relationship with its agency, Lowe. Hearing recently that Unilever is looking to extend crowdsourcing to other brands is an even bigger surprise.

Is the reason for this 'creative abuse' purely budgetary? Or is it the case that, as far as Peperami is concerned, the brand is strong enough to appeal to the popular vote? The judges have been fired, now the public have to decide.

But how Unilever will sort through 1,185 entries? It will be interesting to see whether Joe Bloggs is the winner ,or an advertising freelancer pitching for the $10,000 prize. Like Doritos' user-generated 'Tribe' campaign, it's a cheap and engaging way of putting power to the people.

Although Unilever envisages crowdsourcing as the way forward for Peperami, when the brand's equity starts to run dry and Peperami could yet be knocking on agency doors asking for help once again.

Simon

Hand from Above

kevin mclean — 2009-10-16T15:38:20+01:00

Hand from Above from Chris O'Shea on Vimeo, as seen by us on Adverblog.

Commissioned by FACT, Liverpool City council for BBC Big Screen Liverpool and the Live Sites Network, artist/designer Chris O'Shea created this impressive outdoor digital display called 'Hand from Above'. Its implications for outdoor digital advertising must be whetting Kevin Roberts's SISOMO-coated lips.

The idea is to have us question our daily routine by having a giant, intervening hand stop us in our tracks by being 'tickled, stretched, flicked or removed entirely in real time by a giant deity'.

Creative Review posted a brief excerpt from an interview with O'Shea plus accompanying diagram on the technicalities of how the display works.

Just as flash mobs stretched from social networking into T-Mobile adverts, perhaps it won't be too long till we see some branded hands from above.

The next display is in Cardiff at the BBC Big Screen, 22nd-24th October. If anyone is attending, we'd be interested to know how it goes.

Simon

Flakey Branding

kevin mclean — 2009-10-14T11:23:04+01:00

We read the news this morning that Kellogg's has put their logo on to its individual Corn Flakes in an attempt to fight against the threat of own-brand Cornflake labels.

"There has been an increase in the number of own brands trying to capitalise on the popularity of Kellogg's Cornflakes," claims Helen Lyons, Kellogg's lead food technologist. "'We want shoppers to be under absolutely no illusion that Kellogg's does not make cereal for anyone else.

However Warc reports today that consumers are still trading down, going for own-brand or promotions, as they still hit by tight purse strings. So will the high tech authentification startegy work?

Only a proportion of Kellogg's flakes will be branded and mixed into each packet, we understa n d. In any event, it is an interesting twist on the original branding techniques used to convey a 'promise of consistent quality' (APG Cowley, 1991) and to differentiate the branded version from imitation goods.

But how will consumers react? Will they notice? Will they will feel reassured at the sight of the signature? Or bemused? Could Kellogg's Cornflakes even be perceived as more processed, as its 'sunshine, crisp, golden flakes' have been tampered with using laser treatment?

And most important of all, how are they going to brand Coco Pops and All Bran? And (as people are no doubt asking around the breakfast table), whatever next ... cereal which plays a jingle when you add milk?

It is interesting that Kellogg's have decided to try this method rather than some of the more conventional means of getting across the message, "we don't make cereals for anyone else".

Perhaps Kellogg's have stolen a march on the competition. Or perhaps the fear of own-label has got the better of them...

Simon

Braver Research

kevin mclean — 2009-10-09T17:14:29+01:00

Adliterate this week blames clients for advertising's creative stultification. Could a similar problem apply also to research? Are clients less open to less conventional research methods than they claim, given their frequent appeals for imaginative and newer research approaches?

Many people say that nowadays, for brands to find distinctive, differentiated propositions requires distinctive, differentiated processes in terms of research and planning.

The much-maligned group discussion can be the right tool. (Mr Huntington may not like to admit it but he seems to be a frequent 'groupista'). But so can online. And so can ethnography.

But there is pressure to fall back on 'tried and tested' methodologies to win projects, even if we feel that other approaches may be worth trying. Not because groups are more profitable, but because they represent a currency and a process that clients understand and are comfortable with.

Groups work when the the conditions are right and the conversation is honest. But even honest discourse and self-reflection cannot provide universal access into our motivations. Sometimes it helps to see for yourself what is going on, rather than to go by someone's account of this.

So one approach we have been developing through our ties with EverydayLives is the 'co-discovery'. First we watch and film someone doing what they do, then we go back and ask them to provide a commentary on what was happening. We 'co-discover' it with them.

Seeing their own behaviour encourages honest self-reflection and can add a new layer of insight and more texture. I doubt whether we would have understood this person's sense of their 'work/life balance' in anything like as much depth had we only interviewed him:

Clients have to be bolder, take a leap faith, if they want to make headway in an over-saturated, ever more competitive market. It is our duty to support and encourage them in this.

Simon

Setting the Standard

kevin mclean — 2009-10-02T18:03:47+01:00

"Freeeee-evnin' staaanad" may be a new sound for London's workforce as they herd their ways back home after 12th October this year.

But will the news that the Evening Standard is to become 'London's first quality newspaper in the world to go free' mean good quality journalism and a claimed increase from 250,000 copies to 600,000?

In other news it seems that a second evening freesheet, London Lite, may disappear, following the demise of the London Paper. Shame. Reading them on the way home was about as productive and pleasurable an experience as poking yourself in the eye with a fork.

So the Standard's only real competition as a London paper will soon be the morning freebie, Metro. Will the Standard come across as an examplar of 'quality journalism', comopared to the Metro, when both are free?

The Standard is as much part of London life as the Congestion Charge, Tube strikes and over-priced restaurants. It used to be like the Daily Mail with more restaurant reviews and before its takeover by Russian billionaire Alexander Lebedev for the price of two issues, did some good campaigning and had some good journalists. And Michael Winner.

Of course, with technology (eg wireless e-books, iphones and netbooks) able to deliver free, online news content at home or on the move, it is no surprise that 'offline' newspaper revenues have been in decline. It raises the question about paying for 'quality journalism'. Should newspapers now be charging for online content and how much should they be giving it away free offline? How will the Standard maintain its um standard? How many ads will the reader put up with?

John Ridding, Chief Executive of the Financial Times, believes in charging for online content to safeguard quality journalism and maintain revenue streams. "Clearly we have to be worried about quality journalism. Journalism is a craft, it's a skill, it requires training, it requires investment", he says.

So is print journalism stuck between a rock and hard place; offer quality and downsize or sell news for free; increase readership but lose quality?

From the 12th October, whether the Evening Standard succeeds may be the acid test of whether and how we pay for our news.

Simon

More Joy

kevin mclean — 2009-09-18T15:47:48+01:00

BMW's Ode to Joy is another example of the One Word Brief Based on an Emotion. In the 1980s we planners tried to focus creative work more single-mindedly by reducing brands to 'essences' and reducing creative briefs to single-minded propositions. The idea was that you would get more cut-through if you tried to say one thing effectively rather than communicate a range of benefits. Someone told me at the time that BMW had been reduced to Cold Precise Perfect, which I thought was rather good. And was clearly the inhuman opposite of Joy.

In the Noughties planners have gone too far. One word is not enough, even if your name is Saatchi (we like this take on that venture). Particularly if it is a bland and blancmange-y word like Joy rather than an interesting and edgy word like Killer (our brand essence at the time for a household bleach). I can see why one bland word goes down a storm at the global sales conference. But really it's an abdication of responsibility. It can lead anywhere from gurning vignettes to gorillas.

And a brief that can lead anywhere is really no brief at all.

Dominic

OH JOY

kevin mclean — 2009-09-11T16:06:41+01:00

We like to be positive here at the Art of Conversation but every so often we see ads like this. We can’t decide whether it is patronising poppycock or just twee twaddle.

The Joy campaign seemed to start out as a rather good campaign for the new Z4, ‘the only vehicle in its segment to combine classic roadster proportions with a seating position close to the rear axle’. So there.

The agency GSD&M from Austin, Texas was apparently responsible for the original campaign, which featured a BMW Z4 painting circles on an enormous canvas. (A move which saw the ad being banned in Australia on the grounds that it promoted irresponsible driving. On really large canvases, presumably.)

Then some clutz somewhere decided that, if Jack Daniels owns September and Coke owns Happiness, BWM can own ‘Joy’. We’ve got Wagner and Schiller on our side, they might have argued.

So they compiled this piece of ordure, with its cheesy, sub-M People soundtrack, its series of gurning drivers and clichéd car porn visuals and ‘say-banana-show-banana’ vignettes with an uber-irritating voiceover which reads out the strategy ‘at BMW we don’t just make cars we make joy’. Thanks for explaining, I never would have got that.

What I don’t get is what it’s got to do with BMW’s eco eD thing, as we see a 4x4 twirling on an ice cap trying to run down a polar bear.

It comes across as a planning-free zone. As a planner friend of ours said, it’s fluffy and forgettable, does not resolve any need, will not get talked about, remixed or passed on, has no traction conceptually, has no creative distinctiveness ... and it really undersells BMW.

Apart from that, good effort!

(Our normal, positive service will be resumed next week. Or possibly the week after that)

Art & Copy

kevin mclean — 2009-09-02T16:48:14+01:00

Following the success of Madmen, it would appear that putting the advertising industry on screen is becoming somewhat fashionable.

We came across an edgy, creative-looking documentary trailer for Art and Copy - a new film which (according to Spout blog) "is a tribute to legendary creative minds in advertising, and the process through which they made their most iconic ads". And we were so excited we wanted to make you aware of it (if you weren't already).

The film was released on the 21st August this year and has won a few accolades already, including an award for Best Documentary Director at the Atlanta Film Festival. Take a sneak-peak below.

Simon

Pipe and Slippers - and Bling

kevin mclean — 2009-08-27T11:32:39+01:00

A recent article from WARC reported our beloved Beeb as “prioritizing popularity” and marginalising its older listeners. If you are over 35, it would seem your radio tastes are considered second place.

But radio is a heartland medium for older generations. It’s what they grew up with and had to make do with, along with wire hangers for antennae and jumpers for goalposts. By contrast, young people nowadays have an over-abundance of media available, including radio.

But broadcast radio has a difficult future attracting young audiences with online music providers such as Spotify or Last FM arriving on the scene. Users now expect to ‘self-DJ’, 'self-generate' radio content whilst exploring and sharing new music. “Young consumers don't have that need that we older folks have to have someone knowledgeable about the music tell them what's new. They have their social network to tell them what's cool” says Jerry Del Colliano, Professor of Music at the University of Southern California.

Are the BBC more concerned with chasing younger audiences at the expense of forsaking older audiences?

Surely chasing popularity and ratings should not be what the BBC stands for. It is one thing for commercial broadcasters to seek high ratings to attract advertisers, but the BBC has a duty to provide quality content to all audiences, as a license fee supported public service broadcaster. They arguably have a grander, implicit responsibility too, in leading and enriching the public’s tastes, rather than matching and following public taste through a populist agenda.

The BBC should not cast out pipe and slippers content just yet.

Simon

THE SCIENCE OF CONVERSATION

kevin mclean — 2009-08-07T13:19:34+01:00

Conversation is our theme – see our essay, Conversation as the New Model for Qualitative Research, or the shorter Powerpoint version, with pictures, here.

But, are we qualitative researchers ‘conversation experts’, or is what we do a pale imitation of what ‘real’ conversation experts do? There is a growing field called Conversation Analysis (CA), which was the latest subject of the AQR’s excellent In Depth. (This post initiated by a review commissioned by AQR last week).

Why should any of us bother to learn about CA? As Ailean Mills says, we should ask ourselves if our methods actually help or hinder ‘naturally occurring conversation’. For example, the number of questions we typically ask, the discussion guide and the role of the moderator, these may hinder, not help: ‘the moderator… can determine and distort the discourse of a discussion from the very outset …The choice of language, and its structure, will be quickly mimicked by participants’.

The focus in CA is on ‘naturally occurring conversation’ and all the examples quoted come from real-life examples of conversations, such as a doctor’s interaction with a mother in a clinic and a telephone conversation between two friends. Most groups and depths, of course, are far from naturally occurring!

Which raises two key questions:
1. Should we all be incorporating more ethnographic methods, getting out there and listening to what real people really say (without their realizing we are listening in)? If we did this, though, how long would it take before we learned anything about Pedigree Chum (or any other brand)?
2. Are only naturally occurring conversations ‘real conversations’? Can an ‘artificially created’ conversation (ie all focus groups and interviews) not contain real conversational elements and therefore valuable insights?

What is a ‘real conversation’?
It occurs to me (and I am biased) that parts of an artificially-produced conversation can be just as revealing as a naturally-occurring one, in the same way as a farm-produced strawberry can be just as nutritious as a wild one. The obvious benefit of the farm production method, of course, is a massively greater yield (far more strawberries/insights for your money).

To extend the horticultural metaphor further, we have to be very conscious of/careful about the ‘production’ methods we use. You can spray plants with all kinds of harmful stuff and cram them into boxes and into freezers, in the interests of a better commercial return. But the quality of the end product suffers. So when we are producing ‘artificially created’ conversations, how to ensure maximum quality?

CA, as written about by Professor Celia Kitzinger and Merran Toerien, uses a particular notation, as for example in this data fragment, taken from a telephone conversation between two friends, Belle and Fanny, about the death of someone they both know.

[DA:2:10, from Schegloff (1988: 443)]
01 Bel: ... I, I-I had something (.) terrible t'tell you.=
02        =So [uh: ]
03 Fan:      [How t]errible [is it.]
04 Bel:                     [.hhhhh]
05        (.)
06 Bel: Uh: ez worse it could be:.
07        (0.7)
08 Fan: W'y'mean Ida?
09        (.)
10 Bel: Uh yah.hh=
11 Fan: Wud she do die:?=
12 Bel: =Mm:hm,

Could we not extract more insight by a closer attention to not only what people are saying but also the way they say it? And, are there better ways to revisit discussions than by reading so-called verbatim transcripts?

Of course, despite using these analysis methods, an artificially-created conversation is not the same thing as a naturally-occurring conversation. I would argue that for the majority of commercial qualitative research projects for private sector clients, artificially-created conversations are more useful, more insightful and ten times more productive than naturally-occurring ones.

Ethnographic methods
But can we not also learn from the practice of following more naturally-arising conversations? We are supposed to be experts in what ‘people-as-consumers’ say and do, not just in what ‘people-as-respondents’ tell us.

This would mean a greater pursuit of qualitative ethnomethodologies, which I think is a bit of a trend at the moment. More and more researchers are (apparently) offering clients consumer diaries, mobile phone texting of encounters with brands, on-street/in situ conversations etc.

However, much of what passes for ‘ethnographic’ can be challenged, as Caroline Hayter points out in her excellent article - there is no real agreement as to what constitutes an ethnographic enquiry.

This surely is something we, as qualitative research practitioners, working with the AQR, can help to set up. Ethnography is a whole different ball game, as we are discovering through our work with EverydayLives. A client’s agenda gives you a structure and a set of priorities that it is hard to wean yourself off.

Doing ethnographic research, properly so-called, opens up new avenues for qualitative researchers and starts to take us into new domains. It would be great if the AQR followed up on the principles and practices of CA in the future, maybe on some of the more practical aspects of how to do it. CA represents a good stretch for our discipline and (IMHO) makes life more interesting.

Maybe it is up to us to take clients with us.

But that is a whole other conversation.

Pictures and meanings (again)

kevin mclean — 2009-07-31T10:40:15+01:00

Turns out it's a film, this year's summer blockbuster maybe. The Time Traveler's (sic) Wife ... He Came From The Future, Upside Down!

WHY exactly is this poster portrait format? Is it to do with the sites available? I honestly thought it was advertising a book, not a film, maybe because the poster is book-shaped, not film-shaped.

I know, it says 'cinemas August 14', but I was so absorbed by the bloke (Eric, presumably) dangling down to cuddle Rachel (presumably), that I missed that detail.

An astute media observation, or just a bit stoopid. You decide.

All very trivial, but our first blog post via iPhone!

Introducing Twitcam

kevin mclean — 2009-07-24T12:20:05+01:00

21st July saw the launch of yet another Twitter themed application: Twitcam.

The idea is similar to Qik and 12seconds whereby you post a comment or a tweet audio/visually as opposed to text (as per standard Twitter fashion). Alongside each tweet via Twitcam, Tweeters are able to post text comments alongside what they see and hear.

There is also the possibility of a live webstream from your computer so fellow Tweeters can not only follow you for longer but get a real sense of who you are. To give you an example, here is a still of Siamack and Kevin trialling Twitcam's livestream here at EverydayLives Towers:

This is just another example of the many Twitter themed gizmos available at the moment (of which we are currently enjoying Twitpic, Twibes, Tweetdeck, Twitter 101). Take a look at the Twitter Book for a useful summary of other Twitstuff.

A point was raised a while back at the Tuttle Club about the direction of social media comms being VITAL (visual, image, text, audio, link) based. It seems Twitter are trying to move beyond text.

Interesting to see how Google deals with the expansion and potential threat of Twitter and its applications, as Google looks to continue its development of applications within similar online territories.

Simon

In Praise of Everyday People

kevin mclean — 2009-07-08T11:49:15+01:00

On Monday this week, Antony Gormley's fourth plinth exhibit opened, titled 'One and Other'.

The purpose of the project is for the general public to occupy the fourth plinth space 'normally reserved for statues of Kings and Generals' and to 'become an image of themselves, and a representation of the whole of humanity.' The plinth will be filled for 24 hours a day over the next 100 days.

We took to the exhibit because of its promotion of the everyday person from realtive obscurity to publicity and celebration. It tells us that we are (to some extent at least) fascinating and worth paying attention to - something core to our belief when it comes to interviewing and observation.

We captured a few vox pops of people's impressions of the event in which they praise the exhibition of everyday people:

4th Plinth, One and Another, Antony Gormley from Wardle Mclean on Vimeo.

Simon

PICTURES, BRANDS AND MEANINGS (CONT'D)

kevin mclean — 2009-07-01T13:55:39+01:00

So it seems we were right, they are models, not tennis players. But there are many more games going on here as well as tennis.

Wimbledon is in full swing and Andy Murray is in the semis (2 July), having survived a tricky post-match interview with Gary Richardson (surely the model for fake sports interviewer, Alan Partridge?)

But what is really going on in this new poster for Evian? Clearly it is all about sex and the usurping of male values and institutions. 'Order, order', the old order is changing. John Bercow must be a woman in drag.

The picture shows a fragile phallic structure with male legs disappearing out the top of the picture and two women underneath, able to topple the unseen male blazer at any moment. The woman on the left represents women seeking equality in sport, demurely checking her racket and trying to be taken seriously. Her partner on the right is brazenly flaunting conventions and showing off her body, provocatively holding a bottle of Evian to her legs with an expression of pleasure on her upturned face, as if to say, is this what you want?

The onlookers who are nearly all male, are impassive and self-centred, like viewers of porn, not a sporting spectacle. Everyone is waiting, time is suspended, while the woman on the right reflects back our inauthentic gaze with her fake performance and her partner waits to do the real thing.

Sisters are doing it, for themselves.

And of course the scene links back to The Great Gatsby, in which a bunch of privileged and morally bankrupt characters swan around, drinking heavily and bitching about each other, in the oppressive heat, under the symbolic gaze of the spectacles (here replaced by a pair of legs). Representing the end of the male-dominated era, the absent hero, the arrival of women at last in society.

Of course, Evian's sponsorship of Wimbledon is a clever recognition of the sexualisation of women tennis players and is a celebration of the inauthentic nature of our interest in the tournament. Possibly. They are clearly complicit in undermining the old, male order with surreal, distracting imagery, in order to allow women to infiltrate into the scene. And to support Roger Federer with these mind games ...

Evian held an event in the car park with fake umpire and pink flamingos, pretending it was Centre Court (pictures by Evianinsiders).

Evian also sponsors the Evian masters women’s golf tournament, golf being another traditional bastion of male values. And they sponsor the Brockwell Park Lido (or they used to, according to Luke here) which doesn't fit the theory but we had to mention.

So taking on Wimbledon is an assertion of the power and guile of the feminine and of imagination in an age of male domination and predictability. The Joker's glamorous female assistant/assasins are breaking into another stuffy old male sporting preserve to take it over.

It is also, of course, a campaign to support fellow Swiss player Roger Federer in his (likely) final battle with Andy Murray.

Andy is sponsored by Highland Spring, a rival water brand.

Evian saying they are ‘the only water on Centre Court’ is saying, there’s only one winner here, and it’s not the masculine Andy Murray, nor the muscular, hard-serving Andy Roddick, his next opponent, both of whom look distinctly uncomfortable with Evian in their hand.

No, Evian is usurping the entire tournament with its surreal mind games and sexual distractions, to clear the way for 'golden boy' Roger to win his fifteenth major.

Roger is no mean tennis player, of course, but the clue is in his much-commented-on taste in clothes (does he wear gold lame pyjamas?) and in the fact that he is so at ease with his Evian. Look at the way he is holding the bottle.

He is so in touch with his feminine side.

Will the clever tactics work, or will Oor Andy win the day in the final twist...?

Cloud Control

kevin mclean — 2009-06-20T13:26:22+01:00

I had my first cloud computing dream last week. A vast cloud hovered over London and the Thames was filled with disused desktops. Londoners were frantically tapping on their keyboards uploading / downloading Tweets, Google Doc presentations, 12Second clips feeding the omnipotent cloud above. Imprinted into the nebula was 'Collective Conscious 2.0'. Then, the people stopped typing and the heavy cloud juddered and collapsed malnourished, crushing the city below.

Of course, just a bad dream; but the development of cloud computing, looks to be on the road towards high levels of adoption. Despite dreams of anxiety, the growth of clouds holds positive and potentially significant changes for our future online behaviour: having our data, software, hardware and processing power in a location far away from our home and offices does not seem an unlikely vision.

Just as millions of us are happily relinquishing ourselves to social networking clouds, so are the likes of General Electric and P&G to the business computing clouds - good evidence that big businesses are not such reluctant adopters. The Economist wrote recently about how different open-source, cloud developers are looking to migrate their clouds into a larger one to allow online software, tools and applications to be more compatible (imagine being able to migrate your Bebo account over to Facebook, for example).

'Body and Soul' in last Saturday's Times highlighted how the growth of our dependency in spending more time online via iPhones or Blackberrys is already changing our behaviours with our face to face personal relationships; being physically present yet mentally absent. Even our identities may well shift further away into a cloud.

It would seem then the dream was about being ready to relinquish control on a more profound scale in the future - something we (individuals, organisations, brands) may be hesitant to do (at least initially) to such large degrees. The prospect of centralisation of control indeed has its Orwellian overtones.

Or, as Expedia would say, 'let yourself go' (symbolised by a cloud of course).

Bemoan it or embrace it, the forecast looks to be a cloudy one.

Simon

PICTURES AND MEANINGS

kevin mclean — 2009-06-12T21:33:32+01:00

It's all Greg Rowland's fault. He uses cultural theory to analyse and develop brands.

So when I saw this picture today, having met up with Greg at a conference recently, I was suddenly struck by something very odd about it. So I had to look into it. So, in this picture, do you see:

a) a tennis player modelling

b) a model playing tennis (and/or, a model who may actually play tennis)

c) a model modelling

Wimbledon is coming up of course and women tennis players are increasingly celebrated for their glamour and style. Her stance and grip are sort of about right (speaking as a tennis player). And yet...

... the overriding impression I got was not about tennis but about, um, modelling, coming from the overall treatment and 'look' (glossy/plastic, and the pose), the lack of muscle definition... and there is something very odd about the relative size of her and that racket. Is she just very petite, or is that racket an over-sized prop? Is it even a real tennis racket? And that's not really a tennis outfit. Is it?

But it was those shades that ultimately gave the game away.

So it has to be (c), surely. But is it intentional?

Pull back and of course it's an ad for Evian, the official bottled water of Wimbledon. The writing bottom right is not Livia Young, rising tennis star, but 'Live Young' the brand slogan.

Do Evian want us to think that their brand is cool and stylish and has added status given its Wimbledon connection? (Argues in support of a model merely modelling, against Wimbledon backdrop).

Or do they want us to think that Evian has authentic sportiness and refreshment values, in amongst its stylishness?

And is the model in fact a dab hand at tennis? Maybe even an up-and-coming Russian tennis star, who they have wittily dressed in very un-sporty shades? How post-ironic!

And Evian spelled backwards is?

WALK ON THE WILD SIDE: ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH REVEALED

kevin mclean — 2009-06-08T14:26:45+01:00

Ethnographic research and qualitative research, what do they have in common, apart from too many syllables?

More than you might think, to judge from AQR's excellent conference, 'Ethnographic Research - lessons from the edge', held at the Russell Hotel on Thursday last week.

Caroline Hayter Whitehill introduced the conference with an expertly summarised view that many in our industry viewed ethnographic research as anything which is neither a focus group nor a survey. So, a video recorded retail exit interview is called 'ethnographic', which is surely stretching the term beyond recognition.

Ethnographic research is 'the naturalistic observation of people in their environment'. There are a range of methods, from complete observation, through combined observation and participation, to complete participation.

Many years ago I read Nigel Barley’s The Innocent Anthropologist: Notes from a Mud Hut (highly recommended). Some of the same issues arise when you observe and participate in a culture, even if the culture is the Smith household in Buckhurst Hill, rather than the Dowayo people in northern Cameroon.

Nobody knows this better than Siamack Salari of EverdayLives International (pictured), the conference’s main speaker and arguably the world's leading authority on commercial video ethnographic research. His website and his blog are well worth a look, to get a full understanding of how his ethnographic research methods have evolved.

Ethnographic research of the type Siamack practices is a fascinating branch of qualitative research, quite different to the interview-based methods that most of us are accustomed to. As different as growing fruit in a greenhouse is to picking wild fruit from the hedgerows, perhaps. But there are skills in common to both activities (eg patience, care, attention to detail) even if the activities look quite different.

Siamack was a product designer by training and one of his first forays into ethnographic research had him perched on a step ladder in an Esso forecourt shop filming people coming and going. He found that, rather than imitating a security camera, he did a much better job when he came down from the ladder, observed and filmed on the shop floor, on the same level as shoppers.

He has since found that analysing CCTV footage and using fixed cameras in home is not the best way to understand behaviour. His way of doing ethnography is not pure observation, it is not about quantifying gestures and eye movements etc, it is a much more human, interactive, a much more qualitative process.

It is also a very rigorous process, too and quite a difficult sell to clients, partly as it was relatively time-consuming, intensive and therefore expensive, but partly also because it deals in ordinary moments in ordinary, everyday lives, and some clients are used to idealising or distorting their brands and its consumers.

But it is possible to learn extraordinary things from studying ordinary behaviour and ordinary lives, if you study hard. There is insight and beauty in the mundane (pic credit booshpatch).

A short talk from Greg Rowland made this clear. Greg does semiotics, applying cultural theory to consumer matters.

His interpretation of a film clip we had seen earlier revealed the extent to which our ‘symbolic nature’ is played out in everyday terms. The clip showed a man trying to avoid answering his two sons’ questions about what was on TV. This showed, according to Greg, how the sons destroyed their father’s symbolic power.

Another clip showed two children microwaving a Mars bar (boys again, tch!) which in semiotic terms was about the importance of brands allowing for improvisation, which gives symbolic power to brand users.

While the language of semiotics may be unusual, the way we all interpreted film clips in the afternoon session revealed that we all shared many of the same intuitions about the breakfast routines and rituals in the three households we watched.

Siamack ended by talking about the future of ethnographic research and the increasing role of technology and also how one could generate multiple interpretations of ethnographic raw footage in less time than it normally takes.

The conference was an example of how AQR, under Rosie Campbell's wise stewardship, is regaining the high ground and returning to form by bringing into the qualitative fold the many and varied disciplines which impinge on the discipline. Another example of this is the recent indepth pamphlet, written by Ailean Mills.

I suspect we shall look back on this period as the Golden Age of the AQR - just like the Golden Age of Ballooning, but without the ballooning.

We shall return to the subject of ethnographic research again soon, as we are immersing ourselves in it, in preparation for a major, new development coming soon – watch this space ... very closely.

In Praise Of ... Qualitative Research Recruiters

kevin mclean — 2009-05-20T18:07:02+01:00

Mildred Adams Fenton, b 1888, Iowa, geologist and writer, (Records of Evolution, 1924; Land We Live On, 1944): when her husband began to write, Mildred acted as critic, photographer, typist and research assistant.

Mildred could have been a market research recruiter, her job being to make things happen and to support someone else, but operating almost unrecognised behind the scenes.

Qualitative research recruiters (interviewers) find the right people to take part in research projects, which is a fundamental role within the market research process. However, their role and their skills are barely appreciated even within the MR industry, never mind outside it.

Recruiter numbers are dwindling - they are a dying breed - many are nearing retirement with few following in the ranks. Tricia, one of our younger recruiters said, "I can't think of anyone new who's coming in... it's becoming a sideline job."

Although some efforts have been undertaken, there is no formal recruitment, retention or development programme for recruiters within the industry. It's a problem.

Market research recruitment (interviewing) is a tough job:

-         Working on your own (often)
-         Low awareness of the job and its value
-         Limited career development prospects
-         Job uncertainty in terms of workload and pay
-         Increasingly demanding clients
- Less and less time to work within

The recruiters (interviewers) we work with are also increasingly under threat from The Database. Some companies sell their own list of people, pre-recruited, pre-categorized and prepared to come along to research sessions.

Database recruitment is the 'factory farming' of market research - cheap and efficient, but with questions about quality and sustainability.

Of course, some databases are run better than others. But it is essentially a different process from recruiting people fresh from the streets (or via a homegrown, 'organic' list of their own contacts). We place great value on 'free range', ad hoc face-to-face recruitment, which tends to make for more cohesive and better group discussions.

This kind of recruitment is all about relationship, not databases. Our recruiters can strike a relationship with the people they talk to about participating in research. We like to feel that we have a good relationship with them (275-odd individuals across the country, previously 300+). We support and value them very highly, as a vital part of the research process.

But where is research recruitment heading? It is increasingly difficult to find quotas, with shorter time frames. More viewing facilities are used, which makes recruitment more difficult.

We have helped to bring new recruits into the fold as best we can. We are holding a Summer training and forum session for potential new recruiters - hint, hint.

Research agencies have a role to play in training but the Market Research Society (MRS) arguably should take more action on this issue. Currrently, there seems to be little attention paid by the MRS towards Field (despite good intentions).

Good recruiters are a cornerstone of the industry and vital to the future of research. We need more Mildreds.

Simon

Carnivorous man is pants man

kevin mclean — 2009-05-07T10:47:23+01:00

In the advertising episode of the Apprentice how we all laughed at ‘PANTS MAN’, the disastrous creation of one team of hapless apprentices. Its creator Phil was still being lampooned about it even as he got fired last night. The team presented their idea to the luminaries of the advertising industry (well, McCann's) and were duly pasted.

It was a horrifying pitch. Personally I felt that both teams failed (as they were bound to given their lack of team spirit, experience and time) but that Pants Man failed better than the other lot whose idea was so dull I can’t even bring it to mind.

However the ad industry should be careful not to laugh too hard. What about CARNIVOROUS MAN from Fridge Raiders? Proof I think that in the real world (well the advertising world) Pants Man would have not only made it to TV but would have been among friends . . .ugh!

Dominic

T-Mobile Mob, Part 2: Trafalgar Square

kevin mclean — 2009-05-01T15:48:35+01:00

Between 6pm and 7pm last night, T-Mobile launched their second Flash Mob event - this time in Trafalgar Square.

It was suprising to see how many people turned up (some started queuing from 3pm); and how many of those who had turned up were of T-Mobile's core 16-24 demographic . It would appear the T-Mobile/Saatchi bandwagon had done more than enough to spread the word to pull in such a crowd.

The numbers were significant and the high anticipation palapable. It felt that T-Mobile had advanced from their previous Liverpool station success, by focusing more on a youth audience.

Hats off to T-Mobile and Saatchi & Saatchi. We look forward to seeing the end result.

(And here is a brief taster we managed to catch on camera:)

Ryanair pull in the pounds

kevin mclean — 2009-04-24T16:57:20+01:00

Is Ryanair's controversial move to increase revenue streams by charging overweight passengers extra, a good use of research or a poor PR/marketing decision?

Following a recent competitio n and survey involving 100,000 Ryanair customers, one in three Ryanair customers voted for a 'fat tax' on passengers who overspill their largesse onto neighbouring passengers. As a result, 'fat' passengers may now be charged extra for using the airline. (But what 'fat' person will want to suffer the humiliation of rows of fellow passengers wondering whether they've been 'fat' taxed?)

It seems Ryanair have justified this extra tax by using research to cover their own corporate behinds. Should it all go big belly up, they can always blame the research. It wasn't our idea!

But if the idea takes off, what will the next extra tax be? If Ryanair customers vote to pay by the mile for fuel tax, will those who choose to pay only part of the distance simply be thrown out middair (hopefully having bought a €200 for a Ryanair branded parachute)?

On top of charging for the use of toilets, scrapping check-in desks, adding a £30 charge for duty free that won't fit into hand luggage, and now a 'fat tax', Ryanair may be going beyond a 'no-frills' positioning to a 'hidden-extras' one, to the extent that they become unappealing to travel with. Why travel Ryanair when you can fly British Airways or Easyjet (perhaps a more easy-going buget airline option) for the same money but with more respect?

It will be interesting to see what happens to Ryanair's profit wasteline. Let's hope they don't start charging for in-flight oxygen.

Simon

QI: Neologisms

kevin mclean — 2009-04-17T17:34:52+01:00

Following our Quite Interesting post on Toponomy, a post on newly coined words and phrases, known as neologisms.

Courtesy of Paul at Fonda, we know of two competitions on neologism run by the Washington Post.

The 'Mensa Invitational Contest' asks readers to add, change or delete one letter from a word in the dictionary and then it provide with a new meaning. A few of our favourites are:

- Cashtration: The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period of time.
- Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realise it was your money to start with.
- Bozone: The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating.
- Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.
- Karmageddon: It's like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a serious bummer.
- Dopeler Effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.
- Beelzebug: Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.

WP's second competition, asks readers "to supply alternate meanings for common words". Some memorable ones here are:

- Coffee (n.) The person upon whom one coughs.
- Flabbergasted, (adj.) Appalled by discovering how much weight one has gained.
- Abdicate (v.) To give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.
- Negligent (adj.) Absentmindedly answering the door when wearing only a nightgown.
- Flatulence (n.) Emergency vehicle that picks up someone who has been run over by a steamroller.
- Balderdash (n.) A rapidly receding hairline.
- Frisbeetarianism (n.) The belief that, after death, the soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there.

(Although absent from the WP site itself, you can find the full word hoard here.)

So be careful in your next meeting, if you are surrounded by 'bozone' whilst struggling to come up with breakthorugh ideas or even become a 'coffee' from a flu-ridden colleague sitting next to you.

Although Samuel Johnson would probably be turning in his grave seeing words "debased by vulgar mouths and contaminated", our view is that neologisms are a bit of fun and, semiotically speaking, it is always useful to understand how our 'post Norman tongue' is evolving. I wonder if we looked over past transcripts, how many respondent neologisms we've overlooked?

Simon

Beginning of the end, or end of the beginning?

kevin mclean — 2009-04-14T17:02:00+01:00

If innocent drinks got a pound every time someone proclaimed the 'end of (the age of) innocence', maybe they wouldn’t have had to sell a “10–20%” stake to Coca Cola, as announced last week.

You could almost smell the singed wool of little woolen hats being ceremonially burned in back gardens the length and breadth of Crouch End and Stoke Newington, in protest at the news.

A quick study of more than 300 comments on innocent's blog to date reveals that:

about 80% of the comments are negative
only about 10% are positive and about the same % neutral
the main sentiment is disappointment, tinged with anger and indignation

Some excerpts from the comments:

you have killed your brand forever
so long, and thanks for all the fruit
you have blood on your hands
never trust a hippy
I'm hopeful that … some of your ideals will rub off on (Coca Cola) .
right now, I just feel a little bit heartbroken.
love your products. Used to admire your ethics. I'd have sent you a tenner if you'd asked!
as my old granny (never actually) said: "If you lie down with dogs, you wake up with fleas."

Innocent seem to have been quite open about their motivations and transparent in how they have reported the comments quoted above. They have previously courted controversy among fans by trialling innocent Smoothies for Kids in some McDonald's outlets.

And now they are getting a right kicking from the same previously loyal innocent fans. Did they see this coming? Did they know what Coca Cola meant to this (presumably) vocal but influential minority of their customer base? Did their initial press release strike the right note?

It is a fair assumption that the deal was debated long and hard and was not a decision that the founders took lightly. Co-founder Richard Reed said that they considered at least 15 candidates (wonder who they were?) and went for Coke because “they can help us get our products to more people in more places. Plus … there will be things we can learn from them. And in some small ways we may be able to influence their thinking too”

In the blog he gives different reasons: Coke "were the ones who guaranteed a hands-off approach; an approach that means that we continue to run innocent our way". They didn’t line up 15 bins at a festival and ask people to vote on what they should do next. That’s how far the company has come since it started ten years ago. And the the deal is surely about the next phase of the company - the teenage years.

The deal raises interesting questions about what people think about innocent and Coca Cola as organisations. There is a lot of idealising of innocent and demonising of Coca Cola. It's easier to see things in black and white terms, to think of heroes and villains. With innocent/Coke so with Body Shop/L'Oreal, Green & Black's/Cadbury's and Ben & Jerry's/Unilever, the narrative is niche-brand-with-values meets large-corporation-with-cash. The slight caveat is that we are only talking about a 10% stake. Or possibly a 20% stake.

We have been (ever so politely) critical of Coca Cola in the past and so has innocent, intriguingly. Now innocent’s chief spokesperson has commendably taken on the doubters on one of the 'anti' campaigning Facebook Groups, including celebrity opponents such as Mark Thomas.

It would be fascinating to know what the terms of the deal are - what are innocent’s ‘conditions of satisfaction’? Will they eventually buy back the investor’s share (as Pret did with McDonald’s 30% stake)? Will they sell (out) more? What effect will they be able to have (if any) on Coca Cola’s future direction and intentions?

And why is the stake quoted as “10-20%”? Is the deal some kind of sliding scale/conditional arrangement? Do they not want to disclose the exact amount? Or are the founders a bit hazy on detail?

In our (apparently minority) opinion, the deal is a Good Thing if:
- they do, in fact, keep to their core principles
- they do have some kind of positive effect in the Coke corridors of power

I wonder, how will they know if or when these conditions are met?

Let’s just hope that big business is not bad for innocent's business. If "there is no such thing as a large AND ethical company" then for this investment to pay off, for innocent to be starting a new, more grown up chapter in its life - this would REALLY set an interesting precedent.

Not just for the “tree huggers” in north London (like me, except for the tree-hugging bit), since now everyone is watching.

QI (Toponymy-cally speaking)

kevin mclean — 2009-03-27T17:25:47+00:00

Spending a deal of time ‘on the road’ this week, I was reminded how my Toponymy knowledge from a by-gone university era had eluded me. Attempting to re-educate myself and to add more pazazz to fieldwork-related travelling, I have dusted off my old notes and looked again into meanings behind names of places where us reseachers (and the like) spend time on our travels. Hopefully, yours will become more illuminated as a result.

Three good major 'toponyms' to start with are:

Manchester from ‘Mamm’ meaning ‘breast-like hill’ and ‘ceaster’ meaning ‘Roman town’
Birmingham: Split into three parts: 'Beormund' as a name, 'ingas' as 'people,' and 'ham' as 'farm/homestead’ i.e. Beormund's people’s farm
London: "place belonging to a man named Londinos," a supposed Celtic personal name meaning "the wild one,"

And here is a light sprinkling of suffixes that should help decode other place-name meanings:

Borough/Bury (a fort of fortified place); By (village); Caster, Chester, Cester (Roman fort or town); Den (pasture for pigs); Don (hill); Ea/ey (island or promontory); Ham (village or estate); Holt (wood); Hurst (Meant a wooded hill); Ing (the people of somewhere); Mere (meant a pond); Stoke (hamlet or little settlement dependent on a nearby, larger settlement); Ton (farm or hamlet); Wick (vicinity, trading place, specialised farm e.g. Gatwick was a goat farm, Chiswick a cheese farm); Worth (enclosure or an enclosed settlement enclosed by a wall of wooden stakes).

Although, scratching the toponymical surface, may your travels now be more curious and less cryptic.

Simon

KISS

kevin mclean — 2009-03-20T15:47:19+00:00

Pepsi have recently undergone a redesign that makes their packaging look more sleek and airbrushed, with the logo slightly altered. It would appear a great deal of 'over-thinking' has accompanied this re-design.

The Guardian featured Pepsi's 27 page document about the redesign, and describing it as 'an elaborate 27-page long spoof'. The Guardian also featured an article on the failure of much management theory over recent years, which has suffered from over-intellectualisation (how 2012) and little applicability .

On the other hand, there are enough examples of 'under-thinking' that made us wonder 'is strategy dead?' - two notable advertising examples being Cadbury's Gorilla and Sony's large plasticine rabbits.

This made us wonder if we (researchers, planners, brand consultants etc) may be suffering from a case of ivory-tower-itis. Perhaps it serves to mark territories and thought leadership within this industry, but it may be having an adverse affect on brands as a result.

It's difficult for brands to strike the right balance between seeking innovation and staying relevant and meaningful to consumers. But with people being increasingly 'brand savvy' is Pepsi jeopardising the connection between its brands/products and their consumers?

Helping people 'get it' is surely more important than losing them by being too clever by half. And when government bodies now prefer us to use baffling terminology of 'thought shower' (instead of brainstorm) or 'centre of learning' (instead of school), we could take some heed and K.I.S.S. some more.

A great K.I.S.S example is this latest ad from Dyson:

Post-identity politics

kevin mclean — 2009-03-13T16:32:45+00:00

That’s funny. The day we send in our report to a prominent think tank on ‘post-identity politics in contemporary Britain’ (Discuss) is Red Nose Day.

The research we did looked into questions such as:

How do people now express their identity?
How are people affected by any sense of group identity?

While organisations typically classify people into various ‘boxes’ (marketing services does it all the time, eg male, 35-45, C2D, north), most people reject the idea that who they are as a person is truly reflected in these or any similar categories.

There is a lot of discussion about Britain being a highly diverse, multicultural country and yet there are tensions between the different ‘strands’ of identity, such as religion and belief, race and ethnicity. Some feel there is more segregation in British society nowadays, not less. The BNP is actively campaigning to gain European seats.

So on the day we have been pondering divisions and schisms in society, we can now join in with Red Nose Day in celebrating our common humanity.

Comic Relief has so far raised £600m since its inception in 1985. The idea of using a red nose as a visual symbol was a last-minute idea from marketing executive Peter Crossing, which Richard Curtis and Co initially thought would never work.

But the red nose and Red Nose Day are strokes of genius and give us all a chance to augment our identities and share in a common cause.

Tasting the Digital Rainbow

kevin mclean — 2009-03-06T13:49:40+00:00

As part of Skittles' latest 'Taste the Rainbow campaign’, a web application has been developed that has been described by its enthusiasts as a ‘social media maker-over’. It is a straightforward, online tool design that links to Skittles themed pages, existing on the social media sites YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, Wiki and Facebook.

A few comments on BrandRepulic and a few blog posts view this as damaging to a brand in releasing control and abandoning it to abuse in the swirling Twittersphere; but for the world of the digital consumer at least, it appears to be starting quite a buzz (at least if the responses to the Twitter feed and the 590, 638 Facebook Fans are to go by).

In my view, Skittles has to be applauded for their bravery in taking brands further in the social media world – it’s certainly more interesting than a typical microsite. It allows Skittles to appear informative about their product, relevant to the wider online masses, (a copied but) innovative application, community- building, and conversation provoking.

Skittles is also brave leaving itself open to spamming without the ability to moderate comments on the real time Twitter feed (as can be done on the YouTube, Flickr and Facebook pages). Having observed the Twitter feed intermittently, there are occasional negative comments; but there appears to be more upbeat Twitterers who are participating in the Skittles conversation: posting up links to their blog posts on the Skittles topic or simply self-promoting on the main Twitter feed (by crowbaring the word ‘Skittles’ into their Tweets).

Although buzz does not guarantee increased sales, it seems that it will do a lot to raise the profile and consideration of a brand that has kept relatively silent in recent times. Supported by a kooky but memorable TV ad, this work from Agency.com is a brave piece of communication whose success (or failure) will be worth learning from for companies concerned about relinquishing their brands to online social media.

Exploring Y-space

kevin mclean — 2009-02-24T18:23:33+00:00

We set up an experimental Generation-Y online community, made up of 16-18 year olds. It's been running for six weeks of its intended 3 months, so it's half time and time to take stock, have some oranges and a bit of team talk. Incidentally, it's called Y-space (Do you see what we've done there?)

We've had some successes and some, um, learnings. We've had successful live online discussions, detailed responses to who they are, what they're into and what their hopes are for the future.

On the learnings side, some Y-Spacers are far more dedicated than others. We've been experimenting with how to increase response rates by making changes to the content and trying to make it feel more of a community than a panel.

We also realise that cash incentives don't necessarily lead to participation. So maybe more important than a financial incentive is to feel involved in something, to feel part of a community, to feel that they are influencing or contributing to the worlds of marketing, brands and media.

We've had surprises too. We thought this generation would be more 2.0 and techno-savvy than they are, like little Matrix-style-Neos leading the digital revolution from their touch screens and web cams. Instead, we're re-evaluating their abilities as both online and offline socialites, phatic communicators, active in the digital world as long as it is accessible and simple.

One thing is clear, however. When it came to a live chat recently the one subject which got them going was to debate the relative merits of MySpace and Facebook. These are people who have grown up with the internet as an interactive, socially-enabling medium. So if politicians and legislators want to influence the Y-generation, they should match this mentality and use their websites and blogs as two-way communication tools rather than as transmitters of information.

We're halfway through our trial and keen to build on our emerging community of Generation-Y-ers. A working hypothesis is that we are looking at a generation of "glue kids": maybe light on techno-savviness yet highly capable of pulling different kinds of people together.

Interested in any feedback, any experiences people have had setting up or participating in online communities?

Simon

Twitter for all or just for the Twitterati?

kevin mclean — 2009-02-17T17:37:22+00:00

Twitter has been described both as 'the online equivalent of popping bubble wrap' and a 'megaphone for the planet' as it grows at an explosive rate. Following recent celebrity endorsement from Stephen Fry and Jonathon Ross, a sea of articles have done much to promote it. Like the glory days of MySpace and FriendsReunited, it would seem that lots of people are venturing into 'Twitterland'.

Whilst Twitter is growing popularity is indisputable, we've been wondering whether it will be for the 'Twitterati', digital lovers alone or will the wider masses take to tweeting with equal frequency?

Current membership numbers are estimated at 6 million globally - far less than Facebook's 175 million users - so it is popular enough to get people tweeting and talking about tweeting and going to Twestivals. For the social media enthusiasts it offers opportunities to get real-time contact, insight into the lives of the rich and the famous; the opportunity to make contacts that may otherwise be difficult face-to-face; airing of opinions; ideas; up-to-date news and so on.

But, having tried Twitter on and off over recent months, I am usually left with a feeling of overkill given the time required to participate and the high frequency of tweets. It is useful for the odd message where conventional means fail; otherwise, I'm happy enough knowing about it, observing from the outside.

And Twitter has its limitations. Tweets are limited to 140 characters; there are no pictures or videos to upload into memorable albums; no groups to set up; no games to play; and it requires regular participation to get meaning from it. So will the 'non-twitterati' have time or desire to regularly participate beyond the current buzz? It's reasonable to suggest that Twitter may have to develop more applications if it wants to broaden its appeal and encourage regular participation.

Of course, now that some $35m investment has been secured, maybe Twitter will develop as FB did, which itself started out as fairly single-minded and non graphic. Or maybe it will stay true to its origins and continue to evolve as a complementary platform to FB.

My hunch is that 'Twitter' will continue to be the rage for social media enthusiasts. For the 'non-twitterati', regular participation on one social network may be enough, so don't expect a mass migration to Twitterland, unless there are more applications waiting in the wings...

Simon

A reason to smile (in the short run)

kevin mclean — 2009-02-09T14:53:04+00:00

T-Mobile must be smiling. It seems their latest ad has caught a wave ... or helped create one.

Last Friday, a Facebooker named 'Crazzy Eve' organised a flash mob to replicate T-Mobile's latest advert which overran Liverpool street station. Apparently, the station had to be shut for 90 minutes with a few arrests made for minor offences (and nobody expected this Spanish Inquisition from Radio 5LIVE).

If you are looking for evidence for the short-term effectiveness of advertising, this is a good start. That is, if you believe it has NOT been sneakily supported by T-Mobile, Saatchi & Saatchi or used by Crazzy Eve and his Facebook group 'The Crazy Rave Group' for an easy PR stunt. Call us cynical or old fashioned (thank you), but if it WAS started by someone with connections with T-Mobile or any of their agencies, they’d be sure to cover up their tracks. So maybe we will only learn the truth when Richard pens his memoirs.

So if it was a spontaneous event, it shows T-Mobile are communicating the proposition of ‘sharing’ effectively; building brand relationships and understanding their target market, whilst allowing them to participate - rather than simply engage - with the brand.

But what about the long term? What happens if/when more advertisers continue to jump on the stunt/entertainment bandwagon? Isn’t ‘sharing’ more a by-product of live entertainment rather than an ownable T-Mobile brand property?

To distinguish between competitors in the long run, surely distinctive, long-term strategy is needed (as Dominic argues) – difficult if everyone gets swept up in similar advertising styles.

Where this looks to be a hit in the short term (and is T-Mobile about the short-term?) and is an intriguing example of art-imitating-life-imitating-art, doesn't it also underline the importance of thinking and planning for the long-term?

Simon

Strategy is dead. Or is it?

kevin mclean — 2009-01-27T17:29:54+00:00

Look at the most admired recent advertising: bouncing balls, drumming gorillas and now dancing eyebrows. What they have in common (apart from being from Fallon) is no discernible strategy, as Mark mentioned. It’s not saying anything about the product, it’s not identifying a consumer need, it’s not based on any consumer insight. It’s all about entertainment and any strategy is to ‘justify the strapline’.

Is the new idea to have no idea? What’s going on?

But it’s also a new intellectual environment where people rely less on carefully laid plans to meet consumers’ rational and emotional needs and more on ‘simple’ publicity and word of mouth. If the marketing game is all about being famous then maybe entertainment is the only thing that matters.

Thinking back, there were always ads with new products or in growing categories where the strategy/ brand positioning/ USP were clear (like the introduction of the Dyson for example) and ads where strategy was ditched for legal or other reasons in favour of pure entertainment (a great read on this is Sam Delaney's Get Smashed.)

Would be great to know whether pure entertainment is effective in the long run. Successful advertising builds strong brand associations over time. But that isn’t going to be achieved with ‘pure’ entertainment and a strapline. Or is it?

Dominic

Ideas, insights and delusions

kevin mclean — 2009-01-20T11:47:07+00:00

We researchers used to work a lot with advertising planners. We used to have a common purpose, looking for ideas and insights which help to explain a market or a brand. To adapt the line used by Dave Trott to describe planners and creatives, we used to drink from the same well of inspiration – although planners got to piss in it first. (Pic by lulidesigns)

But what has happened to planners that they now feel they have to sneer at qualitative research? It’s a bit like your outgoing and stylish younger sibling, who you got on so well with, now saying that you are so-o boring and predictable. You spoil the fun. You don’t have any imagination.

When account planning started, planners did not feel the need to put down research, or act as if research and ideas were somehow opposed. They used research to help to generate insights (cf JWT's 'planning begins at 40' event). Planning co-founder Stephen King said "you cannot know the facts until you've had an idea". He was a keen supporter of research, advocating 'occasionally beautiful' research and calling for more imaginative solutions and processes.

Is research any less beautiful now, or are planners getting more and more desperate? You might think the latter, to judge from two recent posts from Adliterate.

In ‘Great ideas can come from anywhere, my arse’ Richard goes on about whether or not anyone but a planner can have a decent idea. What?? It is patently obvious that anyone CAN have a good idea and to suggest otherwise is paranoid, arrogant nonsense. It’s like saying that only an athlete can touch their toes. What he probably meant is that ideas professionals are best equipped to recognise and to develop good ideas – which is a different argument, as Mark spotted.

The post, ‘new year’s revelations’, claims that there are four sources of insights and none of these is research (obviously). They are, a planner’s own instinct and experiences, spending time with ‘real people’, academics and ‘weird shit’. And what we call an insight should really be a ‘revelation’.

The revelation idea, taken from Simon Law, is quite a revealing projection. To call an idea a revelation implies a superior intelligence. It suggests that planners (or some planners at least) are getting a bit delusional. Only planners can have good ideas. Only planners can access ‘revelations’ about humankind.

So your younger sibling has run off with cousin creative, grown a beard and joined a cult that believes they have the ear of God. Let’s hope it doesn’t end in tears, or in some kind of siege of

Charlotte St.

The great thing about ‘Adliterant’ is that it sets out to be provocative and is a great read. The only thing that is missing from the idea/insight/revelation debate, we humbly suggest, is a little humility.

In praise of... justgiving.com

kevin mclean — 2009-01-09T15:00:49+00:00

Particularly for those who feel that the internet make us all a little bit more selfish, we wanted to laud the merits of justgiving.com.

Justgiving.com is an online tool allowing people to raise money for the charity or cause of their choice and to contact other people to get donations or sponsorship.

For example, one of our colleagues, Neil, is currently raising money on behalf of One World Action by running in the next London marathon (you can donate here).

Along with sites such as charity choice and charities trust, justgiving allows you to donate to a cause of your choice or setup your own fundraising page. With many charities struggling to break even, it is good to know that justgiving takes only 5% commission from donations.

It's a good reminder of the positive power of a website to act as a force for good in the web 2.0 world, connecting the more wealthy with more impoverished people.

Convergence Confusion

kevin mclean — 2009-01-06T16:29:42+00:00

I've been investing in a great deal of 'convergence technology' recently (ie Sky Plus, Playsation 3) but it seems with innovation comes confusion.

One of the points of convergence technology is to have everything in one place. I can watch the lastest episode of Top Gear on BBC's iPlayer via my Playsation 3's wireless facility or playback Harry Hill's TV Burb 2008 Review using Sky Plus at a time convenient to me.

However, the path to this Nirvana is full of barriers. It's not only the setup that's confusing; but the pile of indistinguishable multi-buttoned remotes you need to operate the various boxes. I have five controllers - analogue TV, Sky Plus/Digital TV, Playstaion 3/Blu Ray player, VHS, the stereo.

TV advertising may be under threat from 'new media' and convergence technology, but I get the impression this evolution is a slow burn. With over half the population appearing to be relatively slow-adopters of technology, it's likely they'll prefer to set their free time around Corrie rather than investing in the benefits that convergence technology will surely, eventually deliver with more simplicity.

Simon

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR

kevin mclean — 2008-12-23T09:57:39+00:00

Wardle McLean's offices are now closed until 5 Jan 09. We all wish you a calm, peaceful and recession-free festive period.

This year with the money saved from cards and stamps we are donating to SOS Children’s Villages who provide a family for life for children who have lost their parents. Over 70,000 orphaned or abandoned children are cared for by SOS in 473 children’s villages in 123 countries around the world.

SOS Children is building a new Children’s Village in Chipata, eastern Zambia, an area where 70% of households are caring for orphans. Our donation goes towards this new village, which you can read about here.

In praise of ... good interviewers

kevin mclean — 2008-12-17T17:00:09+00:00

As it’s the time of year to reflect on things, we have been reflecting on the art of interviewing, an important part of our job, naturally. Who did we think is a really good interviewer, in the media?

We came up with several examples of those who were NOT so hot, naming no names, Messrs Paxman, Humphrys, Ross and Aspel. Then we thought, they are doing something other than interviewing. Like coining it while on gardening leave, in the case of Mr Ross.

Special mention goes to:
- Michael Portillo
- Evan Davis
- Sue McGregor

In equal second place came: Ed Stourton (bring him back?) and (surprisingly) Robert Kilroy-Silk. Judges were impressed by Kilroy-Silk’s amazing memory and capacity to engage with people. Those were the days.

But in joint first place, winners of Wardle McLean’s very first IPO award (In Praise Of ...) came Ruby Wax and Louis Theroux. Louis has a crafty, unassuming style that gets both passionate and meaningful responses and (like Sacha Baron Cohen) he is a very brave interviewer. Ruby Wax uses humour and is charmingly direct to get to the heart of an issue. And she walks so fast that interviewees are distracted and all the more honest for that.

Who would you vote for?

We shall be back with more praise for people and organisations in this blog next year. We feel a "praise phase" coming on. Don’t miss it.

PC or not PC?

kevin mclean — 2008-12-11T12:43:54+00:00

Microsoft is spending some $300m to persuade us that using a PC (and therefore Microsoft’s Windows software) makes you just as cool and interesting as using any other leading brand of computer.

Using the tagline ‘I’m a PC’, the ads feature people and some celebrities who 'are' a PC, in a very large-scale testimonial-style campaign.

It's a stark change for Windows advertising, which has been distinctly uninspiring and corporate in the past.

As Belinda Parmar (aka Lady Geek) says on her Brand Republic blog, the campaign has managed to move away from the technology and focus on how users use their computers, what it means to them.

But the ads have been criticised as apeing Apple, which recently ran a high profile campaign comparing Macs and PCs, obviously to the detriment of the latter.

‘I’m a PC’ is certainly a brave campaign, which has spawned a gazillion user-generated responses on YouTube, such as this Scottish bloke who says I’m a PC and I cannae do two things at once without freezi ...

Despite the spend and despite the brave approach, I can’t help thinking of the one thing that Microsoft want me to stop thinking about – Apple. And not just me - photo (R) by ivorjava was taken on his iPhone.

Is it because I'M A PC subliminally spells iMAC?

Or is that just because I want an iMac for Christmas?

At Wardle McLean Towers, we use PCs and a Mac as well. I suppose you could say we are Wardle MacPC.

The trouble is, I use a PC … but I love our Mac.

Sorry Bill.

Not that he probably cares. After all, he's a PC.

Nault Confidence

kevin mclean — 2008-11-25T15:49:38+00:00

As times get tougher, it would appear it’s not only consumer confidence that’s getting knocked.

When we spotted this latest television ad from Renault, "Remember When", it seems Client's self-confidence is being affected (perhaps understandable given declining car sales).

The strategy behind the commerical appears to ask 40+ male Renault rejectors to reconsider investing in a brand that perceives itself historically as unfashionable ... until now. We wonder if is this is how Renault would have regarded themselves before the economic downturn?

The upbeat music (France's last entry to the Eurovision song contest) attempts to mask a message that is undeniably low in self-belief. Even the line "it's time to change" delivers itself more as a plea than a positive call to action.

Perhaps the thinking was to own up to an elephant in the Renault room; but, as the saying goes, "if you dont believe in yourself, who will?"

Simon

AS SEEN ON TV

kevin mclean — 2008-11-05T14:26:32+00:00

We were on telly last night! Well, our studio was.

The studio (Propeller) was featured in Neil Morrissey's “Risky Business”. The episode last night showed Neil watching a group of drinkers discuss his proposed new beer, Morrissey Fox.

I must say our place was looking particularly smart, although we are a teeny bit biased.

So is Neil, as it turned out. On a previous programme he'd personally offered samples of the beer to some people, who not surprisingly said they liked it. This had been 'good research'.

So when people this time said they weren’t sure about the beer, Neil harrumphed quite a lot, as he watched from the viewing room. Then they were critical of the picture of Neil and his mate on the bottle's label, with foam around their mouths. Cuhh! Don’t they recognise creativity and, um, an owner when they see one?

This was clearly not such 'good research', and Neil was dismissive and determined to go right ahead, regardless.

One of the hardest things to do is to deliver 'bad news' in a constructive way, especially when clients have a vested interest in the outcome of the research. But it is so important to be true to the research, even if it does not make you Mr or Mrs Popular.

We missed the analysis or interpretation of the drinkers' comments (maybe there was none), but it did not seem to us to be as bad as he made out.

So while you are waiting for bottles of Morrisey Fox to appear at your local Tesco’s (or possibly not), be sure to check out Propeller Studio, as seen on TV.

HAVE YOU HEARD?

kevin mclean — 2008-11-03T13:19:50+00:00

I've been going past this poster for ages but I only just got it. The copy says, It's back, so I heard.

I used to really like a Wispa, as it happens. Maybe that chocolate-y memory made me think ... or maybe we do in fact think with our stomachs, as Mark has challenged the neurophiles ...

... I heard a whisper. Duhr. Does that make me smart or stupid?

Always look on the bright side

kevin mclean — 2008-10-27T17:19:23+00:00

We have been doing research into people’s attitudes to the economy. On the day it is announced that credit-crunch losses will cost $1.8 trillion, it is easy to be a despondent respondent, but as we mentioned before, the situation in the ‘real economy’ (which makes the stock market unreal – or surreal, perhaps?) seems to be uneven and to depend on where you live and what you do.

There are always upsides, so we thought we should focus on these. Among those having a ‘good recession’ are obviously Robert Peston and Gordon Brown. Others looking on the bright side will include:

- discount food-retailers (eg Aldi, Lidl)

- places like McDonald’s and Domino's Pizza

- “fashion forward brands” (eg Arcadia’s Topshop, Topman and Miss Selfridge)

- cinema and DVD sales;student accommodation;

- chocolatiers

- pawn-brokers and debt collectors

- pockets of technology (eg iPhone sales, budget laptops, video games).

A weightier theory comes in the shape of next month’s Prospect magazine, which includes a piece by David Goodhart inquiring into whether this may be a 'good recession', which “blows away debt culture and financial excess without bringing back … joblessness” and one which has “the public sector becoming a little less cowed and the private sector … a little less proud”. Politically, it may “make people realise that political institutions matter”.

In a donnish, very Prospect-y summary, “miserabilism might mutate into a more attractive stoicism”. Although possibly not such a good recession, Prospect concludes, for Gordy, who may not be the one to lead us out of it.

And Cameron and Osbornovitch would be? Some might say, they can go whistle ...

Recession-proof rays

kevin mclean — 2008-10-22T15:26:46+01:00

It now seems inevitable that we’re going into a recession but how bad will it be? The conversational fight back has begun.

Sir Philip Green says he is not in the "doom-mongering camp" for which the media is to blame. On the ‘Today' programme yesterday, he commented that Burtons has been around for about 100 years, has survived many recessions and will survive this one.

The government is likely to bring forward budgets to fund more immediate projects. They are also making it more difficult to repossess homes and small businesses are likely to receive a greater increase in funding to help them through torrid times. Petrol has become cheaper and energy bills look set to drop.

The FT Weekend has hailed technology as the new growth sector (currently worth £52 billion) that will pull us out of the economic downturn. Lord Carter, the new communications minister, sees that “technology, media, telecoms is a critical growth sector… something we are extremely good at, quite well positioned in and could be even better positioned.” (Part of his remit is also to equip Britain with superfast broadband, incidentally).

Mark Berrisford-Smith, HSBC’s senior economist, believes that "we have experienced worse in the past and it's not all doom and gloom" and apparently “we are much better equipped to get through it than we were in the downturns of the mid ’70s, the late ’70s to early ’80s, and the early ’90s”.

It's reassuring there are a few rays of light breaking through the 'R-word' gloom. Could this begin to re-instil consumer confidence? Of course, you can’t make a recession omelette without breaking any eggs; but perhaps there will be fewer eggs this time.

Simon

THE R-WORD

kevin mclean — 2008-10-17T15:46:38+01:00

I was watching Newsnight on Monday 29 September when the penny dropped.

There was "only one story in town" and the dramatic graphic showed how the stock market had tanked. The American $700bn bailout plan had been rejected. Republicans had taken offence at what the Democratic speaker had said, apparently, and voted against the bill. Take that! So the markets did, and plummeted.

It was then that I thought, this is serious and it is real, not just a stock market thing. What started out as the (American) Sub-Prime crisis became the Credit Crunch (good name, that), then more gloomily the Downturn. Now most people are invoking the R-word despite the fact that it is not (technically) a Recession. Yet.

Is this the best branded and most talked about downturn (or whatever) since the Great Depression? (pic by axb500)

Are we talking ourselves into the biggest recession since the last biggest recession? The little that we know about markets is that they depend on confidence. Confidence is a conversation. Does that mean that if we ignore it and talk about something else it will go away?

Or is this a necessary and inevitable correction? Greed can only be sustained for so long before it gives in to its alter ego, fear.

While on a moralising theme, it strikes me that ignorance has also played its part. The money men constructed products (‘instruments’) SO complicated that even they did not understand them. Bad debts were bundled up and sold on several times over. Not so much passing the buck as passing the WTF.

The IMF have estimated that the US sub-prime meltdown will cost $945bn. That’s nearly one trillion dollars. And that’s just an estimate. The fact is, NOBODY KNOWS. The American politicians who voted against surely did not understand the markets. Now Governments do not know how to stop it.

Who do you blame for this mess? The media? Banks? Americans? Financial regulators? Maybe we are all complicit. We are certainly all involved, now. It feels as if we have passed the tipping point, the point where it was only a stock market/financial problem. Now it is starting to affect the real economy. Or is it?

We reckon that the situation is patchy and changeable; some regions and some sectors in the UK are affected much more than others. And our colleagues abroad are giving us very different accounts of the collective mood in, for example, Germany and Russia. So the downturn is NOT affecting everyone equally.

So, there will be winners and losers. The only certainty in all this uncertainty, now that the genie is out of the bottle, is that a great many more clichés are on their way.

How to respond? Take your pick, batten down the hatches and tighten your belts, or, face the music and dance.

Pecha Kucha: the future of debriefs?

kevin mclean — 2008-09-22T18:12:28+01:00

Ever heard of Pecha Kucha?

It's a new presentation style from Japan that is an onomatopoeic expression denoting the 'pitter-patter' or chatter of conversations. It's pronounced peh-tcha koo-tcha.

It developed in Tokyo in 2003, it requires the presenter(s) to speak on 20 slides for 20 seconds per slide (that's 6 mins 40 seconds) as a way of keeping the audience's interest and to keep content concise. It has proven popular in the business world and although is demanding on the presenter to keep it all on time.

That means it's quite an art. I have been advised that it is best to have only a small amount of words on each slide, and keep it largely image based. It also looks best unscripted using each slide as stimulus material.

I tried it recently at a conference and would recommend it's best to start off with notes unless you're feeling particularly confident /adventurous to say what you want with out waffling.

Here is a video of a Pecha Kucha presentation.

It would be good to know of any experiences you've had. You never know, it could be the future of research debriefs.

Simon

Research 2.0

kevin mclean — 2008-09-18T12:26:00+01:00

Tuesday saw the latest Research 2.0 conference at the Novotel in Euston.

Agencies and Clients gave their own views about how both quant and qual online is progressing at an fast and exciting rate. It was clear about its speed and cost-effectiveness but questions were raised about the validity of respondents and the data or conversations gathered.

Even one member of the audience went so far as to say online is dangerous to the industry and we need to think hard before we all jump on the online bandwagon.

I gave a 20 slide presentation on 'what will the research industry be like in 2010' and made a controversial prediction that face-to-face techniques will provide more valuable, richer insights than online qualitative tecnhiques.

After leaving, it was impressive to see how a number of Clients have bought into online but also there were a number who wanted proof that online is better for their businesses than offline methodologies.

So, there are many conversations to be had between value of online versus off-line methodologies. Will one win over the other? What will Clients want spend their budgets on?

Just asLondon 2012 begins, I imagine the research landscape will have gone through a significant debate and change.

Simon

Blog in brand strategy change possibility

kevin mclean — 2008-09-05T23:18:27+01:00

Who says blogs have no influence? Our third ever blog post spotlighted Nila, the food distributors, whose van advertising we questioned ('sexist or effective?').

This is how Nila used to present themselves:

Note the name of the blend, ‘Santa Londra caffe’. Note also the '!' Subtle it wasn’t. Note the lack of any product relevance or integration.

Now it seems the company has completely re-thought their creative communications strategy. Out go bikinis and innuendo, in comes … product-as-hero. Less Nuts or Zoo, more Pukka Pies. Maybe without the irony.

We may never know whether or not WE are responsible for this change of strategy, but stranger things have happened. Here is Nila's new look...

Look at the focus on the product – the couple about to share a beans experience. Note his stylish forelock and the very white teeth. Note the way the tins are turned sideways-on. There’s your intrigue, a touch of mystery.

Imagine the meeting at Nila’s Park Royal HQ. ‘Let’s celebrate product benefits. Our food brings people together. On toast. Beans on toast. Or even tomatoes’.

You have to admire the slogan, 'Nila, the final name (TM) in food service'. Is someone at Nila a crossword fan, just not so good at the anagrams?

It may be a brilliant new strategy, or it may be designed to be so bad the public clamour for the return of gratuitous bikinis?

As we say, we may never know.

Brains in media neutral

kevin mclean — 2008-08-14T12:19:39+01:00

A year on since leaving advertising, I still remember being told at agency meetings that TV is out as Clients go 'media neutral', investing more money into other, more effective media.

Now I read that people are now 'seeing more televsion ads than ever' according to latest research by Thinkbox, and this is a cause for celebration:

"This is a shaft of very bright light that cuts through any economic gloom...whatever the economic climate holds for the advertising market, I hope these figures will underline the great strength and resilience of commercial TV."

Is this really a demonstration of "the great strength and resilience of commercial TV", or does it just reinforce that there's a lot of TV and TV ads about these days?

TV is obviously still a powerful advertising medium but it is surely not as central and as it once was. And people are switiching off from TV advertising more and more.

Because seeing lots of TV ads doesn't mean watching them, let alone necessarily paying any attention at all. It merely means that the TV is on, with people in the room.

But we also know now that while the TV/ads are on, more and more people are surfing the Web, in addition to all the other things we've traditionally done while the TV is on, like doing the ironing, dozing, making the tea and making out on the sofa (an observation which cost media strategists Michaelides and Bednash a lucrative account, back in the day).

So while some sharp thinkers are going media neutral and trying to tailor and target ad messages, TV continues to dominate our uncritical faculties.

Simon

THE TROUBLE WITH STARBUCKS

kevin mclean — 2008-08-08T17:33:17+01:00

What's going on? I read a brilliant expose in The Spectator of the Starbucks brand. This is amazing because (a) The Spectator used to be a Tory rag scorned by all rightminded folk, but now 'Tory' is no longer a term of abuse, it's the next government; and (b) I should not be finding brand insights there instead of the blogoworld.

Anyway, Starbucks was the archetypal success story of the 90s but is now losing it bigtime. In retrospect the danger signs were all there: over-expansion, competition, very expensive coffee-flavoured foam. It would seem that we are now finding it an expensive indulgence in these frugal times.

But what is killing them is not only the credit crunch, apparently, but also that the brand has lost its personality and become just another American corporation. What goes up, fashion-wise, must come down. They are now on a drive to reclaim their authenticity apparently.

Easier to lose than to gain, I say.

Dominic