Help! There's a Beatle in my Apple

Finally after 32 years, Apple corp. and Apple Inc. have resolved their differences. Which now means that The Beatles' music is available on iTunes.

Whilst this is a great thing generally; I'm a huge fan of The Beatles, I wonder if this will actually do the music any good; people will begin to lose the understanding of the context of the songs they're listening to when they can listen to each track individually without having to listen to the rest of the album. Many of The Beatles' albums need to be listened to as works of art in their entirety, each song just a small fragment of the bigger picture.

Maybe it will do more good than harm, exposure on iTunes means a whole new generation have access to their music, perhaps they'll be listened to forever.

Above all, great television ad. Understated, and classy:

A&E (Advertisement and Emergency)

When Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone was robbed earlier this year, he famously left sporting less jewellery, but a huge black eye instead.

Most celebrities, were they in Bernie's position would have probably undertaken thousands of pounds of "emergency" plastic surgery treatment to rectify their facial inconvenience. Mr. Ecclestone however chose to bravely show the world his injuries, and ever the entrepreneur, decided to pitch to Hublot, the brand of watch that was robbed from him, for a different kind of ad (presumably for a new watch...).

Bernie said, “I rang them up and suggested this was a chance to do something different. I can understand people wanting to rob me when they are poor and they want some things for the kids with Christmas coming along, but what they did was unnecessary.”

Good to see Bernie is keeping his chin up, nice to know he probably didn't lose out too much, very cool circumstancial ad has resulted.

An old spice packs a punch

Ever since the recently rebranded Old Spice television ads came on earlier this year, I've heard a lot of men trying to impersonate the Old Spice guy. The truth is, they can't. They're not him, they don't smell like him...yet.


It's a great, humorous campaign that both men and women can relate to; the men, because they secretly guiltily admire the Old Spice guy, and the women, because they secretly, guiltily want to be with the Old Spice guy, or find someone like him...

For those of you who've been living under a rock for the past 12 months:

The Old Spice Ad

What's really cool about this campaign is that the Old Spice guy is just so likeable. There's nothing particularly extreme about him (i.e. he's not a meerkat, an annoying opera singer, or Iggy Pop), but his likeability gives him versatility. In fact, his relative closeness to average humanity means he's really accessible too. Not only has the tremendously successful TV ad (and it's viral effect) ramped up sales of Old Spice 107% (between the months of June and July 2010), but the Old Spice guy has been extending the effects of the TV campaign by appearing on Old Spice's Twitter, answering fan's questions, some of them through video.

Usually, when an ad is parodied a lot, it means one of two things. It's either a tremendously innovative ad that has sparked a creative flare within someone, or it's a pile of rubbish, that deserves to be ridiculed. I think everyone will agree with me when I say that thankfully, it's the former in Old Spice's case.

Another strong brand ambassador, the Page 3 girl(s) has parodied the Old Spice ad to celebrate 40 years of the Page 3 feature being in The Sun. The video features model, "Rosie" performing a tweaked rendition of the Old Spice script.

It's certainly an eye opener.

The bottom line is, it's a surprisingly good advert from a company who everyone thought had disappeared a long time ago. Perhaps it was the element of surprise that really put the magic into this campaign, either way, I know what I want in my stocking for Christmas.

The Birth Factor

Earlier this week, I heard about a website, www.birthornot.com

The site was set up by Pete and Alisha, a couple from the U.S.A. to determine, by way of an open poll whether they should abort Alisha's pregnancy or go through with it and have the baby.

Pete is pro-life, and Alisha believes that it is the woman's decision to make as it is her body that has to go through with the procedure. 

By having a site that has clearly attracted a lot of media attention, Alisha believes that she has higlighted the importance of the woman's right to decide, and demonstrated her right to free speech; both causes that she feels strongly about.

Interestingly, both partners keep seperate blogs on the site, voicing their very different opinions on the matter, responding to media untruths and fraudulent voters (after various publications reported the story, virtual "mobs" descended on the site voting abort, which saw a huge shift in direction). 

Although I can appreciate the attention the site has brought to the debate, I find it somewhat difficult to believe that the couple really ever had any intention of aborting if the true vote came in as such - the husband is pro-life, and the wife's timeline of pregnancies and developments in their relationship published on the site shows 2 previous, recent planned pregnancies which both ended in miscarriage...why would they risk of losing the child they clearly want? Alisha would argue that she's unsure of her mental stability after the miscarriages, but again, why plan a conception if you're unsure that you want a baby?

We'll have to wait until the 9th December to find out what happens; that's the last day they can legally have an abortion, but whatever the result, despite the apparently trivial presentation, it's good to see people being proactive about issues that matter to them, and interesting to watch the public reaction (quite mixed it would appear).

Go have a look at the site, vote. It'd be good to hear your views on the matter.

Birdsong is the new way for humans to interact

All social networking sites are good for something, but all social networking sites also have a lot of filler, whether it be in the form of severely underused applications, or just pure fodder content being generated by its users.

All social networking sites, except for Twitter. The age old mantra of "keep it simple" occurs to me as a logical explanation to explain its success...it's a streamlined service, simple to use and relatively simple to understand once you're familiar with the Twitter-specific lingo., it keeps content specific and to the point, and its quirky nature encourages quirky, innovative and revolutionary interaction. The 140 character limit effectively doesn't allow for any filler content, and so the filtered final tweets generally make for interesting reading, at the very least. This guarantee of quality (and interestingly, by the same restrictions, quantity) has ensured that Twitter's user base has grown rapidly in recent years, and continues to grow by an estimated 5-10K people per day*.

Now established as the digital midground between brand and consumer, client and agency, celebrity and civilian, companies can link to press releases and provide teasers, publicise any page, picture, video, song, blog or other, as well as express themselves in a new way; communicate in a different voice.

Although the function to re-tweet or RT means that your material potentially has further to reach than just your immediate followers, the bigger your following, the more opportunity and the better the possibility that it will get passed on to a greater number of people. According to Hubspot's "State of the Twittersphere" report,  

"There is a strong correlation between a user's number of followers and the number of people they follow."

Signalling that those who follow a larger number of people have more to RT and talk about and so are more interesting to follow, hence their own relative large number of followers. 

In his book, "The Tipping Point", Malcolm Gladwell examines that some products (i.e. Hush Puppies) became popular simply because the group of early adopters who first started wearing them were the sorts of influential people who would tell all their friends about their new purchase, and how great it was. Twitter culture affords every user the opportunity to become that influential person, as long as they play ball and form part of the cyclical follow/be followed scheme. This versatility and scope to reach a huge audience is considered invaluable by many companies, so much so that many advertise the fact they're on Twitter. This can be done by having affiliate buttons on their websites/other social networking profiles, or by including the information on press/television/radio adverts. Recently French agency Publicis Groupe went one step further by creating this viral "We're on Twitter" ad:

***

So effective, Twitter is an integral part of many brand's communication strategy, being followed on Twitter is seen as the equivalent to having Facebook friends, or a number of subscribers to a newsletter, but with a far wider range of appeal.

Due to the easy integration of Twitter with other websites/programs, users have found unique ways of utilising Twitter, not least for self promotion.

www.twitter.com/tweetmeabrief promotes the creators as the creative team they are, resulting in a fun and entertaining way to add to their portfolio, building themselves a networking web in the process. Not only this, but has started to form a creative hub of people enthralled by the concept and reading/interacting with the team and other followers.

Amanda Palmer of self-proclaimed Brechtian punk cabaret duo, The Dresden Dolls recently drew great attention to her marketing savvy as she utilised Twitter to invite fans to secret, last minute gigs whilst touring, and to make $19,000 in 10 hours as she held a webchat which gained momentum and grew into a t-shirt conception, design and sale, and an auction of Dresden Dolls and personal memorabilia; the monetary figure demonstrating the power of a quirky website named after birdsong.



References: * - Hubspot "State of the Twittersphere" report published on www.marketingcharts.com on the page http://www.marketingcharts.com/interactive/twitters-new-users-drive-600-growth-7324/


** - Hubspot "State of the Twittersphere" report published on www.marketingcharts.com on the page http://www.marketingcharts.com/interactive/twitters-new-users-drive-600-growth-7324/

*** - "Publicis staff show mastery of tweet nothings" article on www.brandrepublic.com on the page http://www.brandrepublic.com/news/1041167/publicis-staff-show-mastery-tweet-nothings/

Swipe!

Browsing through this year's Campaign Big Awards winners, I came across a really great ad. One that caught my eye, made me laugh and then lust after the product. Here it is, for dixons.co.uk, a gold winner at the awards, and one of the best still ads you'll see all year:

 Going back to what I said in my previous blog post about speaking in colloquial terms to your target audience,  this really ticks all the boxes - it's dry, and yet so visually unsubtle about the reference to John Lewis.

The words "middle" and "awfully well brought up young man" make a mockery of the stereotypical John Lewis customer, implying that all the extras you get by shopping there are somewhat uneccesary, and that you can get the product (for cheaper you're led to believe) easier at dixons.co.uk.

I love how bold the advert is, speaking to the masses in a time of economic downturn, satirising the in-store experience, making it sound opulent, and then directing the audience to a place where everything is streamlined, easier, and cheaper (or so the implications would lead you to believe).

Great to see a bit of competitive spirit.

Speaking in colloquial terms

We all know adverts have their target audiences (poster ads specifically here), they adopt many different styles, forms, tones and ideas. They all "speak" in some way; be it visually, or via text, to the audience; and in order to relate to them, the ads need to speak in colloquial terms.

These poster ads are from the portfolio of Claire Watson, a D&AD Best New Blood winner, this first few advertising a brand of tea, "Make mine a builders":

Although brash, the text speaks in a familiar tone to the target audience - builders. There's an instant cultural click, and cleverly the product name is ready to become a workplace catchphrase when supported by an effective campaign.

Another campaign of Claire's is for Dickinson & Morris Pork Pies. The product; a mid-priced pork pie, I believe is targeted primarily at middle class families, dads in their 30's-50's who do DIY, BBQs and fix their own cars. I think their secondary market is tradesmen who appreciate a quality traditional snack over the value alternatives:

Humorous, they play to the cheeky personality trait that many of their dynamic, middle class audience have; poking fun at a relatively dark meat breeding industry. The house imagery recognising their practical tendencies. The second ad not only showing the product in all its meaty goodness, is labelled, like a dissection of an object, or a chart. This time stylistically and semiotically, the ads play to the established common ground between the customer and their target audience projections, relating directly to the audience. It seems so specific to the customer that the brand almost becomes an extension of their personality, as with the builders tea, a brand that, amongst all the others on the shelves, makes you feel comfortable and able to trust it and even make you think you enjoy it more than you actually do.

By talking in terms that aren't obviously trying to sell a product, and in such a way that is so familiar to the customer, they will inevitably feel an "attachment" to the product in comparison with the competition, they may even trick themselves into thinking they're enjoying it more than they really are because their anticipation of the product that seems so familiar to them is too high for it to be a disappointment in their minds.

Socially, people are influenced into posing themselves questions by all manner of things, from advertisments to art, religion and news. If a question is implied, or a problem presented and the viewer "gets" it and perhaps even without thinking about it asks themselves the question, the answer will be far more accepted and acted on by them because it appears to have come from themselves, not preached to them by a corporation.

These ads by Durex are aimed at the young adult male market primarily, posing, without explicitly asking, the question, "What's cheaper, some jonnies or looking after a baby?".

The viewer can't help but agree with the ad, no matter who they are. Unless of course they want a baby, in which case they probably won't ever be persuaded to buy the product. It's a far more effective way of posing the question than simply having text saying, "It's cheaper to buy our product than to run the consequence". The viewer doesn't feel imposed upon.

In my opinion, all ads are far more engaging and effective when they speak the same language as their target audience. The effects on the viewer, both consciously and subconsciously are dramatic in comparison to a generically styled ad and develop an early rapport with the consumer that most new products don't have a chance to do until after they have been tested.

The importance of proper research

Tesco. Global giant. Third-largest retailer in the world. Multi-billion pound company. Pretty impressive. You'd think they'd know all there is to know about big business, and over and above that, how to implement it.

However, according to a case by John Quelch, Professor of Business at Harvard that looks at Tesco's expansion into the USA, it appears their strategy and preparation work may need refining...

Throughout the rest of the world, Tesco have managed to be very successful so far; adopting a working policy of buddying up with a pre-existing retailer; gaining local knowledge, locations and homegrown management talent in the process. They've also largely kept the Tesco name to operate under. This approach obviously makes sense on all levels and that's why it has worked so far. Unfortunately, they didn't tackle the US in the same manner.

Firstly, they opted to enter the US market under the guise "Fresh & Easy", supposedly a "Neighborhood Market" aiming to offer a wide range of wholesome foods for cheap...except that the stores only carry 4,000 different products, compared with at least 40,000 in the UK Tesco stores. Many of their products are ready-made meals too, bringing into question the integrity of one half of their name, "Fresh".

Secondly, although attempting to mask it as being eco-friendly, they scrimped on the interior design; most of the stores apparently resembling hospitals inside rather than the wholesome, colourful, busy aesthetics Americans are used to in their supermarkets. "Tesco" say, "We design our stores to save you money, and the savings start from the ground up, literally. From simple cement floors to energy-efficient LED lighting, we keep our costs down and pass the savings on to you." Sean Silverthorne, editor-in-chief of HBS publication "Working Knowledge" says, "The advance team didn't learn all that it should, such as the notion that designing stark stores with concrete floors wouldn't necessarily appeal to American tastes."

Thirdly, the 50 British executives were sent to live with families only in California. This would probably be okay if they were planning on opening stores only in California, but the fact that they have opened Fresh & Easy stores in Arizona and Nevada too, despite their geographical closeness suggests a huge amount of cultural ignorance on Tesco's part...shopping habits, trends and customer requirements can vary dramatically from city to city in the UK, let alone entire states in the USA. John Quelch argues that Tesco had too many preconceptions of the market, and looked to the research reports with a view to, "gaining evidence in support of a predetermined strategy."

Fourthly, they really messed up on the location research. Obviously people driving out of a big city at the end of the day are going to be more inclined to purchase a ready-made evening meal from their "Neighborhood Market", over those going in...purely because there'll be more people commuting to work in a big city than there will those going from the city to work in the suburbs, and so they'll be considering dinner as they leave at night. So why on earth purchase retail units that are, effectively, on the wrong side of the road? Quelch argues that some of the stores are far more accessible to inbound traffic than outbound, and that could have a huge impact on their sales.

As a completely new venture, Tesco missed out on lots of, "local retail savvy" as Quelch puts it; largely due to their decision to employ mainly British expats in high level managerial roles. Without their UK reputation also, Tesco were always unlikely to attract the cream of the crop in terms of retailing talent. Almost 50% of their already compact product range is own brand too, the figure being far lower in the UK stores.

Five years on from the first store opening, "Fresh & Easy" are yet to make a penny...there are a plethora of mistakes that Tesco made with this foray, perhaps some of them only minor; but as they say themselves, "Every little helps".

Digital Cleanse

You may already be savvy with this term. John Mayer made it famous at the beginning of this year, posting about it, ironically, online, and encouraging people to join in the "cleanse" with him.

For those of you who don't know what a "Digital Cleanse" is, allow me to explain.

Essentially it is, for a period of at least a week, not going on (reading or contributing to) social networking sites, nor using your mobile, however smart it is, for anything except calls (NO text messaging or email), no forums, and no entertainment or gossip sites. Email is only allowed if accessed via a desktop or laptop.

It's an interesting concept; on the one hand, fully recognising our obsession and reliance on all of the above, but viewing it perhaps more like an addiction, encouraging going cold turkey in order to escape the collective's wrath, and ideally question your need for all the convenience it can provide.

On immediate consideration, I, as i'm sure many of you did, thought that it would be an easy thing to do. Thinking further, and looking back retrospectively however, it's easily forgotten just how much time (and on a regular basis) is spent browsing, reading, sponging up useless information on your friends, acquaintances and enemies. Think how many texts you send. I'm guessing most of us write more words in text messages each week than we do actually putting pen to paper.

Maybe we just forget how much we rely on Facebook, Twitter, text messaging, and permanent access to email on our phones, because they have all become an intrinsic part of our lives...extensions of our personalities - we communicate as much information about ourselves via these digital media as we do face-to-face. I'm guessing most of us would find it extremely difficult in putting this exercise to practise.

This rather rapid adoption of social media into our daily lives is quite a significant cultural shift, and it beggars the question, what next? If 7 years ago we'd have laughed at the idea of being constantly connected, and informed of our contemporaries' movements, of being to reel off as much about a person from their Facebook page as they can tell you in person, then...what next?

Community Earth

The Harvard Business School recently published an online newsletter detailing what some of their 2010 graduates had been doing since leaving the university.

Expecting to see a report full of zany products that had been created a la "Dragon's Den", I was pleasantly surprised to see how community minded the graduates have been.

It seems to be an entreprenurial trend for new businesses to create platforms via which their customers can contribute to their contemporaries' lives, and vice versa.

It also happens to make complete sense, of course, especially within the current worldwide economic context. This new breed of company will create, "stronger...smarter communities...driven by capitalistic principles", so says Shelby Clark, co-founder of RelayRides.com.

In other words, people provide a product or service that is mega convenient for the consumer, and in return they are financially rewarded - no big corporation to snatch your hard earned money, and a happier, more organic community as a result.

In conjunction with existing social networking setups, these business models have the potential to thrive, and perhaps even stretch further than the immediate vicinity that many of them seem to concentrate on...could it be long before we have a culture/nation-transcending community based on "helping a brother out"? Probably, is the answer; it may not happen, but it's an idealist's dream.

Check out the newsletter here: http://media.www.harbus.org/media/storage/paper343/news/2010/09/27/News/The-Entrepreneurial.Class-3936514.shtml It makes for interesting reading.

Virgin got me hot

It's 2010, political correctness is (unfortunately) king, and we've almost regressed back to the 19th century in terms of the standard of content that actually gets passed and shown to the masses via adverts, across all media.

Talking televisually, lots of adverts are "nice" and "safe", but that's not always very interesting. Obviously with so many restrictions to have to work within, and with so much pressure to not upset the ready-to-complain public, it can't be easy for the teams who try to have a little fun with their campaigns.

IKEA did pretty well with their 2001 "Tidy Up" campaign, managing to avoid a banning...here's a little video collage of three of the five 30 second ads:

But that was nine years ago, times have changed, everything is now PG...schools aren't allowed to put tinsel up at Christmas anymore for fear of insulting people of other religious beliefs! Nothing edgy, risque or even slightly sexy will ever be shown on TV again...until now.

Virgin, the dons of having fun, have released via Facebook their new TV ad - it's actually not even out yet, and won't hit UK TV screens until Sunday the 3rd October. It'd be pointless in trying to break it down...it speaks for itself. I can only hope that it doesn't get banned; it shouldn't, it's classy enough, and it's extremely clever...capitalising on the "X-Factor" style of judging everything today, and flaunting it's wares...i'm almost finding the company attractive. Oh boy, this is one hell of an audiovisual delight. I want to fly with Virgin. NOW. www.facebook.com/virginatlantic

Newspapers set to be old news?

I logged onto The Times' website earlier to sift through content, to see if there was anything inspirational I could add to my journal. Clicked on a headline, and was subjected to a pop up telling me that i'd have to pay £1 in order to view the content online.

So this got me thinking; with the advent of the iPad and Blackberry's rumoured future ebook release, and systems like The Times', just how long will it be before physical newspapers are rendered obsolete?

By the end of 2011, Apple forecast that they will have sold 28 million iPads, and although that sounds like a lot, when compared to the 13 million + newspapers sold DAILY in the UK alone, it starts to look like a fairly weak contender in the battle of physical versus digital.

I can't find figures for how many people pay to view content on newspaper's websites, but it wouldn't surprise me if those figures too were disappointing by comparison.

And the reason? I believe we don't NEED the iPad to look at newspapers - it's not THAT convenient really. First there's the cost issue to consider, then the battery life, storage, the fact that it's likely to get nicked et cetera.

I'm all for digitalisation if it makes things easier, like the iPod for example - it put an end to having to carry around your bulky CD collection with your player, but I just cannot see how you can, or why you would want to simplify the tried and tested newspaper trade.

It's cheap, value for money, just as portable as the iPad if not more so and okay, no, so you can't go on Facebook with your copy of The Sun, but you can read the day's news, take it into work, have it accompany you on your journey home without having to worry about whether the last bar of battery will get you through the sport section, and even if you feel nice, leave the paper on a train or bus for someone else to read, spreading the love. You wouldn't want to do that with your iPad now, would you?