Hasta La Creative!

With the Summer heating up, and the economy moving like sluggish sewage in July, Advertising Age reports that the Summer of 2009 is going to be “cruel.” It reminds me of Bananarama.

According to Adage.com:

Attack ads have been on the rise for the past year, but comparisons are getting sharper, responses are growing testier, and an increasing number of ad battles are ending up in court. Just don’t expect a letup, because they’re also working.

If you decide to run an attack ad, Ad Age has provided helpful tips to keep agencies out of trouble. (It’s almost as if Ad Age is egging on agencies for a Summer of heated battles to alleviate boredom…”Here! Take this knife!” Hmm.)

However, it’s good advice…Sara Lee filed suit against Kraft Foods last week over taste test ads between Oscar Mayer and Sara Lee’s Ball Park Franks. According to Sara Lee, Ball Park Franks have suffered a blow from which they will never recover. (Now THAT’s advertising!) Unfortunately for Sara Lee’s legal team, Ball Park is outselling Oscar Mayer in grocery stores nationwide. My guess is that this case will be over before it starts. (Please keep in mind that I am not a legal analyst.)

Luckily, Advertising Age does have access to a legal team, and below are there tips to stay out of trouble. However, I have also embellished on their recommendations:

1. Don’t name your competitor
Just make it brutally obvious who they are.

2. Stay positive
You could say “You’ll save money at Joe’s coffee.” Or you could be honest, “One cup at Bobs place, or a weeks worth at Joe’s. You decide.”

3. Back it up with science
Numbers are very useful for making your point. Manipulate.

4. Have a contingency plan
If you get sued, release the most offensive spot. They’ve already sued, what’s next, name calling?

5. Don’t steal your competitor’s claims.
As if! Belittle their claims, cast them in false light, but don’t steal them.

Jeff Louis: Strategic Media Planner, Project Manager, and New Business Account Coordinator. His passion is writing. If you would like to get in touch with Jeff, please leave a reply or follow the links: www.linkedin.com or www.twitter.com.

“Well,” he said, ” at least the economy looks to be turning around.” I nearly spit up…luckily the cat was still asleep. What? Who was this guy? Ahh-just another analyst on late night TV. One of the ones that don’t make it to Evening News. Credible at times, totally off-kilter at others. Think “Ross Perot.” The economy is in such a state that when the market closes “up” at any point during the week, it’s breaking news. “We’re sorry to interrupt this program, but the Dow has just closed at it’s highest point this week, and the S&P shows signs of breaking even. Tune in to Channel 6 News tonight to hear about this exciting historic development.” 

Unfortunately, with the economy, or lack thereof, many advertisers have been forced to reduce their spending, which means only one thing: More Informercials.

But wait! There’s More! If you act now, you can catch the Discovery Channel’s reality show about infomercials!. It’s called Pitchmen, and stars none other than Bill Mays. I watched it for the longest half hour of my life the other night, and two weeks later saw the product that was featured on the reality show in an infomercial. In fact, I wonder if they run infomercials during the reality show about infomercials. It would make sense…but we would have to change the show type from reality to surreality. Pitchmen would not the sole surreality member; Date My Mom,  Rock of Love and  Shot at Love with Tila Tequila would fit in the category as well.

If you have not seen or heard about the benefits of a ShamWow or a Snuggy yet, stay up past 10 pm and you will.  These two spots are on so much that they should be put up for a People’s Choice Award.

You’ve probably heard this before, but let just in case: Everything seen on TV…even the news…is not the whole truht. Some things are fit for consumption, others are not.  Take ShamWow and Snuggy: First, the ShamWow is a damn sham(e);  if you’ve ever watched the spot, you’ll know what I mean. And in surreality, the spokesman for the ShamWow. 

It seems that the intrepid host for the magical cloth was jailed for punching out a hooker when she bit his tongue, causing it to bleed profusely.

As if that weren’t bad enough, the  Snuggy, according to The Consumerist, has been found to be guilty of coming apart in the wash!

But wait! There’s More!

Jeff Louis: Strategic Media Planner, Project Manager, and New Business Account Coordinator. His passion is writing. If you would like to get in touch with Jeff, please leave a reply or follow the links: www.linkedin.com or www.twitter.com.

Of course words are important in the ad game, but there are lots of other ways to communicate. The use of colors, font sizes, art, and even the media you choose say even more about the product than mere copy.

Paul Hirsch has been practicing communications since 1983. He now owns his own marketing/pr firm in Northern California. Paul specializes in media relations, marketing collateral, website copy development and ad design. You can learn more about him on Facebook or by visiting www.nowville.com/paulhirsch.

First, Current TV put it’s RFP out to everyone on Twitter. Now, CareerBuilder (CB), a company with no less than five Super Bowl ad appearances, has dumped its agency and gone “public.”

Wieden-Kennedy, CB’s most recent agency, did not lose the account to another agency, but to the general public. CB is asking for the creative 25-second spots via a promotional drive that will be on their website. The winning spot will air in the upcoming Super Bowl (February of 2010).

“For a brand like CareerBuilder, which is about helping people get to their next great position, this made sense for us, and with the situation [the country is] in economically,” says Richard Castellini, the company’s chief marketing officer.

CareerBuilder, like any company that chargers employers to advertise job postings, has lost money during the tough economic climate, reporting a 27% revenue loss during Q1 2009. By removing their agency, CB will save about 20% in annual marketing costs.

However, the gambit comes with risks. Although Frito Lay’s recent Super Bowl spot contest was won by two brothers over several highly creative shops, one spot certainly does not an advertising strategy make. In the short-term, though, CareerBuilder is most likely looking for a few good advertisers…

Jeff Louis: Strategic Media Planner, Project Manager, and New Business Coordinator. His passion is writing, contributing to BMA as well as freelancing. He’d love to hear from you: linkedin.com or twitter.com.

Craigslist is dropping the “erotic services” portion of it’s site due to pressure from impending lawsuits and a murder linked to the site.

Unfortunately, the fix is nothing more than lip service. The category will simply be renamed and Craigslist will charge an additional fee for its use. Additionally, Craigslist employees will monitor posts before they appear online, something for which Craigslist has been criticized since adult advertising on the site started. Police in numerous states have used Craigslist as a tool to set up prostitution ”stings” and the fact that sex is available on Craigslist is well-known. Is Craigslist worried?

Probably not. According to Craigslist attorney, Eric Brandfonbrener, appearing in federal court for a hearing on [an Illinois] lawsuit, told U.S. District Judge John Grady that the site would change to satisfy the lawsuit:

“My expectation is that it will be moot,” Brandfonbrener told the judge. [Illinois] attorney Daniel Gallagher said he remained skeptical. “They’ve made promises to attorneys general in the past,” Gallagher said, noting that
Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal had brokered an agreement with the site in November to crack down on prostitution ads after being contacted about several complaints about photographs depicting nudity. “I’m not going to take their word for it, we want to see action.”

The best thing to come out of this is that if you are searching for sex, AshleyMadison.com is now available! Ashley Madison is an adult service that encourages adults to have affairs, and their tagline says it all: Life is Short. Have an Affair.™ Unlike Craigslist, however, Ashley Madison guarantees that if you are not knocking boots, or at least hooking up by your 90-day anniversary, they’ll refund you $249.00 (the cost to join?). In April, Ashley Madison began advertising in Chicago, and although many US stations have refused to air their ads, some Chicago stations are running the spots. Ashley Madison’s newest innovation is that members can Have An Affair Anywhere, a mobile phone service that allows members to hook up while traveling.

But, a Guarantee! And to think of all money I wasted on drinks…

Jeff Louis: Strategic Media Planner, Project Manager, and New Business Coordinator. His passion is writing, contributing to BMA as well as freelancing. He’d love to hear from you: linkedin.com/in/jefflouis or twitter.com/jlo0312.

Craigslist may face criminal action in South Carolina unless the online classifieds service stops running ads the state says promote prostitution and pornography, the state attorney general’s office said Thursday.

Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster probably never guessed that his name would be involved with murder, a sociopath, and angry Americans. After all, he simply ran a classified ad website…what kind of trouble could he get into?

Well, he may spend time in the big house if he is not careful…although it is highly doubtful. However, he has taken his share of legal and  public flogging, so much so that he has responded via the Craigslist blog: 

“When critics rush to tar craigslist as especially dangerous, it’s important to put things in perspective,” he writes. “Craigslist users have posted more than 1.15 billion classified ads to date, easily 1000x the combined total ever posted to the print publications involved in all of these ‘print ad murders.’”

In its “terms of use” section, Craigslist says it is not responsible for ads on its sites. Which is basically the same as the disclaimer that smoking can kill you on the outside of the cigarette box.

Sex on Craigslist is not hard to locate: Just go to the “personals” and look for the link that says “misc. romance and casual encounters.” Now it is true that Craigslist is not the first public “portal” that has been used for people trying to hook up for sexual activity…MySpace, Chat Rooms, AOL…they have all been exploited for sexual purposes. With any service that is used to put two people together that have never met, there is a good chance that the person you meet may not be the person that was portrayed. It’s one of the pitfalls of personal “online” branding: we have the ability to be who we want to be.  

Mr. Buckmaster does have a valid point in that predators have found prey via other methods, and not just Craigslist. However, when newspapers used to run classified advertising, there were no pictures of naked women, no promises of sexual gratification-and if there were, they were veiled as something else entirely.

It’s really nobody’s fault anymore. Craigslist is just another company that is not responsible for the indirect damage they’ve enabled. The CEOs of banks, automakers, mortgage lenders…it’s not their fault, either. Let the public beware! After all, they were just trying to make a little money. So some people died. Other’s lost their life savings. It’s not our fault.

However, as the world becomes interconnected, some sort of responsibility must be taken by those that provide the means. We assume that others are as ethical (for better or worse) as we are, and it is not too much to ask for a little corporate responsibilty, as well. If someone was hurt on your property although being warned prior to the fact that danger existed, there would still be culpability inolved for having something of danger exposed to the public.  

It’s not that I think Craigslist is guilty; rather, I feel that they should take some of the responsibility. Yet, the fact that Craigslist has entirely blamed everyone but themselves, and has even researched other murders that have happened via classified ads seems a bit caustic and a little too casual. Luckily, the killer was caught quickly…maybe at the beginning of a serial killing spree. What would Craigslist have done if there were ten murders?  
 

Jeff Louis: Strategic Media Planner, Project Manager, and New Business Coordinator. His passion is writing, contributing to BMA as well as freelancing. He’d love to hear from you: linkedin.com/in/jefflouis or twitter.com/jlo0312.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) has launched a campaign begging consumers to have a digital-free Sunday. The paper, owned by Cox enterprises, rolled out the over $1 million campaign this week with the tagline “Unplug. It’s Sunday.” The campaign is to promote the Sunday newspaper as a way to escape the ringing of cell phones, e-mail notifications, IM, and all of the other digital devices that “clutter” our work weeks. Instead of reading the news on an RSS Feed, we can lug out the seven pound paper and spend some quality time getting newsprint on our fingers. Nice. The campaign is slated to run for the remainder of the year.

Perhaps the funniest (or dumbest) thing about this story is that Cox Enterprises chose a digital agency to lead consumers back to print. The AJC tapped IQ Interactive, an Atlanta digital agency. Weirdly, we can digitally view this couple reading the traditional newspaper, which is like Xeroxing a mirror (don’t do it, you’ll go back in time). The fully-interactive microsite gives off that  ”peeping tom feel,” staring into someones home from a bay window. A couple is sitting on the couch reading the paper, and “Tom” can move from room to room, opening cabinets, running water, and even taking bread from a shopping bag. Voyeurism does have its advantages…

There are other media components to the campaign, including; print, TV, radio, online, point-of-purchase, direct mail, and out of home.

“It’s about how to reposition the newspaper,” said Tony Quin, CEO of IQ Interactive, the independent Atlanta digital shop
that created the campaign. “We came up with the idea as a counterpoint to the digital cacophony that exists in everyone’s
lives. Sunday is the day to relax and do something different than you do the rest of the week.”

The AJC has fared no better than the rest of the newspaper industry; the paper’s circulation dropped twenty percent in the last year for weekdays and Saturdays, and seven percent on Sundays. Earlier this year, the AJC cut 30% of the news staff.

The takeaway: although the marketing team will be gone next year after this debacle, they did show foresight by using forms of media that actually reach the consumer. Just another bullet point for the ol’ resume.

Jeff Louis: Strategic Media Planner, Project Manager, and New Business Coordinator. His passion is writing, contributing to BMA as well as freelancing. He’d love to hear from you: linkedin.com/in/jefflouis or twitter.com/jlo0312.

Introduction

Is it good business practice to reduce or eliminate marketing expenditures during a recession? The logical answer would be “yes,” as the revenue stream reduces to a trickle. History, however, has shown this practice to be counterproductive, even detrimental, to long-term success. Weathering the storm is certainly a priority, but the objective is to get back to port safely after the storm abates. History, with nothing but facts on her side, has never been proven incorrect. One thing is certain: Making decisions based upon awareness is good practice; basing them on fear is not.

A Tale Of Two Cereals

In the early twenties, both Kellogg and Post Cereals were not sure that they would overcome cream of wheat or oatmeal to the popular breakfast foods of the day: a hearty cooked breakfast, cream of wheat, or oatmeal. The two companies fought one another for market share dominance until the depression hit.

Each company took a different path. One braced for the economic storm, cutting marketing budgets, reining in expenses, and laying off workers. The other stepped into the storm, doubled advertising expenditures, aggressively took advantage of radio advertising, and focused all their strength behind a single product. By the early 1930s, the economy had fallen to it’s lowest point, yet one company showed a 30% rise in profits. Which cereal company came out ahead?

The answer: Kellogg Cereal, with their top-selling product, Rice Krispies. A bold decision made during crisis defined Kellogg Cereal’s future, and they’ve maintained industry dominance for the past seventy-five years.

But That’s Just One Case Study…

Okay, so that’s a single success story. A fluke. An anomaly. Fortunately, there are numerous examples: In February 1930, four months after the historic market crash, Henry Luce launched an expensive, “irreverent, and vibrantly-colored arsenal of human interest stories.” At $1.00 per copy, it was more than many could afford, and it kicked off with 30,000 subscribers. Seven years later, Fortune’s circulation was at a half million, and the company was in the black. Kraft Foods is another example. Kraft realized that consumers were downtrodden and needed something to help them through the depression, not to mention that Kraft’s mayonnaise sales were plummeting. So, Kraft decided to launch a new product called Miracle Whip (a dressing/mayonnaise) at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1933. “A sandwich just isn’t a sandwich with out the TANGY ZIP of Miracle Whip,” was the tagline for the new product, and six months after launch, Miracle Whip was outselling every single brand of dressing and mayonnaise available.

It’s Innovation, Stupid!

Innovation is the key. Kellogg Cereal focused on one product and doubled their marketing expenditures. Fortune filled a niche that was missing from The Wall Street Journal. Kraft introduced a new product. Other examples: Revlon,a start-up cosmetic company, introduced a classy polish for fingernails. Within years, they were the most well-known cosmetic company in the world. Two brothers began a company that marketed the first car radio successfully, and began a company later named Motorola. In England, a man came up with books that were affordable for the masses by making them entirely out of paper (no hardcovers). The man became the founder of became Penguin books, and “paperbacks” sold exclusively through Woolworths. Texas Instruments, Hewlett-Packard, basketball, The Pittsburgh Steelers, Allstate Insurance: all rooted in the depression. Studies completed during recessionary periods show that this was not a fluke; the same results are seen for companies that innovate and stay on course through the tough times: they emerge stronger and more profitable than those that remained static.

In a study of 600 business-to-business companies, McGraw-Hill Research found that businesses that maintained or increased their advertising expenditures during the 1981-1982 recession, averaged higher sales growth during the recession and in the three years following. By 1985, sales of aggressive recession advertisers (those that either maintained or increased spending) had risen 256% over those that cut-back on advertising. (Innovating Through Recession)

A few years ago, a small book came out; “Whatever You Think, Think The Opposite,” written by a former Saatchi and Saatchi Creative Director named Paul Arden. The book is a guide that points out that one of the most dangerous practices in life is playing it safe.

The first page is emblazoned with this quote: “It’s the wrong way to think, but the right way to win.”  That leaves two paths from which to choose: the safe, well-traveled path, or the road less taken. The latter may be treacherous, but it will certainly be more fun: afterall, how often does a company get a chance to reinvent themselves?

Jeff Louis: Strategic Media Planner, Project Manager, and New Business Coordinator. His passion is writing, contributing to BMA as well as freelancing. He’d love to hear from you: linkedin.com/in/jefflouis or twitter.com/jlo0312.

Remember that song, “I always feel like, somebody’s watching me, and I get no privacy…?” Well, stop inviting people to watch you, and maybe they will. George Orwell’s 1984 has gotten a little too close for comfort these days, except that big brother is not the government or the media, it’s “We, the People.”

Think before you write, do, or say anything in the public eye(s)…and that includes on your computer. You can be social, just not too sociable: What you say can and will be used against you in the courtroom of life.
In the latest incident of it’s not reality, its Virtual Reality (VR) a Swiss woman, complaining of a migraine, left work “sick” and was sacked when she showed up on Facebook later that day.

She said the company had created a fictitious Facebook persona which become “friends” with her, allowing the company to monitor her online activity. Her suspicions were raised when the “friend” suddenly disappeared after she was fired, the woman told 20 Minuten daily. But the company says it followed a simple logic: that those who are well enough to use Facebook with a migraine are well enough to work with a migraine.

If you think about it logically, it’s better to assume that you are being monitored… Every credit transaction, every search result, every phone call…it’s all tracked somewhere. The Man always triangulates off cell signals and pulls data off the hard drive.

This latest incident has generated online warnings from social bloggers regarding the protection of your account. The trick is to separate your real friends (the ones that would help you move a body) from your friends (those that might show up to help you move) from your acquaintances (those that wouldn’t move out of your way on the train). If you want to protect yourself from unwanted scrutiny, read Facebook Fail on Mashable.

Jeff Louis is a Strategic Media Planner, Project Manager, and New Business Coordinator. His passion is writing, contributing to BMA as well as freelancing. He’d love to hear from you: linkedin.com/in/jefflouis or twitter.com/jlo0312.

Coca Cola Co. adopted a new strategy to save on media budgets and hold agencies responsible for providing performance. Under the “pay for performance” plan, Coke guarantees to reimburse only what an agency has expends unless said agency can prove performance based on predetermined success measures. We, as advertisers and marketers are notorious for speaking in ROI terminology, but the proving part is a different matter altogether. Agencies currently serving the soft drink giant will not profit without delivering. If Coke successfully demonstrates this value-based model, look for other companies to soon implement the same type of programs.

Under Coke’s new plan, there are no guarantees. Which, in theory, is exactly the same method advertisers conduct business with media partners to ensure accountability for poor performance. If a media partner underperforms, it is expected to “repay” via additional media weight, no-charge advertising, and in rare cases, a refund.

Outside of the agency niche, a business transaction occurs when I say I want X, and you deliver X. As an example: I sign a contract to have my house painted. However, only half of the house gets finished, but they state that they’re done. That wouldn’t fly…I’d be contacting the comapny, demanding my money back, trying to get the house finished, and if necessary, going to court.

Advertising agencies have stood by the fact that intangible processes, such as creativty branding are hard to tack down with a specific return on investment dollar amount. And they’re…some of what client companies receive from agencies can be classified as “art rather than advertising,” and how much does a masterpiece run? I’m being facetious, but not really. Think back on campaigns that not only defined the brand, but redefined the company itself. A couple for Coke comes to mind immediately:

It’s hard to price someting like that. Or even the Mean Joe. Or a revised version of the1971 spot, seen above:
Activity doesn’t equal value, or at least that’s the premise driving Coca Cola’s pricing model. However, this allows the agencies to rise to the occasion and receive more compensation than the would have, with up to a 30% “commission” if their delivery is spot-on. With Coca Cola’s worldwide budget at $3 billion, the compensation possibilities are lucrative.

How Coke’s new compensation will work:
BEFORE: Agencies and Coke negotiate in advance how much profit the former will see on a given project.
AFTER: Agency is guaranteed only recouped costs, with any profit coming only if certain targets are met.
BEFORE: Agency decides what Coke should pay for a project based on the time it expects to expend on it.
AFTER: Coke tells agencies how valuable a project is based on strategic importance, whether other agencies could deliver the same outcome, and other factors.

Remember what you’ve read…because if it works, it’s COMING SOON TO A CLIENT NEAR YOU, SOON!

Jeff Louis is a Strategic Media Planner, Project Manager, and New Business Coordinator. His passion is writing, contributing to BMA as well as freelancing. He’d love to hear from you: linkedin.com/in/jefflouis or twitter.com/jlo0312.