Advertising

Schweppervescence. Remember that term brought to us from the folks at Schwepps? I had not heard it for a while but this video is a great tie-in, reminding of those teeny-tiny bubbles hitting your face. Vodka tonic, twist of lime anyone?

Hat Tip to Tim Coyne.

Leo Burnett's London based Futures Editor, Ben Hourahine, created a nifty little video titled the "Trends Predictions Report".

Here is how the YouTube video content is described by the authors:

"The key dynamics in culture, communication, advertising and marketing:

- Mass is back (Say hello to the Swell Society).

At the turn of this year online downloads were included as part of the UK Christmas pop chart for the first time ever. This trend of online popularity being institutionalized shows that mass appeal will once again define marketing attitudes. The goal is the same; reach a mass audience, the difference is how to achieve it. Say hello to the Swell Society.

- Community Commerce.

Community connections will become more central to business practice. Retailers will seek to bring the community further inside the store, with more coffee shops, banking services and pharmacies within supermarkets. On the other side, community connections are being used to create new businesses for established brands.

- Screen Saturation.

Moving forward we will see the explosion of screen-based media, with screens on the side of buses, in petrol stations, supermarkets, the home and the pocket. While the medium may remain the same, the reach, context, audience and role of the media will be tweaked. There will be more broadcast screens than ever in 2010 and things are only going to get bigger: According to Sharp, the electronics manufacturer, the average television screen size will be 60" by 2015.

- Gender Reversal.

More women in work and the increasing role played by men within the family will see marketers change their focus. Men's interest and investment in the family will continue to rise as well, morphing the gender balance and changing the advertising context. Expect to see more and more campaigns aimed at women at work and men in the home.

- Brand Guardians.

The role of brands is evolving and will enter a new phase. With growing concerns over how to be healthy, safe and environmentally friendly, mixed with a real confusion about how to achieve this, we will see brands increasingly attempting to take on a guardian role.

- IP Idols.

Artists are grabbing control of their creative product. Intellectual Property (creative works -- ideas, songs, movies, TV shows) used to be owned and licensed by studios, record labels and other commercial institutions, but we will see artists back in the driving seat.

- The Data Awareness Era.

The public will be more aware of their data exposure than ever before and privacy concerns will be a defining issue in the future. Expect this trend to accelerate with the introduction of GPS location based information, the explosion in online information storage and social networking increasingly reflecting real life...

- Social Networks Get Real.

Social networks like Facebook -- once just virtual playgrounds - will now start to plug directly back into the real world. Increasingly we will see these networks beginning to dictate everyday life, influencing who people do business with, which parties, movies and gigs they go to, where they meet and with whom. Accelerating this shift is the advent and take up of mobile social networking: 14m people did it in 2007, and forecasts suggest it could hit 600m by the time the Olympics hits London in 2012."

Interesting stuff. Lots of things to think about. And, a nice little advert for the folks at Leo Burnett. An "A" for effort and presentation style. That said, these are themes and riffs that many of us have been kicking around for a while in other forms but, it provides a good view of things and where they might be headed.

Some of the points remind me of one of my mentors from back in my early days of marketing, Jerry Reitman who, coincidently, used to head up Leo Burnett's Direct Marketing division. He was a big influence on my career and is a hell of a nice guy. I spent a lot of time in the 1990's working with and getting to know Jerry. One of the smartest direct marketing people I've ever come across.

Back to the video. What I like is the idea of swells, but I'm not so sure "mass is back". In fact, I'm not so sure it ever went that far away. We just look at it through a different marketing lens these days. Call it an enlightenment about what mass represents in today's world and how we choose to categorize and deal with it.

Now for social networks plugging back into the offline world. That is a huge trend worth watching and figuring out how to apply it to your brand and marketing efforts. What is critical is how it can be done with a non zero-sum mentality and approach. Further, the notion that communities and commerce can coincide is the focus of many currenet conversations in my world. Although, I have a much different way of thinking about communities and commerce than outlined above - we'll leave that for another post.

And finally, the idea of Brand Guardians is interesting but fails to go far enough for my liking. I kind of agree with the angle taken, but wholeheartedly believe that the role of brand guardian is being diffused more so than ever before. Increasingly, we are seeing smart CMO's and senior level marketers who are understanding that it comes down to a balanced mix of passionate employees, empowered front-line staff and customer service people that are truly the guardians. They are the tangible part of brand delivery in the consumer's mind and cannot be undervalued. In many cases, unfriendly consumer generated content against a brand is the result of a guardianship slip in a front-line, human-to-human, moment of truth.

Following that line of thinking, the torch of guardianship can be effectively passed onto the consumer through consistent positive encounters. Bad product issues can be rescued by a great person who shows empathy and is genuine in the help and solutions they provide. Let's face it, the product is often a commodity. It's the person-to-person element forges the brand identity with the vast majority of consumers. This is the context for creating a remarkable moment-of-truth where consumers become a defender or guardian of the brand (i.e. the Nordstrom's employee who gift wraps an item that was bought at another store.)

When a customer knows you are worth defending, they become your most credible advocate. I like to call it the 360 Degree brand guardianship model. Makes one rethink where to invest marketing dollars when you ask yourself if your customer service is doing your marketing for you in that regard? Deep thoughts before the Easter long week.

With that in mind, enjoy the video:

Influencing the influencers? Fooling the fools? I loved this video by Derren Brown. You have to watch it right to the end.

Hat tip to Uncle Jack.

I came across the Advertising Addictionary and found it made for some chuckle-filled reading. It is a wiki that serves up words and definitions for the Advertising and Marketing industry. Quite fitting to have a dedicated dictionary considering that we make up so much crazy jargon that is utterly useless for the rest of mankind. It would appear this is just what we needed - another and self indulgent outlet to facilitate more inside jokes.

While other industries are represented with their own similar wiki-dikis, I willing to bet that ours is is not only the most creative, but the one other industries will find the most amusing. I mean funny like I'm a clown, I amuse you?

Hat tip to Cory Treffiletti of Online Spin.

That was the lead of a story reported in Ad Age that shows a downturn in employment figures in the media industry. While the media industry was on the decline, lead by a decrease in newspaper related jobs, the marketing services sector (agencies, consultants etc..) showed an increase in employment growth.

Steve Rubel points out that, the direct-to-consumer model is beginning to take hold. What we are seeing is that, as distribution channels no longer require a broker, agent or other middle-person, the change we have heard of, and expected, is being quantified.

The Ad Age article states:
"Here's the reason behind the disparity: Marketers still invest in marketing, but they have options far beyond paid media: digital initiatives, direct marketing, promotions and events, just to name a few. That creates more opportunities for consultants to help define strategies."

The landscape where brands like Smirnoff, Coke, Dove, Sunsilk and others experiment and see the power of a focus on content versus one where you spend against mass media distribution is shaping up .

Looking a little further into media and distribution trends, the direction taken buy the likes of Radiohead with the release of their latest recording, In Rainbows, (as well as artists like Jane Siberry) show an active embrace of the direct to consumer distribution strategy. The shift taking place is aligned with channels of congregation - not ownership saturation. The implications are not subtle.

However, my belief is that this is not a zero-sum proposition. As online and digital grow, bright minds from the media fold will be brought on board and add talent and ideas to the evolution taking place.

Proof of this can be found in the stats:
"Internet media companies, a sector that includes search engines and web portals, is a bright spot, with a 13.4% jump in jobs last year. Still, internet-media employment remains 31% below its dot-com-bubble peak." Although that last statistic may not be such a bad thing.

I just read WIRED's article titled Facebook Ads Make You the Star -- And You May Not Know It. I had started to see Social Ads in use but the uproar over Beacon and related privacy concerns seems to have overshadowed the discussion.

WIRED's Megan McCarthy writes:

According to Facebook, a user has to take a "social action" in order to trigger the appearance of their name and picture in an advertisement. According to Facebook spokesperson Brandee Barker, that could be almost any activity that the user does on Facebook, "such as the download of an application and the acceptance of a friend request." It could also include becoming a "fan" of a business by clicking a link on that company's Facebook page.

We all knew that advertising would make the cash register ring at Facebook. As Colin Mackay said recently at The Canadian Institute Conference on Social Media (where we both presented) "Did you really think that the folks at Facebook were just being nice when they created a free platform that lets you see and message all your friends and family?" That being said, I suspect not many (even industry pundits) could have envisioned the controversy surrounding the ad model Facebook developed. From what I understand through the article, there is no way to opt-out of the Social Ad model for users at this time.

While I am a huge fan of social networks and Facebook in particular, I fear that new advertising tactics may push the limits of what is deemed acceptable and dampen the spirit that brought people there to begin with. And, ultimately turn people off of advertising even more than they already are.

As an individual, my advice to Facebook is to dedicate more time and effort to communicate in plain language (without the legal jargon) how their advertising platforms will involve users and what options are available. And, as a marketer, I wonder if there is a real lift in response from employing Social Ads versus the old standard banner ads? Is it really worth the furor and the potential loss of users?

We all know the images that the media industry is responsible for putting in front of young eyes. No matter what the avenue (television, film, print, Internet) Dove captures the fact that the Onslaught is inescapable.

This new effort is likely to cause less of an whirlwind than Evolution because it is a follow-up part of a campaign that has already unveiled breakthrough creative. However, it still drives home it's message and stands on it's own two feet quite well.

It is not that the beauty industry has suddenly started using mind-shaping images and advertising trickery to illustrate a warped concept of how things should be. It is no different today than decades past. However, what we have now is a proliferation of the stuff never seen before. The sheer amount exposure each and everyday is overwhelming.

If Evolution said "nothing is as it seems" than Onslaught is saying "the damned lies are absolutely everywhere you turn". I'm glad I can show this to my daughter and talk about how advertising is engineered and the way media works, even more so because the anti-ad is itself an ad.

Found via Adrants.

For fans of NBC TV series The Office, you may be interested to know that The Office site now has videos of each cast member letting fans know what they did over the summer. (For the record, the original BBC version with Ricky Gervais was far superior.)

NBC has hit a groove in terms of promoting the show by offering out new content to keep fans laughing and remind them that the next season starts in a couple of weeks. It is not exactly a stroke of sheer brilliance, but it is smart. And, goes hand in glove with the site's content extras that keep fans coming back for more.

Speaking of NBC, how about Dick In A Box picking up an Emmy last night. How smart do they look after letting it go onto YouTube and not pulling it like paranoid parents of copyright material as they demonstrated with Lazy Sunday. I wonder if it would have picked up an Emmy without the exposure (no pun intended) on YouTube? At last count there were over 27 MILLION views - I think it had something to do with it.

"Everyone have a nice summer? Go to swim camp? Eat Snow Cones? Pony Rides? Go to the summer solstice festival? Yeah? Well, summers over, time to get back to work!"

Tony Hung over at Deep Jive Interests has a great post on the subject of Ad Blocking and how the legal battle to stop it will likely serve to raise awareness and create more users of the software. I tend to agree with that position.

Tony cites this article from CNet news that sets the background for the debate.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau has said that it is an "issue that is just now ripening" and they "don't want to go down a route that would seem adversarial". They do, however, state that "People are free to ignore ads, and they often do that, but when you have a third party blocking those ads, that's the real problem." Sounds like the lawyers are teed up to become the short-term beneficiaries of this issue.

The debate is lively and will be interesting to follow. I know how I feel about it as both a consumer and an advertiser and would love to know what you think.

After the post below about bite-size little Skittles, I serendipitously happened upon this wonderful advertisement for Cadbury's Dairy Milk over at Adrants.

Enjoy it.

Don't bother to ask why but, I just spent some time on YouTube looking at Skittles ads. Now I don't know what the folks in the Skittles marketing department or their agency have been smoking, but it seems to be working quite well for them.

Is It Awesome? Watch and see.

Skittles leaking from the ceiling? My kids want that kind of problem in their rooms.

And, the singing bunny is cute too (but a bit annoying). Not worth the trade.

Yes, it was a slow day. Hat tip to Right-Half Chow

Bob Garfield of Advertising Age and NPR's On The Media has just reviewed what he claims is is the most sexist beer ad ever. He says the Heineken ad is"uncivilized by the most basic notion of respect" and that Heineken has "reduced half the world to a man-servicing beer tap"

Check out the offending Heineken video and see for yourself. Do you find it offensive as Bob does? Read some of the comments on the post and see what others are saying.

Me? Do I think it is sexist? Perhaps a little bit, but this is a beer ad folks. We have come to expect juvenile humor, girls in bikinis and nothing compelling enough to actually make anyone want to switch brands.

This ad, however, is just bad. It is annoying. Would anyone want to watch this more than once or twice? My guess is no. In my opinion, there is so much more Heineken could have done with the mini-keg concept than this spot. They blew it (or the agency blew it for them). Whatever.

Maybe I'll find out what Peter Mosley thinks about this little kerfuffle. I know he is a really big fan of the big beer companies and their marketing efforts. Mose, what say you?

I caught this little video by way of Ernie from Ernie Schenck CallsThis Advertising?. In my humble opinion, it works extraordinarily well. As Ernie points out, you don't need big budgets to execute big ideas.

Can you throw that down again? says the voice in the drive-thru.

I love this little consumer-generated content piece of two blokes rappin' at the McDonalds drive-thru window. A bit old but I had not seen it yet, so I thought I'd share in case you had not seen it either.

If the rappin McNuggets guys were not enough (see the updated commercialized version of their CGC spot below), this 2:27 spot already has close to 8,000,000 views. I wonder what McDonalds will do with all of of this content becomes part of thier online entertainment portfolio? I think Ronald has found his Fifteen Megs of Fries.

Here is the new "commercialized" version of the McNuggets Rap:

You've come a long way McNugget baby:

Hat tip to Brad R for pointing out the freestyle video.

For those of us curious about the way in which video advertising is developing into an extension of the capabilities Google has crafted for other areas of web, this demo is a quick glimpse at where it seems to be going.

We are at an interesting crossroads with video. It is still a bit in the air in terms of what it means for marketers re: local and targeted advertising and, how it will be viewed by consumers. It certainly beats the pre-roll, but that bar was not set very high to begin with.

We all knew that the purchase of YouTube by Google back in late 2006 would herald some bold moves into the video advertising space. And, as broadband penetration continues to grow coupled with every major internet player and traditional content provider developing their own approach to online video, the online ad industry is likely to explode with growth in the short term. Still unclear if this a long-term killer app from Google or another incremental advance that will get us to a happier place eventually.

My bigger question is, is this the best in class model that will be embraced by advertisers - both clients and agencies alike? Or, will sheep simply flock to the world that Google is defining for us? Interesting times are ahead. Very interesting.

Hat tip to Mark William Wielgus via Mashable.

I just read about the introduction of a “new friend” on Lonelygirl15’s webisode. The “new friend” is from Neutrogena – a scientist no less!

The post at Mashable explains:

The Neutrogena employee will appear in multiple episodes and reportedly help the show’s cast fight an evil group called “The Order” (while subtly pimping products from the manufacturer of “premium skin, hair and cosmetics products”). “This long-term relationship with Neutrogena is unprecedented, as the brand comes to life organically with the characters and storyline”, according to the marketing pitch.

I think we all saw this coming in some form so is it really a sell-out when monetizing the LG15 character was likely the goal in the first place? It was just a matter of time before sponsors/advertisers showed up.

The jury is out on whether this is a good move or not for either party (although I'm sure LG15's creators like getting paid). What I do know is that it will create a bit of buzz and I think it is an interesting experiment to reach out the viewers/fans of LG15. I’m not sold on the way they are doing by (re: introducing a character in the way they described) but we’ll have to wait and see if it takes or not.

What do you think?

Hat tip to Mashable ‘s Adam Ostrow.

I've been a big fan of The Hard Sell which appears in The Globe and Mail Report On Business section (either Tuesdays or Wednesdays - I think)

So I thought it was pretty cool that The Hard Sell has a blog. It looks like the blog has been around for a while although I had not seen it before. I found it because Keith McArthur linked to The Client Side - which I think is pretty cool considering I have been reading his Hard Sell column for a long time and it is one of the print items I look forward to reading each week. As the description goes, "Keith McArthur writes about the latest marketing trends, advertising campaigns and industry gossip."

Maybe Keith will come on The Client Side Podcast to discuss the good an bad examples of what the ad world is dishing out these days.

Speaking of ads I want to talk about (but will save for another post over the weekend) is the latest from Rona that I have caught on HGTV or W Network lately. These ads deserve a sound thrashing sooner rather than later. I'll be back on that one asap.

If you have seen Weeds, the opening credits on the show lays bare our cookie-cutter culture quite brilliantly. Our mass production and consumption cycle, which has been a staple for generations, is transforming in today's on-demand and dare-to-be-different empowered world.

For years large corporations and machine driven factories have knocked out
the same items at low cost, stocking stores and shelves and satiating our ever increasing
societal desires to consume whatever our neighbours are consuming. If you have ever watched the James Burke series Connections, you will understand what I mean when I say we are in a struggle to escape the trappings of the industrialized world we created and have grown accustomed to.

Our media was not any different – it too was industrialized. Our TV's and radios were stocked with the same content produced for the masses from the same factories. We all had what each other had. We all watched what each other watched. We did not have a chance or means to effect choice. We could not exert control over what was produced. For a long time we called that progress and settled in convinced it was the only way. We had driven ourselves into a homogeneous state and were, unfortunately, left felling a little less than unique individuals along the way.

I believe things have changed for good. We now covet those items that serve to individualize us more, not less. As an example, the iPod does this brilliantly. Yes, it is trendy in form/design and, yes, it is mass produced in a factory. However, it changes the game fundamentally in terms of how it functions. They (Apple) managed to take a mass produced item geared Joe Public and turn it into a device that is a reflection of who we are and want to be as individuals - disrupting how we interact with music and media in our lives. Its core function facilitates being more individual than ever before.

But more so, Apple is a disrupter through and through. They went deep into the end zone by disrupting how media is actually produced (podcasts, vcasts), distributed (iTunes, feeds) and created a masterful vision for how the device would transcend being just another device in a world full of devices. And, it is all situated and centred around you and I as unique entities - knowing we will each use it differently.

The rise of Social Media and controlling our Personal Media is where it is all going and
there really is no looking back. It is not about changing channels or rudimentary time-
shifting our TV watching anymore, it is about designing and creating our own streams of
content. We are the artist and the audience all at the same time.
Playing with media, selecting, customizing and mashing it up every which way to suit our
unique tastes, situations and needs is a wonderful leap we have taken together. It is not
only about the iPod, it is about the digital culture and the creativity that
is being unleashed everywhere.

And, because of this, marketers will need to go well beyond the old advertising models as they simply won’t work. Platforms and methods of communication designed for the masses will not work at the individual level today. (This is so much more than User Generated Content in the form of a Super Bowl ad. In my opinion that is a lame duck and there is so much more going on worth discussing.)

To be successful we will need new thinking to match the change as society diverges away from mainstream controls into unique cliques and communities. We will need to take heroic risks in order to acquire, retain and grow customer relationships that once, comparatively, seemed so easy.

So, where are we at today? Well, we have already seen the foundations of big media begin to deteriorate while they contemplate what’s next and jockey for position. Consumers are increasingly inattentive to our interruptive tactics. We now know of the concepts like “The Long Tail” and “Slivercasting” and have come to grips with the reality that broadcast audiences are dwindling. Looked at another way, we have been at the buffet for a long time getting fat without exercising. We need to think more about nutritional micro-meals appropriate for each unique taste palate, and board-up the drive-though which never satisfies anyone.

Just as in 16th Century England, the Reformation put wheels into motion and effected change we can still see and feel today, hundreds of years later. In terms of a marketing reformation, the usurping of big media by the individual is not the first domino to fall, nor will it be the last. It is, however, a very significant one that will be viewed historically as a fundamental game-changing event. To witness this on our watch is to witness history.

As the TV upfront shapes up, the answer to the PVR/DVR threat seems to be "Live Plus Three".

With an estimated 25% of households in major cities now using DVRs, there are some serious dollars at stake for the coming TV season terms of what advertisers are not willing to pay anymore for live network broadcasts. Live Plus Three is the compromise for how networks want shows measured re: audience reach / viewer ship at time of broadcasting (live) as well as 72 hours out (plus three) in order to accommodate for time-shifted or otherwise delayed viewing.

An article in yesterday's Globe And Mail by Stuart Elliott said:

"Last spring, in the upfront market before the 2006-7 season, CBS and the other broadcasters tried to persuade the agencies and advertisers to accept live plus seven, they ultimately failed, meaning the live standard was in place for another season"

Now here are a few interesting quotes from Jo Ann Ross, president of sales at CBS

"This is a gentleman's business...if some advertisers want to use measurements other than live plus three (we) will be flexible. We want to write business but we will not do live only; we want to get credit for DVR viewing".

The times are a changing. It's not that I don't believe in TV advertising, I just don't believe the money being charged is at all in-line with what you get from it - the value does not seem to be there at current market prices.

Time was when networks were really the only game in town and the advertisers lined up to throw money at the upfront and the live audiences they drew in. Begs the question about how deep the cuts will be when Neilsen moves from a program viewership model to a commercial viewer model. I guarantee those numbers will spell even more erosion for networks.

In my view, if 7-Up is the uncola - not quite Coke, but not quite seltzer, then Live Plus Three is the un-compromise - not quite live, and not quite the reality of how PVR'd shows are watched in terms of attention to advertising. The model still seems broken.

I read the concept of dating your customers from Seth Godin in Permission Marketing years ago and have used the reference in nearly every speech I have given ever since.

Dating customers does not imply asking some cutie out that you meet in your retail store. The point is that, in order to build a trusted relationship with consumers on behalf of our brands, it takes somewhat of the same approach to engage in commercial relationships as it does in personal relationships. Meaning we need to get to know each other better over time, discover what we have in common and work from there.

The whole idea of a "campaign" is not based on sustainability. When the media buy runs out, the presence is gone. It is akin to lighting the candles on a birthday cake with bursts from a flame-thrower.

Now, relationships are all about consistency, continuity and a two-way exchange of value. Marketers lose that point when the quarterly results need a boost and the short term thinking takes over. The long-term result of short term thinking is that we only serve to fracture the overall experience and deteriorate relationships.

Ask the average consumer what advertising is compared to a relationship and they will likely answer with "you show show up every once in a while with something splashy or drop by for a quickie and expect to score big time then go bragging back to the boardroom about your conquests. It is all about you you you, never me. What do I get except for all that noise you bring my way"

It is hard for many marketers and advertisers to break with the traditional model that we have operated from where, at a point in time, we throw a lot money at a perceived opportunity. The interruption mentality that has prevailed over many decades is not going away and neither are the campaigns. The process is antiquated but it is also engrained. Risk is required to break from that pattern and try out new ways of communicating our messages.

All this to say I really liked this video from Microsoft. They nail the traditional advertising and marketing model in the framework of dating and relationships very well indeed. It is well worth a look.

Hat Tip to Joseph Jaffe for finding this one.

If you recall, Agency.com pitched Subway business with a video that they posted to YouTube . The tactic raised some eyebrows and created some controversy. Agency.com came across looking a wee bit too full of themselves for most folks and were kicked around a bunch for the stunt. Ultimately, they pulled out of the race claiming a "conflict".

Somehow, when the Agency.com/Subway fire was burning bright last year, I missed the video response to the pitch from Coudal Partners .

It is cute, but I don't think the folks at Coudal should hold their breath waiting for Subway to call. It would be kind of hard to convince the client they believe in the product.

Made me laugh, made me think. Content is king and this is definately a prince. Albeit a weird little prince.

I don't watch TV anymore, so I don't even know if this was aired or not, or if it was just intended for YouTube. Either way, it demonstrates that there is more to the "spot" in today's digital age than the spot itself was able to achieve previously.

This long-form clip (below) along with some consumer generated content around the Little Lad's Berries and Cream jig is growing in online popularity and works in weird and wacky way for Starburst. Which, if I had to guess, is precisel lwhat the folks at TBWA/Chiat/Day New York had in mind. They seem get how to use the tubes over at YouTube for their client. Good on ya lads.

Hat tip to John at American Copywriter.

I was listening to “Why it Matters”, a great little weekly podcast from Ad Age hosted by Hoag Levins. The topic this week was Proctor & Gamble and their alleged embrace of new media by shunning traditional print, radio and broadcast TV. The podcast delved into how much walk is going on with that bold talk.

It seems as though Jim Stengel and A.G. Lafley are talking up a good game about abandoning old media and TV’s thirty-second spot and playing hard into new media opportunities. However, the discussion “Why it Matters” centred around the lack of hard evidence to prove they are stopping their old advertising ways and truly living and breathing in this new media environment.

Could P&G be standing at the edge of a cliff, goading others to jump off? Could they be preaching about leading the way while they are really just inciting others to abandon these traditional areas so P&G can then step back and buy old media at a discount? Is it a big ploy so that P&G can continue to advertise in traditional areas without the clutter from the competition that they convinced to jump and land hard?

I am not much of a conspiracy theorist, but the question has merits and it is worth thinking about. My belief is that we are not seeing radical change on purpose – this is about charting a steady course that will produce long term results by making smart incremental moves versus changing everything all at once. I compare the approach to one of avoiding the perils of a crash diet where results are realized in a matter of days or weeks but are not sustainable over time. I think P&G’s moves are more about a proper regime and balance for their current nutritional needs while starting to do a little exercise to keep them in shape for the future.

They realize this is a long distance marathon and are likely not interested in simply shedding a few pounds to look good in the short term, then yo-you back to where they began.

Check out the podcast over at Ad Age.com.

Big news from Google on the advertising front as they announced the purchase of DoubleClick for $3.1 Billion.

One could sense something like this was in the cards for Google as they have been expanding into the ad world, but this is huge. NY Times article reported that:

“Google really wants to get into the display advertising business in a big way, and they don’t have the relationships they need to make it happen,” said Dave Morgan, the chairman of Tacoda, an online advertising network. “But DoubleClick does. It gives them immediate access to those relationships.”

This is where things will begin to get very interesting.

Hat tip to Dr. Tony Hung for the story.

Jack Trout and Al Ries wrote about the perils of brand extensions in thier masterpiece of old school branding and advertising titled "Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind."

Mentos could have easily fallen victim to the notion that strong brands should never extend product lines. It is a slippery slope that, if done wrong, erodes the core product and potentially share-of-mind and wallet. However, Mentos seems to shine in this light as they move from candy to gum (which is not really a big leap but nonetheless needs finesse).

By sticking to the original shape of the core product and having a playful go at their advertising which is inline with past consumer marketing efforts, they were off to a good start. They then went from good to great by utilizing offline media to build online traffic with a cute little usage of neat little site that harnesses consumer-generated-content in a way that is (again) playful and on brand. They have done it right and I applaud the effort (not sure who the AOR is, but I like the work).

Check out Make Art Pop and see what I mean. I passed by some interesting graphics in the subway and on outdoor posters - my only critique is that I had to look a bit for the url in the subway ad - it did not "pop". However, I did remember the domain/url easily once I found it in the ad - so they had a win there too. The site itself is not going to rock your world, but it is cute and effective (although many parts did not seem to be working and did not load properly).

Ultimately, we are talking about gum here. And, that is the point. We are talking about gum. The simple fact that we are discussing it proves they did a great job. It is fun, on brand and there is no doubt that I will recall they are in the gum game.

Via the Diet Coke experiments and the zeal to embrace new media and the creative consumer, Mentos is on the minds of both marketers and consumers. They have quickly become a brand I can connect with and talk about and I know that to be true of many others. After what we learned at yesterday's Mass to Grass Word of Mouth Marketing conference in Toronto, this is a win for Mentos on many levels.

All this before I have even tried the product, which is the biggest win for Mentos as I will be doing that shortly.

Bob Garfield of Ad Age and NPR's On the Media has a great article that came out last week titled Chaos 2.0. The article is a follow-up to his original Chaos Theory and Listenomics submissions. Bob tells it like it is and what he says needs to be heard.

Check out the video which has some "freakin" great excerpts from his speech.