Divining the marketing future: PART TWO

Agencies will increasingly act as marketing communication strategy consultants as a premium complementary offering to their production and campaign development services.

Some contemporary agencies have even stripped out the tangible production aspects of their operations (such as the art studio) to concentrate on the development of a ‘big idea’ for creative execution. These agency forms utilize traditional resources including consumer research departments, account management teams, and creative developers, in addition to unconventional resources like artists, futurists, and cultural anthropologists.


These agencies recognize that in a new world where marketing communications must be far more relevant to consumers and impressions must not be squandered, the classical rules of planning, designing, and executing an advertising campaign must be challenged.


As these new capabilities are being internalized to qualitatively improve the effectiveness of marketing communications campaigns, agencies are also seeking to integrate customer relationship management practices to quantitatively improve the creative product. Customer learnings from CRM data, drawn from multiple online and offline communication channels, serve to develop active relationships between brands and their customers. Small, boutique marketing strategy firms, mid-sized agencies, and large networked global agencies have all significantly invested in developing these capabilities.

Historically, the advertising agencies industry was characterized by a few large global agencies (some affiliated through one of the five large holding companies) and by many small boutique agencies that operated locally.




Beginning in the 1990s, mid-size agencies have risen to challenge large global players for major accounts and the ability to define client marketing communication strategy. These mid-sized agencies, such as Wieden + Kennedy, 180, M&C Saatchi, Crispin Porter & Bogusky, and StrawberryFrog, position themselves as being better able to develop a strategic creative ‘big idea’ because their operations are more nimble and culturally oriented than large agencies like Young & Rubicam, BBDO, or JWT.

This industrial niche grew in importance because large agencies could not rapidly adapt to a changing consumer marketplace beginning in the 1990s and continued to exist as large-format multinational campaign production houses, giving their big ideas away for free.

Networks of agencies will continue to develop in the future, however the size and scope of these networks will likely not be based on the number of markets in which an agency can self-replicate and continue to amass global client billings, but rather based on the appropriateness of new markets which have a strong global influence.


Today, when mid-sized agencies go abroad, they locate to worldwide cultural centres where there is a wealth of diverse creative talent. Shanghai, Sao Paulo, Amsterdam, Los Angeles, and Mumbai are all rapidly growing locations for this new breed of marketing agency. Locating in cultural centres gives these mid-sized agencies and developing networks a strategic advantage at developing strong consumer insights which can have a global application.

Divining the marketing future: PART ONE

Marketing agencies function in a rapidly evolving industry where the relative stability in technological innovation and consumer predictability afforded in the period from the 1950s to 1990s no longer exists. Let's look at some facts:

Consumers are now extremely fragmented and define themselves as individuals with a unique set of marketable signifiers based on their preferences, consumption habits, and social affiliations. For example, marketers cannot expect a single television commercial to be relevant and meaningful to a large group of people anymore.


Media fragmentation – both in terms of the variety of niche content that is consumed and in the many personal ‘screens’ where consumers receive media content – has meant that it is also challenging for marketers to achieve any significant reach with a single message, commercial, or campaign. Instead, there is greater value in marketing to consumers at an individual level where relevance and an experience can be developed.


Based on these trends, the industry will be driven forward by agencies which are able to produce ‘strategic’ creative products – marketing communications with a very strong inclusion of consumer insight, data measurability, and campaign integration across multiple advertising channels.

We'll look at the implications of these needs tomorrow in PART TWO.

Exam brain drain

I'm sure all the undergraduates are feeling the crunch, and halfway through my exams, I get tired of memorizing decade-old facts of measuring the probability of factories being successful. So here's my retaliation to the brain drain.

A quick visit back to everyone's favorite fruit. Apples? Blackberries? Ever thought that actual fruit wars would get literal AND aggressive? This ad was prepared by the New York Ad Agency Guava, and was apparently too much for rim to handle. The video here:

[Side note: Doesn't YouTube HD rock?]

Personally, I love it. Freeze a blackberry, shoot it through an Apple. This is all beside the fact that the Blackberry Storm hasn't been selling as its prospective fruit. The two aren't even direct competitors on a corporate marketplace, but the personal marketplace has already been too saturated with Apple for something like this to take off at comparable levels.

Branding beat to death

Branding has been given a lot of attention recently, especially now that the recession is giving companies the perfect opportunity to re-launch their whole product and marketing perspective once the money starts flowing again. However, there's an inherent concern that everything, right down to our staples like toilet paper and canned corn is being branded to death. The question that brand pessimists pose is: do these companies have the goods to back up their newly introduced image? Books such as OBD: Obsessive Branding Disorder are sitting on the lonely side of the fence with this perspective...for the time being.

Combating brain drain

Accounting getting your morale down?

Watch this video:

Not taking a marketing course is kind of frustrating. It's nice learning business staples such as accounting, but it'll be a welcomed change next year when I can stop being trained to be a CA in a cubicle. Marketing in my opinion boils down to the following:

Consumers with Dollars -> Marketing -> Companies with Dollars

So, what better way to beat the brain drain then with some nice reading on this fundamental consumer-company chain?

There are two trends breaking into the marketplace right now:

1. Brand Experiences and how such builds into creating brand value (think walking into an Abercrombie store)

2. Brand Sense --> billboards and print ads are slowly becoming the dinosaurs of touchpoint marketing

On the reading block:

So a little message of hope to all the BBAs and IBBAs out there: consolidating income statements and the difference between a group and a team aren't the most important things in the world. Learn something you're interested in for once.

TED is a motivational speaker company that has just recently launched almost all their full-length videos on-line for free. It's worth watching as many as you can, as truly some of the best and brightest divulge insights worth every penny for paying audiences. Of particular importance is how schools are killing our creativity:

One of my favorite clips ever that really addresses a huge issue swept under the rug.

Also, the magic behind Benjamin Button. A real jaw-dropper at how a movie that may have seemed to have little to no digital animations beat out every glitzy action film at the Oscars:

Enjoy.

Point: Counterpoint

POINT:

The monolithic notion of a 'brand' - an infinitely dependable symbol of prosperity, happiness, comfort, and security - is over. For nearly a century, brands acted as the definitive medium through which we experienced capitalism. A brand's strength came from its ability to transmit a consistently identical static message. Brands gave our reality a strong foundation: symbols doffing our mental and physical landscapes that we could use to navigate our way through life. But then brands began to show their age. They started to rust, chip, degrade, fall apart. All of a sudden brands cease to be the impenetrable fortresses of consumer relations we thought they were, and anyone could start a brand and do whatever he wanted with it. Gen X created flexible brands that catered to subterranean audiences, prompting Gen Y to embrace the idea of the "personal brand" - individuality expressed through a marketable system of identifiable signifiers. And so these slick little icons - towering planets that represented entire universes of product experience - were slowly deconstructed to a point of irrelevance. Our daily lives are now inundated by a torrent of dead images and meaningless symbols from a bygone era, leaving us with one very important question to answer: 'What's next?'

Douglas Haddow, AdBusters #82

COUNTERPOINT:

Icons and symbols are only one facet of contemporary brands, today more of a collection of affiliated consumer experiences than a collection of advertising impressions. Brands are consumed as experiences with greater frequency and intensity than ever before. The perceived diminished role of brands in the lives of consumers obviates the strength with which consumers now engage with brands for a relatively short period of time. Gen Y's comfort with customization has meant that any brand that makes a concerted effort to allow consumers to participate in its creation will have a sustained advantage against those that do not. It's misleading to suggest that brands today have any less relevance to young consumers than they did for previous generations. Perhaps the entropic decay of laggard brands unable to relate to a modern audience obscures the collaborative role which flexible brands have adopted for a new age. Today, a brand's strength comes not from its ability to project a singular, flawless identity to the world, but for the identity to be multifaceted and encourage engagement - rather than purchase - from consumers. Furthermore, when the images and symbols that represent brands are created by us, will they really be that irrelevant?

The weekend links

How's Reading/Study week going? Back tomorrow to school and exams. Honestly the BBAs are making a big deal out of exams, huh? Are exams really that anxiety-causing? I know I don't sound that empathetic, but consider the optics of the situation: three months off, and now five short days of exams. A maximum five exams. THREE MONTHS OFF, FIVE EXAM DAYS. I'm just saying that things could be worse. The B!G kids on exchange seem to be having fun though. The FB pics are quite nice. Hi Amanda, Arsenia, Rebecca, Doug, Olga, Andreea (and anyone I've missed)!

In other news, the job hunt is going well. I'm pleased with how things are progressing and hope that things will continue moving forward.

Not having done weekend links in a while, I wanted to make this one special and chock it full of shout-outs to loyal readers of the blog. So I've categorized these links by your names:

ANA

Pajiba has a page where users are posting their picks for the top five movies of 2000-2009, 'the Aughts'. it's really great actually and gave me many ideas about my own favourite movies and some I should download. My short list (in no order)?

- Sideways
- The Descent
- The Departed
- Milk
- Lost in Translation
- The Dark Knight

Check out the comments that are being made. There are hundreds.

Also, food marketers are taking the conservative route during tough times. I'll be interested to know if this also means more promotion on comfort food and classic products.

ROBYN

Top ten freaky ways to terrorize your roommate. I know she's your friend, but some of these are really quite funny. I like number 6: Collect hundreds of pens and pile them on one side of the room. Keep one pencil on the other side of the room. Laugh at the pencil.

NICK


A blogger collected some of the grosssest print ads ever. I especially like these ones, but I'm kinda thinking that they detract from the message and intimidate the target audience. Thoughts?

JEFF

Lyle Lanley and Hank Scorpio are my favourites of the best one-off Simpsons characters.

LUCY


Delicious monstrosity cakes. They're weird shapes cause basically you can make anything by cutting cake and covering it in fondant. I like Yankee Stadi-cake.

GEORGE



Please graduate to better electronica. Underworld is legend, as per Born Slippy (below)



CHERIE

Refer to these during interviews! Six hot media trends of 2009. Although a lot of these are really consumer/marketing/communication rather than 'media', they're spot on. I like the one about the 'Zen Tech Warrior'

OLGA I


I just thought that picture was funny and you'd get a laugh!

Also, knowing the the truth of what Europeans really think of each other might help you navigate those tricky cultural waters and get through unscathed while on exchange. Who knew that the Dutch were so esteemed?

DAVE M

The most popular songs Led Zeppelin ripped off. They're an awesome band and probably the best cover band of all time. It hurts me too, learning that my world is crumbling down around me. See this video too for further evidence.



DAVE P

The latest gadget, it bypasses iTunes and allows you to share files from one iPod to another. I really want this for when my iPod inevitably dies or I want a new one. You currently aren't able to swap files between iPods through iTunes unless you have everything saved on the computer already.

LISA


Barf. Hello Kitty Rice Seasoning Mix with cat faced seaweed particles looks disgusting, but strangely cute. It's make from real cats apparently.

DANA and TONY CHAPMAN

Strategies for small agencies to survive during tough economic times. I think we're pretty clear on big ideas, creativity, and good client relations though, right? Aren't those your core comps? (BTW, phew!)

CHRIS

Can you do this through your iPhone yet? Booking hotel rooms with a mobile device seems really smart to me. It's a great platform for fast and remote content delivery, but unless you're booking a fairly standard hotel (like Marriott) when you can expect reasonable assurances of quality and location, do people really not need the interactivity and graphic functionality of a computer?

SYLVIE


Are any of these photographs of consumer goods en masse an example of Dadaism? BTW, Seurat is pointillism!

KEVIN

I believe in Jamie Lee Curtis's need for a "radical transmutation of character" - and no, I'm not judging!

KEANU REEVES

I get so angry reading about the life-changing inventions they never said would work. They thought computers would never work? Or how about what Time Magazine said about online shopping back in 1966: "Remote shopping, while entirely feasible, will flop - because women like to get out of the house, like to handle merchandise, like to be able to change their minds." Whoa...

Alright folks, enjoy the week!

Orbital symmetry and marketing truths

Our solar system has one star, four rock-based inner planets, an asteroid belt, and four gas giant outer planets. Sorry Pluto.

The solar system is a beautiful apparatus. It's movements are predictable and constant and its unique characteristics can be compared against other solar systems we see in our galaxy.


However the structure of our solar system is not unique. It's a pattern that is found in other parts of the galaxy too:

- Rocky planets close to the star
- Gas planets far away from the star

It's believed that as celestial bodies formed from pressure and gas, their gravitational fields expanded and pulled particulae in. Heavier particulae (metals such as iron) eventually gathered to form rocky planets. Since these elements had a heavier atomic weight, they were drawn in closer to the star. Lighter elements stayed further away from the star and formed gas giants, like Saturn, pictured below.

(BTW, another theory is that planets formed based on the distance from the sun and the temperature of where the properties of basic elements could remain stable).


Obviously I don't know my physics too well. It's one of the high school science subjects I really wished I had taken.

But consider how mechanical this all seems. The solar system is beautiful. It's a complex architectural masterpiece crafted at the atomic level. Our understanding of this masterpiece is based on what we can observe. We know that iron is heavier than helium. We know that plutonium is more unstable than gold.

Our foundation of modern physics is based on indusputable atomic properties. Truths.


So what is our foundation of modern marketing based on? What are the unshakable marketing truths which we formulate our campaign hypotheses and customer segmentations on?

1. Consumers look for enhanced well-being through the tangible or intangible value derived from consumption of a product or service. RIGHT.

2. Complete information is impossible. Consumers will never know all the product specifications, possible prices, and availabilities. It is also impossible to perfectly rationalize the information from other consumers of the product or service. RIGHT.

Are those the only ones?

I really think so. Consider the classical marketing assumptions are being broken down and invalidated:

1. Consumers trust the messages they read in marketing communications. WRONG.

2. Consumers can easily be convinced to purchase on price and emotional benefits alone. WRONG.

3. Marketing is meant to be one way: consumers receive information, consumers receive the product. WRONG.


You know the assumption being challenged that really makes life scary for marketers?

That consumers need to consume.

Our economy is based on production and consumption. For a while, it was a lot like the solar system. It was an architectural masterpiece in perfect orbital symmetry and cosmic balance.

Consumers behaved.

But consumers aren't behaving anymore.


The death of our solar system is predicted to occur in 6 billion years. The sun will burn out and become a white dwarf, losing mass and energy. Planets, including Earth, will no longer feel the gravitational pull to the sun and might be ripped out of orbit by the pull of stronger, larger astronomical bodies.

Sound familiar, marketers? It's hardly a Nostradamian prediction, we can already see our consumers walking away. Forget about consumers not listening, consider the impacts of consumers not buying.

(All pictures were taken from the Hubble space telescope. Check out the full album here)

Chillin with Billings: a retrospective perspective

I hate that clown. Mostly because clowns are freaky, and secondly because I should be face down in a pillow rather than my accounting textbook right now (I'm sure all the second years out there can sympathize with me).

As an associate, Chillin with Billings is one part taking, one part giving. While Billings' insight into appropriate images for the blog and topics for SEO can be classified as questionable at best, there's much to be said about picking the brains of a second year MBA with relevant experience and two feet firmly planted on the ground (in comparison to a BBA's perspective of the average MBA ego vs. knowledge levels). Universities were originally created as a forum for great minds to challenge and create ideas. Regrettably, today's institution is less thinking and more a measure of one's ability to memorize and recite dated and useless factoids. It's nice to occasionally get a taste of the true benefit of University; a Billings session being just one of those things.

Yes, really.

What to expect from a Chillin with Billings session:

1. Lots of Max playing with his own hair. Lots. Case in point:

2. If you're lucky, a ride in his shiny silver car that goes vroooooooom

3. His opinion on everything

Every year B!G gets a new brand manager (aka el Presidenté, aka Da Boss). And while it's easy to classify Max as the face and underlying source of the group's values and beliefs; that certainly isn't the case. His dedication to personifying the club's integrity and values as a consolidated (damn you accounting!) function of each of it's members is truly admirable. While the topics of the discussion are varied, the objective in each meeting is the same; to get a better understanding of the group's members is to better understand the group itself.

P.S.: I just hope it's not Timothy's coffee.

P.S.S.: I resent the term "amateur photographer", I prefer "aspiring", it just seems more...optimistic :)

Chillin with Billings

A significant part of my role as President is smoothing out organizational wrinkles concerning B!G's members and learning from the trenches about what needs to be improved, strengthened, stopped, or maintained in the agency. Chillin' with Billings are informal get togethers I have with each person in B!G meant to reinforce our focus on individualism and self-expression - we're Gen Y, after all!

I want to know what our members take issue with and how I can personally make a difference in to the experience people have with B!G. Whether that's giving them exposure to a different functional area of the business, helping them with interview prep, or allaying their fears over scary bedtime clowns.


Frightened? That's good, that's why we're meeting tomorrow!

I love these sessions because it's a legitimate chance for me to stop talking about myself and learn more about others. The conversation is never about me. We talk about sports, music, movies, art, school, Toronto, and marketing.

And what have I learned? That the individuals in B!G have an unbelievable breadth of interests including classical music, Dadaism, judo, and How I Met Your Mother. They're interested in accounting as a career path, going to Singapore and becoming an account manager, visiting Spain, and developing their skills as an amateur photographer.

I'm grateful to be around such a talented group. It's humbling to learn more about individuals and deepens my commitment to give them a fulfilling experience with B!G.

So here's what you can expect during our Chillin' with Billings meetings.

1. Would you like a coffee?
2. I'll eventually find out something embarrassing about your interests!
3. I'm like a sponge, I hear everything. Expect to go into great detail about something you think is mundane.

Looking forward to it! Naila, Jeff, Mitesh, Nick, and Sharmeen, you're up tomorrow. And we can talk about the scary clowns too.

Photoblogging random Toronto neighbourhoods

Steph is feeling kinda down. Air Canada gave her the royal screw with her vacation plans. I hope it's been resolved, but last night Steph was seriously down.

To cheer her up, I told Steph to open Google Maps and randomly pick three places on a map of Toronto. I'd visit those places on my errands today and photoblog them.

Why? Cause it's collaborative content development. Also because I love exploring this city and driving my car (which, thanks to a much better service department at a new dealership, has a clean bill of health!)

So here's where Steph sent me:

DESTINATION #1: BAMBURGH CIRCLE (WARDEN AND STEELES)
DESTINATION #2: QUEEN ST. EAST AND BROADVIEW
DESTINATION #3: GALLERIA SHOPPING CENTRE AT DUFFERIN AND DUPONT

Ok, DESTINATION #1: BAMBURGH


Driving to Bamburgh form my place at Yonge and Eg, I took Lawrence and made a stop at Arz Food, this amazing Middle Eastern grocery store with fantastic prepared foods, baklawa, and fresh pitas. Among Toronto neighbouroods, the section of Lawrence between Vic Park and Warden is refered to as the 'Gaza Strip' because of the concentration of Middle Eastern food stores and businesses there.


Driving up Warden from Lawrence I'm in a low density, semi-industrial row of vacant commercial buildings below the train tracks. There's this superboard for Advertising Week (held in late January in Toronto). It seems that the locations for Advertising Week superboards are in the most bizarre locations. Purposeful? Meant to be thought-provoking for marketers, the target audience?


Arrival at Bamburgh. It's a nice residential street with two story suburb homes on one side and tall condo towers in an enclave on the other side.


I know this isn't the first picture someone took of a suburb with a 'no exit' sign...

Onto DESTINATION #2!, QUEEN ST. EAST AND BROADVIEW


Speeding down the DVP. It really is a beautiful roadway when it moves. I like it when it winds and twists south of Eglinton. It feels great to hug the car along the turns of the road as you see the city materialize before you through trees and cuts between buildings.

Queen East at Broadview is Leslieville, a rapidly developing neighbourhood in transition. It's a commercial strip with old world delis, new world espresso bars, chocolate shops, and art galleries.


It's also got a lot of homeless and street kids walking up and down the sidewalk competing for space with the tandem strollers, joggers, and seniors. Truly a mixed neighbourhood.


Really nice neighbourhood for a Saturday afternoon stroll (thanks Steph, this was really one of my favourites!). Thinking of moving here.


Unfortunately I got a parking ticket as I was getting a corned beef sandwich from a Polish deli. Steph, you owe me $30.

Onto DESTINATION #3: DUFFERIN AND DUPONT


I drove along Queen past City Hall


...up through Koreatown

...and along Dupont to get here, and I parked in this messy parking lot for a low-rent shopping mall, the Galleria centre. It's a multi-ethnic, mixed-use, low-income neighbourhood.


It's showing its age too. The whole places looks like a transplant from the 1960s/70s.


This isn't a tough neighbourhood, it's just ugly. Ugly for the grey and brown buildings and enormous expanses of cracked concrete roads.


By this point I was exhausted and going crazy from the other drivers, but I look up, and there, on top of a car wash, was another sign for Advertising Week. Part of me smirked knowing that I was potentially in on an in-joke.

Thinning the agency ranks

Coke announced that it's reviewing its portfolio of advertising agencies and considering where they can trim the fat.


It's a sign of the times. Agencies in the States have lost 65,000 employees in 2008 and client marketing budgets are under greater scrutiny for the impact advertising has on actual sales.

Coke's actions suggest a strategic opportunity for agencies based on the following:

• Campaigns executed using channels with high awareness and low cost. Experitential, events promotion, and SMPR are some of these. Television isn't.
• Global orientation, either based on a flexible network of interlinked agency offices, or the capabilities of a single office with a seriously multicultural talent pool.
• Integrated marketing strategy services which allow an agency to take a stepped-back approach and look at the most effective way to speak to a customer, then you customize a channel based on that.
• Close interaction between the ad shop and the media shop (small agencies are often merging these together) to fully optimize how advertising is being used in the right channels at the right time to the right audience. Because of a deliberate separation of media departments in the 1980s, agencies really slit a vein in terms of how much value could be added to clients.

Ultimately a leaner demand for marketing services improves campaign quality and consumer experiences. Agencies are being put to the screws to deliver a better product and more value.

Are you a burger virgin?

I hope you're not.

Doesn't that just look delicious? Ignore those diets and give in to trans-fat freedom!

Burgers have transgressed through American culture faster than credit card debt. From corner greasy spoons to your local McChain, how can the super-saturated burger companies get their product into your belly?

McDonalds? Boring. Celebrity appearances, cutesy kids commercials and all the rest don't work much better. Here's a creepy one that's definately not PG-13:

There's also some creepy McDonalds Japan ads:

Clearly culturally targeted advertising is at work here. A quick wikipedia search also discusses the variations in McDonald's offerings from country to country.

Wendy's? They've done a good job at least pushing the quality and freshness of their product. That is until they literally blow up their customers:

The cold war also introduced some very interesting commercials into North American pop culture:

What I've been enjoying most of all has been Burger King's take. Their 2007-2008 campaign has won numerous awards, thanks to strong brand positioning (including an Xbox game!) and innovative disruptive campaigns. None were more disruptive than the "Whopper Freakout". What happens when you take away "America's Favorite Burger"? Watch and see.

Whom better to sell your company's products than their loyal customers? Whopper sales apparently grew double digits after that one. More recently, however none the less controversial is the "Whopper Virgins" campaign. Burger King went around to remote villages where people had never even seen a burger before and did a taste test against the Big Mac. Again, there's a clear push to determine the best burger. However, what I found most interesting was the natives' interaction with the burger. Most have no idea to take the burger in your two hands and eat it; something that comes without thinking to us. The tactile, subliminal relationship we have to the items we are marketed is one of the strongest principles of consumer adhesion. We're used to opening a Big Mac box. We're accustomed to opening a bottle of coke. We know how to open a bag of chips. These people aren't accustomed to such. It's incredible the influence and teachings in our media to show us how we interact with our everyday purchases.

And of course, what's a great piece of viral marketing without controversy?

As consumers, we've been molded and taught to not only buy certain products over others, but how to interact and attain them. The focus of marketing cannot be limited solely to the products themselves. More and more marketing is branching out to "lifestyle" products, meaning that convincing and showing how a product works into a certain class of living is just important as the product itself (case in point; running shoes, power drinks, etc.).

Are burgers a lifestyle product? To a certain extent perhaps. Most of us aren't burger virgins.

Basics of branding: Arnell's Pepsi concepts

Too often, positioning strategy is seen as some lofty, abstract, and intangible activity. It's mistaken as a marketing black art because the process that goes into its execution is so subjective.

Frankly, some people are better at understanding consumer strategy than others. They have unique insights into how consumers think, are familiar with multiple points of appropriate cultural references, and can argue for a positioning stance based on a foresight to know that it will effectively ready a brand or product for future success.

They know what consumers engage with and why.

The Pepsi rebrand that launched in January 2009 - including the redesign of a 30 year old logo - is one of those projects that required the expertise of this kind of strategic creative person.

The Peter Arnell Group was the agency responsible for concept development of Pepsi's new logo. A document released (perhaps seeded into the social media community so bloggers like me will pick it up and buzz about it...) describes the rationale behind the new Pepsi logo:


Apparently, "emotive forces shape the gestalt of the brand identity" - a phrase I love! - which means that "things that stir emotions in people influence the whole personality of Pepsi".

Take a look at the document. It's full of bizarre diagrams that deconstruct and code the DNA of the Pepsi brand. It's like looking at the Human Genome Project for a soft-drink.




The value in doing this? The agency is showing it's skills for strategic creativity. It's demonstrating through applied concepts why the new design makes sense, rather than some arbitrary selection criteria that chooses one design over another based on what someone likes the best. It's an attempt to be really scientific - in a creative way.

This matters because the more strategically creative value an agency is able to deliver (in the form of design conceptualization or consumer insight), the greater differentiation they will have against competitors. The greater differentiation, the higher the premium they can charge for their services.

Read the report, see what you think.

How advertising agencies grew up

In another fantastic example of my two birds, one stone philosophy, I'm blog-posting and collecting supporting evidence for a presentation my group is making on Thursday about ad agencies.

I'm reading this interesting book, Adland, all about the growth of the advertising industry. It's a summary account of major global agencies and their influential founders. The book gives equal credit to the importance of consumer insight (research), outstanding creativity (artistry), and compelling messaging (copywriting) as elements of successful agencies. Often the most noteworthy agencies were started as a partnership between a planner, an art director, and a copywriter (or a combination of).

Here are a few examples of successful advertising agencies and how they grew up:

Lord & Thomas, an old print ad agency at the turn of the 20th century into the thirties, led by Albert Lasker, known as the true father or modern advertising. Lasker created the form of the modern agency with a department of copywriters and a focus on sales, planning, and business development. He recruited famous copywriter Claude Hopkins, known for a rational sales-focused style honed through research and empirical results. As simple an obvious as it now sounds, the 'Hopkins Approach' to good ad development implies finding the unique factor for any product that sets it apart from its rivals. Groundbreaking stuff in 1907. The importance here is that even as early as 1907, there was a strong scientific basis to advertising and agencies that could deliver a more effective advertisement were more successful. Lord & Thomas is now DraftFCB, part of Interpublic.

JWT, founded in 1878 by J. Walter Thompson (who actually bought out the agency owned by Willian Carlton), one of the largest and most successful advertising agencies ever (now part of the WPP holding company). Grew significantly from 1920s to 1950s under Stanley Resor and his wife Helen Landsdowne who emphasized the need for credible research to back up claims of product superiority (think doctors, psychologists). JWT is now the largest US agency, fourth largest in the world.

Young & Rubicam, founded in 1923 by John Young and Raymond Rubicam, is now one of the largest advertising agencies in the world. It grew like other modern agencies but had a strong focus on backing up ideas with solid research. It may therefore be considered among the less risk-taking agencies because of its more dogmatic approach to campaign development. Y&R was known for its creativity in the 1950s, but Rubicam also wanted to instill a practical, reason-based foundation in the work. In 1932, Rubicam hired George Gallup (yes, that Gallup), a sociologist and researcher to head a consumer research departmnt of 400 people within the agency. The primary research collected by field researchers working for Y&R would lead to the development of better, more relevant campaigns. In 2000 Young and Rubicam Brands (including Wunderman and Young & Rubicam) was acquired by WPP.


DDB, founded by Ned Doyle, Maxwell Dane, and Bill Bernbach in 1949 as the antithesis to what was seen at the time as stodgy and conservative creative work by the major agencies (Greay, Y&M, O&M, JWT). This was the creative shop in the 1950s, the team responsible for the famous VW Lemon ads. DDB established itself and grew based on creative risk-taking and simply great ideas rather than a focus on consumer research (the Levy's Rye Bread ad, shown above, is a classic example from DDB). A defining quality at DDB was the deliberate collaboration between art directors and copywriters to spark great ideas, known as the creative revolution in advertising. DDB merged with BBDO and Needham in 1986 to create Omnicom, then the largest advertising company in the world. DDB is seriously successful, with many creative awards (to this day) the highest revenue ($12.69B in 2007) of any agency.

Chiat/Day, creative hotspot founded in Los Angeles in 1962, best known for the '1984' Apple Superbowl ad (shown below). Although Stanley Pollitt at BMP developed the practice of 'account planning' - placing researcher and account managers directly together on client teams to better facilitate consumer insights, it was the application of account planning at Chiat/Day that catalyzed the agency's meteoric rise. From the introduction of account planning organization in 1982 to 1992, the agency's client billings grew from $50MM to $700MM. Chiat/Day merged with the European collective TBWA in 1993 and was acquired by Omnicom.



Wieden + Kennedy, founded in 1982 by Dan Wieden and David Kennedy out of Portland Oregon. W+K is a big favourite of mine for producing amazing creative work, notably Coke's 'Coke Side of Life' and the Nike 'Just Do It' campaign. The shop was the first to challenge the advertising hegemony of Madison Avenue. It's now one of the largest independently owned agencies and still producing great work, like this fantastic spot for Nike (shown below) which premiered during the 2008 Olympics. I still get chills and cry. Seems to have grown as a result of strong TV capabilities.



M&C Saatchi, founded in 1996 by the same Saatchi brothers who were forced out of their original agency, their namesake Saatchi & Saatchi. M&C Saatchi is relatively small but global, highly creative, and highly strategic in their thinking. It uses the concept of 'Brutal Simplicity' to deconstruct brands and consumer strategies to their simplest elemental forms. One word thinking. It's meant to get to the heart of insight. (Note, I really want to work here when they finally open a Toronto office!)

180, an innovative shop founded in 1998, spun off by account managers from Wieden + Kennedy's Amsterdam office who committed the most grievous of sins, pitching for Adidas, the hated rival of Nike, W+K's primary client. 180 is a multicultural agency, strongly reflecting the diversity of its Amsterdam HQ. In 2007 they opened an Los Angeles office and are now 50% owned by Omnicom. 180 describes that they first "think of the big idea and then apply it to media channels. If it doesn't work in all channels, then it's not a big idea." Interesting example of an agency that relies on incredible talent as a driver of creativity.

StrawberryFrog, started in 1999 (also in Amsterdam) as a digital media agency, now is a specialist in creating cultural movements. An example of a shop that really gets the optimism and creative risk-taking (remember DDB in the 1950s?) that makes advertising exciting. The agency specializes in popular movements using a wide array of contact points with consumers, from outdoor advertising to web-based initiatives. They design brand environments, says cheif CD, Mark Chalmers. Cool, cool stuff. Check out their story of advertising.

What I think is cool - and a key linchpin of my 601 group's strategic recommendation for our site - is that successful agencies have grown by a deliberate recognition of the importance of strategic planning and consumer research. In the case of BMP, this function is highly integrated into campaign development in the form of the 'account planning' model. In the case of Young & Rubicam, it's the purposeful distancing of a research department to develop pure, unadulterated and meaningful consumer truths.

Agencies need strategy. It's a higher value adding service and something that can improve the quality and relevance of campaigns for consumers.

But in other examples, agencies became successful simply because of the way they did work. They were more cultural. Riskier and with fresher ideas. M&C Saatchi, DDB, StrawberryFrog, and 180 are examples.

So we're now left with an interesting industry - it's highly divided, with six massive players and their collection of agencies at one end (WPP, Omnicom, Havas, Publicis, Interpublic, and Dentsu) and small boutique standalone agencies at the other. In the middle are micro-networks of agencies with networks of regional offices or partnerships.

It's these mid-tier agencies which are the most interesting to look at because they defy convention. Sure, they're creative, but they're also executional experts at new media channels which they grew up using. StrawberryFrog is an example. Same for Razorfish/Avenue A. They're strategic creatives, talking big ideas as much as consumer marketing strategies. And they're winning business. Adidas is handled by Sid Lee out of Montreal and 180 from Amsterdam. Nike is handled by Wieden + Kennedy. Burger King is handled by Crispin Porter & Bogusky from Miami. The German boutique Heyer & Partners developed the McDonald's 'I'm Lovin' It' campaign.

So what happens when strategy is increasingly being determined by nimble shops that can produce a global impact but don't need global operations?

All accounts are up for grabs.

The weekend links

It's news time. We're back into the daily grind and in the thick of ridiculous projects. A lot of these ridiculous projects involve looking for recent news events concerning business developments, technology trends, or marketing strategies. So here are interesting stories from this week, with some bizarre stuff through in for good measure.

Also, I've had a month's worth of Jewish deli food this weekend. Delicious stuff. So with a belly full of coleslaw, corned beef, pickles, rice pudding, potato salad, cream cheese, lox, pastrami, and rye bread, I bring you links!

Once again, teenagers and their relentless consumerism have saved the retail landscape. Teenage apparel shops actually performed in January.

Crispin Porter & Bogusky, one of the brighter shops in the industry lately for their creative risks (and Ad Age's agency of the year in 2008) cuts 60 jobs. Not good news for new graduates!

I've refrained from talking about the Superbowl ads, mainly because they're so subjective and honestly, what does it matter if I liked one ad or the other - it only matters what prospective consumers and key influencers though of the ads. Wait...I'm blogging, maybe that means I'm a key influencer...in that case, my favourite ads from last week's Superbowl were:

The Doritos ad made by two guys for $1000



The Priceline ad



The Pepsi Dylan and Will.i.am ad



They were interesting, fun to watch, and memorable.

Ad Age ran a story about how consumers brand perceptions changed before and after these were shown during the game. And what did I think were the worst ads?

The Cheetos Ad (i'm still confused...)



The Sobe ad (it's just so stupid and drawn out)



Have you dwlded StumbleUpon yet? You really should, it's the best way to pass time between Facebook, Gmail, Surfthechannel, and Facebook again. StumbleUpon is now bigger than Twitter has quietly crept up to become one of the larger user-generated platforms online. And the best thing is that it doesn't even need a website!


I'm not sure about this one - I am a huge aviation enthusiast and the F-22 is a beautiful plane. But it's completely unnecessary and in many ways totally anachronistic for modern, urban warfare which isn't based on which superpower has air superiority.


I'm proud to say that I was a fan of Shepard Fairey before he became the official artist of the Obama administration. He's been arrested for graffiti.

At least one client is increasing their marketing budget - Workopolis is playing it smart, using common-sense copywriting to emphasize a never back down attitude for job-seekers.

HAHA! NBC VPs used the company account to pay for prostitutes...wow, media world
gossip.


'Nana, please don't be made at me, I just downloaded the latest Franz Ferdinand album' - the National Center for State Courts has created a propaganda piece warning teens about how file sharing will ruin your life and your grandmother's life. Stunning.

And finally, my favourite Doors song, Five to One. It's a great song about restlessness and futility, IMO. It's the version from the Oliver Stone movie, but really the best video for the song.

Horrible group members

Painful (but necessary) working sessions this week with various groups have shown me how I behave in group settings where power is shared and there's no single leader.

My group is strong. We're all strong students. But one thing I've noticed is that we all occupy different roles that change from meeting to meeting. Some days I'm facilitating a discussion. Other days I'm introspective and could even be perceived as apathetic. Some times I'm angry and enforce the rules, other times I have a relaxed attitude to deadlines or protocol.

It's like a sociological petri dish. Everyone has shifting patterns of behavior. A really funny dynamic I've noticed is that we can side with another group member's ideas one day, then disagree with them the next. Overall, I feel we have to listen more, but this whole experience has provided me with an insight into the different archetypes that I become from one day to the next depending on the tone of the meeting.

So this is not a reflection on my group, it's a reflection on me.

Here are the horrible group members who I have been:

THE DEFENDER


None of my ideas ever seem wrong when I'm the Defender. Nothing I say can be refuted and if you try, well then you're just being a dick. Speak to me only when you have to say you're sorry for disagreeing with me or when you finally understand the superior point I'm trying to prove. I come into the meeting with guns blazing, eyes closed, and ears shut. I make my point as aggressively and loudly as possible, interrupting anyone who wants to contradict me.

I hate being this role. When I'm the Defender, I should chill out and appreciate the fact that other people have perspectives and insights that may be stronger than my own because of their own unique knowledge.

THE WEEKENDER


When I choose to meet with the group, I do so grudgingly. It's a pain in the ass for me to be dividing my time between school, work, homelife, and 601. My attitude to working is that it's best accomplished on one's own time rather than wasted for hours trying to press through a group document together. I cooperate, smile, and cheer people's ideas - but I'm dying inside! I can't wait until I get to leave the meeting room and go to do my own things.

I strongly identify with this archetype because I take a very rational approach to group work and don't see the benefit in wasted time. I work efficiently on my own. The problem I face in this role is that no one takes my ideas seriously and I never end up contributing as much as I'd like to in meetings. The group is worse of as a result of my not 'bringing the thunder'.

THE CHEERLEADER


Things are great when I'm the cheerleader! Nothing is ever a problem that can't be expediently buried and forgotten about! I help the team out my succinctly rephrasing something that someone else has said and I passing it off as my own! At the beginning of our meetings, I am animated, upbeat and motivated to do work, but by the end I quickly lose interest and go off to doing my own things! Nevertheless, the team loves me and I can never do anything wrong!

I'm rarely a cheerleader, but when I am, I find that the things I have to share with the group are unsubstantiated and lacking in any deep insight. I use happiness and stoking the group's energy as a cover for my own lack of knowledge about the subject matter. Recognizing this, I think I could do a much better job sometimes of coming prepared to meetings.

THE DEPUTY


We agreed on rules and dammit, we're going to stick to them. Conveniently, we've forgotten rules that no longer make sense, but have yet to establish new rules that can prevent subversive group behavior. I rally the troops, set plans, and oversee action. My foresight is perfect but ability to guide the team through difficult times needs some improving. When I lose control over the group, it's like a lone soldier taking a stand against an army of zombies. I just wish they all thought as clearly as me.

My needs for stimulation and chaos in life often mean that I dislike rules - or at least I dislike the rules that I have to play by. As the Deputy, I have limited authority to enforce the rules, so it might make sense for me to develop more constructive ways of facilitating a chaotic group dynamic which obviously doesn't work well with structure. When I become this archetype, I need to find ways of innovatively applying my natural goal-setting abilities to create an appropriate framework for the meeting.

THE DEFEATIST
Life is pain, and pain is life. We're put here on this Earth to suffer, especially during group meetings. I work hard because I see it as penance for my sins and misguided belief that someone will notice me. I act out and make scenes to draw attention to myself but spend a lot of time reflecting on how things got so messed up. The problem is that I've gotten so down that it's hard to see the way out again.

Recently I've noticed that I take on this role too easily. At one meeting I snapped and sarcastically commented that "my opinion obviously doesn't mean anything" - something I really shouldn't have said in retrospect because it only deepened the animosity among the group at the moment. I need to do more to lift my spirits so that the group can benefit from my insights without feeling like they have to begrudgingly accept them.

THE ASSHOLE


I stir shit up.

My comments are jagged and rapid-fire, without a lot of sympathy for the audience. My brain works really fast and I can see your next move ten moves before you. I speak to hear my own voice and demand that I be heard, even if I say something that was discussed earlier and neatly resolved. I am 100% focused on the group and my mental energies are absolutely committed to the task at hand. It's not like I'm a bad group member, I just have a lot of power which is sometimes negatively used.

This is an easy archetype for me to slip into. It's full of qualities which I despise in myself and a mindset that prohibits me from actively learning from others in my group. I also am limited in how much I can synthesize from previous group meetings when I'm wearing this role because I'm so caught up in the moment. Stepping back, taking a breath, and closing my mouth are techniques I should try when I find myself becoming the Asshole.