This is Andrew Hovell's blog. He lives in Northern England. He plans for a living. He likes tea. He's as confused as you are. He doesn't usually talk about himself in the third person.
Two of the ads a I remember from when I was a lad are these.......
Times have changed of course.
The first was catnip to a teenage club tennis player who hated the rules and the stuffy heirarchy.
The second I remember just because the whole campaign was so distinctive and the line was so memorable. A modern version would work on my wife - a devoted mother.
Both are very different because they have very different contexts.
The Nike ad was all about creating a new frame of reference for young people frustrated with modern tennis, and probably encouraging more to get into it, rather than be put off by a compalacent world for grown ups. In short, rebellion.
While Persil is about reliability and showing you care. Persil doesn't wash whiter, Persil Mum's wash whiter because they're the kind of Mum's who care that little bit more. Smart in a low interest category - don't talk about yourself and find a relevant wider enthusiasm.
The basic rules remain the same of course, build fame, build distinctive memory structures, tap into stuff folks really care about, or could care about, that no one else does.
Which shows that a great place to start in any strategy is behavioural reinforcement.
FInd the credible line between what the brand cares about and what the customers care about.
Then figure out if you need to inspire folks to get there, like Nike, or simply celebrate what they're already doing, like Persil.
Which in turn, means the quickest way to unlock strategy is often to find something to admire about your audience.
That can be a challenge for agency folks who are not a representative sample of most target audiences, but when learn how to admire them, you can understand how to get others to admire them too.
Which then brings scale to your idea.
When you get the world at large to admire your customers for a distinctive reason, they want to join in, or at least it gives them a new frame of referenc for the brand, which builds penetration, which reaches light buyers, which sustains growth.
This is behavioural reinforcement, a simple recognition of the loving sacrifice that connect most Mums.
This reinforces a relatively new British attitude that values savviness around money, we feel good about getting a deal, when it's not that long ago that we hated feeling 'cheap'.
This reflects changing British attitudes to homes, that are less an investment these days and more a cocoon.
And this reflects the growing sense of independence and confidence in British Generation Y women.
Behavioural reinforcement doesn't get talked about much these days, but it's at the core of some great, effective work.
As Persil and Nike show, times change, some things stay the same.
I was noodling through the papers this weekend and came accross these print ads for Peroni.
As an agency hack, they're not clever, there's no big 'idea' but the frustrated creative in me admires the sensational photography.
But as a person, they make me feel something about Peroni and create an aura I'll feel next time I drink it.
Virtually all beers are some kind of badge for men - expressions of identity. That doesn't have to be more complex that the right setting and sense of place, as long as it carries some level of authenticity.
Peroni is Italian through and through, it's the only beer with the authority that can conjure that timeless, sophisticated, sensuous, sexy effortless 'Dolce' cool from the 50's and 60's Italy. A specific sense of time and place, that delivers for a more wannabe sophisticate than the average Stella or Heineken drinker.
You can just imagine the one sentence brief - "Make Peroni the epitome of timeless Italian sophistication'.
The carefree, live for today, sense is a powerful antidote to these grim, 'assault on pleasure' times.
It's bloody obvious for an Italian beer to 'do quintessantial Italy' but this work feels so right. Sometimes you need the right idea, you just need the right 'setting'.
I hate them because they consistently do work I would want to do.
They mostly manage that trick of not just doing work that people will talk about, but work that get's people talking about the brand and even better, the product.
Work where you can't help but admire the attention to detail and the sheer planning craft.
Like this.
Four truths - people are not dairy intolerant, they're lactose intolerant. All hedgehogs are lactose intolerant (and cute). Lactofree is dairy stuff without the dodgy lactose,so the lactose intolerant (which includes Hedgehogs) can enjoy dairy stuff.
There seems to be a trend at the moment for retailers to create engaging showpieces that not only show off what is available and start the process of investigating the range, they make people feel good about making the choice within the brand's particular walls - two of the primary roles for retail marketing (third is tactical price promotion) that tend to be done seperately. MAkes budgets work very hard and, to my mind, doesn't dilute engagement, clarity or anything like that.
Here's Curry's taking us on a tour of their range through the eyes of Artoo and Threepio (but where on earth is the online?)
Here's some cats showing us what's available in Ikea
Here's some skinny jeaned hipsters showing us Ikea's kitchens
I love this VB ad from Droga 5. Why? It's funny, it makes me laugh. It's that simple.
From a strategy perspective, championing masculinity in a culture than increasingly encourages young them to lose their way in a sea of metro sexuality is hardly new.
That's what this is really about:
And this to be honest:
And even this (although it's done badly):
What I think the VB campaign should tell us is that you shouldn't be afraid to recommend a position that isn't completely unique - it's what you do with it that counts, it's the detail, it's planning for executions, not just the strategy that leads to it.
It's the detail that enables John Smiths to inhabit a world of No Nonsense, where the enemy is pretension.
It's what makes Old Spice about being experienced, with an incredibly rich and subtle stance against today's men who have lost the skills their Dad's had in place of girliness and preening, with a rich ironic tone that allows it to say lots more than it otherwise could (while I hate Bono, I always admire the way they used irony in the 90's to say mostly the same stuff they were mocked for in the 80's. Shame they forgot that that in the naughties).
What I think drives VB is a brilliantly obvious observation that groups of young men don't mince their words with each other, they're brutally honest when someone is being a tit...and that shocking epiphany when you realise what an idiot you have been.
The casting shows they don't champion masculine male cliches, just normal blokes who don't try and be something they're not, or forget who they really are. There is a real joy in male friendship too. In short, there's lots going on. That's because the strategic thinking didn't start stop with the creative briefing and the execution thinking didn't start with it either.
I don't usually crit work. I don't think it's fair when I don't know the business goals and how much the work has been crucified by bad creative development research or the general recruitment process.
It's for The O, a pretty nifty new hair roller. Very quick, very hot, very easy to use (if you're not a girl, this is both new and important).
I presume this film is supposed to be so good it will be shared, I presume they're having a go at an evolving narrative that can go anywhere.
That's fine. But exactly where can anyone participate in the idea? Where can I get the back story? Not Facebook.
They claim the execution is "Stylish, sexy and unlikee anything the hair industry has seen before". It certainly is unlike anything the market's seen before - anything this bad. Fair enough, do something Sci Fi to reflect the futuristic technology, HOLD ON, not fair enough!! Use Sci Fi to market hair stuff to women? How many Fashionista do you know that collect Star Wars figures? That's right. None.
And as for the manga execution thing, it's just lame. There's no real plot, no real story, nothing (apart from an uncanny resemblance to the Sisters of Murphy if you're old enough to remember).
Sorry, wrong product truth - 'It's futuristic' takes you down a path the audience won't engage with, unless you genuinely engage or create the next generation of women. That's interesting.
Marketing to women basics - "Tell me what it does for me". This product gives you curly hair whenever you need it. It addresses a big tension on hair and fashion - cultural pressure to look amazing, but massive investment in time and effort. Emotionally, busy Generation Y women can't look how they want all the time, or sacrifice spontaneity and probably other stuff you want to do. Please tell me I'm wrong. Show me the error of my ways or my lack of judgment. Please.
When I was 12 I went on a swimming trip to Dallas, saw Southfork Ranch, had steak for breakfast, ate ribs bigger than my arm, bought a Stetson, all the things you would expect. I also saw this a fair bit:
It's one of the most successful public information campaigns of all time. Texas has a big problem with litter on it's highways. and was frustrated with the failure of some very expensive and very useless advertising campaigns to persuade citizens to change their behaviour.
The problem? The audience were youngish people not exactly impressed with bureaucrats telling them what to do. Which is the problem with most government communications to young people and people in general.
The solution? A behavioural economics idea. Harness the power of the herd, generate group think, make it a positive thing to do, rather than 'stop doing something bad'....make it feel like the social norm.
The strategy? Harness the deep and universal civic pride Texans have for their state. They got Willie Nelson and the Dallas Cowboys to growl 'Don't mess with Texas' and made if feel like littering was an affront to Texan pride.
It took on a life of it's own - you could get car stickers, mugs, posters, the lot. I was actually given a mug in my welcome pack when I arrived.
In six years, roadside littering was reduced by 72%. Which speaks for itself.
The lesson? I think this stands for all kinds of brands communications. Don't tell people what to do, give them something to join in with. And if you want them to stop doing something, don't have a go at them, make is seem like a positive act that everyone else does or wants to do. That's what so good about Web 2.0 stuff, you're not limited to 'telling' a community, you can create one.
You can't avoid the fact that advertising in all its forms is part of, and competes with, popular culture. Now more so than ever, thanks to the web enabled, marketing savvy consumer we're dealing with these days (don't you hate the word consumer).
So it makes sense to create campaigns that are relevant to that culture, to real people's lives, not 'the category'. It's not enough to work out where you want to fit in your market, where do you fit in life?
That means cultural relevance as a minimum, but to be honest, cultural significance. Actively setting out to influence culture, get talked about.
Here's some evidence
The IPA Databank has assessed 20 years of Effectiveness Papers and concluded that, not only do campaigns that aim to deliver fame and talkability achieve their business objectives more than any other kind of advertising, with a 72% success rate. They deliver increased penetration AND frequency.
A fame campaign can take different forms, and much of that will depend on the kind of work your agency does.
Develop a brand voice, based on delving into consumer culture and brand culture, do everything from the brand out:
So Lurpak wants to have a conversation with foodies by championing quality ingredients.
This leads to all sorts of stuff, championing proper breakfasts on Saturday, being proud of homemade even if it doesn't look perfect etc.
Nike believes if you have a body, you're an athlete, and wants to create a forum for urban runners to play in.
Then there's the model that cares a little less about a consistent voice and just does what it right for right now, building a loose baggage of feelings and associations. It strives to be more entertaining and populist and overtly focuses on finding out what people are interested in and working back from there. This can be in terms of a playing with a cultural problem or using cultural cues for maximum entertainment and standout. It takes the'fame' argument and pushes it. There's a saying in the beer market, "People drink th advertising". That's kind of the point.
So Oasis has two very different campaigns aimed at young 20 something peoplee, based on the same ideas that it's for 'people who don't like water. Multi-platform storytelling etc. One borrows from japanese manga, one from US teen dramas.
But then the next takes a different tack, from 'entertainment' to pure cultural resonance by championing a decent lunch rather than a limp sandwich at your desk...campaigning on people's behalf.
Crispin Porter's Coke Zero are pure entertainment, built on the truth that it tastes just as good as the real stuff. Taps into cringeworthy, sharp comedy like The Office.
While in the UK Mr Sleep creates fame for Travel Inn by simply being something you find funny, loosely connecting to the obvious truth about hotels, you want a decent nights sleep first and foremost, all else is luxury.
I won't go on.
What I want to say is that you can't escape rigour and best practice. Business objective, correct audience, all that. But when it's always been more commercially effective to create fame and talkability, and it's got harder to do, it makes sense to start with culture and what people are actually interested in and work back from there.
How you then bring that to life will depend on where you work, the clients you have and your own view on how brands work best, but when it gets increasingly difficult to bore people into buying your product, it pays to get very good at delighting.
Agencies can get very self important about their role, but their job isn't to coerce people into buying stuff, it's making them feel great about doing it.
I'll leave you with one of the best examples of this. This ad 'gets' women and the culture around looking great, the joy in feeling beautiful, the confidence and the indefinable sassiness that makes Girls Aloud so brilliant (that the Saturdays don't have making them crap)...the brilliance of sisterhood and the drama of getting ready. All in just under two minutes.
As part of the process of moving here, I did a small talk on why a digitally flavoured agency needs planning.
How, for a more vociferous point of view, look at this. What I said was based around two slides.
While this is what I think of idiots who believe in intelligent design, I was making another point about Darwinism.
Advertising agencies got found out around 15 years ago, when clients began to look at what they were getting in return for fees that paid for Porche's, lunches at the Ivy and, even Up North, a very plush life for agency types. We've been seeing the slow decline of ad agencies ever since, amplified by the claimed decline in effectiveness of paid for, traditional above the line. If you're any good, you do okay, if you're not, you're fishfood.
A similar thing is happening with digital agencies. For a few years they had the upper hand over clients and other agencies thanks to being the only ones that 'get' the technology. A few whizzy websites, a bit of SEO and a few banner ads and yay, make lots of money!
But now they're getting found out. Clients are looking at very pretty, but very useless pieces of digital art and questioning what the return is, and unfortunately for digital, that's very easy to measure.
You wouldn't believe the amount of digital specialists I've worked with that have no clue about building ideas around people, who just want to update the website. When more people don't even bother with brand websites, they just noodle around they're own social hubs, this 'act' is wearing a little thin.
Technology is still massively important, things are moving quicker and quicker. But knowing how things work and what is possible is useless without knowing what it's for.
Then there's display advertising. Hand on heart, can you remember an ad on the web that made you sit up and really take notice? I can't, but I can still remember how I felt watching the first 'Just Do It' ads, or 'Balls'.
Just because the medium might have changed - and boy how things have changed, it doesn't mean the skills have. It's bloody complex now. Digital? I give you post digital, the Internet of Things, Transmedia Planning....multiple touchpoints, people, surprise surprise, doing what they want, not what you tell them and shutting out brands, and culture in general that doesn't earn their attention. e - interacting with brands across a series of touchpoints rather than one web portal.
That brought me to the second slide, thieved from Gaping Void.
Digital stuff hasn't changed people, it's simply enabled them to be more human. One way, authoritarian media and culture managed to pretend otherwise for a while, but humans are social creatures and can't help responding to others around them, wanting to belong to a group and acting social. Social networking isn't new, it's just magnified how people really behave.
In other words, it's not enough to know the technology, you have to know people. You have to build ideas around how real people behave, be relevant, interesting, know when to show up, how to fit into their lives.
And that sounds familiar doesn't it? That's what people that grew up doing brand stuff and advertising learned to do as second nature (the good ones).
Thats' what planners do - as far as I'm concerned, there's no such thing as a digital planner, I'd wager there won't be as many digital agencies soon, maybe on or two specialists that are especially good, but there will be agencies that don't do advertising, they don't do 'digital' or, they just have ideas that connect people with brands in the right way - the brand, but also for the people.
That's going to need planners more than ever before. So the idea of 'digital' is a little silly as far as the future is concerned. Ad agencies are going to become good at doing stuff that isn't just advertising, the good ones already are. So called digital agencies will have to get good at proper strategy and creativity.
There are pioneers of course. Balloonacy is great, wonderful use of technology, what you need people to do and built around a brand idea.
This TV commercial was designed to let people in and share and discuss online.
This idea for Oasis is based on classic planning - increase frequency by persuading young people to have a decent lunch, of which Oasis is a critical ingredient. TV is activation, reach and engagement, but there's a campaign to join in with on Facebook.
Oke Doke, as promised it's time to finish communications planning. For previous posts, go here, here and then here.
When we left it, we were at the point when we'd worked out the task for communications - what actions do you want your audience to take - the thing communications can influence people to do to best contribute to the business goal.
Grow impulse purchases by getting top of mind with young buyers...
That's more than half the battle - really defining the task is the best thing you can do, in some agencies, planning stops there - you'll see the proposition as a task in many briefs, JWT focuses on what we want people to think and then opens up the process to everyone. I must admit, that's how I would prefer to work, but most agencies still have a wall between creative and planning and you can't shape the rest of the process as a team everywhere.
However and wherever you work, it's critical to make sure you don't stick to 'advertising's the answer, what's the question'. Knowing when and where to show up in your audiences lives is not only a must now the web enabled, marketing savvy consumer can filter ads out if they want to, it can actually form part of the actual idea.
So you need to answer the following question - when and where, and in what circumstance will our target be most receptive to our communications? You need to thinks about:
What media do they consume, why and how? What else do they interact with that isn't strictly 'media'?
What role does different possible connection points play in their lives? What do they pay attention to during the day? What are they doing at the time? Are they looking for entertainment? Information? Companionship?
How does the competition connect to the audience? Are their opportunities to find different connection points? Should we use the same but in a very different way?
Think again about what role the category plays in their real lives? When are they most in need of what they're offering? When could we make the most difference or be of the most use?
When and where does the brand vision and personality fit the most?
Think again about the purchase process - what does that tell you about when and where to show up?
Of course, TV is still a great medium, but you're deluded if you think all you have to do is put a logical ad up there and that's it. It's harder to stand out now, so relevance is critical, and you need to think of this as part of multiple touch points in story - in store, on-line, PR events and other media you want to invent.
Coming back to the Gorilla, they knew that the ad had to be something viral, that would get people talking and sharing on Youtube.
Axe in Japan (I think) needed to increase usage in the morning and discovered that males there use their phones as an alarm clock - so the moment became when they woke up..with sexy alarm calls from the girl of your choice.
Orange engaged with a younger audience through film - and picked a couple of moments. One was the actual film experience itself, this one was even more specific - engagement with Star Wars fans.
Another was a night of the week to share a film with a mate.
Sainsburys conceptually is about that rainy Tuesday night when you can't think of anything to cook - Try something new today.
Ghd focuses on the ritual of getting ready, and the hidden desires inside every woman.
But then there's TBWA London's work to make young women aware of the dangers of having your drink spiked - by actually spiking their drink with a specially made cocktail umbrella.
A word of caution. Be sure what you're doing will the reach the number of people you need to. Stunts etc are waste of time if they reach 100 people when you need to generate trial with 10,000.
Then consider the experience you want people to have, maybe think of it as a reward. What you're going to say, do etc to make people end up acting as you want, this ends up as the proposition in the creative brief.
Consider functional - Ariel makes whites whiter. And don't be afraid of telling people about a unique product benefit if there is one.
This ad is just telling you that a Sony Bravia has better colour, the rest is how that is delivered.
Just bear in mind, it's how you deliver that message that counts and thought and input on that is needed - it usually and should come from the brand vision/tone etc, but we'll come to that.
It can also come from knowing what the experience is of th medium - only an idiot produces a cinema ad that doesn't entertain, but you can interact with a small crowd here too.
Expressive - being to communicate to others that you are experienced..
Intelligent..
A great mother..
How do you choose the right focus? Think why the audience isn't doing what you want, find the blockage, judge your solution by how much it will overcome it.
You should think about support- give the reasons why the target should believe what you're saying. This should really be the actual stuff of the communication.
You can be literal - 9 out out of ten cats prefer Whiskas
British Airways brings more people together than anyone else..
Honda used their hatred of diesel engines to spur them to make one they could love.
Demonstration...
The Accord just works
..or dramatise it.
Women enjoy Yorkie's even thought they're masculine.
Check your logic - how does the action, the reward and the support fit together - a useful check is to complete the following sentence from the audience point of view:
"When I (intended action), I will (reward), because (support).
Now, traditionally tone of voice etc comes last - you would hope because this is already set and agreed, everyone is clear about the brand idea, the personality etc. Other people have talked betterthan I could about why this matters (and offer alternatives to this way of comms planning, but remember, these are the basics, know the rules, do them well before you break them).
Anyway, you must say, behave etc in a way that people will FEEL it. Just telling people will mean they won't listen. Nothing will happen.
Every piece of comms says something about the brand, like it or not. It needs to be appropriate for the brand and the audience. You need to be clear about this, and agree it with client especially creatives.
Too often, a creative is briefed really well, but tone is left out. Or even worse, it's not and they ignore it, because they believe it's up to them to decide how communication is delivered. It is up to a point. But it was Boddingtons - it MUST have been delivered creamily with a Mancunian twist.
If it's Apple, it must be simple and human.
You might want to be consistent with how you're perceived already, you might want to play up an element of what the brand's about, you might want to shift perceptions a little of what the brand's about.
In the end, it's got to be appropriate for the objective, brand and audience - but creatives don't own tone and manner and the sooner you talk about it and the more work is put into getting it right, the better.
I've only shown TV here because it's easy to get hold of Youtub video, more and more that will be less of what we do...but TV's real long term benefit is building up how people feel about the brand. You need to make sure they feel the right things.
Hello Marionettes. From taking a break from being what others want you to be, to taking a break from being serious. More importantly, from a trite, spiritual, worthy tone, to, well, lightening up. I suspect they were trying to do the same thing with Duffy - it's a complicated world, times are serious, escape it for a bit, but just shows how tone is at least important as message (and what the hell were those awful blue tights?)
Why do the Americans get these great Coke Zero ads and we get utter dross?
No macho rubbish, just plenty of wit, story and characters all based around a truth (that came out research), Coke Zero tastes like the original. It might borrow from Orange Gold spots but who cares?
Next tells you 'do a brand ad' show them this. There is no good reason not to start with product/brand truth, hopefully a truth about how real people use/think about/feel about the product/brand and work outwards. Failure to do this is either down weak thinking, weak product or silly thought processes.
Of course, these will generate all sort of brand equity scores etc, but they engage and entertain you into believing that Coke Zero tastes the same as Coke original. And feel a world apart from the macho antics of other brands (and Coke Zero in the UK)
We're men and drink Pepsi max, it's not diet drink for fairies.
Once upon a time I wrote this post about finding a strategy and it ended up being some sort of greatest hit, in its own modest little way. It was part of an undertaking to provide access to some basics and processes. I thought it was important then and I still do.
It's all well and good if you have a planning director and stuff, that's not always the case. Plenty of people use blogs and stuff to help them get an idea of what life is like as a planner, and it's not all blogging and coffee. Most of it isn't existential thinking, it's rigour and process (or it should be).
But that side of this blog has tailed off somewhat in favour of post about tea, swimming and babies. Time to go back to it.
I looked at that strategy post and I still like it, but it doesn't give you enough of a process, or make the distinction between brand planning and communications/campaign planning. I can imagine someone reading that, getting a little excited about their next project and realising they haven't a clue where to start.
So this post focuses on communications/campaign planning. We're going to go through a process step by step. It's not the only way, but it's the most common. If you strip away the brilliant wrapping on some of the stuff we all admire, this is what planners will have gone through to get there. So we'll pepper this with examples.
So yes, this is what most planners spend most of their time doing (apart from pointless workshops but that's another post). In my view, they want to change brands and their architecture too often, when there's no need.
Put simply, if there's no brand ideain place or guide to how the brand behaves, what it stands for etc, you need to create one. This won't happen very often, and will be covered in another post. You may find when you're doing you're comms planning that actually, there is a big problem with how the brand is positioned. Rare, but it does happen. If that's the case, you need to look at the brand.
But mostly, you're interpreting the core brand idea, or 'smudge' in my book in a new way that will help the client achieve their objectives.Like these two examples....
Pepsi has always been about young people and youthful energy. The latest incarnation of that is a way to get them engaged with the brand - actually doing stuff with it rather than old style messaging. Their new interpretation is based around the observation that every generation wants to change the world and reacts against what has gone before. Which became 'refresh everything' - encouraging small personal acts every day to create a bottom up movement.Pepsi is too big to much besides 'brand involvement' stuff, but the every new idea is a new expression of youthful energy - that doesn't change. Just as Levis is always anti-establishment and youthful rebellion.
Sainsburys has always been a quality food hero. Try something New Idea was the latest expression of that, built ona rock hard objective to get existing customers to spend £1 pound extra with every visit, in order to add £1 billion of revenue over a set period of time. The brand didn't change, what to do with it just moved in to help the business do what it needed to do...including galvanising staff instore.
True brand architecture rarely changes, it's just that sometime you're looking for a long term communications idea to carry lots of smaller ideas.
Does that makes sense?
Actually, this is a post in itself, so more tomorrow. Into the process
In case you hadn't noticed, Yorkshire Tea is one of my favourite brands. I religiously warm the pot, take just a couple of careful stirs at the start and generally behave like a tea geek.
It breaks my heart to say I hate the 'tea time' work. I'm sure it works, I don't know what their data is telling them to do, but I don't think tea time should be treated with such flippancy (or play to stereotypes).
Those little doses of slowness and ritual in the day are really important, I think there a real joy in tea's role in our lives. We deserve something great in these precious moments, from somewhere that knows some rituals should stay as they are.
That's on opinion, that's all it is. I love my Yorkshire Tea too much to be put off by pretty bad gimmicky advertising (and website).
But then, recently, I had a couple of Twittery based conversation that included Yorkshire Tea as subject matter and, low and behold, the brand is following me. Why? Do they want me to have 'a relationship with them?' I already have one. Where exactly have the engaged with me? Do they just want to have lots of Twitter followers or make it easy to see what people are saying about them?
In any case, it makes me feel quite dirty being coldly sized up for something like this. I love tea, please don't waste that.
I truly hope they want to be my friend so they can find out what I care about, listen to me and perhaps let me contribute. Hope....
Thought it was worth building on Flat Eric to discuss this campaign (the ad is here). Interesting - big call to action telly, lots of stuff to do online, encourages young people to rediscover the pioneering spirit that built America and remake it anew.
Why?
Lots of context I guess - few would disagree that America is in a bad state, makes sense to tap into all that 'Obamaness' breaking with the past, rejecting the generations and 'system' that got them there.
Levis hasn't been about product for some time, it's about how wearing the jeans make you feel - rebellious, anti-establishment, an 'original'. But probably not to the current generation of young Americans. Like every new generation, they'll be rejecting all that came before, Levis needs to become relevant to them. But not like in the past. They see through 'image' advertising, ads alone won't cut it anymore. They demand credibility, they demand to be involved.
So this campaign bridges the gap between the Levis of old and today - it doesn't tell them what to do, how to be, who to be - it challenges them to put the money where their mouth is, to do something and gives them a forum to come together and do it, share it, feel like they belong, become a movement. Own it.
Very smart. The most commercial thing Levis can do is become The Jeans for every young generation. They've understood that today isn't about 'telling' it's about starting, joining in and housing conversation. Influence culture, sell more.
You can read the APG Awards shortlist here (they'll add them week by week).
Mother's PG Tips paper is a joy. Reminds me that there's no point just having the best strategy or actual work when it comes to pitching, presenting or even in your day to day. It's how you present it.
Which reminds me of a top tip for meetings (especially if you're shy). You're likely to be going with the account team - agree with them who will be saying what, make sure you have something to say, you know what it is and so does everything else.
There's many a planner who's done the thinking, written most of the deck (if you're doing one) but not agreed who's doing what bit, so on th day, the suits, verbose, charismatic people as they are, go through the whole thing, leaving planning person no chance to have any impact, unless they're equally brimming with chutzpah and effortless charm. Most of us are not.
So agree what you're going to say before hand. Make sure you have something to say.
Let's roll back to the 1980's and the launch of Levi's Laundrette,followed by some of my favourite ads ever including Creek and Drugstore. They knew what they wanted to do, rather than have a jeans brand about fashion or style, have one with real meaning with their chosen audience.
That chosen audience was young people. Their observation was that people this age are non-conformist, rebellious and reject the establishment - 'The man'. So they wanted to make Levis the ant-establishment brand.
One problem, were very cynical about America in the UK then (and now). Anything to do with contemporary America was likely to fail. BUT - we loved, and love American heritage. That might mean the America of the fifties, the pioneers that conquered the American West and everything in between. Levis were the original jeans, they has been there since the days of the Wild West, they were part of American history. Part of that pioneering spirit.
So that's how they brought the rebellious spirit to life - they told stories of young people challenging authority in America's past, not right now. The Hollywood version rather than the 9 'o' clock news one.
And my God it worked. But the problem with becoming the brand for a generation is that the next one coming behind wants to do the exact opposite of the one before - like Punk rejecting Rock and the New Romantics then rejecting Punk.
Levis had to make their anti-authority DNA relevant to new generation which meant a break with their own recent past. So rather than the sweeping, filmic grandeur with the soundtrack of American music history, they moved to something contemporary. With a new hero product - Sta Prest, that was only intended to be short term, and really make most people feel different about buying the core jeans range.
I guess I'm saying they were still following the strategy of building meaning into the brand, selling the same attitude to the same audience, but they had to modernize how they brought that to life, so a new generation could feel like they were rejecting the one that came before.
And then they reinvented again with Twisted, and yet again with anti-fit. But then they ran into a new challenge, which I reckon I'd like to cover next time.
Others can talk about the way the ad is made, the casting of PJ O Rourke etc. I want to talk about why I think it was made.
I think it all comes down to consumer insight. That dreaded, dreadfully over-used phrase.
This ad wasn't aimed at everybody thinking of flying that year. It was aimed their specific premium, frequent flying audience:
'British opinion formers who are highly cynical, speak loudly over other people at dinner tables and express their opinions as fact. Unlike every other country in the world who talk up national success stories, they delight in knocking them down'.
What a great observation about the British! And how true, it doesn't matter what subject you're on, if you're British, you'll be suspicious of success; anything that's done too well. We love underdogs, we celebrate cheerful failure.
So if we have a communications challenge of making influential British opinion formers proud of British Airways, feel good about it, rather than knocking it's success...what was the business challenge?
This to me is all about justifying BA's price premium, creating emotional involvement and longer term loyalty. Much more commercially effective than promotions. Make feel good about spending money with you and you won't have to continually bribe them. Despite what many will tell you, reducing price sensitivity is rarely about delivery of facts, it tends to be about emotional, communicating the brands r'aison detre in a compelling way.
BA was a great British success story, they has sheer bigness, world wide success, that would make any normal country feel proud and want to join in with.
That's where the clever communications strategy at once identified the barrier and the opportunity. With this audience, showing off will work against us, not for us. But if can get to the heart of this, find a way to make the conversation ABOUT this very British habit, we can not only overcome the barrier, we create all that pride, loyalty and, ultimately, price premiumness we we're looking for. All we really have to do is laugh at ourselves a bit.
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