Southern Planner

In today’s world of unrestricted access, everything is a form of communication. In the past no one had ever heard of Procter & Gamble. Now it is not uncommon to find a consumer that knows which brands Procter & Gamble owns and that Jim Stengel is the CMO overseeing them. Need proof of this unrestricted access? Just look at any one of the many “internal” memos that have found their way outside the corporate walls and in front of consumers.

The operational behaviors of your company, now more than ever, tell a compelling story about your business and it’s personality (it’s not what you say it’s what you do). I would say these actions carry a stronger message because they feel like decisions you are making when no one is watching. In many cases they might be. There may not have been an ulterior motive to taking these actions other than managing operations and internal brand building. However, given the public’s unrestricted access remarkable actions, both good and bad, will eventually enter the collective public conscious. The following are a few examples I have spotted over the past couple weeks.

Virgin Media – Call Center Re-Design

Photo nicked from here, many thanks.

In a mundane territory like call centers, Headline Design along with Virgin Media have found a way to perk things up a bit. I would like to see the results in a year or two, but I suspect that employee satisfaction and retention will likely be up in a field that has historically low levels on both metrics. In addition the redesign should contribute to attracting the employee profile they are looking for, allowing Virgin to better deliver on the type of service they would like to provide. Plus, car park dating sounds like such a happy little idea and says a lot about Virgin since they are willing to put this much effort into their call centers.

Zappos – Pays New Hires To Quit

After an intense training program, indoctrinating new employees into the job and company culture Zappos offers them $1000 to quit on the spot. I have had jobs in the past that I mainly enjoyed, but had I been offered a grand to quit, you wouldn’t have even heard a response other than the door closing behind me. If you want a strong internal culture and a group of extremely dedicated employees this is the way to go. In addition to those company benefits, this move also says something to me as a consumer. I have never ordered from Zappos before, but after reading this I am 100% confident that it would be a smooth process and any problems I might have would be handled quickly and efficiently. Nice one!

Razorfish – A Stickler for Timesheets

Photo nicked from here, many thanks.

In an attempt to shame employees to fill out their timesheets on time, Avenue A/Razorfish displays photos of employees who haven’t completed theirs in the lobby. Whoa. I don’t exactly see this making people want to jump up and run to work for the interactive agency. Before we toss this idea aside though, what does it tell customers…aka clients? In an industry that has had a shaky past with billing and accountability it must give a warm fuzzy feeling to know that the agency is on top of it. If it turns off potential employees it may not be a long-term strategy, but it could be effective short-term allaying client fears.

If you are a regular reader of this blog, and really who isn’t, then you know that I have a crush on mixtapes. Especially real mixtapes, but online ones as well:

• Muxtape
• Mixwit

So, when Russell Davies offered to combine the two on April 20, 2008, I jumped at the opportunity. (SIDE NOTE: If you don’t read Russell’s blog, start. Not everyone will get this, but I have said on many occasions if account planners had trading cards I would trade my Jon Steel rookie for a Russell Davies). I believe there is something inherently interesting in hand made objects and the thought of turning the internet experience into something real was exciting. Plus, the discovery associated with having someone else’s mixtape loaded new music on the B-side made the offer unable to resist (thanks Sean Salmon).

Now, 2 months later, the package has arrived. In response to a previous post I wrote about fetishizing products, I have decided to do an “unboxing” post similar to the ones some people post about new Apple products. It only makes sense, this is every bit as cool and interestingly packaged.

FRONT (Royal mail, not to often do I get that)

BACK (Addresses have been removed to protect the innocent)

INSIDE

CONTENTS

SONG LIST (Written by the man himself…or maybe Arthur given the legibility)

STARBURST (What a nice handmade touch)

MOO CARDS (A glimpse into the life of Russell)

MOO CARDS 2

A SIDE

B SIDE

In the past, you could reach nearly 90% of all American households with a TV by placing an ad simultaneously on the three major networks. This placed great power and control in the hands of advertisers, who were able to unilaterally blast their message to the public. TV viewers were forced to sit through that interruption of their programming with little recourse (I mean could you imagine having to get up to change the channel?). In the fragmented media landscape we exist in today we know this is impossible. The power has shifted from advertisers to the viewers, but the forced interruption technique still remains today.

For example, this banner advertisement that extends when you roll over it with your mouse.

Before rollover:

After rollover:

I won’t go into what I think of the concept of the show, that is a post for another time and another place. What bothered me about this ad, is every time I moved my mouse anywhere near it it grew and covered the article I was trying to read. Each time I would have to click to close the article, and each time I would move my mouse away it would expand again. Also, every time it popped out, not only did it cover the text of the article I was on the site for, but it played a video complete with sound distracting me from what I was there for. This is just beyond rude and annoying.

I wasn’t interested in what the ad had to say to begin with, but through the impolite practices of overly sensitive rollover triggers and automatically playing video I just became agitated. Even if I were the target, which I am pretty sure I am not, I would have avoided the ad simply because of its intrusiveness.

People read what interests them, sometimes its an ad.

Howard Gossage

Howard Gossage said this about print advertising, but it holds true in all forms of communication. Here is a banner ad that understands consumers will seek out advertising if they choose to do so:

Before rollover:

After rollover:

Again, I won’t go into the shows or their concepts, although these shows are obviously far superior and the ad even looks a lot better than the previous example. The banner ad was much more polite in the implementation of rollover technology and rich media experiences. For example, you have to not only roll over the banner, but also linger for 3 seconds in order for the ad to expand, thus preventing any accidental activation. Even after the ad expands, the videos did not play automatically instead the banner offered them and other content for you to chose to interact with, or not. This comes from the understanding that the viewer is in control and allows them to consume the content they so choose, graciously offering the media for your perusal without trying to shove it down your throat. Granted, I may be closer to the target for these two shows, but I sincerely appreciate the context in which the information is presented.

Photo nicked from here, many thanks.

Jeff Squires at PSFK points out the new brand extension initiatives from Bravo’s top rated show Top Chef. Here are the three initiatives:

Tour – Basically a truck will stop in 20 cities around the nation giving demonstrations, selling Top Chef gear and will feature appearances from contestants on the show. Sounds a little like the American Idol Tour with food (probably because Top Chef is just American Idol … with food). I am all for it, giving fans a physical experience to connect to, pretty cool.

Cruise – A luxury cruise set to take sail May 2009. Wha?!?! Am I missing something? How does this fit in with the brand or the show? Again this will provide a real world experience, but I think the commitment necessary stretches too far past just showing up an hour or two at a tour stop.

Cooking Classes – Top Chef branded cooking classes at the Culinary Institute of America. Oh no. The CIA is an institute in culinary education, and while Top Chef may be hot right now it is just that, hot for the moment. I can see the thinking, popularity of CSI and similar shows led to a big up-tick in applicants for forensic science, but I didn’t see co-branded classes showing up at University of Mississippi, University of Central Florida, or Loyola University (some of the top schools for forensic science). Every time two brands come together there is a positive association for one and a negative association for the other. I have to think the Culinary Institute is the one taking the hit here.

I am all for creating brand experiences and cooking is certainly ripe for that. I just believe there could be more relevant example to coincide with the Top Chef brand.

Photo nicked from here, many thanks.

This is a quick update to a couple previous posts on the Internet becoming a platform. Along with the introduction of the 3G iPhone, Apple also announced a new service, MobileME, at the WWDC. Through me.com (wonder how much that cost?) subscribers will have access to enterprise level PUSH calendar, PUSH email and PUSH contacts along with photo sharing and file storage. Beyond just simple storage online Apple has used AJAX to create online applications. To show this trend will continue here is a quote from the MobileMe website:

Access and manage your email, contacts, calendar, photos and files at me.com. All with amazing applications that are so feature-rich and easy to use, you may end up preferring them to your regular desktop applications.

Adobe

In addition to Photoshop Express, Adobe also recently launched an online version of Acrobat.

Photo nicked from here, many thanks.

Full disclosure: I am a complete Mac Fanboy. It seems to me that in recent years Apple and Steve Jobs have rarely come up with a miss when it comes to introducing new products. This is why I spent most of my day yesterday following live coverage of Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference on sites like Engadget and Mac Rumors and subsequently watching video of the keynote later in the day when it was posted.

While I was watching the keynote I started to think about how Apple seems to pull it all together, and I mean all: product design and performance, store design, distribution plus interesting advertising and communication. The question that entered my mind was “how can you tell?”

Brand Metrics

There are brand metrics that offer a really good status indicator, but don’t always indicate future performance or how others feel about a brand. For instance, one standard measure is brand awareness. I, like many others know the Hummer brand, but don’t count on me buying one in the future or even having positive emotions for the brand.

Stock Price

Stock price could prove to be a good indicator. Apple’s stock price has skyrocketed in recent years. Unfortunately there are many financial maneuvers that typically wouldn’t affect the brand, but could affect the stock price. This also seems to be a much more long term indicator, but not necessarily a short term indicator (yesterday during the keynote from Steve Jobs where he introduced the new iPhone, Apple’s stock price was down at least $6.

Fetishized Products

While certainly not scientific, I have noticed that Apple gets some seriously amorous talk online. There are several blogs devoted to rumors and news about the company. Think Secret (which has been shut down), Apple Insider, Mac Rumors, and even Engadget just to name a few. I understand that online conversations happen about many companies and products, but there seem to be a few products that stand out above the rest and generate much more affectionate conversations. Take for example the “unboxing” that has happened online for virtually every new Apple product, here is one for the MacBook Air.

Photo nicked from here, many thanks.

Apple isn’t the only company getting this kind of treatment. Activate Drinks was a product that I saw getting some “buzz” and popping up on a few blogs here and there. Then NOTCOT did an exhaustive post on the vitamin drink and it’s packaging. This seems quite similar to the posts unboxing Apple products. The GM Volt, plug-in hybrid concept, gets its own blog from a customer advocate just like the Apple blogs. These are just a few examples, that represent a more in-depth level than just casual online conversations about brands, or “buzz”.

Photo nicked from here, many thanks.

While, I wouldn’t base my agency compensation on producing these kinds of results it does seem that whether customers are fetishizing your products could be a good anecdotal indicator of how you are doing from a holistic perspective. Customers take everything into account rather than just looking at one element of a brand at a time.

Gratuitous Steven Colbert Image nicked from here, many thanks.

Saatchi & Saatchi New Zealand, in conjunction with the Human Interface Technology Laboratory, have created an interesting interactive campaign for the Wellington Zoo. Using their mobile phones, readers of the newspaper can point their cameras at a print ad that looks like a simplified QR code and an animal appears in 3-D above the page. AdForum has a short article about the campaign and a good video explaining the concept (although the video can’t be linked to or embedded, guess they aren’t too keen on social media over there).

Go check out the video to get a sense of the ads.

The ads themselves are fairly unremarkable. They just look like clunky graphics of a bear, a giraffe and a cheetah to me. Although it is nice to see they had a reason for using the technology, that is to bring the animals to the people to promote the close encounters exhibit at the Zoo. (Side Note: I can’t help but think walking though New Zealand with a bear or cheetah on a leash would have gotten more attention, but possibly more lawsuits). It is nice to see a new technology being used in conjunction with newspaper advertising, goodness knows it needs all the help it can get.

Honestly, the best part of the campaign is seeing the reactions of people discovering this new form of advertising. I am guessing the shock and delight comes from the novelty of this execution and not from the actual display itself. If this technique were to become widely adopted with this particular example stand out from the crowd? Probably not. It is the technology that is playing the lead role here above the idea, whereas I like to see it the other way around. This campaign does seem to be effective, delivering a 30% increase in visitors.

All in all it is a pretty neat technology to add to the toolbox. Do I believe the video when it says, it is “set to revolutionize advertising as we know it?” Uh, nope. It is exciting to think of the possibilities. In the video they mention increasing the technology to include animation and video as opposed to the static image. What if you made it truly interactive, like a game you could play or clues to a scavenger hunt? What if you made it interactive where participants could store information at a certain site to build a knowledge bank over time or communicate with other participants?

The main problem I have with this technology is it requires a download (already the kiss of death for any interactive campaign). Further complicating matters, it is a download to your phone, activated by a text message. This seems to be asking a lot of the viewing public and quite honestly for not a big payoff. It is something that seems to be universal across all executions in new media, there is a novelty factor, but the idea seems to play second fiddle.

I just started writing for another blog, associated with alldaybuffet (you can check out the first post here). ADB is an organization I have followed fairly closely for a while and I am happy to help out. This will tell you a little more about the group, but essentially the mission is to inspire GOOD action. As the site says:

It’s a simple idea: Inspire Action. Change the world. Have Fun. Because doing good shouldn’t feel like a chore.

So, check them out and participate if you are so inclined. A great way to get started are the Cause For Drinks events. Also, be on the lookout for future posts to the site from me, which will center around cause related branding and profiles of people who do GOOD.

Photo taken by Ryan Russell

This is what Patton Oswalt had to say about Death Cab for Cutie:

They remind me of how the outer edge of darkness always kisses the cheek of comedy, and the reason we laugh is because we can still feel the dark.

I am not sure what to be more amazed by, how poetic the comment is, or that it came from Patton Oswalt.