This Week in Strategy: The easiest way to tell the difference between an alligator and a crocodile, is to pay attention to who who you see later, and who you see in a while.
Hi Strat Pack,
Guys. I found the most important website this week: The Cube Rule of Food Identification. Since the beginning of time, philosophers have debated the questions that define us as humans: Where did our universe come from? What is the meaning of life? Is a hot dog a sandwich? Thank fucking god for this website that literally answers the only question that matters: the third one. Let's clear the air: a hot dog is a taco. Let me explain It is not a question about bread and the unique nature of cylindrical beef. It is a geometry problem.
Moving on! Do you know what I did not know about? The Starbucks Pig controversy. Apparently, an Oklahoma cop who went to a Starbucks, ordered coffee, and found that all five drinks had “Pig” printed on their requisite stickers. Not great for Starbucks for sure. But there's a bright side: The police officer's daughter tweeted that her dad is a pig, and thanked “the brave men and women from Starbucks for their service.” Woof. I do not think Christmas will be fun at their household this year.
In other "can you actually believe this shit" news, Uno removes red and blue cards to try to keep politics out of games. That's right. Red and Blue are too controversial. Green, however, got the pass, which is weird because (as the article points out) Green is the only color that is the actual name of a party. And the name of the Green New Deal. And literal Green Cards which are a topic of discussion. The game is called Uno Nonpartisan. It's currently sold out at Walmart because of course it is.
Alright, stop messing around trying to figure out the worst name to go on a Starbucks cup (it's Janice, by the way). Let's jump right in.
The one thing to read this week
1) Research on Messaging [Planning Dirty - Julian Cole]
There's a treasure chest of great research into advertising that's buried in academia. In an aim to bridge the gap, Chris Huebner and Julian are creating decks that help surface this great research.
This deck focuses on messaging and brings 14 studies that paint a more nuanced light of emotion and messaging.
It's a fucking brilliant piece of work. Different types of Emotional response. the role of Frequency. Active vs Passive attention. Emotional vs Rational appeals by channel. These are all things that to varying degrees we know to be true but now we have data to support it. Easily digestible. Easy to understand. Powerful. Print it out, laminate it, and educate the fuck out of your clients.
2) Newish Things That Haven’t Made Advertising Better, Part 3: Decks. [If this is a blog then what's christmas?]
[Ben is] going to point out the fact that at some point, way back in the mists of time (usually the 1990s, but in this case I feel like deck proliferation didn’t really start until five years ago) there were no decks, and yet really, really good ads still managed to happen. How? Like the action of Russia, it is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.
Because a deck is open to many people (the strategy people might do slides 8-12; the account team the opening and closing etc.) it is subject to ‘contributions’ from those people. So you get delightful ‘comments’ from people you’ve barely met (the comment is made, then a notification is emailed to you, then you address the comment with a further question, or you resolve it and move on to the next one) and everything is a lovely, friendly democracy, where no one’s opinion is more or less significant than anyone else’s. Some cheeky fuckers from other departments might even change your work without asking you, FFS.
And you might finish a deck, or think it’s finished, but then the person who’s been away for a few days finally comes back, has a read, and changes things based on zero awareness of the previous 342 comments and resolutions. And you don’t really want to spend a morning explaining why you can’t make the suggested changes, because then you won’t really look like a team player (COLLABORATION ÜBER ALLES!!!!!!) and it’s what used to be referred to as a ‘massive fucking waste of time’, time that could be better spent on weird, extraneous tasks like, I dunno… making the work better.
But then you have a deck. And you pore over every detail of that deck. But then the person you’re presenting to had an earlier meeting that ran over, so they’re going to skim it on their phone in the car to the airport, and you might as well not have bothered.
We’re supposed to be all about economy of expression, masters of communicating important shit in as few words as possible, but when it comes to decks there’s no upper limit. You need the kitchen sink, the belt and braces, and woe betide you if you leave out uncle Tom Cobleigh and all.
Does that make us look good at what we do? Don’t answer that. Instead I’d like you to respond via a Keynote deck for a half-hour meeting that will take a minimum of 45 minutes to go through.
If we all jump off the coming-up-with-ads process two hours earlier to kern the fuck out of the intro slides we’re not helping the client or ourselves. We’re just wasting precious time on the twin Gods of 2019 advertising: quantity and ‘collaboration’ (always in inverted commas for reasons that are grimly obvious to everyone reading this).
3) The tension between long and short-term. Why dieting and basketballs helps resolve the conflict. [Northern Planner]
There's a lot of talk right now about the trend for marketing folk to focus their efforts on short term 'activation' projects, taking their eye off the ball of longer term 'brand building' stuff. Like Brexit in the UK, or most debates in the world we're in right now, I find it strange folks seem to on one side or the other, or believe you need to make some sort of choice.
Obviously, just focusing on short term payback is dumb. No wonder Adidas are looking to go back to more brand building for example, as Fred says, I'm sure there will be more. Fred is far cleverer that I ever will be, so take his view seriously.
The thing is, I get a little impatient with brand babblers too. Maybe I've spend too much time with organisations who give their all to moving a target from awareness to familiarity, or making sure people take out a specific personality trait in a tracking study. My own view is that it's really simple. At all costs, don't follow rules based on averages that don't exist in real life.
It's a little like dieting. The science is unlocking new understanding, where the average guidelines on what to eat are a complete waste of time. The same two people can eat the same stuff and the weight on one can balloon while the other can lose it. Soon, we'll all be able to have personalised guides to what we eat that will transform our lives.
It's the same for organisations doing marketing. There is little point following rules derived from an average IPA or Warc case studies who are actually from a pretty low base anyway.
What I'm saying is that input and rules of thumb are fine, but you can't beat in my opinion the words of David Abbot: 'Tell people something about the product that shouldn't be missed". You need great creativity to stand out, you always did. You need great creativity because people can't be bothered to think about brands and most of communication isn't about what is said, it how it is said.
But without relevance to what you are selling, or at least to specific problems you need to solve, the best creative in the world won't do the job you need. Because the brand won't be remembered when it's time to buy.
So what to do? Basically, to mis-quote good old Byron Sharpe, reasons not to buy, in a way that reaches as many people as possible, in a way that captures the imagination, in a way only your brand could credibly do.
Agree what the commercial task is. You know, grow share, reduce price sensitivity.
Understand what the barrier is to that. Sometimes it is brand image, usually it's not.
Define who this is among, and what they are doing, or not doing that's driving the problem.
Define the right plan to change this, including where and when this should happen.
But do it in a way people will thank you for, that no one else could credibly do.
Don't think of campaigns, real people don't live in campaigns, they live in moments. Most of which they forget. It's simple and really bloody hard, but the more you find a moment in real life that is driving the issue and deal with that you're on to something. The trick is to deal with the moment in a way that isn't forgotten, that deals with the short term but adds to the how people feel about the brand.
I'm saying think of your brand as a series of moments that will have different roles and jobs. Make each moment add up to one powerful whole.
Think of a basketball. From a distance, it's just a ball. But it's made up of little dimples that allow you to grip it. Think every little dimple as a change to deal with a short term issue, but if each dimple doesn't help people grip the whole thing, they (and you will drop the ball).
That's how I do it, but because I'm different to you, do it your way.
Final point. Load of strategy types like to talk about long term and brand building because it gets them out of solving real problems hampering business performance. In my view, if your thinking isn't going to actually drive a commercial outcome you can define, it's not strategy, it's sophistry.
4) Quick Hits: A few articles that are concise, important, interesting, impactful, and I'm not going to write long descriptions for them.
Want to make a difference in media and channel planning? Learn how to work closer & more collaboratively with creative teams and your client. [Ben Shepherd - LinkedIn] "Ideas are cheap and abundant; what is of value is the effective placement of those ideas into situations that develop into action." Peter Drucker. Media and channel planning in particular is a highly rational and reasoned pursuit. However the two most important elements of turning reasoned thinking into effective action are often not as considered as they could be.
Forrester's 2020 Predictions [Forrester Research] "If 2020 could be encapsulated into one word, that word would be energy." Besides this pretty terrible opening line, there are a bunch of interesting provocations worth checking out. And hey - I linked directly to the PDF so no need to enter your info
Shutterstock's 2020 Color Trends [Shutterstock] From fashion to fine arts, we’ve been seeing a shift from soft pastel colors to more sensational shades. Lavenders, tans, whites, and pinks are becoming passé while these three bold, saturated hues are on their way to fame in 2020.
speaking of which...Announcing the Pantone Color of the Year 2020 [Pantone] PANTONE 19-4052 Classic Blue. Instilling calm, confidence, and connection, this enduring blue hue highlights our desire for a dependable and stable foundation on which to build as we cross the threshold into a new era.
The 6 best branding books in 2019 [Creative Bloq] The power of branding has also entered the wider consciousness of consumers as well as designers. Controversial rebrands can trigger furious debate, like when Slack rebranded, or weary cynicism, as with Facebook's latest corporate look, but everyone has an opinion. And with heightened sensitivity to environmental ethics, corporate transparency and political affiliation, effective communication of brand values has become more important than ever.
Why making content on the internet free was our biggest mistake… and how to fix it [What's New in Publishing] Tom Goodwin, Head of Innovation for Zenith Media, explores how free content on the internet is destroying our credibility and our businesses, and looks at how we can turn it around. Not about advertising but very interesting, and worth a read "The secret to success is to destroy the idea of a paywall. We stream Spotify because it’s easy, we browse Netflix because it’s frictionless. If we needed to pay per movie on Netflix, to check our bank balance at ATM’s, even if we needed to log in to buy items at individual stores, the rate of usage would plummet. Publishing can no longer run on chasing clicks and hits, like a drug dealer. Let’s make better news, a better internet, and a better experience. "
5) Department of Great Work
Holiday Magic: Lucy & the Reindeer [Ads of the World] Microsoft claims to be able to wish you Happy Holidays in over 60 languages. And while it might not actually be able to do so in reindeer language, this spot from McCann New York is an incredibly sweet way of demonstrating a pretty straight-up piece of product functionality.
1850® Coffee - "Quality That’s Criminal" [AdForum] Folgers, you've done it again! In a departure from the Folgers we know but don't quite love, the spot spoof the dark side of quality for their high-end 1850 brand. Best line "This isn't even pure. It's cut with Starbucks!" From Publicis PSOne in Paris
Why is Allbirds asking Amazon to do a better job ripping it off? [RetailWire] In an open letter on Medium to Mr. Bezos, co-founders Joey Zwillinger and Tim Brown wrote that the $45 Wool Blend shoes from Amazon’s 206 Collective line were “strikingly similar” to Allbirds’ Wool Runners, priced at $95. But the similarities didn’t go far enough. “We are flattered at the similarities that your private-label shoe shares with ours but hoped the commonalities would include these environmentally friendly materials as well. As we’ve done with over 100 other brands who were interested in implementing our renewable materials into their products, including direct competitors, we want to give you the components that would make this shoe not just look like ours, but also match our approach to sustainability.”
Snoop Dogg Is Coming to 'NHL 20' [HypeBeast] EA had announced earlier this year that its Sports title NHL 20 will be getting a series of celebrity commentators, and now it seems the first one is Snoop Dogg.
Lego trolls Tesla with its own 'shatterproof' truck [Mashable] So so so good. Tesla's Cybertruck took another brutal hit when Lego stepped into the ring. The toy company posted a rudimentary car made of stacked bricks and plastic wheels to the company's Australian Facebook page on Monday. The image is similar to promotional images of the Cybertruck, Tesla's thoroughly mocked first electric pickup truck.
Disney Lets Man With Terminal Illness See New ‘Star Wars’ Film Before Official Release [Huffington Post] A lot of companies doing good this week. I like it. The man and his young son got to watch the film ahead of its official Dec. 20 release date after staff at Rowans Hospice in Purbrook, southern England ― where the man is a patient ― started a Twitter campaign because “time is not on his side.”
A Determined Girl Stalks A Santa Lookalike In This Portuguese Holiday Ad [AdAge] I'm not sure if the ad is great work or the article is great work: We have a few questions—like, isn't it a bit creepy for a little girl to be stalking an old man (for anyone to be stalking anyone, for that matter)? We're detecting a bit of a trend this season, in which children in holiday ads have been brimming over almost frighteningly with "Christmas spirit," as in this earlier ad from another Telecom company Orange in which the kids border on kidnappers.
Department of Bad Work
Peloton Ad Is Criticized as Sexist and Dystopian [New York Times] I'm sure you've seen the ad and the backlash. I don't know what's going wrong at Mekanism to put that out. But also I can't believe how Peleton is doubling down: "Our holiday spot was created to celebrate that fitness and wellness journey,” a Peleton statement said. “While we’re disappointed in how some have misinterpreted this commercial, we are encouraged by — and grateful for — the outpouring of support we’ve received from those who understand what we were trying to communicate.”
Marketing for the movie Cats in New York is really going off the rails [Twitter] Omg NO.
6) Platform Updates
Super Bowl Ads Sell Out Early For First Time in Five Years [Variety] Fox has been selling 30-second ads in the event for between “north of $5 million” to as much as $5.6 million, Winter says. In contrast, CBS sought between $5.1 million and $5.3 million for a package of inventory in its 2019 broadcast of the event.
A record 189.6M shopped over Black Friday weekend: NRF [RetailDive] Up 14% from last year. Some 124 million shopped in stores and 142.2 million online, while 75.7 million did both, according to the report. Black Friday was the busiest day for stores (84.2 million shoppers), followed by Small Business Saturday (59.9 million), Thanksgiving Day (37.8 million), Sunday (29.2 million) and Cyber Monday (21.8 million), the NRF said. But, for the first time, Black Friday (93.2 million shoppers) also beat Cyber Monday (83.3 million) as the busiest digital day as well.
WeChat tops 5-year growth in brand value with 1,540% surge [MobileMarketer] Powering much of that growth was the integration of complementary services into a single platform that would typically require dozens of individual apps. China and the U.S. each had 39 of the world's fastest-growing brands, more than any other regions in the ranking. China's brands are more dominant, with two out of every three spots in the top 30, and a combined value of $857 billion that makes up 48% of the top 100's total value.
TikTok accused of secretly gathering user data and sending it to China [CNET] The allegations against the popular short video app are the latest example of the growing security concerns surrounding TikTok, which surpassed 1.5 billion downloads worldwide in November. The US government is also reportedly looking into the app for potential security risks.
How Twitch became huge … but still misses Ninja [VentureBeat] now Twitch has over 15 million unique daily visitors and 3 million content creators, or people who do their own broadcasts. 500,000 of those people stream every day. But in the beginning in 2006, it was a bit touch and go to say the least.
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