This Week in Strategy: When does a joke become a dad joke? When it becomes apparent!
Hi Strat Pack,
What a week. Now that we've passed Memorial Day, it feels like everyone is starting to slow down for the summer. Well not everyone. 6 UWS goats tasked with maintaining Riverside park were hit with layoffs for being too good at their job. Let this be a cautionary tale: overachievers get sacked. And then we'll have to tell all your coworkers that you found a new home at a farm upstate...
In other news, I'm currently obsessed with this NowThis tweet that uses Snapchat filters to give Americans the women presidents we've never had. Gut reaction: Donna Eisenhower is a BAMF, Rashida Nixon absolutely would have still committed Watergate and Abby Lincoln is, ahem, not a good look. (Insert joke about honesty here)
Alright guys, stop messing around contacting the Mayor's office to get those plucky, fastidious, absolutely horrifying looking goats reinstated. (Their eyes are so weird. I can't get past it.) Let's jump right in.
The one thing to read this week
1) Don't outplay them, Out think them. [Dave Trott's Blog]
The first half of this post (the entierty of which takes a whole 2 minutes to read and I really strongly recommend) is a parable about the European Final Cup match between Liverpool and Barcelona. I do not follow football and will not attempt to condense it. Just read the damn thing.
Attention to detail and thorough planning. Looking for an opportunity where no one else was looking. Spotting something no one else had spotted.
That’s what competition is, that’s what advertising is at its best.
As Schopenhauer said “Talent hits a target no one else can hit. Genius hits a target no one else can see.” That’s what creative thinking is, creating an unfair advantage.
Bill Bernbach spotted it before anyone else, that’s why he said: “It may well be that creativity is the last unfair advantage we’re legally allowed to take over the competition.”
In other words, if you can’t outplay them, out think them.
2) Mark Ritson: Binet and Field’s research may not be perfect but that doesn’t make it wrong [MarketingWeek]
Les Binet and Peter Field’s research has gained fame by showing the need to balance long- and short-term marketing, and while criticisms of their methods are fair, their conclusions still appear to be valid.
This big messy world of advertising, with all its varied and contradictory inputs, does not easily correlate with the equally untidy world of corporate performance and marketing effectiveness.
In an ideal world we would have all the data, but the world is not ideal and we’ve known ever since Schrödinger opened that box that empirical research must make epistemological bargains with reality. The question isn’t whether bargains have been made but whether they invalidate the work.
In the case of Binet and Field, the bargains are there for all to see. Clearly the work is based on a small subset of total marketing campaigns and depends, for much of its insight, on self-declared reporting from marketers who have a vested interest in making everything as impressive as possible. But even with these sizeable caveats the work transcends these limitations.
General criticisms of Binet and Field are likely to increase as their fame and influence grows. Much of that criticism is warranted and is an essential part of the disciplinary maturity of marketing. In truth, much of this debate centres on the imperfection of all data in proving marketing theory. We do not study rocks or gravity or the rotation of the earth.
Developing any knowledge from this changing, reflexive mess deserves enormous effort and expertise and, for all their limitations, I thank Binet and Field for making some sense of it all.
3) Agencies must redress decoupling damage [Warc]
Paraphrasing a really honest talk given by Jodi Robinson, president/North America of Digitas at the 4As
Agencies that continue to uncouple services risk a “race to the bottom” that makes them appear more like interchangeable vendors. Anytime we decouple our media and the creative message that lives within those platforms, the more we’re commoditizing those channels and that media.
Too often brands are overly focused on speed and cost efficiency. “That’s what clients keep asking their media agencies, instead of elevating the conversation,” Robinson said. In doing so, she added, the “value that we create” is lost.
Somehow we’ve lost this higher order notion that media really is just an amazing place to put a creative message.
We need to be masters at whatever message is most resilient, impactful, and contextually relevant in whatever those media channels are. To reach that status, we need to bring media and creative back together and make sure media doesn’t walk into the room without that creative partner.
4) Segment ... with caution -Faris Yakob [Brand Equity Blog]
Targeting and segmentation are crucial strategic tools, but have to be handled with care.
We live in an age of individuality. We are taught that we are unique and thus exist at the centre of our own world. This filtered into advertising as all cultural ideas do.
From our online behavior data emerged programmatic advertising and retargeting, the kind that chases consumers around the web. This is a strategic confusion because ‘personalized advertising’ is an oxymoron. It is direct marketing, which is different. Google searches tell you what is already in demand, they do not create demand, which is the function of advertising.
Brand advertising works as a socio-cultural stimulus - it makes things sellable, rather than selling things directly. It means advertising has be broadcast, but how broadly? To maximise growth, brands should target all category buyers, who buy from a portfolio of brands, and encourage them to buy more of their brand. This makes more sense than trying to convince heavy buyers to buy more since they are already buying a lot. Targeting them is known as the heavy user fallacy. Trying to convert category rejectors is a much tougher advertising task.
With an environment changing this fast, targeting and segmentation remain crucial strategic tools, but the goal isn’t ‘mass one-to-one’ - we don’t want to be breastfed sales messages. It’s to create an idea that resonates in culture. Ideas that work are the ones worth talking about.
5) Quick Hits: A few articles that are concise, important, interesting, impactful, and I'm not going to write long descriptions for them.
Sonos has quietly softened its brand to be less about tech and more about sound [The Drum] Sonos has subtly reworked its corporate identity and tone of voice, clearing away “music-inspired metaphors and clichés” and a techy aesthetic to reveal a warmer brand simply focused on ‘Brilliant Sound’. They hope this rebrand communicate three points: the aesthetic beauty of its products, the simplicity of its software and its commitment to quality and design.
An Hour of Advertising with… Adam & Eve founder Ben Priest [An Hour of Advertising - Medium] A great and very worthwhile read, chatting with the guy who basically put John Lewis on the map. Topics include The dynamics of a good creative team, obsessing over advertising and being star-struck by creative directors… Frustrations at TBWA, learning how to be a Creative Director and meeting James Murphy and David Golding… Launching Adam & Eve, embracing a new culture and merging with DDB… The secret to a great John Lewis ad, winning Cannes Agency of the Year and the campaigns people may have forgotten about…
Cannes Lions Reveals Glass, Innovation and Titanium Shortlists [Little Black Book] Worth checking out. I've noticed they still haven’t announced the shortlist for my submissions...
Google Holiday Retail Playbook 2019 [Google] This is for you if your brand sells things and you sell more things than average during the Holidays. This is for you.
Think Tank: 19 Branding Lessons From the Top 5 Retailers [WWD] These top retail businesses know that their brand is invaluable. These are the businesses that we should be learning from. So, we’ve studied what these mega-brands are doing right…and wrong. Here's a list of five actionable lessons that apply to retail businesses of any size — not just mega-retailers.
Women’s World Cup: How brands are leveraging a ‘culturally relevant’ moment [MarketingWeek] Women’s football is quickly gaining momentum with the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup tipped to lure one billion viewers offering advertisers a momentous opportunity to tap into a “culturally relevant” conversation in a growing commercial market.
Culture Next: The Trends Defining Gen Z and Millennials [Spotify for Brands] You know the drill by now: millennials and Gen Zs are a big deal, and you need to reach them. But if you really want to do that, it’s crucial to take a step back and understand the broader generational shifts taking place. What is it that sets these generations apart from others? What are some of the pressures shaping their unique standpoint? And how are they making their mark on culture? Good News! Spotify has the answers is this report!
Got to be real: the dos and don'ts of musical branding campaigns [Marketing Dive] Major brands like Oreo and Lay's have tapped mainstream musicians to craft original songs, but not all the efforts are chart toppers.
6) Department of Great Work
This week’s work is sponsored by The Paradox of Art as Work a brilliant New York Times article by AO Scott
Taco Bell’s Newest Believable-But-Fake Movie Trailer Pokes Fun at Musical Biopics [AdWeek] “Chasing Gold” is the aspirational rise-and-fall story of a singer (Golden Globe winner Darren Criss) who gets his big break after being discovered by an agent who hears him singing about his deep love of Nacho Fries in an alley.
Unilever creates 'The Soap With A Lump' to encourage women to check for breast cancer [The Drum] Created by Wunderman Thompson, which collaborated with technical experts, designers, soap manufacturers and a leading oncologist on the design. While the distinctive bar dissolves over time, the lump does not - ensuring the lump stays as a reminder until the bar runs out.
Glowing, glowing, gone. By Adobe & Pantone [The Drum] To raise awareness of the coral reef crisis, Pantone and the Adobe Stock Visual Trends forecasting team analyzed imagery captured by The Ocean Agency in New Caledonia to identify the unique colors of coral fluorescence, creating a range of “glowing” colors that embody these ecosystems’ tragically beautiful death
Which Big Little Lies Character Are You? Ask Pandora [AdWeek] Pandora’s in-house team worked with HBO and Big Little Lies music supervisors Simon Astall and Ben Turner to create authentic music profiles for each character. Fans of the show can fill out a quick quiz to determine which character most matches their personality
Nike’s Electrifying Women’s World Cup Ad Celebrates the Soccer Stars of Today and Tomorrow [AdWeek] the three-minute anthem from Wieden + Kennedy Portland continues the brand’s “Dream Crazy” positioning. It's the blockbuster ad that Women's soccer deserves.
Squarespace - Sinking Ship [YouTube] Squarspace launched 3 new :30s and 3 complimentary longform pieces this week to show how easy it is to build a website. This is the only good one. But the real great work is this delightfully insane 2 minute companion piece. Done by the in-house team.
Chipotle integrates Twitter with SMS to dole out free burritos to basketball fans [Mobile Marketer] Every time an announcer — including play-by-play announcers, color commentators and sideline reporters — says "free" on-air during the first half of official league game coverage, the Mexican fast-casual chain will offer up to 500 burritos
Under Armour converts body energy to light at new pop-up activation [AdAge] A cool interactive pop-up in Soho in partnership with Giant Spoon, on the back of "Margin of Victory," a 15 minute, beautifully shot anthemic brand film following top athletes
Department of Work Purgatory
Volkswagen's rebirth ad is missing something pretty vital: humans [Campaign US] What a tantalizing piece of creative. I mean, seriously, Volkswagen’s new spot is a beautiful harmony appealing to nearly all of the senses. A tip of the hat to all those fine thinkers who orchestrated such a masterpiece. But it’s not enough.
The one bad one this week
Microsoft is making Xbox body wash [The Verge] What does Xbox smell like? Microsoft says the answer is fruit, herbs, and various styles of wood. I say, Nobody asked for this.
7) Platform Updates
I'm sure you’ve seen coverage of Apple's WWDC. And I can’t outsnark Twitter when it comes to $1,000 monitor stands. So you don't need to hear it from me!
Google announces new privacy requirements for Chrome extensions [TechCrunch] Starting this summer, extension developers are required to only request access to the data they need to implement their features — and nothing more. In addition, the company is expanding the number of extension developers who will have to post privacy policies
Firefox will begin blocking trackers by default [The Verge] Mozilla is trying to strike a middle ground, by only blocking known trackers and not all cookies in general
Twitter Buys Artificial-Intelligence Startup to Help Fight Spam, Fake News and Other Abuse [Variety] Fabula has developed the ability to analyze “very large and complex data sets” to detect network manipulation and can identify patterns that other machine-learning techniques can’t. The startup has created a “truth-risk scoring platform” to identify misinformation, using data from sources including Snopes and PolitiFact.
Time Spent With Media 2019 [eMarketer] We've done it! Americans now spend more time on their phones than watching TV. In other news, our fat asses spend 12 hours per day on average consuming media. It's a global report - very interesting data in here.
Creative radio ads boost purchase intent [Warc] Radio ads recognized for their high level of creativity typically deliver a greater uptick in purchase intent than the norm, according to a study by Westwood One
TikTok is Reportedly Testing New Ad Targeting Options to Lure Marketers [Social Media Today] TikTok is testing both interest-based targeting and pixel tracking, similar to the ad tools on other social platforms
Foursquare buys location-tracking firm Placed from Snap [Mobile Marketer] The deal could help Foursquare, a social check-in app that has shifted focus to become a location data provider, strengthen its business of helping mobile marketers track foot traffic to retail locations.
Amazon turns warehouse tasks into video games to make work ‘fun’ [The Verge] Presenting: The Dystopian Future of Work!
Internet adspend will have grown five times faster than traditional media spend over the last decade [Warc] Boring but important.
Streaming Users Beginning To Feel Video Subscription Fatigue [MediaPost] The TV landscape is approaching zero-sum status, with more consumers insisting they’d drop an existing service before adding a new one
Pinterest Influencers Might Change the Social Media Game for Brands - Infographic [Social Media Today] While it may not be a big factor in your social media planning, Pinterest is definitely on the rise. Check out this infographic some interesting—and important—stats on Pinterest
Phew! That was a marathon, not a sprint. As always, the full archive is available here. Was this email forwarded to you? Want to start getting this on a weekly basis? All I need is your email, everything else is optional.
Now that's a full email. Thanks for sticking around as always. Have a great weekend!