Sometimes I see something so bad, I need to share it. Especially when a brand tries to be funny, self-deprecating and different – failing miserably. I can see the creative team during their brainstorm:
“The script is super duper.”
“Why not add some cup cakes? That always works.”
“Make them gluten-free. We can’t risk anything with the anti-gluten crowd.”
“Absolutely.”
“How about the guy gets tackled by a security guard.”
“In a library. By a fat security guard. Now, that’s funny.”
“I met this girl last night. She wants to be an actress. She would be perfect.”
“We need a cat in a funny costume.”
“That’s why they call you Creative Director.”
As you would expect, they don’t allow comments for the original posting on YouTube and embedding is limited (that’s why I embedded the Russian translation).
From what I hear, the new Internet Explorer is good. Reviews are good, people are raving about it.
It doesn’t matter.
People will forgive when you have one product iteration that is mediocre or even bad. People don’t forget when almost all of your previous iterations were terrible, filled with security flaws, slow and badly designed.
Amazing advertising might have helped to change our perception of IE incrementally. This terrible advertising just reminded us of how terrible the IE experience was and why we never want to go back again.
Sure, it’s fiction. Still, it’s amazing. He mixes his own experience with a fresh idea and delivers this new concept with raw emotion. The fearlessness of tapping into his own emotion and passion brings his audience to tears.
As I said, it’s fiction. But you can bring this concept to life whenever you present. Share a new idea. Add emotion to the mix and top it off with passion. See what happens.
Marketing doesn’t equal advertising
In reality, advertising is a small slice of what marketing is today. Any successful product or service is the result of smart marketing thinking first, followed by a great product/service that makes the marketing story come true and allows the advertising to tell a story. If the Kodak company hadn’t invented the Carousel, slide projector, Don Draper could never have developed the story. Good advertising can’t bail out bad marketing. Both need to be good to work well.
In honor of ‘Mad Men’ starting its 5th season, do yourself a favor and watch this endearing portrait of a modern day ‘Mad Man’. An American advertising producer in Shanghai tries to sell fast food to the Chinese.
I grew up in a small town in Germany. Everybody knew each other, everybody knew everyone’s business. Many people had dreams to leave that little box they called home. They dreamt of living in amazing places like New York or Acapulco. They wanted to experiment with different professions, life styles and learn by traveling the world. 99% of these dreamers were not good in executing any of these ideas. They were extremely good at bashing the ones that tried: “Why would he leave our town to study art? You can’t make money with that.” or “No wonder he ran out of money in San Francisco. What was he thinking?” When people that walked the walked returned, they were embraced with an implied “You learned your lesson: Stay home and stick to what you’re good at. Don’t bother trying again.”
The advertising industry is like a small town where 99% talk the talk and 1% walk the walk.
I’m not defending the specifics of these campaigns. What I’m defending is that the client and their agencies tried. They came up with ideas, they executed them and we were waiting behind the bushes to bash them.
Attend any media/advertising conferences and you’ll be inundated by talks about innovation, fast failures and quick innovation. While talk is cheap, it gets cheaper in the hallways while the advertising community bashes any campaign/initiative that didn’t turn out to be the next Old Spice or Apple’s ‘1984′ commercial.
Every time people create something, they stick their head out. They risk something. Sometimes they succeed, sometimes they fail. Bringing out the big hammer to put them back in line doesn’t help anyone. It just ensures that less people and brands will take risks.
“The essential part of creativity is not being afraid to fail.” – Edwin H. Land
Have we created an environment where people are afraid to even try?
My daughter is in an interesting phase: She can read but she can’t comprehend fully what she’s reading. A picture book with a few sentences per page is perfect for her developmental stage. No, she wants to read a chapter book without any pictures. She proclaims proudly: “I’m on page 55.” When I ask her about the content, the answer is very sparse. When she gets her homework, she wants to get it done in a few seconds: “Easy peesy, lemon squeezy.” Once I note a mistake, she freaks out and never wants to touch any homework again.
Typical behavior for brands in the emerging marketing space
Many brands have not yet fully deployed all basic digital marketing tools. Instead of focusing on getting the fundamentals right, they rather develop a comprehensive Social Marketing strategy.
Others have deserted Facebook/Twitter/YouTube presences. Why bother improving these important platforms for their brand? Let’s just start a Pinterest page.
The fancy commercial not matching the dirty store layout.
The radio spot not matching the horrendous attitude of your employees.
The list is endless.
We should strive for innovation and amazing ideas
First, we need to clean-up the store.
Change the attitude of employees.
Get the fundamentals of marketing right.
Get the fundamentals of the business right.
Then, and only then, should you consider the newest platform aka toy.
