Best TV Commercials of 2013-14 - Judge for Yourself

Click here to see a story from AdWeek containing videos of 26 TV spots that won the Grand Prix and the Gold Lion Awards at Cannes.  A lot of them are great.  Some of them are "creative" but iffy on their power to sell a product or establish a brand.  I've got my opinions ...

Another "Brilliant" Promotion - With Issues

Coke has introduced a specially labelled product built around the idea of "share a Coke" with a friend.  The special labeling involves putting individual names on the bottle ... i.e. "Share a Coke with Frank."

Now I'm sure the promotion folks (sitting in their cubicles) thought that this would be a terrific way to bring the concept to life.  But marketing only works when all of the elements of marketing work together.  In this case, the "brilliant" promotional idea is fraught with issues for the sales force and distribution system.

How are they going to stock this?  What if someone wants six bottles of "Chris" and "Alex" doesn't sell any?  How do you handle product returns?  Do the names reflect actual consumer names in different geographic areas?  (Hawaii, for example, has lots of unique names that I'm sure aren't on the bottles ... Kimo, Malia, Lei, etc.; African American names may be absent or under-represented).  Are consumers going to be unhappy or disappointed if they can't find the right name to share?

I can just imagine the sales force and store clerks muttering under their breaths when they have to deal with stocking issues in the supermarket.

The very best marketing is when all of the players - brand managers, promotion managers, sales managers, distribution managers - get in a room together to figure out what works in the real world.  Not in an isolated cubicle. 

Is Apple on a Course Toward Mediocrity??

I'm not a Mac person, but I've always used Apple's MacIntosh Commercials when I teach advertising.  They were examples of how to be creative and engaging while still selling the product.  The new ads (click here) show an Apple that is decidedly less adept in creating memorable (and effective) ads.

It is, for some reason, very hard to keep companies at a high level of creativity. 

Perceptions in Customer Service

I recently had the occasion to do some business with First Hawaiian Bank.  At the end of a business meeting, I was given the business card of the customer service representative I had been meeting with.  The title on the business card was "Customer Service Representative III".

What on earth was the bank thinking about when they developed that kind of title on a customer service business card?  Who wants to deal with a Class III representative?  Why don't I get a Class II or a Class I?  The cards obviously reflect the internal structure of the bank, but the customer doesn't need to know about that.  The "class III" title communicates that I am dealing with someone low down in the organization.

When I ran a business, the titles on the business cards (except for very senior management) didn't communicate rank at all.  For our account executives, cards indicated their title as "account service" rather than "senior account executive," "assistant account executive" or other indicators of rank.  Similarly, the media folks had cards that said "media service" instead of identifying their rank.

A non-hierarchical title on a business card gives the client the information needed without damaging the psyche of the employee ... or causing the client to think that they are getting something less than quality service. 

Ben and Jerry's ... Walking the Talk

I recently had the occasion to visit the Ben & Jerry's ice cream factory (and birthplace) in Vermont.  Ben & Jerry's is known for the eccentricities of the founders.  It's been called a "hippie" company ... but more importantly it has a longstanding reputation as a company with a core set of sustainable values that include social responsibility. 

Touring the facility, those values were definitely part of the brand experience.  The tour guides were well scripted in verbalizing the founders' values and the three missions were prominently displayed on the walls.  The mission was exemplified by practices such as buying from local farmers, no GMO products and paying fair trade prices for their ingredients.  I was especially impressed because Ben and Jerry no longer own the company.  It was sold to Unilever years ago. 

My impression was somewhat diminished, though, when we ended the tour and bought some ice cream at the little shop on site.  Despite all the talk, the ice cream was served with non-recyclable plastic utensils.

It keeps coming back to a fundamental truth.  When it comes to branding, everything ... even the "little" things ... make a difference.

Kona Brewing: Selling the Sizzle

Sad Hour

Single Tasking

There's an old saying in advertising:  Sell the sizzle, not the steak.  In other words, don't focus on the physical attributes of a product:  sell the enjoyment ... sell the feeling ... sell the "sizzle."

Kona Brewing does a terrific job of selling the sizzle in these two spots which run on television on the mainland.  The spots never mention anything about the qualities of the beer itself.  They just capture the personality of the product.  Click on the images to see the ads.

Creative - or Wasteful - Media?

It seems that people are always looking for new media outlets.  Pizza Hut famously put their logo on the side of a rocket.  I've seen ads emblazoned on urinals.  And I've seen ads on baggage conveyor belts. 

One has to wonder what the effectiveness is.  I suspect the impact of these ads is not measurable, so advertisers are taking a "shot in the dark" when they "invest" in these non-traditional media. 

Recently I was in a fairly nice coffee shop (certainly not a dive).  They had flowers on the table and the decor was quite nice.  When we ordered coffee ... it came in a mug with advertising on it. I have a hard time imagining that someone would look down at their coffee cup and say "by golly, I should use Joseph Perry plumbing."  If I'm right, Joseph Perry wasted some money advertising in this medium. 

Honolulu is considering allowing advertising on the exterior of buses.  Now, that's actually a proven medium in other cities, but Honolulu is a little different.  Right now, there is an ordinance that prohibits any outdoor advertising, so there is a fear that bus ads will begin the "slippery slope" to allowing other outdoor ads.  The other issue stems from the fact that the bus system is owned and operated by the city.  So, by law, the city could not prohibit or put restrictions on ads appearing on the bus.  So tasteless ads, political ads, and any other ads would be fair game.  I was wondering what the mayor would think if a rival in a campaign bought bus ads that said "I'm going to restore the bus service that the current mayor cut." 

I guess my point is that there are an infinite array of media opportunities if you think creatively about them ... I just don't know that they all make sense.