March, 2010

Strategy — 5 Comments
31
Mar 10

The joy of having a backbone

Last week Apple acquired the iPad trademark from Fujitsu, about two months after they launched iPad. Three years ago they acquired the iPhone trademark from Cisco, about a month after they launched iPhone.

Yikes. Any armchair lawyer could tell you this isn’t the ideal way to go about securing a product name. Once you’ve launched, your negotiating position pretty much evaporates.

So which is it? Does Apple have an incredible knack for getting itself into dicey situations? Or does it simply have a backbone?

The truth is, Apple often succeeds because it is willing to stand up for what it wants. Sometimes that requires going up against other companies. Other times, it likely involves going up against its own lawyers — who surely wouldn’t advise launching a product without first securing the name.

Steve Jobs has a refreshing attitude about lawyers. He listens to them carefully, and then he makes a decision based on many factors, including his long-term vision and short-term marketing goals. He wants to understand the risk, but he will decide if the risk is worth it. And oftentimes it is.

This just doesn’t happen in most places. Certainly not on such a visible level. When a company’s legal department issues a ruling, it’s all over. And since it’s the lawyers’ job to keep the company out of the courts, their opinions are invariably conservative. Some of the feistiest clients I’ve known would never dream of pushing back against the lawyers — even if it’s to discuss the wording of a legal disclaimer.

I can’t imagine IBM, Dell, Intel or any technology company exposing themselves to lawsuits over a product name. It’s unthinkable. But that’s exactly the kind of thing Apple does think about. Over and over, they prove that a little backbone can go a long way.

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Advertising / Strategy — 7 Comments
28
Mar 10

Microsoft gives us a good binging

An old boss once taught me to appreciate the absurdity of advertising by imagining the movie version of our meetings. From there, I started imagining the movie versions of meetings I never even attended — like the one that led to the above clip from the latest episode of The Vampire Diaries.

INT. MICROSOFT CONFERENCE ROOM — DAY

The Bing marketing group sits at a long conference table dotted with Microsoft-logo’ed, environmentally friendly coffee mugs. There’s tension in the air. The chief of Bing marketing, a man who strikes fear into his minions, needs ideas. Every attendee understands the urgency. In the public mind, Bing is but a pale shadow of Google.

CHIEF: It’s showtime, people. What do we have?

Awkward pause. A feeling of dread pervades. Finally, one young buck gathers his nerve and delivers the speech he’s practiced all morning.

YOUNG BUCK: I have an idea. Just think: Google has become a verb, right? You don’t search for something, you Google it. Well… that’s what we need to do. We have to become a verb.

Again, the attendees remain silent — this time out of fear for their colleague’s life. The chief looks agitated. The marketing pros in the room find the idea laughable, and sense the slaughter to come.

CHIEF: And, uh … how exactly do you propose we do this?

YOUNG BUCK (with inexplicable confidence): Two words: Vampire Diaries.

The marketing group starts mentally planning a going-away party. But then — a miracle. The chief ponders the thought.

CHIEF: Young man, I like the way you think. Let’s do lunch tomorrow. And I’d like to introduce you to Steve…

What Microsoft has done is pretty darn silly — because you don’t achieve Google status by pretending you’re a cultural phenomenon. This move reeks of the astroturfing Microsoft has attempted in the past. Google earned a place in our vocabulary by being good, not by putting on a play.

But as much as I enjoy deriding Microsoft, I hold the producers of The Vampire Diaries responsible. Hell, product placement people lurk around every corner, trying to sneak brands into a thousand TV shows and movies. Your production is not obligated to accept their pathetic offers — especially when they force you to violate the prime directive of screenwriting: to hook an audience on your fictional world, you must create a believable world.

In the show, we get a full-screen, amply branded Bing search, along with the spoken words, “so …. I binged it.” Since no one on earth has ever uttered these words, and since the character acts as if everyone speaks this way, the audience is indeed introduced to a fictional world. Unfortunately, it’s Microsoft’s fiction, not Vampire’s.

So in this particular episode, we have two villains: Microsoft and The Vampire Diaries. One has concocted a harebrained scheme, the other has fallen for it hook, line and sinker.

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Advertising / Creative — 7 Comments
24
Mar 10

Death of a stereotyped agency

I support legislation requiring every blogger to make a happy post at least once per week. What’s with all my recent negativity?

Today, I’d like to shine the light of love on FITC Design & Technology Events, a Canadian organization that stages industry technical and creative events around the world. To promote their events, they have produced this video: The last advertising agency on earth.

It’s one of those videos I like to watch a few times, because the detail and production value is so damn good. The narrator, the music, the myriad ways they portray the dead agency. Spooky and funny all at the same time. I’m always tickled by a creative team in bunny suits (you’ll need to freeze frame on that one). The vast, empty offices and corridors were supposed to signify a long-gone agency, but to be honest they just sort of reminded me of the last place I worked.

Now don’t take this as a slam, because that’s so clearly not the vibe today. I love the production, but the story — well, that’s only about a decade old now. The agencies that haven’t yet gotten the change-or-die message are surely long gone at this point. The video mentions how this fictional agency arrogantly clung to the idea of the TV commercial and repurposed print headlines as rich-media web banners. By presenting such ancient revelations as news, it feels like whoever wrote the script must surely work at one of those dinosaur agencies.

But I didn’t say that. Really. That would be negative.

I do love the video and think it’s worth watching, simply for the fun of it. It’s one of those productions that people would do for free (which they just might have). You can tell by the finished product that these guys had a heck of a good time.

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Strategy / Technology — 2 Comments
23
Mar 10

A brand about a millimeter thick

Great brands have depth. They stand for something. Their products are a good representation of their values. Their customers tend to remain loyal, even when things get a bit wobbly.

On the other hand, some companies have only a thin shell of a brand. It’s less genuine, more of a veneer than a true representation of what they believe. And the thinner the brand, the more temporary customers can be.

Case in point: Dell.

Dell has just announced that their Android-based Mini 3 smartphone will soon be coming to the US (it’s currently on sale in China). So far, so good. Welcome, Dell. You have to figure that if Dell makes it, they must believe in it, right?

Well, not so fast. A quick glance at the online Dell Store shows that Dell is doing a lot of believing these days. They’re pretty much hawking every smartphone brand under the sun. BlackBerry, Palm, Samsung? You bet. Motorola, LG? No prob. Droid, Pre, Bold, Exclaim, Backflip… Dell sells ’em all. HP, in comparison, sells its own smartphone — and nobody else’s.

The message is pretty clear. Dell is more concerned about making a few bucks than serving up the technology they really believe in. If they’re just as happy to sell me a Samsung Exclaim as they are a Mini 3, exactly what does the Dell brand stand for?

Then again, if you buy one of Dell’s competitors’ phones at the Dell Store (I feel silly even typing that), you probably stand a better chance of getting the most advanced software. Dell glosses over this little detail in their Mini 3 press release, but preliminary word is that their new baby will ship with Android 1.6, while Nexus One is running Android 2.1.

As my favorite philosopher Charlton Heston once screamed: “It’s a mad house!”

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Strategy / Technology — 11 Comments
22
Mar 10

The curiously underfeatured Windows Phone 7

Close your eyes and think happy thoughts — you might not notice what's missing

It appears that Windows Phone 7 will soon be among us. During its incubation period, Android has come out swinging and Apple has continued to perfect iPhone.

Given how long Microsoft has been working on it (years?), and how far its competitors have come (very), it’s highly curious that Windows Phone 7 will ship with three noticeable deficiencies: no Flash, no multitasking for third-party apps and no cut-and-paste.

If you’ve been keeping score, those are the very same deficiencies for which Apple has been slammed by competitors and critics. Only in iPhone OS 3.0 did Apple finally get around to cut-and-paste.

Microsoft does claim that they’re working with Adobe to add Flash as a feature later (why this should take so long I don’t know), but the other items are omitted on purpose. This doesn’t exactly defang the argument that Microsoft copies what people like about Apple. Now they appear to be copying even the things people don’t like about Apple.

And so Microsoft must live with the consequences of its software design. Android will be emboldened because their “advantages” expand to include Windows Phone 7 as well as iPhone. Apple will be strengthened because the things they’ve been criticized for were just validated by the enemy.

One company who is threatened by Windows Phone 7 is Microsoft — which may have just designed itself into that awkward place between two sides of a vice.

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Advertising / Strategy — 7 Comments
19
Mar 10

Brother, can you spare a tweet?

I have a horrible confession to make: I subscribe to the Zune enews. Hey, at least I’m honest. I could just have easily started this post with “I have a friend…”

Of course, I only subscribe out of professional/morbid curiosity. And yesterday I found quite a treat in my inbox. Zune is running a promo. Basically, it goes like this: if you tell the world how much you love Zune, you might win a free one.

This idea is a tribute to the obvious. We need more buzz, so let’s bribe people to give us some. “Those kids” with their dang social media will do the work for us. Unfortunately, those crafty Zune marketers overlooked a big part of the obvious: how silly and desperate they look doing this type of thing.

When I clicked the link, it got even better. In the event that you’re not quite brain-dead enough for this promo, they provide a “sample” tweet, in hopes that you’ll pile it on in a similar fashion.

@Zune I remember the first time I synced my music with my Zune wirelessly, and I haven’t used a sync cable since. #ilovezune

Of course, you’re free to be as original as you wish. The only requirement is that you include the “#ilovezune”tag  in your tweet. Apparently “@ilovehumiliatingmyself” was already in use.

Good lord, Microsoft.

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Strategy / Technology — 6 Comments
17
Mar 10

Shrinking ray to shine on iPhone?

For a company that loves to surprise people, Apple does a darn good job of sticking to a schedule. In fact, they go about innovating in a most businesslike way.

Products are refreshed on a fairly regular schedule. New products tend to start off basic, and then bloom over time.

Look at the original iPod and you’ll get a serious case of the giggles. The thing is a brick. Just a thousand songs, no photos, no video. Apple spent the first three years finessing it. Then, just as competitors started to narrow the gap, they zigged when the pursuers were zagging. A smaller and cheaper model (mini) caught everyone off guard, attracting even more customers. The family continued to expand from there, with a still cheaper model (shuffle), followed by a sexier model (touch).

So — is this a time of reckoning for iPhone? The next generation is expected in June. Apple has spent the first three years perfecting a single model, just as they did with iPod. Now that the the League of Android is nipping at their heels, is this the time Apple shakes things up by starting to build a family of iPhones?

It may be hard to imagine Apple offering an iPhone with fewer features. But no more illogical than what happened with iPod — and Apple is pretty good at duplicating success. It’s not hard to envision the iPhone market opening up to even more customers with a super-slim iPhone nano offering full speed and new-model coolness at a reduced price.

Surely, stranger things have happened…

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Advertising / Creative / Strategy — 12 Comments
15
Mar 10

Amazingly, HP does amazing

A change of pace from all that Apple talk. HP has been kind enough to deliver a juicy, brand-new topic into our hands. They’ve launched a new campaign with the theme Let’s do amazing.

Before I say anything, my standard disclaimer: creating great campaigns for big technology companies is not easy. In certain ways, it’s nearly impossible. None of us could produce a new HP campaign without taking shots from fellow creatives and Monday-morning strategists. So let’s be gracious and give the boys at 72andSunny some credit for what is obviously a lot of work. And then let’s pounce like wild hyenas.

First question: 72andSunny? What the hell ever happened to Goodby? Apparently, HP opened this one up to pitches and agency 72andSunny won the prize. That’s the way Goodby was rewarded for all the good work they’ve done (they’re still handling other projects for HP). I’m continually amazed by the way some clients treat their agencies. This really isn’t difficult. If you see your agency as a valuable partner, you give them the work; if you don’t, you fire their butts. It’s this twilight zone that wrecks relationships in the end.

Now, about the campaign itself. To me, it always boils down to the same thing: authenticity. In this case, I have to ask: is Let’s do amazing at all believable for HP? Does New Zealander Rhys Darby feel authentic as the personification of HP’s personality?

Unfortunately, the answer to both is no. This campaign is a perfect example of an agency fabrication. What HP does today is exactly what they did last week. One day they were “making the personal computer personal again,” the next they were “doing amazing.” There is no big new product line, no new company management, no new philosophy, nothing different at all. They are simply amazing. Groundless marketing like this is the reason most people think advertising is shallow.

I’m actually a fan of spokeperson Rhys Darby. I find him to be intelligent, curious, likable and funny. It’s just that from the start, you wonder why this guy is speaking for HP. He feels like a hired gun, and hardly a genuine reflection of HP’s corporate character. I’m entertained by Rhys, but I quickly realize I’m falling for the Gloss Effect. That’s what happens when you stack a completely unrelated layer atop a bad commercial so people might actually watch it. Kind of like Charles Schwab layering a cartoon effect over terribly boring real-person testimonials to make them watchable.

HP should really give thanks to New Zealand for this, because it’s probably the accent that makes much of this funny. Still, there are quite a few “not funny enough” moments that even Rhys’ peculiarities can’t pull off. More important, we never get any real sense of what is so amazing about HP — other than the fact that they want us to think they’re amazing.

Just as a movie must create a believable world for an audience to connect, so must an an ad campaign. HP has simply hired a comedian to tour the world and show us the big companies and easily hired celebrities who are using HP technology. The “shtick” turns out to be way too similar from place to place: people seem far more amazed that Rhys is coming to visit than they are about HP’s technology.

Exactly the way I feel.

Very curious to hear what you guys think…

(Some links if you’re interested: Dr. Dre ad, UPS ad, Rhys Darby interview about this campaign, and HP marketing chief talking about this work.)

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Advertising / Creative — 16 Comments
12
Mar 10

Playing it safe with iPhone

I like my Apple to be brash. Unafraid. Gleefully killing products in their prime. Taking risks in unproven markets. Making other companies look cowardly. What I love about Apple is that they never play it safe.

Well, almost never.

I’m honestly puzzled why, after three years, the newest iPhone ad looks pretty much like the first iPhone ad. If you weren’t paying close attention to this newest spot, you might well think you’d seen it before.

It’s about Apps, of course — and I’m 100% in favor of that. Apps have changed the world, and Apps have become iPhone’s crushing advantage. It’s just that there are a thousand creative ways to talk about Apps. And it’s very un-Apple to do the same thing over and over and over.

But wait, you say. The Mac vs. PC campaign has been running even longer. It sure has. And the beauty of it is, every spot tells a fresh story. The characters change appearance, they talk about different things, they use props, guest characters appear — in other words, it’s a real campaign. People actually talk about it. When was the last time you heard someone raving about “that new iPhone commercial”?

The production technique is stale (still photo of iPhone in hand with a finger moving over it) and even the words are becoming suspect. I was pretty shocked to hear the Exedrin-quality last line, ”That’s why I don’t go anywhere without my iPhone.”

Maybe I’m not the target with these ads, but I should be. In a marketplace where word of mouth is everything, you want to keep giving your owners the ammunition to enthusiastically recruit friends and family.

Apple has always taken bold leaps because it’s in their nature to do so. In the case of iPhone, they have gale force winds at their backs, so stretching creatively is literally a no-risk situation. A little fire can only help. Between Apple and Chiat, there isn’t the remotest chance of creating ads that will bring the empire down. It’s only advertising. It’s there to get people excited.

As far as I can tell, there’s only one reason on earth why Apple keeps running these ads: they work. And make no mistake, it is terrifically hard to knock success. However, this is the “don’t rock the boat” school of marketing — and it’s completely out of character for Apple. I’d say it might even be dangerous, with new and better smartphones popping up around every corner.

This is one boat that could use some serious rocking.

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Advertising / Creative / Strategy — 6 Comments
9
Mar 10

Palm Pre: hanging on for dear life

[Sorry, the commercial I featured in this post has mysteriously disappeared from YouTube.]

It would be tough for Palm CEO Jon Rubenstein to have nightmares scarier than his everyday reality. Under-budgeted and under-technologied, he must do battle with iPhone, BlackBerry and the League of Android.

Yet the show must go on. So the ad agency is tasked with somehow stirring up interest for the Palm Pre Plus, making enough noise to give this little fella a fighting chance. What would you do? Rhetorical question. But I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t be the above.

This ad, creatively entitled Features, is exactly that: a fairly dry list of features. This wisp of an idea is actually more of prayer: maybe, possibly, if we list enough distinguishing features, people will start lining up to buy this thing.

Sorry Palm, it doesn’t work that way. First, if these really are your best features, you might as well hang it up right now. Signature styling? Smart notifications? Integrated calendar view? An app that turns your phone into a mobile hot spot? Oh. Well that last one’s actually pretty cool. But a single shiny thing is hardly going to steal your quarry from the clutches of iPhone or Android. Second, creativity is your friend. At least it should be. You just made a movie with an email-sized idea.

This spot is further proof of something that hardly needs more proving: most companies do not take risks at times of crisis — even if that might be their best chance for recovery. They operate on logic. They play it safe when, more than anything, they need to capture people’s imaginations. There is no imagination-capturing going on here. Spots like this are born of rooms filled with nervous people.

Only a creative idea can command attention and change perceptions. Or, I should say, a creative idea with a budget that lets you play with the big boys. The more Palm churns out harmless ads like this, the farther into the hole they sink.

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