surface, finally.
Six weeks, a product launch, a couple major holidays, and over 15,000 flight miles ago began The Attack of the Workload.
Oh, and lest I forget the North American International Auto Show in balmy Detroit.
The Auto Show punched me with the power of brand. Wanna watch people OVERLOOK or JUSTIFY really bad product design to avoid disparaging their favorite marque? Go to an auto show. How about watching millionaire 60 year-olds run like pre-schoolers on Christmas morning to a long-awaited line addition? Get thee to Detroit in January.
Want to be threatened with violence for disallowing a show attendee from opening and sitting in one of your floor models? Come and stand next to me at the next NAIAS. (No joke — a giant dude gilded in bling and an ill-fitting track suit told me to get out of his way "or else.")
Click the link above and scroll until you find proof of the mass hysteria paid to the new Camaro concept. Don't TELL me brands aren't powerful aphrodysiacs. Hell, I thought the throng had just discovered a living, breathing alien.
More than a few dozen of the people with whom I spoke drove over from Canada or up from various Southern states, flew from way out West — even traveled from Japan — just to be among the first to witness the unveiling of one of my clients' new models.
In the dank cold of the Upper Midwest, just a month after the mass brand agnosticism that are the Holidays, and in the thorough financial exhaustion of January, the power of brand was alive, well, and wearing Fila.
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Sunday, November 13, 2005
The ad:tech Conference here
was a blast. It was my first time to speak and act as a panelist, and my three co-panelists -- Tom Ajello of Agency.com, Lars Bastholm from AKQA, and Jeff Benjamin of CP+B -- and moderator Mike Donahue of the AAAA were cool and fun to speak with. And smart as hell, each of 'em.
I hope I get another chance.
I hope I get another chance.
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Where would you place
the line of accountability among the advertiser, the publisher, and, say, your third-party rich-media vendors?
The first line of accountability rests upon the data and influence gained during the consumer dialogue. Some just post a privacy policy, some call it ‘data transparency,’ others call it responsible business. A few years ago most everyone began asking users to opt in. Later, with the failed credibility of corporate America and the ongoing media hunt for suspect data usage, it’s more than courteous. It’s obligatory.
Now we see that any time the user steps in or around something we create, it’s more probable that they’ll be irritated than turned on. Thus, everyone on the team must understand the end-objective and build an atmosphere that (with luck and talent) reliably spits out brilliance.
The second line of accountability is toward each link of the client-agency-publisher chain, with an eye on strong relationships along the continuum. This is critical, because when something breaks, no one will pass the buck and most will cooperate in the all-hands-on-deck scenario. Without real shared responsibility, there’s only one true loser: the brand.
Popular logic states that company personnel, at the end of the day, need only feel accountable to their employer. Winning logic states that company personnel should act in the interest of their employer, which makes vital the cooperation among the publisher and the agency and the ad hosts and the IT groups and, of course, the client.
When this happens, you’ll notice the first line of responsibility is somehow automatically fulfilled.
The first line of accountability rests upon the data and influence gained during the consumer dialogue. Some just post a privacy policy, some call it ‘data transparency,’ others call it responsible business. A few years ago most everyone began asking users to opt in. Later, with the failed credibility of corporate America and the ongoing media hunt for suspect data usage, it’s more than courteous. It’s obligatory.
Now we see that any time the user steps in or around something we create, it’s more probable that they’ll be irritated than turned on. Thus, everyone on the team must understand the end-objective and build an atmosphere that (with luck and talent) reliably spits out brilliance.
The second line of accountability is toward each link of the client-agency-publisher chain, with an eye on strong relationships along the continuum. This is critical, because when something breaks, no one will pass the buck and most will cooperate in the all-hands-on-deck scenario. Without real shared responsibility, there’s only one true loser: the brand.
Popular logic states that company personnel, at the end of the day, need only feel accountable to their employer. Winning logic states that company personnel should act in the interest of their employer, which makes vital the cooperation among the publisher and the agency and the ad hosts and the IT groups and, of course, the client.
When this happens, you’ll notice the first line of responsibility is somehow automatically fulfilled.
What can be done
to address the challenges that online marketers face yesterday?
Clients must learn to rely more heavily on both their internal teams and interactive agencies to remain vigilant while they tend to whatever it is they do best.
When an audience or medium shifts, they must be ready to hear their consultants out, move with conviction, and act swiftly.
Without genuine top-down buy-in from clients, improved creative will not have the oxygen to breathe and succeed.
+METAPHOR ALERT+ The work’ll suffocate.
Clients must learn to rely more heavily on both their internal teams and interactive agencies to remain vigilant while they tend to whatever it is they do best.
When an audience or medium shifts, they must be ready to hear their consultants out, move with conviction, and act swiftly.
Without genuine top-down buy-in from clients, improved creative will not have the oxygen to breathe and succeed.
+METAPHOR ALERT+ The work’ll suffocate.
What challenges does the
industry face for improved creative?
Once again, the answer comes down to user experience.
With the growth of those technologies which enable agencies to engage consumers more effectively, so is some other application learning to keep commercial messaging out. Remember, with every action there’s an equal and opposite reaction -- pop-up blocking being the most basic example.
Smart creative shops with foresight will think well outside the machine to earn a coveted “brain bookmark” with their audience members. The others -- what with having to involve (heaven forbid) traditional, direct response, and other kinds of agencies -- will be pulled kicking and screaming into the real-world user’s sphere, probably recognizing too late that this was where they should have been all along.
Once again, the answer comes down to user experience.
With the growth of those technologies which enable agencies to engage consumers more effectively, so is some other application learning to keep commercial messaging out. Remember, with every action there’s an equal and opposite reaction -- pop-up blocking being the most basic example.
Smart creative shops with foresight will think well outside the machine to earn a coveted “brain bookmark” with their audience members. The others -- what with having to involve (heaven forbid) traditional, direct response, and other kinds of agencies -- will be pulled kicking and screaming into the real-world user’s sphere, probably recognizing too late that this was where they should have been all along.
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