BP is Now Darryl

Every brand has a brand personality.  Just like people, brands can be boring, exciting, interesting, fun.  BP realized it didn’t have a much of personality—or should I say, the CEO didn’t have much of a personality.

Meet Darryl.  He volunteered for this assignment (builds credibility) and he says, “I’m responsible for overseeing BP’s claims process.”  The ad is warm, honest and not over-hyped.  You like Darryl and you trust him.   

We have a need in all of us to anthropomorphize (humanize) inanimate objects to facilitate interaction or understanding.  The weather seems less of a threat if we call it ”Mother Nature.”   We name our cars and coax our computers and talk to them like people.

If you only advertise transactions and price, you cannot expect people to think more about you than they do about a light bulb.  If you don’t ever communicate that personality, then you are the wallflower of brands.  Pillsbury isn’t much without its doughboy.  It helps define the brand character in human ways. 

People want to have a relationship with your brand.  If you don’t have a likeable personality, you will never be able to participate in all that media—and especially social media—has to offer.  Why would you ever “friend” someone (or something) you don’t really like?  What kind of person is your brand?  And, would people like that person?

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The Internet Is Not Killing Newspapers

My first  job was delivering newspapers.  Today, I’m delivering a much different story.  The Internet isn’t killing newspapers.  News is killing newspapers.  The medium is not the message.  I believe our news appetite has changed and newspapers have not realized the shift in tastes. 

A Pew Research Center study shows that newspaper readership has fallen from 34% in 2006 to 27% today. But even more profound is that 34% (up from 25% in 1998) of people are ”newsless” (people who get no news on a typical day).   And 51% of Americans say they are now “news grazers.”    

The problem is that we are now information-rich and time-poor.  So our sorting skills and news-relevancy sensors are much more sharpened.  We want to ”search” the information that is relevant to us and discard the rest.     

So think about the last time you searched for car accidents?  Did you search for bank robberies in your area?  What about jury selections?  Searched for the city council minutes recently?  People will always need an arbiter of content, but newspapers will need to rethink news if they want to survive.    

What can save newspapers?  The same thing that sells any product:  clear differentiation and targeted benefits. 

So what are newspapers to do?

• Rethink what is news. Target the audience and give it what it wants. 
• Strip out all that is on the Internet (such as stock listings, national sport scores, ag markets).
• Become hyper-local.  No national or international news unless a local hook exists.
• Embrace citizen journalists.  ABC ran a story about the East Coast’s winter storm. It featured Flip camera video stories from citizen journalists.  The citizen stories were much more interesting than the ABC reporter’s, who obviously never got a household ready for a snowstorm. 
• Shorter articles.  More bullets.  More pictures (but not more pictures of the mayor, we all know what he looks like). More easily consumed charts and graphs.   

Newspapers need to refocus on the readers.  Just like any business needs to focus on its target audience.  It’s time to hone the news menu for the audience’s new tastes.

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Viral Video and the Cowboys

Did you watch the Dallas Cowboys game Saturday night?  Did you see the super-sized HD screens?  Even the players and coaches could be caught watching the big screen TVs from the sidelines.  Today, video is more compelling and video is viral. 

In the new stadium there are 71-foot-high and 160-foot-wide mammoth HD monitors stretching from one 25-yard line to the other.  Surprisingly, there are another 3,000 video screens in the stadium  (1 for every 30 fans).  

That is so, according to Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, you can tell the “whole story” of the game.  Video cameras are everywhere in the stadium so they can show people in the stands or a player going to the locker room for an X-ray during the game.  You see the game and the ‘back stories.’ 

“They can’t turn away, so you can hammer them with your message,” said Mr. Jones.

It is TV’s on-screen movement that keeps you from turning away.   White space leads the eye in print media, but movement directs the eye on a video screen.  And video (or video-like) movement on a Web site makes for a more compelling brand/selling experience.

Video is also the best way to go viral:  A Canadian singer couldn’t get United Airlines to pay for his guitar damaged by baggage handlers.  Finally, United paid $3,000 to the singer’s favorite charity.  Why? He made a music video about the experience, “United Breaks Guitars,” and generated  7 million hits on YouTube.   Now that will get things moving in any company. In fact, United now uses the music video to train service reps, but alas, not baggage handlers. 

Blog Brand Promise:  This blog will energize your marketing in less than 1 minute — unless you are a very slow reader. 

Note:  The idea for today’s blog came from one of my ‘pickets.’  A ‘picket’ is a lookout, a soldier watching for a surprise attack.  Thanks for the photo Dee. 

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Does ‘Since’ Matter?

In advertising we make great efforts to include “since” in our names.  Some even use it as a tagline:  ‘GBL bank since 1888.’  How about  Facebook, since 2006?  In this new economy, does ‘since’ matter?  In this new day, being the newest may matter more.  Do you care as a consumer that MySpace started before Facebook or that GM started before Toyota?  

Benefits matter, not the year you started in business.  Imagine if we went around and introduced ourselves like we do our organizations: “Hi, I’m Mark since 1958.”  Actually, I’d rather hide my age.  New really seems to be in (since 2009):  New media, new economy, new age, new technology — all seem to indicate that we are in the age of “NOW.”  We were in the information age; it is now, the NOW AGE.   

Cell phones, smart phones, Twitter, Facebook posts, LinkedIn, even blogs all point to the now-ization of our lives and how we communicate.  We all tend to be living more in the now than ever before.   And, this is changing how we need and consume news and information (and marketing messages).   Also, this now-ization explains why our attention spans are getting so short.    

The other problem with ‘since’ is that it gives no benefit or underlying reason to use the company or organization.  “Acme Dry Cleaners since 1964.”   They may have been operating poorly since 1964.  

Normally, you should have a feeling of stability and credibility because of the ‘since’ tag line.  However, because of the new normal economy and technology takeover. I have a  sense that ‘since’ is gone — well, at least since 2009.

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Throwaway Marketing Words

Words mean things.  Yet in marketing, we tend to puff-up everything.  We try to sound comprehensively smarter.  We try to sound very excited.  We try to sound louder!

George Carlin hated unnecessary words, such as, “Let’s begin the boarding process.”  Why a “process?” Why don’t we just begin boarding?  He also hated shower ‘activity,’ confidence ‘level,’ knowledge ‘base,’ and fear ‘factor.’

Here’s a short list of other advertising words that should be cut from marketing lingo:

• Simply…the best.  Why do we always explain so much and then end with “simply…________.”  It is never that simple and everyone knows it, but you.
• Crush the competition.  This is mostly a car-dealer line.  Do people know or care about the elusive “competition?”  Most business is not playing a game, so try selling benefits instead.     
• Most competitive prices.  That is a sure sign you don’t know why you charge what you do.  Competitive with what?  Competitive means you’re not the lowest. 
• Comprehensive care.  ”We simultaneously center our programs on an integrated approach to healthcare delivery.”  That almost makes sense.  I wish comprehensive would go the way of tertiary care.
• Very.  I especially love that very unique attribute of making something more than it can be.
• And More!  There never is more.  There is always just what was listed.
• !  We were all given 5 exclamation points at birth.  Use them sparingly.  They mean a yell such as “Fire!” “Look out!” ” He’s got a gun!”  Not “Limited time!”  “Come in and see what we have for you!” ”Cider and cookies this weekend! “And more!”    

As Mr. Carlin said, “…my typing process is beginning to tire my finger area…It’s time to consider the break factor before I have a fatigue incident.”  Sounds really smart.

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The Band Won’t Play On

I went to the Iowa Hawkeye football game last Saturday.  The Hawks won and are now 9-0 and number 4 in the BCS rankings.  But I think as I was watching the game I was also witnessing a ‘shift’ change:  I believe I’ll be telling my grandchildren about how a live marching band use to come on the field and play. 

The marching band is being replaced by what is called Hawk Vision (giant video screens) and some super strong speakers.  Television ads, athletic event promos, sponsorships and hip music are drowning out any band performances during non-playing time.   Iowa kicks off to the Rolling Stones, not the band.   The team doesn’t enter to ruffles and flourishes , but high-tech animation and very loud recorded music. 

Even the Indiana and Iowa bands combined couldn’t compete with the decibel level from the press box.  The athletic department is in total control of all the sound of the game. 

What’s happening?  Marching bands have not kept pace with technology or modern music.  Bands look and sound basically the same as they have for years.       

It is Darwinism at its best.   There used to be a group called the Highlanders who played bagpipes at halftime, but changes in musical tastes and budget cuts moved them on.

I believe highly charged (recorded) music, video playback and a budget cut here and there will replace the marching band as we know it.  If, of course, they don’t adapt.  Marching bands need to go on a retreat and rethink the core. 

Marching bands, just like so many businesses today,  are wondering why no one is paying attention. Toot your own horn, but make sure your competitor isn’t playing synthesized music and showing video on a big screen.

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Television Obituaries

Recessions change everything.  So how are you surviving?  According to the book, “The Upside of the Downturn” by Geoff Colvin, “…of those that entered [past] recessions as top performers, 47 % had fallen out of that group by the time the downturn ended…13% of the mediocre-or-worse performers climbed up to the top group.”   

The book talks about how managers and employees have no experience in a recession like this.  And, most people are not good crisis decision-makers.  This recession is a crisis: it is deeper and wider than any expected or could predict.  Many companies just won’t survive because of the inability to act — waiting for different results without changing a thing. 

However, innovations do occur:  Here is one that got my marketing senses buzzing.  Television stations are now carrying obituaries in morning newscasts (for $100 a pop) and one billboard company is showing simple obituaries on an electronic board in Des Moines.  Sound silly?  Sound morbid?  Sounds like innovation to me. 

Photo by Rodney White of the Register

When the local newspaper in Saginaw, Michigan reduced issues to a few per week, the TV station stepped in and offered obituaries on air and then more information at  www.ObitMichigan.com .  Look for stations across the country to follow suit in the blink of an eye. 

It’s this kind of thinking that bursts through the status quo.   Extreme challenges can lead to extreme innovation.  As Mr. Colvin found, “Good times are when you’ll experience your greatest success…bad times are your greatest opportunity.”  But not with the same thinking and same actions.  It is not business as usual. 

  http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009910210360

 Note:  The idea for today’s blog came from one of my ‘pickets.’  A ‘picket’ is a lookout, a soldier watching for a surprise attack.  Thanks PJ.   

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Think Big I

Another diner opened near me.  Nothing special.  No big menu item.  No strong logo.  No theme.  I would say, no future.   They were thinking small. 

Now, Schwartz’s Montreal Hebrew Delicatessen ( http://www.schwartzsdeli.com/index2.html ) thinks big about its small menu and small restaurant.   Sure the menu is small, but the food is huge.  Huge smoked meat sandwiches.  Lines out the door. 

It is easy in a recession to think small about everything.  But I’m not just thinking about how much you spend on marketing, but how you focus your money, effort and thinking for the greatest results. 

Donald Trump said, “If you are going to be thinking anyway, you might as well think big.”  It takes no more calories to think large and shoot for impact.   I found this street art in Chicago.  Grant Wood is big in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, but he is enormous in Chicago.   And the promotion power is unmatched. 

Big may be one of the most important ways for people to remember your brand.   There are a hundreds of souvenir shops along the Florida coast, but there is only one Souvenir City.  You know you are there because of the huge shark mouth.  You can buy hermit crabs anywhere, but you can only have your sun-burned body photographed by the big shark head at one souvenir shop. 

Big thinking differentiates you.

So the next time you do an event, plan a meeting, or open a deli, think big and see what happens.  And if you go to Schwartz’s in Montreal, try the Large Plate Smoked Meat. Your eyes may be bigger than your stomach — and you’ll love every pound.

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Loud and Literal

Signs must communicate quickly and efficiently.  Imagine if all your communications had to communicate visually all the time.  A sign of the times is that new media is changing how we write, design and think about communications. 

You might say that new media is not changing us for the better.  Regardless, we are all changing.  The biggest change that I see is the tendency for smaller blocks of copy. Texting is changing and shortening our spelling:  ”idrc or idk.”  Twitter only allows you 140 characters of copy.  People will only spend a few minutes on a Web site and then they are gone. 

However our scanning, 24-hour Twitter, smart phone, herky-jerky, Facebook lifestyles are really changing in ways we can never anticipate.  What I do know is that new media is changing our patience with copy. Our copy blocks need to get shorter — and in my opinion, harder to write.  So take a look at that long mission statement, that long letter, that verbose brochure, that 50-slide PowerPoint:  new media is giving us Media Attention Deficit Disorder. 

So: 

• Cut down copy. 
• Bullet when you can. 
• Use short little lines.
• One thought per paragraph. 
• Bold or highlight key words.
• Underline what I need to know. 

There is no time to be understatedly elegant.  It is the age of “Loud and Literal.” 

gnite and ttyl

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Marketing Rio

Now that Rio has won the bid for the 2016 Olympics, it’s time to look back and see how marketing played a role in the successful bid.

Rio’s branding line was “Live Your Passion.”  It’s what we like to call a ‘big you’ statement that focuses more on the 90 members who vote than on Rio as a location.  It’s a branding line, not a brag line.  The Chicago bid was, “Let Friendship Shine.”  Chicago spent a lot of time talking about ‘introducing Chicago and America back to the world.’  Hmmm.  As a voter (and that is the only audience), would I want to let ‘friendship shine’ or ‘live my passion’ when I go to the next Olympic site?  I’m going to Rio. 

The Rio (english) website had a quick-loading video right off the top that gave you a great feel for the beauty of the country and the people.  If you click on the Rio 2016 tab, you will see a great video on the facilities and areas, which allows you to really ‘see’ the vision.  Based on the arresting animated city fly-through graphics showing the Rio venues, I’m sold (www.rio2016.org).  The Chicago website is static, even using a Google map to show the areas (www.chicago2016.org).  Nearly 6,000,000 people voted on the Rio website to support Rio’s effort (the tally is displayed on the website); only 1.3 million clicked to support Chicago’s effort. 

Rio’s site may be a bit less ”designed” as websites go, but the use of video makes it a much better selling site.  I don’t believe it was anti-American sentiment, political workings or the highly publicized Chicago murder prior the vote that sealed the deal for Rio.  It was Rio’s focus on the key audience and better marketing.   Live your passion.  In RIO. 

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