Brand Noise

Don't let Detroit be erased. Tell its stories.

On Tuesday, a film about the Milton Hershey School was screened at Tribeca Cinema. The director Cynthia Wade and the producing agency ArnoldNYC walked a fine line with their closed wall client to come up with a documentary that would be both compelling and serve the clients' needs. Together, they solved a big problem. They stretched a thin budget, recast client suggestions, and took cameras outside the school walls. Trust and vision let the film meet its mark. 

In Detroit, an even bigger problem needs to be solved: “America’s most struggling city needs to attract business and talent.” To help, Time Inc. invited agencies with Detroit offices to develop campaigns to encourage young and creative people to consider Detroit as a place to live and work. The result? Pretty conventional. Yet, no barriers were placed on the agencies. With skies wide open, why hold back? Has the nature of advertising in general become to create: oatmeal?

Think about it. The problem with Detroit is an American problem, not a regional one. We've been quick to let our cities sink into the sea once they're tarnished. What makes cities work is intensity. To revive their spirit means to conjure up that intensity. 

In Detroit, you have a city that once sold its soul to the auto companies. It couldn't hold onto many of its own. Consider Detroit's Class of 1984. scenarioDNA's own Tim Stock (a University of Detroit high school grad), Majesty Crush's Odell Nails (now a lawyer and with Mahogany in NYC), Philly artist Michael Frechette, NY film maker John Walter who cut his teeth in Detroit on Evil Dead II with Sam Raimi's Renaissance Pictures and Mark Crilley creator of Akiko who went around the world before choosing to settle in an outlying Michigan city, not Detroit. Has anyone ever thought to ask them why they left and how to strengthen bonds to bring them (or those like them) back?

Powerful stories exist within the city, as well as among all the ex-pat Detroiters, who never dress the city down while the rest of us sweep where we come from under the rug. Now that's compelling. There is a dialog to leverage from those ex-pats to those living and breathing within the city limits.

Detroit is a narrative that extends beyond the city and its suburbs. It lives in New York. It lives in Arizona. It lives in LA. It lives in Philly.

Sadly, unimaginative thinking among those charged with pushing the message of Detroit will further erase the troubled city from the states if we don't all pull together. To bring the city back to its glory, all the narrative threads need to be identified, organized and brought together. We can't get bogged down by politeness and mired in consensus. Don't erase Detroit. Tweet your Detroit stories with the hashtag #erasedetroit. (Photo: Abandoned house by smooveb)

You Can't JUST Listen: Give Ogilvy a Break

I've got a question. Why are all of us enlightened social media/Web 2.0 gurus picking on David Ogilvy lately? More than once during yesterday's  Business Development Institute conference on The Social Consumer, David's name was brought up in "then vs. now" scenarios. Yet, in 1962, Time called him "the most sought-after wizard in today's advertising industry." (Maybe David Ogilvy did preach to a gullible public, but at least it was interesting and compelling.)

For sure, now we need to connect; we need to listen; we need to -- ENGAGE (there's that word again). But we also need: the wizards, the curators, the maverick renegades to lead the way. Inspiration never comes by consensus.

Perhaps, Ogilvy's now seemingly heavy-handed method worked then because he knew how to hear without the spiffy tools we have helping us today. I think we're losing sight of the dynamic combination necessary which is ever-more critical now that the gullible war-trodden consumer is gone.

Years ago, I worked for a brilliant editor by the name of Phyllis Sweed (although I don't think at the time I appreciated exactly how brilliant she was). When Ms. Sweed was asked by our publisher to survey our readers to ask what they wanted. Her response was "They don't know what they want." And, as publishers do, he persisted and money was spent to discover that the readers didn't really know what they wanted. In fact, it was more powerful that Ms. Sweed and her crew had developed long-standing relationships meeting and hearing their readers. And always posing the question "What if we did this?" That's what gets a b2b print publication closer to its 100th year.

So let's promise each other that there's always something more inspiring, more provocative to be accepted if it just gets pushed a bit. And stop using David Ogilvy as a scape goat. The man worked for the British Intelligence Service for heaven sake's. I'd assume he knew how to listen first before he slammed it home.

Repercussions of a Sheltered Generation Await

This, from AdAge on PepsiCo's post-BBDO Generation Optimistic campaign:

"It feels like bullshit to me," said Ray Graj, principal at Graj & Gustavsen. "It's like putting your head in the sand. People are scared about their jobs; they're getting reduced bonuses. It feels contrived to go down that path, regardless of what market surveys they're reading."

Mr. Graj went on to say that, while there certainly is some optimism around the upcoming inauguration of Mr. Obama, it will be short lived. "What we're facing is a real deep bad thing, and that's settling in slowly," he said. "[People] are confronting the reality of the situation."

Couldn't have put it better myself. We're at the tip of the iceberg, guys. And the kids are always the last we let know.

Read the whole AdAge story.

Great Summer Brain Reboot via Jon Steel

Jon Steel: Planning at 40: Solving the wrong problems from JWT on Vimeo.

Advertising is Getting a New School

According to Brooklyn Borough president Marty Markowitz, The High School for Innovation in Advertising and Media is slated to open in September 2008, and will occupy a building on the Canarsie High School campus.

The DOE plans to enroll about 108 ninth graders to start and in each of the next three years, which means that within four years, the school's total enrollment will reach 425-450, according to a DOE representative.

"The buying power of African-Americans is expected to exceed a trillion -- yes, trillion -- dollars over the next several years, yet they represent less than five percent of the advertising industry workforce," Markowitz said today, in a statement. "This school will go a long way in preparing our very talented and creative communities of color for exciting and very lucrative careers in advertising and marketing."

Read more.

Expectations of trained kids are so high. When these kids get out of school, we better be ready. By the time they reach their first jobs, they’ve already spent years creating ads, or so that's their story. What we need them to do in the workforce makes them take a few steps back to everyone’s chagrin. And then no one is happy. Their well-roundedness will be critical. It’s no good if the ad community does not get involved. If we want their first out-of-school thoughts to be “Who do I want to learn from?” We best step up to the plate.

(Photo: Mammoth Advertising.)

Final Word from Kellogg Super Bowl Advertising Review Panel

Well, now that the Super Bowl and its ad legacy are behind us, we can all be Monday morning quarterbacks.

Everyone seems in agreement: Many commercials that appeared during Super Bowl XLII took a satiric tack, spoofing movies, television shows, video clips, celebrity misbehavior and more...For the most part, it worked. The tone was a welcome contrast to last year’s Super Bowl, filled with crude and cartoonish violence.

Kellogg School Super Bowl Advertising Review panel awarded A's to four brands: Tide, E-Trade, Coke and FedEx. Tide-to-Go won with an "entertaining," "memorable" spot which "clearly communicated the relevant product benefit." Runner-up E-Trade's ad was "attention getting" and "funny." The panel thought Coca-Cola was particularly effective in connecting with their audience.

The panel had significant concerns about the advertising efforts for the lowest ranked advertisers: SalesGenie.com, CareerBuilder.com and GM's Yukon brand. Panel members said SalesGenie.com's ads were "offensive to some," and lacked a clear description of the site. CareerBuilder.com's "I Quit" spot received mixed reactions; members of the panel were "turned off" and found the spot "disturbing."

The 41-member Kellogg Super Bowl Advertising Review panel ranked each advertiser based on innovative criteria known as ADPLAN. The acronym, developed by Kellogg faculty, instructs viewers to grade ads based on attention, distinction, positioning, linkage, amplification and net equity. Unlike other reviews which may rank ads on likeability alone, the most entertaining spot may not be the panel's overall winner. This year, the panel members identified E-Trade which received an A, as the most likeable. The brand successfully connected with the audience and communicated its position.

Influencing Only Looks Easy

Somewhere between Malcolm Gladwell and Duncan Watts lives the truth in what we all hope for as influential marketing, like it or not. Part of their disconnect is in the interpretation by marketers who hope for a quick fix to get people to talk about their stuff. Critics are plenty. Malcolm talks influencers. Duncan talks timing. We see both angles as legit.

The problem? Social media is not a direct line. Just like the kids’ game “telephone,” information gets morphed as it moves from person to person. The product that gets moved through the grapevine has to be a strong one. Without a solid product to begin with—uh, ain’t nothing going nowhere. Essentially, if you have the right product to start with, position it correctly and introduce at the right starting place, then it can trickle and explode through the grapevine. That’s a three-step process, and it’s not easy.

Read more in Fast Company. (Photo: Ishiku)

Team of Three Collaborate for DVF Campaign

Diane von Furstenberg with the artist Francois-Marie Banier and the creative vision of David Lipman, featuring Natalia Vodianova, has created a campaign that infuses the spirit and distinctiveness of the eponymous brand.

Inspired by von Furstenberg's desire to reflect the DNA of the brand -- the power of women and their courage -- Banier produced some 50 black and white images of Natalia, and with strong brushstrokes, smudges, and spatters, he applied bold color and writing to each photograph to create layers of complexity, both visual and emotional.

Not too many years ago, Natalia Vodianova was a poor fruit seller on the streets of Moscow. Now she's one of the world's most in-demand models and married to a very rich, very handsome aristocrat, Justin Portman.

Known for his iconic portraits, painting and writing, Francois-Marie Banier's friendship with von Furstenberg dates back to the early seventies. Like von Furstenberg's designs and strong prints, the trilogy of talent developing this campaign was spontaneous and full of chemistry. Her role in the campaign, she contends, was simply to make introductions.

Good Aligns With Lifestyle, And So Begins Paradox

Which of the following people would you say is the most admirable:

Mother Teresa, Bill Gates or Norman Borlaug?

Borlaug, father of the “Green Revolution” that used agricultural science to reduce world hunger, has been credited with saving a billion lives, more than anyone else in history. Gates, in deciding what to do with his fortune, crunched the numbers and determined that he could alleviate the most misery by fighting everyday scourges in the developing world like malaria, diarrhea and parasites. Mother Teresa, for her part, extolled the virtue of suffering and ran her well-financed missions accordingly: their sick patrons were offered plenty of prayer but harsh conditions, few analgesics and dangerously primitive medical care.

The human moral sense turns out to be an organ of considerable complexity, with quirks that reflect its evolutionary history and its neurobiological foundations.

Dozens of things that past generations treated as practical matters are now ethical battlegrounds, including disposable diapers, I.Q. tests, poultry farms, Barbie dolls and research on breast cancer. Food alone has become a minefield, with critics sermonizing about the size of sodas, the chemistry of fat, the freedom of chickens, the price of coffee beans, the species of fish and now the distance the food has traveled from farm to plate.

That said...Many of these moralizations, like the assault on smoking, may be understood as practical tactics to reduce some recently identified harm. But whether an activity flips our mental switches to the “moral” setting isn’t just a matter of how much harm it does. We don’t show contempt to the man who fails to change the batteries in his smoke alarms or takes his family on a driving vacation, both of which multiply the risk they will die in an accident. Driving a gas-guzzling Hummer is reprehensible (hence Hummer HX), but driving a gas-guzzling old Volvo is not; eating a Big Mac is unconscionable, but not imported cheese or crème brûlée. The reason for these double standards is obvious: people tend to align their moralization with their own lifestyles.

Read the whole story.

(Photo: Dr. Norman Borlaug, in his wrestling attire as a young man.)

Publicis Ramps Up Planning in US

Publicis USA is overhauling its strategy-planning department, announcing a raft of hires with various backgrounds and new structure with an eye to better understand consumers.  (read the full article in AdAge)

It seems like the underlying story here is that agencies have to figure out what business they are in.  It starts with what role planning takes in building ideas and generating actionable insights.  A couple names here that I know - I've had conversations with some of these folks (really smart people) - but they have voiced to me in the past a definition of planning leaning as much to business strategy as to consumer insight. They are not alone - many planning departments have (and have had for some time) an identity crisis going on - what value do they offer and how is that value evolving with the agency and plugging into the work they do.  Reminds me of digital shops in the late nineties wanting to be more like technology consulting firms such as Accenture. Not a good move for agencies or clients.  Confusing - especially when it often did not integrate into the existing process of creative development the agency already had. 

The reality is that you can't do both - i know we all want to say that  we can - but fundamentally you can;t have credibility on both sides of the process equally.  Great shops need to be great at being creative - that is a big enough task under the new challenges of the marketplace. Advertising (and that word is certainly evolving) is about creative ideas - and the fundamental source of these ideas that result in messages, products and experiences is knowing more about people.

I'm glad to see more agencies getting in touch with this "knowing people" thing - but it only means something if the whole agency organism takes on that as what their fundamental value is.  Be creative and be in touch with people in ways that companies/clients can't be.  I remain optimistic.