Superbowl 2011 ads – what’s your favorite? Would Shareholders agree to pay if you asked them?

The Superbowl is over, the packers beat the Steelers, but what really seems to matter these days is what was the best ad. Every year we hear more and more in advance about what the ads, we get sneak previews and hear about how much it’s costing. But what is really about. The ad agencies love the whole thing as it is used a vehicle to justify their existence and continue the whole ‘brand’ myth they love to promulgate, the media loves it because of the income it generates for them, but what about the shareholders? Are superbowl advertisers getting a return on their investment for their shareholders?

When I started out in business my boss at the time was an amazing leader, with great clarity of thought and focus. He instilled in me a principle that I have held true to throughout my professional career and one that I think it very relevant to review at Superbowl time. He said that at any time you make a decision about spending money in business, you should challenge yourself and ask – “would the shareholders pay for this?”

You want to meet with your colleagues at the other side of the world to review marketing strategy or discuss innovation – fine, would the shareholders pay for this?

You have the opportunity to sponsor a high profile trade conference – would the shareholders pay for this?

The more you ask this question, the more metrics bound you become as a marketer and the more successful. Why? Because you start to focus on what really makes a difference in marketing.

Measurement of the ‘success’ of a lot of the superbowl advertising will revolve around meaningless ‘likeability’ ratings that will be reported by the media (look at the number of self serving, self congratulatory media items published today (e.g. http://adage.com/superbowl/)).

The real measure of success for anything costing $3m for air time alone (never mind the production costs, agency fees and internal time and effort spent on developing the campaigns) has to be at the bottom line or in terms of share: it has to be seen to build the business, or no matter how good the campaign the money was wasted.

Measurement of the effectiveness of marketing has suffered in this age of social media and conversations, because some people are prepared to accept meaningless measurements (such as page views, impressions, hits etc) as sufficient to gage success. Effective (valuable to the shareholders) advertising needs to be successful at stimulating targeted customers to adopt the specific behavior needed to grow sales.

So:

• Will more people looking for savoury snacks buy Doritos because of an ad where a Doritos geek engages in some deviant behavior because of his adoration of Doritos?
• Will consumers who need an in between meals hunger blaster purchase more Snickers having seen Roseanne Barr given floored by a tree?
• Has the image of  Chrysler been elevated so that when I am looking to buy my next car I will consider the Chrysler 200 because I know it is made in Detriot and Eminem endorses the vehicle?
• Is Pepsi Max now going to be my new low calorie beverage of choice because it tastes as good as the original?

How should we judge these ads? By investigating their perceived (and after the sales results are in, real) effectiveness which means identifying and assessing:

1. the intended communications strategy
2. the communications behavior objective
3. the campaign idea
4. the execution

For each ad we need to consider who was the target market, what was the benefit they sought to communicate and what were the reasons to believe that supported that benefit. In some cases this is really quite obvious – for instance, Snickers has essentially been running the same ad for a number of years so we know what it’s about – for others it’s more difficult to assess.

If there is a real campaign strategy identified the next question is whether or not the team came up with a good campaign idea. It’s that campaign idea that transforms the strategy into a compelling consumer language that drives a behavior change in the consumer.

What we saw yesterday was some very strong execution, however, if that execution has not delivered against a relevant, meaningful and differentiated strategy it cannot be said to have been an effective piece of communication.

Execution is the part of communications that most people want to get into very early. This is where the agency likes to shine and is seen by many marketers as the most ‘fun’ part of their jobs – which is why execution all too often starts before the strategy and the idea are fixed. MArchitects cannot blame the agencies for poor execution: they can only work with the brief they are given.

If everything is done right, then this is the point that brand positioning will become evident through brand linkage and the emotional energy kicks in driving the change or behavior that the advertisers target.

We will all be looking carefully at these ads over the coming months, and I am sure that some are already being considered for industry awards (yes, I have my favorites as well, but that’s all irrelevant until I actually put my money behind my mouth/mind), but we have to keep asking again and again and again: how did these ads help grow their companies? If there’s not growth as a result of the campaigns, I don’;t care how good the ad, it was not effective marketing: pretty, but not effective, and I know my shareholders care a lot more about effective than pretty.

Stella launches “Cidre” #2

So it looks like AB Inbev have responded to my questioning their planned brand extension into cider.

Unveiling the drink in London this week, Stuart Macfarlane, president of AB Inbev in the UK, referred to the  “premium, quality, crafted and heritage” attributes that the Stella brand is perceived to have.

The belief is that this brand loyalty can add more value to the premium cider category than the current market leaders – Magners and Bulmers – have or will manage.

They are really bullish because:

• they have an unwavering belief in the strength of the Stella brand,
• the brewer has spent 18 months researching consumers’ appetite for a new cider brand under the Stella moniker.

“Consumers want it, accept it and say it will enhance the category” according to Inbev. Hmmm? I am still not sure. Beer volumes are dropping in the UK where this is being launched first and the cider category, especially the premium ‘over ice’ cider category is growing.

Stella had a tremendously successful brand extension in Stella Black, which took 4% of market share, but that was a lager – sitting 100% in the target market of their most loyal consumers. The question I still have in my mind is how prepared are Stella to deal with the branding challenges of being in two categories and handling that category and product management.

If I look at what their competitor Heineken has done in recent years (and yes I accept that in the home market it is not a premium product like Stella – although it is seen as a premium imported lager elsewhere) they have managed to keep the category alive with some excellent innovations. Most of these have been packaging: think the aluminium bottles introduced in night clubs, and have maintained their leadership in a category they know about.

It will be interesting to revisit this in a few years and see if Inbev have really got to grips with product and category management to support their brand.

Foot in mouth disease…

Yesterday, we saw what has to be one of the most crass pieces of misjudged marketing since, Alec Chamberlain came back to the UK with ‘a piece of paper, signed by Mr. Hitler’. [OK., maybe its not that serious, but read on]

What were the marketers in Kenneth Cole thinking? The editorial at Advertising Age that picked this up have captured my feelings 100%

“Kenneth Cole and others in the media and marketing industries not only suffer from a lack of tact, they suffer from a lack of historical knowledge and the ability to grasp that the situation in Egypt could get a hell of lot uglier than it is even at this moment. In other words, just because you have an opinion on everything doesn’t mean you should be sharing it.”

http://adage.com/adages/post?article_id=148643

Just because you have the tools to communicate quickly to your consumers and potential consumers, it does not mean that you have to. I have posted before on my concerns that marketers are placing content for the sake of posting content (rather than having meaning for their brands) and see this as a further example of marketers putting their hands on auto pilot and their brains into neutral.

I am sure I not going to be the only person posting about what Kenneth Cole twittered and yes, it will negatively affect my perception of the brand. Quite the opposite of what they thought this witty remark would achieve.

Using shock, humor and disconrguity tactics in marketing is OK when its is part of the brand positioning, Benetton have been using ‘discongruent’ images for many years, but making jokes about an ongoing situation where people are dying and its looks like it is only going to get worse…its just not on.

Please MArchitects, make sure your brain is in gear before you act. This sort of activity does not build leading brands.

What should Kenneth Cole do now? Its unlikely they will hunker down and remain quiet – we will probably see some magnanimous gesture of a donation to an Egyptian charity supporting casualties – but that’s not the issue. While I commend any act of charity, however it is prompted, it strikes me that Kenneth Cole needs to take back strategic control of its integrated marketing plan. It has to get a grip.

This sort of release should not have been approved at any level, so there is something wrong in the processes at play here and it makes me wonder whether all the marketers and agencies working here really do have a consistent view about what the Kenneth Cole brand stands for.

Stella to launch cider brand

Inbev has decided to launch a premium cider sub brand under the Stella Artois name. It will be interesting to see if they continue with the ‘reassuringly expensive’ approach for the cider.

There’s always a risk that these types of line extensions damage the brand, and it will be interesting to watch this launch to see if what happens. Beer drinking in the UK is on the decline, so from a commercial point of view this line extending has to happen, but moving to cider from beer – not sure if any other brand has successfully made this leap.

Watch this space…

Where’s the BIG idea in your communications?

It’s disappointing that there is such a high percentage of brand communications that simply don’t have a good idea. That’s shareholders money, bonuses for employees and funds for research and development going down the drain. Marchitects make sure that every marketing Dollar or Euro they spend counts to the bottom line.

It doesn’t matter if these brand communications are from consumer packaged goods companies, pharmaceutical brands, or medical device brands—the percentage of those that contain a real idea is pretty low.  How do we know?  We survey brand communications on our own all the time and our clients share their own (and their key competitors’) communications with us all the time.

Sometimes it can be quite frustrating because it’s necessary to hard-sell marketing colleagues on the “value-added of having an idea.” That means ensuring that there is an idea that works for communications in the form of advertising, digital media, merchandising materials or sales aids or any media through which you communicate with your target market.

Marketers are supposed to be ideas people, so it becomes hard at times to understand it is necessary to sell marketers on the concept that they have to have an idea as the foundation for their communications. Perhaps there is no one or simple answer to this question. But one thing is for sure, leading brands are successful in many cases because they actually do have communications with an idea.

Why is having an idea so essential? Here are some of the most compelling reasons for having an idea in the brand’s communications:

A communications idea can create perceived competitive advantage with a parity performing brand. A good example is Master Card’s “Priceless” idea. The idea has to ring true with the consumer, but when that emotional idea resonates – it’s priceless.

A campaign idea can mean the difference between the consumer only being acquainted with the brand or the brand being able to build a lasting relationship with the brand. Think about how the idea behind the Dove “Campaign for Real Beauty” has transformed the connection between the brand and its consumers.

A big idea can create significant differentiation in brand positioning in categories where the brands are hard to distinguish. HSBC has successfully created a meaningfully differentiated positioning using the “Local Customs” idea.

We prefer good positive reasons for taking action as a MArchitect, but let’s also think for a moment about what happens when you don’t have an idea – when you communicate the brand’s values and positioning, but it’s not supported by the foundation of a good idea. What opportunities are lost? What is the negative effect of failing to create a campaign around an idea?

Brand communications that don’t have an idea

• Disappear and get no cut through: It does not matter you’re your media agency promises, a campaign without an idea is a campaign that almost no one notices and even fewer remember.  We see this more with campaigns using static media. Where you are using printed materials, like magazines, professional journals, and selling brochures the temptation is to fall back on similar images and ideas: how often do we see smiling faces, happy or ‘cured’ patients, packshots or brand schemes and repetitive/prescribed layouts? Because brand managers are the owners of the brands, and their policemen campaign ideas very often suffer from being required to comply with the brand guidelines and the brand manual. It is argued that color palettes and ad layouts are distinctive and permit the consumers to easily identify the visual clues week after week, year after year. Perhaps, for some brands this is true: for many which are not globally recognized power brands, all that happens is the communications disappear. Browse through a leading fashion magazine and you will quickly find that most branding schemes look a lot like everyone else’s. A few years ago I commissioned a massive painting – it’s 4 meters by 6 and full of bright vivid colors. I stopped seeing it every day, a long long time ago. Continuing to do what you have been doing is a weak excuse for not having an idea.
  
• Are usually full of junk: When you have a lot of space to fill, but no idea to fill it, what do you do? Without an idea occupying space, there is a question about what content to include. We see this increasingly in social media campaigns where content is being published for the sake of publishing content. We just have to get into the conversation. It’s also a problem in brochures. Once you have paid for the space it’s almost as if there is an obligation to use it. Printers sell documents in 16 and 24 page impressions – when was the last time you saw a document with 10 pages because the content, the message only fills 10 pages? The result is that instead of a striking metaphor or visual pun that delivers the brand’s benefit, they publish an intricately detailed graph or listing of bullet-point product features (some not even related to the brand’s benefit).  An additional complaint is that some brands, especially in the Pharma area brands who consciously avoid ideas in favor of information overload. Pharmaceutical marketers insist that their brochure or sales aid should enable the Sales Rep to provide the doctor with the important scientific information or to answer data-related questions.  Back in the days when drug Sales Reps actually spent time with doctors, you have to wonder how many of these same-same, overloaded brochures they saw in a given day or week…and of those, how many they really recalled. Yes, we know that long copy always sells more than short copy, but please, please give us an idea before you simply provide every known fact about the product.
  
• Leaves the brand open to competitive attack: Anyone involved in any sport will tell you a moving and well defended target is much easier to hit than a target that is static or moved in a continuous and obvious way. Think about it. Products in many categories have parity performance which means that the products end up making similar claims – including some claims that may well be noticed – like, “Removes 50% body fat in two weeks!” If you campaign without an idea, you present an easy target for your competition. That’s why Dove’s “Campaign for Real Beauty,” was so compelling. Dove’s basic beauty products perform no better than Nivea’s or Olay’s or L’Oreal’s; some might say that some Dove products performed even below those of these other leading brands.  Yet, where did the Dove Brand source its incremental share from during the idea’s 3-year heyday?
  
• Don’t reach their potential: If you have an idea in addition to a meaningful and differentiated benefit it can take a brand to levels of growth it never imagined.  I met the CEO of a prostate diagnostics company last week. According to the CEO, the service is revolutionary. The product provides such a dramatic reduction in the time of and reoccurring need for testing that all he said he needs to do is get the news out…and doctors will adopt it on the spot.” I hope it’s the case for him, and while that’s not the way things normally move in the Pharmaceutical industry I am confident that working with them to create a campaign supported by a big idea will make the launch even more successful.  We have seen it before in with certain ailments or conditions so problematic that it only takes an “announcement” (with the corresponding proof of claim) to get volume soaring.  Look how quickly Lipitor added the billions in volume by merely presenting their large drops in total cholesterol triglycerides, and LDL.  That volume might, however have been significantly higher if the launch news was communicated in a compelling, capture-one’s-imagination idea?  More of than not, having a good communications idea takes a brand to even greater heights.
  

So, what’s the way forward? What behavior should MArchitects demonstrate to improve the return on investment on their marketing spend?

1. Commit to always developing a campaign idea: It makes no matter what the media you choose, commit yourself and your agency to developing an idea that can run through your brand communications. This means taking a proactive step like scheduling an informal Campaign Idea meeting with your team and the agency within the first 2-3 weeks of creative development.  At that time, ask the agency to demonstrate show a number of ideas and explain how they fit to your brand and communications strategy.  If nothing else, ask to be invited to your agency’s internal idea meetings (you know, the ones they always have but never invite you to), you are more likely to learn a lot more there than in any other meeting with the agency.
2. Create a category wall: There is not a lot that is more revealing about how differentiated your communications are from your competition than seeing them sit, side by side on a creative wall. Identify where your communications are compellingly differentiated. If you cannot, you have a problem that needs to be addressed. Whether you are significantly and relevantly differentiated from the completion or not, set up an idea assessment session. Challenge yourself and your agency to assess which brands on the wall have an idea and which do not.
3. Distinguish between communication ideas and information: Try to articulate what distinguishes a communication idea from mere communication information. Set some basic criteria that everyone should expect from a communication idea. One technique is to require each idea to have something that is not a part of any of the current category communications by having something unexpected or out of the norm.
4. Practice, practice, practice: We have to be realistic and accept that if this the first time you are doing this you are not guaranteed to get better results. Just because you develop an idea it is not an immediate recipe for success, because the idea might not be a good idea. The odds getting good ideas get a whole lot better when the team has already developed the habit of expecting an idea every time and in challenging yourselves to come up with better ideas all the time. Don’t forget, there will be a lot of your competition who continue to communicate information that is not supported by any idea.