Another Planning Blog…

It’s time to upgrade from propositions as our holy grail of strategy and briefs.

I know you want to keep them, because they’re familiar, pithy, sometimes single-minded (at least, the good ones are), they form the central part of the strategic brief and you’re probably quite brilliant at finding the right one. Also, frankly, a well-crafted proposition is the strategists showpiece – an opportunity to encapsulate your strategy in a soundbite worthy of Oscar Wilde (or maybe Edward Bulwer-Lytton if you really know your stuff).

The problem is, propositions belong in a world where marketers and advertisers find messages. Things to say to people. Brilliant things that will change hearts and minds, but messages nonetheless.

Yet the world of brands has changed. The most effective brands are finding ways to share beliefs with their audience, to involve them, to engage them. And, although that can involve telling the audience something, it often doesn’t.

Don’t misunderstand me – I’m not trying to say that we should abandon traditional media, which seems more obviously geared to deliver a message. Absolutely not – all media can be effective beyond simply delivering a ‘message’. Nor am I suggesting that the communications world has gone digital, leaving ‘messages’ behind. It has, but not to the absolute demise of everything else.

I believe we should be looking for “thoughts” – organising principles that can gather together the stuff that a brand does, shares and tells the audience. We should be digging for experiences, stories, beliefs, opportunities, utility, and so on – things that people can relate to, pass on, use, get involved in, or simply enjoy. These thoughts can still be expressed with the same single-minded, pithy, quotable brilliance, but they’re not propositions – and they don’t propose ‘messages’ we will broadcast to our ‘target consumers’.

I’m challenging the assumption that we’re looking for messages to give to people – and, therefore, that a proposition is the strategic goal. Because a proposition demands a message – at the very least, you could argue that it demands action, which is still too restrictive.

I’m suggesting we ditch the search for a proposition and start looking for what a brand does with/for an audience, not just what it says.

What do you think?

Repost: First posted at WARC Blogs

Right now, there’s a massive shift taking place – it’s being discussed online, in agencies and with clients. As the media channels fragment and the internet provides the forum for debate, the messages about every brand being discussed by the general public can begin to seriously outnumber those ‘paid for’ by the brand itself. A Harvard Business Review blog article written by Andrew McAfee described it as shedding the “illusion of brand control” which I like as a way of thinking about it.

This call for brands to become comfortable with this loss of control – to release the draconian grip on ‘the brand’ and let it go – is a good call. Allowed free reign, we can then provide events, engagement and more for people to become attached to our brands and they will go forth and spread the good word far and wide. Hopefully.

The simple premise is that positive engagement will lead to positive commentary. And it comes with a realisation that relying on outbound messages alone won’t build a brand like it used to. But it isn’t a shift from one to the other – it’s a merging of the two (or more) different forms of brand communication. As ever, reality is far more complex and muddled.

And, within this muddled world, brands need to keep their heads. I fear that too often the baby has gone with the bathwater – if we can call strategy a baby and traditional creative campaigns the bathwater, that is! But, so much of the interactive work out there seems to lack a sense of purpose, some consistency of behaviour and a degree of stated belief. In other words, it lacks strategy.

All this change should mean that strategy is more important than ever – the more promiscuous and varied we have to become in order to connect people with our brands, the more crucial it is that we do so with direction.

We’re not looking for a message, though – we’re looking for an organising principle by which the brand behaves. That can be applied to all activities.

The point is that strategic purpose is crucial to getting all these connections right. And being consistent and recognisable. Which means that strategists and the surrounding companies that aid with strategic direction should become more important than ever. Bring it on!

This is a repost – first posted on WARC blogs

It’s that time of year and I’ve just sat through what may be the entire set of ads (it’s hard to know when you’re only watching them online)… However, it’s slim pickings this year, I think. There’s plenty that’s good. But there’s few that are truly great. And there’s a lot more stuff I’ve seen before than usual – good use of YouTube inspiration for dramatic animals on Carmax and one that looks superb unless you’ve seen the UK Vauxhall Corsa ads (Kia). Which is a shame, because that would have made my top 5 otherwise. And it’s part of the reason that a top five ended up being more of a “top 3 and some other stuff”…

1. Coke – two superb spots this year. The Simpsons one is my favourite, albeit borrowed interest (well used, though). Sleepwalker is beautifully done too.

2. Deutsch come out of the gate swinging with a great spot for VW.

3. Monster.com’s Fiddling Beaver from

Backed up by the online fiddling beaver (elf me style)…

And then some other notable stuff…

Bud Light had 4 solid spots – Stranded is my favourite, but they’re all good.

Hyundai’s ode to paint. Don’t know who did it, but it’s captivating.

And, finally, GoDaddy.com… and the uber-effective strategy that is suggesting you’ll see more at GoDaddy.com (a ‘call to action’ that I’m guessing works!).

Interesting video from R/GA talking about what they see as the “way forward” – it may not all be right, but they’ve definitely got some interesting points…

Lovely idea – you can only apply if you live in the US, but there you go.

Allegedly, they took their Superbowl budget and spent it on this. To quote from Mashable: “That could be changing. For the first time in 23 years, Pepsi will not have any ads in the Super Bowl. Instead, the company will be spending $20 million on a social media campaign it’s calling The Pepsi Refresh Project.”

Which means they won’t be producing anything like this… how times have changed in 13 years!

Some great new work from W+K on Target – as pointed out to me by the rather talented Mr Cossell in London.

An online collection of all the feelings people are talking about online… within the past few hours. Collated, tagged, searchable and ready to dive into. At “WeFeelFine.org” – some with photos

Genius.

From OnlineEducation.net…

Source: Online Education

I StumbledUpon this a short while ago and it’s fantastic. The power of the crowd on individual behaviour.

So apt for the marketing/advertising/comms industry.

Which is based on perceptions, not reality. And behaviours, not demographics… which is why people REACT to communications, rather than always processing/understanding them.

I’m not out to damn the research industry, so don’t misinterpret my upcoming point… BUT, this is exactly why we need to delve into people’s behaviours and reactions to communications rather than asking them to tell us what ads mean to them. And why a communications world where we can interact with people is so much more interesting and exciting than one where we simply search out a message to tell people. At least, that’s what I think of when I watch this!