|
I really enjoyed this Article by Martin
Lindstrom the author of Brand Child and BRAND Sense.
Some time ago, just after the release of "Spiderman 3," I
visited a public toilet somewhere in central New York. As I entered,
I noticed a gap in the long line of urinals. One was missing. Strange,
I thought.
Then something caught my eye. The urinal wasn't missing at all. It
was, well, elevated. There it was, hanging from the ceiling, and beside
it on the wall was a message: "Spiderman 3—out now."
I'll never forget it.
Nor will I forget that Tom Dickson from Blendtec chucked his iPhone
into a household blender. He pressed the smoothie button and asked, "Will
it blend?" (In case you're curious—yes, it did blend!)
Week after week, Tom tested the blendability of such items, and the
ultra powerful Blendtec blender managed to pulverize them all.
But I do tend to forget all those diet, car, insurance, bank, credit
card, exercise equipment, who-knows-what commercials and infomercials.
And most banner ads, almost every billboard, and all those direct mails.
They never even make it to my memory bank.
What makes the difference between these starkly different categories
of communication—the magically memorable and the utterly forgettable?
Are there any driving forces that could be common denominators for the
success of the first category and the regrettable nature of the second
group?
It so happens that the blender ritual and the "Spiderman 3" installation
were created by companies with severe budget constraints. And the endless
mass of infomercials and bland advertisements emanate from companies
with nice media budgets.
Now, I know that every marketing director reading this will curse the
suggestion, but here goes... Cut your marketing
budget in half.
Throw your marketing plan in the bin and start all over. You'll be
forced to be creative. Suddenly you won't be able to comfortably do what
you did last time. Maybe what you've always done. When you have the budget
to carry on as before, along a seemingly safe path, why change the approach?
But that safe path is more likely to be a rut you can't get out of.
You recycle old ideas, reuse media plans, imagine you're breathing life
into expired thoughts. This can tire a brand out to the point of stagnation.
As my dad always said, if you follow the leader's tracks in
the snow, you'll never get ahead of him.
So what's the trick to starting afresh? Be
prepared to seriously start over and establish strategies to keep your
brand from falling into that rut to nowhere.
Here are some ideas to kick-start your new approach.
- I'll bet a lot of your budget is dedicated to activities that no-one
has ever questioned... like ads in Yellow Pages, your annual catalog,
or some ongoing sponsorship that has more to do with the boss's passion
than relevant brand-building. Starting over means entirely over. So
no holy cows here. Right from the start, secure a mandate to throw
out what's not working, and introduce what does.
- Cutting your marketing budget in half also means that your current
advertising agency might be too expensive. Or too conservative, because
you've been forced by them into that rut. So examine their potential.
Can they achieve that great thinking, or do you need to find a new
creative partner?
- Great ideas can be cheap and accessible. Initiatives like Bootb.com
make it possible to seek and buy great ideas—online. The process
is simple: post your brief, receive creative ideas from creative professionals
and untested amateurs from all over the world. You only need one great
idea to crack it.
- Use media channels in untraditional ways. Billboards are flat, so
go 3D. Banner ads are passive, so make them interactive. TV ads are
glossy, so make them imperfect. If you really want to spend your money
on traditional media, approach it unconventionally.
|
