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    Road to a Trillion.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    A couple of weeks ago it was mentioned here that in order for Facebook to become the world’s first trillion dollar company it had to nail the privacy issue. Well, my fact-checker has determined that with the world’s largest company, Royal Dutch Petroleum (Forbes 2009) worth less than half a trillion dollars and only 6.8 billion people on the planet, the trillion dollar company thing is a pretty far reach. 

    Bah, fact-checker. If Facebook can get everyone on the planet to fork over $147 U.S. they can do it.  One way to get to this number is to offer Facebook users an opt-in paid for account that is completely private.  No ads for tracking. No sale of collected personal data. No cookies. Like Ocean Beach, NY back in the day – the proverbial land of “no.” 

    For $147.00 a year, Facebook actually might start themselves on the road to a trillion. Every journey begins with one schlep.  Or was that step? Peace.    

    Ford For(war)d

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    It’s a new world at the Ford Motor Company, or at least it should be.  The recession changed things.  The oil economy is changing things. BP has changed things. It’s time to let the Ford Explorer go. The move would be more than a symbolic gesture to the world that smaller, efficient cars are our future — it would give the company major cred as an agent of change.  I know the new redesigned 2011 Explorer will target 25 miles per gallon on the highway, but those are not exciting mainstream numbers anymore.  And touch screens aren’t a reason to buy a car.

    The Ford Escape is your future in this class.  It has a nice design, momentum, and it’s in synch with your other newer smaller offerings, the Focus and Fiesta.

    Make the 2011 Explorer your swan song.  A collectors piece for loyalists.  Then put your engineers on to designing the next forward looking new model… one that captures the imagination of the U.S. buying public.  The next Mustang. The next T-bird. A car that will lure back Toyota buyers. You have been playing offense and winning. Keeping the Explorer alive seems like defense. Peace!

    Hire The Higher Ups.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    In a recent blog post, Paul Gumbinner, a friend and advertising recruiter, suggested NY unemployment in our sector is around 15%.  At one point I read there are 275,000 advertising jobs in NY which suggests about 40,000 are on the beach.

    Between that, reduced budgets and digital and earned media shops rightfully requiring pie, one can safely say there has been a retrenchment in the ad biz.  As hard as it is to say, it has improved the business. The work product of ad agencies is improving; it’s more creative, meaningful, idea-based and friendlier — with the exception of all those ads about hitting on the Super Bowl.  Even the new work out of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese’s new agency Crispin Porter seems more wholesome. Roots! (Perhaps it’s all the bicycles and mountain air in Boulder.) And if you are watching a good TV spot and smiling, there’s a good chance you’re watching something from JWT. Quite a renaissance for them.  

    It seems that all the pink slips got rid of many marginal players and a ton of haters.  The latter group can now be found commenting on Adweek and Ad Age posts.  Disruption (sorry Mr. Dru) has given way to heartfelt selling and that’s a good thing.  Money is creeping back into agency pockets and human resources calendars fill up — let’s hope we hire higher up the food chain. Peace.  

    Can’t We All Just Get Along?

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    Here’s the thing: In marketing, part of winning is understanding your competitors’ weaknesses. Some marketers spend time shooting arrows. Others focus on building and presenting strengths — a less overt negative focus.  When I worked at a big NY ad shop with mondo-million dollar budgets, if the client wanted to do a formal acquisition program and use our direct arm, the agency begrudgingly agreed and teamed it up. It wasn’t quite Yankees and Mets — more like Mets and Binghamton Bisons (the farm team.)

    As we saunter forth into the digital world we’re seeing more marketing silos grow daily. The silos will come down but it will take a while and a good deal of wealth redistribution in the meantime. Just as media was once siloed (print, TV, radio, OOH) and now better integrated, online and offline will come from one house.  Smart business people recognize this and are trying it out.  Ouch, they say, as the arrows hit them. Other smart business people are going negative, protecting their silos and they’re making money, if not friends. The web is often about removing boundaries. The sooner siloed ad, digital, direct and PR shops get on board, the sooner client market ROI and ROS (return on strategy) will hockey stick and change will really occur.   Peace!

    New Car Smell?

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    Joel Ewanich landed at GM with guns blazing.  GM’s new marketing head left a similar job at Nissan without having been there long enough to find the coffee machine. And his first act at General Motors was to replace Campbell-Ewald and Publicis with Goodby Silversten and Partners as Chevrolet’s agency of record.

    Many of the snarks are saying “Why not hold a review?” and “He never even met with the old agencies” but the reality is Mr. Ewanich knows Goodby from their time together on Hyundai, be wanted Goodby, and he is in a hurry.  If he wants Goodby, why pretend to put the business up for review and waste everbody’s time and money?  Whether this decision turns out to change the market share for Chevrolet is still to be played out but I’ll give Mr. Ewanich credit for strong leadership. He didn’t vacillate publically or do the politically correct thing — he made a decision and is getting to work.

    Goodby is a great shop. It knows consumers.  Gareth Kay was the planning leader at Modernista when Hummer was humming.  I don’t know Mr. Ewanich from Adam and though the Hyundai advertising may not have been crazy memorable, it absolutely delivered solid marketing ideas and results.  This move makes sense to me. But as fast as it was done, it can be undone. We learned that already.  Peace!

    NYC Cool. Brooklyn Cooler.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    As cool as New York City is – Brooklyn is cooler. New York still has the international cachet, the hotels, skyline and a commercial buzz, but Brooklyn is where gravity is pulling the next generation.  Young families, grads, the skinny black jean set are spending their time and Benjamins in Crooklyn. It’s where a good deal of our urban culture (euphemism for black) is born. Biggie!  Brooklyn still needs renewal, still has much poverty and crime but it is home  to many generations of Americans.  (Both my parents were born in Brooklyn.)  As a brand planner I always loved to study the borough of Queens, thinking of it as America’s perfect living breathing melting pot, but now I’m stuck one borough south.

    Brooklyn is a brand. 

    The New Jersey Nets are moving to Brooklyn and Russian tycoon Mikhail Prokhorov is their new owner and the face of the franchise. There is a big Russian community in this borough so the purchase is in exciting harmony.  Basketball is the haps in Brooklyn: Boys and Girls, Lincoln, Dwayne Pearl (Washington), Chris Mullen….   The Nets will be Brooklyn’s first major franchise since the Dodgers left and will not only unite the borough but elevate its stature around the global.  Mr. Prokhorov probably knows this, but he has invested in one of the world’s great up-and-coming brands. Do you think Spike Lee will buy a seat courtside in Brooklyn? Hell no!  He’s a Knick fan.  But his kids will! And that’s the future. Good luck Mr. Prokhorov. Enjoy the ride. Peace!

    Yahoo’s Bold, Expensive Move.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    Yahoo is buying Associated Media and its federation of 380,000 writers (Posters) who according to ComScore generate 16M monthly uniques.  Yahoo is paying $100 million for the ability to advertise to Associated’s audience and the deal also includes some technology which allows for the monitoring and prediction of reader content proclivities. This is a big move for Carol Bartz, Yahoo CEO, and shows she is putting money into the content strategy.

    I look at content portals like Yahoo and AOL a little bit like big retail malls. A good portal, like a good mall, has lots of tenants but there is always what is called an anchor tenant — a big store that draws in lots of people.  In my view, this $100 million play is more about finding an “anchor” tenant (or ten) among Associated Media’s writers who will propel Yahoo’s numbers upward, rather than a crowd sourcing effort to generate mass.  It’s like putting a seine net in the ocean to catch krill but finding some big fish.  Yahoo needs next generation big fish. Big Posters. It’s a very expensive move, but should work for them.  The portal story, IMHO, is about quality not quantity.  But that’s just me.  Peace!

    Business Strategy Vs. Brand Strategy.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    On prompt, many company executive will tell you their business strategy is “Make more money.”  Some invest to make more money others reduce the cost of goods. There are many ways to invest or cost-cut: alter the product, play with pricing, change distribution, promote in a new way.  All are business decisions. 

    Ask that same company executive what their brand strategy is, though, and you may get a quizzical look. Or the quick parry “To provide customers with the best product, at the best price, with uncompromising service.” But that’s not a brand strategy, that’s the brand marketing equivalent of pasteurized cheese.

    A brand strategy is created at a product’s molecular level.  It is inherently product-based.  A brand strategy grows from the product then gives back over time. And I’m not just talking “deposits in the brand bank,” I’m talking about informing product innovation, brand extension, expansion, even M&A activity.

    A brand strategy is deeply rooted in the consumer — the consumer’s environment (physical and emotional) and needs (known and subconscious). Brand strategy is about growth and growth doesn’t happen without nourishment, environment and caring.

    A brand strategy is a living thing. Not a business thing.  

    Business strategies are logical. They are easy to articulate.  Brand strategies are psychophysiological.  They are harder to articulate but have a pulse.  And when right — they quicken the pulse.  Peace!

    Two Cs

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    Two business trends are happening today, both accelerated due to the web — one is good, one not so. They are collaboration and crowdsourcing.  Their shared intention is the production of good, efficient work.

    In the case of collaboration the work is done by more than one party and web tools are used which put more information at the fingertips of participants. Many minds work together toward a goal, feeding off of one another.  Smart companies like the Dachis Group in Austin are playing here; they call their product Social Business Design. Collaborative software has been around since the 90s but it was more about cursor sharing and application sharing than a delve into the culture of collaboration. The new view is about changing the tools and the process.

    Crowdsourcing, on the other hand, is a project jump ball where participants compete against one another for a cash prize.  It is often the antithesis of collaboration.  The pay is poor (but not always) and the work product quite variable. In the case of a crowdsourced logo design, for instance, a number of art directors are briefed and the winning logo designer is awarded some Benjamins. (A good professional logo goes for thousands.) The losers click home. Crowdsourcing is leading to crowdsouring, but it still is a growing practice. In defense of crowdsourcing, at the high-end, with really talented players and a fair remuneration, it can work effectively.

    Two trends to watch. Peace!

    Cadillac and BBH. Hitting the Mark?

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    The new advertising coming out of Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH) for General Motors Cadillac Division is quite nice to look at and listen to. It begins and ends with the Cadillac grille emblem, which may or may not have been redesigned for the TV spots. The tagline beneath the emblem at the end of the work read “Mark of Leadership.”

    I often snap to judge but since a big fan of BBH I’ll hold off until seeing more of the body of work before I go long form.  That said, anyone who reads What’s The Idea knows I’m an idea guy.   “Mark of Leadership” is an idea. Leadership is an overused marketing concept but it’s rich and doable – if you are a leader. Cadillac is and has been a leader, but the demonstrations will most definitely need to deliver, otherwise it’s just cheese. 

    I’ve seen the first three TV spots and must admit the car designs don’t look so hot. The station wagon looking model, the coolest of the bunch, is nice on the eyes but the other two models are best shot at night. 

    BBH needs to find its voice, its idea and then not fall into the Detroit compromise trap.  I’m not saying don’t show the boxy angular cars, but just focus on their best body parts. Create an allure for the mark that a parent has for newborn. “Isn’t she beautiful.”

    Nice film, nice music, energetic editing – BBH.  Now find an idea with ballast and load it up! Peace!

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