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    Upwardly Mobile App Neighborhoods

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    Nice article over the weekend in the New York Times on the growth of web start-ups in NYC.  Silicon Valley East some might say.  Other suggest the East coast is trumping the West when it comes to start-ups in the media, mobile and publishing areas.

    NY is likely to be the hub of these companies not just because advertising, publishing and media companies reside in NY, and lets not forget the financiers, but because the next “haps” development area is mobile and there’s no better place on earth to test mobile apps than in a city of 8 million people — and the businesses they frequent. It’s a commercial petri dish. 

    Brooklyn Vs. SoHo

    There seem to be two factions in NY where the action is. Brooklyn is where the gearheads and coder-savants have their businesses and SoHo is where the artsy, consumer-savvy go to work. The two areas are only a couple of subway stops away and are feeder neighborhoods, but they are different mindsets indeed.  I’m not sure which one is the shark and which the pilot fish but I’m working on it.

    I haven’t forgotten you Union Square and Flatiron people, but you are just a little too focused on da monies and PPT and not enough on the art and code so I’ll remove you from the fray for now.  Anyway, there is something very exciting going on in these two communities and it will be a hotbed of technology innovation and seriously cool mobile growth. Ride the subway between these two communities and watch the future happen.  Peace!

    Tattoos or Marketing with Meaning?

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    Here’s one of my favorite song lyrics. It’s from the rawness that is David Allan Coe:

    The old man was covered in tattoos and scars;
    He got some in prison and others in bars.
    The rest, he got workin’ on old junk cars…
    In the daytime.

    I was reading the paper paper today and noticed a nice big Rolex ad featuring Lindsey Vonn skiing.  She is not covered in tattoos but might as well have been.  Here are some of her sponsors: Red Bull, Spyder Thinsulate, Nature Valley, Charles Schwab, Audi, Visa, Sprint and Alka Seltzer Plus — and that’s just on the front of her racing suit. She also represents Head skis, I believe, but they’re on her feet and hard to see.

    Red Bull

    I tweeted a couple of weeks ago before the Olympics that someone smart should pick up Lindsey and sponsor her. Within an hour someone from Red Bull (good job monitoring, btw) responded that they were her sponsor. Red Bull has done a better job than some with Lindsey – they own her helmet – but the reality is much of their stuff is still tattoo-like.  As Bob Gilbreath says in his good book The Next Evolution of Marketing (better known as Marketing with Meaning), tattooed logos aren’t particularly meaningful.  The reason I didn’t know Ms. Vonn had sponsors was because no one had really pushed their brand idea into her being.

    I read somewhere that the Red Bull branding idea has something to do with “flying.” Can’t tell from their website.  And if I can’t spot a brand idea, there probably isn’t one. Sponsors need to understand themselves before they can create a meaningful and promotable relationship with a spokesperson. They need to know their idea. Peace!

    What Keeps WPP, IPG and Omnicom Up at Night?

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    Google and Facebook are collecting scads of data about each and every user of their applications.  They are doing something smart with that data, serving ads, but have not yet scratched the surface of what they can do with that data.

    Google bought DoubleClick a couple of years ago, the world’s leading advertising server and analytics company. Facebook is also strengthening its analytics capability.

    Planning and buying media, both online and offline, has always been a pretty technical and complicated science and it still is to a large degree. The practice has been specialized and data-driven but always managed by the capable hands of usually creative human beings.   Yet if Google and Facebook use the algorithm to parse and predict buying behavior, and do it with NASA-like precision, what will become of ad agency media departments? Or Nielsen? Or stand alone media buying agencies?

    Do you think C-level agency executives are thinking about this?  Does this keep Mssrs. Levy, Wren, Sorrell and Roth and their successors up at night?  Mr. Levy and Publicis own Altas – that was a smart move. Do you think there will be a backlash against Google and Facebook? Are they getting too much power? Love to hear your thoughts.  Peace it up!

    New Brief Against Tobacco

    By
    Steve Poppe
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     We have spent million of dollars and Euros and rubles around the world trying to get kids to stop or never start smoking.  The brief has always been about one thing: smoking will kill you. It will turn your lungs black and you into a seething ball of cancer.   After all these commercials and public service efforts kids and adults now know the dangers of smoking.  ( I once convinced NY State to make wearing the nicotine patch a fashion statement among African America males — another strategy — but that’s a story for another day.) In France the anti-smoking forces have decided to try a new strategy brief. And it’s a good one.   

    Corporate Manipulation

    The new brief is all about subjugating kids and making them do what corporate tobacco wants. And their print ads do it in a very dramatic way.  Some say too dramatic. In fact, the ads have been banned in some places.  Beyond the visual idea, the line “To smoke is to become the slave of tobacco” elicits powerful ideas and images.  Women’s groups and child porn groups are all up in arms…and that’s okay. They should be.  But this advertising is powerful and effective and it needs to run.

    Good advertising makes you feels something then do something. In this case, hopefully it will keep kids from doing something. Smoking. Peace!

    Screen Grab Retouching for All.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    I suck as an art director but that doesn’t keep me from appreciating art and wanting to play at it. Having looked over the shoulder of some pretty good art directors, watching them silhouette and manipulate images and color, I know what can be done with the right tools. The problem is the tools aren’t ready for mainstream.  And they are not free.

    Polyvore

    Polyvore is a women’s fashion website gets this and has developed a smart application where users drag and drop various clothing and accessories together into “sets” or looks. The UI (user interface) lets you flop things, flip things, enlarge, reduce, change color and purchase. By surrounding that functionality with comments, a community of fashionistas, and smart curating (showcasing Taylor Momsen and Keira Knightly sets, for instance) Polyvore has created a business. 

    Snagit

    Polyvore has tapped into people’s need to art direct or fashion direct and it points to a business I think is ripe for the taking.  A company by the name of TechSmith is aware of this and sells a product SnagIt that lets you grab and copy pictures and images via screen grab and do with them what you will. It looks fairly easy and for active users is a deal at $49.95. But the web needs an ad-supported version of this software for free. Think of it as a rudimentary retouching site – much like Flickr was to photo sharing a few years ago. Make it simple and they will come.

    Pew Report on Millennials. A Prediction.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    I love testing this raggedy brain when it comes to prognostication, so I’m going to stick my neck out before I read the Pew Research study on Millennials and venture a predition. 

    People are a little like products.  In the lifecycle of a product there are stages just as there are stages in life. In the first stage, infancy, the form is sponge-like, taking in everything and developing on all fronts.  In adolescence, there is growth and testing — sticking fingers in electrical sockets – an amazing amount of learning and change. By the time people and products are Millennials they are still open to change but have become invested in their personalities. They’ve been around, yet they don’t always have the resources to do what they want.  Let’s leave middle age and the autumn or harvest years for a later discussion.

    The Pew Research Center Report on Millennials (the people, not the products) entitled “Confident. Connected. Open to Change.” looks at the demographic: late teens and 20 years old.  It’s suitably named, albeit perhaps not completely seen through the steadied lens of our financially challenged times. (My take is that Millennials will be a little less confident, a little less open to change than the report states, but still quite connected.)

    Marketing Planner’s Dream

    Here’s the prediction: This group is a marketing planner’s dream. Especially so, because they’re amazingly attuned to usability.  Millennials are open to new ways, yet judgmental. Product and marketing planners should be studying Millennials for everything: healthcare, energy, clean tech, diet. Everything.  There will be some gems in this research report and many ideas to have ideas.

     Tomorrow, my take on the report. Peace!

    Healthcare Reform. The Brand.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    The brand planner in me looks at the brand “healthcare reform” and sees everything out of control. No wonder we can’t break through the stasis.   The Dems have not managed the discussion, argument or conversation well.  They have allowed the GOP to obscure the focus on the good: covering more people, more efficiently, with a systematized, measured approach to healthcare improvement.

    Smartly, the Republicans have framed the argument in simple terms: healthcare reform = higher taxes and higher debt.  In a time of financial distress, this is an effective strategy. They’ve moved away from “the gov’t shouldn’t be making decisions for doctors” rally, but that was a good ploy. It, with a variety of other shots, added confusion to which the Dems felt a need to respond. President Obama and the Democrats are acting like hockey goalies – fending off shots rather than managing the “healthcare reform” brand.

     

    Healthcare Problems

    Most every voter would agree healthcare is fouled up. Been to an emergency room lately? Had to call an insurance company to resolve a bill? Noticed all the paper jockeys in the doctor’s office? Know someone paying COBRA? Had to answer 4 page questionnaires at a doc’s office every time you go? (Can you say computer?) Malpractice insurance? Let’s not even go there.

    The reality is the Democrats need to manage the healthcare reform brand like a package of cookies. Focus on the positive and put power and focus behind the message. Healthcare reform is about making Americans healthier. It’s easy to demonstrate, discuss, and prove. It just needs to be organized around an idea. Stop playing politics. Stop defending. Start managing the positive (that’s branding.)

    Adding Flavor to College Apps.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    Tufts University added a third dimension to its application process recently — YouTube video submissions — and it’s a wonderful idea.  Very today. For too long the college application process has been 2 dimensional: grades (SATs and high school GPA) and the essay. Before I sent “Princessa” off to college, I read a book on the process of application approvals from the perspective of the admissions officers.  It suggested that the essay was the dimension that really brought the student to life.  If the essay does that (or doesn’t and just lies there), think about how a video might add flavor?

    Some kids test well.  Others write well. Some communicate in yet a third dimension: through humor, visual improve, debate, and/or the more creative arts. Providing a YouTube video as an addendum to the application helps these  kids shine. In business, we hire people based upon their resume, experience, writing style and face-to-face interviews. In the case of college applicants, admissions offices and student teachers often put applications in piles A (in), B (out) or C (bubble) without ever having met the student. Tufts University is helping change that. Brilliant third dimension kids who once slipped through the cracks, will no longer.  Peace!

    Target Posters on Your Media Plan.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

     Where do Posters hang out?  And once you find them what’s a good way to reach them?  Good questions. Certainly Posters (original content creators on the web) hang out online, but the best Posters get out of the building to see and smell the coffee – they need living breathing stimulation. So how to you find and reach them? 

    On a macro level, you go big.  So Vancouver would be a good place to be promoting and spending to reach Posters this week.  Davos Switzerland or Park City, UT (home to Sundance Film Festival) would have been good places to promote a couple of weeks ago. Buying radio, outdoor, local web or local TV ads in these cities, well in advance, would have been a smart way to reach Posters in a targeted relatively inexpensive way.

    On more of a micro level, if you want to reach technology Posters or music Posters, try buying media in Austin, TX during South By Southwest. How about dialing up your Google campaign in that city for those couple of weeks? If you are trying to reach soccer Posters, look to South Africa for the World Cup soccer finals in a few months. 

    At McCann-Erickson the media people used to look at targets and do a something called a DILO (Day In the Life Of) to determine appropriate times of day and media choices. While saving money and trying to viral up your message, think about key Poster communities and MILOs (months) or YILOs (year). Target your Posters.

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