Use This!

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Usability, in technology, is the next big thing. I was over at my moms yesterday, trying to help her with the TV. It didn’t work because her remote (we had down-sized from 3 remotes) had a couple of dead buttons. While determining this, she pushed a bunch of buttons on the remote while I was pushing button on the TV (menu, video/TV, or guide) and we then entered the Large Hadron Collider black hole. It took us 15 minutes to climb out. 
 
When a 78 year old woman can’t turn on her TV and watch a little American Movie Classics (AMC) you know we, as a society, are in trouble.
 
Enter the usability economy. Smart marketers are going to spend millions on making technology easy to use and its already happening. There are lots of examples of products with easy out-of-the-box experiences: Wii, the Flip video camera, the new Peek (email handheld) and more to come. Technology that everyone can use is the next big thing. And usability testing, therefore, will become a billion dollar industry. 
 

Emblem Health and Hill Holliday, Say What?

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GHI and HIP, two New York area health insurance companies have merged. That’s the idea of the new advertising campaign from Hill Holiday. Oh, they have a new logo too. End of story. Have a nice day. You can find this big idea in OOH, print, and maybe even radio. I can’t remember any of the script.
 
I call this “we’re here” advertising. It simply alerts the public that a company exists. If done well, it may even convey how to reach the company. “We’re here” advertising is lazy and gives marketers a bad name. It’s a blight on the GDP. All brands need an idea. Emblem Health hasn’t one. They have a typeface, though. Hill Holiday appears asleep at the wheel in NY.

No quick fixes for start-ups.

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Lots of start-ups headed by officers who grew up in the Internet age believe they can create successful consumer businesses with marketing budgets in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. “All we need is a good viral video, a good flash animation and some strong SEM (search engine marketing.)”   Poor babies. 

 

Kellogg is touting the efficacy of its online ROI and says it will reallocate 10% of its TV production budget in that direction.  Very daring! Kellogg’s budget is $1B a year and consumers know the Kellogg name. No start-up, they.
 
Now you can tell me that Google, when it started, didn’t do a lot of mass media advertising, and I’ll agree. But it gained awareness by other means. As a brilliant search tool, it created its own relevance and word of mouth and media coverage made Google a household word. Google broke ground and people needed it.  Start-ups with a good product – I said good, not great – need to create awareness with serious blocking and tackling. I’m not saying it can’t be done with a couple of hundred thousand in spend, but it is going to take the creative mind of one of the industry’s top five percenters…and those men and women don’t come cheap. See the conundrum?    

 

 

MPA Needs to Trade Up Its Strategy

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The Magazine Publishers of America is once again running an ad campaign to reverse ad page declines. The Fallon-NY work for the MPA run in 2005 was goofy and strategically off the mark creating futuristic portraits of how magazines will still be around when our dogs are robots. Mullen had the account for a bit and it, too, missed the strategic mark.
 
Anne Bologna and Ari Merkin, previously of Fallon-NY and now at their nice shop Toy, are taking another crack at it. Using that humorous sensibility that works so well for their client Oxygen Network, Toy has created an MPA campaign called “under the influence.”  Unfortunately, it feels to me like just another trade campaign targeting media buyers with an efficacy message. It’s a campaign that jumps right to the end game: print ads work. It is a new twist on the advertising that the radio association, newspaper association, outdoor association, etc., have been doing for years. 
 
The problem is people aren’t reading magazines; they are too busy, with too many other choices. The MPA campaign needs to get people to change their behavior — to make an appointment to spend time with magazines. And what are magazines? They are colorful, in-depth, analyses by brilliant writers who enrich and enlighten. Magazines make us smart, current, and provide stimulating thoughts. This is what the campaign needs to convey. I know Toy gets this. Sadly, the MPA’s paying constituents want a trade campaign that tells media buyers that magazines get results.    
 

The New York Times is losing New York.

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The New York Times is missing a huge opportunity with its daily newspaper. The problem is the Metropolitan section. Today the section is 6 pages long and one of those pages is obituaries. An eighth of a page is advertising, and that’s a house ad.  I counted about 15 writers with the only recognizable name being Clyde Haberman, who owns the “NYC” column.
 
In one of the greatest cities in the world, is there not more than 5 pages of news? 
 
The New York Times has lost its way in local news and it is killing circulation. If you need local news you have to read the Daily News or the New Your Post. 
 
I’m a big fan of Monday’s Metropolitan Diary, which always makes me smile and happy to be a New Yorker, but the rest of the week the section is a sham. Where’s the leadership? Where is the controversy? The human interest? The advertising? For goodness sake, this is New York. The Bumpus Mills Tennessee Guardian has more local news. Let’s wake up Mr. Sulzberger, Jr.
 

Coke is Fishing where the Fish Are.

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Coca-Cola sells the equivalent of a billion bottle of Coke annually in China so they know a little bit about the world’s fastest growing consumer market. That said, their marketers will be put to the test if the purchase of Beijing juice maker China Huiyuan Juice Company goes through. (For the record, this is stroke of genius by Coca-Cola. Huiyuan is already outselling the category by 19%.)
 
Before going in and changing the package design and marketing messaging, I’d suggest living with what they have now for a few months and do a deep dive on consumer attitudes and juice proclivities. I would research the kids, parents and especially the elders.  We like to say here in the states that “change is good,” but with the amount of change China is undergoing having a big multinational swoop in and alter a leading beverage brand will require finesse. Leave the cowboys at home Coke, do this one right (like Kraft Foods did with Oreos,) and you will have a Harvard Business School case of which you can be proud.
 

Will Google Chrome Tweak Firefox?

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I downloaded Google‘s new browser Chrome this morning and the first thing I noticed was how quickly it loaded. By comparison, I loaded Microsoft webcam software from a disk the other day and it took close to 30 minutes. FROM A DISK.
 
Google, at its best, is all about simplicity. Spare-ness and ease-of-use are defining brand traits of Google. By removing all the tschockes, tabs and options, Chrome has done us all a service and provided a great browser interface. The product is heavily engineered and has lots of whistles for the major nerds, but they are not in your face. When Google gets away from this simple approach and “goes deep,”as it does with word processing and spreadsheets it begins to lose its way.
 
Chrome is close to Google’s core competence in “search” so it should do well, but I wonder if it will begin to piss off the Open Source and Firefox communities. I’m betting it will. It will be interesting to watch. Peace!

 

 

Gaming the young.

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My son, a high school senior, has recently found the love of online gaming as have millions of other teens. Like it or not, gaming is here to stay. One of the most eagerly awaiting games releases, Spore, hits the street Friday.  From Electronic Arts, Spore is a game that allows users to play in and with the primordial evolutionary ooze. Did I just write “play?”  I most certainly did.  What is the fastest way to teach kids the laws of natural selection? Give them a copy of the “The Voyage of the Beagle?” Nope. Give them a game. 
 
Experiential learning is more effective than rote memorization. It’s a fact. It creates muscle memory.  Teaching kids complex concepts through gaming will be the next big thing. At first if will be done heavy-handedly, but soon will be done well and become fun, and when it does watch the transformation. Now, it is for the innovators to cross the chasm.
 
My idea for a worthwhile smart game? The process of preparing for and selecting the right college. Scholastic or College Board would be great underwriters. Peace!
 

Humor me and I’ll humor you.

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In real life, I’m told, I’m pretty funny. On paper, bound by grammar and marketing rants, not so much. Conversely, David Brooks’ “funny” comes out on paper yet he is pretty dry as a TV pundit. Please spend a minute to read his Op-Ed piece in today’s NY Times. A democratic convention speech parity, it’s a hoot.
 
As we get closer to the election, Mr. Brooks conservatism grows stronger and the gap between us expands, but his humor is cleansing. It is also disarming.  Marketers who use humor correctly and not with malice, can often create stronger selling arguments.  Humor me and I’ll humor you — even if you are trying to sell me something. Humor is not a strategy, it’s a tactic but if done well it can be an effective voice for marketing. Have any examples? Write me at steve@whatstheidea.com.
 
Peace and Happy Labor Day!
 
PS. He should have written McBushcain rather than Bushmccain. 😉
 
  
 
 

Coders (Microsoft) vs. Sellers (WPP)

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Ad Age reported this week that WPP’s Martin Sorrell may be negotiating to buy Avenue A/Razorfish from Microsoft.  As part of the deal, WPP will offer up its ad serving (read software) business to lessen the sting for Microsoft, which way overpaid for Avenue A.   
 
Having been in advertising and software, I can tell you that this will be a good move for both parties. Software and advertising are two uniquely different businesses. Microsoft people are different from advertising people, digital though they may be. Writing software code is algorithmic. Writing selling prose is orgiastic. The latter practice is left brain, dealing with emotion and inspiration. Coders rely on themselves for answers. Sellers rely on consumers. Culturally, Microsoft and Avenue A never had a chance. 
 
Mr. Ballmer, get our of the digital ad business as fast as you can. Mr. Sorrell, get out of the ad serving business even faster. You’ll both sleep better.