the fruits of imagination

A LEASE ON CANADA

“He said he heard about a couple living in the USA He said they traded in their baby for a Chevrolet” - Less Than Zero by Elvis Costello

As brands seek innovative ways in which to engage people there may be a way for a brand to engage an entire nation and, importantly, make a meaningful difference in people’s lives. If individuals are willing to change their name to that of a brand and couples are willing to name newborns after a brand then branding a human collective is the logical evolution. So what if Canada leases its name and visual identity? This can be done peacefully and profitably:

Step 1: Define Canada: Canada issues an agency RFP (including non-Canadian agencies to ensure the proverbial objectivity-check) with the deliverable being the brand idea that is Canada. The brand idea is published resulting in a collective understanding of and (hopefully) belief in the brand that is Canada versus the common way in which Canadians currently define Canada: by what it is not. Now Canada can Facebook. Wallet sized versions of the brand idea are downloadable so Canadians can carry it with them not only as a confidence instilling reminder but also to serve as handy beverage coaster.

Step 2: Determine The Right Brand: After vetting by Parliament and the partner agency for fit and appropriateness (ineligibility immediately includes brands containing the names of other countries such as American Apparel, ill-fitting brands such as Murder, Inc., people-brands—no ‘Oprahland’, and existing country/city brands) the 3 most appropriate and highest bidding candidate brands are put to a national referendum; brand democracy in action. The winning brand is permitted to change ‘Canada’ to its name everywhere and substitute it’s logo for the maple leaf on public contact points. Private enterprise is exempt. Rest easy Canadian Tire. Referendum and name/logo conversion costs are covered by the winner creating a myriad of unique brand contacts including currency, government documents, tourist t-shirts, foreign and domestic press, the flag, the anthem, that little sign in front of our U.N. Ambassador, international sporting teams, atlases, US tv weather maps, and the space shuttle’s arm. These contacts transcend most others since they are identity-defining, rich with socio-emo equity.

Step 3: Price: Parliament’s call but the ask starts at $240,000,000,000 assuring the very next day each Canadian 18 yrs and older receives $10,000. And since the name is leased, Canadians simply find a new lessee when they get bored or believe the brand has evolved. Just like updating your wardrobe or (in) significant other.

And if there are no bidders?
Step 4: Rebuild the Brand.

Skip the steps and post a brand you believe best suited to replace the name Canada (and logo to replace the maple leaf) and why you think that.

Next post: REMEMBER WHEN THE BOARDS WERE WHITE? Selling the naming rights to NHL teams. That league really needs to leap into the 1980’s.

The Power of Context

The Power of Context

I have the pleasure of living with a financial analyst who also happens to be my better half.  So in our household cnbc and bbc are staples of the broadcast day despite my protestations and passion for a good battle star galactica episode! You can’t log on, tune in or open up any form of media over the past two months without hearing about the goldilocks economy, the raging bear, market realignment or the doom and gloom of potential recession. All of this forced exposure however has lead me to think about the following: how will the macro economy effect people’s expectations of brand?

Consider the pundits point of views on the American economy, and as the American economy goes…so goes the world:

o       a rocky and unpredictable first and second quarter if not the year

o       a weakening dollar

o       oil at $100 a barrel

o       a negative personal savings rate

o       slowing housing starts and increasing foreclosures

o       poor december job creation

o       looming signals of recession

o       two major banks in need of financial rescue

o       a federal reserve stymied on direction for interest rates

o       and the uncertainty of a presidential primary and election

And on the home front, the Canadian stock markets are equally in chaos - dropping over 600 points Monday in Toronto after a near 1,000-point plunge last week.

There’s no doubt that many of these factors are already trickling down and contributing to some already very prevalent emotions:

o       60% of Americans feel and 55% of Canadians feel very stressed about life

o       47% of Americans and 50% of Canadians feel they’re not doing a good job of staying in control of their life

o       50% of Americans and 50% of Canadians feel they’re under financial stress

Despite people’s very real perceptions and worries, the economic effect will likely lag that of the U.S. given the global demand for our resources and lack of the sub prime mortgage effect in Canada. In fact a full 41% of Canadian businesses report labour shortages, and 42% of Canadian business expect to hire not fire. Additionally the Conference Board said “that federal tax reductions, strong job growth and wage gains will maintain the economy's momentum in 2008.”

Its typical however, in unstable economic periods for two types of brands to prosper: ultra high end luxury and value brands – it’s mass luxury brands caught in the middle that tend to feel the pinch. “There’s no doubt the very wealthiest consumers are still spending” analysts said. And with approximately 600,000 plus millionaires in Canada and even more in the U.S., high-end luxury brands are likely to continue to prosper. But the merely affluent are a different story. While The Luxury Institute predicts luxury sales will increase at a rate of 5 percent to 9 percent in 2008, executives at luxury retailers ranging from Saks to Coach and Karl Lagerfeld, are already bemoaning the disappearance of free-spending shoppers. "You're seeing more pressure on that aspirational luxury consumer at our entry-price points," says Steve Sadove, chief executive officer at Saks. The New York luxury department store reported that sales at stores open for a year or more slowed to a miniscule 0.8% gain in December, compared with a 25.7% increase in the previous month. “They feel rich when their jobs are secure and their investments are growing, but can change their minds if the job market or stock market takes a plunge” executives said.

Despite this, the current climate seems to present real opportunities for brands - ideal windows in which to form inspiring and active brand ideas and povs that could provide people a vision forward in a sea of uncertainty. The pressing issue facing many brands is to figure out if they have a Brand Idea and POV inspiring enough to complete with the brands that sandwich them at the top and bottom. If exclusivity, value or price isn’t winning strategies for your brand, two essential questions you might start asking yourself are:

• what idea could we stand for in the hearts and minds or people that would inspire, entertain and attract?
• what’s our unique viewpoint that connects to people on the basis of shared values?

My only caution in answering the two above questions is to resist the urge to simply label or re-label current consumer trends and execute against them. With 67% of people holding the belief that “most companies are interested in selling me products and services that already exists vs. something that fits my lifestyle” consumers will demand that you stand for and hold a brand pov based on social insight - an empathetic understanding of their current state of mind.

Determining what role your brand could play within the current context is a question that’s all about strategy and the context is one ripe with potential opportunity.

Bank of Canada's quarterly survey s

Ipsos Reid poll fielded from May 18th to May 23rd, 2006

Bmo 2005 financial stress study

We hope to get back to regular hours here at The Fruits of Imagination for 2008.  We also hope to loss a few extra pounds, read more, and generally be nicer to others.  For 2008 we will continue to monitor and contribute to some of the major industry and cultural debates – myspace vs facebook…facebook, bottled vs tap water…tap, Flight of the Conchords vs Weird Al…FOTC, although 1984’s Weird Al in 3D did rock it pretty hard.

This is my promise to post more than it is an actual post.  For 2008 it's about easing into things slowly. 

Insightful Gifts for Everyone!

For my last post of 2007 to the Leo Burnett blog, I wanted to write something extra special. It’s also my first post to the Leo Burnett blog, so I wanted it to be doubly special. It’s also the Christmas season, so I wanted it to be filled with great Christmas wishes. I’m also Jewish, so I don’t know what those wishes should consist of. But I do know that people give gifts for Christmas. So I’m gonna give gifts. Gifts that consist of what we produce here at Leo Burnett: Insights. We also produce ideas and ads and briefs and stuff, but for my blog post I’m giving Insights.

Here’s a gift for you, MySpace: I read this year that people are flocking from MySpace to Facebook. And that the experts are attributing this to the “fickle” nature of teens. Yah, blame the teens. Don’t blame the fact that MySpace is a complicated, hard-to-use, non-user-friendly website, while Facebook is a clean, simple, easy-to-update and fun-to-use site. It’s the teens. And their fickleness.

Here’s a gift for you, Ad Agency Who Put A Guy In A Giant Snow Globe As Their Christmas Card: Your gift is me mentioning your snow globe stunt in my blog post. When making your Christmas “card,” you thought about what would actually be entertaining to watch. What hadn’t been done. What would get free media attention. Who says a card has to be a card? Not you, Ad Agency Who Put A Guy In Giant Snow Globe As Their Christmas Card. Not you.  P.S. Apparently, the motivation for snow globe boy was environmentalism: The ad agency wanted to go “green” this year by avoiding paper cards. Which makes me love you even more, Ad Agency. If you were a person and not an ad agency, I would ask you on a environmentally-friendly date.

Here’s a gift for you, Judd Apatow: Your insight is, Keep up the good work! I’m also giving you the gift of promoting your online promotion for your movie. In your promotion, you refer to the fact that it’s a promotion. And I’m promoting it. So this is all very self-referential, Post-Modern and, dare I say, Brechtian. Which is all very interesting. But the important lesson to take away from this is that your ad doesn’t say: “Hey, come see our movie. It’s funny. We swear.” Your ad instead IS funny. It’s a little short film that's entertaining to watch. It makes me laugh. And now, if I want to laugh more, I know where to go. To your movie! This is a lesson you could apply to your dating life: Don’t TELL the girl you’re nice and fun, BE nice and fun. Then she will want to be your boyfriend. This hasn't worked for me yet, but it's still a solid theory.

Here’s a gift for you, Burger King: I watched your video. Just liked I watched Judd’s video. Because your video about a Burger King where they told people they had discontinued The Whopper is hilarious. And also it’s powerful in terms of communicating how much people love their Whoppers. Which is the message I got from it. But the reason I stuck around for 5 minutes to receive that message is that the video was hilarious.

Here’s a gift for The Guy I Saw Last Night In The Annex Sitting In His Parked Car With His Window Open And His Engine Running: Idling your car for even just ten minutes a day wastes 100L of gas in a year. There, I just saved you more than a hundred bucks. Plus I saved you extra engine life, because idling is bad for your car. Plus extra LIFE life, because idling pollutes even more than when your car is moving. Also, I won’t glare at you anymore. Which is good. Because nobody likes to be glared at. Especially not at Christmas time.

Happy Holidays, everyone!

Love,

Josh Rachlis
Copywriter at Leo Burnett, Toronto

Bowling then blogging.

Since Jason Oke's departure our blog has been dark. So yesterday, I, the blog virgin, put it to the creative department to pick up the baton and post their inspirational year end thoughts. But not until after the Second Annual Creative/Production Departments Bowl Off at Thorncliffe Bowling. They love us there. And Sears. If you're ever looking for some inspiration for art direction, Thorncliffe is the place to be.

We left 5 pounds heavier and many of us have injuries, but all are inspired to post. Okay, the flood gates are now open.

Rocking the holidays

Well it's the time of year when we all like to have a good time and spread some cheer. Many of us will be spending some our upcoming time off wailing through Guitar Hero III. In that spirit I submit this link to Hand bell Hero. Yeah you've mastered Freebird, but can you tame Frosty? Enjoy.

http://www.vml.com/handbellhero/

End of the line

photo via

As some of you may have heard, I'm leaving Leo Burnett. I'm going to be head of planning and part of the leadership team at a new start-up agency. As cliche as it is, this wasn't an easy decision, because Leo Burnett is truly one of the best agencies in Canada, I have a lot of friends here, and the agency has been incredibly supportive of me over the years. I owe them a debt of thanks for giving me the space to learn and grow over the past 6 and a half years. But the opportunity to help build a new agency doesn't come along very often and I'm incredibly excited about this new venture.

I also need to thank each and every one of you, because your readership and comments and linking here over the past couple of years have helped me to challenge, evolve and shape my thinking, and my new opportunity is in no small part due to your support (I'll buy you each a beer). I continue to be honoured and grateful that so many of you have chosen to make this a small part of your day. And I'm proud to call many of you friends now. So: thank you.

This blog has been very quiet recently - partly for reasons you'll understand now - but it will be picking up steam again under the capable leadership of Brent Nelsen and some of the other planners here. So stick around. And for those of you who wish to follow my new adventures, I've set up shop over at jasonoke.wordpress.com. I hope you'll keep in touch.

Likemind

For those of you in Toronto, there's another Likemind coffee this Friday. Same time, same details as before. This will be the last one for 2007. Hope to see you there.

Friday November 30th
Over Easy
208 Bloor Street West (near Avenue Rd)
8am - 10am

Planning For Good update

While it's been quiet around here recently, some great stuff has happened over the past month. With Ed's excellent leadership, the fledgling Planning For Good network came together with about 10 groups of people around North America and the UK working on our first project: helping out New Orleans' Idea Village.

The thinking was presented to the IV people in mid-October and was very well received. There were a lot of amazing ideas, and you can see the whole presentation here. Ed also presented it to the Polygamous Weddings conference in New Orleans last week (which by all accounts was excellent - well done Mike, Robbie, and everyone at Trumpet). A huge word of thanks to everyone who participated, and to the Idea Village for allowing us to test out our new organization with them.

The PFG group on Facebook is up to over 850 members, and one of the pieces of feedback we've received from many people was they wanted to contribute but couldn't find others to work with. Given the success of Likemind and various other social coffee-morning type things around the world, we're trying a new approach based around local meet-ups.  So far 31 city groups around the world have been established - see the PFG Facebook page for details in your area. If you can't make a meet-up in your area, you're also still encouraged to contribute on your own - everything is appreciated.

The new brief is for UNICEF, to help them with an end-of-year fundraising campaign in the US. The timing is especially tight, and we need to get ideas back to them by end of next week.

If you'd like to help out in Toronto, we're having a meet-up Monday or Tuesday next week. See the new PFG Toronto page on Facebook or leave a comment here.

Likemind coffee this Friday

It's time for another Toronto coffee morning. And never you mind that I haven't got around to posting anything about the last one yet.

Hot beverages + nice people + stimulating conversation + badges = Likemind

Friday October 19
8:00am - 10:00am
Over Easy
208 Bloor Street East

Come. Bring a friend. Bring your mouth and ear(s). Bring an opinion (and if it's your own, that's an added bonus).

Service update

  I'll get the bus then 
  Originally uploaded by chutney bannister.

Well, hi. 

Sorry for shutting up shop over the past month - things got quite busy around here, I've been traveling, the dog ate my homework, and all the usual stuff.

But thanks for sticking around. Normal service will resume presently.

When I say "advertising" you say...

In anticipation of the upcoming Advertising Week in NY, Max Kalehoff and Pete Blackshaw have done a lovely little data mining exercise to find the words most closely associated with the term "advertising" on blogs, chatrooms, and other places where people talk online over the past two weeks.  Unsurprisingly, the results aren't particularly flattering.

Planning for Good - The Idea Village in New Orleans

The deadline for the first Planning For Good assignment is approaching. Details and discussions on the assignment - helping out the excellent organization The Idea Village in New Orleans - can be found on the PFG Facebook page.

If you have any ideas, or fragments of ideas, or are thinking about coming up with some ideas, please start sending them in.

To help you get your thoughts down, there's a handy submission form.  But if that's too onerous don't let a mere form stand in your way. You can get your ideas in in any way you want - post random thoughts up on the Facebook page, leave a comment on a blog (here, with Influx, with Gareth, with Mark Earls, or with Fallon), or use a carrier pigeon and semaphore - what's most important is to get the ideas rolling in. 

Let's help out a great organization that is fighting negativity with positivity and working hard to turn New Orleans into an example of all the best things a city can be. Let's show the world that the advertising industry can be unselfish and decent. Let's demonstrate that planning can make a tangible difference and lead the way.

Likemind v 3.0

  Cafééééé 
  Originally uploaded by romulodelazzari.

Sorry for the extended silence - things got a little crazy over the past week. But lots of posts on the way.

But first, it's time for another edition of likemind Toronto this Friday Sept 21st. Coffee and conversation with some nice people. What could be better?

Same deets as before - 8:00am until around 10am, Over Easy, 208 Bloor St E.  Here's a map.

Please come one come all.  The last few have been fun.  Hope to see y'all there.

The safety net

There's something I've been thinking about since last month's planning conference.

We've all been talking for some time now about how traditional marketing thinking - fixed, linear, reductive, rational, word-based, brand-centric and so on - isn't working anymore.  It's not descriptive of the real world, and limits our ability to build effective brands.

We've also all been talking about new ways of working - acceptance that both brands and markets are complex and constantly in flux, importance of collective behaviour, the need to experiment more - that seem to work a lot better. They're more descriptive of the real world, and more helpful to building effective brands.

Over the past couple of years there's been lots of smart discussion about these points. And yet the marketing world isn't exactly flocking to change its models and ways of doing business. So why is it proving so hard to change? I'm sure much of it comes from the natural human tendencies towards habit and resistance to change until something breaks completely.

But at its core, I think the problem comes down to this: the old model may be wrong, but it provides a powerful sense of control, predictability and safety. By contrast, when we talk about complexity and nuance and flux, it sounds uncontrollable, unpredictable and terrifying.

The thing is, we need to accept that control & safety are illusions that are really attractive and hard to shake. I don't fault anyone for wanting safety - it's a core human driver in any situation, but especially given the stakes in business. If you're charged with spending millions of dollars of your company's money, of course you want to be able to control and predict what happens. Of course you want to feel safe and reassured.

It's not really surprising that most people would rather have a faulty prediction than an accurate picture of an unpredictable world. Things like brand onions and creative pre-testing may not reflect reality very much, but if they make you feel safer and let you avoid blame for failure then heck, why not?

The illusion of control is particularly hard to challenge because it's rarely called into question later. It's often really hard to tell what's actually happening in the marketplace, so when what was predicted would happen doesn't happen (an ad that pre-tested well does poorly in market, for example), it's easy to blame one of the myriad external factors (competitive activity, poor support from the sales team) rather than question if the assumptions leading to the prediction were wrong. Ironically, the complexity of brands and marketing is probably keeping the simplistic assumptions and models in place.

All of this reminds me a bit of Russell's line (from William Gibson's definition of cyberspace) that a brand is a "consensual hallucination."  The traditional marketing assumptions could also be described as consensual hallucinations.  Everybody kind of knows they're wrong but they're useful and convenient so they persist as "something illusory that only exists because sufficient numbers of people are willing to pretend that it's real."

So how do we get past that?

For marketing to move forward, I don't think demonstrating that the traditional models are wrong is enough. I think we need to change the conventional wisdom that they're safe.

We need to create compelling arguments for two things:

1. That the control & predictability offered by traditional marketing assumptions is illusory and actually unsafe.
2. That the world of complexity is actually safer and more manageable than it seems.

Over the next few posts I'm going to take a stab at some ways to do that.

Gorillas in our midst

I'm sure everyone has seen this by now.

The Colbert Effect

Have you ever watched Stephen Colbert on Comedy Central? He is a daily case study on how to talk to teenagers and 20-somethings alike. He has the power to get his "nation," as he calls it, to rally behind him for whatever cause he chooses. Case in point, the WristStrong Bracelet. He recently broke his wrist and is now promoting wrist awareness through the purchase of a WristStrong Bracelet. The only rule is that you must surrender it to someone more famous then you. Pure Genius.

Another example is his gag on Wikipedia. He got his "nation" to go to the infamous website and edit the Elephant post so that it said that the population had tripled in Africa last year.  For months after, both his wiki entry and the elephant post were locked by the administrators because of the resulting attack. You'd almost think that getting through to teens was easy based on how well he can connect with them.

Colbert Green Screen Challenge: made by a fan

His target audience loves his monologues lampooning this person or that person. They love his challenges that get people involved in the show like this one and this one. He has a venerable teen nerd army that he bends to his will.The best part is that those examples are just the tip of the iceberg.

Between Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, they can sway the opinion of many youngsters around North America.But how should the rest of the world go about it? Sure it works for Colbert and his team of writers but how about your average run-of-the-mill marketing person?

In my humble opinion, the Colberts and Stewarts of the world work because they thoroughly understand their audience. And I mean, thoroughly. I can't vouch for their research practices but whatever they are doing is working. All I can suggest is that you watch the show, just once. Even if you don't like it, you will be able to grasp why teens and 20-somethings are enthralled by it.

Marketers have their research and their man-on-the-street consumer interviews and many think that is enough. But after all that nonsense is done, we still get mediocre advertising that screams "We're trying to be cool!" Just look at my post on Walmart/Target yesterday. I know I am preaching to the choir about this issue but the fact remains that, like the quote says, "I know that half of my advertising dollars are wasted ... I just don't know which half."

I'll bet that a lot of the waste was meant for the youth demographic.

I know that everyone has seen great examples of consumer involvement with a brand. Does anyone have any favourites that they'd like to share?

Contributed by: Angus Gastle

Another Facebook Charade

Walmart has decided to take a more serious gamble on this whole Facebook subject. They have recently started a branded Facebook group called Walmart Roommate Style Match. At 1,183 members (as of Aug. 29th), it is one of the smaller corporate sponsored groups but congrats to Walmart for getting that many people interested in the brand. It was intended to be a Back to Dorm focused communication that allowed your average university student to get involved and interact with Walmart. A pretty good idea in theory. But as always, the execution is a little bit more complicated than the idea.

Take for example, this comment/post:

David Valenzuela (UCLA)
wrote at 10:54am

Every Toy Recalled In The U.S. Shares The Same Label: Made In China http://consumerist.com/consumer/chinese-poison-train/every-toy-recalled-in-the-us-shares-the-same-label-made-in-china-270323.php

1.5 Million Thomas & Friends Toys Recalled Due To Lead Paint From China http://consumerist.com/consumer/chinese-poison-train/15-million-thomas--friends-toys-recalled-due-to-lead-paint-from-china-268658.php

China: Consuming Low Levels Of Poison "Not Harmful" http://consumerist.com/consumer/diethylene-glycol/china-consuming-low-levels-of-poison-not-harmful-265484.php

Two Hospitalized After Eating Deadly Mislabeled Chinese Pufferfish http://consumerist.com/consumer/chinese-poison-train/two-hospitalized-after-eating-deadly-mislabeled-chinese-pufferfish-263740.php

In fact, the Walmart Facebook page has been hijacked and is now being used as the mouthpiece for anti-Walmart dialogue and discussion. It just goes to show that buying media from Facebook is still a relatively new concept and can be underutilized or completely mishandled very easily.

Target has also purchased a Back to Dorm group on Facebook called Brave New Dorm. Their use of the space is decidedly better than Walmart's although there still is some nominal chatter about low wages and how they treat their employees. If you put all that aside, there are some really great comments about how much time people spend there and how it is such a great place to go. Plus, they have 6,684 people (as of Aug. 29th) in their group! Nice job.

In summary, it is obvious that people are still working out how to use Facebook in a useful manner to promote their brand. Some, like Walmart, are getting burned a little by their experiments but on the whole marketers are becoming more web savvy everyday. There is so much opportunity here, I can't wait to see where we go in the future.

Contributed by: Angus Gastle

Planning for Good, New Orleans, and the Idea Village

The first assignment has been posted in the experiment that is Planning For Good. The brief is for the city of New Orleans; specifically for an amazing organization called the Idea Village.

The challenge is fascinating. While most of the coverage of New Orleans has focused on the problems and negatives, another story has quietly emerged: the city has become a magnet of sorts for adventurous young people with energy, a sense of purpose, and a realization that this is a once-in-a-lifetime experience to help re-invent a city. As Forbes Magazine has said:

"Now, instead of the brain drain, the city is nurturing a brain gain. New Orleans has become the testing ground for a new career and lifestyle ideal among today's 20-somethings."

The Idea Village is positioned at the heart of that. It's a not-for-profit that helps to fund and support innovative entrepreneurial ventures (about 250 so far) to not just rebuild New Orleans, but to turn it into a world-class model city.

The brief is to help the Idea Village build their brand, so they in turn can help build New Orleans. How should the Idea Village define and articulate who they are and what they do? How can they attract and motivate these smart young people moving to New Orleans?

See the Planning For Good page on Facebook for more detail on the brief and how to submit your ideas. Additional information and thoughts from the client will also be posted there as we get it. If you're Facebook averse, leave a comment here, at Influx, or at Brand New and someone will send you stuff.

Please take a look at the brief and give it some thought. If every one of the talented and generous people (that means you) in the marketing blogosphere spends a few hours on this, some amazing stuff will happen.

We have one month to collaborate and collect ideas to send back to the Idea Village. Contributions from anyone are very welcome (you certainly don't need to be a planner). And while we hope to get some big, fully developed ideas, any little thoughts or even questions are also encouraged - they might spark an idea in someone else.

New Helmet Ads from Australia

From DDB, Australia comes these inspired bicycle safety PSAs on wearing helmets. Personally, I'm not sure if I connect vegetables with helmets and the copy does not help. I originally thought it was for a grocery store.

However, they are visually stunning and will generate some buzz on the interweb if nothing else.

Coca Cola Happiness Factory Documentary

Wieden + Kennedy, Amsterdam has come out with a faux documentary on their Silver Cannes winning spot entitled "Coca Cola Happiness Factory". It is a series of short vignettes that dive a little deeper into the lives of the creatures that live in the Coca Cola vending machine. Very intriguing stuff. If anyone knows where or if this is running anywhere, please let us know.

You can see the documentary, in all its glory, below.

UPDATE: Thanks to Tim Keil. check out the Coca-Cola Happiness Factory Mini-Movie below.

SPAM vs. Email Advertising

Have you ever stopped to read a spam message? It may look something like this, (actual message from my gmail account).

Subject: Adobe Adobe Professional

Body: Cheap chaep Adobe products!!! Click here best price on all software. (link removed) Adobe Professsional $199.99 USD. Limited time offer!!!!

Like 99% of other computer users, I just delete the messages before I even read them. According to CudaMail.com, it costs companies like Leo Burnett Canada about $50,000 a year. Even if their employees are deleting the emails without opening them. However, it only costs serious spammers about $0.0125/message to flood our in-boxes with emails hocking everything from Viagra to Coding.

The sad part is that some people still fall for these scams. Just how many? Let's look at the math.

The serious spam mer sends upwards of 100,000,000 emails* at a time (using zombie networks, this is entirely possible) at an approx. cost of .00125/email:

100,000,000 x $0.0125 = $125,000 to send the email that tried to sell me Adobe Professional.

At that rate, they would need <1% to reply in order to break even. Not bad odds.

So what does this have to do with advertising? Well, our legit email marketing campaigns are getting caught up with all of this spam. Many spam filters are collecting our perfectly crafted sales pitches for real products with real benefits much like this one. Marketers are spending thousands on messages that might not ever see the eyes of their consumers!

If you have not started doing so, forward the suspicious messages you receive to http://www.FTC.gov/spam/ as they will use the messages to track down and prosecute the slammers. And hopefully, we can start to win the fight against spam! Contributed by: Angus Gastle

 

* Does that number seem high? AOL blocks up to 10 Billion Spam messages per day!

Online research under fire

Amidst all of the talk about the declining effectiveness of advertising, and the corresponding rise in advertising avoidance, another point is starting to be more discussed: market research has the same problem. I know I've been banging on for a while about how we tend to ask people questions they can't answer, but this is something even more endemic. 

The thing is, market research shares a core problem with marketing - it's an industry that annoys people with unwelcome, boring interruptions. 
When we do that with marketing, people stop paying attention to marketing, which makes marketing less effective.
When we do that with market research, people stop answering market research, which makes research less valid. 

Online research was supposed to avoid some of that - no more telemarketers calling during dinner, no more cumbersome 20-page mail surveys. But unfortunately it hasn't turned out that way.

Advertising Age pointed out last week that "growing doubts about the validity of online market research have prompted the Advertising Research Foundation to form a council to draft new standards aimed at stemming erosion of client credibility."  This stems from a roundtable meeting held last fall where several marketers called online quant into question. P&G presented evidence of two identical surveys done a week apart, with the same supplier, which returned completely opposite results. The ARF has since commented that "reports of the failure of online studies to replicate when repeated are becoming more common." What's worse, ComScore has done research into online surveys that "showed that 0.25% of the online population accounts for 32% of responses... while less than 5% account for more than half of the responses."

The ARF is responding (as it usually does) by forming a committee: The Online Research Quality Council will hold its first meeting September 10, and aim to establish a set of industry standards for evaluation by next spring. I imagine they'll end up recommending something like better screening and incentives. But surely the problem runs deeper than than any quick methodological fix - in an era of conversations and choice and control, is answering a bunch of awkwardly worded questions for a market research survey just not something most people care to do anymore? After all, as Max Kalehoff has pointed out, most market research surveys are actually highly negative experiences for the brand. If I'm already skipping a :30 ad, surely I'll also skip a 30 minute questionnaire. 

Almost all of our clients now rely on online research as their primary source of quant.  Anybody else a little bit worried about this turn of events?

Dear architects

I'm late to this, but it's kind of awesome.

A year ago, the writer Annie Choi penned an open letter to architects in Pidgin, the magazine of the Princeton School of Architecture. The letter is titled "Dear Architects, I am sick of your shit."  It caused (and continues to cause) a bit of a stir in the architecture world, and even apparently earned her a supportive note from Rem Koolhaas. It's a rant against self-importance in the architecture industry and a lack of healthy perspective about what actually matters to people, and it is by turns lyrical, vulgar, and hilarious. But honestly, it also could easily have been written about the marketing industry.

To follow some of the discussion from architects read the comments here and here.

Trends in Organic Cotton

Continuing on from Jason's post, the green movement truly is the wave of the future. But I'd like to talk more specifically about Organic Cotton. In 2006, sales in the organic cotton market nearly doubled to ~$1.1 Billion with international retailers like Walmart and Nike starting to really push their organic clothing lines and offers. As the market grows explodes, it will be interesting to see how retailers react.

Organic Cotton Market
2001	2005
100+ SMB Retailers	30+ Major Retailers
Global Sales $245 Mil.	Global Sales $583 Mil.
Demand 5,720 Metric Tons	Demand 32, 326 Metric Tons
Supply 6,480	Supply 31,017 Metric Tons

Let me also mention that the market is growing 110% annually and is projected to be $2.6 Billion by 2008 which is an increase of 116%. In addition, by 2008 consumers are expected to be consuming 99,662 Metric Tons which is an annual growth of 75%. Therefore, it is sufficient to say that the players in the organic market are set to reap a large ROI.

Interestingly enough, the top consumer of organic cotton is Nike followed closely by Coop Switzerland (Grocery Store), Patagonia, Otto (Major German Retailer) and Walmart.

Other big players in the market include H&M with their new H&M organics line, Roots and their 100% environmentally friendly yoga studio, American Apparel and their Sustainable Edition line to name a few. These companies are starting to embrace the needs of their consumers and have the opportunity to corner the market on organic cotton. H&M specifically has a very cool organic baby line that will appeal to all mothers who want the best for the baby. (On that note, congratulations to Neil & Laurie and their new baby boy!!)

As Jason mentioned, pressure from the market is quickly mounting on all companies to employ more environmentally friendly standards and sell products that are better for the earth. The real selling points for me on this discussion are the numbers above. $2.6 Billion by 2008, 110% market growth year-over-year, almost 100,000 metric tons... the numbers are staggering.  The opportunities in this arena are huge. Only a handful of companies have made a real commitment to the environment (Patagonia and Cotton Ginny are 100% Organic). With so much demand for organics already and an ever increasing profit margin for the companies that decide to play ball, how much longer can the Walmarts of the world really wait? Contributed by: Angus Gastle

Sources: Organic Exchange, Google, Press Releases

AdAge Power 150

Todd Andrlik has been compliling a list of the top marketing and media blogs in the world for the past six months or so. It was a very useful service, and a great way to find other interesting blogs, so much so that earlier this month Advertising Age magazine partnered with him to start publishing the list under their name - it can be found here.
I particularly like this quote from Jonah Bloom, AdAge editor:

"The fact we’ll now also be ranking the media and marketing blogs says a lot about how important that community has become in a very short time."

And happily we make the cut (around 130 today). It's quite a humbling list to be on, given its global scope, and being peopled with the likes of Seth Godin, Joseph Jaffe, Richard Edelman, and Russell Davies. What's still amazing to me is we're one of only about 4 agencies on the list.

The rankings are mostly based on the size of your readership and how many links you receive, so thanks to all of you for your support, for making us a small part of your day, and for helping us acheive this honour.

New Media: Mismanaged and Misunderstood

It's interesting how this industry of ours absorbs new media. Second Life (SL) is a prime example. It started out as a virtual reality chat line that grew too large. That’s when corporate America got a hold of it. Suddenly, everybody was putting it in media plans to seem hip and with it to their clients. As anybody my age knows, any 30-something trying to be cool, isn’t. You hear that, Crayon? Currently, Second Life is over saturated with poorly executed advertising in a world not quite as full as people think. Only a few thousand members actually use the service everyday.

SL is not the first company to try this new medium. There is another virtual chat room just like Second Life that still holds on to its nerdy roots. However, it has unfortunately been passed over by the majority of marketing gurus of today in favour of the greener pastures of SL.

Now that Second Life has fallen by the wayside so to speak, we have a new focus for our advertising dollars, Facebook. The MySpace killer that has been an internet goldmine of late is taking over the PR airwaves of every available ad & marketing blog around the world. Everybody is talking, nobody is understanding. Same old story.

 

If I had to call it, I'd say the Facebook phenomenon has yet to reach maturity. Marketers still have the opportunity to spend their ad dollars wisely and they can still make a positive impact on the service.

Facebook is all about connecting with people, plain and simple. In my opinion, any advertisement or application that does not improve the connections between people is not working hard enough.

Take this image for example:

Why is classmates.com, a site that connects old classmates from highschool, advertising on what is essentially their competition? My friends and I primarily use Facebook for the very same function classmates.com is advertising. Not a smart investment.

The TD Canada Trust FB group, The Money Lounge, is an example of a pretty good promotion in my opinion. Some of their promotions include $40 off at retailers like Best Buy and Zellers for students who join the facebook group and tips on how to live with roommates, something many university students have to struggle with on a daily basis. I tip my hat to you, TD.

So please, take the time to learn about Facebook before you start spending. It will be good practice for the when the next hit website starts attracting the world's youth. Best of Luck. Contributed by: Angus Gastle

Welcome Angus

I'm finally getting a bit of help with this blog. Angus Gastle, one of our interns, is going to be writing a few posts here and there. He's smart and fun and even has opinions on stuff. We like that. Welcome, Angus.

Likemind Friday

We had a nice turnout again this morning for Likemind Toronto. Lovely as always to meet some new people, and meet some others I'd only met virtually like Joseph, Harsh, and Nate. Virtual is fine and all, but in person is nicer.

There's some photographic evidence here.

For details on the next breakfast, watch this space. Or this one. Or this one.

Who's next?

For anyone watching the green branding space (is anyone not?), the past few months have been breathtaking. Even for us jaded ad folk who can work phrases like "tipping point" and "unprecedented rate of change" into any sentence (just try me), the sheer velocity at which things have started moving is pretty freaking crazy.

For years, the green movement crawled along, slowly gaining steam but always finding mainstream credibility slightly elusive. And then all of a sudden in the past year, and especially the past six months, things are moving exponentially. Food miles, air travel, carbon calories, getting rid of plastic bags, and now bottled water: it seems every month a new target comes into focus.
Just how far have we come? Look at shopping bags. By now you've no doubt heard of the canvas shopping bag fracas started by designer Anya Hindmarch. Her canvas bag, designed in partnership with We Are What We Do and bearing the phrase "I'm not a plastic bag", was sold as a $15/£5 limited edition last spring in places like Whole Foods and Sainsbury's. It quickly became a craze. Celebrities were seen with them. Lines formed around the block. Bags are sold on eBay at huge mark-ups.

Then we got the inevitable backlash. All this fuss over a canvas bag? And now counter-bags are coming out. Some are subversive canvas bags saying things like "I'm not a smug twat" or "I'm not a douche bag." The plastic bag industry has even launched a campaign to reuse plastic bags, stencilling them with "I AM a Plastic Bag AND I’m 100% Recyclable."

But here's what's cool about all of this: you know that a trend has landed when the conversation gets all meta. After all, no one's seriously debating whether plastic bags suck anymore. We've moved onto spoofs and commentary. We have arrived.

All of this is by means of saying: can any brand, in any category, afford to not have a green strategy now?  Given how many brands and categories have wasteful practices, and given quickly the pressure has been applied to plastic bags and bottled water, who's to say your category won't be next?