Alternative marketing thinking

Once upon a time new ads and marketing ideas were closely guarded secrets. Increasing clutter, new media channels, restless customers and a changing world meant that agencies and marketers had to rethink the formula to ensure that people look at their communication in the right way. Side by side, the stakes of making an ordinary, formulaic ad got too expensive so some agencies opted out of the box.

Nowadays marketers do all they can to get consumers involved in the process of adcreation. The Sony Balls commercial that was shot in San Francisco was unique for many reasons. Not only did the agency and the client agree to break all the rules that stood in the way of creating TV commercials, they created an ad which people happily shared and participated in even before it went on air. With the Paint, the play dough bunnies, and foam city commercials the agency and the client allow consumers become willing participants in the making of the ads.

Many marketers now believe that creating communication that’s original and unique is far more important than messages that are relevant and ingrained in the brand. Work that simply entertains without having any connection with the brand seems to be able to do more for branding and sales than work that’s been done using traditional methods.

A few weeks ago advertising took another giant leap with the Honda Skydivers commercial. The ad, difficult is worth doing (the blog was up weeks before the ad went live), was aired live on UK’s Channel 4, where, for three minutes and 20 seconds, a group of stunt drivers formed the word H-O-N-D-A, as they fell through the sky from 14,000 feet.

Channel 4’s sales director, Andy Barnes, who like other broadcast executives is battling a looming advertising downturn, said the advert, which required a special permission from the advertising watchdog, broke “the boundaries of the perceived confines of TV advertising. We wanted to create something unmissable and what better way to produce something ‘must see’ than to stage the first live ad event on TV,” he added. “It’s about creating talkability on a big scale, managing the risk and being seen as pioneers for it.”

In fact the ad did so well as a spectacle that it boosted the viewership of Channel 4. Honda’s stunt aired between 8.10 pm and 8.13 pm, during which time ratings increased from just over 2 million to 2.2 million viewers, according to unofficial TV ratings.

Clients and agencies are upping their ante when it comes to doing the improbable. Honda UK’s marketing manager Ian Armstrong, speaking to media after the event was in philosophical mood when asked about doing an ad with such a high probability for failure. “There will be no time delay and no CGI. If it works, people will know who it’s for. If it doesn’t, they won’t,” he said.

The Hondas, Sonys and Cadburys are pushing the envelope when it comes to creating spectaculars that capture people’s imagination. As more and more marketers jump into an area where the rules are still being written consumers can sit back and enjoy some pretty interesting spectacles done in the name of advertising.

Planner Richard Huntington writes. Once upon a time in a land far away come the appointed hour of the creative presentation, agencies recommended one idea to their clients. It would represent the best solution that they could possibly develop to answer the business problem they had been given. But then agencies like Chiat Day and HHCL change a few things around. They would present multiple routes earlier on in the process at what were termed ’tissue meetings’, nothing could be bought or sold in these meetings but they allowed an early airing for fresh ideas. More.

The Royal Bank of Canada has started a unique web portal to help students learn about money management, through video and text blogs by six chosen bloggers. RBC p2p claims to be a place where students can voice their own thoughts about the kind of banking they really need and want. The six bloggers are a mix of university students, aged between 19 to 29 years, right from all the way in Saskatchewan to British Columbia. A good thing would be to link up this blog to more student-popular social websites like Facebook, MySpace and others. We think that Twitter updates on what students are discovering would also revolutionize it and make it more interactive, something that students would actually talk about even when they are not using it.

With people cashing in on the high interest rates offered by online saving schemes from the likes of HSBCDirect and ING Direct, one may ask if the banks are really reaping profits from them. Having burnt their fingers earlier in the 1990s when banks had introduced standalone Internet banks that paid high rates on checking accounts, the first bank to take up this initiative again was ING when they introduced their Orange account in 2000. True, banks lose out on the high interest rate they promise, 4.69% versus the 0.54% in ordinary savings accounts but what they do garner is customer acquisition. Also, their brand name spreads to places where they may not even have a branch. The Federal Reserve also has a role to play in this trend, because when they up the rates, banks will follow too. More on this story here.

When the marketing team at Unilever UK released their campaign Onslaught for Dove that asked mothers to protect their young children from the onslaught of the fashion industry, not everyone was impressed. Filmmaker Rye Clifton offered a response to the film, with a mash-up short of his own that went on to notch up over a 100,000 views. Now Greenpeace has joined in the act, with Onslaughter a film that shows how pristine forests in Indonesia and Malaysia are being cut down to grow palm oil that goes into Dove products. Now Dove has come out with a response to the palm oil allegation saying that the company will sustainably source its ingredients.

This is not a new idea. Really. It’s been around for decades in some form or the other. Affiliate Marketing Programs abound on the web making focussed targeting possible. In the physical world, there have been many great partnerships.

From simple relationships, like when Mini Cooper and Apple iPod came together to create iPod compatible cars. To more elaborate relationships in the form of the LG Prada Phone. Or this new one, where Samsung and Armani have come together to design a range of HDTV sets.

But there is a new wave of Partnership Marketing taking root around the world. One where the relationships are closer and more transparent. The Economist calls this partnership cooperation. In their report Companies Without Boundaries, the authors say that the best corporations of the future will be cooperations.

Today the key area of partnership is sales and marketing. To provide products they are unable to deliver alone, to keep up with competitors or to expand their global reach, among others. These relationships are not just one-off connections as in the past, where a company hired out a database to do some mailing or bundling products or product literature with another company’s service. The most visible of such a partnership in the past was between AOL and Microsoft.

But these relationships are growing deeper. Like the one between Apple and Nike to create Nike+. While there have been reports of a cooling off between the two companies, the recent news is that Nike+ will soon be seen on iPhones.

Another interesting example of cooperation is one where a UK based design firm Artomatic and Royal Mail have come together to make people want to receive direct mail. At a time where the direct marketing industry is going through strife having seen the biggest fall in spending in the first three months of 2008, Artomatic tells us that people like to receive stuff and showed us their belief through their wonderfully designed Matter boxes. If you would like to receive a Matter box, you can go here and sign up for one. They sent us a box down here in India, so the mail outs are not restricted to the UK alone.

Partnership Marketing. In the future it will not be only about bringing two companies with mutual goals to work together for a while and disengage once the job is done. These relationships will have to be far more transparent and deep helping to create true cooperations from within corporations.

More proof that how difficult it is becoming for brands to connect with customers, Procter & Gamble Co. has launched a music label. The Cincinnati based company has partnered with international record label company Island Def Jam Music Group to launch a music company tied to its TAG men’s deodorant and body spray. The label, called TAG Records, is an effort by the brand to connect with the urban market by providing opportunities for aspiring hip-hop talent. Jermaine Dupri, an Atlanta-based rapper and music producer, will act as president of the New York-based venture and will play a key role in identifying and developing its musical talent. More.

Dominos UK are running a promo that asks people to get creative with their pizza boxes in exchange for prizes. People are asked to submit a video of something they have created with their empty pizza box and encode the link on the Dominos UK site. In the US people who order Dominos can track their pizzas online, a service that’s accurate within 40 seconds.

The Dutch financial services company is rolling out a new campaign crafted by BBDO saying that it knows your number, refering to the amount of money one might need after retirement. The entire campaign is made keeping in mind ING’s orange and “optimistic approach” to things. Orange numbers float everywhere, when people go about their daily lives. The campaign is aimed at making retirement look less intimidating and is done in a chirpy and happy commercial. Watch the commercials here. And here.

The new JP Morgan Chase campaign is aimed at unifying its consumer advertising, streamlining its message and stretching the dollars it spends. Rather than create imagery that’s just aspirational, Chase has chosen to talk about the things they do for customers in its campaign Chase what Matters. The campaign, like most banking campaigns tries to differentiate itself by using imagery rather than any tangible difference. BrandWeek Magazine puts it best in a scathing review of the work. “The agency press release gave clues that the new campaign didn’t have a strong strategic position. After the first sentence that announces the launch of the new campaign, the second sentence reads, “Shot by director Steve Rogers, the black/white/blue TV executions create a unique and contemporary look and feel in the category.” See a thumbnail ad in this review in The Times.