On The Ground Looking Up

Propaganda As Creative Direction

I recently spoke at a conference on the changing face of propaganda and with that the look and feel of propaganda has been on my mind recently.

I always find it interesting how things of the past work their ways back into the visual language of today. Whether it was the return of the 70s, of the 80s, Art Deco or any of the other design trends that have come back into fashion both in art, design and often advertising, there seems to be a constant willingness to re-hash the past for emotive purposes in brand communications.

It would seem then, that we can speculate that the propaganda poster is coming back into focus and much of the style taken seems to focus on the revolutionary aspects of guerrilla propaganda.

Having seen this politically inspired poster for M&M's it would clarify that the best way to get a point across is to reference a past movement that reflected those ideals. Do you think that the Red M&M's will be boycotted for being too communist? Will Obama meet with Red if he wins? What about the other Candydates?

M&M Via

We discussed the BattleStar Galactica Propaganda set here.

Recent Stoli advertising utilizes propaganda imagery too.

Shepard Fairey's Obama poster has a similar propaganda feel to it as well.

Hello?! I'm Sitting Right In Front of You!

So as you'll no doubt be able to tell in the next few sentences, this is not Sam Ewen writing. You'll have to forgive the interruption, however I came across this post today that deserves mentioning.

Emails, text messages, BBMs (BlackBerry Messages) instant messaging --it will become all-consuming if you let it, writes Marc Brownstein from Ad Age.

I dare say my own boss can be considered a culprit here, but as a newbie to the marketing world, I'm catching on to the trend rather quickly. The irony is, I work in an industry that promotes human connection, interaction, and experience. But vying for attention when competing against an electronic these days is an uphill battle.

How many times have you had a meal with someone's BlackBerry rather than the human being attached to it?

Big ideas (or so I was once told) used to come late at night, in collaborative groups, over stale pizza. But who has time for big ideas when there's 27 new emails to read that came through in the last 10 minutes? We all seem to be hardwired to pick up a blinking phone every time it makes a sound, but sometimes there just needs to be a pause button (or and on/off switch?), even if all it makes us do is sit up a little straighter and realize there's a person sitting across the table waiting to talk to us. -CL

The Big London Freezeout

Inspired by the Improv Everywhere Grand Central Freeze. A creative group took it upon themselves to replicate it in London's Trafalgar Square. Watch the amazing experience below!

The Ebb & Flow of the Movie Business.

XvY points us to a fun little app which shows the ebb and flow of the box office as it relates to the summer blockbusters and the art house favorites and as well to total box office receipts. I am thinking of having the pattern tattooed on my calf as well.

Box Office Receipts 1986-2007

Great Idea - Grand Opening

This is a wonderful idea that I have been meaning to blog about. Grand Opening. A space in NYC that every few months changes itself to be something different, therefore it is always in Grand Opening mode. At first was a barn store, then it was a  rentable ping pong parlor that allowed you to record your matches for youtube. Now, 6 person drive-in theater that came with it's own car. Next up - who knows!

The 400 sq foot space is in constant change mode, and makes money by creating innovative, talk-worthy experiences that people want to participate in.

Link: Grand Opening

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On Basketball, Business and Branding

Very interesting article from the sports pages on LeBron James and Jay-Z.  His basketball skills are merely a vehicle to build the LeBron brand, and they mean to make the brand big.

"LeBron doesn’t want to just win titles. His stated wants include becoming sport’s first billionaire athlete. Among his advisors, he counts Warren Buffet. Jay-Z has helped James focus his mind on chasing something bigger than basketball."

It discusses how moving LeBron to a major market like New York plays from a branding and positioning perspective, both in building the brand of the team he lands with (The BROOKLYN Nets, for ex. which Jay-Z is a part owner of) and how that could trigger endorsement payouts from NIKE.

It is a good article for an insight into the marketing world of sports and how the sport itself is often an afterthought.

Jay-Z, Lebron - The Two Kings

My Future Ex-house

I cannot help but fall in love with this house. I am currently reading 2 novels with architecture at their core (The Fountainhead and World Without End) and my awareness and appreciation of architecture as an emotive medium is climbing steadily.

And then I see this.

Talk about architecture you want to make love to.
Structure that combines functional living with pop-art aesthetic.
Building a brand as owner.  This is what clean lines can do for you, what forward thinking and innovation can bring.
This is the kind of house that makes you want to marry it, move to LA, then get a divorce and come back when you need to feel gray and real.

More images here.

The Mother Of All Branded Entertainment

I watched the Oscars last night. And while watching it, it really hit home how the entire thing is just one long commercial, with some John Stewart jokes in between for yuks.  Let's look at it like this:

It starts hours before as actors of all backgrounds start arriving to talk about what movies they like (that if you haven't seen yet, they are now reminding you to go see) and what designers and jewelry they are wearing (that hopefully you will buy, but can't afford, so you buy the knockoff). As we know, virtually all of the designers give/lend/push like crack these outfits to the stars in the hope that they get interviewed on the red carpet and get talked about on the aftershows and always in relation to the dress, so basically another bartered media spot. Then John Stewart took out his iPhone as if he was starring in a commercial for Apple. The camera zooms in on the shiny logo as he mentions watching Lawrence of Arabia (hey, did you know that you can now rent movies on the iPhone?). Only 100 million people watching and knowing that the cool Hollywood types are on the creative edge and they should be too. Then there was the Wii gag and the shots of the conductor with his prominently displayed tin of Altoids. And of course, the whole show will send people to the movies and to Netflix to see what was nominated and did or didn't win, which will drive up the receipts for all. Hey look at that, on iTunes, the #2 and #3 top albums are for Once and Juno.

Don't get me wrong, I am happy to be influenced. I will take your little insider jokes if it means I have something to talk about at the office the next day. I just don't remember their being so much blatant commercialism (paid or not) as seemed to permeate the show this year. I guess this is what Branded Entertainment is all about.

Media Stats - TV Effectiveness On The Slide

The Hollywood Reporter reported that 62% of marketers believe traditional television advertising has become less effective in the past 2 years.  A quick search revealed that according to TNS Media Intelligence, in Q1 2007, Television advertising accounted for 44.6% of all media spent. That showed a decrease of 2.7% from the previous year.  So if I am reading this correctly, roughly 2/3 of marketers thing TV is not doing the job, yet almost 50% of ad dollars is going into the media channel and even with these feelings, the decline from the previous year is significant but small. I know that this is not a direct comparison 1-1 on percentages but when reading between the lines this is what I take out of it. Marketers can be lazy. They stick with what they know, and do not challenge themselves or their brands. I remember meeting with a media director a few years ago who I met at a conference. She had told me that the agency wanted to start offering non-traditional but her clients (Fortune 50 types) were reluctant. "Why do you think that is so?" I asked. Her reply was very revealing. She commented that there was no line item for non-traditional (at the time) and that frankly if the tactic did not merge into their reach/freq spreadsheet, it was a hard sell. My take-away at the time was that they did not understand the power of non-traditional media and what it can do for the brand and as well, were reluctant to break from their set media ideas. Keep in mind that if 62% of marketers are not feeling that TV is effective, what percentage of the public is guiding that decision? When it comes to consumers being influenced by television advertising, the numbers are probably much worse.

In poker, we call this negative expected value. A strategic concept  that boils down to the following: -EV = putting your money in when the percentages bare out that the fruit of putting such money in will not allow for winning enough to cover the investment in the long run. Flipping it around, positive expected value (+EV) means getting some money in, albeit with chance, when there is the possibility of a big payoff over the long term. It feels like TV is running in the negative these days. That can be blamed on the sheer amount of it and the often poor creative that we are seeing. There is no medium better at getting your brand out to a large audience at a low cost per touch but...the creative and placement has to work that much harder to get it done.

Fast forward a few years from my conversation and the non-traditional/experiential/guerrilla concepts and rfp's are coming in more than ever. Many companies are interested and experimenting with new forms of media, on-line and off (it is important to look at the TNS #s linked above and see that the segment with the largest growth percentage wise was online). Their is a lot of buzz in the alt world but I would not hazard to guess that it still represents a tiny percentage of overall ad spend. So my real follow-up question to the Hollywood Reporter stat is this. If 62% of marketers believe that traditional television advertising is less effective now, what are they prepared to do about it?

Clever Sexy

A clever viral ad for Wonderbra using an old optical trick.