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Breaking through: "Crack the code" advertising

That was a term coined by fellow strategist Carey S in a last minute could-have-been-manic-were-we-not-so-intentionally-mellow brainstorm this winter. We were talking about what it is that makes sports ads like Jordan's Clock Tower break through? What takes them from being watched in prime time to being chatted about around the water cooler?

Our theory: It's the respect they pay their audience. They way they bring us in and make us feel clever. The way they reward us for the silly trivia we collect, the seasons of television we watch, the unique perspective we each have on the world

CTC advertising generally falls into two categories:

#1 You're like us.
These campaigns connect with us on a passionate level. They unpack the big things we believe in and serve them up in dramatic ways. They are the corollary to an inside joke - the secret handshake that only people like us would know.

• Example: The Become Legendary Campaign that W + K created for Nike/Jordan. The fourth in the series was this Clock Tower spot ("No Cinderallas") that played in the runup to the tournament and left big proud fans welling up on couches around the country:
  
  

• Example: The Economist. Although BBDO's long-standing well-written in red campaign is probably the clearest example, even the newer campaigns target the pride in target readers. The idea that their sense of savvy and their curiosity make them part of an elite group of global citizens. The sense that they are truly banded together by difference.
  
  

#2 You remember.
It's rewarding to be the first one to figure out the puzzle. To trump your sister by guessing the identity of the murderer halfway through the new episode of Law & Order. To run the board at the annual holiday Trivial Pursuit match.

These "you remember" ads engender similar competition. They tease and hide just enough to make us want to guess it first.

• Example: HP's delightful Personal campaign developed by Goodby, Silverstein and Partners that features a celebrity's hands revealing their online life. Only at the very end - after glimpses and clues - do we find out who's online life it really is.
  

• Example: Discovery Channel's I Love the World brand ad created by 72andSunny. Yeah, it's wildly addictive music, but behind that is the montage to rule all montages. Places, shows, animals. Any number of things to competitively guess at from across the living room. Hey, wasn't that the whale from season 4....?

How it's social: A fellow traveler at Bridge Worldwide has been writing a lot about "marketing with meaning" these past weeks. A concept that may sound philanthropic, but is really just social. It's about creating engagement and content & experiences that people actually want, rather than forcing our messages into aggravated ears.

If you should go looking around online for people's comments about the Jordan spot, you'll find mentions of shivers, of welling up, of wanting to get out and practice. For the Discovery Channel spot, texted sing-alongs. For HP, personal takeoffs. The list goes on. The engagement in these "crack the code" campaigns is truly emotional. Pride, joy, curiosity. Uniquely human. Perfectly translated.

Why we do this: Sony foam city

Making a movie seems hard. But, you still want to shutter a downtown and create a cinematic mess. Sound familiar? Then advertising is definitely the career for you.

Check out these early shots from the "set" of the upcoming Sony spot dubbed foam city. Apparently millions of gallons of foam were dumped on the city to create the base scenes.

Now, come on, that looks like fun. And a much better way to spend the day than, say, pitching hot dogs.

The social media spinners are already buzzing about the coming spots - so, here's hoping they'll be as delightful as the original Bravia bouncing balls.

 

Online early adopters programming for the masses

Are we moving too fast?

Last week, over on Compete’s blog, Cynthia Stephens wrote about the incredible impact Oprah’s live, online book club event has had on site traffic.

Quick catch-up for those of us not in the Oprah know: The show’s book club read for February was A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle. To promote the author and the book, Oprah is hosting a 10-week online class on Awakening Your Life’s Purpose with the author.

Participants can watch the classes live or archived and each registered fan gets a workbook to track their own learnings and observations.

Technologically speaking, this isn’t a big break through. Most of us have been enduring Web conferences since the late 90s. But, the content was so compelling and so well-fit for the audience that the response nearly crashed the live programming and quickly catapulted Oprah’s site ahead of traditional American favorites:

"The number of visitors to Oprah.com topped five million in February, making her site one of the top 225 ranked sites in the United States. To put this in perspective, more people went to check out Oprah.com in February than the popular NASCAR, eHarmony, Fidelity, Barnes and Noble or Walgreens sites." __Compete blog (Lots more stats here.)

Meanwhile, locally, I was following David Armano and others on Twitter as they covered Ad Age's Digital Marketing Summit. As thrilling as it was for me, when I tried to share the content about what was going on with friends and colleagues, I pretty much got the blank stare of … what?

Or, more broadly, I’ve been watching StrawberryFrog's news mini-cooper-ization of Scion at scionspeaks.com:

"Scion owners design their own personal “coat of arms” online, a piece of owner-generated art that is meant to reflect their job, hobbies and — um, O.K. — karma.

In making their personalized crests, Scion owners can choose from among hundreds of symbols, all designed by a professional graffiti artist. The symbols range from an eagle, a jester, a king’s crown and a worker’s fist to Japanese anime-style flowers, a three-person family and a yin-yang circle. Customers can download their designs and have them made into window decals or take them to an auto airbrushing shop to have them professionally painted onto their cars." _NYTimes

Incredibly cool, right? But what will the adoption really be like?

And don't even get me started about last year's speculation Second Life.

The Oprah story is a great reminder to pause and think about what we should do as much as what we could do.

In the end, the rules of great online experience marketing are simple:

• Understand the objective: Why are we doing this?
• Know your audience: Care about what they care about
• Know your audience (again): Grow with or just barely ahead of their technology adoption
• Invest in content: If it’s not valuable to your audience, they won’t come back or pass it on

AAA. Authentic storytelling makes a comeback.

Remember those long distance commercials from the 90s that left us with a lump in our throats?  The long-lost daughters calling home to dad. The couples reunited across seemingly uncrossable distances. The embarrassed TV watchers swiping tears from their cheeks?

Yeah, those ones.

What made them compelling was the story. The archetypes welling with happy emotion. The everyday hero stories that we all want to be a part of.

Jump ahead to 2008.

In an advertising environment of dropped calls, sweaty athletes and gloriously glossy hair follicles. AAA responds with their own everyday heroes; with compelling, authentic stories that we can all see ourselves in.

The campaign - from AAA Ohio and SBC Advertising - launched this month. It's told from the perspective of real tow truck drivers. But delivers something much larger: the story of their brand – literally, the true essence of service and membership – found in neighborhood driveways, in busy parking lots and in the cabs of tow trucks, with real people just talking about their jobs.

The result is great TV. Watch the spots here. But, don't blame me if you get a little teary on the Ant ones...

Why I love this approach:

AAA is up against two of the toughest challenges aging brands face: commoditization and sinking relevance.

People think: Oh, I already have this with my insurance or new car.

People think: My car won’t break down. I don’t need it.

Keeping ahead of the market, AAA aimed its operations and marketing strategies at refreshing the market perception of AAA.

Operations: Upgrade the ‘product’ we’re selling. People don’t have time to be towed. They want to be fixed and ‘stay on the go.’

Marketing: Anyone in any car can need AAA. The most common calls aren’t for breakdowns, they’re for keys locked in cars, dead batteries, flat tires, etc.

You can see the results in this campaign.

It shows that members are as likely to call for everyday goofs as real emergencies and demonstrates that most problems are fixed on the spot - no need to tow.

But, more than that, it brings to life a level of service and community that I hope will define the brand going forward.

"I don't have to grow up" - gen

For every thoughtful discussion I've had about the cultural consumer, the green citizen, the attention economy, I've had a party / conversation / meeting completely derailed by a group of mainstream 30-somethings playing or talking-about-playing video games. Even as I type this, my copy of RenGen is sitting under my PS3 controller on the coffee table.

We - the fabled, if aging GenXers - are a damn playful bunch. Our marathons are as likely to be a Saturday of Project Runway reruns as 20-sweaty miles across the city. We've passed on scrapbooks for passing around digital cameras packed with thousands of hammed-up snaps. We can cook but would rather collect memories of childhood munchies - from an EasyBake oven to the Snoopy Sno Cone machine complete with grape syrup.

So, if I can put down my classic wooden yo-yo for just a minute, I'd like to congratulate three advertisers for really getting the spirit of grown-up play:

#1 Dominos pizza for the inventiveness of friends
#2 Toyota Tacoma for the joy of the game
#3 Tostitos for the creativity in every roll of duct tape (and best random :5 seconds of moose)

Here are the smile-out-loud spots:

Free Colts Ring Tones vs. Free ING Toilets

This week at the agency, we extended Huntington Bank's Indianapolis Colts affinity program (see AdFreak story) online with this snazzy little Web site featuring the spots, free ring tones and sundry silliness.

But, just when we thought we'd pushed a financial brand to the near-limit of consumer engagement and real-guy zaniness, well, ING launched a free toilet ...

If you haven't been to the ING site, I definitely suggest a visit - if only for the transition to the sponsoring brand at the end of the, uh, bathroom experience.

ING's is really a very controversial approach for anyone managing an advertising  budget. The  viral part of the experience lives entirely separately from the brand sponsorship - at once making pass-along more likely and making the eventual brand impression less assured.

A Challenge to Lowe's

As an ad girl at a retail shop I get my fill of holiday cheer by oh-right-about October 1. By then, the hoopla has been in full swing since balmy July when reindeer were being sprayed down on a set that tested the limits of modern air conditioning.

Spring forward to the week before Halloween. Retailers finally get to debut their holiday TV spots to a consumer populace that's not ready for them and an ad community that's already over them.

The early spots look great this year with one glaring exception ...

Lowe's is recycling their "I'm looking for..." spots. The cute idea where a harried shopper hits the store unable to remember the name of the holiday home adornment she's hunting and launches into a charades-style pantomime which the savvy sales girl immediately guesses as a giant inflatable with life-size santa and reindeer.

Yeah, you've seen it.

Clever idea.  Slightly annoying talent. Highly over-exposed spot here in year 2.

First up, let me say, I like the strategy. They're setting themselves in direct opposition to every other big box - from the Depot to Target. It's story about service and knowledgeable sales staff. It is targeted at a busy, high income, high expectation female customer. I love that.

But, America has seen it. And with talent that grating, there's a good chance they'll miss the highlighted product as they lunge for the fast forward button.

Lowe's is a fantastic brand. With great agency partners. But, for some reason, this year, they're leaning on expired creative. So, here's my challenge:

I'll talk my agency bosses into slashing our fee in half if you give us a shot at reinventing the spots. There's still time for a holiday miracle ... call me!

One other note, I don't think that all spots necessarily expire after one season. A great example is the super iconic Nissan Heisman spot ... which I believe has been running for as many as three years:

Mazda culturally tone deaf?

I think this spot premiered last month. But I believe the controversy it will create is yet to come. Watching the spot the first time I was uncomfortable. Since I've seen it more, it's genuinely changed my perception of the brand.

An all-black chorus singing in gospel-style ... a song that includes the phrases 'come shine here with me' and  'I'm finally free.' The the zoom out hits as they sing the brand's hallmark 'zoom, zoom' in a closed circle around a car.

Excessive religious references aside, it seems like a particularly offensive cultural lift.

In principle, I agree with the approach. Car buyers have changed. Over 50% of them are women. Growing numbers are Hispanic and African-American. Yeah, we need to get away from the white guy in a convertible zipping around the windiest roads of the Italian countryside with a thrilled woman by his side. But, there's a big, big 'in between' from talking to a niche to lifting an experience.

Macy's Holiday TV

Can we maybe just admit a few things to each other here, dear reader? Like, maybe my RSS reader is painfully choked with (quickly staling) kernels of wisdom from bloggers the world-over ... and that by falling off the reading wagon for only a few days (maybe a week), they've run so amok that I will likely have to delete them all and just start over...

Happily, though, I have one less unmet obligation to feel guilty about - as Eric Kintz's recent article 'Why Blog Post Frequency Does Not Matter Anymore' has brilliantly validated my eclectic posting and reading pace.

Which is all to say, if this is old news, I no longer have to apologize for the duplication -

The Macy's holiday TV campaign is absolutely infectious.

I admire:

• The single narrative that unites the celebrity appearances
• The choice to take the hard road and schedule multiple celebs on the same location, the same day
• The writing that leverages the public personas of the celebs to build their product brands
• The investment in a 60-second  brand experience
• The all-out fun of it
• The integration of brands that touch so many ages and lifestyles - creating the effect of something you know and something to discover

I love that a department store invested in it - a strong strategy to move from forgetable 'infrastructure' to flat-out memorable brand in the retail sprint to  the holiday.

Kudos for Farmers Insurance approach

Tornados, fires, flying leisure boats ... yeah, you know - it's a prime time insurance ad. If there's no lizard in sight, they're selling one thing: the category. Insurance = peace of mind and there's some pretty scary stuff out there, buddy. Get thee to our web site before it's too late.

So, a quick nod to Campbell-Ewald and Farmers for a nice innovation -

The spots are stopping and fun, but the tagline really steps up the creative from selling the category to placing their brand in opposition of the category:

Sanity makes a come back

Post-Katrina, we all get it: It's one thing to have insurance; it's another thing to not have to fight about whether water damage is actually an insurable weather claim...

As much as I love the campaign, I've got to wonder if the writer has been given a bit toooo much rope. As the campaign goes on, it's starting to morph from stopping and fun to ... well, almost scary.