TALK TO ME

Humans are the most social of all animals. We love to talk and interact with others. It is one activity we crave for and if are deprived of it, we could sometimes lose our sanity too. Well, advertisers are realizing this fact too; i.e., if they do not interact with their consumers, they could lose their market share to those who do so! The latest development in TV ads is helping advertisers do just this. Technology is being used to change ads from being a one-way communication process to two-way. It’s time that companies realized that not many are watching their ads. Think about it. Every time there is an ‘ad break’, we use it for a ‘loo-break’ or a ‘mobile checking break’ or a ‘what’s-on-in-other-channels- break’!!! This is making many big advertisers turn away from TV.

Take a test… try to remember the last few Nike commercials you saw on TV. Chances are that you will not be able to clearly remember them, for the simple reason that Nike is no more big on TV. Nike’s spending on TV and print has dropped by 40% in the last three years, though its total marketing budget has increased and is today at a record high of $2.4 billion. Nike has shifted its focus from expensive celebrity endorsements and has started making more interactive online marketing plans that encourage the user to communicate directly with the company. So those are the products like Nike+ running sensor and the Nike ‘FuelBand’ that are its key areas of focus today. The one division that has doubled its size in the company (from 100 employees to 200 in just 6 months) is Nike Digital Sport. The company spent $800 million on ‘non-traditional’ media in 2010. Rather than spending on the Super Bowl as it had traditionally always done, Nike feels that it makes better sense to focus on its online communities. It is here that most of its consumers spend their time (and not in front of the TV). It is here that it can get 200 million visits everyday, as compared to that one Super Bowl Sunday when 200 million Americans watch the game. It is here that Nike encourages millions of its users to post their workout details and in return gives them fitness tips, helps them share their workouts with friends, et al. This ‘conversation’ helps the company know more about its customers and helps it plan better marketing strategies.

Considering the fact that today, more than 5 million runners log on to Nike to check their performance, Nike has followed the right strategy. It’s not surprising that in spite of Adidas and Reebok merging and becoming one giant organization and in spite of so many new and hot upstarts in tow, Nike remains the world’s largest sports company; for the simple reason that it has stayed connected to its consumers.

As Nike CEO Mark Parker says, “Connecting today is a dialogue.” He actually implies that those days when a good product with good advertising were enough to sell the product are long gone. Today, marketing is all about interacting closely with the consumer, probably just like the old days when its founder Phil Knight started selling shoes out of his car. He convinced each customer, made him his friend and sold him his shoes. Online communities help brands make friends and customize their communications to suit each one’s need. One can say that marketing has come full circle! Glitzy ads will not work, nor will world famous celebrities. What will finally work is your ability to understand the consumer and your ability to engage in a conversation with him.

TALK TO ME: CAMPAIGNS VS. CONVERSATIONS

Everybody is waking up to the fact that passive one way communication will work no more. So Microsoft has gone ahead and made this very passive medium, i.e. the TV ad, into an interactive one. It’s introduced the NUads on its gaming console Xbox 360 Kinect. It’s the new hands-free gaming experience, which requires no controls except your hand gestures, making everybody in the family from the 6-year old to the 60-year old enjoy it. On this platform, it has launched these interactive ads.

The ads that are streamed on the Xbox are different from your regular ads, for they ask you to participate in opinion polls, and even give you the results instantly. They ask you if you want to share the ad on Twitter, and once you say ‘Yes’, it takes just a wave of your hand to post it on your account on the social networking site of your choice. An advertisement for a TV show will ask you if you want to put a reminder on your phone, so that you don’t forget to watch it. Again, a swipe of your hand will send the information of the show timing on your mobile phone and set an alarm to remind you to watch the show. This and various other interactive activities have been built into the ads so that you no more watch them passively, or worse, still walk away while the ad break is on.

Launched last month, among the first few to experiment with this are Toyota, Unilever and Samsung Mobile USA. The ads would be launched later this year, but a sneak peak was available of Toyota’s ads. It decided to take its ‘Reinvent’ TV ad campaign a step further. In the ‘interactive’ version, not only will it show how Toyota has reinvented its cars, but it will also ask viewers what they would like to see reinvented. Viewers can then respond using Kinectpowered voice or gesture controls. It serves a dual purpose. The viewer is kept engaged and Toyota gets valuable feedback. Unilever is using this interactivity for its ‘Lynx’ brand. Its ads show a female cop chasing a robber; but by the end, we realize that she’s chasing a guy with the Lynx deodorant. The tagline reads, “Nothing will be the same again”. Viewers are then asked if the Lynx effect should be given to girls with options being “Yes, of course” and “No way”. It’s a fun way to engage the audience. In fact, the creative possibilities are unlimited. A car ad on the Xbox can now come with an option, “Do you want to know where the nearest dealer outlet is?” A wave of your hand and you can get the address. The car company, in turn, gets data about how many viewers were interested in knowing the location of its dealer outlets, which can help it plan its future strategies.

There was a time when companies talked and customers listened. Today, with these NUads, the customer talks and the company listens.

TALK ABOUT ME

Data is the lifeline of any business, as the CMO of Zipcar will tell you. Under him, Zipcar has grown by leaps and bounds and all he did was to use the data of customers to customize his marketing. He used data like how the car was reserved (online or via an iPhone app), how many hours did they use the hired car, which cars were preferred in which neighborhood, et al. All this data and more was used to plan media buying strategies, advertising themes, et al. The right data is what will help you fight competition, and interactive ads get you that data right from the customer himself.

So not just the Xbox, Microsoft is doing the same with its Skype services. It bought Skype for $8.5 billion last year, and is now finding a way to monetize it using ‘interactive ads’. Using the membership data of customers, it will figure out which services and products you would be interested in and every time you make a voice call, these ads in the form of contests, games, exclusive movie trailers, et al will flash on your screen. The idea being that you will start talking about them with the person you are on the call with and maybe even click on the ads and watch them. How it finally works, time will tell, but one thing is for sure. Advertisers have a whole world of opportunities opened up for them. The game will change, the rules of advertising will change, and the most creative will win.

The one company that has always believed in changing the rules of the game is Apple. Even its marketing strategy is a ‘game changer’. The last time Apple invested heavily in making an expensive ad was its ‘1984’ commercial. After that, it has focused on creating news around its product launches. When Steve Jobs announced that he was unveiling a new product, there used to be a mad scramble to be a part of that event. His carefully crafted words ensured that everybody was talking about his new invention. As a result, people queued up for hours outside its retail outlets to be able to buy the product. Apple could have reduced the rush and sold products online, but that wasn’t newsworthy. There’s no brand that attracts queues outside its stores the way Apple does. Steve Jobs was among the first to understand the power of PR, the power of creating a buzz. These queues got people talking about Apple, increasing the excitement around each of his products (even Samsung, Apple’s arch rival, could not help but talk about these queues in its ads!).

So obsessed are people with Apple that its users believe that it’s the best without even considering the competition, for they say, “If Apple says it’s the best… well, then it is!” This perception was built not with ads, but with conversations between people. Slick PR efforts, over the years, have helped nurture these conversations.

The bottom line is that if people talk about you, then you will survive. ROM, a Romanian candy bar maker, will vouch for that. It realized that American candy bars were stealing its market share, so in one day, it replaced the packaging of all its bars with the American stars-and-stripes. Romanians were furious to see their oldest brand turn American, and there were demonstrations. The company used this to promote itself on TV. It issued a public apology and soon returned to its original packaging. What an interesting marketing stint to get the nation to talk about your product! As expected, the sales of the candy bar skyrocketed after the carefully planned ‘error’.

People need to talk about the product or service for it to succeed. Marketers are going a step further and trying to engage people in a conversation through their advertisements. It’s the new way to catch people’s attention and get them to share details about themselves. The better I know you, the better I can sell to you. The future belongs to the brand that can make consumers talk about it or talk to it.

IT’S ALL ABOUT CREATING THE RIGHT IMAGE

She is a heroine of a different generation and yet this month, so many celebrated her birthday as if she were still with us. She may have gone long ago; yet, she lives on, for her images just don’t seem to fade. In fact, every time an  unseen or unpublished image of hers is discovered, it makes it to the front page of almost all newspapers. The lady is Marilyn Monroe. Images are very powerful, they just live on and some even become iconic. The face of the Cuban revolutionary, Che Guevera, also being one such image. It’s not just a face. It symbolizes rebellion and freedom,  feelings that the youth just love. Put this face on any merchandise and it becomes a bestseller. The number of T-shirts  emblazoned with Che’s face that have been sold is incredible. It’s ironic that a revolutionary, who rebelled against the  capitalists, has today become the biggest bestseller of the capitalist world.   

That’s the power of these images. They  generate strong feelings. Another image that brings out strong reactions is the Swastika symbol of the Nazis. Recently,  Madonna used it during her tour in Israel. On a giant screen was shown an image of Marine Le Pen, who is the leader of  france’s National Front Party, with a Swastika on her forehead. The party was enraged and threatened to sue her.  Considering the fact that Madonna would be performing in France soon, this was a nice gimmick to get the nation talking  before she arrived! She is one of the few people who understand the power of images, of visual branding, and has used it  consistently over the years to keep her in the news and always ahead of competitors. Be it the cross of Jesus or the  Swastika of the Nazis, she knows how to use symbols to get people to notice her. 

It’s also the oldest trick of brand  building.   It’s also the oldest trick of brand building. Brands have used symbols (logos) to distinguish themselves from  competitors and build a unique identity around them. Associating oneself with a unique symbol makes it easy for  consumers to remember you. So on Marilyn Monroe’s birthday, Lady Gaga tweeted a picture of hers dressed as Monroe,  and more than one lakh of her followers (all in the age group of 14-19 years) liked it. The interesting part is neither Gaga  or her fans belong to Monroe’s generation and the only reason they are her fans is because of the ‘images’ they see of  her. These stunning images are the reasons for having ensured that ‘brand Marilyn Monroe’ will never die. And images  re the reasons that will ensure that your brand lives on in the future.

PICTURES WILL RULE 

The  most exciting websites in the recent months have been ones that have focused on pictures. One such website, which has created a lot of excitement, is Pinterest. If numbers are a measure of growth and potential, then according to Experian Hitwise, Pinterest is the third most popular social network in the US, just behind Facebook and Twitter. Not surprising then that it was recently valued at $1.5 billion with Rakuten Ichiba giving it a funding of $100 million. Rakuten is the largest e-commerce site in Japan and among the world’s largest by sales. Why should an e-commerce site be interested in a scrap-booking site? Because it affects sales directly. Let’s see how.    

Things have changed dramatically for  interest. In February, no brand was interested in it and then in two months, the number of brand pages increased by 24%. Pinterest links have appeared in retailers’ e-mails faster than links to Facebook, Twitter et al appeared, proving the point that retailers are benefitting from it. A study by Vancouver’s Emily Carr University has found that there is a surprisingly high correlation between ‘pinning’ an image of a product and purchasing it, with more than 1 in 5 Pinterest users buying an item they have ‘pinned’ on their Pinterest boards. Companies are finding it important to keep a watch  n who is ‘pinning’ what and where he is ‘pinning’ it. If a consumer pins a picture of your bike on his board titled ‘Bikes    m considering to buy’, it makes sense to check which other bikes is he considering and get an idea. An aggressive  marketer could even leave a comment on this consumer’s page giving him information about his brand. Similarly, there  could be many ways to mine information and use it.   

There is a shift in the way people are using the Internet. Earlier it  as largely ‘text’ driven, but today pictures and images are becoming dominant. People are using pictures to  communicate. Be it the image you upload on your Facebook profile or your BBM profile or even on your desktop, it’s become a way to communicate your feelings. No wonder that ‘smileys’ and ‘emoticons’ are used most frequently when  e text friends and family, proving the point that communication in the future will be more image heavy rather than text. Marketers need to understand this change and plan their strategies accordingly in order to reach out to the maximum  umber of consumers and make strategies that outwit their competitors. In future, marketers who can communicate with  mages will be the most wanted, for in future, it’s an attractive image that will drive people to your website more than an interesting statement. This is the reason why it has been found that Pinterest is driving more traffic to the websites of  rands as compared to Facebook or Twitter. From TV networks to magazines, interior designers to fashion designers to  ar and bike manufacturers to even writers and bloggers; everyone is out there with their best images to attract consumers. A blogger who was writing an article on which advertising campaign he thought would win at the Cannes  his year decided to use Pinterest and pin pictures and videos of the campaigns; for he found that he could attract more  people to his post this way over just an article.   

Images will decide the future of your business. No wonder that Mark Zuckerberg did not think twice before spending $1 billion in buying the iPhone application ‘Instagram’. It got people  talking and wondering why he did it. The reason is clear now. Facebook launched its own camera application last month in May that lets people take ‘Instagram style’ pictures, which can be shared on Facebook with your mobile phones. If there is one feature that people are using the maximum on their mobile phones, it is the camera, and future revenues for  companies will come from here only. 

Facebook seems to be excelling in gobbling other people’s ideas and using them to its own benefit. Whatever the method, one fact is clear that it’s going to be a ‘business of images’ and the one with the best image (pun intended) would win.   

FROM BRAND PERSONALITY TO  CONSUMER PERSONALITY 

The consumer of today is using pictures to express who he is. It’s a  way of self-identification. Years ago in 1995, a French professor Jean-Nol Kapferer introduced the term ‘Identity Prism’, which took the corporate world by storm. Soon, every company stopped going by market research findings and framing their policies around those results. Rather, they started paying attention to their own inner values and focusing  n them. So, from ‘market based’ branding, the game has now turned to ‘identity based’ branding. David Ogilvy mastered  his and his advertisements focused on ‘brand building’ instead of just stating the various attributes of the brand. Now  he brand felt more real, someone the consumer could identify with. So Harley Davidson bikes built a personality that  appealed to the ‘rough and tough’ guys. Surf detergent built a personality, which appealed to the ‘sensible housewife’ who did not hesitate to spend more on good quality (remember the ‘Lalitaji advertisement’?). 

Today, marketers are once  again focusing on the right image and the right personality of the brand. Images create lasting impressions and are difficult to forget. If the image matches the personality of the consumer, then he will not hesitate to use that image on his  age and on his profile, since he can identify with it and it helps him express his personality too. The consumer of today is also using pictures in many ways. Some are using them to remind themselves of things they want to buy. Some are even using Pinterest to make a visual resume of themselves. If you want your brand to be a part of his ‘visual’ list, it’s  important that not only should your product be good, but it should also be represented in an interesting manner, so that  he consumer likes the overall image that he sees. 

‘Content is king’ is the mantra we have followed over the years.  Today, the time has come to think beyond content and think in terms of images and even going to the extent of making sure that every piece of content is made into a shareable image wherever possible. A lot of marketers are converting their ‘texts’ into interesting ‘images’ so that they can be promoted on these ‘image sharing’ websites easily. Be it brand punchlines or quotations, the text is also available in an ‘image’ format. 

Not just logos or pictures of their products, companies today are hiring professional designers and artists to ensure that their products are photographed in the right setting, which brings out the right image of the brand and which makes the images interesting enough for the consumer to identify with and ‘pin’ on his profile. With most of us running out of time and patience, the fastest way to judge  people and pages and profiles is on the basis of the ‘profile picture’. If you want your brand to stand out, you must devote time to visual branding and create the right aura around your brand. After all, it’s all about creating the right image!     

STICK OUT; DON’T BLEND IN!

Brad Pitt has bagged a new modeling contract, and this time, it’s not for any fancy gadget or any car brand or even a men’s clothing brand, but for a ladies’ perfume – Chanel Nº 5.

As expected, this news has got everyone talking about him and the perfume brand. It’s also got the cash registers ringing for him, and if all goes well, the cash registers would also be ringing for Chanel. The biggest boost in sales that a brand gets is when people start talking about it, when there is a certain buzz, an excitement around the brand. Ask any marketing expert and he would be ready to give his right arm to find the secret of creating the ‘right buzz’ around his brand. In fact, the job of advertisements is not necessarily to sell the product, but to get people to notice it; and in the most successful cases, to start talking about it. Chanel Nº 5 surely has learnt its lessons well. Decades ago, it had achieved notorious fame, when Marilyn Monroe – on being asked what she wears to bed – had said, “Why, Chanel Nº 5 of course!” That, and now this, i.e., getting Brad Pitt as their brand ambassador, has ensured that a lot of people would be talking about the fragrance for a very long time. The brand has managed to beat the clutter and has been able to stand out and get noticed from among the thousands of perfume brands available in the marketplace.

A few years ago, Lux soap decided to do something different to celebrate its 75 years. Known for its advertising strategy of taking Bollywood beauties to endorse its brand, the company decided to stick to the same formula; except that this time, the beauty in the bath tub was not the latest Bollywood heroine, but the latest heartthrob of all the females of the country – Shah Rukh Khan! The strategy worked. People noticed it. Some liked it and some laughed at it, but everybody was talking about it. That is the aim of advertising. As long as I have got you to notice me so that you talk about me, a large part of my work as an advertising man is done.

STICK OUT, BUT NOT LIKE A SORE THUMB!

Yes, to be noticed, you need to be different, but it needs to be done intelligently. There is a thin line of difference between the acceptable and the unacceptable and one needs to tread the path carefully. A little known airlines named Kulula Airlines (a South African low cost airline) has found a way to get noticed. Last month, as the South African president Jacob Zuma prepared to get married for the fourth time, the airlines too prepared a cheeky promotional ad campaign that claimed, “Fourth wife flies free”. Kulula is not the only airlines that has found a way to get noticed. Spirit Airlines has built a unique reputation for itself in coming out with well-timed ads that poke fun at the latest headlines. When news broke out that Arnold Schwarzenegger had fathered a love child 20 years ago because of which his marriage broke, the airlines was quick to come out with an ad stating, “Fares so low, you can take the whole family... including the halfbrother you just met”. When Tiger Woods crashed his car into a fire hydrant, the airlines was quick to come out with an ‘Eye of the Tiger’ sale on its website to promote its low priced fares.

Scandals always get you attention but not necessarily the kind you would like. However, Spirit has used scandals to increase its sales, and nobody is complaining!

Amul Butter has been using the same tactics in India for years now and almost always manages to get our attention with its topical ads. Everybody loves the wit and humor that they bring. The tongue-in-cheek ads are awaited by all. They stand out, and get noticed by all.

In this mad rat-race, standing out has probably become the most important quality for success. Just being good is not enough , you need to be different. However, it’s not easy being different. If there is one person in the advertising world who showed the world the power of being different, it was Oliviero Toscani. The ads he created for the clothing giant Benetton changed the way people looked at advertising and acknowledged the tremendous impact an ad was capable of creating. He showed a white and a black child hugging each other and gave the headline, “Angel and Devil”. It shocked the world but made Benetton the most talked about fashion label. However, Toscani crossed the line with his, “We on Death Row” series of ads, which featured close ups of 26 US prisoners who had been sentenced to death. There were widespread protests from the individuals, especially from the victims of the families whose loved ones had been killed by these men. Till Toscani used provocative themes like a priest kissing a nun, miners and bakers united by the black of the soot and the white of the flour, a dying AIDS victim with his family, a group of African refugees, et al, Benetton could justify the photographs and get away with it; and in the process, also get away with all the attention of the people, as this was the one clothing company whose ads were noticed the most. But the ‘death row’ series was where it went over the top; Toscani had to resign and Benetton had to apologize. So yes, one needs to stick out, but not like a sore thumb. Shock and scandal are the easiest tools to help one stand out.

Yet another company that has used such shock tactics in its advertising and marketing strategy to stand out is PETA. Its ads have always managed to draw the attention of all. Last year, it even launched its “PETA US triple-X website”. It was a provocative idea that immediately caught everyone’s attention. Well, that is exactly the purpose of this site – to catch your attention and show you videos of the hideous cruelty being inflicted upon millions of animals in the meat, fur and circus industries. As its manager Mimi Bekhechi says, “Whether through titillation, offense or something in between, PETA will do whatever it takes to draw your attention to animal suffering and create a kinder world for animals.”

There you have it – shock tactics used for a good deed. If you know how not to cross the line, go ahead and follow these brands, for this is a tactic, which, if not used with extreme caution and intelligence, can ruin your brand image forever. If handled well, it can shoot your brand out of obscurity in the shortest possible time and put you ahead of your competitors.

STICK OUT AND STICK ON!

The aim of a marketing campaign is to make the brand stick out in your memory. Being different, i.e., sticking out, helps in doing that. The golden rule being, do exactly the opposite of what the others are doing. This rule holds true everywhere; the way you dress, the way you apply for a job, the way you advertise and the way you speak. If everyone wears a casual attire to work, wear a suit to stand out. If every competitor of yours is using advertisements with more visuals and less text, do exactly the opposite.

An MBA from Texas desperately wanted to get into the company Accenture, but nothing worked. Ultimately, he decided to do something different. He created a website ‘Hire- MeAccenture.com’, which had his flashy photos, his blog and his resume. Yet another job seeker mailed a shoe with his resume stuffed inside it to his potential employer with a note “Just trying to get my foot in the door”. One even sent his resume in a pizza box with a note, “Delivering you a great candidate”. Sometimes, the gimmicks work and sometimes they backfire; but if you have it in you, then a little extra attention goes a long way towards achieving your goal.

So set a goal, a target for yourself, and chase it passionately, while keeping in mind the simple fact that to stick on to people’s minds and to be remembered; you need to stick out, and keep thinking of ways of doing things differently from the rest of the world. You will be noticed. Advertisers have been using this trick for decades. Earlier (even now), advertisers used beautiful women to sell just about everything. You have a beautiful woman in an ad for a razor, for a shirt, for a men’s deo, for a bike, for a car, for just about anything. Now they are using men to sell products used by women!

The rule is simple. If you want to succeed in this highly cluttered and competitive world, then work hard towards not just being good but also towards being different from others, so that you stand out from the crowd. Do not blend in. Make your own rules and you will be noticed. Being noticed is the first step towards success. So while making your strategies, remember, “Stick out, don’t blend in”!