Buying The World A Coke, Brought To Life

A while back I wrote about how an enduring and strong communication idea can stand the test of time, work across media, and ideally, transcend markets. 

One of the interesting explorations of this concept that I highlighted in A Strategy For Strategy: Part Two was Google’s Project Re: Brief, and in particular the re-imagining of Coca-Cola’s Hilltop spot from 1971.



What I loved about this idea was that it took a creative concept, and made it tangible for today's consumer - in other words, it shows how a brand can leverage a strong fundamental insight across time and across media and ultimately bring it to life in a consumer facing experience.

But that was over a year ago. 

But then, a couple of weeks back, the magical sharing machine popped back into action - in the region where I probably least expected to see it!

One of the challenges that I have seen brands face when trying to leverage a universal global creative platform is that they can struggle to find way to make these ideas meaningful in markets where they are perhaps less developed - places where foundational product messaging is sometimes needed to help drive brand familiarity.   This can be even more challenging when a brand's platform or idea is based on a universal (human) truth rather than a specific product insight.

To the best of my knowledge, Coke has traditionally not dominated the cola market in India. All because of this little finger. 

When Coke abandoned operations in India in the 70's Thums Up launched, and quickly gains a near monopolistic share in the region until the 90's when Pepsi entered the market after deregulation. 

To this day it is still a dominate brand - despite being sold to Coca-Cola 1993.

Its because of these brand / market dynamics that I was so surprised to see the sharing machine being brought to India - and in such an amazing way!  



By allowing consumers to interact with the machine and come together across this controversial boundary, Coke not only brought the 'open happiness' idea to life in one of its less developed markets, but did it did so through a unique consumer-centric experience that helped connect the brand with its core global positioning. A true example of how a brand can leverage a universal human truth and authentically execute across markets. 

Brilliant.

Nike Wants Us To Be Great... Without The Sponsorship

A new spot by W+K.  Launching Nike's new Find Your Greatness campaign.

In a direct push against the celebration of Olympic superstar athletes in London, Nike is looking to celebrate everyday athletes in 'Londons' around the world.  So what does this mean... A new Nike that isn't about superstar endorsements? Or just a way to ride the Olympic wave, without the official sponsorship bill?

I'm banking on the later.

Apple's Internal Propaganda Machine at its Finest

I recently heard that Steve Jobs had played a bit role in a movie that Apple produced back in the 80's. It turns out that this "movie" was put together and shown to the Apple sales team when they were launching the Mac office software suite in 1985.


If you're interested in Apple, and its internal propaganda, it's definitely worth watching. Seeing Steve Jobs play the role of President Roosevelt isn't too bad either! (Jump to 5:25 for that).



As inspired as the sales team must have been coming out of watching this, I don't think the Lemmings ad that supported this software launch helped much. (Though it does work as a nice reminder of why ads shouldn't directly insult their target consumer.)  

In :30 Seconds, IE9 Goes From Pretty Good, to Beautiful, Alive, Artistic, Revolutionary, Fluid and Amazingly Fast.

I saw this ad running on TV this week.  I stopped to watch it. Not just because of the ad itself, but also because of how much of a divergence it was from some IE9 ads that I saw a month or so back.  WOW. Not only is IE9 pretty good, it's the most beautiful, amazing, revolutionary, dub-stepping-est browser available!



And in a more epic longer format...

When trying to change perceptions of something as functional and abstract as a web browser I think its really important for brands to work hard to integrate the browser itself into the ad idea (particularly in Canada!). As cute as Officer Cupcake was... I don't think the previous IE9 work  really achieved this. These new ads are a great step in the right direction.


However, they are a far cry from the current Chrome spot.  In my mind, Google's current braodcast ads really encapsulate the idea of integrating an abstract product into a emotional narrative...

/cry

A Strategy For Strategy: Part Two

“Great ideas manifest themselves in many ways. Sometimes, even in ads.” - @LeeClowsBeard

In Part One of A Strategy For Strategy I touched on the importance of integrating the consumer at the earliest possible stage of communications development and how moving too quickly from initial insight to creative development can lead to a brand’s position or communication world. Further to this is the risk of these early stage ideas not being fully expressed in a way that carves out an ownable space for it to occupy in a consumer’s mind.

Another issue with moving too quickly from insight to creative development is the potential loss of understanding of a communication idea’s potential to live in truly dynamic multi-media environment.

Often I see clients believing that a great idea should simply be translated into a :30 second spot. While a traditional commercial could be considered one of the expressions of the idea, my belief is that a truly powerful communication insight should be able to live and breathe, and be expressed in many different ways.

For brands to generate powerful positions in the mind of consumers, the focus at this stage should look to understand the potential of a concept, without boxing it into a defined medium.  As so eloquently stated by Dan Wieden in this 2020 Vision interview, “I don’t think we’re in a place where we (should) have to choose between doing broadcast or interactive. I think that’s ridiculous. That like saying do you want a right hand or a left hand? I want to use both my hands… and some other appendages as well! It’s just boring if this is a choice.”

If an idea is grounded in a universal truth, and expressed in a unique and ownable way, there is no reason for marketers to feel they need to make these media defining decisions at this stage of communications development. When working with clients on the development of communication strategies at Ipsos ASI, where I work, this is always something we explore with consumers – to see where they feel the idea could be expressed to them in a meaningful way along their journey in and around the category.

A great communication idea should not only translate well across media though.  It is also something that should stand the test of time. 

A recent and interesting exploration of this concept is Google’s Project Re: Brief. In this experiment, Google took some of America’s greatest and most iconic ads from yesteryear, worked to distill them down to their essence, and expressed them in new and interesting ways – leveraging media that didn’t exist when the ideas were first brought to life.

Of the series, my personal favourite is their re-imagining of Coca-Cola’s Hilltop spot from 1971.  Working with the original art director, they were able to show how a powerful communication insight, based on the universal truths of sharing and connectivity, still work to capture the hearts of consumers over 40 years later.

As marketers work towards the creation of  their brand’s world, a media agnostic perceptive is critical – particularly in today’s communication environment.  Not only will this help focus these efforts on building a strong foundation for the brand, but it will also allow this foundation to become a platform for the brand to launch all of its touchpoints from.

The Mad Men of Design

In sync with the new season of Mad Men, this week Landor looked back at their company's history and dug up a profile from the "Good Packaging Year Book" - from 1958!

Not only is it a great nostalgic read (the layout and copy are both fantastic!), but it also provides an interested perspective on the inner-workings of their design business - showing how Landor focused on consumer-centric design, built an inspiring home for its people and pioneered many of the practices that are still used today.


The full PDF can be downloaded here

Enjoy!

Microsoft's New Claim - IE9 Is Actually Pretty Good!

So it looks like Microsoft is staging a browser comeback with IE9, and all the “hip” memes of today are coming out to help!

“Hipster” infographics, a raging dude in a plaid shirt and a cat! I think their new tagline sums it all up: "better browser + cute cat = time to reconsider." Let the catvertising continue!

Lets just hope they have another way of driving some sort of position within the browser market... As cute as Officer Cupcake is, I think there will be some hesitation to switch without an idea of how IE9 is (functionally) different from what is out there.



And here are some of those "hip" print ads to go with!