DR4WARD

Living Naked and Eating Savory Foods! Cannes Lions

Hello everyone! just finished my second full day here at the Cannes Lions Advertising Festival. Once again, I had an amazing day filled with inspiration and learning. I will be talking about a few different things that really excited me today.

I started today off at the savory food commercials. These were very entertaining, I didnt want to leave early for my Masters Class! I find the tv advertisements to be one of my favorite parts of the festival because every country approaches their products in different ways. This can be very influential and bring new ideas to the American plate. Comedy in commercials is something that will never get old. they are attention grabbing and memorable. Some countries advertisements had a more serious approach to food advertisement. I am sure they were affective in the given culture, but were not something I could see being aired on television in the US.
Here are a few of the commercials I really enjoyed...
">hungryman
">fresh farms dove campaign mock

">kavli kaviar mix

">pot noodles
">robertsons spices

I went to a Masters Class in the morning, "Living Naked" by Paul Woolmington. I won't go into too much detail because Stephanie's blog covers it pretty well. It basically talked about listening to the consumers, they are the important part of advertising and marketing. "You should treat your consumer as a partner", "people don't trust advertising, they trust friends". advertising is moving more toward a consumer made approach.
These are some interesting things that we looked at during this workshop.
www.brandtags.net
www.cannestags.com
burger king whopper freakout

"Don't write an ad - start a conversation" complimented the living naked workshop. during this seminar, Nick Moore spoke about 5 major things that advertisers need to do to become more successful with their consumers.
1) actively listen...we hear what we want to hear, not what people are really saying. watch digital conversations, blogs, youtube videos. this helps you to clearly listen to your consumer.
2) join and lead conversation...dont write an ad, say the next interesting thing. join and continue your conversations.
3) become a topic of conversation...the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about at all. people trust people. tell stories! ">bud light video was shared.
4) let go of control!!!...creatives are control freaks and need to learn to let go more. clients can also become too controlling.
5) create many conversations. the more material you have the more consumers you can reach.

and finally, im going to briefly touch on the IGA workshop. In game advertising is becoming a huge market! it is said that advertising for in game marketing will reach $54 billion by 2011.
so why advertise so much in games?
-its a lean forward medium
-totally engaging
-everyone plays video games. (the average 18-35 year old male plays 12.5 hours a week)
-30% of gamers are female
-70% of gamers feel that real brands and products make fames more realistic.
-61% favor in game advertising.
">in game advertising

--Kayla

MARKET RESEARCH FAILS TO PREDICT POLITICAL FUTURE

I have been watching the recent and frequent failures of pollsters to predict presidential primary results and the media and public frustration with these inaccuracies. As a researcher, scholar and marketer I am reminded that data is only a guide and statistics alone cannot accurately predict the future.

Depending on the source, 80-90% of all new products fail despite huge investments in research to understand the consumer.  Why would we expect our political research and predictions to be any more accurate?   

Research is only a snapshot at a given point in time and there are too many changing variables to isolate for all of the possible outcomes. Tom Peters compared research to driving while looking in the rearview mirror. That is not to say that research is not a valuable tool but a friendly remember that marketing is still the intersection of art and science.  Research is often used to support preconceptions rather than to gain new insights.  Do politicians look ahead or focus on the rearview mirror?  Do the polls support your personal view or reflect something completely foreign to your opinions?

Research must be interpreted and creatively applied in an ever changing and highly competitive arena. Often the wrong questions are asked.  A question asked incorrectly or formulated with bias will net inaccurate results. Creativity, luck, and timing combine with skill and the whims of nature, economics, politics, popular culture and global competition to create marketing successes (and failures). With the ever increasing pace of change and ever moving targets, marketing and politics will only become more challenging and more valuable to society. Marketing and political success will become more rare, more fleeting and more difficult to predict than ever.

I look 4WARD to your feedback.

Keep Digging for Worms!

ALCOHOL MARKETING SAILS BLISSFULLY INTO PERFECT STORM

Alcohol Industry marketing is sailing blissfully into a perfect storm.  Before we look at the signs let's quickly review:  unlike the highly regulated Tobacco and Pharmaceutical Industries, the Alcohol Industry basically self-regulates to avoid marketing's reach and appeal to children and underage consumers. 

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) does have limited jurisdiction over alcohol marketing but mainly promotes industry self-regulation to balance concerns related to children and the interests of adults.  You can read the complete FTC Guidance Documents here. You can also read the 1999 FTC Report about the benefits of self-regulation in the Alcohol Industry and the Alcohol Industry Advertising Codes regarding advertising placement, advertising content, product placement, online advertising, and college marketing.   

First Amendment issues are given regarding FTC lack of Government restriction on marketing but one only needs to look at the Tobacco and Pharmaceutical industries to see where alcohol marketing regulation is heading if the industry does not change course.  The Alcohol Industry stated goal to minimize the extent to which underage consumers are exposed to and attracted by alcohol advertising is impossible in practice. The "drink responsibly" messages and concern for children are lost in the rough seas of competitive marketplace pressures.  These pressures compel the alcohol industry to attract new consumers and grow consumption with current users.  Let's look at Alcohol Industry initiatives in the past year and the collision with the self-regulated industry code to see the Perfect Storm...

AND THE OSCAR GOES TO....GM?

This year I will be doing a 2008 Oscar Ad Recap similar to my coverage of the  2008 Super Bowl Ad Recap by the brand. The Annual Academy Awards are one of the few remaining mass audience events for advertisers second only to the Super Bowl.  The Oscar ads are not as highly anticipated as the Super Bowl but they do get more red-carpet attention than ads throughout the rest of the year. The 2008 Super Bowl Ads cost an average $2.7 million for each 30-second spot for an estimated audience of 90 million plus.  The 2008 Oscar ads cost an average $1.8 million for each ad for an estimated audience of 40 million plus.  Will you be paying more attention to the Oscar Ads this year?  Who will be the biggest winners and losers?      

Before I do my Oscar Ad Recap I need to first confess that I love cars and trucks. My grandfather retired from Ford, my uncle worked for Chrysler and my dad used to restore American muscle cars as a hobby. I may have my roots in Michigan and with American autos but I have not been too brand loyal. Over the years I have owned Japanese brands including Honda, Subaru, Nissan, and Acura.  I have owned two German Volkswagens.  I have also owned Fords, Dodges, and GMC models.

I have never been motivated to buy a vehicle out of pity for the manufacturer. I do enjoy reliable cars and trucks that are well designed and fun to drive. I have paid close attention to auto design and marketing almost as long as I can remember. Therefore I am looking forward to seeing what General Motor Corporation will do with their Oscar ads during the show.  I felt that GM's :60 second "Why Push" spot featuring their Yukon Hybrid that ran during the Super Bowl was too abstract but I did like their Malibu campaign for the Grammies.  Several GM brands will be featured in ads during the show and green friendly GM vehicles will chauffeur celebrities to the red carpet.  Will GM's Oscar Ads step up and deliver on the promise of their recent design and quality honors or will their marketing dollars be squandered? 

PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES ERODE MARKETING TRUST

Drug maker Merck and Shering Plough delayed reporting their clinical trials showing that their cholesterol drug Zetia, and a pill that contains it, Vytorin, did not benefit patients and may even put the patient at greater risk.

While drug safety is of primary importance I believe the greater harm of this recent scandal is that it questions the ethics of pharmaceutical marketing and erodes the public's trust for truth in all marketing.

Another Merck drug, Vioxx, was withdrawn in 2004 after it was shown to cause harm in patients after being heavily marketed.  Here is the ethical question (not legal) regarding pharmaceutical marketing:   Does it provide necessary information or does it manipulate physicians and consumers by creating demand and record profits in a rush to gain market share?

To regain credibility, pharmaceutical direct-to-consumer advertising will need to address trust and the seriousness of prescription medicine and stop treating their drug marketing like a fast-food or beverage brand.  What do you think pharmaceutical marketing needs to do to regain consumer trust?

I look 4Ward to your feedback. 

Keep digging for worms. 

NINTENDO Wii TARGETS ITS WAY TO SUCCESS

I just returned from Fort Pierce, Florida after visiting my retired parents over the holidays. They are both aged 70 +, live in an active seniors only community, and are the proud owners of a Wii (Nintendo video game) . We had several bowling tournaments during our visit and the women usually beat the men.  They often invite their friends over for Wii parties.  Mom is also the family boxing champion and frequently knocks Dad out.

The Wii is the year's game console champ. Much of their success is due to their targeting of seniors and other niche markets not typical of the traditional gaming industry.  Do you  know any seniors or nontraditional gamers that have played on the Wii?   How did seniors discover the Wii?

SUPER BOWL AD SUCCESS A GAMBLE

Over the years I have had the pleasure to be interviewed on Super Bowl ads in publications like USA TODAY and the Wall Street Journal . Although trends and technology have changed, the one constant I see is that having a positively reviewed ad in the Super Bowl will always be a gamble. Even top brands like Budweiser and Apple, who have been ranked as some of the best Super Bowl ads in history, have also had some of the worst ranked ads. 

The $2.7 million gamble for the success of one :30 second ad has helped the arm chair quarterbacking for the ads become a past-time greater than the game itself. There is no guarantee that an ad will be successful once aired during the Super Bowl. However, if done well, I believe the hype leading up to game day can offset the negative word-of-mouth and fall-out if an ad bombs.  What happens when the hype leads to backlash?

The big story last year surrounding Super Bowl ads were interactive contests with consumer-created content . Consumers vote online for the user-generated idea or entry submitted. The winning entry is then aired during the Super Bowl along with all of the professionally created spots. I believe the user-generated ads also suffered their creative hits and misses. The Doritos Super Bowl ad creative was a hit while The Chevy Super Bowl Commercial making light of homeless people forced to wash car windows for change, was a miss. However, both Chevy and Doritos received positive press and word-of-mouth related to their contests.

WELCOME TO THE DR4WARD BLOG

My name is Dr. William J. Ward but you can call me Bill, a.k.a DR4WARD.

I have been "Digging For Worms" and applying my "4Ward philosophy" since I was nine when I started my first business selling night crawlers on Cowan Lake in Rockford, Michigan where I grew up.   My business grew by providing my customers with the best, freshest worms and fishing tips around.

The purpose of this blog is to provide diagnosis and prognosis of concepts such as integrated marketing communications / 360 degree branding and to engage readers in a discussion of their impact on society.  I hope we can help each other understand what these terms really mean. Do these concepts have any impact on your life?