fight the un-words

I should have done that a long time before.

I never had a "what's-this-blog-about" text on my page. So I guess I owe you an explanation:
"fight the un-words" has been created to combat natural enemies of advertising. Not only UNs, also IRs and INs have become a terrible threat for brands throughout the world.
As follows by name

INvisible
UNinteresting
IRrelevant

Not to forget UNeconomical, IRritating and INscrutable.

Everybody who is passionate about his work, trying to make advertising outshine at the end of a day – feel free to join the mission: fight the un-words!

Making a brand – the auditive way.

I happened to hear a fantastic auditive "visual" – a "keyaudio" so to say. It was more than just a sound logo or a jingle. Simply, it was a great idea to hear.

So I wonder whether radio, at the end, is the best media to create a successful image for a brand. That’s quite contrary to the prevailing opinion, I know. But let me explain.

Imagine you haven’t heard about a brand X before. Your first contact is a radio ad – an ear candy. You consider it being simpatico, funny, and catchy. You can’t stop singing it again and again.

So, how this brand takes shape is all up to you. The advertiser uses your creativity and makes you part of the branding* process. It’s in your hands how the surrounding could look like, how the speaker could look like – colours, clothes, light etc. – things the agency, the client, and the director usually have to think about. No matter which decision they make, it ends up with annoying people who dislike the colour, clothes, and so on.

You might know this from the “I’ve-read-the-book-before-watching-the-movie-phenomenon”.

But this is the point exactly. Imagine you’ve heard the radio ad and made your own image: Wouldn’t you say you still like "The Lord Of The Rings" even if the film wasn’t quite your cup of tea?

I’d say this is a great advantage of auditive media:

The less you dictate the better consumers will complete your message in their favour. I even bet they will create a brand strong enough to stand an annoying subsequent TV ad.

*) My most favourite approach: Branding is the intended and deliberate creation of an eduring scar with hot metal. (Based on branding expert Jerry Tattoo.)

Implementing results of curiosity.

My new desktop wallpaper seems to mirror things on my mind again. At the moment it’s pure motivation, deliverd by the trailer for “THE ALCHEMISTS”. (Also linked on Simon Law's Another Planning Blog.) So, inspired by this finding, I started thinking about a job or project driven wallpaper as a planning tool. It should have to contain all relevant data for one client’s project: important quotes, pictures, moods, the logo of course, some figures – altogether randomly placed around a questionmark representing my motivation: the search for the gold nugget. The insight.
Maybe some IT guys (generatorblog???) come up with an easy-to-use template to add, remove, or extend the wallpaper’s content. At the end, this might be a useful instrument to underpin a briefing. A successively built mind map for planners and creatives as well. Why not?
Perhaps something like this exists already. In that case I would be grateful for a hint/link.

How to canalise information?

Refering to a post I did some weeks ago, I want to refresh the think about how to canalise information.
It's our mission in the ad industry to do this with our clients’ information/brand. But the problem we are struggling with is the threadbare phrase: information overload. In the position of a planner or as a market researcher you are struggling with a massive amount of information as well. Finally, you face two questions.

a) Which channels do I have to use to get informed?

b) What information is relevant?

I tried to figure it out for myself, in order not to overload my colleagues with useless facts.
10 channels I use regularly:

1.   family/friends
2.   colleagues
3.   city and environment
4.   newspapers
5.   supermarkets
6.   radio
7.   news on telly
8.   bars/cafés
9.   russelldavies.com
10. tube/bus

Some things might be missing. Of course, I use the internet a lot. But there are only a few sites that really have an impact, compared to the people and real life around me.
But that just leads us to the second question: What is relevant?

I'd say "impact" is also a useful criterion to answer that question. Many experiences I made that changed my way of thinking were related with a kind of fear.
One example is my first visit of Brixton in 2003. I have to add that I had just moved to London. Before I lived in other big cities in Germany, but nothing compared to London. So, it really depends on someone's heritage what is frightning you. (And soon I got used to it.)
Another example was reading the interview with Jonathan Meese – see below. A third point is signalising its arrival, as I am reluctant to do it – my first interview for this blog.

I don't know wheather this made a point at all. A third question still needs to be answered: How do we implement the facts we gathered, in the process of creative planning?

Body language.

I know words transport only a tiny bit of what I want to let people know. The bigger amount is communicated by tonality, speed and amplitude of my voice, my body language or facial expression. (By the way: That's something many advertisers ignore the most, I suppose.) But this vocabulary is new to me. I hope it will help you – I am going to check some pieces of it tonight.

Product is image.

I've read an article in the German trade press about Ritter Sport. To whom this brand is not aware: It's a chocolate brand ranked second behind the German market leader Milka. I was surprised to find following statement: "Ritter-Sport schickt eine Kampagne ins Rennen, die Produkt- mit Image-Werbung verbindet." (Engl: Ritter-Sport is airing a campaign that combines product and image adertising.)

Pardon. Isn't it manifested in the "Professional Brand Management Act of 1689" that your product constitutes your image – more than anything else?

In conclusion: Don’t even think about something like a separation of product and image.
I'm looking forward to a discussion on this topic. I know there are other schools of thought.

Desktop publishing.

I noticed that I'm one of these guys who is changing his desktop wallpaper on regular basis. So, I've just decided to share my desktop with anybody who's interested in it. This one is the current one.

 I kind of created it today. It's a perfect mixture of what's on my mind these days. A little bit of Quiet Storm, some helpful guidelines by Russell Davies – How to be interesting – co-created by signgenerator.org as well as some "Banksy" aside. The wonderful British dwelling house* with the backyard is representing my dream: to work in the account planning department of a London based advertising agency. If you look on the right you can see there’s a lot of stuff that needs to be sorted. Usually, that doesn't mean anything good. It's a sign for a temporary confusion I guess. 'Cause actually I’m a big fan of a clean desktop. If you look on the bottom left hand side of the picture you can see how it should look like. Hopefully I'll get it done before I have to publish the next wallpaper.
*) Image courtesy of chslondon.com

The following wallpaper is the one I had before. It's a photo of Regent Street with, yes, the "be interesting list" in the front – don't mind the spelling mistakes. If you find one – it's yours. (Same applies to my entire blog;-)

Unexpected items.

Just a small thing that made my day. (It might be a pi for the "spell with flickr" thing. Anyway.)

Street Art.

I once shared a flat with a guy who was in street art. He introduced me to some celebrities from the scene. Now, I have recently found an article in the modart magazine. They wrote about the drivers of street artists and street art and prepaired a TOP FOUR LIST: "What exactly is it about street art that makes it so incredibly intriguing and alluring for people...?" – as written in the modart magazine:

1. Location, Location, Location.

2. Surprise and delight.

3. Must have something to say.

4. Personal.

I found some work of guys my flatmate told me about and have to say that it’s still impressing. Probably the most lively underground scene and yet not noticed at all by the public – although we pass their work every day. Keep your eyes open! Pretty likely they become as famous as Picasso one day. And you crossed their work and did not even notice the opus.

One step ahead.

If some of your followers can't keep up with you it's just fair to slacken your pace . HE, thank goodness, cares about us. So everybody who's not in blogging yet can save the following link to a planner-wiki – striving to collect ideas and useful information about account planning.

http://www.plannersphere.com

(The name "plannersphere" harks back to a recent post by Richard Huntington.)

Mama Johnny.

Read in: Galore (the interview magazine) – issue of 24 December 2006.
Interviewee: Jonathan Meese.

Either he's today’s most exciting artist or I haven't got a clue. Both is possible.
I must admit that his argumentation is – as noticed by the interviewer as well – easy to disprove:
- he anticipates that art will take over his life and therefore
- art will take over his producing (e.g. doing the Hitler salute on stage, covering himself with apple puree, collecting this and that – by the way: "this and that" is now filling several garages.)

Either he is just shifting responsibility to something else, or he actually is taking responsibility when he allows all these actions and reactions.

The way he shows lowliness towards his art is quite charming and smart, as long as he does not exceed his self-imposed border – not to harm or kill any person or animal. Unfortunately, he couldn't exclude it. But he's full of hope it won’t happen.

I keep my fingers crossed. Hopefully, he will go on to show us how to cross the line without crossing his own.
Learn more about Meese!?

Put the kettle on.

It even works with Germans. Although some may struggle with Johnny Vegas' accent, the romantic reunion of an English advertising duo – Monkey and Al – makes the point. Underpinned by some, I guess, viral stuff like their interview (see below) PG is running for consumer's hearts. I will straight leave the house, stop by the shop for "products from the isle" and get me a pack of PG. Thanks Mum.

Testing, testing.

Motivated by BBH's recruiting questionnaire I had to think about what the future holds of the advertising industry. This is what I expect – in 100 words.

Advertising will become more media driven. Recent and forthcoming developments in information technology will enable a better connectivity of different channels to the consumer. Ads are mostly everywhere already. They will be everywhere at the end. So, more than ever, ads must feel like entertainment and work as trojan infotainment.
Along with that, responsible advertising and holistic brand management will be necessary for all stakeholders. The current discussion about restrictions on advertising for food and drinks to children is not the first indicator. Responsible brand management became relevant with the Nike sweat shops and still is a challenge for brands.

Expertise and authenticity.

This is about another gold piece by Russell (see on YouTube). But I have to add something.

I'm afraid it is possible to fake expertise! Or specifically: It doesn't matter whether you are authentic or not – in some cases.

Some weeks ago I went to a concert of one of my favourite bands. The band consists of musicians who have never done anything else than rehearsing and climbing up the ladder from very small stages to small stages – and I am sure they are proud of what they have been achieving and I'm sure they love what they do.
On this evening in December 2006 they had a special guest that is known from the German Pop Idol thing – or something like that.

I haven't got the intention to talk down this singer's performance. She has a great voice and certainly she loves what she does, too.
But you couldn't overlook she was off-beat. And I'm not talking about time. Every second minute she had to check whether her top was straight. It wasn't. Her make-up was screaming – I didn't notice that her band colleagues were wearing make-up at all. Her moves were practised for a concert hall, not for a familiar atmosphere of a jazz club similar to Ronnie Scott's in Soho/London.
Nevertheless, the first row in the audience consisted of enthusiastic teens, filming and photographing their idol all the time. It seemed they did not even notice the rest of the band.
Resumé: In my eyes, her performance looked like faked authenticity – but it worked out well for the right target group. And I'm afraid it works for some brands as well.

Hello, I'm a HEC.

Our fridge is alive. Suddenly there was this sticker on it saying "I EAT FOOD". Then a magnet with the word "Knutschen" (Engl: snog) emerged. But now, as my flatmate came back from home – Switzerland – the fridge suffers from bad breath. I do not really know how to handle this. I am afraid that our relationship will suffer from it, too.

By the way: from time to time we notice some defluxion on the bottom of the fridge. You really did not want to hear that, did you? I am sorry.

The neighbour thing.

I have just found a post by Russell Davies on YouTube. It's about the size of a brand in peoples live. I guess he would not even say a brand could be like a neighbour as I suggested. He's even more radical. But look and see!

For all planners in Germany who do not know Russell yet: go and see his sites!

Content vs. structure.

Additional to all the miscellaneous books and texts that Campaign is currently assembling (see Russell Davies):

In my opinion contemporary "brand science" is rather being found in structures than in the content of established textbooks. It might be due to today's media environment and the rhythm of life that practically lived science is overtaking the guild of writers.

Thanks God we do have all these essential books. Thanks God we do have people write down their thoughts in books, weblogs, on paper sheets, keeping and passing their ideas.
But quest of the future and today is how to assemble which information for whom?
A matter of structure – for sure.

Gender.

Ever wondered why fashion advertising for women and men looks so similar? Ever wondered why some brands communicate to both gender in the same ad? No? You should. Regarding to theory and biology – specifically neurobiology – we should know better.

First.
Women and men do not only buy different clothes. They buy clothes differently. Ladies: cheaper but more often. Gentlemen: more expensive but rarely. Amount and periodicity bare fundamental differences with consequences also for brand communications.

Second.
Dopamine supports the learning process. It's a neurotransmitter in the human brain, secreted whenever we feel e.g. happiness. The amount of dopamine depends on how surprised we are about an experience. Example: Try on a jacket, feel the drapery, be surprised, memorise the brand.

How simple is that?

But men rarely shop on High Street. They seldom browse through a fashion magazine. Thus, every single brand touch point has to serve a purpose more ambitious than in communications for women.

Quintessence: LESS BRAND TOUCH POINTS –> MORE SURPRISING COMMUNICATIONS REQUIRED.

Brand loyalty.

Day –1.
Yesterday a new neighbour moved in next door to the Public family. It’s you.

Day 0.
You meet on the staircase and you try to make a good first impression. You know there is no second chance for it. But it is hard to get Public’s attention. Hardly one day goes by without anybody who introduces himself.

Day 1…
It seems that your job made a point. Joe Public is quite interested in what you do for a living. It turned out to be a pretty good intro for further chats.

People in common are curious. Over time you get to know more about each other – family related things, leisure activities, preferences and dislikes.

Day …t…
Over the time a great relationship developed. Here and there you attend to neighbours children. In return you can borrow from your neighbours if you run out of flour.

What do you think? Isn’t brand loyalty rather a good neighbourhood than friendship?

Berlin by night.

This is not a cheap picture postcard you get in Nice. This is Berlin Alexanderplatz with the huge Park Inn in the background.

I always wondered what people mean by "all these lights" when they talk about Berlin. Now I know.

Just neighbours.

A brand like a friend? I don't know. Isn't that a touch to much?

Without words.

U+S Alexanderplatz.

Nice colour. Don't you think?

Alexanderplatz is quite popular. During the time of the German Democratic Republic it was one of the best places to live. Lucky one if you got one of the treasured apartments. Today the flats around the spot are still something special for their tenants – even with the young.

Design yourself.

A friend gave me the link to his emag.

See the way he plays with the given fold of a mag? Feel the strain, enjoy the breach!
See his site, download the mag!

S75 Hakescher Markt.

Recently found on my mobile. I knew there was another picture of a Berlin tube station.

One interesting thing about stations in general: have you ever recognized that you are always ahead of tube's departure while usually running in late for a train?

U8 Hermannplatz.

That's a photograph of Hermannplatz tube station in Berlin. I did it in August. Actually I should take more of them. The world needs more tube station close-ups.