PIXEL MAVERICK

Every brand is trying to figure out Social Media right now, there are thousands of snake oil social media gurus popping up all over the place …as such there is no lack for presentations on Social Media out there on the Interwebs right now.

So, it makes it all the better when you stumble across a SMEDIA presentation that is from a brand (not a guru) that is spectacular in its simplicity.  Really wonderful presentation from Coke that I thought I would share.  In this case I “stumbled” across it on one of my favorite blogs to follow called Digital Buzz Blog — you should check them out if you do not already follow them.

As I spend my day napping, watching football, and eating WAYY too much leftover turkey I am also catching up on some of my favorite blogs.  One of those blogs is Brains on Fire, and there was a quote in one of the posts that was dead on.

“There’s a difference between a brand promise and a brand commitment. It’s easy to promise. It’s hard to commit.” – Greg Cordell, Chief Inspiration Officer, Brains on Fire

If you work at an ad agency, or have ever worked on a marketing campaign for a client you have probably experienced the following situation:

CLIENT: “We need a great campaign to improve perception about our [product/ customer service/ etc]”

AGENCY: “Great, what sort of changes are occurring with said [product/ customer service/ etc]?”

CLIENT: Proceeds to explain at length a circular explanation that really amounts to …”Well, we are not actually going to change anything, but can’t you come up with a zingy tagline or something to cover that up?”

Agency: (Blank stares for a moment ?? Sigh ?? WTF?) “Sure, we are on it sir!”

This is not rocket science people.  If your brand is getting dinged because your product is inferior OR because your idea of customer service is an automated phone system that leads to nowhere …a tagline is not going to fix the problem.

OK OK, I realize it is not that easy to fix these problems.  It requires participation beyond the marketing department and into the other core drivers of the business operation & that can be a political nightmare.  That being said, everyone in the room (client, agency, …the HOT intern bringing in lunch) knows it is the heart of the solution.  So, why do we think ignoring it and coming up with smoke & mirrors will solve the problem?

How about this?  Before we start cranking out taglines and catchy jingles let’s make a list called “Sherlock’s List” (..as in No Shit Holmes) of total effing obviousness.  Upon completing that list, separate the list into groups based on assumed complexity to implement.  I bet you can find at least 2-3 things on that list that are extremely easy to solve quickly & would not require the CMO to risk his/her career to do it.

I am not proposing that the big issue items are ignored, but sometimes a few quick-wins can snowball and provide justification for getting some momentum behind attacking the big issues.  At least it is progress, and that is better than just slapping a jingle on a lie and wondering why customers don’t believe it.

Back to my turkey sandwich now.

I did a double-take this morning when I saw a bunch of 300 pound NFL linemen wearing pink cleats, gloves, etc.

Brilliant partnership & execution for Breast Cancer Awareness.  They could have just ran a bunch of awareness TV spots, but how they have integrated it into the game is so much more effective.  They took it even farther and have incorporated a similar approach online to subtly-yet-noticeably integrate pink into all of the NFL online activity as well.

Kudos to the team of people that came up with this approach.  Very nicely done!

OK, so perhaps that title was a little harsh.  Pepsi does not stink, and some of the other drinks/brands within their portfolio are some of my favorites.  However from a branding perspective, the title is 100% accurate.

I saw this article on Kristi Colvin‘s really great blog — We Heart Branding — and had to reblog it.  The visual alone is just too great to pass up on.  If you do not follow her blog regularly, I hope you check it out.  She always finds the most interesting work to post, and typically it is stuff that is not already found everywhere already so her blog is always inspiring.

The only thing I do not see in this timeline is the whole New Coke debacle.  That probably should have made it on the graph considering it is widely thought of as one of the biggest brand blunders (a lot of B’s there) of all time.

With the exception of that missing piece, I think that the graph is quite telling of why after 100 years Coke is one of the most recognizeable brands across the globe …and Pepsi is still trying to find itself.

On a final note — WTF was going on at Pepsi in 1898?  That looks like it was scrawled out by an 5 year old.

I noticed something funny the other day.  Well, let me rephrase that…..since I am a bonafied total advertising nerd I found something funny in how my son asks when he wants to watch Curious George.  He says “I want PBS Kids dot org”.  Not I want Curious George, not I want PBS, but a total repeat of the TV tag that PBS repeats incessently between their sponsorship commercials during kid broadcasting (PBSKids.org).

Thanks to the host voice reading this URL my son has been brainwashed …or in adnerdspeak PBS has been successful in positioning their brand in his 4 yr old evoked set of favorite brands for his Curious George needs.  I am not sure if I should be awed by PBS’s accomplishment or angry at them for entering his pure head.