Is technology innovation the key to ALL advertising?

If you to talk to anyone worth their salt in digital advertising, they will say that the best advertising is no longer about delivering a literal message, cleverly promoting a brand USP ("Red bull gives you wings"), but it is about building the value of a brand by delivering something tangible and long lasting to the consumer. Our generation of consumers are cynical, and rarely believe messaging, or care about ad campaigns, especially when it is delivered by a brand that has been around for a while. Fallon’s Gorilla has been an exception in the recent landscape- because it was a piece of creative that stopped people in their tracks, and reminded people about the nation’s biggest chocolate brand. However, in the majority, advertisers/brands are waking up to a reality that, in order to glean credibility or cut through in a cluttered market, they have to look at a consumer, listen to what the consumer wants, and deliver them a tool or a service that enables an ongoing conversation between consumer and brand. We have all heard people in the past year proclaiming advertising is now about giving and supporting, rather than telling or asking.... This bar has, as many will agree, been set by agencies like R/GA making Nike+. They succeeded in this vein because rather than telling people about how well they could jog with a new pair of Nikes, R/GA provided a running service that enabled people to run further and faster with their new shoes - letting consumers set themselves targets and listen to motivating music, rather than half believe a well worded one liner.

The new job for planners seems to no longer be about defining an insight that will be the springboard to create a strong brand message or positioning, it is about developing a role for the brand in consumer’s lives, a role with a large degree of longevity and a role that differentiates it from the rest of the market.

This topic was written about almost a year ago by R/GA's senior planner on Nike+, Anne Benvenuto. In her document on planning today, she states that planners need to do more than just mine an insight about consumer behaviour, they need to have at least 4 dimensions to a brief - Perceptual (what a consumer thinks), Behavioural (what they are doing), technological (how consumer is using apps/interfaces/platforms), cultural (dynamics in which consumer operates). She also states that we need two additions to the traditional creative team: an interaction designer (who understands interface design/forms of engagement) and a tech lead (someone that knows how technology works, what technology is coming up, what is possible). She is not the only one that thinks this, Ogilvy has the Ogilvy Lab in Singapore with a rocket scientist on its team, and on the less techy front, Crispin Porter is beginning to excel at product development - using products to change brand positing rather than TV/press campaigns (ie. they made a computer game about the 'Burger King' to sell in stores, or they made an electric guitar that plugs into a Volkswagen Brora - thus repositioning the car for a younger market). Crispin’s advertising model is about inventing something tangible rather than an idea delivered in semantics and images. Having said that, these campaigns were all supported by TV and poster advertising, so you could argue that traditional advertising is really the launch pad, it whetts the appetite, but has only a short term affect. Lastly, digital agencies are constantly endeavouring to provide technology solutions to brand problems, (lets face it, the online broadcast model is only a hygiene factor and generally is asked for by clients to spread the reach of an ATL campaign). In essence there is a growing sense that advertising should be about inventions - product and service innovation, something that moulds into the consumers lives, rather than disrupting it with the delivery of short scale messaging in literature or a 30 second film....I am not saying that
the disruption model is dead, merely that it is the beginning of what should be a longer lasting relationship, it is a short announcement, that now needs serious back up.

I agree with this 'product development' concept, but I wonder how this kind of strategy will pan out for low value commodities like FMCGs... is every FMCG brand going to be linked to a wider service offering in a couple of years? Is every brief for a new product variant going to have to go through a rigorous funnel of technology innovation?

I can see how it might work for brands that are linked to a specific activity (like running), in fact I was shown a great site the other day that would be perfect for the NHS to use in a digital anti- smoking campaign…Having finally found a use for twitter.com, quitter.com allows you to track how many cigarettes you smoke a day, it lets you record why you smoked and how you felt, and it also notifies all your friends that you are having a cigarette via web and internet...so if you really want to give up smoking, you can digitally track your 'will power' and compare it a community of smokers who are using the same service. It is the anti-smoking version of Nike+ , both services track ‘will power’, and allow you to mark how much you are achieving. I believe Weight Watchers also has a similar service, although one that is less holistic technology-wise (with no mobile or mp3 addition).

Will we have to link every FMCG to a certain behaviour other than eating or showering and expand that out then? And will consumers care? The Johnson’s baby website does this to an extent – allowing mums to track their pregnancy and linking them to a community, whilst offering up information and helpful advice. But should Johnson's also be developing a portable ultra sound service or a baby-steps pedometer in order to promote their moisturiser and shower gel?– Will this extra offering seal them as the leader in the market? Maybe I am missing the point here as those ideas don’t tap into a specific insight, but I can see this all happening…

I saw a brilliant TV ad by DDB today, promoting the new Phillips epilator. The ad uses a transvestite to promote the new 'sense and sensitivity' epilator - after all, what could be better proof that a hair removal device for women works, than showing that it works on a man's hardcore, thick hair? The ad perfectly disrupted the boring ‘look at my long, smooth, female legs' hair removal ad scene, hammering home a product truth. I'm already convinced, without any extra technology letting me remind myself when I next need to epilate. I suppose it is when the product life-span begins to wane due to a newer version from Gillette that Phillips will really need to use digital to involve me in an engaging brand loyalty programme.

Let’s put it this way, in my mind, traditional ads (if they are good enough) still do a great job of launching a product or reminding people of its existence, but digital will become essential to maintaining a brand’s lifespan through innovative consumer loyalty programmes. Regardless of my fears and doubts regarding FMCG brand strategy, I believe that digital technology is a brand’s NOS, - it’s the button that needs to be pressed in order to inject new life into a brand, and help it pace far ahead of the others after initial launch. Nike ‘turbo powered’ its way ahead in the trainer market quite literally... The key for other brands will be taking this learning and applying it to the brand, consumer and campaign in a way that isn’t just technology for technology’s sake, but something that truly takes the brand streets ahead of its competitors. Whether we need to employ a techy or interface designer to develop a service technology promoting Flora or Tropicana is debatable – but I bet once one of them is employed, and cracks a technology use for this market, there’ll be no stopping the innovation efforts of the likes of P&G or Unilever - will it be the digital agencies that finally crack this and finally own the main brand relationship? Will traditional agencies be pushed aside to be briefed to launch campaigns already defined by digital agencies, that have thought up campaigns with consumer/technology insights at their heart? Watch this space….

Check out DDB ad: Once, Twice, Three times a Lady:

http://creativity-online.com/work/view?seed=e378593c

Doig is a legend

I went and saw Peter Doig’s show at Tate Britain the other day. I didn't know of him before... apparently his stuff sells for some serious doe - £11 million for a painting to be exact… and I can see why – I freakin’ loved it.

Doig takes scenes, either from reality or from films and embellishes them with his own take on texture, realism and imagination. Even though his style is largely unique, I found each of his paintings really different. Some of them are really mystical, and others are more blunt, more realistic. I loved ‘Gasthof zur Muldentalsperre’ (2002 - above). It is a painting of two different photographs mapped together, one is of a dam and lake from a German postcard originating from 1910. The other is a photo of Doig and his mate in fancy dress – they are in costumes from the ballet ‘Petrouchka’ from when they worked at a theatre and had their photo taken. The mysterious, fairytale quality that Doig manages to evoke is brilliant – and the idea is as delightful as its delivery.

The second that really got to me was ‘Metropolitan (House of Pictures)’ (2004). According to Tate Britain, Doig came across a painting by a 19^th century French artist ‘Honore Daumier’ of an arts connoisseur looking intently at prints. Doig loved the stance, outfit and expression of Honore so painted him, ironically looking at Doig’s own work. To the figure he added facepaints, as he was living in Trinidad at the time, and apparently during Carnival it is common for Trinidadians to paint there faces white and nose and cheeks red to mock Europeans (hehe- good for them!!)

Anyway, the squares actually reminded me of some of my own paintings. If only I had used him as an influence – I reckon I could of taken some of my work further than I got. My own influences were Edward Hopper, Lichtenstein and Ken Howard. I love a mixture of abstraction and realism, and variable textures and colours are essential to my paintings. Below is a painting of my school art room (2002). It was a pretty boring brown room at the time, but there was so much creative work hanging on the walls, that it influenced the colours in my work. The second two, I did when I was in California (2004) and are reflections of my obsession with palm trees. For Palm 2 (second painting), I painted the buildings in abstraction, as I was staying in a yucky peach coloured modernist motel. In my mind it was a great place, but in a painting its realism looked ugly to me. Plus the light at the time had a huge purple/pink effect on the wall. Laslty, I wanted the colours to reflect my own fairytale existence on the sunshine coast.

My favourite thing about Doig is that he often takes things that he finds interesting from other works of art (film, photos, paintings) and puts it into his own work, playing with time, space and the medium (in most cases oil) itself. It’s cheeky, ballsy and LEDGY. Big up Doig, thank you for backing oil painting in contemporary art.

(pic 1. ‘Gasthof zur Muldentalsperre’ (2002), Peter Doig, Tate Britain, pic 2. ‘Metropolitan (House of Pictures)’ (2004), Peter Doig, Tate Britain, Pic.3 Art room, Lucy Hurst, Pic 4. Palms, Lucy Hurst, Pic 5. Palms 2, Lucy Hurst.)