Posts in ‘General’

All right, this is my blog so therefore anything written here is my opinion and my opinion only.  I want to talk about what I call GREAT TELEVISION shows.  I am not talking about the longest running comedy on television (The Simpsons), or the longest running news show (Meet The Press) or even the longest running soap opera (Guiding Light)…. I am talking about the GREATEST TELEVISION shows.

Take for instance Friday Night Lights.  It just does not get any better than this.  If you are not familiar with the show, which a lot of people are not, Friday Night Lights revolves around a high school football team, its players and the surrounding small Texas community.  The acting in this show is superb.  The interaction between the characters is incredible and the story lines keep getting better every season.  I was thrilled to see that the show just received 4 Emmy nominations (the first time ever!).  It is about time that people started taking notice of it.  I have always said that it is the type of show that you actually have to have a brain to watch (remember Sports Night in the late 90’s)?

After struggling through its first two seasons on NBC, it looked like the show was going to become one of those “brilliant but cancelled” series that end way to soon.  Fortunately, NBC and DirecTV came together and agreed to share the production costs for the past two seasons. With this agreement in place, the season airs first on DirecTV before it hits the NBC airwaves.  I can only hope that this agreement continues so that the show has a long run but I hear rumblings that next year may be the end.  Why, o why can’t the good shows make it?

Speaking of good shows, how about AMC’s Mad Men?  Even if the show were not based on the life and times of pretty people that lived in NYC and worked in advertising in the 1960’s, I would still love it.  The clothes are fabulous, the acting is good and the references to anything having to do with advertising are interesting.  This is another show that requires more thought than “reality” TV to get.  I find it fascinating to think that life in a big Madison Avenue Advertising Agency was like that.

And the last of my GREAT TELEVISION shows is Dexter.  Now, I know that this is based on a serial killer but he is a “good” serial killer….he kills the bad serial killers.  It is a little twisted but boy, how good it is!  How does one go about keeping your “other” life a complete secret from those that you love?

Now, don’t get me wrong, I spend many an hour glued to the TV watching shows that do absolutely nothing for me.  I also spend many hours just channel searching to find at least something worth watching.  But for any of the above shows, I would gladly give up an hour or so.  What do you find worth watching?

I think the idea for this blog post first came to me two weekends ago as a result of the first NFL game of the season between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Dallas Cowboys. It happened at the end of the first quarter, during the commercial break. We witnessed the new Coors Light commercial, you know the one boasting the beer window on the side of the crate so you can view how cold your Coors Light’s are?

This famous Guinness “Surfer” advertising campaign certainly made waves when it was released in 1999 and is still considered one of the best commercials of all time. The surfer that manages to ride the “perfect wave” embodies Guinness’s long standing advertising slogan “Good things come to those who wait”.

Was it unfair to start with this commercial? Probably. The fight for beer-advertising supremacy should be in the here and now which is why I turn to English beer manufacturer Carling. My opinions on the beer itself would not be safe for this blog but they do make damn good commercials. It was difficult to choose one from the “You know who your mates are” campaign but this definitely does the job:

The commercial amusingly draws a parallel between trying to get off a desert island and trying to get home after a night out. The male camaraderie displayed in the commercial is cleverly associated with the beer itself.

I know what you’re thinking. How can the US respond to this genius right hook from across the pond? One of the American beer commercials that I find very entertaining is this Bud Light commercial showing the success of a clothing drive in an American office:

So who wins? The truth is that both nation’s beer advertisements cater for very different target audiences and in this small bout it is impossible to name a winner. An important point to remember is that both sides are trying to sell beer – and that is definitely a good thing!

This October, the new Nissan Leaf will be released. It is a no-gas, 100% electric vehicle powered by an array of  lithium ion cells capable of delivering over 90 kW of power. Along with zero tailpipe emissions, the Leaf will be capable of going 100 miles on a single charge at speeds up to 90mph. A few months before launch, Nissan started a campaign to raise interest and excitement in the new vehicle, which they still have not announced a real price for. An interesting aspect of the Leaf’s introduction in the US is that it’s marketing tactics are taking the facts directly to the consumers Nissan wants to buy its vehicle.

A commercial featuring Lance Armstrong appeals to the eco-friendliness of not having a tail pipe, which would be attractive to those who spend any time outdoors and cough when a tractor trailer drives by pumping smoke into the nice fall air. The Leaf was used in Apple’s demonstration of the new iAd platform, showing the advantages of this new advertising media and reaching those who love technology. After all, the Leaf is a glimpse at the future of driving, right?

Although the content and execution of creative matters, so does where and how your customers see it. The Leaf is an example of putting your product in your customer’s vision in a way that is inviting. People don’t mind looking at ads – they just don’t want to look at them in the wrong place. Lance Armstrong appeals to a wide variety of people, so when you hear him telling a story, you listen. Why? Because you’re interested in what he has to say. Likewise, when Steve Jobs talks, technology geeks listen (I mean that in a nice way). Cleverly placed marketing has the advantage of meeting your customers on neutral ground, which is when their minds are most open to what you have to say.

In London, public transport, despite all the grief it gets from commuters who use it everyday, seems to be a perfectly adequate way of getting around the city. Cars are fine but when you’re stuck in rush hour with five minutes to get to work, you might just wish you caught the train.

I arrived in Raleigh, NC fresh from the UK on Sunday in order to start two months of internships. I had tried to hire a car for the duration of my stay but because I’m only nineteen and from a foreign country, getting insured seemed to be near impossible.

As a result I am pleased to announce that for the next two months I will effectively be test-driving the North Carolina bus system. I have been told and seen with my own eyes that the transport infrastructure of Raleigh, along with that of many other American cities, has been implemented with the use of cars at its forefront.

I certainly don’t see this as a problem. I love driving and wish getting from A to B by car would be as simple for me back home as it is here. The truth is that what may work well for one city might not necessarily work at all for another. Whereas in older cities such as New York and Chicago their public transport systems were born out of the need to travel when cars hadn’t even been invented, Raleigh’s transport infrastructure is definitely geared towards the car.

While the large highways provide a refreshing change of scenery, I have to admit that due to the fairly limited number of bus routes as well as the many bus stops that are rather inconveniently placed on busy roads, I am slightly apprehensive about taking public transport.

However, I accept the challenge, mainly because I don’t have a choice, but nevertheless I aim to prove that it is indeed possible to travel easily in America using public transport. The route: 11 miles on Tuesdays and Thursdays and 20 miles on every other day of the week. Therefore the big question is – will I be able to arrive at work on time and get home at a reasonable hour everyday for two months using Raleigh’s bus service?

I’ll keep you posted.

Nope, not talking about the rock band. Not talking about an intimate act, either.

Just talking about how much better life is when we keep it simple. In our world it has become commonplace for people to forego straightforward communications and give way to acronyms and buzz words. Why? Hopefully, to impress someone with what they know.

The fact is technology is changing so rapidly that keeping up with the latest terminology is becoming an impossible task. That’s why speaking in plain English is still the best way to communicate.

What amazes me is how many people refuse to do it and go on to sound like some wiki-dictionary for the technologically impaired.

I was in a meeting of a board on which I serve recently when several web development firms were making their presentations. Mind you this board is not composed solely of marketers, but a broad cross section of successful business people. Two of the firms decided that they needed to impress us with how much they knew. The shower of jargon and acronyms was endless. During their presentations I noticed the eyes of my fellow board members were simply glazed over.

However, the final group was smart enough to understand the audience was not necessarily tech-savvy, but were people who appreciated good communication. At the end of the meeting when the group had departed, the consensus in the room was, WOW!

Their secret?

They made the complex task of building a huge website simple. The board unanimously voted to award them the business. And the results were outstanding.

The lesson here is simple:

Being smart isn’t about dazzling people with the latest techno-babble.

It’s about communication. Pure and simple.

Thursday, June 24, 2010…..Arbitron activated more than 700 Portable People Meters around the Triangle.  This day officially launched the era of electronic radio measurement in North Carolina.  It is a day that will live forever in the minds of media buyers throughout the area.  Really?

PPM is a system developed by Arbitron to measure how many people are listening (or at least being exposed) to individual radio and television stations as well as cable TV.  The PPM is worn like a pager and picks up on hidden audio tones within a station or networks audio stream, logging each time it finds a signal.  The system was designed to replace those antiquated written diaries that many in the industry had issues with.  Issues such as sample size and response fluctuations that led to ratings wobble, certain demo and ethnic groups were over- and under-represented, reported listening was exaggerated in certain dayparts, and a good deal of cumulative listening was not reported at all.  Still, this was what we, as media buyers, had to “trust” when putting radio buys together.

I for one am excited about this way of measurement.  I hope that it truly makes a difference in how radio is bought in this market.  While I believe that a lot of buying is based on gut instinct and knowing the market, numbers have to play a part in it.  I have always marveled at how every radio station can position themselves as #1….we are #1 in reaching boys 12+ after midnight….we are #1 in reaching adults 65+ on the weekends.  I want to know who is #1 in reaching my demo, whatever it happens to be, during the dayparts when they are listening.  I hope that this new PPM will help me decipher that a little better.

I wonder what will be next?  Perhaps we will all wear some type of tracking device that will pick up on every message that is sent to us.  I have read that the average American is exposed to between 850-5,000 messages on any given day.  There doesn’t seem to be an exact number that I can quote.  Either way, there are a lot of messages being drilled into our brains constantly.  How many do we actually remember?  Well, at least with the PPM not only will Big Brother be watching us he will be listening to us as well.



I’m not a fan of the NBA.  I’d rather watch college basketball any day.  And I’m certainly not a fan of LeBron James.

Do I care where he decides to play next season?  Absolutely not.

Have I been following the media blitz surrounding his “big decision”?  Who hasn’t.

Love him or hate him, there’s no denying that his publicist should be applauded for a job well done.  The LeBron James brand is currently one of the most widely discussed topics in the world, in great part due to social media.

In the past 2 minutes alone, 199 people have tweeted the name LeBron and he continues to top the trending topics.

“KingJames” as his twitter moniker says, already has more than 300,000 followers after less than 48 hours as a member of twitter.  And he already has his own hash tag (#lebrondecision) which is averaging about 40 tweets a minute.

I won’t even try to keep tabs on the number of blog posts penned about tonight’s press conference (I guess this one adds to that tally).  The bottom line:  LeBron’s publicist did something that any good public relations specialist should do.  He used social media in calculated and deliberate way to promote his client and create an ongoing conversation about his upcoming press conference.  And not just a conversation, but genuine suspense and anticipation.

Tomorrow morning I’ll be interested to find out not where LeBron’s going, but how many people tuned in to see.

As social media continues to play a bigger role in the world of advertising and PR, I have a feeling this story will find itself on the pages of a textbook one day soon.

On my way to work I heard a song on the local country radio station by Tim McGraw called “I’m Already Home”.  The song is a letter written by fallen soldier to his wife before he died.  The lyrics were emotional and moving in that particular way country songs can sometimes do:

‘If you’re reading this halfway around the world
I won’t be there to see the birth of our little girl
I hope she looks like you
I hope she fights like me
And stands up for the innocent and the weak
I’m layin down my gun and hanging up my boots
Tell dad I don’t regret that I followed in his shoes’

Hearing that song, and with the Fourth of July coming up, I got to thinking.  War is no beautiful thing and it must be hard convincing the masses to go and enlist.  With the war our country is fighting these days, it’s no easy or simple decision for a young man to decide to leave his family, friends, loved ones, comforts, and conveniences to go and fight.  I also wondered, what is the military’s strategy when trying to recruit?  How do they position their advertising knowing that many of those they are trying to reach through their TV ads and online ads will end up dead?

All those questions are hard and not easily answered.  I’ve seen recruitment campaigns ranging from video game type stimulation to heart-moving pieces all with the goal of persuading individuals to selflessly fight for their country.

One thing is certain, however, there is something to be said for the unsolicited advertising received through songs like the one above.  The patriotic songs written by many artists over the years move listeners and frame the job of giving your life to your country as one that is heroic and to be coveted.  The lyrics move the heart and may even move some towards a decision to enlist.

Happy Fourth of July and thanks to all our brave soldiers who fight to keep us free!

What does it take to make good advertising?  Does having someone yell at you from inside your television about low rates, fast service or convenient locations make for good advertising?  Does an ad that drives you to turn the radio off every time it comes on make for good advertising?  Does a stupid photo or a silly headline make for good advertising?  I have to say no to all of the above.

Good advertising, in my opinion, has to make the consumer say “Wow”.  It has to connect with the audience in some way.  It must be memorable and easily recalled.  It needs to provide information quickly and it needs to call the consumer to action.  Easy enough?

Check these out…

Promoting the Sopranos in NYC

Promoting the release of Finding Nemo 2

Gillette Ambient Ad

Did any of these ads actually work for the clients?  I don’t know the answer to that but I would have to say they at least got the audience talking about them and that can’t be all bad…right?

As a client for nearly 20 years, one of my responsibilities as a marketing director was to select the company’s advertising agency. Oh goody! I must confess…it was a hard job…one of the hardest jobs I tackled during my time as a client. And I managed to tackle it three times! Each time got better because I refined the technique.

Then, for whatever reason (it had to be something weird that I ate), I decided I wanted to own an agency. And over the past 17 years, I’ve learned the other side of the selection process. Having seen life from both sides of the relationship there are some things we can all do, clients and agencies, to improve on what sometimes feels like a prehistoric process.

The following five tips have come to me over the years as both a client and an agency owner.

1. Narrow the field – Don’t invite 10 agencies to pitch…narrow the list to no more than four or five. Every agency’s chance of winning just got better and, as a client, you managed to protect your sanity. A good thing!

2. Communicate - If you, as a client, are asking for spec work or some other type of assignment, make yourself available to your prospective agencies to answer questions. Nothing is worse, from an agency perspective, than developing an assignment from a cold brief without the benefit of some client involvement. Besides, as a client, you’ll get to see how each agency works, up close and personal. As for spec work, I would always build a certain amount into my agency search budget. Each agency got a little something for the trouble. No one likes to work for free…not even ad agencies.

3. Be even-handed – Every agency should get the same treatment…everything handled the same way, the same assignment, the same expectations. There should be no “grey area”.

4. Get to know each other – No matter how good an agency’s creative product or credentials, this is still a “people” business. Clients work best with people they like and trust. And agencies do, too! Think of ways to meet away from the office during the evaluation process… even to the point of sharing a beer or two. Basing a decision of this importance on the personality of the pitch team during an hour-long presentation isn’t necessarily the best way. Take a little time to get to know your prospective agency. It will pay dividends in the decision-making process and in the working relationship to follow.

5. Treat the losers with respect – It’s bad enough to pitch and not win. Add to that not knowing why you lost! Taking the time to tell an agency why they didn’t win leaves everyone on a positive footing. For the client, it elevates them in the eyes of the agencies that didn’t win. For the agencies, it helps to know where they were weak and how to fix what didn’t work. In that respect, even the losers get to win.

These points are really nothing earthshaking, but simply things I’ve learned on both sides of the client/agency relationship.

Besides, they are so simple that even a caveman could do it.*

*(I think someone else already uses that line!)