Archive for the ‘Outdoor’ Category

Questioning QR Codes on Billboards

Wednesday, November 17th, 2010

Just in case you just crawled out of a cave, October was Breast Cancer Awareness month. A bevy of brands painted their products pink to draw awareness and raise funds to the issue–including everything from packaged goods to vacuums to the National Football League. My job is to notice companies’ efforts to create meaningful marketing like these tie-ins, and it is also to watch for examples of companies’ clever use of digital technology to bring it to life. So I had to pull over and get out of my car (literally) when I saw this billboard for ConesfortheCure.org a few weeks ago. While certainly clever, this example unfortunately shows how some companies are making basic mistakes with new technology, even when using it for good.

As you can probably tell, this particular billboard features a QR Code in the middle. Also known as a 2-D bar code, the role of it here is to access information via a mobile device. Here’s how it works: First, you must have a smartphone. Second, you download a QR code reader. I personally use this one, but there are many of them and they seem to work similarly.  Then you open the reader app and take a photo of the QR code. When it works correctly, you are taken to some kind of content–usually a mobile-friendly webpage.

Confused and exhausted yet? I thought so. You see, QR codes are smart in theory–they can allow you to quickly and easily go to mobile content without having to type in a website on your phone’s browser.  But as you might start to notice in my description, problems abound.  Here are some of the issues in QR codes overall and in this execution in particular:

  • Most people still don’t know what the heck QR codes are.
  • Most people still don’t have a smartphone or a QR code-reader app.
  • It’s not easy to scan QR codes when you are driving a car. In this case above, I had to literally pull over on the side of the road, activate my hazard lights, and walk up closer to get my reader to work.
  • The result is not that impressive. In the example above, the mobile page below was pulled up, offering me the chance to fill out a form, to receive an email, to click to get a webpage coupon to bring in for a free scoop of ice cream.

I would venture to say that very, very few of these billboards were scanned. People don’t have time to do what I did, and the vast majority simply drive by; possibly some notice a funny symbol and then they go on about their lives. It is unfortunate, because the “Cones for a Cure” idea by my beloved Graeter’s Ice Cream brand is a great example of meaningful marketing. But by rushing to try out this new technology, the brand has hurt the impact of the program.

Instead, why not just use the billboard to do what billboards do best: In big words write something like, “Free Scoop when you say ‘Cones for the Cure’” this month at Graeter’s.”  Crazy-simple, I know; but it just might work.  This is the kind of thing that a commuter in her car might actually notice and remember. No need to go through 10 steps to make a difference and engage with consumers. Or if you want to make people work a little bit to get the free scoop, abandon the QR code process and just ask people to email a photo of the billboard.  This is much easier, safer, and more effective. For example, check out this Cannes Lion-winning example from James Ready beer:

New mobile tools and technology are great and very promising, but I fear that companies such as Graeter’s that jump in without thinking things through will end up frustrating themselves and their customers. To be meaningful, marketing must have more than a great idea in the center–execution is everything.

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Posted in Achievement, Apps, mobile, Outdoor | 4 Comments »

Cannes Takeaways Day 2 #canneslions

Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010

Is it digital? Traditional? Or are we way past the point of the online versus offline debate? That’s the question that was resonating in my head and among colleagues on Tuesday, Day 2 of the Cannes Advertising Festival.

Unfortunately most of the seminars I attended left me with little to write about. They seemed to cover the same material or be a bit too direct of a sales pitch than what should happen at Cannes. So I spent a good chunk of time walking the floor of work in the Outdoor and Direct category. And I came back with the following observations.

Outdoor has no scale—but no one doubts it.

The outdoor work that made the short list and won Lions was outstanding. It was entertaining, linked to brand benefits, and smart. Although I have debated in the past in this space whether outdoor ads are meaningful, the work here demonstrates that even a traditionally interruptive medium can add value to people’s lives when it makes them laugh, cry, or think. It reminded me that any medium can be meaningful.

But one of the things that hit me was that these award-winning outdoor ads are often one-off executions that might appear in a single city for a limited time. Because they are innovative and often surprise people with a laugh, there’s little use in keeping it up once everyone has gotten the joke. Several of the executions were also expensive and difficult to place. You simply cannot expose them to enough eyeballs to generate “scale” like a print ad or TV commercial. Take this terrific example from Hot Wheels, below:

Another favorite of mine was this campaign for James Ready beer. It offered billboard/photo coupons for local stores so that you could save money in other ways and put the savings toward beer.

Clients are looking for scale, so why would they sign off on this kind of one-off work? It’s a challenge we hear all of the time in digital, but I’ve not heard it applied to outdoor before. Perhaps this comes from the agency test/award budget, or maybe, just maybe, clients are starting to buy into great ideas that make a big impact with a smaller audience. It’s a question I’d like to explore further and would love your comments here.

Direct is digital.

In looking at the range of Direct nominees and winners I was amazed by the amount of work that I would call digital. “Direct” has traditionally meant something that went in the mailbox—but if Cannes is the standard, that definition is done. My friend David Sable at Wunderman has said for years that “direct is digital” and he just might be right.

Take the example above for Nokia’s navigation tool: The World’s Largest Sign. Here, people could search for directions online in London and the sign would rotate in real-life to point to whatever you searched for. To me, this is a digital idea that just happens to connect to the real world. But it was offered in the Direct category.

Another example is this direct/outdoor piece for The Economist in India that asked people to text for clues to decipher the political debate behind the ad.

Where are the digital agencies?

This merger of Direct/Digital brings me to my final takeaway of the day. This morning I opened the daily Cannes Lions magazine to look for the short-listed work in the Cyber (digital) category. It’s the category we won a Gold for last year for our Pringles banner. I was blown away to see that of the 150 or so short-listed entries, only about 6 or 7 of them were created by digital agencies from the Advertising Age list. Very big names such as Razorfish and Digitas were missing in action. This could be the big news of Day 3 when the final Cyber winners are handed out.

I’m not sure what’s going on here, but there are a few hypotheses. Maybe digital agencies don’t know how to do the kind of work that wins Cannes awards—or they don’t know how to “campaign” to get their work into the winner’s circle (a little-known secret to winning sometimes). Another possibility is that a lot of the work digital agencies do—such as e-commerce sites, mobile apps, search optimization, and social media relationship marketing programs—simply don’t fit into a creative awards competition. What tends to win here are one-off “ideas” in the form of smart, funny, interesting engagements.

Or, maybe traditional agencies are now very close to mastering digital agencies’ space. After years of wondering and waiting, maybe they finally now get it. If so, and if Cannes is the place this is judged, it’s not great news for digital agencies like mine. But this also might be a wake-up call for those of us on the digital-agency side to take our game up a notch or two.

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Posted in Conferences, Outdoor | 2 Comments »

Unique Coke Cannes Delivery

Wednesday, July 15th, 2009


This week I’m spending some time catching up on sharing some of the best, most meaningful marketing to be awarded in the annual Cannes Advertising Competition. Our President, Jay, and Chief Creative Officer, Peter, both came back raving about an incredibly powerful vending machine for Coca-Cola that was put up in the bottom floor of the Cannes conference. It ended up winning a Gold Lion in the Design category. Check out the video above for a glimpse of the experience.

The biggest lesson for me here is a reminder that everything your brand does with the consumer is a kind of marketing, whether it’s customer service, packaging, delivery trucks, or vending machines. And every consumer touchpoint in this broad view of marketing can be made much more meaningful. In this case, Coke has taken the boring, predictable, exchange-focused vending machine and turned it into something remarkable, entertaining, and fun. I also love how this delivers on what the Coke brand and drinking experience is really about: a few minutes of fun and enjoyment. Instead of just advertising to people on TV with equity spots that are meant to help trigger a feeling of enjoyment hours or days later when the drink is consumed, this makes entertainment and happy feelings happen at the moment of truth of refreshment.

I think there are some other really interesting things about these vending experiences. First, they are completely measurable (obviously, because they sell product). Second, they could allow Coke to charge more and achieve wider margins (say, charging $2 or more for the machine experience and fancy bottle). Third, they draw attention in public places, which attracts more users, buyers, and observers.

I am most interested to see what happens from here with the vending machines, and whether they will truly roll out broadly. Sure, it’s easy to create a concept such as this, install it in a few malls, and win an award at Cannes. The challenge is selling this in broadly and getting distributors around the world to embrace the concept. This is where the marketing department often bumps heads with the old-school crowd, finance guys and general bureaucratic commitment to not making waves.

“Marketing” sits in a skyscraper in Atlanta, Georgia, making ads, while “Sales” is out on the streets making sure machines and store shelves are full. Placing ads and maintaining fancy machines is not their job, nor in their budget. Coke distributors are used to paying $X for a basic vending machine that needs almost no service. But what happens when “headquarters” forces them to pay $5X for this special machine? Who’s going to fix them when they break? Anyone who has worked in a large company can play out this tragic scene from hours in boardrooms and conference calls. A quote that I developed in my days as a big marketer was, “Doing anything new is hard.”

My congrats to Coke on a killer idea, and our hopes are with you as you try to take this meaningful idea outside the ad-award world.

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Posted in Awards, Entertainment, Experience, Outdoor | 1 Comment »

Bleeding Billboard Slows Traffic Deaths

Monday, July 13th, 2009


It’s a few weeks after the annual Cannes Advertising Festival. I was able to post early on our agency’s Gold Lions win for Pringles, but I’m a bit slow in sharing other examples of great, meaningful advertising from the show. This week I’ll share a few examples of my favorite work.

First up is this incredibly powerful and simple idea from BBDO in New Zealand that won a Bronze Lion in the Design competition. The video above tells the story much better than I can, but in summary, its goal is to reduce car accidents on the roads of Papakura, New Zealand, which tend to spike when rains come and roads become slippery. This campaign reduced road deaths on this particular piece of roadway to zero.

It is great to see a piece of brilliant, meaningful marketing for a nonprofit issue here. One might argue that all cause-related and nonprofit marketing is meaningful, but I don’t believe that is the case. Issue-related nonprofits are in sales just like regular businesses; their goal is to “sell in” their point of view on a topic. But unless they draw true engagement and value for the targeted audience, they fail.

In this case, local government is trying to “sell” its drivers on the need to slow down during rain. To measure success, instead of tracking sales of a product, it is tracking the number of road accidents and fatalities. And clearly some marketing is more effective than others. Imagine TV commercials or print ads with a policeman or government official lecturing a viewer about the need to drive cautiously during rains. Failure is almost assured for such an approach because it does not come at a relevant time in an engaging way. Here, the bleeding billboards not only come at the right place and time (roadside during rain), but they communicate the message in a way that embodies the tragedy of drivers’ failure to adjust—the photo of a young child. This beats a flashing yellow warning sign any day. Not only is this effective in its roadside ad placement, but the ad has been viewed nearly 500,000 times on YouTube in less than a month.

My hope is that the concept and framework of Marketing with Meaning is also used by nonprofit organizations to better their strategy and results. Coming up in my book, The Next Evolution of Marketing, I share the story of how another nonprofit issue organization, the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, dramatically shifted its marketing approach from interruptive ads to meaningful messages and advice. I may also try to do something in the marketing of the book to specifically reach out to nonprofits, perhaps in a nonprofit way. Stay tuned and, as always, your ideas in the comments are welcome and appreciated!

(Special thanks to Chris Zieverink from our Creative team, who not only sent me this link but just created a killer logo for Marketing with Meaning that I’ll be sharing here soon.)

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Posted in Cause Related, non-profit, Outdoor | 1 Comment »

Lining Airport Security with Meaning

Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008

(Today is the first of two guest posts by Ryan Kolbe, one of our star Client Service Managers who is helping cover for me over the holidays. In this first post, Ryan actually disagrees with something I wrote about Zappos airport security-bin ads a few months ago. But that’s OK; meaning can lie in the eye of the beholder, and I think we need some good, healthy debate about the Marketing with Meaning concept in order for it to succeed.)

 

 

I am one of the countless numbers of people who are annoyed with the current use of “traditional” marketing tactics. Traditional advertising is becoming less meaningful to consumers, and it’s more mental clutter than anything else. Marketing with Meaning is something that will be able to help reverse these tactics with time, but unfortunately, we’re not at rock bottom yet. All companies haven’t latched onto the idea of making advertising more meaningful so that people want to see and interact with it. Where else could it go?

Someday, toothpastes may have microchips in them so that after you brush, the advertising changes on digital posters you walk by throughout the day, congratulating you on brushing, and giving you a secret code to get buy one floss and get one free. How about paper towels that reveal hidden coupons for more paper towels after cleaning up the mess on the dinner table? What about lightbulbs that send off a “bat signal” message before they burn out, prompting you to buy more? Where will it end? Companies need to be trendsetters and reverse the downward spiral of traditional “push” marketing—enter Marketing with Meaning.

A great example of Marketing with Meaning presented itself to me on the way home from a quick trip to Denver. In the age of “current threat levels” and miniature toothpastes, the reality of traveling these days is much different than in the past. Gone are the days of getting to the airport an hour in advance, gallivanting around the terminal for coffee, and finally ending up going through the sleepy line of security to make it to your plane as they are beginning to call for boarding passes. People have come to understand that they will be waiting in lines and are planning accordingly more and more.

As is customary nowadays, the lines were horrendous. There were eight open lanes, each having about 20 people in them, and a thousand of my closest friends behind me. Without hesitation, based on prior airport visits, I started to de-security-risk myself. I took off my coat, hat, scarf, belt, watch, sunglasses, iPod, phone, and boots. By the time I was done with all of that, balancing everything precariously in between someone resembling my grandmother and a teenager with a skateboard, I was at the point where I could put my belongings into the plastic security bins to send them all through the X-ray machine, only to put them back on after passing through successfully.

I took out two bins: one for my shoes and the “extras,” and one for my coat, and I came to find some Marketing with Meaning waiting for me in the base of the bins. Two different ads from Zappos.com were lining the bins, directing me to “place shoes here” and “buy shoes here” with the website address, and in the other bin telling me that they “sell almost everything [I'll] put in this tray” with the Zappos.com link again.

At first I was annoyed, as my Pavlovian reaction to marketing where I’m not expecting it immediately took hold. But then I sat there for a minute and took in what they were accomplishing with these bin liners. As a traveler, I could have been in any kind of mood at that moment: I could have been happy because I was going home, annoyed that I was delayed again, tired because of lack of sleep, or whatever. Zappos.com realized that in their marketing, and played to the fact that the people who are waiting in line will not have their shoes on, and they will see the website.

At that point, people could see their shoes and think, “Wow, I could use a new pair; those have really seen better days,” or “Man, my feet are tired from all of this standing around,” or any number of other things, and then Zappos.com was on the mind. At the other side of security, that person could whip out a Web-enabled phone or laptop, browse Zappos.com’s selection, and maybe even purchase right there when waiting for a flight. Ahh, the relief of a new pair of shoes waiting at home after a trip—could it get any easier?

So what? The fact that I wasn’t expecting to see the ad in the base of the bin ended up grabbing my attention rather than deterring it. Coupling that with the fact that it didn’t interrupt my day made the marketing meaningful: I was in line already, I needed to put my shoes in the bin, and it added some color and thought into a monotonous, sometimes annoying task. If I didn’t already use Zappos.com, I would have remembered that ad and looked on the site the next time I needed new shoes or even to pass the time when I was waiting for my flight. Meaningful marketing doesn’t have to be interruptive, and it adds that much more when it flows with my day-to-day. Understanding that mindset will help companies learn to work with consumers, rather than pushing marketing onto those who aren’t as receptive.

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Posted in Buzz, Connection, Outdoor | 1 Comment »

Zappos Lands in Airport Security Bins

Friday, October 10th, 2008

I’ve railed against interruptive marketing time after time in this space. The purpose of this blog is to promote the need for us to stop finding new ways to just “get eyeballs” and instead create advertising that people actually find valuable. But to prove the concept, it is important to continually test it. Let’s see if Zappos can pass the test with air-travel advertising.

Air travel is becoming a huge target of brilliant inventors’ attempts to make a buck by bombarding us with more advertising. Air travelers are certainly a great target for their efforts; they have higher incomes and need to make frequent decisions about where they stay or visit. And, most importantly, they are trapped in small places like security lines and airplane seats for hours—with nothing to do but stare at advertisements. As a result, we’ve seen ads arrive on tray tables, overhead storage bins, and even barf bags.  A company called Ad-Air is buying up land near runways to host football-field-sized banner ads.

So it is no surprise that someone has figured out how to turn the lowly security bin into an advertising medium. A company called SecurityPoint Media has been written up in Advertising Age and USA Today for its new, growing service. The company splits the revenue with the host airport, and the bins are approved for TSA use. The company claims that several million people per month see the advertising, and they have received no complaints so far.

Research has proven that airport travelers consist of a highly sought-after demographic that includes early adopters and decision makers.  There is no other airport marketing platform today that ensures your message meets the eye.” — SecurityPoint Media

During a training I was giving this week, someone in the audience mentioned that they had recently seen an ad for the online shoe store Zappos.com in these bins. It was memorable because it included cute copy and seemed extremely relevant (see above image). After all, what better time to talk shoes than when you’re asking someone to take them off and put them into a tray? But let’s test to see whether or not this is meaningful marketing.

Marketing

While we cannot get inside the heads of management, one would suppose that Zappos.com, a releatively new online retailer, has a business objective of driving awareness. The company likely sees tactics like this as a way to make a big impact without spending giant bucks on TV. Zappos says that the program is a success.  According to its senior marketing manager, Andy Kurlander:

We feel that this is a highly targeted venue to promote our brand. Each person getting on a plane is guaranteed to view our message multiple times. Plus, with shoes in hand, it’s the perfect instance to remind them they’ve been meaning to make time to buy a new pair. Why not Zappos?”

Meaning

Here’s where I think the Zappos example breaks down. We believe that meaningful advertising must do two things: First,  people must choose to engage in the ad. The Zappos ads, though, are more interruptive than engaging. The Zappos ad is a kind of “gotcha” surprise ambush. Second, the ad unit itself must add value to people’s lives. This might hold true, but just barely. The Zappos ad offers very light humor with lines such as “Place Shoes Here,” which can be a welcome diversion in the slow death march through the scanner line.

Conclusion

Is the Zappos.com security-bin marketing successful? Probably so. Is it meaningful? Not really. I believe new media opportunities like this tend to have a very short life span. The first ad units surprise us, and if they are clever and relevant (like Zappos), they can even delight us. But companies like SecurityPoint Media are not restricting themselves to clever, relevant advertisers, so those of us who trudge through the aiport each week will see more and more of them until they, too, become just another piece of ignored wallpaper along our journey from City A to City B.

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Posted in Marketing Without Meaning, Outdoor | 6 Comments »

Venice Embraces a Necessary Evil

Friday, September 5th, 2008

I trust that I’m not the only one who was horrified to read in Advertising Age yesterday that the city of Venice, Italy, is opening up St. Mark’s Square for advertising. It marks the first time in the piazza’s 900-year history that advertising will grace this remarkable scene. Large electronic billboards will be placed on scaffolding, and the cash from the program is said to help pay for the restoration of the square.

Some predict that this will be another great opportunity for brands to connect with consumers. Mike Segrue, Global Chief Client Officer at out-of-home agency Kinetic Worldwide, captured the opportunity in saying:

The screens in St. Mark’s will be a great chance for high-end brands to reach a largely upscale audience… The careful vetting of copy and creative should allow Venice city council to retain some control and, of course, in the end important renovations will be completed. It is probably a relatively harmless necessary evil.”

Kudos to Segrue for his optimism and acceptance of the idea as a “necessary evil.” But I fear that this modest proposal will do much more harm than good. I believe that consumers are increasingly hostile to the way advertising has invaded nearly every square inch of eye space, and by bringing its touch to a 900-year-old historic landmark, advertising brands may find angry reactions instead of equity building.

I believe anger will come from an overall impression that “enough is enough” and that a line has been crossed. Recall the ill-fated attempt by McDonald’s to advertise on report cards. It was another example of a government body looking to embrace a “necessary evil” in order to pay the bills. But both local and national citizens rose against the plan and it was abandoned within weeks. Advertising in St. Mark’s Square will remind people who have visited the spot of a special time in their lives, and legions of future tourists will be disappointed to see the city of Venice sell out.

There are so many other ways that both government and marketers could renovate St. Mark’s without meaningless ad messages. I could see American Express or Visa create a global campaign about saving the square, raising money and contributing to the renovation. A small, tasteful plaque could be placed in the cobblestones to thank the brand and its members for their support. And it’s not too late! What a PR opportunity for a brand to propose this solution and come in and rescue the product from a necessary evil.

For now, though, we’ll have to chalk up another one for meaningless advertising and the continued belief that innovative advertising interruption will cure all ills. I leave you with a few of my favorite photos from my two visits to St. Mark’s Square.

(My wife, Stephanie, from 1999)

(Me while backpacking, from 1994)

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Posted in Marketing Without Meaning, Outdoor | No Comments »

Outdoor Cleverness – Meaningful?

Wednesday, June 4th, 2008

Nationwide outdoor paint spill

I will be the first to admit that our concept of “meaningful marketing” is not an exact science. One of the main reasons we have launched this blog is to generate a conversation about what is meaningful and what is not. Clever outdoor advertising is one example that I go back and forth on.

I don’t mean the billboards that are plastered everywhere along the highways, on buses, and even on gas pumps and airline tray tables. For an outdoor ad to even have a chance to be effective marketing, it needs to grab your attention. I believe that to be meaningful, outdoor ads must both get your attention and reward it.

Take the example above for Nationwide. As part of its “Life Comes At You Fast” campaign, the brand took over a parking lot in Columbus, Ohio, and re-created a giant paint spill. This ad certainly grabs attention and I believe most people would say it made them smile at least once. As for marketing effectiveness, my bet is that it wins on both gaining attention and generating a positive feeling for Nationwide. In the highly competitive life insurance game, this small difference could mean a lot.

Here’s another example below for our hometown Cincinnati Cyclones hockey team. A few weeks ago I was walking out of a client’s office and saw this pile of snow on the corner during a 70-degree afternoon, with an advertisement to that evening’s playoff game. Again, it got my attention right away, and it got a smile as well. Heck, I even had a little sense of pride that our local team was in the finals and got out in the community to build some buzz. Plus, $1 beers is meaningful to a lot of us….

The downside to clever outdoor marketing is that it is by nature interruptive – and by forcing everyone to look, they can piss off a hell of a lot of people. In the examples above, for every smile or snicker there may be another cry that these ads are polluting our landscape. Other horror stories abound. Target was taken down on NPR for its pair of ads that placed female legs between a four-lane freeway. Got Milk? ads on bus shelters that put out a cookie scent were pulled in San Francisco after one day. The A&E network was blasted for its ads in New York City that beamed a sound message directly into the skulls of passersby.  These are extreme cases, but sometimes even a company logo can be offensive.

So what’s a marketer to do? Tread carefully. I think the best advice comes from our friends at Millward Brown (full disclosure: a fellow WPP agency and we like them a lot). Dede Fitch, Global Analyst at MB, recommends that marketers ask themselves: “What are you giving your audience?” She suggests that we carefully consider length of exposure, intrusiveness, and viewer mood and mind-set.

At the end of the day, marketing with meaning overall, and the use of clever outdoor creative in particular, depend on marketers’ judgment. That’s why we get paid the big bucks.

UPDATE: I just learned that it is now legal for legal brothels in Nevada to advertise their services in Las Vegas. I guess this opens up an entirely new avenue for meaningful marketing….

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Posted in Entertainment, Outdoor | 6 Comments »