I was in a session on launching viral campaigns with a bunch of non-advertising people (and a few ad people)- all very web savvy, and it was interesting to me that campaigns were being talked about without any reference to the agency that did the campaigns.

Yeah. Believe it or not, no one cares who did the campaign except those of us in the business. But, out of the examples, 2 were Crispin Porter+Bogusky work.

First was the story of Subservient Chicken. The amazing penetration of this site were evident when probably 80% of the room raised their hands when asked if they’d visited the site. The idea of trying to get a major US corporation to post a site that has a guy in a chicken suit wearing a black garter belt, a la online porn peep show was a gutsy move by CP+B. The presenter knew BK’s sales went up- but didn’t know if it specifically sold chicken.

To confirm that: here is a bit from an AdWeek analysis of the campaign:

Dissecting ‘Subservient Chicken’
But, aside from Web traffic, did the campaign actually drive customers into stores to buy the sandwich? About a month after the TenderCrisp sandwich debuted, BK reported that sales had steadily increased an average of 9 percent a week. Since then, Geis says the company has seen “double-digit” growth of awareness of the TenderCrisp Chicken Sandwich and “significantly increased” chicken sandwich sales. And the TenderCrisp does sell better than the Original Chicken Sandwich.

The second mention was the “Safe Happens” tv spot for the Jetta. Not necessarily a “viral” campaign, since it ran on broadcast TV- but, it did make an impression through viral sharing.

This spot is the absolute antithesis of the typical car glamor spot that Detroit favors. Showing a real life situation and the car having an accident would make Detroit uncomfortable (although crash test dummies and a test sled have been standard fare for years). It makes you wonder why Detroit never approved this type of work- especially since their main knock on foreign “small cars” was always that they aren’t as safe as the boats from GM, Ford and Chrysler. There was a lot of discussion over the graphic nature of this spot on broadcast- which effectively multiplied the effect of the buy. Some even argued that the fact that the Jetta’s brakes squealed and didn’t stop like ABS, avoiding the wreck – could backfire.

But, once again, everyone in the room knew the spot. How many agencies get the nod two times in an hour by a non-agency pro. Case closed, Crispin Porter + Bogusky is doing memorable, discussable work and that’s worth a lot more to a client than the mundane dreck most settle for.

The other campaign that got mentioned was the Dove Evolution spot, that’s known by all in advertising-

but, the penetration of awareness in the room was at least half that of the CP+B work. (granted, the room was probably 65% male). Also note, the Evolution spot (from Ogilvy and Mather, Toronto) cost considerably more to make than Subservient Chicken (which reportably cost $30K). Unilever has since caught flack for being disengenuous for promoting Dove as the anti-sexification of women, while also running ads for the testostorone overloaded AXE body spray sites. Watch the following disection of Unilevers hypocrisy:

The description of the session, (which was so popular they had to move rooms):

“Everyone wants the benefits of a viral campaign, but few people really understand how to put the pieces together to create the best chance for success. Find out the most common mistakes companies make when aiming to go viral and how a little bit of brainstorming can set you up for success. Jennifer Laycock will walk you through the actual brainstorming process she uses with clients to help you gather information needed to put things together. She’ll also help you learn to identify “key influencers” within your industry and will offer concrete tips on the best way to approach them with your campaign.”

I was impressed with Ms. Laycocks reasoned approach to generating low-budget viral campaigns, and her worksheets for assessing how to put a plan together, however, there is no guaranteed formula for creating viral campaigns. Crispin launched Subservient Chicken by asking it’s own employees to write everyone they knew to check out the site and spread the word and it worked beyond the wildest expectations.

There is one thing that is guaranteed about good viral- that traces back to an old adage- there is noting that will kill a bad product off faster than good advertising. If your viral campaign is based on deceit, a poor premise, or isn’t able to be verified- you will have more problems than you started with (see GM’s effort for the Chevy Tahoe- when gas was only $2.50 a gallon).

We’re currently tasked with creating buzz and hopefully a viral for a re-launch of a retailer online and off, and it will be interesting to use Ms. Laycock’s process along with our own ideas in the coming weeks.

One thing is for sure though in creating viral campaigns, the winning ideas aren’t the safe ones.

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Posted in: Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Great ad agencies, VW advertising, Viral Marketing

It’s summer, which means we get assaulted with e-mails from students who want to intern at The Next Wave. Generally, they start out telling us how great our work is, and then tell us all about their skill set. Usually, their cover letter, and or resume are both too long. I’ve seen students pad out “experience” to be longer than what I’ve seen from 20 year veterans with international awards under their belts.

The funny thing is, we get very few candidates who actually attempt to market themselves the way they would sell any product or service for a client. You want to be in advertising? What would an ad for you look like?

There are a couple of things in reviewing portfolios online or in person that always bug me:

If the work isn’t able to explain itself, other than what media it was in, where or when it ran- or the budget, you shouldn’t be showing it. In a PDF portfolio- only include the briefest description (ala Luezers Archive)

The second is that just because your professor gave it an “A”- or the client ran it, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s done, finished, the idea is over. If you’re looking for work, you should be constantly improving your work, updating it, fixing the things that you weren’t quite satisfied with.

Ira Glass talks about this in this great little video about good taste and perfecting the craft- watch the whole thing (thanks Angela for posting about this gem)

This ties back to Sally Hogshead’s famous post on doing 800 headlines for BMW Motorcycles to get the right one. Or Chiat/Day’s mantra- “Good Enough, isn’t Good Enough.”

There are no excuses for a portfolio- if it’s got flaws, or your resume has holes, it’s up to you to fix or fill them. If you want to be in this business, there is no excuse good enough for a client who just blew a hundred million on your experiment.

So, before you think you’ve got it all covered after a few years in school, just take another listen to Ira playing back his work after 8 years in the field, and realize, you’ve still got a long way to go before you’ll you before you should start your cover letter praising our work. We keep our awards in the bathroom, our heads still fit through standard doors- and we’re working as hard as we can to get better too.

We want you to show us how you can be a part of improving our work- and just tell us the basics. We know good work when we see it (and we’re even happier when it’s ours!).

Best of luck.

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Posted in: Careers in Advertising, The craft of advertising

Steve Greenblatt, formerly VP and Executive creative director at BRC Marketing has opened www.greenblattcreative.com. The Dayton Daily News (which unlike the Dayton Business Journal) provides  a website and phone number, where you can see a long list of clients and some representative work. The paper reports that he will be offering freelance creative resources to business.

This is the second ad agency announcement in as many days- with U! Creative announcing their spin off from Wilson Advertising yesterday.

It seems the new trendy word to name your agency is “Creative.”

Here is to Creative! Let’s hope clients start buying it, instead of the same old hum-drum “advertising” most locals seem to actually pay to produce.

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Posted in: Everything you want to know about advertising

The Wilson Advertising site has been a holding page for as long as I can remember, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that the latest ad agency spinoff in town picked a name (U! Creative) that is already taken as a URL by someone else.

And, of course, the Dayton Business Journal doesn’t include an address, phone or web address with a business story about a start-up, something that would seem obvious to almost any first year journalism student, so, I can’t add anything except a name to our list of “Agencies that aren’t The Next Wave” page.

Advertising trio launch new agency – Dayton Business Journal:
Three area advertising veterans have departed their jobs and launched their own agency.

Ron Campbell, Ike Imhof and Sheila Siefer opened U! Creative Inc. last week in a 2,000-square-foot office in downtown Miamisburg.

The trio are all former employees of Miamisburg-based Wilson Advertising and Design Inc.

As founders, owners and sole employees, the trio said they bring 70 years experience in the market.

The firm will handle advertising tasks including paper or pamphlet ads, newsletters, commercials and branding initiatives. It will also do media placement for radio, campaign organizing and “anything creative in the business world,” said Siefer, director of operations.

Company officials anticipate $500,000 in billings the first year.

As the business grows, U! Creative owners anticipate employment growth as well. By next year, Siefer said the company should have between six and eight employees.

Brian Wilson, president of Wilson Advertising, said he doesn’t expect the new agency to affect his company.

U! Creative executives said they departed to have more control with their own agency. They expect to be competitive in the marketplace, especially with overall pricing.

Siefer said most ad agencies charge markups on outside services. But U! Creative proposes to connect clients with vendors — such as printers and photographers — so the client can manage the projects themselves.

It’s driven by customer need, Siefer said.

“That is why we call it ‘U! Creative,’ and not put our own names on it,” she said.

Campbell, company president, proposed the business venture in late March. Despite rushing to budget financing, order equipment and find a location, officials are confident in the agency’s future success.

While it’s noble to talk about not marking up outside services, the idea that this makes them a better choice for clients is not exactly a ground breaking creative strategy, nor is not putting your names on the masthead.

Having a website that people can find, along with your phone number and address, now, that’s a good starting point.

If U! Creative needs help going online in a way that will actually show up in Google, we highly recommend our www.websitetology.com seminar.

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Posted in: Ad Agenices In Dayton OH, How to select an ad agency

Apple announced the 3G iPhone on Monday, June 9 2008. I imagine the lawsuits will start by today, but, don’t quote me on it. If they don’t, they should- and Apple should be ashamed.

This isn’t the first iPhone price debacle, the first generation iPhone started out at $599, only to have the price cut by $200 less than 60 days after launch. Apple made it up (sort of) to early adopters by granting them a $100 credit at the Apple store.

This time, the part that’s missing from the small print is that Apple’s US partner in this, ATT, is going to require all 3G iPhone buyers to sign up for a new 2 year contract that is $10 more a month for the data plan that you have to have with the iPhone if you want to use all of its features. That works out to $240 extra- $40 more than you’d pay for the original iPhone with service. This iPhone might be $199 instead of $399, but, you will pay more monthly.

It’s not clear if ATT is offering the old “EDGE” or 2.5G price option to new 3G buyers or not. As a user of the original iPhone, I can tell you this:

ATT’s idea of “Internet access” via the “EDGE” network- is an absolute farce- my old carrier, Sprint- not only had faster access, but less dropped calls, and better coverage. Also, the visual voice mail on the phone only works when you have internet access- which means without EDGE or a WiFi connection- you can’t reliably easily retrieve your voice mail.

Apple still has other issues in this price change. The old iPhone hasn’t been readily available for months. If your 2.5G iPhone (still under warranty) has an accident (like mine did on Saturday night- slipping out of the holster into a bucket of ice water)- Apple is still charging $249 for a refurb, with no additional warranty:

This price- $249 to replace a phone that will soon be obsolete- and that can be purchased new on July 11 for $199 makes no sense. Apple’s pricing guru’s are asleep at the wheel on this.

It’s also sending a message to Apple’s customers that Apple really doesn’t care about taking care of it’s best customers- the early adopters.

Besides the “half the price” being a lie, Apple and ATT still haven’t learned the number one truth of the internet enabled consumer: pricing games are over; “There are no secrets. The networked market knows more than companies do about their own products. And whether the news is good or bad, they tell everyone.” This was thesis 12 of the “Cluetrain Manifesto” published in 1999.

Subsidizing prices with subscription plans isn’t a viable way to build in hidden costs. Apple and ATT will have to learn this the hard way, which is really too bad, since they are probably reintroducing the greatest product in history- with features that will change the perception of what a phone can do as a computing platform- again.

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Posted in: Apple Advertising, Future of advertising, Practical Marketing 101