Author Archives: seanh

Young people on the dole

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Sobering stuff this week as lots of studies suggest that there will be a lost generation of young people who never manage to find long term, decently paid jobs, emerging from the recession.

The articles below suggest that this is a worldwide not just a UK phenomenon.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/aug/11/unemployment-and-employment-statistics-recession

http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2010/aug/13/interns-pay-cutting-opportunities

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/aug/11/unemployment-youth-recession-job-losses

So what might this mean for us?

Judging from the last recession some really interesting youth cultural things are worth considering in todays context.

1. Rise of designer clothing obssession amongst working class Britons – La Coste went mainstream

2. Hedonism – Ibiza and House Music rose out of recessionary Britain

3. Moving away from your home town  in search of better things – exoduses from Central Scotland and Merseyside to the South

It will be fascinating to see what new cultrual trends will emerge from a bunch of people who feel that they my never manage to get a material stake in the future.

Might the impact on brands be a refusal to take any notice at all without more instant rewards? Will advertising budgets migrate massively to give aways, branded clubs and experiential activity?

Integration: contrived or crucial

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I just read a really thought provoking article written by Justin Gibbons of Work Research. His angle was that integrated planning was diluting excellence in specialisms and producing output that doesn’t connect with punters in the intended way.

He aimed specific ire a ‘T Shaped People’ (broad view and narrow expertise) and ‘Big Ideas’ that restrict agencies from doing the right thing in their field of expertise, and don’t manifest themselves as intended in punters’ eyes.

Justin reckons that fed up clients are taking over control of the comms architecture and that the diluted planning functions over agencies will be relegated as we end up concentrating on implementation.

His five things to look out for are:

1. Asky why your client wants integration

2. Ask why a punter would want integration

3. Focus on one big insight (not one big idea)

4. Remember it should be fun

5. Think outcome, measure outcomes

Have a read yourselves

http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/news/1020737/Integration-Save-Advertising/?DCMP=ILC-SEARCH

The Digital (Media) Election That Never Was

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Dear FTMF ers,

There are some  big lessons to be learned from the role of media in the recent election that are worthy of being reapplied to the brands that we work with.

1. Beware of hype: it was not social media wot won it- David Cameron has only got 41,642 friends on Facebook. Snickers Get Some Nuts has 93,037.

2. Beware of assuming that what happens in another geography will automatically happen here: see above and consider the last US presidential election.

3. Journalists are more interested in Twitter than most punters because it gives them something to write about now they are supposed to be producing content 24/7. David Cameron has 8,037 followers at the present time.

4. Editorial bias has limited impact ( a lesson for advertorial and partnership planning). The press, aside from Mirror Group savaged Brown/switched allegiance almost entrirely, whereas Labour’s share of the vote only declined by 6%.

4. TV was shown to have immense power in creating ‘emotional demand’ for Clegg, but without crunchy RTBs votes weren’t activated. The same old lesson that creating ‘awareness/some positive disposition’ alone will not shift a brand’s market share.

5. It is a myth that punters don’t care about how environmentally friendly brands are any more. See the result of of the Brighton Pavillion constituency.

Over and out,

Sean

Classic Marketing Books # 1: The New Marketing Manifesto by John Grant

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The recession has seen a swathe of new business books on motivation and how we are all done for because we don’t know enough about digital and this means we will all perish because people will only buy brands recommended in social media blah blah blah

Enough of all that.

How about some inspirational planning thinking from the time when people spent more time thinking about planning.

Twelve brilliant rules from John Grant’s classic New Marketing Manifesto:

1. Get Up Close + Personal : marketing should have a closer connection with everyday life

2. Tap Basic Human Needs : Make use of the fifteen human drives – they are brilliant stimulus

3. Author Innovation: a brand should be fluid not fixed – seek positive change constantly and bin your fixed pyramid

4. Mythologize the new: what the great sage meant by this is not to play back the obvious to people as a mirror of their existence, excite them with possibility about the future

5. Create tangible differences in the experience: doesn’t need an explanation

6. Cultivate authenticity: put some substance into your strategy, prove what you sayand celebrtae your roots: place of origin, belief system, quality standards, design story etc

7. Work through consensus: get people talking with and about the brand (this was 1998 how far sighted)

8. Open up to participation: erm isn’t this the current vogue?

9. Build communities of interest: as above

10. Use strategic creativity: by this John means ” A key concept in new marketing is ‘genre idea’. A genre is a creative form that transcends media.”

11. Stake a claim to fame: create fame as a currency by connecting regularly with ordinary people’s lives

12. Follow a vision and be true to your values.

Given that this book was written in 1999 the above are a pretty far sighted and currently extremely relevant set of tests for your thinking on current projects.

I urge you to get hold of a copy and read it immediately.

More to follow.

And more from John Grant here:

http://greenormal.blogspot.com/

The strange places the Behavioural Economics take you

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Don’t know about the rest of you but I found the recent Stroke Awareness campaign that featured the acronym ‘F.A.S.T’ a little odd if memorable.

Apparently behavioural economics drove the 1970s look and feel of it.

It is a great example of how a new whizzy theory actaully leads to something very practical not an amazing reinvention ot the wheel.

We should take care not to scare clients and other agnecies away from our ideas by dressing them up in over complicated language when they ultimately lead to an answer that is dead simple.