Dead Men Cooking. A powerful project that has come out of Germany. Alive is an organisation pushing for abolishment of the death penalty. In partnership with Hamburg design agency Rocket and Wink and ad agency Jung von Matt, they created a cook book to influence global decision makers who can affect capital punishment laws.  The book is entirely sourced from the U.S penal system. The recipes are a collection of the last meals of death row prisoners, the front cover is made out of prison uniform material and the belt that holds the book together is one that is used to hold prisoners down in the electric chair. This is a controversial cause that most people would turn away from. Dead Men Cooking brings an issue, that is predominantly intangible for the human population, into people’s kitchens so that it cannot be ignored.

Dead Men Cooking. A powerful project that has come out of Germany.

Alive is an organisation pushing for abolishment of the death penalty. In partnership with Hamburg design agency Rocket and Wink and ad agency Jung von Matt, they created a cook book to influence global decision makers who can affect capital punishment laws. 

The book is entirely sourced from the U.S penal system. The recipes are a collection of the last meals of death row prisoners, the front cover is made out of prison uniform material and the belt that holds the book together is one that is used to hold prisoners down in the electric chair.

This is a controversial cause that most people would turn away from. Dead Men Cooking brings an issue, that is predominantly intangible for the human population, into people’s kitchens so that it cannot be ignored.

| May 20, 2012
How far can a brand stretch? Carolyn Miller had a strange experience last year. Her phone rang one night. It was a friendly sales call from Priceline. But the budget chemist was not trying to flog their latest shampoo or conditioner.  “As a valued Priceline member…” the telemarketer began, “we would like to offer you life insurance.” Priceline? Life insurance? Miller, Moon’s strategy director, ended the call abruptly. “There’s no connection between buying makeup and buying life insurance,” she told Nextness. Priceline is not the only retailer getting into the business of life insurance. In the last year, Woolworths and Coles have launched their own range of insurance products. Woolies will insure your life and your pets. Coles will insure your home and your car. What is going here? Why are companies better known for half price Weetbix deciding to sell decidedly un-grocery products? Let Nextness explain. Woolworths, Coles and Priceline are betting that Australians trust and love their brands so much that they will buy basically anything from them. It’s an old concept called “brand stretch”. Brands like Virgin – which began as a music company and now sells plane flights and bank accounts – have been doing it for years. But when Woolworths starts selling life insurance, it’s fair to question how far a brand can stretch before it snaps.  Here’s a question: at what point do consumers look at a stretchy brand and say, as Carolyn Miller did: “Um, no thanks.” The question becomes even more pressing when you consider that the insurance that Woolies, Coles and Priceline are selling are not even their own. Woolworths has teamed up with The Hollard Group, an Australian insurance company; Priceline’s insurance is actually AIA’s; and Coles is flogging parent company Wesfarmers’ insurance product. By wrapping their trusted, consumer-friendly brands around staid insurance products, these retailers are thinking (hoping) that at least some of their millions of customers will trust them with their most treasured possessions. It is one thing to ask whether trusted brands like Coles and Woolworths can get away with selling life insurance. It’s quite another to question whether an untrustworthy brand can get away with stretch. Strict advertising laws forced cigarette brands to find new ways to indirectly promote their tobacco. Davidoff’s scientists cooked up a cologne that, in a strange coincidence, proved to be catnip to the nostrils of teenagers. Dunhill did the same – though their cologne is more manly, in keeping with their manly cigarettes. Camel introduced a line of boots and Rizla rolling papers teamed up with UK music festivals and nightclubs to launch Rizla’s Rolling Roadshow. These tobacco companies are going for the subliminal effect: if an impressionable teenager finds their cologne sexy, then maybe they’ll think of Davidoff when they next light up.  For the final word on how far a brand can stretch, let’s go to the master. Richard Branson believes that no brand, well at least not Virgin, can stretch too far. “For about 30 years, every time we’ve moved into a new area, the journalists have written, “Is this going to be one step too far for Virgin?” And it hasn’t happened. Apple and Microsoft specialize in computers and Coca-Cola specializes in soft drinks, and Nike specializes in shoes. But Virgin is a way-of-life brand. Also, in every sector we’re in, we’re very much the David vs. the Goliath. As long as we don’t let the consumers down in any new sectors we go into, I think we can still stretch the brand quite a lot further.” 

How far can a brand stretch?

Carolyn Miller had a strange experience last year. Her phone rang one night. It was a friendly sales call from Priceline. But the budget chemist was not trying to flog their latest shampoo or conditioner. 

“As a valued Priceline member…” the telemarketer began, “we would like to offer you life insurance.”

Priceline? Life insurance? Miller, Moon’s strategy director, ended the call abruptly. “There’s no connection between buying makeup and buying life insurance,” she told Nextness.

Priceline is not the only retailer getting into the business of life insurance. In the last year, Woolworths and Coles have launched their own range of insurance products. Woolies will insure your life and your pets. Coles will insure your home and your car.

What is going here? Why are companies better known for half price Weetbix deciding to sell decidedly un-grocery products? Let Nextness explain. Woolworths, Coles and Priceline are betting that Australians trust and love their brands so much that they will buy basically anything from them. It’s an old concept called “brand stretch”. Brands like Virgin – which began as a music company and now sells plane flights and bank accounts – have been doing it for years. But when Woolworths starts selling life insurance, it’s fair to question how far a brand can stretch before it snaps. 

Here’s a question: at what point do consumers look at a stretchy brand and say, as Carolyn Miller did: “Um, no thanks.”

The question becomes even more pressing when you consider that the insurance that Woolies, Coles and Priceline are selling are not even their own. Woolworths has teamed up with The Hollard Group, an Australian insurance company; Priceline’s insurance is actually AIA’s; and Coles is flogging parent company Wesfarmers’ insurance product. By wrapping their trusted, consumer-friendly brands around staid insurance products, these retailers are thinking (hoping) that at least some of their millions of customers will trust them with their most treasured possessions.

It is one thing to ask whether trusted brands like Coles and Woolworths can get away with selling life insurance. It’s quite another to question whether an untrustworthy brand can get away with stretch. Strict advertising laws forced cigarette brands to find new ways to indirectly promote their tobacco. Davidoff’s scientists cooked up a cologne that, in a strange coincidence, proved to be catnip to the nostrils of teenagers. Dunhill did the same – though their cologne is more manly, in keeping with their manly cigarettes. Camel introduced a line of boots and Rizla rolling papers teamed up with UK music festivals and nightclubs to launch Rizla’s Rolling Roadshow. These tobacco companies are going for the subliminal effect: if an impressionable teenager finds their cologne sexy, then maybe they’ll think of Davidoff when they next light up. 

For the final word on how far a brand can stretch, let’s go to the master. Richard Branson believes that no brand, well at least not Virgin, can stretch too far.

“For about 30 years, every time we’ve moved into a new area, the journalists have written, “Is this going to be one step too far for Virgin?” And it hasn’t happened. Apple and Microsoft specialize in computers and Coca-Cola specializes in soft drinks, and Nike specializes in shoes. But Virgin is a way-of-life brand. Also, in every sector we’re in, we’re very much the David vs. the Goliath. As long as we don’t let the consumers down in any new sectors we go into, I think we can still stretch the brand quite a lot further.” 

| May 17, 2012
This is an initiative I only discovered today.  Why do I think this cause is particularly powerful? 1. It is trying to solve two problems in one go- making education available to the masses and world hunger 2. It breaks down the ‘too hard’ barrier that many charities often face 3. Free Rice has turned the cause into a game, which provides incentive to continue the education program for your own learning and for the positive change your efforts will make to a starving person

This is an initiative I only discovered today. 

Why do I think this cause is particularly powerful?

1. It is trying to solve two problems in one go- making education available to the masses and world hunger

2. It breaks down the ‘too hard’ barrier that many charities often face

3. Free Rice has turned the cause into a game, which provides incentive to continue the education program for your own learning and for the positive change your efforts will make to a starving person

| May 7, 2012
This is a story about money. A lot of hot air has been spent on mobile, but very little money, especially in comparison to online advertising. Advertisers in the Asia/Pacific region spent $1.63 billion on mobile ads. Don’t get me wrong; this is a lot of money but not in comparison to the $2.66 billion that was thrown into online advertising last year. Did I mention this was just in Australia?   Every year is proclaimed to be “the year of the mobile,” it is growing at a rapid rate but is still in it’s infancy. Mobile is where online was in the early millennium- it’s flashy, people are still surprised about what it can do and websites don’t look like the contents of the Yellow Pages has been vomited onto their landing pages. I think that it is for this reason that the mobile click is still getting some action. The average click through rate (CTR) on a mobile device is 0.61%, a huge jump from the paltry average online CTR of 0.07%.   People may be clicking on the ads but is this turning into sales? The Turkish bank, Garanti, needed to increase the sign ups to their internet banking service. Customers were sent an email with a link to a video news story about the last customer on earth without online banking. When the link was clicked on, the customer received a phone call asking why they hadn’t started using the service and will they sign up. The result? 21% of those who were called signed up for online banking.   Turkey seems to be doing it right. PepsiCo Turkey ran a campaign where people texted in unique codes found under the lids of Pepsi bottles to have the chance to win a trove of prizes. There were 11.5 million participants and Pepsi gained the strongest share of the market that it has seen in the last 8 years.   These are a couple of the success stories using pretty simple technology. What’s in store for the future? To list a few: Gamification of mundane activities, 24/7 shopping through the extension of the traditional screen into shop fronts, NFC, QR codes and image recognition and a wider use of HTML5. We’ll also see emerging countries like India, being the leaders in mobile technology not the followers. As consumers become comfortable with smart phone technology mobile will eat into other areas of marketer’s budgets. 

This is a story about money. A lot of hot air has been spent on mobile, but very little money, especially in comparison to online advertising. Advertisers in the Asia/Pacific region spent $1.63 billion on mobile ads. Don’t get me wrong; this is a lot of money but not in comparison to the $2.66 billion that was thrown into online advertising last year. Did I mention this was just in Australia?

 

Every year is proclaimed to be “the year of the mobile,” it is growing at a rapid rate but is still in it’s infancy. Mobile is where online was in the early millennium- it’s flashy, people are still surprised about what it can do and websites don’t look like the contents of the Yellow Pages has been vomited onto their landing pages. I think that it is for this reason that the mobile click is still getting some action. The average click through rate (CTR) on a mobile device is 0.61%, a huge jump from the paltry average online CTR of 0.07%.

 

People may be clicking on the ads but is this turning into sales? The Turkish bank, Garanti, needed to increase the sign ups to their internet banking service. Customers were sent an email with a link to a video news story about the last customer on earth without online banking. When the link was clicked on, the customer received a phone call asking why they hadn’t started using the service and will they sign up. The result? 21% of those who were called signed up for online banking.

 

Turkey seems to be doing it right. PepsiCo Turkey ran a campaign where people texted in unique codes found under the lids of Pepsi bottles to have the chance to win a trove of prizes. There were 11.5 million participants and Pepsi gained the strongest share of the market that it has seen in the last 8 years.

 

These are a couple of the success stories using pretty simple technology. What’s in store for the future? To list a few: Gamification of mundane activities, 24/7 shopping through the extension of the traditional screen into shop fronts, NFC, QR codes and image recognition and a wider use of HTML5. We’ll also see emerging countries like India, being the leaders in mobile technology not the followers. As consumers become comfortable with smart phone technology mobile will eat into other areas of marketer’s budgets. 

| Mar 21, 2012

Some say there are two Mitt Romneys - the Massachusetts moderate and the newfound conservative. 

Actually there are 398 Mitt Romneys. Or probably more.

Let me explain. You’re a housewife in Texas. You love God, you love family and you hate abortion. Never mind that Mitt Romney is a Mormon with a formerly progressive attitude to healthcare. When he sends an ad to a Texas Housewife, he’ll be Romney the family man.

Here’s how it works. Online companies, like BlueKai, continually collect data from people surfing the internet. This could be anything from where they live (taken from your IP address) to their interests (someone who visits a lot of travel sites would be pigeon holed into a travel database). The data is turned into information which is sold to advertisers to help them migrate from the old ‘spray and pray’ form of online advertising to a more targeted strategy. This is exactly what Romney has used in his 2012 election campaign.

Romney has put his potential voters into buckets by combining voting records with where people live and their browsing history. It is debatable whether this strategy has hindered or enhanced Romney’s chances at snagging the Republican vote. One side of the story is that he is limiting wastage by hitting people with the ad that he thinks will appeal to them most. The other argument is that he hasn’t taken a firm position on any issue. His main point during a Michigan address was that “the trees are the right height”- he’s really tackling the hard stuff on the campaign trail.

Micro targeting is a proven method for online advertising, whether it helps Romney get elected is another question. 

| Feb 29, 2012

Projection mapping onto turntables-a cool project that Mark Morris & Bruce Lott developed where Serato can be used without looking at a computer screen and video effects are projected onto the DJ setup.

| Feb 23, 2012

It happens too often that the strategy has little connection with the client’s brief. Trying to picture what the brief would have been from DirecTV to their creative agency, Grey NY, would have gone something like this:

“We need to demonstrate that Satellite TV is superior to Cable TV.”

The strategy that eventuated (I can only assume) would have gone something like this:

“If you stick with Cable TV your life will go downhill.”

Forgetting what the brief and strategy may have been, this campaign is brilliant. The non-connected thoughts work perfectly together. It is funny, to the point and somehow convinces me that Satellite TV is the better choice.

| Feb 21, 2012
The Eternal Pessimist

“The ‘defensive pessimist’ looks at everything and thinks [that] this is going to be a disaster…They lower their expectations … and they go through all of the negative capacities and the negative capabilities of a given event. You imagine the worst-case scenario you can and you go through it step by step, and you dismantle those things and you manage your anxiety about it.”

-       David Rakoff, 21st September 2010

 

David Rakoff’s collection of essays, Half Empty, makes a case for pessimism. He argues that it’s healthy to view the world through a realistic lens. There is no need to dilute terrorism, AIDS or cancer- by taking a misanthropic view of the world, Rakoff argues that (for him at least) it gives him a sense of power. He can now “see a great beauty” in some of his darkest moments.

Let’s take this away from the macro world view and look at the micro world of advertising. We are accustomed to seeing ads with unnaturally cheerful people in tropical locations, raving about the benefits of a particular product and how it enhances their life. For me, these ads blend into the same strip of beige coloured wallpaper. Wouldn’t it be refreshing for a company to flip their brand perception on its head? What if instead of being eternally optimistic, they celebrated pessimism like Rakoff?

Sun cream is a great example. The TVCs always take the same angle- a carefree family on a beach, romping about in the sea, eating ice creams and throwing a frisbee. The sun cream, which lasts up to 4 hours and is water resistant, allows this family to enjoy their holiday without worrying about roasting like a chicken. What if this sun cream brand suddenly became neurotic and pessimistic? What would this look like?

The sun cream brand would take on a new persona- a person with heliophobia, hiding from the damaging rays, representing the caution that we should all take before stepping outside. Lathering oneself with the sun cream is part of this person’s daily routine and a necessary step to take for everyday protection. I know I’d take more notice of this TVC then another sickly sweet rendition of a beach scene.

| Feb 20, 2012
This store has just opened its doors to the lovely ladies of the Eastern suburbs. Its only offering: eyelash extensions. On a street in Sydney where stores are trying to be everything to everyone, Love Those Lashes has chosen to specialise in and be the best at one thing. This choice has worked in the store’s favour, with the East’s eyelash impaired women flocking through it’s doors willing to pay the $180 price tag for a full set of lashes. There are a plethora of businesses around the world that have made their millions by trying to do everything. In the US the large discount warehouse chain Walmart sells everything from breakfast cereal to iPads. Similarly Costco has built its business model on selling bulk products at low prices at a high turnover. These are both exceptionally successful businesses, but how many Walmarts and Costcos are there in the world? Like Walmart and Costco’s overcrowded and indistinguishable shelves, many businesses who are focussing on everything and specialising in nothing have gotten lost amongst their competitors. Instead of being mediocre at ten things why not be world famous at one. The Sock Man, a NYC store whose focus is socks and hosiery, has been successful since 1983 all because they have chose to hone in on a niche market- keeping people’s feet warm. The Sock Man has helped to revolutionise hosiery into a fashion statement and has consequently been featured in The New York Times, Time Out, Vogue and Vice. Pretty incredible for a small store in The East Village. When thinking of your next business venture, rather then mapping out the thousands of things you will offer your customers, decide what you can be the best at and make this your only offering. I know I’d choose expertise over mediocrity any day of the week.

This store has just opened its doors to the lovely ladies of the Eastern suburbs. Its only offering: eyelash extensions.

On a street in Sydney where stores are trying to be everything to everyone, Love Those Lashes has chosen to specialise in and be the best at one thing. This choice has worked in the store’s favour, with the East’s eyelash impaired women flocking through it’s doors willing to pay the $180 price tag for a full set of lashes.

There are a plethora of businesses around the world that have made their millions by trying to do everything. In the US the large discount warehouse chain Walmart sells everything from breakfast cereal to iPads. Similarly Costco has built its business model on selling bulk products at low prices at a high turnover. These are both exceptionally successful businesses, but how many Walmarts and Costcos are there in the world? Like Walmart and Costco’s overcrowded and indistinguishable shelves, many businesses who are focussing on everything and specialising in nothing have gotten lost amongst their competitors.

Instead of being mediocre at ten things why not be world famous at one. The Sock Man, a NYC store whose focus is socks and hosiery, has been successful since 1983 all because they have chose to hone in on a niche market- keeping people’s feet warm. The Sock Man has helped to revolutionise hosiery into a fashion statement and has consequently been featured in The New York Times, Time Out, Vogue and Vice. Pretty incredible for a small store in The East Village.

When thinking of your next business venture, rather then mapping out the thousands of things you will offer your customers, decide what you can be the best at and make this your only offering. I know I’d choose expertise over mediocrity any day of the week.

| May 8, 2011
Mr Fry, you had me at hello

Some arguments are so persuasive, so perfectly put, that you find yourself incapable of saying anything other than “Yes, yes Mr. Speaker, I agree with everything you said, and I’m ready to join a rally, sign a petition, do whatever the hell it is you want me to do…”

Stephen Fry – the British actor, writer, comedian, producer, tech-head and BBC fanboy – has a knack for making those kind of arguments.

In his speech defending the existence of the BBC, Fry makes an irresistible case for comedy as a nourishing and essential part of British life:

There is an argument that comedy is a greater public service than any other genre of art or culture: it heals divisions, it is a balm for hurt minds, it binds social wounds, exposes real truths about how life is really led. Comedy connects.

The history of BBC comedy in particular is almost a register of character types, a social history of the country. Hancock, Steptoe, Mainwaring, Alf Garnett, Basil Fawlty, Baldrick, Victor Meldrew, Alan Partridge, Ali G, David Brent, the matchlessly great General Melchett – it is much harder to list character types from serious drama who have so penetrated the consciousness of the nation and so closely defined the aspirations and failures of successive generations.

A public service broadcasting without comedy is in danger of being regarded as no more than a dumping ground for worthiness. Seriousness is no more a guarantee of truth, insight, authenticity or probity than humour is a guarantee of superficiality and stupidity.

Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly.

Fry takes us on a smooth ride.

He starts with his lofty position, builds a rhythm, states his evidence with hypnotic repetition and closes with a sentence that’s so poetic you feel like Renee Zellwegger in Jerry Maguire – “Mr. Fry, you had me at hello.”

| Mar 8, 2011